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Mullings by Rich Galen�
A Political Cyber-Column By Rich Galen
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    Something's Changing

    Monday September 16, 2002

      NOTE: Here is a link to a page of MullPhotos taken at the ceremony commemorating the September 11 attacks at the Pentagon. Be warned - it has 13 photos and will take some time to load on a dial-up line.

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      From Los Angeles, California
      National Federation of Republican Women

    • Every time the world press corps decides that President Bush is heading down a diplomatic blind ally, he ends up on another four lane highway to success.

    • Last week's speech to the United Nations - and the follow-up activity led by Secretary of State Colin Powell - appears to be having the desired effect.

    • Example number one: Saudi Arabia, last month, told the Associated Press that U.S. planes would not be able to use air bases in Saudi Arabia to launch attacks against Iraq.

    • The Foreign Minister of Saudi Arabia told CNN over the weekend, according to the AP in a dispatch filed from Abu Dhabi, that Saudi would be "'obliged to follow through' if the United States needed bases in the kingdom to attack Iraq under U.N. authority."

    • This would be counted as a big change.

    • Example number two: Writing in the International Herald Tribune, Washington Post reporter Rajiv Chandrasekaran reports on the public attitudes of young people in Baghdad:
      "Without explicitly disagreeing with their government, several Iraqis said in interviews over the past week that they hoped their government would readmit UN inspectors to look for weapons of mass destruction, saying that it was the best way to avoid military confrontation with the United States."

    • Not exactly the sentiments of a citizenry looking forward to another "mother of all battles."

    • Example number three: The AP's Zarar Khan reports from Karachi, Pakistan that Germany has dropped its request for the extradition of suspected 9-11 plotter, Ramzi Binalshibh. This action opens the way for him to be handed over to the United States after his arrest last week by U.S. and Pakistani intelligence.

    • Example number four: The Carnegie Endowment for International Peace has come up with a plan which calls for weapons inspectors to be allowed back into Iraq with, according to its president Jessica T. Matthews, a "powerful, multinational military force" to support them in their work. Matthews said that the troops would allow U.N. inspectors to carry out "comply or else inspections."

    • One wonders what the Carnegie Endowment for Beating the Hell Out of Our Enemies is proposing.

    • Example number five. A Gallup poll released last week asked whether respondents thought Saddam was developing weapons of mass destruction. 89 percent said yes.

    • Then Gallup asked if they thought that was a good enough reason for taking military action against Iraq. 80 percent said yes.

    • Those numbers might lead an impartial observer to believe there is some small level of public support for the President's position.

    • Speaking of impartial observations, in a piece about Al Gore speaking to the Congressional Black Caucus Foundation dinner in Washington the other night, the AP's Will Lester describes the group as, "the nonprofit, nonpartisan foundation, a public policy and research organization."

    • Nonpartisan. The Congressional Black Caucus nonpartisan. How many Republicans do you suppose were actually AT that nonpartisan dinner?

    • Answer, if Washington, DC Mayor Anthony Williams was there: One. Williams came in first in both the Democratic AND the Republican primaries last Tuesday.

    • On the Secret Decoder Ring page today: Links to all the stories noted here, and a pretty good catchy caption of the day.

      --END --
      Copyright © 2002 Richard A. Galen

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