September 1, 2010
Obama's End of Combat Operations in Iraq Speech
From late 2006 on, I covered the Iraq War pretty intently here at Redhunter. I watched and blogged on every press briefing by one of our combat commanders. I listened carefully to what they said, and whether it contradicted what I'd read in the news elsewhere. I paid a lot of attention to the questions the reporters asked, and where they challenged our commanders and where they did not. I read all sorts of analytical pieces, and not too long ago wrote an extensive book review of Kimberly Kagan's The Surge: A Military History. See Iraq and Book Reviews under Categories at right.
None of this makes me an authority on Iraq, but I did pay attention to what was going on.
Last night President Obama gave a major speech marking the end of U.S. combat operations in Iraq.
Photo and transcript, Los Angeles Times
I don't have time to do an exhaustive review of the address, but following are some excerpts and my thoughts.
The President:
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August 28, 2010
A Test Question for Muslims: "Is Hamas a Terrorist Organization?
Imam Dawoud Kringle of the New York State prison system is portrayed as a "moderate," and mouths all the politically correct things about how Islam and terror are incompatible, indeed how Islam forbids terror. Yet when asked whether Hamas as terrorist organization, he wouldn't give a direct answer. Start watching at 3:00
Hamas has been designated a terrorist organization by the U.S. State Department, and has been on the list for years. If you're not familiar, "Hamas" is an acronym for Ḥarakat al-Muqāwamat al-Islāmiyyah, which means "Islamic Resistance Movement", and they are the Palestinian terrorist group that has control of Gaza. In January of 2006 they won a majority of seats in the Palestinian Parliament in their parliamentary elections, but that wasn't good enough. Fighting broke out between them and their rival Fatah, and by June 2007 they had defeated Fatah in Gaza and controlled it. They're basically a bunch of murderous thugs.
So whatever one thinks of Israeli policy or the fate of the Palestinians on the West Bank (Judea and Samaria) or Gaza, it should not be too hard to call Hamas organization and to condemn them outright Yet some Muslims cannot, and all too often these are the same people who mouth all the right pieties about how much they oppose terror. Like the Imam in the video above, they sound all very fine when talking about terror in the abstract, but ask them to condemn any Muslim terror organization other than al Qaeda and suddenly they get tongue tied.
There are some genuine reform-minded Muslims who reject all this, and I've profiled them here at Redhunter; search in "Islam" under "categories" at right.
But so many will not call Hamas, or for that matter Hezbollah, terrorist organizations. Why not?
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August 25, 2010
Reform Muslims, not Moderates, are the Answer
I've long pushed for us to embrace reform-minded Islam over simply "moderate" Islam. As such, those who search the category "Islam" at right will be rewarded with many posts on the subject.
The difference between moderate and reform Islam is pretty straightforward. Moderate Islam sees terror and extremism (as in Hamas) as big problems, but denies that Islam itself has anything to do with it and that the religion has simply been hijacked by a few extremists. Reform Islam says that the problem is that Islam needs the sort of Reformation and Enlightenment that the West experienced several centuries ago.
Unfortunately, far too many in the West do not see this distinction. They are infatuated with moderate Islam and do not see the need for any deeper intellectual or academic debate within the religion. While I understand that this is due to the standard pandering that comes with political correctness, I've always thought it odd coming from people whose way of life was formed by the great reform movements that took place in the West.
In a recent column Andy McCarthy wrote about how moderate Islam is not the answer because it ignores some realities of Islam:
Inventing Moderate Islam
It can't be done without confronting mainstream Islam and its sharia agenda.
August 24, 2010 4:00 A.M.
'Secularism can never enjoy a general acceptance in an Islamic society." The writer was not one of those sulfurous Islamophobes decried by CAIR and the professional Left. Quite the opposite: It was Sheikh Yusuf al-Qaradawi, the Muslim Brotherhood's spiritual guide and a favorite of the Saudi royal family. He made this assertion in his book, How the Imported Solutions Disastrously Affected Our Ummah, an excerpt of which was published by the Saudi Gazette just a couple of months ago.This was Qaradawi the "progressive" Muslim intellectual, much loved by Georgetown University's burgeoning Islamic-studies programs. Like Harvard, Georgetown has been purchased into submission by tens of millions of Saudi petrodollars. In its resulting ardor to put Americans at ease about Islam, the university somehow manages to look beyond Qaradawi's fatwas calling for the killing of American troops in Iraq and for suicide bombings in Israel. Qaradawi, they tell us, is a "moderate." In fact, as Robert Spencer quips, if you were to say Islam and secularism cannot co-exist, John Esposito, Georgetown's apologist-in-chief, would call you an Islamophobe; but when Qaradawi says it, no problem -- according to Esposito, he's a "reformist."
And he's not just any reformist. Another Qaradawi fan, Feisal Rauf, the similarly "moderate" imam behind the Ground Zero mosque project, tells us Qaradawi is also "the most well-known legal authority in the whole Muslim world today."
...
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August 22, 2010
Tanks in Action!
Today we'll take a break from the usual subjects for something completely different. This past weekend the American Wartime Museum in Prince William County, Virginia held an open house, and yours truly went to see the exhibits. I'd never heard of them before, but a few weeks ago I got an unsolicited email from them about the upcoming open house. The email didn't really make it clear what they had to show, but did make mention of tanks and military reenactors. I didn't have any pressing business on Saturday, and although I wasn't quite sure what to expect, or if it would turn out to be any good, I decided to go and take a look. It was about an hours drive, which made me a bit wary in case it was totally bogus, but on the other hand the event was free so if I didn't like it I could still salvage most of the day.
It turned out much better than I expected. Whoever owns this private museum has done a good job of gathering military hardware from around the world.
Imagine my surprise at seeing this Swedish S-Tank, or Stridsvagn 103 (Strv 103). I'd expected a few WWII vehicles and some Cold War stuff, but certainly not this unique turret-less tank. It employed a complex hydraulic system to make minute adjustments in elevating the tracks and adjusting the suspension. It's not in service anymore, but it was the mainstay of the Swedish Army during the latter half of the Cold War.
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August 19, 2010
Nancy Pelosi to Bring Back House Un-American Affairs Committee
So Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi says that "There is no question that there is a concerted effort to make this a political issue by some, and I join those who have called for looking into how is this opposition to the mosque (is) being funded."
And just as Obama had to "clarify" his remarks on the Cordoba House "Ground Zero mosque" after they raised a stink, the Speaker had to "clarify" a few days later, insisting that no, she did not mean to say that she wanted a congressional inquiry." Like, you know, the House Un-American Affairs Committee.
Worse, she evidently forgot that some rather prominent Democrats have come out against the mosque, such as former governor of Vermont and DNC Chairman Howard Dean and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid. Oops.
This sort of kookery, dear reader, is one reason why the Democrats are going to lose big this November. It's bad enough that they ram through unpopular legislation after a smorgasbord of deal-making that would make even Bismark wince, but they have incompetent leaders to boot.
Don't get me wrong; the GOP has had it share of nincompoops in charge as well. Speaker of the House Denny Haskert and Chair of the RNC Michael Steele come to mind, as does Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott. But the Democrats are the ones in charge now, and it is they who will be held to account.
How is it that Pelosi can say something so obviously stupid and wrong?
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August 18, 2010
Obama's Post-American Moment
Last Friday, at the White House Ramadan Dinner President Obama endorsed the plan.
"Ground zero is, indeed, hallowed ground," Obama said at a White House dinner celebrating the Muslim holiday of Ramadan. "But let me be clear: As a citizen and as president, I believe that Muslims have the same right to practice their religion as anyone else in this country. That includes the right to build a place of worship and a community center on private property in lower Manhattan, in accordance with local laws and ordinances."
Then on Saturday he flipped again
But on Saturday, Obama seemed to contradict himself, telling reporters at one point, "I was not commenting and I will not comment on the wisdom of making the decision to put a mosque there. I was commenting very specifically on the right people have that dates back to our founding. That's what our country is about. And I think it's very important, as difficult as some of these issues are, that we stay focused on who we are as a people and what our values are all about."Unfortunately for the President, the New York Times has the scoop in a story last Friday:
Aides to Mr. Obama say privately that he has always felt strongly about the proposed community center and mosque, but the White House did not want to weigh in until local authorities made a decision on the proposal, planned for two blocks from the site of the Sept. 11 attack on the World Trade Center.At best this is yet another example of how Obama is now out of touch with the American people. At worst is shows that he really is a post-American president. Sadly, I'm inclined toward the latter view.
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Reagan v Today's Democrats
"Those Voices Don't Speak for the Rest of Us"Continue reading "Reagan v Today's Democrats"
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August 15, 2010
Book Review - While Europe Slept: How Radical Islam is Destroying the West from Within
I had to remind myself many times while reading this book that Bruce Bawer is not a conservative, let along a "neo-conservative," and most likely voted for Barack Obama. A writer by profession and proponent of gay marriage, and the rest of the gay agenda, he positively despises the Christian right. Indeed, he left the United States to live in Europe precisely because of what he calls "Protestant fundamentalism."
Born in 1956 and raised in New York, he decided that he could know America better if he had something to compare it to, and the only way to get that was to go and live abroad for a number of years. What turned him off about America attracted him to Europe. He saw them as more tolerant, secular, and accepting of his gay lifestyle. He also wanted to learn more languages, and it's clear throughout the book that Bawer is one to whom learning a new language comes fairly easily.
He left America for Amsterdam in 1998 expecting to find a continent that had all of the left-liberal social values that America didn't. What he found instead shocked him into writing this book. Modern liberal Europe, he discovered, is on the verge of being destroyed by radical Islam.
While Europe Slept: How Radical Islam is Destroying the West from Within, was published in 2006, so I'm several years behind in reading it. It wasn't that I hadn't heard of it, but rather just that there was just always another book that seemed a bit more important. I'd heard so much about Bawer and his influential book that I always intended to get around to reading it, so last year I put it on my Christmas list, and being only available in paperback it was easy for my relatives to pick up as a cheap extra. The reason it's taken me until August was that there was another half-dozen books on that list too.
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August 14, 2010
To Shop or Not to Shop at Target?
This is insane for so many reasons:
Target Apologizes for Donation to Conservative Candidate
AOLNews
ST. PAUL, Minn. (Aug. 6) -- The head of Target Corp. apologized Thursday over a political donation to a business group backing a conservative Republican for Minnesota governor, which angered some employees and sparked talk of a customer boycott.Target CEO Gregg Steinhafel wrote employees to say the discount retailer was "genuinely sorry" over the way a $150,000 contribution to MN Forward donation played out. Steinhafel said Target would set up a review process for future political donations.
MN Forward is running TV ads supporting Republican Tom Emmer, an outspoken conservative opposed to same-sex marriage and other gay-rights initiatives that have come before Minnesota's Legislature.
Steinhafel said the contribution from the corporate treasury to a political effort, which until this year wasn't allowed, was designed to support Emmer's stance on economic issues. Ads run by the group were focused on budget policy, not social issues.
But wait, it gets worse:
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August 9, 2010
NotSailing Into the Yellow Sea
On the Meaning and Importance of Freedom of the SeasA few weeks ago the navies of the United States and South Korea (Republic of Korea) conducted naval exercises in the Sea of Japan. This was in response to the sinking of the ROKS Cheonan by a torpedo fired from a North Korean(Democratic People's Republic of Korea) Yeono class miniature submarine. The centerpiece of the U.S. forces that engaged in the exercises was the U.S.S George Washington, a Nimitz-class aircraft carrier.
The purpose of the exercise was to send a message to the DPRK that they are messing with a superior force that has the capability to destroy them. It was as much a show of force as it was a chance the the navies to practice fighting battles.
But the message may have been lost, or at least muddled. South Korea wanted to hold the exercises in the Yellow Sea, but China objected. According to this story at Fox News, "at the last minute, word came from the exercises would happen east of South Korea (and well east of China) in the Sea of Japan. U.S. officials denied to us there was any cave-in to Beijing."
Sure.
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