"When Mr. Vesely inevitably defends his paper’s right (no duty!) to publish controversial opinions, I would like to ask him if he would have published a letter that demanded: “We need to weed out these Islamists and their terrorist conspirators!”?

And would he have headlined it: “Eradicate those who threaten us in the Middle East!”? No, I don’t think so, either. [ D'oh. -ed. ] "

"The images, obtained exclusively by the Sunday Herald Sun, show Hezbollah using high-density residential areas as launch pads for rockets and heavy-calibre weapons.

Dressed in civilian clothing so they can quickly disappear, the militants carrying automatic assault rifles and ride in on trucks mounted with cannon.

The photographs, from the Christian area of Wadi Chahrour in the east of Beirut, were taken by a visiting journalist and smuggled out by a friend. [ Count me as shocked, just absolutely shocked! -ed. ] "

"Oh what heroes we will be for fighting the Zionists.
Come a little closer now...
Oh how we will be praised in the capitals of Islam
Come on…
We’ve got them on the run Ali, we only need to push them a little bit harder.
Come on sucker, just a little bit more…
[ You really need to read Varifrank. HT Roger -ed. ] "

"July 29, 2006: Drug violence has harmed the city of Nuevo Laredo. Long known as an up and coming Mexican "port city," and perhaps infamous as a party town (with its prostitute district, Boys Town), the rampant drug-related violence has closed a number of Mexican businesses in Nuevo Laredo and sent the economy into a tailspin. At least 40 Nuevo Laredo companies have shut down due to the violence. Many of the firms have moved across the border to Laredo, Texas -- where the cops are clean and the streets are comparatively safe. The breakdown in law and order in Mexican border towns is creating a warlike atmosphere, as gunmen openly move about, and open fire in the streets. [ Now there's big surprise. Secure the borders? What kind of a silly idea is that? -ed. ] "

An update on the Fifth Column and why this isn't actually a war on "terrorism":

"Israelis, even the Israeli left, now finally understand that "land for peace" was a chimera, a hopeless endeavor, because their enemy doesn't want land, or peace. They are like the alien in Independence Day who, when asked what it wanted of us, hissed, "I want you to die." Our culture is an offense to them, our material success is an offense (and rebuke) to them (because infidels have no right to be successful), our very existence, and particularly the existence of Jews in what they consider their own holy land, is an intolerable ongoing offense to them, made more offensive by the fact that this lowest form of life has made the desert bloom in a way that they never could.

It is all one war, and it's not a war against "terror." It is a world war largely of the Anglosphere (and some of its new allies, such as Poland and eastern Europe, and Israel--an honorary member) against fundamentalist Islamism. It is a war in which much of Europe has been cowed into sitting on the sidelines, by the enemy within. Russia and China are torn, partly for purely mercenary reasons, because our enemy is hungry for their arms and has abundant resources with which to purchase them, and partly due to their desire to see the Anglosphere and particularly its lead nation, the "hyperpower," brought low. But Chechnya and the Uigers in western China demonstrate that they will only be able to feed others to the alligator for so long, before they become the next meal.

We are at war with an idea, and it's an idea shared by the man up in Seattle. Part of that idea is that Israel shouldn't exist, and that it's intolerable when it does anything to defend itself and ensure its future existence. That part at least of the idea was clearly shared by the shooter in Seattle, by his own words. He may not (or he may) be a member of Al Qaeda, but we are not at war exclusively with Al Qaeda, which is just one front, one manifestation of the much larger enemy. We battle over a divide of ideologies, and there are many on the other side of that divide, some of whom, sadly, live among us. And they can unfortunately constitute a fifth column. He walked among us, in normal garb, but when he felt his time come, he picked up arms and made war against the nation that had welcomed him, and not against our military, but against helpless women.

The authorities don't want to call him a terrorist. Fine.

Let us, then, call him what he is. He is the enemy. He is a foreign operative on our soil, a spy, a combatant out of uniform, and there is no need for a civil trial. The laws of war allow him to be summarily shot. And if that were to happen, it would, finally, be a welcome recognition of the true nature of this war."

"This is just sickening."

"The biggest surprise emerging from the new studies is that many chronic ailments like heart disease, lung disease and arthritis are occurring an average of 10 to 25 years later than they used to. There is also less disability among older people today, according to a federal study that directly measures it. And that is not just because medical treatments like cataract surgery keep people functioning. Human bodies are simply not breaking down the way they did before.

Even the human mind seems improved. The average I.Q. has been increasing for decades, and at least one study found that a person’s chances of having dementia in old age appeared to have fallen in recent years.

[ Glenn comments: -ed. ] If it seems otherwise, it's probably because people now have more energy to complain"

Good news:

"Israel has also confirmed that Nur Shalhoub, a senior Hezbollah terrorist, was killed in an aerial attack of his vehicle on Thursday. Shalhoub was responsible for the smuggling of strategic weapons for Hezbollah including long range missiles, which can reach deep into Israel. The IAF targeted the vehicle in the area of Bekaa during a smuggling attempt. In addition to Shalhub, several additional terrorists who were in the vehicle were killed. The vehicle was loaded with missiles at the time of the attack."

"In the Arab and Muslim world, the steady stream of hateful anti-semitic rhetoric will continue unabated. Calls will issue forth for the "Zionist regime" to leave the field to the jihadists, but from their standpoint it will matter little what the Israelis do. If they defend themselves against and kidnapings, suicide bombings and rocket attacks, their response will be decried as beliigerent and "disproportionate"; and if they withdraw their forces or hunker down, they will be scorned by their enemies as weak, and so attacks against them will only mount, with deadlier weapons. The goal is nothing less than the eradication of Israel and the slaughter or ethnic cleansing of every Jew in the region to clear the way for a Taliban-style Islamist regime.

And sadly, the oh-so sophisticated and progressive Western press will cooperate - whether wittingly or unwittingly - in this shameful propaganda effort to demonize and deligitimize the Jewish state. It's up to the rest of us to keep Hanson's decoder ring close at hand."

RTWT:

"Being interviewed on a European radio station, the interviewer snarls at me when I mention that Haifa has a mixed Jewish/Arab population and that as we speak, many of them were sitting in bomb shelters together, hiding from Nasrallah's rockets.

I was surprised this information could be so irritating. I didn't dare tell him about the guy who came up to me in downtown Haifa, showed me his bombed shop front and told me he was an Arab who wants the IDF to destroy the Hizbullah."

"JOHN adds: Anti-terror policy no doubt involves complexities at various points, but the fundamental principle, I think, is quite simple. There are two kinds of terrorists: live terrorists and dead ones. The basic object of anti-terror policy should be to turn the former into the latter. As long as that process is proceeding satisfactorily, it should continue. The time for a cease-fire, it seems to me, is when Hezbollah has more or less run out of live terrorists. I don't think that moment has yet arrived."

"So in less than two months we have 25 arrests of terrorists intent on killing in the US, only one of whom succeeded, but the successful one is described by the home town paper as "having a history of mental illness" and the others have dropped off the list of MSM-approved topics for coverage.

Can we agree that all terrorists have some degree of mental illness? Can we also agree that it is completely and utterly irrelevant to the victims of their crimes?

What we need to know --and what the American MSM seems profoundly uninterested in-- is where did they come from? What made them terrorists?"

"Luckily, as I said, I had finished lunch, so reading the letter didn't ruin my appetite. But it did put me off a little to learn that Mark Lemmon, whom I have, to the best of my knowledge, never even met, wants me weeded out and, perhaps, eradicated.

Some might think that the examples of those who followed eradication policies during the 20th century — most notably Stalin, Hitler, and Mao — had discredited those policies, but apparently not. (By the way, Mao was especially fond of comparing his opponents to weeds, who deserved to be eradicated.)"

""The reindeer, that useful animal, is of a constitution that supports, and even requires, the most intense cold. He is found on the rock of Spitzberg, within ten degrees of the Pole; he seems to delight in the snows of Lapland and Siberia; but at present he cannot subsist, much less multiply, in any country south of the Baltic." In the time of Caesar, Mr. Gibbon wrote, the reindeer was native to the forests of Germany and Poland, but in Gibbon's time the animal was nowhere to be seen in those parts. And between the Age of Caesar and the Age of Gibbon, the Medieval Warming Period and the "Little Ice Age" had taken place. [ That's not to say we can't be exascerbating the current climate cycle of course. It looks to me though like the confluence of "Hubbert's Peak" in oil and the resulting price spike will at least provide incentives for alternate fuels and conservation which will mostly do things the global warming crowd likes. Now, if they would actually start campaigning for nuclear energy, I wouldn't consider them the wild-eyed hypocrites they seem to be... -ed. ] "

"Unfortunately, the psycho-cultural console in the Muslim Middle East is completely out of whack. Just look at it--female literacy is set at only three, child-rearing at one. Liberty is at two, and in most places democracy is zero. But anti-Semitism is at freaking eleven. Apparently, this war is about recalibrating the dysfunctional Islamic consoul in order to set conditions that make historical, psychological, and cultural progress possible."

But my son Alex would hate it! You should have seen him hold his coat over his face from the smell at the Grand Prismatic Spring!

"Injecting sulfur into the second atmospheric layer closest to Earth would reflect more sunlight back to space and offset greenhouse gas warming, according to Nobel laureate Paul Crutzen from the Max Planck Institute for Chemistry in Germany and the Scripps Institution of Oceanography, University of California at San Diego."

The Stoned version of NYeT. Pass the reefer man. Fffffft:

"McCarthy and Levin save the best argument for last, as I did. Bamford says that Ledeen and the neocons bought into Manucher Ghorbanifar's implication that Saddam Hussein was hiding in Iran -- in December 2001. Incredibly, Bamford seems unaware that Saddam Hussein was in charge of Iraq in December 2001, and in fact remained so until April 2003. Not only that, but this supposed journalistic expert on the Middle East and intelligence work appears ignorant of the fact that the Iranians hated Saddam Hussein with a vengeance for his oppression of the Shi'a in Iraq and his brutal war against them in the 1980s."

"“You aren’t safe here right now,” he said.

“I know,” I said. “The Lebanese army wouldn’t let me anywhere near the border two weeks ago. What’s going on?”

“Hezbollah is planning an operation,” he said.

“How do you know?” I said.

“We know,” he said and nodded.

I knew he was right. The Lebanese intelligence officer more or less told me the same thing. He didn’t say the threat was from Hezbollah, but he didn’t have to.

“What do you think about all this?” I said.

“We really want the Lebanese army on this border,” he said."

"Hezbollah, a collection of vastly better armed and better trained religious psychopaths [ What if we didn't cede the religious part any more -- only the psychopath part? -ed. ] with the exact same values and attitudes as the Seattle Pakistani, will simply take the opportunity to resupply and attack again. Why wouldn't they? It's what they are sworn to do and what they believe. God told them it's so.

And yet Israel is expected to stand down. After all, they are the superior "developed" nation. The grown-ups. Actually the whole thing is inherently racist on two levels at once. Jews are treated anti-Semitically (differently from other nations) and the Arabs are treated as irresponsible "Wogs", children essentially."

Our man Abe:

"Our popular government has often been called an experiment. Two points in it, our people have already settled,--the successful establishing and the successful administering of it. One still remains,--its successful maintenance against a formidable internal attempt to overthrow it. It is now for them to demonstrate to the world that those who can fairly carry an election can also suppress a rebellion; that ballots are the rightful and peaceful successors of bullets; and that when ballots have fairly and constitutionally decided, there can be no successful appeal back to bullets; that there can be no successful appeal, except to ballots themselves, at succeeding elections. Such will be a great lesson of peace; teaching men that what they cannot take by an election, neither can they take it by a war; teaching all the folly of being the beginners of a war."

"Kuntar should have been executed well over twenty years ago, not necessarily in a pleasant manner. Unfortunately, Israel does not have the death penalty except for Holocaust perpetrators, leading to consistent-hostage taking to try to win the release of the likes of Kuntar. [ WHAAAATTT??? The evil Zionist entity doesn't even have the death penalty? Well, how can you enjoy your Arab child brain sucking without the main course??? What perverse oppressors these Jooooos are! -ed. ]

In any event, Kuntar came to mind because I received an email from a reader suggesting that I try to understand things from the perspective of the supporters of the Palestinian and Party of God terrorist groups. Sorry, but while I'm reasonably well read on the radical Arab perspective, whatever someone's grievance I refuse to "understand" those who idolize cold-blooded murderers of children. [Remember the exhibit at a Palestinian university celebrating a mass terrorist murder at Sbarro's Pizza in Jerusalem?] The fact that Kuntar is a hero to the Party of God and to the Palestinian terrorist groups reveals just about all one needs to know about them."

"The International Committee of the Red Cross wants to visit the Israeli soldiers kidnapped by Hizballah. (That’s what they do. And they get very upset if they’re not allowed to do it.)

But oddly enough, the terrorist organization doesn’t seem to pay any attention to international humanitarian law: No positive response from Hezbollah on Israeli prisoners: ICRC.

Go figure."

"Lebanon's bizarre internal political structure creates mental categories in its citizens that do not and never will exist in the West. It's hard enough to understand how Lebanese think even after living there myself for a while, so I don't expect casual readers to "get" this. But there are Lebanese (I know several) who are secular and pro-American, who want peace with Israel, and who also suppport Hezbollah."

"And here, the NSA's international terrorist surveillance program was plainly legal under all federal appellate court precedents, as we've pointed out countless times. So let's get on with the criminal prosecutions."

The Leader Of The Democratic Party Says...

I don't know about you but my head would just explode if I made that set of statements even in the same lifetime, much less the same week.

""To be original means to somehow stand out from others," says one character. "Consequently, being original is to violate equality.""

"And now, wouldn’t you know it, they’ve lost track of him."

Which reminds me: Did I forget to mention that this is what Hitler said about FDR? Huge numbers of Dems say and think things indistinguishable from this virtually every day about McChimpy. What does that say about the state of "Gramscianization" of our -- and the free world's -- educational system?

"First, he incites war, then falsifies the causes, then odiously wraps himself in a cloak of Christian hypocrisy, and slowly but surely leads mankind to war, not without calling God to witness the honesty of his attack."

Today's Hojjatieh Update:

"“Arrogant powers,” Ahmadinejad said, “have set up a base for themselves to threaten and plunder nations in the region. But today, the occupier regime” – that is, Israel – “whose philosophy is based on threats, massacre and invasion, has reached its finishing line.”

Will he attempt to make good on these threats this year on the anniversary of the Miraj, illuminating the night sky over Jerusalem? Will Western powers heed Farid Ghadry’s words and move to stop Iran before it is too late?"

We didn't believe Hitler either. That time only made in into the high eight digits. I'll be impressed if we don't far exceed that this time...

"Neither the mainstream media nor Kofi Annan have mentioned it, but Hizballah has attacked UNIFIL observers twice this week. [ And those bastard Hitler Israeli doctors managed to save one of the Blue Helmeted idiot Hez target's life of course. Not that anyone would notice. Because they drank his blood during the operation of course. Oh no. Wait. Maybe they just do that with children. All these rules of paranoid schizophrenia keep confusing me. I guess I'm just a dumb ol' 'merican. Gosh. -ed. ] "

"In the end, man is not entirely guilty — he did not start history. Nor is he wholly innocent — he continues it."

"$5,385 in charitable contributions? Is he kidding?"

In a post by Ed on how the Israelis have penetrated Hez communications we find this comment:

"It also sounds like Nasrallah had to make an accounting of his actions in order to convince his men to continue their fight. Having a commander communicate an apology of this sort indicates a growing dissatisfaction with leadership in the ranks. Nasrallah so far has done nothing to convince anyone that he has a grasp of either strategy or tactics. He has proven that he has no understanding of his enemy, nor much of his putative allies in the region, almost all of whom have declined to rush to his side in this fight.

Nasrallah had better have a victory to show them soon, or he may find himself replaced with wiser counsel. "

The rumor on John Batchelor tonight was that the Iranians have taken military command already...

"Sounds like a threat to me, even if Johnson wasn't the telephone caller who said, "You're a dead man." We keep watching the left sink lower and lower, and every time we think they've hit bottom, they get worse. Here is a guy who has been an official spokesman for the Democratic Party and has been hailed as an expert on terrorism by PBS--never mind that his views were ludicrously off the mark--issuing threats of bodily harm to a little-known conservative blogger. One is tempted to say that the Democrats couldn't possibly sink lower, but somehow I suspect they will surprise us yet again."

"We are always warned about the individual narcissitic sociopaths; but most people don't appreciate the sociopathic qualities of groups, religions, nations, and ideologies that demand all individuals sacrifice themselves for the good of the latest utopian ideal or some blood-thirsty god.

In our modern world, the Islamic Jihadists have perfected this ethical demand; and the suicide-bomber is the ultimate expression of their ethics. (see the post "Union With An Evil God" and "Narcissistic Rage and Awe" for more on this)."

"A reader noticed something curious in a video from last night's "NBC Nightly News." Richard Engel, the network's Beirut bureau chief, is reporting from southern Lebanon, and at 1:07 in the video, as he's saying, "In Sidon, we found part of the financial district flattened," you briefly see an image of what look like uncut sheets of U.S. hundred-dollar bills.

Now, it's possible to buy uncut sheets from the Bureau of Engraving and Printing, at premiums ranging from 12.5% to 275% over face value--but apparently only in denominations of up to $50. Anyhow, somehow we doubt these were collectibles. [ Oh, what a giveaway! Massive counterfeiting here. A few thousand rockets there. What could there possibly be to worry about? Did I forget to mention that there's no difference between these lunatics (look up the origin of that word and then take a careful look at the banner of Islam) and a suicidally depressed Mafia with a military budget? -ed. ] "

"Rattner acknowledges that a cause of the erosion of wages at the bottom is the increased supply of unskilled immigrant workers. ("At the least, immigration certainly puts further pressure on wages of lower-income workers whose jobs the new arrivals compete for.") But he doesn't dare draw the logical conclusion--that maybe immigration should be controlled in order to raise incomes at the lower end of the labor market. That wouldn't be Democratically Correct and might inhibit Rattner's chances to one day ... I don't know, be Treasury secretary. (HT Glenn)"

"It will be a great day when Arab leaders unambiguously denounce Hezbollah as a pack of murderous terrorists. But then, it would be nice if we could count on European leaders, or Kofi Annan, to do the same. [ Ain't that the truth... -ed. ] "

"... the U.S. needs to prepare for an oil cutoff from Venezuela ..."

"All the more reason, I think, why Hezbollah should be crushed now and not left to fight again another day. And I think it's important to remember that there is no law of nature decreeing that the Muslim states of the Middle East will always be inept combatants."

"The Israelis have confirmed that Hezbollah is fighting like a professional military. Their units are fighting at the company level at the least (Unit size of approximately 100 men), and perhaps in larger formations. Intelligence also confirms there is specialization within the Hezbollah units, including trained infantry, mortar teams, missile squads, and logistical personal. Iran has trained and organized Hezbollah's army into something far more deadly than a militia force. Hezbollah's core 'active' army is estimated at 3,000 - 5,000, with as many as 50,000 part time militia and support personnel that can be called upon to fight (20,000 is the average estimate).

Intelligence sources also have confirmed that members of the Iranian Revolutionary Guards Corps have indeed been killed during the fighting in Bint Jubayl."

Today's credulous moron story...

"Where, exactly, do the Democrats stand on the NSA international terrorist surveillance program? When they're done waxing eloquent about civil liberties, do they want to continue intercepting terrorists' international communications, or not? I suspect that as a practical matter, as with a number of issues, it all depends on which party occupies the White House."

""DIPLOMACY is the art of saying 'nice doggie' while reaching for a stick." Condi is saying 'nice doggie.' Israel is the stick. One may disapprove of this strategy, but complaints that Condi isn't accomplishing anything merely indicate that the complainer doesn't know what's going on."

D'oh:

"It is quite apart from the rest of the town, but as the photo below (not Kiyam) shows, Hezbollah sometimes locates its facilities very close to UNIFIL positions. (Hat tip for the picture, Israelly Cool) This has been described as "intentional" or proof of UN collusion. However that may be, simple topography will explain why the positions are located so close together. From time immemorial the high ground has always been valuable. If the IDF take Kiyam they'll probably put an observation post there too. It's a good place to observe the action -- or direct spot the fall of Katyusha fire into the Hula Valley."

Today's Tinfoil Apocalypse Update: Understanding The Concept Of "Button"

First a little analysis of DU psychos:

"You got that? Nasrallah wanted to help the infidel Americans by attacking Israel, just so he could deflate the planned Israeli war in October (that would have been unprovoked, of course, because Hezbollah is peaceful).

How long do you suppose before this paranoid conspiracy theory travels through the nutcases at DU?"

And a commenter puts his finger on the pulse of the Tinfoil Apocalypse:

I also wonder if this kind of thing is really symptomatic of the
level of sophistication of the every day Yusseff and Omar. Are they so benighted that they will swallow this stuff? If so, we have a long haul ahead of us to reprogram these guys. My oh my.

finally I think it's interesting that no matter what any arab does it's all Israel's fault. Here we have an aggressive madman who launched an allout war and he's scrambling to find ways to blame his stupidity on the Jews.

Israel has become a convenient whipping boy for all the failings of the various despotic regimes in the region. The parallels between the arab/muslim culture and nazi germany are quite frightening.

Let me explain the Tinfoil Apocalypse another way. You don't need dispensationalism or even the book of Revelations to believe in the Apocalypse. You only need to acknowledge human stupidity and ignorance.

If you plunk down a nuke with a red detonation button on the side of it in the midst of an African rain forest filled with tribes practicing "witch doctory", any rational person would say that the only possible reason that the red button won't get pushed would be that they actually don't understand the concept of "button" enough to know to push one.

At the other end of the scale, the only reason we haven't had a nuke war with "advanced" nations like the Soviets is that their nihilism was held in check by a whisker and our control systems were barely good enough to overcome mistakes.

If you follow the evolution and migration of mankind out of Africa, to the Middle East, to Europe and Asia, and to the U.S., I have described a simplified version of the "sweep of history".

The weak link and fault line of this evolution is in the Middle East. They're smart enough to understand the concept of button but not the true import of what technologies those buttons may be attached to.

We violated the Prime Directive in the course of our search for energy by witlessly funding Islamofascism. The Arabs would be much more akin to the Africans in their wide scale impact on the world if it wasn't for this. That is to say not much.

I already referenced that Gagdad had it right the other day:

"It's pretty odd when you can be less than five years away from the nuclear bomb but more than five centuries away from the nuclear age."

"I suggested that we might contemplate doing something mean to Syria.

Oh, no, the CIA representative objected, we have no evidence to suggest that the Syrian government had anything to do with this.

I couldn’t believe it. You’re saying, then, that if a naked man walks up a hill into a house, and then comes out of the house with guns and grenades, and then kills people, the occupants of the house have no responsibility?

Exactly right.

...

Both times, we had the Syrians dead to rights. Both times, it was obvious that Syria was actively involved in the murder of innocents. And both times, people who should have known better insisted on denying the evidence.

Marx put it best. First it’s tragedy, then it’s farce."

"Israel now has the chance to destroy Hezbollah. Only time can tell what Israel will do with the opportunity it possesses. Opportunities forsaken are opportunities lost forever, as Douglas MacArthur was sometimes rumored to say. But let there be no mistake: this moment would not have been possible without the invasion of Iraq, and the destruction of Hezbollah is very much in the interest of the United States and that of any other nation that abhors terrorism. [ Did I forget to mention that those who've played poker with W say it ended badly? For them. -ed. ] "

I've never understood people who don't like seafood...

"NEW YORK -- Eating tuna or other broiled or baked fish appears to have a beneficial effect on the electrical system of the heart, which may help prevent life-threatening heart rhythm disorders, according to a new report."

Cox and Forkum nail it. (HT LGF)

His wife didn't recommend him quite a lot actually. And I wonder how much cash he had in his freezer even before all the book deals?

"Wilson’s role was acknowledged by Clinton. When he hosted a dinner for Ghana’s visiting President, Wilson and his wife, noted in the press account of the dinner as “Valerie Wilson” were among the guests. Another honored guest was Congressman William Jefferson and his daughter.

According to the SSCI Wilson made at least one other trip to Africa That was made at his wife’s suggestion for the CIA in 1999. He made the second trip there that year as part of a trade delegation."

"There's also this: "Rep. Jerrold Nadler, D-N.Y., repeatedly called the bill 'insane.'" Apparently he thinks that many of his fellow Democrats, who joined the crushing majorities in favor of this provision, are certifiable. But in fact, I think you'd have to be certifiable to oppose this legislation, unless you were from the bluest of blue-state regions."

"Although they do not having the rhymes, the sweetful beauty of your many words have bringing a tear to my eye in tender feelings. They have make me wants to leap from my bunker and sing to the Zionist Colonialist controlled world of you, my beloved. Cupid has launched his Katushka of love and splatter me with the shrapnel of your beauty. Yes, I Love You Too, Cecilia Lucas, and I offer you too a poem."

"I look forward to the day when the AP will merely reproduce the words of President Bush with the same neutrality. We also look forward to the day when the AP gets its facts right: eight Israeli soldiers were murdered in Hezbollah's cross-border raid, not three. But, hey, who's counting?"

"So it's hard to see how anyone can seriously argue that Iraq was not a threat under Saddam. The legitimate question, it seems to me, is the magnitude of the threat. I think one could legitimately argue that Iran, for example, posed a bigger threat. But once they get past "Bush lied!" hysteria, liberals have little interest in that kind of discussion. Nor, of course, do they have the slightest idea what to do about Iran."

There will be no more questions about why the Israelis feel free to attack U.N. positions:

"This might be the jawdropper of the day, as today’s report from the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon shows that they are busily repairing damaged roads in Hizballah-controlled areas—roads the IAF bombed specifically to impede Hizballah movement—right in the middle of the war."

They were against defending the country before they were against defending the country. And that goes double for Israel I suspect.

"Let's look at where liberal Democrats stand on national security. They oppose military action against hostile nations like North Korea when they are in the process of developing nuclear weapons; they oppose systems that might defend us from nuclear weapons after these hostile nation develop them; they oppose any serious effort to secure our border from terrorist infiltration and would condition even a relatively unserious effort on the granting amnesty for millions of illegals; they oppose obtaining information from terrorists through interrogation techniques that stop short of inflicting physical pain; and they even have reservations about surveillance techniques that enable us to listen-in on terrorists.

If one didn't appreciate the knee-jerk nature of their opposition to defense and national security measures, one could easily conclude that liberal Democrats have a unified strategy for not defending the country."

"In these war rooms, Hezbollah has shown some sophistication in their tactics and strategy. The Iranian-made equipment shows that Teheran has contributed both materiel and training to the Hezbollah terrorists, but that shouldn't be news to anyone. The discovery demonstrates the extent to which Nasrallah's forces rely on traditional military communications and tactics -- which makes them vulnerable to traditional military attack through overwhelming force."

Hez: Not Ready To Play Poker With W

"He said Hezbollah had expected “the usual, limited response” from Israel to the July 12 cross-border raid, in which three Israelis were killed. In the past, he said, Israeli responses to Hezbollah actions included sending commandos into Lebanon to seize Hezbollah officials or briefly targeting specific Hezbollah strongholds."

"To use a crude analogy, if someone is stupid enought to bring a knife to a gunfight, it doesn't mean that those holding the guns have a moral obligation to fight with knives instead. Proportionality demands exactly that, and it leads to nothing but longer and more destructive wars. Part of the reasons nations build strong militaries is to deter people from committing aggressive acts against them. The United States did not build the military it has just to provide "proportionate" reponse. Such a limitation would invite any tinpot dictator or kleptocrat to attack us, knowing that we would only respond in proportion to their ability to attack. It makes every fight even-up from the beginning, odds that would encourage a lot more fighting, not less. [ D'oh -ed. ] "

"and gardens from time immemorial have called irresistibly to serpents."

"The truly psychotic mind is an explosion in a paint factory. So too is the infantile mind. You can see this in interacting with an infant. They have 1) no fixed boundary between inside and out, and 2) no way to modulate their intensity. Imagine such a world, and you can imagine the parents’ role in helping their infant learn to contain and adapt to that frighteningly infinite space."

Gagdad Does The Apocalypse

I knew Gagdad would put his finger on the Tinfoil Apocalypse sooner or later:

"It's pretty odd when you can be less than five years away from the nuclear bomb but more than five centuries away from the nuclear age."

Pretty red button. What happens if I push it?

"With so much at stake, it is likely that Hezbollah foresaw Israel’s overreaction and laid out contingency plans. Its daily displays of its long-range missiles are more than empty exercises in psychological warfare. Echoing in my mind are the words of a Hezbollah official. He told me that Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s ongoing anti-Zionism, along with Iranian supreme religious leader Ali Khamenei’s affirmation that Hezbollah will never disarm, has given the movement confidence that it can “fight for months.”"

"When chaos is inevitable, it's best to learn to like it, as I advised on March 14 (How I learned to stop worrying and love chaos). Ultimately the chaos in the Middle East plays to US advantage. In the meantime, it would not hurt to print gasoline ration cards."

"Meanwhile, Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said Monday that Syria cannot be a partner to diplomatic efforts to secure an end to fighting in Lebanon and northern Israel. "Syria is not a partner to diplomatic efforts. The Syrians could earn recognition if only they weren't keeping their finger on the trigger on two fronts - in Lebanon and in Gaza," Olmert said. [ Did he forget to mention Iraq? -ed. ] "

"He added, "Iran has decided to fight the US by launching a war against Israel, which is an American [client] state of sorts, in response to the conflict over the nuclear issue. As for Syria, it wants to escape the international tribunal [for its role in the Hariri assassination.]" He asked, "Does Hassan Nasrallah have any Lebanese part when he talks about having friends in Damascus and Tehran? This insults our intelligence. As for his saying that whoever supports me deserves praise and whoever does not will be held accountable, that is a message. We received the message.""

As I've noted before, somehow land mines aren't considered a big problem when they're deployed against Americans:

"The other unexpected development was the realization that IEDs were nothing new. They had been used before, especially in Vietnam and World War II (by the Japanese in the Philippines), but with much less success. That's because Iraq was unique in ways that made the IED a widely used weapon. The primary reason for that was the inability of the Iraqi terrorist to deal with American troops head-to-head. When they tried that, Iraqi casualties were lopsided and very bad for terrorist morale. IEDs eliminated most of the risk to the attackers. The Iraqi terrorists, backed by ample supplies of Baath Party cash (stolen oil money), lots of technically adept, but unemployed (they had worked for Saddam) Sunni Arabs, and ample supplies of explosives (Saddam had bought huge amounts of munitions), it was possible to make lots of IEDs. So what if the Americans avoided 90 percent of them, the remaining ten percent still produced plenty of casualties. Attempts to repeat this use of IEDs elsewhere, like in Afghanistan, have failed. The same conditions were not present, as was the case in previous wars where IEDs showed up."

"However, the Israelis have had over six years to plan for this sort of operation. Based on past performance, you can expect some clever ideas. It's not smart to underestimate the Israelis. For example, Israel shut down the Palestinian terrorists over the last few years. The pundits had declared this to be impossible. So was the Six Day war, and the creation of Israel itself. So, before you pick a probable outcome here, check the track records of the contenders. On the other side, you have radical Islam, which has accomplished very little. Terror is the tactic of the weak, or those short of better ideas. The Palestinian leadership has a long record of bad decisions and inept performance. Hizbollah succeeded via powerful backers (Iranian cash and the Syrian army). Now the Syrians are gone, and Hizbollah is caught between angry Israelis, and Lebanese fans, most of whom (the Christians and Sunnis) are cheering on Hizbollah through clenched teeth and forced smiles."

Have you had your NYeT! today?

"The Times's disapproval of the American ambassador to the United Nations has migrated from its editorial columns to its news pages. It nevertheless places Ambassador Bolton in the company to which he belongs."

"This relief is reflected in the way Sunni Arab leaders openly praise the American presence in Iraq, and the protection this provides for the Sunni Arab community. The Shia religious leaders know that preaching open warfare against the Sunni Arabs would be like throwing kerosene on a fire. Decades of Sunni Arab tyranny has left wounds that will take generations to heal. Meanwhile, the Shia religious leaders have more practical personal considerations to worry about. While Iraq holds the primary Shia religious Shrines, those decades of Sunni oppression have allowed the Iranian clergy and religious schools to take center stage theologically. This brings up the Iranian-Arab split again. The Iraqi Shia want to work at making the Iraqi branch of Shia Islam the leading one. To that end, they don't want Iraq dominated by Iran, politically, or in terms of religion."

Yes, that's at least a flying piglet you see:

"“Consistently, from the Hezbollah heartland, my message was that Hezbollah must stop this cowardly blending ... among women and children,” he said. “I heard they were proud because they lost very few fighters and that it was the civilians bearing the brunt of this. I don’t think anyone should be proud of having many more children and women dead than armed men.”"

"The European Union slammed Israel for using “disproportionate” force in the face of Hezbollah’s copycat attack on the northern front. Perhaps EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana, on his peace mission to the area, should have rented an apartment in northern Israel and fervently prayed that a rocket didn’t land on his porch. “Israel is our enemy,” Nasrallah said last year on Al-Manar TV. “This is an aggressive, illegal, and illegitimate entity, which has no future in our land. Its destiny is manifested in our motto: ‘Death to Israel.’”

...

So at these crossroads, remember the words of Benjamin Netanyahu: “If you flee from terror, then terror continues to chase you.”"

Further thoughts on why what Hezbollah thinks is our weakness maybe isn't quite what they bargained for. Hez is apparently mimicking Japanese island defense techniques. Mostly with German WWII weapons. More on this in a later post but:

"The object of war is not to die for your country, but to make the other bastard die for his. --George Patton"

Like I've hinted at before. It's easy to identify the bastards...

Holocaust? What Holocaust? [Hizballah Threatens Genocide]

What's a little Holocaust-redux between Holocaust deniers?

"We are going to make Israel not safe for Israelis. There will be no place they are safe."

I have to admit it. I just don't know how to parse Islamic syllogisms. They have a right to slaughter us and the Israelis because we're so all powerful that we have occupied them and made their lives into hell on earth. We're the very devil incarnate with the power to match. Karl Rove is controlling their tiny little brains like rats in a maze.

The nasty, evil omnipotent West says no more misogyny. No more violent lunacy. No more pederasty. No more feudal tribalism. No more world-wide Caliphate. They gotta actually use the brain that Allah(?) gave them. Etc. Etc.

This is not acceptable to them so they're going to crush us infidels because we're the weak horse. They're going to start by re-running the Holocaust that never happened. Just look at Somalia and the Israeli withdrawl from Lebanon and Gaza. They are all powerful and will triumph.

We won't put up a fight. Because we're all weak horses like Karl Rove who knows their very thoughts before they think them and crushes them like bugs in his spare time.

If your head doesn't hurt right now you should be very, very, very afraid.

Of yourself.

And those whose heads do properly hurt ... might also have just gotten a frightening glimpse into how the minds of our local leftist Gramscian neo-Syndicalist Rovian-puppet dupes work...

Ummmm...

Or don't.

"If so, then they are victims of Nasrallah's foolishness. Nasrallah complains that no one ever started a war over the abduction of two soldiers, but sovereign nations have rarely if ever committed such an act. That's the entire point, one Nasrallah missed entirely. Hezbollah, Syria, and Iran misunderstood the Israeli withdrawal from Gaza as a surrender to Islamofascist terrorism, one of the most spectacular cases of believing one's own press in recent history. Israel pulled back so that they could treat any provocations from Gaza as acts of war and to get Jews out of the line of fire. Had they truly understood the situation, the Islamists would have known that a border raid and abduction (and the deaths of eight other soldiers) would get a singularly harsh response.

The entire interview features Nasrallah as somewhat nonplussed that the Israelis would not understand that stealing soldiers is just a bargaining tactic for Islamists. Nasrallah and Lebanon just discovered that Israelis react to acts of war by conducting a real war in return. The clueless Nasrallah had better start learning something about his enemy before provoking any further responses."

"That's the message Rice delivered to Saniora this morning. We want Lebanon to thrive, but the Lebanese government can't have it both ways. If they cannot control Hezbollah, then they will reap the consequences of Hezbollah's actions, up to and including war. (via It Shines For All)"

"Note similarities to radical Islamic turnspeak and conspiracy delusions. Note also that the left’s anti-Israel problem has gotten so bad that the [ Democrat -ed. ] financiers feel they need to respond."

You haven't figured out that there's a shootin' war with Iran yet?

"The Iranians have been doing everything short of outright invasion to destabilize our efforts in Iraq, the centerpiece of the democratization effort. Iraq’s security forces and army get a little stronger everyday, which means Iraq inches closer to self-sufficiency (in spite of the daily terrorist attacks and whispers of civil war), which means every day brings real democracy (a real challenge to their power) a little bit closer to the mullahs’ frontier. From their point of view, anyway."

"Stupid Ol'" poker player W knows full well what the sh-t is going on folks. More to come...

"Afew years back, when folks talked airily about "the Middle East peace process" and "a two-state solution," I used to say that the trouble was the Palestinians saw a two-state solution as an interim stage en route to a one-state solution. I underestimated Islamist depravity. As we now see in Gaza and southern Lebanon, any two-state solution would be an interim stage en route to a no-state solution.

In one of the most admirably straightforward of Islamist declarations, Hussein Massawi, the Hezbollah leader behind the slaughter of U.S. and French forces 20 years ago, put it this way:

"We are not fighting so that you will offer us something. We are fighting to eliminate you." [ I already linked this Steyn article but it's so good you really need to see more of it if you haven't yet. -ed. ] "

"“It could kill us and that’s it, and we did nothing to anyone,” she said. “They’re talking about the bombing in Beirut, they should see what happened in my house.”"

"Senior Fatah sources in Gaza said on Saturday Hamas is ready to accept a deal that involves freeing abducted soldier Gilad Shalit, a joint cease-fire and an end to IDF actions in the Gaza Strip. What is not clear is whether Khaled Meshal, the Hamas leader in Damascus, will sanction the Egyptian-brokered deal. [ I think hell will freeze over before Meshal approves this but who knows how this will fit into the Hojjatieh lunacy. -ed. ] "

"Right. Let’s insist on more Israeli withdrawals from occupied territory. It’s worked so well in Gaza and Lebanon."

"(IsraelNN.com) The British Broadcasting Corp. (BBC) has admitted that many of the victims of Israeli retaliation in Lebanon are terrorists and not innocent civilians. A BBC reporter said he saw Hizbullah terrorists using a private home and added, “It is difficult to quantify who is a terrorist and who is a civilian.” [ I'm shocked, just shocked! -ed. ] "

"Defenders of the ACLU will proclaim this as proof of their dedication to free speech, but that's nonsense. The ACLU does not take every case that has free-speech implications, let alone Constitutional issues. Fred Phelps could get a lawyer on his own; the ACLU and its donors have no obligation to assist him in mocking the loss of family members at funerals. The ACLU has put itself on par with these soulless freaks, and their donors should take note that their money now supports the Phelps traveling hate show."

"But Saudi-Egyptian-Jordanian opportunism on Palestine has caught up with them: It’s finally dawned on them that a strategy of consciously avoiding resolution of the “Palestinian question” has helped deliver Gaza, and Lebanon and Syria, into the hands of a regime that’s a far bigger threat to the Arab world than the Zionist Entity. Cairo and Co. grew so accustomed to whining about the Palestinian pseudo-crisis decade in decade out that it never occurred to them that they might face a real crisis one day: a Middle East dominated by an apocalyptic Iran and its local enforcers, in which Arab self-rule turns out to have been a mere interlude between the Ottoman sultans and the eternal eclipse of a Persian nuclear umbrella. The Zionists got out of Gaza and it’s now Talibanistan redux. The Zionists got out of Lebanon and the most powerful force in the country (with an ever-growing demographic advantage) are Iran’s Shia enforcers. There haven’t been any Zionists anywhere near Damascus in 60 years and Syria is in effect Iran’s first Sunni Arab prison bitch. For the other regimes in the region, Gaza, Lebanon and Syria are dead states that have risen as vampires.

Meanwhile, Kofi Annan in a remarkable display of urgency (at least when compared with Sudan, Rwanda, Congo et al.) is proposing apropos Israel and Hezbollah that U.N. peacekeepers go in, not to keep the “peace” between two sovereign states but rather between a sovereign state and a usurper terrorist gang. Contemptible as he is, the secretary-general shows a shrewd understanding of the way the world is heading: Already “non-state actors” have more sophisticated rocketry than many EU nations; if Iran has its way, its proxies will be implied nuclear powers. Maybe we should put them on the U.N. Security Council."