Tag Archives: Military

The Honduran non-coup

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Miguel Estrada has a very thorough legal analysis in the Los Angeles Times regarding the Honduran “coup”…. It turns out it really wasn’t a ‘coup’ after all… but a proper, judicially-ordered removal of President Zelaya resulting from his activities in violation of Hunduran Law.  Here are some relevant portions of the piece:

As noted, Article 239 states clearly that one who behaves as Zelaya did in attempting to change presidential succession ceases immediately to be president. If there were any doubt on that score, the Congress removed it by convening immediately after Zelaya’s arrest, condemning his illegal conduct and overwhelmingly voting (122 to 6) to remove him from office. The Congress is led by Zelaya’s own Liberal Party (although it is true that Zelaya and his party have grown apart as he has moved left). Because Zelaya’s vice president had earlier quit to run in the November elections, the next person in the line of succession was Micheletti, the Liberal leader of Congress. He was named to complete the remaining months of Zelaya’s term.

It cannot be right to call this a “coup.” Micheletti was lawfully made president by the country’s elected Congress. The president is a civilian. The Honduran Congress and courts continue to function as before. The armed forces are under civilian control. The elections scheduled for November are still scheduled for November. Indeed, after reviewing the Constitution and consulting with the Supreme Court, the Congress and the electoral tribunal, respected Cardinal Oscar Andres Rodriguez Maradiaga recently stated that the only possible conclusion is that Zelaya had lawfully been ousted under Article 239 before he was arrested, and that democracy in Honduras continues fully to operate in accordance with law…

And my favorite line from the piece:

It would seem from this that Zelaya’s arrest by the military was legal, and rather well justified to boot.

What then can we say?  Zelaya tried to subvert the constitution of Honduras by means of a referendum ruled illegal by the Honduran Congress.  He insisted on a course of illegal activity and evidenced a totalitarian willingness to remove anyone who stood in his path.  Consequently, he was dismissed by the Honduran Supreme Court pursuant to the requirements of Honduran law.

Despite all this… despite the brave actions by the Attorney General and the Honduran Justices… the western world is turning its back on Honduras.  In fact, in a recent press conference, Obama has stated Zelaya’s removal was “not legal”…  evidencing not only a serious ignorance of Honduran Law but also a disturbing lack of judgment.

In a startling juxtaposition, our president found it entirely proper to meddle in a country in order to support a potential dictator… while refusing to meddle in a country [think Iran] where democratic protests threatened to remove a dictator.

In the words of Jonah Goldberg, “It sure seems like Obama has an ideological problem with democracy.”


Update 7.11 @11pm: Read my initial post on the Honduran ‘coup’ here.

You’re a raw deal…

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Most things in Washington don’t really surprise me these days.  We’ve been arguing about the same handful of issues now for decades now… and the lines are pretty clearly drawn.  However, sometimes the standards of decency are so ignored… lowered to a point of being immeasurable that it causes one’s jaw to drop. Such was the case yesterday with the statements and actions of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-California). She has decended so low, she has fallen off the gutter and into the sewer.  I cannot think of a more damaging blow to the office of the Speaker then the one Ms. Pelosi has inflicted with her unvarnished scorn directed at Gen. David Petraeus.

This from the Politico:

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) warned Gen. David Petraeus and Ambassador Ryan Crocker on Thursday “not to put a shine on recent events” in Iraq when they testify before Congress next week. 

“I hope we don’t hear any glorification of what happened in Basra,” said Pelosi, referring to a recent military offensive against Shiite militants in the city led by the Iraqi government and supported by U.S. forces. 

The Democrats hammered two themes: The war in Iraq has stretched the military dangerously thin, and the enormous cost of the war is threatening the health of the U.S. economy. 

Underscoring the Democrats’ economic points, Pelosi asked why U.S. military in Iraq and Americans back home are paying more for gasoline than the Iraqis are. 

“Our troops in Iraq are paying about $3.25 a gallon for gas in Iraq, comparable to what we pay here, while the Iraqis are paying $1.36 a gallon,” Pelosi said. “This is a raw deal for the American taxpayer.” 

Let me get you straight here, Mrs. Pelosi… Gen. Petraeus better not “put a shine” on Iraq… OR ELSE WHAT??? or else your gonna lecture him from behind the safety of your title and elevated podium?  Spare me.  How dare you threaten the commander of our armed forces to limit himself to the message YOU obviously don’t want the American people to hear.  And why, may I ask, might this be?  What, may I ask would be SO TERRIBLE about the members of congress and the American People hearing good news from Iraq… the success of the joint coalition force in Basra?  Is it not clear to anyone listening to you that the crux of your credibility (what little you have) rests on the failure of the American mission in Iraq?

The fact that you demand a report that matches your preconceived notions of the facts shows that you have no interest in his opinion anyway and are content to believe the academic assumptions of your favorite editorialists writing from behind some Manhattan cubicle instead of the the eye-witness accounts of the person responsible for dramatic changes on the ground.  You’d probably be better off not even showing up given that it’s just going to be a waste of your time.

Oh, And one more thing. The best concern you can muster in fear of the upcoming the Patreus report is the fact that Iraqis are paying $1.36 a gallon for gas compared to the U.S. price of $3.25?  Great… insincere concern from a Representative who has done NOTHING in her 3 years as Speaker to lower gas prices one penny.  They DRILL for it, Mrs. Pelosi…  It’s that simple.  You hypocrite! You put every hurdle possible in front of oil exploration and drilling and then have the audacity to whine about how those who ARE drilling for it are getting better prices.  Just go back to California already.  You have singlehandedly energized more Republicans to vote in this election then McCain ever could.  

Good Times.co.uk reading…

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Interestingly, I was browsing the times.co.uk website and behold… I was surprised how many really good articles there were.  Here’s one I wanted to bring your attention to:

Al-Qaeda leaders admit: ‘We are in crisis. There is panic and fear’

Al-Qaeda in Iraq faces an “extraordinary crisis”. Last year’s mass defection of ordinary Sunnis from al-Qaeda to the US military “created panic, fear and the unwillingness to fight”. The terrorist group’s security structure suffered “total collapse”.


The Anbar letter conceded that the “crusaders” – Americans – had gained the upper hand by persuading ordinary Sunnis that al-Qaeda was responsible for their suffering and by exploiting their poverty to entice them into the security forces. Al-Qaeda’s “Islamic State of Iraq is faced with an extraordinary crisis, especially in al-Anbar“, the unnamed emir admitted.


In an apparent reference to al-Qaeda’s brutal tactics, he said of the Americans and their Sunni allies: “We helped them to unite against us . . . The Americans and the apostates launched their campaigns against us and we found ourselves in a circle not being able to move, organise or conduct our operations.“

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