The Cool Blue Blog

James Carroll makes stuff up

In his July 4th piece, Boston Globe columnist James Carroll writes

How new is this idea [that all men are created equal] today? Its transforming work continues all around us. Last week, the US Supreme Court faulted the Bush administration for its treatment of detainees in Guantanamo, implicitly affirming that one need not be a citizen of this nation to claim basic rights.

Except, that not what the Supreme Court said in the Hamdan case. They did not affirm that the Bill of Rights applies to terrorists picked up in a war. They didn't even say that they were entitled to be tried in US courts. What they did say was that before the Bush Administration could use any type of proceeding, be they military commissions or something else, they had to get the approval of Congress.

No such deviations from the judiciary proceedings are allowed for US citizens so it is clear that the SCotUS did nothing like what Mr Carroll claims.

James Carroll made it up.

Similarly, in an Op/Ed piece today Mr Carroll again displays is ability to make up a world suited to his needs and pretend it's somehow related to this world.

A new strategy of unilateral action, applied with overwhelming force and preemptive strikes, and focused on protecting access to Persian Gulf oil, would transform the entire region. Upon invading Iraq, US troops would be greeted with flowers. A post-Saddam Hussein democracy in Iraq would spark democratic reforms throughout the Arab world. Fundamentalist Muslims would be discredited. Palestinians and Israelis would come to terms. Iran, faced with ascendant American power, would retreat from its revolution. As for weapons of mass destruction, with nonproliferation replaced by ``counter-proliferation," rogue nations would heel. Best of all, terrorism would be defeated on its home battlefield. America militant and triumphant. Those not supporting this new order would be sorry.

Who's sorry now? Washington was poised to take full credit for the realization of its transformative fantasy in the Middle East. Can Washington accept responsibility for the transformative catastrophe that its new strategic doctrine is even now bringing about?

First, when he points out that the strategy to defeat Islamists would entail "overwhelming force and preemptive strikes, and focused on protecting access to Persian Gulf oil, would transform the entire region" he not only leaves stuff out, he leaves stuff out.

One component he left out was the reconstruction effort as going hand-in-hand with toppling the Iraqi regime. In fact, we have a whole group of soldiers whose task it is to do just that: They are called Civil Affairs Teams. He also fails to note that toppling Hussein did "spark democratic reforms throughout the Arab world". Certainly in Iraq, but also in Lebanon and Egypt, not to mention Kuwait and even Saudi Arabia. Sure it's not a complete change overnight, but Mr. Carroll said spark, though his column expects forest fire. And in Mr Carroll's world, the terrorists are not being fought on their home turf when in the real world, they are.

Start with Iraq. ``Without Saddam," Wolfowitz predicted in 2002, ``Iraq can have perhaps the best government in the Arab world." With civilian deaths lately running at an average of 100 a day, at what point will the Bush administration acknowledge that Iraq has, instead, a tragic civil war? ``Tyrants respond to toughness," Rice declared ahead of the US invasion . In Iraq, the brutal tyrant is gone. But, under US sponsorship, the Iraqi people now brutalize one another, tribally. The tyrant was replaced by the tyranny of toughness.

This is again the world according to Carroll. It appears he can not tell the difference between people who want a Democratic form of Government and those who oppose it to the point of kidnapping and beheading people. Mr Carroll expects the road to be smooth as silk and calls foul when his made up world doesn't match reality. Perhaps he should have noted in his July 4th Column that the American fight for independence took eight years of blood, sweat and tears.

And not everyone was so sure it was a good idea either.

He might also have pointed out that without a foreign military power aiding us, it would not have happened.

This is because Mr Carroll lives in fantasy land that he made up.

Or perhaps he didn't. Perhaps he is just inhabiting the fantasy world invented by the Leftists. Or by the Hate-Bush-All-The-Time crowd. But I suspect that since the geography of that fantasy world has never been set down on paper, each inventor must make up his or her own landscape.

And in his fantasy world, Mr Carroll not only blames Bush (big surprise) for the fact that since 2000 Hizbollah went unopposed in Southern Lebanon to build and train an Army that would oppose Israel.

That tyranny lives in Israel's brutal -- and increasingly inexcusable -- air war against Lebanon. Israel is wrong, but unlike Washington, it faces a threat that is real. Hezbollah, with support from Iran and Syria, signals the return of an open Arab determination to eliminate the Jewish state.

Mr Carroll refuses to admit that getting rid of Hizbollah would be a boon to Middle East peace and Democracy. What's more, he blame Israel, not Hizbollah. In that he is completely alighned with the Leftists. He also refuses to admit that the very fact of US Forces in Iraq allows Israel the freedom to prosecute this war without having to guard its flanks against Syria and Iran.

When you're making stuff up, you are free to presume that the best case scenerio is the one your hated political opponent envisioned and then you are free to ignore facts, and history, and even inertia to present the world as the complete antithesis of that world.

But there are some who can use the Internet, and they can look stuff up. And they remember the words of President Bush during his State of the Union in 2002 where he talked about a long hard road ahead

Our war on terror is well begun, but it is only begun.  This campaign may not be finished on our watch -- yet it must be and it will be waged on our watch.

We can't stop short.  If we stop now -- leaving terror camps intact and terror states unchecked -- our sense of security would be false and temporary.  History has called America and our allies to action, and it is both our responsibility and our privilege to fight freedom's fight.

But in Mr Carroll's fantasy world, elements of which are much too representative of the fantasy world - or dare I say lie - of the Left is to conveniently forget, or convince their readers to forget, what the real world is like.

Hostage rescue

IRAQI SOLDIERS, MARINES RESCUE THREE HOSTAGES, RECOVER LARGE WEAPONS CACHE

7/26/2006

CAMP FALLUJAH, Iraq  – Marines from Regimental Combat Team 5’s, 1st Battalion, 25th Marine Regiment, and soldiers from 2nd and 4th Brigade, 1st Iraqi Army Division, rescued three Iraqi hostages in an intelligence-driven operation July 23.

The three were personal assistants and bodyguards to Dr. Rafa Hayid Chiad Al-Isaw, an Iraqi government official in Baghdad.

“We are extremely pleased we were able to recover these three Iraqi citizens,” said Col. Larry D. Nicholson, commanding officer for RCT-5. “The safety of Iraqi citizens to move freely about their own country without fear is a priority for U.S and Iraqi forces and we will continue to assist the Iraqi Army and Iraqi Police in ensuring their citizens have a future that is free of terrorism.”

The three were held captive by al-Qaeda insurgents in a spiderhole complex for 27 days. The hostages were beaten with electrical cords, bitten and threatened with their lives at gunpoint by their captors. They were treated by Coalition Forces medical personnel.

The three were taken hostage by al-Qaeda insurgents west of Zaidon, a rural area south of Fallujah. They were rescued near Fuhaylat, southwest of Fallujah.

Also recovered nearby was a significant weapons cache, including a fully-assembled suicide vehicle-borne improvised explosive device. Marines also recovered IEDs and IED-making material, mortar tubes and round, artillery rounds, machine guns, bulk explosives, anti-tank mines, rocket-propelled grenades and launchers, AK-47 assault rifles, small-arms ammunition and video cameras.

Regimental Combat Team 5, partnered with Iraqi Security Force units, is currently conducting counter-insurgency and security operations in the greater Fallujah area.

PHOTOS ARE AVAILABLE UPON REQUEST.  TEXT PROVIDED BY THE PUBLIC AFFAIRS OFFICER FOR MULTINATIONAL FORCE - WEST.   For more information, contact [email protected]

U.S. Central Command
Public Affairs
Spc. Patrick Ziegler
Spc. Chris Erickson
1Lt. Anthony Deiss

Neighborhood bully

So let's say a group of terrorists set up shop in your neighborhood. And they were obvious about it, like bringing in rocket launchers, mortars and the like. Now let's say they set these up by the local elementary school. Then began firing these rockets off while school was in session and then quickly scooted away so that any retalitaory strike would endanger the children but not the terrorists.

Would you support the terrorists?

Here's a picture of Hezbollah doing just that.

Now it's quite true that just looking at that creepy bunch might strike fear in the hearts of ordinary citizens such that they would be unwilling to oppose these neighborhood bullies. And even when the leaflets dropped from the sky by Israeli's telling you to get out of town because the missiles are going to fly, these bullies might try to prevent you.

Because, you see, to them you are more valuable dead than alive.

You are more valueable as a media pawn to show how evil the Israeli's are than you are as an indivdual human.

Because with you lying dead in the street, or more precisely, your children lying dead in the street is more valuable to them than any living civilian. Why? Because of this

Rescuers aided by villagers dug through the rubble by hand. At least 20 bodies wrapped in white sheets were taken away, including 10 children. A row of houses lay in ruins, and an old woman was carried away on a plastic chair.

Villagers said many of the dead were from four families who had taken refuge in on the ground floor of a three-story building, believing they would be safe from bombings.

"We want this to stop!" shouted Mohammed Ismail, a middle-aged man pulling away at the rubble in search for bodies, his brown pants covered in dust. "May God have mercy on the children. They came here to escape the fighting."

"They are hitting children to bring the fighters to their knees," he said.

For while, at the beginning, people were blaming Hizballah for starting the rucus. The terrorists were caught off guard with everyone pointing their fingers at them. They had to do something to regain "victim status" because with the ever vigilant media on the job, that's how you really win wars; by being portrayed as the valient victim. And in turn portraying the enemy as a bully.

Bob Dylan sarcastically sung that song already

Well, the neighborhood bully, he's just one man,
His enemies say he's on their land.
They got him outnumbered about a million to one,
He got no place to escape to, no place to run.
He's the neighborhood bully.

The neighborhood bully just lives to survive,
He's criticized and condemned for being alive.
He's not supposed to fight back, he's supposed to have thick skin,
He's supposed to lay down and die when his door is kicked in.
He's the neighborhood bully.

Well, he knocked out a lynch mob, he was criticized,
Old women condemned him, said he should apologize.
Then he destroyed a bomb factory, nobody was glad.
The bombs were meant for him.
He was supposed to feel bad.
He's the neighborhood bully.

Well, the chances are against it and the odds are slim
That he'll live by the rules that the world makes for him,
'Cause there's a noose at his neck and a gun at his back
And a license to kill him is given out to every maniac.
He's the neighborhood bully.

Now one would think that people, even the common Lebanese would be able to tell the bully from victim. But you would be mistaken

Responsibility for the Israeli airstrikes that killed at least 54 civilians sheltering in a home in the Lebanese village of Qana rests squarely with the Israeli military, Human Rights Watch said today. It is the latest product of an indiscriminate bombing campaign that the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) have waged in Lebanon over the past 18 days, leaving an estimated 750 people dead, the vast majority of them civilians. "Today's strike on Qana, killing at least 54 civilians, more than half of them children, suggests that the Israeli military is treating southern Lebanon as a free-fire zone," said Kenneth Roth, Executive Director of Human Rights Watch. "The Israeli military seems to consider anyone left in the area a combatant who is fair game for attack."

This latest, appalling loss of civilian life underscores the need for the U.N. Secretary-General to establish an International Commission of Inquiry to investigate serious violations of international humanitarian law in the context of the current conflict, Roth said. Such consistent failure to distinguish combatants and civilians is a war crime. A statement issued today by the IDF said that responsibility for the Qana attack "rests with the Hezbollah" because it has used the area to launch "hundreds of missiles" into Israel. It added: "Residents in this region and specifically the residents of Qana were warned several days in advance to leave the village."

..."Just because the Israeli military warned the civilians of Qana to leave does not give it carte blanche to blindly attack," Roth said. "It still must make every possible effort to target only genuine combatants. Through its arguments, the Israeli military is suggesting that Palestinian militant groups might 'warn' all settlers to leave Israeli settlements and then be justified in targeting those who remained."

But do they criticize Hezbollah for not warning civilians in Israel before they launch missiles into civilian areas with no (count 'em, zero) military value? Do they criticize Hezbollah for firing those millisles from civilian areas then scooting so the children take the hit?

All Hezbollah does is try to kill civilians. They attempt to kill soldiers only when they are forced to do so.

With regards to bothLebanese and Israeli civilians, Hezbollah has intentionally got them caught in the crossfire.

Well, he's surrounded by pacifists who all want peace,
They pray for it nightly that the bloodshed must cease.
Now, they wouldn't hurt a fly.
To hurt one they would weep.
They lay and they wait for this bully to fall asleep.
He's the neighborhood bully.

Neighborhood Bully Copyright © 1983 Special Rider Music

And in the "one picture is worth a thousand words" department comes this illustration from Blackfive

Sunday Science Roundup

Live long and prosper

We hear talk all the time of environmental dangers to our health, unhealthy life styles, and general health-care issues. And yet, when you step outside the box of local context, and you do the research, you learn facts that may startle you.

New research from around the world has begun to reveal a picture of humans today that is so different from what it was in the past that scientists say they are startled. Over the past 100 years, says one researcher, Robert W. Fogel of the University of Chicago, humans in the industrialized world have undergone “a form of evolution that is unique not only to humankind, but unique among the 7,000 or so generations of humans who have ever inhabited the earth.”

The difference does not involve changes in genes, as far as is known, but changes in the human form. It shows up in several ways, from those that are well known and almost taken for granted, like greater heights and longer lives, to ones that are emerging only from comparisons of health records.

The biggest surprise emerging from the new studies is that many chronic ailments like heart disease, lung disease and arthritis are occurring an average of 10 to 25 years later than they used to. There is also less disability among older people today, according to a federal study that directly measures it. And that is not just because medical treatments like cataract surgery keep people functioning. Human bodies are simply not breaking down the way they did before.

Even the human mind seems improved. The average I.Q. has been increasing for decades, and at least one study found that a person’s chances of having dementia in old age appeared to have fallen in recent years.

This trend, it turns out, is only partly attributable to better medical care. And these benefits are not just for the wealthy nations.

Rim of the Earth

From Genesis I via Bigelow Aerospace

Fisking Finland...and Europe

"Our whole military operation is a function of the fact that 1559 hasn't been implemented," Israeli Foreign Minister Mark Regev said. "What is Europe willing to do to implement 1559?"

What indeed.

The Finnish Foreign Minister, Erkki Tuomioja, accused

"The Americans still believe the use of military power will deliver results against Hizbollah and they support Israel," he said in an interview with the Finnish weekly magazine Suomen Kuvalehti. "They (the Americans) are not as worried about Lebanese civilians as Europeans," Tuomioja added.

Fighting between Israel and Hizbollah guerrillas has killed 458 people in Lebanon and 51 Israelis in 17 days.

The first thing that irks me about this, as well as the media coverage, is that how do these people know how many Lebanese civilians are being killed? Take away a dead Hizballah fighters gun and he serves a second purpose after he's expired: He magically becomes a dead civilian.

The fact is, you can not tell how many civilians vs Hizballah bodies lay in the street because Hizballah doesn't wear uniforms...a direct violation of the Geneva Conventions the last time I checked.

On the other hand, we know exactly how many Israeli civilians vs IDF are killed, yet the Finnish Foreign Minister apparently doesn't care one bit about Israeli civilians.

The fact that the IDF wears uniforms doesn't matter much because it has been proved over and over again that Islamists and Hizballah in particular will kill a civilian as easily as a soldier. In fact these cowards would rather face a civilian than a soldier.

And could these Europeans really be so arrogant as to believe that they are more sensitive to civilian casualties than Americans or Israelis? Does Hizallah send rockets with leaflets telling civilians to evacuate before they send missiles with ball bearings? Does Hizballah tell their own civilians to evacuate before they start a war? Does Hizballah put on uniforms so that civilians will be less likely to be injured after they picked a fight with the most accomplished military machine in the Middle East? And while I'm asking rhetorical questions, I might as well ask this one: Is Erkki Tuomioja a fucking moron and if so, is the Finnish Government in the habit of appointing fucking morons to high government positions?

And you know what else? I am very tired of the self-absorbed European leadership thinking that they are morally superior to the US and Israel because they want peace at all costs while we insist on peace only when it does not involve suicide.

The fact is Europe in general has not been friendly to Jews. Ever in history. And the fact that they now feign sensitivity to Lebanese civilians and disregard Jewish civilians is just one more indicator that not much has changed among the "civilized".

Finland, and Europe can take their affected sensitivity and shove it up their collective asses unless and until they are willing to put guns on the ground in Southern Lebanon and be willing to shoot and kill people to assure that both Jewish and Lebanese civilians are safe.

Star Chores: Cab Fare

Cathy moved fast, feeling her way down the hall. Behind her she could hear distant crashing, then some phasor fire, and then silence.

"Damn it, Teresa ," she thought. "You had better not die." She decided to wait where she was in the darkness, phasor pointed back up towards the door. Suddenly a powerful flashlight blazed on. She could not see who was behind the bright light. She held her breath, waiting motionless.

For those who think we're not at war

If you are one of those who think that terrorism perpetrated by Islamic fascists is simply a law enforcement issue, and not a war, I would like to point out the following:

First, as I've mentioned before, Hizballah is acting more like a well-trained army than a group of mush-headed religionists like we see in Iraq. Bill Roggio quotes the Jerusalem Post and comments on it

The Jerusalem Post provides further information about the fighting in the town the IDF recently claimed was under their control.

Dozens of Hizbullah gunmen armed with antitank missiles and machine guns and geared up in night-vision goggles and bulletproof vests set a trap for a force of Golani infantrymen... [Lieutenant Colonel Yaniv] Asor and his men moved quickly through approximately 15 one-story homes. But as the troops moved through the narrow alleyways, a strong Hizbullah force sent a wave of gunfire and missiles at the force, killing and wounding several soldiers in the first moments of the fight. As Asor and his men fought to regain control of the situation, other Hizbullah cells outflanked them and opened fire on the force as well as other IDF positions in the town... The battle lasted for several hours during which Asor and his men sustained heavy casualties and killed at least 40 Hizbullah guerrillas, some in gunbattles at point-blank range... Wednesday evening, after the IDF had once again declared it had secured the town, a Paratrooper force nearby was hit by a Sagger antitank missile... [1 IDF paratrooper was killed and three wounded]

There is one problem with the description: the statement "other Hizballah cells outflanked them" should read "other Hizballah squads outflanked them." Terrorist cells are by definition clandestine in nature. This ambush was the work of well trained and well armed infantry, conducting attacks at the squad and platoon level.

I would also add to this that Israel would not be taking such heavy casualties if it just decided to bomb the town out of existence. But such a decision would kill many civilians and so Israel is doing the risky work of going house to house. Of course, this is the very purpose of Hizballah's embedding themselves within the civilian population.

They know our side is moral. They see this as a weakness and are exploiting it.

Now consider that even though the top Wahabi Cleric in Saudi Arabia, Abdullah bin Jabreen, has issued a Fatwa against Hizballah, al Qaida has formally allied themselves with the Iranian surrogate.

One of Saudi Arabia's leading Wahhabi sheiks, Abdullah bin Jabreen has issued a strongly worded religious edict, or fatwa, declaring it unlawful to support, join or pray for Hezbollah, the Shiite militias lobbing missiles into northern Israel....

...the Kuwaiti based cleric condemned the imperial ambitions of Iran regarding Hezbollah's cross border raid.

Meanwhile al Qaida continues to threaten the world

"Oh Muslims everywhere, I call on you to fight and become martyrs in the war against the Zionists and the crusaders," the Egyptian born former doctor said.

"The war with Israel does not depend on ceasefires... It is a jihad for God's sake and will last until religion prevails ... from Spain to Iraq," al-Zawahiri said.

The reason why there is no a similarly capable army in Iraq and Afghanistan is precisely because the West is on top of them continually destroying they ability to organize and sustain effective training and infrastructure.

But under UN oversite, when left alone, these terrorist bands can coalesce into an effective and militarily significant force.

"Hezbollah also possesses mortars, RPGs, anti-tank and anti-personnel mines, anti-tank missiles and possibly surface to air missiles.... Hezbollah is using infantry tactics and fighting at the squad and platoon level."

The IDF's slow advance (over two days) into Bint Jubayl and the ambush on a tank unit were clear indications of Hezbollah's abilities to stand up to the IDF as well as the IDF's cautious nature on the battlefield. Yesterday we confirmed Hezbollah is fighting at the company level, has specialized units (mortars, antitank, logistics, etc.) in its combat units and is using sophisticated communications equipment, body armor and other gear.

When you realize this, and you consider that al Qaida has established a new safe-haven in Somalia you have to conclude that we are in a global war with a dangerous and pitiless enemy.

At the same time, the divisions within our government and our people, combined with the Press' obsession with highlighting civilian casualties, can we even fight the enemy effectively?

In WWII we first defeated the enemy, then we rebuilt. But here, we are literally rebuilding at the same time we are trying to fight a war. But there is no helping that since if we just left places like Afghanistan and Iraq alone, they would surely breed the same type of force we now see in Southern Lebanon.

The World needs to get more involved. While we are busy in Iraq and Afghanistan we need to have German troops in Somalia and French troops keeping control in the Horn of Africa, etc, etc.

I am concerned that by the time the world wakes up, and that includes people within the US realizing that the Left (not liberals but The Left) has indeed allied themselves with the enemy, it just might be too late.

It is useful to remember that in the just released tape, not only did al-Zawahri say

"It is a Jihad for the sake of God and will last until (our) religion prevails ... from Spain to Iraq, ....We will attack everywhere."

but

A picture of the burning World Trade Center was on the wall behind him along with photos of two other militants. One appeared to be a bearded Mohammed Atta, the Egyptian ringleader of the Sept. 11 attacks. The other was Mohammed Atef, also known as Abu Hafs al-Masri, a former top lieutenant of bin Laden who was killed in a U.S. airstrike in Afghanistan in November 2001.

For those who think we are not at war, you had better be right.

Because until we all get on the same page, we are going to lose.

For those of you who think that by attacking the enemy with the intent of destroying him militarily you create more of the enemy, consider that Israel withdrew from Lebanon. Israel withdrew from Gaza. Israel with took down their settlements. And they did this unilaterally without a assurance from the other side.

And look how that turned out.

The convenient semite

In his on-going jihad against the President, Howard Dean today whipped up the Communist/Socialist Progressive Left by rejecting the Democratically elected leader of Iraq, Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki.

"The Iraqi prime minister is an anti-Semite," the Democratic leader told a gathering of business leaders in Florida. "We don't need to spend $200 and $300 and $500 billion dollars bringing democracy to Iraq to turn it over to people who believe that Israel doesn't have a right to defend itself and who refuse to condemn Hezbollah."

It is quite true that to the ideological Left, Democracy is only Democracy when they agree with the outcome.

What Gov. Dean doesn't know, because he is too busy leading a Leftist Jihad to keep up with world events, is that Iraq supported the position of Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Kuwait and Egypt against Iran, Syria and Hizballah at the Arab League meeting a few days ago.

"The foreign minister said, 'I was at the meeting of the Arab League last week, I was directed by the prime minister to join with Jordan, Saudi Arabia and Egypt to condemn Hezbollah and we do that.'"

It is also true that being the Leader of a mostly Shi'ite country, he has to both show that he is neither a lap dog of the US Government and that he pays tacit support to Shia' organizations as a matter of political expediency. He needs to build coalitions within his country. That's how Democracy works.

Now there was time that Gov Dean himself was willing to deal with terrorists for political expedience.

In February 1999, he said, "The next great tragedy is going to be Arafat's passing, believe it or not." He said the Israelis had thrown away an opportunity to negotiate with Mr. Arafat. "Next comes Hamas, comes far more radical government in Jordan," he said. "I think it's a frightening proposition."

But the fact is one terrorist is not any better than another as events eventually proved out.

But it seems that Gov Dean can forgive himself for supporting the anti-Semitic Yassar Arafat for political purposes but not Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki.

Of course, in both instances it was convenient for Dean to do so.

Politically expedient, you might say.

And Prime Minister al-Maliki made a point of thanking Americans, and especially the US military.

Something Howard Dean has never himself done.

And most importantly, Gov. Dean made his remarks without ever meeting the Prime Minister. The Democrat Top Dog in the Senate did meet him and said

Reid said he "felt [the Iraqi delegation] did a decent job of trying to temp that down so, you know, I feel better having gone to the breakfast," Reid said.

Reid said he's "not going to push the issue anymore" and the "point has been made" that al-Maliki "needs to be more guarded in what he says."

As does Gov Dean

Meanwhile in "Free" Britain...

What is a forced marriage?

Forced marriage is defined by the Foreign and Commonwealth Office as “a marriage conducted without the full and free consent of both parties, where duress is a factor”

England, until recently, was considering making a law banning forced marriage. But they decided against it, "prompted by fears that the new law would stigmatise Muslims".

Between 2003 and 2005, 518 forced marriages were recorded in London, and in 2005 more than 140 in Bradford. Campaigners say those are merely the tip of the iceberg.

Most cases in Britain involve Muslim families, although the practice is not restricted to any particular religious or ethnic group.

True, but

“More than 60 per cent of cases involve Muslim families, particularly Pakistani Muslim families, yet there is no faith foundation for it A forced marriage in Islam is no marriage at all. The community has a responsibility. I hear dialogue from victims but I don’t hear a great deal from Muslim men.”

It appears most of the rest are Asian.

And

Most victims are aged between 16 and 20 and many suffer physical assault, death threats and false imprisonment, usually at the hands of close family members.

First considering, then deciding against, such a law implicitly condones it, it seems to me.

Commander Steve Allen of the Metropolitan Police said that a decision by ministers last month to drop proposed legislation had been greeted by some ethnic minorities as a signal that forced marriage was acceptable.

No surprise there.