Truck Drivers in Iraq
Truck Drivers in Iraq
By Daniel G. Jennings
I'm glad to see that Mr. Thomas Hamill, the truck driver from Macon, Mississippi, has escaped or released from his captors in Iraq.
Now I have just one question to ask why was Mr. Hamill in Iraq? His job there is to drive a truck, hardly a highly technical position. Yet Haliburton paid him a high salary and flew him halfway across the world to drive a truck. Come on now.
Aren't there lots of people in Iraq who know how to drive trucks? Many of whom are unemployed and need work to feed their families. Wouldn't it give us a lot of good will if we hired Iraqis to do all of our driving work in Iraq? It'd give them jobs and a reason to want us to be there. Since Iraqi truck drivers know their way around Iraq and speak the language they'd do a better job than imported Americans.
It would also keep Americans like Mr. Hamill safe from kidnapping and being killed or injured in combat. Iraqi insurgents would be far less likely to attack their own countrymen and if they did they'd be shown up for the cheap thugs they are. Also could part of the reason why Iraqi men are so angry at us is that they see Americans doing jobs they need to feed their families?
Beyond that there's the cost of this, we could have probably hired twenty Iraqi truck drivers for Mr. Hamill's salary and the cost of flying him over there. It makes no sense to me. If this is the way Haliburton does business it doesn't deserve another government contract? Would any sensible company fly a truck driver halfway around the world?
Here's an idea why not hire Iraqi trucking firms owned and operated by Iraqis to haul our supplies around Iraq? That would put money into the Iraqi economy and encourage the development of modern infrastructure and a modern economy in Iraq. The Arabs are natural entrepreneurs, if we announced that we were handing out contracts for services and paying in US dollars vast numbers of them would step forward to fill those contracts. If the Iraqis had no trucks we could make arrangements with a bank or a truck manufacturers to finance the purchase of trucks for Iraqis.
We could even hire some Iraqi military veterans to guard our conveys and provide security and police patrols in Iraqi cities. Perhaps we could even place bounties on the heads of insurgent leaders and pay Saddam's former security forces to hunt them down. This would keep American military personnel safe and eliminate the pictures of Americans killing Iraqis that enrage the Arab street. Arabs don't seem to care if Arabs kill other Arabs only if non-Arabs kill Arabs.
Mr. Hamill's presence in Iraq is a sign of what's really wrong with our occupation of Iraq. We claim to be there to help the Iraqis rebuild their country and build democracy yet we treat them like children and don't even trust them to do the simplest of tasks. Is it any wonder that we've turned one of the oldest and proudest peoples in the world against us?
Fortunately there's still time to fix the situation if we can show the Iraqis that they'll benefit and profit by cooperating with us they will cooperate. One thing is certain, we won't win the Iraqis' cooperation by turning the occupation into a cash cow for contractors and a make work program for unemployed Americans.

Movie Review Kill Bill Volume II
Movie Review: Kill Bill Volume II
By Daniel G. Jennings
No the second half of Quenton Tarantino's b-movie revenge epic isn't as good as Volume I but it's still great entertainment and a lot of fun.
The problem is that Volume II, isn't as a polished or as stylish as Volume I. The clever editing, narration, lead ins and fast paced dynamic soundtrack that made the first movie so much wicked fun are missing here. Tarantino's choppy fast paced story telling replete with flashbacks and background just isn't here.
Kill Bill Volume II seems like an incomplete work, an unfinished masterpiece. I get the feeling that Tarantino should have been given more time to add background, storytelling, and polish to the film. In particular the film needs a great climatic fight scene like the all out battle in the Tokyo nightclub in Volume I. The one fight seems like a let down compared to the frantic action of the first film.
Still this a great movie that's a lot of fun, Tarantino's bizarre sense of humor, gift for clever dialog, unique visual style and ability to surprise us come through. Tarantino also succeeds in drawing great performances out of his actors.
Uma Thurman is wonderful, bringing a sort of down to earth humanity and sense of fun to her role as the Bride, an assassin seeking revenge on her ex lover and former colleagues. She brings steely energy to her role and makes even contrived scenes work. In particular she's incredible in fight scenes and utterly believable with a sword or gun. Yet she brings a vulnerability to the role, an action heroine who is willing to bleed and even to cry.
David Carradine, gives a tour de force performance as Bill the title character an aging master assassin with a gentle soul, bringing a sort of low key charm to the role. Michael Madsen, gives a very enjoyable performance as Bill's looser brother Budd, who's a formidable assassin in his own right. Darryl Hannah is utterly frightening as the vicious assassin Elle Driver and she brings energy to her role. She is also hilarious in this stereotypical role. Hong Kong movie legend Gordon Liu does a great send of classic Kung Fu pictures.
There are the usual Tarantino touches here and they work well. Old time TV and b-movie actors turn up in unexpected supporting roles. Major stars are cast in different roles that bring out their talents, watch for Samuel L. Jackson where you least expect him. Absolutely humorous dialog is put into life or death situations, and extremely funny gags permeate fight scenes.
There's also Tarantino's ability to inject humanity into the most unusual situations and show the humanity of all the characters. That in the end is what makes Kill Bill Volume II work in the end. The movie's humanity and the humanity of its characters.
The major regret I had with this movie was that Tarantino didn't show us more about the various characters he introduces to us. In particular the earlier life of Beatrix Kiddo (the Bride or Black Mamba) the world's greatest assassin, the aging professional killer Bill and his estranged brother Budd, not to mention the bizarre Elle Driver. I'd love to see more of these people and learn what makes them tick.
That in the end is why Quenton Tarantino is a great director and a great storyteller. He presents utterly fascinating and bizarre characters in an extremely entertaining story. The violence, the bloodshed, the drugs, is all a backdrop for the real drama of people and their relationships.
Kill Bill Volume II, is a great movie but it's a movie that could be a lot better. I just hope that Tarantino returns to these characters and their world and completes the magnificent story he's trying to tell us.

Post Should Be Congratulated
Mood:  a-ok
Since I keep spotlighting the mistakes and sometimes brazen stupdity of the cadre of arrogant journalists who run that newspapers, I must also congratulate the Post when it does some good journalism.
One Post staffer who has to be congratulated is Cindy Rodriguez, who writes the columns on the front of the Denver and the West Section. Rodriguez is doing Denver a great service by exposing the Denver Public Schools cover up of its true drop out rate. Rodriguez has uncovered evidence that DPS staffers are listing drop outs as having transferred to another school and are making no serious efforts to tell parents that their kids are not attending school. Rodriguez notes that most of the drop outs are working class black and hispanic students. Rodriguez is doing what good journalists should taking on an arrogant bureaucracy that is victimizing average people for its own gain. By going after the sacred cow of public schools Rodriguez is doing the people of Denver a great service. One question remains why wasn't this on the front page of the Post? It belonged there.
On Monday, March 22, Rodriguez's excellent expose was on the front page of section B while the lead story on the Front Page was a story about former White House staffer Richard Clarke's attack on the Bush administration. Why is the Post giving Clarke and the Kerry campaign free advertising on its front page and ignoring a serious issue of real importance to Denver's people? Clarke is a pest who should be ignored, a bureaucrat who lost his job and is now trying to cash in by telling the media what they want to hear. He'll get a lucrative book deal, lots of TV appearances, highly paid lecture appearances and an important job in a future Kerry administration. The media has no business inflating and promoting this self righteous egomaniac. It's time put an end to this horrendous cult of the whistle blower. The vicious little man with self aggrandiziment on his mind who violates national security and his oath in order to promote his reputation has done too much damage to our great country. It's time to stop rewarding these nasty little witch hunters by making them into celebrities.

Europe

Terror In Europe
By Daniel G. Jennings
Al Qaeda and/or its surrogates have struck a major blow against Spain, setting off bombs on Madrid commuter trains and killing nearly 200 people. The worst act of violence on the Iberian Peninsula since the Spanish Civil War ended in 1939.
This act underscores an ugly truth of the war on terror that leaders on both sides of the Atlantic have been trying to ignore: Europe is far closer to the homeland of Islamic terror in the Middle East than America is. Fanatics from the troubled lands of North Africa, Algeria and Morocco countries plagued by religious driven civil war are only a short boat or plane ride away from Europe.
Terrorists in North Africa could easily reach Italy, Spain, Portugal or even France on a large speed boat, a cabin cruiser or a fishing boat. They could also fly into Europe in a small aircraft such as a private plane or helicopter. Terrorists in Central Asia could even drive from Afghanistan or Pakistan to Europe if they wanted to, it's about the same length a trip as New York to California. If the Islamic fanatics ever get their hands on short range missiles, helicopter gunships, fighter planes, submarines or warships they could launch deadly suicide raids on Europe. It might even possible for fanatics to fill a cargo plane or ship with explosives or poison gas of some sort leave North Africa and crash it into a European city.
There's no way terrorists could cross the Atlantic in a cigarette boat or the Pacific in a Piper Cub but they could cross the Mediterranean in such craft. If terrorists want to reach America they'll probably have to come by commercial airliner. The airports in the US, Canada and Mexico can be easily monitored by security agents, so can the sea ports. Even if terrorists do get here they couldn't bring much more than what they could carry in their bodies or luggage which can be searched at airports, terrorists could smuggle hundreds of pounds of explosives into Europe on small planes or boats. They could even bring in commando teams armed with weapons like automatic rifles, machine guns, missile launchers, mortars and even light artillery and do incalculable damage.
Europe's position is made worse by its military weakness, Europe doesn't have the kind of military capabilities that the United States has. Less than 100,000 of Continental Europe's two million military personnel are professional soldiers that can be deployed only overseas and many of them are already tied down in peace keeping commitments. The vast majority of Europe's soldiers are draftees serving out their two year hitches they lack the training necessary for anti-terrorist missions and it would be politically impossible to send most of them out of Europe anyway. Nor does Europe have anything like the US Navy and Air Force which allow America to project its power anywhere on Earth. European leaders simply won't be able to send their military forces out to hunt down the terrorists the way an American President can.
This European military weakness could lead to a nuclear, chemical or biological weapons attack that could leave hundreds of thousands or millions of innocent Arabs or other Muslims dead. Even though Europe lacks military power it does have weapons of mass destruction and the means to make lots more of them. At least one continental European nation; France, does have nuclear weapons and other European nations like Germany and Italy could quickly produce nuclear bombs and other weapons of mass destruction if they wanted them. European leaders facing the prospect of seeing hundreds of their citizens murdered in their streets might decide to drop the bomb on Arab cities or release poison gas or germs against the Arabs. Especially if their armies could do little or nothing about terror attacks.
This vulnerability could destroy the American-European alliance. If Europe is subject to sustained terrorist attacks that leave hundreds dead European leaders might buckle, they might make secret deals with the terrorists in order to avoid terror strikes. They might even sell us out, especially if Europeans get the idea that they're on the front lines of America's war and that Europeans are dying while Americans are living in safety.
The result of this could be the collapse of the NATO alliance that won the Cold War. More importantly it could force America to dump Europe and seek new non-European allies such as China, Russia and India. The question we have to ask ourselves is will these nations be as reliable allies as Europe has?

Dumb Democrats
Mood:  cool
Democratic Policy Could Lead to US Use of Nuclear Weapons
By Daniel G. Jennings
One of the main reasons I'll probably vote against John Kerry in this year's presidential is that he will continue former President Bill Clinton's horrendous military policy. Clinton's military policy was a terrible one that stated it was okay to blow anything in a foreign country up and kill as many people as possible in a foreign country as long as no Americans died.
This policy as executed by Bill Clinton was unspectacularly unsuccessful; cruise missiles were fired at Bin Laden's training camps in Afghanistan but Bin Laden and followers escaped to fight again. Another cruise missile hit a suspected biological warfare facility in the Sudan that turned out to be nothing but a harmless pharmaceutical plant. These bungled attacks far from discouraging Bin Laden may have emboldened him and motivated his decision to attack the World Trade Center in New York on Sept. 11, 2001.
If the failure of this policy wasn't bad enough there is the strong possibility that Clinton style military attacks could lead to the use of nuclear weaponry. The Clinton policy was that it was okay to attack foreign countries as long as no American lives are at risk. The logical conclusion to this policy would be the use of nuclear weaponry.
Think of it this way, if the cruise missiles and bombs failed, and our leaders don't want to put American lives at risk, the next logical step would be to use nuclear weapons. Naturally, the nuclear weapons would kill thousands, tens of thousands perhaps hundreds of thousands of innocent people while the bad guys got away, but no Americans would die. Under such a policy occupying Bagdad would be long but dropping a nuclear bomb on Bagdad and killing millions would be fine. Such a policy would be criminal but it is the logical conclusion of the Clinton logic.
Anybody who doesn't want to see the use of nuclear weapons again within our lifetimes would be well advised to vote for President Bush and his policy of using all of our military capabilities to stop terrorism and rogue states. If the Clinton policy is ever implemented again we could see a lot of blood on American hands.

Dumb Democrats
Howard Dean's miserable showing in the Democratic Primaries (he has bowed out after not winning a single primary) calls the direction in which the Democratic Party is moving into question. The Democrats seem to be moving farther to the left at a time when the nation is moving farther to the right. Dean, the standard bearing of the lost cause of the New Left, couldn't even win over the Democratic primary voters who are left of most Americans. If Dean's left wing message couldn't appeal to Democratic primary voters how is that other relic of the New Left, John Kerry, supposed to appeal to the Great American Majority out in the heartland? My guess is that he can't. Unlike the last successful Democratic candidate, Bill Clinton, Kerry is a staunch leftist with a long history of leftist politics to live down. If the Democrats want to keep winning again they'd better abandon their current march to the left and defeat.

John Kerry Stumbles
The second JFK, the knight in shining armor known as John Kerry I see has stumbled. A week or so ago Kerry was leading the Democratic Primary race. Now he's neck and neck with John Edwards in Wisconsin. In particular most independents are voting against Kerry. What's going on here?
Well, last week all manner of stories about Kerry started spreading on the Internet and talk radio. In particular photos of Kerry with Jane Fonda, the Communist sympathizer known as Hanoi Jane, and accounts of Kerry's anti-war activities back in the day were posted on the Internet. The mainstream media had ignored this. Now, Kerry is stumbling badly. This is not a coincidence I think. America is seeing the whole story about John Kerry and it doesn't like what it sees. Perhaps Democrats need a history lesson here back during the Vietnam War, the vast majority of Americans supported the war and disapproved of the protestors. Kerry's anti-war positions have never been popular in the United States.

Post and Prohibition
The Denver Post's number one leftist crybaby, Diane Carman, having run out of contemporary bogeymen to flay has decided to ressurect an evil from America's past namely Demon Rum. In a column in the Sunday Feb. 15, Denver & the West Section Carman blames the epidemic of alcohol abuse at CU's Boulder campus on big Alcohol. She flays brewers, liquor store owners, and distillers in a replay of an early 1900s temperance lecture. The idea that the immaturity and inexperience of college students who have never had any experience with booze before might cause binge drinking never enters her head. Instead Carman claims that liquor marketing is the cause of the evil. The logic is simple of course ban the booze and the alcohol epidemic will go away. OF course, that was tried before here in the United States back in 1920 the liberal do-gooders banned booze in an experiment called Prohibition. That didn't stop alcoholism it make alcoholic excess worse and more fashionable. It also unleashed a wave of lawlessness and gang violence far worse than any of the drug violence of recent decades. If the history of prohibition is anything to go on if we follow Carman's advice and ban big alcohol from Campus illegal speakeasies and bootleggers would fill the void and flood CU with rotgut booze. OF course this booze would be cheap and poorly made it might even contain poison. Instead of one or two students dead from binge drinking, dozens would die of bad booze. Gang members would be shooting it out for control of Boulder's booze trade and more innocents would die.
Perhaps instead of listening to neo prohibitionists like Carman, we ought to follow the sensible example of our cousins in Britain. That is treat liquor espeically beer and wine like any other beverage and let teenagers drink it occassionally. That way when they reach college, teens will know how to handle alcohol because they're familiar with it.

John Kerry and Vietnam
I don't feel sorry for John Kerry, self-proclaimed Vietnam War hero and Democratic Presidential front runner. Kerry is taking a lot of heat for his antics of thirty five years ago when as a young man he got involved in something called Vietnam Veterans Against the War. A radical leftist anti-war group supposedly composed of Vietnam Veterans. Now it was probably hip and cool and sort of fun for a square establishment type like Kerry to hang out with real radicals back then but it is hurting him today. What was Kerry smoking back then? Back in 1970, most polls showed that the vast majority of Americans opposed the anti-war movement and supported the war. I bet Kerry wishes that he hadn't smoked it today. Kerry made his grave now he is lying in it.
My prediction is this, shortly after the presidential primaries end and Kerry no longer needs left wing support he'll make a public apology for the mistakes he made as the leader of the Vietnam Veterans Against the War. At that time Kerry will also decide that fighting in Iraq was the right thing to do, announce his support for the war in Iraq and make a flying visit to Bagdad to show his support for the troops. He'll also publically condemn Jane Fonda and call her a traitor at that time. Then in November, Kerry having lost every state but Massachusetts will announce his retirement from politics so he can take his $25 million a year job as CEO of some giant corproation. You heard it hear first but that is John Kerry's future.

Media Hype
Mood:  rushed
Media Hype of Bush National Guard Records Proves Liberal Bias
By Daniel G. Jennings
The news coverage of the flap over President George W. Bush's service in the National Guard during the Vietnam War verifies the claims of liberal bias on the part of our media.
Media outlets including CNN and both major newspapers in my hometown (The Denver Post and Rocky Mountain News) have focused vast amounts of attention upon Bush's Guard service while ignoring the equally questionable war record of Democratic front runner and self-proclaimed "war hero" John Kerry. The media has made a big deal out of allegations that Bush didn't attend Texas National Air Guard meetings as required by his service obligations but ignored allegations that Kerry used an obscure regulation to get sent home early from his tour of duty in Vietnam. In other words, Kerry may have done the exact same thing Bush did, deliberately evaded his military obligations.
Where have all the stories about Kerry's taking an early out from his duty as a patrol boat commander in Vietnam's Mekong Delta? Kerry may have gone home to attendYale and left the working class enlisted men of his PT boat crew back in Vietnam.
Other aspects of Kerry's military service are also questionable. There have been allegations that men under Kerry's command may have needlessly killed innocent Vietnamese civilians. Some reports have alleged that these killings were the result of Kerry's incompetence as an officer. In a 1970 interview with a Yale student newspaper, Kerry then a Congressional candidate admitted that he disobeyed orders in Vietnam.
Kerry's activities after he came home and started protested also deserve attention. Kerry was part of a noisy and obnoxious radical left wing protest group called Vietnam Veterans Against the War. This organization staged protests in which veterans mocked the nation's uniform, threw medals away and held events attended by self-proclaimed Communist sympathizers such as Jane Fonda, the group's publication was financed by Jane Fonda herself. Kerry also took part in the Winter Soldier, a mock trial in which American GIs were falsely accused of committing all manner of crimes against Vietnamese civilians.
Doesn't the American people deserve to know about this side of John Kerry? Shouldn't average Americans be allowed to make up their own minds about Kerry and his wartime activities? Just as they are being saturated with allegations about Bush's alleged dereliction of duty.
If the media wants to overcome allegations of liberal bias, it can do so by giving us a full picture of the man known as John Kerry before the Democratic primaries are decided. That way Democrats can see if Kerry is an "electable" candidate, an extreme leftist masquerading as a centrist or a hypocritical fraud with no chance of winning election before they are asked to support him in the general election.