September 16, 2005

Traitors at ACLU Give Propaganda Victory to Enemy

Our enemies are already using the ACLU's latest victory to recruit more jihadis to kill more Americans. Thank you ACLU.

Check out Islam Online's take, if you don't believe me.

Stop the ACLU has more.

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Aussies: Speak English Immigrants

As I argued in a recent post, while moral decline does not mean an impending end to a nation, cultural decline might. A key cultural attribute of America is the English language. We could learn something from the Aussies.

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Michael Yon Podcast

Here's your chance to hear Michael Yon. Shawn at Bareknucklepolitics interviews him here. Yon is one of the few embedded reporters sticking it out in Iraq and, unlike the talking heads on CNN, Fox, and NBC who don't ever leave the Green Zone, is actually out and about reporting facts from the ground.

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Stupid Quote Of The Year

"...[Antonin Scalia and Clarance Thomas] hate the government so much that they would use their position on the bench to override the legislature, to override the will of the people with their decisions."
- Chuck Schumer on "Hannity and Colmes" 9/15/2005

You mean unlike the liberal justices across the country that are overturning valid state laws and votes by the people on issues such as underage death penalty and homosexual marriage?

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Partial vs. Total War: Revisiting Tranquil Blindness

The following is an email exchange I had with Nicole Argo, one of the panel on suicide terrorism that I panned recently here. That is, it was unfair to the extent that some of my criticism wasn't so much substantive as atmospheric, and it may also have been unfair to Argo. I still disagree with Pape's policy prescriptions, which I think do not follow from his analysis, and I thought Bloom's attitude rather superficial and trite, reflecting the "unseriousness" of the Moveon crowd. And I still have the sense that the way nearly all of these people frame the issue of suicide terrorism reflects a false dichotomy between "military" and "non-military" strategy.

In the 1940s Roosevelt created an agency that he called the "Board of Economic Warfare," which was chaired, rather ironically, by R. Buckminster Fuller. While this agency wasn't "military," its design purpose was unambiguously to serve the military campaign. If there is value in the work of these researchers attempting to understand the nature of terrorism it probably is not in an alternative to a military strategy, but in service to it... with the laudable objective of preventing a drift toward what Clausewitz calls "Total War."

But Argo was quite gracious in the following note, and in a follow-up (which I won't post because I haven't quite figured out how to respond yet). Anyway, here's the exchange. The quotes from my original post are in bold, her comments in italics, and my responses in plain old, plain old.
more...

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September 15, 2005

Filthy-Dego-Wop Romans, the Conservatives That Love Them, and the Beginning of Empire (UPDATED)

Why are so many conservatives fascinated with Rome? Personally, I think it's latent homosexuality. In contrast, Dean Esmay has a more serious take on the same question for you conservatives of what he calls "the America sucks right."

These are the guys at your church that think God has an invisible shield over the U.S., and that as America slouches toward Gomorroh he slowly raises the shield. This line of thought can go to the extreme and become one that basically says were doomed, DOOMED, DOOMED!

In many ways, this argument is very similar to the namby-pambies of the 'hate America first' Left and self-proclaimed paleocons on the Right who share the belief that America is destined for failure, soon, because that is the fate of all empires.

The remedy? End the empire, bring troops home, etc. Only by ending the empire can America be saved.

Which, of course, is stupid, since at any point in Rome's history the same argument could have been made. Bring troops home from Palestine now, one could have argued in 70 C.E. Of course, 300 years later you would have found the city of Caesaria, near modern Haifa, bustling with activity--all of it Roman.

And what is so great about the Romans anyway? Filthy mass-murdering buggers that they were. Dean writes:

They were a vicious, savage people, given to mass murder on a scale that would make Saddam Hussein seem like a piker--and that was while their Empire was growing. Julius Caesar, before he seized power and turned Rome into an Empire, boasted of slaughtering over 100,000 people in just one of his jaunts into Gaul. Not 100,000 on the battlefield either--no, this included razing villages, hacking off the heads of children, women, old men, the crippled and lame. This was celebrated as a part of Ceasar's greatness, with triumphal celebrations and murals and statues showing in gory detail as Ceasar and his troops raped barbarian women and sliced barbarian children's heads off.

All that, and Rome's greatest days were yet ahead of her.

Let me just add a few other things. The Romans were not the biggest, not the most powerful, and certainly not the most long-lasting empire the world has ever known.

Biggest: British empire. At one time controlled a quarter of the world.

Most powerful: U.S., present day. Is there any doubt about this? Ok, we'll give special runner-up status to Alexander's short-lived but very kick-ass empire and a tie going to Genghis Khan's Mongolian hordes.

Longest lasting: China is by far the longest lasting empire ever known. Before the Romans even began to consolidate power let alone think of empire, China was already an imperial power. The Chinese Empire begins in 221 BCE. And when did it end? It hasn't. Even when China is conquered by external forces, such as during the Mongolian invasion, it continued. Instead of 'Mongolionizing' the Chinese, the Mongolians were Chinafied. How's that for 'end of empire' theory!

And China was, and is, a real empire. Not an empire in the Leninst sense of the word, or an empire in the dependency literature of the new Left, or like an empire, or an empire defined by--well, by whatever definition suits the purposes of polemists who wish to use the word to describe something they don't like, namely, America.

So, when did the Chinese Empire fall? It didn't. It's still in existance today. So, there's no more Emperor. Big deal. Go to modern China today and you will see it is not a 'nation-state' but an Imperial power. Nearly half of China's land mass is located West of where most Han Chinese live. Ask the Uygyars of Xinjiang or Tibetans if China isn't an 'empire'.

The Chinese Empire might suck every bit as much as the Roman one did, but it has lasted for 2,226 years and shows no sign of falling.

Even if we were to date the beginning of the modern Chinese Empire with reunification under the Sui Dynasty in 589 and date its end (wrongfully, I believe) to 1949, when The People's Republic was set up, that's an empire that lasts 1360 years!!

And we've been around, what, a couple hundred years? I bet it will be another 500 before we even begin to invent a food dish that is the cultural equvalent of the all important General Tsao's Orange Chicken.

Is America doomed? Hell no! World, you aint seen nothin' yet.

UPDATE: First, apologies for mispelling 'dego'. It should be dago. Laura is right--if you're going to use racial slurs to get people's attention you really ought to spell it right. I guess I just don't use racist terminology enough......

Second, Dean's orginal post was in response to an updated post by La Shawn Barber, who I have a great deal of respect for, but who I also disagree. Dean has a related posts here.

Like James Joyner, who enters the discussion here, I also have many concerns about some of the moral decline of America. I just believe that the argument that such declines preceed the downfall of a civilization are not backed by historical facts. If one wishes to argue that cultural decline preceeds the downfall of a civilization, I believe you are on to a more solid argument. One that is not, of course, without its own flaws. Part of what makes American culture so different than those others, though, is its ability to adapt and change over time. Further, if anything, American culture is still on the rise and spreading across the globe

La Shawn's argument actually is religious, if you go read her post. As a religious person--which I actually am to the surprise and shock of my readers (You thought I was kidding about being a Christian Universalist who happens to believe only Mormons go to heaven and that God is really a Buddhist?)--I believe La Shawn is basically right in her assessment and characterization of moral issues (with the exception of her not distinguishing between good gay and bad gay). As you all know I don't believe in gay marriage, as a rule, unless it is between two very hot chicks.

But, if you'll close your Qurans for a moment and open the Bible to the book of Ecclesiastes--the entire book--I believe you'll find that the good preacher notices something that many Christians today have overlooked. Let me quote him from the NIV, chapter 8, verse 10:

There is something else meaningless that occurs on earth: righteous men who get what the wicked deserve, and wicked men who get what the righteous deserve. This too, I say, is meaningless.
Indeed. Long before Gibbons poor observations on the decline of empire, King Solomon (ascribed) noticed that the wicked often prosper and the righteous often suffer. Buddha, for the non-Christian, made much the same observation. That is just life.

I would suggest to the religious-right in America, and this includes Doc Rampage who makes an even more overtly religious argument here, not to make the error that their theological reading of history is orthodoxy. Even if one were to read the Bible in this way, one might make the argument that God punished the nation of Israel when it was wicked, and blessed it when it prospered, but that Israel is a covenant nation, different then the rest. Rome was not Israel, and neither is America.

Rampage is right, of course, that this is 'in house' fighting. Chomsky hates America, La Shawn doesn't.

Further, I thought it was the Romans that killed Jesus, the encarnation of God in the flesh--something my Sunday School teachers taught was kind of like the ultimate sinful behavior--and yet Rome grew and prospered for hundreds of years after that. I also seem to recall something about throwing Christians to lions, crucifying Peter upside down, and even one emperor (Nero) using them as human torches. All of this, of course, as they were busy buggering (not being buggered, mind you) young boys in the traditional Greek fashion.

And as for China, the longest lasting empire, did you know that the practice of polygamy was not done away with until this century? I have a friend from Hong Kong who comes from the noble class. His grandfather had many wives, not even counting all the concubines.

Last, let me just clarify that I do not believe that America is really an 'empire' in the same way that Rome was or that modern polemists believe. I thought I had made that clear in the paragraph about definitions of empire, but I guess I hadn't. America is Iraq is not empire. California Mafia has a related point here.

However, if you were to define America's empire as within the boundaries of the United States, then I might concede the point. We certainly conquered a lot of territory, colonized it, culturally extinguished native peoples, and subjected them to our wills. Go to Hawaii. Forget Hawaii, go to Virginia. That seems a lot like empire my friends.

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Deep Thoughts...

by Jeff Goldstein:

Shearer’s implicit argument that because not everyone who remained behind in NOLA could have been safely evacuated, attempts to evacuate some or most of those left behind could (should?) not have taken place clearly echoes the anti-war argument that because the US can’t simultaneously overthrow every tyrannical dictator in the world, it is somehow indelicate to rid the world of one (even if doing so jibes with our national interests)—and, in the process, frees 25 million people from a murderous Ba’athist rule.

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Claim: Second Report of Chemical Attack in Iraq

For the second time in a week, a terror organization has claimed to have used chemical weapons in Iraq. The Islamic Army in Iraq issued a statement yesterday claiming that it had launched ten 120mm mortar rounds loaded with chemicals against U.S. and Iraqi troops stationed in al-Madain.

A translation of the communique can be seen here, via Evan Kohlmann.

On Sept. 13th the Victorious Army Group in Iraq issued a statement claiming that it had used chemical weapons in Baghdad, including against American troops in the Green Zone (story and background here). There has been no confirmation of those reports.

The Islamic Army in Iraq (IAI) has been associated with Abu Musab al-Zarqawi's al Qaeda in Iraq in the past. The IAI stated that the chemical weapons were used to support Zarqawi's losing battle in Tel Afar. However, Zarqawi's group disclaimed any association to the earlier attack by The Victorious Army Group (or Sect, as he translates it) on the Green Zone with chemical weapons.

Terrorism expert Evan Kohlmann passes on information that The Victorious Army Group is rumored to be made of ex-Fedayeen Saddam and Iraqi intelligence personnel.

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America Doesn't Want You Either, Gwyneth

Gwyneth Paltrow would feel much more at home in Europe where sophisticated and nuanced discussion of America boils down to clever cowboy metaphors and deep analysis about arrogant empires falling, you know, eventually.

We concur. Move to Europe Gwyneth Paltrow. You'll fit in better.

Globe and Mail:

Yes, well, I went to Spain in an exchange program at 15, and I've always been drawn to Europe. America is such a young country, with an adolescent swagger about it. But I feel that I have a more European sensibility, a greater respect for the multicultural nature of the globe. And it's a strange time to be an American now....

I feel like we're really in trouble. I just had a baby and thought, 'I don't want to live there [America].' Bush's anti-environment, pro-war policies are a dis. . . ." Well, you can guess the rest.

And don't come back. At least, not until you get a boob job. I mean, she even looks like she could be a European star--but not an American.....

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Terrorists Shoot Down U.S. Plane in Iraq

A terror organization in Iraq, Jaish al-Rashideen, has posted a video in which it claims to have shot down a U.S. airplane. Images from the video below. more...

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CAIR Censors 'Indecent' Photo of Woman's Hair

Remind you of something?
more...

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Seven to be Deported from Britain Named

The British government has announced the impending deportation of seven foreign nationals. The men were arrested in a nation-wide terror crackdown. No names were mentioned--possibly because of British laws restricting certain press freedoms in legal matters--but it is almost certain that the seven to be deported were those accused of plotting to use WMD against civilians in the U.K.

The plot was said to have used ricin, cyanide, botulinum and other explosives to cause mass casualties in that country. Eight men were later arrested in the plot. Charges were eventually dropped against four, and four others were later acquitted. One man, the Algerian born Kamel Bourgass, was convicted and sentenced to life.

The seven men to be deported were all connected through London's radical Finsbury Mosque. Some media are now claiming that all seven to be deported are Algerian, thus Khalid Alwerfeli is the only one of the accused plotters who doesn't face imminet deportation:

Samir Asli--Algerian
Khalid Alwerfeli--Libyan
Mouloud Bouhrama--Algerian
Mouloud Sihali--Algerian
Sidali Feddag--Algerian
David Khalef--Algerian (convicted terrorist in Algeria, but has assylum)
Mustapha Taleb--Algerian
Kamel Merzoug--said to be Algerian (Entered UK on false passport)

Guardian:

Britain on Thursday ordered the deportations of seven men detained as threats to national security, including some accused in a terrorist plot to spread the poison ricin.

The men were being held in London and Manchester under the government's powers to deport people ``whose presence in the U.K. is not conducive to the public good for reasons of national security,'' the Home Office said.

It's time the US started deporting radical Muslims, too. As non-citizens, they have no 'right' to be here. They are our guests and have overstayed their welcom. Please e-mail if you have any further details.

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Socrates: The First Liberal

Guest commentary by Bill Dauterieve:

I was watching "Black Hawk Down" yesterday night. It is a testament to the courage, honor and commitment of American soldiers. I liked the Hollywood treatment of soldiers as a bunch of different guys. You had Obi Wan Kenobi as a office clerk, the Incredible Hulk as a Fonzie like Delta Force fighter, and Lucius Malfoy from Harry Potter as a by-the-book Ranger. When they were under the gun, they set aside all their differences and fought as a single unit. They left no one behind. more...

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Al Qaeda in Iraq Declares Jihad on Shi'ites, 23 More Murdered in Baghdad

A new audio message from the leader of al Qaeda in Iraq, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, has declared jihad on Iraq's majority Shia population. More bombs went off in Baghdad today targetting Iraqi police officers. Zarqawi has claimed the bombings which killed 23.

Al-Jazeera:


"The al-Qaeda Organisation in the Land of Two Rivers (Iraq) is declaring all-out war on the Rafidha (a pejorative term for Shia), wherever they are in Iraq," said the voice which could not be immediately verified but sounded like previous recordings attributed to al-Zarqawi.

"As for the government, servants of the crusaders headed by Ibrahim al-Jaafari, they have declared a war on Sunnis in Tal Afar," the clip added...

What the tape fails to mention is that the President of Iraq, Jalal Talabani, is a Sunni Muslim. President Talabani has recently begged the American people to stay the course and help his country fight the terrorists in his country. Many on the American and European Left, including George Galloway in a debate last night, consider the bin Ladenist terrorists fighting secular and moderate forces in Iraq 'freedom fighters'.
"You must choose between the good side and the bad side."
In the sick world of Zarqawi, the bin Ladenists, and the Western elitist Left, the good side is the side that cuts people's heads off for driving trucks. But wait, there's more:
Any religious group that wants to be safe from the blows of the mujahidin must [disavow] the government of al-Jaafari and its crimes. Otherwise it will suffer the same fate as that of the crusaders," said the tape.

At the same time, "any tribe ... whose allegiance to the crusaders and their agents is proven will be targeted by the mujahidin in the same way the crusaders are".

In the dozens of al Qaeda in Iraq (formerly known as Tawhid and Jihad) videotaped murders, each victim is first made to confess to the 'crime' of apostasy. How is the victim an 'apostate'? He has 'worked with the Zionist-Crusador infidel forces'.

Under traditional interpretations of Islamic law, the maximum penalty for apostasy is death.

An interesting side note from the al Jazeera report refers to Zarqawi as 'the one-legged fugitive'. Zarqawi was reportedly hurt in May, but that was allegedly a serious chest wound. This is the first I had heard about Zarqawi missing a leg. It's time to take out his other one. Start with the kneecaps. Then move to the left arm......

So, why is peg-leg Zarqawi trying to kill as many Shias as possible? He's trying to start a civil war. Unfortunately, many on the Left believe a civil war is already happening in Iraq. But if this is 'civil war', then how come the vast majority of Sunnis are planning to go to the polls in the coming election? Wars begin only when politics fail.

Further, many on the Left openly support those that are fighting our troops, the side that wishes to impose a Taliban-like regime there. These people are traitors.

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September 14, 2005

Alcohol Vendor Taken Hostage in Iraq Seen in Video, Company Caves to Demands


A video has emerged of the Lebanese-Cypriot employee of an alcohol distribution company taken hostage in Iraq nearly three weeks ago. Images from the video are posted below. The video may be downloaded here (see Sept. 12, first link).

The man, Garabet Jean Jekerjian, can be seen in the video wearing a Corona shirt and shorts and pleads for his company, Geto Trading Ltd. which operates out of Cyprus, to leave Iraq.

The company announced today that it was caving to the terrorists' demands and is ceasing all operations in Iraq.

The terror organization, calling itself The Group for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice had released a video Sunday threatening to kill Jekerjian unless Geto pulled out. Scores of people have been murdered in Iraq by vigilante groups, both Shia and Sunni, attempting to enforce Islamic Law.

I apologize for letting this one slip under the radar screen. A description of the video and images from it follow. more...

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A Guy, A Train, National Review, and a Thong

The Maximum Leader waxes poetic.

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Al Qaeda on the Run in Northern Iraq

Are things really all that bad in Iraq? Not according to those that are actually there. In a Pentagon press briefing today, a commander from Mosul, Iraq, described a much weakened al Qaeda presence in that region. At least 80% of al Qaeda fighters are dead or captured, and those fighting today are much less organized with far poorer training.

But how can things be getting better in Iraq when so much news--today's news--always seems so bad?

Flipping through the news this morning as I got ready for work, I noticed that CNN and Fox were reporting some very bad news from people who should know how things are going, reporters in Baghdad. However, one thing seemed rather odd to me--both reporters had the same background shot.

In fact, both reporters were at the same Baghdad hotel well inside the Green Zone. So, how are they getting their news? They are getting their news from the DOD just like I am, only they can broadcast their original news from Iraq and thus you get the feeling that they are more authoritative because they are, you know, there, even though there isn't really anywhere near where the stories are happening.

Journalists such as Michael Yon are the exception to the rule. He's embedded with military forces in Mosul, so when Yon reports that things are much better in Mosul today than last year, you better believe him. Yon is actually there where there is.

So, when Army Col. Robert B. Brown, commander of the 1st Brigade, 25th Infantry Division's Stryker Brigade Combat Team, reported from Mosul, Iraq, about conditions there you better listen, too. Remember, Yon is embedded with these guys. Stryker Brigade News has a great gallery of the men of the 1/25 here.

Here are some highlights from a DOD press release about Brown's conference. And by 'highlights', I mean pretty much the whole press release. But, as you read it, imagine that I am reporting from inside the Green Zone. I'm sure that will make it much more believable. Here's a visual, to help put you in the mood.

Brown notes that eighty percent of al Qaeda's network in northern Iraq "has been devastated" since January due to the capture or killing of key leaders and the outrage of Iraqi citizens.

The situation in Mosul is "improving on a daily basis," Brown said. "Normalcy has come back into the city." more...

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Debra Lafave Genitalia Photo Blocked

(Tampa, Florida) Remember Debra Lafave? She's the gorgeous 24-year-old teacher who claims she was insane during mad sex romps with a 14-year-old student. She's scheduled to be tried in December, however, there's a new development in her case.

Apparently, during the investigation of her alleged crimes, the authorities obtained a search warrant to photograph her genitalia to collect evidence corroborating the statements of the 14-year-old boy. The photos are public records and, as such, any citizen can request access. As a result, Lafave's lawyer, John Fitzgibbons, has filed a motion to block public access to the pictures on the basis that they are an invasion of privacy.

From the St. Petersburg Times: more...

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Goodbye Mike King

Mike King, of Rambling's Journal, is calling it quits. He will be missed.

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Apprentice Contestant Alla Wartenberg Is Ex Stripper Who Inspired Death Row Inmates Killing Spree: Image Gallery

Alla Wartenberg scandal and photo gallery here. more...

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