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

Category: Media

  • Iranians supply insurgents

    Both the Washington Times and Washington Post lead their news with stories about Iranians supplying insurgents in Iraq with their most deadly weapons against our troops. the difference in the stories is the degree to which the authors belive the information;

    From Bill Gertz’ Washington Times story;

    Iran is supplying deadly shoulder-fired missiles and armor-piercing bombs to Iraqi insurgents, along with TNT, triggering devices, rockets and other weapons that are killing and injuring hundreds of U.S. and allied troops, a U.S. military intelligence report made public yesterday says.
        The detailed briefing report, titled “Iranian Support for Lethal Activity in Iraq,” stated that Iranian Misagh-1 portable anti-aircraft missiles were found after a failed attempt to shoot down a plane at Baghdad’s airport in 2004.  

    From Joshua Partlow’s Washington Post story;

    Senior U.S. military officials in Iraq sought Sunday to link Iran to deadly armor-piercing explosives and other weapons that they said are being used to kill U.S. and Iraqi troops with increasing regularity.

    See the difference? Gertz says “is supplying” and “the report stated”, while Partlow uses the weak “military officials sought to link”. So I guess Partlow wants this to be a legal case not a military operation. Careful not to make the Iranians look guilty before it’s proven in some as-yet-to-be decided court case, I guess.

    And the Associated Press rushes Iran’s denial to the web;

    In a rare interview with the US media given amid mounting tensions with the Islamic republic’s arch-enemy in Washington, Ahmadinejad told ABC television that that he did not fear a US attack.

    “Fear? Why should we be afraid? First, the possibility is very low,” he said the day after the United States accused Iranian agents of smuggling armour-piercing bombs into war-torn Iraq.

    “Our nation has made it clear that anyone who wants to attack our country will be severely punished,” Ahmadinejad added Monday.

    While the Iranian leader sidestepped US accusations that Iran is supplying potent weapons to Iraq insurgents, foreign ministry spokesman Mohammad Ali Hosseini categorically rejected the charge.

    From Milblogs we read the Iranian threats to our Navy with their “suicide drones”. And Putin denies he gave missile technology to Iran despite evidence to the contrary.

    The Washington Post also warns us that the Shi’ite/Sunni “civil war” is spreading to Egypt;

    Fought in speeches, newspaper columns, rumors swirling through cafes and the Internet, and occasional bursts of strife, the conflict is predominantly shaped by politics: a disintegrating Iraq, an ascendant Iran, a sense of Arab powerlessness and a persistent suspicion of American intentions.

    Of course it’s the US fault. Did you think the WaPo could write one story that didn’t decribe us as “suspicious”?

    No one fears us anymore because the Left has made it clear that we’re ready to surrender. The Iranians will continue to fight us in this proxy war because we’ve lost our stomach to rid the world of evil. And the reason we’ve lost our stomach is the weasel words of Murtha, Kerry, Webb, the Washington Post, the New York Times, CNN, etcetera, ad nauseum.

    The Left is preempting any effective attempt to blunt Iranian power in the region by making this ideological fight about politics.

    “Every leader in the region and every observer, every expert here in our country, tells us that Iran does not want a complete and total implosion in Iraq,” Massachusetts Sen. John Kerry said Sunday.

    And no leader in the Arab World has ever lied to us have they, Kerry?

    But Democratic Sen. Jack Reed wondered whether the influx of Iranian armaments was a plan by the Islamic regime in Tehran or just “rogue elements” within it.

    Rogue elements, Mr Reed? Have you been paying attention the last few months? The government of Iran is rogue.  Sometimes I wonder if they’ve been on the same planet as the rest of us for the last few centuries.

    The Iranians know we’ve become gutless because of Democrats – why would they be using the Democrats’s same weasel words? The Democrats know that they are causing our decline in world stature, too, but they hide behind their false-patriotism. While American blood is spilled by the barrels-full at the alter of Leftism.

  • This is the End of American culture

    I read about those idiot college students who made the fake beheading video out there on Long Island and, yeah, I thought it was tasteless and insensitive to the families of beheading victims. Until I saw the usual “outrage” statements of the Muslim community;  

    “I think it’s not a prank,” said Ghazi Khankan of Long Beach, a member of the board of the American Muslim Alliance, which he described as a regional and national group that advocates for Muslim participation in the political process. “Campuses are for enlightenment and for teaching us to get along, to respect each other, to know how to live together.”

    Funny, I thought college was a place where we learned. I didn’t realize that it’s a big social laboratory. Guess I was wrong. I always figured that college students were accustomed to blowing off steam in unusual ways – like swallowing goldfish and packing phone booths.

    Maybe the outraged Muslims can teach those folks who behead and set fire to buses a little about respecting each other instead of focusing on a college prank, for pete’s sake.

    Habeeb Ahmed, president of the Islamic Center of Long Island in Westbury, who said he was a C.W. Post alumnus, agreed. “People are testing the waters again and again, and the Muslim community is always at the receiving end.”

    Always? Since when? Maybe if Muslims would stop testing the waters, I’d feel for ’em a bit more. The only ones on the receiving end are those of us who hear and read endless lectures about tolerance from an entire race of intolerant people.

    I wonder if they were this outraged over the news of actual beheadings.

    These five students are only guilty of putting the video on YouTube where they’d get busted for being rambunctous youngsters. If people are going to start losing jobs for being funny, I think it’s the end of our civilization.

    Afterall, who can forget the other comedy team who dared to poke fun at our enemies (it is only our enemies who threaten to behead us, right?);

  • Arkin’s Last Stand

    William Arkin, the cowardly lion in Vermont’s frozen interior has written for the last time (he says) on the subject of his blog piece last week in which he called our military “mercenaries”. He titles the latest piece “Demonization and Responsibility”, and I guess he’s not talking about his own demon behavior or taking responsibility for his ill-considered military bashing. 

    The many e-mails I’ve gotten privately from people serving in the military are, not surprisingly, the most respectful and reflective. Some correspondents are downright indignant, some are sarcastic, and most are hurt by the “mercenary” epithet and my commentary. But they are philosophical about their service and where we are in the war and the country today.

    The torrents of other mail — biting, fanatical, threatening — represent the worst of polarized and hate-filled America. I’m not complaining about being criticized or being made the latest punching bag for those who subsist off of high-volume conquest. Nor am I apologizing for addressing, however imperfectly, the questions I did last week, nor for being critical of the military.

    (Emphasis mine)

    We probably didn’t expect that you would, given your past “work” in the field of criticizing Republican Administrations and doing your best to obstruct any sort of functioning foreign policy.

    Note: On the advice of my editors, this is the last column I will post for awhile on this subject. My impulse would be to continue to fight back and answer the critics, but I see the wisdom in their observation that nothing new is being said here and the Internet frenzy is adding nothing to the debate or our understanding of our world. I also see that I cannot continue to write about humanity and difficult questions if indeed what I wish is to vanquish those who attack me.

    Your editors were wise in giving this advice, because you were getting your ass worn out worldwide. But you actually accomplished what you set out to do; you made it fashionable and acceptable to criticize the troops again. I’m sure that those who follow you will appreciate it. 

    I can see, in the military blogs and in the comments of those who have written about my posts last week, that those who refer to themselves as Vietnam veterans still yearn for the recognition and thanks that they believe they haven’t received. There is no question that Vietnam is still an open wound for them, and that they therefore only recognize the worth of fellow veterans, of those who have been through exactly the same experience.

    Yeah, the way you Leftists treated Viet Nam veterans was a crying-ass-shame, and I don’t imagine many will ever forgive. But I guess you feel slighted because you didn’t get your chance to criticize them then, so you’ll take your chance now. Take your chance to beat up on the generation of soldiers who served despite the criticism and abuse.

    A chickenshit, sideways glancing blow in another non-apology. When you’re ready to take responsibility and stop demonizing the troops, let us know.

    So Little Billy Arkin’s last stand on this subject is that we should all shut up and let the Vermont ski bum exercise his right to free speech.

  • Politics of surging

    Over at Sweetness and Light Steve Gilbert shows us how the media has twisted the results of the vote over the spineless, half-assed resolution in the Senate yesterday. The Democrats were trying to craft a purely anti-Bush message without appearing to be spitting on the troops. Republicans finally summoned the intestinal fortitude required to fight on to the Ranger objective. But I’d much rather hear it from Charles Hurt and the Washington Times;

    Senate Republicans yesterday blocked a resolution that would have condemned President Bush’s plan to send an additional 21,500 troops to Iraq.
        On a 49-47 vote that largely followed partisan lines, Democrats fell 11 “ayes” short of the 60 needed to bring about a vote on the resolution, which is nonbinding but is widely viewed as a declaration of no confidence in the continued mission of the Iraq war and Mr. Bush’s handling of it.
        Among those who voted against last night’s motion was Sen. John W. Warner of Virginia, who wrote the resolution but joined other Republicans in opposition to holding a vote because the new Democratic majority is not allowing votes on other war resolutions.
        Only two Republicans — Sens. Susan Collins of Maine and Norm Coleman of Minnesota — backed voting on the resolution, and there was opposition from only two members of the Democratic caucus — independent Joe Lieberman of Connecticut and, in a parliamentary maneuver that gives him the right to bring the resolution back up for debate, Majority Leader Harry Reid of Nevada.

    To Jonathan Weisman’s and Shailagh Murray’s credit (Washington Post), they at least got the headline right; GOP Stalls Debate on Troop Increase. And they got the debate right, too, even though Dingy Harry Reid got it wrong;

    “What you just saw was Republicans giving the president the green light to escalate in Iraq,” Senate Majority Leader Harry M. Reid (D-Nev.) said after the vote. Reid contended that Republicans “are trying to avoid a debate on this matter.”

    Republicans said they have no desire to avoid a debate, asserting that they simply want a fair hearing on their proposals.

    “We are ready and anxious to have this debate this week,” said Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (Ky.). 

    And while the Congress indulges in mental masturbation, the Iraqi government is asking us to hurry up;

    Iraq’s Sunni vice president, Tariq al-Hashimi, also called on the United States to speed up its the deployment of extra troops, telling the British Broadcasting Corp. that he wanted the plan in place “as soon as possible, because people cannot tolerate in fact this sort of chaos and the killing around the clock.”

    While Crotchety Old Bastard hears from his sources that the surge is already on.

  • WaPo blames US for “refugee crisis” in ME

    A front page story in the Washington Post by Sudarsan Raghaven reports, in a piece titled “War in Iraq Propelling a Massive Migration”, that the largest refugee crisis in the Middle East in 60 years is happening because of the war in Iraq. The insinuation is that same lie instigated by Michael Moore’s Fahrenheit 9/11 myth of a peaceful Iraq before the evil neo-cons invaded.

    The beginning of the story focuses on a former Iraqi recording star, Saad Ali, who hides, penniless, in a tiny apartment from the Jordanian police because he left Iraq during the war.

    In the second paragraph, is the real reason he left;

    Six months ago, near his home in Baghdad, two men threatened to kill him. Singing romantic songs, they said, was un-Islamic.

    And then two paragraphs later;

    “They will behead me. What else can I do? I have no choice.”

    Now, I’m no mind reader, but I’m pretty sure he’s not talking about American soldiers.

    The whole piece comes off like somehow the United States is responsible for this exodus of refugees from Iraq because we unseated Hussein – instead of the real culprit. Islamsofacism.

    The rich began trickling out of Iraq as conditions deteriorated under U.N. sanctions in the 1990s, their flight growing in the aftermath of the 2003 U.S.-led invasion. Now, as the violence worsens, increasing numbers of poor Iraqis are on the move, aid officials say.

    How about the millions who fled Iraq during the Iran-Iraq War? Or the millions who fled Iraq after Hussein’s bloody purges  to maintain his hold on power?

    Buried on the fourth [internet] page of this story is the real problem;

    “Who expected it would turn out like this — Sunni against Shia?” [refugee Widad Shakur] continued. “We were like brothers. Why is this happening?”

    And on the fifth page;

    “Is the government targeting us for being Shiites? No. But from individual policemen, we feel this,” said Ateih, 36. “They say, ‘You betrayed Saddam.’ “

    So it really isn’t the war that’s “propelling” them out of Iraq, it’s their own people and their own petty biases. The war just provides a convenient excuse for the Washington Post to take potshots at the US. And the whacko Left takes it’s cues.

  • William M. Arkin needs a lesson (Updated 2x)

    Everyone is blogging about William Arkin’s Homeland Security blog entry titled “The Troops Also Need to Support the American People“. I first read about it at Crotchety Old Bastard then Blackfive. I don’t usually pile on, but some of Little Billy Arkin’s paragraphs need a response that I don’t think have been sufficient enough yet.

    These soldiers should be grateful that the American public, which by all polls overwhelmingly disapproves of the Iraq war and the President’s handling of it, do still offer their support to them, and their respect

    Grateful? What are you talking about? Every stupid newspaper and news show disparages the troops at every opportunity. Like the wall-to-wall coverage of a few thousand drooling idiots on the National Mall this last weekend. Where was the Washngton Post and Little Billy Arkin’s outrage at Joshua Sparling’s incident on the Mall? Is that what you call something to be grateful for, ya spoiled little brat.

    Through every Abu Ghraib and Haditha, through every rape and murder, the American public has indulged those in uniform, accepting that the incidents were the product of bad apples or even of some administration or command order.

    Or maybe the American public realized that not everyone in the military is a criminal. That’s not “indulging”, that’s called the rule of Law. Even though you and your fellow journalists have tried to lump the troops into a pigeonhole, the Real American People konw that they are our sons and daughters that we raised in our communities. They weren’t the result of some government project to breed warriors on a secret base somewhere.

    We just don’t see very man [sic] “baby killer” epithets being thrown around these days, no one in uniform is being spit upon.

    See the Joshua Sparling link above, smartypants.

    So, we pay the soldiers a decent wage, take care of their families, provide them with housing and medical care and vast social support systems and ship obscene amenities into the war zone for them, we support them in every possible way, and their attitude is that we should in addition roll over and play dead, defer to the military and the generals and let them fight their war, and give up our rights and responsibilities to speak up because they are above society?

    No, the troops want all of you know-it-all yuppie pansies to shut up while they’re putting their lives on the line for you until they finish the job – then you can criticize until the cows come home. The longer you yap about shit you don’t understand, the more emboldened is our enemy, and the more troops die. Is that too hard to understand, weinie-boy?

    But it is the United States and instead this NBC report is just an ugly reminder of the price we pay for a mercenary – oops sorry, volunteer – force that thinks it is doing the dirty work.

    Mercenary, huh? If you summoned the testicular fortitude to talk to a soldier, you’d find out they do it for their country, not because of the pay. They volunteered to serve their country and the country compensates them for their sacrifice so little gutless worms like you can spew your ignorant vomit.

    That was the most cowardly and lowest paragraph of the whole piece – taking shots like that at people who can’t answer you in person.

    Of course, Little Billy Arkin, if you want to discuss this further, I work just a few Metro stops from the WaPo and I’d love to discuss this in person with you – I’ll even buy lunch. Given how gutless your writings are, it shouldn’t cost much to fill you up.

    UPDATE: Arkin responds to the criticism by calling us arrogant and intolerant. Oh, apparently he’s a veteran who served as a secret squirrel in Berlin in the years 1974 – 1978. Military.com’s Buddy Finder lists a William E. Arkin 0-5 in the Navy, but no William M. Arkin. Hmmmm.

    His bio claims he was an intel weinie who “engaged in a number of covert intelligence collection projects” which means someone let him debrief an infantry patrol occasionally – which is probably why he hates real soldiers. Why would an intelligence analyst go to work for Greenpeace as their “military specialist”? His email address is on the Institute for Global Communications network;

    Beginning in 1987, the Institute for Global Communications (IGC) played a formative role in bringing advanced communications technologies to grassroots organizations worldwide working for peace, human rights, environmental sustainability, women’s rights, conflict resolution and worker rights. Our flagship global computer networks — PeaceNet, EcoNet, WomensNet, ConflictNet, LaborNet and AntiRacismNet — became trademark names in the struggle for democratic use of the media and the world’s communications infrastructure. At its peak in 1998, IGC had over 35 full-time staff members.

    I guess there’s no agenda there is there? The guy is an America-hater in a southern Vermont snowbank, shaking his fist at the folks who keep his neighborhood safe.

    Must be a case of cabin fever. Having spent a few winters in Vermont myself, I understand. I also understand how out-of-touch with the realities of the world Vermonters live. William Arkin is a kneejerk, emotional ex-pat flatlander – the type of Vermonter that keeps sending idiots like Howard Dean, Pat Leahy and Bernie Sanders to Washington.

    UPDATE II: Arkin is back again and anything I’d have to say about him this time could be found much more eloquently expessed at Old Crotchety Bastard and Flopping Aces. I’m pretty sure Arkin has officially joined the ranks of Ward Churchill and Cynthia McKinney as extreme moonbats.

    I equate this drivel with the non-flying imams in that both are preparing for the “Big One”; they’re desensitizing us in preparation for a larger more prolonged strike from their respective allies. Arkin is just pointman for the rest of the legions of journalists who will, as I predicted back in 2001 on another discussion forum whose archives are conveniently gone, shit openly on our fighting forces. 

    There is only one fighting force in the world that has defeated Marxism on a grand scale twice in history – the US military. Since they can’t be defeated on the field of battle, the Left and the Islamofacists have decided it must be defeated at it’s source – the American public.

    Arkin is the Left’s most recent standard bearer, but watch for an even larger and more broad assault.

    James Lileks sums up Arkin’s first blog very succinctly;

    The pith of the gist seems to be “shut up and bleed,” but I’ve only read it once, and subsequent study might yield additional nuance.

    The best “fisking” I’ve seen to date was done by the Anti-Idotarian Rottweiler while Iowahawk debates “Should Washington Post Military Analyst William Arkin Be Beaten Like the Repulsive Sack of Shit He Is?” 

  • Coulter vs. Press

    Ann Coulter is scheduled to take on Bill Press tonight on Larry Kudlow’s Kudlow and Company at 5pm EDT. Ought to be fairly entertaining. I hope Ann leaves enough pieces of Press for us to point and laugh at.

  • Where do they find these peckerwoods?

    While leisurely reading Sister Toldya this afternoon she points her readers (by way of Hugh Hewitt) towards this piece of shit in the LA Times by Paul Whitefield (they like it when I mention their names – they google themselves during down time);

    LISTENING TO President Bush’s speech on Iraq earlier this month, my first thought was: “Where the heck are we going to get 21,500 more soldiers to send to Iraq?” Our Reserves are depleted, our National Guard is worn out, our Army and Marine Corps are stretched to the limit.

    Then it hit me: Re-up our Vietnam War veterans and send them.

    They’re trained. They’re battle-hardened. Many already have post-traumatic stress disorder. Also, some have their own vehicles — Harleys mostly, which are cheap to run, make small targets and are highly mobile. I’ll even bet that lots of these guys still have guns (you know, just in case).

    OK, some vets are a bit long in the tooth (or don’t have teeth — because of Agent Orange?). Or their eyesight isn’t what it was. Or their reflexes have slowed. But with today’s modern weaponry, how well do you have to see?

    Too out of shape, you say? Listen, if Rocky Balboa can step back into the ring at age 60, all these Vietnam War vets need is a little boot-camp magic and they’ll be good to go. I mean, who doesn’t want to drop a few pounds?

    Don’t want geezers fighting for us? Well, let’s face it, our young people have greater value right here. Most of us want to retire and collect our hard-earned Social Security, and we need those youngsters here, working and paying taxes — lots of taxes.

    Finally, these Vietnam War guys are hungry for revenge. After all, they fought in the only war the U.S. ever lost. And they didn’t even get a parade. So this is their chance. We can throw them that big parade when they come marching home.

    Yeah, I copied the whole thing, just hoping some peckerwood LA lawyer writes me a letter to complain.

    Whitefield better dig himself a bunker. I’m not a Viet Nam veteran, but I’m a Viet Nam Era veteran (according to the VA), and I already volunteered to go back on active duty. And if the military is so hard up for bodies, why haven’t they called me back? Numbnuts.