(From Johann Norberg, a Swedish libertarian.) Granted. The hypocrisy of those who opposed the Iraq war who ignore this is legion. But also, I would like to know, where is Mr. Bush? The White House has issued an official statement, generally supportive of Yuschenko, saying that the results should not be certified since they are laced with fraud. But there is nary a peep from Bush, nor Powell, obviously preoccupied with the Middle East. We were willing to go to war to give Iraq freedom (supposedly) - what will we do for Ukraine? Little, apparently, if it means offending Russia, our "ally" in the war on terror. Mark: if Ukraine re-unites with Russia because we did too little to stop Yanukovich and his thugs, we are looking at "Cold War Part Deux."Johann Norberg, a Swedish libertarian. writes:
13:16 - IS THE WORLD WATCHING?: Right now in the freezing cold, almost 100 000 Ukranians are protesting against the stolen election in central Kiev, and a huge demonstration has also started in the city of Lviv. The municipal councils in both cities have said they only take orders from the liberal presidential candidate Yushchenko, the real winner of the election. At the same time, security forces have said that they are ready to put down the protests "quickly and firmly".
Where are the concerned European politicians who should condemn the fraud, and who could be with these crowds to show their support? And where are the "human shields"? A lot of young westerners were willing to risk their lives to stop the war on Iraq. Aren’t they willing to risk some discomfort to stop one of Europe’s biggest countries from slipping back to dictatorship?
Senator Kerry calls this a "tragic milestone," and the most catastrophic of the administration's mistakes made so far. Regardless of his mistakenly voting for the war at the time, he's right. For him to turn against the Iraq war is a flip-flop I would be happy with. Hopefully he has an exit strategy, even though he's not telling us about it at the moment.
This is why Bush must be defeated in November. I realize the economy is an important issue, but compared to 1000++ dead soldiers? Come on. Not to mention 7,000++ wounded, and the 11,000++ estimated by the Iraq Body Count . This is a slam dunk, as George Tenet would say.
Prediction: if Bush is [re]elected, the U.S. will engage in pre-emptive war against Iran and/or North Korea. Is that really what we want?
Comments