http://www.dianawest.net/Home/tabid/36/EntryId/2007/When-Will-We-See-Red-Over-Green-on-Blue-Murder-in-Afghanistan.aspx This week’s syndicated column: Is there a single public official who is examining – who cares about – the murder spree by Afghan security forces against Western troops and security contractors in Afghanistan? I can list well over 40 such murders in the past two years. These incidents even have their own phrase in […]
http://www.renewamerica.com/columns/korol/120118
Harvard’s mission statement contains words such as: open the minds, respect ideas, critical thought, productive cooperation, developing full intellectual and human potential — not to mention explore, advance knowledge and promote understanding.
Under the direction of anti-Semitic activist Paul Beran, a product of supercessionist Presbyterianism, Harvard has become a hotbed of boycott, divestment, and sanctions (BDS) against one country in all the world, Israel — the one country in the Middle East that is actually the only voice of compassion and justice. The assigned readings and visiting speakers have been entirely pro-Palestinian (pro-totalitarianism and anti-democracy), such as Ilan Pappé, Noam Chomsky, and Richard Falk (among the most infamous in their demonic category), influenced by the works of no less than the epitome of evil, George Soros (a very disturbed but wealthy and influential man), with representatives from one of his many nefarious organizations, Jewish Voice for Peace.
http://www.jpost.com/Opinion/Columnists/Article.aspx?id=254400 Today’s anti-Semitism is predicated on preferring Palestinian and pan-Arab nationalism to Jewish nationalism. Anti-Semitism may not yet be a litmus test for social acceptability in the US, but it has certainly become acceptable. Proof of this dismal state of affairs came this week with the publication of a supportive profile of University of Chicago […]
http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/rejecting-the-keystone-pipeline-is-an-act-of-insanity/2012/01/19/gIQAowG6AQ_story.html
Rejecting the Keystone pipeline is an act of insanity
President Obama’s rejection of the Keystone XL pipeline from Canada to the Gulf of Mexico is an act of national insanity. It isn’t often that a president makes a decision that has no redeeming virtues and — beyond the symbolism — won’t even advance the goals of the groups that demanded it. All it tells us is that Obama is so obsessed with his reelection that, through some sort of political calculus, he believes that placating his environmental supporters will improve his chances.
Aside from the political and public relations victory, environmentalists won’t get much. Stopping the pipeline won’t halt the development of tar sands, to which the Canadian government is committed; therefore, there will be little effect on global-warming emissions. Indeed, Obama’s decision might add to them. If Canada builds a pipeline from Alberta to the Pacific for export to Asia, moving all that oil across the ocean by tanker will create extra emissions. There will also be the risk of added spills.
http://www.nationalreview.com/articles/288483/eternal-peril-simple-answer-thomas-sowell
The Eternal Peril of the Simple Answer
History is harder to untangle than politicians would lead us to believe.
Anyone who has ever been in a Third World country, or even in a slum neighborhood at home, is likely to wonder why there can be such dire poverty among some people while others are prospering.
Both politicians and intellectuals have tended to have simple answers to that question, even if these simple answers have been different in different eras.
Did military rules cost a soldier his life? .http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-18563_162-57362374/did-military-rules-cost-a-soldier-his-life/ Combat medics call it the golden hour — the window of opportunity to provide treatment and save a life. On a September night in Afghanistan, the minutes ticked away as an American soldier lay wounded, waiting to be evacuated. CBS News national security correspondent David Martin […]
http://maggiesfarm.anotherdotcom.com/archives/19003-Wuterichs-Tough-Choice-Exit-or-Honor.html
Nat Helms at Defend Our Marines and Tony Perry at the Los Angeles Times, both able reporters of the Haditha prosecutions, have similar stories up about the choice that Frank Wuterich must make tonight. As Perry puts it, “This could be the longest night of Staff Sgt. Frank Wuterich’s life since he became a defendant in arguably the largest war-crime case from the war in Iraq.” Helms brings in the deeper meaning: “The 31-year-old father of three can bite the proverbial bullet and ask for administrative separation, or he can dig in his heels and fight for the principles he has already proved he is willing to die for.”
http://pjmedia.com/rogerkimball/2012/01/20/monkeys-with-clubs-the-case-of-la-gingrich/?print=1
I am down in Antigua for a few days with friends sorting out the problems of the world. It seems as remote as it is beautiful here high on a bluff overlooking Green Island then three thousand unobstructed miles to the coast of Africa. Modernity is just about everywhere, though. The beach below my window is empty all day long, except when we do our daily perambulation and the heartier among us plunge into the ocean to swim. But there is plenty of ice for the rum punches and, more to the point, the satellite-enabled wifi silently connects us to the chatter back home.
And what chatter it’s been. Yesterday, I popped out of my room to announced that Rick Perry had dropped out of the race and was endorsing Newt Gingrich to the chagrin of some and the delight of others in my party. I popped out again to provide a précis of Marianne Gingrich’s nasty and indecorous rant about her ex-husband in an interview with ABC’s Brian Ross. “Monkeys with clubs,” said one of our band of studious researchers. “That’s what politics is: monkeys with clubs.” He was not, by the way, a Gingrich partisan, but he could recognize a monkey — and a club — when one paraded by.
http://www.americanthinker.com/2012/01/russia_re-elect_obama_or_its_world_war_iii.html#ixzz1jtbUgsue Russia: Re-Elect Obama, or It’s World War III Last week, Americans learned that they are, or soon may be, at war with Vladimir Putin’s Russia. That is, of course, unless they do just exactly what the Kremlin asks, which is pretty simple, really, and consists largely of re-electing Barack H. Obama, the best friend […]
http://schanzer.pundicity.com/11043/the-palestinian-campaign-to-delegitimize-israel
The Palestinian Campaign to Delegitimize Israel
Israeli envoy Isaac Molcho met Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat recently for the third time in the new year. The talks, widely praised across the international community, have been billed as a much-needed jumpstart for negotiations between the two sides. But they are actually a distraction from the real game, in which the Palestinians are working to outmaneuver Israel in the international arena.
The game began last year when Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas launched a bid for full UN membership for a sovereign state of Palestine. Abbas sought to gain international recognition for his bureaucracy and strengthen the consensus against Israel’s presence in the disputed territories of the West Bank, which Palestinians hope to claim for their national project. Abbas pursued this strategy while shunning direct talks with his Israeli counterparts.
In the end, the Palestinians fell short of the nine votes necessary for consideration in the UN Security Council. The Obama administration further vowed that the United States would veto the resolution, even if it passed in the future. As a result, the bid stalled.
But the Palestinians had another option. Indeed, they had enough votes to pass a nonbinding measure in the General Assembly. Apparently unsatisfied with anything less than formal recognition, Abbas elected to punt.
But this does not mean that the crisis has passed.
As it turns out, Abbas has been regrouping. On January 1, several countries that would have voted against the Palestinian bid rotated off the Security Council, making way for Guatemala, Pakistan, Azerbaijan, Morocco and Togo. Notwithstanding the looming threat of a U.S. veto, these states afford the Palestinians new opportunities in the diplomatic battles that are likely to unfold this year. And Palestinians have been vague about the General Assembly option, which is still a viable one.
The Palestinians may have other strategies in store, too.
Senior Fatah official Nabil Sha’ath recently said on Palestinian radio that 2012 “will be the start of an unprecedented diplomatic campaign on the part of the Palestinian leadership, and it will be a year of pressure on Israel that will put it under a real international siege. The campaign will be similar to the one waged against apartheid in South Africa.”
The Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO), which has been the official negotiating partner for the Israelis since the late 1990s, is already bringing pressure to bear.
