War on Islamism

11 Years Later, We’ve Learned to Cringe Before the Islamists

Mark Noonan39 Comments

As I said earlier, I had written a post to commemorate the 9/11 attacks but I got so bitter about how low we’ve fallen that I deleted it – the day is not fit for such things.  Until now.  Here’s the story from al Jazeera:

Thousands of Egyptian demonstrators have torn down the Stars and Stripes at the US embassy in Cairo and replaced it with an Islamic flag on the anniversary of the September 11, 2001,  attacks in the US.

Nearly 3,000 demonstrators, most of them Islamist supporters of the Salafist movement or football fans, gathered on Tuesday at the embassy in protest over an amateur film deemed offensive to the Prophet Muhammad which was produced by expatriate members of Egypt’s Christian minority resident in the US…

So, because a film was made by someone in the United States a mob of Islamists seized our embassy in Cairo – but that’s not all; a similar mob in Libya sacked our consulate and, it seems, killed one American official while doing it.  That, of course, is enough to outrage an American patriot – but it gets worse.  Here’s the official, US response to the taking of our Cairo embassy:

The Embassy of the United States in Cairo condemns the continuing efforts by misguided individuals to hurt the religious feelings of Muslims – as we condemn efforts to offend believers of all religions. Today, the 11th anniversary of the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks on the United States, Americans are honoring our patriots and those who serve our nation as the fitting response to the enemies of democracy. Respect for religious beliefs is a cornerstone of American democracy. We firmly reject the actions by those who abuse the universal right of free speech to hurt the religious beliefs of others.

That is the whole thing.  Nothing about condemning the Islamists.  Oh, no.  We’re far too chickenshit to do that.  Our government under Obama knows precisely what it has to do – crawl on its knees to its Muslim masters!  We’re apologizing to these dirty-necked barbarians because they got mad over a film made in the one-time land of the free and home of the brave.  11 years after beasts massacred 3,000 of us we’ve learned our lesson.

I am just disgusted.  And, liberals, I entirely blame you.  Oh, don’t you try to weasel out of this – don’t you even dare.  It is your man Obama running the show.  He’s the one who apologized for all that we did from 2001 to 2009.  He was the one who was going to get these savages to love us by showing understanding and kindness.  And you cheered him on.  You liberals said we were wrong to fight them; wrong to rendition them; wrong to waterboard them.  We’re doing it your way, now – and look what it gets us.  You think the cringing, spineless apology from our embassy will stop them now?  Bloody fools – weakness to barbarians just encourages the barbarians to attack.

Oh, for just an hour of the spirit of Godfrey of Bouillon!  Someone who will do what needs to be done – drive a sword through these people as far as it will go until they learn that you don’t attack us, ever.

UPDATE:  Hopefully on January 20th we’ll be able to stop cringing.  Romney’s statement:

I’m outraged by the attacks on American diplomatic missions in Libya and Egypt and by the death of an American consulate worker in Benghazi. It’s disgraceful that the Obama Administration’s first response was not to condemn attacks on our diplomatic missions, but to sympathize with those who waged the attacks.

Team Obama is now busily trying to walk back the craven statement from the embassy but its too late for that.  Everything Obama has done since 2009 is encapsulated in that statement – its his embassy under his direction and they clearly did what they thought was in line with Obama Administration policy.

UPDATE II:  Fury is growing over this disgraceful act by our government – especially as the linked article shows that its even worse than we thought, what with embassy officials apparently “tweeting” craven statements to Islamists over this incident.

UPDATE III:  Sarah Palin’s statement:

…It’s about time our president stood up for America and condemned these Islamic extremists. I realize there must be a lot on his mind these days – what with our economy’s abysmal jobless numbers and Moody’s new warning about yet another downgrade to our nation’s credit rating due to the current administration’s failure to come up with a credible deficit reduction plan. And, of course, he has a busy schedule – with all those rounds of golf, softball interviews with the “Pimp with the Limp,” and fundraising dinners with his corporate cronies. But our nation’s security should be of utmost importance to our Commander-in-chief. America can’t afford any more “leading from behind” in such a dangerous world. We already know that President Obama likes to “speak softly” to our enemies. If he doesn’t have a “big stick” to carry, maybe it’s time for him to grow one.

Afghanistan and the Future of the War Against Islamism

Mark Noonan15 Comments

With the shocking rise of “green on blue” attacks in Afghanistan – incidents where Afghans trained and armed by us murder our troops in cold blood – it is time (probably way past time) to completely re-assess our goals in this war.  Long time readers will remember that my basic premise for supporting the war was a conviction on my part that the average, everyday Muslim pretty much wanted what the average, everyday non-Muslim wanted:  peace and prosperity and a bright future for the children.  Given this premise, I felt that if we could get in to several Muslim countries and overthrow their corrupt, cruel governments and give the Muslims a genuine choice, they would choose correctly.  I do believe, ultimately, that this is the correct view – but given the nature of American politics with our liberals determined that any use of military force is wrong, it is not practical for the United States to pursue it.  Liberals gum up the works – war is a brutal, hard business and part of the process is killing and humiliating people.  Liberals insist that we never humiliate and kill only in impossible conditions.  The liberals have won, again; just as they won on the Vietnam issue.  Congratulations, liberals!

Given our inability to properly fight the war, the fall of old tyrannies in the Muslim world has eventuated not in a hoped-for improvement, but an increase of barbarism.  Our weakness – insisted upon by liberals – has led to a convincing propaganda line for the Islamists:  “see, we beat these weakling Americans; follow us to Islamic glory”.  The upshot of our failure is a dramatic and disgusting rise of Islamist barbarism – more and more Muslims murdered and oppressed but, also, non-Muslims subjected to ever more horrific torments.  In the past week I’ve read stories of a Christian doctor nearly beaten to death because he took a drink of water during Ramadan (forbidden during the day to Muslims,  but the guy wasn’t a Muslim) and of a 12 year old Christian girl who is under threat of the death penalty because a Muslim boy she refused to sleep with cooked up a blasphemy charge against her.  That is just two drops in a hideous ocean of persecution.  I see no way forward at the moment for our military to secure what would be American victory – we’ve tied ourselves in to too many knots, we’ve handed the Islamists too many trump cards and we’ve entirely lost the momentum of victory we once had.  Obama will just stumble along in his blind, ignorant way – what Romney will do remains unknown.  My view is that it is time to withdraw as swiftly as possible – taking with us any Muslims who want to live a civilized life, but getting out in the shortest possible time with the least amount of fuss.

After we do get out, this is going to get a heck of a lot worse before it gets any better.  Sorry, liberals, but the reason the Islamists act as they do is not in response to our actions but in service of their Islamist goals – they are hate-filled, greedy, corrupt barbarians.  They are just like that and will remain like that until killed.  Already Islamists in Libya are destroying works of art deemed un-Islamic while in Egypt the Muslim Brotherhood government starts to implement Islamism…and none of us know what horrors will emerge in the post-Assad regime of Syrian.  The Taliban will likely come back to power in Afghanistan (probably invited in to power by Karzai who seems these days mostly interested in preserving himself in power, cost what it might).  The mullahs of Iran continue to flex their muscle.  In the final analysis as Islamism grows and gets a tighter grip on the Muslim world we can expect an eventual attempt to attack us here at home.  Actually, a lot of attempts.  Most will be thwarted.  Eventually, they will get through and we’ll have some sort of replay of 9/11.

And then the war will resume – and when it does (not if, but when – its as certain as night following day) then it is to be hoped that we’ll do it differently.  In hindsight, the primary failure of the Bush war policy was a failure to attack all of Islamism at once.  On September 12th he should have asked a joint session of Congress for declarations of war on Libya, Syria, Iraq, Iran and Afghanistan – take on the whole problem and not try to treat it as a series of separate, country-by-country events; the Islamists don’t view the Muslim countries as in any way legitimate and so neither should we.  By so doing we would have unified all Islamists against us, except for the fact that they already were…but we would have had the great advantage of being able to attack all of them at once as well as raising an army large enough to physically conquer the entirely of Islamist territory thus preventing one Islamist area from supporting Islamist insurgency in an American-controlled area (which was our problem in Iraq and is now our problem in Afghanistan).  If the Islamists attack us at home again, that is what we must do (though we can now add Egypt to the list of nations to declare war on as they have gone Islamist):  declare war on them all, fight them all, kill and humiliate them all.  That is the way wars are fought and won – and by doing it in such a manner we’d prevent liberalism from gumming it up (we’d be moving too fast on too many fronts without any apparent stagnation to allow liberalism to make its absurd case against war).

That will be as it will – but the main thing for now is to get out.  Unless we want to pour in 100,000 more troops and start exterminating Islamists in great, big bloody batches, I don’t want our soldiers to remain in Afghanistan.  They’ve done magnificent work and almost made even Obama’s slipshod policy a success.  But there’s nothing for it, now:  Obama won’t do what is necessary to win and it is unlikely that Romney will be able to, either.  If troops can’t fight for victory, better to not fight at all.  Bring them home.

You’ve Got to Be Kidding!!!!!

tiredoflibbs50 Comments

The shooting that took place in Fort Hood over two years ago was the worst mass murder ever to take place on an American military base.  Thirteen people died and 29 were wounded by an Islamic radical shouting “Allah Akbar” as he fired.    The shooter, Nidal Hasan, was an Army Major serving as a psychiatrist.  He is also a Muslim.  He was inspired by radical Islamic cleric Anwar al-Awlaki, an al Qaeda leader in Yemen.  In fact, Hasan and Awlaki exchanged as many 20 emails, and this radical Islamic goon declared Hasan to be “a hero.”  Now Awlaki is worm food … he was killed by a U.S. drone strike.  But what about Major Nidal Hasan?

What happened at Ft. Hood was a terrorist attack.  A terrorist attack on an American military base that killed 13 people.  It was an attack carried on by a Muslim shouting praise to Allah as he shot 13 people dead.  It was an attack that was carried on under the tutelage of a radical Islamic cleric who was later targeted in our war on Islamic terror.

But what of the obAMATEUR administration?  You do remember, don’t you, that when obAMATEUR took office he told us that acts of terrorism would be referred to as “Man-caused disasters,” and that our war on terror would henceforth be referred to as our “overseas contingency operation.”  So …. What about Hasan’s attack at Ft. Hood?  Gang obAMATEUR has now informed us that this was not a terrorist attack, it was simply “WORKPLACE VIOLENCE”.

Again …. The obAMATEUR administration’s Department of Defense has, according to Sen. Susan Collins, classified the worst shooting on a military base by a Muslim in co-hoots with al Qaeda to be nothing more than WORKPLACE VIOLENCE.

Forget the word “terrorism.”  Forget the phrase Islamic terrorist.  We are talking about the Obama administration here!  This is the same administration that …

Rep. Allen West sums it up in a Tweet, “America has no Commander in Chief.”

Gotta love Allen West for accurately depicting the situation.

Imagine if some distraught individual went to an army base clinging to his bible and chanting scripture as he/she killed 13 people, then we’d have big sis Janet, saying she was justified in putting Christians on terrorist watch lists.

Unbelievable!

“Arab Spring”? Or Jihadi Stench?

Leo Pusateri68 Comments

Unless you’ve been living under a rock, freeze dried, or doing hard time for the past few hours, you know that Colonel Khaddafy Qaddafffy Kadafy Gaddhaffi err…the guy in Libya who perpetually dressed like the bellhop at the Ritz has assumed room temperature. The lamestream media are in the middle of falling all over themselves as if Barack Obama himself pulled the trigger.  Aside from that, it is these two paragraphs in the story that leaves me more than a bit wary (emphases mine):

“It is a historic moment. It is the end of tyranny and dictatorship. Gaddafi has met his fate,” Abdel Hafez Ghoga, a spokesman for the National Transitional Council (NTC), said. Celebratory gunfire and cries of “Allah-o-Akbar” rang out [does that phrase sound familiar to you?–ed] across Tripoli as the news of Gaddafi’s death spread.

Gun-totting rebel fighters went around the streets firing into the sky. Cars out on the roads honked horns and people hugged and kissed each other and sang national anthem. Gaddafi’s body was taken to a mosque in Misrata, a report said quoting an NTC official.

So what’s next?

It is (or should be) a well-known axiom by now that the road to hell is paved with the ‘good intentions’ of liberals, who excel at pie-in-the-sky thinking but have no cognitive connection nor grounding as to how the real world works.  Thus it is with the Obama administration, whose incoherent, unworkable domestic and foreign policies have been proverbial Forrest Gump boxes of chocolates.

The so-called, so-touted, Barack Hussein Obama-approved and supported “Arab Spring” has turned a relatively stabilized Arab world with whom the West could at least dialogue into contumacious, anarchical, “Lord of the Flies” hell holes, in which Sharia-loving, Jihadi-friendly Islamists could not only get a foothold in terms of power, but in the process get their flea-bitten fingers on some pretty sophisticated military technology, including biological weaponry.

At least former Egyptian president Mubarek had the sensibility to turn down the offer of nukes from a rogue state..could anyone be certain that the current regime (if one could call it that) would do the same?  Now in Egypt, instead of a regime that was relatively tolerant of other faiths,  relatively stable, and on co-existing terms with Israel, we now have an Islamo-fascist mob mentality that persecutes and murders Christians, and whose relationship with Israel is on what seems to be an irretrievably downward spiral.  Gaddafi, though a despot, via the school of hard knocks knew his place, and therefore knew not to push the envelope past the point where unmanageable retaliation would have taken place.

In Iraq, great care was taken by President George W. Bush to attempt to ensure that what replaced Saddam Hussein was a western-friendly government that would be an Arabic counter-balance to Iran, Syria and other un-friendly forces in the region; and, to a great extent, that was accomplished (Afghanistan is a different story, but for different reasons).   But to encourage and foment revolution in already western-tolerant Arab countries and hoping that the pieces fall in your favor is not a foreign policy.

It is, in fact, a suicide pact.

Here Are the Palestinians

Mark Noonan17 Comments

Do you really want to know what the Palestinians are like?  Do you want to understand what sort of leadership there is?  What sort of public attitudes are encouraged?  Well, here ya go – from Palestinian Media Watch:

The Palestinian Authority chose the mother of 4 terrorist murderers, one of whom killed seven Israeli civilians and attempted to killed twelve others, as the person to launch their statehood campaign with the UN. In a widely publicized event, the PA had Latifa Abu Hmeid lead the procession to the UN offices in Ramallah and to hand over a letter for the UN Secretary General Ban Ki Moon.

The official PA daily reported that she launched the UN campaign last week, and noted that she is the “mother of seven prisoners and of the Shahid (Martyr) Abd Al-Mun’im Abu Hmeid.” However, the paper did not mention that 4 of her imprisoned sons are murderers…

These are the people the Israelis are supposed to make peace with?  This is an indication of a sincere desire to live in peace with Israel?

The reality is that the Palestinian leadership believes they will win it all, eventually.  From being an exiled terrorist group chased around the world by Mossad they have been allowed to become permanently domiciled in parts of the West Bank and in Gaza…who, 30 years ago, would ever have imagined this?  And, so, in their mind’s eye, where will they be 30 years from now?  So, naturally, they choose the mother of murderers to present their petition for UN recognition…using murder and mayhem has got them this far and there is every indication that more murder and mayhem will get them farther.

It is time to force these people to be reasonable…give them a week to declare, in Arabic in letters delivered to every single Palestinian, that they recognize Israel’s right to exist as a Jewish State, that they renounce the “right of return” and that Jerusalem is the undivided capitol of Israel…and if they don’t do it, announce that for each week they don’t, 1% of currently occupied West Bank land will forever be denied them.  And if they do go 100 weeks refusing, then start taking 1% of the land they current own, week by week, until they agree.  And if 200 weeks go by and they still don’t agree, then start kicking them out of the West Bank and Gaza and transferring them to Sinai and Jordan.

I know, harsh – but how are we to reach those who choose the mother of murderers as their symbol?  Someone name for me anything the Palestinians have said or done which indicates a sincere desire for peace.   We have to force it out of them by letting them know they are beaten and that their future, as a people in the West Bank and Gaza, can only come about via cooperation with the Israelis.  Or we can just drift along and let them, murder by murder, slowly take over the whole of Israel.

Egyptian PM: Peace With Israel “Not Sacred”

Mark Noonan20 Comments

From the Jerusalem Post:

Egypt’s Prime Minister Essam Sharaf said a peace deal with Israel was not “sacred” and could be changed for the benefit of peace or the region.

His comments, made in an interview with a Turkish television channel and broadcast on state television, were the strongest yet by the new government which took over after president Hosni Mubarak was overthrown in February.

“The Camp David agreement is not a sacred thing and is always open to discussion with what would benefit the region and the case of fair peace … and we could make a change if needed,” he said in the interview…

My suggestion to Israel is that they re-open the “discussion” of peace by pushing the Egyptians out of the Sinai.  When you’ve got them by the privates, it is said, hearts and minds will follow…the Suez Canal is one of Egypt’s few money-makers and Israeli control of it might remind Egypt’s government of just why the Sadat regime sought a peace treaty in 1979.

Israel is in her most difficult position since just prior to the 1967 war – rising Islamism; Turkish hostility (it looks as though the Turks are asserting themselves for the Palestinians in order to forestall Iranian efforts…but, no matter, it still works out bad for Israel); threat of Iranian nukes…and a US government which actually believes that Israeli/American actions are the cause of the conflict (instead of it really being nothing more than a manufactured issue by Islamic leaders who want a short cut to personal power and wealth…and scapegoating Jews is just easy).  Israel had to both tread carefully but at the same time be willing to act with lightening speed to disrupt the Islamists.

Right now, those Islamsits are looking forward to re-starting the war with Israel – confronting Israel with massive terrorist attacks from the West Bank, Gaza, Sinai and southern Lebanon.  Israel, caught between four fires, will be terribly vulnerable.  Better if one or more of the fires could be put out before it gets started.  As Israeli re-occupation of the West Bank is impractical (ties down too many Israeli units in occupation duty), the logical place to strike is in the Sinai…minimal Egyptian civil popualtion to control, it cuts off Gaza (thus putting that fire out) and would allow the IDF to concentrate on south Lebanon and the West bank with their southern and western fronts secure.

The worst thing Israel can do is just hunker down – MacArthur was once asked his formula for defensive war.  His answer?  “Defeat”.  Sitting there and waiting for the terrorists to strike won’t help…better a spoiling attack against them, throwing their plane in to confusion and allowing Israel a breathing space until a new American government comes to power…hopefully one with a more realistic understanding of the Islamists.

Attack on US Embassy in Kabul

Mark Noonan24 Comments

From the Wall Street Journal:

Insurgents staged a series of attacks across Kabul on Tuesday, with rocket-propelled grenades, gunfire and suicide bombers targeting the U.S. Embassy, in one of the most brazen Taliban assaults on the Afghan capital.

A spokesman for Kabul police said the Taliban first struck the U.S. and other embassies, then launched assaults at several other targets in the city, including suicide-bomber attacks on a traffic-control office and on a high school. A school bus also was hit by a rocket-propelled grenade, wounding several young children. Police rushed to the scene to unload bloodied children from the damaged bus…

Savages to the end – and  the reason why, no matter how long and hard the fight is, we can’t withdraw…not until at least a semblance of stability is built in to the Afghan regime.  We can’t set a time limit on this – though we can, as time goes on, likely use ever fewer US troops as the Afghan forces become more capable.

Trust me on this, I’m tired of it, too – and I bet the troops are even more tired of it.  But to quit is to turn the people of Afghanistan over to beasts in human skin.  We can’t, with honor, do that.

Saudis Give Us Excuse to Ditch Them

Mark Noonan25 Comments

From Turki al-Faisal in the New York Times:

The United States must support the Palestinian bid for statehood at the United Nations this month or risk losing the little credibility it has in the Arab world. If it does not, American influence will decline further, Israeli security will be undermined and Iran will be empowered, increasing the chances of another war in the region.

Moreover, Saudi Arabia would no longer be able to cooperate with America in the same way it historically has…

Ok, deal – all we have to do is the right thing, and the Saudis will have to cut their ties with us.  Wonderful!  Best thing I’ve heard in months on the foreign policy scene.  No longer shackled to a corrupt, oppressive, Islamist monarchy which provides bags of money for the Islamo-fascist enemies of the United States.

The linked Op-Ed goes on to claim that bid for statehood by the Palestinians is just basic justice.  I can’t see it as such.  The people of so-called Palestine have indicated no willingness to engage the Israelis in a decent manner.  Whether this is because of a malevolent spirit on the part of the people, or because the leaders of the people are deliberately orchestrating the evil is impossible to know…but until there is a fundamental change in Palestinian actions, not much can be done.  The United States cannot – morally or strategically – mid-wife the creation of an entity determined to massacre the Israelis.  It would be good to see Israel go one full year without a single terrorist attack by Islamists.  No rocket attacks from Gaza or Lebanon; no attempted cross-border incursions; no attempt to run the Gaza blockade.  If that happens, then we could consider backing statehood.  Until then, nothing doing.

As for Saudi Arabia:  good riddance to bad rubbish, I say…unfortunately, watch as our foreign policy “realists” react with horror to the mere thought that the Saudi monarchy might be displeased with us.

Terror Threat Update

Mark Noonan38 Comments

From ABC:

On the tenth anniversary of the Sept. 11, 2011, terror attacks, the U.S. intelligence and law enforcement apparatus continued a feverish, around-the-clock effort to find evidence to corroborate an unfolding terror plot. (But) as (0f) early Sunday morning, none was in hand.

However, the picture authorities were working (on) had been fleshed out substantially since … intelligence from Afghanistan arrived Wednesday.

Authorities now believe, like several self-radicalized American jihadists before them, that the Sept. 11 anniversary plotters journey to jihad began in the U.S., took them to the Afghanistan-Pakistan region in July and had them, according to the CIA informant whose information is the hard bottom of the case, return to the U.S. on Aug. 31 or Sept. 1 to carry out an anniversary bomb plot.

So far, no new intelligence has come in to support or discount the informant account coming in from overseas…

So far, so good for today…but today also isn’t over.  This is the revised threat – Americans who have turned traitor after having been propagandized in to thinking that the source of the problem is the United States rather than the Islamo-fascists.  If they are American citizens then they will, of course, fit right in…unless they do something overt, no one will really be able to tell who is the Jihadist.  Makes it very hard to run them down.

Let’s just hope our intelligence, special forces and law enforcement people are at the top of their form…and that they get the breaks.