Has Iraq become the primary battleground against the same radical Islamists who declared war on the U.S. in the 1990s?

Thoughts from Bob Kerrey, a former Democratic senator from Nebraska and member of the 9/11 Commission:

The critics who bother me the most are those who ordinarily would not be on the side of supporting dictatorships, who are arguing today that only military intervention can prevent the genocide of Darfur, or who argued yesterday for military intervention in Bosnia, Somalia and Rwanda to ease the
sectarian violence that was tearing those places apart.

Suppose we had not invaded Iraq and Hussein had been overthrown by Shiite and Kurdish insurgents. Suppose al Qaeda then undermined their new democracy and inflamed sectarian tensions to the same level of violence we are seeing today. Wouldn't you expect the same people who are urging a unilateral and immediate withdrawal to be urging military intervention to end this carnage? I would.

American liberals need to face these truths: The demand for self-government was and remains strong in Iraq despite all our mistakes and the violent efforts of al Qaeda, Sunni insurgents and Shiite militias to disrupt it. Al Qaeda in particular has targeted for abduction and murder those who are essential to a functioning democracy: school teachers, aid workers, private contractors working to rebuild Iraq's infrastructure, police officers and anyone who cooperates with the Iraqi government. Much of Iraq's middle class has fled the country in fear.

With these facts on the scales, what does your conscience tell you to do? If the answer is nothing, that it is not our responsibility or that this is all about oil, then no wonder today we Democrats are not trusted with the reins of power. American lawmakers who are watching public opinion tell them to move away from Iraq as quickly as possible should remember this: Concessions will not work with either al Qaeda or other foreign fighters who will not rest until they have killed or driven into exile the last remaining Iraqi who favors democracy.

The key question for Congress is whether or not Iraq has become the primary battleground against the same radical Islamists who declared war on the U.S. in the 1990s and who have carried out a series of terrorist operations including 9/11. The answer is emphatically "yes."

This does not mean that Saddam Hussein was responsible for 9/11; he was not. Nor does it mean that the war to overthrow him was justified--though I believe it was. It only means that a unilateral withdrawal from Iraq would hand Osama bin Laden a substantial psychological victory.

Those who argue that radical Islamic terrorism has arrived in Iraq because of the U.S.-led invasion are right. But they are right because radical Islam opposes democracy in Iraq. If our purpose had been to substitute a dictator who was more cooperative and supportive of the West, these groups wouldn't have lasted a week.

Dissidents, human rights and security.

Natan Sharansky, once a dissident who spent 9 years in the Soviet gulag, is co-hosting a conference on democracy and security in Prague next month, together with former president of the Czech Republic Václav Havel and former prime minister of Spain José María Aznar, where he hopes to give dissidents around the globe a forum to be heard.

President Bush will be the keynote speaker.

Organized under the auspices of The Prague Security Studies Institute, the Adelson Institute for Strategic Studies at The Shalem Center and the Foundation for Social Analysis and Studies in Madrid , this is the "first-ever event to bring dissidents together with leading politicians in democratic countries to discuss the importance and relevance of democracy and to explore ways to promote democracy in totalitarian regimes, and the empowerment of dissidents in that process."

Mr. Sharansky finds that President Bush is a dissident like him: a lone voice in the West. He told Jackson Diehl of the Washington Post:

"It's not that the democracy policy was adopted and applied and turned out not to work," Sharansky said. "There was never a strategy for applying it. There was no unity of purpose. Hardly any political leaders besides Bush believed in the concept. Even here in America there was terrible resistance. It's not enough that the president believes in the policy and wants to act. He has to be able to carry the country and the bureaucracy with him."

Mr. Sharansky is a fervent believer that dissidents of tyranny must be supported by the free world. He knows that dictatorships are week from the inside because they must control the vast number of "double thinkers" who, unlike the small numbers of dissidents, are afraid to revolt because they have no support from the outside world.

He draws an analogy between what is going on in Iran right now with the Solidarity movement in Poland under communism. Mr. Sharansky says that there is a comparable movement in Iran, but unfortunately, unlike Solidarity, it has no support from the outside.

As to his views about the debate on linking democracy and security:

First, when you are sitting with other dissidents in a Soviet prison, it becomes so clear that if we have anything in common it is this cause of human rights and democracy. It is not about left or right; nor is it about this or that religion. Human rights and freedom is a cause for everybody.

Second, for many years I was in solitary confinement, where I could talk only to myself. When you speak about the linkage between democracy and security in the free world, very often you find you are speaking only to yourself. Nobody really wants to listen; nobody really wants to believe in it."

It will be interesting to hear what the outcome of this debate will be during the conference, and whether the lonely dissidents of today will garner any more support...

There is more on Mr. Sharansky, his cause and the up coming conference at The Weekly Standard.

Sharansky dissident President Bush Czech Republic democracy and security Human Rights Havel Aznar Solidarity Poland

War on Terror.

Victor Davis Hanson's thoughts and reasons for why the war on terror will continue, despite the fact that most wish it away.

...radical Islamists largely arise from the oil-rich Middle East. Since 9/11, the price of oil has skyrocketed, transferring trillions of dollars from successful Western, Indian and Chinese economies to unsuccessful Arab and Iranian autocracies.

Terrorists know that blowing up a Saudi oil field or getting control of Iraqi petroleum reserves — and they attempt both all the time — will alter the world economy. Even their mere threats give us psychological fits and their sponsors more cash.

This is a strange war. Our successes in avoiding attack convince some that the real danger has passed. And when we kill jihadists abroad, we are told it is peripheral to the war or only incites more terrorism.

But despite the current efforts at denial, the war against Islamic terrorism remains real and deadly. We can't wish it away until Middle Eastern dictatorships reform — or we end their oil stranglehold over the world economy.

[war] [terror][middle east][Iraq][Islam] [jihad][Iran]

Anger and causes.

Thomas Sowell has an excellent article that tackles the "angry" left.

If it is hard to find a principle behind what angers the left, it is not as hard to find an attitude. Their greatest anger seems directed at people and things that thwart or undermine the social vision of the left, the political melodrama starring the left as saviors of the poor, the environment and other busybody tasks they have taken on.

It seems to be the threat to their egos that they hate. And nothing is a greater threat to their desire to run other people's lives than the free market and its defenders.

Read it here.

[anger] [left] [politics] [economics]

Banana spider may help male homo sapiens.

Some male victims of one of the world's deadliest spiders, once the painful symptoms of the spider's poison disappear, report an improvement in their sex life. Don't believe me? Check it out here.

[banana] [spider] [Brazil] [erectile] [disfunction]

Pining for the Cold War...

RUSSIA is a strong, sovereign and prosperous country, surrounded by enemies and traitors who are bent on undermining its geopolitical power. Upstarts such as Estonia and Poland are trying to spoil Russia’s far more important relationships with proper European countries, such as Germany or France. The freshly-baked European Union (EU) members act on the instructions of America, a hypocritical and arrogant dictator of the world order, which pretends to be a democracy but in fact is closer to the Third Reich.

This, in short and perhaps a bit exaggerated, is the view of Europe from behind the Kremlin wall, intensified by the state media, and shared by many Russians.

Read the rest at The Economist.

[Russia] [cold war] [America] [US] [Poland] [Estonia] [Putin] [Rice]

A first for the US Navy.

Cmdr. Muhammad Muzzafar F. Khan becomes the first Muslim to be commanding officer of and operational aviation squadron, the Sea Control Squadron (VS) 31.

[Navy] [aviation] [squadron] [Muslim]

European anti-Semitism.

The Anti-Defamation League (ADL) carried an opinion survey of five European countries (France, Germany, Spain, Italy and Poland), and found anti-Semitism is on the rise.

Respondents across the continent were asked a series of indicator questions representing the most pernicious notions of anti-Semitism and whether or not they thought the following four statements were "probably true" or "probably false."

• Jews are more loyal to Israel than to this country.
• Jews have too much power in the business world.
• Jews have too much power in international financial markets.
• Jews still talk too much about what happened to them in
  the Holocaust.
  

Unfortunately, the survey showed that " a plurality of Europeans believe Jews are more loyal to Israel than to their country and that they have too much power in business and finance."

[anti-Semitism] [Israel] [Jews] [Spain] Italy] [Poland] [France] [Germany] [Europe] [Middle East]

Where did all the mujahadin go after Bosnia? Sky News reports.

[jihad] [Holy] [War] [Bosnia]

Marrying a Saudi?

The US State Department has an interesting compilation of information relating to what to expect if one is considering marrying a Saudi. Love may conquer all, but it's good to be informed before entering any contract, including marriage.

Here are some excerpts:

With whom will you live?

Many newly married couples move in with the groom's parents, in a sprawling villa that may house several other siblings and their wives and families. There is no such thing as personal privacy and tensions with family members who for one reason or another, may resent the presence of an American wife, often make this living arrangement difficult. In a more affluent family, a couple may inhabit one of several homes in a small family compound. Some Saudis live separately in villas or apartments. While that may resolve the issue of privacy, many American wives find themselves completely isolated, surrounded by neighbors who only speak Arabic, and with no access to public or private transportation.

With whom will you socialize?

Saudis socialize within the family. Expatriates who have lived and worked for years in Saudi Arabia may never meet the wife of a close Saudi friend and, according to custom, should never so much as inquire about her health. For an American wife, a social life confined to her husband's family can be stultifying, particularly since few American wives speak, or learn to speak, Arabic. Whether the Saudi husband permits his wife to socialize with men to whom they are not related determines how western a social life they will enjoy. Because of the segregated society, Saudi men naturally spend much of their time together, separate from wives and family. (Even Saudi weddings are segregated affairs, with observances for men and women often held on different evenings and in different locations.) Only the most westernized Saudi will commit to socializing with other dual-national couples.

[Saudi] [Muslim] [Islam] [Saudi Arabia] [marriage] [wedding]

A window, a glimpse, into a world we never see.

Thanks to MEMRI, here's a fascinating debate on Arab youth and suicide bombers involving Syrian author Nidhal Naisa. It's a window, a glimpse, into a world we never see.

[Nidhal Naisa] [Syria] [jihad] [Arab] [Islam]

Poland's Special Forces.

The Weekly Standard has an interesting article on Poland's Special Forces (GROM), how they came to be, and what important work they do.

[Poland] [GROM] [special forces] [SAS] [Delta][Iraq]

Ever heard of "ecotherapy" to combat depression?

"Country walks can significantly reduce depression and raise sufferers' self-esteem according to research" reports The Telegraph.

[depression] [green][ecotherapy][walk]

How to become a millionaire. Advice for Generation X.

And now, something different:

There are no secrets to becoming a millionaire and almost anyone has the chance to make it happen. The process is simple:

1. Make money
2. Don’t spend all of your money
3. Save some money
4. Invest that money
5. Repeat

Certainly there are many factors in play that can make this easier or more difficult for different people. This is simply the process that you can use in order to reach that goal, whether it is in 5 years or 50, if you follow a few basic steps you can do it.

Read all of it here.

[tagname]

Illegal immigration and the enemy within. Continued.

The Iranians already are operating in South America's Tri-Border area. Is it the nothing-can-be-done crowd's assumption that the fellows who run armies of the "undocumented" from Mexico into America are just kindhearted human smugglers who'd have nothing to do with jihad even if the price was right? If you don't have borders, you won't have a nation -- and you may find "the jobs Americans won't do" covers a multitude of sins.

Read Mark Steyn's disturbing article.

[iran] [immigration] [fort dix] [jihad][islam] [muslim]

Polish troops.

Not too long ago, the Poles had a couple of hundred troops operating in Afghanistan, and these were mostly engineers and de-mining specialists. Today, there are approximately 1,200, and half of them are special forces!

Also, U.S. troops in Afghanistan will soon fall under Polish command: American soldiers will be reporting to a Polish lieutenant colonel in Afghanistan. Read more here.

[Poland] [Afghanistan] [troops]

Useful idiots and their role in the destabilization of a nation.

A former KGB agent talks about the role of the useful idiots: when their job is completed, having been used by their puppeteers, the idiots will not come to power. They will be shot, exiled, or imprisoned.



[idiot] [marxism][totalitarianism][communism][KGB][left][soviet][propaganda]

Of mice and men: Farfur, the sick Mickey Mouse clone, death cult propaganda, children's indoctrination in hate.

Michael Goodwin points out an obvious:

You hear it all the time: If only the Israelis and Palestinians would make peace, the rest of the world would follow. The next time you hear it, remember that the Palestinian version of Mickey Mouse preaches death to Jews and Americans.

There can be no peace with a culture like that.
...
To those who monitor the sewage spewing from Arab media, the only shock about the report is that many Americans don't grasp the depth of depravity. TV, newspapers and the Internet urge violence in the name of Islam. Cartoons and music videos are used to brainwash children.

The goal, openly stated, is to enlist children in the "culture of martyrdom" — to die
fighting and killing the enemies of Islam. Suicide bombers are glorified and promised paradise. Grade-school textbooks fill children with dreams of a glorious death.

There is nothing remotely like it in our culture. Violence, especially ethnic, racial and religious violence, is universally condemned and carries extra punishment in America and much of the West.
...

Organizations such as the Middle East Media Research Institute (www.memri.org) have been warning for years about the twisted nature of public discourse in Arab and Muslim countries. ...

The sheer volume of this sickening garbage makes it clear that we are a long way from peace. The images, which shift easily from cartoon violence to grisly videos of the real thing in Iraq and elsewhere, illustrate the linkage. While we in the West endlessly study and debate the impact of video games on children's behavior, the merchants of hate in the Mideast have no doubt. They know that using violent images is a surefire way to raise a new generation of madmen.

What can we do about it? Maybe nothing — except be smart. We can start by dropping any pretense that we are not at war, or that Islamic terror will stop if only we get out of Iraq. The problem preceded our invasion, and it will last beyond the resolution. Whatever we do in Iraq, we shouldn't fool ourselves about the nature of the enemy or its goals.

[Hamas] [Palestinian] [middle east] [video] [Mickey Mouse] [Farfur] [jihad] [Islam]

Alexandria...why was it destroyed?

Did you realize that Alexandria, that city shining o'er the hill, was destroyed by Islamic Arabs? It's important to remember our history.... Read Charlotte Allen's account in The Weekly Standard or check your encyclopaedia. The West has gone to sleep and, therefore, it's ignorant about what happened to this thriving city that died a slow death. We stand to lose if we don't start paying attention to our past!

[alexandria][west][islam][muslims]

Illegal immigration and the enemy within - Continued...

"White" Al-Qaeda?

Apparently, a professor at Belgrade University's Faculty of Security Studies, developed a theory of “white Al-Qaeda”, which he said was introduced to the Balkans during 1992-1995 civil war in Bosnia when thousands of 'mujahadeen' from Islamic countries came to fight on the side of local Muslims.

Professor Darko Trifunovic's theory is disturbing, and the more reason for the West to re-study history. Read it here.

[Fort Dix] [Albania] [Yugoslavia] [al-qaeda] [jihad] [terrorism]

Missile defense: food for thought...

Here's an interesting editorial by National Review Online on what's going on with missile defense. Excerpt:

After marking up the defense authorization bill for the 2008 fiscal year last week, Rep. Ellen Tauscher (D., Calif.) boasted of her “support for addressing real, near-term missile threats.” If only it were true. Tauscher, who chairs the House Armed Services Strategic Forces Subcommittee, had in fact just stripped $764 million from several key programs. These aren’t minor trimmings, but devastating eviscerations to missile-defense projects that are essential if the United States is to protect itself not only from the likes of Iran and North Korea, but also from the future beneficiaries of their proliferation.

The most important cut may be slashing $160 million from a $310 million budget to build missile-defense sites in Europe. Two ground-based sites in Alaska and California already give the United States a limited capability against North Korean missiles. To enhance this capability against the emerging Iranian long-range missile threat — protecting not only North America but also Europe — the Bush administration has begun talks with the Czech Republic and Poland to place ten interceptors and a radar system within their borders. The administration included funding to start building these sites in the request that Rep. Tauscher recently chopped.

Up to now, the main opposition to this initiative has come from Russia and anti-American Europeans. By joining them, the Pelosi Democrats have engaged in short-range thinking about long-range missiles. They claim that Iran is a problem for another day because it won’t acquire rockets that can reach Manhattan until 2015, according to intelligence estimates. But experience teaches that intelligence estimates can be wrong (see George Tenet, “slam dunk”). Last Thursday, John Rood, the assistant secretary of state for international security and nonproliferation, warned Congress that, with foreign assistance, Iran might obtain long-range-rocket technology in less than eight years. Simply put, if the government is going to err, it should err on the side of deploying defenses too early.

Read the whole thing here.

UPDATE: And here's more on the same topic, via the NY Times.

[missile defense] [Poland] [Czech Republic] [Europe] [Russians] [Iran] [North Korea]

Illegal immigration and the enemy within - Continued...

Who were the 6 "alleged" terrorists arrested for plotting to kill soldiers on US soil? Victor Davis Hanson has a sobering synopsis of these men:

... the irony of it all can be seen in the profile of the suspects: Islamic terrorists from the former Yugoslavia, on whose behalf the U.S. bombed a European Christian country; illegal aliens at a time when those who object to the immigration crisis are considered nativists; a former resident of Jordan, a country showered with U.S. aid. At some point, we see how insidious are the effect of Middle East ingratitude, and how the envy and hatred of that region permeates its expatriates, the more so the United States has tried to help them.

What’s the most important lesson we should take from the averted terrorist attack on Fort Dix [United States]?

This is the question posed to a group of experts by the National Review. Check it out here.

[Fort Dix] [jihad][Albania][Yugoslavia][Jordan][Turkey][Islam] [Muslims][terrorism][home grown]

Polish-Russian relations in a pickle.

There's a new draft law in Poland which allow local authorites the option of removing monuments which glorify Communism. Polish Culture Minister Kazimierz Ujazdowski "stressed that the regulations did not involve removing graves of Russian soldiers. Instead, the law has to do with the removal of ideological memorials that recall "the Communist bondage and which are directed against Polish national dignity," he said. He also emphasized that only two paragraphs of the new law on monuments actually have to do with Soviet-era memorials."

In Polish Prime Minister Jaroslaw Kaczynski's words: "Nobody will dictate to us what the streets in Poland will be named and which monuments will stand in Poland."

Read more here, here and here.

[Kaczynski] [Ujazdowski] [Poland] [Russia] [World War II]

Hamas Mickey Mouse clone teaches children to hate.

Click here or the photo to watch how warped humans can be.

UPDATE: According to The Jerusalem Post, the sick Mickey Mouse was silenced:

A program using a Mickey Mouse-like character to urge Palestinian children to fight Israel and the West and work for world Islamic domination has been pulled off Hamas's television station for "review," Palestinian Information Minister Mustafa Barghouti said Wednesday. Barghouti said the use of the cartoon character in such a role represented a "mistaken approach" to the Palestinian struggle against Israeli occupation.

UPDATE: Nah. This was not true. The sick Mickey is back on. Per Middle East Times:

A Hamas-run television channel has defied a Palestinian government request to axe a controversial children's cartoon in which a Mickey Mouse look-alike urges resistance against Israel.

[Israel] [Hamas] [Palestine] [Islam] [Middle East] [indoctrination]

Illegal aliens and the enemy within.

Something to think about regarding illegal aliens, the welcoming of refugees with open arms without knowing more of their history and background, and ignoring the enemy within.

Read: Malkin's The Thanks We Get.


[Fort Dix] [Albanians] [Yugoslav] [Turkey] [tagname] [Jordan] [aliens] [refugees] [illegal]