Archive for the ‘Middle East Conflicts’ Category
by Jim Kouri, CPP
A Gold Star Mother is urging American troops to snub Sen. John Kerry during his visit to Iraq. "I'm asking our men and women in Iraq to not allow themselves to be forced to pose with Kerry during his photo ops," said Debra Bastian, who lost her son in Iraq in 2005.
"This man is a disgrace. He should be shunned by those serving in Iraq. He is not their friend. They [the soldiers] should not be forced to pose for pictures with Kerry the way they did when Sen. Hillary Clinton visited Iraq," she said.
The Massachusets senator is in the Middle East reportedly to meet with the presidents of Iran and Syria. While visiting Egypt, he also took a number of swipes at President Bush and his Middle East policy.
While in Egypt, critics say Kerry pandered to hatred for Israel in order to score points with the Egyptians.
"Kerry hasn't changed from his days as a anti-war protester who spouted lies against his fellow soldiers," said the angry Bastian.
by Thomas E. Brewton
Two of the basic recommendations in the Iraqi Study Group Report are utterly unrealistic. In each case the Study Group, in typical liberal-socialist fashion, bases its proposals upon the theoretical assumption that everyone sees the world as they do.
First, stating that the war in Iraq cannot be won without unified support here in the United States, the Study Group recommends that appropriate steps be taken to gain support from those opposed to the war.
One might as well have called for Hitler's support of the Allies' D-Day invasion in World War II. We are engaged in a cultural civil war in the United States in which fundamental compromise is impossible. Liberal Republicans and Democrats are engaged in a jihad against our founding Judeo-Christian principles, a jihad in which there is no middle ground.
by Thomas Lindaman
To the Honorable Senator John F. Kerry (D-MA):
I read with great interest your recent speech at a rally for California gubernatorial candidate Phil Agenlides where you said the following:
"Education, if you make the most of it, you study hard and do your homework and you make an effort to be smart you can do well. If you don’t, you get stuck in Iraq."
By way of introduction, allow me to offer a bit of personal history. Unlike you, I did not serve in our military. However, I have friends and extended family who have either served or are currently serving. I have traced my lineage back to two relatives who fought for the Union during the Civil War. Even though I chose not to serve, I feel more than qualified to comment on your statements.
I found your statement deeply offensive. But your attempts to spin your ill-advised statement into an attack on Republicans and conservatives were even more offensive. Allow me to point out something else you said:
"I apologize to no one for my criticism of the President and his broken policy."
Sir, your comment wasn’t criticizing the President or his "broken policy." It was directed to college students. Nowhere in the statement you made about education did you reference the President by name or by insinuation. Your response is intellectually dishonest at best.
To compound the problem, you blamed your statement not on a momentary lapse of reason, but on a purposeful misinterpretation of your statement. Here is what you said:
"…my statement yesterday, and the White House knows this full well, was a botched joke about the president and the president’s people, not about the troops."
First off, how would the Bush Administration know your intent? It was your statement, not theirs. Second, I have to point out again that you didn’t mention Bush or anyone in the Administration.
By Alan Caruba
http://www.anxietycenter.com
Let me tell you the story of two women in Afghanistan.
Safia Ama Jan was the provincial director for the Ministry of Women’s Affairs when she was murdered in late September by the Taliban outside of her home in Kandahar. She was a woman of immense courage. Her killers, two men on a motorbike who gunned her down and then sped away, were the kind of scum we are fighting in Afghanistan and Iraq.
The Associated Press reported that, “Ama Jan was known as an active proponent of women’s rights in the former Taliban stronghold.” The attack on her was one of “increasingly brazen attacks by militants on government officials and schools in Afghanistan.” I do wish the AP would more accurately use the word “terrorists.” Killing a woman in her 60’s, wearing a full burqa, is the work of murderers intent on spreading terror.
Even during the years the Taliban ruled Afghanistan, Ama Jan secretly conducted classes for young girls. She did so every day at the risk of death. She had been a teacher for thirty years when they killed her. When the United States rid Afghanistan of these murderous thugs, we laid the groundwork for a modern nation.
Last year Taliban, who see themselves as the exemplars of Islam, burned or attacked 146 schools and they have picked up the pace, attacking 158 schools so far this year according to an advisor to Afghanistan’s education minister. Perhaps this is due to the fact that these schools teach girls or perhaps there simply is no room for competition with the madrasses that limit “education” to the Koran and teach only boys.
The enemies of knowledge know how dangerous it can be to a so-called religion that believes it encompasses the only knowledge a Muslim need know or, for that matter, everyone else in the world. The enemies of knowledge are, by definition, the enemies of freedom in Afghanistan and everywhere else.
The other woman was Army Sgt. First Class Merideth Howard of Waukesha, Wisconsin.
Ever since the recent Israel-Hezbollah war, the Hezbollah terrorists have been making headline news. Besides operating openly in Venezuela, Arab newspapers reports they have been recruiting children for militias to be martyrs.
From Ynet News:
Egyptian weekly Roz Al-Yusuf reported that Hizbullah has set up armed militias comprised of more than 2,000 children of shahids aged 10-15 and that the Hizbullah-affiliated “Mahadi Boy Scouts” organization is training them to sacrifice their lives.
“Hizbullah took pure children and established armed militias,” the report said. “Prior to the recent war with Israel these children made annual appearances as “December 14 Units” only in the framework of the Jerusalem Day celebrations, but today they are referred to as "future suicides."
“The children wear camouflage army uniforms, paint their faces black and take the Jihad and Holy War oath,” according to the report. “They are chosen by those responsible for recruitment to Hizbullah only because they are the children of shahids.”
The report said that the Mahadi Boy Scouts organization teaches the children Hizbullah and Shiite ideology, adding that their first lesson was titled ‘Israel is a temporary country.’
It is no secret that the Islam terrorist organizations have recruited children in the past.
by Thomas E. Brewton
The View from 1776
Liberal Republicans, Democrats, and independents declare that our invasion of Iraq was based on lies, was immoral, and now is a failure. Glibly they demand that we simply withdraw our troops from Iraq, but none of them has presented any evidence of thinking about what happens next.
The standard rationale is that, by pulling our troops out, we can concentrate on the presumptive real objective, capturing Osama Bin Ladin. In that simplistic scenario, we end the terrorist threat, and everybody can go back to watching American Idol on TV.
However dangerous Al Queda may be to the future hundreds or thousands of victims of terror attacks, Al Queda cannot at this point threaten our national survival. Iran can and does threaten our continued existence as a nation.
The Middle East situation is like a chess match, in this case against Iran. Making a single move, then walking away from the board forfeits the match to Iran. What happens then?
Iran is emerging as the dominant power in the Middle East, having boxed us and Israel between Hezbollah on the west and Iran itself on the east. Whether Israel renews the military campaign and eventually destroys most of Hezbollah’s military capability or not, Hezbollah emerges as the only military power able so far to stand and fight successfully against the IDF, others having been destroyed in a matter of days or weeks.
Leave it to the New York Times magazine to start rumors of war.
From the Jerusalem Post:
The New Yorker magazine reported that the United States was involved in the planning of Israel's Lebanon offensive, Israel Radio reported on Monday.
According to the magazine, even before the two IDF soldiers were kidnapped, Israeli sources presented the government with a plan for the massive bombing of Hezbollah the next time they provoked Israel.
The report said that US President George W. Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney were convinced that Sibilla's surrender to the IDF would serve Washington's purposes if the US were to attack Iran.
Israeli Ambassador to the US Danny Ayalon denied the claim.
I wonder who is telling the truth?
by Newt Gingrich
Imagine that this morning 50 missiles were launched from Cuba and exploded in Miami. In addition to buildings and homes being destroyed, scores of Americans were being killed. Now imagine our allies responded by saying publicly that we must not be too aggressive in protecting our citizens and that America must use the utmost restraint.
Our history shows us that we, as Americans, would reject such bad advice. After all, we have never reacted to a direct attack on our soil with any restraint. Every time America has been attacked by an enemy, we set about defeating it and ending the threat.
This was true of Pearl Harbor in World War II, after which we replaced the imperial Japanese government. The regimes of Nazi Germany and fascist Italy met the same demise. Without actually being attacked, President Kennedy risked nuclear war to eliminate the threat of Soviet missiles in Cuba. After the 9/11 attacks, we replaced the Taliban in Afghanistan once it became known that they were providing refuge for the al-Qaeda terrorists responsible for the attack. This is our history as Americans. We believe that our government has a duty to protect us.
When compared with U.S. history lessons, the advice of the Group of Eight industrial nations to Israel is wrong. The communiqué says the No. 1 priority is a cease-fire that would effectively leave Hezbollah in possession of all its rockets. We'd never accept such advice for ourselves. The Israelis should not accept it for the same reasons: It would not end the threat.
Israel, a fellow democracy, has the same duty and right to protect its citizens from enemy attack. It is doing so while making every effort to avoid civilian casualties. The Israeli response is wholly justified based on a history where Israeli concessions to the Iran-Syria-Hezbollah-Hamas terrorist alliance have consistently resulted in their enemies preparing for the next attack. The terrorists have been attacking with increased capability, brutality and violence aimed at civilians. This is only the latest cycle in an ongoing 58-year campaign to destroy Israel.
by Tom Attea
If we remember correctly, a person becomes a national hero when he saves, or at least helps save, his country. So we're a bit perplexed that Hassan Nasrallah, the supposed leader of Hezbollah, who is patiently but effectively destroying his country, is being hailed as a hero at home and in much of the Middle East.
How pathetic can hero worship get?
If results influence the estimate of actions, here we have a man who is demonstrably the world's latest master of misjudgment. With the stalwart assistance of his mismanaged adherents, he recklessly abducts two Israeli soldiers and precipitates a war that has so far killed over 1,000 of his own countrymen and reduced much of its infrastructure to tumbledown cement and unintended cemeteries.
Yet is the bearded dolt held responsible for the debacle and excoriated for it? No. He is more of a hero than ever, with his picture painted bigger than life, even on walls he has helped aerate.
Listen to the dolt and then to his fellow terrorist trifle: "If you hit Beirut, the Islamic resistance will hit Tel Aviv and is able to do that with God's help," says Nasrallah in a televised address that was probably taped earlier in some sequestration and aired the day that Israel already dropped leaflets warning residents of some sections of Beirut to evacuate and resumed strikes on Beirut's burbs.
But, we are told, Nasrallah offered an olive branch, bravely announcing Hezbollah would stop rocket attacks on Israel if Israel would stop its attacks inside Lebanon. "You attack our cities, our villages, our civilians, our capital, we will react," he said, as in, Who wouldn't? Then he goes on to say, "At any time you decide to stop your aggressions on our villages and towns and cities and our civilians, we will not hit any settlement or any Israeli city."
Thirty-five years ago I took a college course, Theater 101. One of the topics heavily discussed was the use of guerrilla theater in the demonstrations and riots of the late 1960s. Guerrilla theater was staged activity for the benefit of the news services cameras. It was used and developed by the anti-war and anti-establishment. Those with fake wounds or superficial head wounds received by law enforcement and National Guard troops during many of the riots and demonstrations were photograph and filmed to show the "brutality" of the Establishment that they were protesting against.
The object of guerrilla theater was the gain the sympathy of the pubic of the deeds of a few.
In the August 1 post, IDF: Qana building fell hours after strike, I discussed the possibility that some of the photos taken by the news services may have been deliberately staged to get a sympathetic reaction using the shock value of the pictures of the dead. In the pictures from EU Referendum, there was one individual who was seen in almost all the shots. They named him "Green Helmet".
On The Jawa Report, they have posted a German made guerrilla theater video of the same "Green Helmet" actually staging and setting up the shot using for a prop, a body of a boy on a stretcher. He is shown going through a trial run. He then directs the camera and all the others on the "set" to be sure the camera gets the right shot of the action.