As the Region Shifts (Again)

As Iraq remains uncertain and Iran emerges as the leader of the growing Shiite threat, the Sunni nations, chiefly Saudi Arabia and Egypt, have kicked into their back-up gear of self preservation. The strategy is again: make peace with Israel to stabilize the region. Nothing new, remember 2000? Below are two recent articles from The Jerusalem Post that discuss how this matter plays out in some interesting detail.

A realistic strategy for peace
By GERALD M. STEINBERG

A few months ago, Israel was being attacked on two fronts - Lebanon and Gaza - in addition to the ongoing Iranian threats to wipe us off the earth. Now, however, we are being courted by eager peace makers, on both the Palestinian and Syrian fronts, while the Saudi/Arab League grand peace plan has suddenly resurfaced.

Logically, it is easy to reject this surge in activity as empty rhetoric designed to provide the image without the substance of change. Syria's President Bashar Assad appears to be transparently using the language of peace in order to avoid punishment for his involvement in the murder of Lebanese leaders, and for promoting violence in Iraq.

http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1167467673472&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull

Interesting Times: Expose stealth rejectionism
By SAUL SINGER


Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni, in her recent interview with Ari Shavit in Haaretz, said something worth contemplating. "Anyone who lives in the Middle East and has his feet on the ground cannot permit himself to be optimistic. But I see a type of opportunity. On the one hand, we're surrounded by a growing threat and extremism and zealotry. But on the other hand, precisely because of this threat, moderate countries... in the region understand today that their problem is not Israel."

http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1167467661318&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull

Because We Know Better ...

The following article was linked to The New York Times editorial page from that of The Guardian. Of all the articles that could have been selected worldwide, this one The New York Times chose to run on 01/06/07.

Read the first sentence which states that Al-Zawahiri, al-Qaida's number two man, does not have to be taken too seriously when he talks. There printed in black in white is the smug condesending attitude of the left. They actually believe they understand what the killers mean over what the killers themselves say.

I have a different mindset: I listen to what they say and take them at their word. When they say they want to kill the infidels, I don't believe they want to move the Israeli boarder a few miles. I think collasped towers.

To pompously believe you know better in this sort of circumstance is to sign your own death warrant. Just remember, this article was chosen especially for you by The New York Times.

Avoiding jihad
Leader Saturday January 6, 2007 The Guardian

Ayman Al-Zawahiri, al-Qaida's fire-breathing number two, should not necessarily be taken too seriously: threats are a standard element of jihadist propaganda and presumably designed as much to inspire believers as to alarm enemies. But it was still ominous to hear his angry denunciation of Ethiopia's military intervention in Somalia as another "crusade" by "slaves of America" that must be resisted by "martyrdom campaigns" on a new Muslim frontline.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/leaders/story/0,,1983814,00.html

Letter to the Editor -- The Real War

Below you will find a letter I recently received and wish to share with you. It may not be politically correct but I feel it addresses many issues too often ignored.

2007--THE REAL WAR - 01/06/07

by: 449 Quentin

The Real war is not being fought in Iraq or Afghanistan. The war that will decide America’s fate is being waged at home.

It is time to stop the internecine hatred that is tearing this country apart. We can no longer tolerate the ineptitude of the Democrats or the Republicans. We have a billion Muslims that call us the Great Satan and want us to convert or die. We have a billion Chinese waiting in the wings to pick over the bones of our civilization. We have a nuclear mafia running Russia and a group of former allies in Western Europe that are handing the keys to the vault to their Muslim minorities. In Africa we have anarchy, disease and genocide. And when we look south we see failing countries that ship their poorest and least educated citizens to our porous border. With the possible exception of Latvia and Estonia we have no allies and no friends.

The Democrats and the Republicans have brought us to this precipice with their joint ineptitude. We need a new party and we need it fast. We need leaders who can address our problems with solutions not platitudes. The sun is setting and a cold winter night is looming. We need men and women who can articulate a plan that can lure centrists in both parties to its banner. We need people who can relegate the Neanderthals on the extreme right to the dustbin of history which they should deservedly share with the sanctimonious fools on the left who think that the answer to our problems is to negotiate ourselves out of existence.

Very soon in historical terms we will have to go to war with Iran. The Democrats are oblivious to this fact and the Republicans have tried war and failed. Like most wars we will not have a choice whether we want to fight it or not. It will be thrust upon us by the tides of history. The Muslim tide began over a thousand years ago. It has Centuries of momentum behind it and it will not go away because of a U.N. Resolution. Nor can we wish it away. That is not the way reality is constructed. Sometimes as Tolkien said, " you have to leave the tranquility of the Shire and go out and destroy the enemy before he ravages everything that you hold dear. "

The Muslim world has never seen a Democracy and it probably never will. To quote Osama Bin Laden, "when people see a strong horse and a weak horse they naturally back the strong one". A wise man ignores his friends and listens to his enemies. Friends are not a mortal threat and enemies are. When people tell you that you are a degenerate civilization, a threat to their way of life and state they want to destroy you, only a fool ignores the warning. Saddam tried to be the strong horse and he failed. Now the Mullahs in Iran have picked up his sword. It has always been about the oil. They've understood this for a long time in Tehran even if Nancy Pelosi still does not.

Wars are terrible things but not the most terrible thing. Losing a war is the only thing in that category. Unless of course you lose it to the United States and we do not have that luxury. The reality is that the United States will implode without reasonably priced oil. We are not located in the tropics, our houses have to be heated. That is a necessity not a negotiating point. Trucks have to have full gas tanks or supermarket shelves will empty fast. This is more important than whether the Spotted Plover has a good nest site. That is why the left wing of the Democratic Party has led us to the precipice we are standing on. We haven’t built a new major oil refinery in decades. Still we must blame both of our parties for that.

The equation is simple. Iran wants to control the oil. Saudi Arabia and the gulf states are looking nervously over their shoulders. Russia lost over twenty million dead stopping a man named Hitler and the United States cut and ran in Somalia under Bill Clinton when we lost a dozen. We ran in Lebanon under Regan when they blew up a barracks and killed a couple of hundred marines. Granted one death is to much but reality is a harsh place and it’s the only home we have. At this rate we will be perceived as the weaker horse and Saudi Arabia and the sheikdoms in the gulf will fall to Iran without a shot being fired. Then the mullahs can peg prime at $150 per barrel and we will collapse. Using the oil money Iran will control a billion people armed with the best weapons money can by. We can wait it out and fight them then or we can do the right thing and destroy them now. We only have two options.

Modern military history has shown that we own and control the battlefields. Our technology and our military will always prevail there. Our enemies have deduced that and they have chosen to fight us in the alleys using Guerrillas and suicide tactics. We can never win in that situation. War should be a last resort in the fullest sense of that meaning. There is no justification for unleashing a horror like war except self defense and survival. We have an enemy that has stated over and over again for a thousand years that they wish to convert us or destroy us. That is not my opinion it is their dogma. Only at this moment in that ancient struggle the tactics have changed. Now they are verging on mastering the complexities of Biological, Chemical and Nuclear weaponry. If we allow this we are doomed. Our only hope is to hit them in their strongest place and obliterate it. That place is called Iran. Then and only then will the strongest horse emerge from the nuclear dust for all the world to see.

It's Moving to a Crisis Point

Serious trouble is brewing on the horizon and we are all watching it unfold like stop-action photography. It appears that the U.S. is on a collision course to attack Iran should Tehran refuse to reverse its nuclear weapons procurement policy.

This exceptionally tense and dangerous time begets uncertainty. The repercussions of such a confrontation are unknown. Exceptional behind-the-scenes negotiations must happening; although without question we are faced only with bad decisions.

History will determine if the Bush Administration was the all-time brightest and bravest or merely the dumbest. I know I would possibly be able to stomach such a confrontation if I saw evidence presented from either political party of a firm, public stand on the U.S. energy policy. As always, policy revolves all about the oil.

Because of the oil, our presence in the region continually stirs up their ever-buzzing hornet's nest of issues. Wackos are infuriated and young unemployed males who have nothing better to do but brew over their pathetic status feed at the trough of mis-information. It helps to legitimize the scapegoating that comes so easily. Yet decade after decade we do nothing.

I have yet to hear a message or any consistent, strong, career basing effort by any significant politician demanding we immediately break free of middle eastern oil. Everyone is lobby controlled and it is pathetic because if we continue on the current course it appears doubtful we will survive into the 22nd century. The loss of an American city may be the disaster that finally triggers a change towards a livable energy policy.

What I want to hear from a McCain, a Giuliani, a Clinton, an Edwards or an Obama is this message. Without it, they are all full of crap to me.

EYEING IRAN
WHY W'S TAPPING ADMIRAL TO HEAD CENTRAL COMMAND

By Ralph Peters - New York Post

January 6, 2007 -- WORD that Adm. William Fallon will move laterally from our Pacific Command to take charge of Central Command - responsible for the Middle East - while two ground wars rage in the region baffled the media.

Why put a swabbie in charge of grunt operations?
There's a one-word answer: Iran.

http://www.nypost.com/seven/01062007/postopinion/opedcolumnists/eyeing_iran_opedcolumnists_ralph_peters.htm

Detailed Argument, Rational Unbiased Thoughts

Charles Krauthammer wrote a thoughtful editorial on the execution of Hussein. My question is "what level of functionality are we expecting from the Iraqi government at this point?" By what standards are we gauging them? If the Western media is judging them by Western values, then Western media will continue to be disappointed, shocked and repulsed.

We are now chest deep in this. Do we bail because we bought a barbaric third-world problem or is the greater long-term good still worth a reality check on our expectations before we continue to nudge in the direction of a finish line? Frustrated and disappointed is understandable, but it's time to stop being surprised when it happens. What did we expect?

These are deep, complex problems and yet we cannot begin again. The question is what is the best strategy moving forward. Damn if I know. Maybe those with a better understanding of history could blueprint the way. I'm still simply learning in a 101 version.

The Hanging: Beyond Travesty
By Charles Krauthammer - Friday, January 5, 2007;

Of the 6 billion people on this Earth, not one killed more people than Saddam Hussein. And not just killed but tortured and mutilated -- doing so often with his own hands and for pleasure. It is quite a distinction to be the preeminent monster on the planet. If the death penalty was ever deserved, no one was more richly deserving than Saddam Hussein.

For the Iraqi government to have botched both his trial and execution, therefore, and turned monster into victim, is not just a tragedy but a crime -- against the new Iraq that Americans are dying for and against justice itself.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/01/04/AR2007010401347.html

Count on The New York Times to add Fuel to the Fire

What the editors of The New York Times are trying to accomplish, I wonder. I know they hide behind the "free press" angle to basically state they have the right to publish "all the news that's fit to print." I agree they have that right. We are America and our country is built upon such right. However, I question their motives. How they choose to handle their recent coverage of the Hussein execution is a perfect example.

Saddam Hussein is acknowleged as one of the greatest mass murderers of the 20th century. He was captured by the United States military after a decade of breaking UN sanctions and expelling UN inspectors from keeping track of his WMD programs. At the time the entire world believed him to be deeply involved in trying to develop nuclear weapons. He attacked neighbor's twice starting two regional wars and used chemical weapons on his own people. He was tried, convicted and executed by a democratically elected Iraqi government that sentenced him to death and carried it out. None of these facts are in dispute.

Now the "Arab Street" is once again enraged. What else is new. They were enraged this year over a Danish filmmaker; an Indian writer; cartoons in a newspaper; and comments by the Pope among a dozen other events. What concerns me is that rather than publish stories focusing on the exceptional achievements and potential positive directions that can result from them, our NYT again decides to focus on a negative. It always appears to be their intention to reinforce any negative strain they can on the issues of the Iraq War.

I find their choice of focus to be negative by design and serves no purpose to help this country in a time of war. I completely agree with a free press. However, this is purely biased reporting with an agenda attached.

Images of Hanging Make Hussein a Martyr to Many

By HASSAN M. FATTAH
Published: January 6, 2007

BEIRUT, Lebanon, Jan. 5 — In the week since Saddam Hussein was hanged in an execution steeped in sectarian overtones, his public image in the Arab world, formerly that of a convicted dictator, has undergone a resurgence of admiration and awe.

On the streets, in newspapers and over the Internet, Mr. Hussein has emerged as a Sunni Arab hero who stood calm and composed as his Shiite executioners tormented and abused him.

“No one will ever forget the way in which Saddam was executed,” President Hosni Mubarak of Egypt remarked in an interview with the Israeli newspaper Yediot Aharonot published Friday and distributed by the official Egyptian news agency. “They turned him into a martyr.”

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/01/06/world/middleeast/06arabs.html?hp&ex=1168146000&en=c2e8e35861a46754&ei=5094&partner=homepage