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Category: Terrorism/Iraq

February 5, 2007

Courage?

Plenty of other bloggers have already pointed out the logical fallacy of columnists characterizing Chuck Hagel as “courageous” for undermining our soldiers fighting al Qaeda and other terrorists and thugs  in Iraq while  the polls show overwhelmingly escapist  sentiment at home.   The latest  Orwellian suffix to “support our troops” is “deny them reinforcements.”   What  this shares with other such feel-good manipulations is that it could never survive utterance in a roomful of actual troops and a live audio feed.  Yet...

Categories Terrorism/Iraq
January 27, 2007

At What Precise Moment Did Andrew Sullivan …

… transform himself from a principled defender of liberal values to someone who is willing to deceive to make his points?  The video shows Iraqi troops beating three men who’d been caught with a bag full of mortars in their car. I don’t defend the beatings, which at least one American tries fecklessly to stop, but calling people captured with mortars “civilians” is a bit of a distortion, no?    I noticed  it at the precise moment Bush declared his...

Categories Blogs & Blogging/Islam/Terrorism/Iraq
January 26, 2007

Scandal

Why on earth has it taken this long to let our soldiers kill the people who are killing them?  Micromanaging their fight against a hostile force transforms the rules of engagement into a suicide pact. The Bush administration has authorized the U.S. military to kill or capture Iranian operatives inside Iraq as part of an aggressive new strategy to weaken Tehran’s influence across the Middle East and compel it to give up its nuclear program, according to government and counterterrorism...

Categories Iran/Terrorism/Iraq
January 25, 2007

Axis, Schmaxis, Part 5

This blog  has previously tracked reports of  nuclear and missile  co-development between Iran and  North  Korea;  London’s Daily  Telegraph is now  reporting a widening expansion of Iranian-North Korean nuclear cooperation. North Korea is helping Iran to prepare an underground nuclear test similar to the one Pyongyang carried out last year. Under the terms of a new understanding between the two countries, the North Koreans have agreed to share all the data and information they received from their successful test last...

Categories Axis of Evil/Iran/Terrorism/Iraq/WMD
January 24, 2007

What Jim Webb Should Have Said

[Welcome Instapundit readers.]   My fellow  Americans,  We  have  have a long  and glorious history that I join you in celebrating here tonight.  Let me share with you this deguerrotype of my great great great great grandfather, a penniless drunkard and street-corner pugilist  who sat in a Dublin jail,  until he  was paroled and came to Virginia in 1724, just in time to join in the massacre of the peaceful Massapequasimolie Indians.  I would hope you draw strength  from this...

Categories Terrorism/Iraq/Washington Views
January 23, 2007

Lebanon on the Altar

Michael Totten reports, and has some pretty shocking pictures, and it’s depressingly doubtful that democracy can survive there. The Cedar Revolution will become a victim of Iranian infanticide and the amivalence of Europe, the United States, and other democracies to support it in its hour of need. The lesson comes through clearly: investing your nation’s survival in the United Nations and its French peacekeepers is like investing your savings in a partnership with that exiled Nigerian general who keeps e-mailing...

Categories "United" Nations/Iran/Islam/Terrorism/Iraq
January 23, 2007

al-Yahoo Update

[Update:   Another misleading headline from AP, here.  I suppose if you’re going to lament the terrible quality of our intelligence, you have to be even more depressed about the quality of the information we often get from our news media.  It strikes me as hypocritical for those responsible for the latter fiasco to be caustic in their criticism of the former fiasco.  At least the  CIA  can say that it’s not easy to unveil the deceptions of  secretive tyrannies. ...

Categories Media Criticism/Terrorism/Iraq
January 21, 2007

al-Yahoo Watch: News Consumers Need Warning Labels, Too

[Updated, scroll down]   The headline:  25 U.S. troops killed in Iraq Saturday I have my home page set to Yahoo because I use Yahoo e-mail, and there are two things about  Yahoo’s home-page headlines  that I’ve noticed and meant to start picking at  for a long time.  One is the tendency for the headlines to  emphasize only negative developments in  Iraq, chiefly casualties.  This headline, for example, could  just as well have told us  that Mookie Sadr, under pressure...

Categories Media Criticism/Terrorism/Iraq
January 19, 2007

Three Minutes for Lieutenant Mark Daily

Lieutenant Mark Daily gave you his life; will you give him three minutes?   Knowing what he was getting himself into, Mark Daily sat down to write what he knew could be his epitaph.   It is composed with the poetic zen that so few writers can manage, the  expression of complex ideas in clear prose.   It is the  eloquence of a man who applied courage to his compassion and principle: Maybe the reality of politics makes all political action inherently crude...

Categories Terrorism/Iraq/U.S. Military
December 2, 2006

The Death of an Alliance, Part 61: S. Korea’s Withdrawal from Withdrawal

I agree with GI Korea on this: Iraq won’t even miss the Zaitun “division.”  Although numerically large, Korea’s contribution was militarily nil. The troops did not patrol, conduct raids, or guard anything except their own base, which sat in the most secure area of Kurdish Iraq. The deployment was a translucent veil for Korea’s ingratitude for the sacrifice of other nations, chiefly that of the United States, for its own survival. Locals joked that South Korea was a member of...

Categories An Alliance?/ROK Military/Terrorism/Iraq
November 28, 2006

We Support Our Dupes

John Kerry tried to deny it until his own Web site tried to defend it.  Now, Charlie Rangel, even confronted with statistical evidence to the contrary, comes right out and states one of the minor premises  of the “back door draft” argument:  only an idiot with nowhere else to go would join the United States military.  It’s all right here, on video.  We all remember the dishonest suggestion, mostly just before the  2004 election,  that a Bush reelection would mean...

Categories America/Terrorism/Iraq/U.S. Military/Washington Views
November 14, 2006

In Search of the Clear, Simple, and Wrong

This must be the most interesting, most heartening, and least reported poll result of the week, if not the year: While a bare majority of 51 percent called the Democrats’ victory “a good thing,” even more said they were concerned about some of the actions a Democratic Congress might take, including 78 percent who were somewhat or very concerned that it would seek too hasty a withdrawal of troops from Iraq. Another 69 percent said they were concerned that the...

Categories America/Terrorism/Iraq
November 10, 2006

Al-Qaeda In Iraq Welcomes Dem Victory; Can the Dems Prove Them Wrong?

On the audio tape made available on militant Web sites, the al-Qaida in Iraq leader also welcomed the Republican electoral defeat that led to the departure of Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld. He added that the group’s fighters would not rest until they had blown up the White House. Can anyone argue that we can negotiate with  or run from these people?  Will running away from them do anything but give them more recruits and contributions?  Will running away bring...

Categories Terrorism/Iraq
November 6, 2006

They Will Follow Us Home

It’s about time. Saddam Hussein was convicted Sunday and sentenced to hang for crimes against humanity in the 1982 killings of 148 people in a single Shiite town. The ousted leader, trembling and defiant, shouted “God is great!” as the judge handed down the verdict. Saddam, his half brother and another senior official in his regime were convicted and sentenced to death by the Iraqi High Tribunal in one of the most highly publicized war crimes trials since the Nuremberg...

Categories Terrorism/Iraq
October 1, 2006

Everybody Riot!

This week, U.S. forces picked up or put down (I use the term in the veterinary sense) 20 members of an al-Qaeda cell in Baghdad.  It’s always unfortunate when terrorists choose to take shelter in civilian neighborhoods; worse yet when some inhabitants choose to shelter them, thus endangering their families and their neighbors.  As a consequence, a woman and child who didn’t have to die, died.  Observe the reaction of some: Angry men at the scene held up a color...

Categories Censorship/Terrorism/Iraq/Unintended Humor/WTF?
September 18, 2006

Islamic Terror in South Korea?

That’s been my worry ever since I was there, and apparently, the South Korean authorities are worried, too. Generally, the “camp follower” subculture that grows up around a U.S. military installation is right outside the gate. In Seoul, that subculture is in Itaewon, several blocks away. Itaewon ended up being the most “foreigner-friendly” zone in Seoul, which attracted third-country nationals and eventually, a large mosque. Today, that mosque sits right on top of “hooker hill,” the, um, intercourse of the...

Categories Islam/Terrorism/Iraq/U.S. Military