Obama's Islamic State War Czar Stepping Down

Bloomberg

. . . "The timing of Allen’s departure could not be worse for the Obama administration. The incoming Marine Corps Commandant, Lieutenant General Robert Neller, testified last month that the war is at a “stalemate.” Last week, the head of the U.S. Central Command, General Lloyd Austin, testified that of the 54 Syrian rebels trained and equipped by the U.S. military, only “4 or 5” were still in the fight. And now the Pentagon is investigating allegations by dozens of intelligence analysts that their reporting on the progress in the war effort was altered before being given to top officials.

"U.S. officials familiar with Allen's decision say he has been frustrated with White House micromanagement of the war and its failure to provide adequate resources to the fight. He unsuccessfully tried to convince the administration to allow U.S. tactical air control teams to deploy on the ground to help pick targets for air strikes in Iraq. Allen also tried several times to convince the White House to agree to Turkish demands for a civilian protection zone in Syria, to no avail. Nonetheless, administration officials stress that Allen's decision to leave his post was motivated mainly by the health of his wife, who suffers from an auto-immune disorder."

Finding someone to take the job won’t be easy. Just before he became Obama’s lead official in the fight against the Islamic State, Allen wrote an op-ed article in which he called the group a “clear and present danger to the U.S.” and said it “must be destroyed” quickly, using capabilities and power only the U.S. can bring to bear. Just over one year later, the president has yet to commit to a real plan to “degrade and destroy” the Islamic State, as he has repeatedly said is his goal. Until that changes, Allen’s replacement will face the same roadblocks that he did, and the war against the Islamic State will continue to flounder.

 

Ben Carson's view of radical Islam is shared by - Islamist extremists. Assimilation UPDATE at bottom

Ben Carson Exposes Islamic ‘Taqiyya,’ But There’s Even More You Should Know
. . . "For those with a discerning eye, taqiyya is all around us. Muslim refugees have pretended to convert to Christianity (in the past and the present); an Islamic gunman gained entrance inside a church by feigning interest in Christian prayers. Examples abound on a daily basis.
"Consider the following anecdote from Turkey. In order to get close enough to a Christian pastor to assassinate him, a group of Muslims — including three women — feigned interest in Christianity, attended his church for over a year, and even participated in baptism ceremonies. Said the pastor, Emre Karaali:

These people had infiltrated our church and collected information about me, my family and the church and were preparing an attack against us. … Two of them attended our church for over a year and they were like family.

"If some Muslims are willing to go to such lengths to eliminate the already downtrodden Christian minorities in their midst, does anyone doubt that a taqiyya-practicing Muslim presidential candidate might have no reservations about swearing on a stack of Bibles?"

The UK Guardian; how a liberal news outlet sees this Carson incident.
. . . "And on that narrow point, Carson’s caution is reasonable and astute. All holy texts make claims about crime, punishment, war, human relationships and a whole host of other facets of social and political life that, if interpreted literally, cannot help but clash with the freedoms and frameworks of governance set out in the US constitution. A literal, fundamentalist reading of Islam – like Christianity, Judaism, or any other revealed faith [!]*– is thoroughly incompatible with the founding documents of this country.

"But that Carson knows and understands this actually serves to underline the underlying bigotry of his initial response, because Carson, presented on Saturday with the idea of a Muslim president, did not equivocate. There was no thoughtful generalizing, no common sense qualifiers about fundamentalists vs. moderates." . . .
*
Feckless liberals fearful of violent Muslims. The nation of Israel is a Jewish nation, led by Jews and  the only free nation in a sea of Muslims who would like to kill every one of them. Christians? All the noble tenets in the American founding are Biblical principles, only tainted by fallen men.
The West has had such liberals as this before; those who saw no danger in a warlike Germany. They called insightful British leaders such as Churchill "warmongers" because they stressed the need to prepare for war with Hitler.

Lord Carey: Britain has a duty to rescue Syria’s Christians

Carson's Right -- Islam is Incompatible with the Constitution
. . . "Ben Carson is right. So says Syrian Islamic scholar Abd Al-Karim Bakkar who said in 2009 that democracy and Islam are like matter and anti-matter in physics:

Democracy runs counter to Islam on several issues….
In democracy, legislation is the prerogative of the people. It is the people who draw up the constitution, and they have the authority to amend it as well. On this issue we differ.

"This is self-evident in the fact that Islamic theocracy rules throughout the Islamic world, crushing human rights such as those delineated in our Bill of Rights."

CAIR Calls for Carson to Drop Out of Presidential Race
. . . "Earnest called Carson’s views “not something that’s consistent with the values of the vast majority of Americans, and — you know, ironically enough, I — I actually do think that the views articulated by Dr. Carson are entirely inconsistent with the Constitution, that does actually guarantee the freedom of religion in this country.' ”

UPDATE: Muslims Warn NJ School Board: 'We're Going to Be the Majority Soon'

"Things got heated at a Board of Education meeting last week in Jersey City after officials decided not to close schools for the Muslim holiday Eid al-Adha. " . . .

"The uproar that took place at the local Board of Education meeting comes as a new report from the Center for Immigration Studies shows that based on census data, Muslims are the fastest growing bloc of immigrants in America."

As you have read many times, Muslims do not assimilate.

Christianity in the Middle East under Obama

2000 YEARS OF CHRISTIAN CIVILIZATION: Has Been Destroyed Under Obama’s Watch

"The Islamic State has managed to destroy two thousand years of Christian civilization in the Middle East in just a couple of years, Lt. Col. Ralph Peters noted on The O’Reilly Factor last week. And he placed the blame squarely on President Obama’s cowardly, feckless, incompetent foreign policy."

. . .

. . . "Fleeing Muslim persecution, Christian refugees are often targeted and persecuted anew by fleeing Muslim refugees.
An egregious example from last April: 12 Christian refuges lost their lives during a particularly harrowing trip — not due to their boat capsizing, but through Islamic violence.

The International Business Times reported:

Italian police have arrested 15 Muslim immigrants in Palermo, for allegedly having thrown Christian refugees off the rubber boat that was taking them to Italy after a fight for “religious reasons”, according to media reports.
Those arrested – from Mali, Guinea and Ivory Coast – were part of a group of 100 that were rescued off the Libyan coast by the Italian coastguard.

The archbishop of Canterbury recently warned British Prime Minister David Cameron that his government’s refugee policy was discriminating against Christians because Christians are not among the refugees being helped in UN camps. They’re not in the UN camps because they fear persecution from radicalized Muslim refugees.

And now these thoughts on this White House

"The Ringling Brothers and Barnum and Bailey Circus arrived in California for shows this week in Sacramento. They agreed to phase out the elephants in their shows next year. Now all the clowns who sweep up after the elephants may have to take on new jobs as presidential campaign spokespersons."

"The White House is planning a huge welcome ceremony when Pope Francis arrives for his visit with President Obama Thursday. On a personal level, eyewitnesses have noticed there’s a natural friction between Pope Francis and President Obama. Neither likes the other’s holier-than-thou attitude."

Comedian Argus Hamilton

Does this Pope prefer Communism to Capitalism?

Miami Priest to Pope Francis: Why Condemn Capitalism So Strongly, but Not Communism?

“ 'I know,” Father Cutié concludes solemnly, “the majority of people reading this will say, ‘those Miami Cubans,’ we don’t understand. I’ve come to the conclusion that they are right. … I don’t understand–and don’t think I will ever begin to understand–why a man of God can meet with oppressors, but not the oppressed.' ”

Why do you and other religion leaders condemn capitalism so strongly, and offer us a list of all the disasters that result from it on earth, but we never see an equally strong condemnation of atheist communism, which continues to cause the world so much harm? This inequality when the time comes to condemn appears unjust. […]
Why do we ignore those who suffer from the great poverty of a lack of freedom and who, only for expressing their desperation and demanding respect for the most basic human rights, are detained, harassed, and beaten? […]
Is it really more important to have diplomatic relations with a country that has not had free elections in 50 years, that abuses its people, that has a well-documented history of oppressing and robbing the Church–than to seek justice, the common good and freedom for all Cubans?

NRO: US Marines vs Obama

The Democrats have no tolerance for turning your little boys into men. Warning: politically incorrect video here:

The Marine Corps Against Political Correctness — Leaders Are Set to Challenge the Obama Administration

"From the Associated Press: The Marine Corps is expected to ask that women not be allowed to compete for several front-line combat jobs, inflaming tensions between Navy and Marine leaders, U.S. officials say.

"The tentative decision has ignited a debate over whether Navy Secretary Ray Mabus can veto any Marine Corps proposal to prohibit women from serving in certain infantry and reconnaissance positions. And it puts Gen. Joseph Dunford, the Marine Corps commandant who takes over soon as chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, at odds with the other three military services, who are expected to open all of their combat jobs to women.

"Mabus has responded with sheer PC nonsense: “I’m not going to ask for an exemption for the Marines, and it’s not going to make them any less fighting effective,” he said, adding that the Navy SEALs also will not seek any waivers. “I think they will be a stronger force because a more diverse force is a stronger force. And it will not make them any less lethal.”

 "A more diverse force is a stronger force? Is this guy a university dean or the leader of arguably — pound-for-pound — America’s most deadly fighting force? Rather than reciting Ivy League slogans, perhaps he should pay attention to the actual evidence:

"Women in a new Marine Corps unit created to assess how female service members perform in combat were injured twice as often as men, less accurate with infantry weapons and not as good at removing wounded troops from the battlefield, according to the results of a long-awaited study produced by the service.

"I know I’m only a JAG officer, but even I know that accuracy is directly relevant to lethality — as is the ability to stay in the fight without getting injured. And that’s not even taking into account the profoundly important issue of unit cohesion. (In fact, I deal with all these issues in an essay in this week’s magazine.)

"The Marines are fighting a valiant rear-guard action, but they’re in a race with the PC clock. The left wants to transform the military as much as it can before it faces a new president, and social justice warriors firmly believes that social justice delayed is social justice denied. "

Social justice was denied women because they were not here at Iwo Jima? I visualize in the next TNT series, a number of women will be in this battle. One will even scream at John Basilone because he is a coward, inspiring him to take the following actions. Naturally, being a woman, she will be bypassed for the medal that Basilone receives.  The Tunnel Dweller

The Muslim Islamophobes Who Agree With Ben Carson

In reality, there is not a single country to which they can point. There is no democratic tradition in the Islamic world. There is no history of secular republics, no concept of the equality of all people before the law.

Robert Spencer ( who I am sure is on a kill list of Radical Islamists)

. . . "Here's another:

The first basic difference between the political system endorsed by Islam and democracy is that in democracy, the ultimate authority lies with the people. In Islam, however, the ultimate authority doesn’t belong to people; it belongs to God alone. That means that both the ruler and the ruled in Islam are subject to a higher criterion for decision-making, that is, divine guidance.

"That would mean that the Constitution would have to give way to Sharia wherever the two conflict, as another Islamophobe makes clear when he says:

Democracy runs counter to Islam on several issues. … In democracy, legislation is the prerogative of the people. It is the people who draw up the constitution, and they have the authority to amend it as well. On this issue we differ.

"Supposedly, in Islamic thought only Allah legislates. There is no shortage of Islamophobes who spew this hate.
"Another howled that in Islam, “democracy, freedom, and human rights have no place.”
Still another yelped that in Islam, “democracy is evil, the parliament is evil and legislation is evil.”
"One Islamophobe went Carson one better, saying not only that a Muslim should not be president, but that Muslims shouldn’t even participate in elections. He had the audacity to claim that “electing a president or another form of leadership or council members is prohibited in Islam.' ” . . .

"In order, the authors of the Islamophobic statements I quote [in this article] are:

• Hisham Melhem, the Washington bureau chief of Al-Arabiya,
• Renowned moderate Muslim and Islamic apologist Jamal Badawi,
• Syrian Islamic scholar Abd Al-Karim Bakkar,
• The leader of Iran’s Shia Taliban, Mesbah Yazdi,
• Australian Muslim cleric Ibrahim Siddiq-Conlon,
• Saudi Islamic scholar, Sheikh Abdul Rahman bin Nassir Al Barrak,
• A Muslim group in Wales that plastered Cardiff with posters denouncing democracy and exhorting Muslims not to vote, and
• A Muslim group in Denmark that likewise urged Muslims to boycott elections.

Americans now see a war on police and they know who to blame

Andrew Malcolm

. . . "In a June interview Obama said not that some people are racist or sometimes say racist things. No, the first black president who received more than 135 million votes from his countrymen of all colors in two national elections declared that racism inhabits the very DNA of Americans. You're welcome, sir.

"The new Rasmussen poll found, appropriately, that six-of-ten Americans see such rhetorical involvement of politicians for their own purposes as less than helpful.

"In fact, respondents answered that such statements by Obama and others make police work even more dangerous than it already is for officers. Eighteen percent say they believe such comments actually improve the situation somehow, while 13% say they have no effects." . . .

Once again this president sides with the perpetrator against authorities

Yet again.

http://hopenchangecartoons.blogspot.com/

Obama doesn’t have time to recognize the cop killings everywhere, but he definitely has time for a Muslim teen who got arrested for administrators thinking that the homemade clock he brought to school looked like a bomb.

. . . "Officers said Ahmed was being “passive aggressive” in his answers to their questions, and didn’t have a “reasonable answer” as to what he was doing with the case. Investigators said the student told them that it was just a clock that he was messing around with. “We attempted to question the juvenile about what it was and he would simply only say it was a clock. He didn’t offer any explanation as to what it was for, why he created this device, why he brought it to school,” said James McLellan, Irving Police." . . .

. . . "WHICH brings us to the recent kerfuffle, regarding the 14 year old Muslim who caught the White House’s eye – what a shock – even while there are so many national/international fires raging. Hmm. HUSSEIN Obama has the time for a “sit down” with an “offended” 14 year old! Credo quia absurdum. "

Here’s the statute Ahmed Mohammed authorities originally suspected Mohammed of violating (Texas Penal Code Section 46.08):

(a) A person commits an offense if the person knowingly manufactures, sells, purchases, transports, or possesses a hoax bomb with intent to use the hoax bomb to:
(1) make another believe that the hoax bomb is an explosive or incendiary device; or
(2) cause alarm or reaction of any type by an official of a public safety agency or volunteer agency organized to deal with emergencies.
(b) An offense under this section is a Class A misdemeanor.

Nobody said Mohammed built an actual bomb. They suspected that he had wanted to frighten or alarm officials with a hoax-bomb. The police said that initially, it was “not immediately evident” that the clock-in-a-case was a class experiment – perfectly plausible, given that Mohammed built the clock-in-a-case voluntarily, without assignment, and in conjunction with no science fair.

Obama had tweeted: ‘Cool clock, Ahmed. Want to bring it to the White House? We should inspire more kids like you to like science. It’s what makes America great.’

For Obama, being cool trumps (if I may) being presidential. 

After Inviting Muslim Clock Boy To WH, Here’s How Obama Treats Cancer Kids

. . . "According to recent reports, Secret Service has recently kicked out a few cancer-stricken children, along with their parents, from a park close by the White House, citing “security precautions.” . . . “The parents and children gathered at Lafayette Park Saturday night for a scheduled candlelight vigil to call attention to childhood cancer and push for increased funding for cancer research.” It was part of a two-day event called CureFest for Childhood Cancer, but before they could participate, they were told to leave."

Hillary supporters must be either ignorant of her history or just plain cynical

Hillary Clinton: I'm The Ultimate Outsider or Something Because I'm a Woman

Victor Davis Hanson: Hillary Clinton’s Empire of Dirt

"The more she castigates others, the more she convicts herself. "

"For nearly 40 years, Bill and Hillary Clinton have crafted joint power careers. But “in the end,” what have they become? What is left but their front foundation, their Soros-funded surrogates, and their lock-step loyalists — in other words, their “empire of dirt”? Hillary Clinton just released a brief video about the need for women to stand up to their sexual assaulters while demanding relief from society’s unwarranted doubts about their allegations: “It’s not enough to condemn campus sexual assault. We need to end campus sexual assault!” Who would not agree with that assertion?
. . .

"Bill Clinton’s sordid sexual harassments are ancient history better forgotten. But Ms. Clinton must accept that her advocacy video about sexual assault and harassment unfortunately dredges them back up. Do her present boilerplate professions of believing the alleged victim amount to a sort of postmodern “I will let you down” confession? For two decades of Bill Clinton’s political ascendance, Ms. Clinton’s own attitude toward women who alleged that they were either harassed or sexually assaulted by Governor and then President Bill Clinton was that they were either delusional or gold-digging connivers. Nothing that Ms. Clinton said or did ever suggested that Juanita Broddrick, Kathleen Willey, Paula Jones, or Monica Lewinsky — or scores of others — was anything other than a liar or an opportunist."  Read the full article

Mona Charen asks: Why Won’t the Media Hold Hillary to the Same Standard They Did Bob McDonnell?

Pope Francis doesn't understand how to alleviate poverty

George Will in NRO
"Pope Francis embodies sanctity but comes trailing clouds of sanctimony. With a convert’s indiscriminate zeal, he embraces ideas impeccably fashionable, demonstrably false, and deeply reactionary. They would devastate the poor on whose behalf he purports to speak — if his policy prescriptions were not as implausible as his social diagnoses are shrill.

"Supporters of Francis have bought newspaper and broadcast advertisements to disseminate some of his woolly sentiments that have the intellectual tone of fortune cookies. One example: “People occasionally forgive, but nature never does.” The Vatican’s majesty does not disguise the vacuity of this. Is Francis intimating that environmental damage is irreversible? He neglects what technology has accomplished regarding London’s air (see Page 1 of Dickens’s Bleak House) and other matters.

"And the Earth is becoming “an immense pile of filth”? Hyperbole is a predictable precursor of yet another U.N. climate-change conference — the 21st since 1995. Fortunately, rhetorical exhibitionism increases as its effectiveness diminishes. In his June encyclical and elsewhere, Francis lectures about our responsibilities, but neglects the duty to be as intelligent as one can be. This man who says “the Church does not presume to settle scientific questions” proceeds as though everything about which he declaims is settled, from imperiled plankton to air conditioning being among humanity’s “harmful habits.” The church that thought it was settled science that Galileo was heretical should be attentive to all evidence." . . .

The Pope, Obama, and the oppressive left

As Cuban dissidents arrested, Pope Francis enjoys 'friendly and informal conversation' with Fidel Castro

Obama just can’t help taking victory laps, this time around Pope Francis

. . . "Obama should be grateful to the pontiff, who helped the President achieve a very rare foreign policy “success”. If he is, the Obama sure has a strange way of showing it.

In a stunning show of political indecorum, Obama has invited a series of individuals who publicly flout Catholic teaching, including a pro-abortion religious sister, a transgender woman and the first openly gay Episcopal bishop, along with at least two Catholic gay activists.

"Truly, this is the sort of SmartPower^TM move we have come to expect from the White House." . . .

As Cuban dissidents arrested, Pope Francis enjoys 'friendly and informal conversation' with Fidel Castro
. . . "Meeting under the gaze of Che Guevara,* a bloodthirsty man who enjoyed executing his political opponents – personally machine gunning them for sport – is abominable.  But I suppose the pope had no choice in the venue if he was committed to seeing Castro.  The photo of the meeting is certainly will do nothing to harm Castro’s image with believing Catholic Cubans:"

* Guevara can't be all bad; his picture hung in some Obama election offices in 2008.