Monday, March 31, 2008

Laugh League


There is an ancient (well - to be fair only a decade old) tune by a cool retro kinda band called 'Lit' entitled "My Own Worst Enemy." Crunchy guitars, catchy harmonies and a 120 beats per clip with a really cool line that confides

"It's no surprise to me - I am my own worst enemy - cause every now and
then I kick the living (you know what) out of me"
A real missed op for a killer cool soundtrack in Basharopolis.

Like all seminars, speeches and summits, the 2008 Arab League hook up took up in Damascus with a moment of levity.

Keynoter Khadaffy opened the show with a diss and a laugh and a half on one of the League's fave themes: "Arab Unity"

"Our blood and our language may be one, but there is nothing that can unite us.
How can we accept that a foreign power comes to topple an Arab leader while
we stand watching? He was their ally - and they sold him out.

Where is the Arabs' dignity, their future, their very existence? Everything has disappeared. How can we do that? We hate each other, we wish ill of each other and our intelligence services conspire against each other. We are our own enemy."

Al Jazeera's cat on hand confides laughter broke out (probably amoung the Sunni low level cats) while others (most likely the Pro Persian Syrian Fanboy cats) were
"stunned"
Khadaffy - to be fair - has always been a hoot at AL Shindigs - he also brought up once again his fave ME Peace Plan idea of combining West Bank, the Strip and Little Satan into one magical nation called (wait for it)
"Isratine"
Not to be out done by League's court Jester, the Lion of Syria Dr General President for Life met whispers and outright snitchery about jamming up Lebanon to the point of collapse as being totally bass ackwards. Contrary in fact.
"I would like to make a point with regards to Syrian interference in Lebanon. It
is the contrary which is true because pressure has been exerted on Syria for
over a year to interfere in Lebanon's affairs but we have refused to do so."
Bashar also went on a rant about Palestinan Sympathy Fatigue. Pointing out that the world was totally giving a pass to Little Satan's Strip Tease, while the Arab nation watched helpless and enraged rather unbefitting the fact that the 'Arab Nation' outnumbers Little Satan by nearly 60 times.
"Here we are meeting today while the blood of the martyrs of Israeli massacres,
has not dried up yet, enveloped with an utter silence of the world and the anger
of the Arab people and the condemnation of every one who has a free conscience
in the world."
Chock full of sincere blocs of insincerity, Al Assad's speech droned on with several pages of instantly forgettable faux fiction. It's a real yawner - right up there with golf channel or Canadian Parliment TV (and no diss meant to the Awesome Canadians either - except it's a lot like the old TV Land era 'Batman ' TV show's "Must . Stay. Awake." montage).

Palestine's Pres Abbas - true to the eternal victimistic stance that has played Palestine (a lot like their sorry military track record) to no end - may actually be at an end - Peace Talking wise.
"The coming couple of months are decisive. If we don't reach a solution by
the end of this year, it means the whole region will be on the verge of a new
era of tension and loss of confidence in peace"

Al Assad left the Summit hanging with a quiz that could be code for prepping for a threat of war.

"The question is: Do we leave the peace process and initiatives hostage to the
whims of successive Israeli governments, or do we search for choices and
substitutes that can achieve a just and comprehensive peace?"
And those choices and substitutes may very well include an alledged plot by Palestine to proceed with their PR blitz - top heavy with innocents - natch - called Return 2008.

Syria's Official Press is calling the Little League Summit a smashing success - though it may get the same press featuring the 'F' word like the 2006 AL Summit did everywhere else.

It may not have been a totaly disaster though. The AL Pres made a plea for another meeting to discuss Little Satan plus Qatar ageed to be host in 2009.

Plus Bashar got to hang out and huddle with his empowering BFF 's (best friends forever) from Persia - meeting with the Mullahs' Foreign Minister Mottaki.

Saturday, March 29, 2008

Pseudo Summit

It's time! The 2008 Arab League Summit is about to to commence their annual shindig in Damascus for the very first time ever! Since agreeing to hook up every year - the Summit has been a top draw deal for ME despotries, horrid and benign - featuring the head honcho heads of state.

Arab Unity is always on the agenda - followed quickly by Arab Solidarity and of course, Arab Resistance. Hoping to be the host with most, Dr General Pres for Life Bashar Al Assad and his sycophant car bombing nepotistic regime must have been hi fiving each other for winning the honor to have the AL Summit hang for the first time ever in Damascus.

Arab unity ala Al Assad with a tacit allowance from the League for Syria to re continue total dominance and ripping the living guts out of tormented Lebanon - a 'sister' Arab state.

And it's all ashes in Bashar's mouth.

Hot on the heels of Great Satan's Wicky regime changing semi éminence grise VP's ME Tour, Arab heads of State are bailing with devilishly delish designer irony drenched disses.

Like King Abdullah II of Jordan. Not able to make the trek to next door Syria - he's sending a lower level cat


"Jordan is committed toward its obligations to continue its role to achieve Arab
solidarity and consolidate the joint Arab action to find Arab solutions to the
challenges facing the Arab nation."

And he's not alone. Saudi, Egypt, Yemen, Iraq, and Bahrain are also diss inviting Royalty and Presidents for Life from the Low down Ho Down in Damascus.

Even worse, the UN Sec General is usually at the head of the table - but not this time. Instead, non Arab Persia will own up to regional meddling and intervention by sending their own Foreign Minister Motakki to give an especial blessing to the proceedings and support for their best friend forever Bashar.

So far only Sudan's scary 'Skin 'em Alive' guy and Palestine's 'Holocaust of the week' Abbas have hit the Hilton to hang.

Basharopolis believes the blame for this sorry affair of States is all Great Satan's bad

"The Americans have been working on ensuring low-level representation in the
run-up to the summit. We are seeing now a snowball effect working non-stop to
weaken the summit, which confirms the emergence of two axes in the Arab world.
Syria is virtually alone on one side."

Sweet! Truth is - it's not all Great Satan's fancy diplopolitical sabotage though:

Regional semi heavyweights Saudi Arabia and Egypt are a bit PO'D about Syria's murderous meddling in Lebanon and jamming up the Leb Pres selection process. Also the idea of a Persian Empire from Iran to the Med complete with clients and hegemony are most likely a big concern too.


In fact out of the 22 members of the League - only about half are showing up


Chief Arab Leaguer Pres Moussa paints a very diff pic - that the Arab League is just plain tore up about how slow the Annapolis Awakening is taking - and wants to spruce up and speed up the ever eternal ME Peace Process that the summit would also focus on the Little Satan and Palestine.

Instead of, oh - say - the UN's just released report about the Hariri asassination.

Al Arabyi TV Chief cat Abdul Rahman Al-Rashed points how retarded the whole "Summit of insults" has been


"Even before the invitations were sent out, the summit turned into a crisis
when Syrian Vice President Faruq al-Sharah openly threatened the Arab
countries that "anyone that does not attend will regret it".

These are words that have never been uttered by a host in the history of conferences in the world! After intimidation, the next step was the imposition of the topics. In spite of the conviction of almost all the countries, Damascus issued a number of statements that said that Lebanon will not be the main topic.

The tension in Lebanon requires that this issue be placed on top of the agenda for debate. After all, the Arab League Secretary General has devoted all his time to resolve this crisis since the beginning of the year.

Syrian Foreign Minister Walid al-Muallim retorted that there are other
issues that are more important than Lebanon.

And suddenly, Hamas needed to satisfy its appetite."

Thursday, March 27, 2008

VDH and The Price of Admission

I saw a startling statistic that said that 24% of all stories in the New York Times until last year were devoted to Iraq, and this year, 3% were. I saw a column the other day, and it said, "How to resolve the quagmire." And I looked down, it was about the Democratic race.

What's happened is that the surge has changed things -- not that 30,000 men and a force of 130,000 in a country of 26 million can itself change the pulse of the battlefield, but it came as a culmination of a lot of other things. We had been fighting for four and a half years when it took hold. And we've killed over 20,000 insurgents. In the aggregate, that total is impressive.

Remember, in post-modern war, we're only allowed to talk about how much we suffer, not what we do to the enemy. For the first time in history of warfare that's been true. But we have done enormous damage to the enemy, and it's starting to now take its toll.

CONTINUED HERE

Wednesday, March 26, 2008

How GsGf Got It Right

After reading your infectious essay "Audacity of Victory" and your very kind note requesting permission to excerpt portions of "How America Got It Right" may I say that your weblog "Great Satan's Girlfriend" has also got it right. Congratulations on GsGf's first anniversary.

It is inconceivable that the United States, after having conquered Afghanistan and Iraq and driven al Qaeda into hiding, will give up with the job half done.

In Afghanistan we must establish order.

In Iraq we must prevent the Shiites from setting up an Iranian-style tyranny, the Sunnis from reimposing a dictatorship, and both from oppressing the Kurds.

Beyond Iraq, we must track down and kill terrorists wherever they exist. We must keep Iran from building an atomic bomb. We must force North Korea to give up its nuclear program. We must stop these and any other rogue states from selling weapons of mass destruction to terrorists.

These are black-and-white issues for the vast majority of Americans, notwithstanding complaints from the far left. Just as America has gotten it right throughout our history, our government is getting it right today.

The leftist critics have got it wrong—because what they are hoping for, peace without a price, will never come to pass on this earth.

submitted by BeViN

Happy Anniversary


As if Easter, Purim and of course the Sabbat didn’t give Americans enough reasons for merriment, Spring has brought us another occasion to celebrate, namely the one year anniversary of Great Satan’s Girlfriend, one of the most unique and enjoyable blogs on the right side of the Internet.


Blogging can be a drag. Though I do this for a living (and of course I mean “living”) the truth is my wife and I make much more money selling ring tones and W.O.W. gold than from a series of niche blogs. I keep Red Alerts going for a little less than minimum wage and the occasional box of promotional swag because I believe in it, I believe in the ascendancy of the new media.


The reason I believe so strongly in the new media is not because of the blogs that are big now, but because of the new voices that are finding audiences now. G.S.G.F, Lost in Lima, Ohio, Mosquewatch, Ironic Surrealism: these are the sites that are building upon the success of pioneers like Hot Air. While Hot Air and DailyKos brought the audience to the table, these new blogs are stepping forward to show readers what they can do with the medium, and they’re making it their own.


Courtney of G.S.G.F. is the Robert Johnson of the young blogosphere, a pioneer in her own right who has created an entirely new genre of weblogs. Literate yet approachable her writing a synthesis of post-Beat poetics and pulp-era bravado, presented with the tongue in cheek pretension that is the hallmark of the true poet.


There is no one that does what Courtney does on the web today and that, combined with her admirable work ethic, have won her many fans including me.


Happy one year blogoversary G.S.G.F. and may there be many more.


My Love Affair With Great Satan's Girlfriend



It has recently come to my attention that it was exactly one year ago that we first became cognizant of that inimitable and outrageous (but always on target) Courtney -- better know as Great Satan's Girlfriend.

I know it's not just me who is in love with her, I've got a lot of company, and it's not just guys. It's everyone whose had the good fortune to read her prescient, knowledgeable and wildly original articles on GSG. And, in what might be a true test of character -- all the women bloggers in our blogosphere love her too.

Just ask Spree of Wake Up America, or Miss Beth of Miss Beth's Victory Dance, or Deb Hamilton of Right Truth. And I could go on and on.

"Semi charmed, self absorbed, self centered, Machiavellian, manipulative, cruel,precious, conniving, deceitfully sweet, materialistic, narcissistic, jealous, hedonistic, stuck up, semi retarded, wishful, lazy, spoiled, high maintenance ne’er do well pixie with a penchant for immense libraries, depleting strategic cash reserves and wrecking cars every 9 months..."
And that's just for starters --For those of you out there who haven't yet had the pleasure, meet Great Satan's Girlfriend.

One of the most exciting bloggers you're going to find in this infinite, but all-too-often unremarkable blogosphere. Smart, sassy, incredibly well-informed and connected, GsGf has created a whole new language for political bloggers, backed up by impeccable research and a fearless, piercing intellect. And -- she's sexy.

Sounds like I'm a little biased, doesn't it?

I'm not biased; I just love her.

From that very first surprising paragraph, I was hopelessly smitten -- as I predict you will be too. Recently CM was interviewed by a Pakistani journalist.
Now, I don't know about you, but I don't know that many people who've been interviewed by Pakistani journalists lately.
See what I mean?

Here's one of the first questions:

What do you think sets Your site apart from others?


"My unbridled optimism. My passion armed to the teeth with facts, history and a wonderful fully crunk smartassticness that will probably be appreciated more if I could snag more readers."
Now, honestly, who else do you know who talks like this?

There's a good reason why we love you Courtney -- no, many good reasons. But one of them to me is your utter fearlessness. And, if you will, your personal "audacity". You take the English language and mold it to your needs -- if the perfect word or phrase doesn't exist you just invent your own.

You keep going at a creative breakneck speed and unlike us old fogeys, you never hesitate and you never stop to look behind you. You just crash headlong into our consciousness at the speed of light and we, your audience, your admirers, are left in breathless wonder of you.

In short, you're just a little better than incredible.

Happy Anniversary Courtney Dear! And may you have at least eighty more!

With love and affection all ways, RoGeRbAbE!

BRATZ

I first ventured into the exciting mire of Great Satan's Girlfriend when seeking for the term 'Neo Con Ho's, Neo Con Hotties, and Neo Con Hootchies ' in Google (that should get you some hits Courtney).


Then I saw the cute Zionistas with their big guns and big boobies, in the photographs in the blog's sidebars and became hooked. It was around this time that I began to read the actual posts as well and found the author, Courtney, was saying some stupendously super things of a political nature. Did I dig it? (...currently listening to Albert Collins) Yeah I did! By golly gosh!


So what exactly does a centre-left, atheist, euro-loving twentysomething Englishman have in common with a self-described 'Hillbilly Babdiss' Yankee "Gawd dangit!", sexy Neo-Con Ameri-cutie?


Well, quite a bit. The first area we found we perfectly agreed upon was our staunch support of the brave (tiny tiny as Courtney would say) State of Israel against the 21st Century Islamonazi pincer movement. (And no dear fellow Liberals, I have no embarrassment resulting from saying that word, "islamonazi', because that's exactly what they are).


Then there followed an unbound torrent of other policies we agreed upon ranging from Neo-Conservative foreign policies, Social Democratic domestic policies and just how absolutely fantastic and necessary our collective Armed Forces are to world peace and security. (Watch out Armanidinnerjacket!)


Courtney is without doubt the sexiest & cleverest Neo-Con Yank I've ever known and her posts hit the perfumed centre of what is wrong with the world and how to deal with the various ideological cancers prostrating themselves across the various continents.


Little message now: Dear Courtney, please let your American countrymen know (yes I know they're reading this but I'm pretending to be philosophical in a dramatic 'Hamlet' type way).


Tell them to take note of Europe's mistakes regarding the capitulation in front of a fascist enemy and how we in Europe are steadily loosing our hard won freedoms. For you Yanks, can save yourselves still, if you stand strong against political correctness and relativist liberal claims of cultural/religious equality.


Just look at what's happening in Holland, Denmark and the Paris/London suburbs. But don't give up on us Europeans just yet, there is a revival taking place and we need your moral support, just like when all is said and done, you need us.


Anyway, I want to wish Great Satan's Girlfriend a very happy anniversary and may you have decades more on this wonderful site. Oh and please! Please! Keep posting pictures of scrumptious Israeli military babes! They can make me sandwiches any day of the week.


Best wishes from a fellow cat lover!

Beaman

Special Thanks


"Stop Drop and Roll - Public Service Announcement" Music by the Bravery

"You put the Broke in Brokenhearted - You put the Art in Retarded"

A very special thanks for Debbie Hamilton at Right Truth, Roger W Gardner at RadarSite, The Bravery for the killer theme tune, Dr Bevin Alexander for his kind note, Beaman of Beaman's World and Rob Taylor at Red Alerts who first gave me encouragement after giving GsGf some awesome PR after I tangled with one of Realpolitik's really political apologists

Y'all's time is precious - I recognise that - thanks for sharing.


Also Verlin Martin at The Daily Ramble, all the cats at Political Grind including Shane Borgess at Political Vindication and Political Vindication Radio, Donald Douglas at American Power, Otto at American Interests.

Tech Support and original art work "GsGf" by Francis Scudellari at Caught in the Stream (he also functions as a late night muse and is one of Great Satan's premier artistes) Butch Morgan at 123Beta, Smooth Stone at Smooth Stone.
Red Alerts, Uncle Joe at Grandma is an idiot, Big Girl Pants, Pondering Penguin, Working Class Conservative, For Zion's Sake, YJM, Capitol Tribune, Amboy Times,Whited Seplechure, Democratic Media, Middle East Interests, Ironic Surrealism II, Smashed Frog, The Other McCain, Rethink, Pakistani Spectator, Jadi, Old Ironsides Online, Blogway Boys, A New Tone, Spree, Miss Beth, Michelle Malkin, Angel @ WHT, Seanne Anna and those rascally Crusader Rabbits.
And also all the emails - good and bad. Thanks for reading.
If I left anyone out - remember my profile does list semi retarded!

Tuesday, March 25, 2008

Respectful Salutations

Dearest young person,

In the name of the Most Merciful God and His Prophet (PBUH), The Islamic Republic's Revolutionary Guard Corps would wish to offer grateful thanks for your recent correspondance and condolences on the marytrydom of our Most Revered Brother Commander Imad Mughaniyah.

In response to your inquiry it is doubtful that suffering was involved for any length of time. In the act of sha heed the martyr is blissfully and instantly taken up to the perfumed gardens of Paradise to reside forever in the presence of the Most Merciful.

Please rest assured that since the eid of mourning has passed, renewed vigour will entail righteous and just retribution for this gangster crime against our Brother Commander.

Regretfully, the Islamic Republic will not be able to grant your request for the creation of or inclusion to a list of NGO English Websites for lawful visits by Iranian young people.

Please also understand that Iran harbours no ill will towards the American People who are currently enthralled by a criminal cabal that seeks Imperium in the region of the Middle East.

Recently, elections in the Islamic Republic will ensure continuation of seeking a just and righteous solution to the myriad of problems facing the region and an honourable solution.

It is now dependent on you as an American young person to seek out the truth and participate in America's upcoming elections. Seek out truth. Seek out justice. Ensure that electing a President who will honour the wishes of all Americans who demand and thirst for an end to unjust, criminal and savage policies of Great Power arrogance.

With all good wishes and respectful salutations,

IRRGC

Monday, March 24, 2008

Eclipse

 
 The recent semi faux elections in the Islamic Republic of Iran at first glance seem like the same o same o. Thousands of candidates for the legislature (the Majiles) failing to pass strict muster, deemed to be insufficiently Islamic were rejected. Voters were left with either non negotiating fire breathing preachers, reformist fire breathing preachers or the regime's Praetorian Guards of the Islamic Revolutionary type.


And the IRRGC pulled in a big win. Growing in power - at the expense of the mullahs since the fiery little rocketeer soared into the figure head Presidency a while back, the Revo guards are taking charge and eclipsing Preacher Command.


To be fair - the IRRGC may have a case to make. Main Mullah minion Mookie has been the biggest disappointment - despite tons of cash, weaponry, and volunteers faithfully delivered unto him in Iraq. Al Sadr accomplished nothing - save periodically gathering his forces to greet defeat repeatedly at the hands of Surging Great Satan - no emirate, caliphate or theocracy anywhere in Iraq.


Totally quagmired - the Sadrists - the largest coalition bloc in the Iraqi gov is almost a dead martyrs party - thousands of constits have died, defected and disappeared - with absolutely nothing to show for it.
"I have failed to liberate Iraq, and transform its society into an Islamic society."


Dr. Karim Sadjadpour chief Iran expert at Carniegie Endowment (and expertly hot in Savile Row Threads) shared a quick dress up dossier wise
"At the onset of the Revolution, there was a lot of concern that the Shah’s
army couldn’t be counted on to be loyal to the newly established Islamic
republic. So the Khomeinists started the Revolutionary Guards to be the
protectors of the revolution. That was the original idea for their existence.
But over time they’ve grown in number and they’ve grown in stature, and now
there’s a lot of concern that as their economic interests have grown over the
years, so have their political ambitions

As an institution I think that the Revolutionary Guards are really now

the X-factor in both the political scene and the economic scene. Whereas 10 or
15 years ago people used to say 'well I have a contact who is very powerful
because he is related to such-and-such clergyman', these days in Iran people say
'I have a contact, he is very powerful because he is related to such-and-such
Revolutionary Guardsman'.

The current Parliament, elected following a massive purge of reformists, began its inaugural session with chants of "Death to America." Its members share Ahmadinejad's social conservatism and aversion to diplomatic compromise on the nuclear issue.


Well, I don’t think we can blame the Great Satan for the cruelty of the Islamic Republic. The Islamic Republic has been behaving in cruel fashion since 1979. For example, the punishment of stoning women to death for adultery existed before the neocons came to power in Washington. But that being said, I think the perception in Tehran, especially the perception of Ayatollah Khamenei, the supreme leader, is that the U.S. problems with Iran are not about Iran’s external behavior, but about the very character of the Iranian government.


Khamenei believes deep down that Iran’s patch of real estate bordering the

Caspian Sea and the Persian Gulf, a strategic location with natural resources,
is so important that he believes that the United States really wants to go back
to a relationship with Iran which they had in the time of the Shah. This was
essentially a patron-client relationship.

So when the U.S. appropriated $75 million for civil society and democracy

promotion in Iran, this simply reinforced the world view of those in Tehran who
believe that the United States is out to change the character of the Iranian
government."
And character counts. Persian Gulf pirates that seize and illegally hold British Marines, aiding and abetting murderous mayhem in Iraq - not to mention nothing but love for the worlds first freely elected rocket rich suicide Gov in the HAMAS Strip and their body part collecting, missile 'resistance movement' best friends forever in the Hiz'B'Allah.


This is significant - Iran has transformed from a State Sponsor of Terrorism into a Terrorist Regime. Actually benefitting from isolation as a control method to increase bling and total command.


As the IRRGC gets their act even more together with a new improved death grip on power, expect an ever more uncompromising cohort on Nuke Chicanery and increased intervention throughout the ME.


Real power in Iran is held by the supreme leader (hence the grand title), Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, and his personal posse.


Cranking up military influ and power is a time honored practise of despots in distress. In WWII, Nazi time Deutschland upgunned the SS from under 40K cats to over a million in like 3 years ( It didn't help either).


This eclipse may be the Supreme Leader's means of consolidating control, or creating a new, alternate new power base to offset and maybe even replace or reduce co dependancy on senior ayatollahs who have sometimes questioned his jumped up ayatollah bona fides.


In this eclipse, Ayatollah Khamenei is the man. A new generation of ex-military leaders comes to power, all directly owing their positions and power to the Supreme Leader.


Any daydreamy dialouge visions of rapprochment ala realpolitik (Kissinger and Ross) the West had of magical moderates regaining power in Tehran are null and void.
"Tehran may offer concessions on a range of issues, for example sacrificing
Hiz'B'Allah and HAMAS and even Syria, in exchange for a tacit acceptance of its
nuclear ambitions by the US and its allies.


That would put the Western negotiators in a quandary: granting Tehran a big
and irreversible prize in exchange for smaller and reversible concessions.
Tehran could activate or de-activate its Syrian, Hiz'B'Allah and HAMAS pawns any
time it wished as it has done with Muqtada al-Sadr in Iraq.


However, once Tehran has the bomb no one would be able to put the genie
back into the bottle.


The only way the Islamic Republic might abandon its nuclear ambitions is
under duress when it realises that the cost of making a bomb, if that is indeed
the aim, is much too high in terms of economic suffering, diplomatic isolation
and/or military defeat. "

Saturday, March 22, 2008

VDH And The Price Of Admission (Cont'd)

I saw a startling statistic that said that 24% of all stories in the New York Times until last year were devoted to Iraq, and this year, 3% were. I saw a column the other day, and it said, "How to resolve the quagmire." And I looked down, it was about the Democratic race.

What's happened is that the surge has changed things -- not that 30,000 men and a force of 130,000 in a country of 26 million can itself change the pulse of the battlefield, but it came as a culmination of a lot of other things. We had been fighting for four and a half years when it took hold. And we've killed over 20,000 insurgents. In the aggregate, that total is impressive.

Remember, in post-modern war, we're only allowed to talk about how much we suffer, not what we do to the enemy. For the first time in history of warfare that's been true. But we have done enormous damage to the enemy, and it's starting to now take its toll.

I read a column the other day by a really idiotic writer who said, “it’s like the kamikazes, an endless stream of insurgents.” But there was not an endless stream of them in Japan. There was about 7,000 of them; that was it. Finally, at Okinawa, they had to get people inebriated and draft English majors by force out of the university. And at least 30% of them did not reach the target, because they turned back.

There's only a finite supply of people who want to kill themselves, and we've killed a lot of them, and they kill themselves. That's helped. More importantly, we sent a message to the Iraqis. We've sent a message to the Iraqis and to the insurgents that we're not going to leave. John McCain is over there, for all of the controversies that surround him -- he does get the image across that he's a little crazy, and he does not want to leave in defeat.

And that sends a powerful message.

We also know that when oil is $108 a barrel, like it or not, that means if you're pumping two and a half million steadily, which they are, that suddenly their revenues are as if you were pumping 10 million at the old price. And to fly over Iraq today – and I did in October, and traveled all over the country for 10 days -- it's a country awash in money -- plasma TVs in Fallujah, etc. I can remember walking in Ramadi, and having people come up and want to sell sophisticated CD players that are better than the ones I see in Selma, California. And believe me, I would have rather walked in Ramadi than East L.A. in the evening.

So things are improving. And we've changed our tactic from – I guess we'd call it counter-terrorism to counter-insurgency, which helps.

What does all this mean?
It means that we're in yet another re-evaluation of the war. I think it's the fifth one. Now if this were a typical American audience, 75% of it would have been for the war. And after the statue of Saddam fell, 77% would have said, “Wow, that was my war. That's what I wanted. It was conducted brilliantly according to my own deep thinking.”

And then, when the insurgency started in 2003, especially at the end of the year, they would have said, “Wow, my perfect war was screwed up by somebody else's lousy peace.” And we got down to 55%, 50% approval by mid-2004. Then we had these unintended consequences from the disbanding of the Iraqi army, the pullback from Fallujah, the reprieve giving Muqtada Sadr free reign, et cetera. Support fell.

And then we had the Lebanon revolution, Cedar revolution, the Spring of Hope in 2005, the purple fingers, a decline in violence. And suddenly everybody was back on board; at least, the majority was.

Then we had the outbreak at the Dome of Samara in February of 2006. I was there then, too, and it was amazing to see the discouragement. And now everybody said, “No, it's not my war.” When you added Katrina and everything, Bush never recovered. And suddenly, it was an albatross; an orphaned war.

And now suddenly, the approval – I just saw the latest polls – 53% do not want a withdrawal, as the Democrats suggest. That's not unusual. If we were talking right now in the midst of the U.S. Civil War, it would have been almost exactly the same.

In February of 1862 or March of 1862, after Fort Henry and Fort Donaldson were taken, Ulysses S. Grant, the Petraeus of that era, would have been considered a genius. And this was a great idea – you could not let a separate Confederate nation exist side-by-side to a free, non-slaveholding North.

Had you had this same conversation April 8th, a day after the Battle of Shiloh – a battle in which the Union and Confederate armies suffered more dead and wounded than every battle in the history of the republic from its inception in 1776, people had turned on the war. If we had had the conversation nearly a year later, July 5th, 1863, with that brilliant victory of Grant at Vicksburg and Meade at Gettysburg, suddenly you couldn’t find anybody who had not been for that war all along.

If you fast-forward another year to that horrendous summer of 1864, when the North knew that it was one thing to repel a Southern invader and quite another to take and occupy a country the size of Western Europe, especially when that country had some of the best cavalry officers in the history of civilized warfare, and men like Nathan Bedford Forrest – but anyway, if you'd looked at that summer, think of it – Cold Harbor, The Wilderness, Spotsylvania – in that period of 90 days, the army of the Potomac was essentially wrecked, destroyed – 100,000 casualties. And you had Horace Greeley and other Northern opportunists saying the problem was not that Lincoln was going to lose to McClellan; it was that he shouldn't even run for reelection.

If you fast-forward to September 2nd, Uncle Billy Sherman took Atlanta, Phil Sheridan said he was going to turn the Shenandoah into a place where even the crows could not land and find food, and he did. Suddenly the South was humiliated, demoralized. You couldn't find anybody who was not for Lincoln all along.

That is what happens in wars. We could do the same thing with the Korean War. Everybody thought it was a great idea to draw the line against Communism, in June and July of 1950. By the time we were down to the Pusan Peninsula, they thought it was a terrible idea. It was not who didn't up-armor the Humvees, and who didn't have enough body armor; but who in his right mind would put an American in a Sherman tank against a T-34 when he had Pershing tanks? And who was responsible? We had four secretary of defenses in a period of 24 months – there was so much recrimination over that war.

And then suddenly, Douglas MacArthur does Inchon that nobody thought would work. And within two months, we're 100 miles from the Chinese border. And the question is not saving South Korea but unifying both Koreas, and home for November. Then suddenly, 750,000 Chinese come. And whose fault was that? And it's a terrible thing for the next two years, and Harry Truman's going to leave office with 22% approval rating.

And then they send another Petraean figure, General Matthew Ridgway. And suddenly it's restored, and now we think that Truman was the architect of containment and a great man.
And that's what happens in wars. Our problem is that in our utopian generation, a generation that is the beneficiary of the work of past generations whom we rarely credit, we've achieved a level of affluence and freedom and license that no other generation can even imagine. And so we feel that if things are not perfect, they're not good – so high are our expectations.

And that's how we've looked at this war. We've changed as often as we have about Hillary's chances. Remember she was a shoe-in, then she imploded after Iowa, then she was back, and it was Clinton, Incorporated. It's sort of like that killer in "No Country for Old Men" – nobody could stop her. And then suddenly, now she's toast. And now she's just sitting there with that Cheshire grin, knowing that a guy like Obama's going to mess up sometime. And that's what war is like.

So here we are, then, after the surge, with a renewed consensus that we should not withdraw precipitously, and that we probably can obtain our objectives. And what are our objectives? It was to create a constitutional state, not like Santa Barbara here, but something analogous to Kurdistan, Turkey. It may, in fact, have an elected government that doesn't like us but would not transform oil wealth into a base for terrorists, or a promulgate al-Qaeda ideology, or a state that attacked four of its neighbors, as was true in the past; or a state that would require perennial no-fly zones and corruption like Oil for Food. That's what the goal is.

And I think it's obtainable. Just look for a second at what has happened. People say, “Well, WMD weren't found, and therefore the war is illegitimate.” But we still know that they were killing the Marsh Arabs. We still know they were paying $25,000 for suicide bounties in Israel. We still know that Abu Nidal and Abu Abbas, and Zarqawi and Kurdistan had al-Qaeda people there. We still know that they violated the 91 accords. We still know that they violated the UN, the $50 billion boondoggle. We still know all that.

So it achieved that strategic aim of fulfilling almost all of the Senate and House requisites for the war. We know that even in the case of WMD, whatever you want to say, we established a new barometer. You don't have to prove that you do have it; you have to prove that you don't have it.

And so what happened was, immediately Libya gave it up. I know that the Europeans are saying that careful diplomacy resulted in that. (laughter) But Quaddafi gave it up three weeks after Saddam emerged from a spider hole. And almost the same time – literally, within that six-week window – Pakistan’s Dr. A. Q. Khan shut down that nuclear laboratory and that proliferation business that had given nuclear technology to Libya, to Iran; and in collusion with Syria and North. That was shut down.

I don't believe the National Intelligence Agency estimate. But according to what it says, at almost the same time, a third strange phenomenon occurred and Iran foreswore the proliferation arm of their nuclear enterprises.

Now, the funny thing about that is, the Left says, “That can't be true; it was due to diplomacy.” But what was the diplomacy that was going on? There was none. The only diplomacy was going on was 160,000 Americans were in Iraq. And so, even that has proven to be of some advantage.

We could argue all day over what the recent Pentagon evaluation of al-Qaeda and terrorism in Iraq actually means. I think Steven Hayes has sort of resolved that al-Qaeda was in Iraq. But nevertheless, think a minute. Who in their right mind would have said, “You're going to go into the heart of the ancient Caliphate, 7,000 miles from the United States, and you're going to on neutral ground engage al-Qaeda, and you're going to kill 20,000 insurgents, ex-Baathist al-Qaedas -- but more importantly, you're going to establish the principle that Wahabism is not only unpopular, but its natural constituency in Iraq – that is, the Sunnis of Anwar Province--will reject it to such a degree that they will join you in eradicating it.”

But that's where we are today.

That's a phenomenal development. And it's had a very positive effect on our own security. Think for a minute – when this war broke out, the Europeans said, “This is stupid, we want no part of it.” Jacques Chirac toured North Africa to assure everybody of his pro-Arab bona fides, Schroeder in Germany said things that were almost as critical of us as what bin Laden had said.

And the Europeans said, “You're going to pay a big price.”

In the last five years of war, we have not been hit. The Europeans have been hit from Madrid to London. Today, they're burning effigies of Europeans; there are protests all across the Middle East over the Danish cartoons.

If you're a European today, the very notion that you can write a novel, you can put on an opera, that you can draw a cartoon, that you can have an honest, free expression in a philosophy class in France, or yes, a Pope, symbol of Christendom – that you can talk about all this without fearing for your life – is all of that suspect?

In other words, the whole fruit of the Western enlightenment that so many thousands of Europeans have died for is now put in jeopardy by people who in 2003 said that that onus would fall on us, not them.

Because there's an older law in human nature that says, if you give the impression that you're affluent and you're indulgent, and you're weak, and you don't really want to defend your culture or your civilization, you're more vulnerable, not less. Whatever we think – this is what gets somebody fired at any university in the United States – the truth is, if you talk to somebody in the Middle East and they see the United States not only believes in something, but is crazy enough to defend it, it is a less likely, not a more likely, target.

It almost refutes the whole engine of modern liberalism that says that the more therapeutic and the more conciliatory, and the more diplomatic you express yourself, the more likely you're going to be safe. There's an older law that's primordial – I guess it's in the limbic system of our brain – that says that's not true.

I gave a talk not long ago at a university, and somebody said, “Well, look at the cost: 4,000 lives – you got blood on your hands – and a trillion dollars.” I think that's terrible that we have these costs. But let's talk about the terrible cost. And it is terrible.

But we lost as many people in Iraq in five years that this country lost in two weeks at the Battle of Guam in World War II. We lost as many in five years as we did in 10 days at Sugar Loaf Hill in Okinawa. I know we spent $1 trillion -- that's a terrible amount of money.

But this economy is a $13 trillion economy per year. Since the moment we invaded Iraq, we have created $60 trillion in wealth. So we spent one 60th of our national wealth these last five years as an investment to change the entire landscape of the Middle East and to make ourselves safer. And I think we have. And the proof of the pudding is we have not been attacked.

The people who said that we would be attacked, and that we would lose popularity in the Middle East, have been wrong, because the people who are the natural constituents of al-Qaeda have rejected them.

The latest Pew poll in June, 2007 was quite astounding. The countries where we're most unpopular are the countries whose dictators we subsidize the most – Saudi Arabia and Pakistan –not Iraq and Afghanistan, the only two countries in the world where people get up every day and join a constitutional process to kill terrorists.

And more importantly, if you look at the same poll, bin Laden's favorable rating fell – not rose – 30 points. You don't hear anybody talking about that. We were told that if we went into the heart of Iraq, we were going to so offend Muslims that they're going to naturally flock to al-Qaeda.

Maybe in the short term, but then why in the Pew poll did the favorable rating across 21 Middle Eastern countries of bin Laden fall from 55% to 31%, and more importantly the approval of suicide bombing fall even more precipitously?

Only in Palestine is there a majority of people who approve of suicide bombing. You don't have to be a rocket scientist to see why that's true.

So almost every complaint against this war is not accurate.


vIcToR

Great Satan Pics

1st known pic of Minute Lady as modeled by Bambi Ross (Betsy's little sister).

Manifest Destiny created Great Satan way back in the last millenium. AKA 'Columbia'

In 3rd Reich Europa, Great Satan was one giant 4 armed killing machine complete with gangstas, beauty queens, rocking records, money grubbers, jitterbugs, sporting a Little Satan thong and an Amerikkka hoodie. Liberating millions, blitzing multiple Regime Changers in like 3.5 years.

When comics were king in the ancient 1950's, Great Satan was a masked superhero who routinely confronted and often defeated a major foe - Red Sympathizers. Super powers included containment.

A decade later Great Satan appeared as a Jet Age Lady Liberty with a halo of air superiority.

In the 1970's Great Satan kept the Lady Liberty look but appeared awful scary to religious revolutionaries. About this time the name Great Satan became official.

Great Satan still gussies up as a scary Lady Liberty in many unfree, illegitimate, murderous, corrupt, intolerant regimes in the ME - like Syria.

As Warsaw Pact time Soviet Union desperately tried to maintain control in the late 80's, Great Satan was also a harbinger of Heavy Metal. Electric Guitars like Freedom of Choice routinely threaten illbegotten regimes and rulers
After the Evil Empire gave up the Ghost, Great Satan became a seductive little temptress in the early 1990's. Note the scary Lady Liberty Look was still in vouge in places like the Balkans, Somalia and Iraq.

After 911, Great Satan appeared as crazy and unpredictable. Incinerating Taliban and dropping sandwiches at the same time in Afghanistan. Liable to launch Regime Change anywhere anytime with irresistable naked force.

This rendition was actually taken from the one surviving retina of Imad
Mughiniyah.
How will Great Satan appear in the future?

Who can say?

Rest assured as long as the world has unfree, unhappy and unhinged regimes that torment their own people and their neighbors - Great Satan will always be around

Friday, March 21, 2008

Return 2008

Gloire's "Worst Case Scenerio" site has a scoop of sorts about a stunning new school plan that Fatah hopes to upgrade HAMAS' border crashing stunt with Egypt against Little Satan on her Happy 60th BDay Shindig (Nakbah Day in Arabic).


Just like a jealous neighbor vexed and grieved, the West Bank Capitol in Ramallah is plotting to act out in spite to spoil the party.

WB's Pres Abbas has fixed up a plan for like 3 million Palestinians from the Strip, Lebanon, Jordan and Syria to hitch their way into the sovereign borders of Little Satan, claiming the magical applicable to Palestinians only (honestly, ever heard of millions of Deutschers claiming a right to retake Danzig?) right of return.
Most likely, Little Satan will flash her toothy grin and say "Uh, no thanks!"

"If Israel obstructs their passage, they will strike camp and live in tents until
Israel surrenders and lets them through.

This stunt will be accompanied by pressure from the Palestinian Authority on international organizations to force Israel to implement UN Resolution 194, passed by the General Assembly on Dec. 11, 1948

Gloire's ME spies say Pres Abbas

"...commissioned the “2008 Return” project from a special Fatah forum
headed by Ziyad Abu Ain from Ramallah, deputy minister for Palestinian prisoners
in the Salam Fayyad government and close associate of Marwan Barghouti, who is
serving life for five terrorist murders.

Operation “2008 Return” is described in its introduction as a decision
by the Palestinian people “to implement UN resolution (194), declare themselves
holders of the UN blue banner, and return to their homeland, from which they
were forcefully expelled [Jaffa, Haifa, Acre, Ramla, Lod, Ashkelon etc]… in
order to live in peace and security with their Israeli neighbors.”


[Gloire: This motion is dredged up from the past as though history had stopped at that point and the subsequent 60 years of Arab belligerence, endless conflict and further UN resolutions had never happened. Another part of the same resolution appointed a Conciliation Committee to establish contact with the parties and assist them reach a final settlement of outstanding questions. This part was buried under decades of Arab rejection.]

The Doc (so far no text has been posted) reveals
“Neither the Jews nor the international community can stand against the desire
of the Palestinian people to exercise their right of return to their homeland
and to their homes, land, holy places [Jerusalem] and heritage.”
[Gloire: Mahmoud Abbas incidentally lays claim to Christian as well as Muslim holy sites – therefore also Nazareth and the Sea of Galilee sites.]
The rules read like a camp excursion

1. All returnees must attach the UN resolution and refugee card on their chests.

2. All returnees must bring their tents and other goods with them. If
obstructed by Israeli forces from reaching their land, they must set up their
tents on the border and stay there until Israel surrenders and allows them to
cross.

3. Jewish friends are called upon to assist in resolving the Palestinian refugee problem.

4. Arab governments and friends all over the world are called on to support the logistics of the operation.

5. Palestinian holders of foreign citizenships, especially US and European, are to
charter planes for flights to Israel or neighboring countries on May 14, 2008,
as well reserving passage on tens of ships to dock at Israeli ports on this date.

6. Personal invitations will be extended to all world leaders for their support.

7. Kings and leaders of Islamic countries will be invited, as well as members of the Israeli government and Knesset. Special invitations will be sent to the US president and members of the Senate.


Ending with the ever popular plea (for the ever nonexistant) "Arab Unity" the real irony is that Palestine will unveil this plot during the 29 March Arab League Summit in Damascus.

Bringing this up at the Arab League Summit in Basharopolis may actually backfire on Fatah.

After all, Iran is the man behind the green curtain at Bashar's coming out party plus the mullah's have buddied up and passed on rockets and other machinations of mayhem to HAMAS and the Strip.
When all the goodies get gone over a long weekend, will they be forced to remain? This is significant - it echoes erie tales of civilian and innocents hanging in Lebanon's combat zones for an amazing 2 weeks.
Hostages? Intelligent shielding? Top heavy with kids? Because it looks like a dramatic violent drama magnet.
How would despotic ME rulers explain the food drives and support for nonproductive tent city vacationers who are contributing little to the host enablers?

Support for Fatah versus HAMAS would be the ultimate zero sum game - after all, what kind of support can WB really offer for Syria's conquest of Lebanon?

OTOH, sunni cats may actually think it an effective tactic to marginalize Iran's support for the HAMAS, bolster Abbas and deflect and distract internal dissent by showcasing the Little Satan as the villaness.

Or, Palestinian Sympathy Fatigue may again strike and render the whole exercise null and void.

Wednesday, March 19, 2008

High Five

Happy BDay Iraqi Freedom! Five years on this essential battlefield in a truly global war on terror (quagmire for the quagmirists) the relentless march of Great Satan's Audacity (and penchant) for Victory continues to forward march.


Traditionally, phd's, exmilitary, pulitzer prizers and Statescrafters aren't as fickle, uninformed, and feckless as tweenage girls, politicians and lame stream medianites.

Yet even today on the Happy BDay Iraqi Freedom Day inappropiate handwringers, historical rewriters, who flout doubt and generally sound weirdly UnAmerican.

One new claim to fame about OIF was a horrendous flop is that no WMD were found in Iraq, thus victory will never happen. Fair enough.

Perhaps the Casus Belli is still Top Secret - even though the facts may have been around for a while. Flashback to January 2003. The Manchester Ricin Bust in Great Britain. A Scotland Yard Detective was killed in that op. What is interesting is that up til the investigation was complete, Great Britain pretty much insisted on one last UN reso to go to war.

Not after Manchester. In fact, history tends to point out that Uncle Tony said the "Heck with it - Hussein's gotta go and he's gotta go now" This could be interpeted to mean that one of Iraq's 18 suitcases of Ricin made it Great Britain. And that is plenty reason to knock Iraq out - all the way out.

Other critics point out how daydreamy it was to attempt to build a magical Disney Land like world for people who prob enjoyed being fodder for despots and who joyfully suffrered torment. Good luck with that one.

On the 5th year of Operation Iraqi Freedom - from a purely proud, shallow, audaciously optimistic, American perspect a very diff case tends to be built.

"Operation Iraqi Freedom" sent shock waves through other unfree, (some nigh unhinged) illegitimate regimes.

After all - if Great Satan could flat out knock out Iraq's military with Plan B , then the idea of what she could do after catching her breath and pivoting on her axis with Plan A and asking "Who's Next Y'all?" totally freaked certain places out of their everloving minds.

Like Colonel Khadaffy. He fessed up, gave up and straightend up - forsaking WMD witchcraft and eschewing terroristic lawbreakers in particular.

Or the ever practical pragmatic psychic mullahs who alledgedly gave up nuke chicanery.

Axis of Evil caught their breath, and realised they were in a horrible bind.

How on earth could the people of Syria sit next door and watch kids in Iraq argue with their teachers in class and without getting drug out and shot by the secret police? With a top heavy literate tech saavy bevy of kids - the very existence of which nigh guarantees regime change. Powerful meds - even for Cyber Police States.
Freedom to blow off the mosque, classes, demonstrations of love and support for the Dr. General Pres for Life - the Lion of Syria and hang out at an uncensored internet cafe? Or participate in any of the political parties sure to spring up with the sweet tempting lust of freedom of choice and casting a vote that actually meant something? Or even fire up a Face Book account?

For Iran, Iraq would eventually totally marginalize the idea that 'Preacher Knows Best.' A freely elected gov right next door that didn't deploy praetorian guards like the Waffen SS or the Revolutionary Guards .

Even sweeter (and ironically Teutonically - just like ancient fascist Axis) the Islamic Repub was totally surrounded and hounded by Great Satan in the flesh.

Over 200K Ray Ban wearing, tatoo bearing, humanitarian caring, culture sharing, combat daring, jam blaring, mullah scaring, globestomping, skoal chomping, no fear volunteers with the most sophisticated high tech weaponry on earth and a penchant for using it at will, without modesty and expertly.

Not surprisingly, when kryptonite hit Smallville, the Axis of Evil and their AQ fanboys had an urge for a surge of their own. Badr Corps, SCIRI, Mahdi Army and like a billion other Caliphaters moved in and took over (interesting too that official totals of 'insurgent' casualties has yet to be released - perhaps the number is incredible. May very well be - otherwise leakers who enjoy diplopolitical sabotage of America Unbound would have leaked it - unless of course it proved going to Iraq for jihad is not only dumb - but down right deadly).

Old school AQ bonds showcased Super Villans too. An arch enemy who left body parts on an Afghani field of battle (actually a targeted impact area) made it out to rehab near Bhagdad.

After a particular perverted reign including vids of butchering a helpless American - divine intervention ensured the last thing he ever saw was an American GI.

And the Original Gansta Enemy Number One - the most wanted 'Mad Imad' Mughaniyah. The most proficient killer of Americans in history - til 911. Operational father of the Mullah's Mahdi Army and Hiz'B'Allah.

To this day everyone blames everyone else, and Little Satan denies the hit but no one credits Great Satan with the kill. This is significant surely - the most wanted killer in the world mysteriously vaporizing in a secure sector of all spots? Revenge?
Despite American MP Generals not keeping tabs on the night shift, disbanding the Iraqi army or not shooting 50 or 100 looters dead, Great Satan tried the fun friendly super light boot print instead of a Soviet or Wehrmacht style occupation.

And honestly gave it a chance to succeed - to give people a chance and a choice to build a free country, a better life - a real future.

Sure hindsight is 20/20 - so what? The truth is pre Surge Iraq featured several things - like giving Iraqis a 1st hand look at what Caliphates (their choice - Al Qaeda ish or Iranian style) can offer.

Obviously, Caliphating of any variety totally sucks. And they can attest to that.

Also, Iraq was a future war lab. Fallujah is a significant point to this. Draw the the enemy into a trap and then crush them. This was also applied to Iraq as a whole. And it worked.

Transforming Iraq into an irresistable, giant sucking killing machine for Iranian minions, Syrian Agents, wannabe jihadis, and Saudi rejects. A 'disaster' that devoured and left foreign volunteers dead on the side of the road for a stranger to bury after devastating encounters with the uparmored sons of the Great Satan.

A quagmire that absorbed Iranian cash - over a billion bucks (not to mention Hiz'B'Allah's high maintance ) and not one emirate, caliphate, or theocracy to show for it - or a super Iran leaning shia majority in the Gov either.

A significant "No Thanks!" to caliphating theocracies that tend to preach ok - but can't seem to really run anything, heal anythng or project a desirable future.
Dr. Don Douglas points out


"War opponents will continue to berate and demonize the war. Today the Bush
administration is vilified for its foreign policy failures in 2003 through 2006,
but very few are willing to concede the huge foreign policy learning that the
adminstration undertook to set a new course toward victory. We are not done, as
General David Petraeus said this week, but the level of violence in Iraq over
the last year has dropped so dramatically that the conflict has all but disappeared from the front pages of the newspapers.

The notion of Iraq as FUBAR among implacable antiwar forces - as well
as mainstream journalists - will be difficult to dislodge.

The truth, of course, is that we're winning in Iraq, and while considerable debate
over the strength of al Qaeda or other anti-democratic groups will continue, the
fact remains that we can simply either recognize the phenomenal progress we've
made - and commit American resources and will to seeing the job through - or we
can succumb to a cost-sensitivity that will set back American foreign interests
more disastrously than at any time since Vietnam - an earlier, regrettable
retreat from war that left the world's correlation of forces dangerously
advantageous to the evil designs of Marxist-Leninist totalitarianism.

We cannot afford to do the same today.

There's no retreat from the struggle, no matter the political dynamics at
home. Our enemies won't rest until they've achieved their goal of the complete
and utter destruction of the United States, by any means necessary."
In this context, invading the heartland of Araby, knocking out the largest Arab army in history in 20 days - no less - attemping to conceive, birth, nurture and raise a functional egalitarian democracy was no mistake.

It is a brilliantlly worthy stratagem - as only Great Satan could create, sustain and succeed. No surprise either. It's in our bones - bred in our blood.

From Bunker Hill to Anzio, from Chickamauga to Mosul. Just like past conflicts that ground tyranny, slavery and despots into the dust - the cost in wounded and killed has been tough to bear - but victory will again ensure the worth of precious American blood shed on hallowed turf for the freedom and future of others - the ultimate in humanitarian concern.
Just like the 'Battle Hymn of the Republic" soars in her last refrain

"As He died to make men Holy, let us die to make men free"

Happy 5th Birthday Iraqi Freedom.






Tuesday, March 18, 2008

Casus Belli?


From THE SECRET HISTORY OF THE IRAQ WAR by Yossef Bodansky (Regan Books, 2004), chapter 3, pp. 51-53:

On January 14, 2003, British police and security forces raided a terrorist safe house in Manchester, ending a several-month-long investigation. A Scotland Yard detective was killed in this raid, which recovered a quantity of ricin – an extremely potent poison. The investigation, begun in the fall 2002 in Israel, involved at its peak the intelligence services of more than six countries.
The investigators’ findings provided the “smoking gun” supporting the
administration’s insistence on Iraq’s centrality to global terrorism, the
availability of operational weapons of mass destruction in Iraq, and proof of the close cooperation between Iraqi military intelligence and al-Qaeda.

The data accumulated during this investigation could have provided the casus belli – the justification for war – and urgent imperative to take on Saddam Hussein. Yet in the first of several indecisive and self-contradicting political maneuvers, the Bush administration preferred to accommodate Blair’s pressure to keep Israel at arm’s length, not implicate Arafat, and placate Blair’s fellow West European leaders rather than go public with the findings of the investigation.

Despite mounting international criticism and skepticism in the media, the American public was not presented with one of the strongest and most explicit justifications for the war with Iraq.

On the night of September 13, 2002, Israeli Special Forces intercepted and captured a three-man squad attempting to cross the Jordan River and enter the Palestinian territories on their way to Arafat’s compound in Ramallah.

The interrogation revealed that they were highly trained members of the Baghdad-based Arab Liberation Front (ALF), sent to conduct spectacular strikes under the banner of Arafat’s Fatah. Specifically, they were dispatched by ALF Chief Muhammad Zaida Abbas, better known as Abu-al-Abbas, to operate directly under the control of Tawfiq Tirawi, chief of the Palestinian Authority’s General Intelligence Service and Arafat’s closest confidant.

Abbas and Tirawi were extremely close childhood friends, having grown up together in a village just north of Ramallah and ultimately joining Arafat’s fledgling terrorist organization together in the early 1960s.

The three ALF terrorists were trained for several missions, including
an operation that involved using shoulder-fired missiles to shoot down civilian airliners as they approached Ben-Gurion Airport and using anti-tank rockets and missiles to ambush convoys – including American groupings on their way to Iraq.

They were also there to organize and train Palestinian terrorists – all
trusted operatives of Tirawi’s – to assist with operations and intelligence collection inside Israel. The three had been briefed in Baghdad that they would get the missiles, heavy weapons, and explosives they might need from Fatah via Tirawi.

The Israeli interrogators were most interested in what the three had to
say about their training: During the summer, they had been trained along with other squads of ALF terrorists at Salman Pak – a major base near Baghdad – by members of Unit 999 of Iraqi military intelligence. They recounted that in an adjacent part of the camp, other teams of Unit 999 were preparing a select group of Islamist terrorists specifically identified as members of al-Qaeda.

Although the training was separate, and individuals used code names
exclusively, they were able to learn a great deal about the missions of their Islamist colleagues.

The three ALF terrorists told the Israelis that in addition to the
myriad special operations techniques taught at Salman Pak, the Islamists also received elaborate training in chemical weapons and poisons, specifically ricin.

Moreover, on their way to their operational deployment zones, the Islamists were taken to a derelict complex of houses near Halabja, in Kurdistan, where they conducted experiments with chemical weapons and poisons. The area where the training took place was nominally under the control of Ansar-al-Islam, Osama bin Laden’s Kurdish offshoot.

From there, the ALF terrorists recounted, Islamist detachments traveled to Turkey, where they were to strike American bases with chemical weapons once the war [with Iraq] started, and to Pakinsy Gore in northern Georgia (on the border with Chechnya) in order to assist Chechen terrorists as they launched major terrorists operations against Russia. Others were dispatched to train Islamist teams arriving from Western Europe via Turkey in sophisticated terrorism
techniques, including the use of chemical weapons and ricin.

Within a week of the capture of the ALF trio, a delegation of senior
Israeli military intelligence officers traveled to Washington to brief the White House about their findings. By then, there had already been independent corroborations of the Israeli reports: Turkish security forces, acting on tips provided by Israel, arrested two al-Qaeda operatives studying plans to attack the U.S. air base in Incerlick with chemical weapons, and American intelligence also learned from its own sources about the activities of foreign mujahedein in Georgia’s Pakinsky Gore.

Then, on October 23, a group of Chechen and Arab terrorists captured a
Moscow theater in the middle of a performance, taking over seven hundred people hostage, rigging the theater with bombs, and threatening to kill everyone in the building. When negotiations failed and the terrorists shot at least one hostage to demonstrate their determination, Russian antiterrorist forces broke into the
theater after using a special knockout gas to neutralize the Chechens before they were able to detonate their bombs.

The Russian operation was considered a great success, as all the terrorists were killed before they could blow themselves up; however, close to two hundred hostages died from secondary effects caused by the gas, including heart attacks and choking on their own vomit. In any case, the mere occurrence of a spectacular strike in Moscow meant that there could no longer be any doubt about the accuracy of the material provided by the three Palestinians in Israel’s custody.

Still, the White House was reluctant to advertise this evidence because it demonstrated Israeli intelligence’s major contribution to the war on terrorism.

When ricin was discovered in Manchester and all the dots connected, the intelligence Israel had extracted from the terrorists in its custody was proved wholly accurate. Israel had in fact demonstrated to the Europeans why Saddam Hussein has to be toppled, and soon.