No Runny Eggs

The repository of one hard-boiled egg from the south suburbs of Milwaukee, Wisconsin (and the occassional guest-blogger). The ramblings within may or may not offend, shock and awe you, but they are what I (or my guest-bloggers) think.

Archive for the 'War' Category

October 5, 2011

Falklands Part Deux?

by @ 23:13. Filed under International relations, War.

(H/T – The Old Pooners Facebook Group, specifically Christopher Irvine)

Nile Gardiner of The Telegraph outlined the latest bout of words between Great Britain and Argentina over the Falkland Islands. The gang has kicked around the possibility of it going beyond words off and on for a while, and given at least some of them are/were naval operators, they’re a lot better at it than I am.

If memory serves, both the Royal Navy and the Argentine armed forces have atrophied since 1982, though the RN has really suffered. Unless the RAF figures out a way to get either the Tornado or Typhoon 8,000 miles in number before the Argentines close the airfields (and then have the RN get reloads down), the Brits won’t have any air cover. On the other hand, with a fair bit of warning, a British sub could put a real crimp in the ability of the Argentine Navy to actually land any troops given they have exactly 1 troop carrier and 4 destroyers.

The big question is how much support the US would give Britain, if any in this scenario. Back in 1982, the US gave Britain significant off-battlefield logistical support once the Argentines decided to not negotiate.

May 2, 2011

Osama bin Laden is DEAD

by @ 3:48. Filed under War on Terror.

OH YEAH!. Bill Dedman of msnbc.com has the multi-year timeline of the trace of the place of bin Laden’s last stand (H/T – Michelle Malkin).

If you’re looking for the body, get yourself a submarine and head to the Indian Ocean – he was buried at sea to prevent a place on land where pilgrimages could be made.

I can’t let THE! BEST! AOSHQ! HEADLINE! EVAH! pass without a congratulatory link – Osama Bin Ladin Loses Popularity and 30cc of Brain and Skull But Mostly 30cc of Brain and Skull.

January 3, 2011

It’s time to play, “Name That Religion”, WSJ edition

by @ 9:51. Filed under Presstitute Follies, War on Terror.

Sean Gardiner of The Wall Street Journal reported on a draft study from the New York State Intelligence Center on 32 terrorism cases against the US. Despite noting that the report included, as two of its 25 variables, religion and affiliations, that the study began with Richard Reid’s attempted shoe-bombing and ended with Faisal Shahzad’s attempted Times Square bombing (both of whose ties to Islam and Al Qaeda-affiliated groups were omitted from the article), and quoting the draft report’s finding that 82% of the 90 persons-of-interest were between 18 and 33 years old as “suggesting ‘that younger persons are less established, more impressionable, and therefore more susceptible to radicalization,'” there was no mention of the religious or other affiliations of those 90.

Gardiner, however, noted several other demographic trends, from a majority of the persons-of-interest being US citizens to a significant portion of those whose criminal histories could be established having prior records involving marijuana to a majority having at least some college education.

Who here thinks they found a bunch of Pentecostals and Alcoholics Anonymous members rather than Islamokazis and various left-wing/anarchist whackos? Anyone? Bueller?

November 30, 2010

Mideast “diplomacy”, Iranian edition

by @ 21:21. Filed under International relations, War.

I’m shamelessly cribbing from Neptunus Lex for these two items related to Iran and the art of saying, “Nice doggie,” while searching for and hurling sharp sticks:

November 14, 2010

Because Smitty is departing for Afghanistan…

by @ 22:39. Filed under War on Terror.

…Lance Burri opened up the floor for some automotivators for everybody’s favorite Navy techie. Unlike Lance, I have had the honor of meeting Smitty, so I could not leave myself out of this.

Fair winds, no seas (well, unless we decide to make Kabul beachfront property), and make sure you’re back for CPAC 2012, Smitty.

July 14, 2010

“NO” to “War on Terror”, “YES” to ETOC Complaints

by @ 14:42. Filed under International relations, War on Terror.

According to a report filed by Jake Tapper, President Obama has found a reason to fight Al Qaeda. No, it’s not because of their terroristic acts, well, not directly. No, the reason President Obama is unhappy with Al Qaeda is because they are racist!

In an interview earlier today with the South African Broadcasting Corporation to air in a few hours, President Obama disparaged Al Qaeda and affiliated groups’ willingness to kill Africans in a manner that White House aides say was an argument that the terrorist groups are racist.

Speaking about the Uganda bombings, the president said, “What you’ve seen in some of the statements that have been made by these terrorist organizations is that they do not regard African life as valuable in and of itself.  They see it as a potential place where you can carry out ideological battles that kill innocents without regard to long-term consequences for their short-term tactical gains.”

Have you picked yourself up off the floor yet?

So, let me get this straight.  The President believes that if Al Qaeda recruited more white suicide bombers, their human rights record would match right up along side whose exactly?

The spokesperson went on to explain the logic for this conclusion by using the African Embassy bombings as examples:

This can be seen, the official said, in the 1998 bombings of U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania, when hundreds of Africans were killed and thousands wounded.

I may have missed part of this story but wasn’t Al Qaeda trying to kill the US Embassy employees at the embassies?  Is the administration suggesting that if Al Qaeda had calculated that the same number of white European innocents had been killed and harmed as collateral damage, that Al Qaeda wouldn’t have attempted the embassy attacks?

I know, you think I’m being loose and flip with the words.  You think I’m twisting what they’re saying into something it isn’t merely to poke fun at the administration.  Nope, this one is real:

“Additionally, U.S. intelligence has indicated that Al Qaeda leadership specifically targets and recruits black Africans to become suicide bombers because they believe that poor economic and social conditions make them more susceptible to recruitment than Arabs,” the official said. “Al Qaeda recruits have said that Al Qaeda is racist against black members from West Africa because they are only used in lower level operations.”

That’s right, if only Al Qaeda would have a proportional number of Africans in their upper leadership as they have in their human bomb division, the US would have no problem with what they are doing.

Can it be long before we have another Czar announced?  The Czar of ETOC (Equal Terrorist Opportunity Commission) will likely be made as a recess appointment during the next Congressional break.  I can’t wait for the first meeting between the Czar and leaders of Al Qaeda where the Czar will no doubt open the meeting by apologizing for Arizona’s discriminatory illegal alien legislation!

June 6, 2010

Back-from-vacation Hot Read – Stacy McCain’s “The Holy Church of St. Pancake”

by @ 11:34. Filed under War on Terror.

R.S. McCain put together a very lengthy piece on Rachel “St. Pancake” Corrie, and compared her life to one who truly was innocent, Shiri Negari. I’ll take up at the point Stacy introduces Negari:

Those who have promoted the death-cult of Rachel Corrie insist that she must be remembered exactly as they wish her to be remembered, as a victim-hero whose name can only be spoken with hushed reverence for her innocent righteousness. To remember Rachel Corrie that way, you see, requires us to forget the victims of her terrorist allies.

In 1998, when Rachel Corrie was a high school senior, a 19-year-old Israeli girl traveled to America, touring the Grand Canyon and other sites. Later, the Israeli girl spent a year in Latin America, where she learned Spanish, hiked mountains and went scuba diving. She was the daughter of a dentist, third of five children, by all accounts beloved by everyone who knew her, and she signed her e-mails “Shiri Negari, World Traveler.”

“Shiri loved to laugh and made others laugh with her. She loved to dance and knew how to enjoy the little things in life. She had the gift of being able to see goodness and beauty in every person she met, and she kept up many close friendships with a wide variety of people. . . . Always full of life, she loved to sing and make music. A born actress, she often delighted family and friends with her spontaneous improvisations and impressions. She wrote poetry. She loved swimming.”

Shiri loved America so much that, shortly after her 21st birthday, she moved to New York City and got a job in a restaurant. After the 9/11 attacks destroyed the World Trade Center, her family became concerned for her safety, and eventually Shiri returned home to live with her parents near Jerusalem. She got a temporary job in a bank, working to save money for college where she planned to enroll in the fall of 2002.

Shiri Negari was on her way to work at the bank one Tuesday morning — June 18, 2002 — when she boarded Bus No. 32A in Gilo. A few minutes later, a little before 8 a.m., another passenger boarded the bus:

19 people were killed and 74 injured . . . in a suicide bombing at the Patt junction in Jerusalem. . . .

Hamas claimed responsibility for the attack and identified the bomber as Muhamed al-Ral, an Islamic law student at An-Najah University. . . .

Al-Ral boarded Egged bus no. 32A from Gilo at 7:50 A.M. at the stop in Beit Safafa, an Arab neighborhood opposite Gilo, and almost immediately detonated the large bomb which he carried in a bag stuffed with ball bearings.

Shiri died that day, just two weeks before her 22nd birthday, in a blast that ended the lives of 18 other people ranging in age from 11 to 72. They were all killed on orders of Hamas — the same terrorist organization that rules Gaza, where 23-year-old Rachel Corrie arrived to join the anti-Israeli ISM contigent in January 2003, barely seven months after the blast that destroyed Bus No. 32A.

May 20, 2010

Draw Mohammed Day

by @ 0:01. Filed under War on Terror.

In case you haven’t heard, Today is Draw Mohammed Day. Since I’m only fair-to-middling with my Photoshop skills, and I have ZERO ink skills, I decided to adapt my Twitter pic for the occasion, showing Mohammed entering and exiting the 21st Century….

March 5, 2010

Hope, change, return to military commissions

by @ 6:42. Filed under Law and order, Politics - National, War on Terror.

(H/T – Ed Morrissey)

The Washingotn Post is reporting that key advisers in the Obama administration are set to recommend that Attorney General Eric Holder be overridden and the trials of Khalid Sheik Mohammed and several others be conducted in the military tribunal system instead of civilian courts.

It remains to be seen whether the expiration of this particular promise to the Islamokazi-appeasing Left is due more to the incredible amount of bipartisan (original meaning) backlash it has caused or a cynical deal to unexpire the promise to close Club Gitmo.

February 11, 2010

Open Thread Thursday – the nuclear edition

by @ 9:16. Filed under Open Thread Thursday, War.

This is the Emergency Blogging System. It has been activated because the Iranians supposedly are “nuclear”. We’ll discuss that after we bring back one of the old Scramble songs…

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3wafLyT451o[/youtube]

The first thing to remember is that the Iranians have had a bit of a history of overstating technological achievements. However, given that the Mad Mullahs that run Iran see the US as the Great Satan and have vowed to extinguish both the US and Israel by every means available, it is prudent to treat the news as credible.

They claimed to have achieved 20% uranium-235 enrichment. That is far beyond what the typical reactor needs, though there are certain types of reactors that do use it, mostly Japanese- and Russian-design fast/breeder reactors. The Iranians claim to want to use it in a research reactor to produce medical isotopes; however, this appears to be the first time the existence of that “reactor” has been mentioned. Also, there are doubts on whether the Iranians can create fuel rods out of 20% 235U.

20% 235U enrichment also is significantly below the standard for nuclear weapons. However, it can be fashioned into a crude and huge weapon suitable for shipment in a transport container or cargo plane.

And now this thread is yours. This concludes the Emergency Broadcast System portion of this post.

January 30, 2010

Weekend Hot Read – Michael V. Hayden’s “Obama administration takes several wrong paths in dealing with terrorism”

by @ 15:21. Filed under Politics - National, War on Terror.

(H/T – Stephen Hayes)

Michael Hayden, the immeidate previous director of the CIA, wrote a scathing critique of the Obama administration’s handling of terrorism. The part dealing with the administration’s handling Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, the Fruit of the Boom bomber, is telling:

In the 50 minutes the FBI had to question him, agents reportedly got actionable intelligence. Good. But were there any experts on al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula in the room (other than Abdulmutallab)? Was there anyone intimately familiar with any National Security Agency raw traffic to, from or about the captured terrorist? Did they have a list or photos of suspected recruits?

When questioning its detainees, the CIA routinely turns the information provided over to its experts for verification and recommendations for follow-up. The responses of these experts — “Press him more on this, he knows the details” or “First time we’ve heard that” — helps set up more detailed questioning.

None of that happened in Detroit. In fact, we ensured that it wouldn’t. After the first session, the FBI Mirandized Abdulmutallab and — to preserve a potential prosecution — sent in a “clean team” of agents who could have no knowledge of what Abdulmutallab had provided before he was given his constitutional warnings. As has been widely reported, Abdulmutallab then exercised his right to remain silent.

Hayden then goes on to list a host of other missteps. The takeaway is equally shocking, unless you consider that the ObamiNation’s main class enemy is not Al Qaeda:

There’s a final oddity. In August, the government unveiled the HIG for questioning al-Qaeda and announced that the FBI would begin questioning CIA officers about the alleged abuses in the 2004 inspector general’s report. They are apparently still getting organized for the al-Qaeda interrogations. But the interrogations of CIA personnel are well underway.

January 25, 2010

Monday Hot Read: Stephen F. Hayes takes out Gibbs’ 50-minute claim

by @ 7:45. Filed under Politics - National, War on Terror.

The Weekly Standard‘s Stephen F. Hayes skewered White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs’ claim that we learned all we could from the Fruit of the Boom bomber, Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, in a single 50-minute FBI interrogation before he was Mirandized and clammed up:

The FBI did not ask about the information in these intercepts. Wouldn’t it be helpful to do so now? The CIA dossier on Abdulmutallab has grown by orders of magnitude since his detention a month ago. Wouldn’t it be useful to ask him questions about its contents? Abdulmutallab lived in Yemen for four months. How many details about his life there did the FBI get in their 50-minute interview? He was involved with pro-jihadist groups as a student in London. Did the FBI even know to ask about this?

Perhaps more important, the FBI has lost the opportunity to ask Abdulmutallab about intelligence that U.S. government is collecting now. In the weeks leading up to the attack, the intelligence community had information on “Umar Farouk” and on “the Nigerian” and on an attack being planned in Yemen. There is, without a doubt, the same kind of raw, uncorrelated intelligence among the vast collection of NSA intercepts today. It’s entirely possible that Abdulmutallab would be in a position to give meaning to these pieces of information in a way that would at least help us understand al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula and, at best, help prevent a coming attack.

This reminds me so much of the Clinton Administration’s response to the 1993 World Trade Center bombing. Everybody was led to believe that the FBI had rolled up the entirety of the network, while Osama bin Laden was busy plotting his reattack.

Speaking of bin Laden, there’s this gem that Stephen recalls from Attorney General Eric Holder’s confirmation hearing:

It may be worse than that. The question may not be who would interrogate him but whether we would even have that opportunity. Senator Lindsey Graham asked Attorney General Eric Holder about this at a congressional hearing in November.

“Let me ask you this. Let’s say we capture him tomorrow. When does custodial interrogation begin in his case? If we captured bin Laden tomorrow, would he be entitled to Miranda warning at the moment of capture?”

Holder responded: “Again, I’m not — that all depends.”

December 24, 2009

Al Qaeda in Arabia decimated by delivered presents, falling bombs, but mostly…well, both

by @ 9:02. Filed under War on Terror.

Jake Tapper reports on an air strike delivered to the leadership of Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula in Yemen by undisclosed forces this morning. Among the 30 believed to be killed (H/T for the number – Ed Morrissey):

  • Anwar al-Awlaki, who offered advice to Hasan Nidal on whether he should murder his fellow US Army soldiers.
  • Nasser al-Wahayshi, the leader of Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula.
  • Saeed al-Shehri, the #2 guy of Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula. As Jake noted, al-Shehri was transferred from Guantanamo Bay to Saudi custody in November, 2007 to go through the “Prince Mohammed bin Nayef Centre for Care and Counseling”, a “12-step” plan to rehabilitate terrorists, but instead returned to Al Qaeda.

Whether it was the US Air Force, the US Navy, the US Marines or the Yemeni Air Force (I don’t think the US Army is operating in Yemen) that delivered justice to the clan, it is a welcome early Christmas present.

Revisions/extensions (9:24 pm 12/24/2009) – DrewM notes that this is the second strike on Al Qaeda in Yemen in the past week. I seem to recall these being a regular occurrence between late 2001 and early 2004, and I missed these over the last 6 years.

Also, thanks for the link, Ed.

December 16, 2009

And here come the Iranian missiles

by @ 10:08. Filed under War.

(H/T – Ed Morrissey, who erroneously gave me full credit for correcting a typographical error in the post)

Yesterday, I ran with the news that the next ICBM-interception test from the Missile Defense Agency will simulate an Iranian launch on the continental US. Today, John McKittrick, who works in the industry, reports on and dissects Iranian claims of a successful test-fire of a two-stage solid-fuel missile, the Sajjil-2, with a range of about 1,200 miles.

A few points, culled from both McKittrick’s own analysis and those of others he links to (assuming, of course, that the Iranians are 100% truthful; they have been known to exaggerate rocketry claims in the past):

  • Switching to an all-solid-fuel rocket (the previous long-range rockets had been at least partially-liquid-fuelled) allows Iran to fuel and store a rocket for a much longer time. Liquid-fuel rockets tend to need to be fuelled shortly before launch and need fixed sites, while solid-fuel rockets can be made road-mobile (think about the Sovi…er, Russian SS-25. In fact, the video of the launch over at Closing Velocity appears to show it taking place from a Transporter-Erector-Launcher unit.
  • The speed of that missile is reportedly faster than that of previous Iranian missiles. While it doesn’t make it invulnerable to radar like the Iranian Defense Minister claims, it makes it harder to intercept.
  • It takes relatively-little tweaking to extend the range of that missile, especially with the effort the Mad Mullahs are ordering put into the program.
  • While making a 2-stage solid-fuel intermediate-range missile work is not a guarantee of making a 3-stage ICBM work, it is a shorter leap to go from 2 stages o 3 than it is to go from 1 stage to 2.

Revisions/extensions (10:40 am 12/16/2009) – It is telling that House Republican Whip Eric Cantor (R-OH) has a reaction before either the White House or the State Department:

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Republican Whip Eric Cantor (R-VA) today issued the following statement after Iran’s successful test-firing of an improved, long-range ballistic missile capable of striking Israel and U.S. assets across the Gulf region. The test came after The Times of London this week revealed evidence that Tehran had been working on a trigger for a nuclear weapon.

“Coming on the heels of revelations that Iran is working to weaponize its nuclear program, this missile test raises the specter of danger to U.S. national security interests. The clock has been moved forward and the world’s largest state-sponsor of terrorism now is closer to having a deliverable nuclear weapon. Should that day come, global stability and efforts to combat nuclear proliferation will be permanently compromised.”

“The United States must not fall silent in the face of Iranian aggression and provocation, and we must lead the international community to impose sweeping sanctions against the Iranian economy until Iran changes course. On Tuesday Congress authorized the administration to sanction any international companies or individuals who sell or ship gasoline to Iran. We encourage the President to follow through on this authority immediately, and to unite the international community to implement a strong new round of sanctions against Iran.”

December 15, 2009

More evidence Iran’s nuclear program is explosive, US to test missile defense on an Iranian attack scenario

by @ 11:49. Filed under War.

(H/T – Drudge)

The Jerusalem Post reports some rather disturbing items regarding the Mad Mullahs’ “peaceful” nuclear program:

  • In recent days, diplomats have been worried that Iran has been testing neutron initiators. As the Post puts it, “A neutron initiator begins the implosion that ends with a nuclear blast, and as a component of the nuclear cycle has no use in civilian or military programs unless in the production of atomic bombs.”
  • On Monday, The Times (of London) reported that an Asian intelligence agency found said neutron initiator work had been going on between 2003 and 2007, during which Iran claimed that its program was “peaceful”.
  • Meanwhile, Lt. Gen. Patrick O’Reilly, head of the Missile Defense Agency, said that for the first time, the agency would test a scenario based on an Iranian ICBM launch on the continental US.

Two quick reactions:

  • I agree with Mark Fitzpatrick, senior fellow for non-proliferation at the International Institute for Strategic Studies in London, who said, “If Iran is working on weapons, it means there is no diplomatic solution…. Is this the smoking gun? That’s the question people should be asking. It looks like the smoking gun. This is smoking uranium.”
  • One of the reasons the original Eastern European missile defense plans were the way they were was to intercept Iranian ICBMs inbound to CONUS. I’m sure John McKittrick could correct me if my impressions of the various BMD programs are wrong, but an SM-3-based system will not deal with that particular threat no matter where in or around Eastern Europe it is based.

The ball’s been dropped for too long, and I have absolutely no confidence that Obama will pull the trigger on any action against Iran.

Revisions/extensions (6:05 pm 12/15/2009) – John McKittrick pretty much confirmed my suspicions in a longer piece devoted to the BMD test, and noted the (ex-Army) THAAD also doesn’t handle ICBMs mid-flight.

He also gave the key difference between the January test and the previous ICBM BMD tests – unlike the side-on approach with the target launched from Alaska down the West Coast (to simulate a North Korean launch on CONUS), the target’s coming pretty much straight at Vandenberg from the Reagan Test Site on Kwajalein Atoll. That’s a few extra thousand miles per hour in closing velocity.

December 7, 2009

A date that still lives in infamy – 68 years later

by @ 10:00. Filed under History, International relations, War.

I originally posted this in 2007. Let’s re-run that, and add to it.

Hat-tip for the video – Jawa Howie. Now, watch and remember (or learn if you’re a recent product of public school education):

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HAnOtWm5OrM[/youtube]

Of course, the lessons are rapidly being forgotten, as Ed Morrissey points out:

It took hundreds of thousands of American lives to defeat both Japan and Nazi Germany in the war that followed — a war that had already enslaved China years before on one side of the US, and half of Europe on the other side. We thought we had learned a lesson on December 7, 1941 ,which was that we had to be prepared to fight a war in order to keep from getting surprised like that again. Of course, we shouldn’t have been surprised at all by Japan’s attack in the first place. They didn’t suddenly become warlike and aggressive on December 6th, 1941, as the Chinese, Manchurians, and Koreans could attest. They had been attempting conquest (and succeeding) for several years in the Pacific Rim. We just preferred to keep our eyes closed in order to keep from doing anything about it. When we attempted to cut off oil to Japan, we discovered that negotiations and sanctions don’t keep war-drunk, expansionist powers from increasing their expansionism.

The lesson from that war is that appeasement and complacency doesn’t keep one from having to fight a war. It usually forces one to fight from an extreme disadvantage. That’s a lesson we have not remembered in dealing with expansionist powers in our own time, even after a second shock like 9/11 after years of complacency in dealing with al-Qaeda. We’re falling back to treating radical Islamist terrorism like a Law and Order episode, and allowing one of the main drivers of radical Islamist terror, Iran, to arm itself with nuclear weapons with no consequences whatsoever.

To that, I’ll add that Red China, which has rather open designs on both Taiwan and the entirety of the South China Sea, is still arming itself to the teeth while holding a rapidly-growing lot of US government debt. What do you suppose will happen if the federal government decides to default on some of that debt held by Red China?

November 24, 2009

Constructing an off-ramp to defeat

by @ 16:33. Filed under Politics - National, War on Terror.

(H/T – DrewM)

So President Obama has supposedly decided on sending 34,000 additional troops to Afghanistan, far short of either the “low-risk” 80,000 or “medium-risk” 40,000 commanding General Stanley McChrystal had requested. Moreover, the term “off-ramp” has entered the lexicon, with triggers for a full retreat-and-defeat starting to kick in June 2010. Do make sure you head over to Ace of Spades HQ for an explanation of how 34,000 was the final number, a special offer from K-Tel Productions, and assorted “off-ramp” references.

In related Afghan news, with a hat-tip to Uncle Jimbo,there appears to be an Anbar-style awakening against the Taliban. As Uncle Jimbo said, we need to make sure that the Taliban doesn’t roll them up in the pushback, like the Taliban did to the Pakistani tribes that rose up against them.

November 16, 2009

Catching up, the November edition

by @ 14:57. Filed under Health Care Reform, Politics - National, Politics - Wisconsin, War on Terror.

I’ve been out of steam for a while, but I think I have some now. Let’s see what I missed:

  • Tom “Milk Carton” Barrett decided to be the “savior” of the Democratic Party of Wisconsin and announced that he would be the de facto nominee for governor on Sunday. The timing was not a mistake; ever since Jim “Craps” Doyle (WEAC/HoChunk-For Sale) figured out all the money from the tribes, the unions and the lawyers, as well as 100% control over the state-level electoral process, couldn’t save his hide, the Dems have been looking for a Missiah on the level of Barack Hussein Obama II.

    Related to that, the RPW and the Walker campaign immediately seized upon Barrett’s love of tax hikes (he voted for the then-largest state tax hike in history, the still-largest federal tax hike in history, and raised taxes, created and raised mandatory fees, and imposed a then-36% increase in the wheel tax that has proven so unpopular, Beloit dropped a lower version of it) and called him Tommy the Taxer. If there’s one thing outstate Wisconsinites hate more than Milwaukee-area conservatives, it is Milwaukee tax-hiking liberals.

  • Lou Dobbs got a $8 million parting gift from CNN as they strive to be “objective” be a clone of PMSDNC (H/T – Ace).
  • The Wall Street Journal editorial board has a two-fer on PlaceboCare today – they eviscerate the Baucus version of the Death Panel (hint; if you think the upfront cuts in Medicare Advantage are the only cuts that program will sustain, you’re sorely mistaken), and then they take on a proposed radical expansion of the Medicare tax into a “progressive” as well as a general income tax to replace the proposed tax on “lavish” health benefits.
  • A week after stinking up Raymond James Stadium to give the last winless team a win, the Packers crushed the Cowpokes. Which Packers team is the real one?
  • Speaking of Obama, he and Attorney General Eric Holder decided New York was the perfect place to drag KSM and buds for a civilian trial. What could possibly go wrong from a security standpoint (other than things that preclude the DC or Northern Virginia district court handle it, like truck bombs)?

    Continuing the “what could possibly go wrong” theme, why not put them in the military commissions the Cole bombing group is going into? Last I checked, the Pentagon is a military installation. Could it be that they want KSM to walk on a technicality, or could it be that they want Al Qaeda to learn all of our methods of stuffing them the last 8 years?

  • Speaking of Club Gitmo, the latest place President Present wants to stick the detainees is in the state where he earned the nickname “Present”, specifically in a facility not exactly designed for this kind of work. Again, what could possibly go wrong with putting a bunch of Islamokazis in a generic maximum-security about 3 hours from Milwaukee and Chicago, and spitting distance from the Mississippi River and one of the lock-and-dam combos on same?

October 11, 2009

Why the Taliban cannot be separated from Al Qaeda

by @ 20:06. Filed under War on Terror.

(H/T – Allahpundit, who asks the $64,000 question on why the “moderate” Taliban won’t give up Osama bin Laden)

Bill Roggio and Thomas Joscelyn explain why we must defeat the Taliban, as well as the other affiliated Afghani insurgencies. In a nutshell:

  • All three of the main Afghani insurgent groups, the Quetta Shura Taliban, the Haqqani Network, and the Hezb-e Islami Gulbuddin, have extensive personal leadership-to-leadership ties to Al Qaeda, established over decades of cultivation by Al Qaeda.
  • The relationship between Al Qaeda and the Taliban is so enduring that they still fight side-by-side in both Afghanistan and Pakistan, and still offer mutual-praise eulogies for each other.
  • Al Qaeda still enjoys working relationships with both elements of Pakistan’s Inter-Services Intelligence Agency and the Iranian leadership.

There is much more that deserves to be read. I will, however, leave you with the conclusion:

In conclusion, the war in Afghanistan is part of a multi-dimensional contest for power between, on the one hand, al Qaeda and its allies and, on the other, America and her allies. The idea that al Qaeda is a discrete organization that can be neatly separated from the Afghan insurgency is a fantasy. All three of the major branches of the insurgency, as well as their sponsors, are closely allied with al Qaeda and have been for years.

Air strikes using drones are a valuable tool for disrupting al Qaeda’s external network, thereby hampering the terror network’s capacity to strike the West. But such strikes are a tactic, not a strategy. And, it should be noted, these strikes have frequently killed senior Taliban commanders as well. This only emphasizes the degree of cooperation between the Taliban and al Qaeda.

A more robust game plan for Afghanistan, and the region, is required. We understand that there is no immediate discussion of entirely drawing down America’s or NATO’s forces. But a more comprehensive commitment than that which is presently being employed is needed.

Should the insurgents conquer Afghanistan once again, there is no doubt that al Qaeda would return to its former safe haven. But that is, in some ways, the least of our concerns. Their return to power would be a victory for all of those forces that spawned al Qaeda in the first place.

Cross-posted at Sister Toldjah, where I’m helping to fill in for an ailing Sister Toldjah.

October 9, 2009

In related news, the ultimate expiration date

by @ 11:06. Filed under Politics - National, War on Terror.

I’ll simply let Jim Geraghty deliver the kicker (note; I somehow missed this yesterday, as did the rest of you given the lack of notes in Open Thread Thursday, so “today” is actually “yesterday”)…

The New York Times, today:

President Obama’s national security team is moving to reframe its war strategy by emphasizing the campaign against Al Qaeda in Pakistan while arguing that the Taliban in Afghanistan do not pose a direct threat to the United States, officials said Wednesday.

That’s right; Obama is preparing to hand Afghanistan back to the people goat-fuckers whose wholescale destruction of non-Islamic religious symbols, use of soccer fields as mass public execution venues, and subjugation of women that would make even Iran’s Mad Mullahs blush made Afghanistan the number one place for Al Qaeda to relocate after they got kicked out of Somalia.

Your 2009 Nobel Piec…er, Peace Prize Winner is…

by @ 7:06. Tags:
Filed under International relations, Politics - National, War on Terror.

(H/T – Allahpundit)

…Barack Hussein Obama II

No Runny Eggs has obtained the first draft of the award resolution:

Whereas Barack Hussein Obama II took the office of United States President on January 20, 2009 on the promise of Hope and Change, and…

Whereas Barack Hussein Obama II promised surrender to the Islamokazis, and…

Whereas Barack Hussein Obama II gave new hope to Communists worldwide, and…

Whereas Barack Hussein Obama II has encouraged Iran to pursue nuclear weapons with which it will wipe out the biggest threat to the Religion of Pieces, Israel, and…

Whereas Barack Hussein Obama II has ended American Exceptionalism,…

Therefore, we the idiots of the Nobel Piece Committee award Barack Hussein Obama II the Nobel Piece Prize.

I wish I were kidding about either the award or the reasoning, but the only thing that is semi-tongue-in-cheek is that first-draft resolution.

Revisions/extensions (7:19 am 10/9/2009) – Hot Air commenter reaganaut answers the inevitable baseball question – “Well, now we know Obama will win the AL Cy Young for throwing out that pitch.” What other undeserving awards will Obama get?

R&E part 2 (8:56 am 10/9/2009) – (H/T – Doug Mataconis) Daniel W. Drezner did one better by getting into the final deliberations of the Norwegian Nobel Committee. It is a must-read.

R&E part 3 (9:07 am 10/9/2009) – Read about just some of the nominees that lost out to President Present. What didn’t they do that Teh Won did? They didn’t support Communism and Radical Islam. In fact, several of those who didn’t make the final cut oppose Communists and Islamokazis.

R&E part 4 (9:26 am 10/9/2009) – Dr. Dave lists the new qualifications for the Nobel Piec…er, Peace Prize.

R&E part 5 (10:50 am 10/9/2009) – Steve Padilla over at the Los Angeles Times’ Top of the Ticket blog came through with the full text of the Nobel announcement:

The Norwegian Nobel Committee has decided that the Nobel Peace Prize for 2009 is to be awarded to President Barack Obama for his extraordinary efforts to strengthen international diplomacy and cooperation between peoples. The Committee has attached special importance to Obama’s vision of and work for a world without nuclear weapons.

Obama has as President created a new climate in international politics. Multilateral diplomacy has regained a central position, with emphasis on the role that the United Nations and other international institutions can play. Dialogue and negotiations are preferred as instruments for resolving even the most difficult international conflicts. The vision of a world free from nuclear arms has powerfully stimulated disarmament and arms control negotiations. Thanks to Obama’s initiative, the USA is now playing a more constructive role in meeting the great climatic challenges the world is confronting. Democracy and human rights are to be strengthened.

Only very rarely has a person to the same extent as Obama captured the world’s attention and given its people hope for a better future. His diplomacy is founded in the concept that those who are to lead the world must do so on the basis of values and attitudes that are shared by the majority of the world’s population.

For 108 years, the Norwegian Nobel Committee has sought to stimulate precisely that international policy and those attitudes for which Obama is now the world’s leading spokesman. The Committee endorses Obama’s appeal that “Now is the time for all of us to take our share of responsibility for a global response to global challenges.”

Oslo, October 9, 2009

Damn if that isn’t close to my exclusive first-draft resolution.

R&E part 6 (12:46 pm 10/9/2009) – A couple more for the linkage:
– Phineas put up a few more of Obama’s “accomplishments”, as well as the “qualifications” of a few recent Piec…er, Peace Prize winners.
– Slublog broke out the Slushop. I’ll give you just one of them; you’re going to have to go to Ace’s place for the rest.

R&E part 7 (12:57 pm 10/9/2009) – I bow to the master of Teh Funny, Iowahawk, who got a copy of Obama’s invitation to the Nobel Peace Player’s Club.

R&E part 8 (7:20 pm 10/9/2009) – I called this one even before I posted it here (see my first comment at the Hot Air thread) – The Wall Street Journal agrees with my assessment that it was an award for the end of American exceptionalism:

The Norwegians are on to something. In a mere nine months, the President has promulgated a vision for the U.S. role in the world that breaks with both Republican and Democratic predecessors. Madeleine Albright, Bill Clinton’s Secretary of State, called America the “indispensable nation” a decade ago. Ronald Reagan called it a “city on the Hill,” an example to the world.

Mr. Obama sees the U.S. differently, as weaker than it was and the rest of the planet as stronger, and so he calls for a humbler America, at best a first among equals, working primarily through the U.N. The world’s challenges, he emphasized yesterday, “can’t be met by any one leader or any one nation.” What this suggests to us—and to the Norwegians—is the end of what has been called “American exceptionalism.” This is the view that U.S. values have universal application and should be promoted without apology, and defended with military force when necessary.

October 6, 2009

Tuesday Hot Read – WaPo’s “If We Lose Afghanistan”

by @ 9:00. Filed under War on Terror.

(H/T – House Minority Leader John Boehner)

The Washington Post makes the case for trying to win in Afghanistan. That’s right; the Washington Post. The takeaway:

That doesn’t mean the Taliban or al-Qaeda would suddenly get hold of Pakistan’s nuclear weapons — though that is the ultimate danger. It does mean that the larger “Afpak” region that the administration has defined as a focus would be destabilized, along with much of the rest of south and central Asia. As long as the Taliban were a dominant force in Afghanistan, Pakistan would be in danger of succumbing to radical forces. In the likely event that Afghanistan was plagued by an endless civil war — as it was during the Taliban’s last ascendancy — the country would again become a place of proxy conflict among Pakistan, India, Iran and other nations. Not those countries, but the United States would be blamed for the horrendous humanitarian cost — including the brutalization of women that would occur wherever the Taliban gained authority.

Defeating the Taliban and fostering an Afghan government and army that can stabilize the country are daunting tasks that will require years of patience. It could be that even a concerted effort, along the lines proposed by Gen. Stanley A. McChrystal, would fail. There should be no mistaking, however, what the stakes of this conflict are. Whether or not al-Qaeda regains its pre-9/11 haven, a Taliban victory would be a catastrophe for the United States and its allies.

The reason Al Qaeda was drawn to Afghanistan is that the Taliban actually implemented their idea of a caliphate. The destruction of all non-Islamic artifacts and the mass executions that happened in Afghanistan when the Taliban took over predated Osama Bin Laden’s arrival.

October 2, 2009

Do not mess with the farmer’s daughter

by @ 10:19. Filed under Miscellaneous, War on Terror.

Especially when she knows how to wield an axe…

Farmer’s daughter disarms terrorist and shoots him dead with AK47.

Rukhsana Kausar, 21, was with her parents and brother in Jammu and Kashmir when three gunmen, believed to be Pakistani militants, forced their way in and demanded food and beds for the night.
Their house in Shahdra Sharief, Rajouri district, is about 20 miles from the ceasefire line between Indian and Pakistani forces.
It is close to dense forests known as hiding places for fighters from the Lashkar-e-Taiba group, which carried out the Mumbai terrorist attack last November.
Militants often demand food and lodging in nearby villages.
When they forced their way into Miss Kausar’s home, her father Noor Mohammad refused their demands and was attacked.
His daughter was hiding under a bed when she heard him crying as the gunmen thrashed him with sticks. According to police, she ran towards her father’s attacker and struck him with an axe. As he collapsed, she snatched his AK47 and shot him dead.
She also shot and wounded another militant as he made his escape.

Rukhsana Kausar, 21, was with her parents and brother in Jammu and Kashmir when three gunmen, believed to be Pakistani militants, forced their way in and demanded food and beds for the night.

Their house in Shahdra Sharief, Rajouri district, is about 20 miles from the ceasefire line between Indian and Pakistani forces.

It is close to dense forests known as hiding places for fighters from the Lashkar-e-Taiba group, which carried out the Mumbai terrorist attack last November.

Militants often demand food and lodging in nearby villages.

When they forced their way into Miss Kausar’s home, her father Noor Mohammad refused their demands and was attacked.

His daughter was hiding under a bed when she heard him crying as the gunmen thrashed him with sticks. According to police, she ran towards her father’s attacker and struck him with an axe. As he collapsed, she snatched his AK47 and shot him dead.

She also shot and wounded another militant as he made his escape.

Xena has nothing on Rukhsana. Not only did she save her family; I’ve no doubt that, had the father acceded to the jihadists’ demands and had they discovered the daughter, she would have been raped, as sex with captives is allowed by the Qur’anic injunction “what your right hands possess.”

The article goes on to mention that Ms. Kausar may be awarded a presidential citation for her bravery and a monetary prize, the latter a reward should one of the Islamic terrorists turn out to have been a highly wanted suspect. We hope also there’s a relocation program for her and her family, as it’s certain Lashkar-e-Taiba will target them for revenge.

Meanwhile, may other women suffering under Islam learn from her bravery.

(hat tip: Fausta)

LINKS: More at The Jawa Report.

RELATED READING: The Caged Virgin; Infidel; The Trouble With Islam Today; The Complete Infidel’s Guide to the Koran.

(Cross-posted from Public Secrets)

May 21, 2009

Obama’s speech – more questions than answers – UPDATE – And straw men a-plenty

by @ 13:51. Filed under Politics - National, War on Terror.

Fausta has a few questions after President Obama’s speech this morning:

So, does this mean the “war on terror” should be called “the war on al Qaeda”?

And the specific statement, “like other prisoners of war”, raises the issue whether the Obama administration is considering changing the detainees’ status to that of POWs….

Closing Gitmo? Where’s the plan?
Supermax prisons taking Gitmo detainees? Which ones?
“New legal regime to detain terrorists”? Where’s the plan?

Very interesting questions. Do read the entire post.

Revisions/extensions (2:06 pm 5/21/2009) – Karl Rove found 5 different straw men in that speech, which he added to his longer list of 2009 Obama Straw Man Watch. My favorite from today:

“And we will be ill-served by some of the fear-mongering that emerges whenever we discuss this issue. Listening to the recent debate, I’ve heard words that are calculated to scare people rather than educate them; words that have more to do with politics than protecting our country.”

April 23, 2009

Taliban on the march in Pakistan

by @ 17:39. Filed under War on Terror.

(H/T – Allahpundit, who is officially freaking out)

The Daily Mail reports that, after being given control of Pakistan’s Swat district, the Taliban took over the neighboring Bruner district, putting them a mere 60 miles from the capital of Islamabad.

If that isn’t disturbing enough, Bill Roggio has even worse news – they’re also moving on the Haripur district, which neighbors not only Islamabad, but the military garrison city of Rawalpindi (headquarters of the Pakistani Army) and several nuclear facilities, including the facility where Pakistan’s nuclear weapons are reportedly stored. If memory serves, Pakistan has close to 100 nuclear weapons, already sized for ballistic-missile or tactical fighter delivery, and while they don’t possess any purely-military nuclear-capable assets that can hit American soil, they do have nuclear-capable assets that can easily hit Afghanistan.

For those hoping that an Anbar-style “awakening” would stem the tide against the Taliban, Roggio has some very bad news – the Taliban is steamrolling through whatever resistance the local tribal lashkars have put up. That piece also reinforces the lesson that the Taliban cannot be negotiated with – on April 9, they agreed to pull out of Bruner; on the 10th, they started consolidating control over Bruner.

It’s not often that I agree with Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, but her reaction to this news (from the Mail) rings true – “I think the Pakistani government is basically abdicating to the Taliban and the extremists.” Considering that the Taliban is an ISI creation, and that up until yesterday, the government of Pakistan wasn’t exactly willing to fight for Bruner, one could say that the Taliban is coming home to roost.

However, that would be a “minor” understatement. There is the “minor” matter of the nuclear weapons program.

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