The most ridiculous thing I've read recently is a report in the New York Times--based on anonymous sources, of course--that the insurgents in Iraq have unlimited funds from rich sympathizers in Saudi Arabia. If that were the case, then why are the insurgents still fighting with improvised explosive devices, roadside bombs, RPGs, mortars, and car bombs? Why don't they have attack helicopters, anti-personnel mines, and night-vision goggles? Apparently, no one at the New York Times thought to ask that simple question. Not even when their own reporter went on to write, in the same article, that 80% of the attacks in Iraq involve kidnappings for ransom and the hijacking of convoys. Gosh, if the insurgents have all the money and supplies they need, why hold people for ransom and loot supply convoys? At least the NY Times got one bit of information right: insurgent attacks have increased 25% since the start of Ramadan, which also coincides with the new US program to "pacify" the Sunni triangle. It appears that pacification programs are no more effective now than they were 35 years ago.--Maria Tomchick. Source: "Estimates by US See More Rebels With More Funds," Eric Schmitt and Thom Shanker, New York Times, 10/22/04, http://www.nytimes.com/2004/10/22/international/middleeast/ 22insurgents.html

John Kerry is wrong. The Bush administration didn't rush into war in Iraq without a plan to win the peace. They had a plan; they just didn't stick to it. For example, military officers in the Pentagon developed elaborate plans to employ the Iraqi military for reconstruction and peacekeeping efforts after the fall of Saddam Hussein. But the civilians in the Pentagon and the Bush administration vetoed those plans. Donald Rumsfeld allowed Ahmed Chalabi, via Paul Bremer, to persuade him to dissolve the Iraqi army, thereby throwing tens of thousands of men out of work and sending them off to join the insurgency. Likewise, the State Department drew up a plan to re-train Iraqi police to prevent a breakdown of law and order that could lead to looting, revenge killings, an epidemic of street crime, and the rise of mafia-like militias. But, after the invasion, the Bush administration changed its mind and delayed funding the police training program. And guess what? Iraq is suffering an epidemic of street crime, looting, kidnappings, and the rise of mafia-like militias (of which Moqtada al-Sadr's Mahdi army is only one example). Not having a plan is bad enough, but having a plan and throwing it out the window is even worse.--M.T.

All hail the Russians for finally doing what's right. Last week, the lower house of the Russian Parliament voted to ratify the Kyoto global warming treaty. The upper house of Parliament will soon follow suit, and Vladimir Putin is expected to sign the legislation soon. Now that nations representing 55% of the world's polluting population have ratified it, the Kyoto treaty can finally become international law. BUT it will only apply to those nations who've signed and ratified it, leaving the United States the biggest environmental scofflaw in the world.

Kyoto, of course, is not a cure-all, but it's a first step. With new science that suggests the earth may have entered a period in which CO2 levels are starting to increase dramatically, regardless of the fact that pollution levels haven't been increasing as fast--suggesting a global warming feedback loop, a truly scary scenario--it's become more important than ever to cut greenhouse gas emissions. Last week an alliance of 18 aid and green groups, from Action Aid to Oxfam, issued a report entitled "Up In Smoke" which says that poor people around the world are already feeling the deleterious effects of global warming, and that climate change could erase all of the aid and infrastructure gains made in the last half century. If the US wants to take on the white man's burden of cleaning up the world, we should start here at home.--M.T. Sources: "Climate change threatens world aid effort," and "Surprise CO2 rise may speed up global warming," Michael McCarthy, The Independent, 10/21/04 and 10/11/04 respectively.

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