War on Terror
Posted at 5:11pm on May 22, 2008 George W. Bush And The Curious Case Of The Dog In The Night-Time
By Dan McLaughlin
Beldar reminds us of the two great accomplishments of George W. Bush's national security policy. I have nothing to add to the first, which affects me personally, but I would underline the second:
[E]ven if the Iraq War did nothing else (a proposition I reject), ... it emphatically demonstrated to every other country in the world that, in their dealings with the United States, there simply is no "military solution" which can favor them.
This can't be emphasized often enough in discussing the deterrent effect of the war. Yes, the war has been hard at times on the U.S., but it is not lost on other regimes how badly it ended for Saddam, his sons and his senior apparatchiks. Or for Zarqawi or other leaders of the foreign forces opposing us in Iraq. That's a huge distinction from how Vietnam ended for Ho's regime. Only the Iranians have really come out of this well, and only because they have not yet provoked us to the point where we would turn our guns on them directly. And if the U.S. did invade and seek to conquer Iran in the same fashion as Iraq, no matter how difficult that would be for the U.S., it would be much worse for the Iranian regime.
Posted at 9:45am on May 13, 2008 Reading War and Decision: Part One
Chapters 1-3: The First Days
By Mark I
From its very first pages, War and Decision, Inside the Pentagon at the Dawn of the War on Terrorism, by former Undersecretary of Defense for Policy Douglas J. Feith, takes the conventional wisdom about the war on terror and throws it out the window. Nothing, literally nothing you know about the way that the Bush Administration planned, decided, and executed the United States’ strategy for fighting and ultimately winning the war can stand up to the scrutiny imposed by this consequential book. In twenty years, when historians start to write a dispassionate history of the Bush Administration and its actions, they would do well to start with Feith’s careful, detailed, and surprising account of the issues, decisions, mistakes, and triumphs that America experienced in the early stages of its war against fundamentalist Islamic extremists.
Throughout her history, America has been fortunate to have great leaders at decisive times: George Washington and the Founders; Abraham Lincoln during the Civil War; Franklin Delano Roosevelt during the Great Depression and World War II; Ronald Reagan after the decline of the 1970s. America’s democracy, by design or by Providence, always seems to produce a man for his times to steer the nation through turbulence. In the case of the war on terrorism, there was not so much one man--although George W. Bush will ultimately be judged kindly by history for his principled leadership--as there was a particularly important plane trip. On the day after September 11th, 2001, when America had been brought low from the skies by hijacked airplanes used as weapons, it is both ironic and entirely fitting that the germ of the battle plan that would ultimately bring the terrorists to their knees, would begin to take shape in the belly of a military cargo plane en route from Europe to Andrews Air Force Base.
Read on…
Posted in Afghanistan | Donald Rumsfeld | Douglas Feith | Iraq | National Security | Pentagon | War and Decision | War on Terror — Comments (39)/ Email this page » / Read More »
Posted at 2:01am on Mar. 29, 2008 Fitna, Hosted by Pat Dollard
By Neil Stevens
'Bash' at Pat Dollard says that he will never bow to threats and take down his copy of Geert Wilders' Fitna, and it sounds like he has the guns to back that up.
Posted at 2:59pm on Mar. 27, 2008 Fitna, in English
By Neil Stevens
Here it is: Geert Wilders's work on our enemy in the War on Terror, uncut and holding nothing back. Be warned: This movie graphically depicts the death and destruction of terrorism, including the 9/11 attacks and beheadings.
Comments enabled. Movie embedded below the fold via Live Leak where Wilders posted it himself.
Posted at 6:57pm on Feb. 27, 2008 Iraq to Turkey: Get out. Turkey to Iraq: No.
By Neil Stevens
The Turks are continuing their anti-terror operations in Iraq despite now official demands from the Iraqi government that they stop.
I still see no reason why I shouldn't be entirely with Turkey on this. This is the Bush Doctrine in practice. If the Iraqi kurds are going to house terrorists, then they have to deal with it when others come in to root out the terrorists.
Posted at 1:10pm on Feb. 11, 2008 Nuancing Neville - Democrat Style
By haystack
There has been much mention of Pelosi's remarks on CNN's late Edition this week (10 February, 2008). Read one HERE, another HERE, and another HERE, and many of these based on stories HERE, HERE, and HERE. Pelosi has a well-enough established track record of trashing or outright denying success in Iraq, so there's nothing wildly newsworthy about her performance on CNN. However, if I might be so bold, I suggest we need just a wee bit o' context and historical perspective so that the larger point...that of our Democrat friends insisting they not learn from history, so that we might be reminded of what blindness in the face of evil might bring us. As Chamberlain de-planed after capitulating to Hitler, he said this:
"We, the German Führer and Chancellor, and the British Prime Minister, have had a further meeting today and are agreed in recognizing that the question of Anglo-German relations is of the first importance for our two countries and for Europe.
We regard the agreement signed last night and the Anglo-German Naval Agreement as symbolic of the desire of our two peoples never to go to war with one another again. We are resolved that the method of consultation shall be the method adopted to deal with any other questions that may concern our two countries, and we are determined to continue our efforts to remove possible sources of difference, and thus to contribute to assure the peace of Europe."
And before going in the house, all snuggly and warm and unwilling to "see" what he would later become (unwittingly) complicit with helping to cause:
"My good friends, for the second time in our history, a British Prime Minister has returned from Germany bringing peace with honour. I believe it is peace for our time...Go home and get a nice quiet sleep."
The Democrats, too, want us to enjoy a nice quiet sleep...apparently.
More below the fold...
Posted in Harry Reid | Liberals | Nancy Pelosi | War on Terror — Comments (13)/ Email this page » / Read More »
Posted at 5:59pm on Jan. 8, 2008 Osama bin Laden -- and the eventuality of his capture -- does not matter one whit. Not to us, and not to the world.
By Jeff Emanuel
I really don't have the time or the patience to expand on this more than you see here at the present moment. If there's enough commentary -- especially of the naively simplistic kind -- I may say more about it, but there's really no need.
FACT 1: Osama bin Laden does not matter one whit to the security of the United States or of our allies. The movement he champions does, of course -- very much, in fact -- but he, as a man, does not.
Read on.
Posted in Osama Bin Laden | War | War on Terror — Comments (70) / Email this page » / Read More »
Posted at 11:00am on Dec. 28, 2007 Al Qaeda Opens a New Front
Does Bhutto’s Death Mean the End of Iraq?
By Mark I
Al Qaeda’s military commander in Afghanistan claims that the terror group coordinated the effort that led to the assassination of former Pakistani Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto in Rawalpindi, Pakistan yesterday. In a telephone interview with Asia Times Online (NSA boys, did you get this one on tape?), Mustafa Abu al-Yazid said that the killing was part of an al Qaeda plan to destabilize Pakistan by hitting at “precious American assets” there.
”We terminated the most precious American asset which vowed to defeat mujahideen. This is our first major victory against those who have been siding with infidels in a fight against al-Qaeda and declared a war against mujahideen.”
Al-Yazid goes on to describe a fairly elaborate effort at tracking and targeting Bhutto and President Pervez Musharraf involving indigenous extremist groups acting on orders from al Qaeda. California Yankee reports that US Intelligence agencies have not yet confirmed that al Qaeda was responsible. But couple the claim with reports from earlier this month that defeated al Qaeda forces were moving out of Iraq and heading back to Afghanistan, and it begs the question: Does Bhutto’s death mean that the Iraq war is essentially over?
Read on…
Posted in Afghanistan | al-Qaeda | Benazir Bhutto | Iraq | Pakistan | Pervez Musharraf | War | War on Terror — Comments (9)/ Email this page » / Read More »
Posted at 2:23pm on Dec. 21, 2007 There's Still A War On. But For Now, It's Going Pretty Well.
This Should Be Good News.
By Dan McLaughlin
The good guys aren't the only ones who have problems with former supporters turning on them:
One of Al Qaeda's senior theologians is calling on his followers to end their military jihad and saying the attacks of September 11, 2001, were a "catastrophe for all Muslims."
In a serialized manifesto written from prison in Egypt, Sayyed Imam al-Sharif is blasting Osama bin Laden for deceiving the Taliban leader, Mullah Omar, and for insulting the Prophet Muhammad by comparing the September 11 attacks to the early raids of the Ansar warriors. The lapsed jihadist even calls for the formation of a special Islamic court to try Osama bin Laden and his old comrade Ayman al-Zawahri.
The disclosures from Mr. Sharif, also known as Dr. Fadl and Abd al-Qadir ibn Abd al-Aziz, have already opened a rift at the highest levels of Al Qaeda. The group's deputy, Ayman al-Zawahri, a former associate of the defecting theologian in Egypt, personally mocked him last month in a video, remarking that he was unaware Egyptian prisons had fax machines. Meanwhile, leading Western analysts are saying the defection of Mr. Sharif indicates the beginning of the end for Al Qaeda.
Read On...
Posted in Al Qaeda | terrorism | War | War | War on Terror — Comments (2)/ Email this page » / Read More »
Posted at 10:56am on Dec. 4, 2007 The War on Terror in a few sentences
Terrorists jumping from the frying pan to the fire
By Neil Stevens
Radio Netherlands reports (link via The Corner) some pretty good news in Afghanistan, complete with hidden bonuses of related news elsewhere in the War on Terror:
The International Security and Assistance Force (ISAF) in Afghanistan says the Taliban is in control of no more than five of the country's 59 districts. The statement comes during the surprise visit of US Defence Secretary Robert Gates to Afghanistan.
ISAF spokesman Carlos Branco says the Taliban has failed as a resistance movement. However, the Portuguese general admits that an increasing number of fighters from the terrorist network al-Qaeda are entering the country from Iraq where they are suffering defeats.
The many-fold implications of this report are just delicious for those of us who have been banging our heads against the brick walls of the Democratic left's arguments against the War on Terror.
Read on...
Posted in Afghanistan | Al Qaeda | Iran | Iraq | Victory | War | War on Terror — Comments (3)/ Email this page » / Read More »
Posted at 7:10pm on Nov. 19, 2007 "The Path to Victory"
By AcademicElephant
Full dislosure: I am completely and totally biased in favor of this speech. But I am still curious to know everyone else's thoughts--comments thus enabled.
Posted at 9:29pm on Nov. 12, 2007 Afghanistan Showdown begins in Japan
By Neil Stevens
The Japanese Maritime Self Defense Force has been aiding the coalition in Afghanistan by refueling ships in the Indian Ocean. However the Democratic Party of Japan has been pushing to pull out, with its leader in fact getting into an argument with Angela Merkel over it when she last visited Japan.
Japan's Prime Ministers have perservered through these objections, but now the authorization for that assistance is set to expire. Voting on a new bill will soon begin in the Diet, starting with the House of Representatives. A Liberal Democratic Party-lead coalition, which favors engagement in the War on Terror, controls the lower house, so the bill is likely to pass there. But they lost the House of Councillors in the last election in July to the DPJ, a month before the resignation of former Prime Minster Abe, so there could be problems getting the bill passed there.
Here's hoping Japan's left is as ineffective as ours on this.
