Root Causes

Michael Ledeen gets an email that calls a spade a spade.

The real question remains “Why at all?” and the status of these would-be murderers as privileged post-graduates debunks the usual Lefty nostrums about terrorism arising inexorably from the poverty, oppression and “disenfranchisement” of the globe’s Darwinian short-bus. The answer lies more plainly in a memorable line of a memorable character. In 1971’s “Dirty Harry” the city of San Francisco is being terrorized by the rampant Scorpio serial killer. Clint Eastwood is in classic formulaic dialogue with the big shots down at City Hall who just don't understand what they’re dealing with. Eastwood says “You're crazy if you think you've heard the last of this guy. He's gonna kill again” and the archetypal skeptical D.A. character responds “How do you know?” (A little imagination here to invoke the Eastwood signature voice enhances the flavor of the closing fastball). “Because he likes it” answers Dirty Harry.

Update from Yon

Michael Yon has an update to his story of the Hamira Massacre.

As the investigation unfolds more pertinent details, I’ll continue to update the story. But the biggest question rippling across the internet–“Why hasn’t the mainstream media picked this up?” –is something only representatives of mainstream media can answer.

In fairness, several large outlets did publish it online: National Review Online and Fox News were both quick to place the story prominently on their websites. A few others also published excerpts. It was even briefly up on the Drudge Report. On the blog front, Instapundit, Hugh Hewitt, Blackfive, Andrew Sullivan, Captain’s Quarters and many others picked it up.

But for those publications who actually had people embedded in Baqubah when the story first broke and still failed to cover it, their malaise is inexplicable. I do not know why all failed to report the murders and booby-trapped village: apparently no reporters bothered to go out there, even though it’s only about 3.5 miles from this base. Any one of the reporters currently in Baqubah could still go to these coordinates and follow his or her nose and find the gravesites.

Hey, Old Media: You are now on notice, with no excuses. Michael has even offered to let you use his story and photos. So how about giving your phoney stringers a rest, and send your reporters to MC 679 381. Anybody from the U.S. Military in Iraq ought to be able to point that out to them on a map.

Update:

A member of said media contacted the Instapundit:

Yon’s story doesn’t get attention because it is humiliating.

It is humiliating because it is obvious that we media – and our allies in the state department, the legal trade, the NGOs, the Democratic Party, the UN, etc., – can’t do squat about such determined use of force.

Our words, images, arguments and skills can’t stop the killing. Only the rough soldiers and their guns can solve the problem, and we won’t admit that fact because the admission would weaken our influence and our claim to social status.

Read the whole sorry excuse.

Doctor, Doctor

Michael Ledeen notes the alarming number of doctors involved in the recent terror plots. Dr. Sanity says maybe it goes with the territory.

I remember as a first year resident working the 24-hour shifts in the Surgical Emergency Room. There was a 4th year resident who used to supervise all the CPR and resucitative efforts; capably directing all of us as we tried to save lives. When it became clear that a patient was not going to respond to the CPR and was dead, this resident would move quietly away from the action and open a nearby drawer that contained a baseball umpire’s hat; a protective mask and chest guard. He would don this outfit, then calmly wait until CPR was halted and the patient was pronounced dead; At that moment, in the best baseball tradition, he would yell, “He’s outta there!”, gesticulating just like an umpire making a close call. In an instant, the tension in the room would dissipate as we all broke into whoops of unrestrained laughter.

That kind of humor, which I know to be common among doctors, reminds me a lot of the gallows humor found among soldiers and pilots. I think it’s a healthy thing. (So does Dr. Sanity – be sure you read the whole thing.) It’s to be expected in any field where death has a presence.

But, clearly, it’s not just the doctors who volunteer to kill babies that we need to worry about now.

Note: Apologies for the truncated post that was up for a few minutes. Some glitch with WordPress, apparently.

Brown: Just Can’t Lose The War Fast Enough

I didn’t know much about Britain’s new PM. Now I know all I need to know: He’s a Dhimmi Moron Ostrich.

Gordon Brown has banned ministers from using the word “Muslim” in ­connection with the terrorism crisis.

The Prime Minister has also instructed his team – including new Home Secretary Jacqui Smith – that the phrase “war on terror” is to be dropped.

Get an iPhone, stay healthy

My coworkers who bought iPhones are reporting that they’re washing their hands frequently, not wishing to soil their pristine devices.

I predict a lower incidence of colds and flu among iPhone owners.

A Good Start

No, that’s not what this is. It’s the punch line to a joke you’ll be reminded of.

The Case for English-Only Ballots

Nothing could be more obvious, it seems to me, than the need for limiting ballots to the official language of the country. Even if English isn’t officially the official language here, it’s the official language. It’s the language you must understand in order to be an informed voter. If you can’t read enough English to understand the ballot, you shouldn’t be voting. Ipso facto.

Meanwhile, Sticky Rice and my favorite candidate, Soup Virtue, are rising in the polls.

Decapigate

Bob Owens writes about why it’s so hard to trust the MSM, al Reuters and Associated (with terrorists) Press in particular.

Throughout the Iraq War, and with seemingly increasing frequency over the past year, these media outlets have become increasingly reliant upon anonymous sources and questionable sources hiding behind pseudonyms to deliver “news” with no apparent basis in fact.

In some of these instances, these wire services have been forced to retract days later, as they have with the false Um al-Abeed beheading story. Sadly, the international and national news outlets that often carry the initial claims as “page one” material fail to do so with the refutations, leaving most media consumers with the impression that the original account was accurate.

Remarkably, these news organizations continue to employ the same reporters and editors that have published multiple erroneous or highly suspect claims, or who have consistently cited discredited or disreputable sources.

Dead Earth

Bwaaa-haaa-haaaa.

Quiet in Baqubah

Michael Yon emails the Instapundit.

“Baqubah has gone quiet. Very little fighting. There might be more to come, but overall the people have turned against al Qaeda and are pointing them out day by day. The people are pointing out the bombs. Baqubah received its first food shipment in 10 months just a few days ago, even while light fighting was still on. I was there for the food distribution and am writing a dispatch on it. The primary object now is to start to restore a sense of normalcy in the city. Remember Ramadi? That crazy city of death and fighting? Writers hardly want to go there any more because it’s quiet. I am very curious if Baqubah will go that way. So far so good. There are serious sectarian issues here in Diyala Province, but with al Qaeda on defense instead of offense, the people in Baqubah have a chance to do what those in Ramadi and other cities are doing: reclaim their lives.”

Fun while it lasts

This won’t last long on YouTube.

Bush Likes Churchill?

I wish he’d act more like Sir Winston. Or at least talk more like him.

How dreadful are the curses which Mohammedanism lays on its votaries! Besides the fanatical frenzy, which is as dangerous in a man as hydrophobia in a dog, there is this fearful fatalistic apathy. The effects are apparent in many countries. Improvident habits, slovenly systems of agriculture, sluggish methods of commerce, and insecurity of property exist wherever the followers of the Prophet rule or live. A degraded sensualism deprives this life of its grace and refinement; the next of its dignity and sanctity. The fact that in Mohammedan law every woman must belong to some man as his absolute property-either as a child, a wife, or a concubine-must delay the final extinction of slavery until the faith of Islam has ceased to be a great power among men. Individual Moslems may show splendid qualities. Thousands become the brave and loyal soldiers of the Queen: all know how to die. But the influence of the religion paralyzes the social development of those who follow it. No stronger retrograde force exists in the world. Far from being moribund, Mohammedanism is a militant and proseltyzing faith. It has already spread throughout Central Africa, raising fearless warriors at every step; and were it not that Christianity is sheltered in the strong arms of science-the science against which it had vainly struggled-the civilization of modern Europe might fall, as fell the civilization of ancient Rome.

The Eagle Is Back

The avian symbol of our nation is no longer on the endangered species list. That’s great news.

If you read stories about it, though, they’ll probably propogate the most deadly myth of the last century: That DDT was involved in their decline. It wasn’t. But Rachel Carson’s screed puts her in rarified company:

Those hearings found that, contrary to Carson’s alarm, DDT had no deleterious effect on humans, freshwater fish, estuarine organisms, wild birds or other wildlife. And yet, 10 years after publication of Carson’s scare-manual and after 7 months of testimony, the 2 year old EPA banned DDT due to its “unreasonable adverse effects on man and the environment.”

As no other pesticide has proven effective against malarial mosquitoes, this action put the final signature on what would amount to the death warrant of up to 3 million people each and every year.

As a gruesome corollary, unbridled environmental activism killed more people last century than Adolph Hitler, Joseph Stalin, Mao Ze-Dong, Hideki Tojo and Pol Pot combined. Granted, the deaths were inadvertent — but then, the perverse consequences of unqualified system meddling generally are. Global warming scare-mongers – pay heed!

(Emphasis added)

I hope he’s sincere

Charles at LGF takes this with a grain of salt, given the man’s past associations. On the other hand, this is exactly the sort of thing we need to encourage.

If our country is going to take on radicals and violent extremists, Muslim scholars must go back to the books and come forward with a refashioned set of rules and a revised understanding of the rights and responsibilities of Muslims whose homes and souls are firmly planted in what I’d like to term the Land of Co-existence. And when this new theological territory is opened up, Western Muslims will be able to liberate themselves from defunct models of the world, rewrite the rules of interaction and perhaps we will discover that the concept of killing in the name of Islam is no more than an anachronism.

Algore’s Honesty

I wonder if His Dimness ever thought what the book title looks like:

The Assault On Reason
by Al Gore

Freudians could have a field day.

Over at the American Thinker, Marc Sheppard lays out the real assault.

Adding a false sense of legitimacy to the over-hyping of CO2’s potential greenhouse gas (GHG) effect on warming is the oft-Gore-quoted yet woefully compromised Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). These United Nations based “consensus builders” summarily dismiss solar activity in favor of more politically favorable culprits.

One former member and current outspoken critic of the panel testified to its bias before the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee in May of 2001. As I wrote following the release of the Working Group I Summary in February of this year, Dr. Richard Lindzen swore that, based on his experiences as a member, the IPCC was actually created specifically to support negotiations concerning CO2 emission reductions and would accept no contrary findings from its members.

Read the whole thing.

While al Qaeda decapitates farmers

as Michael Yon reported, the MSM is busy coming up with fake decapitation stories. All part of their “aid and abet” program, apparently. Chris Muir nails it. Again.

The Anwar Awakening

Michael Totten with more on the apparent success of the “surge” (which, as he points out, cannot have yet failed since it’s just getting started.)

Just about anything can happen in Iraq. The Anbar Awakening may not last. Empowered Sunnis in that province may end up gunning for the Shia for all anyone knows.

But if anything can happen, it may just yet last. Iraqi Kurds fought a pointless civil war in the 1990s after they were liberated from Saddam Hussein before they matured into the political grown-ups they are today. The Lebanese fought an Iraq-style civil war for fifteen years, but almost none – not even Hezbollah – want to go back to that even after the Syrian regime has spent years trying to get them fighting again.

Iraqis have disappointed and made suckers of many of us. But they aren’t robots of perpetual war any more than the Kurds or Lebanese were.

Totten links to a good article putting Phantom Thunder in context.

As you evaluate the still nascent “surge”, read about the decline in a Qaeda operations, and contemplate the decline in civilian casualties. Not to mention my idea of a fine kill ratio:

But civilian deaths occur. U.S. military officials said two pre-dawn raids Saturday in Shiite-dominated Sadr City in eastern Baghdad killed 26 “terrorists” and captured 17 fighters with links to Iran. U.S. forces said they opened fire on fighters detonating roadside bombs or firing guns and rocket-propelled grenades from buildings and from behind parked cars.

No U.S. casualties were reported.

Bless the Beasts and the Children

Michael Yon’s latest dispatch will fill you with rage, pity, sadness, and more rage. It tells the story of a village wiped out by al Qaeda: men, women, and decapitated children. Warning: The photos are not appropriate for children to see.

Michael Ledeen gets it right:

I stopped saying “faster, please” some time ago, because it is obvious that W and his people are not going to take the proper actions against the terror masters. But we must be clear about the nature of the war and the bestial nature of our enemies. Nobody does it better than Michael Yon.

From the Frontiers of Junk Science

Maybe I’m in the wrong business. I should be writing grants, getting funding to study the incandescently obvious.

Dr Reddy said: “Fake crying is one of the earliest forms of deception to emerge, and infants use it to get attention even though nothing is wrong. You can tell, as they will then pause while they wait to hear if their mother is responding, before crying again.

Gosh, thanks for the insight, Doctor. Because I guess I’ve never, you know, met a toddler before.

Fighting Iran in Iraq

Operations against the Mahdi army are bearing fruit, including busting up some Iranian “secret cells“.

This follows a raid inside Sadr City on June 29 against the same network. One member of the Qazali Network was captured during the operation. “Intelligence reports indicate that the suspected terrorist targeted during the raid is associated with key leaders in the secret cell terrorist network and has ties to Iran,” Multinational Forces Iraq reported in a press release. “It is also believed that the suspected terrorist is responsible for numerous attacks on Iraqi civilians as well as Iraqi and Coalition Forces in Baghdad. The individual is also suspected of recruiting Iraqis to fill the ranks of Iranian terror groups operating in Iraq.”

Background here. (H/T: Instapundit)

Meanwhile, Michael Ledeen reads Blackfive and comes up with a gem.

For those who like to look at these events in a broader context, please notice that the traditional Shi’ite doctrine has some similarities with our insistence on separation of church and state, and that the war against the terror masters in Iran has some similarities with the Western wars against European religious absolutism. One of the great blessings of America is that most of the colonists, and most all of the founders, insisted that religion had to be a free choice. Indeed, Tocqueville rightly said that separation of church and state made American religion the most genuine and most successful of any religion in the West, and he called on his European confreres to take it to heart.

The Browning of Britain

One Brown has appointed another to the Foreign Office. Mark Steyn points out why this is a very bad idea.

Anybody associated with Kofi Anan has to be considered corrupt until proven innocent. I’m afraid this signals yet another slide into violent dhimmitude for the UK.

And now, some baseball

I’m not a fan. I was out of the country when it happened. But this is a good moment for baseball in my book.

Senator Switchback

That’s going to be his name from now on.

And his Kerry-esque move was on purpose.

Update:

In case it’s not clear, here’s why he deserves the pejorative.

Let the joyous news be spread!

At last, the Wicked old Bill is dead!

Buttle’s World hereby expresses heartfelt thanks to talk radio.

Reid, the Wretch

makes me want to retch.

This morning Republicans announced that Reid’s amendment did not include the Sessions EITC provision in the touchback section, despite the fact that all previously passed amendments were supposed to be incorporated in the bill and the Clay Pigeon amendment. This oversight is the only mistake so far found, yet there may be other mistakes and intentional omissions in the 373 page amendment. This morning Reid put the floor back in morning business and sent his staff off to rewrite the mega amendment once again. Today, “the most deliberative body in the world,” is left to debate legislation that they do not have a copy of. When Republicans asked if the amendment could be read once it was written, Reid objected because “it would take up too much time.” Reid is promising the changes in the new amendment to be minimal, yet he has yet to allow Republicans to see the amendment, much less to check the changes.

Sorry, Ben. We tried.

Update:

There’s more.

Look to England

if you want to know where gun registration leads.

The only rational reason to register guns is to confiscate them. The only rational reasons to confiscate guns is to enslave or kill their owners.

The world is full of sheep who help the wolves defang the sheepdogs. That’s not just irrational, it’s insane.

Update:

Ted Nugent may be weird, but he’s not insane.

How a Civilization Dies

Another sign of dhimmitude in the UK: 10 Downing Street in Arabic.

Thank goodness cultural capitulation like that would never happen here.

Harry “Clay Pidgeon” Reid’s Battle Plan

If you can follow and/or stomach it, here’s the memo.

I would like the chance to ask Reid one question at a live press conference:

“Are you honest in all your dealings with your fellow man?”

Mormons, and Reid is one, are asked a series of questions by their Bishops once per year if they want a Temple Recommend, the document that allows temple attendance. The above is one of the questions. If Reid holds a recommend, he’s bribed his bishop.

Time for the enemy to play our game

Is the “surge” working? It’s just barely starting. And it’s a whole new ball game.

The enemy is fluid, but the population is fixed. (The enemy is fluid because he has no permanent installations he needs to defend, and can always run away to fight another day. But the population is fixed, because people are tied to their homes, businesses, farms, tribal areas, relatives etc). Therefore—and this is the major change in our strategy this year—protecting and controlling the population is do-able, but destroying the enemy is not. We can drive him off from the population, then introduce local security forces, population control, and economic and political development, and thereby “hard-wire” the enemy out of the environment, preventing his return. But chasing enemy cells around the countryside is not only a waste of time, it is precisely the sort of action he wants to provoke us into. That’s why AQ cells leaving an area are not the main game—they are a distraction. We played the enemy’s game for too long: not any more. Now it is time for him to play our game.

Bush’s Slip

I can only hope that this bit if inadvertant honesty helps kill the bill.