Well, wouldn’t you know it. The New York Times has been forced to admit that their doom and gloom reporting on Sadr and his thugs have been wrong. And on the front page of all pages.
Three hundred miles south of Baghdad, the oil-saturated city of Basra has been transformed by its own surge, now seven weeks old. Read the rest of this entry »
This is going to drive many of you nuts (Robert Spencer certainly isn’t happy about it….I suppose he doesn’t want to change his site’s name to JihadHirabahwatch), but….
‘Jihadist’ among words struck from official lexicon
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 »
Now how will the MSM spin this?
Followers of rebel cleric Muqtada al Sadr agreed late Friday to allow Iraqi security forces to enter all of Baghdad’s Sadr City and to arrest anyone found with heavy weapons in a surprising capitulation that seemed likely to be hailed as a major victory for Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al Maliki.
In return, Sadr’s Mahdi Army supporters won the Iraqi government’s agreement not to arrest Mahdi Army members without warrants, unless they were in possession of “medium and heavy weaponry.” Read the rest of this entry »
Children greet a U.S. soldier of Alpha Troop, 3-89 CAV while on patrol in central Baghdad’s Fadhil district, April 16, 2008. This is a long post, as I’ve combined 3 items together which I feel have a related theme in them; namely, why we need to persevere and “stay the course” in Iraq; why it is the right thing to do. As Arthur Herman writes in the WSJ (a shorter version of a piece he wrote for Commentary Magazine, Who Owns the Vietnam War?), after drawing the correct lessons from Vietnam (which 2 of the 3 presidential candidates have failed to do),
The judgment of history, as Raymond Aron once remarked, is without pity. History will judge how America and its leaders handle global responsibility in Iraq and the Middle East in the next decade.
As Winston Churchill said of the appeasement of Hitler at Munich, in 1975 Americans were “weighed in the balance and found wanting.”
We have a responsibility to the Iraqis – and to the memory of those we left behind – not to let that happen again.
Please take the time to read the following three stories. One is from an Iraqi blog, the 2nd is Hugh Hewitt’s interview with Michael Yon this past week, and the third is from a NYTimes Baghdad Bureau employee who escaped to Syria, but has since returned to Baghdad, not quite sure whether to believe the stories he heard, that the situation there has improved…
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.
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.
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:
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?
Bill Roggio updates us on the fight against the Sadr thugs with news that 42 Iraqi police and 35 hospital workers have been arrested for colluding with the thugs AND 520 confirmed kills:
US and Iraqi troops and US air weapons teams killed 11 Mahdi Army fighters as they attacked barrier emplacement teams and planted roadside bombs in Sadr City on the night of May 5 and the morning of May 6. Iraqi soldiers and police also uncovered numerous weapons caches in northern and eastern Baghdad. In one raid, Iraqi police discovered a weapons cache in the courtyard of the Imam Ali Mosque in the Al Ghadeer neighborhood in New Baghdad. “The [National Police] found five explosively formed projectiles, two improvised explosive devices, five rocket rails, three grenades and numerous rounds of various ammunitions,” Multinational Forces Iraq reported. Read the rest of this entry »
Michael Yon writes a article filled with common sense on why there was an uptick in causalities in Iraq recently and the left responds by making snide comments such as this headline from Firedoglake: “Michael Yon: More Americans Getting Killed In Iraq Means We’re Winning.”
Puhlease.
Is it really that hard to understand? Or do they, as I suspect, just ignore the common sense so they can wail and gnash their teeth at Bushitler and “his war?” Read the rest of this entry »
DJ Elliot at The Long War Journal updates us on the Iraqi Security Forces Order of Battle. Its a detailed piece but some of it stood out to me:
The 1st Iraqi Army Division has officially joined the 9th Iraqi Army Mechanized Division as a part of the Iraqi Ground Forces Command Quick Reaction Forces. The forces currently under 1st Division in Basrah are the 1st, 3rd, 14th, and 26th Brigades from Anbar and Salahadin Provinces. Their rapid deployment to Basrah with no notice indicated a significant improvement in Iraqi Army capabilities. In August 2006, the Iraqi Army couldn’t deploy three battalions to Baghdad with a month’s notice. They had some difficulty deploying three brigades to Baghdad in early 2007 with plenty of notice. Now they are able to deploy an entire division to Basrah in five days with no notice. This would be difficult even for the US Army to accomplish.
When you train them well, and with patience….miracles can happen. Additionally DJ updates us on new Iraqi engineer units, and a new reconnaissance battalion trained by US Special Forces. Read the rest of this entry »
It’s that time of the year again, folks:
Republican John McCain said President Bush should not be held responsible for the much-criticized “Mission Accomplished” banner five years ago, but he should be blamed for bungling the early months of the war.
On Thursday, the fifth anniversary of Bush’s dramatic landing on an aircraft carrier where the banner hung, McCain said, “I thought it was wrong at the time.”
“So all I can tell you was that I was the strongest advocate, or one of the strongest advocates, for changing to adopt the surge,” McCain told reporters. “And I think that history will judge me by the fact that I thought it was wrong.”
McCain said he can’t blame Bush for the banner. After shifting explanations, the White House eventually said the “Mission Accomplished” phrase referred to the carrier’s crew completing its 10-month mission, not the military completing its mission in Iraq.
I’ve blogged on this almost every year. It was a great speech, whose contents are overshadowed by the “Mission Accomplished” banner, spun by the derision of political opponents and war critics.
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 »
I wrote about Douglas Feith’s 60 Minutes interview when it aired.
Wednesday, Feith enjoyed a 3 hour interview on the Hugh Hewitt Show (Pt1, 2, 3. Transcript here).
Friday, I bought the book from Borders bookstore in Westwood. Check out the website for the book. There are important documents to peruse through, there.
Douglas Feith’s website (check out the documents and myths vs. facts pages).
Also blogging:
American Power
Hugh Hewitt
Just yesterday the MSM printed one more of their “sky is falling” diatribes about Sadr and the push by Maliki to ensure the federal government has control of the entire country:
Muqtada al-Sadr is considering setting aside his political ambitions and restarting a full-scale fight against U.S.-led forces — a worrisome shift that may reflect Iranian influence on the young cleric and could open the way for a shadow state protected by his powerful Mahdi Army.
A possible breakaway path — described to The Associated Press by Shiite lawmakers and politicians — would represent the ultimate backlash to the Iraqi government’s pressure on al-Sadr to renounce and disband his Shiite militia.
Oh boy…the “ultimate backlash!” Read the rest of this entry »
Mike's America (66)
Aye Chihuahua (54)
yonason (50)
MataHarley (41)
sky55110 (41)
doug (39)
Uddercha0s (33)
Scott Malensek (28)
john Ryan (28)
Machiavelli (22)
