Hello, Kurdistan

The Kurds have proved to be, roughly speaking, the Swiss of the Muslim Middle East.

Daniel Pipes    "Before welcoming the emerging state of Kurdistan in northern Iraq, I confess to having opposed its independence in the past."

 

"In 1991, after the Gulf War had ended and as Saddam Hussein attacked Iraq’s 6 million Kurds, I made three arguments against American intervention on their behalf, arguments still commonly heard today: (1) independence for Iraq’s Kurds would spell the end of Iraq as a state, (2) it would embolden Kurds to agitate for independence in Syria, Turkey, and Iran, leading to destabilization and border conflicts, and (3) it would invite the persecution of non-Kurds, causing “large and bloody exchanges of population.”

"All three expectations proved flat-out wrong. Given Iraq’s wretched domestic and foreign track record, the end of a unified Iraq promises relief, as do Kurdish stirrings in the neighboring countries. Syria is already fracturing into its three ethnic and sectarian components — Kurdish, Sunni Arab, and Shi’i Arab — which promises benefits in the long term. Kurds’ departing from Turkey would usefully impede the reckless ambitions of now-president Recep Tayyip Erdoğan. Similarly, Kurds’ decamping from Iran would helpfully diminish that arch-aggressive mini-empire. Far from non-Kurds fleeing Iraqi Kurdistan, as I feared, the opposite has occurred: Hundreds of thousands of refugees are pouring in from the rest of Iraq to benefit from Kurdistan’s security, tolerance, and opportunities.

 

History: Brunswick, Maine Civil War Round Table

20th Maine reunion photo at Devil's Den--October 1889

Back in 2012, the Tunnel Wall published this on the home of Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain: Brunswick, Maine in the Civil War (2014 Updates).
For those interested in this piece of American history, the following should add to your body of knowledge on this. We appreciate the Oct 2014 issue of Civil War Times for making us aware of this.

20th Maine Co. G

 

Brunswick Civil War Round Table    It shall be the mission of the Brunswick Civil War Round Table to promote interest in and disseminate knowledge of the American Civil War, through various speakers at regular Round Table meetings and other special events. It shall also be a goal of the Round Table to promote, encourage, and support Civil War Battlefield Preservation.

 

BCWRT is committed to providing support, including financial support, to like minded organizations that advance the study and understanding of the American Civil War. We have supported the following organizations.

Brunswick Civil War Round Table Recommended Sites
 

Brunswick Civil War Round Table Articles

Related posts From the Civil War Times:


Major General Adelbert Ames: Forgotten Man of the 20th Maine
"Ames wanted even higher rank, however, and realized he would have to switch to the infantry branch to get it. On August 20, 1862, he was given command of the 20th Maine and the rank of colonel. Colonel Ames commanded that unit until May 1863, when he became a member of Maj. Gen. George Meade's staff. He soon became a brigadier general, commanding a brigade in the XI Corps, leaving Lt. Col. Joshua Chamberlain to gain glory as the 20th's commander at Gettysburg. Ames and his brigade, meanwhile, fought on Barlow's Knoll and Cemetery Hill at Gettysburg."

Book Review: Conceived in Liberty: Joshua Chamberlain, William Oates, and the American Civil War
 "Conceived in Liberty seeks to illuminate an entire era by chronicling the parallel (and very interesting) lives of the two most famous antagonists on Little Round Top: Chamberlain and William C. Oates of the 15th Alabama."

17th Maine Infantry in the Battle of Gettysburg   "The 17th Maine Volunteer Infantry Regiment was mustered in at Cape Elizabeth, Maine for three year's service on August 18, 1862 and were mustered out on June 10, 1865."

The true story of the most famous regiment of the American Civil War   Video

Did you know the connection between LL Bean clothing and the 20th Maine?

 

President Obama now says he will wait until after the November elections to implement an "executive amnesty" for 11 million illegal aliens, so as not to hurt Democrats' chances this year.

"This election is our first referendum on amnesty."

 

Ann Coulter tells us to get angry now.

... "Instead of waiting to be enraged in December, voters, could you please be enraged now? Once the holiday season kicks off, you'll be too busy going to parties and Christmas shopping to notice that you're suddenly living in Mexico.

"Getting Obama to postpone a rancid idea isn't something to celebrate. Yay! We did it! We forced him to delay doing something the country doesn't want for SIX WEEKS! Every Republican candidate better be jamming Obama's threat down the throats of their Democratic opponents.

"Obama is claiming to have the powers of a dictator. Amnesty was considered by Congress, but -- here's the important thing: It didn't pass. It only passed the Senate, with the votes of all Democrats and 14 not-bright Republicans. After that, widespread public revulsion prevented Marco Rubio's amnesty bill from even being considered in the House.

"But according to Obama, the only reason illegals haven't already been given amnesty is that Congress is not "doing its job.' "   
...
"Surveying the wreckage of a mere two years of a Democratic president with a Democratic Congress, all Americans should be focused like a laser beam on putting the Senate in Republican hands.

  " Won't you be angry if our power-mad president grants millions of illegal immigrants "executive amnesty" on the basis of his nonexistent constitutional authority to ignore the law? The surge of needy foreigners across our Southern border, so far, will be nothing compared to what's coming if Obama does this."  Full article.

Obama’s uncertain trumpet, again

 

 Charles Krauthammer   "And beyond the strategy’s halfhearted substance is its author’s halfhearted tone. Obama’s reluctance and ambivalence are obvious. This is a man driven to give this speech by public opinion. It shifted radically with the televised beheading of two Americans. Every poll shows that Americans overwhelmingly want something to be done — and someone to lead the doing.

"Hence Wednesday’s speech. Its origins were more political than strategic. Its purpose was to save the wreckage of a presidency at its lowest ebb. (If this were a parliamentary democracy, Obama would lose a vote of nonconfidence and be out of office.) Its point was to give the appearance of firmness and purpose, i.e., leadership."

 

"The speech’s only news was the promise to expand the air campaign into Syria and (finally) seriously arm the secular opposition. But this creates a major problem for Obama. Just a month ago, he ridiculed the non-jihadist rebels as nothing but a bunch of “doctors, farmers, pharmacists and so forth.” Now he deputizes them as our Syrian shock troops. So he seems finally to have found his Syria strategy: F-16s flying air support for pharmacists in tanks."

President Obama vowed to arm Syrian rebels to fight ISIS Wednesday. He had a change of heart. Last month he dismissed the rebels as doctors, dentists and pharmacists, but he's come to realize it's cheaper to give them the half billion now than pay their bills through ObamaCare.   Argus Hamilton

Obama the Divider?

Hot Air   "The only real hope that Democrats have in this midterm is to cobble together the voter coalition that Barack Obama created in two elections in order to counter what looks to be a Republican wave. They have one big obstacle to that goal — Barack Obama himself. According to an analysis from the Washington Post’s Karen Tumulty, Obama has lost the confidence of his once-favored demographics, and with it any enthusiasm to protect him in November:
...
"Aaron Blake says that’s not the worst of the poll’s findings, though. The worst is that a strong majority now see Obama as a divider rather than a uniter:

The most troubling number for President Obama in the new Washington Post-ABC News poll is this one: Americans say 55 percent to 38 percent that he is more of a divider than a uniter.

That’s a reversal from last year, when Americans said 47-45 that Obama had done more to unite the country than divide it

Penn State yanks Bibles after atheists complain

Campus Reform

 

... "FFRF claims in their statement that Penn State officials confirmed to them that the Bibles have been removed from the two university-run inns, but Powers confirmed to Campus Reform that the Bibles can still be found by guests in public areas.

“ 'The Gideon Bibles have not been removed from our hotels,” Powers said. “The Bibles have been removed from individual guest rooms. Bibles and other publications are now available in our libraries and other public access areas (our Nittany Lion Inn has two libraries).”

"Powers said that the Bibles had been in the Nittany Lion Inn rooms for “decades” and had been in place in the Penn State Conference Center Hotel for “probably a dozen years.' ”

The thrust of the Scriptures is not the ordained killing of unbelievers, but a history of times when such thing were done. The final message that is applicable to us now is the story of how humanity became to be as warped as we see that it is. Then it gives the story of the redemption our Creator offers to us.  TD

Is the Islamic State Really un-Islamic?

Jonah Goldberg

“Now let’s make two things clear: ISIL is not Islamic. No religion condones the killing of innocents, and the vast majority of ISIL’s victims have been Muslim. And ISIL is certainly not a state.” –    President Barack Obama in his address to the nation on Wednesday.

 ... "The president faces the same dilemma that bedeviled George W. Bush, and I sympathize with him. It is not in our interest for the Muslim world to think we are at war with Islam, not just because it is untrue, but more specifically because we desperately need the cooperation of Muslim nations. That’s why Bush constantly proclaimed “Islam means peace.' ”
...
"To be sure, there are Muslims who have had precisely this reaction as well. But can anyone deny that the world would be a better place if more Muslims felt – and demonstrated – that terrorists were giving them a bad name?"

 

Is you is or is you isn't Islamic?

 

Obama: Islamic State 'Is Not Islamic'   "Addressing the nation from the White House, he used the opportunity to repeat the administration’s rejection of the jihadists' claim to be acting on behalf of Islam." ...

 

On What Is and Is Not Islamic   "During his speech last night, President Obama declared, “ISIL is not ‘Islamic.’ No religion condones the killing of innocents. And the vast majority of ISIL’s victims have been Muslim.” It is certainly true that the vast majority of the victims of ISIS, as the group is more commonly known, have been Muslim as have been the majority of victims of other radical Islamist movements, it is not the job of any president to decree what is and is not Islam; what is and is not Christianity; and what is and is not Judaism. For all practical purposes, religion is what its practitioners believe it to be, not what an American president says it is." ...

Never forget; not just the Islamic radicals but a few of ours as well.

Wolfie's Pics Via  Conservatives Network

Remember the above and forget this guy:
 

Ward Churchill vs Megyn Kelly: FULL INTERVIEW. How Can You Compare 9/11 Victims to Nazis?  Watch the video

 

John McCain Dresses Down Jay Carney over Obama’s Syria and Iraq failures

Legal Insurrection   "Barack Obama’s address to the nation regarding the threat of ISIS was met with both cautious optimism and unbridled mockery from pundits on both sides of the aisle.

"No one was more optimistic than CNN’s latest hire, former Obama Administration press secretary Jay Carney. Unfortunately for Carney, however, CNN had also invited Senator John McCain (R-AZ), who was more than a little irritated at the media’s willingness to overlook the fact that Obama chose to ignore the possibility of the current crisis when he decided to pull the occupying force out of Iraq."
 

... "Senator McCain’s assertion that a residual force in Iraq could have tempered the threat of ISIS comes from a place of experience, not of brash partisanship."

 Senator, do you wish you had not said this back in 2008?
 

 

ISIS assumed you were speaking to them.

World reaction to 9/11

Youtube

 

 The following day at the changing of the guard at Buckingham Palace, American marches were played.  Including the US National anthem which the London crowd sang along with.

How BBC1 interupted programmes on 9/11

Australian Live Television Coverage of 911 attacks

More reaction around the world

The Falling Man

Your Child’s School Might Be Pushing Zinn’s Marxist View of US History

Sara Noble  "Many public schools in the United States have been putting Howard Zinn’s Marxist view of the history of the United States on reading lists and on bookshelves. Most recently, Zinn’s tome, A Peoples’ History of the United States, has been added to supplementary reading lists for AP U.S. history. There is even A Young Peoples’ History of the United States.

"How teachers in the classroom use it does matter, however, it reads more like Soviet propaganda than U.S. history and it’s about as accurate.

"Howard Zinn was a Marxist whose book presents a dreary, cynical history of a dystopian United States. It is filled with inaccuracies because, for him, it was not about the truth, it was about spreading the ideology. He used second-hand sources for his “factual US history – statements of alleged facts without footnotes, clip jobs, and interviews substituted for real research.

"Zinn came out the New Left and the 1960’s leftism extremism. His book reflects their views." ...
...
But wait! There's more! The article finishes with this:

"Bill Bigelow, who runs the Zinn Project today, wrote an anti-July 4 article this year, claiming that George Washington was a war criminal and Thomas Jefferson basically plagiarized The Declaration of Independence.

"Zinn was an America-basher, a dangerous one. So are his followers who keep the flame alive.

"Parents need to read over their children’s reading material or they might find their child growing up hating America." (Emphasis added, TD)
Full article...