Great News and Coffee, Too

As I awoke this morning and turned on the news I was immediately wide awake as the news of the death of Abu Musab Al-Zarqawi was announced. Great news for the war on terrorism.

Zarqawi was turned in by his own people. That is great news. Our magnificent military took him out in an air raid. The sight of Iraqis dancing, rifles in arms, over the news of Zarqawi's death is great news. Zarqawi left a trail of blood unimaginable to most folks. He was the mastermind of everything from trying to take out the royal family of Jordan to beheading Americans. His evil knew no boundaries.

The nay-sayers are already talking this victory down. How sad and insulting to our military heroes. The fact that he was turned in by his own people is a further sign that a corner is turning in the war. Those wishing for our failure and the failure of President Bush in his vision of the big picture in the Middle East are not happy by today's news.

This is a death to celebrate. The war is not over. It will still be a long road to victory. The summit called by President Bush for Monday at Camp David is a positive development. Maybe it is too much to hope that our country can come together and pull for success, given the selfish climate of political opportunism of today, but I can still hope. Given the choice, I choose optimism.

Further progress in Iraq was noted today in the appointment in the final vacancies in the cabinet. A Sunni was appointed to the position of Interior Minister. That is a very positive development.

Mark Malloch Brown, deputy Secretary of the U.N. bashed Americans recently as too ignorant to know all the wonderful things the U.N. is doing in the world. His spin, not mine. He didn't bash our country, he bashed us. According to him Fox News and Rush Limbaugh are to blame. Now, I wonder why he chose those two targets of his disdain?

"The prevailing practice of seeking to use the U.N. almost by stealth as a diplomatic tool while failing to stand up against its domestic critics is simply not sustainable, " said Brown. "You will lose the U.N. one way or another."

Did Brown point out any inaccuracies in the public discourse? No. The U.N. was about to lift sanctions on Saddam just before the war. This is not fiction.

The U.N. Oil-for-Food scandal, the largest in history dealing with corruption, was first broken by Fox News. Fiction? Try as they did, the rest of the media was not able to ignore the growing story as it unraveled. The Security Council was proven to be bribed by Saddam for years. Fiction? No.

The U.N. peacekeepers are guilty of raping children and women in Africa and of continued accusations of succumbing to bribery. Fiction? No. Blame the journalists reporting it, not the U.N.

U.N. Secretary General Koffi Annan came out in full support of Brown's statement. Nice. This is the man who can't get his own reform package passed in the U.N. and he has the nerve to criticize the country hosting him. Fiction? No.

U.S. Ambassador John Bolton immediately came out and called Brown on the carpet for his ridiculous remarks. Bolton, slandered by the rabid left as not able to handle the job, did a superior job holding Brown's feet to the fire. Bolton pointed out how condescending and disrespectful to the American people the remarks were. How unprofessional it was for a diplomat to belittle the people of a country, not the policymakers.

Brown apologized for his remarks 4 hours later. He reminded reporters he is a faithful watcher of Fox News and reminded the reporters how he complimented Americans a few months ago for supporting the AIDS fight in Africa at the level the current administration in this country has committed to doing. Idiot.

The idea behind the U.N. is good in theory. The execution of the idea? Not so much.

"More people would learn from their mistakes if they weren't so busy denying them." - Harold J. Smith