My Generation

The “Peace and Love” generation prides itself on stopping the Vietnam War and wish to “stop” the war in Iraq. Unfortunately you don’t stop a war without granting victory to the other side. Usually. Since Iraq is but one battlefield in the WOT we won’t even stop the war, just grant a victory to Iran and Al Qaeda. This is not my father’s Congress. The greatest generation may not be the kids who fought in WWII but rather the Americans at home who sacrificed tremendously to support their kids at war.

Would we be better off had we not invaded Iraq? It was not the cakewalk we thought it would be when everyone was for it, including most Democrats, but if we had not taken out Saddam what would the situation be today? First, we were concerned Iraq had chemical and biological weapons and may have been close to getting nukes. You don’t have to use a WMD; usually having one is enough to make you a major player. Everyone thought Saddam had WMDs; we would still think so today and act accordingly. Qusay and Uday would still be terrorizing Baghdad and the vast Baathist organization would still be terrorizing Iraq. I for one wonder how much longer we would have enforced the no-fly zone, especially when our pilots were being fired on by Saddam? Once that protection was dropped how long would the Kurds have held out? The Oil for Food scandal would have continued to line UN pockets up until the sanctions, largely ignored by our NATO allies anyway, were lifted. Once the sanctions were lifted guess what? According to the much ballyhooed 911 Report Saddam would have been ready to reactivate his WMD research, including Nukes.

One complaint I hear is that because we are bogged down in Iraq we can’t effectively deal with Iran. Put aside the fact that many making that argument are ready and willing to hand Iran a victory in Iraq, we can effectively deal with Iran had we the will. It would require one thing from the American people, sacrifice. A blockade of Iran would strangle an already shaky Mullah economy. It would mean higher gas prices, a sacrifice we would have to bear for our future security. One we are not willing to make. I come to think I have also found why many Americans are ready to abandon the Iraqis. Despite the fact that insurgencies usually take ten or more years to deal with and that we are slowly making progress, despite the fact that casualties are amazingly light, despite the fact that there is no rationing, shortages, or appeals to buy war bonds, we are ready to quit. Why? Because it’s costing us money.

Fire Harry Reid

At what point does one sell one’s soul, and for what gain? To undermine the troops with a slow bleed of vital funding during a time of war in the hope that that will kill a successful surge strategy. To give our enemies hope that if they can just hold on till a Democrat comes into power then no one will be there to stop them. To boldly declare defeat when we are winning in a desperate attempt to harm the wartime President so as to further your own political ambitions in 2008. Do they believe the United States can easily withstand loosing in Iraq? What the effect to Iran and Syria would be? What the effect to the Kurds and Lebanese would be? What the fate of those in Iraq that supported us would be? What running would say to anyone who might ally with us in the future? To so fully invest in defeat at such an expense to our friends and to ourselves is to sell that soul or otherwise have none.

Our troops Appeal For Courage from our politicians.

As an American currently serving my nation in uniform, I respectfully urge my political leaders in Congress to fully support our mission in Iraq and halt any calls for retreat. I also respectfully urge my political leaders to actively oppose media efforts which embolden my enemy while demoralizing American support at home. The War in Iraq is a necessary and just effort to bring freedom to the Middle East and protect America from further attack.

SSgt Thul has a few things to say to Reid. At Reid's home state Las Vegas reserves disagree the war is lost. In Anbar JD Johannes says the war doesn't look lost to him. Michelle Malkin has many more responses. I think where Reid screwed up was in believing the MSM portrayal of Iraq instead of getting the story from those in Iraq.

Besides saying the war is lost Reid also said “the surge is not accomplishing anything as indicated by the extreme violence in Iraq yesterday”. Which is like saying that America is lost and it’s law enforcement is not doing its job because a suicidal nut case can kill thirty some kids on a college campus. Al Qaeda knows this war can be won politically and is playing more towards the anti-war crowd here than stirring up sectarian violence there. Steve Schippert explains this morning the Sunni-Shia “civil war” is more a construct of the Dem’s talking point than fact.

The perceived civil war in Iraq is in many ways more a product of foreign Iranian and al Qaeda instigation than internal Iraqi hatred. Had al Qaeda not bombed the Shia al-Askari Mosque and had Iran not provided arms and funds to both sides of the ensuing sectarian killings, there is no telling where Iraq would be right now. It certainly was not in civil war then.

Nevertheless Al Qaeda are being pushed out of Baghdad and out of Anbar and the surge is still in the process of being deployed. Kathryn Jean Lopez asks that we Give Surge a Chance.

Queen of Clubs Captured!

Rosie Ching Chong O'Donnell aka: Shezanini Ibrahim al-Tikriti and Watanitwit Ibrahem Alhassen) (Arabic: برزان إبراهيم الحسن التكريتي; Shezānini Ibrāhīm al-Ḥasan at-Tikrītī) was one of three half-sisters of Saddam Hussein, and a leader of the Mukhabarat, the intelligence organisation that was believed to have tortured and murdered thousands of opponents of the regime. Despite falling out of favour with Saddam Hussein at one time, she was believed to have been a presidential adviser at the time of her capture.

Iran War

Lads, lads, I think we’re going to get executed.

Day Two, said Joe Tindell, a 21-year-old marine, was the day “the mood completely changed, they changed from the military dress to all black, their faces covered.” He continued, “We thought we were going to the British embassy, but we got taken to a detention center, all 15 of us.”
“We had a blindfold and plastic cuffs, hands behind our backs, heads against the wall. Basically there were weapons cocking. Someone, I’m not sure who, someone said, I quote, ‘Lads, lads, I think we’re going to get executed,’ ” he said in a separate interview with the B.B.C. “After that comment, someone was sick, and as far as I was concerned he had just had his throat cut. From there we were rushed, to a room, quick photo, and then stuffed into a cell, and didn’t see or speak to anyone for six days.”

It was a bad week for the US war with Iran, a war most Americans don’t want to fight. Sounds familiar, we were pretty slow to respond to Hitler and Tojo with almost disastrous results. Until the Battle of Midway we were getting our buts kicked by the Japanese, and a lot of luck went into that victory.

Quiz a class of high school seniors and see if anyone there knows about Midway. Heck, ask if any of them can name the major players of WWII. Most can’t so should we be surprised that history is repeating itself?

It's 1938 and Iran is Germany and it's racing to arm itself with atomic arms. Benjamin Netanyahu

A British seaman (L) shakes hands with Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad after 15 British naval personnel were released, in Tehran April 4, 2007. REUTERS/Stringer

Thank God the hostages are safe and out. It would seem that Iran could have held them forever but they played it very shrewdly, giving Britain a gift for Easter. Fair enough, since Britain had given Iran a great gift, Victory.

I fear for the Brits. They may soon be on the front lines like Paris. Like some of us, they also don’t seem to know they are in a war with Iran. Admiral Sir Alan West, First Sea Lord in 2004 when Iran kidnapped 8 other Brits, explains.

These particular people would not be trained in counter-interrogation techniques because they are not expected to be captured. But I think our guidance to anyone in that position would be to say what they want you to say, let's not be silly about it. Don't tell them secrets, clearly, but if they tell you: 'Say this', well if that's going to get you out, then do it. It means absolutely nothing, what they say, to be honest.

Given the Middle East's reaction to the propaganda I would say it did great harm. This is no knock on the Seamen, apparently they followed their training which is the same as I give my Correctional Officers: When taken hostage co-operate fully. That is 180% from the SERE training we give all of our troops. SERE; Survive, Evade, Resist, Escape, “designed to help military personnel avoid capture or exploitation by the enemy”. No C there for capitulate. This goes a little deeper than conduct while a prisoner. If I had been there while certainly terrified I would also know Iran wouldn't dare kill me, at least with George Bush as Commander in Chief. What does it say when you have no such faith in your leaders and country?

Outrage of the day? Iran says the hostages' press conference was "a show".

I should not be too hard on the Brits, they at least strongly condemned the Iranians and threatened to break off trade relations. That’s more than the EU, of which union Britain is supposed to belong, did. The UN was also shown to be worthless in the face of such naked aggression, but they at least condemned it. The United States House of Representatives could not even bring themselves to do that. Which leads me to this week's other WOT debacle.



Where will this ultimately lead?

Thinking Blogger Award.

Junglemom has awarded me a “Thinking Blogger Award”! This is a “blog meme”, something I had not heard of before. Click on the link for more info on what exactly a blog meme is. I learn allot from JM so I was tempted to give her a second award, as well as Harry at Garbanzo Toons, but in the interest of highlighting other thinking blogs I won’t. I also left out the Big Players, those who have crawled out of the water in the TTLB Ecosystem and are walking upright, such as Seejanemom, La Shawn Barber, GOP Vixen, Atlas Shrugs, Iraq the Model, Amarji, etc. That said here’s my list of Thinking Blogs.
1. Liberty and Culture
2. Vince Aut Morire
3. I, Infidel
4. The Sudanese Thinker
5. Dagney’s Rant

President in her own mind.

U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, in Syria this week to undermine the sitting wartime President, was offered surrender terms by Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad. Ms. Pelosi was told that Syria would help the US achieve an "honorable withdrawal" from Iraq but in return the United States must press Israel to return the Golan Heights. Syria backs the latest Arab peace plan that calls for a return of land occupied in the 1967 Middle East war, the creation of a Palestinian state and a "just solution" for Palestinians displaced in 1948. The “Just solution” for displaced Palestinians who chose to leave is the “right of return”, a solution that is suicide for the Jewish state of Israel. Ms. Pelosi said "(Our) meeting with the president enabled us to communicate a message from Prime Minister Olmert that Israel was ready to engage in peace talks as well." What Olmert actually asked her to say was Israel is interested in peace with Syria, but Syria would first have to abandon the path of terror and providing support for terrorist groups. That’s an important point to leave out. According to the state run Syrian press Pelosi seeks to “correct United States foreign policy.” Fortunately for us the Democrats will have to wait till they have the Presidency before they can “correct” United States foreign policy to fit the needs of the enemy.

Publius Pundit reports on another foundation of Democracy and civil rights being torn asunder by Hugo.

RCTV is under fire. The big television station, which has been broadcasting under license in Venezuela for 54 years, sort of the equivalent of FoxNews or CBS, officially loses its right to broadcast at the end of today. But that wasn't all that happened.

Like furies, red tshirted Chavista mobs gathered and bayed liked wolves in the days leading up to this end of an era, graffiting and spray-painting the TV station with words like 'expropriacion' along with filthy slogans that if you know Spanish, you can see the equivalent of 'f word' among, racism charges, campesino movement slogans, anti-Vatican slogans (the Vatican actually defended this TV station, which is run by a devout Catholic) and 'RCTV out' slogans. They also left plenty of garbage and mess, including what looks like a dead dog - a mob symbol if there ever was one, behind.

This is how Venezuela is being ruled right now - not just by arbitrary "legal" rulings based on what Chavez likes, but by the added calling card of the Chavista mob, spray painting its vile messages in its 'revolutionary' fervor to get the point across that this isn't about law or the public interest anymore, this is about bloodthirsty mob rule.

Junglemom reports on anti-Semitism and Hezbollah in Venezuella.

But here, we hear of the opening of a Hamas diplomatic office in Caracas. Hezbullah in Venezuela is already responsible for the pipe bombings at the US embassy last year. They are making headway among the tribes. The Tribal area is wide open to them since the removal of all American evangelical missionaries a year and a half ago.

Junglemom was one of those removed.

14 August 2006
Hizballah in Latin America: in Venezuela and online The website of the Hizballah group that has been invited into Venezuela by Hugo Chávez to "educate" the Wayuu tribe of the Goajiros ethnic group inhabiting the eastern part of the country:

Here is a rundown on everthing Chavez has been up to. And the left loves the guy.