http://www.ncregister.com/ Breaking News and Analysis from the National Catholic Register en tmcfeely@ncregister.com Copyright 2008 2008-12-4T19:48:08-05:00 http://www.ncregister.com/daily/forceful_on_foca/ http://www.ncregister.com/site/article/forceful_on_foca/#When:19:48:08Z Bishop Paul Loverde of Arlington, Va., had this to say last week about his response if the abortion lobby’s Freedom of Choice Act (FOCA) becomes law: “I would say, ‘Yeah, I’m not going to close the hospital, you’re going to arrest me, go right ahead. You’ll have to drag me out, go right ahead. I’m not closing this hospital, we will not perform abortions, and you can go take a flying leap.’ ” The Internet news service CNSNews.com reported Bishop Loverde made those comments to an audience of young adults at a Nov. 25 diocesan discussion about the implications of FOCA. In the video clip that accompanies this post, President-elect Barack Obama promises Planned Parenthood in July 2007 that he will sign FOCA as his first act as president. FOCA would mandate the removal of virtually all federal, state and local restrictions on abortion. There are no Catholic hospitals currently open in Bishop Loverde’s Arlington diocese, but his comments were intended to drive home the total opposition of the U.S. bishops to any kind of compliance with FOCA. A number of commentators have suggested since Obama’s election that his pledge to sign FOCA means little. They say there is little chance Congress will pass the legislation, which was first introduced to Congress in 1989, even though the pro-abortion Democratic Party now has strong majorities in both the House of Representatives and Senate. But 2009 will mark the first time since 1994 when both houses of Congress and the White House are all in Democratic hands. Douglas Johnson, legislative director of National Right to Life Committee, has warned this circumstance could embolden Democratic leaders to make a determined bid to pass FOCA. Only time will tell if there will be a strong push for FOCA in the next Congress. But if Congressional Dems do decide to let it languish instead, the determined opposition of Church leaders like Bishop Loverde and other U.S. bishops will deserve a lion’s share of the credit. — Tom McFeely 2008-12-4T19:48:08-05:00 http://www.ncregister.com/daily/ministering_to_mumbai/ http://www.ncregister.com/site/article/ministering_to_mumbai/#When:15:18:17Z This article by the Union of Catholic Asian News reports on the efforts of Catholic priests to help Mumbai come to terms with last week’s terrorist attacks. Auxiliary Bishop Bosco Penha of Mumbai, who is temporarily overseeing the archdiocese while Cardinal Oswald Garcias recovers from cancer surgery, told UCAN that at Sunday Masses Nov. 30, archdiocesan priests sought to “make sense of the bloody tragedy.” Bishop Penha’s own Nov. 30 sermon focused on peace and hope in the context of Advent, which he called “a season of hope in a world torn with revenge, despair and despondency.” — Tom McFeely 2008-12-4T15:18:17-05:00 http://www.ncregister.com/daily/jeb_bush_eyes_senate_seat/ http://www.ncregister.com/site/article/jeb_bush_eyes_senate_seat/#When:18:14:06Z Republican Saxby Chambliss won yesterday’s U.S. Senate run-off election in Georgia, denying the Democratic Party an opportunity of securing a 60-seat Senate “supermajority.” But any additional Republican losses in 2010 could tip the Senate into a filibuster-proof Democratic chamber that would have free rein to pass anti-life legislation such as the Freedom of Choice Act (FOCA). That’s one of the reasons the Daily Blog is highlighting reports that Jeb Bush is considering a run for the Senate seat currently held by Florida Republican Sen. Mel Martinez. The other reason for drawing this to our readers’ attention: The president’s younger brother is a Catholic convert. Jeb Bush, who served as Florida’s governor for eight years before stepping down in 2007, told Politico by e-mail Tuesday night that “I am considering” a Senate run. But another source close to Bush told Politico that no final decision is expected before next year. “A source close to Bush said he’ll be thoughtful and methodical about the decision-making process. He will consider the impact a race would have on his family and his business and whether or not the U.S. Senate is the best forum from which to continue his advocacy for issues such as education, immigration and GOP solutions to health care reform,” Politico reported. “In an interview with Politico immediately after November’s election, the former governor said the Republican Party should take four primary steps to regain favor with voters: Show no tolerance for corruption, practice what it preaches about limiting the scope of government (‘There should not be such a thing as a Big Government Republican’), stand for working families and small business, and embrace reform,” the Politico article continued. “Bush said conservatives should ‘do the math of the new demographics of the United States,’ explaining that the Republican Party ‘can’t be anti-Hispanic, anti-young person — anti many things — and be surprised when we don’t win elections.’” — Tom McFeely 2008-12-3T18:14:06-05:00 http://www.ncregister.com/daily/a_regensburg_convert/ http://www.ncregister.com/site/article/a_regensburg_convert/#When:16:07:24Z Here’s more evidence that Pope Benedict XVI’s remarks about Islam in 2006 at Regensburg, Bavaria, were the exact opposite of a “mistake.” Magdi Cristiano Allam, the Italian-Egyptian journalist who was baptized by the Pope last Easter, recently explained publicly that the Regensburg speech was directly linked to his conversion. He said that Benedict’s emphasis on the integration of faith and reason, the central theme of the Regensburg speech, was one of the basic points that sparked his decision to convert to Catholicism. And, Allam said, the linkage that Benedict alluded to in his speech between violence and Islam — an allusion confirmed by the violent protests that ensued — gave the journalist additional impetus along the road to conversion. “My conversion was possible thanks to the presence of great witnesses of faith, first of all, His Holiness Benedict XVI,” Allam said in a discussion last week with Italian university students, Zenit reported Dec. 1. “One who is not convinced of his own faith — often it’s because he has not found in it believable witnesses of this great gift. “The second indissoluble binomial in Christianity is without a doubt that of faith and reason. This second element is capable of giving substance to our humanity, the sacredness of life, respect for human dignity and the freedom of religious choice.” According to Allam, “An event, before my conversion, made me think more than other events: the Pope’s discourse in Regensburg. On that occasion, citing the Byzantine emperor Manuel II Paleologus, he affirmed something that the Muslims themselves have never denied: that Islam spreads the faith above all with the sword.” Continued Allam, “There is a greater and more subliminal danger than the terrorism of ‘cut-throats.’ It is the terrorism of the ‘cut-tongues,’ that is, the fear of affirming and divulging our faith and our civilization, and it brings us to auto-censorship and to deny our values, putting everything and the contrary to everything on the same plane: We think of the Shariah applied even in England. “The one called ‘a great one,’ that is, to always give to the other what he wants, is exactly the opposite of the common good, perfectly indicated by Jesus: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ That evangelical precept confirms for us that we cannot want good for the rest if we do not first love ourselves. The same is true for our civilization.” What to know more about Allam’s extraordinary journey into the Catholic Church? Check out this account Allam gave to Register correspondent Edward Pentin in early April, just after he was baptized by Benedict. — Tom McFeely 2008-12-3T16:07:24-05:00 http://www.ncregister.com/daily/readers_defend_the_register/ http://www.ncregister.com/site/article/readers_defend_the_register/#When:15:55:10Z Thanks for the kind words so many readers have sent to me after I published my e-mail address. Wrote one woman, on behalf of her family: “The Register is an oasis of truth in a desert of lies. I too hope readers will drink deeply and respond in life giving ways. Our family has great respect and gratitude for the clear voice of the Register, which helped us maintain sanity through this last election cycle!” Wrote another: “I see no evidence in any of your coverage that you are pro-Obama. I simply see the truth, i.e., that God is still in charge, and that as Catholic Christians, we participate in the political process, but we do not take it as our faith.” Wrote one man: “I’d just like to say I actually liked the ‘Our President’ post when I first read it, since it show’s the proper attitude towards what happened, and I can’t really comprehend the criticism. I would like to thank the whole team there for producing a great newspaper.  I only discovered you fairly recently, but I do definitely plan on subscribing now.” Another man simply shared a Scripture quote and wrote: “Tom, Rejoice and keep up the good work.” We will, with God’s grace. We will continue in our effort to offer hope and a warning. The hope: We still have pro-life and pro-marriage majorities. We have the power of truth on our side. The warning: An extremely likable man whose policies deny some people the right to live has just been elected president. Many pro-life people and pro-marriage people voted for him. We need to win them back. To simply be right and angry isn’t enough. We need to reach out and deepen our majorities. We no longer have a choice. The battle of the culture of life vs. the culture of death is the battle of our time. We can win it, if we fight. — Tom Hoopes 2008-12-2T15:55:10-05:00 http://www.ncregister.com/daily/the_mickey_mouse_mentality/ http://www.ncregister.com/site/article/the_mickey_mouse_mentality/#When:15:22:16Z Disney has been singled out as a primary promoter of the consumerist corruption of contemporary culture. That’s the judgment of Benedictine Father Christopher Jamison, the abbot of England’s Worth Abbey. Father Jamison, who earned national fame in Britain in the hit BBC series “The Monastery,” says in a guide he has published about how people can find authentic happiness that corporations like Disney are persuading children to subscribe to their vision of a consumerist utopia instead of traditional religion. The Benedictine abbot accuses Disney of marketing Disneyland as a modern-day pilgrimage site, the Daily Telegraph reported Nov. 29. And even when some Disney movies seem to have good moral messages, Father Jamison said Disney’s motive is merely to make more money through merchandising rather than promoting virtue. “The message behind every movie and book, behind every theme park and T-shirt is that our children’s world needs Disney,” he said. “So they absolutely must go to see the next Disney movie, which we’ll also want to give them on DVD as a birthday present. “They will be happier if they live the full Disney experience; and thousands of families around the world buy into this deeper message as they flock to Disneyland.” Said Father Jamison, “Where once morality and meaning were available as part of our free cultural inheritance, now corporations sell them to us as products.” The abbot said Disney and similar corporations now “inhabit our imagination.” “Once planted there they can make us endlessly greedy,” he warned. “And that is exactly what they are doing.” — Tom McFeely 2008-12-2T15:22:16-05:00 http://www.ncregister.com/daily/georgia_senate_vote/ http://www.ncregister.com/site/article/georgia_senate_vote/#When:13:40:30Z Voters are now going to the polls in today’s U.S. Senate runoff election in Georgia. With a Democratic victory by challenger Jim Martin over incumbent Republican Sen. Saxby Chambliss possibly resulting in a filibuster-proof Senate majority for the Dems, the runoff election has major national implications. The Daily Blog reported on those implications here. Associated Press reports that early turnout figures appear favorable for Chambliss, who is strongly pro-life and has been endorsed by National Right to Life. In contrast, Martin is pro-abortion and voted in the Georgia state legislature against a ban on partial-birth abortions. — Tom McFeely 2008-12-2T13:40:30-05:00 http://www.ncregister.com/daily/new_vatican_bioethics_document/ http://www.ncregister.com/site/article/new_vatican_bioethics_document/#When:19:08:28Z “It’s what you’d expect, mostly a reiteration. We’re happy with it, but of course the world’s going to hate it.” That’s what a Vatican official told Register correspondent Edward Pentin about the new Vatican instruction on bioethics that will be released Dec. 12. The Vatican official was predicting the likely reaction of much of the secular world to the upcoming document from the Congregation of the Doctrine of the Faith. “The document was designed to examine ethical issues in biological research and health care that have emerged in recent years,” Catholic News Service reported Nov. 26. CNS noted that when the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith met in plenary session last January, “U.S. Cardinal William J. Levada, the congregation prefect, said much of their discussion focused on the field of bioethics. “At that time, the cardinal hinted that a document was in the works. He said it might examine new therapeutic options and some ethical problems that were not explicitly considered by two previous Church documents: the doctrinal congregation’s instruction Donum Vitae (The Gift of Life) in 1987 and Pope John Paul II’s encyclical Evangelium Vitae (The Gospel of Life) in 1995.” Added CNS, “Pope Benedict XVI was head of the doctrinal congregation when both those documents were published. Addressing the congregation in January, the Pope said the new ethical problems included the freezing of human embryos, the selective reduction of embryos, pre-implant diagnosis, research on embryonic stem cells and attempts at human cloning. “The Pope said the starting point for the Church’s reflection remains the same: ‘The two fundamental criteria for moral discernment in this field are unconditional respect for the human being as a person from the moment of conception to natural death, (and) respect for the originality of the transmission of human life through the acts proper to spouses.’” Look for detailed coverage in the Register of the new bioethics document and its significance after it is released Dec. 12 — the feast day of Our Lady of Guadalupe, patroness of the unborn.. — Tom McFeely 2008-12-1T19:08:28-05:00 http://www.ncregister.com/daily/advent_jewish_solidarity/ http://www.ncregister.com/site/article/advent_jewish_solidarity/#When:18:22:04Z On the very first Christmas, a baby was born to an impoverished Jewish family in a stable in Bethlehem. Yesterday, at the start of this year’s Advent — the penitential season during which Christians prepare themselves spiritually for their annual celebration of the birth of that Jewish baby boy — Pope Benedict XVI greeted pilgrims while standing beneath a statue of Pope Pius XII at Rome’s Basilica of St. Lawrence Outside the Walls. Why is the Daily Blog highlighting this connection? Because it’s a timely reminder that during World War II Pius XII showed his love for the Jewish people to which Jesus belongs, by bravely standing up for countless thousands of other Jews who were facing death in Nazi Germany’s Holocaust camps. The reminder is even more timely in light of the historically unfounded attacks on Pius XII’s wartime efforts to save Jews that have circulated again this fall. Here’s what Connecticut Rabbi Eric Sliver recently told the Jewish Ledger about these calumnious claims against Pius XII: “We studied the documents in the Vatican’s archives and had eye-witness interviews, and what we learned was truly world-shaking,” Silver told the Ledger. “There is nobody who did more to rescue Jews than Pius.” Rabbi Silver responded to arguments made by some critics of Pius XII that there are gaps in the historical record regarding the efforts made by the Vatican to save Jews from the Holocaust. “One problem for scholars and others looking at Pius’s legacy is the lack of clear documented evidence of his efforts to save the Jews,” the Ledger article notes. “With no records, it’s easy to point to what he didn’t do, says Rabbi Silver.” “But my question is this: Does it take a rocket scientist to figure out why there is no paper trail?” Rabbi Silver said. “Rome was occupied by the Nazis, there were German spies in the Vatican, so what would have happened if they had found physical evidence of the pope’s actions? There is not a paper trail linking the Final Solution to Hitler. If you don’t want to give credit to the pope because there was no paper trail, you can’t blame Hitler for the Final Solution, because there was no paper trail there either.” Rabbi Silver says his eyes were opened to the truth about Pius XII when he participated in a symposium in Rome in September, organized by the Pave the Way Foundation. Reported the Ledger, “Silver says the symposium ‘completely turned me around. It turns out that Pius wasn’t a collaborator or in collusion; he didn’t keep quiet in exchange for the safety of Christians. In August 1942, the murders in the concentration camps were publicized, and the Allies did nothing. Anyone who wants to examine what Pius did or didn’t do needs to do so in the context of what others did or didn’t do, and for that you don’t need access to the Vatican archives.’” — Tom McFeely 2008-12-1T18:22:04-05:00 http://www.ncregister.com/daily/pro_obama_register/ http://www.ncregister.com/site/article/pro_obama_register/#When:15:34:55Z If you are here because you read elsewhere that we are a scandalous newspaper (or that I am a scandalous newspaper editor) who has traded our Catholic heritage away in order to support Obama, there are a few things you should know. 1. It’s not true. (Links follow below) I have updated the original link to try to clarify it. The very idea that the National Catholic Register would be pro-Obama is bizarre. We’ve been running wall-to-wall stories delineating the depth and extent of the wickedness of his positions for months. 2. What you read was unfair. I know it was unfair, because lots of people have written about this, but no critic has contacted me directly to ask me about it. (Be the first! thoopes@ncregister.com) 3. I think pro-lifers and Catholics need a message of hope — and a warning. The hope: Reality is on our side. There are pro-life and pro-marriage majorities that can be deepened and increased. Heck, in many respects, it’s not “Can we win this” but “Can we finish winning this?” The warning: They’ll only listen to you if your face is not puckered and purple with rage at the nice man and his nice family in the White House. There are still pro-life and pro-marriage majorities in America. Many of our voters voted for Obama. Let’s not hand off our ball to the other team. Let’s get them back. See “Hot Topics” at the bottom of the home page for articles you can pass on. And here is the editorial proof of our pro-life position on the election, for the unconvinced. “Catholics and Obama” “Obama vs. the Right to Life” “We’re Waiting, Barack” “Obama’s Abortion Extremism” by Princeton’s Robert George. For proof that we have remained steadfast in our pro-life beliefs after the election, click below on the “abortion” and “obama” tags. For my own posts, click on “weekend commentary.” Click here to see readers defend the Register. — Tom Hoopes 2008-12-1T15:34:55-05:00 http://www.ncregister.com/daily/repenting_an_obama_vote/ http://www.ncregister.com/site/article/repenting_an_obama_vote/#When:15:06:26Z Another pastor has recommended that some Catholics who voted for President-elect Barack Obama should go to confession before receiving Communion. In a homily to parishioners and in a follow-up letter, Father Joseph Illo, pastor of St. Joseph’s Catholic Church in Modesto, Calif., suggested that voting for pro-abortion politicians with a clear understanding of their pro-abortion stance constitutes grave sin. “If you are one of the 54% of Catholics who voted for a pro-abortion candidate, you were clear on his position, and you knew the gravity of the question, I urge you to go to confession before receiving Communion,” Father Illo said in his Nov. 21 letter. “Don’t risk losing your state of grace by receiving sacrilegiously.” The letter has a similar message to that delivered after Obama’s election by South Carolina priest Father Jay Scott Newman. Neither pastor suggested they intended to withhold Communion from any individual Catholics who had voted for Obama but had not repented sacramentally for doing so. According to The Modesto Bee, Father Illo’s bishop clarified that confession is warranted only for Catholics who vote specifically in support of a pro-abortion position. Bishop Stephen Blaire of Stockton, Calif., said confession is required only for voters “if someone voted for a pro-abortion or pro-choice candidate — if that’s the reason you voted for them.” “Our position on pro-life is very important, but there are other issues,” Bishop Blaire said. “No one candidate reflects everything that we stand for. I’m sure that most Catholics who voted were voting on economic issues.” Said Bishop Blaire, “There were probably many priests, and I suspect many bishops, who voted for Obama.” In subsequent comments at Mass yesterday, Father Illo highlighted that it’s not voting for Obama that is the issue. It’s whether a Catholic voted for him in agreement with Obama’s pro-abortion platform and voting record. “This is a serious issue,” he said, The Modesto Bee reported. “But it’s not about whom you vote for as much as it is what you vote for. We as Catholics have the duty to protect the rights of all people. We have a precious opportunity as Catholics and Christians to promote a culture of life.” — Tom McFeely 2008-12-1T15:06:26-05:00 http://www.ncregister.com/daily/sci_fi_advent/ http://www.ncregister.com/site/article/sci_fi_advent/#When:15:40:45Z Russell Saltzman at First Things’ blog is looking forward to The Day the Earth Stood Still. He suspects he can guess the theme of the remake of the B classic, though: “A emissary from the galactic federation is coming to warn Earth about its bad environmental habits.” “This is the way a lot of ‘alien as messiah’ films go,” he writes, “and the 1951 version had more than its share of religious stuff. There was Klaatu’s reference to ‘the Almighty Spirit,’ plus that climatic Lazarus-like resurrection. There was, however, nothing miraculous to be found. It was due to a medical science far beyond our capacity to understand. In these alien–savior films, everything is beyond our capacity to understand.” Salzman, a Lutheran pastor mentions two 1980s religious sci-fi movies. E.T. (1982) “we have both a resurrection (cheers were said to be heard in theatres) and an ascension, awe-struck humans looking upward at their departing friend.” In Starman (1984) Jeff Bridges is an alien visitor who “impregnates an Earth woman and promises that her Child will be a Teacher ... There was even a short-lived television series based on the product of that union. Starman, by the way, resurrects a deer killed by a redneck hunter—so, take that you awful NRA people!” “We want to believe there’s Somebody Out There, somebody wiser, stronger, smarter, kinder than ourselves,” he writes. “Surely, in this vast, incomprehensible cosmos there must be other beings selflessly prepared to snatch us out of our troubles. You can hope so.” Indeed we do hope, this Advent ... and wait. Read the whole thing. — Tom Hoopes 2008-11-30T15:40:45-05:00 http://www.ncregister.com/daily/2008_years_ago/ http://www.ncregister.com/site/article/2008_years_ago/#When:10:21:52Z Imagine a Jewish man praying today’s Psalm, 2008 years ago. “Lord, let us see your face,” he prays. “O shepherd of Israel, hearken, from your throne upon the cherubim, shine forth. Rouse your power, and come to save us.” But he thinks: “Whatever. No one is going to see God’s face. He’s not going to come to save us. God wants us to tough things out, waiting. The prayer is good in that it builds dependency, but it’s not literal.” “Once again,” he prays, “O LORD of hosts, look down from heaven, and see; take care of this vine, and protect what your right hand has planted, the son of man whom you yourself made strong.” But thinks: “The poetry of the Psalmist is beautiful. By the naivete of the Psalmist’s childlike faith, we learn that faith should be humble and directed outside ourselves. But we know that the Lord will not literally protect us with his own right hand. He’s incorporeal. He has no right hand.” Then imagine he hears about the angels appearing to the shepherds. And the magi coming from afar. And King Herod’s cruelty. “The shepherds are nuts,” he would think. “The magi are creepy. The King’s actions remind us not to push our faith too hard. It upsets people.” We pray today, 2008 years later, for God to save us. To protect the family. To preserve the right to life. To bring a new Pentecost to America, as Pope Benedict repeatedly prayed during his visit. But we think: “God isn’t going to help us. It’s important to pray that he will, and to believe he can, but things are dark and getting darker. We need to keep faith alive in a world where the faith is fading and our most urgent prayers aren’t answered.” Are we, too, training ourselves to miss out on God’s great action in our lives? Where is the manger that we’re not noticing today? — Tom Hoopes 2008-11-30T10:21:52-05:00 http://www.ncregister.com/daily/obama_rama1/ http://www.ncregister.com/site/article/obama_rama1/#When:22:10:40Z Theodore Dalrymple writes in Planet Obama that the current pro-Obama “Global euphoria is better than the disrepute of the Bush years, but so far our new president’s appeal is entirely symbolic.” “Not since the destruction of the Twin Towers has there been dancing in the streets anywhere on the planet to celebrate events in America.” He reports: “In Delhi, Indians kissed Obama’s photo.” “Parties spilled into the Kenyan streets.” “In Britain, the newspapers were beside themselves with joy.” “The Daily Mirror, a tabloid with a circulation of 3 million, ran a photo of the president-elect with a single large word to accompany it: BELIEVE.” “A group of 8,000 Bedouin living in Galilee gleefully claimed Obama as a relative, thanks to his resemblance to a Kenyan who had worked in British-mandated Palestine in the 1930s.” “After his election, the German tabloid Bild carried the headline ‘Messiah Obama,’ and though one might have thought that Germans, of all people, would have had enough of political messiahs, the characterization was a compliment.” Writes Dalrymple: “That a man who came from as inauspicious a beginning as Obama’s could be elected president of the United States has demonstrated to millions around the globe that the idea of America as the land of opportunity is not mere mythology, and that whatever its faults, the U.S. political system is an extremely open one. The 21st-century version of From Log Cabin to White House is now From Food Stamps to White House.” But Dalrymple says that even into Obama’s charmed and charming life, some rain must fall: “For all his transcendent appeal, Obama cannot overcome the harsh realities of a troubled world. He inherits two wars, from one of which, Iraq, he has promised swiftly to extricate America, the other of which, Afghanistan, he has promised to win by expanding the effort.  ... When I looked at Obama shortly after the election, with his economic advisers behind him, I had a powerful sense of looking at a Politburo: gray-faced old men, tried and tested — which is not quite the same as successful, of course, except in the most careerist terms.” And then he pours rain on the parade: “Britain has seen the Obama effect before. In 1997, a fresh-faced politician called Anthony Blair, promising the sun, the moon, and the stars, spoke with a passionate intensity that was somewhat lacking in detail and was elected to office in the land. ... “Within a short time, this former unilateral-disarmer had proved himself the most belligerent and bellicose leader of Britain in recent times, willing to attack anyone as long as the victim couldn’t fight back.” He concludes: “For now, Obama’s election has restored American prestige. ... [But] Americans no less than the rest of the world have reason to be skeptical.” — Tom Hoopes 2008-11-29T22:10:40-05:00 http://www.ncregister.com/daily/obama_and_bush_victories/ http://www.ncregister.com/site/article/obama_and_bush_victories/#When:16:30:14Z When they went around the Obama table on Thursday to say what they were thankful for, Jules Crittenden (note to any helpful editors: he’s a man) wonders if the man who carved the turkey mentioned George W. Bush. He thinks he ought to have. In fact, given the evolution of Obama’s war policies, he thinks he might have. Writing at the Weekly Standard, he counts the ways. “It’s a good moment to mull the gifts George W. Bush has left for the incoming president. Bush has made the world a better place, and if Obama wants to do the same, he will take the good things Bush has done and move forward with them.” “First and foremost, Saddam Hussein-a state sponsor of terrorism, a producer of weapons of mass destruction, a warmonger, and a genocidal maniac-is gone. The threat he posed was a nagging concern to Bill Clinton, but Clinton, lacking the political will or perhaps a good excuse, was content to consider Saddam trapped in a box. ... The Baathist regime is no more. Thank you, George W. Bush. He continues that, because of Obama’s predecessor: “It will be possible for Obama to draw down the U.S. troop presence in Iraq without a precipitous, premature withdrawal that could plunge the region into genocidal chaos and leave Iran the de facto regional power. ... Thank you, George W. Bush.” “The very concept of democracy in the region received a major boost when Arabs saw millions of Iraqis voting while under threat of death. This evolution is playing out in fits and starts in Lebanon and even the Palestinian territories, where voters have learned that the democratic process only begins with a vote. ... Thank you, George W. Bush.” “George Bush has put a bow on his gift. The U.S. military’s leading counterinsurgency warrior-philosopher, General David Petraeus, who resolved the initial mistakes of the Iraq occupation, now commands U.S. forces in the entire region, including Afghanistan. ... Obama goes into battle without having to search for his Grant. ... Thank you, George W. Bush.” oCrittenden does acknowledge that “George W. Bush did not solve all the problems of the world’s most troubled and dangerous region. But, for all his shortcomings, he has moved them forward and established the United States as the dominant agent for change in the Middle East.” But he suggests Obama is coming around to Bush’s view of the situation. “In foreign policy, possibly embarrassed by the eagerness with which the world’s most vile regimes have welcomed his election, Obama is backing off his many promises to sit down with dictators,” writes Crittenden. “His antiwar base is already outraged that he may not make closing the hated ‘Crusader gulag’ at Guantánamo Bay his first act of national liberation from the Bush era. He is even reportedly considering allowing the CIA some leeway in interrogation techniques.” Hmmm ... more from a rival magazine later today ... — Tom Hoopes 2008-11-29T16:30:14-05:00