International Affairs: October 2004 Archives

The French are becoming more Americanized every day it seems.

Despite the perception that the French are rude and scoff at American tourists, the country some Yanks love to hate apparently doesn’t return the bad feeling. Les Français continue to snap up, or at least reluctantly accept, all things américaines.

"Every time I go back, I am astounded by how much more prevalent American culture is," said Roy Caldwell, a French professor at St. Lawrence University (search) in New York.

So is it time for Americans to quit France-bashing? Or does that country's ongoing obstruction on international affairs warrant our continuing displeasure?

PLO Terrorist-in-Chief Yasser Arafat has left Israel for medical treatment in Paris (where else?).

It will be the first time that Mr Arafat will have left his compound in Ramallah in nearly three years.

Israeli officials had already confirmed that Mr Arafat would be allowed to travel overseas to receive treatment.

Israel has never prevented Arafat from leaving Ramallah, they've just said that if he leaves the country he won't ever be allowed to return. This statement doesn't indicate to me that their position has changed, and if Arafat survives I doubt Israel will let him back in. It would probably be best for Israel and the Palestinians for Arafat to die.

Update:
For a first-hand description of Arafat's predation on the Palestinians, read this account by Issam Abu Issa, founder of the Palestinian International Bank. (HT: Power Line.)

Update 2:
Apparently Israel has promised to let Arafat return.

As much as we try to get along with and work with Russia, it's important to remember that Russia is not our friend in the way Britain, Australia, and Poland are.

Russian special forces troops moved many of Saddam Hussein's weapons and related goods out of Iraq and into Syria in the weeks before the March 2003 U.S. military operation, The Washington Times has learned.

John A. Shaw, the deputy undersecretary of defense for international technology security, said in an interview that he believes the Russian troops, working with Iraqi intelligence, "almost certainly" removed the high-explosive material that went missing from the Al-Qaqaa facility, south of Baghdad.

"The Russians brought in, just before the war got started, a whole series of military units," Mr. Shaw said. "Their main job was to shred all evidence of any of the contractual arrangements they had with the Iraqis. The others were transportation units."

What effect will this new revelation have on the election? Who knows... if it gets reported it'll probably be influential.

Update:
Russia denies involvement.

UN Secretary General Kofi Annan actually thinks Saddam's oil bribes had no effect on their recipients.

Iraq tried to manipulate foreign governments by awarding contracts - and bribes - to foreign companies and political figures in countries that showed support for ending sanctions, in particular Russia, France and China, the final report by the U.S.-led Iraq Survey Group said earlier this month.

But Annan said it was "inconceivable" Saddam's activities could have influenced policy in the countries concerned.

"I don't think the Russian or the French or the Chinese government would allow itself to be bought..." Annan said.

"I think it's inconceivable. These are very serious and important governments. You are not dealing with banana republics."

You keep using that word. I do not think it means what you think it means.

Once again Frank J has narrowly averted the most grim future imaginable. It could only have been worse if it were in, say, a grotto.

Saudi Arabia is apparently struggling with the decision of whether not women should be allowed to vote.

RIYADH, Saudi Arabia — Women may neither vote nor run in Saudi Arabia's first nationwide elections, the government announced Monday, dashing hopes of progressive Saudis and easing fears among conservatives that the kingdom is moving too fast on reforms.

The Saudis have far different standards of "progress" and "reform" than we Americans do, but I asked a over a year ago.

As Dean Esmay notes, it's been 83 years, and what have women really done for us? Prohibition -- good move. That worked well. Oh sure, it was ratified before women could vote, but it was their idea. Let's see... that's pretty much it.

Let's be serious here though and really consider. Are we as a nation better off having given women the power to vote? I agree that from a moral perspective it was the right thing to do, but I don't think the issue is that black and white; there were substantial groups of women opposed to granting women suffrage.

Similarly in Saudi Arabia, some women are opposed to voting.

Some women considered the move yet another indignity in a country where they need their husbands' permission to study, travel or work. But others said they wouldn't trust themselves to judge whether a candidate is more than just a handsome face. ...

Many women in Saudi Arabia, the birthplace of Islam, have balked at getting the ID cards — introduced three years ago — because the photographs would show their faces unveiled.

There are really two questions to answer. First, is there a right to vote? Second, will allowing women to vote make Saudi Arabia a "better" place (presumably as defined by the Saudis).

The answer to the first question is no -- there is no right to vote. Voting is merely a tool that's incredibly useful for protecting liberty. It would be theoretically possible to have a perfectly free and just society under the rule of an absolute monarch. Unstable, perhaps, but possible, and therefore voting is not a right in the same way that, say, free expression is.

The answer to the second question is more complicated, because I don't know much about what Saudis want from their government. I suspect that many Saudis want to maintain a repressive theocracy, in which case allowing women to vote probably isn't a good idea. However, if they want to move towards a more liberal, free, and wealthy society, allowing women to vote would probably be a step in the right direction.

Unlike early 20th century Americans, modern Saudis have very little liberty, so their first nationwide election is likely to increase freedoms all around, whether or not women participate (if it's implemented honestly, of course). Still, as a tool for creating freedom they would probably do well to enfranchise as many people as possible.

In what should be a surprise to no one, members of the UN Security Council are opposing US efforts to put trade sanctions on Sudan as a response to the ongoing genocide.

PADAK, Sudan — America is on a lonely mission to end the crisis in Sudan.

The United States is pushing for U.N. sanctions against the east African nation. But U.S.-sponsored resolutions have met resistance in the U.N. Security Council — particularly from China and Pakistan, which have major oil deals in the African country. Algeria, which is a fellow Arab league member, also is an obstacle.

All together now: it's all about oooiiiillll! Oh, but wait, it's not the US after oil so it doesn't matter.

According to the World Health Organization, between 6,000 and 10,000 people are dying each month from disease and malnutrition in the camps. The United States is making the crisis in Darfur one of its top priorities on the African continent. Natsios said USAID has three major reconstruction projects underway — Iraq, Afghanistan and Sudan.

The United States gives more than 70 percent of all aid to Darfur — more than all other countries combined. The assistance goes to agencies like the World Food Program, which then delivers it to hard-to-reach places.

70%? Don't tell Senator Kerry that or he'll expect us to cut back.

The Sudanese government says the situation in Darfur is improving and officials have made it easier for aid groups to get into the country. But while the United States presses for more action and the United Nations studies the issue of whether genocide has taken place -- something the United States determined a month ago -- 1.5 million Sudanese living in squalid camps wait; 10,000 of them die each month.

Good job, UN, keep on studying. Only 10,000 people died between America's decision and now, so there's no real hurry.

I can't wait to see Senator Kerry's response to the news that his good buddies in France, Russia, China, and the UN bureaucracy were all paid by Saddam to oppose the US. Notably absent from this article is any mention of Germany -- good for them, if true. Another article implicates a few anonymous American companies, and I'd certainly like to know their names.

Polish President Aleksander Kwasniewski is pissed at John Kerry's snub, and so is Candace, who points out that Poland has a history of bravery.

Two days ago, John Kerry bluntly dismissed the contribution of the Polish forces in Iraq as insignificant. I think over those words with pain again today as I reflect on what I've learned: it's not the first time the Polish have been utterly dismissed by the powers that be. Sixty years ago today, after the death of 17,000 insurgents and 200,000 civilians, Warsaw surrendered to the Nazi army, and the story was all but forgotten.

And, you know, solar-powered flashlights.

Everyone has probably already seen this CNSNews exclusive report claiming to have discovered documentary evidence that Saddam Hussein had WMDs and extensive terrorist connections.

Iraqi intelligence documents, confiscated by U.S. forces and obtained by CNSNews.com, show numerous efforts by Saddam Hussein's regime to work with some of the world's most notorious terror organizations, including al Qaeda, to target Americans. They demonstrate that Saddam's government possessed mustard gas and anthrax, both considered weapons of mass destruction, in the summer of 2000, during the period in which United Nations weapons inspectors were not present in Iraq. And the papers show that Iraq trained dozens of terrorists inside its borders.

One of the Iraqi memos contains an order from Saddam for his intelligence service to support terrorist attacks against Americans in Somalia. The memo was written nine months before U.S. Army Rangers were ambushed in Mogadishu by forces loyal to a warlord with alleged ties to al Qaeda.

Other memos provide a list of terrorist groups with whom Iraq had relationships and considered available for terror operations against the United States. ...

The senior government official and source of the Iraqi intelligence memos, explained that the reason the documents have not been made public before now is that the government has "thousands and thousands of documents waiting to be translated.

"It is unlikely they even know this exists," the source added.

October surprise? Hm, if this were orchestrated by the Bush Administration, don't you think it would have come out before the first debate? And wouldn't it have been leaked to a more prominent news agency?

Candace from Candied Ginger has pointed me to a Washington Post article by Eugene B. Rumer that explains why Russia is "Not Another Soviet Union", despite Vladimir Putin's recent undemocratic moves to consolidate power.

Russia is joining the ranks of nascent dictatorships, and Vladimir Putin is the executioner of Russian democracy. Right? Wrong. Russia is not a dictatorship, and the political system Putin is trying to reshape is not a democracy. In its transition from the Soviet Union, it never got there. More important, before we lament the passing of Russian democracy and put the blame for its demise on Putin, let us consider our own record of dealing with Russia since the Soviet breakup and how the Russians themselves might see that record.

The notion that Russian democracy is dying or dead because of Putin's proposed reforms is no more accurate than the idea that Russia was ever a democracy. The bloody confrontation between Boris Yeltsin and his parliament in 1993, the patently unfair reelection campaign Yeltsin waged against his Communist opponent in 1996, and the equally skewed parliamentary election campaign of 1999 are just a few examples of Russian democracy in action that do not pass the "you know it when you see it" test.

I don't know this Rumer fellow, but Candace knows more about Russia than a girl-shaped genetic recombination of James Bond and Fyodor Dostoyevsky.