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

Category: Terror War

  • Obama and Iran

    Last week I wrote a bit about Iran being caught (by Afghan border guards) smuggling heavy weapons and explosives into Afghanistan – a story that cropped up in the European media and has yet to be given any attention by the American press.

    That fact alone should wake up the current administration to the need to intervene on some level in the future leadership of the Islamic Republic. But what is their reaction to the questionable results of this weekend’s election? The Washington Post quotes Joe Biden;

    “There’s an awful lot of question about how this election was run,” Biden said, noting that the high voter turnout in Iran’s urban areas would argue against such a wide margin of victory for Ahmadinejad, whose conservative populism holds more appeal in rural areas. “I mean we’re just waiting to see.”

    The cautious response illustrates the balance that the Obama administration is seeking between condemning what increasingly appears to be a fraudulent election and the likelihood that it will be dealing with Ahmadinejad after the dust settles.

    Certainly, the Obama Administration saw these results coming, so why wasn’t there an appropriate response prepared to make them look less stupid? But, see, that’s why Ahmadinejad thinks he can get away with vote fraud – he’s pretty sure no one will stop him. The same reason that North Korea continues launching rockets and conducting nuclear tests. There’s a reason that George Bush put those countries on his “Axis of Evil” list.

    Despite the announcement today that the Guardian Council of Iran has ordered an investigation into fraud charges, does anyone really thing Ahmadinejad will be replaced by the Council under any circumstances?

    During the Bush Administration, we saw our allies moving closer to our our side of the political spectrum as Bush policies proved effective and made us safer. Now, under Obama we see our enemies moving further away from us – a sure sign that the governments that should fear and respect us see the Obama Administration as weak and ineffective. Even the Israelis fear for their safety with the Obama Adminstration and elected a tougher government to protect themselves.

  • DIA warns Congress against detainee transfers

    Kara Rowland at the Washington Times reports that the Defense Intelligence AGency has warned Congress in a letter about kicking loose some of the potentially dangerous detainees held by the US;

    Military intelligence officials have quietly told Congress they advised against transferring 25 of the 60 Guantanamo Bay terror detainees deemed eligible for relocation by the Obama administration, including five who are considered to be highly dangerous and likely to return to the battlefield.

    But the Defense Intelligence Agency officials did not raise any formal objections with the administration because they concluded the decision to move prisoners already had been made, according to a letter Sen. Tom Coburn, a member of the intelligence committee, sent Tuesday to Director of National Intelligence Dennis C. Blair.

    In the letter, obtained by The Washington Times, the Oklahoma Republican senator questions whether the White House put political considerations ahead of national security.

    “The DIA told the committee that DIA has not objected to the release of many rank-and-file members of terrorist organizations ‘due to an explicit understanding that many detainees were destined to be transferred out of GTMO regardless of intelligence-based objections,’ ” Mr. Coburn wrote.

    But the Obama Administration is so set on making this a legal issue instead of a national security issue, no genuine concerns about protecting Americans here or abroad can convince them otherwise.

    After four years of war, in 1945, there were over 400,000 prisoners of war held in the United States from Germany, Italy and Japan. There was no outcry from Americans to release them back into their native countries because they hadn’t been proved to be criminals.

    Also, our troops weren’t on the battlefields of Europe and the Pacific reading them their rights. Can you imagine George Patton reading the Miranda warning to the 14,000 Germans he captured when he broke out of Normandy? Or Alvin York and his seven buddies mirandizing his 128 prisoners in WWI?

    But how much criticism did we hear from the Left that George Bush was so arrogant that he wouldn’t listen to his generals? Isn’t this arrogance, too? Just to keep an ill-considered campaign promise.

  • Stars and Stripes explores camaraderie

    Geoff Ziezulewicz at Stars and Stripes wrote an excellent article trying to explain to civilians that “Band of Brothers” bond that combat troops share with each other in Unique camaraderie forged by troops downrange lasts far beyond deployment. Here’s snippet;

    “These guys grabbed me and we hauled ass into a building,” he said. “These guys are high speed as hell. They’ll protect me in any situation. I was confused during my first deployment and these guys were on it.

    “I felt completely confident that I would get through that night,” he said. “No issues.”

    You have to read the whole thing – I wish I could put it all here.

  • FReep for PVT William Long

    long-freep
    My friends at Free Republic’s DC contingent were at the White House last Saturday bringing attention to the disparity in the reactions to the murder of the abortion doctor Tiller and Private William Long. From their after action review it sounds like they made some head way;

    The freep began uneventfully with our receiving a few thumbs up here and there. A group of high school age students attending the 10th Challenge, a leadership institute, asked us for details and for us to take their pictures taken holding the signs.

    An older white gentleman approached saying he didn’t understand our message. When we explained, he changed the subject or brought up irrelevant points about Blackwater and Haliburton making lots of money on the war. As the gentleman walked away and approached his wife; BufordP’s niece, who was sitting along the fence at the time, overhead him say to his wife that we had made a lot of good points.

    A young man with video equipment asked to interview us. When asked why we objected to President Obama’s response to both shootings, BufordP replied that the President and Attorney General quickly dispatched federal marshals to protect private abortion clinics yet, as Commander-in-Chief, failed to protect the recruiting stations. I added that recruiters, possibly contrary to what the public might assume, are not armed while performing recruiting duty. The interviewer then asked Buford and me if we “were racists.”

    Yeah, that must be the only way they’d dare to stand up the president – if they were racists. Stupid media.

    I wish I could have been there, guys, a few more weeks and I’ll be out of this stupid cast.

    Here’s a reminder that the DC Chapter of Free Republic stands alone every Friday night at Walter Reed to welcome the wounded troops home from the war. Since you don’t donate to me (or click the Google ads, or shop at Amazon) maybe you can see your way clear to donate to the FReepers at their website. Every little bit helps them continue doing what they do for the troops because you can’t be there.

  • Holocaust Museum shooting

    Initial reports of 2 people wounded at the Holocaust Museum in DC (USAToday);

    At least two people were shot Wednesday at the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington, authorities said.

    D.C. police spokeswoman Traci Hughes said a person walked into the museum at about 1 p.m. with a rifle and shot a guard. Hughes says the shooter was also shot.

    Hughes said the conditions of those shot were not known. Both were being rushed to a hospital.

    U.S. Park Police gave slightly different information, saying three people had been shot. Fire department spokesman Alan Etter told CNN a third person was hurt after being cut by broken glass.

    Police have given the word that the area is clear now. Fox News reports the only ones shot were a guard and the gunmen. I wonder who’d attack a museum?

    UPDATE: From our local Fox affiliate;shooter

    They’re streaming the typical Fox News “crowds milling around and police tape fluttering in the wind” if anyone is interested.

    Oh, and VonBrunn is a Ronpaulian, too;

    shooter2

    And he wasn’t wired too tightly;

    shooter3

    Prepare to die, Whitey;

    shooter4

    Let’s see if this dies out as quickly as the recruiter murder last week.

  • Air France flight passengers on terrorist list?

    1stCavRVN11B sent this article from Sky News about the French DGSE discovery that two passengers on the manifest of the doomed Air France flight from Brazil were on their terrorist watch list;

    Soon after news of the fatal crash broke, agents working for the DGSE (Direction Générale de la Sécurité Extérieure), the French equivalent of MI6, were dispatched to Brazil.

    It was there that they established that two names on the passenger list are also on highly-classified documents listing the names of radical Muslims considered a threat to the French Republic.

    A source working for the French security services told Paris weekly L’Express that the link was “highly significant”.

    Agents are now trying to establish dates of birth for the two dead passengers, and family connections.

    There is a possibility the name similarities are simply a “macabre coincidence”, the source added, but the revelation is still being “taken very seriously”.

    I guess the terrorist world isn’t feeling the hope and change the rest of the world is feeling.

  • Confessions of a mech soldier

    This is why I became a mechanized soldier, and I always blessed Ronald Reagan for giving us the Bradley with it’s awesome firepower available to the touch at the trigger commanded by a lowly squad leader;

    Although this a Stryker in the video, the TOW missile remains the same.

    Here’s a firefight from the POV of the Brad Commander;

    Thanks to Conservative Grapevine and Right Wing Video for the memories.

  • “We are going to change the world. Please, don’t interfere.”

    Cigar Mike at Babalu Blog writes, “What a dick” about the Obama administration warning to Israel’s Netanyahu government quoted from Israel’s Channel One TV By CBS News;

    Netanyahu was told Tuesday by an “American official” in Jerusalem that, “We are going to change the world. Please, don’t interfere.” The report said Netanyahu’s aides interpreted this as a “threat.”

    The photo that accompanies the story shows Obama talking to Netanyahu with his feet on his desk. CBS posits;

    Israeli TV newscasters Tuesday night interpreted a photo taken Monday in the Oval Office of President Obama talking on the phone with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu as an “insult” to Israel.

    They saw the incident as somewhat akin to an incident last year, when the Iraqi reporter threw a shoe at President Bush in Baghdad

    Adam Horowitz at Mondoweiss writes;

    We’ve been following on the site how Israel seems to be in a state of panic and that Israeli anxiety over the US/Israeli relationship seems to be hitting a boiling point. When Obama finally does go to visit Israel, he might want to watch out for some flying shoes.

    Indeed.

    Imagine if President Bush had told any other country that same thing – how often did we hear “You’re either with us or you’re with the terrorists” or complaints about the “axis of evil” or “bring it on” and other examples of the Bush arrogance? How is this any less arrogant? And worse, it’s with an actual unfaltering ally against terror.

    I dare him to use that kind of language in dealing with North Korea, Syria or Iran. I wonder if Bill Clinton is still ready to lay in a ditch and fight along side the Israelis, because this kind of talk is going to inspire another Arab invasion of Israel.