Every week, the Watcher's Council members nominate two posts each, one from the Council members and one from outside for consideration by the whole Council. The complete list of this week's Council nominations can be found at the site of our fearless leader, Watcher of Weasels
Do take the time and check out the non-Council links..they are always rewarding.
Here's this week's Council lineup:
1. JoshuaPundit: The NYT - "Run Away! Run Away!" In this week's piece, I write about the ongoing efforts to legislate a defeat for our troops in Iraq, with no consideration of what it will do to our war effort, our friends, our enemies or our military. It's especially frustrating as we seem to be finally making some progress there at long last.
Congress confirmed General Petraeus, along with his strategy, and agreed to give him until September, when they would make an assessment on his progress..and now they're trying to renege and sabotage him.
A chief protagonist in the new defeatism, as always, is the New York Times, who published an editorial last weekend urging an immediate pull out. It's a piece that's unique in its disinformation, defeatism and conclusions that have nothing to do with reality...and its hunger for an American defeat comes wafting off the page with every paragraph. I examine it and tell you why that attitude's so insidious, short sighted and dangerous.
2. Done With Mirrors;Independence Day Callimachus has a superb revelation on Independence Day - that America both aspires to be the most free nation on earth while also the most concerned with its morality and its virtues. Cal has a knack for saying a lot in a few paragraphs..this is a fine example.
3. Soccer Dad: High Class Terror Soccer Dad has a great piece this week as he examines the origins of the London Bombers ( many of whom turned out to be doctors) and other jihad terrorists, and puts the lie to one of the Left's fondest fables..that poverty and reduced opportunities are what lead to crime and terrorism.
Many of the jihadis come from the ranks of the middle and upper middle class,(some, like OBL are millionaires) and many of them have outwardly fairly normal lives. Soccer Dad quotes blogger TransTerrestrial Musings as writing "We are winning the war on the ground, and losing it where it really matters, in the media, and political establishment. The enemy understands the nature and value of their information war, but our side remains clueless."
Actually, it's more about Islam than information, IMO and there is no way that we can `convince'people out of that, except in rare occasions ( Walid Shoebat being a good example).
The jihadis aren't motivated by desperation or poverty. To paraphrase Soccer Dad, they are motivated by hatred, and until that changes, there will be no peace with these people.
4. The Glittering Eye :What's in a Name ( AL-Qaeda Edition) This week, The Glittering Eye's Dave Schuler quite rightly is skeptical of linking every Islamic terorist to al-Qaeda, and makes the cogent point that the need to link all Muslim terrorists to al-Qaeda reflects a dividing line between those who think we're at war with a small number of people holed up in Pakistan and their affiliates and those who see the struggle as much wider.
As I've often written, al Qaeda were never more than subcontractors and shock troops used against the West by others.
Dave also makes the point ( which I totally agree with) that we have to be careful not to go too far the other way and assume we're in a war with all Islam..although I would say that a significant part of Islam certainly believes it's in a war with us, and acts on that.
5. Bookworm Room: Bad Medicine *BUMPED* Ms. Bookworm saw Michael Moore on Jay Leno's show,promoting his film Sicko,and took the occasion to do a superb rant on the pitfalls of socialized medicine.
6. Another Human Rights Attrocity in Malaysia Greg writes about the case of Revathi Masoosai, a Muslim woman who tried to leave the faith and was forcibly sent to a nifty Islamic
`re-education' camp for six months,where she was forced to pray as a Muslim, wear a hijab (head scarf) and eat beef (the woman had converted to Hinduism).
After her release, she was ordered to live with her Muslim mother, continue to receive the court's "counseling", and stay away from her Hindu husband (Islam permits Muslim males to marry non-Muslims, but not the other way around) .
The sharia courts also seized the couple's 18-month-old daughter from her father and turned her over to Revathi's mother to be raised as a Muslim, disregarding the wishes of both parents.
The article Greg cites says that Malaysia is `considered one of the world's most relaxed Muslim countries, having enjoyed racial peace for nearly four decades.' That used to be true..until our `eternal friends' the Saudis whom our president seems to be so enamored of used their financial clout to take over the mosques and madrassahs and radicalize the Muslim population of Malaysia to wahabism.
What's more, they are doing exactly the same thing in western countries...including the USA.
Remember this case when CAIR or their soulmates start talking about having sharia courts here in America `just to deal with internal Muslim affairs.'
7.Colossus of Rhodey:North vs. South Our resident Sci-Fi and Fantasy expert Hube isn't writing about the American Civil War here, but the increasing division between the rich `white' North and the poor `non-white' South.
Here, he examines a few sci-fi novels that take that division to the outer limits..
8. Cheat Seeking Missiles: Hillary's Grand, Failed Cover-Up I wrote something on this during the week, and almost submitted it...and since I didn't, I'm so-oo glad Laer did such a killer job taking Mr. Bill and Hillary to task on their incredible hypocrisy in criticizing Prsident's commutation of Scooter Libby's unjust sentence. ..just because it needs pointing out.
Like me, it appears that Laer took a good look at the DOJ page that lists the Clinton pardons. Among the crimes that merited clemency from Bill n' Hill were a whole slew of offenses for bank fraud and embezzlement, drug sales and conspiracy to import narcotics including crack cocaine, military desertion, mail fraud, counterfeiting, income tax evasion, defrauding the federal government,SEC offences, weapons offences, bootlegging, grand theft auto and a host of other felonies.
And of course there were the political pardons for the likes of Susan McDougal, Webb Hubbel, Henry Cisneros, Dan Rostonkowski and others.
Even more entertaining is playing `connect the dots' and doing a few searches to see who these people were connected to and whom they were ( sometimes literally) in bed with.It's not often I throw any roses at the Bush Administration, and they are hardly pristine, but when it comes to out and out corruption, they are rank amateurs compared with the Clintons.
You think these people would have the common decency to keep their mouths shut for a change. Grrrr!
9. . Baqubah Update From Michael Yon at ‘Okie’ on the Lam Okie uses war correspondant extraordinaire Michael Yon's piece on the atrocities committed by al-Qaeda to remind us of something the dinosaur media would rather not talk about..that our enemies are unredeemably evil.
Just like any notion of General Petraeus' progress and success, Yon's superb piece has been completely ignored by the dinosaur media, hung up as they are on making their reporting of the Iraq war one huge American casualty report.
Ultimately, they are simply clueless and in denial. As Okie puts it `Yeah, this war on radical Islam — you Dems just keep tellin’ yourself, “It’s nothin’ but a bumper sticker.” Well said, Okie.
10. Right Wing Nut House : Success in a Vacuum Rick's piece likewise concerns Iraq, and bemoans the fact that while our troops are doing superbly,the Iraqi government is dropping the ball..all too true.
I still think we owe it to General Petraeus to give him the time he was promised - until September - without sabotaging or second guessing him. The ridiculous government we allowed to come into power by pushing the Iraqis into an election they weren't ready for isn't his fault.
Solutions? if they don't get their act together, rather than retreating, we should ally ourselves with the Kurds, our only real allies in Iraq, help them build a strong, independent Kurdistan including Kirkuk, and stick permanent bases there to continue to kill the jihadis and and confront Iran and Syria.
Hey, I've only been saying it for a year and a half now..ever since the Maliki government proved its corruption, factionalism and ties with our enemies.
11.The Education Wonks:Army Recruitment and the Influencers EdWonk confronts a heartfelt dilemma this week..as an educator and an `influencer' what do you say to kids whom ask your advice on serving in our military? As an ex-seviceperson, EdWonk used to give an unqualified `yes' to these queries. Now, given what's happening in Iraq and Afghanistan, EdWonk has the courage to admit that his answers nowadays are more along the line of `go talk it over with your parents.'
I respect that, and hope that Edwonk's answer changes back once we have different leadership for our war effort. And by the way, EdWonk ..thanks for your service.
12.Big Lizards: Spin City,Here We Come Hmmm..the new tactic of President Bush's rapidly declining fan club seems to be to belittle and trash Ronald Reagan and his proponents (like Peggy Noonan) in an attempt to make the current occupant of the White House look better. If the GOP as a whole adopts that attitude, they're on target to be the next Whigs, I'm afraid.
That's this week's lineup..enjoy
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