Friday Afternoon Roundup - Gmar Hatima Tova

SEARCHING FOR A MODERATE SYRIAN EASTER BUNNY

The moderate Syrian rebels, like the Easter Bunny and the Tooth Fairy, are a myth; an imaginary character used to tell soothing stories to children. Unfortunately the storytellers think that we’re the children.

The Syrian Civil War is a religious war. It’s not a war over democracy or freedom. It’s a conflict between two totalitarian systems, one loosely based on a mixture of Islam and Socialism, and the other more rigidly based on Islam. Both are brutal and merciless to anyone who doesn’t belong. Both have their death squads and extensive corruption on the inside.

There are no moderates in a religious war. There are no moderates in an ethnic conflict. There are no moderates among those who would start such a war or those who intend to finish it.

The Myth of the Moderate Syrian Rebels




MASTERS OF DIPLOMACY

The European elements of Bush’s Iraq Coalition of the Willing appear to be unenthusiastic about Obama’s latest war and are holding out for United Nations approval.

Italy has not only stated that it will not join up without United Nations approval, but Foreign Minister Emma Bonino warned that the strikes were a bad idea. “From a dramatic and terrible conflict, we run the risk of even a global conflagration,” she said. “This is how it always begins. Limited strikes without a U.N. mandate.”

Prime Minister Donald Tusk of Poland has said that he does not believe that a strike will stop the killings and that his country “does not plan to participate in any kind of intervention in Syria.” At its peak, there were 2,500 Polish soldiers in Iraq.

Prime Minister Jiří Rusnok said, “There are no legal grounds for an air strike against Syria; that is the beginning and the end of it for us.” The Czech Republic had been a member of the Coalition of the Willing.

Obama's Coalition of the Unwilling




THE SAUDI RED LINE

The United States bombed Iran for Kuwait in 1988 and Iraq for Kuwait in 1991. And then we bombed Libya for Saudi Arabia in 2011 and we are now contemplating bombing Syria for Saudi Arabia in 2013. It has been reliably established that if a Muslim country with oil really needs us to bomb someone, we will do it. But Israel is in a different category. It isn’t an oil-rich Muslim country.

Bombing Syria adds no deterrence or credibility to an Iranian nuclear scenario. It only warns Ayatollah Ali Khamenei that he can nuke Israel, but that he had better not touch Saudi Arabia.

Why Bombing Syria Will Not Help Israel




Obama Appoints Hamas Supporter who Called Israelis Nazis to Commission on Religious Freedom

A vehement opponent of freedom of speech, Zogby took the Islamist side of the Mohammed cartoon controversy, writing, “To declare, as some have, that such freedom is absolute is, of course, nonsense since every culture, by definition, has its taboos. The measure of a civilization is not the freedom it provides to defile taboos, but how respectful and sensitive it is to the taboos of diverse cultures, especially those within its midst.”

Zogby then implied that cartoons that offend Muslims should be banned.

But then there was this, “At a 2007 Arab American Institute forum, Zogby was cited by then-U.S. Senator Barack Obama as his “good friend,” whose support it was “an honor to have.”

Boston High School Trades Pledge of Allegiance for Muslim Anti-American Poem




NBC News Admits “Free Syrian Army” is a Myth