http://www.stonegateinstitute.org/2752/germany-silence-islam-criticism German authorities have officially confirmed that they are monitoring German-language Internet websites that are critical of Muslim immigration and the Islamization of Europe. According to Manfred Murck, director of the Hamburg branch of the German domestic intelligence agency, the Bundesamt für Verfassungsschutz (BfV), his organization is studying whether German citizens who criticize Muslims and […]
http://www.dianawest.net/Home/tabid/36/EntryId/1999/How-Dumb-Do-They-Think-We-Are-Really-Dumb.aspx Ever wonder how Taliban “re-integration” in Afghanistan works? The Stars and Stripes reports on one case, which started after a tribal elder with (an “oyster-grey beard”) paid a call on the US military at an Afghan government center. “We would like Zareef to be released,” he said. “We do not think the military should […]
http://www.dianawest.net/Home/tabid/36/EntryId/1998/Uncle-Sam-Plays-Three-Card-Mohammed-and-Guess-Who-Wins.aspx
The Wall Street Journal reports:
JANI KHEL, Afghanistan—In the American war against the Taliban, on whose side are the Afghan police? For many U.S. soldiers serving in the insurgent heartland, the answer is: both.
“They smile to our face when we’re here, giving them money and building them buildings,” says U.S. Army Capt. Cory Brown, a provost marshal officer helping to oversee Afghan security forces here in volatile Paktika province. “But they’ve given insurgents money, food and even rides in Afghan police cars.”
Worse, he says, some policemen are also suspected of selling their U.S.-provided weapons to the Taliban.
The rest of the story lies behind a subscription wall, but it’s not necessary to read more. Anyone could write the rest. In fact, it writes itself, another iteration of the relationship between the US and the Islamic world in which a culture steeped in the expectations derived from Thou Shalt Not Lie meets a culture authorized to lie to advance, protect, and burnish Islam a matter of Islamic law. Guess who wins every time?
http://gibson.house.gov/
Chris Gibson grew up in Columbia County in the town of Kinderhook. He was the Point Guard and Co-Captain of Ichabod Crane’s High School Basketball Team and went on to graduate magna cum laude with a BA in History from Siena College while earning a ROTC Commission there.
Over the course of his 24 year Army career, Chris rose to the rank of Colonel and deployed seven times. They included four combat tours to Iraq, and separate deployments to Kosovo, the Southwestern US for a counter-drug operation, and most recently – just prior to his retirement – Haiti where he commanded the 82nd Airborne Division’s 2nd Brigade Combat Team (BCT) during the opening month of that humanitarian relief operation. The Secretary of the Army awarded the BCT the Superior Unit Award for their actions in Haiti.
Other key assignments included tours teaching American Politics at the United States Military Academy at West Point, serving as a Congressional Fellow with US Representative Jerry Lewis (R-CA), the Chairman of the Defense Appropriations Subcommittee, and completing a Hoover National Security Affairs Fellowship at Stanford University. Chris was also the Distinguished Honor Graduate of the US Army Command and General Staff College.
In Congress, Chris serves on the House Armed Services Committee (Subcommittees on Readiness and Emerging Threats and Capabilities), the House Agriculture Committee (Subcommittees on Livestock, Dairy and Poultry and General Farm Commodities and Risk Management), and the Republican Policy Committee.
Among his military decorations are 2 Legions of Merit, 4 Bronze Star Medals, the Purple Heart, the Combat Infantryman’s Badge with Star, the Master Parachutist Badge and the Ranger Tab. For their actions in Mosul in support of the first national election in the new Iraq, his Battalion Task Force earned the Valorous Unit Award. For their actions in Tal Afar during the 2nd and 3rd national elections in Iraq his Battalion and the 3rd Armored Cavalry Regiment were recognized for excellence by President George W. Bush and earned a 2nd Valorous Unit Award.
Chris holds an MPA and PhD in Government from Cornell University and is the author of Securing the State, a book on national security decision-making published in 2008. Chris has been married to Mary Jo, a NYS Licensed Clinical Social Worker, for over 15 years and they have three children: Katie (14), Maggie (12) and Connor (10). Their home is in Kinderhook where Chris is active in several civic organizations including the American Legion, VFW, NRA, the Knights of Columbus and St. John’s Church of Valatie.
http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/opinionla/la-ed-libya-20120110,0,3773578.story
QADDAFI’S PAL WAS CHARLES TAYLOR THE BUTCHER OF LIBERIA AS WELL AS MOSLEM JIHADIST BASHIR….RSK
Libya’s nasty new friend Sudan President Omar Bashir is wanted by the International Criminal Court on charges of war crimes and crimes against humanity. He’s not someone Libya’s new leaders should be hosting.
Memo to the new leaders of Libya: If you’re trying to establish a democratic, internationally recognized state founded on the rule of law, it’s a very bad idea to seek governance advice from the modern successor to Idi Amin.
In one of the more incongruous diplomatic visits in recent memory, Libyan officials over the weekend rolled out the red carpet for none other than Sudanese President Omar Hassan Ahmed Bashir — the dictator next door wanted by the International Criminal Court on charges of war crimes and crimes against humanity for slaughtering his own people, very like the military dictator just overthrown in Libya who was also wanted by the ICC on similar charges.
http://www.nationaldefensemagazine.org/blog/Lists/Posts/Post.aspx?ID=632
Budget Doublespeak: Analysts Cast Doubt on Notion of ‘Reversible’ Cuts
The Defense Department will be slicing $487 billion from its $6 trillion budget over the next decade. Specifics on where the ax might fall within the budget are still unknown, but all funding decisions are being made on the assumption that cuts are “reversible.”
Reductions to the military’s budget, whether it’s people or equipment, can be commutated if circumstances warrant, according to the strategic guidance that President Obama unveiled last week.
The concept has been dubbed “reversibility” and it plays prominently in budget decisions, officials say. Reversibility is “not a small point” in the new defense strategy, says Pentagon spokesman Capt. John Kirby.
“It is inherent in this strategic guidance,” Kirby tells bloggers during a conference call. “We want the organization, the institution, itself, to be flexible enough that if we have to reverse any of these decisions … we need the ability to surge or regenerate” forces or equipment.
Obama flatters big campaign donors as ‘Minutemen’ The Daily Caller Tuesday, January 10, 2012 Commentary President Barack Obama portrayed his campaign donors Monday night as the modern-day equivalent of the 18th-century colonists who fought the British Empire on the battlefields of Concord, Saratoga and Yorktown. Read more… Read more at: http://times247.com/ Firms fined for failing […]
http://www.nationalreview.com/blogs/print/287769
Rich and Mike, I think there’s too much focus on “electable.” The election is going to be about Obama. The big differences we see between our guys — given that watching politics, and particularly GOP and conservative politics, is what we do around here — are likely to seem like marginal differences to the broader electorate that eventually decides the November election. “Electable” is not only about the field, it’s about the situation — for example, I think Mitt is clearly a better, more polished candidate this time around, but I also think it is a tougher race for him this time around because Obamacare is our biggest issue, so Romneycare looms much larger now than it did in ‘08. And speaking of ‘08, who on January 10 of that year knew that, when the autumn stretch run of the race, the financial meltdown would be the consuming issue? If we could have predicted such a thing, maybe Mitt would have seemed more electable than Sen. McCain.
Newt has done himself a lot of damage in the last few days. But he’s been a plausible candidate this time around, when in many cycles he would not be, because the main issue is Obama’s radicalism — the president has people frightened enough that what would appear to be insurmountable baggage in some elections could be cancelled out this time around. Besides Obama, the Tea Party movement is a big dynamic that did not exist in ‘08 — maybe it makes Santorum or Perry more electable than they would have been at similar stages in other cycles.
http://www.nationalreview.com/blogs/print/287713
In 2010, Adm. Mike Mullen, the former chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, waded into a domestic political debate he would have been well advised to avoid. By declaring that “Our national debt is our biggest national-security threat,” Admiral Mullen painted a bull’s-eye on the Pentagon for every shortsighted budget-cutter in Washington to aim at. Since Admiral Mullen’s comment, it has been nearly impossible for the Pentagon to mount any defense against even the most foolish and dangerous budget cuts. After all, if the organization responsible for securing America is declaring our national debt to be the number-one security threat, then it must, of course, lead the way in taking the cuts that will help reduce that threat.
Last week we saw the outcome of Admiral Mullen’s misjudgment, when the president crossed the Potomac to announce his administration’s new strategic guidance to the Department of Defense. As the uniformed military salutes and does its best to carry out the new guidance, there are some things about it that all Americans must be made aware of. The most important is that this is not a strategy aimed at securing the country. Rather, it is designed for one purpose only: to cut hundreds of billions of dollars out of the defense budget — consequences be damned.
To Kill a Military Posted By Daniel Greenfield
URL to article: http://frontpagemag.com/2012/01/11/obamas-legacy-military-destruction/
In George Soros’ book, “The Bubble of American Supremacy,” he writes that in the clash of civilizations between Islam and the West, the victory would go to the former over the latter. “Although the West has material superiority, Islam will prevail because it has a major competitive advantage: it is not afraid of death.”
Fear of death is certainly one element in Obama’s new skeletal program of defense cuts, which stresses drones and “cyberwarfare” while cutting as many as a hundred thousand troops. Drones and cyberwarriors don’t die or get taken prisoner. They can take out the occasional target with no human cost involved. But they are also impotent in any larger conflict. They can enable us to take out the occasional Al-Qaeda terrorist or slow down Iran’s nuclear program, but they are no match for an outright invasion.
Democratic administrations have a history of favoring these types of bloodless wars that rely on extensive bombardment without exposing troops to any casualties. But cruise missiles and bombing raids can only do so much. The Clinton administration’s bombing of Iraqi targets produced no results. Nor will drones and cyberattacks be effective in stopping any major moves by North Korea or Iran.
