Iraq is for Bird Watchers

The first field guide to the birds of Iraq has been published by BirdLife International and Nature Iraq. This is the first fully illustrated birding field-guide to an Arabic-speaking country… ever. (source)

Technorati Tags: iraq, bird watching, good news

Fjordman on the New Face of Fascism in Sweden

Fjordman has a typically hard-hitting editorial in the Brussels Journal on the connections between Islamic immigration, Leftists, and fascist tyrrany in Sweden.

I have written about one such attack [upon Swedish Democrats by the brown-shirt-emulating “anti-fascists”], which extreme Leftists later openly bragged about on the Internet, around 30 members of the Sweden Democrats were attending a private party outside the town of Växjö. “To clearly demonstrate that the Sweden Democrats are not welcome in our area, about 20 anti-Fascists chose to attack the party. The Sweden Democrats were attacked with knives, axes, iron bars and other weapons. After that, their cars were destroyed.” The brave Leftists then smashed the windows and threw tear gas into the building, forcing people outside, where they were again attacked and beaten with iron bars and axes. Several of the people were hospitalized after the attack. This was a peaceful, private party by unarmed members of a perfectly legal political party that just happens to be critical of the country’s immigration policies. These brave Leftists or “anti-Fascists” do, for some curious reason, seem to behave pretty much like, well, Fascists, a bit like the Brown Shirts in the 1930s, physically assaulting political opponents to silence them.

The Swedish newspaper Expressen finally warned against the “low-intensity terrorism” conducted by extreme Leftists and neo-Nazis. But they were honest enough to admit that the extreme Leftists have tended to get away with their violence because it has been directed against the despised right-wingers. Now, their violence is increasingly aimed at established political parties and state institutions, too. Political scientist Peter Esaiasson has done research into every election movement in Sweden since 1866. According to him, the organized attempts at disrupting meetings during the 2006 elections had no parallels in modern history.

Moreover, the historical relations between Fascists and Socialists are a lot closer than many people seem to appreciate. Marcos Cantera Carlomagno in 1995 published a PhD thesis at Lund University describing a series of letters sent by Per Albin Hansson, leader of the Swedish Social Democrats who was Prime Minister between 1932 and 1946 and worked for the establishment of “Folkhemmet,” the People’s Home, as the Swedish welfare state model became known as. Hansson was a dear pen pal with Italy’s Fascist leader Mussolini and praised the corporate, Fascist system where the entire economy and each individual were intimately tied to and subordinate to the state. Hansson was positively disposed to Fascism and saw his welfare state as a related concept.

After mentioning his work in a local newspaper, Carlomagno was called by his supervisor who stated in anger that his scholarship would be cut off. Carlomagno’s work was totally ignored by the entire media and political establishment in Sweden when it appeared in the 1990s. (source)

Read it all.

Technorati Tags: sweden, fascism, islamism, tyrrany, eurabia, national socialism,

O Little Town of Bethlehem

Updated: Corrections.

Life is not good for the Christians of Bethlehem, where Jesus Christ was born. It has gone from being a 100% Christian town in 1948 to 30% and dropping in 2006. The town’s Christian population has dwindled from more than 85 per cent in 1948 to 12 per cent of its 60,000 inhabitants in 2006. (source via LGF) No longer a symbol of sleepy peacefulness, it has become a symbol of the oppression of Christians. Despite frequent claims in the press that the Christians of Bethlehem are persecuted by Israel, the truth is that the “conditions of Christians in Bethlehem and its surroundings had deteriorated ever since the area was handed over to the PA in 1995.” (source)

Fuad and Georgette Lama woke up one morning last September
to discover that Muslims from a nearby village had fenced off their family’s six-dunam plot in the Karkafa suburb south of Bethlehem. “A lawyer and an official with the Palestinian Authority just came and took our land,” said 69-year-old Georgette Lama.

The couple was later approached by senior PA security
officers who offered to help them kick out the intruders from the land. “We paid them $1,000 so they could help us regain our land,” she said, almost in tears. “Instead of giving us back our land, they simply decided to keep it for themselves. They even destroyed all the olive trees and divided the land into small plots, apparently so that they could offer each for sale.” When her 72-year-old husband, Fuad, went to the land to ask the intruders to leave, he was severely beaten and threatened with guns.

“My husband is after heart surgery and they still beat him,”
Georgette Lama said. “These people have no heart. We’re afraid to go to our land because they will shoot at us. Ever since the beating, my husband is in a state of trauma and has difficulties talking.”

The Lamas have since knocked on the doors of scores of PA
officials in Bethlehem seeking their intervention, but to no avail. At one stage, they sent a letter to Abbas, who promised to launch an investigation.

“We heard that President Mahmoud Abbas is taking our case
very seriously,” said Georgette Lama. “But until now he hasn’t done anything to help us get our land back. We are very concerned because we’re not the only ones suffering from this phenomenon. Most Christians are afraid to speak, but I don’t care because we have nothing more to lose.” (source)

Think about this the next time you sing or hear the hymn.

O little town of Bethlehem, how still we see thee lie!
Above thy deep and dreamless sleep the silent stars go by.
Yet in thy dark streets shineth the everlasting Light;
The hopes and fears of all the years are met in thee tonight.

For Christ is born of Mary, and gathered all above,
While mortals sleep, the angels keep their watch of wondering love.
O morning stars together, proclaim the holy birth,
And praises sing to God the King, and peace to men on earth!

How silently, how silently, the wondrous Gift is giv’n;
So God imparts to human hearts the blessings of His Heav’n.
No ear may hear His coming, but in this world of sin,
Where meek souls will receive Him still, the dear Christ enters in.

Where children pure and happy pray to the blessèd Child,
Where misery cries out to Thee, Son of the mother mild;
Where charity stands watching and faith holds wide the door,
The dark night wakes, the glory breaks, and Christmas comes once more.

O holy Child of Bethlehem, descend to us, we pray;
Cast out our sin, and enter in, be born in us today.
We hear the Christmas angels the great glad tidings tell;
O come to us, abide with us, our Lord Emmanuel!

h/t: Pajamas Media

Technorati Tags: palestine, bethlehem, christianity, fatah, dhimmi, sharia, tyranny, islam, jihad, jizya, submission,

Theory and Praxis of Progressive Fascism

I just stumbled on the Skarbutts blog and I am stunned by how good it is. Read an example.

Although the term fascist has been distorted, once one understands the concept of the fasces the term becomes less murky and the false dichotomy between other forms of collectivism is exposed. Long before Mussolini espoused fascism the Roman Empire existed as a fascist state and the term fascist itself originated from the fasces which were the ancient Roman symbol representing the power of the state. The fasces were comprised of many rods which were bundled around an axe and bound by cords. The rods and axe together symbolized many diverse groups united and bound to a supreme authority as one. This symbol was revived to represent the Fascist Party during the twentieth century.Unity by itself is not fascism but becomes so when control is placed under a centralized authoritarian which determines to purge out or suppress all nonconformity and resistance. Like the rods of the fasces, fascism today also consists of many social groups and organizations which unite as one in seeking the establishment of a universal authoritarian to empower their agendas and suppress their opponents. These global networks of various groups, many in the form of NGOs and PVOs, represent almost innumerable causes such as environmental, humanitarian, animal rights, civil rights, and gay rights just to name a few. By disguising themselves in a cause that evokes sympathy, and by consolidating forces, they infect the body politic to establish an authoritarian rule which will sympathize with and empower their cause. The fasces as a symbol may or may not have out lived its usefulness, but as a concept it is ever present.(source)

The one-world-government that is described sounds a lot like the U.N.

Read it all.

Technorati Tags: fascism, progressives, leftist, tyranny, authoritarianism

Croatian Nazis not dead yet

Read all about the problems here.

h/t: Julia Gorin

Technorati Tags: croatia, nazism

Timeline Errata for Carter’s Hateful Screed

Dan Gordon found fault with the timeline of Palestine from Jimmy Carter’s latest hateful book and decided to fill in the blanks to give a more complete, three-dimensional narrative of the long history of Zionism and the many peaceful (and even violent) steps that finally led up to the foundation of Israel in 1948, despite the best efforts of England to stab the Jews in the back for access to oil.

Miraculously enough, it’s at HuffPo. The most rabid among the locals are going insane over it.

Tancredo Stirs up a Hornets’ Nest

…Again. This time he takes on the Congressional Black Caucus.

“It is utterly hypocritical for Congress to extol the virtues of a colorblind society while officially sanctioning caucuses that are based solely on race,” said the Colorado Republican, who is most widely known as a vocal critic of illegal immigration.

“If we are serious about achieving the goal of a colorblind society, Congress should lead by example and end these divisive, race-based caucuses,” said Tancredo (source)

This reminds me of something someone else once said.

I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character. I have a dream today. (source)

You know who said that. I wonder if the CBC remembers those words when they banish from their meetings those whose skin is the wrong color.

Technorati Tags: united states, politics, tancredo

Venezuela May Expel U.S. Envoy

Given the ill wind blowing in Venezuela, the U.S. should probably withdraw before it is embroiled in yet another hostage crisis just like the 1979 Embassy invasion in Iran.

There is another reason. When a country withdraws its diplomats it sends a message that it is getting ready for a fight. Chavez needs to start shaking in his boots.

Technorati Tags: venezuela, diplomacy, military

Insurgency or Counterinsurgency?

In a posting that I missed when it first came out, Herschel Smith writes:

In Eschatology and Counterterrorism Warfare I discussed the exodus that is occurring from Iraq, with the Anbar and Diyala Provinces being particularly hard hit. There are now 1.4 million displaced Iraqi citizens and every day sees three thousand more who flee the country. Working the back alleys and neighborhoods where there is no constant U.S. presence, the Sunni insurgents are waging a campaign of murder and intimidation to demonstrate that neither the Iraqi government nor U.S. forces can protect people.

It is stylish to cite David Galula and claim that the U.S. approach to Iraq has been too heavy handed. The solution, it is claimed, is to see that 80% of the solution is and will always be political. But just to show how utterly irrelevant Galula’s system is to Iraq, consider a single quote: “The battle for the population is a major characteristic of the revolutionary war. . . . The objective being the population itself, the operations designed to win it over (for the insurgent) or to keep it at least submissive (for the counterinsurgent) are essentially of a political nature. . . . And so intricate is the interplay between the political and military actions that they cannot be tidily separated; on the contrary, every military move has to be weighed with regard to its political effects, and vice versa.”

It sounds nice. Now take a closer read: “The objective being the population itself, the operations designed to win it over (for the insurgent) …,” has exactly backwards what the insurgents and counterinsurgents have been doing. The U.S. has been trying to win over the population, not keep it submissive, and the insurgents have been trying to keep them submissive, not win them over. If anything, intimidation has been the one and only tactic of the insurgency. The premise being false, the system then suffers in misapplication. (source)

Let’s review.

Insurgents	Counterinsurgents
Goal is to overthrow the existing order and establish a new, improved system	Goal is to preserve and reinforce the existing or previous system
Tactic is to win hearts and minds and kill counterinsurgents	Tactic is to subdue the populace and kill insurgents and sympathizers
Theme is hope and freedom	Theme is tradition and prosperity
Stance is as infiltrators, not those who hold the ground	Stance is native, holders of the ground

The U.S. has attempted to conduct an Insurgency on behalf of a hypothetical populace of Americans with Iraqi accents against the traditional authorities in Iraq: Baathists; Sunni and Shi’ite Militias; Tribes; and Clans; with the complication of gangs of zealous, Holy Assassins who infiltrated Iraq from neighboring countries and are waging an insurgency of their own. The U.S. Counterinsurgency as it was run under Abizaid and Casey was not a Counterinsurgency at all. It was an Insurgency.

As a commenter noted:

The Galula model has not failed in Iraq, it has not even been attempted. The Galula model states that an area be cleared of insurgants first by military force then held by civil athorities. Once American Forces clear an area, they leave to quell another hot spot. The vacuum created by departing US troops is filled by the bad guys. Its whack-a-mole. (source)

To be fair, the Galula model has worked in Iraq. But there are two problems. Sometimes after pacifying an area the units move out completely. Other times, new units that rotate into an area don’t continue to do what it took to keep the areas pacified. In both cases the areas deteriorate and jihadists regain influence, which they use to counter the American insurgency. This process repeats, disheartening our allies or dooming them to death as collaborators whom we have abandoned.

Smith loves to pound on one glaring example of a practice that doesn’t work. In some areas of Iraq the U.S. military will not do what it takes to keep snipers out of the minarets. There are minarets all over Iraq, overlooking every military base of any size. As a result, snipers are a primary cause of deaths and casualties. Send American forces embedded with Iraqi Police (IP) who clear all mosques of arms caches, and then station the IP at the entrances and search everyone who enters. It’s easy to find rifles and mortar tubes even under a long robe. Normal people won’t mind, and in fact will appreciate the fact that their mosque isn’t going to draw return fire because of some jackass jihadist up in the minaret shooting at or lobbing mortars at heavily armed soldiers. (source)

These sorts of actions will pacify an area, allowing the U.S. to conduct counterinsurgency actions. But in an area that U.S. forces can’t or won’t pacify, they can only function as insurgents. See the table. U.S. soldiers in Abrams MBTs and Strykers can’t melt away into the scenery. Without offering security, which is the one thing of value we can really do well if we go ahead and do it, we cannot run a counterinsurgency, but are stuck running an insurgency against terrorists, tribes, and local and sectarian militias.

Sitting, isolated in huge bases, American forces suck as insurgents in Iraq.

The huge bases may be necessary as places to keep support staff safe, but if Iraqi cities are pacified and made safe then the cities can be used to house support staff, who can be hired from the populace. This is not only cheaper, but it reduces American exposure and would allow non-combat personnel to be moved out of Iraq. Of course, if they are brought back to the U.S. then the BRAC process of closing down bases will make it difficult to find a place to station them. Combat personnel can be embedded in Iraqi police and army forces, or roaming the desert looking for brigands and holy warriors, and the steady desertion of Iraq by its educated class will stop and reverse itself.

This is the change that Bush proposed in his two recent speeches, the shift from a misguided Insurgent approach that was labeled a Counterinsurgent approach, to an actual Counterinsurgent approach. The actual Counterinsurgent approach requires additional combat troops, and once it begins to succeed then non-combat troops can be withdrawn and the large bases that lefties love to complain about can be turned over to Iraq for their Army, or other legitimate uses.

Technorati Tags: United States, Iraq, war on terror, military, counterinsurgency

Panic

The fear of death is more to be dreaded than death itself.

–Publilius Syrus, Maxims, No. 511 (100 BC)

Men fear death as children fear to go in the dark; and as that natural fear in children is increased with tales, so is the other.

–Francis Bacon, Apothegms, Of Death (1624)

The surest way to prevent war is not to fear it.

–John Randolph, Speech in the House of Representatives (March 5, 1806)

This is preeminently the time to speak the truth, the whole truth, frankly and boldly. Nor need we shrink from honestly facing conditions in our country today. This great Nation will endure as it has endured, will revive and will prosper. So, first of all, let me assert my firm belief that the only thing we have to fear is fear itself —nameless, unreasoning, unjustified terror which paralyzes needed efforts to convert retreat into advance. In every dark hour of our national life a leadership of frankness and vigor has met with that understanding and support of the people themselves which is essential to victory.

—Franklin Delano Roosevelt, First Inaugural Address

When Teddy Kennedy drove Mary Jo Kopechne into Poucha Pond on Chappaquiddick Island, drunken and frightened he fled the scene, leaving her for dead in his 1967 Olds 88. It isn’t known whether she would have lived if he and the five other married men who had been at the party with Ms. Kopechne and her five single girlfriends had called the police right away, instead of waiting ten hours. The alcohol in his system and the fact that he was one of six married men having a private party with six unmarried young women, with six wives out of the loop, most likely had something to do with why he panicked and failed to call the police.

Like Teddy Kennedy that night, long ago, the U.S. Congress has abandoned the U.S. military for dead in Iraq. They intend to force the president to withhold reinforcements from Iraq. They intend to force his hands, to force him to lose. They want America to lose. They don’t care that America can win, because they don’t believe it, and they don’t believe it because they are afraid to believe it, and because they can’t believe America can win they will stab our military men and women in the back to make true what they already suspect to be true.

They suspect that someone has betrayed America. They need to look in the mirror.

Panic has another name: Terror. Terrorism’s goal is to make the enemy feel terror, to drive the enemy into panic. The terror tactics of random murder and intensive rumor have found a path to American minds. Terror worked.

Thanks to all those who gave up before the fight was really started. Thanks New York Times. Thanks McClatchy Newspapers. Thanks CBS, ABC, NBC. Thanks Keith Olbermann. Thanks AP. Thanks Reuters. Thanks to Hollywood. Thanks to the dinosaur media and its mentors in the far-leftist academy.

Technorati Tags: terror, fear, uncertainty, doubt, United States, Congress, terrorism