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Moon the NYT!

Don't you sometimes just want to MOON the New York Times?

Day by Day does it with class today!


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Israel Gets It

Consider what the Iranians are saying about Israel.

Consider what the Iranians are doing to aquire nuclear weapons.

What would you do if you were responsible for the protection of Israeli citizens?

At least the Israeli Air Force Chief Major General, Eliezer Shkedy, understands the nature of the threat. Here is an excerpt from
his interview with David Horovitz for the Jerusalem Post (HT: Hugh Hewitt) :

Let's change the subject: What can you tell us about Iran?

There are three indisputable aspects: Their leader, President Ahmadinejad, talks of the Jewish people and the State of Israel in terms that no other world leader would dare use.. You recall his conference on "The world without Zionism." Then he moved onto the Jews, to Israel.

Two, he is trying to develop capabilities to deliver his attacking capabilities - land-to-land missiles with ranges to reach central Europe, Russia, China, India, certainly Israel. Missiles from planes. Planes that can carry this weaponry.

Third, he is trying with all his might to reach a nuclear capability. There's no argument about his intentions. The nature of the centrifuges that he is producing is incontrovertibly not for peaceful purposes.

This combination of thinking, capability of delivery and nuclear weaponry can come to constitute an existential threat to Israel and the rest of the world. It is no coincidence that the president of the US speaks as he does about Iran, and other world leaders do, too. (Emphasis added)


At least Israel understands the threat. I'm convinced the rest of the world does, too. The sad fact is that, even with an understanding of the threat, some supposedly advanced nations refuse to support Israel's right to defend itself.

Thankfully, so far, the United States has stood firm with Israel. I hope we continue to do so regardless of what others might say. We simply cannot allow the desires of Islamic radicals to be fulfilled.
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Isn't this what got them in trouble in the first place?

MSM has been framing the news in "how you should feel about this" terms for decades. That's not so much what has gotten them in trouble lately, though. It has much more to do with the fact that what they want us to think is so far removed from what America is all about.

Americans don't mind opinion or emotion when discussing current events. Conservative talk radio is openly biased with opinion and emotion. And it's extremely popular with the public. What Americans do mind, however, is the continual drumbeat of America bashing that has been the main course of traditional journalism for more than a generation.

Americans are proud of who they are and the country they live in and what it stands for. If you continually throw mud at what we believe is the greatest country on the face of the earth you will, in the words of
Merle Haggard, get on "The Fightin' Side of Me".
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We Need More of This, Too!

This story reminds me of when presidential candidate Bush was overheard calling someone an a--hole. What could have been embarrassing and hurtful to the campaign turned out to be a refreshing look into the real man. It actually helped.

Straight talk is all too rare in politics. When what is said makes sense, most people aren't offended by the rough language.

By the way, what's up with private conversations taking place in Russia involving U.S. officials finding their way into the public domain?
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Not a Good Idea!

According to this Townhall article, the U.N. wants to send peace keeping troops to Lebanon.

This is a terrible idea!

It strikes me as outdated policy to try to preserve Hezbollah in Lebanon. Why in the world would anyone want to preserve the status quo where Hezbollah is simply asked to stop shooting at Israel so that Israel can be pressured to stop defending itself?

Rather, now that the blinders are off and the true nature and desire of Islamic Fundamentalists Terrorists groups like Hezbollah and Hamas are clear for all to see, why don't we allow Israel to defend itself fully? Why not allow Israel to completly destroy Hezbollah? Wouldn't that be a sure fire way to stop them from lobbing missles at Israeli civilian targets?

By the way, has anyone noticed that it's Hezbollah that is firing rockets indiscriminantly into civilian areas? Israel, on the other hand, is for the most part hitting legitimate military targets.

The time has come for the enemies of peace to be defeated. They have proven they cannot be negotiated with. They have gotten nearly everything they've ever demanded from Israel. And still they initiate unprovoked attacks. It's no longer a matter of negotiated settlements. Let one or the other side be soundly defeated. Then let the winners determine the terms of peace. Historically, that's the only way peace has ever been established between warring peoples.

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We Need More of This!

By avoiding the Religious War temptation (see previous post), the Bush Administration hopes to be able to defeat the terrorists while winning the hearts and minds of the Muslem community. A difficult task to say the least! But it may be our only hope.

In an
open letter to his "Palestinian Arab Brethren", Youssef M. Ibrahim encourages the Palestinians to lay down their arms and make peace with Israel (HT: Jack Kelly).

Right now violent conflict seems to be escalating in the Middle East. That's understandable - predictable, actually. The Bush doctrine threatens to replace despair and hatred in the region with freedom and opportunity, thereby destroying the very base from which the Islamic Terrorists operate.

Increased violence is a natural consequence. These madmen do not wish to go down at all, much less go down with a whimper. They would rather bring the whole region (world) down with them than allow their people to enjoy freedom and peaceful coexistence with the West.

These are critical times. If the West can maneuver through the coming minefields successfully, the world will see something it has come to believe impossible - Peace in the Middle East. If not, the mess and carnage can hardly be imagined.

The West has done a pretty good job of showing it is not Satan incarnate in the manner in which it has conducted itself so far in the War on Terrorism. Rather, it has shown itself to be compassionate and caring as well as devestatingly effective militarily.

What we need now - what the entire world needs - is for reasonable, moderate Muslems to come forward like Mr. Ibrahim has done concerning the Palestinians. A substantial number of well known, respected Muslems need to speak out publicly in favor of peace and life over death and destruction.

If this happens, I believe we will have reached a critical mass that will result in Islamic Terrorism being rejected overwhelmingly by Muslems worldwide.

Oh, how I pray this comes to pass!

UPDATE:  Could Hezbollah's actions against Israel backfire and cause them to lose support in Lebanon?
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SDI will NEVER work!

Neither would electric light bulbs - until they did work.

If something is worth while, you have to keep working at it until you get it right. It looks like the recent
THAAD missle test at the White Sands Missle Range proved we are making progress.

Perhaps one day those currently scoffing at the Strategic Defense Initiative will be eating their words ...

... in the relative comfort and safety afforded them by the successful deployment of an effect missle defense system!
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Religious War?

I've heard people say that we (the West) may not be fighting a religious war, but the Islamic Terrorists are. It's hard to argue against that statement. Some advise the West to stop kidding themselves and admit this really is a religious war and fight it accordingly.

Don't embrace that advice too quickly. At the very least, read
this article at The American Thinker first.

Religious wars are ugly, very ugly!

And dragging the West into a religious war may be the only chance the Islamic Terrorists have of winning.
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Can you believe this guy?!?

Can you believe it? I can.

Jacque Chirac is already condemning Israel for their response to unprovoked acts of war from Hamas and Hezbollah.
(HT: Little Green Footballs)

UPDATE: Thankfully, it looks like President Bush isn't consulting Chirac regarding Israel!


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It's about 1948 not 1967

The current, coordinated attacks on Israel by two of its neighbors has proven beyond any reasonable doubt that the Arab/Islamic world's fight with Israel has nothing to do with occupied territories or the plight of the Palestinian People. It has everhthing to do with Israel's right to exist as a nation on planet Earth.

According to
Charles Krauthammer, that's what it's always been about.

The Arab/Islamic world has NEVER recognized Israel's right to exist as a nation. And they have ALWAYS plotted and fought to erase Israel from the face of the earth.

In 1948 Israel became a sovereign nation. Arabs/Islamics have tried ever since to destroy this new nation.

In 1967, in response to attacks from surrounding countries, Israel occupied the Gaza strip and Lebanon. Arabs/Islamics have used these occupations as a propoganda tool against Israel ever since. The West, unfortunately, has been gullible enough to take up this false cause.

Shame on us!

I agree with Michael Medved's articles
here and here. We, the United States of America, have put one of our greatest allies, Israel, at great risk by pressuring them to negotiate away their security in hopes their maniacal neighbors would be appeased.

Did I say, Shame on us?

Now that every single occupation issue has been removed from the table (Israel has removed itself completely from all occupied territories), Arabs/Islamics now attack Israel from those very territories.

It is abundantly clear that Israeli occupation of Palestinian and Lebonese territories was never the issue.

Israeli existence is the issue.

That has always been the issue. It's time we realize this and act accordingly.


UPDATE:  Betsy Newmark has more here.
 
UPDATE II:  Carol Platt Liebau adds her thoughts here.



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Light Posting the Rest of the Week

I've been tied up in meetings since yesterday morning and will be for the rest of the week.

Posting will be very light.
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To Preempt or not to Preempt

After 9/11 President Bush took the United States in a new National Defence direction. He boldly and effectively argued that the citizens of the United States should not wait for another devestating attack before we act against those out to destroy us.

America, and the world, responded favorably. After invading Iraq in the first true test of this new policy, the American public was faced with a choice. Should we, as George Bush argued, maintain the policy? Or should we, as argued by John Kerry, withdraw from Iraq and revert to a defensive posture?

America decided to "stay the course" much to the dismay of leftists and liberals worldwide.

The Iraq War is in its final stages. It has been a difficult war, true enough. But if you looked beyond the establishment media you would have learned that the United States and its allies have executed this war quite well, thank you.

However, the media-aided left has relentlessly attacked our war efforts in an attempt to destroy domestic support for the Bush Administration's successful new foreign policy of preemption. And their efforts have had some success.

We now have been faced with a perfect test of our resolve to preempt. North Korea has boldly pronounced its nuclear weapons ambitions and accomplishments and even test fired long range missle systems. Iran is stubbornly pushing its way into the nuclear club as well. There could be no stronger case made for preemptive action! Not to mention Syria continuing to pour terrorists into Iraq to kill our soldiers.

According to Bush's preemption doctrine, the United States could destroy North Korea's missles before they are launched. That would be in line with his publicly stated and acted upon policies. It would no doubt be acceptable to most Americans. Newt Gingrich and others have advised taking this course of action against North Korea.

But George Bush chose not to do this. Why?

Has the left successfully weakened our nation's resolve to the point that we do not have the will to act so forcefully in our own self defense interests?

I wish I could say no. But even though conservatism has been enjoying greater success in America over the past few decades, the left still has lots of weapons with which to fight against a strong, successful America.

It would be foolish to underestimate the power of the press. From the beginning of the campaign in Afghanastan to today, the media has predicted failure, world wide condemnation, and highlighted every stumble no matter how slight.

People grow weary of this. Nobody wants to be told every day, year after year, that their team is losing and everyone hates them. Soon even the most supportive will be ready for it all to be over. With that mood it's hard to gather support for yet another aggressive campaign.

No wonder the Bush Administration has not been more aggresive against North Korea, Iran, and Syria.

But I think this is a mistake.

I think preemption in Iraq has been very effective. The fierceness with which the Islamic terrorists are fighting against the positive changes in Iraq is proof positive. If freedom in Iraq would not be so good for America and so devestating to the terrorists, they would not be wasting their time with it.

The fierceness with which America's other enemy - the left - has fought against this policy of preemption is further proof that the policy is correct. The left has consistently sided with the enemies of America. There is nothing to indicate they've had a change of heart now.

I say press on all the harder regardless of what the left and the media have to say. We're already in the heat of the battle. Why stop now? We're winning for goodness sake! I think the American public could easily get behind a policy that takes out North Korea's missles, destroys Irans ability to develop nuclear weapons, and smacks Syria down for aiding in the deaths of American troops.

The left has only one card to play - "America is bad". There's no way that can compete with "America is Great!"

I think, given a straight forward explanation of the situation, a sizable majority of Americans would gladly support preemptively draining the swamp that breeds the reptiles that seek to do us harm.

Preempt already!
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Gingrich in '08 ?

Gingrich for President in 2008? I hadn't thought about it until I read Mary Katherin Ham's article at Townhall.com.
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Prove America is Great and Honorable

The United States of America is, in my opinion, the greatest country in the world. It is full of genuinely good people. I see them everywhere I go. Down to earth, honest to goodness gentle, loving people who are kind to one another, helpful and caring to the core of their being.

The great freedoms and success enjoyed by the citizens of the United States of America are not what caused this country to be so full of such good people. It's the other way around. We are great as a nation, and we enjoy such freedom and success because of the good people of this country.

It's not that this great country attracts good people, even though this is true. Rather, it's that good people keep this country on the right track.

But with all this goodness and freedom, it is also true that there are evil people in this country. There are heinous crimes committed all the time, gruesome murders that defy comprehension.

Thankfully, these crimes are the exception and not the norm. People wouldn't be flocking to this country from all over the world if brutal murders were a common, accepted part of American life.

We also have the greatest military in the world, perhaps the greatest military that has ever existed. Is there any that can withstand its might? And with all this dominant power our military conducts itself with unprecedented honor and humaneness. Ours goes out of its way more than any other military in history to avoid killing innocent civilians. We design our weapons and our tactics with this ideal as one of our top priorities.

What other military can legitimately make this claim?

Even while fighting an enemy that hides itself among civilians and actually targets civilians, we stay true to this lofty and honorable ideal. Again I ask, what other country or military can compare to this?

But just like our general population full of genuinely good people, our military population is bound to have a very small percentage of evil people. Certainly there are those in the military who, without any moral compass or guiding goodness, would commit brutal crimes against humanity.

So it is no surprise that in open warfare there will be occasions where genuinely evil people mixed in with the population of genuinely good military personnel will commit horrible crimes hoping the fog of war will provide them cover - especially in urban warfare where battles rage in the midst of civilian populations.

But the fact that it is understandable on a statistical level makes in no more acceptable on any level.

Reading the story on
Townhall.com about the arrest of U.S. Soldiers for the rape and murder of an Iraqi girl and the murder of her mother, father, and little sister sickens me more than I know how to describe.

What kind of sick, twisted mind would premeditate this crime? What kind of sick, twisted mind would go along with a freak who suggested such a thing? Perhaps everything that happened wasn't premeditated. Maybe they didn't intend to murder from the beginning. But apparently they intended to rape from the beginning! And only a sick, twisted (have I said that enough?) mind would allow itself to go so out of control as these men allegedly did.

Now, there have been other claims of brutality on the part of the U.S. during this war. But usually those claims prove to be either entirely false or laughably overstated. But something in my gut tells me this one may be true.

I hope I'm wrong. I will not try to consider these soldiers innocent until proven guilty. I actually WILL consider them innocent until they have been proven guilty. They deserve that. We all deserve that.

But if this IS true, I hope the punishment is very extreme and very public. I hope the President addresses this particular case publicly, emotionally, and forcefully. It cannot be ignored by the administration or swept aside with token attention.

We are the greatest country in the world. We have the greatest military in the world. We are a force for good in the world. This case damages our country in the eyes of the world and in the hearts of our very own citizens.

And it should.

The burden we now have is to prove that we still are the greatest country in the world. We have to prove that this crime is not acceptable to the United States of America. We have to prove to the world that we are different. It has to be clear to everyone at the end of the day that in the United States of America this kind of behavior is abhorent, unusual, and despicable.

Our enemies will be using this incident, proven or not, to paint all of America as brutal murderers. We will be described as unholy imperialists trying to take the world over by force.

I encourage everyone to consider a few things when listening to such garbage:

What does your heart tell you? Does it tell you that America is an evil regime? A danger to the rest of the world? Or, generally, does America try to do good in the world?

Has your experience in the United States been one of brutality on a regular basis? Or, like me, would you have to say that nearly everyone you know is a genuinely good person and you feel unusually blessed to be lucky enough to live here?

What does it tell you about someone who would take an isolated instance of pure evil and use it to portray an overwhelmingly good country as evil? I remember my freshman trigonometry teacher, Mrs. Watkins, telling us to be very wary of statistical presentations and to ALWAYS CONSIDER THE SOURCE of every argument.

I hate that this brutal, evil crime happened. My God, we are trying to save those people not brutalize them!

But I still love this country. I still believe in our core values. I still believe that we are trying to accomplish very worthy goals in Iraq and the Middle East.

For those that agree with me, I encourage you to be strong and steadfast in your beliefs. Do not be discouraged by the coming onslaught of "America is the bad guy" rhetoric. Rather, be more determined to rebuke such nonsense.

Let us prove we are the greatest country in the world by rejecting the actions of these soldiers but also by not losing our resolve to complete the work set before us. Let us prove to our allies that we can be counted on. Let us prove to our enemies that we will continue the fight and not be discouraged.

Update:

Sweetness and Light had more on this story a couple of days ago.
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So NOW You're Interested in Star Wars

Wretchard wonders if North Korea has made a few believers - at least hopers - in Reagan's much maligned Strategic Defense Initiative.

Funny how Old Europe was all "America ain't so great" when they perceived the Big Bear we had protected them from for 50 years was no longer a threat (I always maintained that was the stupidest thing imaginable.). But now that some nut-with-nukes is taking target practice with long range missles, America suddenly seems like the good guys again.

I thought Europe was supposed to be the grown ups we were to emulate. Seems to me they act more like a fickle teenage girl. You never know what they want because they never know what they want. But they're definitely all about the preening!

You know what? I'm going to apologize for that comparison. Teenage girls have never been as fickle - or as preenish - as Old Europe!


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