Antiwar.com Blog

From the AP:

Holidays established, abolished by new Iraqi governing council

Sunday July 13, 2003

A look at holidays abolished by the new Iraqi governing council in its first official act, and the new holiday declared to mark the ouster of Saddam Hussein:

ABOLISHED HOLIDAYS

February 8: Baath Party first took power, 1963

April 7: Foundation of Saddam’s Baath Party, 1947.

April 17: Commemoration of Iraqi military victory in important battle for Faw during Iran-Iraq war, 1987

April 28: Saddam’s birthday.

July 17: Return of Baath party to power, 1968

August 8: End of Iran-Iraq war, 1988.

NEW HOLIDAY

April 9 The fall of Baghdad and Saddam’s regime.

Expect much squabbling over whether MLK Day should be a paid holiday for state workers.

More from the “New Baghdad Blogger” (an article on him is linked from our page today):

“the military in itself is altruistic…communism…but how else could it possibly operate…selfless service…the good of the whole over the good of the one…the pay…the living conditions…think about it…soldiers are not free to make their own decisions…if they were how could anything difficult be completed…how could a platoon take a machine gun nest…or a war be won…”

Admitted by a man in uniform: Only communism wins wars. Continue reading “War is Communism”

The ”Baghdad Blogger” is a window into the occupation of Iraq. His 7-12 entry discusses a new feature of his Baghdad camp:

brown and root is on the ground…this always boost soldiers spirits…when those guys show up things start getting nice quick…they start putting up buildings and chow halls so quickly…they hire out local nationals to cook and serve food…the chow is already a step up from A-rats…but that really isn’t that hard to do…

The presence of “brown and root” – a military organization that feeds and houses stationed troops – is an indication that the stay will be long:

brown and root can be a double edged sword…the quality of life does improve but they usually don’t come in unless an american presence is going to last for years…like kosovo…

The new “Week in Review” has been posted. Check it out!

Apparently, those at NRO have an explanation for everything, which in this case conveniently downplays the increasing casualty count in Iraq. Victor David Hanson of NRO writes:

We are winning this war. But we should never forget, because of our amazing success so far, that we are still in a war — a big one against Islamic fascism and the abettors of terror in the Middle East that started on September 11 but will follow certain historic rules that did not suddenly first appear in 2001, nor can be easily ignored by present experts. Our task — ordeal if you will — is that we must make war so godawfully terrible to our enemies, and the rewards of peace and reform so humanely sweet to our friends, that the vast middle in between will have no problem choosing sides.

Before making this statement, Hanson opines that those we are killing don’t understand the beauty of the West:

There really is no alternative to the allure of the West — even for a theocrat or suicide-murderer. Communism alone offered to the ignorant the only tempting romantic counter-proposition to Western capitalism and liberality: that Western bounty must be stolen at the point of a gun shared by all its citizens.

So, by Hanson’s logic: teach ’em to love our values by killing and frightening them into submission….

From the Financial Times, reprinted in The Weekly Standard. My two favorite parts:

“We need to create a colonial office–fast.

Of course, it cannot be called that. It needs an anodyne euphemism such as Office of Reconstruction and Humanitarian Assistance.”

Leo who? Nineteen eighty-what? Das Boot continues:

“But it should take its inspiration, if not its name, from the old British Colonial Office and India Office. Together, these two institutions ran large swaths of the world with a handful of bright, honest, industrious civil servants. They had an enormous impact, given the small numbers involved; there were seldom more than 1,000 members of the Indian civil service to administer hundreds of millions of Indians.”

Wow! What an extraordinary ratio of (white) chiefs to (literal) Indians! How did they ever manage?

Find the article here.