The "Mad Arab" On Our Side
The first time I saw Lieutenant General John Abizaid on TV, at one of those CentCom briefings, I wondered if his last name was Arab. Turns out, it is. One of the leaders of our military is of Arab descent. National Review has the fascinating story, which speculates that Abizaid may have a key role in leading the reconstruction of post-war Iraq.

Abizaid, Gen. Tommy Franks' right-hand man, had some good things to say at a recent CentCom briefing:

"I would say, as a person who has studied the Arab world and loves the Arab world, that the majority of educated Arabs that I talk to know that Saddam Hussein has been a plague on the Arab world and on his own people, and they welcome his removal," Abizaid said at a briefing at Central Command on Sunday. When asked about how the Iraqis and the Muslim world will react to televised images of American prisoners of war, Abizaid said, "I think that the people of Iraq who see those images will not be heartened, they'll not be encouraged, they'll just regard it as one more brutality inflicted on people by a regime that has inflicted countless brutalities upon their people. The same goes for the rest of the Muslim world. No one has killed more Muslims than Saddam Hussein. So, the sympathies for that regime and for this brutal dictator are not served by the humiliation of our people."

There's also a Clint Eastwood connection.