RUTHFULLY YOURS

http://townhall.com/columnists/dianawest/2012/02/06/chalk_up_another_one_for_islam_in_the_pr_battle

Even after all these years, journalist-socialite Sally Quinn still embodies a Washington way of thinking – a heart-of-Georgetown, A-list set of salon-tested assumptions “everyone” knows that provides attitudes for any occasion.

Take the surreal state of the U.S. Military Academy at West Point. One day, William G. “Jerry” Boykin, a highly decorated retired Army general and ordained minister, and a founding member and leader of Delta Force, was scheduled to speak at a West Point prayer breakfast. The next day, following a campaign to stop Boykin’s appearance by what the New York Times describes as “liberal veterans’ groups, civil liberties advocates and Muslim organizations,” Boykin was not scheduled to speak at West Point. “In fulfilling its commitment to the community,” West Point announced, “the U.S. Military Academy will feature another speaker for the event.”

Quinn’s reaction? West Point didn’t go far enough. Fire whoever is responsible for inviting Boykin, she wrote in her online Washington Post column “On Faith,” because his criticism of Islam makes him “notorious.” Why, it’s nothing less than blasphemy, as everyone who is anyone would agree – and who else is there?

No one, at least not at West Point. You can bet your last bullet the replacement speaker will not have identified, studied and himself experienced jihad – in military terms, the enemy threat doctrine – as Lt. Gen. Boykin has. This makes Boykin’s abrupt cancellation an information-war victory for the Muslim Brotherhood something few in Washington or West Point will even notice.

Muslim Brotherhood? Isn’t that in Egypt? How does the Muslim Brotherhood figure into a story about West Point?

Prominent in the stop-Boykin coalition is the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), known mainly for sound bite-ready spokesmen who present an Islamic point of view on TV. More important is CAIR’s place in the Muslim Brotherhood constellation of front groups as an entity founded by members of the Muslim Brotherhood’s Palestinian franchise, the jihad terror group Hamas.

This revelation emerged during the 2008 Holy Land Foundation terror-financing trial in a document authored by the Muslim Brotherhood itself. It attests to the presence in the United States of multiple Muslim Brotherhood front groups, including CAIR, which remains an unindicted co-conspirator in that case. The FBI cut off official contacts with CAIR in 2008.

Such information is documented in “Shariah: The Threat to America,” a book Boykin and I and 17 others, including former CIA director James Woolsey and former Reagan Pentagon official Frank Gaffney, co-authored in 2010. I wouldn’t be surprised if the book played some animating role in the Battle over Boykin at West Point, won by CAIR and celebrated in all the best bastions impregnable to fact.

That includes Quinn’s Washington Post column. Not only should Boykin’s West Point sponsor be fired, she writes, “that person should … say ‘I’m sorry.’”

If Georgetown were a revival tent, a chorus of “Amen, sister” would rise over N Street. But no. Indeed, some animus toward Boykin may form in reaction to the evangelical brand of Christianity he expresses on faith and war in churches across the country. Back in 2003, following the publication of snippets of these talks, the Pentagon investigated Boykin’s invocations of “Satan” as the enemy, and his attesting to his faith in the Christian “real God” over his enemy’s “idol.” In Georgetown, this counts as full-blown culture clash – enough to deflate the bubbles in the sparkling Vouvray.

“He has said that ‘there is no greater threat to America than Islam,’” Quinn continues, building her case. Luckily, she isn’t arguing in a Shariah-run courtroom, because her testimony would then be worth half of a man’s – one reason for Boykin’s concerns about Islam’s impact.

Then Quinn quotes “Shariah: The Threat to America”: “And in a study he co-authored, (he said) ‘most mosques in the United States already have been radicalized, that most Muslim social organizations are fronts for jihadists.’ How could this happen?” She means the West Point invitation, natch.

Quinn is quoting a description of the book by others, but never mind. What’s extremely interesting here is that she isn’t contesting the veracity of these documented claims. Conventional Washington-to-West Point wisdom is conditioned to see them as so absurd as to be beneath consideration. Doesn’t everybody? Ridiculous. Stoo-pid. Just typing them out – regardless of their accuracy – elicits guffaws of programmed outrage.

I would say the Muslim Brothers have done their public-relations job well, but frankly, this information operation was over before it began.

http://townhall.com/columnists/byronyork/2012/02/06/what_really_happened_to_the_gingrich_ethics_case/print
What Really Happened to the Gingrich Ethics Case?By Byron York
“bottom line: Gingrich acted properly and violated no laws. Of course, by that time, Gingrich was out of office, widely presumed to be guilty of something, and his career in politics was (seemingly) o ver. Now he’s having to fight the fight all over again.”

The Romney campaign has been hitting Newt Gingrich hard over the 1990s ethics case that resulted in the former speaker being reprimanded and paying a $300,000 penalty. Romney mentions it often, and his campaign made the ethics case the focus of the most widely viewed attack ad of the Florida primary.

Given all that attention, it’s worth asking what actually happened back in 1995, 1996 and 1997.

http://armedforcesjournal.com/2012/02/8904030

I spent last year in Afghanistan, visiting and talking with U.S. troops and their Afghan partners. My duties with the Army’s Rapid Equipping Force took me into every significant area where our soldiers engage the enemy. Over the course of 12 months, I covered more than 9,000 miles and talked, traveled and patrolled with troops in Kandahar, Kunar, Ghazni, Khost, Paktika, Kunduz, Balkh, Nangarhar and other provinces.

What I saw bore no resemblance to rosy official statements by U.S. military leaders about conditions on the ground.

Entering this deployment, I was sincerely hoping to learn that the claims were true: that conditions in Afghanistan were improving, that the local government and military were progressing toward self-sufficiency. I did not need to witness dramatic improvements to be reassured, but merely hoped to see evidence of positive trends, to see companies or battalions produce even minimal but sustainable progress.

Instead, I witnessed the absence of success on virtually every level.

My arrival in country in late 2010 marked the start of my fourth combat deployment, and my second in Afghanistan. A Regular Army officer in the Armor Branch, I served in Operation Desert Storm, in Afghanistan in 2005-06 and in Iraq in 2008-09. In the middle of my career, I spent eight years in the U.S. Army Reserve and held a number of civilian jobs — among them, legislative correspondent for defense and foreign affairs for Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison, R-Texas.

As a representative for the Rapid Equipping Force, I set out to talk to our troops about their needs and their circumstances. Along the way, I conducted mounted and dismounted combat patrols, spending time with conventional and Special Forces troops. I interviewed or had conversations with more than 250 soldiers in the field, from the lowest-ranking 19-year-old private to division commanders and staff members at every echelon. I spoke at length with Afghan security officials, Afghan civilians and a few village elders.

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970204369404577206972422374842.html?mod=WSJ_Opinion_LEFTTopOpinion After the Oslo Massacre, an Assault on Free SpeechNorway’s left seeks to silence Islam’s critics by linking them to a mass murderer. Last July 22, a powerful explosion rocked a government building in downtown Oslo, killing eight people. Later that day, 69 people, mostly teenagers, were shot to death by a lone gunman at […]

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970204369404577206943198066220.html

(How) Should Israel Bomb Iran?
Diplomacy has run its course, sanctions are too late, and Israel can’t cry wolf again.

Can Israel attack Iran? If it can, will it? If it will, when? If when, how?And what happens after that?

On Sunday with Matt Lauer, President Obama said “I don’t think that Israel has made a decision on what they need to do.” That didn’t square with the view of Defense Secretary Leon Panetta, who’s been reported as saying he expects an Israeli attack this spring. Nor does it square with public warnings from Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak that the Iranians would soon enter a “zone of immunity” from foreign military attack if nothing is done to stop them.

GIVE THIS FOOL THE TOM FRIEDMAN PRIZE….RSK

http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2012/02/06/leslie-h-gelb-israel-and-netanyahu-pipe-down-the-threats-of-war-on-iran.html
Prime Minister Bibi Netanyahu’s constant threats to Iran only make a difficult settlement more unreachable. Tone down the threats and give economic sanctions time to work, writes Leslie H. Gelb.

Bibi, Israel, curb your over-the-top war rhetoric toward Iran. I urge this as one who cherishes Israel and values military power. But you’ve got to understand that your constant threats to attack Iran to stop its nuclear program aren’t working. Unending military threats unite Iranians and fire up their resistance. Economic sanctions weaken and divide them—and often produce constituencies for compromise. Give sanctions time to play out.

You cannot actually believe Iran will prostrate itself in the face of your threats. As Amos Yadlin, a retired Air Force general and former head of Israeli military intelligence, said Sunday: “These statements have reached the point where they have crossed the line from bringing benefit and are beginning to cause damage.” Your warnings will ignite war and will not foster Iran’s abandoning its nuclear program. Did Saddam Hussein kneel before George W. Bush’s threats? Did the Taliban handcuff itself when faced with America’s military might? Has Kim Jong-un bowed before his Western master? None capitulated even to the American superpower. Thus, it’s hard to believe that you truly calculate that Ayatollah Khamenei will cry “uncle.”

http://www.thedailybeast.com/ Ayaan Hirsi Ali:The Global War on Christians in the Muslim World From one end of the muslim world to the other, Christians are being murdered for their faith. We hear so often about Muslims as victims of abuse in the West and combatants in the Arab Spring’s fight against tyranny. But, in fact, a […]

THIS SUBJECT IS DEAR TO MY HEART. AT THE URGING OF ZEEV JABOTINSKY, MY FATHER LEFT POLAND  THROUGH SWITZERLAND, WHERE HE BECAME A PHYSICIAN AND WAS OFFERED A JOB IN BOLIVIA TO SERVE IN THE CHACO WAR IN 1932. BECAUSE OF HIS SERVICE IN THAT WAR BOLIVIA REWARDED HIM AND MADE HIM SURGEON GENERAL. 10,000 […]

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970204369404577206980068367936.html?mod=WSJ_Opinion_LEADTop

Is it fair that some of Mr. Obama’s largest campaign contributors received federal loan guarantees?

President Obama has frequently justified his policies—and judged their outcomes—in terms of equity, justice and fairness. That raises an obvious question: How does our existing system—and his own policy record—stack up according to those criteria?

Is it fair that the richest 1% of Americans pay nearly 40% of all federal income taxes, and the richest 10% pay two-thirds of the tax?

Is it fair that the richest 10% of Americans shoulder a higher share of their country’s income-tax burden than do the richest 10% in every other industrialized nation, including socialist Sweden?

Is it fair that American corporations pay the highest statutory corporate tax rate of all other industrialized nations but Japan, which cuts its rate on April 1?

Is it fair that President Obama sends his two daughters to elite private schools that are safer, better-run, and produce higher test scores than public schools in Washington, D.C.—but millions of other families across America are denied that free choice and forced to send their kids to rotten schools?

Is it fair that Americans who build a family business, hire workers, reinvest and save their money—paying a lifetime of federal, state and local taxes often climbing into the millions of dollars—must then pay an additional estate tax of 35% (and as much as 55% when the law changes next year) when they die, rather than passing that money onto their loved ones?

JUST IMAGINE THE FOLLOWING HEADLINES:

MAY 23, 1944: IN SECRET CONVERSATIONS WITH CHURCHILL, IKE REVEALS THAT ON JUNE 6TH, AN INVASION OF NORMANDY NAMED OPERATION OVERLORD IS PLANNED. IT WILL BEGIN WITH PARACHUTE AND GLIDER LANDINGS, MASSIVE AIR ATTACKS AND NAVAL BOMBARDMENTS. THIS SHOULD REALLY SURPRISE THE HUNS.

MAY 1981: SOURCES IN ISRAEL REVEAL THAT A TOP SECRET ATTACK ON IRAQ’S NUKE REACTOR 17 MILES SOUTHEAST OF BAGHDAD IS IN FINAL STAGES OF PREPARATION. THE ACTION CODE NAMED OPERATION BABYLON ON JUNE 7TH SHOULD CERTAINLY SURPRISE SADDAM HUSSEIN.

JUNE 31, 1976: TOP SOURCES IN ISRAEL HAVE CONFIRMED A SECRET OPERATION TO RESCUE THE ENTEBBE HOSTAGES ON JULY 3. A HERCULES PLANE WILL LAND IN ENTEBBE AIRPORT AND SWOOP UP THE HOSTAGES. THIS SHOULD CERTAINLY SURPRISE IDI AMIN.

IF ISRAEL IS GOING TO DO IT….JUST DO IT….AND STOP THE MEDIA BABBLE.