Month: June 2002

Arafat: Bush Is Not Referring to Me. Yasser Arafat was asked Tuesday if he was the man in question when President Bush called for a change in the Palestinian leadership. [AP World News]

Apparently Arafat didn’t offer any theory as to who else Bush might have been talking about.

Afghans Resent U.S. Treatment. In one raid, U.S. forces storm a home and arrest the owner, only to release him hours later. In another, soldiers tie the hands of female suspects, breaking a strict local taboo against touching women. [AP World News]

This is hardly surprising–it’s been obvious almost from the beginning that the US was headed down the same road as the Russians. There’s probably still time to repair the damage by giving up on treating Afghanistan as a conquered territory, but I don’t think there’s much chance that anyone in Washington will do that.

An Interview with the Mother of a Suicide Bomber. “When the operation was over, the media broadcast the news. Then Muhammad’s brother came to me and informed me of his martyrdom. I began to cry, ‘Allah is the greatest,’ and prayed and thanked Allah for the success of the operation. I began to utter cries of joy and we declared that we were happy. The young people began to fire into the air out of joy over the success of the operation, as this is what we had hoped for him.”

“After the martyrdom [operation], my heart was peaceful about Muhammad. I encouraged all my sons to die a martyr’s death, and I wish this even for myself. After all this, I prepared myself to receive the body of my son, the pure shahid, in order to look upon him one last time and accept the well-wishers who [came] to us in large numbers and participated in our joy over Muhammad’s martyrdom…” [Middle East Media Research Institute]

Anyone who thinks that it’s possible for Israel to make peace with the Palestinians any time soon should read this. Note that this evil creature has other sons, and a history of association with terrorists. Since she’s so eager for her and her remaining children to be martyrs, perhaps the IDF ought to send a helicopter gunship around to her home to oblige her.

This is a translation of an article printed in an Arabic newspaper from London, Al-Sharq Al-Awsat.

In Praise of Irreverence [Ludwig von Mises Institute]

This article has a lengthy series of Mark Twain quotes on government. They mostly still apply today, although some of them are too kind to apply to modern politicians, or warn of disasters that hadn’t happened then, but have now.