OUR VIEWS

The White House steps in

Bush announced creation of a new Iraq Stabilization Group headed by his national security adviser, Condoleezza Rice, with staffers drawn from both inside the White House and the Cabinet departments.

The group is intended, to use the relevant cliches, to break logjams, crack the whip, cut through the red tape and remove the bottlenecks that have impeded U.S. efforts to get Iraq back on its feet and build a functioning democracy.

To work, the group must be more than an announcement for the sake of an announcement, designed to deflect Democratic criticism and reassure an increasingly skeptical public.

At worst, the group may only be another layer of bureaucracy. At best, it will bridge the hubris of the neo-cons at the Pentagon and the resentment of the State Department at being ignored so often in the planning for Iraq. And it could serve one singularly useful function by showing the taxpayers what they'll be getting for their $20 billion in rebuilding money.

Since the quick military victory, Bush has seemed curiously detached from postwar Iraq policy, except for periodic reassurances that things are going better than they seem and that we are in for the long haul. He may be in for the long haul, but American voters are notoriously impatient.

Consolidating responsibility for postwar Iraq in the White House is surely Bush's recognition that his presidency will rise and fall on two issues: Iraq and the economy. He has done what he can on the economy — tax cuts, interest rate cuts, higher government spending — and now can only wait on results. That leaves Iraq, on which much can be done.

Presidents have been able to walk away from foreign-policy disasters before — Ronald Reagan from Lebanon, Bill Clinton from Somalia and Haiti. But Iraq is far too identified with Bush personally; deposing Saddam Hussein has been a core issue of his presidency.

Bush is surely mindful that festering military ventures without an apparent end — Vietnam and North Korea — caused Lyndon Johnson to leave office and contributed to Harry Truman's decision not to run again.

And decisive military victory is in itself no guarantee of electoral success, as the elder George Bush found in 1992.

Hold that tiger

However, some misguided souls seem determined to reintroduce tigers, the Bengal and Siberian varieties, into America's back yards and even, in one spectacularly misguided case, a tiny New York apartment.

There, Antoine Yates said he hoped to re-create the Garden of Eden. But as the fluffy little tiger cub grew — and grew — Yates' idyllic efforts were confined to flinging a chicken carcass into the apartment and quickly closing the door. The tiger repaid him by slashing his thigh to the bone, and a police officer had to rappel down the building to shoot the 425-pound animal with a tranquilizer dart from the window.

Recently, the $900-a-week cost of feeding his three tigers figured prominently among the financial excesses of boxer Mike Tyson's bankruptcy.

Tigers are unregenerate carnivores and, however domesticated, can revert to their driving motivation — dinner — at sudden and unexpected times.

Last week, during the long-running Las Vegas show, "Siegfried & Roy," a tiger turned on Roy Horn, clamped down on his neck and dragged him offstage, leaving the magician gravely injured. Horn had nearly 40 years of experience working with tigers, and the 7-year-old animal that bit him had been born in his own menagerie and worked in the act since the age of 6 months.

The wild tiger is an endangered species. Only about 5,000 survive in the wilds of Asia, but there are at least that many, and some estimate more like 10,000, in the United States, in zoos, wildlife sanctuaries, animal acts and, bizarrely, as pets.

Tiger cubs can easily be purchased for as little as $350, according to The New York Times, but that kind of trafficking is unfair, even cruel, to the tiger and dangerous to the buyer. There are legitimate educational and research reasons for keeping and displaying tigers, but none at all for allowing the likes of Antoine Yates to own one.

Tigers are hardly a public menace. Estimates are that from 1998 to 2001 they killed seven people in the United States and badly injured 27, but that's not bad for a creature that was supposed to have been no menace at all on this continent for the last 11 millennia.

OTHER VIEWS

Conservative swoons over Schwarzenegger won't last

By GEORGE WILL
WASHINGTON POST WRITERS GROUP

The odor of what some so-called conservatives were indispensable to producing will eventually arouse them from their swoons over Arnold Schwarzenegger. Then they can inventory the damage they have done by seizing an office that just 11 months ago they proved incapable of winning in a proper election under ideal conditions.

These Schwarzenegger conservatives — now, there is an oxymoron for these times — have embraced a man who is, politically, Hollywood's culture leavened by a few paragraphs of Milton Friedman. They have given spurious plausibility to a meretricious accusation that Democrats are using to poison American politics, the charge that Florida 2000 was part of a pattern of Republican power grabs outside the regular election process.

Schwarzenegger's conservative supporters have furled the flag of "family values" while mocking their participation in the anti-Clinton sex posse. They were unoffended by Schwarzenegger's flippant assertions that only the "religiously fanatic" oppose human cloning — not just stem cell research but cloning. These faux conservatives' new hero said only "right-wing crazies" supported the proposal on Tuesday's ballot to bar the state from collecting the racial data that fuels the racial spoils system.

Some conservatives insist that they have been not empty-headed but hardheaded: They say a Republican governor will markedly strengthen the Bush campaign in California. Perhaps. But Republican governors did not prevent Bush from losing Wisconsin, Michigan and Pennsylvania in 2000.

During the coming presidential campaign, California's Republican governor will be busy proving the fatuity of his proposal to solve California's budget crisis by cutting waste, fraud and abuse — things for which there is no constituency. In 2004, President Bush will not campaign in a California seething with resentment of spending cuts and attempted tax increases advocated by a hugely unpopular Democratic governor. Instead, Bush will campaign in a California in which the Republican governor will be illustrating the axiom that today only a Republican governor can substantially raise taxes.

This is so because the people, in their zeal for majority rule, have mandated, through the initiative process, a two-thirds supermajority requirement for raising taxes. Which means the Republicans' legislative minority is large enough to block a Democratic governor's request for tax increases but probably is not starchy enough to resist a Republican governor's request for — Republicans believe in recycling, at least of squeamish rhetoric — "revenue enhancements."

Then again, some Republicans might resist, because their principles need not threaten what is really important — re-election. Almost all legislators of both parties represent safe seats because the political class has put an end to much of California's politics by using redistricting to protect all incumbents. This is one reason why politics has re-emerged through the recall process, which allows the people to vent against their chosen representatives.

The put-upon people of California, groaning under the weight of decisions taken by California's electorate, have repeatedly taken lawmaking into their own hands through initiatives that mandate this and that allocation of resources. So an estimated — no one seems able to say for sure, which fact says much about the consequences of California populism — 60 percent to 80 percent of the budget is beyond the control of the governor and Legislature.

One of the new governor's two noteworthy campaign promises is he will not cut education, which — thanks to what the public did in a 1988 initiative — is roughly 50 percent of state spending. His other venture into specificity during the campaign — a campaign in which he said, brassily and correctly, "the public doesn't care about figures" — was his promise to increase by 50 percent the already $8 billion deficit by repealing the car tax Davis and the Legislature recently tripled.

A Washington-based Democrat, who was making election-eve get-out-the-vote calls to African-American households in South Los Angeles, knew Gray Davis would be recalled when voter after voter told her, emphatically and specifically, the precise dollar amount that the tax increase was costing him or her. The new governor should repeal it because it is unjust. And because the people deserve to get what they demand. Don't they?

West Coast is good to Germans

By ARGUS HAMILTON
THE DAILY OKLAHOMAN

Germany beat the United States team Sunday in Women's World Cup soccer in Portland, Ore. They weren't the only Germans who were going for the Women's Cup. However despite the best effort of the Los Angeles Times, Arnold Schwarzenegger was elected.

Eunice Kennedy Shriver and Maria Shriver stood onstage with Arnold during his victory speech. They heard about his womanizing and steroid use and they knew one thing. No politician will ever tell Arnold Schwarzenegger you're no Jack Kennedy.

President Bush announced Tuesday he's ready to work with California governor-elect Arnold Schwarzenegger. Leader of the Free World is not enough for this president. He wants tips on how to become Mr. Universe.

The Pentagon held a huge sale of unused weapons Friday. They sold thousands of missiles at discount prices from their warehouse in Virginia. The Pentagon hopes it will have the same effect as putting a Wal-Mart just outside North Korea's border.
— Scripps Howard News Service

YOUR VIEWS

Iraq is bargain compared to Big Dig

For the last eight years or so, construction has been under way on a series of tunnels to make it easier for the people of Boston to get from one side of town to the other. The "Big Dig" will serve about a million people in the Boston area. We, the federal government, have contributed $8.6 billion to its total cost to date of about $14.5 billion. Thus, about 1 million people, mainly Bostonians, will benefit from the $8.6 billion gift from the U.S. taxpayers.

The population of Iraq is about 22 million. So, for the monumental task of rebuilding Iraq, more than 20 times the number of people will benefit from only about 10 times the money spent on the Big Dig.

I've heard very little criticism for the money spent on Boston's Big Dig, but from my seat way out here in the bleachers, the Iraq deal seems a much better bargain.

Where were the indignant cries from the politicians when the billions were being poured into the holes under Boston?

Frank Powell
Florence 35630-6203

Is it civilized?

In Nelson's case his veins are practically destroyed as a past drug addict. This requires a surgical procedure to cut in a vein in the groin area. This was done the night before the execution leaving the condemned in extreme pain the night before and the entire day till 6 p.m. when the state does its killing.

Alabama evidently doesn't do it very well, at best. It took them an hour to kill Michael Thompson earlier this year and seven injections to kill Gary Brown.

There are hearings going on in Louisiana even as this is written to determine the humanity of the paralytic drug. This is the second one administered. It causes paralysis leaving the person in agony until the killing drug is administered.

The question is not is the person guilty or even if the death penalty per se is wrong. Rather, is it worthy of a society that claims to be civilized to torture its felons to death?

Regrettably a lot of people will say yes. Which shows how shallow is the veneer of civilization over the beast within.

George H. Jones
Leeds 35094

Can't protect all

We're probably fooling ourselves if we think that our nation can even remotely be defended against terrorism through whatever efforts. In a free society, terrorists' targets are too numerous to begin to be protected. Hopefully, we won't pursue a "Homeland Defense" strategy in each town and county in the entire United States to a point that it can and will bankrupt our nation.

Thankfully, President Bush understands that the only strategy that will protect our nation from terrorism is to attack, infiltrate and destroy terrorist organizations. In that vein, money and manpower spent on homeland defense would best be used to destroy the threat as opposed to defending against it. I feel sure that Bush's aggressive "attack" strategy has bought for our nation's homefront, freedom from attack to date, but no guarantee of freedom from attack tomorrow.

As bad as it may sound, it just may be smart to agree to accept possible occasional major homeland disasters (yes, including another 9/11) in the short term in order to expend all major resources necessary to annihilate the source as soon as possible.

Hopefully, our nation will soon begin to understand this point before misspent resources allow an onslaught of terrorism to reek havoc on our nation on the the scale being experienced by Israel.

Armond "Si" Simmons
Pell City 35128

Pryor more courageous than Moore

This is the same man, when nominated to be a federal judge, stood in front of the Senate Committee in Washington and told them he was pro-life, though he knew Democratic committee members would react to this like vampires react to holy water.

Compare Pryor's bravery to that of Moore. When Moore ran for Alabama chief justice, he bravely used the slogan, "The Ten Commandments Judge" as a campaign prop. He allowed the installing of the monument to be videotaped. When it was suggested that the tapes be sold, he bravely set the ceiling at $20 per tape. He courageously allowed a couple of ministries to raise more than a $1 million so he wouldn't have to pay his legal fees out of his own pocket, then followed that by bravely saying he would let our citizens pay his fines.

One could ponder, in a state as poor as ours, if Jesus would suggest to the judge a more Christianly use of this money. When Moore's followers, all 100 of them, were being arrested for civil protest, Moore courageously slipped away to be on national talk shows. Now, while waiting to see if he'll be allowed to stay on the bench, Moore and his cronies are raising more money by selling Ten Commandment clocks that speak a commandment every hour. What's next ... a Judge Moore action figure doll that karate chops non-Christians when a string is pulled.

I hope our citizens recognize Pryor for showing the courage to follow the law and stick to his convictions. Likewise, I hope Moore will spend less time coming up with new ways to raise funds and more time reading the Bible verses that are highlighted in red.

Bill Reid
Trussville 35173

Political tool

This rock has been deified because they are now erecting monuments to the monument: One has been erected in front of the Winston County Court House. It says monument to the monument.

If we asked what would Jesus do? We must go to the Book Of Matthew and read what Matthew said Jesus would do. Jesus would call Moore and his followers hypocrites because they are using religion to make a spectacle of themselves. Jesus said when you pray go into your closet and shut the door and pray in secret.

I talked to some of the people in Montgomery who were crawling on all fours in front of this engraved rock , weeping and wailing. I asked them if they knew what a graven image was and not one knew.

Politicians and religious leaders rely mainly on the gullible to support their cause.

James Howard
Cedar Bluff 35959

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