It was inevitable

OK, so I admit that I was a little bit off on the timing. I thought that it would all come crashing down in 2010-11. That America's enemies, knowing from the get-go that Obama was weak less-than-nothing, even more empty than Jimmy Carter, would take advantage and exploit the situation by making their moves throughout the world back then. It appears that they were instead biding their time.

Obama Does Not Have the Will to Win the War

"It really doesn't matter how President Obama divides the Afghan baby, how he splits the difference between McChrystal and Biden. Because the war has been lost," Fred Thompson said on his radio show November 19, 2009.

"I say this because of one sad and simple fact. The president does not have the will and determination to do what's necessary to win it. His heart's not in it, and never has been. The Taliban knows it. Al Qaeda knows it. Our allies know it. And the American people know it.

"Our enemies are now emboldened and our friends are discouraged. We cannot prevail if the American people are not willing to make the sacrifices necessary for an extended effort. The case has not been made to them to justify this effort. The case can only be made by the president. This president is unable or unwilling to make that case," Thompson said.

The Seventh Century Redux

Man translates Quran without providing parallel Arabic version. Who does this guy think he is to promote his own works as holy scripture, Allah himself?

2 Afghans face death over translation of Quran

KABUL (AP) — No one knows who brought the book to the mosque, or at least no one dares say.

The pocket-size translation of the Quran has already landed six men in prison in Afghanistan and left two of them begging judges to spare their lives. They're accused of modifying the Quran and their fate could be decided Sunday in court.

The trial illustrates what critics call the undue influence of hardline clerics in Afghanistan, a major hurdle as the country tries to establish a lawful society amid war and militant violence.

The book appeared among gifts left for the cleric at a major Kabul mosque after Friday prayers in September 2007. It was a translation of the Quran into one of Afghanistan's languages, with a note giving permission to reprint the text as long as it was distributed for free.

Some of the men of the mosque said the book would be useful to Afghans who didn't know Arabic, so they took up a collection for printing. The mosque's cleric asked Ahmad Ghaws Zalmai, a longtime friend, to get the books printed. But as some of the 1,000 copies made their way to conservative Muslim clerics in Kabul, whispers began, then an outcry.

Many clerics rejected the book because it did not include the original Arabic verses alongside the translation. It's a particularly sensitive detail for Muslims, who regard the Arabic Quran as words given directly by God. A translation is not considered a Quran itself, and a mistranslation could warp God's word.

The clerics said Zalmai, a stocky 54-year-old spokesman for the attorney general, was trying to anoint himself as a prophet. They said his book was trying to replace the Quran, not offer a simple translation. Translated editions of the Quran abound in Kabul markets, but they include Arabic verses.

The country's powerful Islamic council issued an edict condemning the book. "In all the mosques in Afghanistan, all the mullahs said, 'Zalmai is an infidel. He should be killed,'" Zalmai recounted as he sat outside the chief judge's chambers waiting for a recent hearing.

Zalmai lost friends quickly. He was condemned by colleagues and even by others involved in the book's printing. A mob stoned his house one night, said his brother, Mahmood Ghaws.

Police arrested Zalmai as he was fleeing to Pakistan, along with three other men the government says were trying to help him escape. The publisher and the mosque's cleric, who signed a letter endorsing the book, were also jailed.

There is no law in Afghanistan prohibiting the translation of the Quran. But Zalmai is accused of violating Islamic Shariah law by modifying the Quran. The courts in Afghanistan, an Islamic state, are empowered to apply Shariah law when there are no applicable existing statutes.

And Afghanistan's court system appears to be stacked against those accused of religious crimes. Judges don't want to seem soft on potential heretics and lawyers don't want to be seen defending them, said Afzal Shurmach Nooristani, whose Afghan Legal Aid group is defending Zalmai.

The prosecutor wants the death penalty for Zalmai and the cleric, who have now spent more than a year in prison.

Sentences on religious infractions can be harsh. In January 2008, a court sentenced a journalism student to death for blasphemy for asking questions about women's rights under Islam. An appeals court reduced the sentence to 20 years in prison. His lawyers appealed again and the case is pending.

In 2006, an Afghan man was sentenced to death for converting to Christianity. He was later ruled insane and was given asylum in Italy. Islamic leaders and the parliament accused President Hamid Karzai of being a puppet for the West for letting him live.

Nooristani, who is also defending the journalism student, said he and his colleagues have received death threats. "The mullahs in the mosques have said whoever defends an infidel is an infidel," Nooristani said.

The legal aid organization, which usually represents impoverished defendants, is defending Zalmai because no one else would take the case. "We went to all the lawyers and they said, 'We can't help you because all the mullahs are against you. If we defend you, the mullahs will say that we should be killed.' We went six months without a lawyer," Zalmai said outside the judge's chambers.

The publisher was originally sentenced to five years in prison. Zalmai and the cleric were sentenced to 20, and now the prosecutor is demanding the death penalty for the two as a judge hears appeals. . . .

Zalmai pleaded for forgiveness before a January hearing, saying he had assumed a stand-alone translation wasn't a problem. "You can find these types of translations in Turkey, in Russia, in France, in Italy," he said. . . .

Read the rest here.
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Iran Thugs to Obama -- Kneel, Dhimmi

From Agence France-Presse--

Iran says Obama's offer to talk shows US failure

US President Barack Obama's offer to talk to Iran shows that America's policy of "domination" has failed, the government spokesman said on Saturday.

"This request means Western ideology has become passive, that capitalist thought and the system of domination have failed," Gholam Hossein Elham was quoted as saying by the Mehr news agency.

"Negotiation is secondary, the main issue is that there is no way but for (the United States) to change," he added.
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President Obama to the People of Iran -- Screw You

Far from helping a people yearning to be free, it appears that Obama might be ready to abandon the people of Iran to more oppression and hardship. From the U.K. Guardian --

Officials of Barack Obama's administration have drafted a letter to Iran from the president aimed at unfreezing US-Iranian relations and opening the way for face-to-face talks, the Guardian has learned. . . .

It would be intended to allay the ­suspicions of Iran's leaders and pave the way for Obama to engage them directly, a break with past policy.

State department officials have composed at least three drafts of the letter, which gives assurances that Washington does not want to overthrow the Islamic regime, but merely seeks a change in its behaviour. The letter would be addressed to the Iranian people and sent directly to Iran's supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, or released as an open letter.

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The Eternal War Against Israel

Dawn Eden reports on her blog, the Dawn Patrol:

While the United Nations cries out against Israel for defending itself—and takes no notice of Hamas' using its own citizens as human shields—residents of the Israeli town of Sderot, one mile from Gaza, have lived under Hamas rocket fire for eight years.

A guy named Dave asks why there are so few comments in response to this and related posts about attacks on Israel by Hamas, as well as verbal attacks by various bloggers, including "Catholic" bloggers.

Well, before there was the "blame America first" crowd, before there was "blame everything on Dead White European Males," before there was "hey, hey, ho, ho, Western Civ has got to go," before there was "blame everything on the Evil Misogynistic Patriarchy," before there was "blame everything on the Vast Right-Wing Conspiracy," before there was Bush Derangement Syndrome, blaming every single solitary bad thing ever in the history of the world on George Bush -- before all these things -- there was blame everything on Israel, and before there was that, there was blame everything on those sneaky, dirty Jews. They are always to blame. They are always at fault.

The only time they are given vocal support is in order to (often falsely) accuse one of the other aforementioned groups of anti-Semitism (e.g. the slanders against Pope Pius XII). That is, only used as a tool in which to bash the others.

So, when Israelis and Jews are attacked and attacked and attacked, the only reaction they get is a yawn. When they defend themselves, or if they even try to peaceably live side-by-side in the same territory as the people who have sworn to exterminate them, and whose scriptures instruct them to fight and detest, as the dogs and apes that they are, then and only then does the world take notice, and then only to demand that they stop defending themselves or try to live peaceably together, and to further demand that they get the hell out of the region.

When other nations are attacked in war, and they defend themselves, counterattack, and consequently take over the territory of the enemy, they get to keep that territory, especially if needed in order to prevent the area from being used as a launching pad for later attacks. But Israel is unique in the world in that, not only were they denied international recognition as a nation for years, that is, denied the right to even exist, they are denied the right to keep lands seized from their enemies in war.

When other enemies start wars and attack peaceful countries, they forfeit the territories from which the attacks began, and they subject themselves to legitimate occupation for as long as the victorious country chooses. But when "Palestine" starts war after war (or, more precisely, continues to engage in the same war, interrupted every now and then with dishonest and false cease-fires, the sole purpose of which is to prevent the ultimate losing of the war and to give time to re-arm), it is to be given support, and given back the lands that it occupied for a short period of time, but were never part of some nonexistent country of Palestine.

Meanwhile, we are assured that the root cause of rockets and car bombs and kidnappings and restaurant bombs and masked gunmen dressed as civilians shooting innocent Israelis and Palestinians alike, is not because the terror groups and their many supporters in Palestinian areas have chosen to engage in criminal terroristic behavior, but rather, it is because of the Jews. It is the fault of the Jews. And when I say the Jews, I mean, the Jews, not the Israelis. Because if Israel were not a Jewish state, if it were Muslim or even secular, it would not be the one to blame. (If it were a Christian nation, then we would be back to "blame everything on Western Civilization" and Palestinian terror would, again, not be the fault of Palestinian terrorists.)

When thugs in Europe and America take to the street, again dressed in masks, and start burning things, damaging synagogues, damaging Jewish businesses, assaulting Jewish bystanders and observers, while shouting things like "go back to the ovens," and while German modern-day stormtroopers come busting into Jewish homes to forcibly remove Israelis flags, like some cross between neo-Nazis and good little dhimmis, despite all these things being aimed at Jews generally, not Israelis, we are told that, "no, opposition to Israeli military action is not anti-Semitism, but merely anti-Israeli aggression" and "anti-Zionism is not anti-Semitism" (even though, as said above, they remained silent in the face of Palestinian and Arab and Muslim terroristic aggression).

No one says anything, Dave, because it would be superfluous. "Hey, did you notice that the sun rose in the east today?" It's rather pointless, don't you think? Likewise, it is pointless to say much here because EVERYONE knows that those poor innocent Palestinians and radical Islamists are NEVER to blame for anything. That the Israelis, Jews that they are, are ALWAYS at fault because of the very fact that they are present in that area (or in any area), and because they refuse to recognize that this should be a Jew-free zone (world). And when it is not the fault of the Israelis, it is America and George Bush's fault.

America and George Bush are to blame for 9-11, not Islamic terrorists. Western Civilization is to blame. To be sure, it is the fault of the Christians that, 1300 years ago, the armies of Mohammed's followers attacked and conquered Christian lands across the Middle East, Northern Africa, Eurasia, and halfway into Europe, before being stopped. It's the fault of those evil crusaders, and those evil Christians who only want to subject us all to the "tortures of the Inquisition." And the fact that many of the followers of Mohammed today want to take us back to the 7th Century is, again, not their fault, but ours.

We are silent, Dave, because we hate the good and embrace the evil, calling the good "bad" and the bad "good," and because we have decided on the option of civilizational suicide. Everything about traditional Western society is bad, hence the need to tear down every existing institution and reengineer mankind, including remaining silent on anti-Jew and anti-Israel attacks, and remaining silent on many anti-American attacks. They are bad. They must go. And any defense of them must be opposed.

Everyone knows this, so why waste our time talking and writing about it?

For those who blame Israel, rather than Palestinian and Islamist terrorists, for the ongoing conflict, we might ask who is to blame for the PLO and Islamist terrorists starting, in 1975, the civil war in Lebanon, which once had large Christian population? Or why the PLO was kicked out of many Arab countries?

The sad fact is that many Palestinians are not at all interested in having their own independent nation. That is not their priority. So to say that all Israel needs to do is allow Palestinian nationhood is fooling oneself. So long as Israel exists, and Jews are living in the Middle East, these people are interested in only one thing -- killing Jews. Even to the extent of glorifying suicide bombing in children's books.

Now, to be sure, there are some Palestinians who want peace. They are tired of the fighting and are willing to live side-by-side with Jewish Israelis. But there are not enough of them. Perhaps they are even a majority. But there are not enough of them. And they are too silent and too inactive in opposing the high numbers of Palestinians who care little about peace with Israelis and Jews.
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The Crisis -- The Judiciary, the Left, and Islamic Terrorism

THESE are the times that try men's souls. The summer soldier and the sunshine patriot will, in this crisis, shrink from the service of their country; but he that stands it now, deserves the love and thanks of man and woman. Tyranny, like hell, is not easily conquered; yet we have this consolation with us, that the harder the conflict, the more glorious the triumph. What we obtain too cheap, we esteem too lightly: it is dearness only that gives every thing its value. Heaven knows how to put a proper price upon its goods; and it would be strange indeed if so celestial an article as FREEDOM should not be highly rated. . . .

I have as little superstition in me as any man living, but my secret opinion has ever been, and still is, that God Almighty will not give up a people to military destruction, or leave them unsupportedly to perish, who have so earnestly and so repeatedly sought to avoid the calamities of war, by every decent method which wisdom could invent. . . .

I call not upon a few, but upon all: not on this state or that state, but on every state: up and help us; lay your shoulders to the wheel; better have too much force than too little, when so great an object is at stake. Let it be told to the future world, that in the depth of winter, when nothing but hope and virtue could survive, that the city and the country, alarmed at one common danger, came forth to meet and to repulse it. . . .

It matters not where you live, or what rank of life you hold, the evil or the blessing will reach you all. The far and the near, the home counties and the back, the rich and the poor, will suffer or rejoice alike. The heart that feels not now is dead; the blood of his children will curse his cowardice, who shrinks back at a time when a little might have saved the whole, and made them happy. I love the man that can smile in trouble, that can gather strength from distress, and grow brave by reflection. 'Tis the business of little minds to shrink; but he whose heart is firm, and whose conscience approves his conduct, will pursue his principles unto death.

My own line of reasoning is to myself as straight and clear as a ray of light. Not all the treasures of the world, so far as I believe, could have induced me to support an offensive war, for I think it murder; but if a thief breaks into my house, burns and destroys my property, and kills or threatens to kill me, or those that are in it, and to "bind me in all cases whatsoever" to his absolute will, am I to suffer it? What signifies it to me, whether he who does it is a king or a common man; my countryman or not my countryman; whether it be done by an individual villain, or an army of them? If we reason to the root of things we shall find no difference; neither can any just cause be assigned why we should punish in the one case and pardon in the other.

Let them call me rebel and welcome, I feel no concern from it; but I should suffer the misery of devils, were I to make a whore of my soul by swearing allegiance to one whose character is that of a sottish, stupid, stubborn, worthless, brutish man, [such as those on the Supreme Court]. I conceive likewise a horrid idea in receiving mercy from a being, who at the last day shall be shrieking to the rocks and mountains to cover him, and fleeing with terror from the orphan, the widow, and the slain of America.

There are cases which cannot be overdone by language, and this is one. There are persons, too, who see not the full extent of the evil which threatens them; they solace themselves with hopes that the enemy, if he succeed, will be merciful. It is the madness of folly, to expect mercy from those who have refused to do justice; and even mercy, where conquest is the object, is only a trick of war; the cunning of the fox is as murderous as the violence of the wolf, and we ought to guard equally against both. . . .

This is our situation, and who will may know it. By perseverance and fortitude we have the prospect of a glorious issue; by cowardice and submission, the sad choice of a variety of evils -- a ravaged country -- a depopulated city -- habitations without safety, and slavery without hope. . . . Look on this picture and weep over it! and if there yet remains one thoughtless wretch who believes it not, let him suffer it unlamented.

COMMON SENSE.
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