Friday Wrap-up
The Marine in Fallujah: In November, as we wrote in support of the young Marine videotaped shooting a military-aged man during a battle in a mosque in Fallujah, we objected to two groups of commentators on the incident:
a) “Those who have not served in the military but insist they know how it “should” be done.
The Marine in Fallujah: In November, as we wrote in support of the young Marine videotaped shooting a military-aged man during a battle in a mosque in Fallujah, we objected to two groups of commentators on the incident:
a) “Those who have not served in the military but insist they know how it “should” be done. Those who have never found a military action that they could support, but insist they know a “war crime” when they see one – and who see one in every military action (and) use their access to the media to make the soldiers’ jobs harder by an order of magnitude.”
b) Those in “the American military and civilian hierarchy who should have leapt to the defense of the Marine… but who hid instead behind the promise of an ‘investigation.’ Are they afraid to say that all over Iraq… shooting from mosques, schools and hospitals is routine? Why didn’t they say booby-trapped bodies – living and dead – have been found in Iraq… making it extremely unwise to put idealism ahead of a soldier’s personal safety?”
The second group has partially redeemed itself. A military investigation has cleared the soldier. The statement reads, in part, “The corporal reasonably believed that (the Iraqi) posed a hostile threat to him and his fellow Marines and justifiably fired in self defense.” Now the first group should apologize to the Marine and to all of the American soldiers smeared as “war criminals” for protecting themselves under conditions of bestial enemy behavior – particularly in this case, The Washington Post, which put the original story on page 1 and buried the exoneration in a blurb on the inside.
Palestinian Military Bases: We have been pointing to the problem of Palestinian military bases in Lebanon. Now, Geostrategy Direct reports “Syria’s intelligence units have relocated to Palestinian refugee camps and military bases, which remain off limits to Lebanese authorities.” In 1982, the PFLP-GC established these bases for training and storage of Katyusha rockets, rocket-propelled grenades and light weapons. The UN has sent a team to verify Syria’s withdrawal but neither they nor Lebanese police or army units have been permitted to enter the bases. The PFLP-GC was founded and has been led, Geostrategy Direct notes, by Ahmed Jibril, a Syrian military officer.
And Palestinian Money: In his State of the Union Address, President Bush called on Congress to give $200 million to Abu Mazen in an effort to “to support Palestinian political, economic, and security reforms.” Bravo to Congress as lawmakers voted for the money, but funneled its distribution through American or American-approved NGOs. Or the Israeli government – $50 million will be spent by Israel to build terminals for people and goods at checkpoints between the PA and Israel. (A female Palestinian suicide bomber, who was crying and pulled the cord when two guards came to help her, wrecked the old one at Erez.) Hadassah will get $2 million to provide health care for Palestinians.Best comment: Danielle Pletka of the American Enterprise Institute, testifying before Congress that the institution has a “fiduciary obligation not to throw money down a toilet.”