Times: Kim dynasty going to pieces in North Korea

Would be nice if it turns out to be true

Excerpts:

In interviews for this article over many months, western policymakers, Chinese experts, North Korean exiles and human rights activists built up a picture of a tightly knit clan leadership in Pyongyang that is on the verge of collapse.

Some of those interviewed believe the Dear Leader', Kim Jong-il, has already lost his personal authority to a clique of generals and party cadres. Without any public announcement, governments from Tokyo to Washington are preparing for a change of regime.

The death of Kim's favourite mistress last summer, a security clampdown on foreign aid workers and a reported assassination attempt in Austria last November against the leader's eldest son, Kim Jong-nam, have all heightened the sense of disintegration...

According to exiles, North Korean agents in Beijing and Ulan Bator are frantically selling assets to raise cash - an important sign, says one activist, because 'the secret police can always smell the crisis coming before anybody else'.

And then there's this

Excerpt:

A 35-minute video clip shows a portrait of Mr Kim taken inside a factory building and defaced with writing demanding democracy.

Do Hee-youn, who heads the South Korean group that made the clip available, said such an act would be considered a grave crime in the North and would bring capital punishment without trial.

I say:

It's like the fall of the Soviet Union all over again. This is what happens when you get tough with these bastards. They can't survive without our help.

One danger here is that North Korea probably has nuclear weapons, and is known to have the missiles to deliver them. Will Kim decide to launch them on the theory he has nothing to lose? All indications are he's not insane, just utterly without moral sense.

When Kim falls, there will likely be a democratic revolution. But if history is any guide, its success is not guaranteed. Recall the French Revolution. Recall Russia's revolutions in 1917. The Left has a habit of killing democracies in the nest and taking their place. Unless we step in to help, it'll just be a new Communist dynasty.

Angelfire link (turn off Javascript to avoid popups)

Freenet: /SSK@jbf~W~x49RjZfyJwplqwurpNmg0PAgM/marlowe/politics.world.html#20050131

BBC apologizes for anti-American misrepresentation of deaths in Iraq

Well, that's good of them

Excerpt:

The figures said that 3,274 civilians had died in that period, 2,041 of them as the result of "military operations".

The rest were attributed to "terrorist operations".

The BBC reported the figures as suggesting that coalition and Iraqi forces could be responsible for up to 60% of conflict-related civilian deaths in Iraq.

However, the Iraqi Ministry of Health then clarified that the figures included not just civilians, but also insurgents and Iraqi security forces. And it said that the phrase "military operations" referred to Iraqis killed by insurgents as well as coalition or Iraqi forces.

I say:

Isn't it awful how the nasty American soldiers are killing all those nice Iraqi insurgents who are just trying to protect their country... oh, wait a minute. Those insurgents are *killing* Iraqis, for the crime of wanting to run the country themselves.

Angelfire link (turn off Javascript to avoid popups)

Freenet: /SSK@jbf~W~x49RjZfyJwplqwurpNmg0PAgM/marlowe/iraq.html#20050131

Iraqis vote for democracy

Estimated 72 percent turnout

Excerpt:

Speaking at a televised news conference in Baghdad, the official said 72 percent of 13 million registered voters had cast ballots, with polls not expected to close until 5 p.m. (1400 GMT).

The official's statement could not be independently corroborated. Available accounts from polling centres indicated robust turnout in some Shia and Kurdish areas, but low turnout in many Sunni areas.

In neighbouring Jordan, the organization responsible for conducting the absentee ballot said nearly 66 per cent of 280,000 voters registered with the organization had cast their ballots on Friday and Saturday. The voters were spread across 14 countries.

I say:

The high turnout in most of the country proves that the Kurds and the Shia Arabs are ready and eager for democracy. In the case of the Kurds, we already knew that. In the case of the Shia, we presumed it, but now we know for sure.

The only low turnouts to be found are in the Sunni Triangle, where the former oppressors of the country live, and where the remnants of Saddam's regime have openly declared war on democracy as such. Kerry is whining that this makes the elections not legitimate. I say let those mass murdering turds disenfranchise themselves. These are the ones we liberated Iraq *from*.

I still think it would be better to split Iraq up along ethnic divides. But the Kurds have some independence in this scheme, and that's something. This looks like it just might work. Not for the Sunni Arabs, perhaps, but for the other 80 percent of the country.

Chalk up another victory for the forces of freedom, and another - and particularly humiliating - defeat for the haters of democracy, the haters of the West, the haters of the United States, and the haters of Bush. Big losers all.

By the way, a number of Big Lies have recently taken fatal blows. First, the idea that these terrorists were some sort of freedom fighters. Both bin Laden and al Zarqawi have openly admitted that it's democracy they oppose. I remember when Tom Tomorrow mocked the idea that they simply hated freedom. He couldn't refute it, because it was true, so he took recourse to dismissal by ridicule. Why Do They Hate America So Much? Because they're a**holes, that's why. Sometimes things really are that simple.

Second, the idea that the terrorists in Iraq somehow represent the Iraqi People, whatever that is. 72 percent say otherwise. No wonder they hate democracy. Democracy hates them.

Finally, the notion that Iraq was a mistake is looking mighty iffy at the moment.

One thing's for sure: Iraq *is* a quagmire. Just not for us.

Here's Chris Muir's take.

Angelfire link (turn off Javascript to avoid popups)

Freenet: /SSK@jbf~W~x49RjZfyJwplqwurpNmg0PAgM/marlowe/iraq.html#20050130

Palestinian elections: Abbas legitimized?

Pardon my skepticism, but I'm not sure we chalk this one up as a victory
for democracy. That's okay, the forces of freedom have had plenty of
victories lately. But this doesn't look like one of them.

First off, there's the low turnout.

Excerpt:

Palestinians initially said polls were being kept open another
two hours because of heavy turnout. Subsequently, however, officials
said the polls were being kept open to encourage turnout, which was
only about 30 percent of 1.8 million eligible voters by noon local
time (5 a.m. EST).

And then there's this

Excerpt:

RAMALLAH, West Bank (AP) -- Forty-six members of the Palestinian
election commission, including top managers, resigned Saturday, saying
they were pressured by Mahmoud Abbas' campaign and intelligence officials
to abruptly change voting procedures during the Jan. 9 presidential poll.

Two senior members of the commission, Ammar Dwaik and Baha al-Bakri,
resigned early Saturday, and officials later said 44 more members
resigned. Six top election officials were among those who resigned.

The resignations raised questions about Sunday's vote giving Abbas an
overwhelming victory with 62.3 percent, though the officials who quit
said the alleged irregularities did not fundamentally affect the final
vote tally.

"This proves that what happened is very serious and it must not happen
again," said Dwaik, the commission's deputy chairman. "These pressures
and threats lessened the degree of the integrity of the election, even
though overall it was free and fair."

I say:

Maybe the election's legit, and maybe it isn't. They had elections
before, in 1996. Arafat won.
Now either the elections are bogus, or the leadership in Palestine
reflects the will of the people. Either alternative reflects badly on
Palestinians as a whole.

Mahmoud Abbas (Abu Mazen) looks like a bad character. He says to the West
what the West wants to hear, but he delivers a completely different message to his constituency.

Excerpt:

Abbas earned his Ph.D. in history from Moscow's Oriental College. His
doctoral thesis denies that six million Jews died in World War II. In his
Arabic-language book "The Secret Relationship Between Nazism and Zionism"
Abbas rejects "the Zionist fantasy, the fantastic lie that six million
Jews were killed. The limited number that did succumb were victims of a
joint [Nazi-Zionist] plot".

Mahmoud Abbas was a founding member of the Palestinian National
Liberation Movement (Fatah) present, along with Yasser Arafat, in the
1964 beginnings of the terrorist organization dedicated to the
destruction of Israel. Since 1968 he has been a member of the Palestinian
National Council (PNC) and rose to Secretary General of the PLO Executive
Committee. The Executive Committee and the PNC are the top two
decision-making bodies of the PLO.

I say:

A Holocaust denier and co-founder of a terrorist organization. This
is what passes for a moderate with these people. Good thing we have that
security fence.

Angelfire link (turn off Javascript to avoid popups)

Freenet: /SSK%40jbf~W~x49RjZfyJwplqwurpNmg0PAgM/marlowe//politics.world.html#20050116

... zIWETHEY
... P&CA
... ronaldreagan.com