About That Hug.....

Chris Matthews claims the "Hug" was staged. Then again, Matthews was exposed for the DNC shill he is during the election campaign. The only ones that are niave, are the ones that believe Matthews is not a DNC shill. - Sailor

ABOUT THAT HUG...
John PodHoretz
New York Post

February 4, 2005 -- PRESIDENT Bush spoke at great length about Social Security reform on Wednesday — but all anybody wants to talk about is The Hug. The president sent a clear message to the potentates of the Middle East that they need to start thinking about liberty — but all that seems to have paled next to The Hug.
And why not? The embrace we all witnessed during the State of the Union between the grieving mother of an American soldier killed in action and an Iraqi woman who exercised the franchise for the first time on Sunday was one of the most powerful TV images ever broadcast.

It was fraught with so much meaning that it's almost impossible to sort it all out. First of all was the expression of loss — the loss of Sgt. Byron Norwood and the pain his death has caused his mother Janet. Second was the very specific expression of gratitude on the part of Safia Taleb al-Suhail, who was able to vote this week in large measure because of the sacrifices of Americans like Norwood.

Both women seemed overwhelmed by the moment — two ordinary people from opposite sides of the world sitting in the balcony of the House chamber, to whom the president of the United States was paying tribute in part because of the tragedies they have had to endure.

But what made the moment especially meaningful was its symbolic force. It was impossible not to see the two women as indelible representatives of their respective countries — an American mother whose loss helped bring about an immeasurable gain in freedom and dignity for an Iraqi who not all that long ago was a prisoner in a torture chamber of a country.

For years now, opponents of the war have continually brought up the supposed failure of the Iraqi people to greet American military personnel as liberators. No matter that profound expressions of gratitude were in fact commonplace throughout the war and in its aftermath in the Kurdish and Shiite parts of the country.
With no single unforgettable photograph, no 10 seconds of TV coverage, to crystallize the spirit of Iraqi gratitude, it was as though that spirit did not exist.

Instead, compellingly repulsive pictures came to typify the attitude of post-Saddam Iraqis: Baghdad looters, rock-throwing Sunnis, power-hungry Shiite bad boy Muqtada al-Sadr, the hooded terrorists standing behind soon-to-be-decapitated hostages of Iraqis — graphic evidence of an occupation that had supposedly gone awry.
Not any longer. The Hug is now one of the indelible images of the young century. It crystallized the feelings of respect, gratitude and the understanding of American sacrifice on the part of the Iraqis who themselves braved death at the hands of evil terrorists to help bring about a new future.

And it represented the sense among so many military families that their sacrifices — even the unendurable loss of a beloved family member — were not and are not in vain.

The success of the Iraqi elections is not just geostrategically important. It has also provided a salutary antidote to the assault on national pride that has been staged by those who believe the war in Iraq was unnecessary and meaningless.

It had become common for many on the Left to cry crocodile tears for the dead and injured, to use those deaths and injuries as an ideological weapon against the merits and justifications for the war.
But the tears we saw shed on Wednesday night, and the tears we shed ourselves while watching, were the real thing. Sgt. Norwood and all those who have served and are still serving in Iraq have made the world a better place. All glory properly goes to them at a moment of genuine triumph.

E-mail: podhoretz@nypost.com