The Democratic Party Loves War

If you supported the candidacy of Hillary Clinton, you have no room to criticize anyone for being pro-war. If you supported the past 8 years of Barack “Drone Ranger” Obama, you have no room to criticize anyone for being pro-War.

That is the problem with Democrats. You guys talk a loud game when it’s the other idiot in the White House. The moment Barack Obama entered the White House, all opposition to war dried up. You remained silent.

Now, suddenly, you all want to be anti-War.

Democrats are the Party of War. You are the Party of Division.

You have your pets that you allow to roam about the country as proof that you are enlightened. The moment one of those pets dares to cross the line, you turn on them like mad dogs.

Democrats are exactly like Republicans. None of you have real character. None of you have real convictions.

No one can claim to be progressive whilst defending the Stone Aged Religion of Abraham in opposition to another Stone Aged Religion of Abraham. They are both the same ignorance, hate, death and destruction.

If you defend Islam and oppose Christianity, you are a complete buffoon. It’s the same God. It is the same precepts. It is the same violence. It is the same madness.

They call this cognitive dissonance.

Democrats suffer from this badly. Horribly.

The 20th Century had two World Wars. Both of them were Democrat Wars. There were four major wars. Korea, Vietnam, Persian Gulf, War On Terror (Afghanistan, Iraq, Yemen, Somalia, Syria, Libya).

Korea was a Democrat War.

Vietnam was a Democrat War.

Persian Gulf was a Republican War.

The War on Terror was started by a Republican President and widely expanded by a Democrat President.

Democrats wanted to elect Hillary Clinton. Hillary wanted more war. She was instrumental in expanding the Bush Wars and making them Obama Wars.

The Cold War was started by a Democrat President. Harry Truman started the Cold War when he murdered two Japanese Cities solely to make a statement to the Soviet Union.

Democrats are the War Party.

You cannot deny history. You cannot deny facts.

Democrats love war. Hillary would have continued that tradition and had she been elected, not a single Democrat would have uttered an anti-War word or phrase for the whole of her Presidency.

They call that hypocrisy.

Your party needs to do some serious soul searching. You are guilty of some of the worst wars in history. Yet, you have the gall to call other folks War Mongers and Pro-War.

The DNC stinks with the blood of humanity. You reek of death and hatred and fear.

The Libertarians

I can’t take anyone seriously who dismisses the opposition to the #WarOnDrugs as “oh, cool, we can some weed.”

 

The War on Drugs is the most serious threat to American and Global Liberty in the history of mankind. Millions in America and more across the world are incarcerated and murdered because of America’s War on Drugs.

 

The War on Drugs is a greater threat to world peace than the idiot, illogical and contrived war on terror.

 

Only the Libertarian Party wants to do away with these threats.

 

The Democrats and Republicans want to re-ignite the Cold War and expand the War On Terror. They would also continue the War On Drugs.

 

How many millions of lives must be ruined. How enslaved must the Citizens of America and the World become before the Politicians are satisfied.

 

These people are already talking about mandating RFID chips in children. Australia has made moves towards making this a reality.

 

Taxation has become naught but enslavement. The IRS can reach into your bank account and take every dollar you have saved.

 

Public Education is a failure. It is naught but nationalist propaganda. Want to know why Americans are so susceptible to Donald J. Trump’s moronic rhetoric. Look no further than the failed Public Education propagated by the Federal Government.

 Some critics of the Libertarian Party charge that it’s platform is merely a return to the Gilded Age. The Republican and Democratic Parties were the architects of the Gilded Age. The worst abuses of that age were simply made Government Policy under the Republican and Democratic Leadership. Certainly, the People forced the Federal Government to change. Unions forced much of that change. Leaders such as Henry Ford made much of that change in order to beat the competition. The Market does work. The People have become dependent upon the State and have forgotten how to use the power of numbers. Markets are moved by supply and demand. Numbers make change if the People come together.

There are more issues. More and more to come.

 

None of these issues will be resolved by the DNC/GOP Mafia. They will only be exacerbated.

 

The Libertarian Party is the only voice of the people. Neither the Democratic nor the Republican Party are responsive to the People.

 

We need real change. We do not need another decade of faux Drone Ranger Mass Murder change of the sort offered by the Bush/Obama Clones of the GOP and DNC.

Vote For Hillary

“Fast forward to the present day, and President Obama—the antiwar candidate and Nobel Peace Prize winner who has waged war longer than any American president and whose legacy includes targeted drone killings and at least 1.3 million lives lost to the U.S.-led war on terror—is paying lip service to the victims of America’s nuclear carnage, all the while continuing to feed the war machine.”

I admire Barack Obama. He is a stealthy war monger before whom the Liberal, “Peace Loving” Democratic Party prostrate themselves in devotion while condemning Bush, Trump and Dick Cheney for same.

Barack has waged war across the planet whilst apologizing for wars waged by other Presidents and, oddly enough, he doesn’t seem to see the irony inherent in his actions.

Drone Warfare? No big deal.

Signature Death from Above? Let us not speak of it.

Terror Tuesdays? Nothing to discuss.

Assassinating US Citizens overseas? We care not.

Democrats still love their Nobel Prez.

Have Democrats always been this oblivious and specious in their yearnings for global accord and human harmony? Let’s look back to the days of Kennedy, LBJ and FDR to see. Better yet, let us look to Truman. He who dropped the only Nuclear Weapons in the history of Humankind. He who bungled us into the Korean War. He who launched the Cold War that terrified Americans long before the Wahhabists rose out of the deserts of Arabia [again].

We could ask Clinton about peace. His fallacious peace accords in the Balkans and abortive attempt to save Somalia. His tenure was one long war called Desert Fox of which the American people were all but aware.

And then we have the peace devotee Hillary Clinton. She who has never seen a war which she did not adore. From the Balkans to Yemen to Libya to Ukraine and soon Iran.

Vote for Hillary and let the War Profiteers lust for Gold be appeased. We shall sacrifice a new generation of Americans for Hillary and her Corporate Sponsors.

Yes. For we must let loose the dogs of war. Too long have they been leashed by rules of engagement, collateral damage and the doctrine of proportionality. We must have massive retaliation. We must have punitive incursions followed by nation building. We must elect the Queen of Chaos.

Vote for Hillary!!!

Yes, vote for her.

“I want the Iranians to know that if I’m president, we will attack Iran. In the next 10 years, during which they might foolishly consider launching an attack on Israel, we would be able to totally obliterate them.”

Hillary Clinton, 2008 AIPAC Annual Convention

 

 

We Knew

Rudyard Kipling

The Young British Soldier

When the 'arf-made recruity goes out to the East
'E acts like a babe an' 'e drinks like a beast,
An' 'e wonders because 'e is frequent deceased
   Ere 'e's fit for to serve as a soldier.
      Serve, serve, serve as a soldier,
      Serve, serve, serve as a soldier,
      Serve, serve, serve as a soldier,
         So-oldier OF the Queen!
 
Now all you recruities what's drafted to-day,
You shut up your rag-box an' 'ark to my lay,
An' I'll sing you a soldier as far as I may:
   A soldier what's fit for a soldier.
      Fit, fit, fit for a soldier . . .
 
First mind you steer clear o' the grog-sellers' huts,
For they sell you Fixed Bay'nets that rots out your guts --
Ay, drink that 'ud eat the live steel from your butts --
   An' it's bad for the young British soldier.
      Bad, bad, bad for the soldier . . .
 
When the cholera comes -- as it will past a doubt --
Keep out of the wet and don't go on the shout,
For the sickness gets in as the liquor dies out,
   An' it crumples the young British soldier.
      Crum-, crum-, crumples the soldier . . .
 
But the worst o' your foes is the sun over'ead:
You must wear your 'elmet for all that is said:
If 'e finds you uncovered 'e'll knock you down dead,
   An' you'll die like a fool of a soldier.
      Fool, fool, fool of a soldier . . .
 
If you're cast for fatigue by a sergeant unkind,
Don't grouse like a woman nor crack on nor blind;
Be handy and civil, and then you will find
   That it's beer for the young British soldier.
      Beer, beer, beer for the soldier . . .
 
Now, if you must marry, take care she is old --
A troop-sergeant's widow's the nicest I'm told,
For beauty won't help if your rations is cold,
   Nor love ain't enough for a soldier.
      'Nough, 'nough, 'nough for a soldier . . .
 
If the wife should go wrong with a comrade, be loath
To shoot when you catch 'em -- you'll swing, on my oath! --
Make 'im take 'er and keep 'er:  that's Hell for them both,
   An' you're shut o' the curse of a soldier.
      Curse, curse, curse of a soldier . . .
 
When first under fire an' you're wishful to duck,
Don't look nor take 'eed at the man that is struck,
Be thankful you're livin', and trust to your luck
   And march to your front like a soldier.
      Front, front, front like a soldier . . .
 
When 'arf of your bullets fly wide in the ditch,
Don't call your Martini a cross-eyed old bitch;
She's human as you are -- you treat her as sich,
   An' she'll fight for the young British soldier.
      Fight, fight, fight for the soldier . . .
 
When shakin' their bustles like ladies so fine,
The guns o' the enemy wheel into line,
Shoot low at the limbers an' don't mind the shine,
   For noise never startles the soldier.
      Start-, start-, startles the soldier . . .
 
If your officer's dead and the sergeants look white,
Remember it's ruin to run from a fight:
So take open order, lie down, and sit tight,
   And wait for supports like a soldier.
      Wait, wait, wait like a soldier . . .
 
When you're wounded and left on Afghanistan's plains,
And the women come out to cut up what remains,
Jest roll to your rifle and blow out your brains
   An' go to your Gawd like a soldier.
      Go, go, go like a soldier,
      Go, go, go like a soldier,
      Go, go, go like a soldier,
         So-oldier of the Queen!

Marijuana

Marijuana, like alcohol, is neither inherently good nor evil. It is a substance that occurs in nature. If abused, it can harm. If not, there are actually healthful properties and benefits to those who use it. Marijuana, on the whole, is much less harmful than alcohol and other “drugs.”

One person’s weakness should not negatively affect the lives of others. The weakness of some should not be justification for the use of force or tyranny of the State.

America must ask itself. Is the prohibition of a plant which grows wild in nature worth the Billions of dollars invested? Is prohibition of marijuana worth the lives damaged and destroyed? Is marijuana prohibition more important than the proven medical benefits of marijuana?

The Government of the United States of America has waged a war of lies against the American People for well over 100 years in this War On Drugs. Marijuana and Hemp have hundreds of possible applications that would be beneficial to Americans and the American Economy. Ending the War On Drugs, or at least the marijuana portion of it, would save the American Tax Payer Billions of Dollars.

Why, knowing all of this, would we continue to support a War On Drugs that has truly only been a War on American Liberty and the American People?

Think about this America.

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Eyes of Trust

The Saudi Boogie Man is Gonna Get You (not really, the Banks control everything)

I don’t get it either. We get all poofed up over one guy getting his head chopped off with a long knife. We also get our panties bunched in a wad over 10,000 deaths to nerve gas.

We get exercised not at all at deaths by drones in the hundreds and collateral damage. The American President can assassinate a US citizen based on proofs only seen by our Elite and all knowing government. We can bomb civilians “back to the stone age.” We can invade a country based on lies. And no one seems to care.

I don’t see the difference.

The invasion of Iraq caused hundreds of thousands of deaths. We invaded Iraq based on lies. While our government covered up the guilt and involvement of Saudi Arabia whom we should have invaded.

Saudi Arabia funds and/or controls ISIS and al Qaeda. Yet, we ignore this.

As long as Saudi Arabia is our ally, Islamic extremism will be a part of the reality of life on planet Earth. Yet, we pretend that this is not so.

Even the Ottomans knew better than to empower the House of Saud. Yet, the all knowing American World Police treat with the Sauds as if they are just another nation. The House of Saud and their Wahhabist animal scum are the center of the issue. Saudi Arabia is ISIS. Saudi Arabia is the original Islamic State.  

No Saudi Arabia, no Wahhabism.  

No Wahhabism, no ISIS, no al Qaida, no Muslim Brotherhood.

When will we learn?

Except we wish no longer to learn truths and deal with them. Perpetual war is more profitable for our Banks. America rots as our banks and the men behind them control the conversation and the politics and the Presidents and the Congress.

THE GREAT BRINGERS OF DEMOCRACY AND LIBERTY — A TALE OF BETRAYAL AND DEATH

When we depart Afghanistan, we will be leaving thousands of partners who aided the US/Coalition effort.

Leaving them to their fate.

These folks, who are ALL MUSLIM, have risked their lives for meager pay. We pay them anywhere from 150.00 to 3000.00 monthly average but most make closer to 800.00USD. In the meantime, thousands of them have been beaten, threatened kidnapped and at the extreme murdered in cold blood along with their families.

I have huge problems with Islam and what I call the “Muslim mentality.” That said, these folks, all of whom are Muslim have aided in our efforts against the insurgency, al Qaeda and the Taliban. They’ve put their lives on the line for their country, for the US & Coalition and for us.

I can’t not admire that and I can’t help but feel some sense of shame for we shall abandon them just as we abandoned the Vietnamese, Lao, Khmer and, more recently, the Iraqis.

We did not have to come here. They did not have to accept us. Nonetheless, we came. We stirred up the hornet’s nest. We shall depart hailing ourselves as the Great Bringers of Democracy and Liberty.

They will stay, suffer and die. We are culpable here in the Stan just as we are for the events transpiring in Fallujah and Mosul.

 

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I knew this kid.  He works in a nan shop in Kabul right near where I was.  I bought bread from him two or three times a week.  I used to give him a Snickers bar when I bought fread.  Five of those “loaves” hanging behind Petraeus cost about 1USD (50 Afs).  Best bread in the world.

General Dan Bolger is part of “Why We Lost.”

Dan Bolger and commanders such as him are “why we lost” in Afghanistan.  I witnessed the results of Dan Bolger as Commanding General in Afghanistan. He may have been personally courageous and that’s fine. His decision to ground everyone on FOBs and bases and to make us all targets by mandating all travel in MRAPs, MATVs and giant uparmored SUVs (aka Taliban Targets)  has negatively affected the mission and, in my opinion, has directly contributed to the deaths of military and civilians.

It was an ignorant decision that was based on fear or self preservation.

I worked with MPRI in Afghanistan. The whole of the time that I was with MPRI, one MPRI civilian was killed. He was traveling in a military convoy.  Since Bolger’s change, the losses have kept on coming.  Why?  Because he turned us into targets when, before, we had always been anonymous.  A decade into a war, Bolger felt that we had lost and his decision reflected that attitude.  Bolger wasn’t trying to win. He was trying to survive without hurting his career.  I wasn’t impressed and I’m still not impressed.

His decision to Fobbitize the whole of the country has caused this war to be lost. His attitude bled down to the troops. “Oh…it’s dangerous out there. We can’t do that.” It’s a war zone. Of course, it’s dangerous. You drive on and accomplish the mission.  Prior to Bolger, a great part of the force was camouflaged…concealed and could move about the country relatively unnoticed.  We blended in.   After Bolger, we all had great big huge bulls eyes on our backs.  Bolger’s defeatism led directly to his preconception that it was a losing effort becoming a reality.  He carried defeatism into the battle and left his mark.  He is one of the architects of defeat.

I’ve walked the streets of Kabul alone. And? Personal bravery. Awesome. Personal bravery doesn’t always translate to wise or courageous leadership.  George Armstrong Custer was a brave individual. He was a suicidal commander. Gen. John Hood was a courageous man. Yet, his recklessness led to massive defeat. Gen. McClellan was a courageous man. Yet, his unwillingness to commit, lack of resolve and over-caution led to his defeat and ultimate relief of command. Grant abhorred the carnage of war. Sherman lost control of his sanity temporarily over his belief of what his war would become. Yet, both men committed and led their commands to victory by using the resources at hand and taking the fight to the enemy.

Bolger was a McClellan. He stayed in command in Afghanistan 365 days too long. He is partially responsible for Why We Lost.

 

 

The Statist Nightmare called “Progressive” America

Anyone who stands behind the fascist laws of this nation may be able to read. However, these persons are much too brainwashed to be capable of critical or independent thought.
America is supposed to be a land based on justice, liberty and “pursuit of happiness.”
I know this concept is foreign to most liberals and conservatives who wish to impose their will upon the population at large.

America, thanks in large part to the GOP and DNC, has become an oligarchy wherein justice is known only to the affluent and elitist classes. That anyone besides these persons would support fascism such as that clearly visible in America today is a clear sign of said person’s self-delusion.

I hope that each Democrat and Republican in this country falls victim to the abomination which they have helped create via their blind allegiance to the parties of corruption and greed.

May you all rot in your mythological Christian hell.

The Statist Nightmare called “Christian” America

Anyone who stands behind the fascist laws of this nation may be able to read. However, these persons are much too brainwashed to be capable of critical or independent thought.
America is supposed to be a land based on justice, liberty and “pursuit of happiness.”
I know this concept is foreign to most liberals and conservatives who wish to impose their will upon the population at large.

America, thanks in large part to the GOP and DNC, has become an oligarchy wherein justice is known only to the affluent and elitist classes. That anyone besides these persons would support fascism such as that clearly visible in America today is a clear sign of said person’s self-delusion.

I hope that each Democrat and Republican in this country falls victim to the abomination which they have helped create via their blind allegiance to the parties of corruption and greed.

May you all rot in your mythological Christian hell.

Why Should The Wealthy Pick Up Their Share?

Why should the rich pay more tax than the average American citizen?

The military since World War II has almost exclusively been used to safeguard markets, build markets and patrol the sea lanes for commerce.

If that’s not enough, low wages and job cuts caused technological advances among other things and by the desire inflate stock prices causes welfare rolls and public entitlements to increasingly expand.

United States corporations, as all corporations, pay the lowest possible wages for the most possible work. Americans are wage slaves held hostage at the point of a figurative gun. Mortgages are a gun held to the head of every family in America. Rent is a figurative gun held to the head of every American family.

Of course, we have the “War on Drugs.” This nightmare of American fascism is spurned on by corporations in order to inflate use and consumption of military hardware granting greater profits to the corporate heads of America’s Military Industrial Congressional Complex. The fascist drug war targets the poor in order to increase profits for corporations at the expense of the average American citizen who wants nothing more than to be left alone. Lobbyist for firearms, military equipment and armored vehicle manufacturers and police equipment manufacturers profit handsomely from this wretched endeavor.

The criminalization of the poor in America keeps our prisons full. To ensure that there is a place to housed our profit motivated, politically manufactured “citizen” criminals, primarily poor and under or unemployed Americans, we have given a boost to construction and privatized prison (gulag) builders.

The rich profit from all of this by creating the need via punitive legislation targeted at the poor.

This is not to mention the courts which the wealthy purchase at the price of the soul of America.

Why should the rich pay more taxes? Why should they not? They benefit from every facet of the lives of the poor.

For who fights our wars? What is the cost of the blood of American soldiers?

For the wealthy, who profit immensely from the flood of blood, the mountains of lost limbs and the lives of American soldiers, apparently, no price is to minimal to shirk.

 

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Substitute the word “Drug” with “Oil”

Substitute every drug reference with an oil reference.  Oil drives terrorism.

Our thirst for oil is what drives terrorism.  Our addiction to oil IS why terrorism exists.

If we stopped purchasing oil from the Arabs, they would have no money for terrorism.  Oil drives the whole show.

Most people are too stupid to make this connection.  I don’t understand why.

Perhaps, it’s propaganda such as this moronic video PSA sponsored by the United State Federal Government.

Anyone who buys the lies being sold in this video is a complete moron.

Most of the terrorists whom we are “fighting” today won their spurs with the Mujahideen in Afghanistan.  We, the United States of America, funded the radicalization of Islam when we allowed the Pakistani ISI to control the purse strings during the Aghan-Soviet War of the 1980s.  Pakistan then birthed the Taliban with funds that we gave them and equipped them with war machinery left over from that war.

We created our own enemy.  How convenient for the Military Industrial Complex.  How convenient for the Big Brother advocates of the Left and Right Elite Structure.

But, hey, you guys keep on voting for the very people who are selling you these lies.  It doesn’t matter.  Democrat.  Republican.  Same wolves baring their fangs at the same sheep.

Same Jackboots stomping on the rights “guaranteed” by the United States Constitution.

Honestly, I don’t mind a good war.  I don’t mind violence.  If we’re going to have a War on Terror, why are we not stomping down the doors of Saudi Arabia and Kuwait?

Why?  Oil.

Black Gold.

Every time you fill your tank, you buy another IED vest for the Extremists of Islam.

Keep on keepin’ on, though.

Supporting Terrorism

Is Islam THE Problem?

Current Ass Kisser in Chief

No, I don’t think that to be the case.  It’s not really about Islam generally speaking.

It’s more complicated than that.

Islam.  Muslims.  They’re not bad folks and many of them are damn fine people.

The problem that we won’t face is the Nejd.

Why?

Saudi Arabia owns it and has BLACK GOLD.

Also, the official religion of Saudi Arabia is the same form of Islam from which sprang all of the Fundamentalist Thugs who are terrorists.  Saudi Arabia is a State Sponsor of Terrorism.

BUT because they have oil.  It’s the truth that shall remain unspoken.

It is the evil with no name.

To speak it’s name is to reveal the truth.

It’s easier to keep the public ignorant and let a few hundred or a few thousand die at a time and keep the pipe line open to “cheap” oil.

What’s a few thousand civilians to Big Business and Big Government.  Most of the ones who die don’t pay taxes or pay negligible taxes anyway.  They don’t matter.

Saudi Arabia is the monster.  Wahhabism is their little secret Dr. Frankenstein.  Islamic Fundamentalism is the monster escaped from it’s dungeon.

It’s escaped before and the Muslims themselves went in and killed thousands of them in the Nejd while the Brits killed thousand more in the NWFP and the FATA in Central Asia.

Today, though, we choose to ignore the belly of the beast and instead, we “combat” the excretions.

Thousands, no, hundreds of thousands have died in the past 10 years.

Why?

To keep that Saudi oil pipeline open.

Obama receives the Honorary Order of the Saudi Boot Licker

 

For those of you who have no clue as to where Saudi Arabia is located.

 

Muslims and The West: Hate, Fear and Suspicion

On Trust, Fear and Hate

Moderate Muslims do what moderates of all stripes do. They stay home and keep to themselves. It’s why their called moderates.   Look, I absolutely abhor the Wahhabis and about 90% of the inane nonsense that is preached by these idiots and the Clerics and the IRG and Hizbollah and Hamas, etc.  You won’t find many people who know as much about Islam as I AND who rails against that idiotic religion more than I.  That said, the logic of the “hate, fear, [dis]trust” rhetoric here is flawed. I know many Muslims who want no part of the extremists. I know some “moderate” Muslims who feel threatened by the West.  We have encroached upon their lands, their culture, their people. We’ve forced our way on them. It’s only natural that eventually there will be push back.  If they did the same to us would we sit back and take it.  There are regular, every day people out there who just happen to be Muslim. The majority of Muslims are like any other people. They observe their religion casually and don’t really get all that silly about it.  Then you have the freaks. The Government of Iran and most of it’s Clerics, the Iranian Revolutionary Guard and it’s pets — Hamas, the Quds Force and Hizbollah. You’ve got al Qaida and the Muslim Brotherhood, al Jihad and the rest of the off shoots from those gangs of criminals and miscreants.  You can brand all Muslims as this or that about as much as you can brand all Americans as this or that.   I’ve traveled, lived and worked amongst Muslims for over a decade. They’re not all bad people.  Are all Christians bad because of the murderers of abortion doctors? Are all Texans bad because of the murderers who dragged that black kid in chains a decade ago.   Are all Americans bad because of the criminals who take advantage of war and rape and pillage the people whom we are supposedly liberating?  NO!

I don’t think that ALL Muslims distrust the West/America. I don’t think that ALL Muslims trust the West/America either. I’ve met Muslims who like and respect America who still don’t really trust us per se. They know that America is going to do what is right for America. This is correct. They understand this. Some of these people also understand the politics of America and know that we will change depending on the mood of the country and who we elect based upon that mood. America doen’t really have much continuity of ideals. We are ever evolving and constantly moving between the two political polars. Bush initiated the current Iraq war and Obama ran with our withdrawal as part of his platform. Many of the Muslims with whom I have dealt over the years understand this dynamic. Many of the Muslims with whom I have dealt know that America and the West have no real stomach for actual violence and war.  Even though we love the fantasy of it. The enemies of the West and America understand this as well. They know that we’ll get riled and ramped up for a period of time. They also know that they can wait us out and we will grow impatient with a lack of result or too many dead bodies even when we are winning the greater war. They know that our ardor for war and patriotism has clear boundaries. They know that they can wait us out. The Muslim community and especially that part of it that hates the West/America knows that over time they can defeat us because we do not have the stomach for war. They know that the majority of the West has that pacifist strain that will eventually lead to our downfall. There are many Muslims out there who would love to ally themselves with the West and bring about a more or less secular Islam. These people, though, do not trust the West to help them see that struggle through to it’s conclusion. They know that their deaths and the end of this alliance is one Obama (or Carter) away. Even Reagan withdrew from Lebanon after the bombing there that killed 280+ Marines. Reagan stared Soviet Russia in the eye and still backed down quickly from the violence of Islam. It happens time and time again. Many Muslims love the West/America. They see the potential for a life of liberty and freedom AND Islam therein. Even so, they fear our inability to stay the course. They do not trust our fortitude especially in the face of adversity and violence of the type that the other extreme of Islam will bring to bear while fighting us.

In the West and amongst Modern Christianity, voicing one’s opinion that runs counter to the Extremists brings criticism and possibly ostracism.  In the lands of Allah, criticizing the extremists brings violence and death.  Who here, in the West, would raise his voice first with the full knowledge that it will bring death and/or violence to yourself and your family?

That’s about what I thought…

This is what happens to Muslims who speak out against Jihad and the battle against the West.

Minaret of Jam

Minaret Jami

This is the Minaret of Jam. It’s about a 4 hour drive northeast of Herat on the road to Chist-e Sherif.  The tower has the Sura of Miriam inscribed on mud brick mosaic tiles on it’s outer surface.  The sura of Miriam is the story of the mother of Jesus as told in the Qur’an.  Very little is known for certain about the origins of the tower.  Only that it is an ancient relic dating to sometime around the Ghurid Dynasty of Afghanistan’s history.

he Minaret of Jam is a UNESCO World Heritage Site in western Afghanistan. It is located in the Shahrak District, Ghor Province, by the Hari River. The 65-metre highminaret, surrounded by mountains that reach up to 2400m, is built entirely of baked-bricks. It is famous for its intricate brick, stucco and glazed tile decoration, which consists of alternating bands of kufic and naskhi calligraphy, geometric patterns, and verses from the Qur’an (the surat Maryam, relating to Mary, the mother of Jesus). For centuries, the Minaret was forgotten by the outside world until rediscovered in 1886 by Sir Thomas Holdich, who was working for the Afghan Boundary Commission. It did not come to world attention, however, until 1957 through the work of the French archaeologists André Maricq and Wiet. Herberg conducted limited surveys around the site in the 1970s, before the Soviet invasion of 1979 once again cut off outside access. The archaeological site of Jam was successfully nominated as Afghanistan’s first World Heritage site in 2002. It was also inscribed in UNESCO’s list of World Heritage Sites in Danger, due to the precarious state of preservation of the minaret, and results of looting at the site.

The photos below were taken by an Afghan friend and colleague a few years ago.  He actually took them with a cell phone camera.  Great photos for a cell cam.  At the time, he was working with the Province Governor as a liaison for NGOs.  He and a few friends climbed in a 4WD and took the 8 hour trek over some nasty terrain to visit the Minaret.  They came south and west from the city of Chagcharan which is the capital district of Ghor Province.  Ghor Province is a part of Herat Region which is where I am working at the moment.

It would be amazing if I were able to visit the Minaret of Jam myself and get out to Chist-e Sherif which is a few hours drive from the area where the Minaret was built.  Alas, it is a treacherous drive and if the terrain doesn’t get you, the taleban or bandits might give it a go.  Perhaps, I will get my chance at some future time.  As for now, it is not to be…

Minaret Jami

I just returned from Ghor where I picked up this carpet depicting the Minaret. (21 October 2009)

The War Won’t End in Afghanistan

Senator Barack Obama said something at the presidential debate last week that almost perfectly encapsulates the difference between his foreign policy and his opponent’s: “Secretary of Defense Robert Gates himself acknowledges the war on terrorism started in Afghanistan and it needs to end there.” I don’t know if Obama paraphrased Gates correctly, but if so, they’re both wrong.

If Afghanistan were miraculously transformed into the Switzerland of Central Asia, every last one of the Middle East’s rogues gallery of terrorist groups would still exist. The ideology that spawned them would endure. Their grievances, such as they are, would not be salved. The political culture that produced them, and continues to produce more just like them, would hardly be scathed. Al Qaedism is the most radical wing of an extreme movement which was born in the Middle East and exists now in many parts of the world. Afghanistan is not the root or the source.

Naturally the war against them began in Afghanistan. Plans for the September 11, 2001, attacks on the United States were hatched in Afghanistan. But the temporary location of the plotters of that strike means little in the wide view of a long struggle. Osama bin Laden and his leadership just as easily could have planned the attacks from Saudi Arabia before they were exiled, or from their refuge in Sudan in the mid 1990s. Theoretically they could have even planned the attacks from an off-the-radar “safe house” in a place like France or even Nebraska had they managed to sneak themselves in. The physical location of the planning headquarters wasn’t irrelevant, but in the long run the ideology that motivates them is what must be defeated. Perhaps the point would be more obvious if the attacks were in fact planned in a place like France instead of a failed state like Afghanistan.

Hardly anyone wants to think about the monumental size of this task or how long it will take. The illusion that the United States just needs to win in Afghanistan and everything will be fine is comforting, to be sure, but it is an illusion. Winning the war in Iraq won’t be enough either, nor will permanently preventing Iran from acquiring nuclear weapons or resolving the Arab-Israeli conflict. The war may end somewhere with American troops on the ground, or, like the Cold War, it might not. No one can possibly foresee what event will actually put a stop to this war in the end. It is distant and unknowable. The world will change before we can even imagine what the final chapter might look like.

Most of the September 11 hijackers were Saudis. All were Arabs. None hailed from Afghanistan. This is not coincidental. Al Qaeda’s politics are a product of the Arab world, specifically of the radical and totalitarian Wahhabi sect of Islam founded in the 18th Century in Saudi Arabia by the fanatical Muhammad ibn Abd-al-Wahhab. He thought the medieval interpretations of Islam even on the backward Arabian peninsula were too liberal and lenient. His most extreme followers cannot even peacefully coexist with mainstream Sunni Muslims, let alone Shia Muslims, Jews, Christians, Hindus, Buddhists, secularists, feminists, gays, or anyone else. Their global jihad is a war against the entire human race in all its diversity and plurality.

Wahhabism has spread outward from Saudi Arabia by proselytizers funded by petrodollars who have set up mosques, madrassas, and indoctrination centers nearly everywhere from Indonesia to the United States. In the Balkans, for instance, Wahhabis are actually replacing traditional moderate Ottoman mosques destroyed by the Yugoslav Army and Serbian paramilitary units with their own extremist knockoffs. They’re staking out new ground in the West where they deliberately gin up virulent hatred among immigrants from Muslim countries. They tried to car-bomb their way into power in parts of Iraq, and in the cities of Baqubah, Fallujah, and Ramadi they even succeeded for a while.

In some places the ideology flourishes more than in others. It was effectively transplanted to Afghanistan with the assistance of Pakistan’s Inter-Services Intelligence agency. In thoroughly secular Muslim countries like Azerbaijan and Albania, bin Ladenism remains thinner on the ground than in Western Europe. Its adherents are unevenly distributed, but it began in the Middle East and has since metastasized.

Al Qaeda leaders did not spring up from the ground in Afghanistan, nor are they chained there. They move around. Any country where they are located becomes crucial whether American soldiers are present or not. Like the Cold War, this conflict is not exclusively military, but the theaters of armed conflict have already been widened well beyond Afghanistan. And the war isn’t America-centric. It is not all about us. Fighting between violent Islamists and their enemies broke out in Arab countries like Algeria and Lebanon, and even in countries without a Muslim majority like Russia and the Philippines. Many of these conflicts started before the attacks on September 11, before anyone could even imagine that American troops would fight a hot war in Afghanistan.

And let’s not forget the radical Shias. While Sunni Wahhabis export their fundamentalist creed from the Arabian Peninsula, the Khomeinists in the Islamic Republic of Iran are busy exporting their own revolutionary and totalitarian brand of Shia Islam to countries like Lebanon and Iraq. So far the Iranians and their proxies have been less violent and extreme than Al Qaeda, but Iran remains the biggest state sponsor of terrorism in the world. While the leaders are Shias, that has not – contrary to mistaken conventional wisdom – stopped them from forming tactical alliances with radical Sunnis from Hamas in Gaza to Ansar Al Islam.

Before the U.S. demolished the regime of Saddam Hussein, Ansar Al Islam was based in and around the town of Biara in Northern Iraq. Al Qaeda in Iraq founder Abu Musab al Zarqawi was one of its members. American Special Forces and Iraqi Kurdish Peshmerga fighters pushed Ansar into the Northern Iranian city of Mariwan where they remain today and receive support from the government of Iran. They have since changed their name to Al Qaeda in Kurdistan.

On some level even Senator Obama himself understands that Afghanistan is unlikely be the beginning and the end of this war. He correctly argues that more needs to be done to shut down the safe havens bin Laden and company have established in Pakistan. He likely doesn’t believe some of his own rhetoric about Afghanistan even though it’s a standard staple of his campaign. His dovish liberal base seems sometimes desperate to believe that Afghanistan was the beginning and will be the end of a war they have little stomach to wage.

Wishing will not make it so. Afghanistan, indeed all of Central Asia, is on the periphery. The violent ideologies that animate the most dangerous terrorist movements in the world are Arabic and, to a lesser extent, Persian. The Middle East is central. It is not a distraction. It is where the war truly began because it is where most of the combatants, ideological leaders, and supporters were born and raised. While there’s a chance it won’t end there, most of it will be fought there.

Michael J. Totten – 09.29.2008 – 4:32 PM

Michael Totten speaks the truth.  Will anyone listen?

Iraqis lead final purge of Al-Qaeda

From The Sunday Times OF LONDON, ENGLAND

July 6, 2008

Marie Colvin in Mosul

American and Iraqi forces are driving Al-Qaeda in Iraq out of its last redoubt in the north of the country in the culmination of one of the most spectacular victories of the war on terror.

After being forced from its strongholds in the west and centre of Iraq in the past two years, Al-Qaeda’s dwindling band of fighters has made a defiant “last stand” in the northern city of Mosul.

A huge operation to crush the 1,200 fighters who remained from a terrorist force once estimated at more than 12,000 began on May 10.

Operation Lion’s Roar, in which the Iraqi army combined forces with the Americans’ 3rd Armoured Cavalry Regiment, has already resulted in the death of Abu Khalaf, the Al-Qaeda leader, and the capture of more than 1,000 suspects.

Related Links

• Al-Qaeda driven from Mosul after bloody siege

• Al-Qaeda finds three safe havens for training

• We’re winning the War on Terror

The group has been reduced to hit-and-run attacks, including one that killed two off-duty policemen yesterday, and sporadic bombings aimed at killing large numbers of officials and civilians.

Last Friday I joined the 2nd Iraqi Division as it supported local police in a house-to-house search for one such bomb after intelligence pointed to a large explosion today.

Even in the district of Zanjali, previously a hotbed of the insurgency, it was possible to accompany an Iraqi colonel on foot through streets of breeze-block houses studded with bullet holes. Hundreds of houses were searched without resistance but no bomb was found, only 60kg of explosives.

American and Iraqi leaders believe that while it would be premature to write off Al-Qaeda in Iraq, the Sunni group has lost control of its last urban base in Mosul and its remnants have been largely driven into the countryside to the south.

Nouri al-Maliki, Iraq’s prime minister, who has also led a crackdown on the Shi’ite Mahdi Army in Basra and Baghdad in recent months, claimed yesterday that his government had “defeated” terrorism.

“They were intending to besiege Baghdad and control it,” Maliki said. “But thanks to the will of the tribes, security forces, army and all Iraqis, we defeated them.”

The number of foreign fighters coming over the border from Syria to bolster Al-Qaeda’s numbers is thought to have declined to as few as 20 a month, compared with 120 a month at its peak.

Brigadier General Abdullah Abdul, a senior Iraqi commander, said: “We’ve limited their movements with check-points. They are doing small attacks and trying big ones, but they’re mostly not succeeding.”

My Uncle emailed this article to me.  I had read it in the Asian Wallstreet Journal.  I wonder why the American media hasn’t put this out.  No agendas there…

Major-General Mark Hertling, American commander in the north, said: “I think we’re at the irreversible point.”

George emailed me this story.  I also read it on the way from Tokyo to Bangkok in the Asian Wallstreet Journal in the complimentary copy that JAL offers.  As does George, I wonder why this story is not widely printed in the states.  Lord God Obama must have the American MSM firmly in his grasp.  It would be counter to their aims of fooling the electorate into thinking that all is lost and that, therefore, they should all vote for Lord God Obama.