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The Weblog at The View from the Core - Tuesday, February 03, 2004
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The Four Chaplains On Feb. 3, 1943, four US army chaplains selflessly gave up their lives after the U.S.A.T. Dorchester had been struck by German torpedoes. .... Through the pandemonium, according to those present, four Army chaplains brought hope in despair and light in darkness. Those chaplains were Lt. George L. Fox, Methodist; Lt. Alexander D. Goode, Jewish; Lt. John P. Washington, Roman Catholic; and Lt. Clark V. Poling, Dutch Reformed. Quickly and quietly the four chaplains spread out among the soldiers. There they tried to calm the frightened, tend the wounded and guide the disoriented toward safety. "Witnesses of that terrible night remember hearing the four men offer prayers for the dying and encouragement for those who would live," says Wyatt R. Fox, son of Reverend Fox. One witness, Private William B. Bednar, found himself floating in oil-smeared water surrounded by dead bodies and debris. "I could hear men crying, pleading, praying," Bednar recalls. "I could also hear the chaplains preaching courage. Their voices were the only thing that kept me going." Another sailor, Petty Officer John J. Mahoney, tried to reenter his cabin but was stopped by Rabbi Goode. Mahoney, concerned about the cold Arctic air, explained he had forgotten his gloves. "Never mind," Goode responded. "I have two pairs." The rabbi then gave the petty officer his own gloves. In retrospect, Mahoney realized that Rabbi Goode was not conveniently carrying two pairs of gloves, and that the rabbi had decided not to leave the Dorchester. By this time, most of the men were topside, and the chaplains opened a storage locker and began distributing life jackets. It was then that Engineer Grady Clark witnessed an astonishing sight. When there were no more lifejackets in the storage room, the chaplains removed theirs and gave them to four frightened young men. "It was the finest thing I have seen or hope to see this side of heaven," said John Ladd, another survivor who saw the chaplains' selfless act.... That night Reverend Fox, Rabbi Goode, Reverend Poling and Father Washington passed life's ultimate test. In doing so, they became an enduring example of extraordinary faith, courage and selflessness. The Distinguished Service Cross and Purple Heart were awarded posthumously December 19, 1944, to the next of kin by Lt. Gen. Brehon B. Somervell, Commanding General of the Army Service Forces, in a ceremony at the post chapel at Fort Myer, VA. A posthumous Special Medal for Heroism, never before given and never to be given again, was authorized by Congress and awarded by the President January 18, 1961. Congress wished to confer the Medal of Honor but was blocked by the stringent requirements which required heroism performed under fire. The special medal was intended to have the same weight and importance as the Medal of Honor.... (Thanks, Christopher.) Lane Core Jr. CIW P Tue. 02/03/04 11:16:04 PM |
So, What Good is Intelligence, Anyway? Aquinas could answer that, I'm sure. But I digress. Military historian Sir John Keegan writes at The Telegraph today: The [Blair] Government is facing demands for yet another investigation of the part played by the intelligence services in leading Britain to join the United States in the Iraq war. Two questions should be asked about such demands. The first is about the usefulness of intelligence in general to the inception and conduct of military operations. The second, more difficult to answer, is what specifically such an investigation might reveal. The usefulness of military intelligence has a very mixed history. I say that with confidence, having recently published a long study, Intelligence In War, which set out to answer the question: how useful is intelligence? It consists of a number of case studies of intelligence operations from more than 100 years of military history chosen because evidence was available and clear-cut.... Above all, it must be remembered that British intelligence was attempting to penetrate the mentality of a man and a regime which were not wholly rational. It now seems probable that most of Iraq's weapons of mass destruction had been destroyed in the early 1990s, either by the first UN inspection team (UNSCOM) or as a precautionary measure on Saddam's own orders. Saddam was, however, unwilling to admit to such a loss of power, because of the prestige his possession of WMD brought him in the region. His policy of disposing of his WMD while refusing to admit the disposal was completely illogical. But then almost nothing in Saddam's megalomaniac world was logical. What logical ruler would deliberately provoke two disastrous wars, either of which might have been avoided by the practice of a little prudence? Finally, what purpose would be served by a further assessment of the dossier? Any inquiry would shortly resolve into a semantic argument about the nature of text editing: a sentence here, a phrase there. It is supremely ironic that the BBC is demanding such a semantic argument, when the trouble it has got itself into was caused precisely by its failure to undertake any sort of editing at all of an unscripted text by a reporter with a less than perfect reputation for reliability. See my Where Are Saddam's Weapons of Mass Destruction? .... It does strike me, though, as odd that we are all trying to make sense of a situation in which the principal player for a decade or more was a madman.... Lane Core Jr. CIW P Tue. 02/03/04 09:38:54 PM |
"You Don't Have to be Colombo to Figure This One Out" Democrats in Self-Destruct Mode CLXIII Some denizens of the Democratic Underground Forums blame... guess who... for the ricin and anthrax assaults on Capitol Hill. + + + + + 344888, OK, so now does anybody believe that Bush Co was behind... the anthrax attacks? I've always thought they were the more likely suspects. I never bought the Hatfill theory. My feeling is that Bush was negligent in the 9/11 attacks and culpable in the anthrax attacks. Think about it. They wanted a reason to go to war. So they dreamed up the anthrax scheme and then as they were in the process of implementing it 9/11 happened and everything changed. Without 9/11 anthrax would have been used as the excuse to whip up the war fever. Now we have this ricin scam. Where do you suppose the stuff comes from? It's not just sitting on a shelf down at the hardware store. And it would take more than one person to be involved for it to suddenly show up in several places at once like this. You don't have to be Colombo [sic] to figure this one out. + + + + + Though I should hasten to add that thinking of this kind is not typical among Democrats, that post is by no means the only one along those lines in that thread. Peter Falk, call your office. (Thanks, Charles.) Lane Core Jr. CIW P Tue. 02/03/04 09:05:27 PM |
"Fighting Words From Dean Stir Faithful Here" Democrats in Self-Destruct Mode CLXII That Doctor Howard "Cliff" Dean sure has a strange way of thinking. An article at Seattle Times, Feb. 1. + + + + + Struggling presidential candidate Howard Dean used a speech to a yelling, stomping, liberal Seattle crowd yesterday to paint fellow-Democrat John Kerry and President Bush as twin tools of special interests. Dean railed against Kerry, the Massachusetts senator who has supplanted Dean as the front-runner in the Democratic race, and said news yesterday that Kerry took more lobbyist money than any other member of the Senate made him so mad he was sputtering. "This is the challenge for the Democratic Party: Do we stand with the special interests and the Washington cozy crowd, or do we stand with ordinary Americans who we have claimed to represent?" Dean said to an overflow crowd at Seattle's Town Hall. Dean was in Seattle to win support in the state's Feb. 7 Democratic caucuses. Underscoring the importance of a possible win here, which could be his first, Dean told reporters he would be back once more before Saturday's party gatherings. Meanwhile, Kerry and the other Democrats running for the nomination concentrated on the seven states that hold contests Tuesday. Dean, the former governor of Vermont, showed a different style from that of his previous visits here. No longer the fall front-runner or the insurgent of last spring, he is trying to make a comeback after losses in Iowa and New Hampshire. Town Hall was a familiar spot. He spoke to another standing-room-only crowd there last May when he was riding an anti-war message to prominence in the crowded Democratic race. From his first lines yesterday, it was clear he was taking a different tack. "When I came here the last time, the biggest issue was the war," Dean said to more than 1,200 people. "It's still a big issue. But there's another issue, and that's the issue of special interests running this government." The crowd still roared at any anti-war talk. But Dean said in an interview afterward that most Americans, although maybe not yet Seattle-area Democrats, have other things on their minds today. "I think the American public has moved their attention," Dean said. "It's not as important an issue. People are losing their jobs. They are losing their health insurance. People are losing hope in the country. I think they are just throwing up their hands, saying, 'My God, what's happening here?' " Dean lays most of the blame for those problems on Bush. But in yesterday's news, he found a way to loop Kerry into it as well. The Washington Post reported yesterday that federal campaign fund-raising records show Kerry has raised more money from paid lobbyists than any other senator over the past 15 years. Kerry has made fighting Washington special interests a key of his campaign. But Dean said the money from lobbyists shows a similarity between Bush and Kerry. "It seems to me sometimes there's a little of George Bush in John Kerry," Dean said in the interview. "George Bush says the most blatant things that are just plain false. "'No Child Left Behind' leaves every child behind, which is something John Kerry voted for," Dean said of the president's education plan. "How many rationales has George Bush given us for the Iraq war? Well, how many rationales has John Kerry given us for the Iraq war, which he also supported?" The local Kerry campaign said Dean's attacks show his diminishing fortunes. "Howard Dean's a desperate candidate, and desperate candidates get nasty," said Ali Wade, Kerry's Washington state campaign director. She said Kerry has stood up to special interests for his entire Senate career, and she criticized Dean, a physician, for accepting speaking fees from the pharmaceutical industry. For Dean, Washington state has been a good source of money and some of his biggest and most enthusiastic crowds. A rally at Westlake Center in August drew more than 8,000 people. It was the largest crowd Dean had drawn anywhere to that date. "It was just stunning to me to see out on a big plaza like that and see people as far as you could go," Dean recalled yesterday. "It was the only time I'd been nervous in the campaign. I just went, 'My God, I'm responsible for all these people.'" It was a relaxed Dean who sat for a 30-minute interview that covered: • The resignation of his campaign manager, Joe Trippi. "I do not blame him for one thing that went wrong with the campaign," Dean said. "You can put the blame at my feet for anything that went wrong." The candidate said he signed off on every important decision and every expenditure in Iowa and New Hampshire. He did say that as he went out to give his now-infamous speech after the Iowa caucuses, Trippi told him something along the lines of "let it rip." But Dean said his test of how well he does in a speech is to watch it with the sound turned off. "I give myself an A for my speech in Iowa," he said. "I was smiling. I was pumped up. I was having a great time. I'd be the first to confess it wasn't very presidential." • The appearance of his wife, Judith Steinberg Dean, on the campaign trail. Much was made when Dean's wife appeared in Iowa and then made a national TV appearance with the candidate because she had strenuously avoided campaigning and Dean said he would not use her as a prop. She may do more, though. Dean said when he talked to his wife yesterday, on their wedding anniversary, she surprised him by saying, " 'I'll come out anytime you want.' A woman who has spent 12 years avoiding public life? I couldn't believe it." In his speech yesterday, Dean defended his idea to repeal all of the Bush tax cuts and use the money to reduce the deficit and provide universal health insurance. The tax cuts have come at the cost of higher health-insurance premiums, college tuition costs and property taxes, he argued, adding up to "the largest middle-class tax increase in the history of the United States of America," a claim largely difficult to verify. Dean received one of his biggest ovations after a heckler asked what he'd do to reduce the abortion rate. He suggested universal health care for children, sex education that isn't just abstinence-based, and finally, "We're going to tell all those white boys who run the Republican Party to stay out of our bedrooms." Dean knows, though, that the screaming crowd is not representative of voters across the country and volume does not equal delegates. "You can be as enthusiastic as you want in here and hoot and holler, but if you don't translate that into votes we're not going to make it," Dean said before adding a more positive spin. "We're going to win sooner or later, but I'd rather it be sooner than later." Staff reporter J. Patrick Coolican contributed to this story. + + + + + The Blog from the Core asserts Fair Use for non-commercial, non-profit educational purposes. "How many rationales has George Bush given us for the Iraq war? Well, how many rationales has John Kerry given us for the Iraq war, which he also supported?" I've seen Dean quoted as making remarks along these lines before. Do you realize what he's been implying? That it's bad to have too many reasons to make a decision and take an action. Whoa. Dean, or those associated with his campaign, have often claimed that he's really not the neck-bulging, eye-popping, banshee-screaming left-winger he came across as in the campaign. And what do they say to support their assertion? "As governor, he balanced the budget. And he " No, no, no: you're only allowed one "rationale". :-) (Thanks, Jeff.) Lane Core Jr. CIW P Tue. 02/03/04 08:25:51 PM |
More Kerry from Doonesbury Three cartoon strips at Doonesbury@Slate. The Oct. 22, 1971, strip implies rather strongly that John Kerry hasn't changed much in three decades. Lane Core Jr. CIW P Tue. 02/03/04 08:08:21 PM |
"A Crossroad for the Catholic Church" Interesting article by George Weigel at WaPo today: What "issues" will frame the election to choose a successor to Pope John Paul II? Chances are they're not what you might think. Consider, for example, what are often reported as the most controversial matters in the pontificate of John Paul II: abortion, homosexuality and ordination of women to the priesthood. The assumption is that, in the next conclave, the cardinal-electors will sort themselves out in conventional "conservative" and "liberal" camps around these questions. In fact, it won't work that way. John Paul II hasn't been teaching the personal opinions of Karol Wojtyla on these matters, he's been teaching the settled doctrine of the Catholic Church. That doctrine isn't going to change in the next pontificate, or in the 10 pontificates after that, because popes are the servants of doctrine, not its masters. What are frequently thought to be "the issues" in the next conclave aren't issues at all. What are? At least three matters of global consequence are shaping the pre-conclave discussions among key cardinal-electors.... I'm reminded of something I wrote a couple of years ago: .... Subversive traitors, in collusion with the secular culture, have trained a large number of Catholics to believe that “outdated, archaic” moral strictures — against divorce and remarriage, artificial contraception, homosexual activity, pedophilia — and “outdated, archaic” doctrines — such as male-only priesthood — have been retained beyond their time for no reason other than the current pope is (dare I write the horrible word?) conservative. Gradually, as Catholics-In-Name-Only (CINO) come to realize that the Catholic Church is not going to approve divorce and remarriage, artificial contraception, homosexual activity, and pedophilia, and that the Catholic Church is never going to ordain women to the priesthood because it cannot do so — gradually, the rage will build even more than it has already. CINO have been deceived: the Catholic Church maintains its doctrines and practices, not because a given pope is conservative, but because the doctrines and practices are — surprise, surprise — Catholic.... (Thanks, Carl.) Lane Core Jr. CIW P Tue. 02/03/04 08:03:27 PM |
"No Evidence CIA Slanted Iraq Data" A WaPo article, Jan. 31: Congressional and CIA investigations into the prewar intelligence on Iraq's weapons and links to terrorism have found no evidence that CIA analysts colored their judgment because of perceived or actual political pressure from White House officials, according to intelligence officials and congressional officials from both parties. Richard J. Kerr, a former deputy CIA director who is leading the CIA's review of its prewar Iraq assessment, said an examination of the secret analytical work done by CIA analysts showed that it remained consistent over many years. "There was pressure and a lot of debate, and people should have a lot of debate, that's quite legitimate," Kerr said. "But the bottom line is, over a period of several years," the analysts' assessments "were very consistent. They didn't change their views." Kerr's findings mirror those of two probes being conducted separately by the House and Senate intelligence committees, which have interviewed, under oath, every analyst involved in assessing Iraq's weapons programs and terrorist ties.... Lane Core Jr. CIW P Tue. 02/03/04 08:55:00 AM |
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