The So-Called War

Americans need to be treated like convicted criminals and have all aspects of their life, person and activities open to inspection, all to prevent terrorist attacks.
We need to have a post-9/11 mindset, we're told. The world just isn't the same anymore.

Then explain this one, from DEBKA.com, for me.

After a series of muddled statements and zigzags, wishful thinking prevailed in London and Brussels after all. The European Union, led by the Middle East Quartet, agreed to release financial aid to a Palestinian government taken over by a terrorist organization.

“We give them three months to assess the situation. We don’t want chaos and we want to go on with the peace process,” said EU foreign executive, Javier Solana at the end of the foreign ministers’ meeting in Brussels Monday, 30 Jan.

Hamas, which is responsible for at least 60 bombing attacks on Israelis and countless deaths, did not have to fight too hard or too long for a reversal of the short-lived boycott on funding, sparked by its election victory over Fatah with 74 seats in the 132 Palestinian Legislative Council.

The Islamist terrorists were not required to give up a single principle for the sake of Western aid.
The stakes are high. The EU gave the PA $615 million last year. The US had budgeted $234 for 2006.

$849 MILLION freakin' dollars from the people who are supposedly FIGHTING terrorism!!??!
All set to go into the hands of Hamas.

There are only two options here:
1) Politicians are BIGGER idiots than I ever imagined (that would take some doing) or
2) This war is against free people and the removal of their rights.

Compassion of Motherhood

So, you think Palestinians are just like you?
Islam is a religion of peace?
Try this on for size.

She has encouraged three of her sons to die attacking Israel, and would be proud if the other three followed suit. She appeared in a video with her youngest boy, Mohammed, 17, telling him not to return alive from a suicide mission. Now she is a democratically elected Hamas member of the Palestinian Legislative Council.
"Encouraging my sons to be martyrs is serving Islam," she said through her fourth son, Wesam, 33, who says that, like his fellow "Mujahideen", he considers "martyrdom the way to liberation".

When you all going to figure out this is not the WWE?
This is a death match. Last man standing wins.
Only civilazition is at stake.
Yahweh akbar!!

Preview of Iraq??

Global George worked SO hard to bring freedom and democracy to the Palestinians.
He got those mean Jews to give back some of the land they rightly won.
And he brought that grand panacea, "free elections" to the Palestinians.
And what do we get? This:

Hamas, a terrorist group responsible for more than 100 suicide bombings and scores of shooting and rocket attacks, won overwhelmingly in yesterday's Palestinian parliamentary elections and will form the next government, according to initial ballot results released this morning.

Ain't democracy grand?!?
Now that the nuts are running the asylum in Gaza and the West Bank, how long before the same happens in Iraq?
Nation-building is for the birds.
The only thing consistent about government is that it operates by the Law of Unintended Consequences.

Do They Give ANYONE a Column??

When you read an opinion piece in a major American newspaper, you at least expect the author to have a basic working knowledge of the subject of which they write. Automotive guys should have a basic understanding of cars, yet need not be well versed in chassis dynamics. Medical writers should have foundational knowledge of physiology, biochemistry and anatomy.
However, when we get to politics, all bets are off. Fifth grade social studies is not even a prerequisite.

Take, for example, Joel Stein's piece of excrement in the LA Times entitled "Warriors and Wusses".

And I've got no problem with other people — the ones who were for the Iraq war — supporting the troops. If you think invading Iraq was a good idea, then by all means, support away.
But I'm not for the war. And being against the war and saying you support the troops is one of the wussiest positions the pacifists have ever taken — and they're wussy by definition.
Blindly lending support to our soldiers, I fear, will keep them overseas longer by giving soft acquiescence to the hawks who sent them there — and who might one day want to send them somewhere else.

Uh, Joel...it wasn't the soldiers who decided to go to Iraq. They were sent there by the guys you and your ilk elected, Republican AND Democrat. And the soldiers have no say in how long they will be there. You're a little confused here about who makes the policy.

Besides, those little yellow ribbons aren't really for the troops. They need body armor, shorter stays and a USO show by the cast of "Laguna Beach."
The real purpose of those ribbons is to ease some of the guilt we feel for voting to send them to war and then making absolutely no sacrifices other than enduring two Wolf Blitzer shows a day. Though there should be a ribbon for that.

True, the ribbons are stupid and actually do nothing for the troops. You should take the money you were going to waste on ribbons and send it to the USO, or some other military charity.
On the other hand, I checked with a number of friends who vote regularly, and none of us can remember a ballot question, "Should we send troops to war?" Again, you're a little confused about who makes policy decisions.

I do sympathize with people who joined up to protect our country, especially after 9/11, and were tricked into fighting in Iraq.

Those Saudis, they sure fooled us!! Making us think they flew planes into the World Trade Center!!! Haha!

And just what do you think "supporting" the soldiers means? They are doing a job...a job that requires, at times, great sacrifice and is done many times under difficult circumstances. But you know what? They knew this going in and they accepted the challenge anyway. They realized that life is not all about them. Is it too much to ask to show them some kindness? You don't have to like what they are doing. I imagine that at times some of them don't like it either.
If you see a soldier on the street, just say "Thanks for your sacrifice." Doesn't mean you agree with the policy, but that you recognize that they are putting everything they have on the line. Here's an idea! If you meet one in a 7-11, go crazy and spend a buck and pay for that soda he's buying!

Global George has done a disservice to many by portraying this as a war against Iraq. It is much greater than that. It is a war against radical Islam, which THEY declared. This is probably the only war in the past 100 years in which the threat to the US is real. Be mad about Vietnam. Debate involvement in WWII or Korea. But don't give up on this one unless you want to be praying toward the east a few times a day.

The Unreported Story

By now, those of you with at least a minimum of contact with the outside world have heard that Osama bin Laden has released another audio tape, this one promising furhter attacks on US soil.
If you are really lucky, your news source has even reported that "Sammy" bin Laden has offered a truce (but no terms were set forth).
Unfortunately, that's where the story stops for most.

Doesn't it seem odd to you that if the terrorists are winning the war, as our beloved media tries to portray, that they are beginning to float "truce" trial baloons?
What gives?

Robert Spencer, over at JihadWatch.org gives us some insight:

In Islamic theology traditionally the forces of jihad ask for a truce when they are weak and need to gather strength. Hmmmm.

ADDENDUM: I have been asked to provide details of the truce in Islamic law. Here is a passage from Umdat al-Salik (Reliance of the Traveller), a Shafi'i Sharia manual endorsed by Al-Azhar University in Cairo as conforming to the "practice and faith of the orthodox Sunni community":

Truces are permissible, not obligatory....Interests that justify making a truce are such things as Muslim weakness because of lack of numbers or materiel, or the hope of an enemy becoming Muslim...If the Muslims are weak, a truce made be made for ten years if necessary, for the Prophet (may Allah bless him and give him peace) made a truce with the Quraysh for that long, as is related by Abu Dawud....The rulings of such a truce are inferable from those of the non-Muslim poll tax; namely, that when a valid truce has been effected, no harm may be done to non-Muslims until it expires. -- Umdat al-Salik, o9.16

Maybe, just maybe, something positive will come out of this mess.

You Voted for Them, Why??

The U.S. Treasury Department today announced federal income and expenditure figures for December, showing government spending hit a record high and Washington took in even more than it spent.

The $230.9 billion spent was an all-time high for a single month. That figure represented a 5.6 percent increase over the spending level in December 2004.

AP reported through the first three months of the current budget year, which began on Oct. 1, government tax receipts have totaled $530.2 billion, up 8.8 percent from the same period a year ago. During the same three months, the federal government has spent $649.52 billion, a 7.2 percent increase from the same period a year ago.

This should remove any remaining vapor of a suggestion that George Bush is a conservative.

And don't bother telling me that Congress authorizes all spending.
Has he vetoed ONE spending bill?