US taxpayers underwriting the Taliban to the tune of $2.16Billion

Am I the only one around here who sees the utter nonsense in our being in Afghanistan at all if we aren't there to kill people and blow things up? Nation building, hearts and minds, and all that crap in a God-forsaken shit-hole with corrupt, drug-addled, 11th century tribesmen? Are you kidding me?

From Yahoo.com -- US government funds earmarked ostensibly to promote business in Afghanistan have landed in Taliban hands under a $2.16 billion transportation contract, The Washington Post has reported.

Citing the results of a year-long military-led investigation, the newspaper said US and Afghan efforts to address the problem have been slow, and all eight of the trucking firms involved remain on US payroll.

Moreover, the Pentagon extended the contract for six months last March, the report said.

The investigation found "documented, credible evidence ... of involvement in a criminal enterprise or support for the enemy" by four of the eight prime contractors, the paper noted.

If Congress would wipe out half the fraud, waste, and abuse associated with foreign aid alone, we'd be easily out of the financial hole in which we currently find ourselves. Good grief!

Obama sides with the Palestinian terrorists

President Obama sent a chill through Israel yesterday when he called for a "two-state solution" to the Palestinian problem. He called for a return to the pre-1967 borders by which Israel would have to give up the Golan Heights on the border with Syria and the West Bank which borders on Jordan. They've already handed the Gaza Strip over to the miserable Palestinians who promptly converted it from a thriving, productive region into a desert ghetto and launching pad for violence against Israeli civilians.

The details are disputed, but in 1967 Israel launched a preemptive attack on Syria, Jordan, and Egypt, capturing the territories above as well as the Sinai Peninsula. This effectively displaced 300,000 Palestinians and that, not to mention the very existence of Israel itself, is the source of the hostilities today. Arab countries in the middle east, the UN, and liberals in America have no love for the Palestinians, but they are a handy club with which to pummel the "Zionist state".

The silly land-for-peace agreements have never solved anything, and they never will. The Palestinians and other middle east countries will never be happy with the existence of Israel, so no amount of land concessions by Israel will result in peace....period.

Obama knows this but as a liberal and Muslim sympathizer, he reflexively sides with Palestinians against Israel, mostly because Israel is supported by the US. Obama was raised to detest what he views as the US's colonial influence around the world. I think this explains his demand that Israel cede all that land to the Palestinians. He wants badly to diminish America's influence around the world because he sees the US as bad.

Netanyahu should just sit tight and procrastinate until Obama is out of office, hopefully in two years. Giving up all that land won't solve anything. It'll just encourage the Palestinians to demand still more.

Uh oh.....Egypt and Iran are teaming up

Who didn't see this coming?

From WSJ -- CAIRO—Iran and Egypt's new government signaled Monday they were moving quickly to thaw decades of frosty relations, worrying the U.S., Israel and Saudi Arabia that the overtures could upset the Mideast's fragile balance of power.

Iran said it appointed an ambassador to Egypt for the first time since the two sides froze diplomatic relations more than three decades ago.

Can we finally, once and for all, stop sending billions in aid to Egypt? By embracing a relationship with Iran, Egypt no longer qualifies for aid from the US taxpayer. But I'm sure they'll enjoy our continued charity and handouts as they plot with the likes of Achmadinejad to harm us.

We want Europe to play a leading role, now let them do it

Every time there's a dust-up around the world and the US rides, Lone Ranger style, to the rescue once again, every body whines that the Europeans don't pitch in and do their part. Or better yet, they rightly point out that the Europeans never handle trouble in their own back yard and the Americans have to come handle what should be Europe's business.

Over the weekend, France and Great Britain, both with very capable, modern militaries, pounced on the chance to take the fight to Qaddafi in Libya. Now, Obama is being criticized for the US's intentions to take a back seat in the fighting. Obama deserves criticism for a lot of things, but letting Europe handle Qaddafi while we play a supporting role is not one of them.

Just because there's some shooting and killing to be done, doesn't meant the US has to be the king-daddy deliverer of it all the time.

Does the US have a Libyan responsibility?

With Qaddafi's military trouncing the rebels all over the country and about to deal the death blow to them, Arab nations all over the middle east as well as Great Britain and France are calling for a no-fly zone to be established over Libya. Obviously, they want the Americans to do it....everybody always wants the Americans to do their dirty work.

I would argue that we have no responsibility to get militarily involved in the Libyan civil war, if that's what it turns into. First, if it's such an emergency, why aren't France, England, and other Arab nations preventing the Libyan air force from bombing civilians? They all have state-of-the-art air craft and could easily intimidate pathetic Libyan pilots.

Second, the US cannot afford to expend valuable blood and treasure entangled in yet another middle-east misadventure. Let them sort it out for themselves.

Lastly, why should be rescue a country whose citizens cheered the triumphant repatriation of the Lockerbie bomber? It was only a short six months ago that they partied in the streets of Tripoli when the man responsible for 270 deaths tricked his way out of a British prison. They don't deserve our help.

If England and France are so upset about Qaddafi murdering thousands of his own citizens, for once, let them do the heavy lifting. They are right there, whereas we have to project force half way around the world.

Why are Iraqis demonstrating?

Why are the Iraqis agitating against their government?

From Yahoo -- Protesters chant anti-Iraqi government slogans during a protest at Tahrir Square in Baghdad, Iraq, Friday, Feb. 25, 2011. Hundreds of demonstrators converged on central Baghdad as part of an anti-government rally inspired by uprisings across the Middle East and dubbed the 'Day of Rage.

Did we or did we not just set up for them a representative democracy? Iraq has the form of government already that the rest of the middle east is clamoring for. Or is it that they just want to get in on the protests?

I think this just goes to show that, with the exception of Israel, the primitive cultures across the middle east cannot appreciate the complexity, delicacy, and effort it takes to sustain a functioning representative democracy. The government we set up will fall and our efforts there will have been for nothing.

Heh heh....Moammar Gadhafi has epic face-palm as he loses his country

Despotic Lybian dictator Moammar Gadhafi experiences an epic face-palm as he realizes that his tyrannical rule has probably come to an end. Reform-minded protesters have seized the second largest city, Benghazi, and are laying siege to the capital, Tripoli, despite being shot and maybe bombed by the Lybian military. There are reports, though denied, that Venezuelan thug Hugo Chavez had invited him to come hang out there in exile. Where else is he going to go? Two peas in a pod.

If Lybia falls this quickly, it will embolden reformers throughout the middle east to press on against their own state bondage. The only thing more satisfying than Gadhafi spending the rest of his short life in exile half way around the world, would be if the protesters could arrest him and let him rot in a Lybian prison until he mercifully dies.

The rapidly changing face of the middle east

TRR readers, familiarize yourselves with this map. This is where most of the news will be coming from for a while and it's useful to know the geography of the region while reading or watching the reports of revolution.

                                         Click to enlarge

Today, the Bahrain citizens are staging an uprising to demand fairer treatement from their government. The population is comprised of a Shiite majority which is ruled by a Sunni monarchy. But the Shiite/Sunni difference isn't what they're demonstrating about. They, like their Egyptian counterparts, want government reforms and looser restrictions on the media and internet.

I don't think this is a religious uprising, thankfully, but the Muslim Brotherhood or a Taliban-type group could get a foot hold if allowed to. That this is the "home" of the US Navy's 5th Fleet is troubling if fundamentalists get some form of political influence. I doubt the ruling monarchy would allow any of it's power to be taken, though it might give some up to appease the demonstrators....and that would be a good thing.

Anyway, keep your eye on the quickly-developing news and maps of the region. Oil, shipping lanes, Islamic fundamentalism, anti-Zionist sentiment, US military presence, and the peoples' desire for representative democratic reforms to their governments all will play a role in the rapidly changing face of the middle east.

Can a representative democracy thrive in the middle east?

Some journalists are crediting Condi Rice's 2005 speech at Cairo University for the current political upheaval in Tunisia, Egypt, and Yemen. In that speech she said.....

"For 60 years, the United States pursued stability at the expense of democracy in the Middle East -- and we achieved neither, now we are taking a different course. We are supporting the democratic aspirations of all people."

I can see where the Tunisian students and other youth may have been emboldened by that speech to affect change in their country. Now the Arab countries are toppling like dominoes as their angry, disenfranchised youth take to the streets to demand government overthrow in what's been called the first Facebook/Twitter revolutions.

Egypt receives more US foreign aid(in the billions each year) than any country but Israel, and we can debate the wisdom of giving billions of taxpayer dollars to Egypt and Israel, but in my opinion I'd rather that money go to support the most democratic, honest and open, representative governments that foster an environment of economic liberty guided by the rule of law. I realize those types of governments in the middle east are less stable with the rabble-rousing, Muslim hordes constantly agitating the citizenry against the government, but I'd rather give representative democracy a chance than consciously underwrite a quasi-dictatorship because it's more stable. But that's just me.

Hezbollah officially takes control of Lebanon

The terrorist organization Hezbollah, heavily financed by Iran, just completed their political coup-de-tat in Lebanon, sparking violent demonstrations by opposition supporters, and have installed their Sunni stooge as prime minister....

From NYTimes -- After days of political wrangling, the candidate supported by Hezbollah and its allies, Najib Miqati, a billionaire and former prime minister, won 68 seats in Lebanon’s 128-member parliament, enough to name the next government in a country as divided as it is diverse. His elevation was a clear victory for Hezbollah, which has ruled out Mr. Hariri’s return to power, and was the culmination of what was already accepted as a fact of life here: that Hezbollah is the country’s pre-eminent military and political force.

It has been widely reported that Hezbollah operatives intimidated and threatened anybody who would oppose them. I wonder if Obama will continue to funnel 100's of millions in taxpayer dollars to Lebanon now that terrorists officially run the joint? As long as he's promising to cut spending, might as well start by stopping all aid to Lebanon and cutting of all funding of UN operations. That would be a good start.

There are those(I'm talking to you Glen) who would suggest that we stop all aid to Israel too. It may surprise you to find that I would support a gradual draw down of financial support of Israel as they build up their economy toward independence. 60 or so years of underwriting care of US taxpayers is probably enough already. On the other hand, we'd need to balance the money savings with the likelihood of an attack by the Arab community that would wipe Israel off the map. Is that an acceptable eventuality in the 21st Century?

My opinion is that Israel needs to stand economically more on her own but we should always make sure her enemies know that she enjoys our military protection. But that's just me.

The Israel/Palestine question of land rights

Click on the image to enlarge

This is a map of the lands occupied by the divided Israeli state(Kingdoms of Israel and Judah), the Palestinians(Philistines), and other tribes around 830BC. Israel was more or less where it is now and the Palestinians were more or less in what is modern Gaza. So where's the hysteria and indignance over Israel "stealing land" and expatriating poor, put-upon Palestinians coming from?

Answer: sheer, unadulterated hatred of Jews, plain and simple.

B. Hussein Obama refuses official photo op with Netanyahu

Think this administration isn't irrationally hostile to Israel, our only steadfast ally in the middle east? Apparently Obama has refused to be officially photographed with the Israeli head of state.....this is unprecedented. But when you remember that Obama was born and raised Muslim, it starts to make sense. Also there's this....

From ExposeObama -- President Obama has surrounded himself with a host of vehemently anti-Israel advisers including Lee Hamilton, Zbigniew Brzezinski, Samantha Power, Susan Rice, and Gen. Jones, many of whom advocate imposing a solution on Israel.

Earlier this week Netanyahu had to school Hillary when she ordered Israel to stop building settlements in Jerusalem, by reminding her that Jerusalem isn't a Jewish settlement, it's their capital. Besides, when Israel was attacked in 1967, they kicked the asses of Egypt, Jordan, Syria, Iraq, Saudi Arabia, Sudan, Tunisia, Morocco and Algeria...all in six short days. Then they kept the land they won including East Jerusalem. Who cares if the Muslims want it for their own? To the victor go the spoils.

That Obama would refuse to be photographed with Netanyahu is telling....especially when he'll gladly be photographed glad-handing despotic, banana-republic tyrants like Hugo Chavez.


Here's Chairman Zero, showing the kinds of friends he prefers above true allies.

Hillary weilds the power of The One to affect change in the middle east---FAIL!!!

Liberals have always been bizarrely hostile to Israel. Their anti-Semitism seems to be exceeded only by their boundless adoration of Muslim terrorists. This is why it was so poignantly ironic when Israel replied to our demand that they stop settling land that rightfully belongs to them....

Hillary Clinton strongly voiced the position of the Obama administration regarding Jewish settlements in disputed(according to Hamas terrorists) West Bank territories....The U.S. State Department demands that Israel limit Jewish growth in these areas of Jerusalem, “whose status remains to be determined” in negotiations.

Israeli Government Press Director Daniel Seamen reacted to this Obama administration statement by saying: “I have to admire the residents of Iroquois territory for assuming that they have a right to determine where Jews should live in Jerusalem.”

EPIC PWNAGE!!!

Israel won that land fair-and-square in the six-days war when they kicked the ever-loving dog crap out of Egypt, Jordan, and Syria....simultaneously. All we did to settle our land is kill off a few bands of primitive Indians...or cheat them out of it with booze, shiny trinkets, and beads. If anybody needs to give land back they won through war, it's the US, not Israel.

This is how I picture Obama and Hillary all the time. Now the rest of the world is seeing what I see and the bloom is off the Obama rose.

All your nukes are belong to us

As talibani terrorists push closer to Islamabad, Obama says we have in-the-event-of plans to secure Pah-kee-stahn's nukes should the need arise....

WASHINGTON: US President Barack Obama on Wednesday said Washington "can make sure that Pakistan's nuclear arsenal is secure," even as he expressed grave concern over the deteriorating situation in the militancy-stricken country.

At a White House press conference to mark his first 100 days in office, Obama expressed confidence about US control over Pakistan's nuclear weapons, perhaps through military-to-military cooperation, in the face of extremist advances in the country. In the process, he also hinted that Washington had contingency plans to handle the situation if it went out of Islamabad's hands.

I'll believe that Obama would invade another country, even to keep it's nukes out of the hands of terrorists, when I see it. I believe if it comes to that, he won't have the option of going into Pakistan, because India will have already done it. They are far more at risk than we are. But I would love to watch his puppet-master, Rahm Emanual, struggling between pleasing the pacifist, democrat base and avoiding nuclear war breaking out in that part of the world.

Peace in the Middle East...still just a Miss America pageant cliche'

Too bad Tzipi Livni isn't as smart as she is attractive.....

Tzipi Livni, who hopes to be appointed Israel's prime minister-designate, said Monday Israel must give up considerable territory in exchange for peace with the Palestinians, drawing a clear distinction with her rival, Benjamin Netanyahu.

Has Tzipi seen Gaza lately?

When you're dealing with third-world, nomadic zealots who're controlled by Jew-hating terrorists who have never respected an agreement, what makes her think they'll respect any, any peace agreement this time? Israel gave up the Gaza strip to the Palestinians 3 years ago. They left a vibrant community complete with housing, markets, and infrastructure. Within weeks the Palestinians had turned it into a dysfunctional, unproductive slum and staging ground for Hamas terrorist attacks in Israelis.

The violence will not stop for any reason until Isreal finally destroys, once and for all, Hamas, Hezbollah, and any other Jew-hating terrorists that threaten it's security and citizenry. Only then will there be peace.

Israel doles out severe punishment to Hamas

You have to wonder just how stupid the guys over at Hamas in the Gaza Strip really are...

Israeli warplanes retaliating for rocket fire from the Gaza Strip pounded dozens of security compounds across the Hamas-ruled territory in unprecedented waves of airstrikes Saturday, killing nearly 200 people and wounding 270 others in the single bloodiest day of fighting in years.
The air offensive followed weeks of intense Palestinian rocket and mortar fire on southern Israel, and Israeli leaders had issued increasingly tough warnings in recent days that they would not tolerate continued attacks.

Defense Minister Ehud Barak said Israel would expand the operation if necessary. "There is a time for calm and there is a time for fighting, and now is the time for fighting," he told a news conference.

But asked earlier if Hamas political leaders might be targeted next, military spokeswoman Maj. Avital Leibovich said, "Any Hamas target is a target."

The Palestinian civilians were killed because Hamas intentionally placed them near military targets, knowing that they would be killed. And the MSM will be dutifully shocked and outraged because Israel killed some poor, displaced, Palestinian civilians. Where are the MSM's when Hamas kills Israeli civilians?

Why won't the American media say what any thinking observer already knows, which is that the Palestinians, like most Arab/Muslim peoples, are a dysfunctional, rag-tag, collection of unproductive nomads under the control of Jew-hating terrorists? Even other Arab states don't want to help the Palestinians. They are just a convenient excuse for Arabs, and useful-idiot tools like Jimmy Carter, to use against Israel. No matter how much land Israel trades for peace, there will be none, because the Arabs don't want peace, they want to extinguish Israel.

I don't have a problem with Israel killing 200-300 Palestinians for every two Israeli civilians Hamas kills first.

Jemmah Cahtah---useful idiot

Globe-trotting, America-hating, dictator-loving ex-President Jemmah Cahtah just finished "un-official" talks with the terrorist organization dedicated to the destruction of Israel, Hamas.

JERUSALEM - Former President Carter said Monday that Hamas — the Islamic militant group that has called for the destruction of Israel — is prepared to accept the right of the Jewish state to "live as a neighbor next door in peace."

But Carter warned that there would not be peace if Israel and the U.S. continue to shut out Hamas and its main backer, Syria.

Apparently Jemmah isn't satisified with being not only this country's worst President ever and our worst ex-President too, he's competing with Bill Maher and Rosie O'Donnel for the title of Worst Person in the Universe. While in the West Bank, Jemmah laid a wreath at the grave site of his BFF, terrorist Yassir Arafat. He wanted to visit Gaza but Hamas didn't think that was a good idea. How loathsome and dispicable do you have to be that even terrorists don't want you around?

Hamas' pretend accpetance of Israel as their neighbor is standard rhetoric for middle-east terrorists hell-bent on the destruction of the Zionists. They attack Israel, kill and maim civilians, then when the West starts paying attention, or Israel starts looking pissed, like petulant children, they crawl to the negotiating table and ask for a little more land from Israel with the promise of peace. Useful idiots like Carter then insist that Israel fork over it's land and within a month of taking over, the formerly useful, productive land is wrecked and useless and Hamas has resumed attacking Israel in preparation for the next round of "peace talks".

I shudder to think how horrifying it must be to wake up every morning to the knowledge that you are Jemmah.

There will never be peace in the Middle East

I'm sure you saw this atrocity...

Eight people have been killed and nine wounded by a Palestinian gunman who infiltrated a Jewish seminary in West Jerusalem, Israeli officials say.

The attack is the worst of its kind in Israel for a number of years.

The White House has led international condemnation but the Palestinian Islamist group Hamas called the attack "heroic" while not claiming responsibility.

The Palestinians, for the most part, are vile, loathsome, bloodthirsty savages. Or as John Hawkins over at RWN said, they're like Nazi's but without the ingenuity and productivity. They celebrated in the streets when these students were slaughtered. When Israel left Gaza to the Palestinians, complete with food markets, green houses, and comfortable living structures, the Palestinians promptly did what they always do, they trashed it, reducing it to worthless desert land. These people don't know how, nor desire, to be civilized.

I know what you're thinking. But Ed, Israel has killed Palestinian civilians too. Why don't you attack them?

Because Israel only attacks the Palestinians in retaliation for something they did first. Israel doesn't shoot rockets into Palestinian territories, or stage suicide bombings against civilians. Israel only wants to be left alone on her little plot of desert. The Arabs occupy 99.4% of all the Middle-East. You'd think they would accomplish more with it besides selling oil to the West, exporting terrorism, and killing Jews. And all the pageant contestants in the world can call for peace in the middle east but until one side wins, there will never be any. Isreal should once and for all, defeat the Palestinians with swift brutal military action....only then will there be peace.

Shooting terrorists, now apparently inhumane

You probably saw this clip yesterday but if not, watch it and tell me what you think. Predictably, the Palestinians and their deranged sympathizers here in the US denounced the killing as inhumane. Of course being liberals, they said nothing about the terrorists' intent to slaughter innocent Israeli civilians, only whined about due process, civil liberties, and Geneva conventions. Apparently murdering Israeli civilians is fine but you're evil if you harm a Palestinian terrorist. My question is, was the killing of the terrorist justified? If you were the cop, would you have shot the guy?

The Christian/Jew debate

So we ended last week with a discussion, peripherially associated with Ann Coulter's column, about whether the American conservatives' support of the "state" of Israel is based on biblical self-centeredness, a dislike/distrust of Muslims, actual reverence toward the Jews, or some of each. Obstinate reader and TRR fav, capt. america, directed me to a couple of articles, decidedly left though they were, regarding this very topic. The gist of them was basically that American Christians' support for Jews was analagous to supporting your favorite character in your favorite story. To Christians in America, Jews are the good guys in their favorite story....the story of the second coming of Jesus. I can't say that's wrong. I think it's probably more right than any of the other reasons we Christians claim.

That being said, so what? What difference does it make to the Jews in Israel why we conservatives support their existance as a State, as long as the aid money keeps flowing and the advanced military hardware is made available, but not to the Arabs? I don't seriously think they care as long as they know we will help them defend against Arab aggression.

Now to the more touchy point of Zionist expansion in the region of the West Bank, Gaza, Golan Heights, and Jerusalem. The Arabs who today call themselves "Palestinians" did not "own" the land on which Israel now sits. Jews inhabited and governed that land, historically known as Judea for the last 3,300 years or so, 2000 years before the rise of Islam. Around 2000 years ago, the Romans conquered Jerusalem resulting in the Diaspora in which the Jews were expelled from Judea and fled to various other countries. More recently, say the past 200 years or so, the Jews and Arabs lived in Judea peacefully prior to the official establishment of the Israeli state on Nov 29, 1947. Only then did the other Arab states get upset. All the Arabs who fled prior to the 1948 war became the refugees that now call themselves "Palestinians", thought they are indistinguishable from other Arabs in terms of language, culture, religion, etc.

I know what the argument will be before you make it so let me address it to save us all some time.

"But Ed" you whine, "America, and numerous other countries, were invented too, just like Palestine. If the Palestinians have to give their land back to Israel, shouldn't the U.S. give it's land back to the Indians and Mexicans from whom it was seized? Just because there is no language or culture called Palestinian, does that mean that those people who lived on the land for the last 1300 years, calling themselves Palestinians and speaking Arabic, do not qualify as a nationality? By that logic, Americans don't qualify as a nationality because we don't speak "American", we speak English as in England."

Weak points all. Look, nobody is trying to eradicate completely Americans from the map(except the radical Muslims and we're taking care of that). North America was a vast wilderness when we got here. There was no Indian sovereign nation, with a government, trade partners, diplomatic relations etc. And the U.S. didn't kick the Mexicans out of Mexico, we won some land fair and square in a war. By the way, Israel is the only nation that has ever voluntarily given land back that it won in a war. No Arab nation ever did that. The point is that Israel was a nation over 3000 years ago. The Diaspora happened, followed by hundreds of years of nomadic existence, and finally the holocaust. But for the holocaust, the establishment of Israel might not have happened still. The Jews are unique in their history and attempts to draw analagies with other countries will fail.

Quote from Charles Krauthammer - The Weekly Standard, May 11, 1998

"Israel is the very embodiment of Jewish continuity: It is the only nation on earth that inhabits the same land, bears the same name, speaks the same language, and worships the same God that it did 3,000 years ago. You dig the soil and you find pottery from Davidic times, coins from Bar Kokhba, and 2,000-year-old scrolls written in a script remarkably like the one that today advertises ice cream at the corner candy store."

I won't deny that biblical relevance played a significant role in Israel's return to her original land, clearly it did. It plays a strong role in our support, financial and military, of her today.

Think about this, if the Arabs were to lay down their arms, there would be no more violence in the middle east. If Israel laid down her weapons, Israel would cease to exist the next day. That's the difference between Israel and any other nation with which you can try to draw similarities.