Outrageous Chavez

I put "president" in scare quotes because Chavez was not elected in a free and fair election, Jimmy Carter's opinion on the matter notwithstanding. The London Times online has a lengthy article about Chavez's preparation for a confrontation with the U.S. — a confrontation that Chavez has been loudly accusing the U.S. of provoking. Shades of North Korea.

Anyway, in that article are these stunners allegedly uttered by Chavez. The context is not clear from the article, but a close read suggests they were copied from state TV broadcasts:

Assassination: “If they kill me, there will be a really guilty party on this planet whose name is the President of the United States, George Bush”

Bush’s Administration: “It is a mafia, a true mafia of murderers”

Cuba: “I am the second Fidel Castro of Latin America”

Capitalism: “The Devil’s economic model . . . The capitalist exploitation model has destroyed oceans, entire oceans”

Saddam Hussein: “A brother”

Condoleezza Rice: “I cannot marry Condolencia (condolence), because I am much too busy. I have heard she dreams about me”

Two years

Husayn Uthman is a young Iraqi man who keeps an interesting blog called Democracy in Iraq. Yesterday he posted his thoughts about the second anniversary of the war, and in particular about whether it was worth it. Read the whole thing, but here is his conclusion:

Our cities are smoking, our graveyards full, and terrorists in our midst. But we are not defeated. We are not down, we are not regretful. We are not going to surrender. For all that the two years have brought, the greatest thign they have given us is a future, and a view of the finish line.

Iraqis see the finish line, the finish line of freedom and democracy and a functioning nation. We can smell it, taste it, and like a sprinter, one who has broken his legs, but who has a heart full of passion, we will crawl there no matter what the cost. No matter what we must endure, we have realized what we can become, and that is the biggest result of the last two years.

Noone can take that from us. Not the terrorists, not those who want to question the good of the removal of Saddam, not those who want to reduce our glory for politics, none.

We have been brought from darkness to light. And not only has the future been made better for Iraq, but the martyrs of our nation, their blood is watering the roots of democracy across the world. We are watching our neighbors come closer to the light, and this only pushes us more, and makes us stronger in our burning desire to reach the finish line, to realize the dream that our people have had for so long.

No, we will not give up, and we will not say that the last two years were a waste. They for all their trouble have been momentus. They for us, have been a turning point in history. Whether or not you agree, this is how it looks from Iraq.

Those liberal voices who so piously intoned that the Arabs weren't ready for democracy; that they craved dictators rather than elections — I wonder how they would respond to this?

Quote for the day

I think we have more machinery of government than is necessary, too many parasites living on the labour of the industrious.

   Thomas Jefferson