A New Strategy Against Terrorists

The wars in Afghanistan and Iraq were mistakes. We never should have entered either of those countries with armies. Iraq had no weapons of mass destruction which was he justification for attacking that country. Afghanistan was protecting al-Queda and that terrorist group should have been the target of our government not the Taliban. The result of those two invasions has been a high cost of life and a high cost in dollars. Neither of those countries will become the democracies we would like to see in those nations.

Iraq had parliamentary elections last March and still has not be able to seat a ruling government. Afghanistan held an election that was riddled with fraud and now has a president who objects to American and Russian effort to destroy the poppy farms that supply the drug trade.

This week’s discovery of bombs being shipped in aircraft bound for the United States from Yemen, and recent plots against America that have roots in Pakistan and here in the United States, tells me that we have to develop a new strategy against al-Queda and its splinter groups. That ought to be a spy network that works to subvert terrorists. Armies are good at fighting wars with defined lines. There are no defined lines when the terrorist network is spread under cover through out the world.

Will the President have the courage to withdraw our forces from Iraq, Afghanistan, and other countries to save money and lives in favor of a new strategy? Frankly, I doubt it. Politics will probably define his decisions. That will make the United States more vulnerable to attack. After all, if you keep throwing darts at a target you will finally hit the bull’s eye.

Melvin Laird on Afghanistan

A transcript from “CBS NEWS’ FACE THE NATION” on Sunday August 16, 2010.

BOB SCHIEFFER: Finally today, I came to Washington in 1969 during the Nixon administration. My first beat was the Pentagon and the secretary of defense was former Republican Congressman Melvin Laird, who I came to believe, was, with the possible exception of Lyndon Johnson, the best politician I ever knew, certainly one of the wisest.

Mel and I became life-long friends. He’s well into his 80s now, but he’s sharp as ever and he’s worried. Worried about the all-volunteer Army that he helped to create. And worried about where we’re going in Afghanistan.

In a letter last week, he said the volunteer force has far exceeded his expectations, but that “we are asking much of it now and the multiple deployments and disregard for the personal and family life of our troops and their emotional well-being threaten to undermine our national security.”

Afghanistan worries him even more. He first went there in 1953 and he says: “Its culture is tribal, not nationalistic, yet we hope to build a nation there. We fought eight years and lost a thousand Americans, yet we are no closer today to stability, let alone victory.”

Laird remembers how bad intelligence and misunderstanding led us to Vietnam and he wonders now if we have made the same mistakes again. “I know something,” he says, “about misguided wars and how easy it is to get mired down in something that started with the best intentions.”

Mel Laird’s opinion is one view, and there are others. But Mel Laird has seen a lot and if he’s worried, I guess so am I. Back in a minute.

Growth Through Global Investing

This Morningstar article is indicative of the amount that Americans are investing in the rest of the world. Clearly the United States is not a leader. Our focus must be investing at home. Wait a minute, Businessweek reports that American corporation are sitting on $1.8 trillion.

By looking at the big picture and taking advantage of opportunities abroad, investors may experience higher returns than if they were invested solely in the United States. However, holding a diversified portfolio (both in U.S. and international markets) may be the best way to protect against global market fluctuations and risk.

This is for illustrative purposes only and not indicative of any investment. An investment cannot be made directly in an index. Past performance is no guarantee of future results. All returns were calculated in U.S. dollars. Returns and principal invested in stocks are not guaranteed. International investments involve special risks such as fluctuations in currency, foreign taxation, economic and political risks, and differences in accounting and financial standards.

Source: Equities for each country are represented by Morgan Stanley Capital International Indexes and the U.S. stock market by the Standard & Poor’s 500^®, which is an unmanaged group of securities and considered to be representative of the stock market in general. Developed countries in this analysis include Australia, Austria, Belgium, Canada, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hong Kong, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Portugal, Singapore, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, United Kingdom and the United States.

Article reprinted with permission from Morningstar, Inc.

Islamic Hate!

Edited from an article entitled They Hate Each Other Badly! by Steve Shamrak:
If they treat their Muslim Brothers this way, what attitude to ward Christians, Jews and other infidels would you expect from expanding militant Islam? After Israel, you are next!
July 1, 2010 – At least 35 people have been killed and at least 175 people injured by suicide bombers in a Sufi Shrine in Lahore, Pakistan. Both Sunni and Shiite Muslims worship at the shrine, which holds the remains of Abul Hassan Ali Hajvery, a Persian Sufi.
July 8, 2010 – A string of attacks against Shiite pilgrims in the past three days killed 70 people in Baghdad (Shiite Muslims, like Hezbollah in Lebanon, have been doing and will do again the same to Sunni andother Muslim minorities!)
July 9, 2010 – At least 15 people were killed on Thursday by bombs targeting the hundreds of thousands of pilgrims who defied violence to take part in the final day of a Shia religious holiday in Baghdad.
July 9, 2010 – A suicide bomber on a motorcycle struck outside a government office on Friday in a tribal region where Pakistan’s army has fought the Taliban, killing at least 48 people and wounding around 80.

You have your Chance NOW – Don’t Blame Israel Later! In an in an official letter to UN Secretary General Ban Ki Moon, Israeli Ambassador to the UN Gabriela Shalev requested the international: “Israel calls upon the international community to exert its influence on the
government of Libya to demonstrate responsibility and prevent the ship from departing to the Gaza Strip.” “Israel reserves the right under international law to prevent this ship from violating the existing naval blockade on the Gaza Strip,” Shalev told Ban Ki Moon.

From an article entitled Food for Thought by Steven Shamrak
Almost 2 million Haitians are still homeless! But the UN and the ‘humanistic’ international press are only concerned and preoccupied with terror infested, artificially invented so-called Palestinians!

They Hate Everything – Even World Cup – Terrorists bomb crowds watching World Cup match, murdering 64. Police suspect an Al-Qaeda-linked Somali group.

Even Arabs cannot live with a Nuclear Iran – The United Arab Emirates ambassador to the United States, Yousef Al-Otaiba, said on Tuesday that the benefits of bombing Iran’s nuclear sites eclipse the short-term costs.

Islamic Terror Closer than You Think – Mexican authorities succeeded in preventing Hizbullah from opening a terrorist base in South America and the United States. Hizbullah planned to draft Shi’ite Muslims living in Mexico and provide them with training in terror tactics they could use
against Western and Israeli targets.

Quote of the Week: “Israel is our first line of defense in a turbulent
region that is constantly at risk of descending into chaos; a region
vital to our energy security owing to our over-dependence on Middle Eastern oil; a region that forms the front line in the fight against extremism. If Israel goes down, we all go down. To defend Israel’s right to exist in peace, within secure borders, requires a degree of moral and strategic clarity that too often seems to have disappeared in Europe. The United States shows worrying signs of heading in the same direction.” – former Spanish Prime Minister Jose Mara Azna – Why didn’t he shock anti-Semitic Europe by this clear admission of truth when he was still the Prime Minister of Spain?

Attempt to Remove UNIFIL from Lebanon A southern Lebanon village backed by Hizbullah overpowered United Nations troops on Saturday, seizing weapons and wounding one U.N. soldier. Increasing tension in southern Lebanon, where UNIFIL officers have said they cannot carry out a mandate to keep Hizbullah from being armed, despite UN Resolution 1701 that ended the second Lebanon War.

Why not Kurdistan? The Kurds have been have been fighting a 26-year
battle to create their own autonomous state in the south-eastern
portion of Turkey. Turkish Kurdistan – or Northern Kurdistan –
comprises nearly a third of the area of Turkey , including some 17
provinces. As many as 40,000 people have died in the conflict. Why no
international support for a real people of more than 25 million, The
Kurds! No condemnation of Turkey for committing genocide of Kurds and Armenians?

Does Turkey Need UN Assistance? Ben-Dror Yemini of the Maariv newspaper
has pointing out that humanitarian conditions in Turkey are actually
worse than those in Gaza, the country (as do most of the Muslim inept
countries) needs help: “Infant mortality in Gaza is 17.7 per thousand;
in Turkey it is 24.8. Life expectancy in Gaza is 73.7, whereas in
Turkey it is 72.2.”

They Hate Israel but Love Jewish Medical Care. Hamas sends up to 100
patients a month to Ichilov hospital in Tel Aviv alone. The hospital
treats patients from hostile Arab countries as well.
From our ‘Peace Partner’: PA Chairman Mahmoud Abbas told Arab leaders
that the PA is ready to wage war on Israel if the rest of the Arab
world does: “If you want war, and if all of you will fight Israel, we
are in favour. But the Palestinians will not fight alone because they
don’t have the ability to do it.” Where is the pressure, rebuke, etc
from Obama?

On a positive note – our children: Israeli twelfth-grader from
Beersheba, Eli Goudinevsky, was notified that he won the gold medal of
an international competition called The First Step to a Nobel Prize in
Physics. Evelyn Jenis from Beersheba, Daniel Achdut from Netanya and
Dorin Yerhi from Arad won a silver medal.

Much of this information came from the Australian website
http://www.FreeWorldExpress.com

What’s Wrong with Free Trade?

Will those Mama Bears stand up for this issue?

Ross Perot called it “the giant sucking sound.” It was his opinion of the consequences of NAFTA. He told us all that the free trade agreement with Mexico and Canada would result in the loss of thousands of American jobs. He was pooh-poohed by many in the media, in government and many ordinary Americans like myself. A casual acquaintance at work, who looked and dressed like a hippy was giving me the same arguments as Mr. Perot. I told him that the only result of NAFTA would be a better life for Mexicans with no impact on the United States. They were right and I was wrong.

Companies with assembly and manufacturing plants in Mexico include, Chrysler, Technicolor, Panasonic, and Sony. Those jobs are now being fulfilled by Mexicans at salaries that are 1/5 the amount paid to Americans. Is it any wonder so many companies have located their manufacturing facilities there?

Now there are proposals for free trade agreements with other Latin American nations and South Korea. Trade with South Korea totals $68 Billion. Obama is reported to believe that the proposed agreement will result in increased exports of American goods. Some American labor unions and manufacturers are opposed. Every American should be opposed to all new free trade agreements.

Corporations and the wealthy favor those new agreements because they will be the beneficiaries. The reason is simple. Keeping American employee compensation Low is their objective. When Americans have to compete with workers in other countries they will have to reduce their pay demands to be competitive.

If Tea Party participants are looking for a cause that will attract more Americans, then this is it. Everyone understands it is all about jobs. Will those Mama Bears stand up for this issue? This really would be protecting their young!

About to be Stoned to Death

Ms. Sakineh Mohammadi Ashtiani is about to be stoned. That’s where they bury you up to your chest and hurl rocks at you until you die. The rocks can’t be too big. The stoning must be painful and be a show of force by the powers that be. The stoning of this 43-year-old mother of two has been ordered by a court in her native Iran, where the only legal code is Allah’s law, Sharia. It is the Islamic sentence for adultery, the crime to which Ashtiani confessed after serial beatings by her interrogators. Reported to be a total 99 lashes. She has been imprisoned for the last five years. A Newsweek story said Ashtiani could be buried up to her breasts and stoned to death as early as this coming weekend.

Of course human rights organizations around the world have condemed the planned stoning. The picture is not of her but conveys the message of what is about to happen in a country that holds views that are utterly different values than those of the Western world.

From the website Political Realities L. D Jackson writes the following: I would have to agree with P.J. Crowley and then ask a question. If Sakineh Mohammadi Ashtiani is guilty of adultery, then why isn’t the man with whom she committed the act being stoned to death as well? It’s just a thought, but it appears that the woman bears the brunt of the responsibility in such cases. That’s something that goes beyond my thinking, because the last time I checked, it takes two people to tango.

This situation highlights a stark reality about the Islamic world. They are very strict about a lot of things, but especially about their women. I fail to see how the treatment of these women is anything less than abuse and it makes me wonder how anyone in their society could stand idly by and watch it happen.

A Defense for McChrystal’s Behavior

Andrew C. McCarthy III is a former Assistant United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York. A Republican, he is most notable for leading the 1995 terrorism prosecution against Sheik Omar Abdel Rahman and eleven others. The defendants were convicted of the 1993 World Trade Center bombing and planning a series of attacks against New York City landmarks.[1] He also contributed to the prosecutions of terrorists who bombed US embassies in Kenya and Tanzania, resigning from the Justice Department in 2003. He is currently a senior fellow at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, serving as the director of the FDD’s Center for Law and Counterterrorism. He has served as an attorney for Rudy Giuliani, and is also a conservative opinion columnist who writes for National Review and Commentary.

Regardless of General Stanley McChrystal’s political views, he screwed up. He disrespected the President of the United States and his major advisors. That is why he was fired!

NRO — The Corner (NRO is National Review On-Line)

Thursday, June 24, 2010

“You sit and ask yourself: What are we doing here?” [Andy McCarthy]

Why would General Stanley McChrystal give that kind of access to a lefty rock-n-roll magazine? Maybe because he’s a kindred spirit who felt the need to assure Rolling Stone‘s Michael Hastings that he voted for Obama — even against McCain, a military legend who shares McChrystal’s transnational progressive outlook.

“Now it can be told,” elaborates Marc Ambinder at the Atlantic “The story about [McChrystal] voting for Obama is not contrived. He is a political liberal. He is a social liberal. He banned Fox News from the television sets in his headquarters. Yes, really.”

Yes, really. The revealing Rolling Stone profile also tells us that the general “banned alcohol on base [and] kicked out Burger King and other symbols of American excess.” (Recall the very similar Obama edict that American forces not fly the Stars and Stripes at their base during their humanitarian mission in Haiti — a self-loathing trend that has also taken hold on college campuses.) Even McChrystal’s undoing here — ironically, by Rolling Stone, not Fox News — is, as VDH suggested yesterday, attributable to a disturbing contempt for authority and decorum that McChrystal and his top aides made little effort to conceal from Hastings. (Byron has more on that, here.)

I got in some hot water here last year for arguing that Gen. McChrystal, for all his undeniable valor, is a progressive big-thinker who has been conducting a sociology experiment in Islamic nation-building. It’s a flawed experiment that assumes Afghan Muslims will side with us — i.e., the Westerners their clerical authorities tell them are infidel invaders and occupiers — against their fellow Afghan Muslims.

Nothing in the ensuing months changes my mind. To the contrary, what I’ve seen lately indicates that, while our troops are imperiled under strait-jacketing rules of engagement imposed by Gen. McChrystal to avoid offending Afghans, Christian missionaries have been suspended for preaching (proselytism for any belief-system other than Islam is illegal in Afghanistan). I’ve seen Asia News’s report that Afghan converts to Christianity have been sentenced to death for apostasy. All this, moreover, is happening under the new constitution we helped write, which (as the State Department bragged in 2004) enshrines sharia as Afghanistan’s fundamental law. That is, the Afghan Muslim population our troops are fighting and dying to protect has institutionalized the persecution of other populations (when the said Muslims are not otherwise busy killing each other).

In the Examiner, Byron points to Rolling Stone‘s account of a frustrated American soldier, lamenting the death of a fellow soldier killed because of the rules of engagement. “You sit and ask yourself,” says the soldier, “What are we doing here?” I don’t know, but whatever it is, it is not what Americans thought they were sending our military to Afghanistan to do.

Canada’s Economy is the Envy of the World

A Summary of an Associated Press article.

It should be noted that the total population of Canada is less than the population of California.

TORONTO (AP) — Canada thinks it can teach the world a thing or two about dodging financial meltdowns.

While others have floundered, Canada’s economy grew at a 6.1 percent annual rate in the first three months of this year. President Barack Obama says the U.S. should take note of Canada’s banking system, and Britain’s Treasury chief is looking to emulate the Ottawa way on cutting deficits.

“We should be proud of the performance of our financial system during the crisis,” said Finance Minister Jim Flaherty in an interview with The Associated Press.

The banks are stable because, in part, they’re more regulated. As the U.S. and Europe loosened regulations on their financial industries over the last 15 years, Canada refused to do so. The banks also aren’t as leveraged as their U.S. or European peers.

In Canada’s concentrated banking system, five major banks dominate the market and regulators know each of the top bank executives personally. [editor’s note: There are eight major banks in the United States]

Although Canada did experience the recession of 2008-2010 it is recovering from the recession faster than others, and although its deficit is currently at a record high, the International Monetary Fund expects Canada to be the only one of the seven major industrialized democracies to return to surplus by 2015. The proof? This month Canada became the first among them to raise interest rates since the global financial crisis began.

George Osborne, Britain’s Treasury chief, has vowed to follow Canada’s example on deficit reduction. “They brought together the best brains both inside and outside government to carry out a fundamental reassessment of the role of the state,” Osborne said in a speech.

“The rest of the world certainly thinks we’re the model to follow,” said Martin, who was prime minister from 2003 to 2006. “I’ve been asked by a lot of countries as to how to go about it.”

Don Drummond, Martin’s budget chief at the time, “There’s a lot to learn from Canada but their starting conditions are worse,” he said. “Even though we were on the precipice of a crisis we weren’t in as bad a shape as many of them are.”