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

Category: Terror War

  • Ahmadinejad not influenced by smart power

    The Associated Press in Fox News reports that all of that smart power just hasn’t influenced Iran’s president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.

    Ahmadinejad dismissed the threat of sanctions, saying Iran wants talks “under just conditions where there is mutual respect.”

    “We told you that we are not afraid of sanctions against us and we are not intimidated,” he said, addressing the West. “If Iran wanted to make a bomb, we would be brave enough to tell you.”

    “This nuclear game thing is an old story, it’s history now,” the Iranian leader said, as the crowd cheered: “We love you, Ahmadinejad.” He lashed out at Washington, vowing Iran will stand up against U.S. attempts to “dominate the Middle East.”

    Of course he’s not influenced. No matter what happens he’s a winner. If no one does anything, Iran gets nuclear weapons. If the US or Israel decides to strike at Iran’s nuclear development, he gets to play victim of Zionist ambitions on the world stage. George Bush understood that no matter what we do, we’ll get no respect – so we might as well do what’s best for the country.

    With reams of evidence that Iran is developing nuclear weapons and supplying our opposition in Iraq and Afghanistan, the case for the Obama Administration’s “smart power” is dead now, if it wasn’t already.

  • Naivete, thy name is Kate Hoit

    I read this article last night in the Stars and Stripes, thought about commenting, then changed my mind. Until this morning when I saw that Kate Hoit, one of the newest bloggers at Vote Vets decided to write about it. Basically, the article and the policy are very simple – women in combat shouldn’t get pregnant and Major General Anthony Cucolo, the commander of Multi-National Division-North, Iraq, decided to make it a command policy and threatened his command with court martials for violating that policy.

    gi-kate2

    Ms. Hoit writes;

    Should soldiers be wise when partaking in sexual activities? Of course. Use a condom. Get on birth control. Emergency contraception should be readily available (which it seems we are fighting for now). I learned about sex education in 6th grade. If I don’t want a bundle of joy I’m not going to have sex, or I’m going to use a condom, or I’m going to take a pill everyday at 12:30pm. If I’m serving in Iraq or Afghanistan I’m going to put my mission first. I’m going to do everything possible to not get pregnant. Maj. Gen. Cucolo III is naive for thinking he can solve the pregnancy problem by banning it. What soldiers need is a shot of common sense.

    Um, common sense like engaging in the practice of abstention? Condoms fail, but abstention works every time it’s tried. I know VoteVets’ official policy is that gays can’t be expected to control themselves in this new world in which everybody is screwing everyone else at every opportunity – but this is war, for Pete’s sake.

    I’m not so naive that I think sex doesn’t happen in war, but making pregnancy a crime seems a good way to prevent a practice that is costly for the military, and unhealthy for it’s participants (I don’t think I would have wanted have sex with any woman who wanted sex with unkept, unbathed me when I was in Iraq).

    Ms. Hoit acts like there’s no choice in sexual activity. Although, I’ll admit that there are probably instances in which the woman has no choice, however, I suspect that’s not the case in most instances. If there are as many rapes in the military as many claim, this policy should increase the reporting rates, shouldn’t it? And that’s good, right?

    Somehow, mentioning that this is the 21st century and insinuating that casual sex was invented in Ms. Hoit’s lifetime seems to be the height of naivete. Calling a military policy which is aimed at the health and readiness of military members naive is just ignorant.

    And, oh, Kayla Williams, since I know you keep an eye on this blog for the mention of your name, if I hadn’t made a promise to one of our mutual friends, I’d be tearing you up, too. That promise is wearing thin.

  • The Clinton strategy returns

    The Obama Administration has dusted off a Clinton-era strategy of dealing with terrorists by firing off a couple of Cruise missiles into Yemen. ABC explains the objective;

    One of the targeted sites was a suspected al Qaeda training camp north of the capitol, Sanaa, and the second target was a location where officials said “an imminent attack against a U.S. asset was being planned.”

    Of course, none of our resident anti-war folks are calling this an “attack [on] a third world country that didn’t attack us” and it appears that the Obama Administration has found value in the Bush Doctrine of preemptive strikes in dealing with terrorists. But luckily for Obama, he doesn’t have to deal with the Left questioning his motives and accusing him of using fear mongering to accomplish political objectives.

    Does anyone else thinks it’s a little strange that we’re firing off missiles into Yemen while contemplating releasing some Yemeni detainees from Guantanamo back into the wild there?

    The Stars & Stripes reports that 34 terrorists were killed in raids in Yemen. The main target of the strike, a guy who escaped from prison in Yemen, reportedly avoided his ultimate demise, though.

    Al-Raymi is one of 23 militants who broke out of a prison in San’a in February 2006 and is at large. Yemeni authorities have said they believe he was involved in the July 2007 suicide bombing that killed eight Spanish tourists and two Yemenis visiting a temple in central Yemen.

    Christopher Boucek, a Yemen expert at the Washington-based Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, said al-Raymi is deputy commander of al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula and has managed to escape several previous attempts by authorities to get him.

    The Yemeni embassy denied that the US used missiles, contrary to ABC’s report. Of course, eye witnesses in the AP report at S&S report that most of the dead were civilians.

  • Right on cue

    The other day, I wrote about political leadership, or rather the lack thereof, in the Democrat Party – particular the so-called leaders of the party. Right on cue, they provide us some examples. Pelosi announces, as reported in the Washington Post that she won’t stump for a troop surge in Afghanistan;

    House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) said Wednesday, adding that she is finished asking her colleagues to back wars that they do not support.

    “The president’s going to have to make his case,” Pelosi told reporters at a year-end briefing on the legislative session.

    You can see the yellow streak running right down her back. Cowardice pure and simple – Pelosi is scared of Code Pink yelling in her hallway and outside her house. We’re supposed to be at war, and she’s hiding behind politics.

    Here’s another example of cowardice; Fox News reports that John Conyers doesn’t have the testicular fortitude to admit that the reason the health care bill is failing is because it’s unpopular among regular Americans who don’t live in the Beltway;

    “The insurance lobby is taking over,” Judiciary Committee Chairman John Conyers, D-Mich., was quoted as saying in Roll Call.

    No, the American voters are taking over you imbecile. And Mitch McConnel explains why voters are so angry;

    this bill has become a political nightmare for them.

    “They know Americans overwhelmingly oppose it, so they want to get it over with.

    “Americans are already outraged at the fact that Democrat leaders took their eyes off the ball. Rushing the process on a partisan line makes the situation even worse.

    “Americans were told the purpose of reform was to reduce the cost of health care.

    “Instead, Democrat leaders produced a $2.5 trillion, 2,074-page monstrosity that vastly expands government, raises taxes, raises premiums, and wrecks Medicare.

    “And they want to rush this bill through by Christmas — one of the most significant, far-reaching pieces of legislation in U.S. history. They want to rush it.

    “And here’s the most outrageous part: at the end of this rush, they want us to vote on a bill that no one outside the Majority Leader’s conference room has even seen.

    “That’s right. The final bill we’ll vote on isn’t even the one we’ve had on the floor. It’s the deal Democrat leaders have been trying to work out in private. “

    Oh, while health care and the war were popular, Democrats bent over backwards to take credit – and now that they face an angry crowd, it’s “rush, rush, rush” and hand responsibility and culpability off to someone else. McConnell quotes Olympia Snowe’s disappointment with the Democrats’ process, too. I hope she summons the courage to admit her fault in this, too.

    But more than likely, she’ll just collapse into the Democrat camp and sell us down the river to prove that spinelessness isn’t a partisan condition.

  • Taliban hack into Biden’s zombie ninjas

    The Wall Street Journal reports this morning that the US military has found evidence that, with support from Iran, the Taliban has been able to download video from drone aircraft;

    The drone intercepts mark the emergence of a shadow cyber war within the U.S.-led conflicts overseas. They also point to a potentially serious vulnerability in Washington’s growing network of unmanned drones, which have become the American weapon of choice in both Afghanistan and Pakistan.

    The Obama administration has come to rely heavily on the unmanned drones because they allow the U.S. to safely monitor and stalk insurgent targets in areas where sending American troops would be either politically untenable or too risky.

    The stolen video feeds also indicate that U.S. adversaries continue to find simple ways of counteracting sophisticated American military technologies.

    When the Soviets became completely reliant on airpower to defeat the mujahadeen in Afghanistan, that reliance was defeated by US Redeye missiles. Heavy reliance on drones has made our entire strategy vulnerable to a $26 software program.

  • The ACLU on “Gitmo North”

    Mathew Alexander the interrogator emeritus of Vote Vets explains “Why Transferring Detainees to Illinois Keeps Us Safe” over there today.

    I support the President’s decision to transfer detainees to Guantanamo Bay. It’s time to shut down the Guantanamo Bay prison and undercut one of Al Qaida’s main recruiting tools. In Iraq in 2006, while overseeing interrogations of Al Qaida foreign fighters, I listened time and time again to their reasons for coming to Iraq to fight — the torture and abuse of detainees at Guantanamo bay and Abu Ghraib.

    Yes, we know, Mathew, that tale is posted all over Washington DC’s subway platforms sponsored by a George Soros-funded organization. It really doesn’t matter what the al Qaeda foreign fighters said to you – they lie, that’s why they’re being interrogated. If they didn’t lie, they’d be leading special forces teams against al-Qaeda.

    But irrespective of Alexander’s absurd pronouncements, he’s currently working for the American Civil Liberties Union, and they aren’t as impressed with the Obama Administration’s actions today, calling Thomson, IL Gitmo, Illinios;

    Reports indicate that Thomson will be the new home for detainees the government has no intention of releasing or bringing to trial. It’s the return of that “fifth category” of detainees President Obama described in his national security speech last May, those “who cannot be prosecuted for past crimes, in some cases because evidence may be tainted, but who nonetheless pose a threat to the security of the United States.” The Obama administration—like the Bush administration—has maintained that it has the right to hold detainees without charge or trial under the Authorization for Use of Military Force.

    It is estimated that as many as 75 detainees could potentially be part of this fifth category.

    But as we pointed out last year, a policy of indefinite detention is unnecessary and unwise, and would give the president carte blanche to break the law—something we’ve all seen enough of from the past administration.

    So, what the ACLU has advocated is the release of dangerous detainees. They compound this idiocy in a press release entitled “Creating a ‘Gitmo North’ an Alarming Step“;

    “The creation of a ‘Gitmo North’ in Illinois is hardly a meaningful step forward. Shutting down Guantánamo will be nothing more than a symbolic gesture if we continue its lawless policies onshore.

    “Alarmingly, all indications are that the administration plans to continue its predecessor’s policy of indefinite detention without charge or trial for some detainees, with only a change of location. Such a policy is completely at odds with our democratic commitment to due process and human rights whether it’s occurring in Cuba or in Illinois. In fact, while the Obama administration inherited the Guantánamo debacle, this current move is its own affirmative adoption of those policies.

    So, there you have it. The Left and the ACLU want nothing less than the immediate and unsupervised release of at least 75 dangerous terrorists, prisoners from the battlefields of our nation’s war. Regardless of the chance that they’ll kill more innocent people again, the ACLU chooses the rights of criminals over the rights of their prospective victims.

    Nothing can placate the ACLU short of releasing terrorists into our midst, nothing will placate those al Qaeda foreign fighters that Alexander believes joined because of Guantanamo short of returning their soldiers to the ranks of al Qaeda. So why are we doing it? To make ourselves feel better? To make the “civilized world” feel better about us?

    To lead our people to slaughter?

  • Gitmo-on-Spring Lake (Updated)

    Rumors over the last few weeks that the Obama Administration is planning on renovating a prison in Thomson, IL to house Guantanamo detainees are proving to be true;

    Administration officials as well as Illinois Sen. Richard Durbin and Illinois Gov. Pat Quinn will make an official announcement at the White House.

    Officials from both the White House and Durbin’s office confirmed that President Obama had directed the government to acquire Thomson Correctional Center in Thomson, Ill., a sleepy town near the Mississippi River about 150 miles from Chicago. The officials spoke on the condition of anonymity to avoid pre-empting Tuesday’s announcement.

    So now the hippies, the ACLU lawyers, Mathew Alexander, Code Pink, Keith Olbermann and the sundry other peawits all have a place they can go camp out to prove their commitment to human rights for subhumans.

    Residents of the small town feel that it’s worth it to house the most terrible criminals in the world so close to the families;

    “This town is slowly but surely dying off, and I mean that literally because the people that are retired are dying off and there’s no young people coming back in to take their place. There’s nothing here to draw them,” said Richard Groharing, a 68-year-old retired Florida corrections officer who was born in Thomson, a farming community about 150 miles west of Chicago.

    The prison was built in 2001 with the promise of thousands of jobs. But because of state budget problems, it has been largely vacant since its completion. It has 1,600 cells, but only about 200 minimum-security inmates are held there.

    I hope Thomson IL residents are ready to assume the mantle as the worse place on earth when Guantanamo is closed. Of course, the ambulance-chasers will probably double the town’s population and bring in some money. At what price?

    ADDED: Of course, dicksmith at VoteVets thinks this is a good idea;

    Outstanding. The Obama Administration is taking a step closer to ending the use of a facility that has been one of the most effective recruiting tools for extremism and terrorism across the globe. Not only that, it’s simply the right thing to do.

    Yes, the rest of the world will automatically think that we’re treating detainees well just because they’re in Illinois now. How the Hell will that change anything? Seriously. If we put them all up in a Las Vegas hotel, THAT would become part of the new recruiting cry from terrorists, you dumbass.

    I swear, is there anyone on the Left with an ounce of common sense anymore? Has every single thing they say become just a knee-jerk reaction?

  • The wake up call nine years late

    An article in the Washington Times this morning entitled “Muslims: Youth arrests are wake-up call” quotes a local imam who has apparently been asleep for the last nine years;

    Area Muslim leaders on Friday said the five American men arrested in Pakistan for purportedly attempting to join al Qaeda were lured into embracing the terrorist ideology via the Internet. The leaders said they now will wage a cyber counterattack. wire

    “This is a wake-up call involving our youths – Muslims and Catholics,” Imam Mahdi Bray said outside the Islamic Circle of North America’s mosque in Alexandria, where the men worshipped and participated in youth-group activities.

    “They see great injustices, and their emotions and passions are stirred as they should be. … But we are determined not to let religious extremists exploit the vulnerability of our youth through slick, seductive and destructive propaganda on the Internet. We will respond in kind on the Internet. Silence in cyberspace is not an option,” Mr. Bray said.

    First of all, I don’t why he said “Muslims and Catholics” because none of the five arrested were Catholics. Catholics aren’t traveling to the Vatican and blowing themselves up among throngs of tourists, in case no one noticed but me.

    Secondly, we’ve known the internet is a major tool of terrorists since Al Gore invented the damn thing – why is this incident the wake-up call? Wasn’t 9-11 the wake up call? Or was that just a wake up call for Christians? If CAIR and MAS could bring themselves to form the words “terrorist” in their crooked little mouths and point fingers at real terrorists instead of making excuses for them, maybe these five half-wits wouldn’t have considered jihad a form of social justice.

    The Washington Post trumpets the fact that Muslim leaders are “abandoning” their silence on homegrown jihadists;

    American Muslim organizations, jolted by the spate of cases, are abandoning their hesitation to speak out about the issue. While underlining that only a tiny minority has become radicalized, two major groups — the Muslim Public Affairs Council and the Council on American-Islamic Relations — said this week that they would launch counter-radicalization programs aimed at young people.

    Several U.S. and international terrorism analysts say that American Muslims, as a group, remain more prosperous, assimilated and moderate than those in Europe. But the analysts also note that immigration trends, the global spread of a militant Islamism and controversial actions by the United States and its allies since the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks increase the chances that U.S. Muslims could carry out a domestic attack.

    “The U.S. is experiencing what countries like the U.K. have gone through several years ago,” said Sajjan Gohel, director of international security at the Asia-Pacific Foundation, a research organization in London. “The worry for the U.S. is there will be a similar blow-back of homegrown terrorism.”

    Yeah, well, if the Muslim leaders had the cojones to speak up a decade ago instead of calling the rest of us racists, maybe we could have precluded this “wake up”.