Al-Qaeda in Retreat

I imagine that anti-war types will say that Al-Qaeda was never the strategic threat that Bush said it was…it was always about expanding his own power.

clipped from www.worldaffairsjournal.org Obama’s Inheritance: Al-Qaeda in Retreat Marc A. Thiessen In a widely noted speech at the National Archives in May, President Barack Obama said of George W. Bush’s national security policies: “We are cleaning up something that is quite simply a mess.” The president is wrong. Far from a mess, when it comes to national security, President Obama actually inherited a very strong hand from his predecessor. When Bush left office in January, America had marked 2,688 days without suffering another terrorist attack on its soil, an outcome that seemed all but impossible when the smoke cleared on September 12, 2001. Despite repeated attempts, al-Qaeda failed in its efforts to strike the U.S. again—because Bush kept its leaders on their heels and left them increasingly defeated and discredited on battlefronts across the globe.

Why is this sort of common sense so polemical?

Learn from France -- and consider banning the burka

It is quite plainly designed by men for the subjugation of women. One cannot be absolutely sure that no woman has ever donned it voluntarily, but one can certainly say that, in countries where women can choose not to wear it, then not wearing it is the choice they generally make.
This disposes right away of the phony argument that religious attire is worn as a matter of "right." It is almost exactly the other way around: The imposition of burkas or even head scarfs on women - just like the compulsory growing of beards for men - is the symbol of a denial of rights and the inflicting of a tyrannical code that obliterates personal liberty.
It is depressing that our President, in addressing the Muslim world, takes the most reactionary religious practice as the symbol of rights and identity.

[Moreover, freedom in America is indivisible from the freedom to practice one's religion. That is why there is a mosque in every state of our union, and over 1,200 mosques within our borders. That is why the U.S. government has gone to court to protect the right of women and girls to wear the hijab, and to punish those who would deny it.]

The klansman's hood, remember, is also the symbol of a white Protestant religious "identity" movement. We may be too constitutionally squeamish to ban the klan regalia outright, but we are entitled to our prejudice against those who choose to assert themselves in this way, and I would shudder for the country if this prejudice ever showed any sign of weakening.

Related articles by Zemanta:

• Burkas have no place in France: Sarkozy
• French president: Burkas not welcome here
• France to consider banning the burka
• Burka sign of subservience, not religion, says French president

Juan Cole: apologist for anti Semitism

clipped from www.meforum.org While Cole and the National Iranian American Council—the Islamic Republic's de facto lobby in Washington—play down Iranian rhetoric and deny any incitement to genocide, a number of scholars, most prominently Tel Aviv University scholar Joshua Teitelbaum, editor-designate of the Middle East Quarterly Denis MacEoin, and German political scientist Matthias Küntzel, have chronicled Iranian rhetoric, including its dehumanizing medical metaphors recalling those used by Nazi propagandists since Adolf Hitler wrote Mein Kampf.[15] President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad lectures above a sign saying "Death to Israel" in Persian and Arabic, not "Down with Israel" as in the English translation below. Ahmadinejad has also declared in Persian that Iran will "wipe Israel off the map." University of Michigan's Juan Cole argued that the phrase was a mistranslation and that Ahmadinejad did not have genocidal intent.

"Most Evil"/"Most Stupid" Government

The "most stupid" label fits most Obamoids defending their lightworker's "engagement" policy.

clipped from www.hurryupharry.org “Most Evil” or “Most Stupid” Government? I thought the Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Khameneii, had a cheek calling UK, “the most evil of western governments”. The figure head of this “most evil” government, i.e. Her Majesty the Queen, congratulated the Islamic Republic on the anniversary of the Islamic revolution, calling it the ‘Iranian National Day’. This “Most Evil” government has allowed the Islamic Republic to set up its Press TV here in UK to poison the minds of young impressionable Muslims in Europe. London’s buses advertise Press TV as the ‘Voice for the Voiceless’, while the crack down continues in Iran and Iran’s bus drivers union leaders are still in jail. Perhaps Most Stupid, would have been more fitting. A Most Stupid government that is easily taken for a ride and has advisors like Baroness Haleh Afshar.

House disagrees with Obama's passivity

clipped from www.rollcall.com House to Vote on Bipartisan Iran Resolution By Jackie Kucinich Roll Call Staff June 18, 2009, 9:07 p.m. The House will vote Friday on a bipartisan resolution expressing support for Iranian protesters who have been subject to violence in the days following that country’s presidential election.

If Protesters Don't want US Support, Why Are Their Signs in English?

clipped from www.weeklystandard.com I know that the protesters in Iran don't want the United States to interfere with their efforts in any way. I know this because John Kerry says it's true, and because every Democrat in government and the media is telling us that the people of Iran want the United States to keep quiet and not become, in President Obama's words, a "political football" in the standoff between the regime and the protesters. (Never mind reports of crowds gathered outside police stations pleading, “Obama, please help us, they are killing our young children.”) But there is one fact that doesn't jibe with the left's absolute certainty that this administration's silence is precisely what the protesters being beaten in the streets of Tehran want most from America -- the pictures. All the pictures show protesters holding signs in...English. To what end? Why would they want to galvanize support for their movement in the outside world if the only thing they want from the outside world is silence?

Amir Taheri on Obamaoid engagement | pandering to Muslims

If Taheri is right, then what is going on here? Why pander to religious fanatics just because they wrap themselves in thirdworldist references? There must be a better plan than this.

clipped from www.timesonline.co.uk From The Times June 2, 2009 Barack Obama is blind to his blunders over Islam The new President's approach discourages change in Middle Eastern countries that need it most Amir Taheri In trying to prove that he is not George Bush, Barack Obama has committed big mistakes on key issues of foreign policy. His Cairo address, and his “one-size-fits-all” Islam policy, is just the latest. It encourages Islamists and ruling despots, discourages the forces of reform and change and, ultimately, could produce greater resentment of the United States among peoples thirsting for freedom, human rights and decent governance.