Short Cuts

Thursday, February 27, 2003

It's About The Children: With the country that has treated them so nicely poised on the brink of war, a ragtag cohort of the uninformed, the undereducated and bored, aging hippies tied up the coordinates of the very people who will save their sorry lives should the need arise. Jamming phone and fax lines in Washington to make their antiwar point is right up there with twelve year olds who used to call the local drug store, ask if they have Prince Albert in the can, then tell whoever answered to let him out. These are people who thought whoopee-cushions and short-sheeting camp bunks were funny. Then again, what is to be expected from people who take policy guidance from Rosie O'Donnell and Barbra "It's All About Oil" Streisand.

From The Man Who Out-Rathered Rather: Clearly hungering to be embedded, Peter Arnett offers advice in the Wall Street Journal to his "younger colleagues" on war coverage that he so badly botched himself during Gulf One. Note the mention of the baby milk factory incident with no further explanation about whether the White House was right or not.

Up From The Rubble: Marc Kaufmann writing in the Washington Post has the most uplifting story of the day with this account of what is happening in Afghanistan since it has been liberated. This is what the President was talking about in his speech to the AEI last night and most assuredly Iraq's future. Let the liberating begin.

Guru Humor: Deepak Chopra, the godfather of all things warm and fuzzy told a Tennessee audience that he wants to get the Dalai Lama and the Pope to join him as human shields in Baghdad. The poor reporter of this story had to call a Vatican rep and ask about it with a straight face. Chopra (rhymes with Oprah) presented the idea with this reasoning: "If we bombed Baghdad tonight and thousands of children died, most people would be unaffected. But if the Pope was there we wouldn't do it. Isn't that funny?" Probably not, if the Pope were there. On the other hand, if Chopra were............humm, someone call Rumsfeld's office and get a reading on this.

More From The Shield Front: A 23 year old freelance photographer and human shield in Baghdad tells a Boston Globe reporter that what he and other shields are doing is "not about dying." Here's General Tommy Franks on the subject: ''We'll do our best to avoid noncombatant casualties and, I will tell you, we will not be 100 percent successful." Someone should tell the kid - It's about dying.

-Your Sick of Winter LComStaff