Muslims attend Eid-al-Fitr prayers on a street in Mumbai, India. Muslims across the world are celebrating Eid al-Fitr, the festival marking the end of the Muslim fasting month of Ramadan.Punit Paranjpe, Reuters
Most people assume that bigotry and prejudice are born of ignorance. Of a lack of education. This is true. But I think it is also based upon an overabundance of “slanted” knowledge.
Like many FA readers, after 9/11, I steeped myself in literature of the Robert Spencer-variety, warning me of the dangers of (radical/political ) Islam. Anyone who wanted to define Islam as “a religion of peace” was ridiculed as being asleep and ignorant; of having drunk the political correctness kool-aid and multiculturalist nonsense. And they were right.
But now, I think we have become so “educated” on Islam, that as mostly outsiders looking in, we have only educated ourselves to the opposite extreme, in our views. And that is just as damaging to fighting and winning the war against Islamic terror as it is to deny that we are engaged in a real war with a radical movement. Yes, radical. Not normative, but extremist, radicalism. Read the rest of this entry »
Israel says Iran will be in a position to begin enriching uranium on a military scale this year.
According to The Jerusalem Post, the new assessment moves up Israel’s forecasts on Tehran’s nuclear program by almost a full year - from 2009 to the end of 2008. According to the new timeline, Iran could have a nuclear weapon by the middle of next year.
The Post, in an execlusive, quoted a senior Iranian defense official as saying the Islamic Republic was now on track to master the technology needed to enrich uranium within six months.
SO! Who’s gonna stop Iran from developing a nuclear bomb (or as many as 40 a year), and most importantly how does one stop Iran from giving a nuke to one of their state-sponsored terrorists seeking martrdom (They give these terrorists bullets, rifles, bombs, and short range missiles…why not a nuke)? Read the rest of this entry »
It’s almost been 8years since the plot to sink either the USS Sullivans or the USS Cole was set in motion. For many time doesn’t matter. Families for the USS Cole victims have tried to meet with President Bush to get him to take action, but after 8 years President Bush refuses to take action against the plotters or to even meet with the families of the USS Cole or its survivors. One would think that if nothing else the photo opportunity would be worthy, but not President Bush.
In the fall of 2006, Congressional Democrats did everything they could to make the war in Iraq their campaign draw issue; the crux of their quest for a majority in the House, and their quest for power. It worked. People believed the promises of a New Direction in Iraq, and DNC lemmings bought every excuse imaginable when no plan was provided (let alone implemented). Since then, the party has claimed that it not only needs a majority, but it needs a 2/3 majority to have unchecked political power. Promised that if such a power were granted, wide-eyed Democratic Party idealists continue to nodd their heads in agreement and appeasement. And then today, the last straw on the camel’s back was put in place: Congressional Democrats did a complete 180 degree turn and broke not one, but TWO of their last remaining campaign for power promises from two years ago.
Having voted for a Democrat for Senate and Democrat for Congress here in Ohio back in Nov 06 (specifically Sen Sherrod Brown and Congressman Tim Ryan), I believe I have the right to demand why the people I elected to power have failed, and why they’ve broken their campaign promises. Lacking such an honest admission that they pandered and misled me, I will not be voting to re-elect them in the future. This fall is going to be interesting.
Maybe it’s because of all the Bush Derangement Syndrome rantings that have left my eyes in a near-permanent rolling motion, but I have to wonder:
If the Iraq War was all about oil [can I get a "NO BLOOD FOR OIL"?], then what will have the more devastating effect on oil prices next year: staying in Iraq and stabilizing the place, or retreating and letting it collapse?
Lord help me, but…I don’t see “Iraq” anywhere in this article. Could it be [COULD IT BE?!] that the war in Iraq isn’t about oil? Could Operation Iraqi Freedom be about Freedom? I know, it’s crazy talk, but the coffee’s strong this morning, so I wonder, while the candidates are whining and pandering and bribing their way to nomination (abomination?), what idea addresses the cost of oil in 2009 best:
a gas tax holiday
a windfall profits tax on any company that makes too much money (oil companies to start with, computers to follow?)
staying in Iraq to stabilize it
retreating from Iraq and gambling on its collapse (if it does collapse post withdrawal, there is no doubt at all that a subsequent third invasion would be infinitely more costly in blood, treasure, and duration)
Or perhaps something else?
What’s the best thing the next President can do to keep oil from reaching $200 barrel next year, and what’s the best course in Iraq given the prospect of $200barrel oil?
Additionally, what should the next President do in terms of Iran given the prospect of $200 barrel oil next year?
Aside from the bullet stopped by an iPod photo, aside from the milbloggers, aside from the tanks that rumbled into Baghdad with thrash metal playing in their intercoms, this is perhaps one of the most poignant demonstrations of the difference between this generation, this war, and previous wars fought by previous generations!
Yeah, I know, it’s McLatchy (and even worse, it’s Strobel), but given that lump o’ salt that comes with anything regarding Iraq from this source, give this a taste. The ill-informed, historical revisionists such as McLatchy and Strobel have now come to recognize that, “Yes, Iranian forces are actually in Iraq, they are killing Americans, and they are preventing the creation of a stable Iraq; preventing the withdrawal of US forces.” Of course, as usual, Strobel prefers to insert DNC talking points into a “news” article (such as the incorrect claim that the Bush Administration has sought to back a secular govt in Iraq), but the fact remains that we have a decidedly anti-Bush/anti-Iraq War source recognizing (albeit without admitting the recognition) that Iran is now the biggest stumbling block towards peace in Iraq. Read the rest of this entry »
First he was missing/presumed dead. Then it was claimed he escaped Iraq and was just another bad guy that got away. Then-after it was clear he was running a giant portion of the insurgency from inside Syria, it was thought he was dead. Later, there were reports that he was captured. This idea was blown away by his interview with TIME magazine. Then they thought he was dead again. Now, international media reports are claiming that Saddam’s senior henchmen, the official successor to Saddam, the head of the Iraqi Baath Party in exile…has been turned over by Syria to Iraqi authorities. US military officials denied it, but the press is sticking to its claim that Izzat Ibrahim al Douri has been captured.
Sooooo, was he captured? I dunno, but if so we should be grateful that the senior thug in Saddam’s regime has been finally taken down. That leaves only Osama and his #2 man Zawahiri at the top of the dead-or-alive list.
More than 40,000 service members are not American citizens, according to U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS). These foreign-born men and women have pledged commitment to the U.S. Constitution by serving in the military and many are availing themselves of a July 2002 executive order making members of the Armed Forces immediately eligible to apply for citizenship.Nearly 5,000 service members have earned U.S. citizenship while serving abroad since 2004.
Five years ago: Ten of the main suspects in the 2000 bombing of the USS Cole escaped from prison in Yemen. American troops took the northern Iraqi city of Mosul without a fight. In Cuba, three men convicted of hijacking a passenger ferry the previous week were executed by firing squad, a swift response by Fidel Castro’s government to a recent string of hijackings to the United States.
two weeks after a US Navy ship in the Suez Canal fired upon a small boat approaching in a manner identical to the attack on the USS Cole
the same day as Iranian terrorist speedboats made a run on a US Navy ship in the Persian Gulf in a manner similar to the attack on the USS Cole
less than a month after a Pentagon report revealed that captured documents from Saddam’s regime showed they had prepared for an operation almost identical to the attack on the USS Cole called Operation Basra Revenge
David Bellavia is a Silver Star recipient, has been nominated for the Congressional Medal of Honor, and (here’s where he undoubtedly earned the disdain of Olbermann) is running as a Republican for Congress. The other day he was at a speaking event and introduced Sen McCain-describing him as a hero.
A hero introduced a hero, and that’s racist because he said, “Tiger Woods” instead of some white athlete.
“IRANIAN forces were involved in the recent battle for Basra, General David Petraeus, the US commander in Iraq, is expected to tell Congress this week.
Military and intelligence sources believe Iranians were operating at a tactical command level with the Shi’ite militias fighting Iraqi security forces; some were directing operations on the ground, they think.
Petraeus intends to use the evidence of Iranian involvement to argue against any reductions in US forces. Read the rest of this entry »
We’ve been hearing for months that the U.S. troop surge has been a security success and a political failure. But with little media fanfare, Iraqis may have just found the key to resolving their differences: old-fashioned politics.
What? I must’ve missed this kind of good news over at Huffington Post, Daily Kos, Salon, and MSNBC etc.
On February 13 the Iraqi parliament simultaneously passed three new laws: one that sets the relationship between the central and provincial governments, a second giving amnesty to thousands of detainees, and a third setting the 2008 national budget. Each piece of legislation is important in its own right, but how the overall compromise came about may prove even more significant than the laws themselves. Read the rest of this entry »
Not everyone is a political junkie, and even few political junkies even like reading the government reports on this or that. However, when it comes to war, shouldn’t we all have some sort of documented list of reasons for war as well as periodic updates? I don’t just mean members of Congress (the body that declares and authorizes war) or the President (the man who gets several detailed, classified updates throughout every day). I mean every American. I’d like to see us all get copies of it in the mail with the checks the Democrats’ Congress is sending us for economic stimulus. Read the rest of this entry »
