Will talking really accomplish anything? Does Mahmoud Ahmadinejad really seem like someone who can be brought to see the reasonableness of a point of view other than his own, and be made to accept compromises? Is it really wise to offer Iran various incentives in exchange for its putting aside its nuclear program, and thus put the U.S. in the position of strengthening a state that has repeatedly stated that it regards the U.S. as its enemy?
Will the Thug-In-Chief regard "incentives" and a "sweetened offer" as anything but signs of weakness?
"China, Russia on board in sweetened offer to Iran," from CNN, with thanks to Jeffrey Imm:
VIENNA, Austria (CNN) -- As the former U.N. chief weapons inspector called Iran's nuclear program a threat to the entire world, six world powers Thursday agreed to "substantive" incentives in an attempt to coax the Islamic republic into abandoning its uranium enrichment.In a move aimed at ending the diplomatic standoff over the program, the five veto-wielding members of the U.N. Security Council, along with Germany, agreed on a "set of far-reaching proposals" that will form the foundation for resuming talks with Iran, said British Foreign Secretary Margaret Beckett.
The package still hinges on Iran halting its nuclear enrichment program -- a demand Tehran scoffed at earlier Thursday.
"We believe that (the proposals) offer Iran the chance to reach a negotiated agreement based on cooperation," Beckett said. "We urge Iran to take the positive path and to consider seriously our substantive proposals, which would bring significant benefits to Iran."...
The incentives proposal follows U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice's meeting with foreign ministers from Britain, China, France, Germany and Russia in Vienna, Austria, the headquarters of the U.N.'s International Atomic Energy Agency.
CAIRO, Egypt — The leader of Al Qaeda in Iraq urged Sunnis to confront Shiites and ignore calls for reconciliation in a new audiotape posted on the Web on Friday, saying Shiite militias are killing and raping the Sunni Arab minority.
The tape was a four-hour sermon by Abu Musab al-Zarqawi against Shiites, denouncing their top cleric Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani as an "atheist" and saying the community had collaborated with invaders throughout Iraq's history.
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,197915,00.html
How close is Iran....Who knows...this makes me sick..........US intelligence agencies estimate that Iran might be able to develop a nuclear weapon within four years, the US intelligence director said in an interview broadcast Friday.
http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1148482092782&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull Iran could have nuclear weapons within the next 10 years, the top US intelligence chief warns.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/ Muslim Central has a much different..........Funny.
TEHRAN - In the first public response to a new diplomatic initiative to stop Iran from acquiring advanced nuclear technology, an influential Iranian cleric said on Friday Tehtran will not be intimidated into giving up its nuclear fuel work by growing Western pressure.
"The Iranian nation is ready to pay any price to protect its right [to nuclear technology]," Ahmad Khatami told worshippers at Friday Prayers in Tehran http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/722287.html
Does Mahmoud Ahmadinejad really seem like someone who can be brought to see the reasonableness of a point of view other than his own, and be made to accept compromises?
As and individual? Who cares.
As a head of state, the question extendes to whether a sovereign nation as he represents it, can claim certain rights -- like creating nuclear weapons.
There are two answers:
First answer:
"Absolutely yes," if they are a sovereign nation.
In this case, other nations must determine if they like that status quo; and if not, decide what if anything, they intend to do about it.
Damn the "world;" do what you need to do and get on with it!
The second answer:
"Depends," if their their "rights" to do anything are determined and vouchsafed by a "world government" outside their own borders.
In this case, trade sanctions and other perscribed penalties would be imposed with debateable effect.
Is it really wise to offer Iran various incentives in exchange for its putting aside its nuclear program, and thus put the U.S. in the position of strengthening a state that has repeatedly stated that it regards the U.S. as its enemy?
Since I lean toward the first position, I would say that's why we have a provision in the US Constitution to declare war on soverign nations -- for whatever reason.
As far as I am concerned, the UN and any of its so-called "mandates" are about as relevent as green cheese on the moon.
Bombs we got. What we "don't got" are people running our country that care about US sovereignty and who are willing to act according to our Constitution.
In this one respect, Iran has defeated us. If we can not or will not rectify this situtation immediately, any war with which we engage is already lost!
I for one, dislike losing!
My plane is waiting -- gotta run!
The west's problem is that they try to deal reasonably with unreasonable regimes. Iran will only use this offer of the west to further strengthen its own position. After all according to Islam it's good to deal with the unbelievers when it will benefit your position in the end. Best to roll out the bombs...
Bush,Condi, are doing diplomatic talk to please the UN/Eu. they have look like they took the extra mile to work with Iran. l dont think it takes a rocket scienctist to know Iran will not back down to anything proposed by the US/EU or UN. to do so will show a sign of weakness to an Infidel country. so bombs away l say by Christmass! give them a good Christmass gift!
Washington D.C. was talking to Japan right up to 12-7-1941....at that time Washington got the Idea Japan was not listening....Smart guys.
Ahmadinejad was quoted by the PARS news agency as saying that pressure by western nations on Iran to give up its right to nuclear power will bear no fruits. (Dudi Cohen)
The Headline you didnt see..............................Mahmoud woke up today thinking he had a dream in which the Mahdi..The Hidden Imam..the 12th higher up dude....Told him not to give in to the great Satan...(America)...Mahmoud Picked up a phone and called President Bush...Sorry dude...The big one said no....See you on the flip side.
Wot?! Nothing about the London terror raid yet?!
Someone was shot, 250 police officers, bio-chemical experts brought in, 5 mile exlusion zone
http://drunkenblogging.blogspot.com/2006/06/man-shot-in-mi5-police-anti-terrorism.html
Sorry I meant *air* exclusion zone
UN Sanctions: As toothless as Helen Thomas and almost as ugly.
GEN WESTLEY CLARK OF THE ISLAMIC ARMY...ER....American....Is right......talk to these guys.........."The Iranian nation has shown in 27 years (since victory of the 1979 Islamic Revolution) that is ready to pay any price in defense of the country and its aspirations."
He also dismissed the US State Secretary's claim that the precondition for the US talks with Iran is Tehran's suspending its nuclear activities.
"These (people) state their needs in the form of an incentive; You have for 27 years been wishing to talk with Iran and are still failed (to achieve your goals)," he went on to say.
Elsewhere in his sermon, the Iranian senior cleric held the US accountable for ethnic dispute in Iran.
He said that different ethnic groups have been leading a peaceful life in Iran for centuries and the core of their unity is Islam.
http://www.irna.ir/en/news/view/line-24/0606028725151534.htm
The Iranian ambassador to Thailand stressed that all the present officials used to be the followers and apprentices of Imam Khomeini, who have continued the path that Imam showed, concluding that Imam Khomeini's path is and will be followed in Iran's foreign policy. .....( The hand from beyond the Grave.....WE HAVE BEEN WARNED!!!!!)..............
http://english.farsnews.com/newstext.php?nn=8503120215
Robert and other Christians here,
This Sunday being Pentecost, it brings up the fact that only a miraculous
infusion of the Holy Spirit into the muslim heart will bring this impasse to
a rational and peaceful end. Since this event has the very real possibility
of ending in nuclear world war, we need to be able to say we tried all we could
...we have to at least try.
See also
http://www.guardian.co.uk/iran/story/0,,1788821,00.html
where John Negroponte said
Meanwhile, John Negroponte, the head of US intelligence, said Iran could have a nuclear bomb within 10 years.
"We don't have a clear-cut knowledge, but the estimate we have made is [that] some time between the beginning of the next decade and the middle of the next decade they might be in a position to have a nuclear weapon, which is a cause of great concern," Mr Negraponte said.
"At the moment, there's an initiative on the table with respect to Iran, and we will have to watch the government of Iran's reaction to that. In the meanwhile, we have to recognise that they are the principal state sponsor of terrorism in the world."
Dominic.
Winess : " Does Mahmoud Ahmadinejad really seem like someone who can be brought to see the reasonableness of a point of view other than his own, and be made to accept compromises?"
No
Bohemond,
Have you seen this video ?
http://www.grouchymedia.com/other_videos_2004.cfm
Click on American Heroes. I saved it on my pc.
Bush keeps saying 'the world' wont let Iran have 'the bomb', or the other globlist terminology, the 'international community' wont allow it. Bush has already sold out America.
America needs to get rid of Bush and the Bushmen/women in a hurry. His border policies alone beg for his depature. But please, dont replace him with a liberal democrat. We have already been there and done that. Like the destroying angels in Sodom, 'ok, you cant find three good men, how about one'? The 'one' is not Bush.
No wonder Iran and the rest of the muslim world think the west is weak. Weak is what weak does not do. In the words of Jerry Brown, former gov of California. 'Sometimes inaction is the highest form of action.' That wont work with Iran and the Beasty Boy in charge. Better come up with a better plan quick...
I have been worrying my head over the fact why mahmoud is so confident. He knows the capabilities of the West in intercepting missiles. WHAT are the reasons for his smugness. Is it that the "nucleur" thing is just a red herring ? That could be the reason of smugness. And he does not need a lot of men or very sophisticated machines for this alternative. And one illegal can get it into Europe. Is that what he has in mind ?
arjun:
"the reason for his smugness" is simply because he gets his orders from 'Allah'-, Mohammeds invention is talking to him, he is hearing voices, he believes we are weak and stupid and that the moon-cult will prevail...
Every day we show him that he is right...
Why change now?
arjun.sevak asks: "I have been worrying my head over the fact why mahmoud is so confident. He knows the capabilities of the West in intercepting missiles. WHAT are the reasons for his smugness."
The reasons for his smugness are all too clear from what CNN has reported--remember that the enemy watches CNN too:
First, our European "allies" have now scuttled away, as they have done so many times before. With their vaunted "soft power" diplomacy having failed to dissuade Iran, they have now tossed the ball to the U.S. because that way anything that goes wrong from now on they can blame on "U.S. intransigence," thus enabling them to escape blame for their own diplomatic failure.
Now Iran has the perfect talking-points to feed their Left-wing sympathizers in Europe: Make demand after demand on the U.S. And if the U.S. balks at any demand, then denounce "U.S. stubbornness, unreasonableness and unwillingness to treat us as equals"--and then sit back and wait for the Left to pick it up and run with it.
Second, Russia and China have made it clear they will veto U.N. military action, the one thing that Iran has to fear.
Third, the flower of the U.S. armed forces are tied down in Iraq in "building democracy," whatever Bush thinks that means. They can't confront Iran and keep maintaining order and security in Iraq at the same time. In fact, Iran could give orders to Hezbollah to make even more trouble in Iraq and require us to send even more force there rather than confront Iran.
As for our "capabilities in intercepting missiles," let me remind you that no antiaircraft or antimissile defense is ever so perfect as to stop a multiple nuclear attack. It can only act as an additional deterrent by making that attack less effective. But there's no doubt in my mind that if missiles were launched against Europe or Israel, at least a few would get through any missile defense the U.S. is planning. (And that's even assuming that European Leftists will allow Europe to base our missile defense systems; they've been adamantly against missile defense because they say it will "provoke" our enemies into an arms race. As usual. It's all our fault, everything, everywhere, everywhen.)
Heck, if Ahmadinejad asked me for my advice, I would tell him he's in a great diplomatic negotiating position, and if he continues to play his cards aggressively he will get pretty much all he wants in the end, with some face-saving diplomatic language that enables Western governments to maintain a facade of progress for their citizenry.
Supreme President Ahmadinejad is confident the same way Hitler was confident. please remember the leaders of totalitarian, fascist movements can't properly judge the strengths of the enemy and the weaknesses of their people with any accuracy.
Warmongers with grandiose plans will fail. Napoleon, despite all the accolades of being a great tactician and strategist and military leader was actually a curse on the French. He was an idiot. Sure, he won battles in Europe with some good tactics now and then, but he wasted the produce of the French economy, killed off a generation of French men and destroyed the ideals of the Republic. He destroyed the strength of France for some fleeting moments of 'glory'.
Napoleon was an idiot to try and establish an empire across Europe by selling the Louisianna Purchase lands to raise an army. He lost a million plus acres of magnificent land in the new world. This land mass was approxmimately what we tried to take by force in Europe. He already had it... but sold it for $3 million dollars and then wasted all that money on stupid dreams of conquest while killing a million of his French men. And the French consider him to be one of their greatest? Absolutely stupid to me....
anyway - Supreme President Ahmadinejad is cut from the same cloth as the rest of them... history shows the world won't tolerate this stuff after a time. He's confident because he's an idiot like the ones before him and has delusions of grandeur on the same scale as Hitler, Napoleon and the rest of them.
We need to come to an understanding in the west that this guy represents a whole cadre of Apocalyptic Jihadis.
If its an apocalypse they want - the only thing that will stop them is their personal apocalypse now...
Give it to them before they can set the plans in motion.
Sheik, Steven,
Note that I use the word "red herring". The alternative is biological and chemical. This is what I mean by illegal immigrant doing the job. I avoided mentioning this on JW, but now I think that we should have the possibility in mind.
Steven L.-
Why would Mahmoud and the mad mullahs bother using a missile to strike Israel when a truck with the same amount of "warhead" could be driven a few hundred miles, swerve across the sympathetic Sinai, and then barrel through a Gaza checkpoint into Israel, rendering all of their advanced defenses meaningless? Or why not use a speedboat, offloaded from a Moslem-flagged cargo ship (Dubai registry perhaps?), to do the same kind of nuke strike into an Israeli beach front city?
It would be harder to trace back to the armaggedon ayatollahs, and reap the same carnage.
storagemanager-
If the U.S. spies had been watching the backyard of the Japanese embassy in D.C. on December 7, 1941, they would have noticed some suspicious activity being enacted by the diplomats as the Tojo-ites burned their code books, any intelligence paperwork, and smashed their de-coding devices. Not what "peace-seeking ambassadors" are usually up to on a sleepy Sunday morning as talk of war simmered between their nation and America.
But our intelligence services were still in pre-Day of Infamy mode, as a troubling percentage of the U.S. has now slipped back to pre-9/11 think.
Mahmoud appears to be the alarm clock.
"Don't be afraid of Iran. Be afraid of Muslims detonating dirty bombs they ALREADY smuggled in through our porous border, which Bush refuses to seal because of narrow, political interests."
Yes, US_infidel.
Sometimes I sit and repeat over and over to myself: OUR SOUTHERN BORDER IS WIDE OPEN.
Our Southern border is wide open. Our Southern border is wide open. There are thousands of young men planning dreaming of hurting us, hurting as many of us as possible. There a millions of dollars available to them to do this.
There is a man who calls himself our leader and is sworn to defend us and who has made his top priority 'stopping terrorism' and...
Our Southern border is wide open.
Not badly guarded, not insecure but...
WIDE OPEN.
Our Southern border is wide open.
Our Southern border is wide open.
Our Southern border is wide open.
Our Southern border is wide open.
OUR SOUTHERN BORDER IS WIDE EFFING OPEN!
I thought Mark Steyn did a good job of getting across Ahmadinejad's sheer un-negotiable fanaticism to Hugh Hewitt's listeners:
http://www.radioblogger.com/#001661
Yet the average guy reading the MSM gets presented with a totally false image of what is going on. In fact, image is not a bad term literally as well as figuratively, since many people don't read enough (and certainly not widely enough) but can spare enough time for a snigger at a cartoon. Click this link and look at the London Times's cartoon for today:
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/comment
You have to click the cartoon itself to see the full cartoon. It is President Bush holding a carrot and a stick. Miss Rice is ticking him off - "No, George" - because he is about to throw the carrot. Now whatever one thinks of President Bush this is a ludicrous, an almost insane, comment on the attempts to curb Iran's apocalyptic nuclear dreams. It's malicious towards the U.S. President - lazily malicious. It is above all a lazy cartoon.
You don't even need to have grasped the millenarian nature of the jihadist menace as fully as Laurent Murawiec has to see this is a lazy cartoon. No one who had been paying intelligent attention to the situation - who had, for example, taken the trouble to seek out and read such things as the Der Spiegel interview - could draw something that so misrepresents the situation as this does.
The Times man is a particularly bad offender. And this, unfortunately, helps shape how people see the jihadist menace. Thank God cartoonists like Vicky were around during the Second World War and not people like Peter Brookes and Steve Bell.
SOS-----
What I want to know is WHEN IS THE UNITED STATES GOING TO PROSECUTE THIS CREEP (Ahmadinejad) FOR HIS ROLE IN THE KIDNAPPING OF THE US EMBASSY WORKERS IN TEHRAN (where they were held hostage for 444 days) IN 1979???
WE HAVE EYEWITNESSES PLACING THIS MAN AS THE RINGLEADER OF THOSE KIDNAPPINGS. WE MAY ALSO BE ABLE TO PROSECUTE THIS GUY FOR AT LEAST ONE HOMICIDE CONNECTED WITH THAT AFFAIR.
AMERICANS SHOULD DEMAND THEIR GOVERNMENT APPEAL TO THE IRANIAN PEOPLE AND DEMAND AHMADINEJAD'S EXTRADITION FROM IRAN in no uncertain terms.
I cannot believe American politicians are letting this man get away with this. And apparently the American people and authorities are letting him get away with this too. And yet, we expect Iran's government to negotiate with us seriously. Yeah, right!!!!! I'll bet those SOB mullah fanatics are laughing themselves sick at American politicans!!!!
The crowning insult to all this is America wants to "talk" with this kidnapper about not nuking Israel!! This whole affair makes me sick to my stomach.
Well, I want the government to talk to Mr. Ahmadinejad too--IN A MAXIMUM SECURITY PRISON CELL IN THE UNITED STATES WHERE HE BELONGS!!!
Maybe we should invade Iran and just get this bastard ourselves. I'm totally sick of him running his arrogant, nauseating trap in front of the world---his demeanor indicates he is clearly aware and confident he has (so far) gotten away his crimes (kidnapping dozens of Americans, holding them hostage for 444 days and (probably) killing a couple of them)and suggests he is mocking America for having been allowed to do this with impunity.
Having Ahmadinejad extradited to America, tried in an American court, and sentenced to a lengthy prison term in a maximumm security penitentiary would not be vengeance. It would be JUSTICE. And it is past time that justice was served in this matter!!!!!
IS ANYONE WITH ME ON THIS???????????????
Let's do an accounting...
1. Iran took our diplomats and Marines hostage for several years, ransacking our embassy and violating every international protocal and tradition going back centuries.
2. Iran was behind the downing of several passenger planes.
3. Iran murdered hundreds of U.S. Marines in Beirut.
4. Iran exports terror at the cost to its national budget of hundreds of millions of dollars per annum.
5. Iran was behind the murder of a hundred Jews in Argentina.
6. Iran was behind the bombings of our embassies and ships.
7. Iran gives shelter, comfort, financial support, and diplomatic cover to al Queda.
8. Iran has threatened a sovereign nation with physical destruction and genocide.
9. Iran has been the major source of damage to coalition troops in Iraq.
10. Iran continues to be a major cause of instability throughout the world.
The following question faces us: WHY HAVE WE NOT MOVED TO VAPORIZE THE MULLAHS DECADES AGO?
Godefroi de Boulogne,
I like your target list. Nuclear technology is hugely expensive. Paying terrorist armies like Hezbollah is hugely expensive. To stop Iranian schemes for a long time, we have to cut off their source of easy cash. Bomb the Iranian oil industry to rubble.
And POL targets make such nice black and tall plumes of smoke. Pilots love them. They provide immediate satisfying feedback for a job well done. And the bad guys can't use their usual defiant and threatenting bluster to hide the fact from their general population that the country has been hit where it hurts.
POL is petroleum, oil, and lubricants. Sorry for using the military jargon.
After taking apart the Iranian oil industry, we would then declare a "no-pump" zone over their territory. Operation Broken Watch.
Godefroi de Boulogne/Standec...Allah is going to maaad as H-ll at you guys. He promised muslims from the beginning that he would keep them well lubricated. And he has...slippery little buggers aren't they...Now you guys want to dry up the Vasoline. What is an unlubricated muslim supposed to do? It must hurt a lot to be dry like that. If there is one thing Allah cant stand, it's a dry and unlubricated submitter. Look for Allah to send Iblis looking for you carrying a big stick...he will look like Michael Moore and be chanting "Allahu Akbar"...Allah will have his revenge, unless, of course you dont believe in Allah. If thats the case forget the warnings, and go ahead and wreck the vasoline supply. Dry muslims cant fight...no more grease for them...
profitsbeard writes: "Why would Mahmoud and the mad mullahs bother using a missile to strike Israel when a truck with the same amount of "warhead" could be driven a few hundred miles,...and then barrel through a Gaza checkpoint into Israel, rendering all of their advanced defenses meaningless?"
Sure, Iran has other means of delivery. But a truck can be intercepted. Radiation detectors can detect leakage of radiation from a nuclear warhead. Alternatively, Israel's intelligence service could get advance warning that Iran planned to send such a truck, in which case they would be ready to intercept it at any number of checkpoints. And once Iran's nuke was found in the truck, Israel would have a casus belli and goodbye, Tehran. Finally, the discovery of even one such nuke in one truck would cause Israel to seal her borders against any more truck bombs, so at most one nuclear detonation is all Iran could hope for. Whereas missiles cannot be intercepted with anything close to 100% reliability, even if you know in advance they are on their way. Iran would definitely get several missiles through regardless of any advance preparations Israel could make.
profitsbeard also claims: "If the U.S. spies had been watching the backyard of the Japanese embassy in D.C. on December 7, 1941, they would have noticed some suspicious activity being enacted by the diplomats...."
I don't think we had spies inside the Japanese embassy. But by the evening of December 6, 1941, our intelligence agents had intercepted and decoded Japanese radio messages to their embassy in Washington DC, instructing them to burn all key documents, destroy their cipher machine, and prepare to formally issue an ultimatum to the U.S. the following day. (Our cracking of the most secret Japanese codes had given us a huge advantage.) By midnight of December 6, our intelligence agents had a pretty good idea what was coming. But due to a variety of amazing screwups (which have led to endless conspiracy theories that Franklin Rooseevelt "allowed" the Pearl Harbor attack to take place), those warnings never reached Pearl Harbor.
Lulu writes: "Bush,Condi, are doing diplomatic talk to please the UN/Eu. they have look like they took the extra mile to work with Iran."
If that's their strategy, then it has already failed--it didn't even take 24 hours. The European Left is already denouncing the Bush/Condi offers as inadequate, just because those offers came with some preconditions--the same preconditions that the EU had made when they were negotiating with Iran for the last few years. For example, Jonathan Steele has just demanded that the U.S. accept the Iranian proposals for talks with no preconditions:
"The US compromise on talks with Iran is a step in the right direction,....But it is absurd to expect Iran to make concessions before sitting down with the Americans. Dialogue is in the interests of all parties. Europe's leaders, as well as Russia and China, should come out clearly and tell the Americans so....If the US wants to withdraw from Iraq in any kind of order, this too will require dialogue with Iran. If this is what Blair told Bush last week, he did well. But he should go all the way, and urge the Americans to talk without conditions."
http://tinyurl.com/jvjva
Just as I predicted (and feared). The Bush/Condi offer has already been dismissed by the European Left as insufficient, and now they're demanding that the U.S. should just do exactly what Iran demands--talks with no preconditions. If we don't, we get blamed. The European Left is now taking its talking-points on this issue directly from Tehran.
Steven L.-
Our human espionage against the Japanese in D.C., at that point, was mostly FBI agents, and of course they wouldn't have thought to peek over the embassy walls at that stage of history. The absurd "Gentlemen don't read other gentlemen's mail"... -or look over their "sovereign" compound walls- mindset at work.
From all of the books I've read about December 7, the cryptologists took too long to decode and deliver the diplomatic traffic messages that they did have (it was a quiet, pre-Christmas Sunday in a sleepy southen city) because no one expected such treachery while the Japanese Ambassadors were still literally talking to their opposite numbers in Washington that very weekend... a deceptive move of their part to make the sucker punch of Pearl Harbor more effective.
Radar operators on Pearl (monitoring a device that was one of the highest military top secrets at that time) were expecting a mainland flight of U.S. planes coming to Hawaii that day, and, in one of the most tragic coincidences in history, the Japanese attack planes were initially mistaken for that awaited American squadron. So the radar men didn't think it was worth waking anyone in the upper command over the puzzling time discrepancy (-the U.S. planes weren't due in so early on that Sunday morning ".....but, hey, maybe they hit a good tailwind...?" was the later explanation for the operators' inaction).
I don't think it was any more sinister than the same unhistorical, wishful naivete that allowed 9/11.
Although I have never gotten a clear answer, from any representative I've written to, about WHO exactly phased out the sky marshalls -during the years from 1975 to 2000- to the low point where there were none on any of the planes which were hi-jacked that fateful, fatal day.
You would think the 9/11 Commission might have cared. Or Congress. Or the FBI. Or people whose relatives were murdered by the thousands that morning.
Who took the cops off the planes? And why?
Simple fiscal insanity seems to have doomed us.
Save a few bucks, lose 3,000 lives.
Bush is a lame duck. Sad, or perhaps not so sad, depending on how you look at it. His power, respect in tatters. This Condi making nicey talk ala Madeline Albright is just clap trap. It's serious idiocy, based on the goal of getting the world to like us. Of course it's not enough for the left in Europe? What would be 'enough?' Nuking Israel, open borders, institution of Islamic Law . . . that might molify Europe. Maybe.
I say back to basics. Secure our borders. Strict limits on all Islamic immigration. Let us not make the mistake of Europe by allowing the hordes in the pacify leftism. Get out of Iraq, maybe leaving them with a taste of shock and awe as we leave, maybe right on the turband of that firebrand cleric! Better not though: that might inflame the "youths."
And if the hard left gives our policy makers any trouble about shutting off the Iranian oil supply, we can just use north-south bird migrations to justify adding Iranian territory to the National Arctic Wildlife Refuge. That should finally bring us some policy support from the domestic left.
duh-_swami,
I think you've hit on something there. I suppose it does take a lot of lubrication to wage perpetual unrestrained demographic warfare until Judgment Day.
Bush to Iran: Talk to us or UN sanctions possible
++++++++++++++++
I can feel the irianians trembling from fear and already dismantling their nuke equipment.
UN sanctions. Kind of like ISS - in-school suspension. What iran needs is a good shool yard beating then paddeled for fighting and losing.
Stop messing around with uranium or we will send you a harshly worded letter with UN letterhead.
Looks like not even CNN is totally controlled by lefty-looneys:
A reporter's shock at the Haditha allegations
By Arwa Damon
CNN
BAGHDAD, Iraq (CNN) -- It actually took me a while to put all the pieces together -- that I know these guys, the U.S. Marines at the heart of the alleged massacre of Iraqi civilians in Haditha.
I don't know why it didn't register with me until now. It was only after scrolling through the tapes that we shot in Haditha last fall, and I found footage of some of the officers that had been relieved of their command, that it hit me.
I know the Marines that were operating in western al Anbar, from Husayba all the way to Haditha. I went on countless operations in 2005 up and down the Euphrates River Valley. I was pinned on rooftops with them in Ubeydi for hours taking incoming fire, and I've seen them not fire a shot back because they did not have positive identification on a target. (Watch a Marine's anguish over deaths -- 2:12)
I saw their horror when they thought that they finally had identified their target, fired a tank round that went through a wall and into a house filled with civilians. They then rushed to help the wounded -- remarkably no one was killed.
I was with them in Husayba as they went house to house in an area where insurgents would booby-trap doors, or lie in wait behind closed doors with an AK-47, basically on suicide missions, just waiting for the Marines to come through and open fire. There were civilians in the city as well, and the Marines were always keenly aware of that fact. How they didn't fire at shadows, not knowing what was waiting in each house, I don't know. But they didn't.
And I was with them in Haditha, a month before the alleged killings last November of some 24 Iraqi civilians.
I'm told that investigators now strongly suspect a rampage by a small number of Marines who snapped after one of their own was killed by a roadside bomb.
Haditha was full of IEDs. It seemed they were everywhere, like a minefield. In fact, the number of times that we were told that we were standing right on top of an IED minutes before it was found turned into a dark joke between my CNN team and me.
In fact, when we initially left to link up with the company that we were meant to be embedded with, the Humvee that I was in was hit by an IED. Another 2 inches and we would have been killed. Thankfully, no one was injured.
We missed the beginning of the operation, and ended up entering Haditha that evening. The city was empty of insurgents, or they had gone into hiding as they so often do, blending with the civilian population, waiting for U.S. and Iraqi forces to sweep through and then popping up again.
But this time, after this operation, the Marines and the Iraqi Army were not going to pull out, they were going to set up fixed bases.
Now, all these months later, while watching the tapes, I found a walk and talk with one of the company commanders that was relieved of his duty as a result of the Haditha probe.
After being hit by an IED, his men were searching the area and found a massive weapons cache in a mosque. Although it wasn't his company that we were embedded with, the Marines had taken me to the mosque so we could get footage of the cache.
And so began the e-mails and phone calls between myself and my two other CNN crew members, Jennifer Eccleston and Gabe Ramirez: Do you remember when we were talking with the battalion commander and his intel guy right outside the school and then half an hour later they found an IED in that spot? Do you remember when we were sitting chatting with them at the school? And all the other "do you remember whens."
There was also -- can you believe it? -- the allegations of the Haditha probe.
It's the 1930s again people.
Even if you're not inclined towards prayer, it's obvious that absent divine intervention, we're not going to find leaders equal to the enormity of the times, equal to the enormity of the challenges, equal to the enormity of the danger.
During the two weeks of the Dunkerque evacuation, the English channel was unusally calm. All Britons were urged to pray, because as Churchill warned the Commons and the nation, he thought that it would be his lot to inform them of the most dire military tidings ever to befall Great Britain. Churches, chapels and Cathedrals were standing room only for weeks, as fair France went down, and Great Britain, alone, was left to face her fate.
The little boats that dared the wrath of the Luftwaffe to evacuate Britain's sons, were immeasurably assisted by the calmness of the channel, which at that time of year, is usually unruly.
And thus while the Royal Navy hoped to be able to evacuate 2 to 3 divisions, they evacuated the bulk of the entire British Expeditionary Force. Over 300,000 men were successfully withdrawn in one of the most desperate retreats in the annals of war.
In this current crisis, we're burdened by an elite that seems all powerful, and holds all power only to stand idle, while genocidal extermitionists acquire the means to make their morbid, dark visions a reality.
We must implore of the Almighty his assistance.
And we must get on the phone to Congress, to the White House, and write letters as well, and to the newspapers too.
All that we can do, we must do.
Regardless of what happens, regardless of how ominous the tidings, we must stand to our posts, and we must do our duty.
arjun.sevak
Thanks for the link to the "American Heroes" video.
I just downloaded and watched it.
Pictures ALL worth 10 thousand words, each.
God...
Iran has been planning for at least thirty years this whole nuclear complex. Read a book called the "Coming Nuclear Crisis with Iran"
These talks and any talks are just a temporary truce during which Iran will continue to strengthen itself. Hussein was given ample time to move out his wmd. he politically correct diplomatic speak, the talks, the blah blah blah is only giving our enemies time to get their ducks in a row. This will end up being another mess caused by political correctness and the left over and outdated officials in dc and the rest of the west, which won't be the west for long. How much oil tribute money has to be paid. Thirty years ago we were told when the price of oil gets high enough, the non existent free market will cause oil drilling and energy independence. The tribute dollars will go slowly higher and higher until no more phoney business news stories on the cable programs will convince americans that they need to mortgage their houses until their is no equity and just spend spend spend.
Sooner than later the other shoe will drop.
Texican -- Your methods are harsh and unforgiving. Whipped on the playground, and then paddled for losing?
My review: I smiled. I laughed. I recommend it highly.
But please, dont replace him with a liberal democrat. We have already been there and done that.
Dont want another republican.Forget about just two party elections.What we need is an American party.We need a red-blooded American,that wants to better the lives of Americans,not just wanting to line their pockets,with big busniness and oil money.Its time"We the People"cleaned out this sorry @ss excuse of a government.
A patriot MUST always be ready to defend his country against his government.
Edward Abbey
I found that CNN report interesting, sheik yer'mami (ptmr). It reveals what a GD cesspool Haditha was. Very few innocents there, it seems. We must learn not to apologize for our efforts to win. This town should have been completely flattened like Falluja.
We are blamed anyway for every imaginable calumny by Muslims, even though it's usually a lie. Meanwhile their perfidy and heinousness is ignored by both sides. How much worse can things get if we turn up the brutality knob in our approach?
Our leadership (political and military) will eventually figure out that hearts and minds come later. First: undermine and crush Islam. We need to make Muslims feel the heat for embracing their fascism. Make them worry about their "religion", not us. Make them link Islam with their own suffering. We have suffered enough from Islam.
Did you know that the Congress allocated a sum, if memory serves, of $38,000,000 to rebuild Mosques in Iraq? That's one helluvalotta money for the Flintstones in Bedrock -- a helluvalotta mosques. I read one analysis that said this would build between 200-300 mosques. So after we flatten their Indoctrination Centers (mosques), their Disinformation Centers (mosques), their arms storage depots (mosques), their Nazi Recruitment centers (mosques), in order to curry favor and "win hearts and minds", we rebuild those same sh#t hole mosques back up again!
I think this totally flouts our establishment clause. I think this is enormously stupid. I think this kind of thing needs to stop.
Clean water, electricity, hearts and minds can wait. First, their victimology machine must be "pacified".