It’s been thirty-five years now. Pound for pound, I imagine the IDF is still the toughest fighting force in the world. They can’t afford not to be.
Category Archives: War Commentary
Europe’s Proxy War Against America
Some disturbing news:
The flotilla has considerable public support in Europe, where opposition to Israel often crosses the line into anti-Semitism. Although a handful of Americans, Canadians, and Middle Easterners (as well as a few Aussies and Kiwis) are among the 500 pro-Palestinian activists hoping to sail with the flotilla, the majority of its organizers, supporters and actual participants are from Europe, which has become “ground zero” in the global campaign of boycotts, divestment, and sanctions (BDS) against Israel. . . .
The irony of all the Gaza activism in Europe is this: The European single currency is on the verge of collapse. Many European countries are on the brink of bankruptcy. The European social welfare state is crumbling. Millions of Europeans are out of work and many are losing their homes. Europeans are losing the war they started with Libya. Muslim immigration to Europe is out of control. Islamic Sharia law is becoming increasingly common (here, here, here, and here) in many parts of the continent. Considering all the problems besetting Europe today, the issue many Europeans care about most is … the Gaza Strip.
As Tom Wolfe (I think) once said, they say that fascism is always rising in America but, somehow, it always falls in Europe. And lands on the Jews.
The Community Organizer
…who would be king:
Obama entered office on a groundswell of a disconcerting mania, a mania in which voters imagined on this blank slate of a candidate all sorts of truly fantastic abilities and policies, none of which were warranted in his paltry, truly shabby history.
The man with no available school records, for example, was painted as a genius and his brief time as a University of Chicago adjunct (basically teaching assistant) puffed up to a professorship in constitutional law. The guy who cannot speak a logical, coherent, grammatical sentence on his own was pawned off as a literary genius to unsuspecting, foolish voters. It was inevitable that the reality of his time in office could never match the dream. It was unfortunately equally inevitable that he would prove inadequate to the difficult job of the presidency.
Still, which of those who voted for him could have envisioned the hash he’s made of things in every respect? Unemployment far exceeds what he warned it would reach if we didn’t pass his stimulus package; the housing market shows no sign of lift off; the dollar sinks more each day; manufacturing is at a virtual standstill, and Americans grow more pessimistic about the economy each day. The landmark legislation of his first (and I hope final) term, ObamaCare, is so badly conceived and drafted that Americans are likely to see the best medical service in the world destroyed unless it is soon repealed or ruled unconstitutional. In the meantime, as uncertainty about its future grows, more and more businesses are paralyzed and unable to plan for their futures.
Internationally, we keep alienating our allies and boosting our enemies. Like the Duke of York* in the nursery school rhyme, he had “10,000 men marched them up the hill and then marched them down again.” He ordered a surge in Afghanistan, the place he argued in 2008 we really should be instead of Iraq, and then order pulling them out before the job is done, and in a manner sure to increase the danger to them. Without Congressional authorization, he’s committed our troops and weaponry to a rather pointless fight in Libya; pushed Mubarak out of office in favor of heaven knows what successors; failed to do a thing to prevent Iran from going nuclear; done nothing to stop Syria’s Assad from daily slaughtering his own people; and each and every day puts the life and welfare of our staunch ally Israel at risk.
This week’s press conference revealed him as a man desperately clinging to the same rhetorical devices that have long worn thin: demagogic false choices, class warfare and a preposterous description of himself as the reasonable adult in the legislative process.
As she notes, once it becomes politically acceptable to attack him, he may be like a wounded antelope beset by the jackals of the press, who he has “unexpectedly” disappointed so many times.
He has never disappointed me, and never will.
[Update later Sunday morning]
Et tu, Evan Thomas?
Obama has got to be President of the United States,” Thomas said. “He has to be two things. He has to make a public case of how bad is this, because he is not doing that. He’s not being honest about just how bad this is going to be — no, he was partisan. He was God [bleep] Democrat! He was just, you know – being a party guy. I applaud the energy but it wasn’t getting me anywhere. He has got to rise above that and then in private, in private – he’s got to make a deal.”
I am sensing a disturbance in the Force. Thomas may not be able to, or willing to get him that automatic fifteen percent next year.
Paving The Way For An Islamist Egypt
..by recognizing the Brotherhood and having contacts with it, the Obama administration also makes a unilateral concession encouraging the Brotherhood. People who know the Middle East understand how this works: Soon many Egyptians will say (as they said in Iran and as they now say in Turkey) that the United States wants the Islamists to win.
What a comprehensive disaster this administration is, on almost all policy fronts. And as usual, Al Reuters doesn’t cover itself in glory, either.
[Update a few minutes later]
This comment is interesting:
The comparisons of Egypt to Nazi Germany are increasingly appropriate. First comes the overthrow of the government (mission accomplished). Next comes the “cleansing” of the state of “undesirables” (in this case Coptic Christians and any other identifiable non-Muslim minorities in the country) and then comes the war of aggression (against Israel). Egypt is in Phase II right now. It’s unclear how long it will take for Phase II to be completed. But when it is completed and there’s nobody left in Egypt to oppose it, then will come the war. Of course the Muslim Brotherhood doesn’t have to wait for Phase II to be completed to attack Israel. They’re already doing it by supporting anti-Israeli Islamist terrorism as well as the anti-Israeli agenda of the Left.
The good news is that, unlike German, they have no industry to speak of. But that by itself won’t stop them from acquiring the weapons they need.
A Dispatch From Kabul
Michael Yon: Cheering on mass murder.
Is He Dead, Jim?
What’s going on with Hugo?
I hope that the prospects for Venezuela are better than this article would indicate.
Why Is It Controversial To Call The Muslim Brotherhood…
…radical? Good question.
I’m sure that designating an equivalent Christian group (if one existed) by that word wouldn’t raise any media eyebrows.
A Political Deadline For Afghan Troop Withdrawal?
You don’t say?
The 58-year-old Petraeus couched his committee answers in the standard Washington etiquette acknowledging civilian control of an obedient military.
However, his forthright replies rapidly reverberated across the Capitol, where so many in the political business are so ready to believe that the accelerated troop withdrawals were ordered by the Democrat more to enhance his troubled reelection plans, than because they would enhance the cause of crushing terrorist forces in Afghanistan.Afghan war US Sgt William Bee ducks just in time, file
Under questioning, Gen. Petraeus admitted today, “The ultimate [drawdown] decision was a more aggressive formulation, if you will, in terms of the timeline than what we had recommended.”
As previously noted, this not only has the potential to backfire, but a high probability of it. And it couldn’t happen to a more deserving politician.
The President Is No Churchill
In 1940, Churchill appeared before the House of Commons and described Britain’s goal in World War II: “I can answer in one word: victory; victory at all costs, victory despite all terror; victory, however long and hard the road may be; for without victory there is no survival.”
This hyperbolic rube was too unsophisticated to appreciate that the goal doesn’t apply to overseas contingency operations or kinetic military actions.
As I wrote last night, the president and the Democrats are like the French in The Simpsons, for whom “victory” isn’t in their vocabulary, unless it applies to their domestic enemies.
Michael Walsh wasn’t impressed, either.
[Update a couple minutes later]
Nor was John Tabin:
President Obama isn’t terribly concerned with winning wars.
In his speech last night, Obama talked about “our effort to wind down this war,” “responsibly end[ing] these wars,” and “tak[ing] comfort in knowing that the tide of war is receding.” He did not use the words “win” or “winning”; the word “victory” appeared only in a reference to the killing of Osama bin Laden.
To these people, wars are for “ending,” not “winning.” It was something that I and others noticed in the debates in 2008, but not enough others noticed. The funny thing is, I suspect that they even realize that we notice, but they just can’t bring themselves to use the word.
[Update a few minutes later]
Could the president’s political decision backfire on him?
It bears repeating that the deadline imposed by the president has nothing to do with military or strategic calculation. It has everything to do with an electoral calculation. President Obama wants those troops out two months before Americans go to the voting booth.
This may prove a disastrous political calculation, too, however. If the war is going badly in the summer and fall of 2012, it will be because of the decision the president made this week. Everyone will know he did it against the advice of his commanders. Everyone will know he did it for political reasons. So if the war is going badly a year from now, whom do you think the American people will blame? There will still be 70,000 American troops in Afghanistan, but as part of a losing effort. Will Americans reward Obama at the polls under those circumstances?
It’s not like he’s been politically brilliant so far. The tragic thing is that he’s doing something militarily stupid to serve his political needs.
[Early afternoon update]
You don’t say. Afghan women fear Obama’s peace talks with the Taliban. I’m sure NOW is fine with it, though, because he supports abortion.
Elena Bonner
Jay Nordlinger remembers:
Last summer, Bonner reflected, “I can say that many of Chazov’s Western colleagues [in the anti-nuclear organization] were wonderful people and high professionals. But they, I think, understand nothing of the essence of socialism-totalitarianism, and were very easily deceived by the organization’s name.”
She continued, “Millions of people today are deceived just as easily, believing in the slogan of the Middle East ‘Quartet,’ ‘Two states for two peoples.’ And I’m afraid that they will realize their mistake only after it becomes impossible to save the State of Israel without a third world war. It will be like Munich. You remember what Chamberlain said: ‘I have brought you peace.’ And the Second World War began!”
In Bonner’s view, the Nobel peace prize had “been devalued.”
No kidding. And sadly for freedom, the world remains full of useful idiots.