Category Archives: Nationhood

Kurdish Separatists: They Fight ISIS, But Threaten Statists

Federalism, Foreign Policy, Iraq, Just War, Middle East, Nationhood, States' Rights

The Turks lump together as terrorists both the Islamic State and the paramilitary wing of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party, or PKK, which is fighting ISIS. “Kurds in Iraq and Syria are among the most formidable opponents of the extremist group.” And the US agrees. Americans, after all, hate separatists. It reminds them of their lost right of secession, removed by force by Abe Lincoln. Born of a loose confederation of independent states, Americans now favor a strong, overweening central state, and they want to see the same in the tribal lands of the Middle East.

Turkey’s military has been ramping up attacks on Kurdish separatists since last month. The government decided to join the U.S.-led military campaign against Islamic State while simultaneously launching assaults on the PKK, which is listed as a terrorist organization by the U.S. and Turkey.

MORE.

HOLA, Ann Coulter!

Ann Coulter, Free Markets, IMMIGRATION, Nationhood

“HOLA, Ann Coulter!” is the current column, now on WND. An excerpt:

“Adios America” is the apropos title of Ann Coulter’s latest book. It details how mass immigration is killing America, as Bill O’Reilly would say (or still will). Adios means farewell in Spanish. Hola is the opposite. Immigration patriots bid a hearty hello to Ann Coulter, as she takes over and takes the battle to the enemy.

The big gun has arrived.

Ms. Coulter had managed to avoid the mass immigration vexation until recently. CPUKE 2013 was when she, I believe, first came out as “a single-issue voter against amnesty.” This Sally-come-lately stand, Ms. Coulter has rationalized with reference to Peter Brimelow, on whose work immigration patriots piggyback. Ann acknowledged as much during an interview with Chronicles’ Thomas Piatak. Since Brimelow had made the definitive case against the duopoly’s “plan to turn our country into a third world hellhole,” there was nothing more for her to add.

A WND reader expressed a different opinion. He writes: “Ms. Coulter is spot on but a decade late. That’s a big and calculated ‘mistake.’ Unless you recognize how politically cautious she’s been—you cannot appreciate how professionally suicidal the folks at VDARE, NumbersUSA; Michelle Malkin, Pat Buchanan and yourself have truly been all along.”

Then again, Ann herself conceded in the same interview that “Adios'” first seven chapters were a rehash. If it’s now safe to say stuff “everybody knows,” why the wait?

Like our reader, I worry that the indispensable Ann may be too late, and that we’ve passed the tipping point. For years, those of us who’ve warned about demographics have been dubbed racists. But “the D-Bomb has already dropped,” as this column noted in 2012. Demographics need not have become destiny, but they have.

Both factually and analytically exhaustive, Brimelow’s seminal “Alien Nation” remains the definitive text on centrally planned mass immigration. Peter and I are both immigrants. We came to the U.S. via Canada—and before that from countries whose national fabric is in tatters. An attachment rare among the current crop of immigrants to the American ideas of limited government and self-governance, and a recognition of the importance of the bonds that unite members of a civil society in common purpose: these prompted Peter and myself to take up the cudgels on behalf of an adopted country—America—that is still second-to-none, and an oblivious people—Americans—whose heritage is being squandered for a mess of pottage. …

… Read the rest. “HOLA, Ann Coulter!” is the current column, now on WND.

Ask #Bush Why The #IraqiMilitary Won’t Fight

Federalism, Foreign Policy, Iran, Iraq, Nationhood, Neoconservatism, Pseudo-history

“Ask Bush Why The Iraqi Military Won’t Fight” is the current column, now on Praag.org. An excerpt:

… The ineptness of the reconstituted Iraqi Army is nothing new. In 2006, then-Sen. Hillary Clinton demanded to know when the “Iraqi government and the Iraqi Army would step up to the task.” “I have heard over and over again, that the government must do this, the Iraqi Army must do that,” griped Clinton to Gen. John P. Abizaid, then top American military commander in the Middle East. “Can you offer us more than the hope that the Iraqi government and the Iraqi Army will step up to the task?”

Indeed, the War Party is in the habit of thrashing about in an ahistorical void—or creating its own reality, as warbot Karl Rove, George Bush’s muse, is notorious for saying. The neoconservative creed as disgorged by Rove deserves repeating:

“We’re an empire now, and when we act, we create our own reality. And while you’re studying that reality—judiciously, as you will—we’ll act again, creating other new realities, which you can study too, and that’s how things will sort out. We’re history’s actors … and you, all of you, will be left to just study what we do.”

The lowly “you” Rove reserved for “the reality-based community” (guilty).

Curiously, a military that has done nothing but flee before the opposition ever since the Americans commandeered Iraq, had fought and won a protracted war against Iran, under Saddam Hussein. The thing we currently call the Iraqi military has been unable and unwilling to fight the wars America commands it to fight.

Why?

For one, Bush’s envoy to Iraq, Paul Bremer, made the decision to dissolve the Iraqi Army and civil service, early in 2003, with the blessing of Bush at whose pleasure Bremer served. Bush’s minions viewed the dissolution of the Iraqi Army as part of the “De-Ba’thification” process. …

… Another dynamic is at play in the region besides the Sunni-Shia divide. It is that between the forces of centralization and the forces of decentralization. …

Read the rest. “Ask Bush Why The Iraqi Military Won’t Fight” is now on Praag.org

Defense Secretary #AshtonCarter’s #Iraq No-Brainer

Iran, Iraq, John McCain, Military, Nationhood, Pseudo-history, Republicans

John McCain will be rising on his hind legs when he hears what US Defense Secretary Ashton Carter has just said. The rest of the War Party will be irate too–even more so than the Iraqi prime minister was (who is he these days? Ah: Haider al-AbadiIt)

What Defense Secretary Carter said is a no-brainer, really; such observations were routine when Bush 43 began swinging the wrecking ball in Iraq. But the War Party is ahistoric—the War party-line is to continue duping ditto-heads into believing that the sorry state of Iraq is Obama’s doing. Not on my watch (having been in the position to witness and document the last 13 years, summed up last week in “Iraq Liars & Deniers: we knew then what we know now”).

So what did Carter say this Memorial Day weekend (a timing armchair warrior Mark Levin is sure to mention)?

Carter said “the rout of Iraqi forces at the city of Ramadi showed they lacked the will to fight against Islamic State. Mr Carter told CNN’s State of the Union the Iraqis ‘vastly outnumbered’ the IS forces but chose to withdraw.” Via BBC News

“What apparently happened is the Iraqi forces just showed no will to fight. They were not outnumbered. In fact, they vastly outnumbered the opposing force.”
Describing the situation as “very concerning”, he added: “We can give them training, we can give them equipment – we obviously can’t give them the will to fight.”

In 2006 , the Hildebeest demanded to know when the “Iraqi government and the Iraqi Army would step up to the task?” “I have heard over and over again, ‘the government must do this, the Iraqi Army must do that’,” warbot Clinton complained (and I documented) to Gen. John P. Abizaid, then top American military commander in the Middle East. “Can you offer us more than the hope that the Iraqi government and the Iraqi Army will step up to the task?”

Watch Mrs. Clinton feign amnesia about that TODAY.

Since the 2003 invasion, the Iraqi military has fled before the opposition, whoever that was. The thing we call the Iraqi military has been unable and/or unwilling to fight the wars America wishes it to fight. It did, however, fight and win a war against Iran under Saddam.