Any thoughts on the Ankara airport fire. It could be an accident, but what kind of accident. Huge plumes in the sky--the cargo area in flames. It could be an accident, it could be Jihad. It almost looks too big to be by chance.

Posted by: biorabbi at May 24, 2006 9:10 AM

CHAOS...WHO WANTS CHAOS ALL OVER THE WORLD..why that would be mahmoud.

Posted by: storagemanager at May 24, 2006 9:11 AM

Think this could have anything to do with the $20 Million a Month that Iran is giving to Moqtada al Sadr's Shiite Muslim "Mahdi Army" of Iraq? Just a thought....

Posted by: Bohemond_1069 at May 24, 2006 9:28 AM

Meanwhile, someone high up continues to prate about "freedom" (that's the thing that eveyone loves, equally, in the same way, and that's why when we look at Iraq today we are put in mnd of Independence Hall in Philadelphia and the Founding Fathers -- people scoffed at them too, don't forget) and thinks American soldiers should leave when, and only when, the Iraqi government decides that they should leave.

And generals continue to train an "Iraqi" police force and an "Iraqi" army, and somehow to convince themselves that it can be done, that a group of Sunni Arabs and Shi'a Arabs and Kurds can all be made to work as a cohesive unit, can be made to entrust each other with their lives (becuase that is what happens in army units, and police units, and has to) and that, furthermore, the Americans "embedded" here and there will not suddenly be turned on by one of those soliders, or policemen, they are trustingly training? (Why do I write "trustingly"? Because the mere act of allowing a handful of Americans to be placed in, embedded in, these units, to train or to observe or to fight beside, is already far too trusting).

And the $595 million dollar complex continues to go up, 21 buildings that together form that future Amercan "embassy" and that not a single Congressman has deplored as part of a fantasy. And not a single person suggests that the ethnic and sectarian fissures in Iraq cannot be healed, but can work to our advantage. Why not?

Capt. Queeg, you see, would react in horror to the very idea that we might exploit the divisions within the camp of Islam. He has nothing against Islam, you see. He has hardly begun to summon the CIA or to convene NATO to discuss the military and other implications of the growing Muslim presence in Western Europe. He can't do it. No, he has other ideas. He wants to have "victory" in Iraq. We know that if somehow, after gigantic American efforts and expense (including the melt-down of Army and Reserves and National Guard, as recruitment standards fall, as fewer remain in, as young officers quit, as fewer join up -- it's all happening, right now). So, sometime "under another President" and after another few hundred billion dollars spent, and the entire country has given up on the counter-Jihad (still not understood), and possibly with Iran left unscathed precisely because of those American troops held hostage to Iranian retaliation in Iraq, finally someone, that "future President" whom Capt. Queeq says will have to decide to withdraw from Iraq, it will be done.

Is there a chance that Iraq, after such great American expense, will became a healthy, happy, unified nation-state, and a Light Unto the (Sunni Arab) Muslim Nations?

No, there is not. Not that it will become a happy, healthy, vibrant nation-state. Not that, if it ever could become that (it can't, unless some Shi'a Ataturk comes along), that it could conceivably be a Light Unto Muslim Naions that are Sunni Arab and will work to undo that transfer of power to the Shi'a -- and especially will work to undo it if the threat of Iran is diminished, as it will necessarily have to be, by American military or other action.

Every single member of the Administration, the Pentagon, the CIA, Congress, and everyone else in those silly well-fed think tanks, should be required to sit and think for a bit, and answer the following half-dozen questions:

1. Was the Iran-Iraq War a good thing, from the viewpoint of Infidels, or a bad thing?

2. Was the Egyptian-Saudi Arabian proxy war in the Yemen a good thing, from the viewpoint of Infidels, or a bad thing?

3. Were the brief clashes that have taken place in the past, between Syria and Jordan, between Morocco and Algeria, between Libya and Egypt, in the 1960s and 1970s, a good thing, from the viewpoint of Infidels, or a bad thing?

4. Is the hostility felt by Kurds for Arabs a good thing, from the viewpoint of Infidels, or bad thing?

5. Is the hostility felt by many Berbers, both in Algeria and in France, toward Arabs for their linguistic and cultural imperialism, a good thing, from the viewpoint of Infidels, or a bad thing?

Final question, to make it a half-dozen, by way of a response to the half-baked policies now in force:

Since the correct answer to all of the above is A Good Thing, now tell us why.

Posted by: Hugh at May 24, 2006 9:30 AM

Speaking at the southwestern town of Khorramshahr in a ceremony to commemorate May 24th, the day when Khorramshahr was liberated from the Iraqi occupation more than two decades ago, Ahmadinejad stated that Iran is on the threshold of a big jump, adding that the mission of the nation today is construction of the country.

He further underlined that solidarity is the only way for the Iranian nation to achieve victory, saying, "The world arrogance has always opposed our nation's progress and victory; when the Iranian nation stood against the former regime, those who claim to be pioneers of human rights extended their full support to the dethroned king."

"After the victory of the Islamic Revolution ...(victory over what?..why the world..with the 12th demon leading the way....please world wake up..how many must die before you SEE.)

Posted by: storagemanager at May 24, 2006 9:33 AM

mahdi oh mahdi-----------Ahmadinejad: If Iran’s rights violated – response ‘painful and historic’

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said that if his country’s rights are violated, the response of the Iranian people would be “painful and historic.”

Ahmadinejad stressed that Iran would defend its rights to have the nuclear capabilities to manufacture nuclear energy. (Dudi Cohen)

Click here for more Israel news from Ynetnews.com

Posted by: storagemanager at May 24, 2006 9:50 AM

CHAOS WHAT CHAOS------TEHRAN (AFX) - Iran's hardline President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad boasted Wednesday that the Islamic republic had mastered the entire nuclear fuel cycle and that it would give an "historic slap" to any attacker.
"Today, Iran has mastered the entire nuclear fuel cycle, from start to finish, thanks to young Iranian scientists," the president said in a speech in the southwestern border town of Khorramshahr.
"The enemies are looking to plot and want to create differences among Iranians to stop us getting our rights," Ahmadinejad said.
"But if they do the slightest damage to the Iranian people, if they commit the slightest aggression, they will receive an historic slap."
(mahmoud to world-hello mahdi)

Posted by: storagemanager at May 24, 2006 9:51 AM

The difference between this and the Hutus and Tutsis?

The Hutus and Tutsis worked mainly with machetes and sharpened garden hoes.

Our glorious allies in Iraq have the benefit of AK-47's and IED's.

Keeping out of the first conflict cost a lot of people their lives.

Moving in -and worse, staying in- the current conflict has only managed to added several thousand coalition deaths to the general chaotic body count.

Is that some kind of advantage?

They got their "democratic" government.

Declare victory, get out, and get back to fighting the war on global terror in a way that finally kills Osama and his henchmen in Pakistan.

(Leaving some disguised spies behind to hunt down Zarqawi and his band of maniacs the old-fashioned way: piano wire in a dark alley playing the Danse Macabre coda around his diseased neck.)

Posted by: profitsbeard at May 24, 2006 9:53 AM

Osama bin Laden trained 42 fighters to destroy the American economy and military might. Nineteen were used on 9-11, 23 are still 'sleeping' inside America waiting for a wake-up call from bin Laden." Mir said al-Qaida operatives told him that tactical nuclear weapons were smuggled over the Mexican border before Sept. 11, 2001. Mir said again he believes al-Qaida may use its nuclear arsenal after the US attacks Iran in an effort to stop its nuclear weapons program. "This is my opinion," he says. "No al-Qaida leader has ever admitted that they are working with Iran. I also think that, maybe, the Iranians will organize some attacks inside America and you will accuse al-Qaida." Asked why al-Qaida hasn't used nuclear weapons it already possesses, Mir said: "They are waiting for the proper time. They want the US to be involved in a mass killing of Muslims, so that they will have some justification. That is what I was told by a top al-Qaida leader in the Kunar Mountains of Afghanistan."

http://focusonjerusalem.com/newsroom.html

Posted by: storagemanager at May 24, 2006 10:05 AM

'IDOL' HITS JUMBO 19.2 RATING/30 SHARE IN TUESDAY PERFORMANCE FINALE; TOP OF SEASON... CBS COUNTRY AWARDS 6.8/10... ABC STEPHEN KING MOVIE 5.5 RATING/8 SHARE... NBC '10.5' REARS WITH 5.0/8...
PEOPLE WHO READ ABOUT OR UNDERSTAND THE THREAT OF ISLAM.....VERY FEW...VERY SAD INDEED.

Posted by: storagemanager at May 24, 2006 10:20 AM

Trust is alien to Islamic ideology. It is impossible for anyone to trust anyone else, since Islamic doctrine authorizes, demands even, its followers to slay unbelievers, apostates, and blasphemers. One never knows if the guy approaching on the street (or that man's imam during last Friday "prayers") has identified you as belonging to one of those condemned categories. One never knows when the dagger will come out.

That is why lying is the norm in Islamic cultures--lying is a means of self protection. That is also why tribalism persists in Islamic nations. Tribal identification is the only way one can recognize people who can, more often than not, be trusted not to pull out the dagger.

One of the many scams of the Islamic apologists is to claim that all the treacherous violence we see every day in Iraq and elsewhere springs from tribal traditions and tribal feuds, not from Islamic ideology, which is "peaceful." On the contraray, I would argue that the persistence of any such tribal behaviors is a self-defensive response to living under the merciless violent doctrines of Islam.

Posted by: Stendec at May 24, 2006 10:37 AM

And the $595 million dollar complex continues to go up, 21 buildings that together form that future American "embassy" and that not a single Congressman has deplored as part of a fantasy.
Anyone care to lay odds on how long this complex will stand before a bomb levels it? What an incredible waste of our money. Remember folks Social Security (money we paid into the govenment in good faith that we would get back) will be broke before 2040.
Democracy is incompatible with islam.

Posted by: Carolyn2 at May 24, 2006 10:45 AM

'IDOL' HITS JUMBO 19.2 RATING/30 SHARE...

Now dagnabit storemanager you're just getting downright cynical.

I have it the cure for joe blues: Let's produce a hot new reality TV show called Islamic Idol.

It'd be great. For the intro we could show lurid footage from that star-crossed Miss Universe beauty pagaent held in Lagos a few years back, with the Jordanian Women's Choir ululating the bumper music. Then the camera pans across the smiling faces of the would-be singings stars...

Posted by: Alarmed Pig Farmer at May 24, 2006 11:20 AM

Who would have thought that sunni soldiers would be killing shiites and government officials???

Posted by: Texican at May 24, 2006 11:22 AM

Nothing will change in iraq until the shia totally subjugate the sunni.

Posted by: Texican at May 24, 2006 11:23 AM

The right, and sensible thing to do is said by many posters. I merely nod in the affirmative. Vacate iraq, let them kill each other, they have been at it for centuries. Do NOT give any aid. Honest people worldwide have been growing their own food. muslims have no time for growing. Only for killing.

Posted by: arjun.sevak at May 24, 2006 11:25 AM

The muslims claim women have half the intelligence as men...yet the ruling part, MUSLIM MEN, don't have the smarts to realize what it would be like to be able to live in peace, live without IEDs and try to have a good life. They love the tension the clerics bring them. The aggression. The chaos. The killing. Their superiority(snickering at that one).

We should get out now. They love their squalor. Let's leave them to it.

Posted by: freewoman at May 24, 2006 11:26 AM

The header written by Rebecca says "Despite our differences with the New Duranty Times, they are documenting the Iraqi situation quite well."

I would say it is because of our differences: they want to show how wrong Bush is, for the wrong reasons, not for the right reasons as argued by Hugh Fitzgerald.

Posted by: Television at May 24, 2006 11:36 AM

Over 2,00- American soldie's lives and nearly $400,000,000,000 - 400 billion taxpayer dollars have been wasted in irag and afghan.

What has been gained??

Just think what $400,000,000,000 could have done to rebuild the gulf coast and develope and refine new energy source.

Call your senators and congressmen and tell them it is time to leave iraq and afghan.

And on another note:

The senate will vote today on amnesty for 20,000,000 mexican illegals that will become 100,000,000 mexicans in America>

Do you know how to speak spanish yet??? Better learn.

What type of future will your children and grandchildren have with this influx of mexicans into America?? Go outside and look at America, for it will change. Look at your bank, savings and retirement accounts for they will disappear in the future.

God help us. Call, fax, email your representative and tell them no amnesty no guest worker program, build the fence and deport the illegals. Spend tax dollars to protect Americans and America.

http://www.webslingerz.com/jhoffman/congress-email.html

The Texican.
Freedom is dying due to the actions and inactions of our federal government.

Posted by: Texican at May 24, 2006 11:54 AM

NOT EVEN A SHOELACE!..said Ehud Olmert this morning.....In a just society this headline would be a Rally cry for battle!......But in the world we live in the monsters have more rights than the victims....Evil has indeed filled our world but few have even noticed.....'IDOL' HITS JUMBO 19.2 RATING/30 SHARE IN TUESDAY PERFORMANCE FINALE; TOP OF SEASON... CBS COUNTRY AWARDS 6.8/10... ABC STEPHEN KING MOVIE 5.5 RATING/8 SHARE... NBC '10.5' REARS WITH 5.0/8.......The world rallies instead with a faith that calls....rape,murder and pillage....noble and peaceful.....The streets of JERUSALEM are filled with dead children-whose only crime was riding the wrong bus or having lunch with dad.....I dont have a college degree--and i am sure not a polished writer....But i know Evil when i see it...I would say to muslim readers you have the wrong book..mine says..Woe to you who call Evil good and Good Evil..GOD BLESS THE VICTIMS OF ISLAM.

Posted by: storagemanager at May 24, 2006 12:15 PM

profitsbeard - The difference between this and the Hutus and Tutsis? Why the Hutus and Tutsis have no oil. If Iran/Iraq and the Kingdom lacked petroleum, they would remain the fly-bitten wastelands they were prior to about 1920.

Posted by: MP at May 24, 2006 12:18 PM

.....the first 16,000-member paramilitary police force was cobbled together in a haphazard way by a British-based consulting firm that neither trained the men nor checked their backgrounds for criminal records or ties to Mr. Hussein's security services.
"The British company hired people randomly, without training — they were profiteers,"
~ from the article

I know American companies are not above this type of garbage, but this does make me feel better that a British company is running terminals at US ports, cause didn’t you know the British are looking out for our best interests?

Posted by: Bar at May 24, 2006 1:31 PM

Iran to launch a new suicide bombers garrison on Thursday
Wed. 24 May 2006
Iran Focus

Tehran, Iran, May 24 – Iran will launch a new suicide-bombers garrison on Thursday, according to the head of a group affiliated to the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps.

Mohammad-Ali Samadi, spokesman for the Headquarters to Commemorate the Martyrs of the Global Islamic Movement, a government-orchestrated campaign to recruit suicide bombers, told the state-run news agency Mehr on Tuesday that the group planned to officially announce the existence of the new garrison in a ceremony in Tehran’s largest cemetery on Thursday afternoon.

The new garrison will be named after Nader Mahdavi, an IRGC naval commander who died in a suicide attack on an American naval vessel in 1987, Samadi said.

The report said that more that 55,000 “volunteers for martyrdom-seeking operations” had been registered so far by the organisation, which also calls itself “Estesh’hadioun”, or martyrdom-seekers.

In February, the group launched a new recruitment drive for suicide bombers in Tehran to fight against “Global Blasphemy”.

The group was set up by Iran’s Revolutionary Guards in 2004. Those who join have three choices: To carry out suicide attacks against “the infidels occupying Iraq”, against Israel, or against Salman Rushdie.

Posted by: storagemanager at May 24, 2006 2:02 PM

storagemanager

"NOT EVEN A SHOELACE!..said Ehud Olmert this morning"

Sorry, since I expect you are writing from the heart, but Ehud Olmert has no real traction in Israel nor should he. He is quoting Avraham but his actions belie his words. One hopes and prays that a genuinely believing and caring leader will emerge for Israel (short of the Moshiach). We simply have to pray and keep up the counteroffensive. We shall fight them on the...etc etc etc(Winston Churchill).

Posted by: HaMalach at May 24, 2006 2:08 PM

l heard earlier this afternoon on Rush's show, some report from French agency was saying significant tropp withdrawls for both the U.S. and G.Britain by July, as more of the Iraq forces take over. you dont hear this on the old media! and as far as taking anything from the NYT-times... you have to shake your head to even take a fraction of it for any truth. let the military work the way it is intedended, and boot out the media.

Posted by: Lulu at May 24, 2006 2:58 PM

I'm still waiting for my oil. I was told we were going over there to trade blood for oil. Blood for Oil!Blood for Oil! American, British, Kurdish, Arab Jihadi blood. My car does not run on blood. I want my oil. Just give me the damn oil. Where's my oil?

Posted by: hasan salami at May 24, 2006 3:06 PM

HaMalach....God used both saul and cyrus....we always have hope!

Posted by: storagemanager at May 24, 2006 3:08 PM

MP-

Once the WMD's were found to be not a threat in Iraq, and once Saddam was caught (and unfortunately not shot by a trigger-happy soldier in his 'spider hole' - which would have avoided the farcical 'trial' now unfolding), the phase-out of coalition forces should have begun.

The lack of WMD's found is a good thing.

We discovered it wasn't the mortal worry that every incompetent intelligence service on Earth presumed it to be.

Knowledge is power.

But power that doesn't know how to then manage its strength for the true fight is folly.

The majority of the Western leadership are pimps, panderers and pukes for mere social influence, hard cash and jet-setting schmooze.

May they be the next victims of Islam's terror, having invited it in, and, since 9/11, continuing to escuse or deny its reality, depravity and ultimate intentions.

The treason of the quasi-intellectuals?

Posted by: profitsbeard at May 24, 2006 8:19 PM

storagemanager
Why would OBL and AQ need a justification for using a nuclear device, if in fact they actually have one? OBL's justification for acting seems calculated to bring about the most harm to the infidels, not to respond to attacks from his enemies as tit for tat. Response to any attack on Iran, for any reason,will be a long wait in my opinion. George Bush has lost his stomach for a fight with another islamic country. Bush has lost his nerve and his resolve for anymore military operations. We shall see won't we.

Posted by: pismopal at May 25, 2006 2:29 PM