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

Category: Terror War

  • Iraq deaths down, but for how long?

    Associated Press is the first news agency to hope for more American deaths in Iraq – well, today. In an article entitled “Iraq deaths down, but for how long?”, they speculate how long the death rate among Americans will stay at all time lows;

    U.S. military deaths plunged in May to the lowest monthly level in more than four years and civilian casualties were down sharply, too, as Iraqi forces assumed the lead in offensives in three cities and a truce with Shiite extremists took hold.

    But many Iraqis as well as U.S. officials and private security analysts are uncertain whether the current lull signals a long-term trend or is simply a breathing spell like so many others before.

    AP has a nasty habit of changing their headlines after I write these posts, so this time I took a screen capture;

    down.jpg

    Funny, but they don’t seem to quote or name “US Officials” or “private security analysts” to support their supposition that this is only temporary. They weren’t this quick to cast doubt on analysts who wrongly said we were in a recession.

  • Cluster bomb treaty

    According to the Associated Press, 111 nations have pledged to abide by a measure that bans cluster bombs from warfare. The AP article headline reads “111 nations adopt cluster bomb treaty, but not US“.  Reading down further in the article, one finds that the US isn’t the only nation who didn’t sign it;

    Twelve days of negotiations ended after diplomats from scores of nations delivered speeches embracing the accord. It requires signatories not to use cluster bombs, to destroy existing stockpiles within eight years, and to fund programs that clear old battlefields of dud bombs.

    However, the talks did not involve the biggest makers and users of cluster bombs: the United States, Russia, China, Israel, India and Pakistan. And the pact leaves the door open for new types that could pick targets more precisely and contain self-destruct technology.

    In other words, the 111 nations that approved the treaty probably don’t even have an Air Force that they can use to deliver the munitions. It’s like non-smokers regulating smoking.

    They hope to discourage other nations from using them using some sort of international peer pressure;

    Norwegian Deputy Defense Minister Espen Barth Eide, whose nation launched the negotiations in February 2007, said he was confident that the treaty would discourage the United States, Russia, China, Israel and other proponents of cluster bombs to use the weapons again.

    “The reality is that states do care about not only the legality of their actions, but also the perceived legitimacy and appropriateness of their actions,” he said.

    The United States has used the cluster bombs sparingly and only against armies in the field, however the nations who are lucky enough to live under the umbrella of the protection of US military want to distance themselves from the application of US military might. But cluster bombs save US troop’s lives. That might not seem like a big deal to some linguine-spined diplomat from Norway.

    I drove my Bradley over a cluster bomblet after the Gulf War – it took a week for my driver to get over the shakes.

  • The worst President in history

    The other day, I wrote a post on Eagles Up! Talon about the dishonesty of the media and how it takes some folks pounding away on their Dell laptops in their living rooms to bring the real news to the fore. In that post, I referenced a John Hinderacker post at Powerline which declared that we have indeed been made safer in recent years by the war in Iraq – despite what Barack Obama and his moon-eyed minions chant;

    2003
    May: Suicide bombers killed 10 Americans, and killed and wounded many others, at housing compounds for westerners in Saudi Arabia.

    October: More bombings of United States housing compounds in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia killed 26 and injured 160.

    2004
    There were no successful attacks inside the United States or against American interests abroad.

    2005
    There were no successful attacks inside the United States or against American interests abroad.

    2006
    There were no successful attacks inside the United States or against American interests abroad.

    2007
    There were no successful attacks inside the United States or against American interests abroad.

    2008
    So far, there have been no successful attacks inside the United States or against American interests abroad.

    I have omitted from the above accounting a few “lone wolf” Islamic terrorist incidents, like the Washington, D.C. snipers, the Egyptian who attacked the El Al counter in Los Angeles, and an incident or two when a Muslim driver steered his vehicle into a crowd. These are, in a sense, exceptions that prove the rule, since the “lone wolves” were not, as far as we know, in contact with international Islamic terrorist groups and therefore could not have been detected by surveillance of terrorist conversations or interrogations of al Qaeda leaders.

    It should also be noted that the decline in attacks on the U.S. was not the result of jihadists abandoning the field. Our government stopped a number of incipient attacks and broke up several terrorist cells, while Islamic terrorists continued to carry out successful attacks around the world, in England, Spain, Russia, Pakistan, Israel, Indonesia and elsewhere.

    Of course, nothing we can say will change their minds – the truth is a bitter pill. This morning, in the Wall Street Journal, Thane Rosenbaum, a Fordham law professor who admits that he “didn’t vote for President Bush – twice”, makes a startling admission;

    We all waited for terrorism’s second shoe to drop, and, seven years later . . . nothing has happened.

    Other cities around the world became targets: Madrid, Glasgow, London and Bali; the entire nation of Denmark; and, of course, Jerusalem and Tel Aviv. Here in America, however, the focus moved from concerns over counterterrorism measures and the abuse of presidential authority to the war in Iraq, the subprime mortgage crisis, the failing economy, the public meltdown of Britney Spears, and now, the presidential elections.

    All this time Americans have been safe from suicide bombers, biological warfare and collapsing skyscrapers, while the rest of the world has been on red alert. And yet President Bush is regarded as the worst president in American history?

    […]…when a professed enemy succeeds as wildly as al Qaeda did on 9/11, and seven years pass without an incident, there are two reasonable conclusions: Either, despite all the trash-talking videos, they have been taking a long, leisurely breather; or, something serious has been done to thwart and disable their operations. Whatever combination of psychology and insanity motivates a terrorist to blow himself up is not within my range of experience, but I’m betting the aggressive measures the president took, and the unequivocal message he sent, might have had something to do with it.

    Well, maybe not startling for those of us who’ve been paying attention, but startling in the context of a Fordham law professor noticing it. Of course, we won’t hear any of that from the purely partisan Democrats in Congress or on the campaign trail. Because of their opposition to virtually everything President Bush and the Republican Congresses did, the Democrats would have to admit they were wrong. Nancy Pelosi’s inability to credit our troops with the relative calm returning to Iraq shows the depths to which they’ve sunk.
    Democrats had hoped that spineless cowards like Chuck Hagel would have some sort of influence on the Republican Party and the war would end before it became successful. Their gamble failed when General Petraeus’ strategy worked and a majority of Republicans stuck with the President.

    Now it’s time to make the Democrats pay at the polls for their treasonous undermining of our national security.

  • Rock of the Marne pacifies “Triangle of Death”

    rocky.jpg

     The mighty Third Infantry Division, nicknamed the “Rock of the Marne” is credited with pacifying an area that the Associated Press calls the “Triangle of Death”;

    “When we first arrived here 15 months ago there was nothing but sectarian violence, al-Qaida, Shiite extremists,” the division commander Maj. Gen. Rick Lynch said as he wrapped up a tour of an industrial complex.

    Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki and U.S. officials are likely to tout successes like that here during a U.N. conference that begins Thursday in Sweden, aimed at reviewing political and security progress in Iraq. The gathering will also see pressure on Iraqi leaders to make similar movement on political goals, such as reconciliation between the country’s Sunnis, Shiites and Kurds.

    The U.S. military says violence across Iraq has reached its lowest level in more than four years after successes this year in breaking al-Qaida’s and other Sunni insurgents’ hold in western Iraq and — more recently — government crackdowns in the southern city of Basra and northern city of Mosul.

    But the success in the Triangle of Death, centered on the town of Iskandariyah, is perhaps the most dramatic. The area’s population is mixed between Sunnis and Shiites to a far greater degree than many others, and in 2006 and 2007 militants from each community were killing each other, as well as attacking U.S. and Iraqi forces.

    The area has boomeranged to become a bastion of relative peace on the edge of a violent capital, while Sunni militants remain elusive in the north.

    I did two tours (and seven years) with the 3rd Division in the 2/15th and 1/7th Infantry, and it’s always been a damn good division, always filled with heroes. It’s good to see them get the recognition they deserve. Join me in a chorus of their Division song;

     I Wouldn’t Give A Bean
    To Be A Fancy Pants Marine,
    I’d rather Be A Dogface Soldier Like I Am.
    I Wouldn’t Trade My Old O.D.’s
    For All The Navy’s Dungarees
    For I’m The Walking Pride Of Uncle Sam;
    On All The Posters That I Read It Says
    The Army Builds Men
    So They’re Tearing Me Down To Build Me Over Again
    I’m Just A Dogface Soldier
    With A Rifle On My Shoulder
    And I Eat Raw Meat For Breakfast Everyday.
    So Feed Me Ammunition,
    Keep Me In The Third Division,
    Your Dogfaced Soldier Boy’s A-Okay.

  • Bush to meet with al-Bashir

    This morning the Washington Post worries that President Bush isn’t being hard enough on Sudan for their behavior against the residents in Darfur;

    Sometime in the next few weeks, a special envoy of President Bush plans to meet with Sudanese President Omar Hassan al-Bashir, whose government sheltered Osama bin Laden and pursued a scorched-earth policy in southern Sudan that resulted in more than 2 million deaths.

    Bashir’s government has been accused by Bush of participating in a “genocide” in Darfur, the only U.S. government use of such a strong accusation. Yet Richard S. Williamson’s visit to Khartoum follows a series of direct contacts by senior Bush administration officials with the Sudanese president, including Secretaries of State Colin L. Powell and Condoleezza Rice, Rice’s deputies, and several special presidential envoys.

    Bush has spoken to or exchanged letters with Bashir on numerous occasions, underscoring how White House policy has departed from his pointed public call to shun talks with radical tyrants and dictators.

    Of course, the Washington Post totally ignored the Darfur emergency during the previous administration. The only news we got of the situation there was from Christian missionaries because the “main stream” press didn’t figure anything that happened in Africa was important enough for the Clinton Administration since they did so poorly in Somalia.

    Things like Darfur are more in line with the UN’s charter, though,, rather than the US policy. But, the UN is too busy getting their armed forces laid according to the Gateway Pundit;

    We’re from the UN and we’re here to help.

    The BBC reported:

    Children as young as six are being sexually abused by peacekeepers and aid workers, says a leading UK charity.
    Children in post-conflict areas are being abused by the very people drafted into such zones to help look after them, says Save the Children.

    The most shocking aspect of this abuse is that most of it goes unreported and unpunished, a new report argues, with children too scared to speak out.

    The UN has said it welcomes the report, which it will study closely.

    Yeah, like they studied the report on the oil for food program.

    The world is supposedly enraged because we “unilaterally” dealt with Saddam Hussein, yet they expect us to unilaterally deal with Kosovo, Bosnia, Sudan and now the Sudan.

  • Kerry: Talk with Ahmadinejad

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    John Kerry, the fellow who won’t sign his Form 180, wrote in today’s Washington Post an opinion piece entitled “The Wisdom in Talking” that Barack Obama isn’t an appeaser for wanting to sit down with that throwback to the Dark Ages, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. His defense?

    Bush engages in self-deception arguing that not engaging Iran has worked. In fact, Iran has grown stronger: continuing to master the nuclear fuel cycle; arming militias in Iraq and Lebanon; bolstering extremist anti-Israeli proxies. It has embraced Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki and spends lavishly to rebuild Afghanistan, gaining influence across the region.

    Actually, John Kerry, who served in Vietnam, we had Iran shaking in their boots after it took us less than two weeks to whip the Taliban and one week to over run Baghdad. They were sure they were next – in fact, Libya’s Qaddafi was sure he was on that list of “Next” as he immediately surrendered his weapons of mass destruction. Nothing before that had budged either, except the Gulf War.

    The reason Iran had continued it’s march towards nuclear weapons is they know that all they need is time. They’ve engaged in talks with the UN, they’ve engaged in talks with the EU and they’ve been running out the clock. They know that they can rattle sabers and talk about the rise of the Mahdi and the extermination of Israel because pussies and pseudo-intellectuals like you and Obama will protect them from the inevitable GBU sent up their tailpipe.

    For years, the Left has been running a screen for Iran, just like they’ve been protecting North Korea for some stupid reason. The Left applies bandaids to serious problems in the world hoping that some Republican will come along and save the world without the Left getting it’s hands dirty. Then the Left can blame the republican for being a warmonger and for budget-busting military spending and they still come out of the debate squeaky clean.

    Kerry writes;

    By engaging Iran, we reclaim the moral high ground — no small feat. If Iran refuses to budge, we have new leverage to expose it as a threat whose bad intentions cannot be explained away.

    What good is “moral high ground”? How many nukes will “moral high ground” stop? So what if we feel better about ourselves while we’re looking down the dorsal fins of a D-31A Chinese long range missile with a lunatic like Ahmadinejad at the trigger?

    There is no common sense or logic in being a Leftist or a Democrat, and that certainly applies to anyone who thinks that talking with iran will lead to tangible results and will make us safer. There is no wisdom in being played like rented fiddle.

  • Biden ignores history

    This morning’s Wall Street Journal Opinion Journal carries an answer from Joe Biden to Joe Lieberman’s opinion piece the other day entitled “Democrats and our Enemies“. Biden’s piece “Republicans and Our Enemies“. While Lieberman took a realistic look at actual events and the reaction of Democrats in the modern world, Biden’s “opinion” grasps at straws – to believe Joe Biden’s version, one would have to suspend rational thought;

    On George Bush’s watch, Iran, not freedom, has been on the march: Iran is much closer to the bomb; its influence in Iraq is expanding; its terrorist proxy Hezbollah is ascendant in Lebanon and that country is on the brink of civil war.

    Beyond Iran, al Qaeda in Afghanistan and Pakistan – the people who actually attacked us on 9/11 – are stronger now than at any time since 9/11. Radical recruitment is on the rise. Hamas controls Gaza and launches rockets at Israel every day. Some 140,000 American troops remain stuck in Iraq with no end in sight.

    Because of the policies Mr. Bush has pursued and Mr. McCain would continue, the entire Middle East is more dangerous. The United States and our allies, including Israel, are less secure.

    What Biden fails to discuss is the fact that the US is unable to pursue a rational foreign policy because the Democrats are conducting their own foreign policy independent of the Administration and independent of their constitutional authority.

    When three Congressmen stand on the roof of Saddam Hussein’s palace on the eve of his defeat and declare that Saddam Hussein is more trustworthy than our own government’s leaders, what message does that send? When the Speaker of the House passes on false messages between foreign governments. When a presidential candidate threatens our allies and promises to coddle our enemies. When two presidential candidates make public foreign policy proclamations while privately telling our foreign partners to disregard their words.

    Biden goes on to sell out his foreign policy experience for the cheap political trick;

    The election in November is a vital opportunity for America to start anew. That will require more than a great soldier. It will require a wise leader.

    Actually, electing Barack Obama won’t be a move towards “start anew” – it’ll be a return to the failed foreign policy of the 1970s, the policies of Nixon and Carter when US prestige in the world took a nose dive. When Iran first became a threat to world peace.

    Here, the controversy over engaging Iran is especially instructive.

    Last week, John McCain was very clear. He ruled out talking to Iran. He said that Barack Obama was “naïve and inexperienced” for advocating engagement; “What is it he wants to talk about?” he asked.

    Well, for a start, Iran’s nuclear program, its support for Shiite militias in Iraq, and its patronage of Hezbollah in Lebanon and Hamas in Gaza.

    Iran isn’t interested in “engaging” anyone who opposes them. For more than three years, the world has been “engaging” Iran over their nuclear program, Hezbollah and Hamas to no avail. Now because the “liberal” world coddles Iran and it’s clients, they’ve become more powerful than ever. Democrats in Congress are absolutely afraid of Ahmadinejad after the way Iran brought down Jimmy Carter.

    Biden goes on to dream the impossible dream;

    Instead of regime change, we should focus on conduct change. We should make it very clear to Iran what it risks in terms of isolation if it continues to pursue a dangerous nuclear program but also what it stands to gain if it does the right thing. That will require keeping our allies in Europe, as well as Russia and China, on the same page as we ratchet up pressure.

    “Conduct change” worked so well with North Korea, didn’t it? North Korea used the umbrella that the Clinton Administration and Jimmy Carter provided to conduct their nuclear program out of sight of the world. Biden acts as if Iran, Hezbollah and Hamas can be trusted to change their behavior – even though we’ve plenty of recent examples that people like them don’t change behavior, they just manipulate the world and continue with their bad behavior.

    Since the last seven years have been difficult, Biden and the Democrats use that an excuse to bolster the illusion that the Bush policies have failed – and so Biden draws the poorly-considered conclusion that if Bush policies have failed, we have to do the opposite. There’s no indication that Bush policies have failed, to begin with. The US is single-handedly reversing thirty years of failed foreign policy in regards to the Middle East – it’s not an easy or quickly finished chore.

    Biden makes outrageous and unsupported claims that our enemies are stronger than ever before – the only reason they’re at all strong is because half-witted, imbecilic political terrorists like Biden keep giving them hope that we’ll eventually cave in to them.

    UPDATE: While we’re on the subject of talking with our enemies, what’s up with Obama not taking time to talk to our generals or our troops? TSO at The Sniper has a Vets For Freedom video that asks that question.

  • Koch may endorse McCain

    I don’t usually use Newsmax as a source, but this seems fairly legit;

    Koch carries significant weight with many Jewish Democrats in New York and across the country. He also has a history of playing the maverick and crossing party lines.

    He has backed several New York Republicans, including Rudy Giuliani and Michael Bloomberg for New York City mayor, Al D’Amato for the U.S. Senate, and George Pataki for New York governor. In 2004 he endorsed his first Republican for president, George W. Bush. Koch actively campaigned in several states, including Florida and Ohio.

    Bush won both states.

    Koch, a regular Newsmax pundit, also says in his interview that he still endorses Sen. Hillary Clinton for the White House and believes she should stay in the race.

    Combined wtih Lieberman’s endorsement, that could be bad news for Obama in his Blue Northeast states.