Displaying posts published in

2014

SAVING NATO: SOL SANDERS

A version of this column will be published Monday, Sept. 1, 2014, at yeoldecrabb.com

Saving NATO

It was one great historical irony that when NATO’s famous Article 5 – an attack on any member is an attack on all and demands their assistance – was invoked, it would be not in the aid of the European states for which the Treaty was designed but for the U.S. Nor did the 9/11 attack come from NATO’s anticipated enemy, the Soviet Union, but the new international jihadist terror network.

Thus history’s most successful alliance – it protected Western Europe at the highwater mark of Communism both without and within for a half century until the Soviet Union imploded — met a new challenge in far-off Afghanistan. Yes, the German contingent spent too much time drinking beer and refusing night warfare, most of the Europeans sent token forces, and “the Anglo-Saxons” [certainly not excluding the Australians!] as usual carried the weight to a quick military victory despite outrageous rules of engagement. And, with the current kind of political impasse in “nation building” in Kabul, the longest war in U.S. history might still come to less. But the Treaty obligations worked.

Now, almost two decades after Moscow seemed a convert to a new universalism of free elections, an independent judiciary and media, a civil society and market economics, the European leadership is back to square one. A lying, hypocritical Russian dictatorship in all but name – if basically weak — has challenged with naked aggression the whole benign concept of what the Obama Administration keeps preaching is a new universal morality. Somehow, Putin doesn’t seem to have heard that sermon.

No, the Russian threat it is not now against a member of NATO. Only now, belatedly, has Kyiv decided to press for admission. But with Russian Pres. Vladimir Putin’s infamous remark that the fall of the Soviet Union was the greatest catastrophe of the 20th century, it doesn’t take much imagination to see what is his goal. It is the restitution of domination of the Soviets over the old Tsarist Empire including much of eastern and central Europe [and Central Asia].

The Questions Aren’t Ridiculous to Ask Anymore By Frank Salvato

Not too long ago if you supposed that President Obama was sympathetic to his Islamic experience as a child, inside the beltway Republicans would cringe and Progressives would howl. Non-engaged and no- and low-information voters would immediately call you a conspiracy theorist, an Obama-hating racist and other assorted kneejerk labels. But given the incredible inaction and indecisiveness on Mr. Obama’s part with regard to the Islamic State, this question not only needs to be braved, but has become one we all need a definitive answer to.

In a 2007 New York Times article, Nicholas Kristoff wrote:

“‘I was a little Jakarta street kid,’ [Mr. Obama] said in a wide-ranging interview in his office…Mr. Obama recalled the opening lines of the Arabic call to prayer, reciting them with a first-rate accent. In a remark that seemed delightfully uncalculated…, Mr. Obama described the call to prayer as ‘one of the prettiest sounds on Earth at sunset.’

“Moreover, Mr. Obama’s own grandfather in Kenya was a Muslim. Mr. Obama never met his grandfather and says he isn’t sure if his grandfather’s two wives were simultaneous or consecutive, or even if he was Sunni or Shiite.”

Mr. Obama intended, from the very beginning, to bring a new perspective to the American people about the Islamic culture. His 2009 speech in Cairo, Egypt, was titled “A New Beginning.” In that speech Mr. Obama said:

“As a student of history, I also know civilization’s debt to Islam. It was Islam – at places like Al-Azhar – that carried the light of learning through so many centuries, paving the way for Europe’s Renaissance and Enlightenment. It was innovation in Muslim communities that developed the order of algebra; our magnetic compass and tools of navigation; our mastery of pens and printing; our understanding of how disease spreads and how it can be healed. Islamic culture has given us majestic arches and soaring spires; timeless poetry and cherished music; elegant calligraphy and places of peaceful contemplation. And throughout history, Islam has demonstrated through words and deeds the possibilities of religious tolerance and racial equality.”

But as Victor Davis Hanson points out in his article “Obama’s Hazy Sense of History”:

The Notion of “Sin” in Islam and Christianity — on The Glazov Gang

The Notion of “Sin” in Islam and Christianity — on The Glazov Gang
How the stark contrast in two religions’ values fosters peace and forgiveness in one — and violence and killing in the other.

This week’s Glazov Gang was guest-hosted by Nonie Darwish and joined by Dr. Jim Tolle, the Senior Pastor at El Camino Metro Church in Los Angeles.

Pastor Tolle joined the show to discuss The Notion of “Sin” in Islam and Christianity, analyzing how the stark contrast in two religions’ values fosters peace and forgiveness in one — and violence and killing in the other:
http://www.frontpagemag.com/2014/frontpagemag-com/the-notion-of-sin-in-islam-and-christianity-on-the-glazov-gang/

DANIEL GREENFIELD: THE IMAGINARY NON INTERVENTIONIST

Ever since Hillary broke with Barack over the virtues of doing stupid stuff, the editorial columnists have been pretending that she has some new and exciting foreign policy.

She doesn’t.

The left has been denouncing her as an interventionist, the second coming of George W. Bush. They just can’t explain how Hillary is any more of an interventionist than her old boss who bombed Libya, is bombing Iraq and wanted to bomb Syria. Other places he’s bombing include Yemen and Pakistan. And all that is without taking account of his attempt to implement the Arab Spring’s regime changes across the region with tragic and disastrous results.

The closest thing to a disagreement between them was over Syria and considering that Obama was days away from getting into Syria, that’s not much of a firewall.

Hillary took a cheap shot at Obama. The media spent so much time discussing the cheap shot and their hugging summit that it completely ignored the fact that it was a cheap shot with no substance to it. Hillary and Obama have the same ideological DNA and get their ideas from the same narrow circles. Hillary doesn’t have a better or worse foreign policy. They both have the same foreign policy.

Underneath the manufactured political reality show drama that happens when a candidate of the same party as a lame duck administration tries to explain why she’s so different than the miserable failure now holding down the job is the sober reality that they’re both reading from the same scripts.

How could they not?

Hillary Clinton is trying to distance herself from the foreign policy of an administration in which she served as Secretary of State. Hillary is trying to distance herself from her own approach to international relations That’s a level of schizophrenia that is a bit extreme even for a woman who sheds accents, identities and sports team affinities the way that a snake sheds its skin.

Forbes Names 10 Best Global Health Tech Companies, Half are From Israel

From a battery-powered set of legs, to mobile app to connect diabetes patients, Israel is leading the global health technology industry.The global health technology industry is booming as population levels and life expectancies increase around the world. Forbes recently named its picks for the top-10 most important health companies, from a start-up that enables doctors to provide patients with personalized instructions via easy-to-understand videos, to a robotic exoskeleton that helps people with spinal cord injuries to walk. Five of the 10 companies have ties to Israel.

“It’s amazing that Israel – a country of only 8 million people – produces so many leading health technology companies,” David E. Williams, president of the the U.S.-based Health Business Group, told From the Grapevine.
“Israel’s highly educated technical and medical workers are reared in a society that prizes problem solving and innovation and that places tremendous value on curing illness and saving lives,” Williams added. “These conditions have generated a virtuous cycle that draws venture capital and contributes to a rich ecosystem that speeds innovation, lowers costs, and increases the likelihood for companies to succeed.”

The ReWalk system is a wearable exoskeleton that helps those with spinal cord injuries to walk using powered hip and knee motion. It was designed by Israeli entrepreneur Amit Goffer, who himself suffered an injury that left him in a wheelchair for life. The ReWalk system was approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration earlier this summer. “This revolutionary product will have an immediate, life-changing impact on individuals with spinal cord injuries,” said Larry Jasinski, CEO of ReWalk Robotics in a recent press release.

Jihad Comes To Europe by Guy Millière

Belgian security services have estimated that the number of European jihadists in Syria may be over 4000.

European leaders have directed their nastiest comments against the Jewish state, none of them has asked why Palestinian organizations in Gaza put their stockpiles of weapons in hospitals, homes, schools and mosques, or their command and control centers at the bottom of large apartment buildings or underneath hospitals. None of them has even said that Hamas is a terrorist organization despite its genocidal charter.

The majority of them are wedded to the idea of redistribution. Their policies are anti-growth, do not afford people any economic opportunity, and are what caused these economic crises in Europe in the first place. The United States seems to be following these thoroughly failed policies as well.

“Europe could not stay the same with a different population in it.” — Christopher Caldwell, Reflections on the Revolution in Europe.

A few months before murdering four people at a Jewish Museum in Brussels on May 24th, a French Muslim named Medhi Nemmouche had been released from prison and had already joined the Islamic State (at the time, called ISIS).

Nemmouche had left the Museum unmolested and was identified only by images from surveillance cameras. He was arrested two days later in Marseille during an anti-drug check, where it was discovered that he was about to take a boat to Algeria. He had with him his weapons and a black flag of the Islamic State.

The French police knew exactly who he was. Despite everything, he had not been placed under close surveillance.

Nemmouche will be tried in Belgium, where he faces a sentence of life imprisonment — but life imprisonment in Belgium and France means a maximum of twenty-two years. He will not spend twenty-two years in prison. He will likely earn an early release for good behavior. Almost all prisoners in Belgium and France are released for good behavior. That he is a repeat offender and has been convicted seven times for robbery and assault will not be held against him: in Belgium or France, recidivism is theoretically considered an aggravating circumstance but is almost never taken into account in the judgments issued by courts.

In prison, he will join the company of people who share his ideas, and he will be able to join jihadi networks.

In Belgian and French prisons, a large majority of the inmates are Muslims, many of whom are radical; and jihadi networks are ubiquitous.

When he leaves prison, he will most likely join the Islamic State again, if he wants, and if the Islamic State still exists.

Nemmouche’s path resembles that of another French Muslim, Mohamed Merah, who killed three French soldiers and four Jews in the Southwest of France in March, 2012. Merah, like Nemmouche, had also served several sentences in prison and had joined Islamic organizations, although in Afghanistan, not Syria. He, too, came back ready to kill, and he killed.

The French police also knew who Mohamed Merah was. And he was also not placed under close surveillance.

The main difference between Merah and Nemmouche is that Merah chose to die in a police shootout. Because of the way he died, Merah became a hero for many young European Muslims.

At the time of the Merah case, against all evidence, the French government had put forward the “lone wolf” theory and officially dismissed the idea of jihad, although there were arrests in Islamist circles.

When Nemmouche was arrested, the French Interior Minister used more courageous words: he spoke of “jihadi networks” and of “problems” in the French prison system. He added that 700 French youths were in training camps in Syria, and could come back at any moment. The Belgian authorities used similar words.

These mentions of jihad and “problems” in the prisons were steps in the right direction. The problem is that there will almost certainly be no further steps.

Gilles de Kerchove, the EU Counter-terrorism Coordinator, recently said that there are, in fact, more than 700 French Muslims presently waging jihad in Syria. Available data show that there are also many Belgian Muslims, and many Muslims going to Syria from the rest of Europe. Belgian security services have estimated that the number of European jihadists in Syria may be over 4,000. Entire European fighting units seems to have been created.

The leaders of the French and Belgian do not have any real ways of implementing and managing better security or keeping track of suspects — even those likely to take action. These leaders do not even try to restore order in prisons. Government leaders currently preside over financially battered countries, mired in sclerosis, stagnation, wretchedly controlled immigration, and the perverse effects of redistributive social welfare systems that only multiply the poor and destroy jobs — the side effects of multiculturalism. They have neither the will nor the resources to cope with all the costs that would be involved.

They know that if they tried to do something, they would soon be faced with riots in the (mostly Muslim) “no-go zones” scattered throughout the outskirts of most cities.

They know that they would have to hire thousands of police and to consider using the army.

French politicians fear mass riots in the violence-prone suburban “no go zones” that surround major cities. In this photo, a car burns in Sèvres, France, during the 2005 riots. (Source: WikiMedia Commons)
They know that they would soon face extremely reluctant and extremely hostile judges: judges in Belgium and France are permanent and irremovable civil servants, and the majority of them are wedded to economic ideas based on the redistribution of wealth. Their policies are anti-growth, do not afford people any economic opportunity, and are what created these crises in Europe in the first place. The United States seems to be following these thoroughly failed policies as well. The main union of magistrates in France, “Syndicat de la magistrature”, is close to a neo-communist organization, “le Front de Gauche”.

The governments’ leaders know that they would have to confront “anti-racist” organizations fully dedicated to the fight against “Islamophobia”: powerful and well financed Islamic lobbies, imams in key mosques, and most journalists in the mainstream media.

The governments’ leaders also know that they would have to run the risk of losing elections. In the major cities of Belgium and France, the Muslim vote has an increasing weight. Brussels, the city where Medhi Nemmouche murdered, is now 30% Muslim. Roubaix, the city where he was born, is 60% Muslim. The number of cities where the Muslim population is a majority continues to rise.

The governments’ leaders know that what is happening in France and Belgium can be found to varying degrees in all European countries, and that the problem that overwhelms them is really a European problem.

Government leaders in all major European countries know that hundreds of well-trained European jihadists are in Syria and that some of them will return. They do not ignore that some are already back in Europe and that attacks are likely. They do not ignore that if European jihadists are in the hundreds, those who support jihadism in Europe are probably in the tens of thousands. In recent demonstrations in support of the “Palestinian cause” all over Europe, flags of Hamas, Hizbullah and the Islamic State were abundant, and slogans explicit.

Governments in all major European countries do not ignore that many of the countries they lead are in financial dire straits, faced with sclerosis, stagnation, wretchedly controlled immigration, policies that retard economic growth, and the results of multiculturalism.

They do not ignore that many prisons in Europe are jihadi hotbeds, and that (mostly Muslim) no-go zones are proliferating.

They do not ignore that risks of riots are very real, and that judges under the influence of ideas that for a hundred years have been proven not to work — in Russia, Cuba and everywhere — nevertheless still serve everywhere in Europe.

They cannot ignore the existence in every European country of “anti-racist” organizations and Islamic lobbies, imams and journalists, almost exactly similar to those which exist in France and Belgium.

They cannot ignore the growing weight of Muslim votes in many parts of Europe.

They can break up some networks, thwart some attacks, symbolically strip some jihadists of their citizenship.

They know they are largely hostage to a situation they no longer control.

Their attitude is dictated by the fear of being confronted with more serious problems than murders: some European counter-terrorism services say that a Mumbai-style armed attack in Europe is possible, even probable.

The attitude of governments can be defined by a word often used to describe the attitude of Daladier and Chamberlain in 1938: appeasement.

The victims of Merah and Nemmouche were Jews. European politicians say they are ready to protect Jews living in Europe, but they are scared of offending those who attack Jews. They enunciate verbal condemnations of “anti-Semitism”, but they deliberately ignore the Islamic nature of almost all anti-Semitic acts in Europe today.

European politicians see that those who commit anti-Semitic acts closely associate hatred of Jews and hatred of Israel. They seem to think that if they say that “what happen in the Middle East has to stay in the Middle East”, that it will. They deludedly seem to think that if they harshly criticize Israel while saying that the Jews of Europe have nothing to do with Israel, they will avoid outbursts that are even worse. They seem unable to see that social media exist and that what happens in the Middle East does not stay in the Middle East. It leads them to make implicit distinctions between “good” European Jews who see nothing, hear nothing, shut their mouths and behave as “genuine European citizens”, and “bad” European Jews who dare to speak of Islamic hatred, express sympathy for Israel and behave as “troublemakers.”

Articles denouncing “bad” Jews may be found in major newspapers and magazines. Christophe Barbier, director of the French weekly L’Express recently wrote that French Jews who are worried about the rise of Islamic anti-Semitic acts are “paranoid”. He added, a bit surreally, that those Jews who leave France are “traitors” and followers of “Beelzebub”. In another article in the same magazine, French Jewish organizations were recently accused of playing an important part in the rise of anti-Semitism in France by being “too close to Israel”. Does anyone ever get criticized for being “too close” to North Korea, Russia or Iran?

Since the beginning of the Gaza conflict, European leaders have directed their nastiest remarks against the Jewish State. None of them has asked why Palestinian organizations in Gaza put their stockpiles of weapons in hospitals, homes, schools and mosques, or their command and control centers at the bottom of large apartment buildings or underneath hospitals. None of them has even said that Hamas is a terrorist organization, despite its genocidal charter. Faced with the horrors in northern Iraq, only three European countries — France, the United Kingdom, and Germany — decided to provide limited humanitarian aid and deliver military supplies to Kurdish forces. The other countries cautiously abstained.

A few days ago, British PM David Cameron expressed concern that the Islamic State could become strong enough to “target people on the streets of Britain”, but added that he was not considering military intervention. That the man who savagely beheaded James Foley on camera spoke with an East London accent prompted British authorities to search for his identity: the beheading was immediately considered a criminal case, not a barbaric act of war.

The murder of Lee Rigby, on May 22, 2013, was considered a simple criminal case: the judge who sentenced the two killers said that the “extremist views” they both expressed during the trial were a “betrayal of Islam”. In the European media, the Islamic State is now defined as a “terrorist organization”, never as an Islamic organization. Saudi Arabia’s grand mufti recently said that “the Islamic State is the enemy of Islam”. Many European newspapers immediately ran headlines obediently repeating what he said. In mainstream European newspapers, Hamas is never defined as Islamic or even terrorist; and is called a “resistance movement”.

European Jews perceive the smell in the air, and many of them are packing their bags. Seeing that journalists may call them “traitors” and followers of “Beelzebub” does not inspire them to change their minds.

Europeans who are neither Jewish nor Muslim perceive that the situation is rapidly becoming extremely unsafe and unstable. They also feel, with good reason, that their political leaders are not telling the truth.

Recent polls show that in almost every European country, a large majority of the people is pessimistic, expects the worst, and feels a deep lack of trust in politicians, governmental institutions and the media. Recent polls also show that in most European countries, an even larger majority of the people rejects and loathes Islam. Xenophobic parties are on the rise.

In Reflections on the Revolution in Europe, published in 2009, Christopher Caldwell noted that “Europe could not stay the same with a different population in it”. He added that any debate in Europe on the impact and dangers of Islam is impossible because “violent Islamists intimidate and threaten”. He also added that the demographic trends and the rise of radical Islam in the Middle East do not indicate that the situation will improve. Five years later, it is clear that he was right.

Europe is heading towards an increasingly uncertain future. Debates on the impact and dangers of Islam are even less possible today than five years ago. Demographic trends are irrepressibly moving in a direction that is Muslim. Radical Islam in the Middle East and in Europe is rising ever more rapidly, with no one lifting a finger to stop it.

BREAKING NEWS: TERRORISTS KILL PEOPLE!!!

Breaking news: terrorists kill people! http://www.pol-inc-pol.com/2014/08/schools-of-terror.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+Politically-incorrectPolitics+%28Politically-incorrect+Politics%29 After playing ‘useful idiots’ to Islamist propaganda emanating from Gaza, Western politicians and mainstream ‘journalists’ were suddenly sent into a frenzy by a gruesome video showing yet another jihadist ‘executing’ an American hostage – who happened to be a journalist himself. Leaving aside the ‘execution method’ (which is nothing […]

A MARVELOUS IDEA…KEEP THE WORD MARVELOUS OR MARVELLOUS IN THE UK: MICHAEL HENDERSON

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/law-and-order/11063885/Rotherham-and-the-toxic-legacy-of-multiculturalism.html

It would be misery without ‘marvellous’

“Tongues, like governments, have a natural tendency to degeneration,” wrote Dr Johnson. “We have long preserved our constitution, let us make some struggles for our language.” Those struggles go on, decade after decade. Words disappear, or reappear wearing different clothes, particularly in English, which is the most adaptable tongue in the world.

As language is in a constant state of evolution, there is little point cursing the idiocies of the younger generation. Younger generations have always been idiotic: remember “fab” and “groovy”? Nobody uses those words now, unless they are being ironic. Still, it was sad to read this week that “marvellous” is in retreat. Apparently “awesome” is the adjective of choice for young folk. In which case it’s a relief not to be young any more.

Marvellous is a marvellous word. It was good enough for Wordsworth, who called Chatterton a “marvellous boy”. And it was good enough for a great 20th-century wordsmith, Johnny Mercer, who wrote the lyric for Too Marvelous For Words, with its superb couplet: “You’re much too much and just too very very, to ever be in Webster’s Dictionary.” Mercer, being American, spelt it with only one l, of course, but that’s another matter. Let’s keep marvellous. No society can remain civilised for long without it.

Michael Henderson: Rotherham- The Toxic Legacy of Multiculturalism

At the end of a shameful week it may not be a bad idea for one of those liberal Lefties to offer a mea culpa

The sickening sound we heard from Rotherham this week was that of chickens coming home to roost. The doctrine of multiculturalism has been enforced with such zealotry in Britain, and in the northern town, over the past three decades that we must cast the net far wider than the police and social workers to find all those culpable of fomenting this mass deception. Perhaps we can make a start by looking at what Denis MacShane, the former Labour MP for Rotherham, admitted upon the publication of Professor Jay’s report.

He hadn’t said anything at the time, he said, because “as a true Guardian reader and liberal Leftie”, he hadn’t wanted to rock the multicultural boat. Some people might interpret that statement as a timid first step towards begging forgiveness for his sins of omission. Others might think it an attempt at a self-deprecating joke, and not a particularly funny one. MacShane was never a funny man and since he was detained at Her Majesty’s pleasure he has found even less to laugh about.

Rotherham’s murky Asian subculture is not unique. All over England, but particularly in the north, towns have been transformed out of all recognition in the last generation because people failed to act upon the evidence of their eyes. People preferred not to rock the boat.

At times there’s something to be said for boat-rockers. Ray Honeyford was one. In 1984, when he was headmaster of Drummond Middle School in Bradford, he wrote an essay in The Salisbury Review in which he argued persuasively that separate development – allowing different cultures to remain separate – in schools could only lead to greater fragmentation in society. For his pains he was denounced, hounded, suspended and reinstated before, fed up with the argy-bargy, he stood down.

Judicial Watch: Feds’ Bulletin Describes Threat of Imminent Terrorist Attack on Southern Border By Andrew C. McCarthy

For those of us who’ve been raising alarms about both the jihadist threat and the national-security vulnerability created by the Obama administration’s non-enforcement of the immigration laws, this is not a surprise — particularly less than two weeks before September 11. But it is nonetheless jarring to read. Judicial Watch has just put out this statement:

Islamic terrorist groups are operating in the Mexican border city of Ciudad Juarez and planning to attack the United States with car bombs or other vehicle born improvised explosive devices (VBIED). High-level federal law enforcement, intelligence and other sources have confirmed to Judicial Watch that a warning bulletin for an imminent terrorist attack on the border has been issued. Agents across a number of Homeland Security, Justice and Defense agencies have all been placed on alert and instructed to aggressively work all possible leads and sources concerning this imminent terrorist threat.

Specifically, Judicial Watch sources reveal that the militant group Islamic State of Iraq and Greater Syria (ISIS) is confirmed to now be operating in Juarez, a famously crime-infested narcotics hotbed situated across from El Paso, Texas. Violent crimes are so rampant in Juarez that the U.S. State Department has issued a number of travel warnings for anyone planning to go there. The last one was issued just a few days ago.

Intelligence officials have picked up radio talk and chatter indicating that the terrorist groups are going to “carry out an attack on the border,” according to one JW source. “It’s coming very soon,” according to this high-level source, who clearly identified the groups planning the plots as “ISIS and Al Qaeda.” An attack is so imminent that the commanding general at Ft. Bliss, the U.S. Army post in El Paso, is being briefed, another source confirms. The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) did not respond to multiple inquiries from Judicial Watch, both telephonic and in writing, about this information.

The disturbing inside intelligence comes on the heels of news reports revealing that U.S. intelligence has picked up increased chatter among Islamist terror networks approaching the 13th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks. While these terrorists reportedly plan their attack just outside the U.S., President Obama admits that “we don’t have a strategy yet” to combat ISIS. “I don’t want to put the cart before the horse,” the commander-in-chief said this week during a White House press briefing. “I think what I’ve seen in some of the news reports suggest that folks are getting a little further ahead of what we’re at than what we currently are.”