Black GOLD

Yes, as oil prices are now past $120 a barrel, market watchers are now looking foward to $200 barrel oil, it’s causes and effects.

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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?

Is it any wonder Hamas endorses Barack Obama for President? The man is soft as jello:

So, its fine and dandy to invade an ally, ie Pakistan, but if Iran nukes Israel its not fine to attack Iran? Read the rest of this entry »

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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 »

Shocker!

“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 »

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 »

A perfect example of the lefty spin on the McCain “gaffe” that wasn’t a gaffe is this conference call Michael Goldfarb participated in with the Center of American Progress (a leftist organization) that included Jon Stoltz, founder of VoteVets.org…, Brian Katulis, a senior fellow at CAP, and Ilan Goldberg of the National Security Network:

Goldberg said McCain “fundamentally misunderstands the problem of what’s actually going on in Iraq.” He says each insurgent group has “its own interests” and “they’re all fighting each other.” Katulis then said that McCain “lacks a basic mastery of the facts,” and that “he doesn’t understand the challenges that America faces.” (Hit them where they’re strongest!)

Then the questions. First Laura Meckler of the Wall Street Journal asks if there are “groups within Iran” that have supported al Qaeda. Jon Stoltz replies that Iran “almost went to war with the Taliban.” He says “I fought these people.” She repeats, is there “any Iranian influence with al Qaeda?” Stoltz responds, “Not from what I saw on the ground in Iraq.” Meckler again, “well you won’t necessarily see from the ground in Iraq…” Stoltz cuts her off, “we’re the ones who do the fighting.” Meckler says “I understand that but you can’t see every influence from a neighboring country, I mean are you really saying because you didn’t personally see it, it doesn’t exist?” Stoltz says “not from the people we fought.” Read the rest of this entry »

So, a film condemning a religion because it oppresses women, homosexuals, freedom of religion and Democracy might be censored in the name of human rights. Gotta love it!

IRAN WARNS DUTCH LAWMAKER’S ANTI-KORAN FILM WILL ‘BREED VIOLENCE’

THE HAGUE, Netherlands — Iran warned on Tuesday that an anti-Quran film by a maverick right-wing Dutch lawmaker would “breed violence” and said the Dutch government could ban it based on the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

Geert Wilders, leader of the Freedom Party, has said he plans to air the film this month, though no date has been set. The government says it is powerless to ban the film before seeing its contents and is wary of breaching Wilders’ right to freedom of expression. Read the rest of this entry »

Shocker!

The U.N. nuclear watchdog chief said on Monday he would pursue an investigation into intelligence reports that say Iran secretly studied how to make atom bombs.

Iran’s envoy to the International Atomic Energy Agency said the intelligence was fake and said an IAEA report on February 22 showed Iran had answered all outstanding questions and certified its nuclear intentions were wholly peaceful.

IAEA Director Mohamed ElBaradei disputed this, saying that while improved Iranian transparency had settled some doubts about its activities, intelligence suggesting Tehran sought to “weaponize” nuclear materials remained a pressing issue. Read the rest of this entry »

Yes, we’ve heard since 2000 that President Bush should be impeached, and probably for as long that Vice President Cheney should be impeached. We hear it exclusively from people who are uber-partisan, seeking personal political gain, or ignorant of the facts, but we do hear it. Congressman Dennis Kucinich was nice enough to actually draft and submit three articles of impeachment for Vice President Cheney (I guess he and his supporters either want President Bush to stay President or don’t feel he’s committed any high crimes and misdemeanors after all). Since the articles were formally submitted, few people who keep track of the historical record or who are left of Howard Dean have taken the time to actually read Congressman Kucinich’s rantings. This weekend, I did, and I found the articles to be purely partisan, lacking factual substance, and (in the case of Article III) lacking common sense. Read the rest of this entry »

I’m sure it’s not the way they hoped the news would be reported, but US and Iraqi forces captured one of the leaders of the insurgency who has been using Iranian armor-piercing EFP (explosively formed projectiles) to kill Americans. Looks like he’s a member of Iran’s Special Forces (or at the very least working with them).

On that same day, Iranian diplomats confirmed that their President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is personally coming to Baghdad. That’ll be quite the scene given the bad blood leftover from the Iran/Iraq war and the 1-2million people who died in it. One way or the other, by force or by diplomacy, Iran will have to stop killing Americans and Iraqis inside Iraq.

“I guess she learned this childish tactic from her kids,” countered David Almasi, executive director of the conservative National Center for Public Policy Research.”What’s next? Holding her breath until her face turns blue? Lawmakers should not be intimidated into action by force, graft or inane publicity stunts,” Almasi told Cybercast News Service.

…well…at least America’s Twinkies are safe for the time being. Read the rest of this entry »

The IAEA is useless. It failed to stop Saddam from pursuing nuclear weapons, and in 1981 the Israelis had to strike the Osirik reactor facility to prevent him from becoming a nuclear power with the world’s 4^th largest military as well. From 1981-1991, the IAEA effectively did nothing to stop Saddam’s nuclear ambitions. After Operation Desert Storm, the IAEA was on the verge of declaring that Saddam’s nuclear program had been destroyed in the war, but the defection of regime leaders revealed that Saddam had successfully hidden his program and even built a bomb (which only lacked enriched weapons grade uranium to be complete). Many of the facilities were subsequently destroyed, but in the summer of 2002 satellite imagery showed that buildings at Saddam’s nuclear facilities had been rebuilt. Inspectors went back into Iraq in late 2002, and in just a few weeks were ready to declare that Saddam’s nuclear facilities were destroyed. They failed to point out that literally hundreds of tons of partially enriched, highly dangerous uranium remained. After the invasion, former weapons inspectors found that Saddam had in fact successfully hidden key components and designs needed to restart his nuclear program, and he himself confessed that he had every intention of restarting his program once inspections were completely collapsed or removed.

This entity also failed to detect the Pakistani nuclear program, the Indian nuclear program, the AQ Khan nuclear black market network, the Libyan nuclear program, the Syrian nuclear program, and the North Korean nuclear program. It failed to stop any of those programs. It also failed to detect or stop the Iranian nuclear program (peaceful or belligerent, it went undetected by the IAEA).

So I ask, what relevance does this group have given the history of seeing no evil, hearing no evil, and doing nothing against evil (though it has been consistent in chastising those who take action against nuclear programs run by rogue, terrorist-supporting, dictatorial regimes)?

UPDATE:

Britain’s ambassador to the IAEA, Simon Smith, said the material presented to the board of governors on Monday contained information about possible weapons work beyond that date.

“Certainly some of the dates that we were talking about, or that the secretariat was presenting in there, went beyond 2003,” Smith said…

Diplomats attending the briefing said the material presented to the board of governors had infuriated Iranian ambassador Ali Asghar Soltanieh…

The board was presented with material “from multiple sources” suggesting “detailed work put into the designing of the warhead, studying how that warhead would perform, how it would be detonated and how it would be fitted to a Shahab-3 missile,” Smith said.

The material was “serious and substantial,” the ambassador continued.

And it underlined the IAEA secretariat’s concern that the deficit of confidence in Iran, rather than being reduced, “if anything, is getting deeper,” he said.

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sm-THANK YOU CAPTAIN OBVIOUS

More news from around the world. When viewing the 24 Hour “News” cycles made up of 30 second sound bytes, one realizes that the important news is not what the actors/actresses reading teleprompters are saying. The important information is silently scrolling across the bottom of the screen in ticker tape fashion.

Three stories today:

From the UK: Sharia law may result in ‘legal apartheid’

Senior religious leaders attack multiculturalism and sharia law today, warning that they are “disastrous”, socially divisive and are destroying Britain’s culture and values.

Lord Carey and Cardinal Cormac Murphy-O’Connor rebut the call of the Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr Rowan Williams, for Islamic law to be recognised in Britain.

Lord Carey, the former archbishop of Canterbury, said: “His acceptance of some Muslim laws within British law would be disastrous for the nation. He has overstated the case for accommodating Islamic legal codes.

“His conclusion that Britain will eventually have to concede some place in law for aspects of sharia is a view I cannot share.

“There can be no exceptions to the laws of our land which have been so painfully honed by the struggle for democracy and human rights.”

Read the rest of this entry »

After yesterday’s rare, yet honest display of open hostility towards the Marines, by representatives of Code Pink and Veterans For Peace. I present you with a clip from a panel discussion I attended at CPAC. The speaker is SSG David Bellavia and he is describing the importance of Iraq and Afghanistan to him and his three fellow panelists.

There is no pithy commentary that I can compose that can improve upon David’s statements: