Topic: The Long War
Today he made it official, cutting and running exactly as promised and predicted. No big deal. Carry on.
What's on TV tonight? Pass me my Bud Light, bro.
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10/22 Update: Smart power.
Remember Stuxnet, the exotic and sophisticated computer virus apparently designed to ruin Iran's secret nuclear fuel centrifuges? Looks like somebody borrowed some of the Stuxnet code, created a new superbug, and set it loose.
The mysterious Stuxnet worm -- perhaps the most powerful ever created -- managed to infiltrate computer systems in Iran and do damage to that nation's nuclear research program. The new worm, dubbed Duqu, has no such targeted purpose. But it shares so much code with the original Stuxnet that researchers at Symantec Corp. say it must either have been created by the same group that authored Stuxnet, or by a group that somehow managed to obtain Stuxnet's source code. Either way, Duqu's authors are brilliant, and mean business, said Symantec's Vikrum Thakur.
"There is a common trait among the (computers) being attacked," he said. "They involve industrial command and control systems."Symantec speculates that Duqu is merely gathering intelligence as a precursor to a future industrial-strength attack on infrastructure computers.
I have two words to describe how this movie's going to perform at the box office.
Enormous. Hit.
As part of of The 2,996 Project, I'm remembering Damian Meehan, a Carr Futures employee (along with Jon Vandevander) who died in the North Tower of the World Trade Center on September 11th, 2001. He was 32. The following biography was written by his family.
Growing up in a large family in Manhattan's Irish Inwood in the 1970's, gave Damian all the necessary essentials for a very happy childhood. Six older brothers, an older sister and a baby sister set the tone for a perpetual smile and a unique laugh that became a very integral part of his personality. His big brothers, Shaun, Michael, Eugene, Kevin, Chris and Paul, while always creating obstacles and torment in his daily life, grew to love, protect and admire this most gentle of siblings. His sisters Kitty and Janine just adored him from day one.
Damian's loving nature made his life a very happy experience. He was such a happy kid and people loved being around him. His easygoing personality and perpetual smile endeared him to a wide circle of friends. He attended Good Shepherd grammar school in Inwood and made many close friends there that would stay with him through life. As a child he played in Inwood Hill Park and spent his summers at the Four Green Fields. Both Inwood and the Four Green Fields, played major roles in his early and developing years, that led to friendships that were to last a lifetime.
Damian was so trustworthy, that his parents allowed him to travel by subway to attend Power Memorial High School. Unfortunately, Power closed in 1984, just after Damian's freshman year, so he decided to finish at St. Raymond's in the Bronx, where a few of his brothers also attended. Upon graduation, Damian chose SUNY New Paltz for college. Two years later, his Dad convinced him that there was more to learn at home. Damian decided to join his sister Janine at Lehman College, where he was first introduced to Janine's friend, Joann McCarthy. It was definitely love at first sight - and the rest is history. While in college, Damian worked at the Columbia Tennis Center in Inwood, along with various bartending jobs throughout the city. In August of 1993, Damian decided to try Wall Street and it was his brother-in-law, Marty Boyle, that introduced him to the wild world of finance. He worked for Dean Witter, which later became Carr Futures, and he came under the guidance and counsel of Brendan Dolan and they became fast friends for the rest of their lives.
On June 6, 1998 , at the age 29, Damian married the love of his life, Joann McCarthy at Mount St. Ursula Church. They were just a perfect couple; so much love, devotion and respect that was obvious to all. They settled in Riverdale. The following year they bought a house in Glen Rock, NJ near their friends Brendan and Stacey Dolan, and Kathy and Joe Holland.
On January 23, 2000, Damian Peter, Jr. was born - the arrival of Damian, Jr. could not have been more perfect. It was a great time in Damian's life. He loved being a father and cherished every minute spent with his son. He was so proud of little Damian and always boasted about his accomplishments. They had their own rituals. Every night, little Damian would stand on the couch and watch out the window for his "gogga-gogga" to come home from work, and if Damian got home after little Damian's bedtime, his Dad would immediately go into his room and stand over his crib and talk to him while he slept. It was an unbelievable bond.
Damian was a gifted athlete. Gaelic football was a big part of his life from a very young age; he won every under-age medal with Good Shepherd as a full back and continued at Junior and Senior grades with additional success. When Good Shepherd could no longer field a full team, Damian went to play for Donegal, along with Dave Mc Sweeney, another former Good Shepherd player. Those were great years for Damian, as he took immense pride in the fact that he was playing for his parent's native county team. He trained really hard and thoroughly enjoyed playing at this top level at Gaelic Park and internationally as part of the New York panel.
Damian also enjoyed running, even more so in the last few years, when he began competing in races with his brothers and sister, Kitty. Damian was an excellent runner, his siblings watched in awe, as he ran the toughest hills effortlessly, and always managed to have the fastest time. Damian also enjoyed golfing and did so quite often with his brothers, extended family and childhood friends from Inwood, Chris Lee and Donn McNamee.
Most of all, Damian was a "family man", in every sense of the word. He loved going up to the Four Green Fields because it meant spending time with family and close friends and sharing many laughs. He loved playing Bingo and the card games that followed in the dance hall into the wee hours of the morning. He looked forward to participating in the basketball tournament every July 4th and Labor Day weekend. Last Labor Day weekend, Damian spent quality time with his family and friends at the Four Green Fields, and had a great weekend. Everything was perfect. Damian was always making plans for next month and for the next five years. Life was so good: health, happiness and a secure future. Little did we know that we were all enjoying the very best time of our lives. A week later, came the devastation of September 11th, leaving such so much pain, anguish, devastation and heartache that will never heal. Life will never be the same again.
In the early hours of October 2nd, Damian's brothers Michael, Eugene and Kevin brought us the tragic-yet joyful news that Damian had been recovered on Monday, October 1st with a bunch of firemen and civilians on West Street. The news was so final - we had lost our beloved Damian forever. Damian's wake at William's Funeral Home was an incredible scene, as thousands came to say goodbye to our Damian, and yet again at Good Shepherd Church on October 8th, as Father Kevin Devine led us all in a final farewell to one of the most beautiful human beings ever created. Damian now rests in peace at St. Anastasia Cemetery in Harriman, New York.
On January 13th 2002, Damian and Joann's little daughter, Madison Margaret was born and it was finally a day to rejoice. Damian Jr. is delighted with his baby sister.
We will never forget Damian and we will all make sure that his children know the type of man their father was. For all of us, our Damian was truly one of a kind.
Rest in peace, Damian. You are not forgotten.
Please visit The Damian Meehan Memorial Fund and consider making a donation to their scholarship program.
As part of of The 2,996 Project, I'm remembering Jon C. Vandevander of Ridgewood, NJ, who was 44 on September 11th, 2001.
He was a Vice President at Carr Futures, and on that morning he was at work (along with Damian Meehan) on the 92nd floor of the North Tower at the World Trade Center. At 8:46 AM, the recently-hijacked American Airlines Flight 11 slammed into floors 93-99 of the North Tower, wiping out the eight floors occupied by Marsh USA.
Although Jon's office was below the impact zone, the extensive damage caused by the airplane impact left him and over 60 other Carr employees trapped. A story from the UK Guardian describes a small part of what happened:
10:00 - North Tower, 92nd floor, Carr Futures, 28 minutes to collapse.
'MOM,' asked Jeffrey Nussbaum. 'What was that explosion?'Twenty miles away in Oceanside, Arline Nussbaum could see on TV what her son could not from 50 yards away. She recalls their last words. 'The other tower just went down.' 'Oh my God,' her son said. 'I love you.'
Then the phone went dead.
That morning, the office of Carr Futures on the 92nd floor was unusually busy. A total of 68 men and women were on the floor. About two dozen brokers for Carr's parent company had been called to a special 8am meeting. When the building sprang back and forth like a car antenna, door frames twisted and jammed shut, trapping a number of them in a conference room. The remaining Carr employees, about 40, migrated to a large, unfinished space along the west side. Nussbaum called his mother and shared his mobile phone with Andy Friedman. In all, the Carr families have counted 31 calls from the people they lost.
Carr was two floors below the impact and everyone there had survived it; yet they could not get out. Between 10.05 and 10.25, videos show, fire spread westward across the 92nd floor's north face, bearing down on their western refuge.
At 10.18, Tom McGinnis, one of the traders summoned to the special meeting, reached his wife, Iliana. The words are stitched into her memory. 'This looks really, really bad,' he said. 'I know,' said Mrs McGinnis, who had been hoping that his meeting had broken up before the airplane hit.
'This is bad for the country; it looks like World War Three.' Something in his tone alarmed McGinnis. 'Are you OK, yes or no?' she demanded. 'We're on the 92nd floor in a room we can't get out of,' McGinnis said. 'Who's with you?" she asked. McGinnis mentioned three old friends - Joey Holland, Brendan Dolan and Elkin Yuen. 'I love you,' he said. 'Take care of Caitlin.'
McGinnis was not ready to hear a farewell. 'Don't lose your cool,' she urged. 'You guys are so tough, you're resourceful. You guys are going to get out of there.' 'You don't understand,' McGinnis said. 'There are people jumping from the floors above us.'
It was 10.25. The fire raged along the west side of the 92nd floor. People fell from windows. McGinnis again told her he loved her and their daughter, Caitlin. 'Don't hang up,' she pleaded. 'I got to get down on the floor,' McGinnis said. The phone connection faded out.
It was 10.26, two minutes before the tower crumbled. The World Trade Centre had fallen silent.
Jon was able to reach his wife on the phone after the crash, as recounted in "A Widow's Wish":
There is a peacefulness in Anne Vandevander's voice, the serenity of someone who has known happiness and accepted a fate that robbed her of some of it. Anne's husband, Jon, worked as a trader for Carr Futures Inc., on the 92d floor of 1 World Trade Center. She talked to him several times after the tower was hit, until about 10 minutes before the building collapsed.
"He said 'I love you and tell the kids I love them,' " she said. A week later, a police officer came to her door to say they had found his body. She buried him in a cemetery in Ridgewood, N.J., where they lived with their three children. "Most wives will never get that opportunity," she said of the others who are still searching for missing relatives. "I have him back in Ridgewood. My one wish that morning was to have his wedding band back, and now I'm wearing it."Jon Vandevander, 44, loved his job and died with men he had worked with for 4 years at Carr, and for 10 years before that when their division was owned by Dean Witter.
He played soccer in college, and coached his children's soccer, baseball, softball and basketball teams. He loved taking his two oldest children golfing at the Ridgewood Country Club. "He was a great dad," she said. "I feel very fortunate."
Profile published in THE NEW YORK TIMES on October 9, 2001.
Carr Futures lost dozens of its employees on 9/11:
Carr Futures survives its darkest hour
By Collins, Daniel
Publication: Futures
Date: Saturday, December 1 2001
When the airliners crashed into the World Trade Center on Sept. 11, the world changed for everyone, but especially Carr Futures, an FCM that had offices on the 92nd floor of the WTC's north tower. Of the 141 employees based in its New York office, 69 did not survive that day, says CEO Didier Varlet, who was in Spain when he received word of the events via cell phone. Some New York-based Carr employees were traveling, some were on the Nymex floor and some worked a later shift, but of the 69 people in the 92nd floor office that morning, nobody escaped.
Jon was a member of the Lycoming College Class of 1979. Two other Lycoming alumni, Angela Kyte and Justin Moulisani, died in the 9/11 attacks.
Leave a note to honor his memory on this memorial and this guestbook. Godspeed, Jon.
Do I understand you correctly, Mr. Vice President and assorted progressive hand-wringers?
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Video from the 2nd Battalion (Airborne), 503rd Infantry Regiment -- aka "The Rock" -- during Operation Enduring Freedom X:
Does anybody think these troops deserve to have their pensions gutted?
To hear the politically correct Left tell it, there are no muslim terrorists, merely non-specific "extremists" who aren't really muslims.
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July 23 Update: According to many news reports, the bomber/shooter is not a muslim. Accusations of "extreme right-wing Christian fundamentalism" abound. Color me skeptical. Extreme? Yup. Right-wing? Maybe, but we'll see. Christian? No way.
Anyone who behaves as this man did is not following the teachings of Jesus of Nazareth. The killer may think he's a Christian, but no rational reading of Jesus' teachings would lead to that conclusion. A person can sincerely think he's a kumquat, too.
This post by DrewM over at Ace of Spades HQ has really stirred up a hornets' nest in the comments. Drew slammed Herman Cain for a remark about banning mosques, and that kicked off the brawl. It makes me wonder what circumstances, if any, would convince a majority of Americans to support a ban on mosques ... or even the internment of all Muslims in America.
Don't automatically think "Oh, that'll never happen." After all, Americans of Japanese descent were interned during World War II.
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4:00 UPDATE: Imagine this federal response:
Be it resolved that the following Amendment to the Constitution be adopted:
Article I
The social/political/ideological system known around the world as Islam is not recognized in the United States as a religion.
The practice of Islam is therefore not protected under the 1st Amendment as to freedom of religion and speech.
Article II
As representatives of Islam around the world have declared war, and committed acts of war, against the United States and its democratic allies around the world, Islam is hereby declared an enemy of the United States and its practice within the United States is now prohibited.
Article III
Immediately upon passage of this Amendment all Mosques, schools and Muslim places of worship and religious training are to be closed, converted to other uses, or destroyed. Proceeds from sales of such properties may be distributed to congregations of said places but full disclosure of all proceeds shall be made to an appropriate agency as determined by Congress. No compensation is to be offered by Federal or State agencies for losses on such properties however Federal funding is to be available for the demolishing of said structures if other disposition cannot be made.
The preaching of Islam in Mosques, Schools, and other venues is prohibited. The subject of Islam may be taught in a post high school academic environment provided that instruction include discussion of Islam's history of violence, conquest, and its ongoing war on democratic and other non-Islamic values.
The preaching or advocating of Islamic ideals of world domination, destruction of America and democratic institutions, jihad against Judaism, Christianity and other religions, and advocating the implementation of Sharia law shall in all cases be punishable by fines, imprisonment, deportation, and death as prescribed by Congress. Violent expressions of these and other Muslim goals, or the material support of those both in the United States and around the world who seek to advance these Islamic goals shall be punishable by death.
Muslims will be denied the opportunity to immigrate to the United States.
Article IV
Nothing in this amendment shall be construed as authorizing the discrimination against, of violence upon, nor repudiation of the individual rights of those Americans professing to be Muslim. The individual right of conscience is sacrosanct and the practice of Islam within the privacy of home and self is strictly protected to the extent that such individuals do not violate the prohibitions described in Article III.
Like it or not, this approach would avoid First Amendment obstacles.
Hooah, Leroy!
Ancient in Internet terms, that is. The original blog post was written in French, but the blog itself vanished years ago. A snapshot is still available quand vous parlez Francais, but the translated text will still move you if you don't.
Hooah.
Sergeant First Class Leroy Arthur Petry, U.S. Army, will receive the Medal of Honor early next month for heroism in Afghanistan in 2008. Hooah, Ranger Petry!
GOP candidates, are you paying attention to how Benjamin Netanyahu utterly demolished the President?
First, let the president talk, and talk, and talk. (And talk.)
Second, look right at him when responding.Next, speak from specifics, using facts and especially history.
Finally, express core truths bluntly -- especially the harshest ones.
Technically true.
So although the newly departed Mr. bin Laden and friends abuse our side's corpses and broadcast beheadings of civilians, we can't release photographs of UbL's corpse, because it will definitely incite violence from practitioners of a nonviolent religion, to which UbL doesn't belong because he was evil, but we buried him with honor in accordance with its tenets.
But releasing those photographs from Abu Ghraib a few years ago, well, that was totally different.
Got it. Makes perfect sense.
Toon by Soopermexican
If this CNN report is accurate, then the military's got at least one ideal candidate for the death penalty.
Murder merits swift punishment. Next issue: why didn't any officers stop this?
It was a helluva speech, starting at the 8:00 mark. The audio's tinny, but you forget that after a few minutes. Background here, if you're curious.
This e-mail from the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals International just hit my inbox. If Jason must leave Lucky behind, the Iraqi government will shoot or poison her.
Greetings from Iraq,
I am TSgt. Jason Krivda - Lucky the dog calls me Dad.Many of you have already donated to help rescue Lucky - and I cannot express how grateful I am for your generous support. But, we need everyone's help to save Lucky. Lucky means so much to me and my unit here in Iraq - she is our protector, our only source of comfort, and a member of our family. Please, if you haven't already donated - donate now to bring Lucky home.
We've posted three videos of Lucky on spcai.org so you can see Lucky's silly antics. They show Lucky doing her everyday activities - playing with us, after our morning run, and in the office protecting us. I hope you enjoy them.
After watching the videos, I hope you will donate as much as you can to help us bring our lovable, deserving dog home. Could you please forward the video link to your friends and family and encourage them to help Lucky too?
I could not bear to leave Lucky behind, but I can only get her home with your help and we don't have much time left. Please help us save her right now.
God Bless America,
Jason Krivda
U.S. Air Force Technical Sergeant
Please donate whatever you can afford. Lucky and other dogs like her not only boost our troops' morale and keep them company; sometimes they save their lives.
As part of of The 2,996 Project, I'm remembering Jon C. Vandevander of Ridgewood, NJ, who was 44 on September 11th, 2001.
He was a Vice President at Carr Futures, and on that morning he was at work (along with Damian Meehan) on the 92nd floor of the North Tower at the World Trade Center. At 8:46 AM, the recently-hijacked American Airlines Flight 11 slammed into floors 93-99 of the North Tower, wiping out the eight floors occupied by Marsh USA.
Although Jon's office was below the impact zone, the extensive damage caused by the airplane impact left him and over 60 other Carr employees trapped. A story from the UK Guardian describes a small part of what happened:
10:00 - North Tower, 92nd floor, Carr Futures, 28 minutes to collapse.
'MOM,' asked Jeffrey Nussbaum. 'What was that explosion?'Twenty miles away in Oceanside, Arline Nussbaum could see on TV what her son could not from 50 yards away. She recalls their last words. 'The other tower just went down.' 'Oh my God,' her son said. 'I love you.'
Then the phone went dead.
That morning, the office of Carr Futures on the 92nd floor was unusually busy. A total of 68 men and women were on the floor. About two dozen brokers for Carr's parent company had been called to a special 8am meeting. When the building sprang back and forth like a car antenna, door frames twisted and jammed shut, trapping a number of them in a conference room. The remaining Carr employees, about 40, migrated to a large, unfinished space along the west side. Nussbaum called his mother and shared his mobile phone with Andy Friedman. In all, the Carr families have counted 31 calls from the people they lost.
Carr was two floors below the impact and everyone there had survived it; yet they could not get out. Between 10.05 and 10.25, videos show, fire spread westward across the 92nd floor's north face, bearing down on their western refuge.
At 10.18, Tom McGinnis, one of the traders summoned to the special meeting, reached his wife, Iliana. The words are stitched into her memory. 'This looks really, really bad,' he said. 'I know,' said Mrs McGinnis, who had been hoping that his meeting had broken up before the airplane hit.
'This is bad for the country; it looks like World War Three.' Something in his tone alarmed McGinnis. 'Are you OK, yes or no?' she demanded. 'We're on the 92nd floor in a room we can't get out of,' McGinnis said. 'Who's with you?" she asked. McGinnis mentioned three old friends - Joey Holland, Brendan Dolan and Elkin Yuen. 'I love you,' he said. 'Take care of Caitlin.'
McGinnis was not ready to hear a farewell. 'Don't lose your cool,' she urged. 'You guys are so tough, you're resourceful. You guys are going to get out of there.' 'You don't understand,' McGinnis said. 'There are people jumping from the floors above us.'
It was 10.25. The fire raged along the west side of the 92nd floor. People fell from windows. McGinnis again told her he loved her and their daughter, Caitlin. 'Don't hang up,' she pleaded. 'I got to get down on the floor,' McGinnis said. The phone connection faded out.
It was 10.26, two minutes before the tower crumbled. The World Trade Centre had fallen silent.
Jon was able to reach his wife on the phone after the crash, as recounted in "A Widow's Wish":
"He said 'I love you and tell the kids I love them,' " she said. A week later, a police officer came to her door to say they had found his body. She buried him in a cemetery in Ridgewood, N.J., where they lived with their three children. "Most wives will never get that opportunity," she said of the others who are still searching for missing relatives. "I have him back in Ridgewood. My one wish that morning was to have his wedding band back, and now I'm wearing it."Jon Vandevander, 44, loved his job and died with men he had worked with for 4 years at Carr, and for 10 years before that when their division was owned by Dean Witter.
He played soccer in college, and coached his children's soccer, baseball, softball and basketball teams. He loved taking his two oldest children golfing at the Ridgewood Country Club. "He was a great dad," she said. "I feel very fortunate."
Profile published in THE NEW YORK TIMES on October 9, 2001.
Carr Futures lost dozens of its employees on 9/11:
Carr Futures survives its darkest hour
By Collins, Daniel
Publication: Futures
Date: Saturday, December 1 2001
When the airliners crashed into the World Trade Center on Sept. 11, the world changed for everyone, but especially Carr Futures, an FCM that had offices on the 92nd floor of the WTC's north tower. Of the 141 employees based in its New York office, 69 did not survive that day, says CEO Didier Varlet, who was in Spain when he received word of the events via cell phone. Some New York-based Carr employees were traveling, some were on the Nymex floor and some worked a later shift, but of the 69 people in the 92nd floor office that morning, nobody escaped.
Jon was a member of the Lycoming College Class of 1979. Two other Lycoming alumni, Angela Kyte and Justin Moulisani, died in the 9/11 attacks.
Leave a note to honor his memory on this memorial and this guestbook. Godspeed, Jon.
As part of of The 2,996 Project, I'm remembering Damian Meehan, a Carr Futures employee (along with Jon Vandevander) who died in the North Tower of the World Trade Center on September 11th, 2001. He was 32. The following biography was written by his family.
Growing up in a large family in Manhattan's Irish Inwood in the 1970's, gave Damian all the necessary essentials for a very happy childhood. Six older brothers, an older sister and a baby sister set the tone for a perpetual smile and a unique laugh that became a very integral part of his personality. His big brothers, Shaun, Michael, Eugene, Kevin, Chris and Paul, while always creating obstacles and torment in his daily life, grew to love, protect and admire this most gentle of siblings. His sisters Kitty and Janine just adored him from day one.
Damian was so trustworthy, that his parents allowed him to travel by subway to attend Power Memorial High School. Unfortunately, Power closed in 1984, just after Damian's freshman year, so he decided to finish at St. Raymond's in the Bronx, where a few of his brothers also attended. Upon graduation, Damian chose SUNY New Paltz for college. Two years later, his Dad convinced him that there was more to learn at home. Damian decided to join his sister Janine at Lehman College, where he was first introduced to Janine's friend, Joann McCarthy. It was definitely love at first sight - and the rest is history. While in college, Damian worked at the Columbia Tennis Center in Inwood, along with various bartending jobs throughout the city. In August of 1993, Damian decided to try Wall Street and it was his brother-in-law, Marty Boyle, that introduced him to the wild world of finance. He worked for Dean Witter, which later became Carr Futures, and he came under the guidance and counsel of Brendan Dolan and they became fast friends for the rest of their lives.
On January 23, 2000, Damian Peter, Jr. was born - the arrival of Damian, Jr. could not have been more perfect. It was a great time in Damian's life. He loved being a father and cherished every minute spent with his son. He was so proud of little Damian and always boasted about his accomplishments. They had their own rituals. Every night, little Damian would stand on the couch and watch out the window for his "gogga-gogga" to come home from work, and if Damian got home after little Damian's bedtime, his Dad would immediately go into his room and stand over his crib and talk to him while he slept. It was an unbelievable bond.
Damian was a gifted athlete. Gaelic football was a big part of his life from a very young age; he won every under-age medal with Good Shepherd as a full back and continued at Junior and Senior grades with additional success. When Good Shepherd could no longer field a full team, Damian went to play for Donegal, along with Dave Mc Sweeney, another former Good Shepherd player. Those were great years for Damian, as he took immense pride in the fact that he was playing for his parent's native county team. He trained really hard and thoroughly enjoyed playing at this top level at Gaelic Park and internationally as part of the New York panel.
Damian also enjoyed running, even more so in the last few years, when he began competing in races with his brothers and sister, Kitty. Damian was an excellent runner, his siblings watched in awe, as he ran the toughest hills effortlessly, and always managed to have the fastest time. Damian also enjoyed golfing and did so quite often with his brothers, extended family and childhood friends from Inwood, Chris Lee and Donn McNamee.
In the early hours of October 2nd, Damian's brothers Michael, Eugene and Kevin brought us the tragic-yet joyful news that Damian had been recovered on Monday, October 1st with a bunch of firemen and civilians on West Street. The news was so final - we had lost our beloved Damian forever. Damian's wake at William's Funeral Home was an incredible scene, as thousands came to say goodbye to our Damian, and yet again at Good Shepherd Church on October 8th, as Father Kevin Devine led us all in a final farewell to one of the most beautiful human beings ever created. Damian now rests in peace at St. Anastasia Cemetery in Harriman, New York.
On January 13th 2002, Damian and Joann's little daughter, Madison Margaret was born and it was finally a day to rejoice. Damian Jr. is delighted with his baby sister.
We will never forget Damian and we will all make sure that his children know the type of man their father was. For all of us, our Damian was truly one of a kind.
Rest in peace, Damian. You are not forgotten.
Please visit The Damian Meehan Memorial Fund and consider making a donation to their scholarship program.
In a stunning reversal of her long-cherished belief that the federal government knows best about everything, and certainly not due to any panic over the impending loss of her seat in the House of Representatives (you sexist racist hate-filled warmonger), Representative Betty Sutton (D-OH) finally ended her silence on the Cordoba House Park 51 Ground Zero Debris Field Mosque, according to The Plain Dealer:
"This is a sensitive issue, especially for those most directly affected by the attack at Ground Zero, and I trust that those in the area are in the best position to find a solution," Copley Township Democratic Rep. Betty Sutton said on Tuesday.
...[Challenger Tom] Ganley said "Obama and liberal leaders" have "acted in a way that is insensitive to families and friends of those victims we lost almost nine years ago." He said he supports New York Gov. David Patterson's effort to move the proposed mosque and Islamic cultural center to another location.
Ganley followed up on his Facebook page:
I am opposed to the mosque being built near the WTC memorial, though when asked by the Plain Dealer, my opponent will not say yes or no.
I guess Tom Ganley just doesn't understand how busy Betty is. She's got too much on her plate to respond to an issue that highlights her party's incoherence and incompetence in matters of national security and common decency. Ganley has yet to learn that in the world of our Washington ruling class, all matters are best decided by bureaucrats and czars in DC unless it would embarrass a Democrat incumbent to take a position. In such rare cases, these matters become Local Issues™.
I wonder if Betty agrees with Speaker Nancy Pelosi that opponents of the Hamasque should be investigated? Perhaps people like these should be the first ones to be called to testify at the next Democrat Party show trial:
"Never Forget" is just a slogan when there's an election to be won, y'know.
If it turns out that the U.S. military brought down the Taliban's web presence, then I'm gonna be one very happy camper. Regardless, this is great. More, please.
Tick tock, Betty. Do you really have no objection to President Obama's $400,000,000 stimulus package for Hamas out of taxpayer funds?
Not even one little peep of protest?
Look, Congresswoman Sutton, I know you're not exactly renowned for your fiscal discipline, but can you at least muster an objection to giving a $400,000,000 terrorist stimulus package to Hamas?
The United States will contribute $400 million in development aid to the Palestinian territories and work with Israel to loosen its embargo on Gaza, President Barack Obama said Wednesday.
Surely there are better things to do with taxpayer money:
Let me get this straight. Our economy has cratered. Unemployment is nearly 10 percent. The national debt is expected to exceed our gross national product by next year. And we're giving $400,000,000 to our mortal enemies in Gaza?
$400,000,000 to the Hamas-led death cult allied with Iran and Syria? $400,000,000 to the people who celebrated the destruction of the twin towers? $400,000,000 to rain thousands more rockets upon Israeli women and children?The Right, the Left and everyone in between needs to raise hell. This. Cannot. Happen.
Consider it a throwaway gesture of self-preservation goodwill towards your bitter, gun- and Bible-clinging constituents in an election year. Your radical progressive "populist" base will forgive you for throwing a bone to those nutty right-wing kooks who hold to the quaint notion that we shouldn't fund terrorism man-caused disasters with their money.
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12:20 PM Update: Welcome, Sutton staffers! Nice to see you're awake.
Although National Geographic shot this footage in 2006, it still resonates:
Thank you, Kyu Chay and Fattah Karimi, for your sacrifice. You are not forgotten.
Allen West calls Islam what it is.
It's a violent philosophical/political system with religious trappings. If you want to stop the jihad, there are two choices: submit, or tear the whole belief system up by the roots. "Radical Islam" and "Fundamentalist Islam" are both redundant terms. Islam itself is the problem.
Hat tip: iOwnTheWorld
DefenseTech thinks it's now time for pre-emptive cyber attacks on jihadist networks. Gosh, what an original idea.
This is a visualization of the 100 most frequently-used words in tonight's speech. Click to enlarge:
The Weekly Standard has the transcript.
This documentary premieres on PBS on Veteran's Day. Set your DVR.
Barack Obama went to Dover AFB to meet the caskets of fallen troops returning from Afghanistan.
Ah, such a refreshing difference! Golly, it's so wonderful to have Professor Hopenchange in charge now. As we all know, a single photo op on the tarmac far outweighs whatever the heck George W. Bush was doing for eight years. Let's see, what exactly did he do? Oh, now I remember:
President Bush has met hundreds of families of fallen soldiers, but he has yet to attend a servicemember's funeral, he said Tuesday.
"Because which funeral do you go to? In my judgment, I think if I go to one I should go to all. How do you honor one person but not another?" he said.The appropriate way to express his appreciation to the family members of fallen troops is to meet with them in private, he said.
What a jerk Bush was. The nerve of that guy, meeting with the bereaved in private instead of using them to score political points!
Meanwhile, our living troops in Afghanistan wait for the reinforcements they need. I'm sure Obama will get around to making a decision one of these months. Probably.
--
10/30 Update: Yep ... plastic banana look-how-much-I-care photo op.
When it comes to American foreign policy, we should stick to twenty basic principles, implemented in four easy steps.
As part of of The 2,996 Project, I'm remembering Jon C. Vandevander of Ridgewood, NJ, who was 44 on September 11th, 2001.
He was a Vice President at Carr Futures, and on that morning he was at work (along with Damian Meehan) on the 92nd floor of the North Tower at the World Trade Center. At 8:46 AM, the recently-hijacked American Airlines Flight 11 slammed into floors 93-99 of the North Tower, wiping out the eight floors occupied by Marsh USA.
Although Jon's office was below the impact zone, the extensive damage caused by the airplane impact left him and over 60 other Carr employees trapped. A story from the UK Guardian describes a small part of what happened:
10:00 - North Tower, 92nd floor, Carr Futures, 28 minutes to collapse.'MOM,' asked Jeffrey Nussbaum. 'What was that explosion?'
Twenty miles away in Oceanside, Arline Nussbaum could see on TV what her son could not from 50 yards away. She recalls their last words. 'The other tower just went down.' 'Oh my God,' her son said. 'I love you.'
Then the phone went dead.
That morning, the office of Carr Futures on the 92nd floor was unusually busy. A total of 68 men and women were on the floor. About two dozen brokers for Carr's parent company had been called to a special 8am meeting. When the building sprang back and forth like a car antenna, door frames twisted and jammed shut, trapping a number of them in a conference room. The remaining Carr employees, about 40, migrated to a large, unfinished space along the west side. Nussbaum called his mother and shared his mobile phone with Andy Friedman. In all, the Carr families have counted 31 calls from the people they lost.
Carr was two floors below the impact and everyone there had survived it; yet they could not get out. Between 10.05 and 10.25, videos show, fire spread westward across the 92nd floor's north face, bearing down on their western refuge.
At 10.18, Tom McGinnis, one of the traders summoned to the special meeting, reached his wife, Iliana. The words are stitched into her memory. 'This looks really, really bad,' he said. 'I know,' said Mrs McGinnis, who had been hoping that his meeting had broken up before the airplane hit.
'This is bad for the country; it looks like World War Three.' Something in his tone alarmed McGinnis. 'Are you OK, yes or no?' she demanded. 'We're on the 92nd floor in a room we can't get out of,' McGinnis said. 'Who's with you?" she asked. McGinnis mentioned three old friends - Joey Holland, Brendan Dolan and Elkin Yuen. 'I love you,' he said. 'Take care of Caitlin.'
McGinnis was not ready to hear a farewell. 'Don't lose your cool,' she urged. 'You guys are so tough, you're resourceful. You guys are going to get out of there.' 'You don't understand,' McGinnis said. 'There are people jumping from the floors above us.'
It was 10.25. The fire raged along the west side of the 92nd floor. People fell from windows. McGinnis again told her he loved her and their daughter, Caitlin. 'Don't hang up,' she pleaded. 'I got to get down on the floor,' McGinnis said. The phone connection faded out.
It was 10.26, two minutes before the tower crumbled. The World Trade Centre had fallen silent.
Jon was able to reach his wife on the phone after the crash, as recounted in "A Widow's Wish":
"He said 'I love you and tell the kids I love them,' " she said. A week later, a police officer came to her door to say they had found his body. She buried him in a cemetery in Ridgewood, N.J., where they lived with their three children. "Most wives will never get that opportunity," she said of the others who are still searching for missing relatives. "I have him back in Ridgewood. My one wish that morning was to have his wedding band back, and now I'm wearing it."
Jon Vandevander, 44, loved his job and died with men he had worked with for 4 years at Carr, and for 10 years before that when their division was owned by Dean Witter.
He played soccer in college, and coached his children's soccer, baseball, softball and basketball teams. He loved taking his two oldest children golfing at the Ridgewood Country Club. "He was a great dad," she said. "I feel very fortunate."
Profile published in THE NEW YORK TIMES on October 9, 2001.
Carr Futures lost dozens of its employees on 9/11:
Carr Futures survives its darkest hour By Collins, Daniel Publication: Futures Date: Saturday, December 1 2001When the airliners crashed into the World Trade Center on Sept. 11, the world changed for everyone, but especially Carr Futures, an FCM that had offices on the 92nd floor of the WTC's north tower. Of the 141 employees based in its New York office, 69 did not survive that day, says CEO Didier Varlet, who was in Spain when he received word of the events via cell phone. Some New York-based Carr employees were traveling, some were on the Nymex floor and some worked a later shift, but of the 69 people in the 92nd floor office that morning, nobody escaped.
Jon was a member of the Lycoming College Class of 1979. Two other Lycoming alumni, Angela Kyte and Justin Moulisani, died in the 9/11 attacks.
Leave a note to honor his memory on this memorial and this guestbook. Godspeed, Jon.
As part of of The 2,996 Project, I'm remembering Damian Meehan, a Carr Futures employee (along with Jon Vandevander) who died in the North Tower of the World Trade Center on September 11th, 2001. He was 32. The following biography was written by his family.
Growing up in a large family in Manhattan's Irish Inwood in the 1970's, gave Damian all the necessary essentials for a very happy childhood. Six older brothers, an older sister and a baby sister set the tone for a perpetual smile and a unique laugh that became a very integral part of his personality. His big brothers, Shaun, Michael, Eugene, Kevin, Chris and Paul, while always creating obstacles and torment in his daily life, grew to love, protect and admire this most gentle of siblings. His sisters Kitty and Janine just adored him from day one.
Damian was so trustworthy, that his parents allowed him to travel by subway to attend Power Memorial High School. Unfortunately, Power closed in 1984, just after Damian's freshman year, so he decided to finish at St. Raymond's in the Bronx, where a few of his brothers also attended. Upon graduation, Damian chose SUNY New Paltz for college. Two years later, his Dad convinced him that there was more to learn at home. Damian decided to join his sister Janine at Lehman College, where he was first introduced to Janine's friend, Joann McCarthy. It was definitely love at first sight - and the rest is history. While in college, Damian worked at the Columbia Tennis Center in Inwood, along with various bartending jobs throughout the city. In August of 1993, Damian decided to try Wall Street and it was his brother-in-law, Marty Boyle, that introduced him to the wild world of finance. He worked for Dean Witter, which later became Carr Futures, and he came under the guidance and counsel of Brendan Dolan and they became fast friends for the rest of their lives.
On January 23, 2000, Damian Peter, Jr. was born - the arrival of Damian, Jr. could not have been more perfect. It was a great time in Damian's life. He loved being a father and cherished every minute spent with his son. He was so proud of little Damian and always boasted about his accomplishments. They had their own rituals. Every night, little Damian would stand on the couch and watch out the window for his "gogga-gogga" to come home from work, and if Damian got home after little Damian's bedtime, his Dad would immediately go into his room and stand over his crib and talk to him while he slept. It was an unbelievable bond.
Damian was a gifted athlete. Gaelic football was a big part of his life from a very young age; he won every under-age medal with Good Shepherd as a full back and continued at Junior and Senior grades with additional success. When Good Shepherd could no longer field a full team, Damian went to play for Donegal, along with Dave Mc Sweeney, another former Good Shepherd player. Those were great years for Damian, as he took immense pride in the fact that he was playing for his parent's native county team. He trained really hard and thoroughly enjoyed playing at this top level at Gaelic Park and internationally as part of the New York panel.
Damian also enjoyed running, even more so in the last few years, when he began competing in races with his brothers and sister, Kitty. Damian was an excellent runner, his siblings watched in awe, as he ran the toughest hills effortlessly, and always managed to have the fastest time. Damian also enjoyed golfing and did so quite often with his brothers, extended family and childhood friends from Inwood, Chris Lee and Donn McNamee.
In the early hours of October 2nd, Damian's brothers Michael, Eugene and Kevin brought us the tragic-yet joyful news that Damian had been recovered on Monday, October 1st with a bunch of firemen and civilians on West Street. The news was so final - we had lost our beloved Damian forever. Damian's wake at William's Funeral Home was an incredible scene, as thousands came to say goodbye to our Damian, and yet again at Good Shepherd Church on October 8th, as Father Kevin Devine led us all in a final farewell to one of the most beautiful human beings ever created. Damian now rests in peace at St. Anastasia Cemetery in Harriman, New York.
On January 13th 2002, Damian and Joann's little daughter, Madison Margaret was born and it was finally a day to rejoice. Damian Jr. is delighted with his baby sister.
We will never forget Damian and we will all make sure that his children know the type of man their father was. For all of us, our Damian was truly one of a kind.
Rest in peace, Damian. You are not forgotten.
Please visit The Damian Meehan Memorial Fund and consider making a donation to their scholarship program.
Ready for a prime example of Barack Obama's incredible narcissism and utter military ineptitude? Read Bob Woodward's account of a briefing in Afghanistan conducted by deployed Marines for Obama's National Security Advisor, General Jim Jones:
Jones was carrying out directions from President Obama, who said recently, "My strong view is that we are not going to succeed simply by piling on more and more troops."...
During the briefing, (Brig. Gen. Lawrence) Nicholson had told Jones that he was "a little light," more than hinting that he could use more forces, probably thousands more. "We don't have enough force to go everywhere," Nicholson said.
But Jones recalled how Obama had initially decided to deploy additional forces this year. "At a table much like this," Jones said, referring to the polished wood table in the White House Situation Room, "the president's principals met and agreed to recommend 17,000 more troops for Afghanistan." The principals -- Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton; Gates; Mullen; and the director of national intelligence, Dennis C. Blair -- made this recommendation in February during the first full month of the Obama administration. The president approved the deployments, which included Nicholson's Marines.
Soon after that, Jones said, the principals told the president, "oops," we need an additional 4,000 to help train the Afghan army.
"They then said, 'If you do all that, we think we can turn this around,' " Jones said, reminding the Marines here that the president had quickly approved and publicly announced the additional 4,000.
Now suppose you're the president, Jones told them, and the requests come into the White House for yet more force. How do you think Obama might look at this? Jones asked, casting his eyes around the colonels. How do you think he might feel?
Jones let the question hang in the air-conditioned, fluorescent-lighted room. Nicholson and the colonels said nothing.
Well, Jones went on, after all those additional troops, 17,000 plus 4,000 more, if there were new requests for force now, the president would quite likely have "a Whiskey Tango Foxtrot moment." Everyone in the room caught the phonetic reference to WTF -- which in the military and elsewhere means "What the [expletive]?"
That's right, campers. It's all about Obama: his feelings, his reputation, his political future, his comfort. Don't pester him with requests for reinforcements. Sasha and Malia have to make do with the allowance Daddy gives them; you can do the same with what he's already given you. Run along now, and accomplish your mission without any politically uncomfortable casualties, OK? The Redistributor-in-Chief has to get back to socializing the health care system.
Jules Crittenden's bluntly-worded assessment follows, after the jump.
It's been said that the Constitution is not a suicide pact. Unfortunately, President Obama's loosey-goosey "living Constitution" apparently has a brand new iron-clad principle: Miranda rights for terrorists.
Seal by Rusty
This isn't just Obama's fault, either. Thank you, John McCain.
This is a speech delivered today at the American Enterprise Institute in which former Vice President Cheney defended the Bush Administration's actions and policies during the War on Terror in the years after 9/11. Cheney carefully and completely refuted allegations of torturing terrorist detainees, and he eviscerated Barack Obama's foolish defense policies, naïve defense decisions, and nakedly opportunistic demonization of the outgoing President.
If you prefer, you can watch the whole thing on AEI's site.
Once the White House posts the video of Obama's speech on the same subjects today, I'll add it below so you can compare and contrast each man's honesty, seriousness, motivations, wisdom, and statesmanship ... or lack thereof.
Transcripts: Cheney's speech; Obama's speech
Update: Here ya go ...
More ads like this one, please.
Hat tip: Brutally Honest
A veteran explains his upcoming vote in November:
Thank you, Joe.
As part of of The 2,996 Project, I'm remembering Damian Meehan, who was 32 when he died in the North Tower of the World Trade Center on September 11th, 2001. The following biography was written by his family.
Growing up in a large family in Manhattan's Irish Inwood in the 1970's, gave Damian all the necessary essentials for a very happy childhood. Six older brothers, an older sister and a baby sister set the tone for a perpetual smile and a unique laugh that became a very integral part of his personality. His big brothers, Shaun, Michael, Eugene, Kevin, Chris and Paul, while always creating obstacles and torment in his daily life, grew to love, protect and admire this most gentle of siblings. His sisters Kitty and Janine just adored him from day one.
Damian was so trustworthy, that his parents allowed him to travel by subway to attend Power Memorial High School. Unfortunately, Power closed in 1984, just after Damian's freshman year, so he decided to finish at St. Raymond's in the Bronx, where a few of his brothers also attended. Upon graduation, Damian chose SUNY New Paltz for college. Two years later, his Dad convinced him that there was more to learn at home. Damian decided to join his sister Janine at Lehman College, where he was first introduced to Janine's friend, Joann McCarthy. It was definitely love at first sight - and the rest is history. While in college, Damian worked at the Columbia Tennis Center in Inwood, along with various bartending jobs throughout the city. In August of 1993, Damian decided to try Wall Street and it was his brother-in-law, Marty Boyle, that introduced him to the wild world of finance. He worked for Dean Witter, which later became Carr Futures, and he came under the guidance and counsel of Brendan Dolan and they became fast friends for the rest of their lives.
On January 23, 2000, Damian Peter, Jr. was born - the arrival of Damian, Jr. could not have been more perfect. It was a great time in Damian's life. He loved being a father and cherished every minute spent with his son. He was so proud of little Damian and always boasted about his accomplishments. They had their own rituals. Every night, little Damian would stand on the couch and watch out the window for his "gogga-gogga" to come home from work, and if Damian got home after little Damian's bedtime, his Dad would immediately go into his room and stand over his crib and talk to him while he slept. It was an unbelievable bond.
Damian was a gifted athlete. Gaelic football was a big part of his life from a very young age; he won every under-age medal with Good Shepherd as a full back and continued at Junior and Senior grades with additional success. When Good Shepherd could no longer field a full team, Damian went to play for Donegal, along with Dave Mc Sweeney, another former Good Shepherd player. Those were great years for Damian, as he took immense pride in the fact that he was playing for his parent's native county team. He trained really hard and thoroughly enjoyed playing at this top level at Gaelic Park and internationally as part of the New York panel.
Damian also enjoyed running, even more so in the last few years, when he began competing in races with his brothers and sister, Kitty. Damian was an excellent runner, his siblings watched in awe, as he ran the toughest hills effortlessly, and always managed to have the fastest time. Damian also enjoyed golfing and did so quite often with his brothers, extended family and childhood friends from Inwood, Chris Lee and Donn McNamee.
In the early hours of October 2nd, Damian's brothers Michael, Eugene and Kevin brought us the tragic-yet joyful news that Damian had been recovered on Monday, October 1st with a bunch of firemen and civilians on West Street. The news was so final - we had lost our beloved Damian forever. Damian's wake at William's Funeral Home was an incredible scene, as thousands came to say goodbye to our Damian, and yet again at Good Shepherd Church on October 8th, as Father Kevin Devine led us all in a final farewell to one of the most beautiful human beings ever created. Damian now rests in peace at St. Anastasia Cemetery in Harriman, New York.
On January 13th 2002, Damian and Joann's little daughter, Madison Margaret was born and it was finally a day to rejoice. Damian Jr. is delighted with his baby sister.
We will never forget Damian and we will all make sure that his children know the type of man their father was. For all of us, our Damian was truly one of a kind.
Rest in peace, Damian. You are not forgotten.
Please visit The Damian Meehan Memorial Fund and consider making a donation to their scholarship program.
The chairman of the history department at Kent State University just got himself canned. He allowed his department's resident jihad booster, Professor Julio Pino, to take six weeks of leave to attend a conference ... in the Persian Gulf.
That's a good start. Now KSU needs to fire Julio.
Some background:
My good friend and co-blogger Too Short and I got into an argument yesterday over whether President George W. Bush's administration will go down as one of the worst in American history. Among other things, Too Short objected strenuously to the income tax cuts that President Bush shoved through Congress a few years back. Evaluating the alternative takes some mental heavy lifting, so get ready to push uphill against the big-government mindset.
To my buddy's way of thinking, income tax cuts for "the rich" are a Bad Thing™ in a time of war, and we Americans should follow our grandparents' example during World War II and "sacrifice for the war effort" ... translated as "pay more taxes." Now I don't recall Too Short advocating a revival of programs like rationing and price controls and the WPA, which all went together with the 1930s-1940s package. Then again I might have just missed it when he said it. He wouldn't be the first to substitute wishful thinking for free market realities.
I argued that income tax cuts in wartime are not inherently a Bad Thing™. When taxes in general are excessively high, economic activity tails off as people lose their incentive to work, save, and invest. Next, government revenues shrink because the total amount of money available for taxation has shriveled. The big government advocate instinctively responds by raising taxes, which deepens the downward spiral (the Laffer Curve illustrates the general concept nicely).
If you're a government official trying to fund a wartime military machine, having no tax revenue is truly a Bad Thing™. A logical government in that situation lowers tax rates to stimulate the economy and raise tax revenues. Now it can buy guns and butter and F-22 Raptors. Pretty straightforward stuff so far, right?
My compadre Too Short retorted that I wasn't figuring in federal payroll taxes, which tend to hammer the poor. It was a point well taken since so far I was only talking about income tax cuts. I couldn't puncture his counterclaim because I didn't have the necessary data at my fingertips, so I asked for a temporary ceasefire.
I went looking for ammunition, and to my surprise I found that I was far more right than I realized.
The Tax Foundation pored over the dry, dusty tax and spending data collected by all levels of American government between 1991-2004, and they found that for every $1.00 of taxes that the poorest Americans forked over, they got $8.21 back.
While the U.S. tax system is progressive, the distribution of government spending makes the overall fiscal system more progressive than is apparent from tax distributions alone. Using a microdata model we estimate the distribution of federal, state and local taxes and spending between 1991 and 2004. We find households in the lowest quintile of income received roughly $8.21 in federal, state and local government spending for every dollar of taxes paid in 2004, while households in the middle quintile received $1.30, and households in the top quintile received $0.41. Overall, tax payments exceeded government spending received for the top two quintiles of income, resulting in a net fiscal transfer of between $1.031 trillion and $1.527 trillion between quintiles. Both taxes and spending appear to have large distributional effects on households, and these effects have grown since 1991. The results suggest tax distributions alone are an inadequate measure of progressivity, and policymakers should examine both tax and spending distributions when judging the overall fairness of policy toward income groups.
Did you catch that? Yes, payroll taxes hit poorer people harder than they hit rich people. But when you account for all federal, state and local taxes and government spending on entitlements, my pal Too Short's idea of "increasing our sacrifices" via higher taxes on "the rich" just doesn't cut it. The folks at the lower end of the income scale more than make up for their payroll tax losses, and the folks higher up the line get royally hosed.
Remember that those dastardly "rich people" that our leftist friends love to hate are the very ones who risk their capital to create businesses, conduct research on new technology, and hire the rest of us. Without "the rich" we don't produce the best bullets and boots and cell phones. Without "the rich" our economy loses its advantage over the rest of the world.
Look at how we punish success:
Let that sink in for a moment. Does that seem like a wise idea in peacetime? How much less so in the middle of fighting a war!
Now look at it another way. Focus on the blue bars below:
Don't repeat my initial mistake by looking at tax rates alone. You'll miss the big picture. Always, always, always figure in government spending when you're trying to figure out how to pay for a war. Our steeply progressive tax-and-spend system takes money from America's most productive people and showers it on the least productive. While you can make a good argument for keeping some parts of the social safety net, we're way beyond the point of absurdity now.
Here's a slightly more detailed summary of the report:
While many studies answer the question of who pays taxes in America, the question of who gets the most government spending is often overlooked. Just as some Americans bear a larger portion of the nation's tax burden than others, some Americans also receive a larger share of the nation's government spending.This report summarizes the key findings of a comprehensive 2007 Tax Foundation study of federal, state and local taxes and government spending. The results show that when we consider the distribution of government spending as well as taxes, it provides a dramatically altered view of how U.S. fiscal policy affects Americans at different income levels than is apparent from the distribution of tax burdens alone.
Overall, we find that America's lowest-earning one-fifth of households received roughly $8.21 in government spending for each dollar of taxes paid in 2004. Households with middle-incomes received $1.30 per tax dollar, and America's highest-earning households received $0.41. Government spending targeted at the lowest-earning 60 percent of U.S. households is larger than what they paid in federal, state and local taxes. In 2004, between $1.03 trillion and $1.53 trillion was redistributed downward from the two highest income quintiles to the three lowest income quintiles through government taxes and spending policy.
These findings suggest tax distributions alone do not tell Americans how much the nation's fiscal system is helping or hurting low-income households. To answer that, we must look beyond tax burdens to government spending as well. Lawmakers who ignore the distribution of government spending risk making policy judgments based on an incorrect set of facts about the United States fiscal system.
In my buddy Too Short's defense, he joined me in criticizing runaway federal spending that makes drunken sailors look frugal. Reasonable folks are tired of creeping socialism, and we expect to see some real spending cuts before 2009's over. And I'm not talking about the Washington version of "cuts."
So what's the bottom line? Income tax cuts are still a good idea, and so are cuts in entitlement spending. If we do both, the economy will surge forward and government revenue will increase along with it. That translates into much more money available for the military. Seventy-year-old notions of "sacrifice" will punish the most productive Americans and further erode our military readiness.
Sorry, old buddy. You lose this round.
More info:
Tax Foundation report and accompanying Frequently Asked Questions
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Update: TooShort's response
I'm still backing Fred Thompson, but this is exactly what America needs to be reminded of:
Ballsy clarity, Mitt. Right up there with these:
10/22/07 UPDATE: Full citation posted!
A Navy SEAL will posthumously receive the Medal of Honor on October 22. Lieutenant Michael P. Murphy is the third man to receive America's highest military award for valor in the War on Terror.
Murphy was the officer-in-charge of the SEAL element, which was tasked with locating a high- level Taliban militia leader to provide intelligence for a follow-on mission to capture or destroy the local leadership and disrupt enemy activity. However local Taliban sympathizers discovered the SEAL unit and immediately revealed their position to Taliban fighters. The element was besieged on a mountaintop by scores of enemy fighters. The firefight that ensued pushed the element farther into enemy territory and left all four SEALs wounded.
The SEALs fought the enemy fearlessly despite being at a tactical disadvantage and outnumbered more than four to one. Understanding the gravity of the situation and his responsibility to his men, Murphy, already wounded, deliberately and unhesitatingly moved from cover into the open where he took and returned fire while transmitting a call for help for his beleaguered teammates. Shot through the back while radioing for help, Murphy completed his transmission while returning fire. The call ultimately led to the rescue of one severely wounded team member, Hospital Corpsman 2nd Class Marcus Luttrell, and the recovery of the remains of Murphy and Gunner's Mate 2nd Class (SEAL) Danny Dietz and Sonar Technician 2nd Class (SEAL) Matthew Axelson.Eight more SEALs and eight Army "Nightstalker" special operations personnel comprising the initial reinforcement also lost their lives when their helicopter was shot down before they could engage the enemy. The entire battle, the culmination of Operation Redwing, resulted in the worst single day loss of life for Naval Special Warfare personnel since World War II.
The sole surviving SEAL, Marcus Luttrell, wrote a book about the battle after he departed the Navy this summer. In his book Luttrell credited all three of his teammates for their heroism, including Murphy's sacrificial act that eventually led to his rescue.
Please, when you discuss this good news with friends and family, remember the following:
- LT Murphy will receive the medal, not "win" it. Recipients consider it disrespectful to be called "winners."
- Even though the President awards the medal in the name of Congress, it's not the "Congressional Medal of Honor" or the "CMH." It's simply the Medal of Honor. Much of the confusion probably stems from the name of The Congressional Medal of Honor Society; it's a Congressionally-chartered society, not a society for recipients of a Congressional medal. The official name of the award is the Medal of Honor.
- Try not to confuse the Medal of Honor with the Presidential Medal of Freedom or the Congressional Gold Medal, neither of which are military awards for valor.
- Take time to learn about recipients of the next-highest award for valor in combat. Click on the "Uncommon Valor" logo in the upper right corner of this page and familiarize yourself with other heroes of this war (especially LT Murphy's teammates, Matt Axelson, Danny Dietz, and lone survivor Marcus Luttrell).
Thank you, Lieutenant Murphy, for your valor and sacrifice.
I give you this year's Folsom Street Fair, held in San Francisco and sponsored by the Miller Brewing Company. Be warned ... clicking the image below will take you to a citizen photojournalist's site that documents the blatant and unrestrained sex acts that took place in public and in full view of children and on-duty uniformed police. This is not safe for work, and frankly not safe for a full stomach:
While our troops go in harm's way to advance America's security and bring liberty to millions, these homegrown fringe nuts engage in public sexual bacchanals on the streets of San Francisco and hand our sworn enemies a precious P.R. gift. Is it any wonder that jihadist savages draw new recruits with propaganda that says only shari'a law can prevent flamboyant drag queens and aggressive leather fetishists from running rampant on their own streets? "This is what America stands for", say Ayman Zawahiri and Muqtada al-Sadr and Hassan Nasrallah. Their recruits need only see photographs like these for words like "liberty" and "freedom" to sound like synonyms for "license" and "debauchery."
I worry that we Americans have lost our collective moral spine. The Folsom Street Fair should make us hang our heads in shame. Can we no longer see the difference between right and wrong? If events like these continue they will end up causing more attacks on all of us. Don't the Folsom Street crazies understand that the jihadis would kill them all if given the chance?
Hat tip: Michelle Malkin. I'm done drinking Miller Genuine Draft. Pass me some Thirsty Dog.
--
Update:
From Crackle:
Yesterday our junior U.S. Senator, Sherrod Brown, voted to cut off funding for U.S. troops in Iraq. Here's the amendment he voted for (with my emphasis added):
SAFE REDEPLOYMENT OF UNITED STATES TROOPS FROM IRAQ.(a) Transition of Mission.--The President shall promptly transition the mission of the United States Armed Forces in Iraq to the limited and temporary purposes set forth in subsection (d).
(b) Commencement of Safe, Phased Redeployment From Iraq.--The President shall commence the safe, phased redeployment of members of the United States Armed Forces from Iraq who are not essential to the limited and temporary purposes set forth in subsection (d). Such redeployment shall begin not later than 90 days after the date of the enactment of this Act, and shall be carried out in a manner that protects the safety and security of United States troops.
(c) Use of Funds.--No funds appropriated or otherwise made available under any provision of law may be obligated or expended to continue the deployment in Iraq of members of the United States Armed Forces after June 30, 2008.
(d) Exception for Limited and Temporary Purposes.--The prohibition under subsection (c) shall not apply to the obligation or expenditure of funds for the following limited and temporary purposes:
(1) To conduct targeted operations, limited in duration and scope, against members of al Qaeda and affiliated international terrorist organizations.
(2) To provide security for United States Government personnel and infrastructure.
(3) To provide training to members of the Iraqi Security Forces who have not been involved in sectarian violence or in attacks upon the United States Armed Forces, provided that such training does not involve members of the United States Armed Forces taking part in combat operations or being embedded with Iraqi forces.
(4) To provide training, equipment, or other materiel to members of the United States Armed Forces to ensure, maintain, or improve their safety and security.
Is this what Ohio's voters want from their junior senator?
I'm sure this deranged little gnome thinks he's doing something admirable, but just watch this clip.
If Dennis Kucinich was actually seeking to give aid and comfort to America's enemies, how would his actions be any different from the above? Answer: they wouldn't be.
Here's the transcript.
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Update: Some representative quotes, with my emphasis added.
The fact of the matter is we are all being weakened by continuing a war that's based on a lie. This war was based on lies. Iraq didn't have the weapons of mass destruction. It wasn't connected to 9/11. It had nothing to do with Al-Qaeda's role in 9/11. What are we there for? So I have stood up repeatedly and said: "Look, stop the war." Once the war started: "Here's the plan to get out and stop funding the war." And so we've had many opportunities now and I think it's very clear that we now have to focus on a peace plan, reach out to the world community, and that can only happen with those of us who are involved in the process meeting with people to see if there is an interest. And I'll tell you, President Assad, today, indicated a very strong interest in playing a role to help bring about stability in Iraq, and the fact of the matter is - whether the Bush administration wants to admit it or not - that President Assad is actually helping by providing a sanctuary in which Iraqi refugees can come. This is a great humanitarian crisis that's been created by this war. And Syria is one of the few countries in the world who has opened its arms to the Iraqi refugees, who have come here, with only the clothes on their back, and are looking for a way to survive. It is an extraordinary gesture on the part of the Syrian government that they would provide an opportunity for people to save their lives. And so this is something that I think needs to be recognized. And it also shows that here is a man, President Assad, who should be respected and appreciated for the role that he has played. And so it is important for the United States to take that gesture as a sign, a very powerful demonstration, of the willingness to try to achieve peace. And I think we need to move forward with that understanding.
As part of of The 2,996 Project, I'm remembering Damian Meehan, who was 32 when he died in the North Tower of the World Trade Center on September 11th, 2001. The following biography was written by his family.
Growing up in a large family in Manhattan's Irish Inwood in the 1970's, gave Damian all the necessary essentials for a very happy childhood. Six older brothers, an older sister and a baby sister set the tone for a perpetual smile and a unique laugh that became a very integral part of his personality. His big brothers, Shaun, Michael, Eugene, Kevin, Chris and Paul, while always creating obstacles and torment in his daily life, grew to love, protect and admire this most gentle of siblings. His sisters Kitty and Janine just adored him from day one.
Damian was so trustworthy, that his parents allowed him to travel by subway to attend Power Memorial High School. Unfortunately, Power closed in 1984, just after Damian's freshman year, so he decided to finish at St. Raymond's in the Bronx, where a few of his brothers also attended. Upon graduation, Damian chose SUNY New Paltz for college. Two years later, his Dad convinced him that there was more to learn at home. Damian decided to join his sister Janine at Lehman College, where he was first introduced to Janine's friend, Joann McCarthy. It was definitely love at first sight - and the rest is history. While in college, Damian worked at the Columbia Tennis Center in Inwood, along with various bartending jobs throughout the city. In August of 1993, Damian decided to try Wall Street and it was his brother-in-law, Marty Boyle, that introduced him to the wild world of finance. He worked for Dean Witter, which later became Carr Futures, and he came under the guidance and counsel of Brendan Dolan and they became fast friends for the rest of their lives.
On January 23, 2000, Damian Peter, Jr. was born - the arrival of Damian, Jr. could not have been more perfect. It was a great time in Damian's life. He loved being a father and cherished every minute spent with his son. He was so proud of little Damian and always boasted about his accomplishments. They had their own rituals. Every night, little Damian would stand on the couch and watch out the window for his "gogga-gogga" to come home from work, and if Damian got home after little Damian's bedtime, his Dad would immediately go into his room and stand over his crib and talk to him while he slept. It was an unbelievable bond.
Damian was a gifted athlete. Gaelic football was a big part of his life from a very young age; he won every under-age medal with Good Shepherd as a full back and continued at Junior and Senior grades with additional success. When Good Shepherd could no longer field a full team, Damian went to play for Donegal, along with Dave Mc Sweeney, another former Good Shepherd player. Those were great years for Damian, as he took immense pride in the fact that he was playing for his parent's native county team. He trained really hard and thoroughly enjoyed playing at this top level at Gaelic Park and internationally as part of the New York panel.
Damian also enjoyed running, even more so in the last few years, when he began competing in races with his brothers and sister, Kitty. Damian was an excellent runner, his siblings watched in awe, as he ran the toughest hills effortlessly, and always managed to have the fastest time. Damian also enjoyed golfing and did so quite often with his brothers, extended family and childhood friends from Inwood, Chris Lee and Donn McNamee.
In the early hours of October 2nd, Damian's brothers Michael, Eugene and Kevin brought us the tragic-yet joyful news that Damian had been recovered on Monday, October 1st with a bunch of firemen and civilians on West Street. The news was so final - we had lost our beloved Damian forever. Damian's wake at William's Funeral Home was an incredible scene, as thousands came to say goodbye to our Damian, and yet again at Good Shepherd Church on October 8th, as Father Kevin Devine led us all in a final farewell to one of the most beautiful human beings ever created. Damian now rests in peace at St. Anastasia Cemetery in Harriman, New York.
On January 13th 2002, Damian and Joann's little daughter, Madison Margaret was born and it was finally a day to rejoice. Damian Jr. is delighted with his baby sister.
We will never forget Damian and we will all make sure that his children know the type of man their father was. For all of us, our Damian was truly one of a kind.
Rest in peace, Damian. You are not forgotten.
Please visit The Damian Meehan Memorial Fund and consider making a donation to their scholarship program.
Benjamin Disraeli is reputed to have said: "There are three kinds of lies: lies, damned lies, and statistics." A prescient man, that Ben.
General Petraeus' execution of the troop surge in Iraq appears to be reducing U.S. deaths from hostile action. This angers the Left because it doesn't fit their "all is lost" narrative. So what's a poor Lefty to do? Why, skip past the damned lies and head right for the statistics, of course! Take a look at some of the left's statistical sleight-of-hand:
I [sic] afraid you're reading the data incorrectly.
In fact, the chart you link to shows more Americans have died every month this year than in the same month in '06.What looks like a big drop in September is because September 07 is only through the first 9 days . . . adding the 9 more who died today brings September '07's total to 42 in the first 10 days of the month.
American deaths are clearly rising rather than falling as you conclude . . .
Oh dear. He's right. Almost every month this year was worse than the same month last year:
| Jan | Feb | Mar | Apr | May | Jun | Jul | Aug | |
| 2006 | 42 | 46 | 26 | 65 | 57 | 57 | 38 | 58 |
| 2007 | 78 | 71 | 71 | 96 | 120 | 93 | 67 | 56 |
But wait a moment. Two can play that game. I like the surge, and I want to "acc ... sennnnnn ... chu-ate the positive". I'll look back all the way to 2003 when we invaded Iraq, and then I'll compare the months I want (in red below) with this year's deaths (in blue) to minimize the deaths in 2007:
| Jan | Feb | Mar | Apr | May | Jun | Jul | Aug | |
| 2003 | 0 | 0 | 58 | 50 | 8 | 18 | 28 | 16 |
| 2004 | 39 | 12 | 35 | 126 | 62 | 37 | 44 | 55 |
| 2005 | 54 | 42 | 31 | 46 | 67 | 69 | 45 | 75 |
| 2006 | 42 | 46 | 26 | 65 | 57 | 57 | 38 | 58 |
| 2007 | 78 | 71 | 71 | 96 | 120 | 93 | 67 | 56 |
Much better. This statistical stuff is fun!
But come to think of it, my lefty counterparts can just turn the tables on me like so (their favorite months in green and this year's deaths in yellow):
| Jan | Feb | Mar | Apr | May | Jun | Jul | Aug | |
| 2003 | 0 | 0 | 58 | 50 | 8 | 18 | 28 | 16 |
| 2004 | 39 | 12 | 35 | 126 | 62 | 37 | 44 | 55 |
| 2005 | 54 | 42 | 31 | 46 | 67 | 69 | 45 | 75 |
| 2006 | 42 | 46 | 26 | 65 | 57 | 57 | 38 | 58 |
| 2007 | 78 | 71 | 71 | 96 | 120 | 93 | 67 | 56 |
Are you beginning to see the problems with this little game? I've studied statistics enough to spot B.S. even when it's offered on a silver platter.
The Left's fancy figures don't really tell us anything worthwhile. When we compare August '07 to August '06, and July '07 to July '06, things look bad at first. But that's not a meaningful way to look at the data. We only compare data from the same month in successive years if we're trying to spot seasonal patterns. Think of a hotel comparing this year's spring break occupancy with last year's spring break and you'll see what I'm driving at. I don't think the seasonal approach applies here, unless our jihadist enemy migrates to cooler climes in the summer.
Our lefty pals also choose to completely ignore September through December of 2006. Now maybe I just don't get The New Democratic Math, but I don't understand why combat deaths in the last third of 2006 don't fit into the picture they're painting here. I thought we were all supposed to rend our clothes and gnash our teeth over the uselessness of every death in Chimpy Bushitlerburton's Neocon Killbot Adventure©. Silly me. I guess we can ignore the troops who died from September to December whenever liberals have some politically advantageous statistical cherry-picking to do.
Let's get serious. The troop surge reached its peak in mid-June of this year, and from May through the end of August the number of American troops killed by hostile action has been dropping steadily.
A halfway competent person looking at American combat death statistics would identify the start of a given strategy and track the trends in deaths by hostile action from that date forward. When a significant shift in strategy takes place, the halfway competent person would flag that point in time and track any changes in the trends. If combat deaths are high and growing during Strategy A, but drop after switching to Strategy B, then something worth examining has happened.
Of course a shift in strategy isn't the only variable in play here. As any statistician knows, correlation isn't always proof of causation. War is horribly messy and complex and often irrational. But we need to look for what else might have changed in Iraq from around June of '07 onward. Something (or maybe several somethings) caused American deaths to drop, and it happened right about the time that the troop surge reached its peak. Was it mere coincidence? I don't have the kind of superhuman faith required to believe that. If we can't find some other good explanation, then we have to conclude that the troop surge likely had something to do with the drop in combat deaths.
Unless we're so committed to the "all is lost" narrative that we prove Disraeli right.
If you'd like to hear from the front-line troops in Iraq, go browse the listings at MilBlogging.com and decide for yourself whether General Petraeus is telling the truth.
Also be sure to read the work of independent journalists embedded with the guys out on the bleeding edge: Michael Yon, Bill Roggio, Michael J. Totten, Bill Ardolino, Austin Bay, JD Johannes, and Pat Dollard. These guys are out in the thick of it, and they're not beholden to the Bush administration or to anybody else but the thousands of donors who fund their work.
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UPDATE: Yon on Petraeus
Since the troop surge to Iraq reached full strength on June 15th, look what's happened to U.S. military deaths due to hostile action through the end of August. Click on the graph to see the full statistics:
The site that tracks these deaths, Iraq Coalition Casualties, can hardly be accused of sloppy methodology or pro-war bias.
Boy, it must suck to be an anti-Petraeus lefty when you have to explain results like these.
Here are three questions I just posed to my U.S. Representative and both of my U.S. Senators:
- Will you condemn MoveOn.org's full-page ad slandering General David Petraeus as "General Betray Us" and claiming that he is "cooking the books for the White House"? See http://pol.moveon.org/petraeus.html
- Are America and political Islam (a.k.a. "sharia") at war? If so, should America seek to achieve anything more than dismantling al Qaeda and capturing/killing Osama bin Laden?
- Should America forcibly crush and discredit political Islam (a.k.a. "sharia") while preserving individual Muslims' right to worship peacefully? If so, how? If not, what will the consequences be for America?
I submitted each question simultaneously to Representative Betty Sutton, Senator George Voinovich, and Senator Sherrod Brown via their web sites. It'll be interesting to read their responses ... assuming that they reply, of course. Betty Sutton's not exactly a paragon of virtue when it comes to answering questions (especially the last two). George Voinovich has a habit of ignoring uncomfortable inquiries as well.
Sherrod Brown's a different story though; for all my strong disagreements with him on practically every possible issue, he's extremely responsive. When he was my Representative his office responded promptly to every question I submitted through his web site, even though my stance was clearly conservative. My hat's off to Senator Brown and his staff, and I'm confident that he'll reply promptly this time too.
The race is on. Tune in for updates.
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Update 1: I have a hunch that Ohio's junior Senator will be reluctant to condemn today's slander, since MoveOn.org spent $25,899 to help elect Senator Brown.
Update 2: Perhaps we should ask different questions. Good point. Who is the anonymous Senator working with MoveOn.org?
Update 3: Whoa. I've been digging through MoveOn.org's finances for the 2006 election cycle, and there are some eye-popping numbers to discuss. Stay tuned for a big post.
Update 4: Here ya go. Follow the money.
Update 5: Senator Brown replied. Sort of.
C-SPAN has streaming video of General David Petraeus' testimony before Congress today.
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UPDATE: The Tank is liveblogging the circus.
On Wednesday afternoon, shortly after helping U.S. Central Command improve its news distribution from the war zone, I sent the following e-mail to CENTCOM's Public Affairs Office:
Your CENTCOM podcast feed at ...... is broken. You've been uploading new podcasts all the way through 31 AUG 07, but the podcast feed has nothing new after 26 JAN 07. Just go look at ...
... and you'll see. Please fix this ASAP. CENTCOM needs this podcast to function if America is to win the information war against the jihadis.
Incidentally, the following feeds are also woefully outdated (perhaps dead?):
Yesterday afternoon, CENTCOM replied:
Thank you for bringing this matter to our attention. I have contacted our web masters and you should see something new within the next couple of days. Thanks again for your support.
V/R
Master Sgt. S. Crumes
Public Affairs Operations NCO
US Central Command
(813) 827-6761
DSN 312-651-6761
Cell [snipped]
Fax 813-827-2211
parkersy@centcom.mil
www.centcom.mil
CENTCOM's three dead feeds disappeared this morning, but the two good ones remained. That leads me to believe that somebody's working on the problem. Unfortunately CENTCOM's entire site dropped offline this afternoon. I'll be watching to see what happens.
With General Petraeus' progress report on Iraq almost upon us, it's time to revisit the propaganda war (and our military's lack of success therein).
Last year Tom Blumer wondered why CENTCOM's news releases weren't showing up in key places online. I suggested solutions and followed up on Tom's excellent work. Since then, CENTCOM has taken some steps to put out some news feeds and make them available online, but their publicity effort's still woefully lacking.
Enough dilly-dallying. I dug around CENTCOM's site, found 5 feeds, and did their public affairs work for them ... and it took me all of 45 minutes.
Those five feeds are now hooked into several search engines and feed-publicizing web services, so whenever CENTCOM posts a new item, everyone will know. Google Blog Search, My Yahoo, Technorati, Bloglines, Apple's iTunes, Syndic8, FeedBlitz ... it's all covered. You can even subscribe to any feed by e-mail, if you want.
Here are the five feeds:
Please spread the word far and wide. I'm only one voice.
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9/6 Update: If you don't know what a "feed" is (nor why you should care) here's a one-page answer.
The U.S. Coast Guard will fire lasers -- not live ammunition -- at its own boats this morning in a sort of war-games training demonstration on Lake Erie....
Coast Guard personnel on the defender boat will be armed with machine guns and rifles loaded with blank ammunition and fitted with laser beam emitters.
The attack boat will have laser sensors on board that will reveal if it has been "hit" by the weapons aboard the defending boat.
The Coast Guard late last year dropped its proposal to conduct training exercises with machine guns loaded with live ammunition in 34 zones in the Great Lakes, including four in Lake Erie.
Rear Adm. John E. Crowley Jr. called that plan unsatisfactory after widespread complaints about safety and potential damage to the environment.
U.S. environmental groups and the Canadian Foreign Affairs minister said they were concerned that the bullets, which could dump some 7,000 pounds of lead compounds a year in the lakes, could be a health hazard to humans and wildlife.
Puh-leeze. This is just another example of the Coast Guard's tendency to kowtow to environmentalist wackos. Trust me on this. I spent 2 1/2 years at USCG Headquarters in the office that oversees vessel traffic management in major ports. Ever since the Exxon Valdez spill, the environmentalist movement has been the 400-lb. gorilla in the room when it comes to the Coast Guard's marine safety missions.
Has anyone demonstrated that the ammunition expended in true live fire exercises would actually cause the horrible environmental damage alleged? I'd love to see it, but I won't hold my breath. These days all it takes to spook the federal government is an alarmist press release about impending environmental doom. Gathering facts is so tedious and dull, especially when you can use sexy computer models and glitzy ad campaigns instead.
Further, which is more important: preventing expended ammunition from entering the water, or preventing waterborne terrorists from attacking our northern shores? Those nice jihadist fellows would love to blow up a tanker or ore carrier, and given an opportunity they'd light off a dirty bomb near a major coastal city too. I invite the assorted Gaia-worshippers to consider the environmental damage attacks like these would cause (since the human death toll probably matters much less to them). Isn't prevention of a true disaster worth the cost of small amounts of expended ammunition entering the lake?
One of the opponents of the original live fire training sees the foolishness in this laser tag exercise:
Dan Thomas, president of the Great Lakes Sport Fishing Council, one of the groups that had criticized the initial plan, had a mixed reaction to today's planned demonstration."It sounds reasonable at first, but there's also no substitution for the real thing," Thomas said by telephone from his Chicago office. "Our group is not opposed to them using live ammunition, but we want them to be better at communicating to all interested parties when it is going to be conducting its exercises."
Thomas said his group and others have also wanted the training to be done farther out in the lake if live ammunition will be used in the future. Today's demonstration was supposed to take place from three to five miles from Cleveland.
A little more common sense would be nice, but alas, this is the Coast Guard we're talking about.
While I was in a questioning mood, I threw these into the mix:
I have two detailed questions.1) Are America and political Islam (a.k.a. "sharia") at war? If so, should America seek to achieve anything more than dismantling al Qaeda and capturing/killing Osama bin Laden?
2) Should America forcibly crush and discredit political Islam (a.k.a. "sharia") while preserving individual Muslims' right to worship peacefully? If so, how? If not, what will the consequences be for America?
How about it, Betty?
Here's a fascinating series that unearths how the 7/7 suicide bombers joined the British jihadi network.
"My Brother The Bomber" Part I
"My Brother The Bomber" Part II
"My Brother The Bomber" Part III
Frightening stuff. It leaves me wondering what the locals are teaching in the mosque in Cleveland.
I knew it was just a matter of time before Harry Reid and Nancy Pelosi revived their cut-and-run "strategy" for fighting the Islamists. Here we go again:
In light of the additional evidence since your veto that your plan is not working, it is clear that a course correction in Iraq is needed. That is also the view of a substantial majority of the American people. Rather than respond with a new plan immediately, Administration officials as well as Republican congressional leaders suggest that your flawed Iraq strategy not be revisited until September when General Petraeus is scheduled to provide Congress with a progress report on Iraq. The only step you have proposed in the interim is to divest your National Security Advisor of control over Iraq policy and create a “war czar” position, an act that has only served to create further confusion and concerns about your plans for Iraq.
The American people cannot and should not have to wait until later this year for changes in your flawed Iraq policy. There is an obligation to act now. That is why we intend to again send you legislation that would limit the U.S. mission in Iraq, begin the phased redeployment of U.S. forces, and bring the war to a responsible end. These are goals consistent with both the national security of the United States and the will of the American people. We respectfully request that you reconsider your previous opposition to proposals that would accomplish these goals, and work with us to give our troops a strategy worthy of their sacrifice. We look forward to discussing these issues with you when we meet at the White House later today to discuss stability in the Middle East.
I warned you. The American Left cares only for its own power, can't (or won't) look past the next election, has its heart set on military defeat, and is now skating just about as close to treason as they can get without crossing the line. Click the graphic:
I eagerly await the GOP presidential candidates' responses. Especially Fred Thompson's.
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6/15 Update: A hilariously brilliant rebuttal. Thanks for finding this one, Andy.
Lefty blogger Jerid at Buckeye State Blog reports that a liberal group is putting together some radio ads attacking Senator Voinovich for his recent vote on the war effort in Iraq. The lefties are upset that the esteemed RINO Senator stuck with his party and supported the troops this time, and they're trolling for Ohio liberals to record their voices. Like so:
I'm not keen on defending Voinovich. Not one bit. Defending the troops and crushing the enemy is another matter entirely.
Why don't we in the SOB Alliance try a similar tactic and put together some radio spots of our own, and get some conservative group to fund the ad buy? We have several budding radio talk show hosts among Ohio's conservative bloggers, and we're all writers. We can draft scripts, identify some Radio Voices™, record them, and add some music and sound effects and sound bites.
Whaddaya say?
What is it with islamists in Ohio? Don't they know they'll fit in better if they go north to Dearborn or Hamtramck?
So say Ralph Peters and John Derbyshire. This isn't the first time that Tony Blair has knuckled under to the degenerates in Tehran. Sadly I have to agree with Peters and Derbyshire. The Royal Marines have become a pale shadow of their forebears, and are now a bunch of weak-kneed sissies.
Our military is finally striking back at the jihadists online.
The U.S. military is quietly expanding capabilities to attack terrorist computer networks, including websites that glorify insurgent attacks on U.S. forces in Iraq, military officials and experts say.The move comes as al-Qaeda and other groups fighting in Iraq and elsewhere have expanded their activities on the Internet and increased the sophistication and volume of their videos and messages. Much of the material is designed to raise money and recruit fighters for Iraq.
"You should not let them operate uncontested" on the Internet and elsewhere in cyberspace, said Marine Brig. Gen. John Davis, who heads a military command located at the National Security Agency. The command was established to develop ways to attack computer networks.
...
"Our opponents do a heck of a lot more than just watch us in cyberspace," Davis said. "They are acting in cyberspace. We need to develop options so that we can ... dominate cyberspace."
Cyberattacks can take different forms, including eliminating terrorist websites and creating doubts among insurgents about their networks' security, said Arquilla, who favors an offensive approach he calls a "virtual scorched-earth policy."
Hallelujah! It's about time.
Hat tip: The Tank
Republicans in the Senate are about to vote on a measure that will encourage our enemies and demoralize our troops. Sign here and tell them to ...
Click, pledge, and spread the word.
Content warning: profanity galore.
Hat tip: Hot Air
Thanks to Hugh Hewitt, I've heard about the latest boneheaded idea proposed by our Republican Senators in Washington. They're ginning up a "non-binding" resolution that whines about the pending troop surge into Iraq. 
It's no surprise that General Petraeus testified that such legislative grandstanding encourages the enemy and endangers our troops.
If the United States Senate passes a resolution, non-binding or otherwise, that criticizes the commitment of additional troops to Iraq that General Petraeus has asked for and that the president has pledged, and if the Senate does so after the testimony of General Petraeus on January 23 that such a resolution will be an encouragement to the enemy, I will not contribute to any Republican senator who voted for the resolution.
Further, if any Republican senator who votes for such a resolution is a candidate for re-election in 2008, I will not contribute to the National Republican Senatorial Committee unless the Chairman of that Committee, Senator Ensign, commits in writing that none of the funds of the NRSC will go to support the re-election of any senator supporting the non-binding resolution.
Take the pledge ... and get ready for stormy weather.
The Democrats have been running Congress for a short time now, but they're already living up (down?) to conservative expectations. The Republican Party is reverting to spinelessness, and high-profile Republicans are scampering leftward in a crass effort to win re-election in 2008. When combined with President Bush's inability to persuasively articulate the many good reasons to continue the war on islamism, the near future looks pretty bleak. Although I remain an optimist at heart, I'm also realistic about human nature and the tendency of modern Americans to be short-sighted and self-absorbed.
I just want to get the following predictions on the record. I hope I'm wrong, but I'm confident that I'm right.
Before 2007 ends, I predict all of the following will happen.
- The Democratic Congress, with the help of feckless Republicans, will pass a "non-binding" resolution opposing the war in Iraq. Period. No qualifications.
- A few months later, the Democratic Congress will cut off funds for the troop surge in Iraq.
- Sensing our politicians' weakness, our islamic enemies will step up their attacks on our troops in Iraq and Afghanistan.
- The Democratic Congress will abandon all pretense of supporting our troops, and will cut off all funds for the war in Iraq and the war in Afghanistan.
- Our troops will be forced to leave Iraq and Afghanistan in disgrace.
- Afghanistan will return to its default state: general lawlessness, with tribal enclaves controlled by warlords.
- Iraq will descend into an astonishing orgy of inter-tribal and sectarian slaughter, and will come apart at the seams.
- The Kurds in the north of Iraq will declare their independence. Turkish and Iranian Kurds will try to secede and join the new Kurdistan. Turkey will attack the Kurds to prevent this.
- The Sunni Triangle will descend into utter lawlessness, making Somalia seem like Disney Land. Either al Qaeda or some other Sunni group will rise from the ashes and set to work plotting international terror attacks, much like Osama bin Laden did in the 1990s in Afghanistan.
- The Shiite areas of Iraq will assert their independence, but will end up as puppets of the Iranian mullahs. Grand Ayatollah Sistani will be assassinated by Iranian-backed thugs, lest he challenge the Iranian mullahs for authority.
- The western world's media will blame President Bush and the Republicans for "angering" muslims and "creating" the problem of islamic totalitarianism. The media will ignore twin truths: that western liberalism and political "realists" are to blame for allowing the long-festering cancer of islamism to metastasize after decades of incubation; and that President Bush was actually the first leader to see the danger and try to stop it. Leftist politicians will share the media's delusional worldview.
- Military re-enlistments will begin a long decline, and senior officers and NCOs will begin retiring in droves.
2008 will see the following:
- A Democrat will be elected President, proving that the American public still has its collective head in the sand.
- Thanks to weak-kneed Republican leaders afraid to express conservative principles and policies, Democrats will solidify their hold on Congress and Republicans will return to their comfortable status as the minority party. GOP leaders will be happy because they will again be invited to all of the popular cocktail parties organized by leftist socialites inside the Beltway.
- Democrats will gut the American military.
- Defense spending will drop below maintenance levels.
- Research and development will grind to a halt.
- Military re-enlistments will plummet.
- Recruiting will wither.
- American foreign policy and defense strategy will revert to empty posturing and wishful thinking as perfected by Jimmy Carter and Bill Clinton. The all-volunteer military will go back to being a hollowed-out and demoralized institution, and will be misused for UN peacekeeping missions in places where America has no compelling national interest.
- Once the threat of a Republican President appointing conservative judges evaporates, Supreme Court Justices Ginsburg and Stevens will announce their retirements. Their replacements will be young, doctrinaire leftists who will cement the Supreme Court's suicidal leftward drift for another generation.
Before 2020, we'll see the following events:
- "Moderate" regimes in the islamic world will collapse from within. Islamists of both Sunni and Shiite varieties will fill the vaccuum. Formerly "moderate" rank-and-file muslims will swing toward radicalism en masse.
- Iran will go nuclear. In response, Saudi Arabia and Egypt will start nuclear weapons drives of their own.
- Israel will pre-emptively attack Iran's nuclear facilities, electrical power grid, and command & control infrastructure to prevent a nuclear strike on Israel.
- The Middle East will immediately explode into regional warfare.
- Newly-confident islamists will successfully attack at least one major civilian target on American soil, whether by using a nuke, a dirty bomb, or a biological/chemical agent.
- American military enlistments will skyrocket.
- Muslim immigration to America will drop to zero. Non-citizen muslims will be deported.
- American muslims will be interned like Japanese Americans were in WWII.
- The media will again blame President Bush and Republicans for "angering" muslims, but this time the American public will no longer swallow the lie.
- Democrats will rely on their only solution to every problem: negotiation. Predictably, it will only encourage the enemy, by revealing the spinelessness of America's Democratic leadership. Attacks will increase in number and severity.
- Islamic suicide bombers will hit several soft targets across America like malls, stadiums, movie theatres, and schools.
- The American public will finally realize that islam is bent on our destruction. Americans will toss Democrats and liberal Republicans from office.
- A very muscular and militant conservative American leadership will rebuild the military, drastically increasing its size and lethality.
- America will either suspend all financial aid to the UN, or will withdraw from the UN completely.
- Congress will reinstate the draft. The Army and Marine Corps will expand to incredible size. Within two years, the draftees will be as lethal as the career professionals among our warrior class.
- America (with possible help from Australia, The United Kingdom, and India) will finally go to all-out declared war against islam (in its radicalized forms) and all regimes based on politicized islam and/or sharia law.
- America and the West will remind the watching world what utter devastation looks like. The Flattened Cities Club (remember Hamburg, Dresden, Berlin, Tokyo, Hiroshima, and Nagasaki?) will welcome new members like Tehran, Baghdad, Damascus, Cairo, Islamabad, Riyadh, Mecca, and Medina.
- The western world will not bother to rebuild the destroyed societies it leaves behind, lest the inhabitants there forget that islam has been utterly defeated and discredited. Instead, we will make no bones about our need for oil. We will rebuild only the oil extraction and export infrastructure, and protect it to ensure our own stability and safety. The rest of the erstwhile muslim world will be left in its humbled and humiliated state as punishment.
- The politicized and totalitarian religion of islam as we now know it will cease to be a major influence on world events.
After 2020:
We will have a few short years of peace until the next popular and poisonous ideology begins to grow. Wash, rinse, repeat.
Don't say you weren't warned.
Just heard it on Fox News Channel. Justice, albeit long delayed, has been done.
Thanks to Hugh Hewitt, I found a brutal takedown of the Iraq Study Group's report. John Podhoretz has penned a razor-sharp rebuttal to James Baker and friends.
The nation's capital hasn't seen such concentrated wisdom in one place since Paris Hilton dined alone at the Hooters on Connecticut Avenue....
Also in the Support Group: Iran and Syria. Yes, having done their best to destroy the new Iraq, these two tyrannical nations are poised to perform a very, very constructive role in helping to get the new Iraq up on its own two footsies!
And why? Because, see, it's in their interest to do so: "Although Iran sees it in its interest to have the United States bogged down in Iraq, Iran's interests would not be served by a failure of U.S. policy in Iraq that led to chaos and the territorial disintegration of the Iraqi state."
This is why we have commissions, you see. Regular dumb folk might look at the evidence of the past 25 years and think that the last thing Iran wants is a nice, strong and stable Iraq on its border. They might think that a strong and stable authoritarian Iraq might just attack Iran again and cause another 10-year war with deaths of millions. But here's the ISG to set us dumb people straight.
...
The ISG is right. Syria can make a major contribution to Iraq's stability. But oddly enough, it chooses not to! Because until yesterday, it didn't have Paris Hilton - sorry, James Baker - explaining how wonderfully helpful it would be.
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Now, we dumb people might think that recent history demonstrates Israel will never consent to such a thing, and that Syria knows it full well, and that Syria doesn't actually want the Golan Heights back, and that like Iran, Syria would have more reason to fear a stable and successful Iraq than anything else in the world.
But that's what being stupid gets you. It means you don't understand the incredible value of the James Baker Handy-Dandy Solution to All the World's Ills. It's called "Get Israel." Once Israel is gotten, and gotten good, all the problems in the Middle East will be solved. And the seas will turn to lemonade, and the planets will come in alignment, and Mel Gibson will lie down with Jackie Mason.
That's hot.
Matt Heidt has a modest proposal for securing Iraq.
"Let's lose slowly" is the gist of it.
More analysis:
Richard Fernandez
Hugh Hewitt
Power Line
Rick Moran
Fullosseus Flap
Tammy Bruce
The Heritage Foundation
National Review
Andrew McCarthy
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Update: Check out the keywords in the official report.
**UPDATE: Tom's still asking questions, and so am I.**
BizzyBlog's Tom Blumer wonders why Google's and Yahoo's respective news search engines miss almost all of CENTCOM's news, and asks for help figuring it all out. No problemo, Tom: I dug around and found a few relevant facts that might interest you.
I found a link on CENTCOM's home page that offers access to all five of CENTCOM's news feeds. Then I started probing Yahoo and Google to see if the URLs for those feeds turned up anywhere.
I note with some satisfaction that three valid CENTCOM news feeds are available (log-in required) for inclusion on anyone's My Yahoo! page. Of course, you have to log in and drill down to a particular sub-page to search for those feeds, or you have to manually type in the entire URL of a feed to add it yourself. Now, I did this myself over two months ago, but I'm unusual. Want to venture a guess as to how many people have done the same? I'll bet it's a very small number. Most folks have neither the time nor the inclination to decipher the finer points of manually adding news feeds to their My Yahoo! pages.
Fortunately this is one (small) problem that CENTCOM can fix by adding chiclets to its home page and its news pages. Or CENTCOM can do what I did and add one easy-to-click link that lets FeedBurner's web site handle the whole chiclet thing automatically ... for free!
OK, so Yahoo has an obscure way to keep track of CENTCOM's news releases via RSS feeds. That's nice, but I'm nearly certain that nobody uses it. Worse, CENTCOM's feeds apparently aren't included in Yahoo's news site, nor are they available in its news search engine ... which is where the vast majority of Yahoo's news-reading users will go. Yahoo has yet to regularly crawl any blogs or RSS feeds for inclusion in their news search results (although at one time they did so).
Yahoo really doesn't need to do much to add CENTCOM to its search results. After all, Yahoo always has fresh content from my puny blog available in their search results within moments of publication. That's because I have FeedBurner set up to ping Yahoo whenever I post something new. The price? Zipski. It's free. If CENTCOM would just take advantage of a free service like FeedBurner to publish their news feeds, they would get more attention. More importantly, by taking care of the feed updates and pinging ahead of time, CENTCOM would have an easier time persuading Yahoo to add them to the news search engine.
Now on to Google.
Google's blog search engine actually does include CENTCOM news in its results, but almost nobody would think to look there for news from a major organization like CENTCOM. Since Google already keeps track of RSS feeds from thousands of sites, it should be a snap for them to include CENTCOM's news releases in Google News' search results (note to CENTCOM: FeedBurner pings Google too, so my puny blog's even listed there). Google News includes posts from blogs like RedState, TownHall.com, Power Line, The Jawa Report, and The Huffington Post. Those sites are hardly unbiased. CENTCOM certainly has a stronger claim to being a news source than those blogs do, and if CENTCOM adopts the same approach to Google as outlined above for Yahoo, it shouldn't be long before things improve.
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Update: BizzyBlog and NixGuy keep connecting the dots. And don't forget the enemy's propaganda successes, either. One Oar In The Water pulled on a loose thread and exposed a propaganda lie published by the L.A. Times, in which an American airstrike supposedly killed a slew of Iraqi civilians. How many more stories like that have slipped through? You'd be surprised.
Update 2: Rusty Shackleford at The Jawa Report asks pointed questions about shady Iraqi stringers reporting "news" of American atrocities. To top off the cavalcade of happy news, Rusty throws in a story about a terrorist instruction manual that explains how to wage jihad by manipulating Google. C'mon, CENTCOM ... get serious.
Two days ago, the Los Angeles Times reported that an American airstrike in Ramadi killed 30 Iraqi civilians, including women and children. That's a horrible tale of woe, isn't it? But there's one little detail that's missing from the story: it's a complete fabrication.
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General John Abizaid | General George McClellan |
Senator McCain just asked the CENTCOM Commander, General John Abizaid, why he opposed sending more American troops to Iraq. Abizaid's reply:
I met with every divisional commander, General Casey, the core commander, General Dempsey, we all talked together. And I said, in your professional opinion, if we were to bring in more American Troops now, does it add considerably to our ability to achieve success in Iraq? And they all said no. And the reason is because we want the Iraqis to do more. It is easy for the Iraqis to rely upon to us do this work. I believe that more American forces prevent the Iraqis from doing more, from taking more responsibility for their own future.
President Bush says that he wants to finish the job in Iraq. Fine. But it's now obvious that refusing to adapt our strategy to defeat the rising sectarian militias would be foolish. At least if we adopt the Democratic cut and run policy, we'll stop losing troops in Iraq. Now, I oppose cutting and running for obvious reasons. But pinning our hopes on the Iraqi military and police forces now, before they're ready, is just another way of ensuring defeat.
We ought to send more troops to Iraq as soon as possible, and their primary mission should be to kill the leaders and members of every militia, jihadist cell, and Baathist insurgent group in Iraq. Wars are won by applying overwhelming force, not by trying to field just enough troops to do the job. Abizaid advocates standing pat with current strategy. He's wrong. President Bush should fire him and find someone who will fight.
Once upon a time, another Republican President faced an unpopular and protracted war, and his top general refused to engage the enemy. Frustrated, the President wrote a letter to the general:
My Dear McClellan:If you are not using the army, I should like to borrow it for a short while.
Yours respectfully,
Abraham Lincoln
Lincoln eventually fired George McClellan and found two generals who attacked the enemy and won the Civil War: Ulysses S. Grant and William Tecumseh Sherman. McClellan retired and ran against Lincoln for President as (what a shock) a Democrat. Thank God that McClellan lost.
Today we need a new Sherman or Grant or Patton. President Bush should find a real fighter who will ignore the media's whining and the Democrats' sniping. John Abizaid is not that man.
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More blogging:
Jeff Emanuel
Dan McLaughlin
"Thomas" (very pessimistic)
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11/16 Update: Rush Limbaugh accurately identifies Abizaid's strategy as "stay the course."
I know what I'll be doing tonight at 7:00. I'll be watching this.
When conservative Republicans warned the electorate that the Democratic Party would push for a cut and run policy in Iraq, it wasn't enough to keep control of Congress. The Democrats won, and now they and their media buddies are telling anyone who'll listen that they took over because they ran "moderate" candidates whose views reflect those of the majority of Americans (check the poll results here to see what that majority thinks about Iraq).
Riiiiiiiiiiiiiight.
Now comes the fulfillment of that conservative prediction:
The Democrats — the incoming majority leader, Senator Harry Reid of Nevada; the incoming Armed Services Committee chairman, Senator Carl Levin of Michigan; and the incoming Foreign Relations Committee chairman, Senator Joseph R. Biden Jr. of Delaware — said a phased redeployment of troops would be their top priority when the new Congress convenes in January, even before an investigation of the conduct of the war.“We need to begin a phased redeployment of forces from Iraq in four to six months,” Mr. Levin said in an appearance on the ABC News program “This Week.” In a telephone interview later, Mr. Levin added, “The point of this is to signal to the Iraqis that the open-ended commitment is over and that they are going to have to solve their own problems.”
...
“The people have spoken in a very, very strong way that they don’t buy the administration policy,” Mr. Levin said on ABC. Mr. Reid, in an appearance on CBS, said troop redeployment “should start within the next few months.”
There's more here.
Instead of retreating we ought to increase our troop strength and crush the Islamists. Senators John McCain and Joe Lieberman are calling for more troops. That makes sense ... but with the Dems in charge, does anybody want to take bets on Congressional funding of even maintaining troop strength in Iraq (much less increasing it)?
If this mess bothers you like it bothers me, speak up and influence the Republican leadership candidates while you can.
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Update: Oh, crap. President Bush, don't be an idiot.
Yet again we see why our enemies prefer Democrats.
It's frustrating when a smarter blogger beats me to the punch on a topic I've been thinking about, but I have to give credit where credit is due. Dafydd ab Hugh just posted an excellent think piece on the benefits of killing Muqtada al Sadr, leader of the Mahdi Army. It's not a short post, but it really made me rethink how we should tackle what's going on in Iraq.
For starters, he sees the forces behind the current bloodletting differently than most western commentators. He doesn't completely buy the "sectarian violence" meme as a catch-all explanation for the increase in deaths in Iraq. He looks at the country as a loose collection of competing tribes (many including both Shiite and Sunni members) engaging in gangland-style violence like we saw in New York some decades back:
I suspect the killing continues because a small but very determined group of people thinks the gang-war is "winnable," and each person sees himself as the victor. It's less like the Civil War and more like the Mafia wars of mid-20th-century New York City: those, too, went on for decades... yet at no time could one say that the Italian population of that city "demanded" such killings.If the leadership of that small cadre which is carrying out the slaughters were to be removed (by any means necessary), I cannot imagine that the Shia and Sunni residents of Baghdad would pine for the good old days of death squads committing 100 murders a day.
Dafydd then steps into Prime Minister Maliki's shoes and discerns why he hasn't exactly been helpful to us in squashing al Sadr. It's all about al Sadr's 28 votes in the Iraqi parliament:
I believe Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki would actually like to see the militias disarmed. Not because he's a good guy; don't mistake my point. Rather, I think Maliki reasons thus:
- I am the titular tribal warlord of Iraq.
- Yet I control no personal forces: the army and police belong to the state, not me personally; and I control none of the large militias.
- Now that I'm on top, it's time to blow the whistle and end the game. If the militias would all just "softly and suddenly vanish away," then there would be nobody who could challenge my military authority (except the infidels, and they don't really care anyway).
- But I cannot actually go after the militias... because that would require me to crack down on Moqtada Sadr, and I desperately need his voting bloc to stay in power.
Then, the really brilliant analysis, which predicts the reaction of the rival Shiite militia, the Badr Organization:
I would suggest killing not just Sadr, but the number two and number three guys, all more or less simultaneously (within a few days of each other). This would leave the lower tier people wondering which of them would become the new leader....
If Sadr were killed, and if Maliki were clearly not involved, then what would the "28" do? I can't see them allying with the Supreme Council for the Islamic Revolution in Iraq (SCIRI), for they control the Badr Brigades. And they're certainly not going to support a Sunni or a Kurd.
This leaves the Dawa Party as the only other powerful Shiite political party. The head of Dawa is Ibrahim al-Jaafari, and his principal deputy is (ta da!) Nouri al-Maliki. Jaafari cannot be prime minister again; he was the one chucked out last time and is completely unacceptable to SCIRI, to the Sunnis, to the Kurds, and to the secularists.
So the only choice left for the 28 seats currently controlled by Sadr, in the event of his untimely demise, would be to continue supporting Maliki, as they have been doing all along.
Thus, were the Coalition to kill off Sadr, Maliki would still have the 28 votes of Sadr... but no Sadr sticking his hand up Maliki's badonkadonk (eew) to work the PM's mouth. Not only that, but with Mahdi in such distress, Maliki would have the green light to crack down hard on the Badr Brigades... the other Shiite party's militia. After all, Mahdi would be out of commission for a while.
So we would get a "twofer" -- the Mahdi Militia would be bereft of its leadership, leaving it to flop around like a beheaded snake; and the government of Iraq would likely move heavily against the Badr Brigades... and maybe even against the Mahdi Militia, once Maliki is sure of his power base in the absence of Muqtada Sadr.
Sometimes, when a situation has crystalized in a very unuseful position, the best thing we can do is vigorously shake the box: whatever we end up with will probably be better than what we have now.
Dang it, I wish I'd thought of that! I was about to post something along the "shaking the box" line of thinking, but I hadn't even considered the twofer involving the Badr Brigades. I was merely thinking "at this point, what could killing al Sadr hurt?" Since the culture over there respects strength much more than reason and rational argument, I simply figured that killing this loathsome oxygen thief would remind the enemy of our willingness to vaporize them (a good thing in itself). I just didn't take my analysis a step further. I'm glad Dafydd ab Hugh did.
Hat tip: Newest SOB Alliance member Connect the Dots. Good find!
I won't clutter up this post with my own opinion. Just go watch the interview.
If you haven't bought Mark's latest book, America Alone, do so now.
Two retired Army Major Generals, John Batiste and Paul Eaton, showed up on Capitol Hill again yesterday to grandstand for the cameras and demand that Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld resign.
Sound familiar? Yep, we've been here before. The Senate Democratic Policy Committee meeting was not an actual Senate committee meeting. Only one Republican showed up, and he wasn't even a Senator. What was Representative Walter Jones of North Carolina doing there, I wonder?
At any rate, allow me to refresh everyone's memory about the deafening chorus of retired generals and admirals calling for Rummy's head. The folks in blue represent the five or six identified gadflies, multiplied by two because I'm feeling generous. The folks in green represent all of the other retired flag officers.
Of course, I'm being unfair. I failed to mention that Generals Batiste and Eaton had retired Colonel T.X. Hammes sitting beside them.
Feel better now, Democrats?
As part of of The 2,996 Project, I'm remembering Damian Meehan, who was 32 when he died in the North Tower of the World Trade Center on September 11th, 2001. The following biography was written by his family.
Growing up in a large family in Manhattan's Irish Inwood in the 1970's, gave Damian all the necessary essentials for a very happy childhood. Six older brothers, an older sister and a baby sister set the tone for a perpetual smile and a unique laugh that became a very integral part of his personality. His big brothers, Shaun, Michael, Eugene, Kevin, Chris and Paul, while always creating obstacles and torment in his daily life, grew to love, protect and admire this most gentle of siblings. His sisters Kitty and Janine just adored him from day one.
Damian was so trustworthy, that his parents allowed him to travel by subway to attend Power Memorial High School. Unfortunately, Power closed in 1984, just after Damian's freshman year, so he decided to finish at St. Raymond's in the Bronx, where a few of his brothers also attended. Upon graduation, Damian chose SUNY New Paltz for college. Two years later, his Dad convinced him that there was more to learn at home. Damian decided to join his sister Janine at Lehman College, where he was first introduced to Janine's friend, Joann McCarthy. It was definitely love at first sight - and the rest is history. While in college, Damian worked at the Columbia Tennis Center in Inwood, along with various bartending jobs throughout the city. In August of 1993, Damian decided to try Wall Street and it was his brother-in-law, Marty Boyle, that introduced him to the wild world of finance. He worked for Dean Witter, which later became Carr Futures, and he came under the guidance and counsel of Brendan Dolan and they became fast friends for the rest of their lives.
On January 23, 2000, Damian Peter, Jr. was born - the arrival of Damian, Jr. could not have been more perfect. It was a great time in Damian's life. He loved being a father and cherished every minute spent with his son. He was so proud of little Damian and always boasted about his accomplishments. They had their own rituals. Every night, little Damian would stand on the couch and watch out the window for his "gogga-gogga" to come home from work, and if Damian got home after little Damian's bedtime, his Dad would immediately go into his room and stand over his crib and talk to him while he slept. It was an unbelievable bond.
Damian was a gifted athlete. Gaelic football was a big part of his life from a very young age; he won every under-age medal with Good Shepherd as a full back and continued at Junior and Senior grades with additional success. When Good Shepherd could no longer field a full team, Damian went to play for Donegal, along with Dave Mc Sweeney, another former Good Shepherd player. Those were great years for Damian, as he took immense pride in the fact that he was playing for his parent's native county team. He trained really hard and thoroughly enjoyed playing at this top level at Gaelic Park and internationally as part of the New York panel.
Damian also enjoyed running, even more so in the last few years, when he began competing in races with his brothers and sister, Kitty. Damian was an excellent runner, his siblings watched in awe, as he ran the toughest hills effortlessly, and always managed to have the fastest time. Damian also enjoyed golfing and did so quite often with his brothers, extended family and childhood friends from Inwood, Chris Lee and Donn McNamee.
In the early hours of October 2nd, Damian's brothers Michael, Eugene and Kevin brought us the tragic-yet joyful news that Damian had been recovered on Monday, October 1st with a bunch of firemen and civilians on West Street. The news was so final - we had lost our beloved Damian forever. Damian's wake at William's Funeral Home was an incredible scene, as thousands came to say goodbye to our Damian, and yet again at Good Shepherd Church on October 8th, as Father Kevin Devine led us all in a final farewell to one of the most beautiful human beings ever created. Damian now rests in peace at St. Anastasia Cemetery in Harriman, New York.
On January 13th 2002, Damian and Joann's little daughter, Madison Margaret was born and it was finally a day to rejoice. Damian Jr. is delighted with his baby sister.
We will never forget Damian and we will all make sure that his children know the type of man their father was. For all of us, our Damian was truly one of a kind.
Rest in peace, Damian. You are not forgotten.
Please visit The Damian Meehan Memorial Fund and consider making a donation to their scholarship program.
In the last week, Iraq's rebuilt army added over 100 new officers and twenty new medics to its ranks. These stories go largely unreported because they seem "trivial" to the mainstream media. But constant additions and improvements move us ever closer to victory in Iraq.
Q: How do you eat an elephant?
A: One bite at a time.
I went back to the casualty statistics kept by the Iraq Coalition Casualties site and updated my tracking charts. The statistic I focused on was American military deaths per month during Operation Iraqi Freedom between March '03 and July '06.
First, the raw numbers:
Victor Davis Hanson looks at President Bush's communication problem concerning the War on Islamism and finds things to be a tangled mess:
The old calculus was first the proverbial horse of defeating and vanquishing utterly the enemy; then the cart of showing magnanimity in rebuilding the country of a contrite loser. Only in that order would the Americans be willing to give millions to the former supporters of once murderous Nazis, Italian fascists, or imperial Japanese who had killed and maimed their sons.In the Middle East, we reversed the sequence, on the idealistic -- and I think correct -- premise that the Afghan and Iraqi people were captive to their dictators, and that we wished to avoid an all-encompassing conflict along the lines of World War II. In other words, we trusted that the Taliban and Saddam Hussein explained the recent savagery of the Afghans and Iraqis, rather than the innate savagery of the Afghans and Iraqis themselves explaining the creation of the Taliban and Saddam Hussein. The result of this confidence, despite the carnage of war, was that democracy was ushered in, the rogues were to be kept out, and peace was supposed to follow from a grateful, liberated people.
But why should it, when the hard hand of American war was not first completely felt -- nor the jihadists utterly vanquished and discredited and any who supported them? Unless there is some element of fear, or at least the suggestion of consequences to come for recalcitrance, why should an Iraqi cease his easy support of Hezbollah, his anti-Semitism, or his cheap support for Islamist terrorists around the block? It would be as if we expected to end slavery outright in the Confederacy around 1862, or rid Germany of Nazis around 1943, or persuade the Japanese fascists to vote in 1944 -- before such ideologies have been utterly defeated and the steep price for those who tolerated them paid in full.
I still think we were right to invade both Afghanistan and Iraq, and I continue to support our missions there. My objections, such as they are, concern our failure to hammer the enemy into abject defeat and shame. I believe that the ordinary Iraqi or Afghan is fully capable of living in a democratic system, but I'm also a realist when it comes to human nature. In the Islamic culture of shame and honor we Westerners haven't yet earned enough honor to command their respect, nor have we shamed the Islamists enough to discredit them in the eyes of their coreligionists. That has to change. Soon.
So what Mr. Bush is faced with is this nearly impossible paradox of half war/half peace: at a time when most are getting fed up with abhorrent Middle Eastern jihadists who blow up, hijack, and behead in the name of their religion, he is attempting to convince the same American public and the Western world at large to spend their blood and treasure to help Muslim Afghans, Iraqis, and now Lebanese, who heretofore -- whether out of shared anti-Americanism or psychological satisfaction in seeing the overdog take a hit -- have not been much eager to separate themselves from the rhetoric of radical Islam.
In any case, the administration's problem is not really its (sound) strategy, nor its increasingly improved implementation that we see in Baghdad, but simply an American public that so far understandably cannot easily differentiate millions of brave Iraqis and Afghans, who risk their lives daily to hunt terrorists and ensure reform, from the Islamists of the Muslim Street who broadcast their primordial hatred for Israel and the United States incessantly.
President Bush's task is more difficult than untangling the barbed wire in the photo above. To date he has refused the most direct approach: cutting through the tangles and utterly destroying the whole mess. I suspect that he continues to have faith in Islamic culture's ability to change for the better without being completely humiliated first. Being an astute politician, he also probably realizes that most Americans are still unwilling to throw restraint to the winds and unleash total war ... so far.
I suspect that one more major Islamist attack will abruptly end America's patience, and our historical willingness to inflict breathtaking destruction will reassert itself. I'm nearly at that point already.
On the Right the politicking works out with cynicism and disgust: "These ungrateful and hateful people aren't worth the life of another American soldier or American dollar."Yet the Bush idealism wins no points from the Left either. Both for partisan purposes, and due to the wages of multiculturalism that oppose any Western effort to bring to the other the good life that they themselves so eagerly embrace, Leftists still harp about no blood for oil and assorted conspiracies in lieu of legitimate analysis and criticism.
Only the far right thinks the effort's misspent. The center right still thinks it's worth it. The left is just plain delusional and operates in its own alternate reality without regard to facts.
What, then, is needed -- aside from crushing the jihadists and securing Afghanistan and Iraq -- is more articulation and explanation. The word "liberal" -- as in promoting liberal values abroad, and reminding the world of the traditions of liberal tolerance -- needs to be employed more often.Some tough language is also helpful on occasion: any time the free democracies of Iraq or Afghanistan wish to vote to send American troops home, of course we will comply. Likewise, Egypt, Jordan, and Lebanon are under no compulsion to accept hated American aid or military help. And just as the American public needs reminding that millions of Middle Easterners are currently fighting jihadist terror in Afghanistan and Iraq -- we wish we could say the same about our "allies" in Pakistan and Saudi Arabia -- so too the Iraqi and Afghan governments should convey to the American people that their support is appreciated, and its continuance deemed vital.
Good luck with all that. Until these cultures see us as the strong horse, we're fighting a needlessly long battle.
How odd that the president must explain the pathologies of the Middle East to such a degree as to warn Americans of our mortal danger, but not to the point of excess so that we feel that there is no hope for such people. He must somehow suggest that jihadism could not imperil us were it not for the "moderates" who tolerate and appease it -- while this is the very same group that we feel duty-bound to offer an alternative other than theocracy or dictatorship. And he must offer a postwar plan of reconstruction to the citizens of the Middle East at a time when many of them do not feel that their romantic jihadists have ever really been defeated at all.Even the eloquence of a Lincoln or Churchill would find all that difficult.
When dealing with barbarians, words fail indeed ... but total victory persuades. I almost pity the Islamists who succeed in any new major attack on American soil.
Almost.
Can you say "soft target"? AJ Strata ponders the implications.
Hat tip: Michelle Malkin
- If Israel could only crush Hezbollah by wrecking all of Lebanon's civilian infrastructure, would it still be worth doing?
- If a multinational force actually enters southern Lebanon to prevent further conflict, how can we be confident that it will actually attack any Hezbollah fighters moving into its "territory"?
- Why can't the American military join in the attack on Hezbollah? Is there anything of great importance to our national interests that we really stand to lose if we strike? Wouldn't the benefits of crushing Hezbollah far outweigh the liabilities?
- Would Islamists be deterred if America announced that any Islamist nuke attack on us would result in our destruction of the Kaaba? What about less severe deterrents?
- When will our political leaders admit that we're in a War on Islamism, not a "War on Terror"?
- Why are Islamist web sites and bulletin boards permitted to exist when America has thousands of hackers who would love to be paid to destroy them?
- When will America finally tire of playing diplomatic footisie at the U.N., and abandon that corrupt den of vipers for good?
Blogging over at Hot Air, Allah collects a morose assortment of down-in-the-mouth quotes from conservative hawks disappointed about Iraq. His own take:
Why the despair and why now? Because, I think, of Israel's predicament in Lebanon. Until last month, it could plausibly be argued that most problems in the war on terror (read: most problems in Iraq and Afghanistan) were the result of Bush's mismanagement. Which, for conservatives, is hugely depressing in one way but hugely comforting in another: if your big problem is personnel, the solution is simple enough. All in due time. But if your problem is strategic, that's not so easy. A lot of hawks, me included, have near-blind faith that Jewish genius and resilience will always carry Israel through when it's beset by its enemies, but even the invincible IDF doesn't seem to be making much headway against the jihad.
Add Yoni to the ranks of the Low Morale Brigade.
Look again at the cycle of jihad:
The good guys appear to be neglecting the publicity, recruitment, and training efforts of our enemies. Plus, we're not serious about cutting off state support for jihad (Iran and Syria and Saudi Arabia, I'm looking at you). The western world needs to stop worrying about offending the tender sensibilities of the Arab Street™. They're going to hate us more if we become weak and irresolute.
To hell with political correctness and diplomatic kabuki dances. We are in a war. We need to kill more of the enemy, disrupt his recruitment and publicity efforts, openly confront Syria militarily, spend billions to support and grow Iran's domestic opposition movement, and choke off Saudi money flowing to Islamist madrassas.
Update: Manny says "be of good cheer." Amen.
The Iraqi army took an important step forward Tuesday by marking the halfway point for division headquarters to take the lead for security operations throughout the country.The 4th Iraqi Army Division assumed control of their area of responsibility, encompassing regions spanning three of Iraq�s northern provinces, Salahad Din, As Sulaymaniyah and At-Ta�mim provinces.
Its area of responsibility includes the cities of Tikrit, Kirkuk, Bayji and Samarra, as well as the major oil and electrical infrastructure in northern Iraq.
The 4th IA Division is the fifth of 10 Iraqi Army divisions to take control over Iraqi units in their assigned regions. In addition, there have been 25 brigades and 85 battalions assuming operational command and control to date.
Excellent news! Cutting and running now would be a fiasco of epic proportions. Remember this the next time you hear someone moaning about the "quagmire" in Iraq.
Yoni the Blogger relays the news that Israeli reservists who were once snipers in the USSR's Spetsnaz have been called up for deployment into Lebanon. These guys fought in Afghanistan and Chechnya, so I'd hate to be a Hezbollah fighter right about now.
Congrats to Bizzyblog for spotting more photo fraud from Lebanon, this time in the New York Times.
One word: hell.
Yoni Tidi reports that Hezbollah's TV and radio broadcasts have been hacked by Israel. Why aren't we this smart about propaganda?
I don't know about you, but I'm getting frustrated with the way the West is fighting the War On Islamism. For a civilization that's in danger of annihilation, we sure aren't fighting with everything we've got. Something's got to change.
The ongoing propagandizing coverage of the Lebanese civilian deaths in Qana have really gotten under my skin this week, and I spent all night fuming and thinking. My typical gut reaction lately has been: "Screw the rest of the world's dainty reservations and P.C. whining. Let's take the gloves off and really hit the Islamists where it hurts." But where exactly is that? And what's the best way to hit them?
In his latest column, Dennis Prager stakes out a position that basically says: "To heck with world opinion." Tony Blankley replies: "World opinion does suck, but we can't ignore it completely." Meanwhile, Frank Gaffney questions the wisdom of trying to hamstring Israel in ways we'd never tolerate if applied to our own military. They're each right, and yet they haven't taken their thinking far enough. We can't just lash out in frustration at the whole screwed-up Muslim world; we've got to intelligently disrupt the Islamists' strategy if we hope to crush their will to fight.
I sketched out this rough diagram to help me frame my thoughts.
This "cycle of jihad" shows what I think their overarching method looks like. To run smoothly, the cycle requires active funding and/or logistics support from one or more nations (represented by the cloud). The boxes outside the cloud indicate the two steps that don't require immediate state support to be successful. The whole thing feeds on itself.
To stop the global jihad we must either completely break a link in the cycle, severely weaken several links, or eliminate the support offered by sympathetic nation states. So what are we doing to disrupt the cycle of jihad, and is it enough to guarantee victory? That's what I'll be writing about in the next few days.
If anybody out there is familiar with things like 4th generation warfare (often called "netcentric warfare") and the concept of the OODA Loop, please chime in with your own blog posts or comments. I don't have all the answers, and I'd like to start a wide-ranging discussion on this. Toss out suggestions, criticism, anything that'll help chip away at this. As a wise man once said:
Do not repeat the tactics which have gained you one victory, but let your methods be regulated by the infinite variety of circumstances. ... So in war, the way is to avoid what is strong and to strike at what is weak. ... He who can modify his tactics in relation to his opponent and thereby succeed in winning, may be called a heaven-born captain.-- Sun Tzu
I look forward to hearing from you.
The American Thinker compares Hezbollah's strategy in Lebanon to Imperial Japan's strategy on Iwo Jima:
The pro-Iranian, Lebanese Shiite terrorist organization has turned a number of southern Lebanese hillsides and towns into fortified death-traps. It has spent the better part of the past six years since the Israeli withdrawal from southern Lebanon turning several hilltop towns into an Iwo Jima-like maze of fortified bunkers, spider holes, pill-boxes, sniper dens, fields of anti-tank mines and IEDs, and interconnected tunnels....
Over whatever time remains before the conflict is forced to end, the IDF will take apart the Hezbollah terrorist-guerrillas that made the ultimate error of remaining in fixed positions. It is Hezbollah that is stoked in the passions and delusions of over-confidence. If Hezbollah takes comfort from fighting in fixed positions, they need only brush up on Napoleon, who said "the army that remains in its forts is beaten." Or perhaps read up on how General Kuribayashi Tadamichi's Japanese force of 21,000 at Iwo Jima was reduced by the United States Marines to just over 120 POWs (an additional 900 wounded were captured).
I'm glad someone else notices the similarities here. I've been thinking along these lines for awhile now.
More Iwo-esque commentary:
Theodisy
Update: Steve Schippert at ThreatsWatch.org thinks Hezbollah's on the ropes. Maybe so, if Israel stays focused on crushing the Hezbos where they sit, andif the IDF can do it fast enough to beat the unspoken deadline (defined as "the point when political pressure inevitably weakens the Bush Administration's willingness to delay a ceasefire").
Hat tip: Hugh Hewitt
If you want photographs proving that Hezbollah fights from within heavily-populated civilian areas, look no further than Australia's Herald Sun. Keep this in mind when you think of the tragedy at Qana, and never forget which side is evil.
Update: Want video proof? Fox News has it (hat tip: Mike's America).
International (and American) support for Israel's "air war only" strategy won't last long, especially after the Qana tragedy. It's long past time for the Israeli Army to invade Lebanon with overwhelming force and finish Hezbollah while the opportunity remains.
Update: AP says Israel has swung back toward the harsher end of the retaliation scale:
Israel's Security Cabinet approved widening the ground offensive Tuesday, a participant said, and rejected a cease-fire until an international force is in place in Lebanon. The participant, speaking on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to talk to reporters, said Israel's airstrikes would resume "in full force" after a 48-hour suspension expires in another day.The ground forces will move deep into southern Lebanon to the Litani River, about 18 miles north of the border, and hold on to the territory for several weeks until a multinational force can deploy there, a senior Israeli government official said Tuesday.
That's better, but still not aggressive enough. Hezbollah will only stop fighting if it's utterly crushed and humiliated. No mercy, folks. War is hell.
WARNING: graphic images ahead.
By now you've heard about the Israeli attack in Qana that killed several children. There's more to the reporting of the story than you think, though. EU Referendum catches Hezbollah's grotesque propaganda games here and here. The mainstream media photographers on-scene in Qana played right along.
Update: More here.
Update 2: Michelle Malkin has a great round-up of past Islamist propaganda. Believe the MSM at your own risk.
Update 3: Rachel Neuwirth points out mainstream media complicity in Hezbollah's propaganda war (hat tip: Discerning Texan).
TigerHawk CardinalPark sees similarities between the Falklands War and Israel's current war to wipe out Hezbollah. Interesting parallels, and surprising. I never thought to compare the two.
Previous:
Hezbollah's Siegfried Line
Tarawa, Peleliu, Iwo Jima, Okinawa ... Lebanon?
Amanda Marcotte at the Pandagon blog objects to Israel's tactics in its war on Hezbollah, and laments the "absence" of a more peace-loving viewpoint in the media (and presumably among Americans in general):
The fear of the Wingnutteria whining has turned the mainstream media into the biggest bunch of cowards you ever saw; meanwhile the right wing press is unafraid and this has made them less constrained on the subject of this war.
The mainstream media is most definitely not blindly backing Israel. Take for example CNN correspondent Nic Robertson's gullible participation in a Hezbollah propaganda stunt. No, the MSM is predominantly left-leaning and tends to support the "talk-talk-talk" strategy for warfighting, as advocated by liberals like UN Secretary General Kofi Annan and UN Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs Jan Egeland (who at least condemns Hezbollah, to his credit).
As for the right wing press (whatever that means beyond "Eeeeeevil Fox News") being "less constrained", I have to plead ignorance of exactly what she's complaining about. Is it that conservatives generally support Israel's right to strike back hard against Hezbollah and eliminate that terrorist organization for good? Or is some kook on the right advocating genocide? If so, I'll happily label him a kook of the first order.
The problem with that is when Israel does something so obviously odious as killing innocent civilians and holding them culpable for what an unsanctioned organization does, well, even just straightforward reporting is going to seem critical.
Doesn't the population of a country bear at least some responsibility for what the country does or what it allows to happen inside its borders? A goodly number of liberals seem to think so when the country in question is America. Otherwise why apologize at all?
The Lebanese government was elected by the Lebanese, and it shares some responsibility with the citizens in allowing Hezbollah to rocket Israeli civilians and kidnap Israeli soldiers inside Israel. I don't think it's unreasonable for Israel to hold all of the Lebanese people partly culpable for allowing Hezbollah to start a war. What is it that exempts Lebanese civilians from culpability for their government's behavior, while we're on the hook for America's policies?
And please remember that Hezbollah did start this war. Until this month Israel hasn't occupied a single square inch of Lebanon since 2000. Hezbollah doesn't want to end an occupation; it wants to eliminate Israel. If that doesn't make sense to you, then you're wilfully blind to reality and nothing can persuade you otherwise.
To reduce violence in the Middle East, Ralph Peters suggests redrawing the map along ethnic and religious lines.
In each case, this hypothetical redrawing of boundaries reflects ethnic affinities and religious communalism � in some cases, both. Of course, if we could wave a magic wand and amend the borders under discussion, we would certainly prefer to do so selectively. Yet, studying the revised map, in contrast to the map illustrating today's boundaries, offers some sense of the great wrongs borders drawn by Frenchmen and Englishmen in the 20th century did to a region struggling to emerge from the humiliations and defeats of the 19th century.Correcting borders to reflect the will of the people may be impossible. For now. But given time � and the inevitable attendant bloodshed � new and natural borders will emerge. Babylon has fallen more than once.
We could actually do this if not for the existence of the U.N. (motto: "Obstructing peace and common sense since 1945!") and the west's infatuation with political correctness.
Ralph Peters laments Israel's missed opportunities, and urges its political leaders to get harsh and crush Hezbollah now ... before it's too late:
All Hezbollah has to do to achieve victory is not to lose completely. But for Israel to emerge the acknowledged winner, it has to shatter Hezbollah. Yet Israeli miscalculations have left Hezbollah alive and kicking.Israel has to pull itself together now, to send in ground troops in sufficient numbers, with fierce resolve to do what must be done: Root out Hezbollah fighters and kill them. This means Israel will suffer painful casualties - more today than if the Israeli Defense Force had gone in full blast at this fight's beginning.
The situation is grave. A perceived Hezbollah win will be a massive victory for terror, as well as a triumph for Iran and Syria. And everybody loves a winner - especially in the Middle East, where Arabs and Persians have been losing so long.
Israel can't afford a Hezbollah win. America can't afford it. Civilization can't afford it. Yet it just might happen.
...
The mess Israel has made of its opportunity to smack down Hezbollah should be a wake-up call to the country's leadership. The IDF looks like a pathetic shadow of the bold military that Ariel Sharon led into Egypt three decades ago. The IDF's intelligence, targeting and planning were all deficient. Technology failed to vanquish flesh and blood. The myth of the IDF's invincibility just shattered.
If Israel can't turn this situation around quickly, the failure will be a turning point in its history. And not for the better.
Faster, please.
Here's a question I asked a week ago: "How long do you suppose we'll have to wait before Iran's favorite Iraqi troublemaker Muqtada al-Sadr starts making aggressive noises in an effort to distract U.S. forces in Iraq?"
According to Q and O, it looks like the answer is: "Not very long at all."
A senior member of Muqtada al-Sadr's Iraqi Shi'ite militia, the Mahdi Army, says the group is forming a squadron of up to 1,500 elite fighters to go to Lebanon.The plan reflects the potential of the fighting between Israel and Hezbollah to strengthen radical elements in Iraq and neighboring countries and to draw other regional players into the Lebanon conflict.
"We are choosing the men right now," said Abu Mujtaba, who works in the loosely organized following of radical Shi'ite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr. "We are preparing the right men for the job."
The "right men for the job", huh? That must mean "men who want to be splattered by the IDF."
... and only then will Islamists think twice about attacking us.
Hat tip: Hugh Hewitt
The ever-resourceful Debbie Schlussel continues to expose the activities of Hezbollah in Michigan. Yes, you read that right.
Update: She appeared on Neal Cavuto's show on Thursday, too.
*Updates below*
The more I hear in the news about the battle in southern Lebanon, the more I think back to World War II. I wonder if there are any significant similarities between: 1) Hezbollah's reliance on bunkers and tunnels, and 2) Japan's island-defense strategies between 1943-45?
In the Battle of Tarawa, the Japanese employed their early-WWII strategy of trying to stop the U.S. Marines at the water's edge. That strategy changed at the Battle of Peleliu to a more elastic defense geared toward drawing out the bloodshed and inflicting maximum casualties on the Marines. The Battle of Iwo Jima amplified that effect, and by the time the Battle of Okinawa really got going, the Japanese had refined defensive warfare into a bloody science of attrition.
Now I keep hearing news reports of surprisingly stiff Hezbollah resistance against Israeli incursions in southern Lebanon. On the plus side, Israel enjoys air superiority, and it has also effectively cut off the Hezbollah fighters from resupply and reinforcement, much like our Navy did to each Japanese-held island we chose to invade. Granted, this isn't a full-scale invasion (yet) and the defenders have reportedly chosen to build their bunkers in urban areas, so the parallels to our own WWII Pacific Campaign aren't that strong yet. But I wonder how this battle will develop, and if there might end up being more similarities to 1943-45 than we see so far. If the diplomatic busybodies "international community" actually sits still long enough to let this fight play out, I will be paying very close attention to how Israel ends up rooting out and killing these Islamist fanatics.
Here's hoping we end up with a decisive win for the West and a crushing, humiliating defeat for Islamism.
Update: Great reading on the Pacific War:
