RUTHFULLY YOURS

http://pjmedia.com/blog/obamas-dangerous-fantasy-of-al-qaeda-defeated/?print=1

When he met with Afghan President Hamid Karzai in Washington last Friday, Barack Obama said this about the war in Afghanistan: “We achieved our central goal … or have come very close to achieving our central goal, which is to de-capacitate al-Qaeda, to dismantle them, to make sure that they can’t attack us again.”

He said this four days after a Muslim imam who was a soldier in the Afghan National Army opened fire on a group of his British “allies,” murdering one of them and wounding six. The Taliban, al-Qaeda’s partner in Afghanistan, claimed responsibility for the attack, which was yet another in an ever-lengthening string of “insider” attacks by Afghan forces against those who are putting themselves at risk to train and assist them. The BBC reports that “in 2012, more than 60 Nato service personnel, and a quarter of the British troops who died in Helmand, were killed in such attacks.”
The Taliban is not al-Qaeda, although the distinction on the ground in Afghanistan may be exceedingly fine, too fine to be discerned by the average NATO soldier when the Afghan he is trying to teach how to be a military man turns the gun he has just given him on his benefactor. In any case, the appalling fact that “a quarter of the British troops who died in Helmand” perished in such attacks indicates that the enemy in Afghanistan is far from being either “de-capacitated” or dismantled, and still has the ability to attack us.

Nonetheless, Obama officials keep doing the victory dance over an al-Qaeda that they repeatedly imply is on the verge of extinction. Jeh Johnson, general counsel at the Defense Department, recently said that “military pursuit of al-Qaida” should end soon. His reasoning was apparently that al-Qaeda is now so severely damaged that we will soon reach a “tipping point” after which military action against them will no longer be necessary, and local police can handle it.

http://pjmedia.com/rogerlsimon/2013/01/18/keep-fracking-america/?singlepage=true

Recent events in Mali and Libya, not to mention Egypt, Syria, Iraq, Iran, Yemen, Pakistan, Bengla Desh, Somalia, and several other pleasure spots remind us — if such a reminder were necessary — that the Islamic world is, to put it mildly, not a fun place to be. According to religionofpeace.com [1], Islamic terrorists have accounted for 20,261 deadly terror attacks since 9/11. Just this random Thursday, January 17, the website reports the following:

2013.01.17 (Hillah, Iraq) – al-Qaeda detonate a car bomb outside a soccer stadium in a Shia neighborhood, killing at least seven.
2013.01.17 (Dujail, Iraq) – Eleven Shia pilgrims are sent to Allah by dedicated Sunni car bombers.
2013.01.17 (Garissa, Kenya) – Religious extremists burst into a restaurant and gun down five patrons.
2013.01.17 (Narathiwat, Thailand) – Islamic ‘insurgents’ murder a school truck driver in front of seven children.
2013.01.17 (Pattani, Thailand) – A 78-year-old farmer is shot to death in a bath tub by Muslim terrorists.
2013.01.16 (Idlib, Syria) – al-Nusra suicide bombers massacre two dozen Syrians in an urban area.

Now it’s undeniable that back in the twentieth century, Germany, the Soviet Union and China were yet bigger killing machines, but in our time the Islamic world is the problem.

Plot Summary for
“Have Gun – Will Travel” (1957)

Professional gunfighter Paladin was a West Point graduate who, after the Civil War, settled into San Francisco’s Hotel Carlton were he awaited responses to his business card: over the picture of a chess knight “Have Gun, Will Travel … Wire Paladin, San Francisco.”

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424127887323968304578245581353840710.html?mod=opinion_newsreel

The Senator says Chuck Hagel no longer believes what he said.

Chuck Schumer, the senior Senator from New York and Harry Reid wannabe, is not currently a member of the Senate Armed Services Committee. Nor has he ever served on it in his 14 years in the Senate, or on its House counterpart during his 18 years as a Congressman from New York City. So of course he’s uniquely qualified to pronounce on the subject of Chuck Hagel’s fitness to serve as Secretary of Defense.

That is what some of our media friends are saying now that Mr. Schumer has announced his support for the nominee following a 90-minute meeting on Monday. Mr. Schumer—who calls himself the Senate’s “Shomer Israel,” or “guardian of Israel”—had previously played coy about his views of Mr. Hagel, noting in a statement that he had “genuine concerns over certain aspects of his record on Israel and Iran.”But all that was put to rest during their meeting. Mr. Schumer reports that Mr. Hagel disavowed his former opposition to unilateral U.S. sanctions or military strikes on Iran. He reversed his former support for opening direct talks with the leaders of Hamas, the Palestinian terrorist group.

He promised to implement a provision in the 2013 defense bill giving servicewomen greater access to abortion, something he had repeatedly opposed as a Senator. He walked back his former opposition to the repeal of the military’s “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy on gay soldiers. And he said he regretted using the term “Jewish lobby” in reference to pro-Israel groups.

http://www.familysecuritymatters.org/publications/detail/prop-a-palooza-the-use-and-abuse-of-kiddie-human-shields?f=must_reads

THE ARABS HAVE BEEN USING KIDDIES FOR SHIELDS BY HIDING AMONG THEM…THEY ARE ALSO THE PROPS USED IN THE AL DURA LIBEL AND IN ALL ARAB/ISRAEL WARS…..TO INCITE BLAME AND HATRED FOR ISRAEL….NOT A NEW TRICK…RSK

The president of the United States released a binder full of new gun-control executive orders on Wednesday. Instead of standing alone, bearing full responsibility for the imperial actions he is about to take, President Obama surrounded himself with an audience of kids who wrote to him after the Newtown, Conn., school massacre. This is the most cynical in Beltway theatrical staging — a feckless attempt to invoke “For the Children” immunity by hiding behind them.

What has happened to the deliberative process in this country? Public debate in Washington has deteriorated into Sesame Street sing-alongs. We are already inundated with logical fallacies: argumentum ad populum (it’s popular, therefore it’s true); argumentum ad nauseam (if you repeat it often enough, it’ll become truth); argumentum ad hominem (sabotage the person, sabotage the truth); and argumentum ad verecundiam (if my favorite authority says it’s true, it’s true).

To that list we can now add “argumentum ad filium”: If politicians appeal to the children, it’s unassailably good and true. The Obama White House has shamelessly employed this kiddie human shield strategy at every turn to blunt substantive criticism and dissent.

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424127887324235104578244064031294792.html?mod=hp_opinion Al Qaeda affiliates capture Westerners in Algeria and hold a Texas-size piece of territory in neighboring Mali. The hostage crisis that broke out on Wednesday in Algeria—where more than 40 Westerners were taken captive at a gas plant by al Qaeda fighters—ostensibly has its roots in Mali, Algeria’s neighbor to the southwest. The hostage-takers […]

http://www.familysecuritymatters.org/publications/detail/iran-has-plans-for-us The Iranian mullahs are rolling the Obama administration, just as they have rolled every White House since 1979. Media reports of deals and imminent meetings with Tehran are bogus – covert meetings between Iran and the U.S. have been held for years and are being held right now. A man who was in those […]

http://dev.d-intl.com/en/articles/international/2013-01-17/and-suddenly-its-war%22Freedom

This is reminding us that things could change, our nations may be ready to defend themselves

PARIS. And suddenly it’s war! President François Holland announced early Friday evening that French troops had intervened in Mali and would stay as long as necessary. The military action came in response to an urgent request from Mali’s interim president Dioncounda Traoré whose army was unable to stop the advance of a column of some 1500 Islamists that had taken Konna and were heading for Mopti, a strategic town on the route to the capital, Bamako. Surprising enough in itself, this abrupt open-ended military operation ordered by the slow-moving socialist president offers a gold mine of lexical accuracy that should not be squandered. This war is upsetting the Arab Spring apple cart and tossing its fruits into a different basket.

I am not on the front lines… but then again, the front lines are everywhere today and that is what we might call the collateral benefits of this military operation and its enveloping narrative. The exact terms that are deliberately not used to describe the gentlemen of Hamas, Hizbullah, Muslim Brotherhood or the punks in Europe’s banlieues are now pinned on the jihadis who have been occupying the northern deserts of Mali. Unlike the Brotherhood and its multiple affiliates, these Islamists have not had a good press in France. Their brutality has been abundantly displayed: flogging adulterers, amputating thieves, imposing niqab, smashing up bars, restaurants, and music joints, tearing the tombs of Muslim saints in Timbuktu. They have always been shown in a scary light, their heads wrapped in scarves, weapons brandished. In fact, they look just like their fellow warriors in Libya, Syria, wherever. But somehow these religious extremists were not seen to have any redeeming features.

Still, the occupation dragged on and there was no audible call for quick action. Reports of an ECOWAS intervention scheduled for September were almost comical; as if the bad guys, duly informed of the timetable, would park their trucks, sit in the shade and palaver, patiently waiting for the big battle. Eight French hostages who worked for the French nuclear consortium AREVA have been in the hands of these thugs for over a year. This too was accepted with calm verging on boredom. No big mobilizations like the ones for French journalists kidnaped in Iraq. The Left doesn’t fancy the nuclear industry!

By the time the president announced that we are at war most TV channels were already in weekend mode, but the independent all-news BFM-TV has been covering the story non-stop. Here is the picture that emerges: with the exception of the president’s far left friends and foes—the Communists, Jean-Luc Melenchon, Noël Mamère of the Greens, and the anti-capitalists —political leaders across the board immediately declared their unambiguous support for the intervention. They also supported then President Sarkozy’s forceful leadership in the Libyan operation which actually fed into the Islamist offensive in Mali, but that is another story and we live in a time of disjointed narratives that will someday be joined. A host of specialists have appeared in the media and their opinions are close to unanimous.

http://www.jpost.com/Opinion/Op-EdContributors/Article.aspx?id=299820 1. The international community opposes Israel because it is an “ethnic nation-state.” A cover for Jew-hatred, this argument is applied only against Israel and the Jewish people. 2. Judea and Samaria (the “West Bank” of the Jordan River) belong to the “Palestinians.” By history and law (San Remo agreements, League of Nations’ decisions, British […]

http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/164336#.UPk_33y9KK0 New and Improved: Katyusha Rocket Threat Graphic New version of popular visual simulation showing Palestinian state menace features topographic overlay, water info. Mark Langfan’s Katyusha Rocket Range All over Israel article is one of Arutz Sheva‘s most popular articles ever, with a over 5,400 Facebook “recommends.” Additionally, Arutz Sheva has consistently featured Langfan’s graphic […]