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.
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Children greet a U.S. soldier of Alpha Troop, 3-89 CAV while on patrol in central Baghdad’s Fadhil district, April 16, 2008.
REUTERS/Erik De Castro

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…
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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.

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They’re heeeeeeeeere…..

In House Judiciary Committee testimony, Mueller was asked about cells of Al Qaida in the country. 
 
“As to your first question as to whether we have found affiliates or, as you would call them, cells of Al Qaida in the United States, yes, we have. Again, I cannot get into it in public session, but I would say yes, we have.”

LINK

Perhaps President Obama will ask his FBI Director who they are so he can invite them to the White House to talk?  You know, like FDR did to Hitler, Mussolini, and Tojo.

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.

LINK

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.

LINK

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!

LINK

This research and investigation comes from very frustrated, but dedicated people monitoring the rise of militant Islam (though history shows no other form) in the West. They are well researched, informed, and as expected, the West is ignoring them. In essence, these Islamists are well funded, entrenched, and now politically coddled groups within the United States and Canada. They are also deadly with a long history of attacks against “infidels” of all stripes.

From the New English Review

Jamaat ul-Fuqra
“The best positioned group to help al-Qaeda launch an attack in the US.”
by Jerry Gordon

Wall Street Journalist Danny Pearl was on his way to a meeting with Jamaat ul-Fuqra (JF) founder, Sheik Mubarak Ali Gilani in Lahore, Pakistan on January 22, 2002. He was on the hunt for al Qaeda connections when he was abducted and slaughtered by Islamic Extremist and British citizen, Ahmed Omar Saeed Sheikh.

Were there any connections between the shadowy Sheik Gilani and the murder of Pearl? Pakistani authorities had Gilani jailed and later put under house arrest. Given the turmoil in that country, we may never know the extent of his involvement.

What we do know is that since the founding of JF, or the “community of the impoverished,” by Gilani in 1980, a network of 45 paramilitary training camps in the US and Canada have been created. The group here in the US has committed attacks and robberies, acquired contraband arms, engaged in counterfeit activities, and proselytized effectively among Afro-American prison inmates. JF members participated in the 1993 terror bombing of the World Trade Center.

JF seeks to “purify Islam” through violence.

What is of great concern is that federal and state law enforcement authorities have investigated and monitored JF and its front group Muslims of the Americas (MoA) and delisted the group as a terrorist organization. Nor has the IRS taken away MoA’s charitable tax exempt status.

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LINK

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

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.

LINK

Douglas Feith has been much maligned by Iraq war opponents. In advance of his book release last Tuesday, 60 Minutes ran an interview with Feith, one of the architects of the Iraq War, last Sunday. I was at a weekend festival and missed it; but thanks to the wonders of the internet as well as CBS 60 Minutes now making their video archives embeddable, here is the interview:

This is the only time that I can recall 60 Minutes conducting a book-release interview that was not by an anti-Administration author or by someone who appears to be a Bush critic.

I certainly don’t believe, however, that 60 Minutes conducted the interview to allow Feith to “set the record straight” and dispel media myths. It’s more like, “let’s watch the hawkish neocon hang himself as he tries to rationalize away the debacle that is the Iraq invasion and occupation”.

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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.

Link

Why do they do it? Read the rest of this entry »