The Real Cuba has a quiz. Since Hugo Chavez is following so closely in Castro’s footsteps they thought it would be fun to see if people can tell which of the following Quotes came from Fidel or Hugo.

Who said what?
Hugo Chávez is now repeating almost word by word, the same mountain of lies that his mentor Fidel Castro said 50 years ago. It is like following the script for a new version of the same horror movie. Here we have some quotes from these two liars. See if you can figure out which one belongs to Chávez and which one to his Cuban mentor (Scroll down for the answers):

1A: “I never saw a contradiction between the ideas that sustain me and the ideas of that symbol, of that extraordinary figure Jesus Christ.”
1B: "One of the greatest rebels, who I really admire: Christ. He was a rebel. He ended up being crucified. He was a great rebel"
2A: "I have said it already, I am convinced that the way to build a new and better world is not capitalism. Capitalism leads us straight to hell"
2B: “I find capitalism repugnant. It is filthy, it is gross, it is alienating... because it causes war, hypocrisy and competition”
3A: "Now we have full freedom of the press. I doubt very much that there is any other country where freedom of speech is so respected"
3B: "In two words: The Revolution respects everyone's right to say what he wants, no matter if he is from the right or the left, or the extreme right or extreme left."
4A: "They are at the service of coups against the people, against the nation, against national independence, against the dignity of the republic"
4B: “Here, we will not tolerate any news media that is in the service of those who make coups against the people, against the nation, against national independence and against the dignity of the republic”
ANSWERS:
1A Castro in 1959 1B Chavez in 2006
2A Chavez in 2006 2B Castro in 1960
3A Chavez in 2006 3B Castro in 1960
4A Castro in 1960 referring to Diario de la Marina and other newspapers in Cuba that were criticizing his regime
4B Chavez in 2007 referring to Radio Caracas Television a network that he now wants to close because it criticizes his regime.

Same dog, different collar.

Update: However the left thinks he's better than Bush. And while Chavez cracks down Castro (Raul) opens up, at least a little.

Hugo Problemo

Those that think anyone should live in ignorance of all the wonders that mankind has discovered in order to preserve their culture should be required to join the tribe and experience that wonderful culture until they wake up. Yekwanaman explains.

Armageddon

Sorry I haven't blogged for a while, I'm taking some courses and haven't resigned from the prison yet. One of my courses is Web Design. This is part of my first assignment: Armageddon

Innocent

Nazanin, the Iranian girl who was to be executed for defending herself and her niece from being raped was acquitted, sort of. She must pay the rapist’s family “dieh”, or blood money but then she can go free. She will appeal the blood money demand but if she can raise the $40,000 bail she can be released immediately. If not, she will continue to rot in her Iranian jail. You can help by donating here. Her mother had this to say to everyone who helped in the campaign to get her freed.

I know how hard each of you have worked to bring Nazanin home and I am grateful to all of you. Nazanin's father and siblings are very happy too. You brought us the only one wish that we had: freedom of our daughter. May God give all of you, our brothers and sisters health and happiness for all that you have done.

Sadr Surge

Everyone is talking about the 21,500 additional troops going to Iraq as if that was the sum total of Bush's new strategery. Edwards, Hillary, Gore and Obama are all against it. Ted Kennedy says he will introduce a bill to stop funding for the increase, although no one can explain what that means. Are the new troops going to have their paychecks held up? Will congress allow funding for fuel, ammo, food, etc. to those already in Iraq but stop feeding and supplying the surge troops? Swimmer aside, others oppose the surge also, asking what good will an extra 21,500 troops do, too little too late. Fortunately the surge is not the focal point of Bush’s new strategy, a new get tough attitude is. Bush said:

These two regimes are allowing terrorists and insurgents to use their territory to move in and out of Iraq. Iran is providing material support for attacks on American troops. We will disrupt the attacks on our forces. We will interrupt the flow of support from Iran and Syria. And we will seek out and destroy the networks providing advanced weaponry and training to our enemies in Iraq.

Bush says he will no longer tolerate interference with Iraq from Iran and Syria. Bush will not allow his troops to be hampered by the Iraqi government, especially Maliki who had a tendency to order Sadr’s butchers and Iranian agents released whenever we managed to nab a few. We will no longer pull back when we have Sadr’s militia surrounded. We will no longer clear and then leave an area to the Iraqis only to have disloyal militia in the Iraq Army surrender the area back to the insurgents and militias. We will imbed with the Iraqi Army to make sure they are loyal to Iraq and not Sadr. That is what the new direction of our efforts will entail and the enemy does not like it any better than the Democrats. Some are already running away from Bagdad into other provinces before the surge is even in Iraq. That alone is enough to garner my support. But the new emphasis on Iran is what offers the best hope that we can still win in Iraq, if Bush is sincere. He may be:

I recently ordered the deployment of an additional carrier strike group to the region. We will deploy ... Patriot air defense systems to reassure our friends and allies.

Sadr’s bunch has no missiles and we don’t really need more fighters in Iraq. “The networks providing advanced weaponry and training to our enemies in Iraq” that “we will seek out and destroy” are in Tehran not Bagdad. This is aimed at Iran. Bush may finally be coming to the conclusion that we are at war with Iran, that we have been since they invaded US soil in 1979 by storming our embassy. We seem to have returned the favor in Iraq by grabbing five Iranians from their consulate in Irbil. This comes on the heels of attacks on Sadr forces with more soon to follow. One can only hope that the Iraqi’s won’t scuttle this last effort to stabilize their country. Maliki needs to understand that regardless of Bush's intentions Iraq faces a sure deadline to get their act together; November 2008. As to Iran, should they continue to attack US forces, directly or indirectly, Bush may finally respond with something other than diplomacy.

Our Friends the Egyptians

We are still trying to get Egyptian blogger Kareem freed from Egyptian prison. There will be a rally in Washington, DC, Thursday January 11th at the Egyptian Embassy, 1303 New Hampshire Avenue, NW, at 11:00 AM till Noon. While at Al Azhar University Kareem wrote what many considered anti-Islamic posts on his blog. The country that we support to the tune of 2 Billion dollars a year frowns on any criticism, and criticizing a Sharia run country is tantamount to criticizing Islam. BTW this is what our friend Mubarak allows in it’s state run media: How Many Times Must Bush Be Executed?

Sharia

Iranian Nazanin Mahabad Fatehi will find out today if she is to die. Her crime? During an attempted rape she stabbed one of the three men assaulting her and her 16 year old sister. Since he died she was tried and convicted for murder. She managed to get a retrial due to the international condemnation of her first trial, results will be disclosed soon. What she should have done of course was stab herself and her sister, then there would be no shame for her family or the poor rapists. Another choice would be to let the men rape her and her sister, however they would then be subject to 100 lashes under Iranian Sharia Law which they might not have survived. The girls, not the guys, would get the lashes, just in case you don't understand Sharia. If either one was married then they would be guilty of adultery and stoned to death for being raped. Anyway their male relatives would have to kill them regardless because of the shame they would bring their families for being raped. Isn’t Sharia wonderful? Probably too late but there is a petition to stop this insanity but, hey, sign it anyway it’s all we got short of regime change which Bush still doesn’t seem too keen on.

Hugo Problemo

Jungle Mom has asked what I know of the Chavez Iranian connection. I know Iranian President Ahmadinejad recently awarded Chavez Iran’s highest award, the Islamic Republic Medal. The award was for Chavez’s steadfast support in Iran’s efforts to get nukes as well as his voluminous Anti-American rhetoric. When Chavez, the “New Castro” of Latin America, first came into power he staked out his claim as the leader of a new “Bolivarian Revolution”. Along with that of course came the need to jump on the Anti-American bandwagon. He did so with a vengeance and has continued unabated. Iran recognized a kindred spirit and as far back as 2004 then Iranian President Khatami went to Venezuela to cozy up to Chavez. Since then the relationship has resulted in billions in bilateral trade, Iranian investment in tractor production and housing projects, and the signing of memorandums of understanding in various fields.

At NRO Mario Loyola explains how Chavez is following in Castro’s footsteps in his efforts to set up his own dictatorship, albeit at a slower pace. He has effectively taken over the judicial and legislative branches of the government and is now storming the last bastions of Democracy, a free press and opposition parties. Soon he will amass the same power Supreme Leader Khamenei enjoys. Soon Venezuelans will wake up to the same corrupt, bankrupt, militaristic tyrrany that Iranians enjoy, but at least without the religious police. Or maybe with the religious police as I will discuss in a moment.

Aside from setting themselves up as enemies of the United States, Venezuela and Iran have a few other things in common. Both have huge oil industries and yet both are starving those cash cows by not investing in new projects or even maintaining the existing infrastructure. Just as Iran must provide billions to support Hamas, Hezbollah, Sadr, and other terrorists Chavez must bribe the campisinos with freebies that do nothing to alleviate the prevalent problems of the region. That doesn’t leave much for investment. The result is two economies in decline, oil production is down 16% since 2001 in Venezuela and Iranian oil may completely dry up in five years at the current rate of decline.

Both see themselves as revolutionary countries and strive to spread those revolutions. However state planning, corruption, skittish foreign investors, and failing infrastructures mean that the money to fund exporting the revolution may be harder and harder to find. An alliance between the two countries does nothing to alleviate those problems so what do they have to gain? Chavez may well think he will get some nukes of his own. Khamenei has stated he will share nuclear technology with other countries, enemies of America can expect to be first in line. Iran gets an ally in the UN and the satisfaction of sticking its nose in our hemisphere.

What ever the reason for the alliance with Iran this emerging new axis of evil that Chavez is spawning must be watched closely. After every war weary folk like to think that that was the last war. When the Soviet Union collapsed every politician around immediately started to plan ways to spend the “peace dividend”. Clinton pared down the military changing the Two War Doctrine to a One War and placing a far greater reliance on the Guard and Reserves. We are now paying for that dividend. Communism is not dead, not in the US and not in Latin America. Other countries besides Venezuela are falling back into Cuban style hell holes, Brazil, Argentina, Uruguay, Bolivia and even Nicaragua, who voted Daniel Ortega back into office. Mexico was almost added to the list. If you think illegal immigration is bad now wait until Mexico becomes the latest Socialist paradise and economic basket case. The problem of a small percentage of haves living off the labor of millions of have nots is endemic of countries founded by Conquistadors who came to plunder rather than colonize. Caudillos like Chavez bring hope to these exploited masses yet never deliver.

There is probably nothing I can say about Chavez's Venezuela that Jungle Mom doesn't know, she has first hand knowledge of what living under a Socialist regime means. For ten years she and her family have ministered the Bible to the Ye’kwana Indians in the middle of the Amazon jungles of Venezuela. Ministering to an isolated indigenous tribe deep in the Amazon means much more than preaching the Gospel. This family provided schooling, medicine, medical care, dental care, and a host of other social services the government does not and can not provide. I use the past tense because Chavez has kicked them out of their village along with every other missionary in the Amazon. Why? Imperialist infiltration, destruction of their culture, starving the Indians while the missionaries live in Palatial Mansions.

This is Jungle Mom's palace which the family built out of adobe bricks with a palm roof. One wonders how fearsom this family must be in order to subjugate a whole village so.



Jungle Mom’s story and especially the plight of those villagers left behind puts a human face to the tragedies socialist regimes breed. This face:



What will happen to this child when she gets her first cavity?

Jungle Dad won't be there. What will happen if she gets sick? The medicine that came from mission donations is gone. Missionary pilots are not allowed to fly the sick to hospitals; the nearest town is a two week trip by canoe. Who will be there? Many mission bases are being occupied by the military in order to re-educate the villagers who have been ordered to return to their old ways and religion. Religious police. Say goodbye to freedom hita.



Jungle Mom and Jungle Dad, aka Yekwana Man, both have blogs. Visit to get a clearer picture of what is happening to Venezuela than I can paint. You can also go to This Was Our Home to hear this heartbreaking story from Jungle Dad himself. I found it very inspiring.

Update: So much for freedom of the press. Chavez: Will nationalize telecoms, power.

Return from the Well

When some guy at the street corner is preaching “The End is near!” it’s one thing, when a Government is preaching the same thing then it’s a whole ‘nother animal. We all know Ahmadinejad believes the 12th Imam is coming but I didn’t believe the Mullahs that run the show in Iran bought into the same apocalyptic vision as he did. However the state run media in Iran is preparing the Iranian public for the Imam Mahdi’s return. From Ynet News:

The Islamic Republic of Iran broadcasting (IRIB) website said in a program called 'The World Towards Illumination,' that the Mahdi will reappear in Mecca and form an army to defeat Islam's enemies in a series of apocalyptic battles, in which the Mahdi will overcome his archvillain in Jerusalem.

Remember that Ahmadinejad has sent around 40,000 military and security personnel mixed in with the 200,000 Iranians that will go to Mecca in this years Hajj. The Champion of the dispossessed himself may even attend.

Soon a pious person from the progeny of Imam Hasan Mojtaba (AS) meets with the Imam. He is a venerable God-fearing individual from Iran. Before the Imam's appearance he fights oppression and corruption and enters Iraq to lift the siege of Kufa and holy Najaf and to defeat the forces of Sofyani in Iraq.

What exactly are the Mullahs and Ahmadinejad preparing the Iranian public for?

Others say the date will be the 25th of the month of Zil-Qa’dah and may coincide with the Spring Equinox or Nowrooz as the Iranians call.

What else is going to happen during the Spring Equinox? Front Page magazine reports Ahmadinejad recently said:

“I'm very hopeful that we will be able to hold the big celebration of Iran's full nuclearization in the current year,” he said. (The Persian calendar year ends on March 20.)

March 20th is the Spring Equinox.

French "Youths"

Youths in France torched around 400 cars to herald in the New Year. Yes they are young, male, of African descent, and from the more impoverished areas of France. However the most important demographic to which the youths belong is their religion; Islam. In what many describe as the French Intifada Muslim youths are terrorizing neighborhoods throughout the country. Yet in what one can only describe as a sacrifice to the PC gods the fact that the rioters are Muslim is either buried or left out entirely in MSM reporting, when they bother to report at all. I did not hear of the New Years Eve torching from the MSM, I heard it from bloggers. Some MSM go so far as to embrace total denial, such as the New York Times (the violence in France has not taken on religious overtones ) and the Washington Post (Islamic ideology and leaders play no role in the disturbances, and many of those participating are not Muslim).

IRIS Blog shoots down such facile comments with hard evidence, read the whole thing but here are a few tidbits:

Hizbut Tehrir Behind French Intifada

All indicators point to the involvement of...the London-based Hizbut Tehrir (HT) in the violence by sections of angry Muslim youth....With the help of the sleeper cells, which the HT has already established in Paris and other parts of France for some months, they drew up plans for keeping the violence sustained in order to further radicalise and mobilise the youth....For this purpose, they exploited the already prevalent anger in the Muslim community of France....Lashkar-e-Toiba (LET) in Pakistan has instructed its cells in France to assist the HT clandestinely as best as they can. Similarly, the Jamat-ul-Furqa (JUF)...has also asked its followers to assist the HT

Non-Muslims Beaten to Death

Cars were torched by thousands, local facilities like commercial arcades, schools, and metro stations were burned down, synagogues and churches were attacked, non-Muslims beaten to death, Molotov cocktails and firearms were used. The local powers that be, Islamist mafia-type thugs and networks, didn't want the French police back in their enclaves.

French Intelligence Estimates 40,000 Al-Qaeda Recruits Engaged in Paramilitary Training

Estimates vary as to the number of Muslims in France. The CIA's world factbook estimates it to be as high as six million. Other social scientists put the number as high as eight million. In 2004, French counter-intelligence estimated al-Qaida alone had 40,000 recruits in France that were engaged in paramilitary training.

That's half a percent of France's Muslim population, but it is apparent that many more are silent supporters -- or ad hoc co-operators, as many of the young rioters were. To call the riots spontaneous is to lie: Police discovered Molotov cocktail factories, and websites helped to co-ordinate the instigators in 300 cities and towns.

The Rioters Cite the "Disrespect" of France for Islam as Part of the Origin of their Revolt

Some on Left and Right were angered when police withdrew one evening last week from Clichy-sous-Bois, where the rioting started, in order to let Muslims keep the peace. “The supposed mediation of big brothers crying out Allahu Akbar (God is Greatest) is one sign among many of the capitulation of the legitimate authorities,” said Bruno Gollnisch, a senior figure in Jean-Marie Le Pen’s National Front party.

Rioter on bin Laden: "He Gives Pride Back to the Muslims"

But he knows who his heroes are. ''Osama bin Laden and Rodney King," he said, referring to the Al Qaeda leader and the African-American whose videotaped beating by Los Angeles police in 1991 spawned massive racial riots.
''One because he gives pride back to the Muslims," the young man asserted as he and a trio of friends stood near the charred ruins of a carpet shop. ''The other because he was just a poor man, a 'nobody man' of color, but he caused a great city to burn."

Rioters Sparing Muslim-Owned Businesses

But - and this is the crucial difference between the generations of rioters - most of those living in the French ghettoes are Muslims and have grown up during a period of Islamic radicalization.
Many of the youths hurling petrol bombs on Parisian estates look up to a slightly older group of mosque stalwarts. These men are capable of being forces for both good and mischief; there have been examples from the past fortnight of situations calmed, but also of attackers acting under their direction, so that Muslim-owned businesses, a halal butcher's shop and a kebab joint, for example, are spared, while a bank branch and symbols of another France are targeted.

IRIS has tons more links to news stories, Islamic Web sites and op-eds that underscore the Islamic nature of the riots. Again, I have to get my news from bloggers, or at least let bloggers steer me to news sources that aren’t afraid to tell the truth.

Iranian Israeli War

The famous greenhouses in Gaza.

Now used to hide terrorist tunnels.

Things may be about to heat up in Iran’s Gaza Front. Hundreds of Hamas terrorists are being sent to Iran for advanced training by Republican Guards. Also advanced weapons such as those used by Hezbollah are also being smuggled in through our friend Egypt. Those who said giving up Gaza would only result in a new staging area for terrorism against Israel were unfortunately right; instead of taking this opportunity to show the world that they could govern a state civilly and successfully they instead turned Gaza into a violent circus fought over by differing sects, criminal gangs, clans, and terrorist cells like Hamas, Fatah, and Al Qaeda. Regardless of whether Iran orders things to heat up or the IDF decides it’s had enough of daily rocket attacks Iran’s Gaza Front is about to erupt.

Update: DEBKA file has a report that the Mujahiddin Brigades units that are firing Al Buraq 2 rockets into Israel at a rate greater than two a day, despite a so called truce, are commanded by an Iranian Revolutionary Guards officer. Also, the US forces in Iraq are holding two of five Iranians captured during a raid on the compound of Abdul Aziz al-Hakim, a high ranking Shia politician. The Iranians are implicated in the smuggling of weapons to Iraqi terrorists that have used them against American and Iraqi forces as well as civilians.

Our friends the Iraqis

When Shia and Sunni in Iraq kill each other it is easy to take into effect the underlying political stakes behind the violence. This goes hand in hand with trying to found an Islamic Democracy where Islam and politics can not be separated. That one Islamic principle, no separation between church and state, is why many claim that Islam and freedom can’t coexist and therefore an Islamic Democracy is an oxymoron. When Shia and Sunni kill Christians, Jews, Yizidis, Mandeans, Baha’is, and Kaka’I, none of whom have any political power in Iraq, it is just plain religious intolerance and nowhere is this more prevalent than in Iraq. Nina Shea explains the plight of non-Muslims in Iraq at NRO. Why the US stays silent on this topic is beyond me, other than hoping more bad news out of Iraq will go away if ignored by Bush.

Basiji Book Burners

Most Iranians are proud of their Persian heritage. The Basiji, enforcers of Iran's Islamic codes, are not. Militant Basiji gathered up and burned Persian classics and history books in Tabriz, Iran. Shades of 1930's Germany but please don't call them Islamofascists.The Basiji are doing far worse than book burning, they are hunting down students who gave Ahmadinejad a less than warm welcome when he spoke last week at Amir Kabir University. The Amir Kabir Newsletter reports that three of the students photographed have gone into hiding. Meanwhile we hear nothing from the international community or our own President. That would be Bush, the one who said:

And to the Iranian people, I say tonight: As you stand for your own liberty, America stands with you.

There has been precious little support for Iranian dissidents from Mr. Bush so far but now may be a critical time when any support would have far more serious consequences to the regime. Supreme Leader Khamenei is dying and should reach room temperature sometime this spring. The Mullahs sent a message to Ahmadinejad this last election; he will not become Supreme Leader. The coverage of the Iranian President’s humiliation at the university by official Iranian press also sent the same message. Ahmadinejad and his supporters will not take this lightly so now would be a great time for the people of Iran to rise up while the Mullahs and the Revolutionary Guard are at odds. The Bush administration should tell the opposition that we will render every bit of aid, including enforcing a no fly zone should civil war break out. Besides the students there are others need our help. Christians are being arrested in time for Christmas. Bus drivers are arrested for being unionized. Arabs are sentenced to death for being Arab.

Iran War

Damn, Iran is at war with Bahrain too?

It has been reported that the Iranian government has formed and financed more than 24 Shia organizations in Bahrain. Each organization has been allocated one particular task but the overall objective of all of them is to overthrow the traditional government of Bahrain and install an Iranian style Islamic Republic. In the recent elections in Bahrain, the Shia coalition secured 23 seats of the parliament. Although they officially accepted the results of elections, they have now started a campaign for destabilising the system which is one of the most competent systems in the Arab world.
The Shia community always had a major share in political and economic power in Bahrain although the ruling family is Sunni. After the elections a Shia was appointed as the deputy Prime Minister and another one as the Minister of State for Foreign Affairs. There are other Shia politicians in the government too. In spite of being part of the government, the Shia groups of Bahrain are following the same strategies that Hamas is implementing in Palestine and Hezbollah is carrying out in Lebanon.
The process of the destabilisation of Bahrain has begun. Al-Wefaq Islamic Society led by Chairman Ali Salman is playing the same role that the Hezbollah of Lebanon is playing.

Update: The Sudanese Thinker has Iran meddling in Sudan also.

Ahmadinejad's Pilgrims

It looks like the Champion of the dispossessed, the Global Everyman is going to shake things up in the upcoming Hajj ceremonies.

The Islamic Republic itself is expected to send 200,000 pilgrims, representing almost 10 percent of the total. Saudi officials claim that some 5 percent of the Iranian pilgrims have always been identified as members of the Islamic Revolutionary Corps and the Islamic Republic's various intelligence services. This year, however, the profiles of Iranian applicants for pilgrimage visas indicate that more than 20 percent may belong to the military or security services.

To these must be added professional street-fighters from the various branches of the pan-Islamic Hezbollah movement, which Iran created in the 1980s as a way to "export" Khomeinism to other Muslim countries. The movement's best-known branch, the Lebanese Hezbollah, has announced it will sending over 3,000 pilgrims this year - all paid for by Iran.

With so many men with military and security backgrounds in Mecca, the mullahs leading the Iranian pilgrims would be in a position to seize control of the space around the black stone of the Ka'aba (The Cube) and use it as a venue for political demonstrations.

Interesting times ahead.

Death to Israel

Maybe the suggestion that we negotiate with Iran wasn’t the worst thing to come out of the Iraq Surrender Group. On page 41 we have this little gem:

Sustainable negotiations leading to a final peace settlement along the lines of President Bush’s two-state solution, which would address the key final status issues of borders, settlements, Jerusalem, the right of return, and the end of conflict.

The Palestinian population has grown from 711,000 in 1950 to current estimates ranging from 5 to 8 million. Right of return means that any or all of those Palestinians may return to Israel and receive Israeli citizenship with all the privileges therein. That would effectively end Israel's status as a Jewish state, as Israel's current population is composed of about 5.5 million Jews and 1.3 million Muslims not to mention the massive overpopulation this would cause. Asking Israel to give the Golan Heights back to a Syria that would allow Hezbollah to set up artillery and rockets in which to much more effectively kill Jews was dumb enough, but asking Israel to commit suicide is far worse. There have been many claims that Baker is Anti-Semitic but really, this is ridiculous.

The Report

The Iraq Surrender Group has released its much heralded report. The worst part of the report:

Diplomatic efforts ...should seek to persuade Iran that it should take specific steps to improve the situation in Iraq

As Milblogger T. F. Boggs puts it:

Baker and Hamilton want us to get terrorists supporting countries involved in fighting terrorism!

Anyone who reads my blog knows where I stand on dialog with Iran, a country that I feel is at war with us. Nevertheless suppose we do give Iran enough to get them to agree to back off in Iraq. What have we gained? Ahmadinejad has already stated:

Iran will stand by its neighbor Iraq to help the country boost security and achieve peace.

Don’t we believe him? If not, why would we believe him anytime in the future?

One thing that permeates the report is the disdain the authors seem to have for the military. Sgt. Boggs saw it.

Not only are the findings of the ISG a joke but the people who led the group (Baker and Hamilton) treat soldiers like they are a joke.

What the group desperately needed was at least one their members to have been in the military and had recent experience in Iraq.

You would think a commission looking to make recommendations on how to move forward in a military conflict would include a few Generals much less someone familiar with the conflict. However the assertions from the MSM that this was a repudiation of Bush’s policy seemed to have missed a few of the reports good points.

[W]e believe it would be wrong for the United States to abandon [Iraq] through a precipitate withdrawal of troops and support. A premature American departure from Iraq would almost certainly produce greater sectarian violence and further deterioration of conditions.

We agree with the goal of U.S. policy as stated by the president: an Iraq that can ‘govern itself, sustain itself, and defend itself.’

Seems more of a repudiation of the cut and run crowd. I’ll leave you with one more quote from the Sergeant’s great post.

War sucks but a world run by Islamofacists sucks more.

The Iran War

At the United Nations for a millennium summit, President Clinton paced back and forth along the halls, impatiently waiting for Iranian President Muhammad Khatami to appear. Clinton was staging one of his classic photo ops, one where he and Khatami would “accidentally” meet and a symbolic handshake would result in a new diplomatic understanding between the US and Iran. This followed almost two years of backdoor diplomacy with Iran after the Iranians attacked the U.S. base at Khobar, Saudi Arabia, killing nineteen Americans. Clinton had already made a down payment on the handshake, Madeleine Albright apologized publicly to the Islamic Republic for past American actions in the region and the administration lifted some of the sanctions imposed on Iran. For his trouble Clinton got stood up at the UN, Supreme Ruler Ali Khamenei decided outgoing Clinton had served the Mullah’s purposes and had nothing left to offer. Score one for Iran in the war that they initiated on November 1979. Iran has scored hit after hit in this war, one most Americans are blissfully unaware that we are even fighting. This is because we aren’t fighting; we are talking and have been through five different administrations. Carter talked when the hostages were taken from our Embassy; Reagan talked when they captured more Americans in Lebanon and then killed 300 more Americans at another Embassy. Nevertheless Reagan was the only President to fire a shot in this war, when Iran tried to blockade the Persian Gulf we sunk half their navy. That did not stop their movement on the ground. Setting up Hezbollah and Hamas has given Iran a military presence in Gaza and Lebanon, and Iran is poised to regain control of Lebanon through its Syrian ally. Iran has also strengthened ties to almost every other Islamist terrorist organization. Iran’s goals in the region are plainly stated by the Mullahs:

1. The complete destruction of Israel
2. A Muslim (Shia Iranian) Caliphate

Towards those ends Iran has some secondary goals.

1. Shame the US into leaving the region.
2. The destruction of all democracy in the region, (Israel, Lebanon, Afghanistan, and Iraq)
3. Obtain nuclear capability.

Now we are to believe it is the United States’ best interest to hold more talks with Iran. What do we have to bargain with? We have already held out all kinds of bribes to the Mullahs to get them to give up the bomb resulting in nothing but the promise of more talks. We want them to leave Iraq alone. They want us to leave Iraq period. What can we offer them to stop, especially since they appear to be winning, at least winning the hearts and minds of America’s left? The left has already championed the Iranian goal of kicking us out of Iraq. When the American public has already voted for cut and run we would look pretty stupid offering that option to the Iranians. Can we offer them Afghanistan? They must figure that once we are out of Iraq it can safely be left to Sadr to finish the job of gaining control for the greater Shia Caliphate. The Jihadist can then go to Afghanistan to destroy that annoying democracy. They don’t need us to abandon Afghanistan, make it tough on the Americans and they will cut and run from Afghanistan as well. Iran will most assuredly ask us to abandon Israel although the left is not quite willing to do that yet. They only need to kill one or two more ministers to take back Lebanon so we can’t even offer them Lebanon. The only other carrot we can offer Tehran is to go ahead and let them get their nukes. Is that even an option? Based on the situation so far Tehran should have every reason to believe we will do nothing to prevent them from reaching that goal. On top of that, what incentive does Iran have to actually abide by whatever agreements they agree to? None. Yet that old saw that you must have dialog still stands, so we may see President Bush wandering the halls next, waiting for the Mullahs to deliver.

The Iran War

Amir Taheri at Gulf News explains from a military point of view why Iran coaxed Syria into assassinating Gamayel or else just ordered their agents or Hezbollah to carry it out. Basically in the Iran American war both sides see Lebanon as crucial. The Americans need a Democracy that will do what is in Lebanon’s best interest, and having a state within a state that puts it’s Iranian master’s interest ahead of Lebanon’s is obviously not in Lebanon’s best interests. The Iranians need control of Lebanon in order to keep its proxy army on Israel’s border so that at any time they can unleash a firestorm for whatever reason they deem necessary. However both Iran and Syria do not count on the following:

Rather than watch with folded arms as Iran and Syria annex Lebanon, Israel would feel obliged to take action. It is clear that Syria would be the immediate target of such action.

Mr. Taheri thinks that the next war will be an Israeli Syrian one. While I agree my thinking was that for political reasoning and due to the fact that Israel was perceived to have lost the Hezbollah Israeli War Assad would be dumb enough to try and take back the Golan Heights.

Update: Amir Taheri on the stupidity of talking to the Iranian regime.

Assad's not that stupid.

Many were doubting a Syrian connection to yesterday’s assassination of Anti-Syrian and Christian Lebanese Minister Pierre Gamayel, again and again people would say Assad’s not that stupid. Apparently he is. Blacksmiths of Lebanon reports this incredible news.

Al Seyassah daily learned from authoritative sources in Beirut, that one of the editors of the Syrian National News Agency (SANA) placed a phone call to a pro-Syrian Lebanese newspaper at 3:05 pm on Tuesday. The caller inquired about the details of the assassination of Lebanese Minister for Industry Pierre Gemayel, raising eyebrows at the Lebanese newpaper. The timing of phone call was 55 minutes before the assassination was carried out.

Update:

From what I’m hearing on the Middle East blogs Al Seyassah is not a credible source. Zman’s comment on the story at Sand Monkey is common:

Oh my God SM!

I love your blog and the links you always provide , but I beg you, Only not “Al Seyassah” newspaper! Have you ever read their online version for more than a week? I congratulate you if you can. They make up news about EVERYTHING and EVERYONE, sometimes you think that you are reading the Arabic version of “The Onion” except that “The Onion” is really funny and this one is so cheap! Some of the stories they create about “conspiracies” in the Middle East are just hilarious! They always have a “well-connected” person in every presidential palace in the Middle East , and of course , their very close sources in the White House!

NOTE: I am not defending anyone here, I just wanted to to say that “Al Seyassah” is the last source on earth that one can quote. Check what they write about Egypt and what stories they make about Iraq and you’ll find yourself laughing in 10 minutes.

P.S They also never have any proofs of their claims against any country, because their evidences always get “confiscated” - I told you they are in the middle of a huge , endless conspiracy theory starting from the USA and stretching through the Middle East - and they know all about it :)

Iran War

Anti-Syrian and Christian Lebanese Minister Pierre Gamayel has been assassinated. Why? Well Hezbollah wants more power in governmental affairs and was planning massive protests to demand them, rather than rely on something as mundane and anti-Islamic as an election. Syria and Iran want the Lebanese government disbanded; a Democratic Lebanon is as much a threat to the tyrants as a Democratic Iraq. Should Hezbollah kill two more ministers the government will dissolve for lack of a quorum. Does Lebanon realize it is at war with Syria, and therefore at war with Iran? We don't, I can hardly expect them to acknowledge the fact, but trust me, they know. May Mr.Gamayel rest in peace.

Updates from the blog From Beirut to the Beltway (Hattip Sandmonkey)

Update. Angry crowds are gathering outside the St Joseph hospital and chanting anti-Aoun and anti-Hizbullah slogans. As Anton Effendi said, this assassination guarantees that any street protest now will devolve into clashes. The Kataeb party, of which Gemayel is a member, is calling on people to excercise self restraint.

With this assassination, March 14 has lost a member of parliament and a cabinet minister. For the Assad regime, one less March 14 vote means one less vote to ratify the international tribunal.

The eyes now are on the UN Security council, which must endorse the international tribunal as soon as possible

Update 2. Syrian-installed president Emile Lahoud has canceled the November 22nd independence day celebrations to mourn the loss of what he now referred to as a minister. Not long ago, he considered Gemayel and the rest of cabinet illegitimate following the resignation of the Shia ministers and the pro-Lahoud minister.

Meanwhile, Interior minister Ahmad Fatfat has accused Syria of standing behind Gemayel's assassination.

Update 3. Geagea has called on Lahoud to resign immediately, accusing him of acting as a cover for the terrorist attacks. He also called on the Amal and Hizbullah ministers to return to the cabinet.

Update 4 (11am EST). The crowds outside the hospital are calling on people and March 14 to take to the streets.

Meanwhile, gunmen have fired shots at the office of another March 14 minister, Michel Pharaon in Ashrafieh.

It looks like March 14 is under attack.

March 14 leaders will meet tonight to decide on a course of action.

Update 5. A distraught Amin Gemayel (Pierre's father) addressed the crowds. He asked all those who loved Pierre to preserve the cause he died for. He called for self-restraint so not to desecrate what he said is the cause for freedom. He asked everyone to use this night to pray and think about the meaning of martyrdom, and how to protect this country, away from revenge and irresponsible actions.

" We want the Lebanese cause to triumph. I wish upon all those who loved Pierre to safeguard the cause", he said.

Update 6 (11:40 EST). Walid Jumblatt visited the hospital and have a short statement amid anti-Aoun and anti-Nasrallah chants. He affirmed that the international tribunal is coming and warned against civil strife. "They want to create civil strife... We will triumph. We will not let them drag us to sedition," he said.

"As we were on that great day (March 14) with Pierre in the lead, peaceful and democratic for Lebanon, we will remain," he added.

Update: Abu Takla comments at Michael J Totten's blog.

one more to go, not 2. If they assassinate one more minister, the cabinet is automatically dissolved, because it would lack the two-thirds + 1 it needs to be constitutional.

And they did try. Anti-Syrian and Christian Lebanese Minister Michel Pharaon was also targeted today.

Our Friend Israel

This is a week old but I just saw it. Hat tip Buck.

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

Video of a speech Benjamin Netanyahu gave at the United Jewish Communities' General Assembly (UJC-GA) at the Los Angeles Convention Center on Monday. The canary in the coal mine but no one is paying attention.

America's Second Defeat

We may have lost in Iraq. The death knell sounded the night of November 7th and Iran, Syria, and Iraq all heard it. This is just like Vietnam when we cut their funding and the resulting mess left a legacy that all our future allies remember; America can’t be trusted. We will cut and run. Osama saw this and decided we are a paper tiger that can’t handle anything difficult. Nothing has changed, if anything its gotten worse. Today if we can’t win a war in a few months without casualties we will take our ball and go home. What’s different about Iraq is that the bully will follow us home.

Michael Ledeen points out today at NRO that the Iraqis are looking to mend any fences with Iran and now are afraid to be seen helping America because they know we have already abandoned them with this election. He also points out that until we face the fact that the war in Iraq encompasses Iran and Syria we can not win. The only solution is to take the war to our enemies, especially Iran, but instead what we will do is sit down with the Mullahs and discuss their surrender terms.

Update:

I had missed this but the much heralded Iraq Study Group (Baker-Hamilton Commission) has been stacked with anti-war advocates. Michael Rubin at the Weekly Standard reported in October on who some of these are.

Raad Alkadiri, for example, has repeatedly defined U.S. motivation for Iraq’s liberation as a grab for oil. Raymond Close, listed on the Iraq Study Group’s website as a ‘freelance analyst,’ is actually a member of Veteran Intelligence Professionals for Sanity, which, in July 2003, called for Vice President Dick Cheney’s resignation for an alleged conspiracy to distort intelligence, which they said had been uncovered by none other than Ambassador Joseph C. Wilson IV. The following summer, Close posited that ‘Bush and the neocons’ had fabricated the charge ‘that the evil Iranian mullahs inspired and instigated the radical Shia Islamist insurgency.’ To Close, the problem was not Iranian training and supply of money and sophisticated explosives to terrorists, but rather neoconservatism.

Abandonment seems even more likely now.

Our Friends the British

It's worse in Britain than we in the US thought. And we thought it was pretty bad what with Red Ken, MP Galloway, little public support for the battle in Iraq, homegrown Islamist terrorists, and Prince Charles conversion to Islam. Now Azarmehr at the blog For a democratic secular Iran points out the failings of the British Police and the Immigration and Nationality Directorate.

A group called Vigil, have infiltrated one of the most extremist groups in Britain, the radical al-Muhajiroun group, headed by Omar Bakri Mohammed, yet they claim the British police are just not interested in their evidence.

It has also been emerged today that a senior executive officer, Abid Javid, in Immigration and Nationality Directorate which processes tens of thousands of asylum and visa applications every year, is a member of the fundamentalist Islamic group Hizb-ul Tahrir which believes in a worldwide Islamic state under Shariah law.

I have seen tens of genuine asylum applications by bonafide secular Iranian political activists refused by the Home Office, and yet unsavoury characters determined to break up the very fabric of this society keep pouring in. I always suspected infiltration in the Home Office by Islamic radicals and have written about it in the past. Today's news confirms my suspicions.

I'll pray for you England, but I'll have to leave time to pray for my own country which is not far behind yours on the path towards dhimmitude.

The Iranian War

When will most Americans realize we are at war with Iran? At NRO today Barbara Lerner editorialized that Where Rumsfeld Really Failed was in not convincing GWB that Iran and it's Syrian stooge are the problem and should be attacked. Iran is killing our troops today, right now, in Iraq, by equipping and training terrorist and fomenting civil war. That to me is a bigger issue than their damn nukes! October 20th was Qods (Jerusalem) Day and Iranian newspapers published articles calling for Muslims to

prepare for the great war, so as to completely wipe out the Zionist regime (Israel), and remove this cancerous growth.

Last I checked, and this may change with the Dems in power, but for now is not Israel an ally? If an ally is attacked, as Israel is daily by Iranian proxy forces Hezbollah and Hamas, should we not respond? But if the storming of our Embassy, taking Americans hostage, killing our troops, aiding terrorists, and violating the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty which it signed isn’t enough to wage war I guess destroying a bunch of Jews won’t be either.

BTW did you hear about the mass kidnapping in Baghdad? Guess who? Mohammed at Iraq the Model will tell you who and why.

The mass abduction that shocked Baghdad yesterday was intended to be a clear message from Tehran-through its surrogates in Baghdad-to anyone who thinks productive dialogue with the Islamic republic over Iraq and Middle East peace is a possible option.

The operation was a show of victory and it was so smooth and perfect that neither the MNF nor the Iraqi military could do a thing to stop it.
And today the show continues with the assassination of the colonel who's in charge of internal investigation in the department of national police, also known as the police commandos, one day after an investigation was ordered.

Perhaps choosing a ministry like the higher education (which belongs to the Sunni Accord Front) is also a warning message to Sunni politicians who are preparing to send a delegation to Washington especially that the Accord bloc announced recently that they were looking forward to "clear the misunderstanding and mistrust" between them and the US administration to search for solutions for the situation in Iraq.

Did Iran misunderstand the American democracy?
Absolutely yes and Tehran is planning and working according to this faulty impression.

Iran now considers itself the victor and it will not negotiate for peace but instead will try to impose conditions to accept America's surrender.

Isn't Iraq an ally? At least until the Dems abandon them?

Our Friends the Egyptians

In Egypt they tried to have a demonstration against the Eid outrage that occurred not long ago. Sand Monkey sums up the result.

The egyptian police stopped a sexual harrassment demonstration- one that was protesting an incident that happend in front of that same police, who didn't lift a finger to stop it -, chased down demonstrators and journalists, arrested two of them and beat up the female one, and then blocked an internet blog. All on the same day! It seems that they are more interested in stopping people from protesting their inability to do their job, rather than actually doing it. Fan-freakin-tastic, no?

Rabaa Fahmy says what many in the ME think.

“The United States is responsible for all of this!” exclaimed Rabaa Fahmy, a staff lawyer for the Nadim Center who was also inside the Excelsior café.
“They cause these problems because they support our government. All of their propaganda about democracy is false because they make alliances with dictatorial regimes like ours.”

She has a point; allies like Saudi Arabia and Egypt may do more harm than good. Maybe we should have a chat with our friend Mubarak.

Double Speak

George Orwell would be proud. Firebombing Muslims are “youths”. Blowing yourself up along with an Israeli falafel shop is “self defense”. Cutting off young girls heads is “charity”.

Hasanuddin allegedly returned from a visit to members of Philippines Islamist group the Moro Islamic Liberation Front with tales of how that organisation regularly staged bombings to coincide with Lebaran, the festival that ends the Muslim holy month of Ramadan. He later spoke with a preacher in Poso, Central Sulawesi, about whether such a plan could work in Indonesia, but expressed doubt about whether it was appropriate.

However, after further discussion with friends, he decided that beheading Christians could qualify as an act of Muslim charity.

A Religion that embraces death and global Jihad is a “Religion of Peace”. Up is “down”, good is “evil”, and Satan is “Allah”.

Our Friends the Egyptians

Imagine being arrested and the police interrogation going something like this.

"Do you pray?"

"What do you think of Christianity?"

"What is your opinion of Jesus? What about his apostles?"

Imagine being arrested because you voiced your opinions on a blog like mine. The charges?

•Spreading data and malicious rumors that disrupt public security
•Defaming the President of the United States
•Incitement to overthrow the country upon hatred and contempt
•Incitement to hate "Christianity" and breach of the public peace standards
•Highlighting inappropriate aspects that harm the reputation of the United States and spreading them to the public

What liberal is not guilty of at least a few of these charges? Thankfully this is not likely to happen anytime soon in America but in countries that practice Sharia this is not uncommon. You might think of Iran or the Sudan when you conjure up images like I describe above and you would be right, however the case I described above, substituting Islam and Mohammed for Christianity and Jesus, occurred in Egypt. Sandmonkey, my source of all the news from Egypt, alerted me to the case of Abdelkareem Nabil Soliman. While at Al Azhar University Mr. Soliman wrote what many considered anti-islamic posts on his blog. He was expelled and the University quickly turned him in to the authorities.

Not too long ago I posted about the government of Bahrain blocking the blog Mahmood's Den. We all signed a petition and quess what? The block was removed. We got Ganji released from an Iranian prison. Maybe we can get Abdelkareem released. Go to the Release Abdelkareem web site and sign the petition.

Victory! But for who?

James Robbins is afraid. “My greatest fear is that this Republican loss will be seen by our adversaries as a great victory.” Well they will because it is. They will try to force Bush to cut and run. They will scuttle NSA and CIA programs that are catching, interrogating, and holding terrorists. They will close Gitmo releasing the worst of the worst. They will talk and talk to Iran until Iran has its Nukes. It’s no great secret who the terrorist support as Deroy Murdock explains.

“Americans should vote Democrat,” said Jihad Jaara of the Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigades.

“I tell the American people, vote for withdrawal” from Iraq, said Hamas’s Abu Abdullah.

“As Arabs and Muslims, we feel proud of this talk,” Islamic Jihad’s Muhammad Saadi said. “Very proud from the great successes of the Iraqi resistance. This success that brought the big superpower of the world to discuss a possible withdrawal.” Saadi explained that a U.S. pullout would “prove the resistance is the most important tool and that this tool works.”

As Rep. Jack Kingston (R., Ga.) recalled in the Washington Times, Zawahiri proposed a four-step blueprint for jihad. “The first stage: expel the Americans from Iraq,” wrote Zawahiri.

This country does not have the backbone to fight the Jihadist. That will come in time but much more American blood will have to be spilled before we develop the type of fortitude that saw us through the bloody battles of WWII.

Update: Our enemies are ecstatic about the Democrat victory.

Our Friend John Kerry

Hat tip Vince Aut Morire

Our Freind Bahrain

When I think of Bahrain I think of a modern dynamic Middle Eastern country that supports our efforts against radical Islamofascists. While this might be the case that does not mean we have a Democratic country that grants what we Americans consider basic human rights such as free speech. Bahrain is a constitutional monarchy and Shaikh Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa, the King, has pushed for economic and political reforms. Nevertheless Bahrain is still no America, witnessed by the fact that they have attempted to stifle dissent by blocking several blogs. Chief amongst those is the reformist blog Mahmood's Den. At a time when knowledge of Islam and the countries that comprise the ME are paramount to our own survival the loss of such windows into that region are very troubling. Even more damaging is the loss of Mahmood’s voice to the people of Bahrain. Fortunately we can still get his blog and his countrymen can get it at a mirror site, but one wonders for how long. Go here to sign a petition to get it unblocked.

Update: We got the block removed.

Our friend Egypt

Sand Monkey has some incredibly disturbing news from Egypt.

The story is as follows for the those of you who didn't hear about it: It was the first day of Eid, and a new film was opening downtown. Mobs of males gatherd trying to get in, but when the show was sold out, they decided they will destroy the box office. After accomplishing that, they went on what can only be described as a sexual frenxy: They ran around grabbing any and every girl in sight, whether a niqabi, a Hijabi or uncoverd. Whether egyptian or foreigner. Even pregnant ones. They grabbed them, molested them, tried to rip their cloths off and rape them, all in front of the police, who didn't do shit. The good people of downtown tried their best to protect the girls. Shop owners would let the girls in and lock the doors, while the mobs tried to break in. Taxi drivers put the girls in the cars while the mobs were trying to break the glass and grab the girls out. It was a disgusting pandamonium of sexual assaults that lasted for 5 houres from 7:30 PM to 12:30 am, and it truns my stomach just to think about it.

Police did nothing, saying “Happy Eid!”. The press?

Al Jazeera had taped the incidents but were forbidden to air it at the request of the egyptian authorities. The new editor at the Daily Star refused to touch it with a 6 foot pole. This was going to be one of those incidents that only the blogsphere would talk about, while the mainstream media ignored.

I wonder how much of our billions of dollars annually given to Egypt goes towards security?

War in Gaza

Prediction: Israel will attack Gaza and reoccupy some parts to stop the daily rocket attacks and stem the porous Egyptian weapons pipeline. Fatah and Egypt will quietly aid the Israelis. Syria will take the opportunity to attack and try and retake the Golan Heights. Syria thinks that because Israel “lost” against Hezbollah that Israel is now beatable. Like ME despots before him, Assad will of course be proven to have grossly miscalculated.

The Knesset took a strong turn to the right with the election of Avigdor Lieberman into the government. I had heard that the IDF was going to petition the Knesset to let them go back into Gaza. Olmert has said Israel is preparing extensive Gaza operations. Syria has been making noises since the end of the Hezbollah Israeli war.

Assad’s latest declarations reflect his (and his regime’s) growing self-confidence. From his perspective, Syria is now in a “win-win” situation; every development will play to its advantage. A glance through the Syrian prism at three possible scenarios shows how might all (sic) be expected to develop positively:

1. Initiation of negotiations for a comprehensive Syrian-Israeli peace agreement
2. Launching a “popular struggle” to regain the Golan
3. A major Israeli war against Syria

I can’t see #1 anytime soon, not until Lebanon begins to fulfill its obligations vis a vis Hezbollah, not to mention Syria’s support for same. Israel will not willingly open a second front, especially if they actually let the IDF loose to do what must be done. So Assad’s only option is to attack the Golan, even if only by proxy. Again it will not be a win for Syria but even if Assad gets his nose bloodied if the regime is still in existence afterward he will be hailed as a hero who stood up to Israel.

Help a Hero

Millblogger SPC Reid Stanley who blogs at A Storm in Afghanistan needs our help. His wife Ellicia was diagnosed with cancer and will soon be entering a hospice and such care is not covered under the military’s health plan. LTC Buzz Patterson is offering to help by auctioning off a three book set on E-Bay. You can bid on them here. You can also donate directly here.

Most of what I know about how things are going in the War on Islamofascism comes from the boots on the ground rather than the enemy enabling leftist MSM. While I’ve woefully neglected to update my links to the millbloggers I will certainly take the time to link to his site, as well as LTC Patterson’s. Not only is he doing a great service to us by his military service but his input into the tons of firsthand accounts of the war will allow historians to accurately gage what we accomplish and fail to accomplish in our efforts to rid the world of the Islamic extremists who are trying to kill us. Lets help him out.

Nork's Nukes

On the Jim Villanucci afternoon talk show recently Heather Wilson stated her support for sending Governor Bill Richardson to North Korea. Jim also thought someone should talk to them. That seemed to be the message most callers had, someone, if not Richardson, should talk to Kim Jong Il. "You must have dialog", "Keep your friends close and your enemies closer", that still seems to be the American consensus, that we can use diplomacy to get what we want, in this case a nuclear free Korean peninsula.
That this approach hasn’t worked in the past and isn’t working now was made obvious by NK’s recent missile and bomb tests. Despite Madam Albright’s fancy dinners and Clinton’s $4.6 billion bribe Little Kim went ahead and developed his nukes. Clinton even went so far as to allow Jimmy Carter to go to NK as an unofficial ambassador, much the same as is being suggested with Richardson. Jhimmah came back and triumphantly declared peace in our day, on CNN, before even telling the white House. Privately Clinton was furious as it has been reported that Carter overstepped his authority. What damage would a future Presidential candidate from the opposing party do to the Bush administration? Given that going to our enemies and criticizing Bush on their soil is a popular leftist tactic maybe Bush should pass on sending Bill.

My point is that even after talks have failed to the point that he now has his nukes we still opt for that approach. While it might be too late to stop NK it’s not too late to stop Iran. Even the EU is now admitting that nuclear talks with Iran have failed. Iran’s goal is to have nuclear weapons. Any negotiations start at that point and no amount of talk will change that. Yet most Americans want dialog, talk is cheap and confrontation very hard. So talk we will till the Mullahs have their bomb, then we will have more talks to convince them to give up their bombs.

War in Iran

When discussing our war in Iran I often here people asking what we can due short of actually bombing the nuke facilities. Every one agrees that such an act would have horrible consequences. One excellent article on what we can and should now be doing is Henry Sokolski's in the Weekly Standard.

For instance Iran says it will block the Strait of Hormuz:

The first move is to reduce the vulnerability of energy exports from the Persian Gulf. Oil experts have determined that all but the 2 to 3 million barrels a day that Iran itself ships through the Strait of Hormuz could be piped instead to ports on the Red Sea and the Sea of Oman. Pipelines from Iraq, past Kuwait, through Saudi Arabia to the Red Sea, the UAE, and Oman are already in place; they only need to be connected.

This could be done by reopening the Iraqi pipeline across Saudi Arabia that the Saudis seized from Saddam in 2001, and by having anti-drag agents (chemical additives that increase the flow of existing oil pipelines as much as 60 percent) at the ready. It also would require building relatively short spur lines to integrate Omani and UAE pipelines with the Saudi pipeline system (something now under discussion). Most of this project could be completed in roughly 18 months for less than a billion dollars. In addition, it would be useful to build up a stock of oil on ships at sea as a floating reserve. This could provide a supply cushion for several weeks, allowing a smooth transition to moving oil by pipe rather than through the strait.

Our Friends the Egyptians

How is Syria an enemy but Egypt an ally? Admittedly Syria allows Iran to funnel arms and other assistance to Hezbollah so they can attack Israel from Lebanon. That is an act of war but keep in mind Syria is still technically at war with Israel. Egypt on the other hand has signed a peace treaty with Israel and is supposed to be our ally in the War on Terror. Yet Egypt continues to preach violent jihad on Israel and the US with its state run media. Couple this with the fact that Egypt has now given Tehran tacit approval of a plan to train and equip Hamas to act in the same proxy war against Israel from Gaza. Also inferred in this is the facilitation by Egypt to allow terrorist and arms to flow from Iran through Egypt to Gaza. How is this different from Syria? We should really take a close look as to what our 15 billion dollars of annual aid to Egypt is netting us. The rational of course is that Mubarak is bad but the Muslim Brotherhood would be worse. My question is how could it be worse?

Update: To those who say the Muslim Brotherhood would turn Egypt into a Sharia run theocracy I would counter that it already is. This man has been in an Egyptian jail for 18 months for "Insulting Islam", he converted to Christianity.

Michael A. Uliano 1959-2001

Michael Uliano probably would have preferred to be somewhere other than at the 105th Floor of the World Trade Center on September 11, 2001. An options broker for Cantor Fitzgerald, Michael enjoyed his work but would rather have been an actor. Surpassing his love of the stage was his love for fishing. To his fishing lure customers on the net he was known as Artie Fishhills, a play on the word artificial because of his knack for tying fishing flies. So if he could have Mike might have been fishing and clamming off Cape Cod in his old ’73 Jeep with the Shark’s mouth grill instead of one of millions of New Yorkers reporting to duty at thousands of desks across the world’s financial nerve center.

Michael's quilt at the United in Memory Gallery.

Michael acted off Broadway and was working on a screenplay. He so loved acting that he endured the amusement of his fellow Ithaca College football players and took ballet lessons. Many of those expressing fond memories of Michael at Legacy.com remember him on the stage or the football field. As quarterback of Canton high school Mike’s Number 10 was retired. He is survived by his wife Linda Buffa, his mother Gail, and eight brothers and sisters.

"Duck and Cover" or "How I Learned to Love the Bomb Shelter"

Iran will get its nukes unless Israel decides to intervene, the US public will not get behind another war given that we don’t have the backbone to see the current war in Iraq to a successful conclusion. Given that Olmert didn't have the backbone to finish off Hezbollah I don't see Israel saving the day either. If Mahmoud Ahmadinejad gains real power as he seems to be doing then when he becomes Supreme Ruler we may see those nukes used. I don’t think American society can withstand the loss of several major cities including Washington D.C. and NYC. I will become a survivalist, country boy will survive, but I fear for the rest of the world. If the Twelfth Imam really comes maybe we will be alright, otherwise the rest of the world will have it far worse than the U.S.

I’d like to see a blockade of Iran regardless of what that would mean to oil prices but that doesn’t seem likely. I am certain any stronger action is more unlikely. UN sanctions are a joke, Saddam showed us that, and either China or Russia will veto any action on Iran anyway. Time has run out, you may not have noticed but Iran is blocking IAEA inspections of its uranium enrichment facility. Mario Loyola at NRO calls this the point of no return in the Iranian nuclear crises. It’s now time to consider the ramifications of an Iranian nuclear power.

In Our Fallout-Shelter Future Stanley Kurtz makes a few sobering observations.

Once Iran gets the bomb, Turkey and Saudi Arabia are likely to develop their own nuclear weapons, for self-protection, and so as not to allow Iran to take de facto cultural-political control of the Muslim world. (I think you’ve got to at least add Egypt to this list.) With three, four, or more nuclear states in the Muslim Middle East, what becomes of deterrence?

With several Muslim countries in possession of the bomb, it would be extremely difficult to trace the state source of a nuclear terror strike. In fact, this very difficulty would encourage states (or ill-controlled elements within nuclear states — like Pakistan’s intelligence services or Iran’s Revolutionary Guards) to pass nukes to terrorists. The tougher it is to trace the source of a weapon, the easier it is to give the weapon away. In short, nuclear proliferation to multiple Muslim states greatly increases the chances of a nuclear terror strike.

Deep mutual suspicion between an expansionist, apocalyptic, Shiite Iran, secular Turkey, and the Sunni Saudis and Egyptians (not to mention Israel) is likely to fuel a dangerous multi-pronged nuclear arms race. Larger arsenals mean more chance of a weapon being slipped to terrorists. The collapse of the world’s non-proliferation regime also raises the chances that nuclearization will spread to Asian powers like Taiwan and Japan.

“Duck and cover” is back! In a post-proliferation world, we are going to be raising another generation of children (probably several generations of children) marked by nerve-wracking “retention drills.” And get ready...the fallout shelter is coming back, too. Given the Soviets’ overwhelmingly large nuclear arsenal — capable of turning the entire United States to dust in the event of a major nuclear exchange — fallout shelters came to seem like a joke. But when dealing with a possible strike from a single weapon, or at most a mere handful of weapons, the logic of the fallout shelter is compelling. We’re going to need to be able to evacuate our cities in the event of a direct attack, or to avoid radiation plumes from cities that have already been struck.

We are in big trouble even if Iran never uses its nukes; just having them will insure their immunity from retaliatory military action for any transgressions they may initiate. What do we do if they move into southern Iraq? Or worse go through Iraq, into Kuwait, and unlike Saddam, down into Saudi Arabia? Imagine the Mullahs controlling that much oil. Tehran has shown itself to be the world’s premier sponsor of terrorism, would we go after a nuclear armed Iran like we did little Afghanistan if a Tehran sponsored terrorist group brings on another 9/11? Could we count on our European allies, (as if we could now), if the Mullahs have the capability to lob nukes into Europe? Iran will be able to ride roughshod over the entire middle east with impunity, at least till its neighbors gets their nukes. The Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty will be dead and the world will become a much scarier place than it already is and its going to happen.

Update:

Ahmadinejad cannot become Supreme Ruler, he lacks the religious credentials. At best he will remain a toady puppet for the Mullahs who are hopefully no where near as insane.

Our friends the Afghans

One problem with supporting Democracy in Muslim countries is that the result may not be what we want. American blood and treasure was spilled in Afghanistan to promote a stable democratic society that would have the chance of bringing a backward theocracy into the twenty-first century. Concurrent with that goal was the hope that other institutions that we associate with democracy would also follow, one being religious tolerance. Instead we saw a man condemned to death for converting away from Islam. Now Afghanistan plans to bring back the religious police.

The cabinet also approved reviving the Department for the Promotion of Virtue and the Discouragement of Vice, a body that Afghan governments have maintained through much of the country's history. It became notoriously punitive under Taliban rule, from 1996 to 2001, when turbaned enforcers whipped women if their veils slipped and arrested men for wearing too-short beards or playing chess.

This leads me to wonder can Democracy and Sharia co-exist?

The Iran War

Iranian Akbar Mohammadi is dead. Read here about who he was and why we should care. Arrested for participating in a demonstration against the forceful shutdown of a campus newspaper he was sentenced to death but his sentenced was reduced to 15 years. You just don’t mess with the Mullahs of Iran. Tortured and denied medical care he went on a hunger strike nine days ago to protest his and his fellow prisoner’s treatment. In poor health due to his nine years in prison the hunger strike killed him in the form of a heart attack.

So what? The world can be expected to rant and rave about Abu Ghraib and Gitmo, but remain silent about the horrid prisons in the Middle East that house political prisoners. By political prisoners I mean the likes of Mohammadi, Ahmad Batebi, and Zahra Kazemi, as opposed to the “political prisoners” that the world wants Israel and the US to release. The terrorist still housed in Gitmo were captured on the battlefield and represent the worst of the worst. Some that we already released have been found back in the field carrying on the Jihadi mission of killing Americans and Democracy. Yet we hear constantly from liberals about how we need to close Gitmo and release the terrorist or place them in the care of our justice system. It’s a dangerous precedent treating POW’s as criminals, our troops are not police and you can’t treat a battlefield like a crime scene.

Even more ridiculous is the notion that Israel should reward Hezzbollah kidnappers by trading with them terrorist in Israeli prisons. Such so called political prisoners include Samir Qantar who killed a policeman, a father, and his 4 year old daughter. Qantar smashed the young girls head against the rocks with his rifle butt after shooting her father at point blank range. He is now a hero to the Islamist terrorists and Nasrallah demands he be part of any exchange.

Underlying all this; Sadr in Iraq, Hamas attacks, Hezbollah attacks, and jailed political prisoners dying while in custody, is Iran. The MSM's and the international community's constant anti-Semitic drumbeat that Israel is overreacting, killing civilians, invading its neighbor, and raising the price of oil allows for scant mention of the fact that it’s all Iran’s doing.

Adios Fidel

He aint dead yet but just the fact that he is in poor shape sent thousands of exiled Cubans into celebratory mode. GOP Vixen Bridget Johnson reports at NRO on how Castro's death will raise Hugo Chavez’ already rising star to greater heights.

Chavez fancies himself the cult of personality that will eclipse the long-fading allure of Castro; he fantasizes about being the larger-than-life leader who can unite even the most stubborn and independent Latin American countries into the United States of Hugo.

Does Chavez have any protégés in Cuban power circles? Does he have to set up a puppet to effectively control Cuba or will his money and popularity alone give him that power? 75 year old alcoholic Raul won’t last too long.

A few questions Monsure Minister.

French Foreign Minister Philippe Douste-Blazy had to take cover under a stairway in Haifa when the sirens sounded Sunday.

Douste-Blazy is visiting the region as diplomatic efforts to end Israel's war with the Lebanese guerrilla group intensify.

Mr. Minister, a few questions please. Why is it "Israel's war" when the terrorist invaded Israel and killed and kidnapped its soldiers first? Which Diplomats have been dispatched to Hezbollah? To Hamas? Should they reach an understanding for a ceasefire will you take them at their word? Why? How asinine is it to think you can negotiate with a terrorist organization? Does having to hide from these rockets give you any idea what the Israelis have been going through since the Gaza pullout? Do you realize that since the pullout at least one rocket attack has occurred every single day? Should Israel succeed in its efforts to rid southern Lebanon of these terrorist don’t you think that would be a great boon to the new Lebanese Democracy?

Our Friend Castro

Rumors that Fidel Castro is dying are flying around the blogosphere. Everyone is treating the rumor as just that but most conservative Blogs are hoping it’s true. Babalu Blog is having a Castro deathwatch, a contest to pick the date of death; winner gets a Babalú and Che? Still dead! T-shirt. This will come as a hard blow to leftist admirers across the the country, especially those at the New York Times. It was a New York Times editorial writer named Herbert L. Matthews that was instrumental in putting Castro in power. The Real Cuba reports that Hugo Chavez said last night that he recently saw Castro and "he is stronger than ever." I find that encouraging.

Clinton Bribery Revisited.

Is this legal? Remember the Clintons firesale of Presidential Pardons? Rick Hendrick -convicted for mail fraud pardoned for a $500,000 donation to the Clinton Foundation. Marc Rich -indicted for tax evasion, fraud and "trading with the enemy" -- Iran, during the hostage crisis, pardoned for a $1 million donation to the Democratic Party, a $10,000 contribution to the Clintons legal defense fund and $7,300 worth of furniture. That of course is old news and apparently legal. What’s new is the fact that Hillary’s brother received $107,000 in “loans” that he never had to pay back in exchange for a Clinton pardon. Captains Quarters has the details.

Our friend Mubarak

The outrage over how the criminals in Abu Ghraib were treated was justifiable; the left’s obsession over what was an anomaly in order to discredit the war effort and Bush was not. What is not an anomaly but rather a common practice is the treatment journalist and demonstrators receive at the hands of our friends the Egyptians. Read first hand how blogger Mohamed el-Sharqawi was kidnapped, beaten and sexually abused. Blogger Alaa has been in prison for 25 days now for his peaceful protest. Today more demonstrators are being arrested. This is a regime that we support to the tune of 5 billion dollars a year. Where’s the outrage for this? Here's some more love from the state run Egyptian media. Egyptian TV promotes anti-American hatred