This ain't Hell, but you can see it from here

Category: Foreign Policy

  • Iran ready to “fill the gap” when US leaves Iraq

    From Breitbart (h/t Ace), Iran’s President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad claims to be ready to “fill the gap” when the US occupiers leave;

    “The political power of the occupiers is collapsing rapidly,” Ahmadinejad said at a press conference in Tehran, referring to U.S. troops in Iraq. “Soon, we will see a huge power vacuum in the region. Of course, we are prepared to fill the gap, with the help of neighbors and regional friends like Saudi Arabia, and with the help of the Iraqi nation.”

    Yeah, I wonder how those regional friends, the Sunni Saudis, like being included in the plans. If ever rememberances of post-US Vietnam were needed it’s now. I’m sure the Kurds will be pleased to see the Iranians in Iraq.

    Meanwhile, Kamangir reminds us that it’s the birthday of the Imam Mahdi – the guy that Ahmadinejad claims will rise from his magic well and rule the world. To celebrate his birthday, the religion of peace has a firepower demonstration;

    What’s the best way to celebrate the birthday of a massively politicized Messiah? Well, throw a party for gun-lovers and fanatics.

    Kamanzir posts more pictures here.

    If you can’t wait for the 12th Imam to read the message you’ve dropped down one of the several magic wells from which he may rise – you can always call him;

    Have a quick question about when the Mahdi is coming to save mankind, according to Shiite Muslim adherents? Need to know the signs?
    Just call the new messiah “hotline.” Or log on to Bright Future News Agency to get the latest religious readout – all part of the effort by freshly rejuvenated true believers in Iran to spread their message of the imminent return of the Mahdi, the 12th Imam who is expected to return to impose justice and spread peace.
     
    “People are anxious to know when and how will He rise; what they must do to receive this worldwide salvation,” says Ali Lari, a cleric at the Bright Future Institute in Iran’s religious center of Qom.

    “The timing is not clear, but the conditions are more specific,” he adds. “There is a saying: ‘When the students are ready, the teacher will come.’ ”

    Paving the way is a renewed commitment to “Mahdaviat” beliefs by the ultraconservative government of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, who lives so modestly that declared assets include only a 30-year-old car, an even older house, and an empty bank account.

    These ideologues see the creation of the Islamic Republic in 1979 and efforts to rekindle its revolutionary ideals, as critical to paving the way for the Mahdi’s return.

    A religion that still has public hangings and stonings think they can bring peace and justice to the world.

  • Iraqis, Bush surge

    Democrats can’t catch a break this summer. They were successful in turning American public opinion against the war in Iraq while they were in session, at the same time they managed to turn public opinion against themselves – with a tiny 18% approval rating (which means even their base has turned against them – for whatever reason Glenn Greenwald wants to use today).

    Despite Jack Murtha’s best efforts to smear our troops as cold-blooded murderers, the Marine’s article 32 investigation is slowly concluding that none of these guys cold-bloodedly did anything outside of their rules of engagement. The true professionals that they are. And despite Baghdad diarist Scott Thomas Beauchamp’s best efforts to lie about his involvement in wartime atrocities, and The New Republic’s best efforts to skirt journalistic integrity they have failed. 

    Jack Reed, Hillary Clinton and Carl Levin, then turn to bashing Nuri al Maliki, who yesterday struck back belittling them fairly well telling them they “should come their senses”. Nuri, we’ve been telling those jackals to come to their senses for years – it ain’t hap’nin’. And then today we learn that the Iraqis faction leaders have come to a key agreement;

    Shi’ite, Sunni Arab and Kurdish political leaders announced yesterday they reached consensus on several key measures seen as vital to fostering national reconciliation.

    The agreement by five leaders is one of the most significant political developments in Iraq for months and was quickly welcomed by the United States, which hopes such moves will ease the sectarian violence that has killed tens of thousands.

    This must really frost Democrats. They try to bash the US troops, and that doesn’t work. They try to bash our allies, and that doesn’t work. Barack Obama tries to get tough with Pakistanis and gets accused of trying to start a nuclear war. Last week, Sunni Iraqis started joining with Shi’ite Iraqis to fight al Qaeda in Iraq – I can feel the tension in the Democrats’ wadded panties from here.

    I couldn’t help but snicker yesterday while watched Jack Reed on Fox News Sunday try to call the violence in Iraq “sectarian” – still clinging to that whole “civil war” notion from last Fall, Jackie, boy?

    Then to top it all off, while they go on break to rest up from those three day weeks and four hour days, the President uses his vacation time to go around the Democrats and their willing accomplices in the press and tell the American people the truth about the war;

    President Bush has used a monthlong vacation by the Democrat-controlled Congress to mount a frontal assault on why the U.S. must remain in Iraq, declaring the “surge” of troops a success while also preparing war-weary Americans for a continued military engagement there.

    Throughout August, the Bush administration has filled the vacuum with positive news from the war front, culminating with the release of a report last week detailing “measurable” success during the surge of 30,000 troops the president ordered to Baghdad in January.

    In addition, Mr. Bush last week laid out a historical case for staying in Iraq using the wars in Vietnam and Korea as examples of premature pullouts, and he has used press conferences with four world leaders during his own vacation to press his case that victory is still within reach.

    The onslaught appears to be working. Pollster John Zogby said his firm’s most recent survey, to be released this week, shows “a majority of Americans do not feel the war is lost.”

    Democrats can’t even whine that the president took another month-long vacation this year.

    So I guess our troops aren’t the only ones surging – the Iraqis and the President have a few surges left, too.

  • Lazy Sunday Night Links

    I wondered where Robin at Chickenhawk Express was hiding. I hadn’t heard a peep from her since early Thursday. I was beginning to get worried. But then I popped over there tonight and I see why – she’s written a legal brief that should be enough to get the media indicted entitled “They Indicted the Haditha Marines Without a Trial – Part I Newsweek“ Please read it – truly a masterpiece. The best thing about it – it’s only Part I.

    COBDanny reports that Hugo Chavez tells the world that su Tio Fidel will never die. Mora at Babalu Blog says Oogo let the cat out of the bag.

    You have to watch this video of Chris Wallace verbally smacking Bill Moyers around at Hot Air.

    Jules Crittenden’s “Little Saddams“ is a must read if you think we need to leave Iraq.

    Bloodthirsty Liberal is getting Katrina Fatigue – I passed that point when I listened to a supposed Libertarian complain that the Feds weren’t doing enough to bail his whinin’ ass out.

    Curt at Flopping Aces discovers that the DUmmies twigged to our evil plan in “Bush has Killed the Birds!”

    mRed at Invincible Armor has an excellent article on the extermination of Black children (something I’ve been saying for years) in “One quarter of the Black population is now missing“  – I’d add “…just like Margaret Sanger planned”.

    Gateway Pundit reports that the mullahs are pleased they’ve finally got a smart bomb. Well that’s hardly news in Iran – Kamangir translates that Amadinejad just got through telling a group of students that Iran has much to teach the world about rocket science. Even though they still engage in public executions.

  • The surge against the surge is failing, or not

    Carl Levin and Dick Durbin concede that the surge has had spectacular results against al Qaeda – as if they could even begin to believe their lyin’ eyes. But they add the proviso that the Iraqi government is failing the progress our troops are making for them. The Washington Post, in the meantime, chooses to follow the leader of Congress’ “Out of Iraq Caucus” Jan Schakowsky; adament, unbendable intentionally ignorant of the realities of the world;

    …the outspoken antiwar liberal resolved to keep her opinions to herself. “I would listen and learn,” she decided.

    At times that proved a challenge, as when Deputy Prime Minister Barham Salih told her congressional delegation, “There’s not going to be political reconciliation by this September; there’s not going to be political reconciliation by next September.” Schakowsky gulped — wasn’t that the whole idea of President Bush’s troop increase, to buy time for that political progress?
     
    But the real test came over a lunch with Gen. David H. Petraeus, who used charts and a laser pointer to show how security conditions were gradually improving — evidence, he argued, that the troop increase is doing some good.

    Still, the U.S. commander cautioned, it could take another decade before real stability is at hand. Schakowsky gasped. “I come from an environment where people talk nine to 10 months,” she said, referring to the time frame for withdrawal that many Democrats are advocating. “And there he was, talking nine to 10 years.”

    Imagine that! A part of the world that has been steeped in turmoil for more than five decades won’t be tamed in the next few months – it may take another decade to make 6th Century throwbacks stop bombing schools and marketplaces. Of course, this realization only reinforces Schakowsky’s knee-jerk, emotive calls to pull the troops out of Iraq and condemn the region to another several decades of horror and injustice.

    The lack of political progress among Iraq’s rival factions and Petraeus’s estimate of the time needed to stabilize the nation left Schakowsky all the more convinced that Democrats must force Bush to begin bringing troops home.

    Insuring that in another 15 years we’ll be forced to go back and finish the job AGAIN. The Democrats and the media forced us to abandon the attack on Hussein in 1991 – before there was al Qaeda, before the cowardly actions over Mogadishu made the world less fearful of American resolve. Before our response to agression became a few cruise missiles fired at empty tents, empty buildings and asprin factories – before we merely put terrorists in jail for their attacks on the World Trade Center.

    But Democrats aren’t happy to undermine our own security, they especially enjoy deriding the Iraqis – causing our allies to lash out;

    Nouri al-Maliki, who is fighting to hold his government together, issued a series of stinging ripostes against a variety of foreign officials who recently have spoken negatively about his leadership. But those directed at Democrats Clinton, of New York, and Levin, of Michigan, were the most strident.

    “There are American officials who consider Iraq as if it were one of their villages, for example Hillary Clinton and Carl Levin. They should come to their senses,” al-Maliki said at a news conference.

    The New York Times decides that what the Vietnamese went through wasn’t so bad, so maybe we should let the Iraqis suffer for a few decades under the boot of radical Islamism;

    Vietnam today is a unified and stable nation whose Communist government poses little threat to its neighbors and is developing healthy ties with the United States. Mr. Bush visited Vietnam last November; a return visit to the White House this summer by Nguyen Minh Triet was the first visit by a Vietnamese head of state since the war.

    “The Vietnam comparison should invite us to think harder about how to minimize the consequences of our military failure,” Mr. Bacevich added. “If one is really concerned about the Iraqi people, and the fate that may be awaiting them as this war winds down, then we ought to get serious about opening our doors, and to welcoming to the United States those Iraqis who have supported us and have put themselves and their families in danger.”

    I love how the Left likes to point out the “military failures” in Vietnam, yet they can’t point to a single military defeat. The only failure in Vietnam was the anti-war crowd’s failure to admit that we should have shut down the Ho Chi Minh Trail in Cambodia in the early years – that would have cut the time we fought the war in half and South Vietnam would be a democracy today. Just like we should seal off Syria and Iran from Iraq today – but like Nixon’s actions in Cambodia, the Left would call it an “expansion of the war” – instead of an attempt to actually win the war.

    On August 5th the Washington Post started a series on Congressmembers in their districts during their summer recess and explained the dilema facing them;

    With Congress beginning its summer recess, supporters of the war are expecting attacks and protests from war opponents, and many lawmakers are looking for bipartisan consensus on a new war strategy that has so far eluded them.

    Maybe they’re having such trouble because instead of finding a “bipartisan consensus” they should be looking for a working military solution – or they should sit down and stfu.

    I wonder why Tzun Tsu and vonClauswitz never mentioned that wars should be fought by committees and consensus? Maybe because it doesn’t work – have the Democrats never heard of “unity of command”?

    Of course, in a last desparate attempt to save the surge against the surge, the Left turns to Huffington Post to undermine the good order and discipline of the military  (hat tip to COBDanny) and urges General Pace to fire President Bush. Ya know, like the militaries in third world countries do all of the time. And HuffPo commenters heartily agree;

    Unfortunately, the fact remains that there are serious reasons to consider any and all scenarios, or remedies because of GWB, the worst President ever. Why should anyone else care about the rule of law when he hasn’t concerned himself with it for the 6 long years while he has crapped all over the Constitution and ignored law after law?

    I think that the creative thinking by Mr. Lewis should be commended and that if General Pace is the patriot he claims to be, he should consider the suggestion. My God, our nation as we know it is at stake. 

     I’d like to know, just for my own reference, what laws the President has ignored and when he “crapped on the Constitution”. Fortunately for me, I won’t be waiting with bated breath.

    But the anti-war Left loves this country and the Constitution, don’t they?

    I BELIEVE IT IS NOW TIME TO DEMAND AND SCHEDULE THE SECOND CONSTITUTIONAL CONVENTION.

    We have GOT to get this little problem of hubris and ‘reinterpretation’ by the Whiggy ones settled once and for all, so U.S. can move forward.

    They love the Constitution so much, they want to rewrite it – as if I’d just stand aside and let them. Maybe they should put it to a national referendum – but they couldn’t do that, actually. Then they’d find out how many Americans oppose them in an undeniable actual vote count instead of one of those vacuous polls to which they cling so dearly. Or a lopsided Electoral College vote that favors the people who drain the country’s coffers over those who fill it. I doubt it’d even be close.

    CoBDanny reads my mind, and even pirates my legal research into the Smith Act to explain to the little worm why his idea just won’t work and why he should probably do some jail time for good measure.

    The death throes of the surge against the surge will be played out on September 15th in Washington – and I’ll be there to chronicle the last desparate gasp. So, too, will the Gathering of Eagles. Anyone else going?

  • Saturday links

    There’s just so many good writers out there saying all of the things I wish I’d written, I’m just putting up their links today.

    COBDanny reminds me to take my meds before reading that he agrees with Dean on at least one thing.

    Dadmanly puts President Bush’s speech last week into historical context and disputes NY Times interpretation.

    At Flopping Aces, Curt blows a New York Times article about suicide rates in the military out of the water, while Todd Anthony reports that a Democrat turns the tables and calls for continued US presence in Iraq.

    Republicanpundit at Hang Right Politics, twice, here and then here, disputes the history revision we’re experiencing now as the media takes up the torch for the Democrats to dispute their shameful participation in the murder, imprisonment and dislocation of millions in Southeast Asia.

    Shiro-Korshid Forever (hat tip to Dreams Into Lightening) writes the most heart-swelling and heart-breaking post describing his journey into the final moments of the life of a recent victim of Iran’s Islamic Revolution.

    Gateway Pundit reports that Iraqis in the US protested terrorism yesterday at the Saudi embassy – wonder why they chose the Saudis? Well, GP’ll tell you.

    Noel Sheppard at Newsbusters warns “AP Spins Record Low Unemployment as Problem That Could Get Worse“.

    Marc Masferrer at Uncommon Sense reminds us that while we’re waiting for word on Castro’s death (or the lack thereof) there are still living Cubans wasting away in his prisons.

    Daniel at Venezuela News and Views explains Chavez’ plan to move the Venezuelan clock 30 minutes and his plan to rename the city of Caracas.

    Kate at A Columbo-Americana’s Perspective reports that Chavez is dumping $6 million into Bolivia’s military and buying Russian transport planes despite food shortages and stunning poverty in Caracas.

  • The Liberty Alliance

    You’ll notice at the top of my blogroll in the right column are several blogs under the heading Liberty Alliance. It was started by my new friends Mike from Lamplighter (in Arizona) and Lady Vorzheva from Spanish Pundit (um, from Spain). I’ve been reading their blogs for months when they very kindly asked me to join this group of bloggers from around the world. I guess they needed a Homer Simpson-type to round out their otherwise brilliant and urbane bunch – even brain surgeons keep a hammer in the operating room.

    Regardless, of their reasons, I’m grateful and I urge my readers to drink deeply from their intellectual well.

    The group is loosely formed and generally dedicated to writing as often as possible about real human rights issues (as opposed to those fake human rights issues that usually turn out to be a way for some power mad lout to usurp people’s rights) that are really the core of western democracy.

    There’s Kate from A Columbo-Americana’s Perspective who lives here in the Metro DC area, but she pops up from all over the world. A couple of weeks ago she made comments here from Managua. Her perspective on Latin America is unique and valuable.

    And one of the most facinating blogs I’ve ever read is Kamangir. He’s an Iranian student in Canada and translates news reports from behind the Iranian curtain and shows us the real Islamic Revolution. I can spend hours just reading his archives.

    I’d write an introduction to Fausta’s Blog, but anyone who has been on the internet more than a minute knows the Puerto Rican firecracker. I almost lost control of all of my body functions when I found out I’d be associated with Fausta.

    In Partibus Infididelium is a Spaniard in Saudi Arabia – he really tests my Spanish skills, but he’s worth the work. Martha Colmenares blogs in Spanish, too, from Venezuela – a great perspective that we don’t get here from the pro-Chavez media. Another Venezuelan in the group is Julia from The End of Venzuela as I know It. She is on the inside of the White Hands (Hands of Freedom) movement and writes in English – she claims it’s not her first language, but you’d hardly know it.

    jcdurbant blogs from France – now, I can read a bit of French sometimes (don’t make me write or talk, though – my wife and I lived on crousants and coffee the three days we were in Paris because that’s all I could say) and what I’ve translated for myself at this blog is a unique view of the world from France.

    Pastorius, from Southern California, at Cuanas is just a pleasure to read – the words just melt into my brain. I envy people to whom writing comes so easily.

    Reading Molten Thought‘s Teflon is like reading my own thoughts – only more coherent and much funnier.

    But the most intriguing is Incognito of Confessions of a Closet Republican. She admits she’s a Hollywood actress who’s crossed over from the darkside, but since she wants to continue working, she has to remain…well, incognito. I love a mystery. She’s commented here a few times and besides being the mysterious lady behind the curtain (who, in my stuck-in-the-thirties-Bogart-movies mind, is tall, blonde and always wearing a black evening gown and a glass of red wine in one hand and an unlit cigarette in the other), she’s much brighter than my personal stereotype of a Hollywood actress.

    Please take the tour and I hope you enjoy these new friends of mine as much as I enjoy them.

  • Red Ken and Redder Hugo

    Hugo Chavez paying for the heating oil of the poor in South Bronx Joe Kennedy shilling for him and now he’s underwriting the bus passes of poor Londoners with Red Ken playing backup. The Wall Street Journal’s Review and Outlook piece today entitled “Brits on Venezuelan Dole“;

    Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez has found a British business partner in the mayor of London, Ken Livingstone. Mr. Chávez is doling out $32 million, which is supposed to allow a 50% cut in bus fares for low-income Londoners. In return, Transport for London will go to Caracas to tutor locals on fixing traffic jams.

    Of course the Journal’s editors point out that Britain’s per capita GDP is $31,000 compared to venezuela’s $6000, but they stop short of pointing out that simple agricultural products are missing from the shelves of Caracas’ markets – things like milk, eggs and rice.

    But Red Ken and Redder Hugo have cut a completely useless deal – purely for the sake of making themselves look better than they really are. And of course, who’s fault is it that poor Londoners need someone to supplement their bus fares (someone aside from Red Ken, their mayor)? I’ll give two guesses;

    “Frankly, I’d rather be getting into bed with [Mr. Chávez] than, as the British government has been, getting into bed with George W. Bush.”

    Any excuse, I guess. Meanwhile, the Venezuelan Congress has given Chavez initial approval for his reforms – no big surprise there, huh?

    After about six hours of debate, National Assembly president Cilia Flores said Mr. Chávez’s proposed changes to the constitution, including the lifting of presidential term limits, received “majority approval.” Ms. Flores did not say how many of the 167 lawmakers voted in favor of the reforms, saying only that they were approved with overwhelming support. Final approval is expected within two or three months, and the changes would have to be approved by voters in a referendum. The National Assembly has been solidly pro-Chávez since the opposition boycotted a 2005 vote and had been expected to sign off on the changes proposed by Mr. Chávez in Tuesday’s first reading. The reforms, if approved, would extend presidential terms from six to seven years and allow Mr. Chávez to run again in 2013.

    So where are the US Democrats on Chavez and his Constitutional reforms? So far, Chavez has acted exactly like the Bush caracature the Democrats used to threatened voters in the last two presidential elections. It would seem to me that if the “human rights” Democrats were truly all about human rights, they’d be up in arms about a self-proclaimed adversary stealing rights from his people, without a peep from the legislature almost on a daily basis. I’ll tell you why they don’t have anything to say about it – because Chavez is doing exactly what US Democrats want to do. They want to shut down the broadcast opposition, they want to rule by decree, they want to rewrite the Constitution in their favor. They don’t oppose Chavez, they envy him. And maybe they’ll even move the clocks ahead 1/2 hour like Chavez wants according to the New York Times;

    Moved by claims that it will help the metabolism and productivity of his fellow citizens, President Hugo Chávez said clocks would be moved forward by half an hour at the start of 2008. He announced the change on his Sunday television program, accompanied by his highest-ranking science adviser, Héctor Navarro, the minister of science and technology. “This is about the metabolic effect, where the human brain is conditioned by sunlight,” Mr. Navarro said in comments reported by Venezuela’s official news agency. Mr. Chávez said he was “certain” that the time change, which would be accompanied by a move to a six-hour workday, would be accepted.

    He sounds more like the new revolutionary leader of Woody Allen’s movie “Bananas” as quoted by Sweetness and Light.

  • Chavez saves Peru!

    Well, actually, no he didn’t. According to Kate at A Columbo-Americana’s Perspective, Chavez promised 120 tons of aid to Peru’s earthquake victims and what they got was government surplus canned tuna with Chavez’ picture on the label. I guess he’s auditioning to be the new mermaid on the “Chicken of the Sea” label.

    In other unrelated news, Confederate Yankee (with a hat tip to Fauta’s Blog) blows apart the ammo shortage problem. Seems AP got the story backwards – the war isn’t causing a shortage of ammunition, police demand has increased. D’oh!

    From Pajama Media’s Richard Miniter, the research The New Republic should have done on Beauchamps before they published one word from him. (h/t Molten Thought)