Armies of Liberation

After months of blocking aid, denying visas and other adminstrative delays aimed at blocking access to the over a million starving people in Darfur, Khartoum agreed to allow humanitarian aid workers in. But they better keep their mouths shut about what they see.

NYT: The government of Sudan has ordered the country directors of two Britain-based aid agencies that provide relief to displaced people in the Darfur region to leave the country, accusing them of statements that the government says suggest support for rebels.

One group, Oxfam Great Britain, which focuses on providing clean water and sanitation in displaced people’s camps across Darfur, had said Monday that it was “seeking clarification” of the government’s orders. The other group, Save the Children UK, whose work includes distributing soap and blankets to families fleeing war in Darfur, confirmed the expulsion notice on its Web site…

“The ministry sees in these statements indications for supporting rebels and arms holders to continue the war and that such practice constitutes violation for voluntary work laws,” the ministry said in the news release.

Access for aid groups has been a contentious issue since a rebellion broke out in western Sudan in early 2003. The issue prompted the United Nations to denounce the violence in Darfur as the world’s worst relief crisis. This is the first time the government has asked aid workers to leave the country, United Nations officials said.

Save the Children said a week ago that government warplanes had bombed Tawila, a town just west of here, in response to a rebel attack earlier in the day. Staff members of Save the Children fled into the desert, where they were rescued by African Union helicopters. In a statement issued at the time, the group accused both the government and the rebels of violating the cease-fire.

What good is a private intellectual?

CSM: In a move intended to muffle the voices of some of China’s most prominent and independent scholars and activists, hard-line elements in the new Hu Jintao government are seeking to eradicate the concept of “public intellectuals” in China.

A new “gray list” has been created, sources say, of historians, economists, writers, environmentalists, and other Chinese who have offered a critical voice or been influential in recent years in Chinese society outside official circles, and who have started to be referred to as “public intellectuals.” The term until now has connoted dignity and worth….Public intellectuals are often guilty of “arrogant elitism,” the editorial continued, accusing them of trying to create a “hegemony and monopoly” of their own views and urging the Chinese people, most of whom are not familiar with the meaning of public intellectual, to “stay calm” in the face of such challenges.

“What spectacle can be more edifying or more seasonable, than that of Liberty and Learning, each leaning on the other for their mutual & surest support?” –James Madison

Federalist

Canadian Prime Minister Paul Martin simply doesn’t have the spine to make an impression on a man like Bush. Martin spends so much time dithering and agonizing over decisions that he never gets around to actually leading (or, one would imagine deciding what he’d like for lunch)—a characteristic that can be no more endearing to a strong leader like Bush than it is to frustrated Canadians. So, any extra togetherness time for the two heads of state is not going help matters.

And then there are Canadians themselves who, while for the most part a polite and well-behaved people, are simply pathological when it comes to Americans.

I’m not sure what it is exactly. Maybe Canadians fear the United States’ success and power; maybe they suffer from a profound inferiority complex that manifests itself in snide remarks about shotgun-toting American idiots who spend their lives at the mall. (The tendency to mix American stereotypes in unlikely ways is strangely prevalent here.) But whatever the nature of the problem, many Canadians simply have no time for the United States. No time, that is, except for those occasions when they’re reading American books, watching American television shows, seeing American movies, perusing American magazines, eating American-produced food, shopping in American chain stores or wintering in America. But hey, they still reserve the right to be hostile about the U.S. when asked.

So I can’t see that President Bush’s diplomacy tour is going to do much for his opinions of Canada or vice versa.

In anticipation of Dubya’s visit, Carolyn Parrish, the aforementioned judgment-challenged Member of Parliament, recently popped up on a Canadian television show throwing a George Bush action figure on the ground, then grinding it under her heel. The rest.

In the Darfur region of Sudan, both rebels and the government are engaged in new fighting, reprisals, and attacks that make the distribution of food, medical supplies and other necessities for life impossible as nearly 2,000,000 civilians (mostly women and children) have left their homes in search of refuge.

NYT: Nor has the deployment of African Union troops stopped the violence. The roughly 1,000 soldiers who are here now, a third of the numbers expected, are authorized to do little more than monitor cease-fire violations.

Practically all roads out of El Fasher, the North Darfur state capital, are off limits to aid workers for security reasons. As a result, more than 1,500 metric tons of food, which had been scheduled for delivery by the World Food Program this week to displaced people squeezed into towns just west of here, sits in a cavernous warehouse.

“Now, we are grounded here in Fasher,” a frustrated Manuel Aranda da Silva, the United Nations regional aid coordinator, said here on Thursday. “We can’t move.”

Mobile clinics that once traveled to rebel-held villages north and south of here are now staying off the road. Plastic tarps that were to be transported to a teeming camp for the displaced people on the southern fringes of El Fasher were turned back by the military on Thursday. Mosquito nets cannot be delivered to a malaria-prone area because of fighting and banditry on a vital stretch of road. Polio vaccinations have not been delivered to a section of West Darfur, because a new rebel group has emerged there and has refused to guarantee the safety of aid workers.

The 21-month-old conflict in Darfur has already tested the resilience of Darfuris. Since March alone, according to the United Nations, 70,000 people have died of hunger and disease. Roughly 1.6 million people have been left homeless.

Bahria Mohammed Ahmed, a woman in her 30’s, heard the rattle of gunfire early Monday morning while preparing breakfast. By the time she had gathered up her five children and fled on foot, government warplanes were circling overhead.

While on the run, she recalled bending down to adjust the baby tied to her back. When she looked up, two of her children were not at her side. She cried out their names, but ultimately in vain. She arrived in Abu Shouk on Wednesday without them, and this evening she scanned the horizon as the sun went down. Another batch of Tawila people were expected to be trekking across the desert to Abu Shouk.

Click the link Here to get to the Thnak Tony Blair Site.

Messages are printed out and delivered to Prime Minister Blair.

“Legitimacy of Iraq’s Democracy is just around the corner ” by our blogger buddy from American Warmonger was published by Opinion Editorials.

Amid the torrent of bullets, bombs and beheadings, there are many people that are critically skeptical of Iraqi elections to the point of believing absolute terror will reign. This new deadline brings with it a new resolve in Iraq and with it a new hope that things are still progressing, not regressing.

Read it all.

1676 Thanksgiving Proclaimation
“The Holy God having by a long and Continual Series of his Afflictive dispensations in and by the present Warr with the Heathen Natives of this land, written and brought to pass bitter things against his own Covenant people in this wilderness, yet so that we evidently discern that in the midst of his judgements he hath remembered mercy, having remembered his Footstool in the day of his sore displeasure against us for our sins, with many singular Intimations of his Fatherly Compassion, and regard; (the rest)

Washington’s Thanksgiving Proclaimation
Whereas it is the duty of all nations to acknowledge the providence of Almighty God, to obey His will, to be grateful for His benefits, and humbly to implore His protection and favor; and Whereas both Houses of Congress have, by their joint committee, requested me to “recommend to the people of the United States a day of public thanksgiving and prayer, to be observed by acknowledging with grateful hearts the many and signal favors of Almighty God, especially by affording them an opportunity peaceably to establish a form of government for their safety and happiness:” (the rest)>

Lincoln’s Thanksgiving Proclaimation
The year that is drawing towards its close, has been filled with the blessings of fruitful fields and healthful skies. To these bounties, which are so constantly enjoyed that we are prone to forget the source from which they come, others have been added, which are of so extraordinary a nature, that they cannot fail to penetrate and soften even the heart which is habitually insensible to the ever watchful providence of Almighty God. In the midst of a civil war of unequaled magnitude and severity, which has sometimes seemed to foreign States to invite and to provoke their aggression, peace has been preserved with all nations, order has been maintained, the laws have been respected and obeyed, and harmony has prevailed everywhere except in the theatre of military conflict; while that theatre has been greatly
contracted by the advancing armies and navies of the Union. Needful diversions of wealth and of strength from the fields of peaceful industry to the national defence, have not arrested the plough, the shuttle or the ship; the axe has enlarged the borders of our settlements, and the mines, as well of iron and coal as of the precious metals, have yielded
even more abundantly than heretofore. Population has steadily increased, notwithstanding the waste that has been made in the camp, the siege and the battle-field; and the country, rejoicing in the consiousness of augmented strength and vigor, is permitted to expect
continuance of years with large increase of freedom. No human counsel hath devised nor hath any mortal hand worked out these great things.
(the rest)

Jane’s Thanksgiving Proclaimation
Now in this new centruy, we find that for which we are greatful has not changed since the founding of this great nation: a country founded in freedom, all those who have sacrificed to preserve this covenant, all those in public service and those who dedicate their lives to preserving the homefront and our communities, those who with their toil give energy to the nation, energy to our families, and energy to the world. These United States so recently attacked, so recently termed divided, so recently declared a rouge, stand together on this day as on all others in appreciation of liberty and a with a willingness to secure that liberty at any cost. And there are none who deserve out gratitude more than our fighting men and women, who thoughout the centuries have spent their lives to ensure the priviledge of democracy and the continuity of America for all the world. God bless America and all her allies both declared and hidden.

Link courtesy of Patty-Jo.

The Excellent blogFabian’s Hammer is branching out beyond China to Maoists in general: There’s the US Communist Party, famous people who were once Maoists, and todays’s post: the Maoist Insurrectionist Weekly Round-Up that covers Afghanistan, India, Peru and Nepal.

We make note of our blessings and express thanks.

But you can’t thank God in Maryland schools. Anybody else is OK. Just not God.

Well rereading the article, it says that the kids aren’t taught about the Pilgram’s religious motivation for Thanksgiving, thanking God. More in the comments.

The World Association of Newspapers semi-annual report is here. It chronicles the ongoing repression of free speech world wide. For details of pending cases and the law by country also see IFEX.

NYT: Israeli military prosecutors on Monday charged an army captain with five separate offenses after fellow soldiers accused him of repeatedly shooting a 13-year-old Palestinian schoolgirl to make sure she was dead. (Read on …)

Taking advantage of both the symbol of the white flag and the protected status of civlians in Fallujaha, or to be more precise, the Americans respect for both norms:

CSM: US marines on a foot patrol this weekend paid little attention to a man walking along the road and holding a white flag - a common sight as the conflict dies down and civilians pop up to scavenge for food and water.

But this time, US officers say, as the marines came by, the man dipped into an alley, returned with an AK-47 assault rifle, and sprayed the marines with bullets. Two Americans died, and others were wounded.

In a separate incident, marines were lured into an well-coordinated ambush by men with white flags who appeared to signal that they needed help. When marines got close, gunmen began firing from buildings high above.

KevinSites: Traitor: A Jawa Rant. No one rants quite like Rusty:

You are guilty of treason. You put your devotion to the story above your devotion to your nation. You put your devotion to the story above the lives of your ‘friends’ you are embedded with. You are not their friend, you are their enemy and you are now an enemy of the people of the United States.

Read it all, even the comments.

“It’s time France admitted that Jacques Chirac has squandered the goodwill of the planet.”

Maybe they’ll start a website: France is Sorry.

A complicated relationship, explored at Common Sense and Wonder.

There’s more,

An article known as The New American Heros to regular readers is up at Opeds.com

Well this is a real compliment, the freepers really liked it.

Update on A Glaring Double Standard: The article was also published by the Arab Times in Kuwait, although not the internet edition, in adddition to Saudi Arabia and Iraq.

I’ve been expounding a little recently on the apparent double standard toward violence against civilans in the Arab media.

Here’s a few voices that are shouting into the wind but shouting: from Dreams into Lightning:

The Free Muslim Coalition Against Terror
Faith Freedom
Arabs for Israel
Muslim Refusnik

There’s also: Middle East Transparent which links to the letter from Liberal Arabs and Muslims (they need a different name as they have nothing in common with western liberals or we can just start calling the western Liberals nutty-buddies.) “calling upon the Security Council to proceed in establishing an International Tribunal to prosecute individuals, groups, or entities including, but not limited to, Muslim clerics who issue religious edicts (fatwas) inciting terrorist acts. ”

There’s also websites like Muslim Wake-Up and organizations popping up like the Progressive Muslim Union. How could we forget Muslims for Bush?

Instapundit reports a march of 20,000 people in “the western German city of Cologne on Sunday, waving German and Turkish flags, to protest against the use of violence in the name of Islam.” These were not the leading liberal edge but rather representitive of the middle speaking up.

While they are not neo-cons, there is ample evidence of a growing movement within the Muslim world to take a stand against radicals and to present moderation and demand a non-violent Islamic ideology. When criticism of other Muslims and “progressive thinking” is often taken a betrayal (and in some countries, punishable treason), those who raise their voices for pluralism in the current enviornment deserve our respect.

And Dean agrees with me.

is here. I was spitting mad and could have been a little clearer but its still one for civilians rights, the Iraqis police and civilians, and the US military. Also kudos to the Arab News for publishing it. They are going to get a lot of angry comments for publishing it. A little postive feedback to the paper would be nice too. Hint Hint

Update: Article also published in the Arab Times but the print edition.

This Blog into FRENCH.

The blogroll has been perverted:
(Can you find your favorites?)
(Read on …)

The Brits who killed her?

No, say the Iranians, it was the Americans.

Who are these people that are carrying out acts of violence against civilians?

According to one theory, they have been hired by the CIA and other intelligence agencies to destabilize the region and promote a clash of civilizations in order to promote the interests of Western governments and corporations.

Others say they are only hapless fools with the wrong interpretation of Islam who are being manipulated by foreign intelligence agencies.

They could also be misguided Iraqi nationalists being used by the enemies of Islam. Whatever the case may be, they are working against Islam through their actions.

In light of recent developments in Iraq, Afghanistan(elections?), and other parts of the Islamic world, Muslims must stay true to the tenets of the faith and remain alert to avoid falling into the traps of the enemies of Islam.

Stop the presses: It was Allawi.

And $100,000

The man who set himself on fire in front of the White House was a Yemeni informant on al-Qaeda who was willing to testify in some upcoming cases. He had been promised permanent relocation to the US with his family, protection of his identity and a million dollars. He got $100,000 and was prohibited from seeing his sick wife. Hisa name was all over the news even before his suicide attempt.

WaPo: In the recent interviews, Alanssi expressed anguish over not being able to visit his family in Yemen. He said that he suffers from diabetes and heart problems and that his wife is seriously ill with stomach cancer. Alanssi said he could not travel to his native country because he has no money and because the FBI, which is expecting him to testify at a terrorism trial in New York, was keeping his Yemeni passport.

“I must travel to Yemen to see my sick wife (stomac cancer) and my family before I testify at the court or any other places,” Alanssi wrote FBI agent Robert Fuller in New York, according to the copy he provided The Post yesterday. “Why you don’t care about my life and my family’s life? Once I testify my family will be killed in Yemen, me too I will be dead man.”

He also said he didn’t have any money for his medicine and that he feared for his life. The informants plight is news in Yemen and presumable will not encourage others to cooperate with the US.

Ymen Times He is expected to unveil vital information about Al-Qaeda in Yemen.
He also said he could be killed along with his family if he goes on with the testimony, especially as information was leaked suggesting that it was he who persuaded prominent and popular Islamic cleric Al-Moayyad and his aide to travel to Germany to allegedly receive donations from an American Muslim. While in Germany, the cleric and his assistant were arrested and after a ruling by the German Supreme Court, both men were handed over to American authorities to be tried on allegations of involvement in supporting global terrorism.
Media reporters in the USA and Yemen have been working to locate the family of Al-Anssi in Yemen but to no avail. The FBI did not respond to the Monday incident.

Worst of all, what a way to treat a person who is helping the US against al-Qaeda at the risk to himself and his family.

Update: This article was published today on Iraq.net. The editor added a picture of Margaret Hassan and sent regards from Baghdad. Also published by the Arab News.

What a glaring double standard. The Arab world is enraged over the shooting of a wounded, apparently unarmed Iraqi insurgent by a uniformed US soldier.

There is no similar outrage for Margaret Hassan. Is it because she was an Anglo, a woman, or because she was killed by a Muslim?

The video of the soldier shooting is proof, we are told, of America’s evil. And the kidnapping, torture and murder of Mrs. Hassan is then proof of what- that America is evil! Muslims wouldn’t do that unless evil America forced their hand.

Bombing children, defiling mosques, kidnapping civilians, executing poor workers and cleaning women point blank: these are not discussed, broadcast with frequency, or the source of much anger. Videos where a masked man shakes a bloody head while the curtains flutter do not evoke such fury. Why? The identity of the victim or the perpetrator?

All tactics of the insurgents are excused. Hide among civilians. Justified. Wear civilian clothes. Justified. Shoot from the holy mosque. Justified. Feign death to draw soldiers in (the way one marine died the day before the incident). Justified. Wave a white flag as a ploy. Justified. Booby trap dead bodies. Justified. That’s just Fallujah.

Moving outward- Deliberately killing Iraqi civilians daily. Justified. Bombing churches. Justified. Bombing cafes. Justified. Using schools as arsenals. Justified. Attacking the police. Just fine.

The rules of war don’t apply to the insurgents, only the Americans. And if one horrible act occurs at the hands of one American soldier, the world howls.

The insurgents’ constant inhumane tactics are acceptable. The American rules of engagement prohibited shooting unarmed combatants: this prohibition was followed by thousands of soldiers, thousands of times. After the shootout at the mosque in which the man was wounded, a call went to headquarters to send a medical team out to pick him up. Its American policy that wounded fighters are given good medical attention. Many are being treated now. A wounded American soldier found by the enemy fighters would be tortured to death after being paraded on al-Jazeera. And that would be fine.

The last war in which Arab militaries fought was the Iran/Iraq war and executions were systematic. That was fine.

Al-Jazeera, marketing arm for anti-Americanism globally, is showing the shooting nearly non-stop. Yet they refused to show the last tape of Margaret begging for her life because it was too disturbing. How bad of a shape was she in? Is that why her bruised and battered body is still alone and unrecovered? They refused to show her execution: the shooting of this woman in the head is not a “war death,” although carried out by those the US military are fighting. Broadcasting terrorists’ messages to inspire fear in the Iraqi people is thought impartial journalism though. Except in Iraq, where al-Jazeera has been suspended numerous times for acting as a tool of the jihadiis.

Why so little regard for Iraqi civilians when they are killed by Muslims but when a unarmed fighter is killed by an American soldier, the Arabs suddenly love the Iraqis?

The soldier will be tried. The facts will come out. A punishment will be issued because the US has respect for the Iraqis and enforces the rules of engagement. If the soldier was wrong, Americans will say he was wrong, loud and clear. Tomorrow when Iraqi children are again deliberately targeted by these terrorists-not freedom fighters-what will we hear from the Arab countries, not even muted mumblings. Is it a lack of courage or a lack of concern? Why is there more sympathy for the guy in civilian clothes who was shooting from a mosque than for Margaret?

Elections are coming to Iraq. The Iraqis will rule themselves.

Saddam stole 21 billion dollars from the mouths of starving Iraqi children. The UN closed its eyes. He filled mass graves and torture chambers and the world stood silent. Now as the Iraqis struggle for self-determination, for security, and for freedom from both the US and the terrorists, the Arabs back the suicide bombers. Habit perhaps.

For years, some Iraqis may harbor deep resentment toward the US for its mistakes. The successes of the insurgents, all those dead civilians, will be remembered with anger as well. Perhaps the greatest number of Iraqis will recall how they were devalued by their “brothers” and forsaken in the greater cause of anti-Americanism.

Recently we have seen how the UN Security Council was corrupted by Saddam Hussain, the higher goal of acting in the best interests of world peace was replaced by motivations of personal greed and national interests. In the Sudan, thousands of people are dying daily because of oil interests: France and China’s. And because the other authoritiarian regimes don’t want to set a precedent: killing your own people does not warrent intervention. The structure of the UN is counter-productive to serving the interests of civilians in that many participants are not democracies and that is an inter-national structure-the civilian voice is not represented, humanitarian interests are tertiary.

The culture of the UN is both anti-American and anti-Semitic. In a post titled “Outsourcing Progroms (or Kofi Annan buys some new cufflinks)”, Jeff discusses how Oil For Food money went to finance Palistinian bombers.

The article “Your Tax dollars at Work” explores a recent UN conference on anti-Semitism:

From whom did the U.N. get advice? There was Tariq Ramadan of Switzerland’s Fribourg University, who was denied entry to the U.S. in August on the basis of a law concerning aliens who have used a “position of prominence within any country to endorse or espouse terrorist activity” or are considered a “public safety risk or a national security threat.”

Other participants included “Michael Warshawski wrote in a 1996 newsletter: “Ethnic cleansing is a basic Zionist principle and policy.”

The UN Recommendation: The leaders of Jewish communities should also act to distinguish defence of the State of Israel from the fight against anti-Semitism. . .

In other words, according to the U.N. experts’ draft report, discrimination against individual Jews is bad, while “anti-Zionism”–the denial to the Jewish people of an equal right to self-determination–is not….The way to defeat anti-Semitism is for Jews to cut loose defense of the state of Israel. And by the way, anti-Semitism will diminish if only we stop emphasizing the unique horror of the Holocaust.

While the UN does give out vaccines well, it has increasingly become an instrument that enhances repressive regimes, rather than the rights of civilians. On a purely abstract level, a coalition of democracies (which are representitive in nature) or an empowered supra-national civilians council would function much better. A bunch of kindergarteners could do a better job: any group of five year olds around the world if given the chance would have acted to save the Sudanese.

The reduction of tensions between Pakistan and India over Kashmir began with the resumption of a bus line and sporting events many months ago.

INDIA: KASHMIR TROOP PULLOUT TO BEGIN India will begin reducing its troops in the disputed territory of Kashmir today, army officials said. The reduction - the first declared cutback since an anti-Indian insurgency began in 1989 - will coincide with the start of a visit by the prime minister, Manmohan Singh, his first since taking office in May. Amy Waldman (NYT)

With Iran’s promise to temporarily suspend nuclear enrichment.

Bill:Make no mistake, people: we are at war with Iran, a conflict that’s very similar to our direct engagement of Chinese infantry and Russian pilots during the Korean War. … what does information about their current support of terrorist groups operating inside Iraq (including the activity of Abu Musab al-Zarqawi) tell us about the true intentions and ultimate course of action by the mullahs? Their nuclear program will continue in covert increments under the nose of UN scrutiny.More.

Gordon: Although we in the West seem to think that a treaty, a handshake and a photo opportunity will make things better, the reality is that it only defers the problem to the next administration. More.

NYT: An Iranian opposition group says it has new evidence that Iran is producing enriched uranium at a covert Defense Ministry facility in Tehran that has not been disclosed to United Nations inspectors.

The group, the National Council for Resistance in Iran, is planning to announce its finding in Paris on Wednesday. The group says that inspection of the site would demonstrate that Iran is secretly trying to produce nuclear weapons even while promising to freeze a critical part of its declared nuclear program, which it maintains is intended purely for civilian purposes.

Not A Friendly Nation

Rusty: The worst part of the Iranian revolution was that it exported the notion of the Islamic revolutionary state. From Marxism it imported the notion that society could be completely revamped–that a sort of utopia could be found in Islamic law. And like Marxism, it took on a missionary zeal to export the Islamist ideal to the rest of the Muslim world. More.

Amir Taheri: He also ordered that the slogan “Death to America” be inscribed in all official buildings and vehicles. The star-spangled flag was to be painted at the entrance of airports, railway stations, ministries, factories, schools, hotels and bazaars so that the faithful could trample it under feet every day.

The slogan “America cannot do a damn thing” became the basis of all strategies worked out by Islamist militant groups, including those that, for doctrinal or political reasons, were opposed to Khomeini. More

ISPN: The (Iranian) ‘Kayhan’ daily on Thursday officially confirmed Arafat’s death and wrote: ”On Qods day, we declare a global war against Israel.”

Executed (Chad reports):

Fox News reports Al Jazeera recieved a video of her execution and the execution was reportedly done by shooting her in the back of the head. This is inconsistent with the reports of the Western woman found in Fallujah yesterday, therefore Hassan and Borcz-Kalifa could be dead.

The people of the US, Britian and Iraq are allies in mourning this woman who dedicated her life to the Iraqi people.

The tragedy of all those executed is great upon their families, their nations, and the world.

While the embedded TV reporter rolled the tape.

Abu Ghraib redux: the image of the good work of the thousands of soldiers for the people of Fallujah wiped out by one over exhausted soldier- POW: “He’s dead now.”

How many times a day will this video play on al-Jazeera vs. the tape of the Marines giving out food and water?

CNN played the tape three times within one 10 minute segment. Its very bad to killed a wounded guy point blank when there’s no threat. Even if he was shooting at you yesterday. So was there a threat?

CNN: About a block away, a Marine was killed and five others wounded by a booby-trapped body they found in a house after a shootout with insurgents.

The human rights organization Amnesty International raised concerns about violations of the rules of war last week, after a British news program broadcast video of what it said was the killing of another wounded insurgent by U.S. troops.

Amnesty also noted reports that insurgents have used mosques as fighting positions, and in one incident appear to have used a white flag to lure Marines into an ambush.

Another recruiting tool against the people who are trying to bring liberty to the Iraqi Nation and for the car bombers who kill civilians at indescriminately. And the star of the film is an American again.

The thing that sets us apart from the terrorists is the rule of law, morality. While the action may be understandable in the context of this prolonged battle, when the enemy is breaking every rule of war, when yesterday a wounded terrorist killed an American soldier, when the soldier himself was wounded a few hours before, summary execution of prisoners is not the best America, and we know, not the true America.

Brain Shavings: Keep in mind that our side isn’t the bunch that decapitates hostages, targets civilians, fakes white flags, and lures the opposition in with fake wounded. There could very well be a satisfactory explanation tht mitigates what seems (at first glance) to be a war crime. Give the NCIS time.

Right on Red: “We are at war with a murderous, totalitarian, racist ideology which has no remorse or honor, and swears allegiance to no country. If American Leftists were as outraged by the enemy’s atrocities as they are by our mistakes, we’d be a lot farther along in this war. The terrorists’ worst nightmare is a united United States.”

Ace:“It also has to be noted that these guys have played dead before. And that “playing dead” is not surrendering. And that if you’re not surrendering, you’re a legitimate target.”

David notes the unconditional support from some on the right: “They more or less say the Marine was justified no matter what the circumstances were. ”

Say anything: ” This sort of thing is the exception, not the rule. Also remember that the incident will be thoroughly investigated by our government and the people responsible for it will be punished for it if found guilty. The enemy who we are fighting against routinely commits war crimes with impunity.”

In the Bullpen: What strikes me as being the most infuriating thing about this is that reporters have all but ignored attrocities committed by the terrorists in combat, yet when a story that shows a United States soldier in a less than honorable light it’s front-page time.

Digger: All you smart guys out there who have never served a day in combat can kiss my ass. Apparently a day or so before, in a similar incident involving the same unit, a dying terrorist blew himself and a soldier up. You only have a split second to react. At the most this soldier should be reprimanded.

Six Meat Buffet: What should have happened is, once the mosque was identified as an enemy base, it should have been annihilated completely - killing ALL insurgents inside. I suppose that would be considered offensive to the Religion of Peace™, though.

The Command Post notes another article on the treatment of wounded enemy: The new patients at the field aid station screamed out in agony as they were gently laid on stretchers. Fresh from the battlefield, flies swarmed around their infected wounds. US army medics barked out orders beside the makeshift triage beds.

Rusty has a clear view: Kevin Sites, more interested in a Pulitzer than in the lives of American soldiers, has stolen the victory which was Fallujah and handed us defeat….In war, propaganda is a weapon.

And this from Protein Wisdom: If enough prone terrorists have fired at you, you learn to kill prone terrorists before they can pick up another gun. Simple as that. In short, you react to the tactics of your enemy, not to ethical hypotheticals—and no simpering retrospective sanctimony should obscure that very real fact. Period.

I was just watching some analyst discuss how under the Geneva Convention, you are allowed to kill a sleeping enemy. And then I came across this at the Conservative Revolution: I was pissed because FoxNews made it sound as if this Marine did something wrong.

Cross posted at The Left Right Debate .

Powell Resigning As Secretarty of State. CNN crying over him like he’s dead. It would be nice (with the shakeups at CIA and now state) if this term, some kind of consensus would emerge among the presidental advisors. More details at Back Country Conservative

Allawi Relatives Freed. One remains hostage.

Allawi had said on Saturday that he was deeply concerned about the fate of his three relatives, but their abduction would not deter him from purging the country of militants.

Hundreds of Iraqis have been kidnapped in recent months, mainly by groups demanding ransom payments. More than 170 foreigners have been kidnapped by insurgents in Iraq since Saddam Hussein’s regime fell in April 2003. More than 30 foreign hostages have been killed.

More at Jawa.

Zarqawi, cowardly and fearful for his personal safety while urging others to their death, issues new tape as he runs from the Marines: “I talk to you my nation as the bloods of your sons are flowing in Iraq and in Falluja especially,” the voice says. “This is a call for the heroes in Iraq. Go and help your brethren, because this battle is a decisive battle in the history of Islam and disbelief. Be like one person and be like the lion anticipating to jump on its prey.” It is a decisive battle and the military won it. Soon these jihadiis are going to run out of Iraq like the cowards they are.

Even the comments are blog fodder.

Check out David’s exchange with 2slick, the soldier who wrote John Hockenberry, prompting a somewhat snarky response back from Hockenberry. A quite thoughtful discussion erupts on David blog between them about “reporters who claim to be “fair and balanced”- but are secretly trying to pass their agenda off on unsuspecting viewers.” 2slick states: “It’s impossible to know how many American soldiers were killed as a result of the (Abu Ghraib) story getting as much press as it did, but I would imagine the number is quite large.” Like David says, the whole conversation itself is “pretty damned cool.”

This is Saudi Kids TV? I think kids sometimes have more in common with each other than with adults in general.

GMT KSA Program
……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….
00:15 03:15 YA WARD MEEN YISHTEREEK (Egyptian (1): Ep 31/33 (r)
……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….
01:05 04:05 CONCERT - Abdullah Rashed+Khalid Abdul Rahman (r)
……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….
03:00 06:00 DIGIMON (Cartoons) (4): Ep 25
……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….
03:25 06:25 JUMANJI (Western Animated Series) (3): Ep 305
……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….
03:50 06:50 CUBIX (Animated Cartoon) (1): Ep 15
……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….
04:15 07:15 JUNGLE CUBS (Cartoons) (1): Ep 10
……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….
04:40 07:40 TOTALLY TOONED (Western Animated) (1): Ep 131
……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….
05:05 08:05 BATMAN (Cartoons) (3): Ep 4
……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….
05:35 08:35 YU GI OH (Animated Cartoon) (1): Ep 41
……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….
05:55 08:55 CASPER (Western Cartoons) (1): Ep 19
……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….
06:20 09:20 101 DALMATIANS (Cartoons) (1): Ep 30
……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….
06:45 09:45 CIRCO MASSIMO 2001(Entertainment) (1): Ep 3 (r)
……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….
07:25 10:25 AMERICA’S FUNNIEST HOME VIDEOS (Wes (8): Ep 169
……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….
07:45 10:45 AMERICA’S FUNNIEST HOME VIDEOS (Wes (8): Ep 170
……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….
08:30 11:30 YA WARD MEEN YISHTEREEK (Egyptian (1): Ep 31/33 (r)
……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….
09:30 12:30 MADRASAT AL MOUCHAGHIBINE
……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….
12:30 15:30 CIRCO MASSIMO 2001(Entertainment) (1): Ep 4
……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….

Not Even A Little. Ha!

Actually, pissing off Europe was one of the best parts.

Driving the moonbats to the brink of sanity was also fun.

via email: A Sonnet

It never occurred to me, ever before,
That our Navy would win the Vietnam War.
When they took to their boats in this year of elections,
With the mission of making some major corrections

I shared their belief, John should not be elected,
And their view overdue, truth should be resurrected.
Yet I questioned the course they’d set themselves for,
Knowing how John was loved by the media whore.

Ignored and dismissed by the media queens
Being shrewd, savvy sailors they still found the means
To reach out to the people, to open their eyes
To a phony John Kerry and his war story lies.

With their very first ad, they torpedoed his boat,
A Cambodian Christmas would no longer float.
His heroics unraveled, his stories fell flat,
Especially that one ‘bout his magical hat.

John called on his lawyers and media whores,
And threatened the Swiftees with vile legal wars.
But these warriors kept charging back into the fire,
And made the folks wonder, “Is Kerry a Liar?”

Till the question of whether he’s telling the truth
Was still in their minds in the election day booth.
So the brave Swiftees gave us what we’d not had before,
They gave us our victory in the Vietnam War.

Those brave, stalwart sailors, falsely labeled as liars,
Stood firm and stood tall, kept directing their fires,
Steadfast, unrelenting, they served once again,
And defeated John Kerry, these honorable men.

All Vets can take pride, yes all, not just some,
That we won the last battle of Vietnam.
It took far too long to bring an end to our war
But we did, November Second, Two Thousand Four.

To our Brothers, forever on that long black Wall,
You’ve been vindicated now, one and all.

Russ Vaughn
2d Bn, 327th Parachute Infantry Regiment
101st Airborne Division
Vietnam 65-66

Poor cuddley Dick Cheney has gone to hospital with shortness of breath. If the strain is too much for him, he can step aside for Rudy.

Rudy can then run against Hillary in 2008.

BTW if Cheney does step down, and with Ashcroft gone, who are the crazed liberals going to hate the most? They need a puppetmaster for the conspiracy theories to work.

UPDATE: OK, Dick I’ll be your V.P. Not much arm twisting necessary there, when a guy like this is going to run:

How are we, as mere mortals going to stop this evil power of darkness from ravaging our beautiful planet? Is there a superhero out there that will save us? Someone who wears a mask and tights?

Check out the Cabinet. Think the Eurotrash wannabe’s are whiny now…..just wait till 2008.

We’re not the only ones:

FALLUJA, Iraq (CNN) — Iraq’s interim defense minister Hazem Sha’alan has lashed out at U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan and leaders of other Arab countries during a pep talk for Iraqi troops before an expected assault on the insurgent-held city of Falluja.

Annan warned in a letter dated October 31 to the United States, Britain and Iraq that such an assault would have a “negative impact” on the prospects for elections, now scheduled for January.

“Where was Kofi Annan when Saddam was slaughtering the Iraqis like sheep?” Sha’alan said.

“Where were the calls we hear from Arab and Islamic countries when Saddam was messing up the country?”

Sha’alan told the Iraqi troops set to participate in the offensive that they were “the defenders of democracy” who would rescue a city held hostage.

“Those who call not to fight the criminals, we say to them, ‘You are the criminals.’ They are the criminals,” he said.

“How could you shake hands with Saddam Hussein before? You were a slave to Saddam Hussein, and today you try your best to restore dictatorship and crime, but under a new umbrella — that is the umbrella of Islam.”

The troops crowded in to hear him, raising their rifles into the air and cheering, dancing and singing at the end.

Sha’alan predicted the insurgents, who have been in effective control of Falluja for months, would “run away like rats” when attacked.

“We will chase them from house to house, from room to room,” he said.

Like a breath of fresh air.

from the Editor of the Yemen Times:

The front page story of last edition on the beating up of journalist Abdulkareem Al-Khaiwani in the central prison in Sana’a is a sign that his life is in severe danger. I use my column to cry to the world, through honorable ambassadors in Yemen to act, and act quickly! If it is inhuman to treat a criminal who committed murder in such a way, treating a writer in such a manner is even graver and more outrageous!
It is true that a number of international protests by organizations and individuals from the world have poured to the desks of the President and the Foreign Minister. But it seems that this is not enough. Our government needs to be informed that what it is doing is wrong, and needs to be accountable for it!

This is why I call upon every person with influence to act along with us to save the life of Al-Khaiwani and his career. If it is not for his own self, let it be for his children and family! He doesn’t deserve to die in such a horrific way at the central prison in Sana’a. (Read on …)

What a lovely pick me up: better than flowers. A map of the empire of blogs, created by map maker extrodinaire, the Commissar. The nice part is I’m on it. And I’m in great company, check it out and click on a few new links if your in a sightseeing mood.

Update: Hey Wow: This is like chocolates to go with the flowers.

The election is over but the battle rages on. MSNBC’s Keith Olbermann still doubts the result and wondered aloud “Did John Kerry concede too soon?” Much of the electorate is suffering from “post election stress disorder.” Pundits and partisans are stepping up to next face-off: Arlen Spector and judicial appointments. In this divided nation though, an important consensus has been reached. The Vietnam Veterans came home to glory, thirty years later. The Swift Boat Veterans For Truth and John F. Kerry deserve the credit.

Ernest Lefever described the American attitude toward Vietnam: “The two diametrically opposed interpretations of Vietnam continue to vie for the American psyche. Until the issue is resolved, we will suffer from a kind of historical schizophrenia.” During the recent campaign, both Democrats and Republicans agreed that Vietnam Veterans served with honor. It was an admission long overdue by the Left.

The parade of Vietnam Veterans across the stage at the Democrats National Convention received a standing ovation, the first of its kind from the protesting class. The Democrats saw John Kerry’s Vietnam service as his most attractive quality. Some Republicans countered that Kerry’s antiwar efforts in the 1970’s maligned two million American service members. The Swift Boat Veterans questioned if John Kerry’s service was as honorable as that of his peers. But all agreed that Vietnam Veterans are national heroes. (Read on …)