[Update: Today's article in Reuters puts my little musing of yesterday in a sharper focus.]

I think of things while in the shower. Like this moring, I was thinkin’ that in just a few more weeks the eyes of the world will be on the new Olympic stadium in Bejing as the athletes march in the opening ceremony. Heads of state from all over the world will be there, including President Bush and one would assume the highest ranking of the Chinese Communists. All the high-ranking al Queda operatives and planners could possibly be thinking as they watch and read about the 2008 Olympics is, “What a target rich environment — Oh ya betcha!” When I got that far in my mind, my inner Tom Clancy decided it was time for a little channeling o’ the Okie . . .

“No, it wouldn’t be easy, maybe not even possible, but if one could pull this off, Allah would be most pleased and the virgins would be non-stop — even to the point where a faithful man would have to consider asking for them to stop, or maybe slow it down a bit. But, one would have to have faith that if there would be so many of them that the stamina would also be provided. What other payment would suffice the success of such a demonstration of the power of Allah? The time to dream is over, time to act. The torch has reached the platform and in mere moments the Olympic flame will be lit — and then the flame of cleansing will follow. Allahu Akbar! Allahu Akbar! Allahu Akbar! . . . It is time.”

The last thing that anyone in the Olympic Stadium saw was the Olympic flame coming alive followed by a searing beyond-white light — microseconds later no one in the immediate area was alive, actually no one was anything at all except for vaporized and burned at the molecular level. Televised images of the Olympic Opening Ceremony from inside the Olympic village ceased immediately, those from remotes within a few miles went black seconds later — only those from far away that had satellite links showed what had to have been a nuclear blast. Spy satellites confirmed this and that knowledge set off a second chain of events.

The Chinese military immediately began looking for the likely culprit — surely this had to have come from Russia, or the U.S., probably Russia. Not England, or France. Pakistan? India? Not likely, but have to admit, close. North Korea? No.

Most of all, must save face. Who to strike? Eenie. Meenie. Miney. Mo.

The Russians saw it coming but with little time to decision make, let alone act. “Punch the Button comrades . . . punch ALL the buttons!”

Washington had more time, and the ballistic missile defense system saves San Francisco. Lucky them . . . The President gone, the east coast soon to be history — what to do? Launch ‘em ALL! Let God sort it out.

The Israelis weren’t stupid. Western Europe and America were never going to help, never going to be able to help, not in this or the next generation’s lifetimes. The Arabs and the Persians would descend upon God’s people and finish what the Nazi’s started decades ago. It really wasn’t a decision to make, it was fate, and destiny, and if God was willing — self preservation.

They launched ‘em ALL! No more Saudi oilfields and refineries. No more Iraqi oil. No more Arabic capitals. No more Iranian nuclear threat. No more much of anything . . .

Needless to say, what would be left of the world, and the world’s economy, wouldn’t be a very fun place to be. We don’t really understand the environmental fallout of pumping that much radioactive matter into the atmosphere, but one wouldn’t be able to put up an argument that what followed wasn’t man-caused Climate Change. This time, that moniker would fit.

If I were even remotely as talented at Robert Ferrigno this would be a great place to start a story. I’m not — so let’s hope we never have to live it to find out what happens . . .

Sheer, unadulterated arrogance and hubris — thy name is the Los Angeles Times! I’ve got a few more words for them as well, some beginning with “a” and some with “f”, but none that I usually allow on this blog. What’s got the Okie’s ire all up and foaming this AM? Well, in today’s page one, above the fold story, right next to their crocodile tears filled pat-on-the-back coverage of the 4,000th American to make the ultimate sacrifice they have this “story”, Terrorism money is still flowing, where LAT staff writer Josh Meyer opens with:

The U.S.-led effort to choke off financing for Al Qaeda and other terrorist groups is foundering because setbacks at home and abroad have undermined the Bush administration’s highly touted counter-terrorism weapon, according to current and former officials and independent experts.

In some cases, extremist groups have blunted financial anti-terrorism tools by finding new ways to raise, transfer and spend their money. In other cases, the administration has stumbled over legal difficulties and interagency fighting, officials and experts say.

But the most serious problems are fractures and mistrust within the coalition of nations that the United States admits it needs to target financiers of terrorism and to stanch the flow of funding from wealthy donors to extremist causes.

Sounds pretty damning now, doesn’t it? Why can’t BushCo put together a “coalition of nations that the United States admits it needs to target financiers of terrorism”? Why are they having so much trouble trying to “stanch the flow of funding from wealthy donors to extremist causes?” Mr. Meyer, Mr. Meyer — the Okie knows! It must be here somewhere in this in-depth blathering — wait, there must be more . . . there must be some acknowledgment of the SWIFT Program that was combining the cooperation with International banks and the Treasury Department to “track” terrorists funding efforts all around the globe.

Oh yeah, you, the LA Times and the New York Times blew the whistle on the SWIFT terrorist-financial-tracking program way back in June of 2006 in order to get a big “GOTCHA” on the Bush administration just in time for the ’06 Congressional election cycle. The administration, and anyone else with at least half a mind was aghast at your combined arrogance and actions bordering on treason. Of course, Lefties everywhere sang your praises for “protecting” their rights. Please . . . and then you, via the now gone LAT editor Dean Baquet along with the NYT’s Bill Keller, doubled down and made public statements supporting your actions.

In that last Okie post on the Keller statement I made this observation:

In other words, “we [the MSM] so hate George Bush that nothing he has ever done or will ever do, successful or not, on our behalf or not, for the good of America, or not — can be tolerated. If we can get some agenda-driven weasel in the Executive bureaucracy to spill some classified dope, we’ll roll with it — Every time!” So according to you guys, in WWII the press should have spilled the beans about Enigma, our breaking of the Japanese codes, (oh yeah, the Chicago Tribune DID that! Yipes!), or the launch timing of D-Day?

We are in a WAR! Hello!

Well, gee guys, we’re still in a war! The radical Islamic Jihadis still want all of us DEAD! You still want to GET George Bush so much that you’ll print anything to make this administration look inept. Maybe all this terrorist monies wouldn’t be moving around so easily if you had kept your big collective pie hole shut!

Sometimes need to know shouldn’t get trumped by right to know. Once again the LA Times shows its true colors, and they aren’t Red, White & Blue. Probably not nuanced enough . . .

Technorati Tags: Los Angeles Times, Al Qaeda, SWIFT Program, Dean Baquet, Bill Keller

The next time someone tells you that all things are relative and that we shouldn’t be judgmental of other cultures, read them this:

Two women suicide bombers who have killed nearly 80 people in Baghdad were Down’s Syndrome victims exploited by al Qaida.

The explosives were detonated by remote control in a co-ordinated attack after the women walked into separate crowded markets, said the chief Iraqi military spokesman in Baghdad General Qassim al-Moussawi.

Other officials said the women were apparently unaware of what they were doing in what could be a new method by suspected Sunni insurgents to subvert toughened security measures.

More than 70 people died and scores were wounded in the deadliest day since the US “surge” of 30,000 extra troops were sent to the capital this spring.

There’s low, there’s lower, and then there are those that need to be hunted down and destroyed like rabid dogs. Al Qaeda is firmly in that latter category!

[Update]
Captain Ed remarks about this in a much more elegant manner:

In a way, this shows how desperate AQ has become. They obviously cannot fill their ranks with willing participants, and even hostages won’t suffice. Instead, they exploit the weakest and most innocent and use them as commodities to kill as many people as possible.

The Iraqis have seen this evil up close and have rejected it. They understand now that there is no accommodation with evil. It has to be defeated, and defeated utterly.

Technorati Tags: Al Qaeda

No matter how you look at this one, it’s not good. Via the AP:

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan – Pakistan’s deposed chief justice called on lawyers nationwide to defy police and protest President Gen. Pervez Musharraf’s imposition of emergency rule, while the Cabinet debated whether to delay parliamentary elections by as much as three months, a minister said.

In the lawless northwest, Islamic militants seized a town from outnumbered security forces who surrendered without a fight.

Musharraf, who took power in a 1999 coup, said over the weekend he was declaring a state of emergency to respond to a growing Islamic militant threat. He suspended the constitution, put a stranglehold on the media and granted sweeping powers to authorities to crush dissent. Thousands of people have been rounded up and thrown in jail.

In the Swat valley near the Afghan border — a focus of a wave of militant violence — about two dozen police officers and several troops offered no resistance to militants who seized three police stations and a military post in and around the town of Matta.

“We didn’t harm the police and soldiers and allowed them to go to their homes as they didn’t fight our mujahideen,” said Sirajuddin, a spokesman for Maulana Fazlullah, a firebrand cleric whose armed followers are battling security forces.

He said the militants had hoisted their black and white flags over the captured posts. A police official in Swat, who spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitive nature of his job, confirmed the surrender.

In Islamabad, the ousted chief justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry, called for mass protest against the government.

Just another crumbling government in the land of Islam? Just another third-world hell-hole falling apart due to corruption and internal neglect? Just another military coup leader getting his? Probably all that and more — a lot more. Pakistan, the Brits’ big foul-up of post WWII attempts to fix the mess they made of India, is armed to their nuclear teeth to thwart India’s own nuke arsenal, and that is what’s really at stake in this current crisis. The thought of a radical Islamic takeover of a government that has dozens of nuclear weapons must have the White House and the leaders in Tel Aviv hammerin’ down Nytol by the bottle. And then there’s that little inconsistency of policy about our supporting Musharraf’s military-controlled government while our troops are fighting and dying just across the border to enable democracies to flourish in Iraq and Afghanistan.

President Bush urged Gen. Pervez Musharraf to hold elections as the crisis caused by the Pakistani leader’s declaration of a state of emergency continued into its fourth day. Although some congressional lawmakers explored ways of cutting aid to the Musharraf regime to protest the suspension of the country’s constitution, observers agreed such a move would be unlikely to succeed. In addition, the media are taking President Bush, who has relied on Musharraf in the war on terrorism, to task for the contradiction between the Pakistani general’s actions and Bush’s effort to promote democracy in the Muslim world.

Meanwhile, in an Orwellian-style moment, the Dems get frisky while the Repubs council restraint.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., warned against being too soft.

“Pakistan will only be a reliable and capable ally against terrorism when its government is not seen as an enemy by its own people,” she said.

But Rep. Duncan Hunter, R-Calif., the top Republican on the House Armed Services Committee, warned against being too hasty with rebukes. “As politics in Pakistan continue evolving, we should not rush to abandon Musharraf but work with him to get Pakistan back on the path toward democracy,” he said.

The gist of Duncan Hunter’s statement was echoed by John Bolton yesterday on Hugh Hewitt’s show:

HH: What ought to be the reaction of the United States to Musharraf’s declaration of military rule?

JB: Well, I don’t think it’s anything we should celebrate, of course, but I think we have to be practical about this. This is a regime in control of a number of nuclear weapons, it’s a regime we need to fight the remainder of al Qaeda and Taliban along its border with Afghanistan. And I don’t think we ought to be pushing Musharraf out the door, or necessarily in a direction of coalitions with the likes of Benazir Bhutto, if he thinks it would weaken his position, because the alternative is not a nice Jeffersonian democratic government. The alternative to Musharraf right now is an Islamo-fascist government in control of nuclear weapons, and that’s definitely something to fear.

HH: Is there a danger that Musharraf could become Bush’s Shah or his Diem?

JB: Well, I think that’s entirely possible, and I think part of the reason is the State Department was pushing Benazir Bhutto on him, and I think it was a very foolish strategy, because you can’t say take on some of the democratic opposition and not take on the rest of it. This trying to read internal Pakistani politics is hard for the Pakistanis, let alone for people at the State Department.

Over at the Center For Contemporary Conflict one finds this 2003 estimate of Pakistan’s nuclear weapons capabilities:

Adding together its possible plutonium and HEU inventories, Pakistan could have enough fissile material to produce between 35 and 95 weapons, with 60 as the median estimate.

Four years later, who knows how many more? What this brings to mind is the importance of how the Presidential primary candidates of both parties answer the question, “What will your administration do to combat the advance of radical Islamic terror?” With the drug traffickers to our south having smuggling strategies like this, and with petrodollars flowing freely to terrorist groups, the possibilities are truly “terrifying”. Kinda the point, huh? Makes the answer to that question asked above a bit more important than views on single-payer health care — at least it does in my book.

Meanwhile, the Brits get their panties in a snit over their own interpretation of WWIII and decide to go to war with the sun. I say, good luck ol’ chaps, tallyho! BTW — take ol’ Big Al with ya!

This AM I heard on Dennis Prager’s radio show his brief interview with Bartle Bull, foreign editor of the UK’s Prospect Magazine and editor of Middle East Monitor who has been on many embeds with Iraqi troops and militias. Bull declares in his Wall Street Journal piece that the won in Iraq has been won.

The war in Iraq was always going to be won by the Iraqis, and so it has proven. But the Iraqis who have won it are on our side.
{…}
The biggest unifier of all currently might be the most predictable one. Help from foreigners is welcome in Iraq. The country’s elected prime minister, possessing after Iraq’s heroic elections more popular legitimacy than almost any leader in the world, often points out that the Coalition is there as invited guests. When the U.S. Senate passed its disingenuous “plan” for extreme federalism in Iraq last week, the uproar in the country crossed the sectarian divide. Iraq already has a constitution. It was written by freely elected Iraqis and ratified overwhelmingly by the public in a brave vote two years ago.

Thousands of Americans and their allies have died helping to give Iraqis this opportunity. We have shown enormous skill and bravery in helping them fight their enemies, and immeasurable goodwill in sending our young men to protect Iraqi schools, mosques and polling booths. The reason we and Iraqis are winning this war together is that its purpose is to give Iraqis what they want.

It was interesting to hear him telling Dennis that even though the carnage is far from over, the actual war for Iraq has been settled — at least unless we, the US, does something stupid like pulling out completely in short order. Winning the support/acceptance of the Shia (majority of the population) was the ticket. After getting out from under decades of brutal repression by Saddam and the Baathists (Sunni) the majority isn’ keen on lying down under their thumb once again. Funny what getting to cast a vote can do.

Over at Back Talk blog, Engram is analyzing the death count stats and sees some encouraging trends.

Back in 2004 and 2005, there was an insurgency in Iraq driven by former Baathists who wanted to restore themselves to power. In 2006 and 2007, most people (and all Democrats) thought they witnessed a civil war break out in Iraq as casualties increased dramatically. What they actually witnessed was a declaration of war by al Qaeda and a response by Muqtada al Sadr’s Shiite militia. What you are watching now is al Qaeda starting to lose the war they started. I obviously don’t know what the future holds, but I can say that the recent trends are very favorable.

Over at Big Lizards Dafydd is looking at similar data and seeing the same light at the end of the tunnel.

As Iraq cools down, its very existence should make it much easier to deal with problems like Iran, Syria, and even countries in other regions, such as North Korea and Venezuela. Too, the final success of the Bush policy will induce other Western nations — those bold, independent trendsetters — to jump on the bandwagon. (“Oceania has always supported pre-emptive strikes, covert action, and counterinsurgency!”)

All I can say is thank you, Mr. President, for quite literally sticking to your guns. You will be remembered… but not the way Majority Leader Harry “Pinky” Reid (D-Caesar’s Palace, 90%) fantasizes!

Thanks guys, one certainly won’t be reading this in the NYT, LAT or WaPo anytime soon!

Technorati Tags: Bartle Bull, war in Iraq

In an in depth look at Al-Haramain Islamic Foundation v. George W. Bush Zombietime gives us a peek at a few things that WE all already know:

. . . that our courts are a labyrinth of strange proceedings,

The government requested that the case be thrown out of court on technical grounds, since the only way Al-Haramain could even prove it had the standing to challenge the surveillance was to cite the mysterious document — which the government claimed was not admissible as evidence. Al-Haramain countered that it could rely on people’s memories and descriptions of the document. An Oregon district judge ruled in Al-Haramain’s favor: the case could go forward. The government appealed the judge’s decision to the Ninth District Court of Appeals (which brings us back up to August 15, 2007). Whichever way the appellate judges rule, one side or the other will then appeal it to the Supreme Court.

. . . that the 9th Circuit is Liberal beyond reason,

Which leaves us with Harry Pregerson, the man in the middle. According to most sources, Pregerson (a Carter appointee) is the most liberal of all appellate judges.

During oral orguments on August 15, Judge Pregerson showed his colors as he verbally mocked the government’s lawyers when they said that the judges should give “utmost deference” to the government’s designation of what constitutes matters of national security. Pregerson’s snide remark upon hearing the phrase was, “What does ‘utmost deference’ mean? We just bow to it?”, which elicited laughter from the courtroom audience. And yet the government attorneys were merely quoting verbatim this ruling (pdf file) from September 2006 by United States District Judge Garr King who was citing earlier legal precedent when he himself said that the judges are expected to give “utmost deference” to the government’s opinion as to what merits “Top Secret” security classification.

. . . that the press really can’t be bothered to even investigate, let alone report, truth — especially if “truth” might be in conflict with its own Liberal agenda.

After both the Hepting and Al-Haramain cases had been heard by the judges, the court session was gaveled to a close and everyone had to file out of the building. Because cameras had been banned from the proceedings, the media were waiting outside en masse, hungry to get footage and interviews.

Interviews with the proper people, that is.

How progressive of them. I really don’t have to write it, do I . . . ?

Technorati Tags: Al-Haramain Islamic Foundation, Al-Haramain, Ninth District Court of Appeals, Judge Pregerson, Hepting

Damn — I’ve got goosebumps!

The enemy was holding a video camera. Enemy videotape was recording, and the camera was panning from the left side of Stryker, far past the other two lanes, because Krauss and crew were about to drive over a culvert the enemy had packed with explosives.

{…}

I don’t know which Kenny Chesney song they were listening to before the bomb exploded, but I played my favorite—“Me and You”—over and over while writing their story, wondering what might have been going through their minds just before the detonation. Although the bomb was massive, they couldn’t have seen it. It was hidden and packed into a culvert under the road.

{…}

For Krauss and crew, the great dream of a great song was interrupted:

As the bomb detonated beneath it, the General Lee arced like a dolphin from the sea of Hell. LT Brad Krauss can be seen flying out like Superman, if you look closely and imagine real hard. PFC Devon Hoch can clearly be seen standing in the back hatch. And that was it. Our guys’ lives seemed to be reduced to propaganda. The terrorists published reports that the soldiers were killed.

But this is Michael Yon writing here, and you damn sure don’t want to miss the rest of the story!

The video shot by the enemy is harrowing. Thank God for the Strykers!

Technorati Tags: General Lee, Michael Yon, Strykers

               Michael YonMichael Yon’s latest, Al-Qaeda on the Run: Feasting on the Moveable Beast, is full of information that I’d bet a bundle you’ll never see printed in the LA Times.

The focus on al Qaeda makes sense here, where local officials have gone on record acknowledging that most of the perhaps one thousand al Qaeda fighters in Baqubah were young men and boys who called the city home. This may clash with the perception in US and other media that only a small percentage of the enemy in Iraq is al Qaeda, which in turn leads to false conclusions that the massive offensive campaign underway across Iraq is a lot of shock and awe aimed at a straw enemy. But as more Sunni tribal leaders renounce former ties with al Qaeda, it’s becoming clearer just how heavily AQ relied on local talent, and how disruptive they have been here in fomenting the civil war.

Pretty heady stuff, this. As far as our local kitty-box liner, a search on their website for “Michael Yon” nets you the following:

LATIMES.COM ARTICLES
No matches found on search for: michael yon
Try broadening your search criteria.

Of course, our esteemed waste of ink and paper isn’t silent on the Iraq War, not at all.

NEWS ANALYSIS
Key goals in Iraq elusive

THE CONFLICT IN IRAQ: BAGHDAD’S FRUSTRATION; U.S. RAIDS
Iraqis chafe at U.S. deadline pressure

Administration foiled by own Iraq goals

GOP senators seek middle ground on Iraq

‘Spectacular attacks’ in Iraq expected

Court-martial urged in Haditha case

&

Pentagon criticized for Iraq armor contracts

And that’s just today!

Not a single mention anywhere online about the effectiveness of Operation Arrowhead Ripper — and as Yon reports in his initial post of the battle for Baqubah, “Alexandra Zavis from Los Angeles Times is down in the heat of the battle bringing home information.” The LAT has its own embedded reporter and they aren’t telling the story! That’s outright, damaging-to-the-troops anti-war bias taken to the max!

Hey LA Times — try broadening your editorial and journalistic criteria!

Pathetic!

[Update -- to be fair, I did find an article by the LAT embed, Alexandra Zavis, from June 26. Why they haven't followed up with further info about the routing of al Qaeda is a mystery -- or, maybe it isn't. That would make Bush's "surge" look like it just might be working -- can't have that now, can we LAT?]

I hate it when classified reports are “leaked”. But now that it has been, if what Breitbart reports about the increased strength of al Qaeda is accurate — this ain’t good! Not good at all.

WASHINGTON (AP) – U.S. intelligence analysts have concluded al-Qaida has rebuilt its operating capability to a level not seen since just before the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, The Associated Press has learned.

The conclusion suggests that the group that launched the most devastating terror attack on the United States has been able to rebuild despite nearly six years of bombings, war and other tactics aimed at crippling it.

Still, numerous government officials say they know of no specific, credible threat of a new attack.

A counterterrorism official familiar with a five-page summary of the new government threat assessment called it a stark appraisal that will be discussed at the White House on Thursday as part of a broader meeting on an upcoming National Intelligence Estimate.

The official and others spoke on condition of anonymity because the secret report remains classified.

Of course, that sure didn’t keep them from flappin’ their yaps. But, unlike with the exposure of the NSA & phone intercepts and the SWIFT-terrorist-financial-tracking program, maybe something good will come out of this one. Maybe Bush’s dogged persistence on the war will come into some kind of more positive focus for those not consumed by Bush Derangement Syndrome. However, it sure looks like Pakistan is gonna either have to step up in its own efforts to contain/control the terrorists in their midst, or become another entry on the master target list.

The threat assessment says that al-Qaida stepped up efforts to “improve its core operational capability” in late 2004 but did not succeed until December of 2006 after the Pakistani government signed a peace agreement with tribal leaders that effectively removed government military presence from the northwest frontier with Afghanistan.

The agreement allows Taliban and al-Qaida operatives to move across the border with impunity and establish and run training centers, the report says, according to the official.

It also says that al-Qaida is particularly interested in building up the numbers in its middle ranks, or operational positions, so there is not as great a lag in attacks when such people are killed.

The part about the four European countries that are a part of the U.S. visa waiver program and also have “arrangements” with the Pakistani government to ease access between them is a recipe for destruction on a 9/11 or greater scale.

What will be the reaction from the Left? Probably a big yawn — just another bumper sticker to them . . .

Technorati Tags: al Qaeda, al-Qaida, National Intelligence Estimate, Taliban, U.S. visa waiver program

Michael Yon posts an update to his Bless the Beasts and Children narrative where he shows us the horrific scene at the villiage al Hamira as found by Charley Company 1-12 CAV, with which Yon is embedded in Iraq. This post is not for the feint of heart or weak of stomach. [Warning -- Graphic pics of the dead, mutilated villagers!] Yon is also wondering about something that keeps coming up in my mind, why is this not getting ANY coverage by the MSM? Why does a search at the LA Times come up with, “No matches found on search for: al Hamira?” Why does a LAT search for “iraq massacre” come up with all this, but not one story about what Charley Company found? Not even an aside in a broader piece has been presented by our local “paper of record”. However, they did deem it page-one, above the fold, important to again run another story about alleged U.S. Marine atrocities from back in 2004 in this morning’s dead-tree excuse for cat-box liner.

Here’s Yon:

In my dispatch, I reported that six people were killed, but mentioned that Iraqi soldiers were still digging out bodies when I left. A few hours ago, Colonel Hiduit put the number at 10-14, and said the search for bodies had ended. I made video of the graves, bodies and of interviews with Iraqi and American soldiers while we still were at the scene and have been working to make material from this available on this website.

As the investigation unfolds more pertinent details, I’ll continue to update the story. But the biggest question rippling across the internet—“Why hasn’t the mainstream media picked this up?”—is something only representatives of mainstream media can answer.

We all KNOW “why” the MSM won’t cover this story — it doesn’t fit into their carefully crafted narrative: that everything that we do in Iraq is a disaster, and that maybe the Islamists aren’t really so bad, maybe they’re just misunderstood, maybe they have a good reason to react the way they do, maybe if we just get the hell out of there NOW, this will all go away and then Iraq can become a wonderful place again, like before, under Saddam.

For a citizen-journalist that self-funds his embeds with donations, Michael Yon has made a most generous offer:

Although I can’t answer to the cause of the problem, I humbly offer permission to media outlets to republish excerpts of the dispatch or the dispatch in its entirety, including my photographs from the story (if used as they are in the dispatch) at no cost during the month of July 2007. I only ask that the site receive proper attribution and that any publication taking me up on the offer email the website with the details.

God bless and keep Michael Yon — ex-special forces, current writer with balls of steel, a fine eye for a picture, an amazing gift of narrative and the heart of a lion.

Technorati Tags: Michael Yon, al Hamira, Charley Company 1-12 CAV, LA Times

Michael Yon is embedded with our guys and reporting from the battle in Baquba. His pre-battle post, Be Not Afraid, was riveting. Operation Arrowhead Ripper: Day One is more so. Here’s a short excerpt:

The enemy in Baqubah is as good as any in Iraq, and better than most. That’s saying a lot. But our guys have been systematically trapping them, and have foiled some big traps set for our guys. I don’t want to say much more about that, but our guys are seriously outsmarting them. Big fights are ahead and we will take serious losses probably, but al Qaeda, unless they find a way to escape, are about to be slaughtered. Nobody is dropping leaflets asking them to surrender. Our guys want to kill them, and that’s the plan.

Sounds like a good plan to this ol’ Okie! Our prayers are with all you guys, Michael. Now, readers, follow that link and read it all — don’t come back until you do now, ya hear?

[Addition]

In a follow up post, Arrowhead Ripper: Surrender or Die Yon shows that even in this day of modern communications, during military operations you still have a chance to experience the big SNAFU.

All those reporters flooding out here are about to flood into difficult reporting terrain. Cell phones do not work in Baqubah.

Public Affairs should have known this months ago. Valuable stories about our soldiers and the battle are being lost and will never be filed because reporters, after a long day of being on the battlefield, cannot make a simple phone call, or file a story. Why be here? It’s pretty dangerous, and insurance is expensive. I had to skip a mission this morning because I cannot make communications, and am down to filing stories on the fly again without time for editing. There is no other way to keep the flow open, and if you are reading this, it’s only after I’ve wasted hours trying to upload it. Hours I could have been with our soldiers, telling about their days in one of the most important battles of this war.

Godspeed, Michael — and good luck to all in Operation Arrowhead Ripper!

Technorati Tags: Michael Yon, Operation Arrowhead Ripper, Baqubah, al Qaeda

ABC News is reporting that the latest graduates of the Al Qaeda/Taliban School of Witchcraft & Wizardry Suicide Bombings, Death & Destruction have been set loose upon the world with missions to pursue attacks in the United States, Canada, Great Britain and Germany. Gee, that’s encouraging.

Large teams of newly trained suicide bombers are being sent to the United States and Europe, according to evidence contained on a new videotape obtained by the Blotter on ABCNews.com.

{…}

“It doesn’t take too many who are willing to actually do it and be able to slip through the net and get into the United States or England and cause a lot of damage,” said ABC News consultant Richard Clarke, the former White House counterterrorism official.

No duh! And to think that our aspiring presidential candidates across the isle either don’t believe that there’s a global war with terrorists going on, or that we can deal with this as a police action. Yeah, after they blow up a mall full of women and kids, we can arrest the grisly mess that’s splattered all over the walls!

That’ll teach ‘em!

[Addition: Stuff that should have been in here yesterday.]

All my life I’ve heard the words of this post’s title being used as watchwords for the endtimes. Now, I’m no end-timer that constantly looks forward to the apocalypse, in fact I’ve always been the optimistic, hopeful sort that hopes God has an ironic sense of humor and that man will someday escape this beautiful rock and seed the heavens. Who but God knows. I think that my parents’ generation thought that with WWI, WWII, Korea, Vietnam and all the regional conflicts that “Wars & Rumors of Wars” were happening in their lifetimes. But, we saw the Soviet Union collapse, China get greedy and allow their own weird form of capitalism flourish, saw the US become the world’s policeman whether we wanted to or not.

What was not so apparent to so many of us, at least until that fateful morning of 9/11, was that a truer form of “Wars & Rumors of Wars” got started with a vengeance with the takeover of the US Embassy in Iran in ’79. Look carefully at the image, some allege, including one of the hostages, that the guy to the hostage’s left is none other than current Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, our little screamin’-meemie up at the site top right.

It appears that this is our generation’s challenge — no matter how much our Democrat-led Congress wants it to just all go away — to face the evils of radical Islam, to save Western Civilization and to turn over to our children a safer world than what we currently occupy. Big challenge — big chance to really screw the pooch! Time will tell if we were able to step up and get this job done. If we do, it will be with the efforts of those outlined below, and others like them.

[Original Post:]

Matthew 24:6

And ye shall hear of wars and rumours of wars: see that ye be not troubled: for all these things must come to pass, but the end is not yet.

Take a peek up at the top right of this window and you’ll see a maniac that is trying to bring the “end times” to pass. His own version of that “paradise on Earth” consists of the return of the 12th Imam who will control all the world under a new caliphate. I can already hear the yawns from the hard-Left as they fail to see the dangers posed by such a madman — instead relishing in the possibility of re-taking control of the White House in ’08 and bringing back the “partying like it’s 1999″. Boy, they think, were those the good ol’ days — before we had to make hard choices about hunting down and killing those that are making it their life’s quest to kill every one of us.

To the efforts of the adults among us that are working overtime to keep that from happening let me point you to the blog of one Michael Tanji, a veteran U.S. civilian intelligence analyst and former soldier. [h/t: Mark Tapscott, Editorial Page Editor, The Washington Examiner and blogger of Tapscott’s Copy Desk fame. In this post, Tanji has an online conversation with John Robb, entrepreneur/analyst/strategist/futurist, who runs the Global Guerrilla’s blog and author of Brave New War: The Next Stage of Terrorism and the End of Globalization. They discuss the changing nature of war, the reality of our being in a constant state of warning, and what is the chance that we will change our processes in time to defeat our newest enemies. Here is a quote from Robb.

Further, the nature of the threat is such that the types of attacks we will face can’t be anticipated. They will be black swans, like 9/11. Highly unusual events that defy anticipation but offer a solid trail in hindsight.

It’s short and bleak — but one must consider this information, especially in light of the Democrats sprint to the “cut & run” derby. Also, read his post Preparing to Fight the Next War. Sure hope our boy scouts are better than theirs . . .

Let’s see, a bunch of Jihad obsessed radical Islamists plan to hijack airliners and fly them into Saudi oil fields, refineries and distribution networks, thereby severely reducing the supply of oil in the industrialized West, causing insane inflation and economic collapse, along with the assassination of the entire Saudi Royal Family wherever they might be in the world. Must be the story line of a wild techno-military read like Oliver North’s The Assassins, right? Well, yeah. But as Captain Ed writes today, it’s also the very real plan of Islamic radicals that want to take down the Saudi leaders by giving Saudi Arabia its very own 9/11.

Saudi Arabia has arrested over 170 suspected terrorists, including foreign-trained pilots, to end a plot against their oil fields. The terrorists allegedly planned to use commercial airliners to smash into the oil facilities and disrupt the entire global economy:
(…)
The terrorists intended this to be a wide-ranging raid. They wanted to storm prisons to free their associates, attack military installations, and destroys economic targets, especially oil facilities. Apparently assassinations were also on the menu, as the Saudis said that “public figures” had been targeted. Saudi security forces uncovered a large cache of arms in the desert, which they displayed for domestic television audiences.

They also captured a whopping $32 million in cash.

Gee, didn’t you think that our post 9/11 efforts at restricting monies to terrorists would preclude them from amassing something like 32 mil? Yeah, me too. Of course, we have to consider what kind of damage was done to our efforts in this regard with the New York Times and LA Times spilling the beans about the Swift banking surveillance program last year. You do remember that one, right?

I’m always amazed at how many scenarios out of this type of fiction, which I dearly love to read, keep coming true. I hope that the Saudis were able to wrap this one up completely. World economic collapse doesn’t sound like much fun to this ol’ Okie . . .

Technorati Tags: radical Islamists, Saudi Royal Family, The Assassins, Saudi Arabia, Swift banking surveillance program

Seems like the tactics being used by the insurgents in Iraq are changing once again. Now it’s not good enough to “maybe” kill some Iraqi children in a suicide bomb blast, they intend to get the job done right by using children as a ruse to get the bomb past security forces and blow them up real good. From an LA Times synopsis:

Iraqi insurgents used children to get past a Baghdad checkpoint and then blew up their vehicle with the two youngsters still in the back seat, the U.S. military said Tuesday.

The weekend attack killed the children and three bystanders, Army Maj. Gen. Michael Barbero, with the Pentagon’s Joint Chiefs of Staff, said at a briefing.
(…)
“Children in the back seat lower suspicion. We let it move through,” Barbero said. “They parked the vehicle. The adults run out and detonate it with the children in the back. So the brutality and ruthless nature of this enemy hasn’t changed. I mean, they are just interested in slaughtering Iraqi civilians to meet their ends.”

Hope you caught that last part — “[t]he adults run out” — geez, what part of suicide bombers did these guys not get? They’re more than willing to be homicide bombers, and kid-killers, but I guess they weren’t quite ready for their own personal 72 virgins. They had parked next to a market that was across the street from a school, so it sure looks like they were intent upon killing a lot more than just two kids!

More on this here with a bit o’ decent news.

Attacks on Iraqi civilians are down by a third and sectarian murders have fallen by 50 percent since mid-February when US and Iraqi forces began moving into Baghdad as part of a new security crackdown, the general said.

Wasn’t it Sun Tzu that said?

“If you know the enemy and know yourself, you need not fear the result of a hundred battles. If you know yourself but not your enemy, for every victory gained you will also suffer a defeat. If you know neither the enemy nor yourself, you will succumb in every battle.”

Those killing the innocent in Iraq are ruthless, heartless, amoral SOBs that just plain ol’ need killing. It doesn’t get much simpler than that.

Technorati Tags: Iraqi children, Attacks on Iraqi civilians, Iraq

In a statement released yesterday by the Pentagon, Guantanamo detainee Khalid Sheikh Mohammed admits, “I was responsible for the 9/11 operation from A to Z[.]” In another part of the transcript are his confessions for being involved in a lion’s share of terrorist attacks including the 1993 World Trade Center bombing, Richard Reid‘s attempt to down a U.S. bound airliner with a shoe bomb, the nightclub bombings in Bali and also to being a part of planning the assassinations on Jimmy Carter, Bill Clinton and the Pope. Topping off that list of pure evil intent and actions is in a part of the transcript that was initially redacted but released earlier today — he also claims responsibility for the butchering of Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl.

“I decapitated with my blessed right hand the head of the American Jew, Daniel Pearl, in the city of Karachi, Pakistan. For those who would like to confirm, there are pictures of me on the Internet holding his head,” the transcript read.

We can all agree that this is a despicable excuse for a human being, right? Well, on the Right, that seems to be true. Roger Simon writes the following:

As for Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, what punishment could there be for the likes of him? Even if I were in favor of the death penalty, which frequent readers of this site know I am not, it would not be sufficient.

Dean Barnett brings up a salient point that concludes with a warning to us in the West:

But his gloating over Daniel Pearl’s murder is another thing. Pearl’s murder wasn’t a military operation, even as defined by Mohammed and his noxious ilk. It was just murder. And Khalid Seikh Mohammed carried it our personally, and now considers the hand that performed the savagery to be blessed.

HOW CAN WE RESPOND TO SUCH EVIL? One thing is clear. Most of our institutions aren’t capable of playing a productive role in a war with such a determined and lethal enemy.

Michelle Malkin sums it up nicely for me:

Khalid Sheikh Mohammed is one sick son-of-a-bitch.

Over at Cheat Seeking Missiles, Laer examines the nutter response to the Khalid confessions:

Of course, the 9/11 conspiracies, like all conspiracies, will never die; it will just require that more and more people never divulge the truth. Now the entire staff at Guantanamo will have to never tell that Mohammed didn’t really say this, it was all made up ….

Sheesh.

Nutter sites and blogs prove the truth behind Nicholson’s line in A Few Good Men, “You [Lefties] can’t handle the truth!” Such as this bit o’ wisdom from Larisa Alexandrovna at The Huffington Post:

Frankly, I find this all very suspect and as cynical as this sounds, very well orchestrated possibly to divert attention from numerous colliding scandals. There are but two snap shots of KSM, old ones at that, no video or audio, despite us having him in our custody for 4 years. Why is that? Would his face as it is now inspire a bombing of some sort? Is he somehow disfigured or crippled? Is he even alive? I think these are all reasonable questions, don’t you?

But not only am I asked to deny my own reason, in order to believe this story, I am asked to accept on faith that the missing information is critical to our national security. In other words, I have no right to the truth as it would put my life at risk, despite the fact that the truth is about my life already having been put at risk.

Even if there is some legal or moral claim that this suspect is not entitled to a fair trial, am I as an American to also be denied justice? Do I not have the right to witness, even at a distance, the confession of a man who claims to have orchestrated the murder of my friends and neighbors? Is this justice when neither the suspect nor the victim are given a voice or legal recourse? Mirrors reflecting mirrors.

That’s it, Larisa. Just cover your eyes and it will all go away. Feel better now? Good . . .

As we get deeper into the ’08 election cycle it becomes ever more important to understand that we have a “serious” party and a “silly” party, a “grownup” party and one of “perennial adolescents”, a party that wants to “win” the war against Radical Islam and one that can’t “retreat” fast enough. Treating the confession of Khalid Sheikh Mohammed as just another reason to bash BushCo instead of an insight into pure evil lets you know exactly who is serious, and who will forever be silly. Vote accordingly, America — you life does depend on it!

Technorati Tags: Guantanamo, Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, 1993 World Trade Center bombing, Richard Reid

Well, not directly — but certainly is a useful tool for the Jihadists. That is what Rusty at The Jawa Report is writing about today:

An organization calling itself ‘The Jihad Media Battalion’ (alt, brigade), which is linked to al Qaeda in Iraq, has produced a 26 page guide for using the Google search engine to further the goals of the global jihad. The group was formed to promote the dissemination of al Qaeda and other Salafist jihadi propaganda.

(…) They see propaganda as a tool of war, and themselves as warriors.

If they consider themselves combatants in the war on terror, why shouldn’t we? If they consider propaganda a weapon, then why shouldn’t we? And if they consider themselves soldiers wielding weapons, then why should we not treat them as such?

As a matter of practical policy, it would mean making those involved in the media jihad legitimate military targets. It would also mean treating third parties, such as websites, that distribute such propaganda as aiding and abedding terrorism. If unkowingly, then they should be forced to stop this distribution. If knowingly, then they should be prosecuted for facilitating terror.
(…)
It’s a lot easier to shut down a website than to kill or jail a terrorist. And the more difficult it is to distribute jihadi propaganda, the less likely it is that new recruits will be found.

And maybe you thought that this war was only being fought by grungy guys with scraggly beards out in the desert and mountains of Afghanistan and Iraq? (db)

Technorati Tags: Google, Jihad, Cyber Warfare

Hate to say we told ya so but — WE TOLD YOU SO! If the Dems won, Al Qaeda would be ecstatic! Not just that, but NOW they claim they’re winning in Iraq. Why? Because of the actions occurring since the Dems won, of course.

A purported audio recording by the leader of Iraq’s al Qaeda wing gloated over the resignation of Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, as a top U.S. general said the military was preparing to recommend strategy changes.

Abu Hamza al-Muhajir, also known as Abu Ayyub al-Masri, said in the recording posted on the Internet on Friday that the group had 12,000 armed fighters and 10,000 others waiting to be equipped to fight U.S. troops in Iraq.

“I tell the lame duck (U.S. administration) do not rush to escape as did your defense minister…stay on the battle ground,” he said.

He said his group would not rest until it had blown up the presidential mansion in Washington.

“I swear by God we shall not rest from jihad until we…blow up the filthiest house known as the White House,” the voice on the recording said.

Geez! Some must think that this is rocket science. And some are more afraid of Bush than they are of these barbaric radical asswipes! (db)

Technorati Tags: Al Qaeda, War in Iraq, Donald Rumsfeld

I’ve been so upset over the Democratic leadership trying to coerce Disney and the ABC network to cancel its showing of The Path To 9/11 this weekend that now I’m gonna have to order up a case of Orbit gum, cause I sure succumbed to a bad case of dirty mouth yesterday. Fine, so be it. I occasionally use the “s” word around here, but almost never the “f” word, but that pales in comparison to the blue fugue of vile invective that has been running through my mind over this event.

The Left is full of glee, and thinks it has a real shot at getting this program canceled before it’s aired.

Understand that — one hundred twenty thousand petitions collected so far asking Disney to pull the plug on their now widely criticized, lie-riddled $40 million piece of 9/11 conservative fan fiction.
(…)
It’s time for Disney to pull the plug. It’s time for George Mitchell, who serves as Disney’s Chairman, to insist that they pull the work for retooling or burning — or that he will resign in protest. It’s time for ABC head Bob Iger to step up to the plate and recognize that putting up 9/11 neoconservative porn is not simply a one-week outrage: 9/11 is still a fresh wound, in our country, Disney/ABC fictionalizing it for profit and partisanship is not OK, and the public will remember this.

Truthout.org stands up for the Clinton administration’s efforts against the terrorists:

The Clinton administration poured more than a billion dollars into counterterrorism activities across the entire spectrum of the intelligence community, into the protection of critical infrastructure, into massive federal stockpiling of antidotes and vaccines to prepare for a possible bioterror attack, into a reorganization of the intelligence community itself. Within the National Security Council, “threat meetings” were held three times a week to assess looming conspiracies. His National Security Advisor, Sandy Berger, prepared a voluminous dossier on al-Qaeda and Osama bin Laden, actively tracking them across the planet. Clinton raised the issue of terrorism in virtually every important speech he gave in the last three years of his tenure.

Me thinks that the Kos kids and the Truthout burnouts should go over to Powerline and refresh their memories on the terrorist attacks that happened on Bubba’s watch — with very little retaliation from US.

There is no doubt about the fact that the terrorist menace grew and became increasingly obvious during the Clinton administration. To note just a few highlights:

* January 25, 1993: Mir Aimal Kansi, a Pakistani, fired an AK-47 into cars waiting at a stoplight in front of the Central Intelligence Agency headquarters in Virginia, killing two CIA employees.

* February 26, 1993: Islamic terrorists try to bring down the World Trade Center with car bombs. They failed to destroy the buildings, but killed 6 and injured over 1000 people.

* March 12, 1993: Car bombings in Mumbai, India leave 257 dead and 1,400 others injured.

* July 18, 1994: Bombing of Jewish Center in Buenos Aires, Argentina, kills 86 and wounds 300. The bombing is generally attributed to Hezbollah acting on behalf of Iran.

* July 19, 1994: Alas Chiricanas Flight 00901 is bombed, killing 21. Generally attributed to Hezbollah.

* July 26, 1994: The Israeli Embassy is attacked in London, and a Jewish charity is also car-bombed, wounding 20. The attacks are attributed to Hezbollah.

* December 11, 1994: A bomb explodes on board Philippine Airlines Flight 434, killing a Japanese businessman. It develops that Ramzi Yousef planted the bomb to test it for the larger terrorist attack he is planning.

* December 24, 1994: In a preview of September 11, Air France Flight 8969 is hijacked by Islamic terrorists who planned to crash the plane in Paris.

* January 6, 1995: Operation Bojinka, an Islamist plot to bomb 11 U.S. airliners over the Pacific Ocean, is discovered on a laptop computer in a Manila, Philippines apartment by authorities after a fire occurred in the apartment. Noted terrorists including Ramzi Yousef and Khalid Shaikh Mohammed are involved in the plot.

* June 14—June 19, 1995: The Budyonnovsk hospital hostage crisis, in which 105 civilians and 25 Russian troops were killed following an attack by Chechan Islamists.

* July—October, 1995: Bombings in France by Islamic terrorists led by Khaled Kelkal kill eight and injure more than 100.

* November 13, 1995: Bombing of OPM-SANG building in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia kills 7

* November 19, 1995: Bombing of Egyptian Embassy in Islamabad, Pakistan kills 19.

* January 1996: In Kizlyar, 350 Chechen Islamists took 3,000 hostages in a hospital. The attempt to free them killed 65 civilians and soldiers.

* February 25 – March 4, 1996: A series of four suicide bombings in Israel leave 60 dead and 284 wounded within 10 days.

* June 11, 1996: A bomb explodes on a train traveling on the Serpukhovsko-Timiryazevskaya Line of the Moscow Metro, killing four and unjuring at least 12.

* June 25, 1996: The Khobar Towers bombing, carried out by Hezbollah with Iranian support. Nineteen U.S. servicemen were killed and 372 wounded.

* February 24, 1997: An armed man opens fire on tourists at an observation deck atop the Empire State Building in New York City, United States, killing a Danish national and wounding visitors from several countries. A handwritten note carried by the gunman claims this was a punishment attack against the “enemies of Palestine”.

* November 17, 1997: Massacre in Luxor, Egypt, in which Islamist gunmen attack tourists, killing 62 people.

* January 1998: Wandhama Massacre – 24 Kashmiri Pandits are massacred by Pakistan-backed Islamists in the city of Wandhama in Indian-controlled Kashmir.

* February 14, 1998: Bombings by Islamic Jihadi groups at an election rally in the Indian city of Coimbatore kill about 60 people.

* August 7, 1998: Al Qaeda bombs U.S. embassies in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania and Nairobi, Kenya, killing 225 people and injuring more than 4,000.

* August 31 – September 22, 1998: Russian apartment bombings kill about 300 people, leading Russia into Second Chechen War.

* December 1998: Jordanian authorities foil a plot to bomb American and Israeli tourists in Jordan, and arrest 28 suspects as part of the 2000 millennium attack plots.

* December 14, 1998: Ahmed Ressam is arrested on the United States–Canada border in Port Angeles, Washington; he confessed to planning to bomb the Los Angeles International Airport as part of the 2000 millennium attack plots.

* December 24, 1998: Indian Airlines Flight 814 from Kathmandu, Nepal to Delhi, India is hijacked by Islamic terrorists. One passenger is killed and some hostages are released. After negotiations between the Taliban and the Indian government, the last of the remaining hostages on board Flight 814 are released in exchange for release of 4 terrorists.

* January 2000: The last of the 2000 millennium attack plots fails, as the boat meant to bomb USS The Sullivans sinks.

* August 8, 2000: A bomb exploded at an underpass in Pushkin Square in Moscow, killing 11 people and wounding more than 90.

* August 17, 2000: Two bombs exploded in a shopping center in Riga, Latvia, injuring 35 people.

* October 12, 2000: AL Qaeda bombs USS Cole with explosive-laden speedboat, killing 17 US sailors and wounding 40, off the port coast of Aden, Yemen.

But, since I’m finding myself a bit let down in the reasonable prose department, let me share Doug TenNapel’s take on all this:

The problem is that now we know. If ABC agrees to let a politcal party edit their work then we might not want to watch shows that are screened by the left for “accuracy”. I don’t think it’s appropriate to just hammer one side but it sounds even handed and I don’t think anyone believes Clinton could or should have the foresight to predict the future. I don’t blame Clinton or Bush for not expecting 9/11 or for hustling planes in the air over Dick Clark’s warnings. Life doesn’t unfold that way.

The good news is I have YouTube and blogs and thousands of preview copies to see exactly what Clinton doesn’t want me to see. Media can’t be controlled by the left anymore. It’s chaos out there, good luck trying to censor political thought.

Luke 12:3 “What you have said in the dark will be heard in the daylight, and what you have whispered in the ear in the inner rooms will be proclaimed from the roofs.”

So, sorry folks about the dirty mouth, but it sure is telling to see our Democratic leaders fiddlin’ around tryin’ to censure or worse, eliminate free speech on the public airways, when there is an International War on Terror to be waged and won. But there it is, now isn’t it? The Left doesn’t believe in fighting wars, not even when the cause is just. Peace at any cost — even the loss of all of us, our children and the entirety of western civilization — ’cause those are the stakes in this conflict, whether the Left wants to believe it, or not! (db)

Technorati Tags: The Path To 9/11, Senate Democrats, ABC, Disney, Powerline, TenNapel

Folks, don’t know about you, but this ol’ Okie’s gonna be watchin’ ABC this Sun. and Mon. evenings, unless it comes out that the network has totally capitulated to the Clintonistas and made major changes to the program — The Path To 9/11. Bubba himself is going ballistic, and so is Madeline Albright (screaming defamation) and other former Clinton officials saying “No fair!” and “Hey, it ain’t so!” Supposedly, the film is as critical of the incoming Bush administration as it is of Clinton’s so why all the fuss? Dean Barnett nails it:

AND THAT’S WHY THE “PATH TO 9/11” rubs salt in an old wound for them. Even though the current Democratic Party has long since parted ways with Bill Clinton philosophically in most areas of significance (e.g. free trade), when it comes to terrorism the continuum between the Clinton Administration and his Democrat descendants remains clear and intact.

For ten years, the Democrats’ policy has been to treat terrorism as a law enforcement matter – wait until a terrorist crime occurs, and then hunt down the terrorist criminals responsible for the act. This model sort of worked with the 1993 WTC bombing; the terrorists killed a few people, and were then brought to justice like any common killer would have been. The fact that their criminal enterprise attempted to kill 100,000 people and nearly succeeded didn’t dent the Democrats’ worldview.

But 9/11 changed everone else’s world view. It became apparent to most of America that we had to kill the would-be criminals before they actually became criminals. To most Americans, this was disquieting but a common sense necessity.

But the left never escaped its previous mindset. Liberals remain exactly where they were 10 years ago; desirous of a policy that waits for a terrorist act and then lets law enforcement mop up the aftermath.

The fact that people are talking about the Democrats’ attitude towards terrorism is horrifically damaging to the Democratic Party.

Docudramas are weird animals — part truth, part compressed truth, part fabrication and part artistic license. Obviously each and every event, line and mannerism depicted in this film won’t be 100% accurate. However, the historical record stands — Clinton never went all out in a retaliation for the Al Qaeda attacks on his watch, from “Black Hawk Down” in Mogadishu to the attack on the Cole, to the embassy bombings in Africa. He lobbed a few cruise missiles at a factory once. Funny, he thought that the Serbs were a greater threat to the world than bin Laden, or so his actions in eastern Europe would indicate.

The Left is like Jack Nicholsons’ character in A Few Good Men, they can’t handle the truth! (db)

Technorati Tags: Path To 9/11, ABC, Bill Clinton