Tuesday, June 21, 2011
U.S. and Pakistan: Afghan Strategies
STRATFOR "...the United States is exploring ways to accelerate the drawdown of its forces in the country. It is also clear that U.S. relations with Pakistan are deteriorating to a point where cooperation — whatever level there was — is breaking down. These are two intimately related issues. Any withdrawal from Afghanistan, particularly an accelerated one, will leave a power vacuum in Afghanistan that the Kabul government will not be able to fill. Afghanistan is Pakistan’s back door, and its evolution is a matter of fundamental interest to Pakistan. A U.S. withdrawal means an Afghanistan intertwined with and influenced by Pakistan. Therefore, the current dynamic with Pakistan challenges any withdrawal plan."Obama to Announce Afghanistan Troop Drawdown Numbers "Soon-to-be-retired Secretary of Defense Robert Gates, on his final tour of Afghanistan earlier this month, warned that it would be "premature" to make any significant changes to the military campaign in Afghanistan before the end of the year or until the United States can say that "we've turned the corner here in Afghanistan." "
Michael Yon: Afghanistan is making undeniable progress, but it could all unravel "Let's begin with a few facts. For the strategy we used, we never had enough troops in Afghanistan to defeat our enemies and stand up a civil society. It can be argued that today, we still do not have enough.
"Despite this, the coalition and the Afghans appear to finally be turning the tide in our favor, and a great deal of this can be credited to President Obama for deciding to send more troops. Unfortunately, the President has stated that we will begin bringing troops home this year."
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| Photo by Michael Yon |
Karzai Isn’t Helping "Alls this makes one wonder if Karzai has a clue as to how tenuous support for continuing the fight in Afghanistan is in the United States. If the Afghan president’s goal was to undermine support for the U.S. role in the conflict, he couldn’t have said anything more likely to encourage anti-war activists and to discourage those who think the cause is still worthwhile." Jonathan S. Tobin
Obama to announce big drawdown of Afghan troops "The reductions Petreaus wanted were largely symbolic - mostly support troops. He was making the argument that maximum pressure on the Taliban in the south for the rest of the summer is necessary in order for any withdrawal to impact our efforts as little as possible.
"But military concerns are hardly driving this decision. Obama is busy running a re-election campaign and can't be bothered with such mundane considerations. Most Democrats just want the war to go away by election day and the president will oblige them." By Rick Moran in American Thinker
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| Daniel Kurtzman, About.com |
Monday, June 20, 2011
Understanding Online Radicalization: The Jihadi Forums
Ali Teymouri "Rising terrorism arrests in America, particularly the breaking up of 22 plots between May 2009 and November 2010, have sparked questions about how young Muslim men become terrorists. Although radicalization has become a catch phrase in the media, little has been written about the methods, websites, and actors involved in the process. "This series, “Understanding Online Radicalization,” seeks to shed light on how the Internet functions as a tool for radicalizing would-be terrorists. It will answer questions about the kinds of websites popular among jihadists, how these sites have used new media and technology, and how they appeal to young people.
"Understanding the world of online jihadists gives us insight into what motivates its participants and what drives some of them to act out their violent fantasies." Jon Stewart, Bully
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| Jon Stewart |
Andrew Klavan "But while The Daily Show’s behavior may not be surprising, it is kind of disgusting, isn’t it? Stewart is at the height of his career and in a position of power. For him to have his minions take action that costs a 23-year-old up-and-comer his representation is bullying, plain and simple."
Video: Jon Stewart: “The embarrassment is that I’m given credibility” "His comments hit on a question I’ve had for quite some time. What is it that enables liberal journalists and artists — actors, authors, filmmakers, comedians, etc. — to escape the “liberal” adjective before their artistic title, whereas conservative journalists and artists are almost always labeled as such? “Oh, he’s a conservative comedian.” “Yeah, she’s a conservative blogger.”"
The Daily Show "Chris Wallace defends Fox News' Republican contributors, calls MSNBC biased, and asks Jon to come on his show." And of course, he did. Last night.
Chris Wallace schools Jon Stewart. "As Jon Stewart demonstrates, over and over and over again; his repeated insisting that he wasn’t being ruled by his biases kind of lost power with every counter-example that Wallace put up on the screen. But then, it’s rare on television that people are actually grilled on things."
Well... give him a break. He's a comedian. "Really? He’s kidding, right? A president can’t do much to affect the economy? "
Well... give him a break. He's a comedian. "Really? He’s kidding, right? A president can’t do much to affect the economy? "
•Threatening small businesses – our main jobs generating machine – with tax hikes doesn’t affect the economy?"Stick to the comedy, Jon" Neal Boortz
•Piling thousands of pages of new regulations in hundreds of new rulemaking processes doesn’t affect the economy?
•Having a president who has referred to the private sector as “the enemy” doesn’t affect the economy?
....
•Threatening American business with unneeded environmental regulations that will cost perhaps billions of dollars has no affect on the economy?
•Telling businesses that they are not going to be allowed to locate manufacturing facilities in states where workers cannot be forced to join unions won’t affect the economy?
•Pushing a bill that would allow unionization-by-intimidation in the private sector won’t affect the economy?
Flashback: Obama the Candidate Excoriates Pakistan for Holding Talks With Taliban (Video)
Gateway Pundit
"Fast-forward to 2011—Afghan President Karzai yesterday confirmed that the Obama Administration is holding peace talks with the Taliban.
"Reminder: All of Obama’s statements come with an expiration date."
…But I do believe that we have to change our policies with Pakistan. We can’t coddle, as we did, a dictator, give him billions of dollars and then he’s making peace treaties with the Taliban and militants.
"Fast-forward to 2011—Afghan President Karzai yesterday confirmed that the Obama Administration is holding peace talks with the Taliban.
"Reminder: All of Obama’s statements come with an expiration date."
Sunday, June 19, 2011
Juneteenth
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 Wikipedia photo, from whose frontwas read on June 19, 1865 |
There are many in this nation I admire, but there is a special place in my heart for one particular group. I think of older African-Americans who lived under the shameful Jim Crow laws and vile treatment by whites -especially in the South but certainly the North as well - yet still love America, see the best in her and staunchly defend our nation. We have published columns by some of those people in the Tunnel Wall and here are some more: (TD)
Armstrong Williams : Memorial Day Remembrance "Established in the 1860s during the American Civil War, Memorial Day tapped into the general human need to honor our dead who have done so much to serve this great country."
Thomas Sowell: Dependency and Votes "To listen to some of the defenders of entitlement programs, which are at the heart of the present financial crisis, you might think that anything the government fails to provide is something that people will be deprived of."
Ken Blackwell ; Indefensible: Israel’s 1967 Borders and Obama’s Policy "Mr. Obama delivered a major address calling for Israel to return to its pre-1967 borders. That would mean the West Bank and East Jerusalem are to evacuated and handed over to Israel’s mortal enemies. They would become, under Arabpressure, Jew-free zones. The German word for that is Judenrein."
Clifton B: Another Black Conservative "I am a black conservative from a black conservative family.... Throughout my life I knew I did not share many of the common beliefs of other American blacks. For starters, I never took to the term African-American."...."My culture is distinctly American, from the way I speak, think, dress and act and you know what else? I love it! So for me, I will always be an American who just happens to be black."
Lloyd Marcus; Liberal vs Conservative: A Spiritual Battle. "Christians believe that though we strive to do the right thing, the heart of man is critically flawed which is why we were in need of a savior, Jesus Christ....."Obama’s promise to “fundamentally transform America” is a spiritual attack on our freedom, liberty and culture." ....
"Lloyd Marcus, Proud Unhyphenated American"
Walter E. Williams ; Our Moral Dilemma; "A related moral question is: Does one American have a moral right to live at the expense of another American?"
Star Parker; Why 2012 looks like 1860; "The difference in presidential approval rates between Democrats and Republicans over the course of the Obama presidency and the last few years of the Bush presidency has been in the neighborhood of 70 points. This is the most polarized the nation has been in modern times.
"This deep division is driven, as was the case in the 1850’s, by fundamental differences in world view regarding what this country is about."
These are only a few examples of great African-American thinkers whose counsel we respect and whose love for our nation we admire. TD
Islam for Pols: a Primer;" We’re in favor of religious toleration for those religions that practice toleration."
Pajamas Media ..."But here’s the rub: tolerance only works when practiced by all parties to the social contract. It’s one thing for a Unitarian and a Catholic to tolerate each other. They have some important doctrinal differences. But they do not endeavor to kill or enslave one another on account of those differences."The friction of difference works differently when you add Islam to the equation. Why? Because Islam does not — in principle as well as in practice — acknowledge a legitimate sphere of operation for the secular as distinct from the sacred realm. There is no “render unto Caesar that which is Caesar’s” in Islam because Islam — that’s mainstream, garden-variety Islam, not just its wacko Wahhabist allotropes — regards everything as subordinate to the will of Allah."
Roger KimballRomney’s Religion Problem /Sharia is not about private faith, but public institutions. By Andrew McCarthy (Linked to in the above article, TW wanted to make sure you saw it.)
"Mitt Romney is said to be the early frontrunner in the GOP presidential sweepstakes. One rival, Newt Gingrich, is perceived as floundering in a swirl of unforced errors and staff insurrection. Yet when it comes to Islam, which will continue to matter mightily in the next administration, the frontrunner could learn a thing or two from the flounderer. The issue is not religion. It is the seditious Islamist political program."....
"When the threat came from 20th-century totalitarian ideologies, Gingrich concluded, “we discovered after a while, well you know, there are some genuinely bad people who would like to infiltrate our country, and we have got to have the guts to stand up and say, ‘No.’” It is every bit as essential today to say “No” to Islamists who use the shield of American religious liberty as a sword in the service of a dark political program — one that has precious little to do with spirituality. It remains to be seen whether Republicans will offer a presidential candidate with the guts to do it. If Mitt Romney is to be that candidate, he’s got work to do." (Emphasis added)
"...Steyn was accused of “flagrant Islamaphobia” after his bestselling book America Alone was excerpted in Canada’s oldest newsweekly magazine, Maclean’s, in 2006." "Author and columnist Mark Steyn’s week-long trial for “hate speech” began in a British Columbia courtroom on June 2 [2008]"....
"Canadian Human Rights Tribunals boast a 100% conviction rate on such “hate speech” cases, and have already handed down lifetime bans against the likes of Rev. Scott Boision. That Christian preacher is now forbidden for life from ever citing Bible verses regarding homosexuality in his sermons, or “in newspapers, by email, on the radio, in public speeches, or on the Internet.”"
Free Speech vs. Muslim Sensibilities "Steyn repeatedly reminded readers that his opponent, Dr. Mohammed Elmasry, was a rather unlikely defender of "human rights":
"But it does show you how absurd this is, that a guy who is an active supporter of terrorism is suddenly the poster-boy for Canadian human rights.""... he's the guy who said on Canadian TV [in 2004] that he thought all Israeli civilians over the age of 18 were legitimate targets for murder. In other words, he is an objective supporter of terrorism - I've got no complaint against that: he's entitled to his views, I just wish he thought I was entitled to mine.
Saturday, June 18, 2011
Some wise words for fathers
Does my presence as a father really make a difference in my son's life? "What a boy can use, and too often doesn't have, are the heart of his father and the fellowship of men. A boy needs at least one man who pays attention to him, spends time with him, and admires him. A boy needs a role model, a man whom he can regard as a mentor." Dennis and Barbara Rainey, Familylife.com; Via Point of ViewAtheists and Their Fathers "How does one become an atheist? Does a person's relationship with his earthly father affect his relationship with his heavenly Father? These are some of the questions we will explore in this article as we talk about the book Faith of the Fatherless by Paul Vitz." Kerby Anderson, Probe Ministries
Fathers: The Greatest Influence "...they have bought into modern cultural caricatures along with [radically] feminist psychology and its label of "hunter-gatherer" and thus assume this to be their primary and sometimes only contribution to the family. As a result too many men, including professing Christian men, express their role as "father" exclusively in terms of financial provider. The fact is children are not looking for financial provision; they are looking for love, guidance and a role model for what it means to be a man."
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| newyorker.com |
Obama’s Full-Court Press on Israel
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| Netanyahu and Obama; back in the day |
"Some say Netanyahu shouldn’t be fazed by the latest pressures since, with Congress opposed to Obama’s tack, they’re more bark than bite. Whether or not Congress can really contain Obama at this point, to think of what he could do in an unfettered second term is chilling." Emphasis added.
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