The Russian Bear Awakes

 

I read Caroline Glick frequently and always with keen interest. Her insight is sharp and refreshingly unabashed by shackles of political correctness. Earlier this year her urgent warning call following Ilan Halimi's barbarous murder in France introduced yet another of her commanding one-liners: "Today, every Jew in the world is on the front lines of war."

As was the case seventy years ago, every Jew today is a target for our enemies, who shout from every soapbox and prove at every opportunity, that their goal is the annihilation of the Jewish people. From 1933-1945, the enemy was Nazi Germany. Today, the enemy is political Islam. Its call for jihad aimed at annihilating the Jews and dominating the world is answered by millions of people throughout the world.

Among the lessons of the Holocaust, there is one that is almost never mentioned. That lesson is that it is possible, and indeed fairly easy to exterminate the Jews. The fact that the Holocaust happened proves that it is absolutely possible for the Jewish people to be wiped off the map - just as Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and Hamas leader Khaled Mashal promise.

Then came the Lebanon War II and UNSC Resolution 1701, which effectively sealed Israel's fate to face yet another war with an even better equipped and supported proxy army in the not so distant future on her northern borders.

Next, President Vladimir Putin of Russia promises the world during the Valdai Club early September, that "Russia would not use its rapidly intensifying and expanding global energy leverage to dominate others like "a superpower" would."

And what was Anna Politkovskaya's crime other than speaking out against the human rights abuses in Chechnya, and being one of the toughest critics against President Putin and his increasingly 'KGB revisited' Administration. For that she paid with her life.

Last month, gunmen shot and killed a senior central banker, Andrei Kozlov, who had been involved in shutting down banks suspected of money laundering. American journalist Paul Klebnikov, editor of the Russian edition of Forbes magazine, was gunned down near his office in 2004.

Well, the current Russian-Georgian spy scandal illustrates, if nothing else, that the "East and West are now irreversibly locked in a monumental struggle for control of the globe's coveted strategic resources".

The stakes for both sides are colossal and both sides fully recognize that fact. However, neither side likes to admit explicitly the existence of such a struggle that will define which side achieves global ascendancy and which side faces the potential of an energy-based economic checkmate.

A pessimistic outlook for the West in general and the US in particular follows, and, whilst important to appreciate the intricacy of the geopolitical dynamics ahead, ignored is the bigger picture underlying these conflicts: The barely concealed reemergence of old factions between Russia and the Middle East galvanized not least by mutually shared animosities against the State of Israel. Caroline Glick again leads the charge:

The clouds of the coming war are converging upon Israel. But our political and military leaders refuse to look up at the darkening sky.

The Russian bear has awakened after 15 years of hibernation. Under the leadership of former KGB commander President Vladimir Putin, Russia is reasserting its traditional hostility towards Israel. [...]

Any objective observer of the developments in our region understands that the storm of war is rapidly approaching us. With Moscow's blessing, the Palestinians, Hizbullah, Syria and Iran are steadfastly preparing for battle.

There is no doubt that Israel can weather the coming storm. But to do this, we must have political and military leaders who are willing to recognize its inexorable approach.

Israel needs our steadfast support. Questioning if she is still a strategic asset for the US in light of the mixed military performance against Hizbullah in Lebanon is a legitimate and necessary process, but most of all a welcome opportunity to demonstrate how our fate, our freedom and our way of life is so inextricably linked as never before in living memory. If we wish to preserve what we treasure most for our children and grandchildren, we must close ranks with our Jewish brethren and stand our ground in defense against the onslaught of global Jihad as the precursor for Pax Islamica.

Comments

[Darrell]

The Evil Empire didn't go out of business...
They just went into hibernation for a few years via their old "Advance-retreat-advance" strategy. Who knew they would use their Marxist playbook? The US took it's "peace dividend" and cut troops/military expenditures by more than a third. The US and like-minded nations sent $Billions to Russia to keep them on the straight and narrow--most of it now down the drain and nationalized. Germany took it's "capitalism surplus" and absorbed and rebuilt its Communist twin, and was promptly infected in the process, like getting mad cow disease when sharing the fatted calf with the prodigal son. The East did what it never could militarily.

Now, Russia is the sole-source supplier of Iran's war "inventions" like their fab "underwater missiles" that match Russian torpedo specs exactly. And its nuclear tech...and its missile tech...etc. It's fingerprints are all over all the new hot spots in the world.

Hmmm. Maybe we will wake up before it's too late.

[Stu]

nofate - thanks for the deep insight into my reasoning and experiences.

Red - You seem to be critical of Khaleel Mohammed in contradistinction to the positions he espouses. He indeed does admonish Muslim leaders and adherents to stop preaching their hate and intolerance. My knowledge of Mr. Mohammed comes from personal discussions with him on several occaisions as well as experiencing some of his presentations.

Despite the sensationalism of Jew hatred in the world, most Muslims lead peaceful lives and are not incited to the level to cause us bodily harm. Despite its bloody past, my own personal experiences with Muslims teach me that Islam is capable of reformation and living in peace with the rest of the world and even entering into a modern existence.

[nofate]

Red Violin: I also went to Mr. Khaleel's site, and although it is curious that he offers MEMRI as a resource, I have nothing to add to your comment, as what I know about all this is strictly from reading. "Phraonic Egypt, for example, was not an Arab country through its 3,000-year history. Mohammad used to a write a letter to the leader of each country he was intending to invade and invite them to convert to Islam or else." One of the things that really stuck with me in my reading over the last year or so, is the way the Muslim conquerors routinely wiped out every last vestige of the culture that existed prior to their invasion. Aside from the routine slaughters that occurred, all aspects of daily life were institutionalized and place under the control of Muslim functionaries. The idea that other religions were allowed to co-exist is a cruel apologist joke. They were at best barely tolerated and routinely subjected to exhorbitant taxation as written in the Quran.
SB needs to do a little reading outside of what is handed to him. Material is certainly readily available, but he seems to already be convinced of his point of view and not really interested in the resources offered here.

[Red Violin]

Dear Mac: You're absolutely right. As an ex-muslim, I don't even want to bother to go into details of Mr. Khaleel Mohammad's internal inconsistency of his arguments given the history of religion and how it was propagated as an institution of faith since its inception because I've already visited that as a young woman in search of an alternative faith aggravated,triggered, and motivated exactly because of these inconsitencies/hypocrisies on a personal level.

Iran and all other "Arab" states - including Iraq, Syria, Lebanon, Egypt, Tunisia, and Algeria, as well as the entity under the Palestinian Authority - were originally non-Arab nations that were conquered by the Muslim Arabs when they spread out from the Arabian peninsula in the first great wave of jihad in the 7th century, defeating, killing, enslaving, dispossessing, converting, or reducing to the lowly status of dhimmitude millions of Christians and Jews and destroying their language (Iran is the only country that was able to sustain its own language thanks to our brave poet, Ferdowsi, who wrote a 5000-page long epic in Persian in secret to preserve the Persian language--Persian weren't allowed to speak their language for many years after the Islamic occupation of Iran--)ancient and flourishing civilizations. Prior to being Christian, of course, these lands had even more ancient histories. Phraonic Egypt, for example, was not an Arab country through its 3,000-year history. Mohammad used to a write a letter to the leader of each country he was intending to invade and invite them to convert to Islam or else. As a child, I didn't find that very prophet like... Meanwhile, Muslim armies had been busy conquering much of northern Africa, Egypt, Palestine, Syria, and Spain, which had been some of the most heavily Christian areas in the world. The Reconquista in Spain was the first major effort by Christians to retake lost territory, which occupied Spanish knights and some mercenaries from elsewhere in Europe in the fight against the Islamic Moors. Elsewhere, the Normans were fighting for control of Sicily, while Pisa, Genoa and Aragon were all actively fighting Islamic strongholds in Mallorca and Sardinia, freeing the coasts of Italy and Spain from Muslim raids.

Because of these ongoing wars, the idea of Holy War against the Muslims was not implausible to the European nations. Muslims had occupied the center of the Christian universe, Jerusalem, which, along with the surrounding land, was considered one giant relic, the place where Christ had lived and died. In 1074, Pope Gregory VII called for the millets Christi ("soldiers of Christ") to go to the aid of the Byzantine Empire in the east. The Byzantines had suffered a serious defeat at the hands of the Seljuk Turks at the Battle of Manzikert three years previously. This call, while largely ignored and even opposed, combined with the large numbers of pilgrimages to the Holy Land in the 11th century, focused a great deal of attention on the east. Reports of Muslims abusing Christian pilgrims traveling to Jerusalem and other Middle Eastern holy sites further stoked the crusading fervor. It was Pope Urban II who first disseminated to the general public the idea of a Crusade to capture the Holy Land with the famous words: "Deus vult!" ("God wills it!")

That as far as secular and modern republics go is ancient history. Do we see Christians, Jews, Budhists, etc. blowing themselves up in cafes in Tehran, Beirut, Tripoli or Mecca? How many Iranians have been taken hostage recently and beheaded? What government or religious organization preaches a reconquest of Christian lands taken by Islam long ago?

IT IS Mr. Khaleel's ideology that wishes to make all people of the Dar al-Harb into converts, dhimmies or corpses. In fact Islam separation of the world into the Dar al-Islam and Dar al-Harb is repugnant in and of itself. Islamic ideology is discriminatory from the beginning.

Mr. Khaleel, please tell your Islamic scholars, clerics, and judges to stop preaching their hate and intolerance. Tell them to stop calling for Jihad and don't be afraid of the modernity although I know it will be the death of your doctrine as it stands today. But can't you come up with more creative ideas to integrate and interpret your doctrine in a way more compatible with the 21st century and more palatable to the modern world and your own subjects so you don't have to keep them poor and ignorant of what's going on in the world?

I personally make a clear distinction between Muslims that practice their religion in peace, privacy and tolerance and those that believe in the Ideology as preached by propaganda masters (Khatami, Ahmadinejad, Ben Laden et al).

So far the vast majority of people in the Islamic world have done very little to force reform on their faith and make it suitable for peace and prosperity with the rest of the world in the 21st century. And I can't really blame them either because they don't know any better.

The fact remains that Islam as it is preached in most of the ME is a totalitarian and imperialistic ideology that wishes war against all others.

Having lived in the ME for the first 16 years of my life, to put it bluntly, I came to the conclusion that the only real value in the Middle East is POWER. For many, therefore, the mosque offers a haven, with the illusion of equality in subservience before Allah, a flight from the petty tyrants at home, at school, at work, and the greater tyrants of politics.

If you are not brought up to value yourself as an individual, you will not be able to value others as individuals. In this sense collectivism does not work. We treat others the way we treat ourselves. All these Islamists dictators, deep down, believe themselves worthless (the same is true of any dictator, any power crazed guy). This is hidden behind unbelievable arrogance, where they can get away with it, and is expressed in subservience, when they think they have no choice. In truth, the Islamists have a love-hate relationship with the West. That is their weakness. In the West we just wish - this might be putting it crudely, and I am speaking for ordinary, reasonably educated people, not politicians - that they would just get on and do something useful, make a contribution. This is our strength.

Our weakness lies in not recognizing the hatred. The political islamists weakness still lies where it always has. They have not really accepted modern science, technology perhaps, not science. Some have as individuals, but Islamists have not accepted this as societies. Oil money from the Gulf has been used to finance madrasas, Hizballah, Hamas,training shia death squads in Iraq, nuclear weapons and so on. What about a radio telescope or a particle accelerator? Nope, the Islamists have not bought into science, as societies. That is their weakness.

Simply put,the message of rulers and their clergy advocate the status quo as the manifested will of God. And to make the pill easier to swallow, Moslems are bombarded with a barrage of Koranic verses to the effect that "True Believers Are Meant To Suffer So As To Be Cleansed Of Their Sins". Thesolution,they say,is to be patient.They are also told that those who are patient will be rewarded in heaven. Enters the Bin Ladenites and the Suicide brigade building/martyr warshipping-raising nation of Iran with their message of "The highest form of art is martyrdom" by Mr. Ahmadinejad. They tell people,Kafirs(non-muslims and the infidels) are to blame for all your ills.They occupied your countries,stole your resources and so on.

Islamists having to face modernity and their ineptitude to solve their economic ills and vast poverty and the inevitable extinction and irrelevance of the essence of their politico-religious doctrine have almost no choice but to become more anti-westernized, Promote hatred of the West, and become more radicalized/politicized as a religion in order to stay in power and fill their mosques. They also have to keep people poor in order to be able to manipulate them. It's a vicious cycle...What I'm trying to say is that Most Poverty in the ME is maintained, preserved, and organized systematically and deliberately by the dictators be it in form of ayatollahs, clergies, or dicatotorships a la SA, Egypt and so on to create an excuse and a breeding ground for fundementalism and militancy. Because as long as the poor masses are busy fighting the "West", the dictators and theofascists can go on plundering and prolong their reign of terror indefinitely.
Do I have a solution? No. But I think the first step toward finding solving any problem is the accurate identification of the problem.

[mac Brachman]

Mr. Berman: Thanks for your reference; I'll try to read up on Khaleel Mohammed. Power-seeking, and the urge to blame all that is bad in a particular society, or in oneself, on an external "other" (most particularly, the Jews, the original scapegoats) is behind most anti-Semitism, I would agree. But perhaps, shame on me, my prejudice against Islam will be harder for me to overcome. Say what you will about the founders of the other great religions (Moses, Jesus, Buddha, etc.), they weren't frustrated merchants involved in infighting in their home communities (as Muhammad was with the largely pagan/polytheist merchant class of pre-Islamic Mecca) who took up arms against their enemies. And adherents of Judaism, Christianity, Hinduism, Buddhism, inter alia, do not target for vandalism, violence, or murder those who criticize or satirize Moses, Jesus, or Buddha. Nonetheless, I will endeavor to have an open mind; I'm not sinless, as the recent High Holy Days serve to remind me. Shalom, Mac Brachman

[Stu]

nofate,

I agree that historically Islam has adopted a hatred towards Judaism (and is very popular in political circles Muslim and non-Muslim) however fundamentally Islam as a belief based upon the Koran (as well as Muhammed's teachings) does not really teach hatred of Jews any more than Christianity does. I learned this from a Muslim scholar (Shiite and Sunni qualified) Khaleel Mohammed . He is a practicing Muslim that is part of a reformation within Islam that teaches that Israel belongs to the Jewish people and is promised as such within the Koran. He teaches that the insidious anti-Semitism stems from a political motivation and codified within the oral traditions. This is not unusual as Christian and Jewish oral traditions are also full of vituperation.

[mac Brachman]

To all: there is an excerpt of an interview by noted Nobel Peace laureate and well-known humanitarian (lest we forget, he pulls off some media stunt, er, publishes another "book" and does another good deed (e.g., hammering a few nails in a shanty somewhere in Central Africa, then leaving the rest of the job to low-ranking peons in Habitat for Humanity while he jets off to do another good deed, such as legitimizing the pluralist democracy of Hugo Chavez in Caracas)) Jimmy Carter in the latest (10/16) Newsweek. Apparently the Sage of Plains, Ga. has written again, and a vast tome of wisdom about the Palestinian-Israeli conflict has emerged from his eloquent pen. The title? "Palestine: Peace Not Apartheid" (Guess which party Mr. Carter accuses of practicing "apartheid." Hint: not the Palestinians or their Arab allies). Amid the maelstrom of other news this past dire weekend (NK's nuclear bomb test, the Putin-ordered mob-style hit, that is, murder, on a journalist who dared to expose the tyranny in Russia today) many may have missed Palestinian PM Haniyah's statement that Hamas remains committed to no recognition of Israel. Does this deter all-purpose Swami, Guru, and Wiseman Mr. Carter? See for yourself. "Q (Newsweek's Christopher Dickey): Is peace with Hamas possible? A (the venerableand great Jimmy Carter): Hamas leaders have stated publicly and oftent that they would accept any peace agreement negotiated between the Palestinian people and Israel if the Palestinians wre permitted to approve it in a referendum." The entire inteview can be perused by those with calmer tempers and stronger stomachs than mine at xtra.Newsweek.com. Shalom to all, Mac Brachman

[Red Violin]

Who's Afraid of Islam?

Don’t let anyone tell you Iran is a democratic country. Europeans and the Russians depict the Islamic Republic a democratic country because Iran has become a cash cow for Germany, France, and Russia...and it’s hard to let go.

To this CNN's Ms. Bakhtiar reacted by saying that she was also quite impressed with the great influence that Germans exercise in Iran. For instance she said, both the French and the Germans have their own TV channels in Iran and one feels their presence everywhere. I would say that this is a defacto imperialist colonization of the country, and that what these good people report fits rather perfectly within my understanding of the long-range plans of the European powers who in the meanwhile love to fan the fire of anti-Americanism through their client quasi-colonized authoritarian and fascistic puppet regimes, such as the Islamic Republic.

Recently, to my disbelief, Brian Williams and other journalists failed to ask Shah Ahmadinejad how dare he can talk about referendum in Palestine as a means of deciding the future of the state of Israel and Palestinians in Palestine while in Iran people have been jailed or killed even at the suggestion of holding a referendum on Velayat Fagheeh(the absolute rule of the devine ruler, Supreme Leader), the most anti democratic principal in Islamic republic or anywhere, which gives a blanket veto power to a single un-elected clergy over all elected officials.
A democratic velayte faghi (divine ruler, god’s agent on earth) is an oxymoron and more virulent than any non-religious totalitarian system. Grafting religion onto King-Supreme Leader-Velayate Faghih, makes other totalitarian system such as dictatorial monarchy, Nazism, or communism more insidious and deadly. Because the emotional appeal of non-religious fanaticism like Nazism, Fascism or Communism is not as pervasive as that of fanaticism based on religion. When fanaticism and religion are mixed, we have a very potent and dangerous brew that can sustain itself for centuries unlike non-religious fanaticisms like Nazism and Communism, which die out when the ringleaders are defeated.

[nofate]

Mr. Porretto: "Today, the enemy is political Islam." Wrong. Or at least, redundant.

Could you please be less ambiguous? :>) Just checked out your most excellent blog on mac Brachman's recommendation. The version of Yeats's poem by your commenter was interesting.

At this time, it seems as if we are continuing to do nothing full speed ahead (other than hang on in Iraq and Afghanistan). Unfortunately our children and grandchildren will pay the price of our inertia as Russia and China sit back and keep stirring the pot, content to let us squander our manpower and resources.

[nofate]

Deeeeep, calming breath.
Stuart: "I do not believe that Islam is the problem (it is a sister religion to Judaism and Christianity)"

If you are new to this site, I would suggest you do some reading about the differences between Judaism, Chistianity, and Islam. The general mainstream media would have us believe that Islam is a religion of peace and that jihad is a struggle to find perfect inner faith. The reality is that Islam is a religion that has no toleration for other ways of thinking and teaches, from the days of Muhammed onward, that it is the duty of all Muslims to practice jihad. Furthermore, it is incumbent on jihadists to try and establish Islam as a world religion. The practice of slavery continues in Islam to this day and the dirty little staggeringly large "secret" is that the Muslims were instrumental in the slave trade that populated the New World with African slaves. But that was only a brief spell in the more than millenium long history of Islam sponsored slavery.

Here is some recommended light reading to give a background that I too, had no clue of one year ago.
The website of Daniel Pipes.
Several articles by Andrew Bostom, found in various websites:
Apocalyptic Muslim Jew-hatred. Excellent article showing the extent of islamist hatred of Jews dating back to the origins of the Koran. Also explores the motivations driving present day Hamas and Hezbollah.
Muhammad’s Willing Executioners. Another excellent article showing the rabid Jew hatred of the muslim world and it's ongoing effort to eradicate the Jews from Palestine.
"Notwithstanding that he may never have encountered an actual Jew, the 17th century Indian Sufi jurist Sirhindi (d. 1621) expressed an (archetypal) sentiment, whose ultimate origins can be traced to the sacralized behaviors of the Muslim prophet Muhammad himself. Sirhindi wrote: Whenever a Jew is killed, it is for the benefit of Islam." Sadly, this ugly belief retains widespread legitimacy amongst contemporary Muslims.
The first of a series of four articles, The Legacy of Jihad in Palestine, which, in addition to a long history of the violent nature of Islam, in the third installment, shows the close relationship that Yasser Arafat had with a man who helped Hitler form Bosnian Muslim SS units, and was instrumental in the death camp trips of over 400,000 Jews.
Islam's Useful Idiots by Amil Amani, an Iranian living in the west. "....The “moderate” mainstream of Islam has been outright genocidal from inception. Their own historians record that Ali, the first imam of the Shiite and the son-in-law of Muhammad, with the help of another man, beheaded 700 Jewish men in the presence of the Prophet himself. The Prophet of Allah and his disciples took the murdered men’s women and children in slavery. Muslims have been, and continue to be, the most vicious and shameless practitioners of slavery. The slave trade, even today, is a thriving business in some Islamic lands where wealthy, perverted sheikhs purchase children of the poor from traffickers for their sadistic gratification....The lesson is clear. Beware of the Useful Idiots who live in liberal democracies. Knowingly or unknowingly, they serve as the greatest volunteer and effective soldiers of Islam. They pave the way for the advancement of Islam and they will assuredly be among the very first victims of Islam as soon as it assumes power."
A couple of other writers I can think of off the top of my head are Ibn Warraq and Bat Yeor.
Oh yes, and last but not least, you might try these:
'Can We Get Over It Already?' We Are All Jews Now, and
We Are All Jews Now Part II.
Hope this helps.

[Stu]

Thank you for your profound thoughts.

I do not believe that Islam is the problem (it is a sister religion to Judaism and Christianity) but rather the political Islam you cite. I certainly don't understand what is driving the Russian hatred unless it is one of convenience.

[nofate]

I ran across the same article in a link in an American Thinker article by Ethel C. Fenig. I am not as up to speed on what has been going on as some here on ATB. As a child of the 50's & 60's, whose father worked in government service, and had to stay at work for several days during the Cuban missile crisis, I can still remember the concerned looks on my parents faces when Kruschev did his shoe pounding "We will bury you!" bit. And there are still a lot of us out here who never bought the "death" of the Soviet Union. So it sent a chill down my spine to read these words in Glick's article: On Tuesday, Russian military engineers landed in Beirut...They will operate outside the command of UNIFIL."

[Red Violin]

.Active Appeasement
Our Iran policy.

.
Will Israel Wake Up One Morning to a Nuclear-Armed Iran?

. US secretly woos Khatami

.Mr. Khatami's visit follows last month trip to the US during which he met Former PRESIDENT JIMMY CARTER

.War Talk In US: The Questions That Need To Be Asked

The above articles are important but disturbing. Our inaction and appeasment of the mullahs will only embolden the lunatic-in-chief in Tehran as it did khomeini in the 80's when our inaction during the hostage crisis and killing of our 260+ Marines in Beirut led to establishing the Monster Hizballah nurtured and financed by Iran over 26 years.

[mac Brachman]

Just checked Mr. Porretto's excellent blog, Eternity Road. He quotes Yeats's famous poem (also published in that fateful year, 1939), "The Second Coming." Meanwhile, it feels as if the rest of us are just rearranging the deck chairs... Shalom, Mac Brachman

[mac Brachman]

GD: I know Mr. Baker is well-liked by many "centrist realists" in foreign policy circles, but for the life of me I can't get out of my mind that he is also known as James "F*** the Jews; they don't vote for us anyway" (spoken when he was a top political strategist, and later Sec. of State, for Bush Sr.) Baker by those of us who do not have short memories when it comes to anti-Semitism.

To Alexandra and all: the events of the last few days (the cold-blooded murder of Politkovskaya, the f***-you nuclear test by Kim Jong Il) makes me think again about Orwell's "1984," specifically, the part where O'Brien, the Inner Party apparatchik whom Winston Smith mistakenly thought was an ally in rebellion against the totalitarian regime but who turned out to be a betrayer, is interrogating Winston in Room 101 of the "MInistry of Love" and telling him that the point of Oceania's political regime is to accumulate and hold power, absolute power, for its own sake, not to better the lot of "the people" or to liberate the oppressed of Eurasia or Eastasia from tyranny, but merely to hold power, and to exert it: "if you wish to imagine the future, think of a boot stamping on a face, forever." These are considered words to live by by the likes of Kim, Putin, and Ahmadinejad. As for any sort of reasoned, bipartisan, responsible response, think of Auden's September 1, 1939, and "the low dishonest decade." This is a dark dishonorable time in history. Shalom, Mac Brachman

[Ghost Dansing]

"Israel needs our steadfast support..."

Israel needs America's competent support and good advice... afraid she's not getting it with this Republican administration.

The current Republican explanation for what went wrong in Iraq closely echoes Joseph McCarthy’s explanation for the Communist victory in China, which he said was “the product of a great conspiracy” at home.

According to the Republicans, things didn’t go wrong because the invasion was a mistake, or because Donald Rumsfeld didn’t send enough troops, or because the occupation was riddled with cronyism and corruption...it is all because the good guys were stabbed in the back. Democrats, who undermined morale with their negative talk, and the liberal media, which refused to report the good news from Iraq, are responsible for the quagmire.

How can a pathetic and weak crowd like this support Israel on anything...let alone give good advice or be able to mount a military backbone at a the present time.

Iranian leaders love nothing more than taunting American Presidents, like when Jimmy Carter was emasculated during the hostage crisis. And so it was with Ahmadinejad, who took W. and Dick's refrain about how Republicans are needed to stiffen America’s will and threw it back at them.

“There is no indication,’’ he said, “that the occupiers have the necessary political will to eliminate the sources of instability.”

Everybody knows now America would have to surge and sustain forces in Iraq to even have a chance at achieving its goals...or it is going to have to gradually disengage...so says James Baker.

Dubya played-down Osama for five years, while he focused on Iraq. But his ill-fated detour into Baghdad just ended up magnifying another enemy and giving Mr. Ahmadinejad a huge strategic opportunity to stoke the growing fundamentalist and radical Shiite surge unleashed by the bungled occupation. Because W. blew off diplomacy with Iraq, he is now hostage to diplomacy with Iran.

Weak and incompetent...demonstrably.

And America has to stay America to do the job. We don't have to torture anybody, we don't have to cheat, skirt or change the Liberal Constitution.

Reagan said something about "...shining city on the hill..." He said "And she's still a beacon, still a magnet for all who must have freedom, for all the pilgrims from all the lost places who are hurtling through the darkness, toward home.

To be that, America must be true to its real Liberal values... not the values of accidental petty potentates slipped into office by corporate plutocrats and authoritarian "conservatives" looking for a dictator King...with a vice president pathetically arguing for torture and special dispensation from the Constitution...because why? Because we're afraid...pathetically afraid...led by pathetic fearful little men.

And as for that mural of Lady Liberty, the oppressors are the ones that should be afraid...very afraid...

She's a rebel
She's a saint
She's salt of the earth
And she's dangerous

She's a rebel
Vigilante
Missing link on the brink
Of destruction

From Chicago to Toronto
She's the one that they
Call old whatsername

She's the symbol
Of resistance
And she's holding on my
Heart like a hand grenade

Is she dreaming
What I'm thinking
Is she the mother of all bombs
Gonna detonate

Is she trouble
Like I'm trouble
Make it a double
Twist of fate
Or a melody that

She sings the revolution
The dawning of our lives
She brings this liberation
That I just cant define
Nothing comes to mind

Green Day

[Miluimnik]

This has to be the most thought out, inviting page in the Blogosphere! Kudos!

Alexandra, a favour please. Could you please contact Jeff or Michael at AmericasTruthForum.Com

Todah veh Gamar chatimar tova!

Miluimnik

[rich]

Russia is also active in the middle east. The oil money must be rejuvenating their intelligence agencies. I wonder what their budget for the USA is.

Here are two articles that mention Russia in the middle east:

As the Storm of War Approaches By Caroline Glick Jerusalem Post 10/5/2006

http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1159193378736&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull

Syria, Iran intelligence services aided Hezbollah during war
By Ze'ev Schiff Haaretz 10/5/2006

http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/769538.html

[Francis W. Porretto]

"Today, the enemy is political Islam."

Wrong. Or at least, redundant.

Islam is inherently political. Its founding document, the Qur'an, instructs Muslims to gain political hegemony over all the world, by any means expedient.

The enemy is Islam.