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2 Jan
New Year Quick Takes
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Friday, January 2nd, 2009 at 12:15 pm | 6 views
Stats
Everybody knows Obama won the Iraq War when he visited back in July, remember the time horizons?
Here’s another ‘quick take’ from the Weekly Standard’s Goldfarb regarding the WP:
I’d say that’s obvious. Conservative blogs even came under so much stain they showed signs of splintering. No better example can be found than the National Review’s internal spats, finally resulting in the founders son resigning.
Still with Sargent gone, ‘Republicans have no equivalent outlet’ is also accurate. ’08 election was near ruled by online by liberal bloggers, the fundraising, networking, analysis, polling.
According to the Bush administration’s own assessments, the greatest jihadist security threats to the USA are (1) biological weapons, (2) “dirty” nuclear devices, and (3) explosive nuclear devices.
We shall have spent $3 trillion dollars on Iraq, when all the accounting has been completed. Iraq has been a bonanza for recruiting not just your run of the mill low lifes, seeking their 72 virgins in paradise, but also for the raising of hundreds of millions of dollars from previously moderate Arab high rollers, for everything from establishing madrassas in Pakistan
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/saudi/analyses/madrassas.html
to bankrolling efforts to purchase loose Soviet nukes and other WMD.
I would like to have someone offer a cogent explanation of how having a “free Iraq” as an “ally in the war on terror” is going to do one single thing to protect the USA from the true threats to its national security.
What would protect America would be beefed up intelligence (currently funded to the tune of only $50 billion per year) and — yes — international police action. As many of us have claimed all along, the “war on terror” will not be won with military land wars in Asia but with good intelligence, good police work, and with “supply side” anti-terrorism, which means basically that we get much more mileage out of not motivating people to become terrorists than we do out of killing terrorists, once they’ve been so motivated to become terrorists.
Ron Paul is a very wise man. You conservatives should pay more attention to him.
- Larry Weisenthal/Huntington Beach
Perhaps it would be easier for you to see a cogent response if you started from an accurate point, Larry. I don’t know what year, or what PBS is trying to tell you other than what a madrassas contributes to recruitment of terrorists. But your statement on Iraq being a “bonanza” for recruiting is sheer fantasy. It is quite the opposite, in fact.
As Fareed Zakaria explained this past June:
Zakaria specifically then addressed a 2007 Afghanistan poll, and stated their decline in support may have been related to Benazir’s assassination. However this is not the first documentation of disenchantment with jihad by the Muslim population at large.
Around the same time, Philip Adams, on his blog for The Australian, mentioned a similar trend in London.
Now – let’s see. Where have those excesses been demonstrated? Wait a minute… thinking, thinking… don’t help. Oh… right. In Iraq. Not in Afghanistan where the US coalition ousted the Taliban. But in Iraq, where the jihad movements – in tandem with Ba’athists and the Saddam disgruntled, plus the wacky Mehdi Army – demonstrated their tactics so despicable that even Muslims found them repellent.
Then there’s the WaPo article in March of 2008 – Out of Guantanamo and Bitter Toward Bin Ladin. Story of one young recruit who realized he got suckered. However the telling and relevant paragraph in the midst of this young man’s story?
In 2006, he was released into a world radically altered… where Arab countries no longer had a “hero” view of jihad. My my
Another indication that even jihad supporters were more than royally PO’d at these violent radical methods of killing civilians and fellow Muslims came as Sayd Iman al-Sharif penned a scathing manifesto – “Rationalizing Jihad in Egypt and the World” – against the perversion of jihad, attacking his EIJ replacement, al Zawahiri at the end of 2007.
From one of Eli Lake’s NY Sun stories (he has been great on following the fractures in the jihad movements…) back in December of 2007, discussing al-Sharif’s public disputes and quoting from an interview with the author of “Inside Al Qaeda,” Rohan Gunaratna:
Even the NYT’s ran an article in March 2008… Violence Leaves Young Iraqis Doubting Clerics”.
What a “bonanza”, eh? Why do you think the latest incarnate of suicide bombers are women, children and the disabled? They’re having a hard time finding the young types, passionate about dying for jihad.
Even back in 2003 modern Muslims were starting to eye this method of jihad with wary eyes.
Again, it took them exposing themselves for the animals they are in Iraq… blowing up mosques while attempting to incite civil war, using them for ammo depots, and attacking fellow Muslims as apostates. Result, the charm of jihad for Muslims – most especially the youth – is wearing quite thin.
This also means that the global Islamic jihad groups have achieved great mileage for *not* motivating recruitment themselves…. just by showing their true colors.
Considering these facts, unbeknownst to you apparently, pretty much nullify the rest of the comment, you might want to start anew with your conclusions. And to tout int’l police.. which is another word for a law enforcement as a terrorist response… is sheer suicide. You do not prevent terrorism by waiting for it to happen, then cleaning it up in the int’l courts.
And oh, BTW… the intel and military budgets were gutted by Clinton and his admin, along with the help of the GOP majority Congress in the 90s. I like Ron Paul on some issues, and believe he and those of his libertarian bents are necessary voices in Congress. But before you start praising Mr. Paul for his isolationist ‘tudes, you might want to find how how he voted on slashing those budgets himself.
“… which means basically that we get much more mileage out of not motivating people to become terrorists than we do out of killing terrorists, once they’ve been so motivated to become terrorists.” (Larry W.)
OMG! Larry, you really do not understand terrorism, do you? It has nothing to do with our foreign policies. It is a Jihad War… a religious war. They don’t get their motivation from us, they get them from their f…..g religious beliefs. I wish you for 2009 to get a bit smarter about all this, Larry.
Mata, remind me not to get on your bad side.
Now now, Hard Right… I wasn’t nasty to Larry, was I? Just threw more than a few facts out to point out the error of his ways.
Fit #1? Glad to see you have a very dry sense of humor, guy…
Simply? What do we do with you…
But of course the DNC never had any internal family fighting. There was no disenfranchisement of Hillary voters, no really screwed up primary regulations for counting electoral votes and caucuses. It’s perfectly natural for Hillary to win the popular and electoral vote in Texas, yet have “that one” walk away with the state for the caucus rules. Hey, I didn’t see any Hillary v Obama Dem blogs doing vicious battle. That must have been in my imagination… (yes, sarcasm off)
Huh?
Splintering? Only in your most erotic fantasies. So spare us your lectures and bizarre analyses. This party… just like yours.. will always battle from within. But few of us will bolt to the DNC as an answer. So hold your breath for conservative failure. I’m sure you’ll look good in blue.
I love it when a plan comes togather. Draw the terrorists into one place and kill them by the thousands. It worked and the U.S. suffered less military deaths during GWB’s 8 years while fighting two wars than we did in Slick’s 8 years of fighting with Hillary and running from the other terrorists.
The only effective terrorists recruiting tool has been the democrats support of them, both through laws by congress which restricted the U.S. ability to fight the WOT, and money from the democrat crazies like code pinko.
@Hard Right:
I hear Mata responds to these posts while doing one handed push ups.
Excellent Mata, you never disappoint!
… and lately, with a snow shovel in the other… LOL Such kind words from you both. Thank you.
Mata, the topic was blogs. Spare me your pointless ramblings.
Simply… YOUR topic was blogs… and the splintering of conservatives via blogs. And what *do* you consider No Quarter, Huffpo, DailyKO’s etal. Blogs, no? If you want to talk “splintering” blogs/party/factions of either stripe, try expanding your horizons.
Otherwise, spare me your inability to comprehend English.
Mata, you destroy with pure logic. Harsh words pale in comparison to your firepower. I would hate to see what you could do when angered.
Simpleton, you tried to gloat about supposed GOP fractioning and she rammed it ……..down your throat. Take your medicine like an adult.
Hard, you’re “right”… pun intended… LOL
Let me put this “simply” for “simple”tons…
Conservative blogs can never sell a Volkswagon (McCain) with Ferarri features (conservative Veep Palin) to a Ferrai buying audience. Therefore “splintering” has nothing to do with it. Quality of product was everything.
On the other hand, since “simple”ton was talking blogs and “splintering”…. I’d say the DNC was as fractured as possible. And they will continue to be so as the Pontiac (Obama) sold is not the Pontiac (PEBO) they bought (elected).
Mata: Glad to see you haven’t abandoned your New Year’s resolution.
As for Larry and: “Ron Paul is a very wise man. You conservatives should pay more attention to him.”
It’s clear Larry is suffering from CO2 poisoning and should seek medical attention.
uh… don’t you mean I *have* abandoned my “terse” New Year’s resolution, Mike’sA??
The “terse” version is considerably less civil, ya know (in Caroline/Harvard speak…)
Well, your resolution wasn’t to tolerate fools gladly so I wouldn’t worry about being terse.
You notice how I summed up Larry’s moonbattery in one sentence?
A free Democratic Iraq yields invaluable intelligence from an ally right smack dab in the middle of the Middle East and the War on Terror. An internationally trained Iraqi police force is taking over the security of its own country as we speak. It will fund itself. All of that happened because of a military ground war.
All of what you suggest took time and steps. Turned out the ground war needed a surge. It worked and now Iraq is liberated. The people, not some ruler who motivates terrorism and martyr ism based on some twisted view of his religion, have freely chosen to be an ally and one less true threat to our National Security. Iran’s ayatollah is calling all Muslims to martyrdom and 20,000 have vowed to fight and die for Gaza, btw.
Iranians volunteer to fight to death for Gaza
I wonder when you think Hamas became a terrorist organization, before or after Israel struck back?
To buttress MataHarley‘s link-rich comment #4, my post.
@Larry Weisenthal: You’ve posted this comment before, and I’m pretty sure it was addressed.
@Mike’s America:
He should see the fun we had with the Paul Bearers during the primaries in the fall of ’07.
Ahh…the beauty of gmail….I found one of Larry’s cut-and-paste pillaging of his own comment.
My unanswered query in that thread:
@Larry Weisenthal:
I’d say the propagandistic media hysteria and flurry over abu Ghraib (think 31-33 consecutive frontpage NYTimes stories) more than anything was a recruitment tool for jihadis.
Who has been building hospitals, schools, mosques, infrastructure in Iraq? Not the dead-enders; not the foreign fighters and al-Qaeda recruiting local footsoldiers into their ideology of hatred that says it’s ok for them to attack innocent shia and sunni Muslims.
Larry, the Congressional Research Service says Iraq’s cost about $450bn over 5yr-not $3trillion.
Also, does anyone think this story might have been a good read before the election a scant 2 months ago? Naw.
Larry is just parroting the talking points which spring from his prejudices on this and other topics. We can’t expect him to be mired down by annoying things like FACTS.
It’s so easy for these lefties to become reality challenged. The “news” media is all too often the purveyor of lies that also support the story line and are never questioned. The smears directed at Sarah Palin are an excellent example. The civilian death toll in Iraq is another. Lots of these nimrods cite figures that were totally made up by George Soros funded antip-war groups and posted on web sites that appear to represent legitimate public policy organizations.