First, the talks with Iran over their nuclear ambitions continue to go on, as they have for years now. Talks with our enemies, as all Nuanced American know, should eventually reach that "eureka!" moment when enemies see how their emnity was always the result of misunderstandings.
So what of the Iranians and their nuclear ambitions? Have they eased up even a bit? Well, no:
"There has been no slowing down, no halt and no retreat. Our activities continue on the same basis we began our peaceful nuclear program," Foreign Ministry spokesman Mohammad Ali Hosseini told reporters.
Hosseini was responding to speculation that the threat of more U.N. Security Council sanctions may have forced Iran to slow down its disputed uranium enrichment program.
Talks have always been a means to an end for the Iranians. And mutual understanding is not among those ends. Every conference is another centrifuge up and running. Every meaningless joint statement means another engineering detail is nailed down. Every agreement is one that "slows" a narrow area not currently needed while key programs roll forward unimpeded. What's not to like about talks from the Iranian perspective?
Next door in Iraq, the Iraqis continue to react to American politicians urging regime change in Iraq:
Nouri al-Maliki, who is fighting to hold his government together, issued a series of stinging ripostes against a variety of foreign officials who recently have spoken negatively about his leadership. But those directed at Democrats Clinton, of New York, and Levin, of Michigan, were most strident.
"There are American officials who consider Iraq as if it were one of their villages, for example Hillary Clinton and Carl Levin. They should come to their senses," al-Maliki said at a news conference.
We set up Iraq's government to prevent a strongman from restoring a dictatorship. Have we learned nothing from Russia where a strong elected president has evolved into a new czar? And now, our left side of the political spectrum is calling for a strongman to get the result they want in Iraq--a strongman who will repress resistance enough to call it peace (and Iraqi democracy can take a flying leap).
Yes, I admit that this would actually be major progress over Saddam's regime. But it is amazing that so-called "progressives" would advocate such a surrender of democratic ideals and freedom.
We must work with the system we set up in Iraq because in the long run, a system that prevents a thug from arising is more important than the short term advantage of crushing resistance with brutality. And in practice, as the Russians demonstrated in Chechnya, cruelty and a heavy hand don't provide faster results. Patience, oh nervous ones. Patience.
Perhaps this is not so amazing, really, when you consider the fevered rantings of our hard core Left upon which progressives rely for their most fervent support. Our Left always seems to embrace the qualities they claim President Bush stands for. They see a Bushtatorship threatening every week yet it never seems to arrive. Even flipping Congress to the opposition without martial law being declared to stop it hasn't stopped that talk.
But the talk now includes advocating military intervention in our government to get the results that our Left wants but which our democratic process will not give them (tip to Instapundit):
General Pace - you have the power to fulfill your responsibility to protect the troops under your command. Indeed you have an obligation to do so.
You can relieve the President of his command.
Not of his Presidency. But of his military role as Commander-In-Chief.
You simply invoke the Uniform Code Of Military Justice.
Martin Lewis advocates a military coup under the color of law. But if it deposes President Bush, it is ok, he says. There is no thought to the long term harm to our nation of having a military expected to save us from our politicans (really, with our officer corps, will a progressive presidency last long?). Nor does Lewis consider the harm that politicizing our military will do to our military--a harm far worse than anything Lewis sees happening today at war (in addition to forgetting that the military exists to defend us and not simply to exist while our interests fall about us). The bonus is that the Left could blame Bush for this dictatorship that they invoke (he made us do it!).
Oh, and Lewis is wrong about President Bush having no military medals as opposed to General Pace. As a former Guard pilot, President Bush has some medals. And since Lewis is trying to imply that he with the most medals wins, let me ask how many medals Martin Lewis has. And then compare his awards to President Bush's military decoratons.
In the end, our progressive left cares about results, and democracy is only a means. One of many means that is ultimately to be sacrificed if it cannot lead to the greater Lefty paradise on Earth that they wish to bless our benighted nation with. (Recall how Castro's crimes are excused by by our Left with the wildly inaccurate claim that his universal health care actually benefits Cubans.)
And finally, Moslem jihadis struck India:
A pair of almost simultaneous bombings blamed on Islamic extremists tore through a popular family restaurant and an outdoor arena on Saturday night, killing at least 42 people in this southern Indian city plagued by Hindu-Muslim tensions.
The restaurant was destroyed by the bomb placed at the entrance. Blood-covered tin plates and broken glasses littered the road outside.
The other blast struck a laser show at an auditorium in Lumbini park, leaving pools of blood and dead bodies between rows of seats punctured by shrapnel. Some seats were hurled 100 feet away.
Officials said Sunday that foreign-based Islamic extremists may have been behind the attacks.
Ah yes, India is obviously reaping the results of their cultural imperialism, economic dominance, role in the Crusades, and of course their war effort in Iraq. It is no wonder that jihadis target Indians!
Nearly six years after 9/11, can we not finally accept that the jihadis hate non-jihadis, including Christians, nominally Christians, Leftists who believe all the right things, Hindus, Jews, and the vast majority of Moslems, too. It is futile to keep asking why they hate "us." "Us" encompasses far more people than our progressive Left imagines.
We have to stop looking for reasons to ignore the evidence that everyday events provide us about our world and the war we are in.
UPDATE: I'm kicking myself for not thinking of this title regarding the Martin Lewis fantasy:
"All we are saying is give Pace a chance."
Steyn, you magnificent son of a ...
