:Reasonable Force

Caroline Glick, columnist for the Jerusalem Post, on the world reaction to the assassination of Benazir Bhutto, writes:

Pakistan’s military dictator, President Pervez Musharraf will likely postpone elections for several months. And pushed by Zadawi and the media, the Bush administration will probably strongly object to his decision. Debate over whether or not Musharraf is destroying Pakistan by delaying the vote indefinitely will likely dominate international coverage of the country.

And this is a shame because the issue of elections in Pakistan is irrelevant when seen in the context of the current state that country – and it was irrelevant before Bhutto was murdered. Indeed, since she returned to Pakistan from exile in October, Bhutto herself served merely as a distraction. She focused international attention on her democratic rhetoric and away from the dangers that she was completely incompetent to handle – whether elected or not.

The Pakistan which Bhutto insisted she could save is a pro-jihadist nuclear-armed state. The Pakistani public, military and intelligence services stand in sympathy with al-Qaida and the Taliban. With the support of the public and the collusion of sectors of the military and intelligence services whose ranks they have seamlessly infiltrated, the Taliban and al-Qaida daily extend their control over more and more of the country.

US officials claim that Pakistan’s nuclear arsenal is secure and under the full control of the military. Yet given the Pakistani military’s sympathy for al-Qaida and the Taliban, it is irresponsible not to consider the possibility that at least some of the forces charged with securing Pakistan’s nuclear arsenal have operational links to the jihadists.[emphasis mine.]

I’ve recently become a fan of Ms. Glick’s columns. Her writing is incisive and her candor makes me smile even as I grimace at the dire circumstances that she consistently calls attention to.

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FrontPage magazine.com :: The Other D-Day by Victor Davis Hanson

What can we learn, then, on this anniversary of the Normandy campaign?

By any historical measure, our forefathers committed as many strategic and tactical blunders as we have in Afghanistan and Iraq — but lost tens of thousands more Americans as a result of such errors. We worry about emboldening Iran by going into Iraq; the Normandy generation fretted about empowering a colossal Soviet Union.

Of course, World War II was an all-out fight for our very existence in a way many believe the war against terror that began on September 11, 2001, is not. Even more would doubt al Qaeda jihadists in Iraq pose the same threat to civilization as the Wehrmacht did in Europe.

Nevertheless, the Normandy campaign reminds us that war is by nature horrific, fraught with foolish error — and only won by the side that commits the least number of mistakes. Our grandfathers knew that. So they pressed on as best they could, convinced they needn’t be perfect, only good enough, to win.

The American lesson of D-Day and its aftermath was how to overcome occasional abject stupidity while never giving up in the face of an utterly savage enemy. We need to remember that now more than ever.

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I recently used the website Congress.org to write my representatives to let them know what I think of the legislation being drafted by Sen. Clinton (D-NY) and Sen. Byrd (D-WV) to revoke the authorization for the war in Iraq. I’m reprinting the response I received almost immediately from Senator Jim DeMint’s office. It’s essentially a standard position paper, but worth reading.

Thank you for contacting me to express your opposition to revoking congressional authorization for war in Iraq and to creating pre conditions or artificial timetables for withdrawal . I appreciate hearing from you.

When members of Congress from both parties voted overwhelmingly to authorize action in Iraq , we made a sacred commitment to see this war through to completion. Our troops must not be forced to pay for the equivocation of politicians looking to cut and run when the going gets tough. We must continue to fully support our troops in the field and continue to fund the essential mission they are completing.

Some have referred to Iraq as another Vietnam , yet they somehow miss the most important lesson of that war: when politicians abdicate duty in order to fight a war of political expediency, there are no winners.

We must unequivocally reject the defeatist attitude articulated by DNC chairman Howard Dean t hat this war is ” unwinnable ,” and instead commit to our troops, our country , and the world that victory is the only acceptable outcome in Iraq .

We must continue to set realistic milestones, not arbitrary dates, to measure the progress that is being made. For those who would say that the tone of the current debate is a healthy exercise in democracy , let me be clear. Debate over the strategy for victory is welcome , destructive second-guessing of the mission our troops are currently engaged in , without a viable alternative, is not.

Despite the rhetoric of those who would snatch defeat from the jaws of victory, measurable progress is being made: ratification of a constitution, free elections, the training of Iraqi police and military forces , and the building of domestic institutions for a society to succeed.

As freedom and democracy march on in Iraq , I am encouraged by the recent actions of Prime Minister Maliki to confront the Shia militias and Sunni insurgents.

As we recall yet another milestone – no major terrorist attack on U .S. soil since Sept. 11 – we are reminded that the war in Iraq is part of a much larger struggle. The terrorists clearly understand what many in the Democratic leadership do not seem to grasp: this war in Iraq will determine who will be on the offensive in this new century – the forces of freedom and democracy or the minions of tyranny, fear and terror.

My meetings with Iraq ‘s political leadership have given me confidence they will embrace the opportunities being given to them. They will make mistakes, just as we have through the years, but they will never give in.

In all of this, we must in no way minimize the sacrifices made by our brave men and women in uniform and their families. I visited Iraq twice and saw the cost first hand. It broke my heart as I flew out of Iraq aboard a cargo plane with five flag-draped caskets – sons and daughters, parents and spouses who had paid the ultimate price. However, I also remember what one sergeant said as we ate lunch together in Baghdad . He had just lost a friend and he told me: “Don’t let my buddy’s blood be in vain. We have given too much to turn back; I’ll stay here as long as it takes.” This soldier will never give in. And I am committed to do everything in my power to support the troops and their mission in this critical push for victory.

Thank you again for expressing your support. I stand with you in support of the President and our troops. As this 110th Congress continues its work in earnest, join me in prayer for our troops who are far from home protecting our families from future terrorist attacks, and let us renew our commitment to victory.

Sincerely,

Jim DeMint
United States Senator

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A few highlight paragraphs from the Iraq the Model brothers, Omar and Mohammed, writing at OpinionJournal:

The new strategy to secure Baghdad has been dubbed by Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki as “Operation Imposing the Law.” After weeks of waiting and anxiety it is finally under way, and early signs are encouraging….

One difference between this and earlier–failed–attempts to secure Baghdad is the willingness of the Iraqi and U.S. governments to commit enough resources for enough time to make it work. Another important point is the insistence of the Iraqi government that political factions not interfere with the progress of military action. The commanders and the prime minister have made it clear that no one will be above the law, and that even places of worship and the offices of politicians will be subject to searches and raids if evidence of involvement in violence is found….

Military-wise, the results are not humble either; hundreds of militants have been killed, more hundreds arrested, and dozens of weapons caches discovered and destroyed. The frequency of attacks has declined drastically, and the terrifying scene of bullet-riddled bodies has become a rarer incident.

Our people want to see this effort succeed. We know it’s not going to be an easy fight. Rescuing all of Baghdad’s districts from the grip of militants and terrorists will require sacrifice and hard work. We hope the troops and the governments in Baghdad and America do not lose their resolve.

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My pulse raced a bit when I saw this headline on Drudge:

Reading the linked article, however, revealed that while the missile may have been Iranian, it was a Hezbollah missile truck located in Lebanon.

Drudge has since modified the somewhat misleading headline.

Of course, given Iran’s current course, and its longstanding sponsorship of Palestinian terror, a strike on Iran would be perfectly justified, in my opinion.

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It’s a tragedy that Israelis are going to have to die to prove conclusively that giving the Palestinians land will not bring about peace, but only emboldens terrorists who see the withdrawal as vindication of their bloody tactics.

Israel: Massive arms smuggling into Gaza in past 3 days

SPECIAL TO WORLD TRIBUNE.COM
Wednesday, September 14, 2005

TEL AVIV — Israeli military sources said hundreds of weapons, including anti-aircraft missiles, anti-tank rockets and bomb components, have been smuggled over the last three days from the Sinai Peninsula to the Gaza Strip.

The sources said Palestinian insurgents brought the equipment from Egypt in wake of the Israeli withdrawal from the Gaza Strip.

So far, more than 10,000 Palestinians have crossed the Gaza border and made their way to towns in eastern and northern Sinai. The sources said they included hundreds of operatives from Fatah, Hamas and Islamic Jihad, some of whom directed the flow of Palestinians into Sinai.

“In the first moments of Israel’s abandoning of Gaza they smuggled weapons,” Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee chairman Yuval Steinitz said. “The ink on the agreement has not even dried and the Philadelphi route [Egyptian-Gaza border] is being used for massive weapons smuggling.”

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I wish that this man was still in charge.

The cabinet voted by 17 to five to back the first phase of the initiative — removal of the settlements of Kfar Darom, Netzarim and Morag, isolated enclaves where resistance is likely to be among the strongest.

Netanyahu said his resignation letter counted as a vote against.

“A unilateral withdrawal without anything in return is not the way,” he said. “I cannot be part of this irresponsible move that divides the people and harms Israel’s security and will in the future pose a danger for the wholeness of Jerusalem.”

Right wing opponents see the plan as a capitulation to a Palestinian uprising, as well as setting a precedent for ceding land captured in the 1967 war — which also includes the West Bank and Arab East Jerusalem.

And so it is.

The division in Israel over the Gaza pullout, to the point that some IDF units may refuse orders to forcibly remove settlers, is disheartening to see.

Netanyahu’s resignation will not likely alter the course of events, but I pray that something will stay Sharon’s hand.

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Political mealy-mouthing makes me queasy, as does the endless handwringing from the left. Give me a break. Did these champions of the downtrodden immigrant worker not know that the Governator meant that the border needed to be secure rather than literally closed?

And did the Governator really have poor language skills to blame for using the word “closed”? Or could it be that the word is common enough shorthand for border security that any reasonable person could have expected it to have been understood?

And once again, we have a flagrant misuse of the word hatred by the left.

“I don’t think the governor identifies himself with that kind of rhetoric,” said Assembly Speaker Fabian Nunez, a Democrat. “I don’t know why he said it, but I’m very pleased he has totally removed himself from those folks who espouse that kind of hatred.”

It’s not hatred. It’s not xenophobic. Policing the border is common sense when virtually anyone can stroll across your borders and you happen to be in a war against an enemy who operates in small cells and as individuals to blow up as many people as they can.

I am not anti-immigrant. I’m for reasonable border controls. In a time of war against terrorism it is reasonable to tightly control the means of entry and to subject each individual to, at the minimum, some routine identity verification cross-checked with criminal databases. Sorry, but a personal note from Vicente Fox pinned to their shirt is not sufficient.

Give us your tired, your poor, your huddled masses, etc. Just be sure that they don’t appear in any home videos of decapitations or have dynamite strapped around their midsection. Or that they’re not members of homicidal Latin American gangs.

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I neglected to mention that Arthur Chrenkoff has released a sixth installment in his series of updates on the unreported good news from Afghanistan. If you haven’t been reading these and you have some time (as they are quite long!), you can access all of the articles on Iraq and Afghanistan from a special section in my sidebar.

All the furor over Iraq and our political tug-of-war has caused many of us, I think, to miss what a truly remarkable thing it is for the Afghan people to have their first democratically elected leader and to be emerging from under the oppressive rule of the Taliban.

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Australian blogger, Arthur Chrenkoff continues to shed light on the unreported positives from the “quagmire.”

There’s so much here that I usually don’t quote from these installments, but I really liked the sound of this last part about security and the growing proficiency of Iraqi forces, trained and equipped by the coalition (yes, I said coalition.)

The increased presence and professionalism of the Iraqi security forces are bringing results on the battlefield with insurgents. Around 160 Arab fighters have recently appeared in Iraqi courts on terrorist charges. The Egyptian, Iranian, Jordanian, Lebanese, Syrian, Yemenite and Moroccan nationals face death penalty if convicted under the Iraqi law. “The Arabs have been referred to Iraqi courts and the verdicts against these foreigners are due to be pronounced soon for acts of terror they carried out in Iraq,” said Iraqi Justice Minister Malik Dohan al-Hassan said. The 160 are a part of a larger group of some 3,000 suspected insurgents arrested in recent security operations across Iraq, according to the Interim Prime Minister Iyad Allawi. Among those arrested are said to be one of Izzat al-Duri’s deputy and his assistant (al-Duri, a former vice-president, is the suspected leader of Baathist insurgents). (emphasis mine. -SCP)

Gee, I wonder why fanatics from all of these other Arab nations are flocking to Iraq to blow up Iraqis? Because they realize that a successful Democracy in their midst stands to change everything. Call it the birth pains of a new Arab civilization.

One last bit on the continued doom-and-gloom reporting on Iraq:

James S Robbins writes about the dearth of good story reporting from Iraq:

“You can glean scores of interesting stories from the web if you search enough, from service-member blogs, public-affairs websites, and some local papers, especially in military towns. Most of the reporting comes from the units in the field, the people close to the scene who live it daily and know the facts. Nevertheless, it seems as though you cannot give away a good news story about our military in Iraq. The mainstream press is not interested. However, I am betting that most Americans are.”

Judging by the response to this now almost regular column, they certainly are. I would venture a guess that part of the explanation why the American involvement in Iraq continues to enjoy a majority popular support is that a significant number of people throughout the country have stopped relying on the mainstream media for all the news from Iraq. To paraphrase the Spanish journalist, people are no longer satisfied just with “blood, blood, blood” from their newspapers and TV channels. Increasingly, they are looking for “context” and “politics” too, and finding them elsewhere.

The funeral dirge for the mainstream press just gets louder and louder. And ya’know… it’s got a beat and you can dance to it.

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Michel Barnier, the French Foreign Minister, declares, “France will always be on your side.”

That just about sums up all you need to know about France.

Oh, did I forget to mention he was addressing Yasser Arafat?

(hat tip: Drudge as usual)

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Short answer: they have no means for discerning a viable definition of terrorism given the conflicting ideologies of their member states.

Wretchard at Belmont Club, one of the most respected blogs on matters of the war and its conduct, looks at the U.N.’s attempt to define terrorism as part of a resolution condemning all terrorist acts. He points out that the language they use could just as easily be used to condemn Israel or the United States as it could Hamas or the Chechen thugs responsible for Beslan.

An article that Wretchard cites, by Joshua Muravchik at the American Enterprise Institute points to the fact that fifty-six of the 191 member nations of the U.N. are members of the Organization of the Islamic Conference, which “defends terrorism as a right.”

I can see how that could make drafting meaningful anti-terrorism resolutions difficult.

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Arthur Chrenkoff’s latest on the good news from Afghanistan.

See my sidebar for direct links to all of Mr. Chrenkoff’s fantastic articles providing news of Iraq and Afghanistan that is in stark contrast to what you’ll get in any mainstream news broadcast.

(belated hat tip: I should give credit to the folks at Opinion Journal. They publish each new installment by Mr. Chrenkoff on their editorial page and I’m made aware of it by their daily e-mail. To receive these updates for free, follow the link above and look for E-MAIL SUBSCRIPTION->Free Updates in the sidebar to the left.)

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UPDATE: The original story from which I quoted below is no longer at the link provided. A search on ABCNews’ website yielded this article instead, basically saying that there’s no connection between the Iraqi with the school plans and any terrorist threat. Never mind that in the original report cited below, the man was described as “an Iraqi insurgent involved in anti-coalition activities. I’m still trying to find the original story, but in the meantime, I find it curious that the information about the school plans was discovered in July. Why is that significant? Because of this:

U.S. security officials are investigating a recent intelligence report that a group of 25 Chechen terrorists illegally entered the United States from Mexico in July. [emphasis mine]

Is it possible that these two pieces of information had the same source?

I lament with Michelle Malkin that our border situation has become a casualty of politics.

Originally posted: October 08, 2004

Does anyone doubt anymore that the people we are up against would love to give us our own Beslan here in the United States?

Don’t.

From the ABCNews article linked above:

Schools in six states in particular are being watched closely based on information uncovered by the U.S. military in Baghdad this summer, law enforcement and education officials told ABC News.
A man described as an Iraqi insurgent involved in anti-coalition activities had downloaded school floor plans and safety and security information about elementary and high schools in the six states, according to officials.

School officials in Fort Myers, Fla.; Salem, Ore.; Gray, Ga.; Birch Run, Mich.; two towns in New Jersey; and two towns in California have been told to increase security in light of the discovery.

Officials in the New Jersey towns, Franklinville and Rumson, were notified by counterterrorism officials last month that their schools had been possibly singled out.

On Wednesday, the federal government warned schools nationwide to look out for suspicious activity that might signal terrorist activity, and told school officials to be on the lookout for anyone spying on their buildings or buses, expressing interest in obtaining site plans, and other types of suspicious activity.

It followed an analysis by the FBI and the Homeland Security Department of the school siege in Beslan, Russia, last month, in which nearly 340 people, many of them children, were killed.

Law enforcement officials said they had no easy explanation why an insurgent in Baghdad would be gathering such specific information about American schools, some of them in small towns.[Umm... duh? -SCP]

And though the information was recovered in July, it was not given urgency until the attack in Beslan.

I don’t know if cells in the U.S. have the wherewithal to pull off this sort of thing or not at the moment… scratch that. If Klebold and Harris could do it at Columbine I don’t think a cell of highly motivated Islamo-fascist fanatics will have any trouble. After all, they wouldn’t even have to hide their cache of weapons under the bed to keep their parents from finding out.

The one advantage Klebold and Harris had that the terrorists may not was an intimate familiarity with their school. May I suggest that if you see persons of middle-eastern descent lingering around schools for no apparent reason that you might want to let someone in law enforcement know about it? You might catch some grief, depending on the mindset of the person you reach. You might be called bigoted or intolerant. Then again, you might just prevent this.

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The opener of this installment is brilliant:

I struggled to find some good news.

The picture painted by the news stories was bleak: another suicide attack, a shoot-out with armed militants, soldiers dying in an ambush, a man accused of collaborating with the hated occupiers executed by parties unknown, property destruction causing resentment among the locals, hostile noises from the neighbors, another condemnation from international community, and at home political instability and accusations of corruption at the highest level. There was hardly anything about economy and enterprise, nothing about culture and civil society, barely a glimpse of any positive development or an indication that something, somewhere might be going right.

After about ten minutes I gave up trying to find some good news from Israel.

I think Arthur Chrenkoff’s Good News articles are so valuable that I’ve decided to link to the entire series in my menu bar. If it’s not over there when you read this, it will be in short order.

While you’re there, be sure to go to the front page where you’ll find some great perspectives on Australia’s recent election and other insightful commentary.

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One of quite a few prominent former liberals that found their worldview radically altered by certain events in September of 2001*, Bill Whittle of Eject!Eject!Eject! is one of the most admired writers in the blogosphere. His regular readers return day after day to a site that will often be blank for weeks on end in the hope that the silence will be broken (Mr. Whittle puts a great deal of thought and care into the pieces he posts and , unlike myself, is not willing to slap any old thing out there just to have fresh content). Taking a look at the comments he gets just for putting a quick note out to say that he might write something soon lets you know how appreciated his writing is.

All that being said, he’s got a new, two-part piece out that’s already getting rave reviews. I haven’t even finished reading this yet, but I already know it’s worth linking. Of course, by now you’ve probably seen it elsewhere, but I don’t mind being a follower as long as I like the direction.

Eject! Eject! Eject!: DETERRENCE (Part 1)

DETERRENCE (Part 2)

* Not entirely accurate: As Bill says in Part 1 above, “We like to say that the world changed that day. What a ridiculous, self-centered thought. The world didn’t change. Our illusions about the world changed. The scales had (mostly) fallen from my eyes in the years leading up to that morning. But many, many conservatives (as I define myself) were born precisely at 9:17 am EDT, when United 175 flew past the burning North Tower – an accident? – and exploded through the second, on the morning of September the 11th, 2001.”

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On Wednesday, Chief weapons inspector* Charles A. Duelfer delivered testimony concerning his comprehensive report on Iraqi WMD to the Senate Armed Services Committee.

Today, I saw two headlines that, along with their accompanying stories, presented the information from this report in completely different ways.

Matt Drudge linked to the AP News version, the headline of which read “U.S. Report: Iraq Didn’t Have WMDs.”

The Washington Times, on the other hand, covered the report with this headline: “Saddam worked secretly on WMDs.”

Here is the actual testimony from the Senate Armed Services Committee website. The report on which the testimony was based can be read on the CIA’s website.

Keep in mind, of course, that whatever the truth about whether Hussein did or did not have WMD at the time of the U.S. invasion has no bearing on whether the President had good reason to view Iraq as a threat.

If the police officer tells a suspect to show his hands and lay down on the ground, and that suspect instead reaches into his jacket or behind his back, the officer’s gotta drop him. If you say that Hussein allowing inspectors into the country (though not everywhere in the country and never without restriction) invalidates this analogy, then feel free to change it. Say instead that the suspect pulls one empty hand from behind his back and says, “See?” Asked to show the other, he puts the one back behind and pulls the other out empty.

It’s funny when I’m playing that game with my three-year-old, but in this situation, again, the perp gets dropped and I don’t shed a tear if it turns out he was unarmed.

*Special Advisor to the
Director of Central Intelligence for Strategy Regarding Iraqi
Weapons of Mass Destruction Programs

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UPDATE: The CNSNews links in this article are being redirected to their front page. The headlines are Exclusive: Saddam Possessed WMD, Had Extensive Terror Ties for the main item and 42 Pages of Iraqi Intelligence Service Documents for the journalistic methodology.

Even today I had a coworker repeat to me the canard of the left that Saddam Hussein had no ties to terror and that Iraq had no WMD. Adding to the evidence to the contrary is a CNSNews report revealing the contents of 42 pages of Iraqi intelligence documents provided them by a ” senior government official who is not a political appointee.”

According to the report, the documents reveal specific directives from Hussein to hunt American targets in, among other places, Somalia, and written nine months prior to the events of the book and film Blackhawk Down.

Other memos provide a list of terrorist groups with whom Iraq had relationships and considered available for terror operations against the United States.

Among the organizations mentioned are those affiliated with Abu Musab al-Zarqawi and Ayman al-Zawahiri, two of the world’s most wanted terrorists. Zarqawi is believed responsible for the kidnapping and beheading of several American civilians in Iraq and claimed responsibility for a series of deadly bombings in Iraq Sept. 30. Al-Zawahiri is the top lieutenant of al Qaeda chief Osama bin Laden, allegedly helped plan the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist strikes on the U.S., and is believed to be the voice on an audio tape broadcast by Al-Jazeera television Oct. 1, calling for attacks on U.S. and British interests everywhere.

And on the WMD…

They detail the Iraqi regime’s purchase of five kilograms of mustard gas on Aug. 21, 2000 and three vials of malignant pustule, another term for anthrax, on Sept. 6, 2000. The purchase order for the mustard gas includes gas masks, filters and rubber gloves. The order for the anthrax includes sterilization and decontamination equipment. (See Saddam’s Possession of Mustard Gas)

The documents show that Iraqi intelligence received the mustard gas and anthrax from “Saddam’s company,” which Tefft said was probably a reference to Saddam General Establishment, “a complex of factories involved with, amongst other things, precision optics, missile, and artillery fabrication.”

“Sa’ad’s general company” is listed on the Iraqi documents as the supplier of the sterilization and decontamination equipment that accompanied the anthrax vials. Tefft believes this is a reference to the Salah Al-Din State Establishment, also involved in missile construction. (See Saddam’s Possession of Anthrax)

The Jaber Ibn Hayan General Company is listed as the supplier of the safety equipment that accompanied the mustard gas order. Tefft described the company as “a ‘turn-key’ project built by Romania, designed to produce protective CW (conventional warfare) and BW (biological warfare) equipment (gas masks and protective clothing).”

“Iraq had an ongoing biological warfare project continuing through the period when the UNSCOM inspections ended,” the senior government official and source of the documents said. “This should cause us to redouble our efforts to find the Iraqi weapons of mass destruction programs.”

CNSNews details the process by which they investigated this story in a seperate article here.

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More unreported and underreported good news from Afghanistan from Arthur Chrenkoff who has become an indispensible news source. Where does he find the time to compile all this, one wonders?

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Brought to you by Blogs for Bush.

President Bush motivated this group of departing soldiers by paying them a surprise visit, according to a Washington press pool report credited to Dana Milbank of the Washington Post and Matt Cooper of Time magazine. Note that they subtly attempt to cast aspersions on the president’s motives by including this little detail:

All the soldiers had been given absentee ballots in the day or two before they departed. Many still had the ballots with them.

A seemingly incongruous statement given the larger context of the article, hmmm?

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