As the war in Iraq drags on, the fundamental problem in the whole modern strategy of American politicized warfare continues to take its toll. The United States boasts the best military in the world but the political leadership increasingly lacks the courage to use it. Entering a war requires knowing and defining a course of action which your forces can take to achieve victory. In Iraq, the American government has refused to adopt any such course of action. Victory or defeat in Iraq is dependent on a philosophy that places responsibility on Iraqis rather than on American troops to win. Politicized militaries lose the ability to win wars, instead becoming locked in by political goals that rely on winning over a hostile population and trying to prop up a local government fighting an insurgency. Such approaches handcuff the military and doom a war. The US could not win in Vietnam because victory had become defined as the survival of a corrupt government unwilling to fight for itself. By de
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Showing posts from July, 2007
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The Cost of Cheap
What ties together the immigration bill controversy, Chinese poisoned products, the outsourcing of American jobs and the destruction of entire sections of American industry and the decline of small business and family farms? It's sales in the end. We want everything cheaper. We want it now and we want it for as little as possible. But the cost of cheap turns out to be pretty high. To get something as cheaply as possible you have to reduce the cost of manufacturing, distributing and selling it as possible. To manufacture products as cheaply as possible, you need to pay employees as little as possible. That inevitably means one of several possibilities. 1. Outsourcing jobs by moving American factories overseas where the labor is dirt cheap. 2. Buying from overseas companies that employ dirt cheap labor 3. Using illegal aliens in America to do the work dirt cheap Either way the result is that Americans lose jobs. When jobs are outsourced, American companies move abroad. When you use i
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Friday Afternoon Roundup: Peres Declared an Honorary Arab
President Shimon Peres was declared an honorary Druse on Sunday by Sheikh Kamil Tariff. The sheikh, together with another member of a large delegation of the Druse religious, judicial and secular leadership, dressed a beaming Peres in a long, black gold embroidered Druse robe, traditionally worn for festive occasions. As Peres entered the reception hall where the delegation was waiting, Kamil Mansour, the legendary adviser on Druse and other minority affairs to every president of Israel from president Shazar onwards, announced in Arabic, "All rise for the Rais!" No this isn't a parody. For the first time ever Peres has actually been declared an honorary Arab. This just makes official what we knew all along. Peres is the leader of Israel's Arabs and not Israel's Jews. In a briefer than usual news roundup for the week-- When they killed Cousin Ebi with a bullet to the heart, my family finally decided it was time to leave Iran With Iran's Islamic government stirr
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Remembering the Flame that Burned
This is the Yahrtzeit of Lena Bosinova who died during the Disengagement, the expulsion of Jews from their home. Her life and death has gone generally unreported in the media, much as it has quickly rushed to bury the victims of Olmert's policies beneath mounds of frivolous newsprint. She died a victim of the policies of a government and the apathy of a public. She died also because the right has too many men willing to give interviews and too few willing to lead by example. Too many ready to counsel moderation and to fight each other for a seat at the table. She had passion and a knowledge of what was to come and could not think of what she could do to stop it. The following is a brief translated excerpt from a remembrance of her life. She was born in a city of shining acacias ina Russia only still recovering from war. Jews were returning there, where once their relatives had lives. Lena remembered the daughter of her mother's neighbor who had returned from Moscow to search f
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The Struggle for Homesh Continues
At the beginning nearly a thousand people arrived in Homesh with around 700 remaining in Homesh. They ascended the hill and shortly after midnight, the various police and undercover personnel had departed. People who had remained in hiding began to emerge from hiding and though Kol Yisrael reported that there were only tens, in fact there were hundreds. During the day more people began arriving. Yassam Police beat them with rubber batons and threw around 80 people into buses and arrested them. Law enforcement had also seized control of the reservoir cutting off the protesters and activists from a water supply in the heavy heat. MK Aryeh Eldad was allowed to enter the area but his daughter was forced to leave the vehicle. A tower was constructed on the hill from the bricks that had been brought. After a short amount of time, Yassam police smashed the tower and aborted the attempted reconstruction of the synagogue. Arabs from the local village Burkah, which had celebrated Hizbullah's
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Peace Negotiations and The Bug Problem
A few days ago I walked into my bathroom and stopped short. There clinging to the side of the sink was a bug. Not just any bug but a giant waterbug. A bug trying to grow to the size of a small aircraft carrier. It was a clearly unworkable situation. I had no intention of sharing my bathroom with something that looked as if it belonged in a Jules Verne story or should have been rampaging across a Hollywood B-Movie set. After a few minutes consideration, I grabbed a bag and tried to non-violently evict him from my bathroom. Waterbugs though it turns out are quicker than humans and much harder to catch, so off I went to the yellow pages. I began leafing through to Exterminators. But extermination seemed too violent. So I kept on leafing until I reached Political Solutions. The first number I called was for Ariel Sharon. I thought he was in a coma but as it turned out he had recovered nicely and set up an exterminating business locally. Except he wasn't exterminating anymore. "Wha
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by:
Chana @ Lemon Lime Moon
100,000 Readers
Sultan Knish has passed his 100,000 visitor mark. He has been blogging for a short while but in that time has gained a loyal and steady readership who faithfully read his blog. This blog is more than just passing on links and rewriting stories from the news outlets. There are tons of blogs like that out there. No, Sultan Knish has a difference, he tells you the story and the background behind the news in today's headlines. He takes things apart down to the root and shows you the in depth truth behind the world situations. This is something rare in blogs and its not easy to do. Something you might not know is that Sultan Knish has a exceptional grasp of history and of the psychology behind people and nations. His knowledge of geo-politics is well renowned among those who know him. He is a published author and accomplished ghost writer!, psychologist and journalist and you may even have seen his book cover art on several publications! Congratulations Sultan and may we all see many
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Friday Afternoon Roundup - Refusal, Surrender and the Threat of War
In Israel things are going from bad to worse. With Ahmadinejad talking openly about a summer war and Syria and the Palestinians preparing for one, the Olmert government continues its disastrous reign over Israel. Their latest concession is to allow the terrorist Badr Brigade to enter Israel from Jordan. Jericho and Kalquiya, which had to be recaptured once, have been turned over to Fatah. The Badr Brigade will enter Israel to hold it. In Hevron 10 IDF soldiers consulted Rabbi Dov Lior and Rabbi Levanon and Rabbi Melamed over orders to replace border guards who were to be dispatched to hunt Zionist youth who were returning to Homesh. Rabbi Levanon and Rabbi Melamed told them to register a protest but fulfill their duties. Rabbi Dov Lior asked them for time to study the issue and after several hours informed them that they should refuse. After registering their protest, the soldiers eventually complied. From blogs Over at Israpundit, Ted Belman has a disturbing post on Bush and the Saud
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The Laws of War: Win or Die
Stripped to the bone, war has one mandate and one mandate alone, win or die. The Laws of War are elementary. The First Law of War is never begin a war when you are not prepared to do what it takes to win. When you are not committed to fighting and winning the war, you are only squandering the lives of your men and the lives of the enemy to accomplish absolutely nothing. The Corollary to the First Law is never begin a war just to intimidate or bully the other side. That is a violation of rule one. When you start a war you are not prepared to finish just because you think it will intimidate the other side, you are violating the First Law of War by beginning a war you don't have the commitment to finish. What you are actually doing is bluffing and you had better hope the enemy doesn't call your bluff. The Second Law of War is that ruthlessness is mercy. Indecisive commanders and leaders who want to minimize the deaths on one side or both sides drag out a war which only results i
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Islam and Christianity, Islam and Judaism - Can You Be Two Religions at Once?
When an Episcopalian priest in Seattle announced that she considered herself both a Muslim and a Christian and worshiped at a Mosque, all the while remaining with her congregation, conservative Christians expressed outrage and disgust at the Reverend Ann Holmes Redding, pointing out that the beliefs are incompatible and that you can't be a member of two religions. Of course you can't. " The idea that a person can become a Muslim while remaining an Episcopal priest in good standing trivializes both faiths ", Ralph Webb, Director of the IRD's Anglican Action program said. Yes it does. But here's the problem. Many Evangelical Christian and particularly Baptist Churches have been insisting that you can. For decades they funded and promoted Christian Ministers who called themselves Rabbis and set up Churches which they called Synagogues and pushed a brand of Christianity called "Messianic Judaism". Ralph Webb is right. Insisting that a person
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Opening the Door to a Monster - Part 2
Just when it seems Olmert's terrorist release program cannot possibly get any more grotesque, word now comes that Olmert will be releasing Abdel Rahim Malouh, a senior PFLP leader (Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine). The PFLP was tied to many of the worst terrorists in Israel's history, including George Habash and Ahmed Jibril. As recently as 2000, the PFLP was responsible for the assassination of legendary Israeli leader Rehavam Ze'evi. As the Deputy Secretary General of the PFLP, Abdel Rahim Malouh was involved in planning the murder. The release of Abdel Rahim Malouh is nothing short of despicable and outrageous. It is impossible to argue that a top leader in the PFLP does not have blood on his hands. Furthermore Malouh had been charged with planning the 2000 intifada. The insanity of Abdel Rahim Malouh's release only takes full shape when you consider that Hizbullah considered Malouh's release as part of a negotiated prisoner exchange. Now not only i
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Islam's Mask of the Beast
The descent into deeper and increasingly vile levels of savagery by Al Queda terrorists in Iraq is met by a greater and more determined degree of apathy by the media. The same press that was reduced to hysterics of outrage at the sight of Iraqi prisoners with women's underwear on their heads remains silent at each terrorist atrocity. The more bestial the terrorists become, the more determined the press becomes to find the good in them and the bad in their victims. In Gaza, the media has taken to reporting on stories of a lion saved by Hamas while forgetting all the stories of those thrown off tall buildings and gunned down in open view by Hamas. If Mussolini had to make the trains run on time in order to demonstrate his efficiency, all Hamas needed to do was drag out one bedraggled lion and British reporter out for the cameras. While Alan Johnson has made a point of expressing his gratitude to his Hamas liberators, the lion has wisely chosen to remain silent. Perhaps it is because
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Israel Opening the Door to a Monster
Deputy Defense Minister Matan Vilnai has proposed allowing Nayef Hawatmeh to enter Israel from Syria. Nayef Hawatmeh is the head of the DFLP, the Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine. The DFLP was responsible for numerous terrorist atrocities including the Maalot Massacre in 1974 in which DFLP took an Israeli elementary school hostage and murdered over two dozen children. Nayef Hawatmeh claimed credit for the attack on behalf of the DFLP and announced that the purpose of the attack had been to sabotage a peace mission. The DFLP was also responsible for the Avivim School Bus Massacre in which DFLP terrorists ambushed a school bus full of children, opening fire on it and continuing to fire into the bus even after it had crashed and was down. In recent years backed by Syrian aid and operating from Damascus, the DFLP has continued carrying out shooting and bombing attacks against Israelis, though the US government refuses to recognize the DFLP as a terrorist organization. Abbas
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Friday Afternoon Roundup - Terrorists, Defeatists, Muslims and Nationalists
From releasing terrorists who had not yet successfully murdered Israelis, the abomination that is the Olmert government is now proposing releasing terrorists who murdered Israelis-- so long as those murders occurred Pre-Oslo. At the same time this government is also proposing allowing in the mastermind of the Maalot School Massacre and the Avivim School Bus Massacre into the West Bank. There are no words left to describe this horror of a government anymore, except, "They Must Go." Meanwhile over a year after Israel was torn apart and the Israeli residents of Gaza expelled from their homes, Israeli soldiers continue to die in Gaza. The liars who promised the nation that there would be peace and no more soldiers would die in Gaza if only the nation brought the thousands of residents of Gaza as a human sacrifice unashamedly continue to sit in the government and the military and write their editorials smugly pushing the next wave of appeasement, devoid of all honor, decency and
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Tribe of Faith
Over at jspot, (the folks who pioneered the "Let's Stop Talking About Dead Jews in Israel and Talk More About Global Warming" liberal Jewish campaign) there's a post titled "Tribe or Faith". The premise of the post is that there's such a thing as Tribal Jews, which are the bad kind of Jews who care about other Jews and the good kind of Jews who are very spiritual and care about all of mankind equally as only good liberals can. In the progressive lexicon, tribalism is the worst accusation that can be leveled at Liberal Jews. Back during the French Revolution, the new progressive French government determined that Jews were to be given rights but only at the cost of eliminating their individual communities and Jewish communal identity. Ever since then it became the favorite invective hurled at liberal Jews by liberal anti-semites and by those same liberal Jews who had learned to be good Uncle Toms at the "wrong kinds of Jews". In the Soviet Union
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The Muslim Words You Can't Say
England's new Prime Minister Gordon Brown has placed Muslim and Islam off limits when talking about terrorism. Much as in George Orwell's Newspeak, Muslim Terrorism has become the confluence of words that cannot be spoken. But Muslim Terrorism is only one of a constellation of related words about Muslims that cannot be spoken. Because Muslim Terrorism describes only one of the more obvious effects of Muslims on the Western towns and cities and nations which they reside in. Muslim Rape is another one of the words that cannot be spoken. In Sweden and Norway where Muslim rapes account for the majority of sexual assaults, no paper can describe the phenomenon. Instead one recent paper described the spike in sexual assaults as emerging from the hot weather. But this is not purely a European phenomenon. In Nebraska a judge has barred a woman from describing her rape by Pamir Safi, of Muslim origin, as rape. Pamir Safi had been involved in at least three known sexual assaults and had g
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The Idelogy of Tolerance
In Israel when an Arab is appointed or given a first time position, Israeli newspapers promptly celebrate it as a great achievement for an Arab to hold a post in a Jewish country. When Peretz appointed Labor MK Raleb Majadele as Israel's first Arab Minister or when JNF recently got its first Arab director or Adib Hassan Yihye became Israel's first ambassador to Finland; the press promptly treated it as a major achievement. Those who felt that Israel's nature was being further diluted and its security endangered were shouted down as racists. The ideology of tolerance demanded that it be treated as a celebration. But what happens when the reverse occurs? After Taibeh, an Arab town in Israel began running a 45 million dollar deficit and experienced gross financial abuses, the government replaced the mayor and council and appointed a temporary mayor to get its affairs in order. The mayor was Jewish. Unsurprisingly the Arabs did not welcome Taibeh's first Jewish mayor with
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The Israeli and the Chassid and the Future of Israel
"With Barak I am telling you he is a man of action, one rocket hits Sderot and right away he will put a stop to it," the Israeli assured me. He was a heavyset middle aged man with a small knitted kippah on his head and like most of the people in the shuls I pass through daily, sometimes out of curiosity, sometimes on business, I never learned his name. But I had nevertheless walked into an argument with him. And in a typically Israeli way, he liked arguments. There is a certain Israeli assertiveness that to many comes off as belligerence. It's that same spirit New Yorkers display when they jaywalk, crowd lines and bang their fists on the counter demanding service. The Israeli would often do such things. He would stand and call for davening to begin, berate latecomers and grumble over the Minyan as if it was poor service that he was getting a hotel. "Barak is the whole reason this problem began in the first place," I replied. "He withdrew from Lebanon leavin
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Shots Fired During Forced Expulsion Near Hashmonaim
A new low has been reached in the Olmert government's terrorization of settlement activists as shots were actually fired during a forced expulsion from a hilltop settlement near Hashmonaim. Three sets of shots were fired in the air, the latest coming dangerously close to those on the ground. The Lt. Colonel responsible for firing the shots threatened that the next shot would be fired into the activists. Firstly, the government should not be using the military to deal with civilian protesters in the first place. Military personnel generally lack the training necessary and should not be diverted in this manner. Dangerous incidents can easily come about when armed military personnel who are used to life and death responses when their orders are not obeyed confront unarmed civilian protesters. Secondly, the government's behavior is increasingly bringing close a genuinely violent confrontation. The numerous assaults, abuses, cripplings and severe traumas inflicted by the Kadima regi
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Friday Afternoon Roundup -The Unspeakable Crime, Bloody Kayin, Blogger Backup, Arab Refugees and Barak Senility
It's been another week and the news isn't looking particularly good. In England, Prime Minister Gordon Brown seems set to take dhimming to a whole new level even as England narrowly avoided two terrorist attacks. We are not now permitted to state what the terrorists themselves openly state, that their killings sprees are because of and in the name of Islam. In England Islamic terrorism is speedily becoming the crime whose motive none dare speak of, making it England's first truly unspeakable crime. The general attitude in the West and Israel of going on with our lives easily becomes apathy mislabeled as courage that ultimately leads to concessions and finally surrender. The only way to fight terrorism is to uproot it from your own country. Co-existing with it and pretending that is courage is only masochism, a bloody hairshirt of cowardly weak-willed martyrdom. In Israel, the assailant of Colonel Moti Yogev's assailant at Amona, an Arab Border Police Officer, whom I wro
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Democrats Determined to Lose All Our Wars
The Democratic congress with its approval rating in the toilet and frustrated that amnesty has tanked and that their own base now hates them, has resorted to acting like a spoiled brat left alone in a room filled with crystal vases and a baseball bat. Give a brat a baseball bat and good things rarely happen. The Democratic Congress has struck down Free Trade agreements between the US and Columbia and South Korea. Lest you think this is some sort of Democratic opposition to globalization and international trade... as that gang of traitors and idiots is busy trying to pretend... they have approved those between the US and Panama and Peru. What's the method to their madness? South Korea and Columbia are both involved in their own life and death struggles, South Korea with North Korea and Columbia with the leftists terrorists and drug dealers backed by the best friend of the Democrats, Hugo Chavez. That gang of traitors and buffoons that have taken over Congress are not striking down t
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