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Media Reactions to Soleimani Assassination Are Beyond Parody Debra Heine

Posted By on January 8th, 2020

https://amgreatness.com/2020/01/07/media-reactions-to-soleimani-assassination-are-beyond-parody/

No one expected the U.S. media to take President Trump’s decision to rid the world of Iranian general Qassem Soleimani well, but the MSM’s outpouring of grief over the top terrorist kingpin’s death has reached Onion/Babylon Bee levels of parodic absurdity.

The media has played up Soleimani’s reputation as a brilliant military strategist beloved by his people, while downplaying his responsibility for the destruction of countless lives across the Middle East.

The fact is, Soleimani was a monster.

Qassem Soleimani was responsible for 11 recent attacks on U.S. facilities in Iraq even before the one that killed a U.S. contractor; Iranian attacks on neutral, civilian shipping in the Gulf; the attack on Aramco facilities in Saudi Arabia; IEDs that killed hundreds of American soldiers in Iraq. He was the architect of Iran’s strategy of mobilizing militias to destabilize neighboring states and the brutal strategy of bleeding Syria dry.

While we may not be at war with Iran, Soleimani has been at war with the United States for 15 years.

Soleimani was also notoriously brutal to his own people, as Iranian journalist Masih Alinejad pointed out in the Washington post.

This past November, thousands of Iranians took to the streets across the country to protest against the regime, in the biggest challenge to the clerical rule in 40 years. According to Reuters, more than 1,500 people were killed by security forces, including units of Soleimani’s Revolutionary Guard, and at least 7,000 have been arrested. The Internet was shut down for five days

NATIONAL NEWS & OPINION Comments turned off

Democrats Are Now Incapable Of Protecting America Thomas McArdle

Posted By on January 8th, 2020

https://issuesinsights.com/2020/01/08/democrats-are-now-incapable-of-protecting-america/

In the immediate aftermath of Iranian missile attacks on U.S. bases in Iraq – apparently designed to save face rather than kill Americans – is it an overstatement to apply Orwell’s ultra-totalitarian slogans to the left in the free country of the United States of America today? “War is peace,” The Party in “1984” assured its servile proles, “freedom is slavery,” and “ignorance is strength.”

After all, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi assured us that the people’s elected representatives could cast their votes for ObamaCare while being entirely ignorant of the contents of the law. And the “Medicare For All” being pushed hard by top-tier Democrats running for president, such as Sens. Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren, obviously means freedom of choice of health plan for no one. To have such liberty, they tell us, would make us slaves of the rich health insurers.

But national security is where the Orwellian really comes through. The reality of war is defeating the enemy, and oftentimes that necessarily means killing your adversary’s military strategists. For instance, over the course of seven months, exiled Czechoslovakian soldiers planned and successfully executed Operation Anthropoid, the 1942 killing of Reinhard Heydrich, a powerful Nazi security chief and one of the formulators of Hitler’s genocide of the Jews. A well-reviewed film of the operation was released several years ago.

HOMELAND SECURITY, IMMIGRATION Comments turned off

Iranian Terror Threat Exacerbated by Sanctuary Policies Exposing the politicians’ deadly lies. Michael Cutler

Posted By on January 8th, 2020

https://www.frontpagemag.com/fpm/2020/01/iranian-terror-threat-exacerbated-sanctuary-michael-cutler/

The United States and Iran has been on a collision course since the Carter administration and the seizure of the U.S. Embassy at Tehran, Iran on November 4, 1979. 

Iran has issued a string of threats against the U.S. since that day.  Consider my earlier articles published in 2018: Iran Threatens U.S. And Its Allies With “Drugs, Refugees, Bombs And Assassination” and Congressional Hearing: Iranian Sleeper Cells Threaten U.S. So many hearings, so little action

On January 2, 2020 the New York Times reported, U.S. Strike in Iraq Kills Qassim Suleimani, Commander of Iranian Forces.  The Iranian response was reported on January 3, 2020 by Radio Free Europe / Liberty Radio: Khamenei, Other Iran Officials Vow ‘Severe Retaliation’ For Soleimani Killing.

The United States has been in the crosshairs of foreign terrorists for decades- and not just those affiliated with Iran.  Almost exclusively, these terror organizations have been affiliated with radical Islam.  Wikipedia posted a list of terror attacks in NYC up to and including 2017.

POLITICS Comments turned off

Bernie Sanders: Killing a Terrorist Is Like Putting Muslims in Concentration Camps Daniel Greenfield

Posted By on January 8th, 2020

https://www.frontpagemag.com/point/2020/01/bernie-sanders-killing-terrorist-putting-muslims-daniel-greenfield/

With Beto O’Rourke out of the race, it’s up to Bernie Sanders to come up with the best hot take on the killing of Soleimani. And he delivers exactly the sort of rambling senile socialist rant you would expect from Jeremy Corbyn. All he leaves out is throwing around “empire”, “endless war”, and “neo-liberalism”. And then blaming the whole thing on corporations. But at least he manages to compare Trump to Putin and Xi.

SANDERS: No, I think it was an assassination. I think it was in violation of international law. This guy was (INAUDIBLE) — was a bad news guy, but he was a ranking official of the Iranian government.

And Baghdadi was the ranking head of the Islamic State.

So what?

If a foreign government official decides to engage in terrorist operations, he’s a terrorist. The silly argument that Soleimani can’t be killed because he has an official title is nonsense. Terrorists don’t stop being terrorists because they have titles.

HOMELAND SECURITY Comments turned off

Treason? Ilhan Omar Gives Iran Military Advice, Suggests It Could Target Trump Hotels By Robert Spencer

Posted By on January 8th, 2020

https://pjmedia.com/trending/treason-ilhan-omar-gives-iran-military-advice-suggests-it-target-trump-hotels/

The inspiringly patriotic Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-Tehran, no, check that, I’m hearing she’s from Minnesota) tweeted Monday offering some unsolicited military advice to the Islamic Republic of Iran: “Trump needs to immediately divest from his businesses and comply with the emoluments clause. Iran could threaten Trump hotels *worldwide* and he could provoke war over the loss of revenue from skittish guests. His business interests should not be driving military decisions.” She also tweeted a video in which the late comedian George Carlin asserts that the U.S. is “not very good at anything” besides war. And so once again we have to ask the by-now-familiar question: Is Ilhan Omar a traitor who hates America?

Omar’s warning that Trump’s “business interests should not be driving military decisions” makes no sense, because clearly the fact that Trump owns hotels that Iran could target didn’t stop him from going after Qasem Soleimani. But as far as Omar and her ideological allies are concerned, it doesn’t matter how much they have to twist their logic into pretzels to get Trump, as long as they make the president look bad. That imperative has now driven Omar even to give a military suggestion to a hostile foreign power. The mullahs and their henchmen haven’t said anything about targeting Trump hotels, so here is a United States congresswoman to give them a marvelous new idea about how they could murder Americans and others, and further menace the United States.

WORLD NEWS Comments turned off

Iran fires ballistic missiles at U.S. troops — beginning or end? By Andrea Widburg

Posted By on January 8th, 2020

https://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2020/01/iran_fires_ballistic_missiles_at_us_troops__beginning_or_end.html

With reports rapidly emerging from Iran and Iraq, there are a few concrete facts:

The Pentagon confirmed Tuesday night that Iran launched “more than a dozen ballistic missiles” into Iraq. Iran targeted Iraqi military bases in Al-Assad and Erbil that are known to host U.S. and coalition troops. The Pentagon further said that there are no U.S. casualties.

This last is an interesting point because Iran has proven in the past that it can direct its ballistic missiles accurately. This may indicate, as is discussed at greater length below, that these missiles are a feint to hide Iran’s ultimate revenge for Soleimani’s death.

White House Press Secretary Stephanie Grisham said President Trump has been briefed and is monitoring the situation but has not yet formally announced a plan of action. Trump himself tweeted out late Tuesday night that he would issue a statement Wednesday morning, as well as saying that all is well:

In an official statement, the Pentagon offered assurance that it would safeguard American personnel and their partners:

These bases have been on high alert due to indications that the Iranian regime planned to attack our forces and interests in the region. As we evaluate the situation and our response, we will take all necessary measures to protect and defend U.S. personnel, partners, and allies in the region.

NATIONAL NEWS & OPINION Comments turned off

The Steele Dossier Bacillus By Victor Davis Hanson

Posted By on January 8th, 2020

https://www.nationalreview.com/2020/01/the-steele-dossier-bacillus/

Those who trafficked in the dossier’s concocted mess were infected, and their reputations are now declining.

In 2016, Hillary Clinton presidential candidate hired an ex-intelligence officer and foreign national, British subject Christopher Steele, to use Russian sources to find dirt (“opposition research”) on her then political opponent Donald Trump. So much for the worry about “foreign interference” in U.S. elections.

The public would take years to learn of the funding sources of Steele, because Clinton camouflaged her role through three firewalls: the Democratic National Committee; the Perkins-Coie legal firm; and Glenn Simpson’s Fusion GPS opposition-research firm.

Steele had collected rumor and gossip from mostly Russian sources in an effort to tar Trump as a Russian colluder and asset. We know now that his sources were either bogus or deliberately warped by Steele himself.

Almost everything in the dossier was unverified and later was proved fanciful. Yet with the help of high Obama administration and elected officials, the dossier’s gossip and rumor were leaked throughout the top echelons of Washington politics and the media. Its lies spread because its chief message — Donald J. Trump was a fool, dangerous, should never be elected, and once elected had no business as president — was exactly what the establishment wished to hear. In other words, the dossier was infectious because it was deemed both welcome and useful.

ANTI-SEMITISM Comments turned off

Five Years Later, We Still Haven’t Learned from the Charlie Hebdo Massacre By David Harsanyi

Posted By on January 8th, 2020

https://www.nationalreview.com/2020/01/five-years-later-we-still-havent-learned-from-the-charlie-hebdo-massacre/

Giving a bunch of religious extremists or government bureaucrats veto power over our speech doesn’t make us safer. It just makes us less free.

Five years ago today, two French Islamists forced their way into the Paris editorial offices of the satirical newspaper Charlie Hebdo and began shooting. The journal’s offices had been moved to an unmarked building after they were hit by a 2011 firebombing in response to the publication of a satirical cartoon of the Prophet Mohammed. The shooters managed to kill twelve people. A related attack soon followed in a kosher supermarket, where four Jews were murdered by a friend of the shooters.

Even today, the paper’s editor, who’s published offensive caricatures of popes and rabbis, lives under police protection for the crime of slandering Mohammed. Charlie Hebdo, whose circulation has dropped precipitously after an initial post-attack spike, is an ill-mannered slayer of sacred cows of a kind that, sadly, doesn’t exist in the United States. The only American enterprise I can think of that has a comparable openness to skewering all faiths is South Park, but even its excellent brand of satire is staid by comparison.

For a brief moment after attack, the free world rallied around Charlie Hebdo. “Je suis Charlie” became a global rallying cry. The massive march through the streets of Paris that followed included virtually every major world leader, including those hypocrites who are happy to clamp down on free expression in their own nations. One leader conspicuously, and embarrassingly, absent from the proceedings was the president of the United States, Barack Obama. He sent the U.S. ambassador to France instead.

WORLD NEWS Comments turned off

BARBAROUS IRAN IS THE REAL GREAT SATAN, BUT THE MORALLY BANKRUPT LEFT IS INCAPABLE OF ADMITTING IT RICHARD KEMP

Posted By on January 7th, 2020

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/authors/colonel-richard-kemp/

‘Death to America! The great Satan!’ Predictable chants on the streets of Tehran following President Trump’s strike against Iranian General Qassim Soleimani. Comments by many political leaders in Britain suggest their own feelings may not be much different. Jeremy Corbyn’s reaction, in any case now politically irrelevant, was so predictable it can be passed over. The candidates to replace him also lined up to condemn Trump’s action, led by Shadow Foreign Secretary Emily Thornberry who spoke of ‘Trump’s reckless lurch towards war’. Clive Lewis condemned ‘this cowboy action’.

Is it strategic naïveté that leads these people to side with Tehran over Washington? Ill-judged comments like this can only embolden Ayatollah Khamenei in his plans to retaliate against America. Desperate to split the EU further from the US, he knows the value of such backing, demanding that European leaders condemn President Trump.

These Labour politicians are far from alone, with academics and so-called experts in international law wheeled out in the media to accuse the US of acting illegally and even committing war crimes, despite ignorance of the intelligence that led to the attack order. At one point I expected the BBC to play martial music in the days immediately after Soleimani’s death, so sombre was their coverage of his funeral. Their correspondent in Beirut on Monday came across more like a spokesman for Tehran. Next maybe we should expect to see Soleimani transformed into an anti-imperialist icon, with Left-wing politicians donning t-shirts bearing his image Che Guevara-style.

BOOKS, P.C.-CULTURE Comments turned off

The National Book Foundation Defines Diversity Down written by Kevin Mims

Posted By on January 7th, 2020

https://quillette.com/2020/01/07/the-national-book-foundation-defines-diversity-down/

“Over the past decade, the National Book Foundation has honored works of fiction such as Great House, I Hotel, So Much For That, Binocular Vision, Refund, The Throwback Special, The Association of Small Bombs, and a lot of other books whose authors not one in 10,000 Americans can probably identify. Decades from now, when people look back on the Lisa Lucas era at the National Book Foundation, they may see a whole lot of ethnic diversity and not much more—except for a lot of forgotten and out-of-print titles.”

Last month the Huffington Post published an essay by Claire Fallon entitled “Was this Decade the Beginning of the End of the Great White Male Writer?” Fallon celebrated the notion that white men are losing their prominence in contemporary American literature and that the best books being published in America today are being written by a wider variety of authors than ever before:

“What was once insular is now unifying,” National Book Foundation director Lisa Lucas told the crowd at the 2019 National Book Awards Gala, where the fiction, nonfiction, and poetry honors all went to writers of color. “What was once exclusive is now inclusive.”

Lucas took over the foundation in 2016, at a time when the high-profile awards had a somewhat checkered record with representation. Though historically the honorees had skewed heavily white and male, that began to change around 2010. (However, there had been some other recent embarrassments, like 2014 host Daniel Handler’s racist jokes following author Jacqueline Woodson’s win for “Brown Girl Dreaming.”) Lucas, the first woman and person of color to helm the foundation, made representation and inclusivity a focus of her messaging.