Democrats Skipping Military Briefings — Where’s the Media Outrage?

-By Warner Todd Huston

A few sources, not the least of which is Michael Barone, are reporting that the Democrats are ignoring important Iraq briefings conducted by General David Petraeus in an apparent effort to stymie efforts in Iraq. It is well known that they are not supportive of the troops in Iraq and the president’s “surge” plan they are currently conducting, but whether they like the plan or not, to skip these briefings is an act of blatant negligence that borders on the criminal. So where is the MSM’s outrage? Why are we not being told of this Democrat negligence?

Barone, one of the best political pundits out there today, closed his recent Real Clear Politics Report with the following:

What’s curious is that congressional Democrats don’t seem much interested in what’s actually happening in Iraq. The commander in Iraq, Gen. David Petraeus, returns to Washington this week, but last week Pelosi’s office said “scheduling conflicts” prevented him from briefing House members. Two days later, the members-only meeting was scheduled, but the episode brings to mind the fact that Pelosi and other top House Democrats skipped a Pentagon videoconference with Petraeus on March 8.

It has also been reported that one recent meeting with Gen. Petraeus on the Hill only saw one Democrat in attendance, that being Senator Carl Levin of Michigan.

It might be too early to say directly that it is some concerted effort or plan of the Democrat leadership to steer clear of Iraq briefings, but at the very least it certainly reveals their collective feeling that the war is already lost and that it’s time to move on past it all.

But here is the thing; they simply cannot claim to “support the troops” if they won’t even attend briefings held by the General in command of those troops. If the Democrats don’t attend these briefings they simply cannot claim to have the knowledge they need to make decisions necessary for policy direction. Unless, that is, they have fully decided, regardless of what is actually going on on the ground where our troops are facing the enemy, that all is lost.
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Marines Die in Dangerous Humvees in Iraq!

OK, I have to admit that my headline is sensational. Additionally, this story is not about Marines now being killed in Humvees, no Marine, as it occurs, died to make this story. In fact, quite the opposite is true in this case as this story is about a new generation of vehicles being introduced into the turmoil in Iraq that is saving the lives of our Marines.

Called a MRAP (Mine Resistant Ambush Protected vehicles), these new vehicles are designed to deflect IED bombings and protect soldiers from the full force of such ambush attacks.

So why the headline? Because it is sure that we will NOT see this story ballyhooed too much in the MSM, that’s why. No US soldiers are dieing, and lives are being saved through innovation and American ingenuity.
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PBS Drops Documentary Against Radical Islam for ‘Political Reasons’

-By Warner Todd Huston

An American tax-funded documentary, titled Islam vs. Islamists, a film on how moderate Muslims feel about the corruption of their religion by Wahhabi extremists and their experiences in facing those extremists, was axed by PBS for the very reason that it puts some Muslims in a bad light, says the film’s producer in Tuesday’s edition of the Arizona Republic. Rampant PCism is the charge, and it is hard to deny the claim once the whole story is put out there.

The producer of a tax-financed documentary on Islamic extremism claims his film has been dropped for political reasons from a television series that airs next week on more than 300 PBS stations nationwide.

Producer Martyn Burke claims that PBS, in order to be allowed to continue with the project, tried to make him fire some of his associates on the film because they belong to a Conservative Think Tank and that they still axed his film anyway when all was said and done.

So, what is all the fuss over with this film?

Burke wrote that his documentary depicts the plight of moderate Muslims who are silenced by Islamic extremists, adding, “Now it appears to be PBS and CPB who are silencing them.”

Apparently PBS, is so afraid of even appearing to say that some Muslims’ actions are problematic that they would rather suppress the whole show then deal with the truth.
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Coloradans Protest Statue of Fallen Soldier

-By Warner Todd Huston

When reading about the story of protests in Colorado over the raising of a memorial statue to a fallen U.S. Soldier, one is tempted to feel that Americans have lost every vestige of manhood that it ever possessed. Just the very fact that someone would be so free of patriotism and testosterone that they’d protest this statue should be enough to affirm that there are no men left in the nation… or at least in the state of Colorado. Fortunately, the final analysis of the case tends to affirm the opposite, but the very fact that someone was ignorant enough to protest this memorial to an American hero is enough to rankle the American spirit.

Danny Dietz was a Navy SEAL from Littleton, Colorado who was killed in action in Afghanistan on June 28th, 2005. Dietz’ family and the City of Littleton combined efforts to have a statue to his memory erected near Goddard Middle School, Centennial Elementary and Community School for the Gifted.

The statue is a representation of the young Dietz in a kneeling position, in full battle dress, matching one of the last pictures taken of him in the field in Afghanistan. He wears his battle harness with clips and pockets about his chest and cradled in his arms is, of course, his service weapon.

Naturally, it is the presence of the weapon that caused the love of community and patriotism to drain right out of the hearts of some of Littleton’s weakest citizens. Why, we can’t have a statue to a fallen soldier carrying a weapon, right? That would be so gauche, wouldn’t it? And this monstrous statue is to be put near a school, yet! What, they must think, will become of us all if our children could catch a glimpse of an evil, evil gun in the hands of an imperialist oppressor as they toddled off to school each day? Shouldn’t this statue be shoved far off into a corner where no one will have the misfortune to be forced to view it, they probably wonder?
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A man named Fred

-By Melanie Morgan

I’ve seen him in real life; just outside the ABC broadcast facilities in Washington, D.C., where he exited after taping a broadcast for Paul Harvey’s “News and Comment.”

I nearly sprained my neck looking up and trying to take in his 6-foot 6-inch frame.

He didn’t look well that day. At dinner the previous evening, Thompson had contracted food poisoning. The D.C. bureau chief told me that despite his obvious discomfort, he had nonetheless posted his segment. In my business, that counts for a lot. Deadlines are everything.

So, what do we know about Fred Thompson and his possible candidacy for the highest office in the land?
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Shakedown

Warren Lee Culpepper

Hungry Teachers, Legal Shakedowns, and Callous Aphorisms
Since my father used to warn me that teaching was just a slow way of starving to death, you might imagine my angst when I spurned his aphorism and decided to teach high school English anyway. I had just completed my service as a Marine officer, and I was making my transition back to civilian life. My sublime ignorance regarding the muscle flaunted by those smug Marxists of public education (you probably call them teacher unions) shielded me from further discouragement concerning my decision. Being a Marine, I ferociously attacked the career — undaunted by its bureaucracy.

I knew only a modest amount regarding the serious issues facing our nation’s public schools: issues like qualified teachers (a phrase with murky connotations); school choice; grade inflation; and school accountability. Furthermore, I knew absolutely nothing about how shamelessly and vigorously the unions fight to stymie practical solutions to those problems. I simply took for granted my school had hired me because it needed someone who could do the job in the classroom – I presumed that meant teaching my students to think. After wedging my foot in the interview door (thanks to my volunteer work with the wrestling team) I had reasoned that a Marine officer, even without a teaching credential, could handle any potential challenge a high school classroom presented.
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The MSM’s Willful Ignorance of American History, More Anti-Southernism

-By Warner Todd Huston

A rather small section, one small paragraph, in a pretty straight forward story reveals the sheer absurdity and incomprehension that prevails in the Media today and serves to show the emptiness of what passes for thinking and logic about American history in what some feel are our cultural elites. It also shows the bias against things Southern in certain circles these days.
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Legislating a Terrorist Victory in Iraq

-By Frank Salvato

If anyone was under the impression that congressional Democrats actually considered their actions, with regard to the “troop withdrawal bills,” beyond achieving victory over the Bush Administration, they would be playing the part of the uninformed, Kool-Aid drinking fool. While Democrats Nancy Pelosi, Harry Reid and the rest of their anti-war, pro-genocide, hate-Bush contingent revel in the fact that they have succeeded in passing a bill that opposes the president, al Qaeda operatives in Iraq are preparing to set their alarm clocks for “half-past redeployment” so the slaughter of those who braved Iraq’s polling places can begin.

Upon a logical, thoughtful examination, all congressional Democrats really achieved was a guaranteed veto at the hand of the president, a veto that in all likelihood, in light of the slim margin by which the bills’ passed, will be sustained. President Bush plainly promised to veto any bill that included a timetable or withdrawal measure and he made it perfectly clear to even the most feeble-minded in Congress that would be the case. So their actions – the bloviating, the grandstanding and the headline grabbing, in reality, were a pre-determined waste of time and taxpayer dollars.

Even more disconcerting is the fact that congressional Democrats, cheered on by the mind-numbing inanity of the anti-war Left, used tactics such as bribing Blue Dog Democrats with taxpayer funded pork projects placed in an emergency supplemental bill simply to achieve a political victory over the president. Let me say that again – they bribed many who wouldn’t have normally voted for defeatist policies with taxpayer dollars for pet pork projects; remember that the next time anyone tries to say that moderate Democrats are different from Progressive-Left Democrats.
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Wash.Post: Evangelicals Turning Against the War — Offers NO Proof

-By Warner Todd Huston

It is always interesting to me how a story can be published as if it is serious work, a story that almost seems plausible until you step back from it to realize that not a shred of proof to support the supposition was ever offered. After you’re done reading it you realize that all you ended up with were empty phrases like “some say” or “many are” instead of any statistics, studies or other proof.

Such is the case with the Washington Post’s story titled, “War Causing Split Among Evangelicals”. In fact, writer Julie Sullivan flat out admits that there is no proof for her supposition that “many” evangelical Christians are turning away from the war… but she postulates the premise any way.

No polling data show conclusively that opinion has shifted among conservative evangelicals.

This is only the fourth paragraph (the previous three being one sentence affairs) so you’d think she could just retire the piece right there. But, no we have to start right up with the “some say” routine.

But some national evangelical leaders say debate about — and, in some cases, opposition to — the war is breaking out among Christian conservatives whose support was key to President Bush’s election victories.

Yes and SOME Christians say that the earth is only 6,000 years old and that the end times are here right now. But that doesn’t mean either of those ideas are prevailing sentiments among Christians.

Next Sullivan gives what she imagines are the “reasons” all these evangelicals are suddenly turning against the GOP.
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NYTimes: Waited Full Week to Correct Military Rape Story – One Tale a Total Fabrication

-By Warner Todd Huston


On March 18th, the New York Times published a piece titled “The Women’s War”. It was a feature of great length (18 pages on the Internet) centered around the plight of several female Veterans of the war in Iraq. It detailed the mistreatment they suffered by the US Military, sexual harassment they received at the hands of army officers, and their PTSDs (post traumatic distress disorders). A shocking expose is what the Times was going for, it is sure. These women certainly deserved better treatment and the story should be well publicized, of course. It might have had more impact but for the fact that the Times knew that one of the subjects featured in the article wasn’t even in Iraq and that her story was a complete lie.

Worse yet, the Times published the story knowing full well that one of their subjects had lied to them. Finally, a whole week after their initial story was published on the 18th, on March 25th, the Times published a mea culpa, correcting the story.
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U.S. Military Has Lost the PR Battle – But they Can Turn That Around

-By Warner Todd Huston

If this war is another Vietnam fiasco in the end, it will be just as much the fault of the Public Relations arm of the US Military as it is that of the enemy or the Mainstream Media. (Called PAOs for Public Affairs Officers from here on)

It is assured that the large preponderance of the MSM is antithetical to the armed forces of the US Military and Army authorities are right to be mindful that most reporters are not out there only to cover the war but are out there with the agenda to embarrass thee military, destroy the president, and alter US policies.

But, just as one must be wary of enemies, one should cultivate allies. And for the US Military to treat all reporters as if they are no better than the enemy, well that is a horrible mistake. And that is what appears to be happening.

Either that, or the PAOs are so utterly incompetent that it is nearly criminal.
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Policy makers look to the stars

-By Michael M. Bates

Illinois Senator Dick Durbin is one left-leaning gent, even by Democratic standards. The non-partisan National Journal earlier this month ranked him the most liberal member of the U.S. Senate. In the company of such stalwarts as Teddy Kennedy, Hillary the pantsuit and Barack the empty suit, that’s a noteworthy, if dubious, achievement.

Comparing American soldiers to Nazis, Communists, and Cambodia’s Pol Pot burnished Dick’s credentials. When this inanity was extensively reported, he fell back on what liberals typically do. He didn’t apologize; he simply expressed regret that others may have misunderstood him. The Arab satellite TV network al-Jazeera reported this on its Web site as “US Senator stands by Nazi remark.”
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We Better Hurry Up and “Redeploy” So the Killing Can Start Again

-By Frank Salvato

The debate over the US military’s engagement on the Iraqi battlefield is raging on Capitol Hill with congressional Democrats attempting to defund the campaign through back-channel means. Simultaneously, reports are coming from a multitude of sources – both inside and outside of Iraq – that testify to the overwhelming success, to date, of President Bush’s “surge” initiative. Why are our elected officials wasting taxpayer dollars, allocated in the form of their salaries, to debate turning a victory into a defeat?

Anti-war activists, the mainstream media and liberal Democrats like Harry Reid, David Obey and Ted “Hope Floats” Kennedy are no strangers to ripping defeat from the jaws of victory. A perfect example of this can be found in the Vietnam War where politicians interfered with the generals to literally hand the Communist North Vietnamese a victory.

The US military, unmatched on the battlefields of Vietnam, was effectively neutered by politically and socially imposed limitations. In the end, it was the US military – the superior and more lethal fighting force – that was portrayed as weak and frail, ineffective and inept, not the inferior Communist forces championed by the mainstream media and the anti-war left. Their propaganda, delivered by an agenda-driven media monopoly, even turned the inarguable US military victory of the Tet Offensive into a perceived loss.

Today, the anti-war zealots of the intellectually challenged Progressive-Left – while they declare their support for our troops but not their mission (an oxymoron if there ever was one) – are plotting and scheming to once again impose political and social limitations on our Armed Forces in a transparent attempt to bring about another self-imposed US “forfeit.”
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Boston Globe: Iraq Insurgents Just Like Our Founding Fathers

-By Warner Todd Huston

I wonder if the MSM ever gets tired of trying to make evil look good? And if they aren’t trying to make evil look like good, they are trying to soft peddle evil with a they-are-really-just-like-us analysis of evil’s actions. Such is the case today in the Boston Globe wherein writer H.D.S. Greenway equates Iraqi insurgents to being just like America’s founding revolutionary generation.

In ‘Surge’ doomed to final failure, a badly garbled reading of history is foisted upon an unsuspecting reading public that culminates with H.D.S. Greenway boiling down the entire American Revolution to the claim that British soldiers were a “conquering force” in the Colonies and the Colonists were mad at them for it.

And so conquering foreign soldiers will be resisted in Iraq, as they have always been everywhere down the centuries. In early April 1775, the British governor of Boston sent John Howe out to gather intelligence in that hotbed of insurgency now called the western suburbs, but then the Anbar province of its time. Howe met an old man cleaning his rifle who looked too old to hunt game.

The old man said he expected foreign soldiers — “a flock of redcoats” — would be arriving soon, and he thought they would make good targets. Arrive they did, and with them the American revolution that in many states degenerated into civil war. The British soldiers were mostly of the same race and religion as the people they fought, but they were by then foreigners, and eight years later they were gone.

This simpleminded “gotcha” point that H.D.S.Greenway seems to imagine he has stumbled upon makes a mush of what really happened in 1776 and before to cause the American Revolution. Apparently H.D.S. Greenway is unaware that the British didn’t “conquer” the Colonists because the colonies were part of the territorial possessions of Great Britain in the fist place. Putting down an insurrection is quite different than conquering and the British were not truly “foreigners” – Revolutionary rhetoric aside– even to most American citizens. Unwanted, yes, but “foreign”? Not really. In truth, many U.S. citizens felt they were being truer Englishmen than the Brits were being.
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It Ain’t Too Purty (Like 500 Miles of Busted Concrete)

By R. A. Hawkins

When I look at the current state of affairs in American politics I have to say that it ain’t too purty. I realize that some might immediately think that I’m referring to Pelosi and Hillary when I write like 500 miles of busted concrete (an understandable mistake mind you), but I’m referring to both parties right now. On one side we have the likes of McCain and Giuliani and Romney. And on the other we have a laughable catastrophe. I find little humor in the Republicans’ inclination to emulate Bill Clinton’s tendency to stick a moist finger in the air and see which way the wind is blowing at the moment. So I’ll start on them first.

Giuliani thinks that gun control is a nice idea. I can see one reason why the Republicans might decide to pick him and only one. He got a lot of really nice face time on the tube after 9/11. That’s the only reason I can see for them picking him. The mere fact that he hails from that lofty example of Americana and statehood that voted Hillary and Schumer in is enough to make him useless to any real conservatives. Unless an (R) behind the name is all it takes anymore. Now that brings me to Mitt Romney. He comes from a wonderful place that repeatedly puts the likes of Ted Kennedy and John (I threw medals over the White House fence that’ll show ‘em) Kerry into office. That should count him out right there. Then there is the RINO McCain. I really don’t have much to say about him that’s good so I’ll drop it. On the other hand…what a doof! Make it official you dummy! Switch to the Democratic Party! There I said it.

And now for my favorite party: There’s Gore, who may be getting an honorary PhD from some university in Minnesota for being able to read the script to a movie with made up science, which for the university that should be only an “Inconvenient Truth”. Liberals will begin to flock to that place because in the true spirit of liberalism, they’re even giving degrees away. Nice. As a side note it is interesting that the liberals who claim to be the party of Jefferson have tossed FOX News out of the Nevada debates. I think that’s because they’ve refused to read the liberal script. All FOX has to do to counter that cruel maneuver is do a few reruns of ‘Spanky and Our Gang’ at the same time. The Nielson ratings from that would tell the liberals that had been the wrong move to make.
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The Military and the Media, a Clash of Missions

-By Warner Todd Huston

The AP is protesting a decision made by U.S. Military officials in Afghanistan claiming an oppression of a free press and saying there was “not a reasonable justification” for erasing an AP photographer’s pictures taken of the aftermath of a suicide bombing in Barikaw, Afghanistan. The decision protested by the AP was made March 4th by officers on the scene of a bombing that killed 8 Afghans, wounding 34. But, is the AP correct that this was somehow an outrage against a free press?

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan — The U.S. military asserted that an American soldier was justified in erasing journalists’ footage of the aftermath of a suicide bombing and shooting in Afghanistan last week, saying publication could have compromised a military investigation and led to false public conclusions.

“Investigative integrity is one circumstance when civil and military authorities will reluctantly exercise the right to control what a journalist is permitted to document,” Col. Victor Petrenko, chief of staff to the top U.S. commander in eastern Afghanistan, said in a letter Friday.

The AP didn’t take kindly to the military erasing the photos.

“That is not a reasonable justification for erasing images from our cameras,” said AP Executive Editor Kathleen Carroll in New York. “AP’s journalists in Afghanistan are trained, accredited professionals working at an appropriate distance from the bombing scene. In democratic societies, legitimate journalists are allowed to work without having their equipment seized and their images deleted.”

The incident prior to the photographs being taken is currently under investigation by the military to determine if the resulting firefight was justified and the given reason by authorities for erasing the photos was a fear that the reporters could have impeded that investigation. But another reason given is the more probable one.
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CONSERVATIVE LEADERSHIP CONFERENCE HEATS UP

**Note, since I will be a speaker at the CLC, I thought I’d pass along some info on the convention**

Conservative Movement Heats Up With Premier Western Conference

Reno, NV – In October of 2007 thousands of Conservatives looking to organize and network on a scale that has yet to be seen will meet in Reno, Nevada for the first annual Conservative Leadership Conference ( www.clc07.com ).

Invited speakers include Newt Gingrich, Michelle Malkin, Hugh Hewitt and Morton Blackwell just to name a few. Grover Norquist, founder of Americans for Tax Reform ( www.atr.org ) in DC, has signed his organization on as a co-sponsor of the event. Presidential hopefuls will be given an opportunity to speak in front of extensive traditional and new media coverage.

As dissatisfaction within the Conservative ranks begins to reach record levels, the timing of the largest event of its kind in the West couldn’t be better. With Nevada being a key swing state, the location is ideal as well.
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Mrs. Clinton endorses gay adoption, quietly

-By Michael M. Bates

Struggling with Senator Barack Obama for black votes, Hillary Clinton acquitted herself well in Selma the other day. That Southern drawl she’s suddenly developed assures her a job with any future revival of “Hee Haw” if her presidential ambitions are quashed.

Not so widely covered by the mainstream media was a speech Senator Clinton delivered two days earlier. She spoke before 400 members of the Human Rights Campaign, which boasts it’s the nation’s largest gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender civil rights organization. Hillary was gushing with enthusiasm for the HRC: “I love the fact it’s my initials, have you ever noticed that?”

She’s proud to stand with the Human Rights Campaign, she told them. Apparently not, however, proud enough to publicize her address to the group. The Associated Press reported that when she was asked Monday why she didn’t advertise the speech, as is usually done, Mrs. Clinton responded, “You’ll have to ask my campaign.”

The liberal double standard is wondrous to behold. George W. Bush is directly responsible for the misdeeds of any soldier anywhere in the world. Yet when one of their own is challenged, liberals immediately shift into full Sergeant Schultz “I know nothing . . . nothing!” mode. This, despite the fact that Hillary’s campaign isn’t quite as large as the U.S. military. Although it may spend more. Private detectives can be so very expensive.
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Lieberman Says it Well

-By Chuck Busch

Again, Joe Lieberman — the Democratic party’s 2000 presidential candidate — said it well on Friday:

The non-binding resolution before us is not about stopping a hypothetical plan. It is about disapproving a plan that is being carried out now by our fellow Americans in uniform, in the field. In that sense, as I have said, it is unprecedented in Congressional history, in American history. This resolution is about shouting into the wind. It is about ignoring realities of what’s happening on the ground in Baghdad.

It proposes nothing. It contains no plan for victory or retreat. It proposes nothing. It is a strategy of “no,” while our soldiers are saying, “yes, sir” to their commanding officers as they go forward into battle.

And that is why I will vote against the resolution by voting against cloture.

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Iran feels a Nuclear War is no Big Deal

-By Warner Todd Huston

Too many today assume that Iran getting a nuclear arsenal might not be so bad. There are various reasons they posit for this position, from Iran being sovereign and, therefore, unstoppable — and so it is none of our business, anyway — to the idea of equating Iran with the U.S.S.R. of the Cold War resulting in an assumption that a basic stalemated safety will result from a policy of containment (and a return to MAD) which will work to prevent the fanatics in charge of Iran from using them.

In the former, the sovereign position is one that stands on its own and one must either take it at face value assuming that no nation has a right or a place to attempt to interfere in any other nation’s business, or one must accept that all governments have a right or a moral duty to attempt to interject their interests in other nation’s affairs when said nation becomes a danger to others after some fashion or another. It’s either stay out (the Utopian libertarian ideal) or realize that things are more complicated than that. After all, the world left Hitler on his own without interfering much during that perceived era of “peace in our times”, but a healthy dose of George W. Bush’s doctrine of intervention would have, in retrospect, been a good idea in response to Hitler.

In the later, pundits assume that Iran understands the concept of MAD (Mutually Assured Destruction) and that they would not be so stupid as to launch a nuke for fear of their own destruction in retaliation. This theory relies on a basic assumption that the Iranians are as “reasonable” as the Soviets were.

But, those who imagine that Iran is run by people who are “just like us” in that they are sensible people who just want to make a living and live their lives like “normal people” should be stunned by what now former Iranian leader, Akbar Hashemi-Rafsanjani, a so-called moderate, said in a Qods day speech given in 2001.
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Jack Murtha: The Britney Spears of Congress

-By Warner Todd Huston

The worst thing about pop culture celebrities is their ever downwardly spiraling behavior. To get noticed they feel they must indulge in ever more outrageous behavior until they end up dead like Anna Nichol Smith or a drunken, debauched mess like the empty-headed Britney Spears. Sadly, the media and the gossip rags eat it up.

This pathology to attention mongering isn’t, though, exclusive to these so-called celebrities. In fact, such “notice” can sing a siren song for politicians, too. Especially those who imagine themselves populists.

It isn’t enough to have a principle and fight for it. That “principle” must be expanded ever more and the targets that the principle is applied against must be ever more extreme. Jack Murtha fits this political definition to a tee.

Jack Murtha is the Britney Spears of Congress. And his anti-war stance is the avenue to his pathological need to be noticed. And he isn’t alone.
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Unrest in Middle East is all USA’s Fault… or it isn’t

-By Warner Todd Huston

In keeping with their constant quest to saddle the USA with the fault for the growing unrest in he Middle East, the Washington Post has unleashed another article, replete with some efforts to blame-the-USA-first, titled “Across Arab World, a Widening Rift”.

In the first paragraph, writer Anthony Shadid illustrates the traditionally intertwined nature of Egypt’s Sunni and Shiite communities showing us how they have so easily coexisted in the recent past but quickly gets to the warnings of the danger of the Shiites “rising”.

Naturally, this is the fault of the USA who has left Arabs with a sense of “powerlessness and a persistent suspicion of American intentions.” The rise of unrest is also blamed on the “United States and others for inflaming it”.

Later in the piece, Shadid takes further aim at the USA in particular and the West in general.

“There’s a proverb that says, ‘Divide and conquer,’ ” Mohammed said. “Sunnis and Shiites — they’re not both Muslims? What divides them? Who wants to divide them? In whose interest is it to divide them?” he asked.

“It’s in the West’s interest,” he answered. “And at the head of it is America and Israel.” He paused. “And Britain.”

That sense of Western manipulation is often voiced by Shiite clerics and activists, who say the United States incites sectarianism as a way of blunting Iran’s influence. In recent years, some of the most provocative comments have come from America’s allies in the region: Egypt’s president questioned Shiites’ loyalty to their countries, Jordan’s king warned of a coming Shiite crescent from Iran to Lebanon, and last month King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia denounced what he called Shiite proselytizing

This illustrates the prosaic penchant for Muslims to resort to overarching and mostly absurd conspiracy theorizing. Blaming everyone but themselves is epidemic in Islam. After all, they are “God’s people” so they couldn’t be wrong, it is presumed.
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TV Turns Soldiers Into Torturers

-By Warner Todd Huston


The AP has found a new way to attack TV’s 24. They say that because of the depiction of character Jack Bauer’s, shall we say, short-cuts in interrogating prisoners his ways have now infected the US Military. Absurdly, the AP is advancing the case, in “Does Jack Bauer Influence Interrogators?”, that “there are indications that real-life American interrogators in Iraq are taking cues from what they see on television.”

Are they indeed? Says who?

Predictably the AP reports these claims are from the “advocacy group Human Rights First”.

No surprise there, eh?
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Extricate by 2008-Politcal Poker

-By Chuck Busch

Hillary may not be so smart after all or else she is betting that the rest of us are stupid. Her long anticipated announcement as a serious presidential contender was followed quickly by this revealing bombast against President George Bush and Commander in Chief in the war with Islamofacism. “I think it’s the height of irresponsibility and I really resent it – this was his decision to go to war, he went with an ill-conceived plan, an incompetently executed strategy, and we should expect him to extricate our country from this before he leaves office.”

She also admitted to being fooled into voting for the war before she voted against it. “So he took the authority that I and others gave him and he misused it…And if we had known then what we know now, there never would have been a vote and I never would have voted to give this president that authority.”

She “really resents it!” What she really is unhappy about is the prospect that if she ever achieves the object of her ego-mania, she will inherit a preemptive militaristic foreign policy against terrorist domination of the Middle East.

No doubt she had envisioned for herself another cakewalk administration modeled after the one she had partnered in with her husband where the threat of a brutal warring dictator in Iraq was ignored. For his two terms in office, now remembered as the “holiday from history”, our draft-dodging playboy president office steadfastly and repeatedly chose not to protect this country against terrorist attacks but rather to project the façade of a “peace and prosperity” administration.
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Democrats in Aid to Insurgents – It Finally IS Vietnam all Over Again

-By Warner Todd Huston

It is a shocker, but the AP actually let loose a kernel of truth about the situation in Iraq in one of their reports for a change. To wit, if Iraqi insurgents wait long enough, the USA will leave and they can come back on the scene with guns blazing and knives sharpened for decapitations.

In the streets of Sadr City, the strategy of Muqtada al-Sadr, the Shiite militia leader, is clear: Lie low, avoid a showdown and hope to emerge even stronger after the Americans leave.

This must have been a mistake. The AP would never knowingly give opponents of a pullout such ammo for discussion.

Naturally, they do not develop the reason that al-Sadr has come to this strategy, but the fact that they revealed that strategy at all is a refreshing change from their steady and nearly unwavering support for the anti-USA crowd on the left that is the usual AP fare.
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We’ve Been Here Before (Grow Up Or Get Out of the Way)

By R. A. Hawkins

In the early part of this nations history we can find the first echoes of what we are currently attempting to grasp and deal with. There we can also find the answers to our current problems. There has been a lot of cheering about inclusiveness from the left lately. It has to do with the swearing in of a certain Islamic Congressman who is unsurprisingly from Minnesota, a state that is not only on the outskirts of the nation but also on the outskirts of reality.

The swearing in of this particular congressman was performed on the copy of the Koran once owned by Thomas Jefferson. Many have questioned why Jefferson would have owned a copy of that book. Well, if the truth be told, he had copies of just about any book on any religion. This was one of the few books that survived the burning of his library. I for one am quite pleased that it did. I’m also quite pleased that someone who is ignorant of history, I assume, suggested that Ellison use that book.

At the very start of this nation we were dealing with the Pirates of Barbary. They were capturing our ships and impeding commerce with other nations. Once the United States was free of Britain we were also free of her protection. The British had been paying the demanded tributes. Tripoli had demanded $225,000 in cash and annual payments of $25,000. Adams was inclined to follow the model of the British but Jefferson wasn’t. Jefferson tried to form an international coalition to fight them but that failed because then, like now, everyone decided it was easier to give the bully their lunch money.
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Successes and Setbacks in the “Long War”

-By David Huntwork

A year ago the Pentagon released its Quadrennial Defense Review. It was essentially a strategy for a 20-year “long war” and a generational battle plan designed to prepare the military for a Cold War type struggle against the forces of militant Islam. According to the official unveiling:
“Since the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, our nation has fought a global war against violent extremists who use terrorism as their weapon of choice, and who seek to destroy our free way of life. Our enemies seek weapons of mass destruction and, if they are successful, will likely attempt to use them in their conflict with free people everywhere. Currently, the struggle is centered in Iraq and Afghanistan, but we will need to be prepared and arranged to successfully defend our nation and its interests around the globe for years to come.”
It is apparent that the United States and its assorted allies are still seeking to adequately define its enemy, reach a consensus on tactics, and achieve some sort of victory in (or graceful exit from) Iraq. In this age of round the clock news and information it is easy to get caught up in the crisis of the moment. But it is also important that we examine the big picture in the War on Terror and take the time to look back at some of the successes and setbacks experienced since 9-11.
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US Reaction to 9/11 Just a ‘Massive Overreaction’?

-By Warner Todd Huston

Nearly 3,000 Americans killed in a series of attacks on one single day — the most American civilians ever killed in a single day with coordinated attacks — was no big deal as far as David Bell writing for the L.A. Times is concerned.

The attacks were a horrible act of mass murder, but history says we’re overreacting.

See, they know this because Russia had a bad time of it during WWII.

…imagine that the attacks had continued, every six hours, for another four years, until nearly 20 million Americans were dead. This is roughly what the Soviet Union suffered during World War II, and contemplating these numbers may help put in perspective what the United States has so far experienced during the war against terrorism.

Such a ridiculous comparison. WWII, a standard, symmetrical war, bears little resemblance to this threat we face today. The Russians were under arms facing Hitler. It wasn’t a “nice” war, surely, but it was a standard war none-the-less. Hitler invaded and the Russians resisted.

Standard war stuff, really.
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Senate Hypocrisy on Anti-Iraq Resolution

-By Warner Todd Huston


Even as the Senate is falling all over itself to seem like they are being stern with president Bush, even as they are puffing themselves up as populists and hearing “the people’s ” dislike of the war, the Armed Services committee voted unanimously to approve the nomination of Army Lieutenant General David Petraeus to command U-S forces in Iraq.

So, while members of the Senate want to pretend they are against the war, they quietly approve the a general who has vocally and forcefully advocated Bush’s troop surge plans!

Just one more example of the smoke screen the Senate has thrown up on this issue. Cynically acting as if they are heeding the anti-war call while approving the warrior that will put what amounts to a sort of escalation.

The Senate trying to have it both ways with the sole goal to undercut Bush.
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Stopping the Republican Senators Who Support Anti-Iraq Resolution

-By Warner Todd Huston

As I post this, it is apparent that several Republican Senators are supporting a non-binding resolution that will express no support of president Bush’s new direction in Iraq and will directly denounce the raising of troop levels in Baghdad.

The non-binding resolution sponsored by Senators Chuck Hagel (R, Neb), Joe Biden (D, Del.) and Carl Levin (D, Mich) passed the Senate Foreign Relations committee 12-9. The whole of the Senate will now get a chance to weigh in.

Worse news is the trio of Republican Senators who offered their own anti-Iraq resolution in the committee.

Republican Senators John Warner of Virginia, Susan Collins of Maine and Norm Coleman of Minnesota as well as Democratic Senator Ben Nelson of Nebraska offered a resolution of their own concurrently with the initial attempt to attack Bush’s policy offered by Hagel.
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