John Quincy Adams on Islam

America, Feminism, Islam, Terrorism

“John Quincy Adams, founding father, sixth president of the United States, looks over your shoulder at the morning newspaper and contrasts the two opposing spiritual forces between which war must rage for yet another generation. While his language may offend today’s postmodern sensibilities, it is the vernacular of the men who loved Christ and cherished freedom—the mighty men who secured our liberty.”

John Quincy Adams on Islam:

“In the seventh century of the Christian era a wandering Arab, of the lineage of Hagar, the Egyptian, combining the powers of transcendent genius with the preternatural energy of a fanatic and the fraudulent spirit of an impostor, proclaimed himself as a messenger from Heaven, and spread desolation and delusion over an extensive portion of the earth. Adopting, from the sublime conception of the Mosaic law, the doctrine of one omnipotent God, he connected indissolubly with it the audacious falsehood, that he was himself his prophet and apostle. Adopting, from the new revelation of Jesus, the faith and hope of immortal life, and of future retribution, he humbled it to the dust by adapting all the rewards and sanctions of his religion to the gratification of the sexual passion. He poisoned the sources of human felicity at the fountain, by degrading the condition of the female sex, and the allowance of polygamy; and he declared undistinguishing and exterminating war as a part of his religion against all the rest of mankind. The essence of his doctrine was violence and lust; to exalt the brutal over the spiritual part of human nature.
Between these two religions, thus contrasted in their characters, a war of more than twelve hundred years has already raged. That war is yet flagrant; nor can it cease but by the extincture of that imposture, which has been permitted by Providence to prolong the degeneracy of man. While the merciless and dissolute are encouraged to furnish motives to human action, there never can be peace on earth and good will toward men. The hand of Ishmael will be against every man, and every man’s hand against him.”

As I am praising the prescient and the politically incorrect, here’s a shout out to a group of Muslim apostates, or ex-Muslims, that runs the website Islam Watch, heroes all.

Iraq: The Only Way Forward

Economy, Energy, Iran, Iraq, Middle East, Military, Socialism

Two of the seven soldiers who wrote a controversial New-York Times op-ed, “critical of some elements of the war just last month,” have died in Iraq. “Among the column’s statements: ‘In short, we operate in a bewildering context of determined enemies and questionable allies, one where the balance of forces on the ground remains entirely unclear.’”

In an interview with Jim Lehrer yesterday (as the cable cretins were babbling about O. J. Simpson), Secretary of Defense Robert Gates, amidst many obfuscations, brought himself to agree with Lehrer that “the casualty rates among American troops are about now what they were a year ago.”

Readers ask what I think ought to be done about Iraq. If the analysis in the column “The Petraeus-Crocker Crock“ is correct, as many of you have conceded, then the conclusions ought to follow closely.

We are powerless to do a thing about “the religious animus between Shia and Sunni that dates back to AD 680.” If anything, we are solely responsible for inflaming the vendetta by removing Saddam, the strongman that kept the lid on the cauldron of depravity that has now boiled over because of the invasion. Our soldiers can continue to serve as sacrificial lambs, giving their lives futilely in order to separate the warring sides. What on earth for? Cui bono?

As mentioned in the column—a no-brainer really—the American occupation is the other flame accelerator. Our presence there is contributing to the chaos. The Iraqis in all their factions hate our collective guts. Those who know the culture and have lived in the Middle East understand that the exquisite politeness with which Anbaris, for example, are treating their new-found American friends masks a cold hatred. Americans are naïve about the people they keep messing with. Michael Ware, the hardnosed reporter who has lived in the region for years, gets the unromantic, unvarnished picture exactly right:

“[W]e have to be careful about what we hear Iraqis say when we’re surrounded by American soldiers. If we’re on an embed and we’re dealing with these Iraqi forces, they’re going to be very careful in what they say, because their American paymasters essentially are standing around. We need to talk to these groups in their undiluted state. We were with those groups, not with Americans. And, to be honest, I have known many of these organizations for years. They hate al Qaeda, no problem. That’s a shared American agenda. They are vehemently anti-Iranian, which also makes them vehemently anti-Maliki government. They believe this is essentially Iranian influence. So, no, they don’t want to work with this central government. And this central government is working with them under great sufferance, being forced by the U.S.”

In other words, what they say is not what they are thinking and scheming.
As to what will transpire once we withdraw, listen to Ware’s words, when asked for his overall impression of the president’s imbecilic speech:

“Well, … my first impression is, wow. I mean, it’s one thing to return to the status quo, to the situation we had nine months ago, with 130,000 U.S. troops stuck here for the foreseeable future. It’s another thing to perpetuate the myth. I mean, I won’t go into detail, like the president’s characterizations of the Iraqi government as an ally, or that the people of Anbar, who support the Sunni insurgency, asked America for help, or to address this picture of a Baghdad that exists only in the president’s mind.”

Ware expounds on Bush’s parallel universe:

“Let me just refer to this, what the president said, that, if America were to be driven out of Iraq, extremists of all strains would be emboldened. They are now. Al Qaeda could gain new recruits and new sanctuaries. They have that now. Iran would benefit from the chaos and be encouraged in its efforts to gain nuclear weapons and dominate the region. It is now. Iraq would face a humanitarian crisis. It does now. And that we would leave our children a far more dangerous world. That’s happening now.” (Emphasis added)

It’s done. We broke it. Since the actions taken by Bush to improve Iraq caused it to break, it follows that no amount of further “improvements” will do anything but break the place some more. We are incapable of fixing it because of what we did (The Original Sin of invasion, if you will), who we are (invaders and aggressors), what we wrought (destroy the place), and what we symbolize (invaders who destroyed Iraq).

How difficult is it for readers of this space to follow this simple logic/drift? Expressions such as the road to hell is paved with good intentions, or the idea that you can kill with kindness—these all go to illustrate that it is quite possible to do evil while firmly believing you are doing good. Americans refuse to accept this because they cannot seem to see things from the perspective of the people they insist on “helping.” It’s a pathology–terminally self-righteous–to only see one side, and believe that that is the totality of the reality at hand.

The only way out is to withdraw completely. If readers intend to repeat that Iraq will then fall into chaos, please, at least do me the courtesy of reading (above) Ware again (in my opinion one of the finest reporters in the field). Iraq is in chaos. It may in fact improve once we remove our imperious boots from the Iraqi backs.

After withdrawing, we must work out a system of reparations for individual Iraqis. Of the logistics I’m not clear, but it is the right thing to do for individuals whose country and future we’ve destroyed. Next, instead of threatening Syria, one of two countries that has taken in millions of refugees of our creation, Americans need to assist the refugees in Syria and Jordan with private funds. These nations are housing the millions displaced by our actions. How dumb is it to threaten them? Do we seek to bomb the Iraqi refugees again, now that they’ve fled to Jordan and Syria?

Once we leave, some Saddam-like strongman will fill the power vacuum left. Will there be massacres? Sure; just like there are now. (We should have thought about that before the invasion. Or our revered leaders, and the masses that blindly fell behind them, ought to have read about Tony Blair’s philosophical forerunner, Gertrude Bell, and what happened to the British in Iraq circa 1920. When Americans invaded Iraq, they didn’t know Shiite from Shinola.)

We had it good with Saddam because he was secular, an enemy of fundamentalist Islam. Can we have back what, in our folly, we fouled up? No. The dictator to emerge from the ruins of Iraq will impose Sharia, pray to the hidden Imam, and compel women to walk about in black nose bags.

Let this be a cautionary tale. Hopefully we’ve learned our lesson. But the idea that we can rehabilitate what we ruined is delusional—a function of a collective mindset that rejects reality and its lessons.

I can hear the shrieks, “Iran; Iraq will belong to Iran. The nukes, the oil, omigod, blah, blah, blah.” Oh for heaven’s sake, get a grip. We delivered Iraq to Iran. Live with it or continue to be bled bit-by-bit by an insurgency that is way stronger than we are. We can wipe Iraq and Iran off the map with one of our nukes. The idea that the new Shia axis is a threat to us is not a serious one. Israel has more to fear, of course. Not America. Israel will have to figure out how to neutralize Iran’s arsenal.

Oil independence? I can never understand the protectionist, bellyaching about oil independence. Has anyone heard of trade? Perhaps if we traded more with Iran, instead of boycotting their wares, they’d be less belligerent. Trade is the best antidote to war. Think clearly: Iran has to sell its oil. That’s its livelihood. We need to buy it. Voila! Trade! Oil independence is a foolish leftist notion. Do I grow carrots in my backyard so as to become less dependent on Costco? Why would I? Costco needs to sell its fabulous produce; I want to buy it. Case closed. The idea of oil independence belongs with the global warming wombats.

Over and out.

The Hue of Hatred I

Africa, Crime, Criminal Injustice, Race, Racism

1 Reply

The popular press has been filled with the gory details of an assault by some WHITE trailer trash on a 20-year-old BLACK woman, as the newsmen and women diligently disclosed. She was confined “for about a week at their mobile home, where she was tortured, sexually assaulted and forced to eat rat droppings.” The evidence for the so-called hate crime charge is insufficient, say the authorities.

The words “black” and “white” were nowhere apparent in the malpracticing media’s reports when “on January 6th, 2007 a double murder was committed in Knoxville that would make Dirty Harry throw up”:

“On that night, 21-year-old Channon Christian, and her boyfriend, 23-year-old Hugh Christopher Newsom were carjacked in Knoxville by three thugs. Their attackers were sadly not satisfied with the Toyota 4-Runner that they commandeered at gunpoint. They kidnapped the young couple and took them to the house where one of the perps lived. They were joined by a fourth man and a woman. They proceeded to commit the stomach-churning crimes.

All four men are charged with the anal rape of Christopher Newsom. They did so in the presence of Channon Christian. They then shot him to death, wrapped him in bedding, soaked him in gasoline and set him on fire. He was the lucky one.

Channon Christian was a senior at the University of Tennessee. According to the charges and a source close to the investigation, she was repeatedly gang raped by the four men — vaginally, anally and orally. Before she died, her murderers poured a household cleaner down her throat, apparently in an effort to kill the DNA they had placed there. She was left to die, either from the bleeding caused ‘by the tearing,’ or from asphyxiation. Knoxville officials won’t say.

It was several days before the police found her body. She had been stuffed into a garbage can in the house. According to a story posted on the WATE T.V. News web site, she was, ‘in five separate dark trash bags.’

The four men and the woman were eventually arrested. They are all black. Christian and Newsom were white. Two of the murderers had prior felony convictions…”

Who hates who is amply evident from the numbers, expertly exposed by Pat Buchanan:

“[I]n ‘The Color of Crime: Race, Crime and Justice in America,’ produced by the ‘right-leaning’ New Century Foundation in 2005, using the same FBI and Justice surveys, startling facts emerge:

—‘Blacks commit more violent crime against whites than against other blacks.’ Forty-five percent of the victims of violent crime by blacks are white folks, 43 percent are black, 10 percent are Hispanic.

—Blacks are seven times as likely as people of other races to commit murder, eight times more likely to commit robbery and three times more likely to use a gun in a crime.

—‘Blacks are an estimated 39 times more likely to commit violent crime against a white person than vice versa, and 136 times more likely to commit robbery.’ (If decent black folks have trouble hailing a cab, and they do, these numbers may help explain it.)

—Black-on-white rape is 115 times more common than the reverse.

Even the two most famous sexual assaults by white men on black women in the last two decades—the Tawana Brawley and Duke rape cases—turned out to be hoaxes.

What do these statistics tell us? A message the Post will not report. The real repository of racism in America—manifest in violent interracial assault, rape and murder—is to be found not in the white community, but the African-American community. In almost all interracial attacks, whites are the victims, not the victimizers.”

The Iraq Crock

Iraq, Military, War

You know what I think about the tactical wanking war proponents are now engaging in. Even if we accept (I don’t) Petraeus’ much-disputed claim that the so-called surge is “working,” it has to be clear that force is a limited weapon against a cause with unlimited recruits; it cuts back on the number of insurgents by killing lots; it doesn’t eliminate the cause fueling the insurgency. Brute force will temporarily curtail sectarian strife, but it will do nothing to snuff out the religious animus between Shia and Sunni that has been brewing since 680 CE.

In short, anything we do, at most, will have quantitative—not qualitative—effects. If the Iraq war were not so tragic for the wretched Iraqis and for US soldiers, it would be, well, boring. There is nothing to add to the original analysis: what you have here is more doomed central planning.

Jim Michaels, of USA TODAY, has gone to the trouble of contrasting four views on the Iraq situation. Knock yourself out:

A series of reports measuring progress in Iraq were commissioned prior to Congress hearing from Gen. David Petraeus, the top U.S. commander in Iraq, and Ryan Crocker, the U.S. ambassador. Here’s where the reports agree or diverge on key issues:

TRIBAL RECONCILIATION: A growing number of Sunni tribes have begun cooperating with U.S. and Iraqi forces and are turning on al-Qaeda. The trend started in Anbar province, dominated by Sunnis, west of the capital, and there are signs it is spreading. VIOLENCE LEVELS: The U.S. military uses a variety of measurements to track the level of violence in Iraq, including the number of attacks on U.S. and Iraqi forces, sectarian killings and al-Qaeda-style bombings. NATIONAL RECONCILIATION: Iraq’s government, led by Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, has made little progress on legislation aimed at reducing sectarian warfare. MILITIAS: Shiite militias have infiltrated Iraqi security forces, enjoyed political protection from the Shiite-dominated government and, according to the U.S. military, are being trained and equipped by Iran. There are about 80,000 Shiite militia fighters in Iraq. IRAQI SECURITY FORCES: Iraq has 346,000 trained and equipped security forces, including armed forces and police. They have shown more of a willingness to fight than in the past, but they required varying levels of U.S. support. Militia infiltration, particularly among police, remains a problem.

Petraeus- Crocker testimony: “In what may be the most significant development of the past eight months, the tribal rejection of al-Qaeda that started in Anbar province and helped produce such significant change there, has now spread to a number of other locations as well,” Petraeus said. “Though the improvements have been uneven across Iraq, the overall number of security incidents in Iraq has declined in eight of the past 12 weeks, with the number of incidents in the last two weeks at the lowest levels seen since June 2006,” Petraeus said. “Iraq’s leaders have the will to tackle the country’s pressing problems, although it will take longer than we originally anticipated because of the environment and the gravity of the issues before them,” Crocker said. “Prime Minister Maliki and other Iraqi leaders face enormous obstacles in their efforts to govern effectively.” “We have… disrupted Shiite militia extremists, capturing the head and numerous other leaders of the Iranian-supported special groups, along with a senior Lebanese Hezbollah operative supporting Iran’s activities in Iraq,” Petraeus said. “Iraqi security forces have … continued to grow and to shoulder more of the load, albeit slowly and amid continuing concerns about the sectarian tendencies of some elements in their ranks,” Petraeus said. “In general, however, Iraqi elements have been standing and fighting and sustaining tough losses, and they have taken the lead in operations in many areas.”

National Intelligence Estimate Consensus of U.S. intelligence community as of Aug. 23, 2007: “Sunni Arab resistance to AQI (al-Qaeda in Iraq) has expanded in the last six to nine months but has not yet translated into broad Sunni Arab support for the Iraqi government or widespread willingness to work with the Shia,” the report says. “The steep escalation of rates of violence has been checked for now, and overall attack levels across Iraq have fallen during seven of the last nine weeks,” the report says. The report also says violence remains high. Rivalries within the ruling Shiite groups will likely intensify. The Sunnis, who dominated Iraq under former president Saddam Hussein, are “politically fragmented” and their leaders are unable to engage in dialogue or deliver on promises. “Militia and insurgent influences continue to undermine the reliability of some (Iraqi security force) units, and political interference in security operations continues to undermine coalition and (Iraqi security force) efforts.” Iraqi security forces which work closely with American troops have performed “adequately,” but they are not capable of conducting major operations without U.S. support. They remain dependent on American forces for logistics and other support.

Independent Commission on the Security Forces of Iraq Requested by Congress and headed by James Jones, a retired four-star Marine Corps general: “Though these new Sunni allies have yet to earn the complete trust of the government of Iraq — and vice versa — they have dramatically improved the security situation in Anbar province, providing coalition forces with valuable intelligence leading to the captures of top al-Qaeda in Iraq leaders.” The report says the number of sectarian killings and overall violence has decreased. “While these numbers may simply reflect the decision of many of the Shia militias to maintain a low profile during the coalition-led surge, there are signs of improvements in the security situation in Baghdad,” the report says. The “single most important event that could immediately and favorably affect Iraq’s direction and security is political reconciliation focused on ending sectarian violence and hatred.” “Militia members who join the (Iraqi security forces) often remain loyal to their local militia, and may take part in sectarian ‘extracurricular’ activities.” Maliki is “perceived by many” to have set up a separate chain of command to interfere in military operations, potentially targeting Sunni insurgents while protecting some Shiite militia leaders. The report cites “uneven” progress but says the Iraqi security forces won’t be capable of functioning independently for another 12 to 18 months. The National Police, a paramilitary unit under Iraq’s Interior Ministry, is so rife with sectarian bias it should be disbanded.

Government Accountability Office report Congress’ investigative arm looks at the 18 benchmarks established by Congress and President Bush to measure progress in Iraq: The report referred to the NIE’s conclusions about tribal reconciliation. The report says it could not determine if sectarian violence was down. It noted that overall violence had declined between June and July but remained high. “The Iraqi government has not fulfilled commitments it first made in June 2006 to advance legislative, security and economic measures that would promote national reconciliation among Iraq’s warring factions.” The Iraqi government fully met only one of the 8 “benchmarks” established by Congress to measure political reconciliation. Overall, three of the 18 benchmarks were fully met. “Militia control over security forces has not been eliminated and remains a serious problem in Baghdad and other areas of Iraq.” The report said annual attrition rates are between 15% and 18% for the Iraqi army and between 20% and 22% for the police. It said the Iraq’s logistics systems are “immature” and Iraq’s military and police are dependent on American support. Corruption and sectarian biases hamper progress in the security forces, the report says.