Pakistan Frees Jihadist Leader As The Post-Musharraf Era Begins..

US ally President Pervez Musharraf has been marginalized in Pakistan..and the new Islamist, anti-American ruling coalition is already making changes:

Pakistani government in the country's northwest is set to free a top militant leader shortly after over six years in detention in a reconciliation process with the militants, a government spokesman said Monday.

Maulana Sufi Muhammad is the founder of 'Tehreek-e- Nafaz-e- Shariat-e-Mohammadi' (TSNM), a Pakistani organization which aims to strictly enforce Sharia in the country, was arrested in late 2001 after he was returning from Afghanistan.

Sufi Muhammad had crossed into Afghanistan along with hundreds of his supporters to help Taliban in fight against the Americans and foreign forces.

The TSNM, who had been operating in the North-West Frontier province,was banned by President Pervez Musharraf.

Sufi Mohammad encouraged and organized thousands of people to fight against the western powers invading Afghanistan at the time of the downfall of the Taliban in 2001.

{...}

"The release of Sufi Muhammad will help in containing violence," Zahid Khan, information secretary of the ruling Awami National Party in the northwest said.

Khan said that the release of Sufi Muhammad is the first step and talks are underway with the militants to free other people as part of the reconciliation process.

All of these 'militants' will likely be coordinating attacks on allied forces in Afghanistan once they're freed.

The geni's out of the bottle, and remember...these people already have nukes.

Hamas Offers Israel a 'Piece' Deal

Ex-President and national embarrassment Jimmy Carter came away from his meeting with Hamas politbureau boss Khalid Meshaal in Damascus absolutely gibbering about the soo-perb diplomatic progress he'd made.

'They said that they would accept a Palestinian state within the 1967 borders if approved by Palestinians and that they would accept the right of Israel to live as a neighbour, next door, in peace,' Carter told a press conference.

Umm no, not quite, Jimmah.

Hamas quickly qualified Cwazy Unkie Jimmy's remarks:

The leader of Hamas says his Palestinian militant group is offering Israel a 10-year truce if it withdraws from all lands it seized in the 1967 war.

Khaled Mashaal says he made the offer to former President Carter in talks on Saturday.

Mashaal says Hamas would accept a Palestinian state limited to the lands Israel seized in 1967 — an implicit acceptance that Israel would exist alongside that state.

But Mashaal says the group would never outright formally recognize Israel.

So, Israel uproots thousands of its citizens and places itself behind indefensible borders next to a genocidal enemy who wants to destroy them - all for the promise of a temporary ten year 'truce'!

Sounds like a great deal to me - if you have a death wish!

It's important to put this in perspective. What Hamas is offering to do is a remake of the Peace of Hubidiyeh, an exploit of Mohammed's well known to all Muslims. Mohammed made an eternal treaty of peace with the Quaraysh tribe in Arabia - that lasted until he was strong enough to massacre them, even after they surrendered.

That's what Hamas is offering, and Carter is either stupid, senile or inherently dishonest to represent it as anything else...maybe all three.

The part about 'approval by the Palestinians' is also an important little detail to recognize...because it's highly unlikely, even if the Israelis were dumb enough to fall for it. Here's the latest poll results from Jerusalem Media & Communications Center, a Palestinian think tank:

The number of Palestinians who support attacks against Israelis continues to rise and more than half of them favor suicide bombings, according to a poll published this weekend.

The survey also showed that Hamas Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh is still more popular than Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas.

The percentage of Palestinians who support "resistance operations" against Israeli targets rose from 43.1 percent in September 2006 to 49.5% at present. Support for this option was highest in the Gaza Strip, at 58.1%, with 24.5% in the West Bank agreeing.

Palestinians who support bombing attacks against Israeli civilians rose from 44.8% in June 2006 to 48% in September 2006 and to 50.7% now.

Again, more Gazans support these operations (65.1%), compared with 42.3% of Palestinians in the West Bank.

Aside from the fact that these numbers make any peace deal with Israel unlikely, notice that Hamas is much more popular than Fatah, even in the West Bank. The only thing propping up Arafat II Mahmoud Abbas and keeping Hamas from taking over the West Bank as well as Gaza is the IDF and millions in US aid...and Condi Rice is frenetically pressuring the Israelis to remove the IDF presence on the West Bank.

What Hamas is counting on is a continued erosion in Fatah's numbers until they can take over and add the West Bank to Hamastan. At that point, Hamas will be the Palestinian 'unity government.'

Housecleaning

I normally don't write posts about blogging, so this will be an exception.

If you check out the links page, you'll notice that there have been some changes. A number of what I call 'dead' blogs have been removed, (ie, sites that haven't posted anything in quite some time) and a number of new faces added.

This is something I've been meaning to get to for quite some time, and I apologize for that.

A big part of the delay to do with the fact that I genuinely liked a number of these sites and the people behind them, and was hoping they'd eventually get their finger out and write some more. In a couple of cases, I even wrote some harassing e-mails!

The reasons people feel compelled to get to the keyboard and write differ in each case, and like everything else in life, things change. Those of you who have tried running a site know how much work it is and the chunk of time it takes...those of you who haven't can't imagine.

Anyway, to those of you who were deleted and are still members of Joshua's Army, my apologies. You know it isn't personal, and if any of you get the urge to start things moving again, let me know so I re-link to you. Likewise, if any of you are not planning to start up your sites again but feel the urge to write something, email me at rmill2k@msn.com and shoot it by me..I'll certainly consider it for publication here.

For the rest of you, enjoy the new links. This is the beginning of several changes I think will be quite beneficial and add to the mix.

al-Sadr On His Last Legs, As Iraqi Offensive Continues

To use a sanitized version of that pungent old phrase, Mookie's posterior must be exuding buttermilk.

In spite of the dinosaur media's fervent efforts to paint it otherwise, the Iraqi army and their American allies continue attack the Mahdi Army in its strongholds in Basra and in Sadr City in Baghdad...and they're winning handily.

Basra has already been secured, with the Iraqi army overrunning the last Sadrist stronghold in the Hayaniya neighborhood of the city and chasing the Mahdi Army out yesterday, April 19th.

As I reported earlier, the Shiite Badr Force associated with Ayatollah Sistani, the senior Shiite cleric in Iraq have officially become part of the government forces and took their part in chasing the Mahdi Army out of Basra. This is a huge story, much bigger than the dinosaur media would like to admit. The Badr Force was formerly one of the Shiite militias receiving arms and backing from Iran, and they've effectively switched sides, with Ayatolah Sistani calling for Moqtada al-Sadr to disband the Mahdi Army and lay down his arms.

Some of you will also remember that after the first battle of Faluja, it was Ayatollah Sistani who gave asylum to Mookie in Karballa and prevented the US from taking him out of commission. Things have changed.

After his ouster from Basra, al-Sadr threatened to launch 'open war' against Maliki and the 'occupiers' if they didn't cease their offensive against the Mahdi Army. The Iraqi and US response to that was a fresh assault on Sadr City that ended up with 20 of Mookie's finest receiving some permanent r&r six feet under and another 40 or so captured, in the offensive, which targeted the southern Souk al-Shiuk district inSadr City, a long time Mahdi Army stronghold.

Another 40 0r so were killed when the Iraqi army retaliated after the Mahdi Army attacked them yesterday in the southern city of Nasiriyah.

Mookie himself is believed to be in Iran, where he fled, as I predicted he probably would.

Iraqi Prime minister al-Maliki, for his part,was quite blunt about any kind of reconciliation with the Mahdi Army:

Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki is calling on political parties to unite against armed groups in Iraq, a spokesman said Sunday, warning that "Iraq cannot be the new Somalia."

"It is a clear message," al-Maliki spokesman Ali al-Dabbagh said of the situation in Iraq. "We cannot accept the presence of armed groups."

I must admit, a year ago I never would have thought al-Maliki was capable of making that kind of stand.

Iran, for it's part is playing both ends against the middle as usual.Now that the Mahdi Army is on the run, Iran's Ambassador to Iraq is suddenly referring to the Mahdi Army as 'outlaws' and claims Iran supports the Iraqi government. That's for public consumption by the dino media, since Iran is still supplying the Mahdi Army with arms and funding them, but it also is a tacit admission that the mullahs have suffered a startling defeat here, and that Iran's attempt to create an Iraqi Hezbollah-like state within a state as in Lebanon has failed utterly.Don't be surprised if the Iranians turn Mookie over to the Iraqis, as a lesson to others on the harsh price of failure.

As is usual in that part of the world, people respond to strength and power, and the US surge changing the facts on the ground and the Iraqi perception of the level of our commitment to victory there have turned things around amazingly.

Mookie is halal toast.

Is Islam Dominated By Radicals?

This is the motion ('Islam Is Dominated By Radicals') that was the subject of a fascinating live debate conducted by NPR as part of its Intelligence Squared series funded by the RosenKranz Foundation on April 15th , 2008.

The proposition was argued in strict debate format, three panelists on each side for and against, with strict time limits and and moderated opening statements, cross examinations and time limited closing statements for each panelist.

Makes you wish the presidential debates were handled this well!

Not only was the debate exceptionally well moderated and conducted in a fair and balanced fashion, by Robert Siegel of All Things Considered, but the panelists themselves were knowledgeable, articulate and well known:

For

Daveed Gartenstein-Ross, Vice President of the Foundation for The Defense of Democracies, a man who converted to Islam, put in time raising funds for jihad with the radical Saudi funded al-Haramain 'charity' and then left Islam and wrote an amazing book called "My Year Inside Radical Islam" as well as a number of illuminating articles, some of which have been linked to on this site.

Paul Marshall, a Senior fellow in the Center For The Study of Religious Freedom at the Hudson Institute.

Asra Nomani, a noted Muslim feminist, a professor of journalism at Georgetown University, and a former reporter with the Wall Street Journal.She was a friend and colleague of the late Daniel Pearl before he was murdered by Islamist terrorists in Pakistan and was one of the last people to see him alive.

Against

Reza Aslan, an assistant professor at the University of California at Riverside, a fellow at the USC Center For Public Diplomacy.He's the author of several books on the subject of Islam, and one of the Middle East analysts for CBS news.

Richard Bulliet, a professor of Middle East history at Columbia University ( with all that implies), and one of the professors who was instrumental in inviting Iran's Mahmoud Ahmadinejad to Columbia.

Edina Lekovic, Director of Communications and a well-known spokesperson for the Muslim Public Affairs Council

Prior to the debate, the moderator Robert Siegel had the spectators vote on whether they agreed with the motion. 46% of the audience agreed that Islam was dominated by radicals, 32% disagreed, and 22% were undecided.

After the debate the same audience changed radically, with 73% agreeing that Islam was dominated by radicals, 23% disagreeing and only 4% remained undecided.

To find out why, click on the 'debate' link above for the full transcript. Fascinating stuff.

Chag Sameach!! Happy Passover!!

The Dry Bones Blog explains everything you ever wanted to know about matzoh....

And of course, there's always the maniacs over at JibJab's `Matzoh Rap'!JibJab.com

Japanese Baseball Team Scores 66 Runs In Two Innings!

I have a feeling a certain wanna-be pitcher ought to try another position!

"TOKYO (Reuters) - A Japanese high school pleaded for a regional game to be abandoned after surrendering 66 runs in less than two innings, local media reported on Thursday.

The coach of Kawamoto technical high school threw in the towel to spare his pitcher's arm with his team losing 66-0 with just one batter out in the bottom of the second.

The hapless hurler had already sent down over 250 pitches, allowing 26 runs in the first inning and 40 in the second before Kawamoto asked for mercy.

"At that pace the pitcher would have thrown around 500 pitches in four innings," Kawamoto's coach was quoted as saying. "There was a danger he could get injured."

Opponents Shunshukan were officially credited with a 9-0 victory, giving the scoreline a tinge of respectability for the luckless Kawamoto school."

What,no bullpen? Shimata!!

I also love the bit about Shunshukan agreeing to save Kawamoto's face by agreeing to accept a 9-0 forfeit....baseball has a way of bringing that out in people.

Still, that's a lot of runs..and a feed line for an obvious joke that I'll allow you to puzzle out for yourselves.

Watcher's Council Results 4/18/08

The Council has spoken! A complete list of results can be found at the site of our fearless leader, the infamous Watcher of Weasels


This week's runaway winner was The Next Moves In An Existential Chess Match an authoritative and excellent piece of analysis by Wolf Howling on the possible next moves with Iran.

In second place was Does America Need a New Enemy? One Brit Thinks So... by Hillbilly White Trash,Lemuel's superb skewering of a particularly obnoxious essay by a British commentator.

Also getting votes was Elitism and the Elitist Elites Who Think They're the Elite by Right Wing Nut House.


In the non-Council category,the winner was It's the "White" Church that Obama's Talking About (UPDATED) by Baldilocks, who compared Obama's remarks on small town Americans who supposedly cling to their religion out of 'bitterness' with the reality of institutions like the Trinity UCC where they actually do. It's an interesting dichotomy I've noticed myself!

In second place was Zombie Chronicles the Olympic Torch Relay in SF by photo essayist Zombie, who specializes in going undercover and capturing the unique ethos of the Bay area. His superb work will be familiar to members of Joshua's Army.

My nominee (Michael Totten's essay on Fallujah Hope for Iraq’s Meanest City) and the other non-Council piece I voted for (Dr. Zuhdi Jasser's excellent piece on the wahabi penetration into American society and how to combat it, The War of Ideas) finished in the middle of the pack, but I recommend both of them as must-reads...especially Dr. Jasser's piece.



Hearty congratulations not only to the winners, but to the rest of the entrants.

Where Hamas Gets It Right

Today the Washington Post ran an editorial by none other than our old friend, Hamas foreign minister, currency smuggler and bagman Mahmoud al-Zahar.

A number of commentators have decried the WAPO's eagerness to give this cockroach a public platform. But aside from the usual propaganda, he was correct in one major instance:

The U.S.-Israeli alliance has sought to negate the results of the January 2006 elections, when the Palestinian people handed our party a mandate to rule. Hundreds of independent monitors, Carter among them, declared this the fairest election ever held in the Arab Middle East. Yet efforts to subvert our democratic experience include the American coup d'etat that created the new sectarian paradigm with Fatah and the continuing warfare against and enforced isolation of Gazans.

He is 100% correct.

The Palestinian elections were an accurate and democratic referendum on exactly how a clear majority of the Palestinians - over 70% - really felt about Jews, Israel and the so-called peace process. A vote for Hamas, who has never made a secret of its agenda was a vote for jihad and genocide against the Jews.

That's the problem...it was too damned accurate.

The Palestinian election was part of President Bush's Arab Democracy fetish,and he twisted Fatah capo del tutti Mahmoud Abbas' arm to make it happen. But a funny thing happened on the way to a Palestinian state - the wrong people won, and it was a faction even the best efforts of Dubya and Condi Rice couldn't paint as peace lovin' moderates, like the goons in Fatah.

This presented a major problem for the Bush Administration,who were really counting on currying favor with the Saudis and the UAE by creating another Oslo setup with the 'moderate' Fatah faction. Having Hamas in power presented certain PR problems to the White House in terms of funding and nurturing that Palestinian state the Bush Administration wanted to present the Arabs and all their oil with so very badly.

So the Bush Administration did exactly what Dr. al-Zahar says..they attempted to foment a coup d'etat, spending millions on arming and training Fatah and building up Abbas' forces in Gaza for what was supposed to be a proxy war with the Iranian backed Hamas that would have taken control of Gaza for Fatah.

That ended up in a major debacle, with Hamas defeating Fatah with hardly any trouble at all and kicking them out of the Gaza Strip, while harvesting a major bonanza in hardly used US arms and equipment.

Now, had the White House consulted the likes of me, I would have warned them that Fatah was a sucker bet to put one's money on. Fatah has had a certain amount of effectiveness killing unarmed women and kids and blowing up night clubs and restaurants, but they have a pretty lousy record when it comes to facing armed men on anything like equal terms.

At this point, rather than admit that the vast majority of Palestinians prefer living in a terrorist squat ruled by Hamas and simply cutting off all funding and interaction with them, the Bush Administration continues to throw good money after bad by propping up Abbas on the West Bank and continuing to try and undermine Hamas while appeasing the president's Saudi pals by supporting 'Palestine'.

Still, fair's fair and al-Zahar's totally correct on this one. Salaam Aliekem and the best pigskin funeral shroud money can buy.

The rest of the piece is the usual garbage - al-Zahar laments about how them wicked Joos fried a couple of his family members whom he describes as 'students' but who were actually Hamas fighters, just like al-Zahar. Imagine those Zionist criminals, fighting back like that when they get hit by rocket attacks coming from Hamastan! Of course, Hamas could just stop shooting missile at Israel and end the terrorist attacks if they wanted to stop the Israelis from retaliating...but that would be wrong, no?

One particularly funny bit was when al-Zahar in one paragraph demands that the Israelis sit down with Hamas with no preconditions and in the next one demands that the evil Joos give Hamas everything before the start of the peace process:

A "peace process" with Palestinians cannot take even its first tiny step until Israel first withdraws to the borders of 1967; dismantles all settlements; removes all soldiers from Gaza and the West Bank; repudiates its illegal annexation of Jerusalem; releases all prisoners; and ends its blockade of our international borders, our coastline and our airspace permanently. This would provide the starting point for just negotiations and would lay the groundwork for the return of millions of refugees. Given what we have lost, it is the only basis by which we can start to be whole again.

At least he puts "peace process" in quotes..I'll give him that. The Joos surrender first and then get ready to take in a bunch of genocidal 'refugees' to swamp what's left of Israel - and then we can negotiate!

Unfortunately,this is exactly the Saudi "Peace Plan" the Bush Administration just essentially endorsed at Oslo.

There's no possibility of negotiations the way we normally think of them with this mindset, which is still back in the 7th century. The ranting old coward Yasir Arafat said it best on Jordanian TV the just after he signed the Oslo Accords.He reminded his audience of the Peace of Hubidiyeh, a treaty for 'eternal peace' made by Mohammed with his Quraysh enemies..that lasted only until he was strong enough to massacre them. And he finished by saying, "Either we will throw the Jews into the sea, or the Jews will throw us into the sea..that's how it will end."

Indeed, it needs to end.And sooner, rather than later.

Selah.

Obama: "No More Debates!"

No Mas!

What a surprise..after taking just a little bit of flack and tough questions during the Fistfight in Philly, Obama has effectively announced that he won't be participating in any more debates:

Sen. Barack Obama on Thursday suggested he doesn't see any point in having another debate with Democratic rival Sen. Hillary Clinton.

Clinton has agreed to a debate next week, but Obama has not yet accepted the invitation.

At an appearance in Raleigh, North Carolina, Obama said he has a lot of campaigning to do in a limited amount of time.

Aww gee,Obama...why now? Why not ten 'debates' ago?

And this lightweight wants to take on the presidency!

UPDATE:The debate itself has sparked frothing-at-the-mouth outrage from the Obama-ites, as was to be expected. Jesus II,you see, actually is a lot of these people's religion at this point.

Obama VS. Hilly - The Fist Fight In Philly

I'm surprised the Dems didn't try hawking this bout on pay-per-view.But then, a couple of honest prize fighters might have felt a little soiled to appear on this particular card.

Never you mind...I watch these sordid affairs so you don't have to.

Lady Macbeth's one chance was to throw everything but the kitchen sink at Obama, and try to make it stick. And she gave it a decent try, aided and abetted by Charlie Gibson and ex-Clintonista George Stephanopoulos. Unfortunately for her,one's own hands have to be at least relatively clean for that to work. Difficult it is to call someone a pig when you're such a well known denizen of the sty yourself.

Thus, the first 45 minutes or so, the 'debate' concentrated on who's errors,past questionable practices and associations and outright lies made them look worse.

Everything came into the mix tonight. Obama was hit for his patronizing remarks about small town America; He came back lamely with Hillary's famous `I could have stayed home and baked cookies ' remark over a decade ago. She brought up Obama's associations with bomb tossing radicals like Bill Ayres and Bernadine Dorhn of the Weather Underground; Obama came back swinging by bringing up two members of the group in jail for murder who's sentences were commuted by none other than Mr. Bill.

Obama had to deal with Jeremiah Wright, which he pretty much was allowed to sluff off. According to Jesus II, the good reverend is a sterling patriot because he served in the marines and `loves this country but also angry about injustices.' Yes..and angry about Jews, Israel, white folks and AmeriKKKa in general, hmmm?

Hillary made an attempt to toss Louis Farrakhan and Hamas into that particular stew of Obama negatives as well.

For her part,Hillary had to duck a little fallout over her Bosnia tall story,which she apologized for,saying "I was not as accurate as I have been in the past". (Hah!!!)

In one of the most inadvertently funny moments of the whole tawdry affair, one of the locals came up to the mike just then and told Hillary that he had been supporting her but that she had lost his vote over this particular `mis-remembering.' I swear, some adult beverage almost shot back out through my nose...this retard who's probably allowed to vote, drive, and operate heavy machinery looks at this woman who's been telling whoppers in the public eye on a regular basis for almost two decades and says he's going to quit her now over some bolshoi about sniper fire that never happened? And not only that, this guy,who's upset over being lied to is going to vote for someone like Obama???

The rest was mostly downhill after that high moment of comedy.

Foreign policy? A race to see who can surrender and pull out faster. Both Clinton and Obama even went as far as to say that they would pull out immediately even if US military commanders advised against it.

Gun control? Let's pretend nobody asked us about that one.

Israel? When asked what they would do if Iran attacked Israel, Obama merely said it would be 'unacceptable', by which I suppose he means he'd make a firm protest on the matter at the UN ; it was left for Hillary to say that such an attack would trigger 'massive retaliation' by the US. She'll catch hell for that from the Angry Left, but then, they mostly aren't voting for her anyway.
Obama, on the other hand, spent the afternoon talking to a gathering of Jewish community leaders trying to reassure them that the anti-Semites and Israel bashers that are flocking to his support are just a coincidence. After tonight's remarks, Obama may have some explaining to do. Of course, if he loses, his people will blame on the Jews anyway,no matter how many of them are silly enough to vote for him...

Taxes? Again, both Hillary and Obama love the idea of taxing 'the rich' and seem to finally agree that $200,000 per year is a good number. And they both want to raise the capital gains tax. Of course, that won't provide anything like the amount of money these two genial marxists are going to need to pay for all the gimmees they've promised to try and bribe the electorate, so that $200,000 threshold will need to be lowered quite a bit. But hey....mere details. All power to the revolution!

All things considered, Hillary almost accomplished what she needed to do tonight. She was mostly able to keep Obama on the defensive, and as always when Obama is working without a script and a teleprompter, he came across as somewhat befuddled and indecisive.

Hillary's problem, of course, is the baggage she carries from the Clinton era, both her own and Mr. Bill's. It continues to weigh her down, and it's not going away.

Lady Macbeth needs a big win in Pennsylvania - at least ten points - and a win in Indiana. And more importantly, she needs to win decisively among whites and Latinos in order to convince the superdelegates that Obama has no chance in the general election against McCain.

Time will tell, but I can't see it as better than a four to one shot.Three to one if she manages to win Pennsylvania by a double digit margin.

Abbas to Award Highest PA Medal To Sbarro Murderers

It's official. Arafat II Mahmoud Abbas, the Bush Administration's Official Moderate Peace Partner is planning on awarding the highest Palestinian medal,The Al Kuds Mark of Honor, to two female terrorists incarcerated in Israel.

One will go to Ahlam Tamimi, a Hamas terrorist in prison for assisting the homicide bomber who walked into a Sbarro Pizza parlor in Jerusalem packed with children and families, detonated himself and murdered six innocent people while maiming numerous others.

The other medal will go to Amra Muna,a particularly repellent Fatah operative who used the internet to lure Israeli teenager Ophir Rahum to what was supposed to be a romantic rendezvous in Jerusalem. Instead, he was kidnapped and taken to Ramallah,where he was murdered.She's also under Israeli custody.

Who receives the Al Quds Mark of Honor is decided solely by Abbas,and he alone has the final say on choosing the Palestinians to be honored with the medal.

Abbas is spreading the glory around to both Fatah and Hamas....sort of the Palestinian version of equal opportunity for murder.

You can tell a lot about a given group of people by looking at what they honor. It takes a very special category of human being - and I use the term loosely - to honor people like this. And this is by no means a unique instance of this sort of thing.

It's time to end this farce.

Now.

UPDATE: After massive outcry in Israel and elsewhere ( and undoubtedly a few terse words from Condi Rice on the awkwardness involved) Abbas decided to rescind the planned awards.

However, the fact that he actually considered this and saw nothing wrong with it tells you a great deal about the actual status of the 'peace process.'

As well as who Mahmoud Abbas really is.

Iran: Is A Strike Imminent?

Has the wind changed? Is a military strike on Iran in the works?

According to several sources, Israel has requested and received connection to the US Ballistic Early Warning Systems (BMEWS) through its three main stations,located in Alaska, Thule Air Force Base in Greenland, and the British RAF long range radar station in Yorkshire, England.

This would be designed to give Israel a time edge in preparing its Arrow and Patriot missile defense systems, as well as an edge for the US Patriot missile facilities that are based in Israel in the Negev and near Ben Gurian airport an dprotect American facilities in Iraq and the Gulf as well as Israel.

This is by no means SOP, but has happened before,during the Gulf War and during the US invasion of Iraq when Israel was expected to be a target for missile strikes by Saddam Hussein. And the only reason for this would be either a renewed threat from Iran or the threat of retaliation for a US or Israeli strike. Even if Israel itself is not involved,there's little doubt that Iran would attack in reprisal for an American attack on Iran.

This is one in a series of very connectible dots:

*General Petraeus and US Ambassador Ryan Crocker made a huge point of testifying before Congress on Iran's malignant influence in Iraq last week. They provided irrefutable evidence that it was Iranian-supplied rockets that hit the Green Zone in Baghdad, and that it was Iranian proxies like Moqtada al-Sadr's Mahdi Army that have been killing US and Iraqi troops all along, and were the primary antagonists in the Basra offensive. General Petraeus called Iran “the greatest long-term threat to the viability of a democratic Iraq” and referred to the Iranian 'special groups' as “funded, trained, armed and directed by” Iran. He also testified that the U.S. has uncovered weapons caches from Iran and detained “senior leaders” of Iranian-supported groups who described how they “move to and from Iran, where they are trained, indoctrinated, how they’re funded, [and] how they bring weapons and so forth into the country.”

None of this will be any news to members of Joshua's Army.As I've written on this site before, the munitions, IEDs and the training to use them are coming from Tehran via the Iranian Qods force, a number of whose members have been captured in Iraq.

What this amounts to, for those of you paying attention,is a repeat of the tactics that have worked successfully for Iran in Lebanon with Hezbollah, and in Gaza with Hamas. It's now been brought before Congress in a manner that will be difficult for all but the most partisan and clueless legislators to ignore, and amounts to an attempt at making the public case for a strike against Iran.

*The removal of Admiral William Fallon from the command of CentCom, after various articles that characterized him as opposing any military action against Iran. (In fairness to the Admiral,it should be noted that he publicly stated that this was a misrepresentation.)

*The recent Iranian announcement that it has begun installing another 6,000 high yield centrifuges at its Natanz nuclear plant uranium enrichment complex,combined with the total failure of sanctions and the dead end in negotiations on Iran's nuclear program.


*Recent threats issued against Israel not from Ahamadinejad, which would have been more normal, but from Iran’s deputy Commander in Chief of the Military Mohammad Reza Ashtiani, who threatened to eliminate Israel from “the scene of the universe” if Iran is attacked.

*Regime changes and consolidation of Iran-friendly regimes in Turkey and in Pakistan, which could place constraints on any future US or Israeli strikes on Iran.

*Vice president Cheney's recent trip to Saudi Arabia and the Gulf,which could very easily have been designed to shore up support for an imminent action and give those Arab states the Bush Administration regards as allies a heads up warning of what might be in the works.

We could be looking at either the scenario of a US strike on Iran or an Israeli strike on Iran. And rather than a ground invasion ala Iraq, it might very well be an air and sea operation, aimed at crippling the mullahs economically as well as taking out their dangerous toys, as revealed in "Operation Mullah Stomp" in these pages over a year ago

THe Bush Administration has been aware for some time that Iran has been in de facto state of war with us. Yet its reaction, as with so many other things has been to make a lot of bellicose noise about Iran while doing very little about it. After all, if you're going to make a speech calling a country you're not officially at war with part of the 'axis of evil', you had better be prepared to follow through an ddo something concrete.

I still have major doubts that President Bush will follow through with a strike on Iran, although he might be planning to push the Israelis into doing it for us, to eliminate any domestic backlash for himself.

The political fallout for the Bush Administration would be horrendous, and I can hear the hysterical braying of certain presidential candidates and congressmen even as I write this.

That fallout would likely be a lot less deadly than the fallout that could eventually result if the sort of crazed lunatics who control Iran get their hands on nuclear weapons.

Will George W. Bush slink away from this challenge and leave it to his successor? The answer to that question will define the historical legacy of the Bush presidency.

How Many Five Year Olds Could You Take On In A Fight?

26

Laer at Cheat Seeking Missiles is to blame for turning me on to this....the idea undoubtedly came from that gang of eight year olds in Georgia who were planning to take out their teacher. My score is above.

From the game...

This short survey will tell you approximately how many five year old children you could fight at once. Results are based on physical prowess, training, swarm-combatting experience, and the flexibility of your moral compass. Here are the ground rules:

• You are in an enclosed area roughly the size of a basketball court
• There are no weapons or foreign objects
• Everyone is wearing a cup (so no kicks to the groin)
• The children are merciless and will show no fear
• If a child is knocked unconscious, he is "out." The same goes for you.

Uh...knock yourselves out.

Watcher's Council Nominations, 4/15/08

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, the infamous Watcher of Weasels

Do take the time and check out the non-Council links accessible at the link above..they are always rewarding.



Here's this week's lineup...enjoy!


Bedtime For Bonzo? The Clinton Eclipse
Joshuapundit - The fates have not been kind to Hillary Clinton lately. There she was, all but anointed to take up her promised place and waltz into the White House when she got outflanked on the left by the creature Obama, playing the same kind of sly racial politics and class warfare the Clintons themselves did so well in the past.

Truly a tragedy Shakespeare would have had fun tossing together, as we wait to see how the last act ends and prepare to say farewell...y'know what ahm sayin'?


Bullshit!
Done With Mirrors - Callimachus' appropriate one word response to an Islamist pundit practicing taqiya (dissembling) by declaring that `Allah' and G-d are one and the same word and mean the same thing...and thus Christians, Jews and other non-Muslims pray to Allah when they pray in Arabic!

In fact, Allah derives from the Arabic indefinite article and the name of the pagan Arabian moon god, Lah, who was worshiped in the shrine in Mecca that Mohammed's family was caretaker of that Muslims still worship at today, the Kaa'ba...thus al-Lah, or the Moon God, literally.

Then there's the quaint fact that the Muslim world ethnically cleansed almost all of its Jews long ago with a thoroughness the Nazis might have admired, and that Christian services are illegal or under severe constraints in much of the Arab world, so obviously they aren't 'praying to Allah.'

The sheer arrogance of some of these people is absolutely amazing.

The Candidates on the Economy: Taxes
The Glittering Eye - this week, Dave presents his views on what he sees as the presidential candidate's positions on taxation.

Does America Need a New Enemy? One Brit Thinks So...
Hillbilly White Trash - Lemuel Calhoon done a fine job fisking an incredibly silly essay by Brit Paleocon John Laughland on how the US needs global adversaries to prevent an American 'hegemony.'

Painting?
Soccer Dad - This is one of those posts Soccer Dad does so well, taking contrasting views on an issue and juxtaposing them to get to the bottom of things. This particular issue is the Obama 'elitism' contretemps.

The MSM -- Mis-educating the Masses
Bookworm Room - Ms. Bookworm makes the point that the reason politicians like Obama and Hillary continue to be able to lie blatantly in an internet age is because they’re still able to count on the largely biased main stream media to be in the tank for them...thus the title of her piece.

As I mention elsewhere, that's true of Obama these days more than Hillery, but I otherwise agree with her. There are still large groups of people who get what passes for their news from the mainstream media, which throws out blatantly biased stories passing as straight news which, circle jerk style, is cited as sources by places like HuffPo, Media Matters and Daily Kos, who then become sources to be cited themselves by the MSM..ad nauseum!

Further Proof That the Western P.C. Left Is Akin to the Societies They Admire
The Colossus of Rhodey - This week, Hube takes on the farcical Star Chambers known as Human Rights Commissions in some otherwise enlightened countries like Canada and Australia. In the Australian case he sites, the commissioner actually favors removing that old cornerstone of western law, the presumption of innocence.

Spooky, as Oz's Dame Edna would undoubtedly say....

Warmie Psychic: Global Headache Coming!
Cheat Seeking Missiles - Laer has a great time debunking a rather puerile bit of global warming idiocy. At this point, I think we can safely call it an industry..just not one that produces anything but a payday for those involved.

Censorchimps: The Mandarin Subspecies
The Education Wonks - Edwonk presents yet another edition of his censorchimps series, as he looks at the sentence handed down in a Chinese court to human rights advocate Hu Jia for subversion.

The Next Moves In An Existential Chess Match
Wolf Howling - As GW shows in an informative and well written post, the chess game between Iran and the US may be approaching a critical stage. He is correct that at this point, dealing decisively with Iran would not be painless, but infinitely less painful than allowing things to continue unchecked, as I've pointed out in the past.

That said, I think the Bush Administration has absolutely no intention of dealing with Iran militarily during the remainder of his presidency. We'll see if I'm right. Let's hope I'm not.

Wright's Eulogy For Black Fascist Parishioner
Rhymes With Right - Jeremiah Wright has surfaced again after hiding out for awhile, and Greg has him nailed.

Elitism and the Elitist Elites Who Think They're the Elite
Right Wing Nut House - Rick has his own take on the Obama 'elitism' controversy. As he points out, to anyone who's really been paying attention, Obama's attitudes in the matter are no surprise.

Obama Bashes Small Town America

Jackie And Dunlap at Redstate Update have their way with Jesus II's comments on small town America...

Owwchie..that's gotta leave a mark!

Cwazy Unkie Jimmy In Ramallah

Ex-president Jimmy Carter is in Ramallah today, gleefully doing something even George W. Bush couldn't quite manage to get himself to do - placing a memorial wreath on the polluted hole housing the rotting, AIDS ridden carcass of Yasir Arafat.

It's a major aid to clarity on the basic nature of the 'Palestinians' and what they've become that a murderous and exploitative vampire like Arafat would be enshrined by them as a national hero.

Yasir Arafat was nothing more than a sadistic mass killer and gangster with the morals and conscience of a cockroach, except an honest cockroach has a lot more worth than Arafat ever did.

Not that I'm surprised, but it's also revealing that Unkie Jimmy, an ex-president, would choose to honor a man who personally had two US diplomats kidnapped and tortured to death. Among his many victims, Arafat also ordered the murder of another three American diplomats in Gaza and was behind the murder of numerous other of Carter's fellow citizens, including Leon Klinghoffer, who was shot and tossed into the sea with his wheelchair on Arafat's orders when the PLO hijacked the Achille Lauro.

Carter, as an ex-president knows this better than anyone...but he still went to Ramallah to pay obeisance to the ranting old coward.

Cwazy Unkie Jimmy can't even use the excuse that he's 'honoring the Palestinians', since Arafat and his minions murdered a fair few of them if they opposed him or got in the way of a particular piece of the action. Arafat and his crew also stole a substantial amount of the aid money intended for the 'refugees'and diverted it into their own pockets.Conservative estimates put the amount of theft at better than 40%.

The Israelis caught a certain amount of flack for refusing to have the Shin Bet augment the US secret service detail accompanying Cwazie Unkie Jimmy. At first, I had mixed feelings about it, but after this, I think even the US secret service should have left this waterhead to fend for himself.

Believe me, it's not like he's in any danger from Fatah or Hamas or Islamic Jihad.

They know a useful tool when they see one.

What the Arabs Are Being Taught About Israel

Here's an interesting news feature direct from Al-Alaam TV, reacting to the recent move by the US Congress to equate the fate of Jews ethnically cleansed from the Arab world after 1948 with that of the `Palestinians'.It's totally consistent with what these lying scum are teaching the Arabs and Iranians about Israel and the` Zionist Entity'.

So much for Dubbyah and Condi's efforts at 'dialog' hmmm? What a colossal waste of time and money.

For the record, here's a comparision of what happened to the Jews after 1948 as compared to the Arabs:

In a paper published by The Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs, Zabludoff shows that many more Jews were forcibly displaced or expelled from their homes around the world than Arabs, that they lost significantly more property, and were helped over the years to a much smaller extent.

The number of Arabs displaced by the War of Independence in 1948 is estimated at 550,000, and another estimated 100,000 were displaced by the Six Day War in 1967. The number of Jews who were forced to move as a result of the Israeli-Arab conflict was between 850,000 and one million.

It is further estimated that the Jews, most of whom lived in cities, lost $700 million in lost and stolen property - worth some $6 billion in today's dollars. The Arabs of 1948 and 1967, on the other hand, lost an estimated total of $450 million, or $3.9 billion in today's money.

Zabludoff notes that the case of the Arab refugees is different than any other refugee crisis in world history, in that aid for their cause has never stopped, and has been ongoing for nearly 60 years. UNRWA, the United Nations Relief Works Agency, has poured $13.7 billion dollars into the Arab refugee concentrations. In addition, Arab and Western countries have given their own aid over the decades.

The Arabs have also done much better than the Jews in terms of repatriated assets. Israel returned more than 90% of blocked Arab bank accounts and most of the contents of safe deposit boxes, Zabludoff notes, while there have been only "a few cases where Jewish property was restored."

While many of the Arabs living in the Land of Israel left their homes voluntarily, goaded on by Arab promises that they would come back as victors and be able to displace the Jews, the Jews in Arab countries were generally expelled amidst violence, threats and confiscation of their property.

The transcripts from government radio stations in Egypt,Jordan,Iraq and Lebanon screaming for jihad against the Jews and urging Arabs to leave until they could return and help themselves to Jewish wealth, property and women still exist..why else do you think the'Palestinians' bothered carrying those famous house keys with them?

Another point that's not often made is that the Arabs who left Israel only travelled a short distance and were received by a friendly and sympathetic population who spoke their language. The Jews were often coming hundreds of miles through hostile territory, and a number of them never made it.If they did, they never received so much as a penny's help from the UN.

The Arabs had a choice to make, for the most and over 100, 000 of them chose to stay in Israel, where they became full citizens.

The Jews in the Arab countries had no such choice....which is why there are over 1 million Arabs living in Israel today, and virtually no Jews in the Arab world.

For the Arabs to admit that, however, would expose the entire 'Palestine' scam they've run so successfully over the last sixty years.

As I've written before, the central issue in Middle East peace is the inability of the Arabs to abide Jews living next to them in peace and equality. Change that, and the problem solves itself.

That's the whole game, right there in a nutshell.

hattip to Trying To Fix The World

Worth Reading - Today's Short Takes, 4/14/08

Short takes is Freedom Fighter's way of cramming a lot into a small space..kind of like the young gentleman above. Here's a brief rundown of some of today's items of interest for Joshua's Army:

The Democrats are attempting to cripple John McCain's candidacy prior to the election by suing him out of the race. How typical of the Left...if you're unable to win in the arena of public opinion, use the courts. Mark Ambinder at the Atlantic provides some background on how this may work out.

Bill Kristol, the New York Times' token conservative has a fine piece today on the Obama gaffe, The Mask Slips. Hugh Hewitt likewise has a nice bit on this...



In Hope for Iraq's Meanest City , Michael Totten takes a not-to-be-missed look at how the Surge has affected Fallujah...

Nile Gordon, in “Whither the 'Special Relationship'?” reflects on the major damage Gordon Brown and Labour have done to the alliance with the US and whether it can possibly be repaired.

There are a number of great takes out there on Jimmy Carter's field trip to visit his terrorist pals. Some noteworthy one include Tool rhymes with fool by Soccer Dad, Israel refuses to help Carter aid and abet terrorists by Lemuel at HillbillyWhite Trash and Carl In Jerusalem


Enjoy yourselves...

Hello Berlusconi, Bye Bye Prodi

There some good news out of Italy today, as Silvio Berlusconi, a conservative and a good friend of America has been re-elected Prime Minister of Italy for the third time, scoring a crushing victory over the Socialists.

This very much ties in with general trends elsewhere in Europe.

Projections showed that Berlusconi's coalition won 163 seats in the Italian Senate, compared to 141 seats for Leftist candidate Walter Veltroni, the ex-mayor of Rome.

In Italy's lower house, the Chamber of Deputies, the count was 332 seats to 215.

The election was largely a referendum on Roman Prodi's left wing government,which ended up doing a pretty fair job of damaging Italy's economy with repressive economic policies and high taxes in the 20 months it lasted.

From the US standpoint, we can no doubt expect an Italy with a much different outlook than the Prodi government.And the Italains, if Berlusconi keeps his word about cutting taxes, putting Italy's fiscal house in order and cracking down oncrime and illegal immigration will be much better off.

Interesting sidelight...Silvio is 71,around the same age as a certain Arizona senator..

Viva Il Berlusconi! Basta La Bandera Rossa!