Partial Privatization: a simple and long overdue innovation which will MOST benefit the working-class

The basics of partial privatization are simple and sound:

1 - Don't change the amounts due in accounts for those over 50, but gradually increase the age at which payments begin: every 3 years make the retirement age 6 months later until payments first begin at age 70. This will bring payments more in-tune with actual 21st Century retirement age and actual life-expectancy rates (and discard those from the middle of the last century) and therefore reduce outlays. Because it is phased-in, it allows time for workers to adjust their retirement planning accordingly. This will increase contributions to the systems and decrease outlays - greatly reducing the current projected shortfall.

2 - Offer people under 50 the opportunity to steer 20% of their payroll tax into stock funds geared to their own account IN RETURN THAT PERSON MUST AGREE TO REDUCE THEIR EVENTUAL SOC.SEC. PAYMENT BY 40%. This reduces the current funds payout by more than it reduces the input; hence the partial privatization makes the old/existing fund MORE solvent while increasing the potential individual wealth of those who voluntarily opt to put some of their own payroll tax into a personal stock fund.

3 - Gradually increase the % amount which those under age 30 may steer into their personal stocks fund.

4 - Again FOR ONLY THOSE UNDER 30: gradually (every six-12 months or so) RAISE the age at which time recipients may begin to receive 100% of their traditional Soc. Sec. payment (for example: at age 65 you can get 50% and at age 66 you can get 60%, and at 67/70%, and so on) Thgis will reduce the burden of the old system BUT ONLY FOR THOSE WHO HAVE 356 YEARS to prepare.

This is a general/thumbnail version of a proposal; actuarily speaking - this will have to be worked out in MUCH greater detail, BUT this voluntary and gradual and partial privatization plan would work.

And: it would most benefit poorer people - they'd get something they could pass along to their kids, and most working poor cannot save enough for IRA's now; this would be their IRA and their family's ticket out of propertylessness.

As such, partial privatization is one of the most pro-working class proposals EVER to come out of Washington.

ONLY REACTIONARIES oppose partial privatization. And, sadly, they are all on the Left.

Partial privatization would be a GREAT THING EVEN IF THERE WERE NO LOOMING CRISIS;THEREFORE, the debate over whether there's a crisis in 2018-2040 is IMMATERIAL.

BOTTOM-LINE: do we think that a program designed in 1935 is the best possible program for us now - 60 years later!?!?!?! Of course, it cannot be. It isn't. It is time to innovate. In fact, the time is long overdue. Privatization is sensible, too. And simple to implement - except for the politics; in other words: the only thing that stands between the imperfect present and the future are the demogogues of the Left. So far, Bush had defeated them on every issue; I believe he will win again. Justly so.

THIS POSTING HAS BEEN UPDATED TO REFLECT INPUT FROM A LEADING ECONOMIST.

Leading Islamic Moderates FINALLY and UNABIGUOUSLY Attack Neojihadists

Two days ago I argued that in the final analysis, WW4 will be seen as a battle over Islam's future - it's almost an Islamic Civil War.

Today, as part of the Haj the OFFICIAL CLERIC OF THE SAUDI KINGDOM ATTACKED THE NEOJIHADISTS; from the GULF NEWS of BAHRAIN:

Shun terror in name of Islam!

MECCA: A leading Saudi cleric warned Muslims yesterday against heeding militant calls to wage terror attacks in the name of Islam.

Shaikh Abdulrahman Al Sudeis, the state-appointed preacher at the Grand Mosque in Mecca, told pilgrims in a sermon to mark the Muslim festival of Eid Al Adha that scholars must preach moderation to confront this "putrid" phenomenon. Militants were using "misguided and void" interpretations to justify violence, he said, in comments that came amid a surge in militant attacks in Muslim countries and beyond. "Because Muslims have strayed from moderation, we are now suffering from this dangerous phenomenon of branding people infidels and inciting Muslims to rise against their leaders to cause instability," Sudeis said.

"The reason for this is a delinquent and void interpretation of Islam based on ignorance ... faith does not mean killing Muslims or non-Muslims who live among us, it does not mean shedding blood, terrorising or sending body parts flying." Saudi Arabia has deployed thousands of security forces at the holy sites to prevent possible attacks during the Haj. The Custodian of The Two Holy Mosques King Fahad bin Abdul Aziz Al Saud and the kingdom's de facto ruler, Crown Prince Abdullah, also urged Muslims to shun extremism.

ABOUT TIME!

BUSH 43: PART TWO

I watched the speech and liked it.

I read it (hat tip INSTAPUNDIT) and LOVED IT!

Bush spoke of the foundations of humanity's most lofty goals and of establishing universal human liberty by ending the rule of tyrants EVERYWHERE. This is something that "neocons" FDR and Eleanor Roosevelt would have applauded.

I found the speech especially enheartening (and not at all empty or false) because it came from president who's already demonstrated deep commitment to these universal values, and who's shown a fierce resolve to achieve these goals - a resolve which is second to none.

I feel it's pretty obvious that Bush 43 has what it takes to be a great and important president: a mind devoted to securing and expanding liberty, and the heart n' soul - and courage - of a good man who is confident that our nation's founding principles, and citizens, are up to the challenges that undoubtedly lie ahead.

This confidence may be bold, but it is not hubristic - because it's based on truth. What makes America great is not our race - for we are all races; it's not our sectarian faith - for we are all faiths; it's not our weather, or our diet, or our style. America has become great because of our founding principles and our core values - (values that all peoples on every continent could apply to their own nations and societies). Our principles have created a system which has unleashed the greatness of our people, the bounty of our continent, and - as Bush said so well - it has also implanted deep inside each of us a commitment to the unfinished business that lies ahead: to help our brothers and sisters everywhere - of every race, of every sect, on every continent - to live in freedom, liberty, and justice - and to enjoy the prosperity and peace that is their by-product.

I wish him the best; his success is humanity's.

SOCIALISTS STICK TOGETHER, (AS DO BAATHISTS AND NEOJIHADISTS)

Zyuganov on President al-Assad's visit to Moscow: relations are on concrete basis

Syria-Russia, Politics, 1/19/2005

Russian Communist Party Leader Gennadii Zyuganov said Tuesday peace in the Middle East will not be achieved as Israel still occupies the Syrian Golan."We can't talk about any peace process as the Israeli aggression still poses a threat on South Lebanon, and peace will not be comprehensive in the region without reaching a fair solution to the Palestinian issue," Zyuganov told SANA in Moscow.He added that the Syrian policy owns credibility in the international and regional arenas as well as having a firm and independent foreign policy and works for the liberation of all the occupied Arab lands.He described the upcoming visit of President Bashar al-Assad to Moscow as an important event not only regarding the Russian-Syria relations, but it also gains importance due to the international ongoing situation.He added the friendship relations which link the Syrian and Russian people are based on concrete basis, saying that both countries have great capabilities to enhance trade and economic relations between them."Pressures on Syria are baseless, they were fabricated as a result of Syria's adherence to the Arab just causes and its principled stances vis-a-vis peace process and the Palestinian cause," the Russian Party Leader added.

Baathism is socialist as much as it is pan-Arabist and Islamist. From Paul Berman as related in The Guardian:

Berman draws similar links between fascism and Baathism, the Arab national socialism both of the fallen regime in Baghdad and of that which still rules neighbouring Syria. He quotes Sami al-Jundi, who helped found the Syrian Baath Party in the 1930s: 'We were racists, admiring Nazism, reading its books and the source of its thought, particularly Nietzsche.' So, paradoxically, the drive towards Muslim or Arab purity in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries has its roots in a European ideology promoting Aryan purity in the nineteenth century. 'The Baathists and the Islamists were two branches of a single impulse, which was Muslim totalitarianism - the Muslim variation of the European idea,' writes Berman.

Nazism, Marxism, socialism, baathism, and neojiahdism are all Leftist and utopianist creeds: they all advocate the surpremacy of the state over the individual, and overtly call for the state to be controlled by an elite - whether a politburo or a council of mullahs is of little difference; all advocate that the elite are people who know better than we do ourselves what's good for each us. And they are willing to do HORRIBLY HORRIFYING things to attain their version of utopia.

Arafat was a socialist. Pol Pot - a socialist. Kim - a socialist. Stalin - a socialist. Hitler - a socialist; (YES: NAZI stands for National Socialist; more HERE). Mussolini - a socialist. Nasser and Assad and Saddam and Qaddafy - all socialists. And Bin Laden - he's a socialist, too.

Socialism comes in many flavors - all are mortally toxic; yea: each is a WMD!

IMPOSING VALUES

INSTAPUNDIT linked to a short posting by CRAIG HENRY which proposed a BRILLIANT comparison:

Criag asserted that the so-called "insurgents" in Iraq are more like the KKK, than the Founding Fathers. And that the Iraqi election workers are more like the FREEDOM RIDERS.

I would add that the entire USA military in Iraq is also like the Freedom Fighters, too.

Which gets me to my point: To the post-modern Left, (which includes the Euroweenies and the base of the Democrat party), the USA is trying to "impose" its values on Iraqis and the non-Western world; to the Left imposing values is "cultural arrogance" and a reversion to a form - or aspect of colonialism, and it must be stopped.

Most of these very same people would NEVER make the same charge against the Freedom Riders, or any of the other Northeastern liberal groups that went down South to end segregation - and "impose" their values on southerners.

Now, they might retort: "well, in that case - back then - we're just trying to enforce federal law within "the federation" - the US Constituion gave us jurisdiction; therefore we were not imposing values; we were just imposing what had already been agreed to in the Constitution."

Fine. BUT.... would these folks then argue that the only reason that slavery, or segregation based on skin-color, was bad or wrong or immoral was because it was UNCONSTITUTIONAL!? Or would they have the courage to admit that slavery and segregation are INTRINSICALLY wrong and bad and EVIL because they violate the VALUES which are the FOUNDATION for the US Constitution; principally, that we are (1) endowed by our Creator with inalienable rights; and that (2) the government ONLY has limited powers that are granted by the people (who are sovereign), and only with consent. These human rights exist independently of the government - a priori; they transcend the state. That's why they're MORE than merely constitutional; they're fundamental and universal. Once one admits that slavery and segregation are wrong LEGALLY (in a constitutional sense) and MORALLY, then one MUST agree that they are also wrong UNIVERSALLY because these rights are human and not American. They're the core of Universal Human Rights that Eleanor Roosevelt devoted herself to and enshrined in the UN's Declaration of Universal Human Rights.

In fact, the Left indirectly uses UNIVERSALITY as the basis for arguing that we should (a) apply the Geneva Conventions to all combatants, and not just those specified in that treaty - and limited to its signatories. And they also imply universality when they argue that (b) illegal immigrants are entitled to all the rights.

SO WHY DOES THE LEFT THINK THAT IRAQIS DON'T DESERVE WHAT THEY ARE WILLING TO ACCEDE TO ENEMY COMBATANTS AND ILLEGAL ALIENS!? And why won't they fight as hard for Iraqis - and all other peoples EVERYWHERE - to attain their universal human rights, as they once fought for blacks in America!? Why does the Left attack President Bush for helping Afghanis and Iraqis and Arab Palestinians attain what the Freedom Riders helped blacks attain in the segregated south!?

I believe that the Left is hypocritical when it justly praises the FREEDOM RIDERS but unfairly criticizes "Operation Iraqi Freedom" and "Operation Enduring Freedom." Just as we would not tolerate slave trade anywhere today, we must not tolerate totalitarianism - which essentially makes slaves of everyone.

When we fight tyrannical totalitarianism - whether Marxist of Baathist or Jihadist - and no matter where it is, WE ARE NOT "IMPOSING" VALUES; WE ARE LIBERATING OUR BROTHERS AND SISTERS AND ENABLING THEM TO ENJOY WHAT TYRANNY TOOK AWAY: their universal, inalienable God-given rights.

BOXER ADMITS IGNORANCE AND ARROGANCE

THIS IS A DIRECT QUOTE FROM THE TRANSCRIPT OF BOXER'S EXCHANGE WITH CONDI [emp[haisi added]:

SEN. BOXER: Well, you should read what we voted on when we voted to support the war, which I did not, but most of my colleagues did. It was WMD, period. That was the reason and the causation for that, you know, particular vote.

(1) Boxer ESSENTIALLY admits she never read the Bill. If she did, she'd know that Congress authorized the war against Saddam based on Saddam's failure to fulfil all of his obligations of ALL the UNSCR's. These UNSCR's were NOT just limited to WMD's, or even WMD's stockpiles; in fact, the word stockpile appears ONLY ONCE in the entire body of UNSCR's; in fact, when referring to WMD's - or WMD programs, the UNSCR's most frequently use the phrase "any and all" or "any capability." (More HERE.)

(2) See below post "Truth Exposed" - or click HERE - for other LIES that Boxer and the Left are still trying to foist on the public, (with the explicit cooperation of the Old Media).

UPDATE: an astute reader pointed out that in my quote from Boxer perhaps she was denying she'd voted for the bill, and not denying that she'd read the bill (as she implied Condi hadn't ever read it, as in: "...you should read the bill we voted on..."). MY POINT STILL STANDS: if Boxer read the bill (which she accuses Condi of failing to do), than she DID NOT UNDERSTAND IT AT ALL!

UPDATE: CRUSHKERRY ON THE CASE, (hat tips to INSTAPUNDIT AND POLIPUNDIT).

IRAN AND SYRIA INSTIGATING ANTI-ISRAEL/ANTI-ABBAS TERROR IN OCCUPIED TERRITORIES

According to the JPost:

Israel accused Hizbullah, Iran and Syria of being behind the recent wave of terror, with senior diplomatic officials Tuesday night threatening action "both here and elsewhere" against those responsible. One senior official said Tuesday evening's suicide attack in Gush Katif is "another incident in a series of deliberate efforts, instigated by Iran and Hizbullah, and supported by Syria, to scuttle any reconciliation process with Abu Mazen [Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas]."

Iran and Syria harbor and aid neojihaditerrorists who are attacking the emerging democracies in BOTH Iraq and in Arab Palestine.

If we want our brothers and sisters in Iraq and the occupied territories to have democracy and their God-given inalienable/universal Human Rights, then IRAN AND SYRIA MUST BE MADE TO "CEASE AND DESIST."

With any and all necessary means. And the sooner the better. According to the same article, indications are that Israel WILL act against the international sponsors of Jihadoterror - EVERYWHERE:

"Israel will take the necessary steps, there will be no limitations, there will be no immunity or refuge, not here or elsewhere," he added. "There will be intensified action along the whole front."

We should do the same, and AT LEAST attack the camps and refuges of the neojihadists and baathists in Syria. If the enemy won't respect borders, then we shouldn't either! NO REFUGE FOR TERRORISTS!

DAN RATHER VERSUS JON STEWART

VIACOM owns both CBS and COMEDY CENTRAL. CBS broadcasts the "CBS Evening News with Dan Rather." COMEDY CENTRAL broadcasts "THE DAILY SHOW with Jon Stewart."

I just saw an billboard for Jon Stewart's DAILY SHOW. It said: "America's most popular fake news show."Another says: JON STEWART: "America's most trusted name in fake news."

Maybe.But Dan Rather has nothing to worry about.His show is America's MOST EXPERIENCED FAKE NEWS SHOW. HEH. EVEN FUNNIER: Les Moonves - the president of CBS - WILL NOT RULE OUT INCLUDING JON STEWART AS A CONTRIBUTOR TO A REVAMPED CBS EVENING NEWS!!! (HAT TIP DRUDGE.) It makes sense: then, the CBS EVENING NEWS will be both America's most popular AND most experienced and most trusted FAKE news show! Heh, heh!

TRUTH EXPOSED: BUSH ON SADDAM, WMD AND NIGER

Here's an excerpt from Bush's Sept. '02 speech to the UN General Assembly [emphasis and numbers added]:

If the Iraqi regime wishes peace, it will [1] immediately and unconditionally forswear, disclose, and remove or destroy all weapons of mass destruction, long-range missiles, and all related material. If the Iraqi regime wishes peace, it will [2] immediately end all support for terrorism and act to suppress it, as all states are required to do by U.N. Security Council resolutions. If the Iraqi regime wishes peace, it will [3] cease persecution of its civilian population, including Shi'a, Sunnis, Kurds, Turkomans, and others, again as required by Security Council resolutions. If the Iraqi regime wishes peace, it will [4] release or account for all Gulf War personnel whose fate is still unknown. It will return the remains of any who are deceased, return stolen property, accept liability for losses resulting from the invasion of Kuwait, and fully cooperate with international efforts to resolve these issues, as required by Security Council resolutions. If the Iraqi regime wishes peace, it will [5] immediately end all illicit trade outside the oil-for-food program. It will accept U.N. administration of funds from that program, to ensure that the money is used fairly and promptly for the benefit of the Iraqi people. If all these steps are taken, it will signal a new openness and accountability in Iraq. And it could open the prospect of the United Nations helping to build a government that represents all Iraqis -- a government based on respect for human rights, economic liberty, and internationally supervised elections.

No one with any intelligence, a shred intellectual honesty, or an ounce of self-respect could now claim that the whole case against Saddam was based on WMD stockpiles, and that therefore since we did not find stockpiles that the war was a mistake or a hoax. INDEED: those who continue to argue that "Bush Lied" or that the war was all about WMD are the ones perpetrating the hoax! AND THAT MEANS YOU BARBARA BOXER! Bush made a case using 5 different aspects of the UNSCR's which Saddam had violated. Except for stockpiles, Saddam is guilty as charged!

Another hoax that the Left is STILL peddling (see today's Taranto on SALON) is that Bush lied when he uttered those famous 16 words in his 2003 SOTU (and that this is "SCANDAL." Here's what Bush said: "The British government has learned that Saddam Hussein recently sought significant quantities of uranium from Africa." This statement was NOT based on forged documents (perhaps the product of Rocco Martino as Leftist Josh Micah Marshall asserts - as if it had ANYTHING to do with Bush's SOTU).

Bush's statement was based on British intelligence. How do I know this!? That's what Bush said, and I know how to speak English! Well, there's also the fact that the British government had an investigation of their intelligence and the report concluded that there was ample intelligence for the British government to draw its conclusion that Saddam had INDEED tried to buy uranium in AFRICA.

REMEMBER: contrary to what that scumbag Joe Wilson may think, (and I mean scumbag in a nice way) Bush's SOTU did NOT once include the word "Niger." Therefore, when Wilson, Salon or anyone else makes this charge they are being utterly FALSE. FACTCHECK.ORG agrees.

SO... I'm here to tell the Left to "GET OVER IT ALREADY, DAMMIT!" And to ask them this: "decide whose side you want to be on: the side of universal human rights and democracy - or the side of ruthless neojihadists and baathists."

I have a feeling that they're gonna stay in the weasely middle-of-the-road, where they can carp and propagandize without making any real contribution to the war. Like Chirac and Schroeder and Zapatero.

In a war between the West and the Islamofascists (both the neojihadist and baathist varieties), the middle-of-the-road is an apt place for the passe appeaserati of the Left - both domestic and overseas varieties. WHO CARES, ANYWAY - as long as they get out of our way when we come through - or if not , as long as they duck.

WELCOME POLIPUNDIT READERS! Please check out the rest of my blog. CHEERS!

Islam's Civil War

The GWOT is a euphemism for WW4 - a war between the remaining champions of Western Civilization, democracy & universal Human Rights and ruthless nativistic neojihadists.

But in another sense, the war is between moderate Muslims and the neojihadists: Afghanistan was a civil war, (one which we fomented, but that was fought with Afghani ground troops). What's going on in Iraq now is a civil war: not the one which was predicited by some (between ethnic elements within Iraq); what's going on in Iraq is a civil war between neojihadis & neobaathists - (NOT a surprising alliance when one realizes that baathism is, after all, not so different from Jihadofascism; both are pan-Arabist/nativist utopianist ideologies which favor totalitarian tyranny; each are variants of Islamofascism) - and moderate Muslims who want democracy. In Iraq - as in Afghanistan - the USA is clearly on the side of Muslim democrats. In the occupied territories, a civil war is beginning too: between Abbas and Hamas/Hizb'allah, the PFLP and al Aksa. Recent pols show that an increasing majortity of Palestinian Arabs want a peaceful two-state settlemnt. Saudi Arabia and Egypt and Jordan and Yemen and Indonesia are also fighting civil wars against the neojihadis - each with less military assistance from the USA than either Afghanistan or Iraq.

It is time for all the nations of the free world who are on the sidelines - (because they see WW4 as an aggressive hegemonic battle between the USA and Jihaodterrorists, or because they want to triangulate, or because they want a free ride) - to accept that this is a civil war within the Muslim world, and actively help the USA and the UK and Australia support the moderate Muslim nations who want to defeat neojihadism and become more democratic.

The USA can defend itself and fight a decades long war against the neojihadists alone. But, because there are so many neojihadis and neojihadi sympathizers in the Muslim World (even if only 10% of the 1 BILLION Muslims are actively sympathetic this amounts to 100 MILLION supporters!), this will be a very long and very costly and very bloody war.

Ultimately, WW4 will be concluded not when he West defeats Islam, but only when Islam defeats neojihadism. This will come sooner and with lower casualties and costs if the West is more cohesively allied. Which means it's time for the other moderate Muslim nations and for Old Europe to UNAMBIGUOUSLY get on board - and join us in the fight against neojiahdism at least as much as the moderate Afghanis and Iraqis have.

POLL REVEALS MORE PALESTINIANS NOW FAVOR TWO-STATE SOLUTION

According to HAARTEZ:

Some 63 percent of the Palestinians support the proposal that after the establishment of the state of Palestine and a solution to all the outstanding issues - including the refugees and Jerusalem - a declaration will be issued recognizing the state of Israel as the state of the Jewish people and the Palestinian state as the state of the Palestinian people. Some 35 percent of the Palestinians oppose such a declaration. In June 2003, 52 percent supported such a proposal, and 46 percent were opposed.

Some 54 percent of the Palestinians support a two-state solution on the basis of the 1967 lines, with border corrections and no massive return of refugees, confirming that there has been a change in Palestinian public opinion since the death of Yasser Arafat.

Those findings in a comprehensive public opinion poll among 1,319 respondents conducted at the end of December contrasts with a similar poll done in December 2003, which showed only 39 percent of the Palestinians supported an agreement with Israel. And a parallel poll, conducted in Israel among a representative sample of Jewish and Arab voters, showed that 64 percent are now in favor of a permanent peace agreement compared to only 47 percent who supported such a deal in a similar poll last year.

If the poll is accurate, it represents progress and the basis for hope. I pray so.

The poll has many fascinating results; RTWT!

KIM'S MISSING PORTRAITS: mystery solved?

According to "REUTERS" portraits of Kim Jong Il have been defaced with pro-democracy grafiti. Once they've been defaced, they'd hardly remain hung up for long. MYSTERY SOLVED. "Reuters" claims to have seen a 35 minute video of this happening.

35-minute video clip viewed by Reuters showed a portrait of Kim taken inside a factory building and defaced by writing that demanded freedom and democracy. Such an act would be considered a grave crime in the North and bring capital punishment without trial to the perpetrator, said Do Hee-youn, who heads the South Korean group that made the clip available.

“There is a great potential for democracy in this country,” the narrator said. [Mr.] Do said the group who took the footage were people who would be able to exercise influence on the North Korean public, but declined to say whether they were members of the North’s communist party or the military. Still frames captured from the clip and a partial transcript were made available yesterday on a website operated by a group of former North Korean defectors and refugees who have settled in the South. The group, the Network for North Korean Democracy and Human Rights, is headed by the highest ranking North Korean official to defect to the South, Hwang Jang-yop. “Down with Kim Jong-il. Let’s all rise to drive out the dictatorial regime,” read the poster seen on the wall inside a factory. The footage, said to be taken in November, showed a largely deserted and run-down town with patches of snow on the ground.

It seems to me we need to be doing more to help the North Korean democracy movement - even if it's just reminding the brave freedom-fighters that we know about them and believe in them and want them to win. It seems to me that Bush needs to step up and have a Reagan "TEAR DOWN THIS WALL" moment supporting the democracy movements in North Korea - and Iran. We may have our hands full - AT THE MOMENT - but soon, we will be able to turn our revolutionary sights on their plight, too!

ALSO ON THIS DATE...

Raoul Wallenberg disappeared on this date in 1945. He was probably arrested by Stalin's troops, and sent to die in a gulag - like so many other fine people.

Wallenberg is credited with rescuing 100 THOUSAND Jews from the megamaws of Hitler's NAZI -(read: National Socialist) - "Final Solution."

ASIDE:

Kofi Annan is married to Wallenberg's niece. THAT'S ALL THEY HAVE IN COMMON. Here's a commentary on Annan and Wallenberg written by Per Ahlmark, a former Deputy Prime Minister of Sweden - WALLENBERG"S HOME:

No other organization is held in such respect as the UN. This is perhaps natural, for the UN embodies some of humanity's noblest dreams. But, as the current scandal surrounding the UN's administration of the Iraq oil-for-food program demonstrates, and as the world remembers the Rwanda genocide that began 10 years ago, respect for the UN should be viewed as something of a superstition, with Secretary General Kofi Annan its false prophet. Not since Dag Hammarskjold has a UN leader been as acclaimed as Annan. Up to a point, this is understandable. Annan usually maintains an unruffled, dignified demeanor. He has charm and -- many say -- charisma. But a leader ought to be judged by his or her actions when important matters are at stake. Annan's failures in such situations are almost invariably glossed over.

Between 1993 and 1996, Annan was assistant secretary-general for UN peacekeeping operations and then under-secretary-general. One of the two great disasters for which he bears a large share of the blame is the Serbian slaughter of 7,000 people in the Bosnian town of Srebrenica, perhaps the worst massacre in postwar Europe. In 1993, Bosnia's Muslims were promised that UN forces would protect them. This commitment was a condition of their consenting to disarm. The UN declared Srebrenica a "safe haven" to be "protected" by 600 Dutch UN troops.

In July 1995, Serb forces attacked. The UN did not honor its pledge. Annan's staff released evasive, confused statements. Oblivious, apparently, to the dreadfulness of the situation, they failed to sound the alarm properly and did nothing to intervene. The Dutch fired not a single shot. NATO air power could have halted the Serbs, but Annan did not ask for NATO intervention. Ratko Mladic, the Serb commander and war criminal, deported the women and children under the eyes of the UN, while capturing and murdering the men and adolescent boys.

No one should be surprised by the UN's inaction, because only the year before it had demonstrated utter incompetence in facing the fastest genocide in history -- the slaughter of 800,000 Tutsis and moderate Hutus in Rwanda in just 100 days. UN forces in Rwanda in 1994 were Annan's responsibility before and during the crisis.

Annan was alerted four months before Hutu activists began their mass killings by a fax message from Romeo Dallaire, the Canadian general commanding UN forces in Rwanda. Dallaire described in detail how the Hutus were planning "anti-Tutsi extermination." He identified his source "a Hutu" and reported that arms were ready for the impending ethnic cleansing. Dallaire requested permission to evacuate his informant and to seize the arms cache. Annan rejected both demands, proposing that Dallaire make the informant's identity known to Rwandan President Habyarimana, a Hutu, even though the informant had expressly named the President's closest entourage as the authors of the genocide blueprint.

Annan maintained his extreme passiveness even after the airplane crash that killed Habyarimana, which signaled the genocide's start, helped by the indifference of the great powers (the US not least).

One might think Annan far too compromised for the post of secretary-general, but the UN doesn't work that way. Instead of being forced to resign after Rwanda and Srebrenica, he was promoted to secretary-general. That is the culture of the UN: believe the best of barbarians, do nothing to provoke controversy among superiors and let others be the butt of criticism afterwards. Even subsequent revelations about Annan's responsibility for the disasters in Rwanda and Bosnia did not affect his standing. On the contrary, he was unanimously re-elected and awarded the Nobel Peace Prize. He is the all-time Teflon diplomat.

The media sometimes ratchets up admiration for Annan by pointing out that his wife is Swedish and a close relative of Raoul Wallenberg. We are meant to infer that, on top of all his talents, Annan shares the ideals embodied during the last days of World War II by the foremost Swede of modern times. But Wallenberg's name should make us even more dismayed about Annan's record. Wallenberg refused to ignore the threat of massacres to come. Instead of ducking responsibility and carrying on with conventional work in Sweden, he made his way to Hungary, the scene of Hitler's last homicidal orgy against the Jews. In Budapest, Wallenberg exploited every available contact, resorting to shady tricks, bribes and other stratagems to save as many people as possible from the Holocaust. He never allowed himself to be duped by Hitler's cronies.

Perhaps no one's achievement should be judged by comparison with that of Wallenberg -- a titan of strength, courage, and perseverance. The trouble with Annan is that, when similar perils loomed, he proved especially wanting. Annan cannot plead that he faced any risk to his personal safety, whereas Wallenberg in 1944 and 1945 was in constant peril. Nor can he possibly excuse himself by saying that no warnings were given, or that he lacked resources, or that he did not have the international position to intervene. Annan had at his disposal all of the instruments of power and opinion that Wallenberg lacked.

Yet when thousands or hundreds of thousands of people were exposed to mortal threats that he had the authority and duty to avert, alleviate or at least announce, he failed abjectly. Now, despite the recent revelations about bribery in the UN's oil-for-food program for Iraq, the world is clamoring to entrust Annan with the future of more than 20 million Iraqis who survived former Iraqi president Saddam Hussein's depraved dictatorship.

That is both because of who Annan is and what the UN has become: an institution in which no shortcoming, it seems, goes unrewarded.

ABBAS ACTS

According to "REUTERS" - (HAT-TIP ROGER L. SIMON):

RAMALLAH, West Bank (Reuters) - New Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas has ordered security forces to prevent all attacks on Israel by militants, who have so far defied his calls for calm. But militants, some warning there could be clashes with Palestinian forces, ruled out any halt to attacks before an end to "Israeli aggression" in the occupied West Bank and Gaza Strip. Israel described the measure as a "small step", but said Abbas must at least deploy forces to stop rocket fire from Gaza for the Jewish state to restore ties cut last week after an assault on a border crossing that killed six Israelis.

If the Palestinians want a state - and not a fiefdom ruled by competing gangs - then they must assert the rule of law and have only one miltia: the one run by the state. The archetypal dove Shimon Peres once pointed this out: the Labour Party and the Lkud Party do not have their own militias; there is only the IDF. Unless and until the PA becomes an effective government there can be no peace between the Palestinians and Israel, and no statehood for the Palestinians. This fact is not an external demand; it's an internal need. The sooner the Palestinians realize this - and do something effective about it (like disarming Hamas and the PFLP and the al Aksa Brigades, and all the other gangs), the sooner the achieve independent statehood.

ONE PROBLEM: the never-ending attacks against Israel are mostly the work of Neojihadist groups whose aim is NOT the creation of a Palestinian state within the occupied territories; it is the destruction of Israel, and REPLACING Israel with an Islamicist Palestinian state. That's what makes the job of real Palestinian moderates - who are willing to settle for a two-state solution - so impossible. IMHO: Until Neojihadism is defeated - everywhere - there will be no peace ANYWHERE.

NeoJihadists Kidnap Catholic Archbishop

MY PET JAWA REPORTS:

Archbishop Kidnapped in Iraq - Mosul is a base of operation for The Army of Ansar al Sunnah, and I suspect that this is their handiwork. Reuters: The Catholic archbishop of the Iraqi city of Mosul was kidnapped Monday in what the Vatican called an "act of terrorism."

He has more and more links. GO THERE! BUT FIRST... look at a post of mine from 1/07/04, which reminds us that the entire Middle East was Jewish and Christian BEFORE it was converted to Islam by violents "insurgents."

I hope these posts serve to reiterate that the GWOT is a euphemism for a war between Western Civilization - (a Helleno-Judeo-Christian amalgam) - and Neojihadism.

And check out this posting at MY PET JAWA, too; (it's about the brutal execution of a family of 4 Egyptian Coptic Christians RIGHT HERE IN THE USA - in New Jersey! And then read the MPJ posting right below it! (MPJ is on fire!)

Dr. MLK Jr. - he said it best...

EXCERPTS:

Five score years ago, a great American, in whose symbolic shadow we stand today, signed the Emancipation Proclamation. This momentous decree came as a great beacon light of hope to millions of Negro slaves, who had been seared in the flames of withering injustice. It came as a joyous daybreak to end the long night of their captivity.

But there is something that I must say to my people who stand on the warm threshold which leads into the palace of justice. In the process of gaining our rightful place we must not be guilty of wrongful deeds. Let us not seek to satisfy our thirst for freedom by drinking from the cup of bitterness and hatred. We must ever conduct our struggle on the high plane of dignity and discipline. We must not allow our creative protest to degenerate into physical violence. Again and again we must rise to the majestic heights of meeting physical force with soul force.

Let us not wallow in the valley of despair, I say to you today, my friends. And so even though we face the difficulties of today and tomorrow, I still have a dream. It is a dream deeply rooted in the American dream. I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed: We hold these truths to be self-evident that all men are created equal. I have a dream that one day on the red hills of Georgia the sons of former slaves and the sons of former slave owners will be able to sit down together at the table of brotherhood. I have a dream that one day even the state of Mississippi, a state sweltering with the heat of injustice, sweltering with the heat of oppression, will be transformed into an oasis of freedom and justice. I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character. I have a dream today!

I have a dream that one day every valley shall be exalted, and every hill and mountain shall be made low, the rough places will be made plain, and the crooked places will be made straight, and the glory of the Lord shall be revealed and all flesh shall see it together.

[...]

This is our hope. This is the faith that I will go back to the South with. With this faith we will be able to hew out of the mountain of despair a stone of hope. With this faith we will be able to transform the jangling discords of our nation into a beautiful symphony of brotherhood. With this faith we will be able to work together, to pray together, to struggle together, to go to jail together, to stand up for freedom together, knowing that we will be free one day. And this will be the day, this will be the day when all of God's children will be able to sing with new meaning, "My country 'tis of thee, sweet land of liberty, of thee I sing. Land where my fathers died, land of the Pilgrim's pride, from every mountainside, let freedom ring!" And if America is to be a great nation, this must become true.

[...]

And so let freedom ring -- from the prodigious hilltops of New Hampshire. Let freedom ring -- from the mighty mountains of New York. Let freedom ring -- from the heightening Alleghenies of Pennsylvania. Let freedom ring -- from the snow-capped Rockies of Colorado. Let freedom ring -- from the curvaceous slopes of California. But not only that. Let freedom ring -- from Stone Mountain of Georgia. Let freedom ring -- from Lookout Mountain of Tennessee. Let freedom ring -- from every hill and molehill of Mississippi, from every mountainside, let freedom ring!

And when this happens, when we allow freedom to ring, when we let it ring from every village and every hamlet, from every state and every city, we will be able to speed up that day when all of God's children, black men and white men, Jews and Gentiles, Protestants and Catholics, will be able to join hands and sing in the words of the old Negro spiritual, "Free at last, free at last. Thank God Almighty, we are free at last."

May God Bless his soul.

EU: needs a Thatcher NOW!

From the EUobserver:

The EU continues to lag behind the US when it comes to entrepreneurship, a poll published on Monday (17 January) by the European Commission shows. The survey – conducted on both sides of the Atlantic – shows that nearly twice as many Americans are thinking of setting up their own business (28 percent) than their European counterparts (15 percent). Moreover, the gap appears to be widening. The number of people thinking about starting their own firm increased by eight percent since 2003 in the US, but only by two percent in the EU. Job security [... obsessed... Ed.] Europeans also seem to feel more at home working within a company than Americans, who would rather be self-employed. Nearly two-thirds (61 percent) of American respondents to the poll said they would prefer to be self-employed, compared to only 45 percent of Europeans, who cited job security and a fixed regular income as reasons to be employed by a company rather than being their own boss. [...] Javier Echarri, Secretary-General of the European Venture Capital Association, which aims to promote an entrepreneurial spirit in the EU, said, "If the EU is serious about encouraging more Bill Gates and Richard Bransons in the EU, then it must look to ease access to finance for entrepreneurs as well as improve the entrepreneurial environment in Europe".

The UK had Thatcher; the USA had Reagan. They saved the West by disestablishing Keynesianism and replacing it with Hayekianism. The result: the UK and the USA are economically vital. Continental Europe is still largely mired in a strangulating blend of Keynesianism and socialism.

This continued adherence to the failed programs of Keynesianism and socialism will kill their economy just as surely as their sophisticated adherence to post-modernism has been killing their will to protect their culture (and allowing it to be replaced by nihilism, Islamism, and moral/cultural relativism).

I pray that I might live long enough to have children and grandchildren - and that they will live to enjoy an economically and culturally vital European Europe. I doubt it more each day.

PAR-IS-TANBUL

THE OBSERVER reports on an alarming and revealing trend: French people are leaving France and emigrating to the UK in large and increasing numbers. They are leaving France's stagnant socialist economic cesspool and going to the robust and economically vital post-Thatcherite/Hayekian Great Britain.

Most revealing. After all: People vote with their wallets and feet. The emigres are telling us that they have given up on France. And - because it is reasonable to assume that those leaving are among France's most assertive entrepreneurial and independent people - the drain is SERIOUS.

The fact that these people are leaving France tells you all you need to know about where France is today, and where it is heading. When added to the (a) demise of the Church, and (b) the surge of Islamic immigration and births (and low birth rates for native French) one can't avoid the conclusion that French France is in serious decline and that the Islamification of France is nearly unavoidable.

Bertrand Delanoe - "Gay Paree's" gay Socialist mayor may soon have to put up new signs around town: "BIENVENUE A PARISTANBUL" ...