21 Comments

Alireza:

It is amazing that after billions and billions of dollars spent on this war; a simple biometric ID system with a simple database could not be integrated and used… Wait a minute, I think I know why!

You see, developing such a system as these two mentioned could not take much time and money. And that is the main problem! Given the level of corruption, incompetence and “hire-only-Republicans-no-matter-how-INCOMPETENT” people for Iraq would indeed lead to this shameful phase.

And I predict situation is much worse than not having a simple ID system in place. I remember after Iranian revolution, Iranian regime was doing the same filtering to hire people that they ALL believed in Islamic Republic values and they pray five times a day and so many other nonsense. And I’m sure Mr. Ledeen is going to write it is sin to compare these two similar filterings!

So in ID system issue problem is: there is not much money to be made on this system, no matter how many lives on both sides could be saved.

Yes, Iran is a CORRUPT country, but after 9/11 and looking into some of the hirings and not hiring places in U.S., from TSA to Homeland Sec., who you know and NOT what you know opens the door to positions and jobs. The very corrupt Islamic Republic, according to American papers was able to get the Kabul TV running in less than a week!
And I’m sure they did it with fraction of the cost that U.S. companies wanted to charge American taxpayers.

Yet, I get a dizzy feeling when I learn the VP, the former big shot at Halliburton is now VP of U.S. I say to myself: this is how great America is that an oilman could become a VP. But then I get seasick when I watch him talking tough to Iran in Persian Gulf, just few miles away from his former employer Halliburton doing business in Iranian oil fields! And then I learn the same “American” company moving its HQ to Dubai! Analyze this!

While back NOW public TV was interviewing someone from the DoD and basically they were saying there is $1 Trillion that the DoD auditors cannot find ANY trace of it, as to how it was spent!! No, not $1 Billion but $1 Trillion!

Now when you look into Paul Bremer conduct and that the GAO could not find billions of dollars during his time in Iraq, then it is not hard to know why an ID system could not be implemented.

I also learned that Israelis developed some kind of defensive system for tanks and patrols that could be used in Iraq and could track bad guys and kill them in seconds. BUT even Israelis were not able to get piece of DoD action! Why? Because Army had another deal with a U.S. company that still was in R&D phase!!!

When you add all these up and then multiply it by 10, no wonder why U.S. has screwed up so much and everyday it is getting worse.

It is easy to keep saying: “democracy”, “freedom”, “human right”, “freedom of choice” and then somehow the populations keep getting shafted day after day after day. So the root cause goes back to this: money, money and lots of money and more money! Faster please!

Jun 16, 2007 - 6:45 pm Winston:

I like Bing West’s articles at National Review magazine…

Jun 16, 2007 - 9:39 pm Alexis:

I think the principal reason for the incompetence of America’s leadership is the polarization of our citizenry. That is, we are split between those who oppose the war effort entirely and those who support our war leaders no matter how incompetent they show themselves to be. I’ve noticed that every time congressmen are more interested in scoring cheap political points than maintaining rigorous oversight and rooting out corruption, corruption mushrooms.

Let’s not forget that “Give ‘Em Hell Harry” ran the Senate Special Committee to Investigate the National Defense Program (The Truman Committee) and made him name in politics investigating war profiteering. What national leader now is there to lead frustrated Americans who genuinely desire victory, and yet are scandalized by the massive waste and incompetence of America’s efforts in Iraq thus far?

Jun 16, 2007 - 11:23 pm Kourosh:

Americans military have now a great opportunity to show American care for humanity. I think we now have opportunity to defeat at least some Islamists using their social services tactics. Of course here I am talking about defeating Hamas the terrorist organization supported by Khomeinists. US must provide humanitarian support to Gaza people at the borders with Israelis and Egyptian cooperation’s. The Food and medicine should be distributed by Palestinians who are not in bed with Hamas in Gaza while Hamas is being boycotted by all legitimate governments in the area.

BTW—Please try to distinguish between Arab and Persian culture. As a refreshing example and to show how advance Persian were in ancient history compare to Arabs who still don’t wear pants, Pajama is a word with its origin is Persian (leg wear):
“The word originally derives from the Persian word پايجامه Payjama meaning “leg garment.”

Happy Fathers Day to all.

Jun 17, 2007 - 10:35 am Dan:

This incompetent administration mightily contributed to the polarization that many now decry.

From the beginning of the conflict, the President refused to identify the war for what it was. He chose instead a hopelessly vague term, which did nothing but trigger more dispute about the war, about our enemies, about the nature and scope of our response.

Professor Ledeen had it right ab initio, it was a war against the terror masters.

Those masters are to be found in Riyadh, Tehran and Damascus.

Naturally then, those were three addresses that we should have paid a little visit to, in one way or another. Making our will known. Making our wrath clear. Making our power felt.

Had we embarked on Professor Ledeen’s proposed course of action soon after 9/11, the regime in Tehran would have been overthrown years ago, probably in Bush’s first term. Syria would be isolated, easy pickings for a cocky and confident America.

But instead, we’ve been forced to endure these pusillanimous travelings of various Cabinet members and diplomats.

In the foreign ministries of the world, in the chancelleries of the region, it’s clear, Bush is losing, America is losing.

THAT is the major cause of American polarization.

Americans would be rallying to a winner. Even the Democrats would be reluctant to distance themselves from a foreign policy of tested wisdom, demonstrated strength.

When Bush was winning, clearly winning, forcing the terror masters onto the defensive, his popularity was sky high.

But he delivered operational, tactical and strategic initiative over to Tehran. Ever since we took down Baghdad, we’ve been on the defensive, militarily, culturally, economically and diplomatically.

And there is a term for all of this, for allowing initiative to flow over to Tehran.

The term is INCOMPETENCY!

This guy doesn’t know how to wage war.

His staff doesn’t know how to wage war.

They don’t even want to wage war.

You have to want it. MacArthur WANTED to hammer the enemy. Likewise Patton, likewise Lee. Nelson, Marlborough, Wellington, all the great commanders and leaders, Clemenceau, Churchill, they all had one thing in common, and that was a thirst to destroy their enemies.

No one in this administration wants to pound America’s enemies.

And what happened in Afghanistan and Iraq doesn’t come near settling the blood debt that exists between us and the terror masters.

George Walker Bush doesn’t know how to explain himself. Increasingly, he doesn’t even bother trying.

His staff too shares in this communicative cluelessness.

A quick summation of the situation in the White House.

They don’t know who the enemy is.

Thus they can’t identify the enemy for the American people and the West.

They can’t formulate successful policy to defeat that enemy, in as much as they don’t know who he is.

This strategic vacuum at the heart of our war effort, naturally found reflection in the national discussions about that war effort. Resulting in incoherence, diplomatic, political, cultural and of course, strategic.

There’s a vast hole at the center of our war effort.

During the Second World War, American high command always defined something as the overall strategic objective. That practice at first puzzled our British cousins. Only later, did they appreciate the wisdom of establishing first, an overall strategic objective.

If you asked this administration: “What is your overall strategic objective in regards to the Persian Gulf, or in regards to our energy situation, or in regards to our enemy, or in regards to the region, or in regard to islam,” you would not get an answer. Rather, you would get hazy generalizations about the wonders of democracy, the wonders of the free market and the transformative powers of “liberty.” Liberty in quotation marks for using the term “liberty” when referring to states with the shariaa in their body of jurisprudence, is at least a stretch, if not a mockery of the term.

Professor Ledeen has tried to provide an OVERALL strategic clarity to our war effort.

For his troubles, he’s been mocked, derided, branded a war-monger, and other assorted nasty descriptives.

He’s made very little headway with this administration.

This administration makes a show of listening to Bernard Lewis, but when he said after 9/11 that the USA had two choices: “Either get tough or get out,” this administration has done neither.

Muslim states that sponsor mayhem and jihadism have not received a brutal tutorial.

Nor has the United States withdrawn from the region, allowing states therein to sort affairs out on their own.

As usual with Bush, he’s chosen a middle ground. But this time, he’s chosen ground that others know to be “no man’s land.”

The Professor is frustrated.

I’m livid.

Others are appalled.

Still others irritated and confused.

Few, few are happy.

But those few are likely to be found in the Bureau of Near East Affairs and the Central Intelligence Agency.

In the major policy disputes about the nature of our enemies, the course of this war, the tenor of American diplomacy, they’ve won. Those that subscribe to the Arab narrative have won.

And that means America has lost.

And now it only remains for us to see how great that loss will be.

ML:

Actually I think everyone is losing at the moment. We’ll see in a few months.

And while I’m of course flattered that you say I was right from the start, don’t forget that Bush was right from the start too. He was the one who first said we were at war with a network of terrorists and states that supported them, and that we would not distinguish between the two. States that supported terrorists (the states that I called the terror masters) would be targeted just as the terrorists.

Then there was a disconnect; the policy was marvelously enunciated but was not carried out. That’s the mystery of George W Bush.

Jun 17, 2007 - 11:06 pm Mundus611:

Except when it comes to Israel, i.e. the Six Day War.

Jun 18, 2007 - 5:18 am Mundus611:

I should have said, except in the case of Israel does the author’s saying apply.The world’s obsession with Israel to delegitimize its continuing sovereignty and nationhood, persists upon denying it its victories.It is crazy and dangerous, because our enemies are the same, and the enemies’ perceptions of our actions and what we continuously demand Israel do
serves their purposes to destroy -annihilate-Israel and the 6 million Jews, plus Christians, Muslims, Druze, Armenians,etc.Precedents are set through these policies in the minds of the Arabs/Muslims/Islamofascists that undermine our success as well.
It is true, many Israelis are tired of war, and wanted to believe Oslo, and that unilateral disengagements would work.However, NO POLICY WILL ACHIEVE PEACE UNLESS IT IS BASED ON REALITIES. To call Abu Mazen , the head of Fatah, a moderate is to continue the policies and thinking behind Oslo.Mazen was Arafat’s right hand man.He wrote a PhD dissertation denying the Holocaust. He has been behind the continuing terror attacks of the last several years. He has taken the funds Rice demanded he be given and
they are no where to be found.Fayyad is NOT much better.
Nothing will improve until we look at realities and cease this fairytale diplomacy.It’s as thin as gossamer, and the realities are transparent.
In conclusion and on point of Mr.Ledeen’s comment, check Nobel recipient, Professor Aumann’s piece in Ynetnews.com.He is the individual who
formulated Game Theory, and he says,
to win a war, one must be prepared to kill and be killed, so no one is killed.He says the Israelis must resolve their loss of will to be victorious and achieve peace.You could substitute ‘Americans’ and ‘Europeans’ for ‘Israelis’ in many of the sentences.

Jun 18, 2007 - 5:53 am Azad Andish - Tehran:

Mr Bush and his bright brilliant administration have proved in action that they are not the people who can uproot terrorism and terrorist regimes.
On the contrary they have been quite successful in uprooting mullahs of Iran’s enemies in the region and bestowing the power in Iraq to them. I don’t know why they have not bestowed the power in Afghanistan to mullahs of Iran yet. Maybe this delay is the outcome of some red tape procedures in the US administration but I am sure it will be corrected soon.
Bush et al have been the heroes of avoiding confrontation with mullahs ( whatever they do and whoever they kill and wherever they destroy ) and in a few months time will outstrip Jack Straw, Solana, Chirac and other European heroes. The only difference between Mr Bush and the European heads of states is that they have earned hundreds of billion dollars by being friends of mullahs ( even a peanut like Al Baredei has been receiving his share in cash ) but Mr Bush is destroying hundreds of billion dollars of the US tax payers
as well as the bloods of their sons
in vain.
As an Iranian living in Iran who once portrayed and believed in Mr Bush as a LIBERTADOR I woulk like to honestly and quite seriously tell you that I am sick to see how the top politicians of a superpower can be so dumb, perplexed, mentally retarded and gutless. We have lost hope in you and understand how paralyzed you are but be brave enough and leave Iraq to at least save the lives of your soldiers. A US with such mentality cannot do anything in Iraq but losing money and lives of the Americans. Mr Bush can also send Ms Rice ( or Powell or any other “politicians” ) in Islamic hijab to kiss Khamenei’s hands in Tehran and beg him to slow down the rate of killing Americans before the US leaves the whole middle east. She can also ask him to wipe Israel off the globe at a later stage. Khamenei will generously accept a once-superpower’s request.

Jun 19, 2007 - 6:35 am MarcH:

ML - I have a comment regarding the title of this post.

I’ve read that you have a son who is serving proudly as an officer with USMC. I salute you for raising such a son but let’s not forget that it’s the Army, Navy, Marines, Air Force, and Coast Guard (along with help from our buddies in other government agencies) who are fighting the war.

Micahel Yon has an excellent piece today at NRO (http://article.nationalreview.com/?q=NWE3YTQ4ZjkzZjMyM2NkMWRlMDgyYjVlMGEzYjJmMGU=)on the current U.S./Coalition Forces offensive in the belts around Baghdad. The show is led by the U.S. Army but it’s a joint forces operation. I’m sure that the USMC is also involved or heavily engaged elsewhere (good luck even trying to keep the jarheads out out of the sandbox;-))

Jun 19, 2007 - 2:00 pm Dan:

We shouldn’t be focused too much on the word, the concept of “terror.”

Rather we should focus on the word, the concept of “jihad.”

If we try to uproot terror, we’ll fail.

If we bring the entirety of our power to bare and seek to sever jihad from islam, then we’ll succeed.

The more ambitious our path, the more audacious our plan, the more successful we’ll be.

Don’t try to minimize the region wide, culture wide impact of our war effort.

We shouldn’t be trying to narrow our actions to Iraq and Afghanistan.

The problem that confronts the whole world is the link between jihad and islam.

And if I had anything to do with it, we would have already delivered so ferocious a blow to the body of islam, that it would have already jettisoned any connection it had to jihad.

We must insist on a complete repudiation of jihad, not just for now, but for always. Not just by several muslims, but by all.

This task is enormous.

So much so, that many will do anything to dodge it.

But it can’t be dodged.

We’ve as much chance dodging it as did the people of Spain dodging their fight for the control of their homeland.

Whether we want it or not, it’s upon us.

ML:

So what to do? How do you separate Jihad from Islam?

Jun 19, 2007 - 7:32 pm Yaacov Ben Moshe:

The most effective way to distinguish between “Jihad and Islam” is The Caliphate. Jihad is too slippery a word, subject to taqqiya- it can be “interpreted” as a personal quest for enlightenment etc. The Caliphate is exact and specific. As I have written in my blog, “It is the underlying assumption of those who believe in The Caliphate that the entire world should live under Muslim rule and Shari’a law and you can only be a good Muslim if you believe in bringing it about.”
Belief in The Caliphate should be the universal litmus test of who is really a moderate Muslim and who is not. My full presentation on this can be found at http://breathofthebeast.blogspot.com/2007/03/new-name-for-beast.html

Jun 20, 2007 - 6:53 am kourosh:

And Carter is in Ireland puffing and Huffing nonsense again.

Here is the answer to the ignorant and uneducated Carter:

http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1181813077590&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull

To Carter Stoning, beheading, arrest and torture of 000s of students, women apartheid by Islamists and Khomeinists mean nothing. He has his small brain set on election. Somebody must tell him Saddam got 99% of the vote, Khomienie got 98% of the vote, Ahmadinejad got 67% of the vote, and Hitler got 73% of the vote. What is important is not the number of the vote by Hamas under special and devastating conditions, but what these murderous entities preach. Is the number of vote justifies anti-civilization, and anti-democratic ideologies of these Khomeinists and Islamists animal.

Carter is actually against humanity, since due to his inability to understand real issues and due to his masked religious beliefs; he caused all catastrophes that exist now as the result of Khomeinism and Islamism. Exactly the same way that Lenin and Stalin are responsible for mass murdering of the people around the world as a result of anti-human Marxism ideology, and Hitler is responsible for murdering millions of innocent people and all killed in WWII. I put Carter in the same league as Stalin, and Hitler, based on their contributions to human catastrophes and in the second tier of the same chart are Saddam, Khomeinie, OBL, and Kim of NK.

Jun 20, 2007 - 9:18 am Azad Andish _ Tehran:

Dear Dr Ledeen,

Today I saw the following image in
Mr Hadi Khorsandi’s website. He is a very well-known Iranian political-social humourist who was forced to leave Iran after revolution and lives in London now. He is an active ani-Islamofascist regime of mullahs of Iran.
http://www.asgharagha.com/archives/001634.php

The title for the image is :
“The US cannot do a damn thing” ( except negotiations)
The quotation, as you may remember,
is Khomeini’s during his 444-day hostage taking.

The image really depicts our disappointments with what the US administration is doing.

Jun 20, 2007 - 3:51 pm kourosh:

While American boys and girls are trying to defend civilization, the backward Khomeinists and Islamist Talibans are busy conducting their acts of murdering people and creating crisis on daily bases. Now the crisis is around granting a title to Sir Salman Rushdi, who deserves the title more than anyone among the 950 who received the title. Why you ask? Because Khomeinie issued a Fatwa (Junk decree that has no legitimacy whatsoever, and was not used and had no value even if it was used before Khomeinie in Iran at all and BBC made it a legitimate issue like it is of important value) for his head making his daily living a hell.

Note: Please note when Khomeinie and some other terrorists were send to exile in 1964, no Ayatoole issued fatwa anywhere. So Fatwa which was used by Mohammad and certain Khalafa in dark ages, was not used as much until Khomeinie established his murderous regime in Iran.

Of course you have noticed among all backward Islamists in the world, only two countries which are non-Arab (Islamic Republic of Terrorists occupying Iran, and Talibans of Pakistan) who are conducting daily routine of backward oriented demonstration. Of course in both countries normal human being are not participating, but only those that are brain washed enough by Talibanism and Khomeinism (both are actually the same)theories or are agents of darkness like Hez-Bol-Ah agents in Iran (they are called Lebas Shakhsi- Meaning agents who wear human cloths not of Mullahs or Baseji).

Now why it is important to note that only forces of darkness in Pakistan and Iran demonstrate against the Queen. Because people in those countries are non Arabs, therefore have no clues about real meaning of Quran to compare it with what Sir Rushdi has written. Therefore demonstrators are coming to the street because somebody either told them so or paid them to do so. They will continue this routine until few packages of allied darkness in Arabic countries join. Just watch and see what will happens in this regards in Arabic countries over the next few days. Remember despite the claim by BBC which said Muslims around the world have expressed their unhappiness about this issue, no one has reported anything from Arabic countries yet.

Jun 20, 2007 - 8:49 pm Lonely in Kabul:

To ML: Arab oil dictators are currently throwing their hats into the bomb Iran ring. Why are the long term implications of this unsettling convergence of interests being discounted?

Saudis clearly spend excess oil revenues on killing US soldiers in Iraq and elsewhere. It seems that resultant oil price spikes from an attack on Iran are exactly what these oil dictators are bargaining for. The attrition against the military strength of their historical adversary would seem to be the icing on the cake.

Contrary to the disgusting Persian, i.e. Aryan, supremacism that is evident in Kourosh’s post, Iran is not what it used to be. Pakistan, a key Arab ally, is at least twenty years ahead of the supposedly “advanced” Iranian nation in the nuclear race.

The Marxist-Islamist regime in Tehran is a paper tiger. Seize their oil fields, destroy their refineries, and it’s over. The Arab OPEC kingpins are actually much more of a long term menace.

To Dan: Totally preposterous. Anyone with even the most cursory understanding of the Quran knows that jihad is a core concept of Islam.

Jun 21, 2007 - 12:29 pm Alireza:

Very positive news I just read is that long lines of fuel for cars have been created in Tehran and there is discussion of new embargo on fuel imports to Iran. If this squeeze REALLY extends its scope and trend, I think Ahmadinejad will lose his ability to do anything. The more squeeze on them the better result we’ll see.

As one Iranian newspaper said, it is bringing back the whole feel and tension of 1977 pre-revolution era to Tehran, while people stay in long lines for fuel.

The next phase is hopefully seeing more strikes here and there, and soon a tsunami will develop. That is why this regime is SO SCARED of any nano sign of strike/demonstration that could be expanded, since they know slogans from asking higher salaries will turn to Khamenei and mullahs must go and then asking for referendum.

So they know creating such momentum will lead to more coming protests and demonstrations.

Now what could go against this and make this regime to last for another 20-25 years? A military attack by U.S. or Israel or both. Or simply just talking about it.

I might be too suspicious, but I’ve noticed whenever this regime starts to get weak from the inside and wanting to exercise more people’s power, ALL OF A SUDDEN I hear so and so minister in Israel in an interview saying: if we attack Iran, it’ll be done in the early morning hours, so we can see our targets better, and we will use at least 5000 Lb. bombs!!!

And then I hear Bush keeps putting the Iran military attack on the table…then somewhat off the table…then on the table… on….off…..on..off.

Few hours later you see the tiny and short Ahmadinejad looks and APPEARS as tall as Shaquille O’Neal waving his hands showing wiping Israel off the Google map. But in silence he keeps thanking Israel and U.S. for giving him his weekly dose of national-steroid injection into his fragile buttock.

If you don’t believe me, go back to archived news of last year or so, and you’ll see this pattern over and over. Soon after these pleasantry exchanges, a new wave of arrests of students and NGO starts.

Oh and I forgot to mention that STUPID $75 million going AGAINST Iranian democracy. This $75 million funding has so far damaged more than $1billion of many works that NGOs and individuals and students have done in Iran.

Now what is one of the results of this funding? Haleh Esfandiari goes to Evin! I bet Ahmadinjead and associates are praying hard for another $50 million funding news release, so they can go and arrest more people!

Jun 21, 2007 - 5:58 pm Alireza:

It sounds like Lonely in Kabul’s loneness has really impacted his thinking. He said “The Marxist-Islamist regime in Tehran is a paper tiger. Seize their oil fields, destroy their refineries, and it’s over.”

I mean you make it sounds like going to Grenada with Love Boat! You are so smart and so imaginative that you call Iranian regime “Marxist-Islamist regime”. That alone means most probably Bush is secretly a Green Party member and Dr. Ledeen is a Democrat while getting paid from American Enterprise and Saddam Hussein was indeed a true Lincoln Republican! And indeed U.S. is winning the war in Iraq and all the insurgents are Democrats and possibly Independents! Should I keep going?

Now as far as Rushdi becoming a “Sir”, I think what he wrote is fine and he has gone through hell for a book that so many Muslim have not even read a page of it.

On the other hand, I think what Britain has done has to do with the timing of it. I think both sides desire and thirsty to keep each other’s support base excited and motivated to challenge and counter challenge.

If Ahmadinejad was not saying those stupid things against Israel, then Israel could not have the ammunition to counter react with some of the other things, and then in return Ahmadinejad could not have an excited support base and allowing him to go against so many freedom seeker in Iran. So you see, both sides are helping one another, and I’m writing this for the record that I refuse to be one of those suckers to get into this manipulation.

Sir Rushdi episode is no different than Israel plans to attack Iran and keep saying it at times that Ahmadinejad and his gang need it. You see, it is a political eco-system—you scratch my back and I scratch your back. You say f..k your country or religion, and that’ll get more funding for me against you, and then I say I plan to f… you, and then you go and get rid of those you want to get rid of. This new way of politics is much more advance than 1984 book.

Challenge: What we need to do is to use our imagination and come up what will be the next week/month episode, like wiping off the map, Sir Rushdi or do they move to something newer to make each side jumpy and ready to fire up.

Jun 21, 2007 - 7:31 pm Dan:

Well we’ll just have to find a way to make a core concept, very much a non-core concept, now won’t we.

The Japanese, upon a time, used to worship the Emperor.

They don’t anymore, now do they?

But Professor, to answer your question directly, would take a bit of elaboration.

And right now, I’m up to my neck in this battle against the insane immigration bill.

But I will give you three brief points that I’ve been mulling over for the last couple of years.

The first is Professor Victor Davis Hanson’s book, THE SOUL OF BATTLE. Therein Professor Hanson describes the transformative impact that democratic armies can have upon society.

The second is a simple historical observation. Every major capitol of the world has at one time known foreign occupation. Moscow was visited by the Mongols and the French. Paris knew the Prussians. London didn’t quite know occupation, but at least knew serious, prolonged bombardment. Washington was torched by our British cousins. Peking was occupied by the Mongols, {they got around a lot…}, and others. Tokyo we occupied. Berlin, we got there too. So every major capital of the world has experienced a visitation of foreign armies. EXCEPT MECCA, EXCEPT MEDINA, EXCEPT the Hejaz. Muslim armies have been there, but never non-muslim.

Now give a thought to what kind of divine validation, divine confirmation of the authenticity of islam that ordinary muslims take from that simple historical fact. Id est, the historical fact that Allah has not allowed the Hejaz to be occupied by those, “less than apes and pigs.” While that same God has seen fit to ordain the sack of Constantinople, and the occasional sacking of Rome. I think all of us VASTLY underestimate the importance of the Hejaz. And I’m beginning to suspect that islam itself could not survive, as Christianity has, the occupation of its major and formative “holy” sites.

Lastly, when we Americans have gone to war, what’s worked for us, and what hasn’t? Let’s just go down a list. Korea didn’t. The consequences of failing to unify Korea then we’re still dealing with today. We all know that Vietnam went South on us. The Great War, where we allowed Germany to escape serious occupation, when Pershing urged such occupation, only led to a much greater conflict within a single generation. As Marshal Foch presciently observed: “This isn’t peace, it’s an armistices for twenty years.” Those were the wars that didn’t work for us. Even the first Gulf War, where we were determined to avoid any post-conflict entanglements, only laid the groundwork for our subsequent involvement in that region.

Now ask yourself which wars actually went well for the United States. Our Civil War, where the North sent Sherman to make Georgia “howl.” And the Second World War. Where we were determined to put an end once and for all to the German fascination with all things military.

In the Second World War, we didn’t merely set out to prevail, we set out to FOREVER alter the mindset of Japan and Germany.

That’s what Dresden was all about. That’s what the Tokyo firebombings were all about. And a score of other cities we laid waste.

Now a maxim of war is never reinforce failure.

But we have, now haven’t we. The policies of Korea we sought to replicate in Southeast Asia. We managed a draw in Korea, but we couldn’t garner such a stalemate in Southeast Asia. And the hearts and minds campaign of ‘Nam, that got us nowhere, we now seem intent upon repeating in the heart of Arabia.

What worked for us?

What didn’t?

Discard failure.

Embrace success.

Jun 22, 2007 - 4:16 am Lonely in Kabul:

To Alireza: Thank you for that absolutely incoherent set of analogies. As you know, Marxists were instrumental in overthrowing the Shah. The IRI bears more resemblance to Cuba than any neighboring country except Syria, which is titularly Socialist.

To Dan: Good luck with that. You obviously have no concept of what Shintoism is. What exactly do you think Japanese people practice today?

Of course you don’t really have a concept of what Islam is either. Core precepts like jihad have their foundation in the Torah. Undermining jihad means undermining Judaism, you wouldn’t be the first person to try.

Exodus 32:27 And he said unto them, Thus saith Jehovah, the God of Israel, Put ye every man his sword upon his thigh, and go to and fro from gate to gate throughout the camp, and slay every man his brother, and every man his companion, and every man his neighbor.

Don’t believe me? Go consult the Rambam.

Jun 22, 2007 - 1:36 pm kourosh:

It is obvious that Khomeinists are desperately seeking a deal like N.Korean. It would be ashamed and back stabbing Iranian people of course if the West try to make a deal with Khomeinists as most of the people now believe they would.

As usual the Khomeinists fill the airwaves with misinformation or double talks. A guy comes in the morning and deny few hours late. Here are the reports:

“ISNA quoted Pourmohammadi as saying “right now, 3,000 of the (centrifuge) machines have been operational and more than 100 kilograms (220 pounds) of enriched uranium has been ready and stored.”

Then few hours later:

“The Interior Ministry later issued a statement denying Pourmohammadi made the comments reported by ISNA. The minister “only spoke about Iran’s nuclear achievements and he did not mention an amount of enriched uranium and the number of installed centrifuges,”.

The excuse of the European media in dealing with the news out of Iran is that there are different factions in Iran. However, everybody knows there is only one Supreene thing that has the ultimate saying in everything.

Jun 22, 2007 - 1:52 pm joe:

It’s now on a sticker:

http://www.cafepress.com/snarkytruth

Aug 19, 2008 - 7:40 pm

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