Posts Tagged ‘War on Terror’

I wonder if Michael Moore still thinks of them as…

Posted: February 5, 2009 by datechguy in opinion/news
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…the New Minutemen

A WOMAN suspected of recruiting more than 80 female suicide bombers has confessed to organising their rapes so she could later convince them that martyrdom was the only way to escape the shame.

Samira Jassam, 51, was arrested by Iraqi police and confessed to recruiting the women and orchestrating dozens of attacks.

Hot air reports and comments:

It’s a particularly despicable scam. Jassam didn’t just step in as some sort of Islamist rape counselor to advise suicide as an answer to shame. She arranged the rapes of dozens of women, and then presented herself as an advisor to the victims to recruit them for suicide missions. It’s one of the most ghoulish plots I’ve ever known, and a stunning betrayal of her own gender.

I’m reminded of what Lincoln said concerning the bill passed in the south at the end of the war authorizing Negro troops. He said we have to get to the bottom of the manpower well of the foe. I guess they are getting there.

This would never get reported while Bush was still there.

I know this is an over used term…

Posted: February 5, 2009 by datechguy in Hiwired, opinion/news
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…but if you read only one thing today read Michael Yon’s letter exclusively on Instapundit. Key Excerpt:

The idea of a two-state solution, once popular with many Israelis, is evaporating. More and more Israelis are coming to believe that any appeasement with the Palestinians is merely a reward for terrorism. And so it is. The Palestinians have become prisoners by their own hand. The hand that builds the bombs, wields the guns, and welds the rockets, has caused a fence to be built around them.

They are isolated and imprisoned. But it’s not only Israel who’s done this. The Gaza Strip borders Egypt, and Egypt has done the same. The terrorists are tunneling like rats and the Egyptians and Israelis are trying to locate and destroy the tunnels under their respective fence lines. Who wants the Palestinians? If the Palestinians truly were a peaceful lot, victims only of Israel, one might think that they would have free entry into Egypt. But they do not.

Yon is the best single reporter in the world on the war on terror.

UPDATE: His bottom line is unfortunately correct at least at this time.

It simply does not make sense for us to support a Palestinian state, when at every turn they demonstrate that they will simply become more powerful, richer terrorists, with longer range rockets.

My greatest regret with HiWired is we were unable to pull off the podcast with Yon. We traded e-mails kept missing each other. It was before he was well known and would have been a solid exclusive.

Time is almost out for Israel…

Posted: February 3, 2009 by datechguy in opinion/news, war
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…If Iran is successfully launching satellites:

The Iranian regime announced it launched its first homemade satellite into orbit today.
FOX News reported:

Iran has successfully sent its first domestically made satellite into orbit, state radio reported Tuesday, another development in the country’s ambitious space program that has worried many international observers.

Once Iran can put a nuclear warhead on one of these babies the war will come. I wouldn’t be surprised to see an Israeli first strike and I don’t know if I would blame them.

If there is a more horrible prospect on the horizon then I don’t know what it is.

Back in December on the war in Gaza I said this:

My take on it. This is a strategic move by Iran and a smart one. I personally think this is Iran’s war by proxy. Their best next move is an attack by Hezbollah as soon as possible. This would serve two purposes. It will divide the Israeli response and if it suckers Israel into Lebanon it could not only bog them down but might change the direction of the propaganda war.

Unfortunately no matter what happens even a total Israeli victory the winner here is Iran. As long as the world is talking about Gaza and rocket attacks and responses they are not touching the ongoing building of Nukes by Iran. I think this is all a sucker punch to keep the heat elsewhere. If Israel is hitting Gaza and or Lebanon they are not hitting Iranian nuke sites. They are buying time with Arab rather than Persian lives.

This news might be the confirmation. Maybe that’s why the rockets are flying from Gaza again. Disrupt and distract any kind of planned Israeli move against Iran wasn’t as odd as it sounded.

Not stopping Iran will be the biggest failure of the Bush administration. The question is soon going to become if it will cost thousands of lives to do so or millions of lives not to.

Lets all pray I’m dead wrong on this.

Update: Hotair points out that this makes the president dropping starwars unlikely:

Time magazine warned the left two weeks after the election not to get their hopes up about Obama revisiting Star Wars, citing quotes from during the campaign like, “I actually believe that we need missile defense because of Iran and North Korea and the potential for them to obtain or to launch nuclear weapons.” I’d say their prediction is safe.

Will it be enough?

My conversation with Ivan

Posted: February 2, 2009 by datechguy in opinion/news
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Promoting this from this post’s comments:

Ivan says I am wrong about Rendition and writes:

Datechguy,

Read the order:

” “1. No State Party shall expel, return (“refouler”) or extradite a person to another State where there are substantial grounds for believing that he would be in danger of being subjected to torture.

2. For the purpose of determining whether there are such grounds, the competent authorities shall take into account all relevant considerations including, where applicable, the existence in the State concerned of a consistent pattern of gross, flagrant or mass violations of human rights.”

It’s pretty clear. And this is pretty much a 180 from the bush administration when we extradited prisoners to places like Egypt and Jordan to be tortured. Even national review and glenn reynolds has had to backtrack a bit on this:

First: Looking at both NRO and Instapundit, NRO mentions the other article while Instapundit says “possibly” not much of a retraction if any.

Second: Reading what you have it would seem to me that the law mandates things be examined but the people doing the stuff decide what weight to give stuff. Plenty of room for interpretation.

Third: This is an administration made of of ex Bill “depends on what the meaning of the word is is” Clinton people. I’m sure they will interpret words by their clear meaning.

Fourth: You have an administration that in only 3 weeks has appointed a Treasury secretary that doesn’t pay its taxes. Whose answer to another potential cabinet officer with similar issues is “Nobody’s Perfect” and who deliberately disabled fraud prevention measures on contributions. Yeah they’re going to respect the law as written.

Fifth: You already have human rights groups twisting into pretzels to defend him and a protective media. Who is going to pursue this stuff if it happens? Why would this administration have any fear of it?

Sixth: Without such pressure how long will it take such cases even if brought to make it through the courts?

Your interpretation isn’t quite the move the mountain into the sea level but in my opinion it isn’t far off.

Hey he could prove me wrong, we’ll see.

Update: Dissenting Justice has my back:

After reviewing much of the pro-rendition liberal pushback, I have collected my thoughts and written a response. Here’s a summary: the liberal defense is strained, dishonest, surprisingly nuanced, and contrary to true progressive politics because it elevates “party” over principle.

Over to you Ivan.

Update: Talk left agrees with Ivan.

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