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	<title>FrontPage Magazine &#187; battle</title>
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		<title>To Keep the Flame of Liberty Burning</title>
		<link>http://www.frontpagemag.com/2014/geert-wilders/to-keep-the-flame-of-liberty-burning/?utm_source=rss&#038;utm_medium=rss&#038;utm_campaign=to-keep-the-flame-of-liberty-burning</link>
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		<pubDate>Tue, 04 Nov 2014 05:47:00 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator><![CDATA[Geert Wilders]]></dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Daily Mailer]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[FrontPage]]></category>
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		<category><![CDATA[Islam]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Jihad]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.frontpagemag.com/?p=244391</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Now is the time when everyone in the West must do his duty.]]></description>
				<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><a href="http://cdn.frontpagemag.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/11/Picture-6.gif"><img class="alignleft  wp-image-244395" src="http://cdn.frontpagemag.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/11/Picture-6.gif" alt="Picture-6" width="313" height="207" /></a><em>Below is Geert Wilders&#8217; speech to the Danish Free Press Society in Copenhagen<wbr /> on Nov. 2, 2014.</em></p>
<p>Dear friends,</p>
<p>I am happy to be in Copenhagen again.</p>
<p>It is always a pleasure to return to this wonderful city – the home of my good friend and fellow freedom fighter, the Danish hero Lars Hedegaard.</p>
<p>It is always a privilege to be in the capital of the brave Danish people.</p>
<p>And it is always an honor to be a guest of your great organization.</p>
<p>The Danish Free Press Society is a beacon of light. For Denmark, for Scandinavia, for the whole of Europe, and for the entire West. Your staunch defense of civil liberties, such as freedom of speech, serves as an inspiration for many, including myself and my party.</p>
<p>On a moment like this, when the free world is in mortal danger, an organization such as the Danish Free Press Society is needed more than ever.</p>
<p>Exactly ten years ago, today, my fellow countryman Van Gogh fell as a martyr of free speech.</p>
<p>I remember that morning very well. The press came to my office to ask for a reaction, but hardly anyone could believe that what had happened was really true. We all realized that the Netherlands would never be the same again. Unfortunately few lessons have been learned since that horrible day in 2004.</p>
<p>Islam claims that Muhammad was a prophet. But Muhammad was not a  prophet; Theo van Gogh was a prophet.</p>
<p>Van Gogh saw what was coming. He spoke out forcefully against the danger of Islamization.</p>
<p>He had also just made a short movie, together with my then colleague Ayaan Hirsi Ali, about the plight of women in Islamic society. The movie was called “Submission.”</p>
<p>That is why he was murdered. His assassination should have been an alarm bell.</p>
<p>Van Gogh warned us in a strong language, as clear as the colors that his great-granduncle Vincent used when painting his landscapes.</p>
<p>He was a brave man. When he realized the danger of Islam, he did not run like a coward.</p>
<p>He would have hated to see how our freedom of speech has been restricted in the ten years since his death.</p>
<p>Ladies and gentlemen, dear friends, the more Islam we get, the less free our societies become. Not only because of the islamization but also because of the weak appeasers who call themselves politicians.</p>
<p>We are no longer allowed to crack jokes or draw cartoons if Islam feels insulted by it.</p>
<p>If you do so, your life is in danger, as Kurt Westergaard and Lars Vilks can testify. You might even get arrested, as happened a few years ago with the Dutch cartoonist Gregorius Nekschot.</p>
<p>Sure, the charges against Nekschot were later dropped. But if you value your life and if you prefer to avoid trouble, it is better not to do anything that might remotely insult Islam.</p>
<p>We are no longer allowed to tell statistical truths, as Lars Hedegaard experienced, when he referred to rape figures in Islamic families.</p>
<p>A murderer came to Lars’s door and the state authorities persecuted him for so-called hate speech. Sure, the Supreme Court eventually acquitted Lars. But if you value your life and if you prefer to avoid trouble, it is better to keep quiet.</p>
<p>We are no longer allowed to refer to scientific and historical research, as my friend, the brave Austrian human rights activist Elisabeth Sabaditsch-Wolff, experienced.</p>
<p>In a seminar on the historical figure of Muhammad, she mentioned that he had a crush on little girls and had sex with a 9-year old. That is the truth.</p>
<p>But Elisabeth was convicted, and her conviction was even upheld by the Appeals court. Once again, it is better to remain silent if you want to avoid trouble.</p>
<p>But Theo van Gogh did not remain silent. And neither did Kurt and Lars and Elisabeth and Robert and the Danish Free Press Society, and my party, the Party for Freedom in the Netherlands, and so many other freedom fighters in the West.</p>
<p>We speak out. We will never be silent. Because we love our country. Because we love our freedom. Because we refuse to live in slavery.</p>
<p>Because we believe that without liberty, life is not worth living.</p>
<p>Liberty and human dignity, that is what we stand for.</p>
<p>We are the torchbearers for freedom. We are the torchbearers for democracy.</p>
<p>We are the torchbearers for a civilization that is far superior than any other civilization on earth.</p>
<p>Last Summer, my home town, The Hague, witnessed scenes which brought back memories of the darkest period in our history, the Nazi era.</p>
<p>Sympathizers of the Islamic State paraded in our streets. They carried swastikas, they carried the black flags of ISIS. They shouted “Death to the Jews.”</p>
<p>Instead of rounding up these hatemongers, the authorities did nothing.</p>
<p>When <em>we</em> warn against Islam, the authorities call it hate speech and bring us to court. But when the grim forces of hatred march down our streets, the police look on and do not interfere. It is a disgrace. It is a scandal. It is intolerable.</p>
<p>Islam is waging a war against the free West.</p>
<p>Indeed, we are at war. Only fools can deny it. Islam has declared war on us.</p>
<p>America and its allies are currently bombing the Islamic State in Syria and Iraq.</p>
<p>Excellent.</p>
<p>My party supports this offensive. I am glad that Dutch and Danish F16s participate in it and that our two nations stand shoulder to shoulder in this endeavor. We should liquidate Abu Bakr Al-Bagdadi and the other criminals who are leading the Islamic State.</p>
<p>But we have to do more than that.</p>
<p>Far more important than fighting Islamic State abroad, is the fight to preserve our own security in our own countries, in the Netherlands, in Denmark, in all the other European and Western countries. It is our homes that we must defend.</p>
<p>It is just to bomb the Islamic State in the Middle East. But our first priority must be to protect our own nations, our own freedoms, our own people, our own children, here, at home.</p>
<p>Recently, the Dutch authorities prevented some forty jihadis to leave our country, when they attempted to go to Syria to fight in the ranks of ISIS. Their passports were seized and they were sent home instead of jailed. These criminals now walk our streets and make them unsafe.</p>
<p>You may have heard that the jihadis who recently murdered  soldiers in Canada were also people whom the authorities had previously prevented to leave for Syria and who were not arrested but allowed to go free on the street.</p>
<p>Blocking the exodus of those who want to wage Jihad elsewhere and not detain them is sheer stupidity.</p>
<p>Keeping them here as free people means that they will hit us here.</p>
<p>We must hasten their exit instead of preventing it. But we must never allow them to return. Therefore, we must reinstate national border controls.</p>
<p>Nothing is more important than first protect our own countries from the Jihadis.</p>
<p>Let us restore our liberties, such as freedom of speech.</p>
<p>Let us defend our culture. Let us protect our people.</p>
<p>Let us make our nations free and safe again.</p>
<p>Let us be brave.</p>
<p>That is what we must do; that is our duty.</p>
<p>Let me ask you: Do our authorities actually do this?</p>
<p>Unfortunately not.</p>
<p>They fail to do their duty.</p>
<p>They fail to act accordingly.</p>
<p>They even lie to us.</p>
<p>Everyday, we hear Western leaders repeat the sickening mantra that Islam is a religion of peace.</p>
<p>Whenever an atrocity is committed in the name of Islam, whenever someone is beheaded in Syria or Iraq, Barack Obama, David Cameron, my own Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte and many of their colleagues rush to the television cameras to tell the world that it has nothing whatsoever to do with Islam. How stupid can you be.</p>
<p>Fortunately, the eyes of ever more people are opening to this reality.</p>
<p>In my country, a poll last June, showed that 65% of the Dutch are convinced that the Islamic culture does not belong to the Netherlands.</p>
<p>In France, 74% find Islam incompatible with French society.</p>
<p>In Britain, fewer than one in four think that following Islam is compatible with a British way of life. In Germany, over two thirds of the population think negatively about Islam.</p>
<p>Even in the Czech Republic, a country with hardly any Islamic population, almost two-thirds consider Islam a threat to society and 90% are afraid of it. And in Denmark 92% of your citizens believe Muslim immigrants should adopt Danish customs.</p>
<p>With every new terrorist crime, with every new attack, with every new beheading, it becomes clear to ever more people what the true nature of Islam is.</p>
<p>With every Islamic assault on our values, more and more people realize that Islam wants to conquer the world, that it is prepared to kill or enslave anyone who refuses to submit. And that it is ready to commit the biggest atrocities to achieve this goal.</p>
<p>My friends, we are gathered here today, because we are neither prepared to collaborate with evil, nor to appease it.</p>
<p>We say No to Islamic censorship. And No to the politicians who fail us.</p>
<p>During the past ten years, I have been living under constant police protection.</p>
<p>As you know, I am not the only one who has to live through this ordeal. Several people in this room are in the same situation. Our friends Lars and Kurt even came to stand eye to eye with fanatics who tried to slaughter them.</p>
<p>Of course – I repeat it wherever I go – of course, there are many moderate Muslims. I believe in moderate people, but I do not believe in a moderate Islam. There is only one Islam – the Islam of the Koran, the Hadith and the life of Muhammad, who was a terrorist and a warlord.</p>
<p>But even though there are many moderate Muslims, it is wrong to think that the moderates are a majority. They are not. A poll in the Netherlands gave shocking results. It is hard to believe, but almost three quarters of the Muslims in my country say that Dutch Muslims who go and fight in Syria are heroes. Can you believe it? Heroes!</p>
<p>And over two thirds of the Islamic population in the Netherlands consider the religious rules of Islam to be more important than our own democratic laws.</p>
<p>Equally terrifying was an article yesterday in the Dutch press stating that Mohammed Bouyeri, the murderer of Theo van Gogh, is still considered a hero today by hundreds of Dutch Muslims.</p>
<p>A few years ago, I called on Muslims to liberate themselves from the yoke of Islam, to choose for freedom. I wholeheartedly support Muslims who love freedom. So, I told them “Free yourselves. Leave Islam.” I still stand by this appeal. But this does not blind me to the present reality.</p>
<p>You may have heard that I will probably be brought to court again soon.</p>
<p>Three years ago, I was taken to court on hate crime charges. The court case lasted almost two years. Fortunately, I was acquitted.</p>
<p>But now, the Dutch judiciary is going after me again because I asked Dutch voters whether they want more or fewer Moroccans in the Netherlands.</p>
<p>Moroccans are the largest Islamic population group in the Netherlands. In The Netherlands the Moroccan problem is the problem of Islam.</p>
<p>I referred to Moroccans, not because I have anything against Moroccans but because they are overrepresented in the Dutch crime and welfare statistics. They also account for three quarters of all Dutch Muslims who leave for Syria to wage jihad. No-one in the Netherlands wants more Moroccans.</p>
<p>As I said, our leaders still refuse to defend our freedoms because they are either cowards or appeasers. This is why the task of defending freedom has now fallen on us. On you, on me, on ordinary citizens.</p>
<p>To this end, I have established the International Freedom Alliance IFA.</p>
<p>We want IFA to be the shield of all those who refuse to submit to Islamic tyranny.</p>
<p>The mission of IFA is to stop the Islamization of non-Islamic countries and to fight for the preservation of our freedom and democracy.</p>
<p>We want to stand firm. We want to preserve our civilization for our children and grandchildren. Because there is nothing more precious than liberty and freedom. But it has a price. And the price can be high. Sometimes a man must give all he can.</p>
<p>Our political leaders may fail us. But we, my friends, we will not fail.</p>
<p>There is a path we shall never choose, and that is the path of submission.</p>
<p>This is why we say: Yes to freedom! No to tyranny!</p>
<p>IFA aims to be a network of resistance fighters in all the countries threatened by Islam.</p>
<p>Friends,  I have good news from the Netherlands.</p>
<p>Today, the popularity of my party, the Party for Freedom, is at a high. An opinion poll published this morning shows that we have by far become the largest party in the Netherlands, with almost 20 per cent of the vote. 1 out of 5 Dutchmen would vote PVV today.</p>
<p>The policies that we stand for are also getting more popular than ever.</p>
<p>We want to stop all immigration from Islamic countries.</p>
<p>We want to stimulate voluntary re-emigration to Islamic countries.</p>
<p>We want to expel all criminals with dual citizenship and deprive them of their Dutch nationality.</p>
<p>We want to de-islamize our nation.</p>
<p>Dear Friends, there is a lot of work to do. We, the defenders of freedom and security, have an historic duty.</p>
<p>Our generation has been entrusted with a huge task: To oppose Islam and keep the flame of liberty burning.</p>
<p>I say it without exaggeration: the future of human civilization depends on us. Now is a time when everyone in the West must do his duty. We are writing history here.</p>
<p>So, let us do our duty.</p>
<p>Let us stand with a happy heart and a strong spirit.</p>
<p>Let us go forth with courage and save freedom!</p>
<p>Thank you.</p>
<p>*</p>
<p><em>Don&#8217;t miss <strong>Geert Wilders</strong> discuss <strong>The West&#8217;s Battle for Freedom</strong> on <strong>The Glazov Gang</strong>:</em></p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><iframe src="//www.youtube.com/embed/69-nah7rIOc" width="460" height="315" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen="allowfullscreen"></iframe></p>
<p><strong>Freedom Center pamphlets now available on Kindle: </strong><a href="http://www.amazon.com/s/ref%3dnb_sb_noss?url=search-alias%3Ddigital-text&amp;field-keywords=david+horowitz&amp;rh=n:133140011%2ck:david+horowitz&amp;ajr=0#/ref=sr_st?keywords=david+horowitz&amp;qid=1316459840&amp;rh=n:133140011%2ck:david+horowitz&amp;sort=daterank"><strong>Click here</strong></a><strong>.   </strong></p>
<p><a href="http://horowitzfreedomcenter.us1.list-manage.com/subscribe?u=caa6f67f1482e6214d83be62d&amp;id=c761755bdf"><strong>Subscribe</strong></a><strong> to Frontpage&#8217;s TV show, <em>The Glazov Gang</em>, and </strong><a href="https://www.facebook.com/glazovgang"><strong>LIKE</strong></a><strong> it on </strong><a href="https://www.facebook.com/glazovgang"><strong>Facebook.</strong></a></p>
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		<title>Excerpts from David Horowitz&#8217;s &#8216;Take No Prisoners&#8217;</title>
		<link>http://www.frontpagemag.com/2014/frontpagemag-com/excerpts-from-david-horowitzs-take-no-prisoners-1/?utm_source=rss&#038;utm_medium=rss&#038;utm_campaign=excerpts-from-david-horowitzs-take-no-prisoners-1</link>
		<comments>http://www.frontpagemag.com/2014/frontpagemag-com/excerpts-from-david-horowitzs-take-no-prisoners-1/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Wed, 20 Aug 2014 04:57:28 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator><![CDATA[Frontpagemag.com]]></dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Daily Mailer]]></category>
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		<category><![CDATA[David Horowitz]]></category>
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		<category><![CDATA[Take No Prisoners]]></category>
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		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.frontpagemag.com/?p=239073</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Unveiling the battle plan for defeating the Left. ]]></description>
				<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p style="color: #323333;"><em><a href="http://cdn.frontpagemag.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/08/611d4mEhzuL._SL300_.jpg"><img class="alignleft  wp-image-239015" src="http://cdn.frontpagemag.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/08/611d4mEhzuL._SL300_.jpg" alt="611d4mEhzuL._SL300_" width="266" height="266" /></a>Editor&#8217;s note: Below are select excerpts from Freedom Center President David Horowitz&#8217;s new book, &#8220;Take No Prisoners: The Battle Plan for Defeating the Left.&#8221; </em></p>
<p style="color: #323333;"><em><strong><a href="http://www.amazon.com/Take-No-Prisoners-Battle-Defeating/dp/1621572560/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&amp;qid=1406631034&amp;sr=8-1&amp;keywords=take+no+prisoners">Order your copy of &#8220;Take No Prisoners.&#8221; </a> </strong></em></p>
<p style="color: #323333;"><strong>On the failure of the Republican Party to answer the Democrats’ accusations:</strong></p>
<blockquote>
<p style="color: #323333;">Republicans have lost the popular vote in five of the last six presidential elections, yet they seem unable to learn basic facts from their losses. Year after year and election after election, the Democrats’ campaign themes are monotonously the same. They scare voters by accusing Republicans of imaginary crimes. And always the same crimes: Republicans wage wars on women, on minorities, and on the vulnerable. They defend the rich and don’t care about the poor. Their policies inflict pain on working families to benefit the wealthy few. Year after year, the Democrats repeat these attacks, and year after year, Republicans fail to come up with effective responses. Worse, they don’t present voters with answers that neutralize the attacks, or take the battle to the enemy camp. (p. 1)</p>
</blockquote>
<p style="color: #323333;"><strong>On how the Republican Party can become effective again:</strong></p>
<blockquote>
<p style="color: #323333;">In losing the political war over Iraq, Republicans lost the national security narrative, which is why they are tongue-tied today when it comes to issues of war and peace. Call it the ‘Iraq War Syndrome.’… Three years later, when Obama delivered Iraq to Iran, no Republican accused him of betraying the Americans who gave their lives to make Iraq independent and free…The only way to reverse this dangerous trend is for Republicans to renew their role as guardians of the nation’s security, to educate the electorate about the threat posed by Islamic supremacists, and to challenge the Democrats’ seditious efforts to appease their malign agendas. It is also the Republicans’ only path to an electoral majority. (p. 37-38).</p>
</blockquote>
<p style="color: #323333;"><strong>On how Progressives view their strategy:</strong></p>
<blockquote>
<p style="color: #323333;">Progressives do not openly call for the creation of a totalitarian state, but that is the logic of their desire: to compel people to do what is good for them, down to the last Big Gulp. Lenin and the Bolsheviks did not set out to create a gulag state that would execute millions and crush human liberty… If you believe that the cause of human suffering is ‘society,’ and if you believe that by fundamentally transforming society you can change human nature and end human suffering and need, what means will you deny yourself, what opposition will you not suppress, to see that the transformation takes place? Because progressives see themselves as social redeemers and their goal as saving the world, they regard politics as a religious war… it is why the politics of personal destruction is their politics of choice and why they can commit character assassinations without regrets. Obama never apologized for accusing his opponent of killing a cancer patient during the election campaign, because saving humanity means never having to say you’re sorry. (p. 44)</p>
</blockquote>
<p><b>Freedom Center pamphlets now available on Kindle: </b><a href="http://www.amazon.com/s/ref%3dnb_sb_noss?url=search-alias%3Ddigital-text&amp;field-keywords=david+horowitz&amp;rh=n:133140011%2ck:david+horowitz&amp;ajr=0#/ref=sr_st?keywords=david+horowitz&amp;qid=1316459840&amp;rh=n:133140011%2ck:david+horowitz&amp;sort=daterank" target="_blank"><b>Click here</b></a><b>. </b></p>
<p><a style="line-height: 1.5em;" href="http://horowitzfreedomcenter.us1.list-manage.com/subscribe?u=caa6f67f1482e6214d83be62d&amp;id=c761755bdf" target="_blank"><b>Subscribe</b></a><strong style="line-height: 1.5em;"> to Frontpage&#8217;s TV show, <i>The Glazov Gang</i>, and </strong><a style="line-height: 1.5em;" href="https://www.facebook.com/glazovgang" target="_blank"><b>LIKE</b></a><strong style="line-height: 1.5em;"> it on </strong><a style="line-height: 1.5em;" href="https://www.facebook.com/glazovgang" target="_blank"><b>Facebook.</b></a></p>
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		<title>What to Expect in 2014</title>
		<link>http://www.frontpagemag.com/2014/ben-shapiro/what-to-expect-in-2014/?utm_source=rss&#038;utm_medium=rss&#038;utm_campaign=what-to-expect-in-2014</link>
		<comments>http://www.frontpagemag.com/2014/ben-shapiro/what-to-expect-in-2014/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Thu, 02 Jan 2014 05:25:56 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator><![CDATA[Ben Shapiro]]></dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Daily Mailer]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[FrontPage]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[battle]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Obama]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Obamacare]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Republicans]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Ted Cruz]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.frontpagemag.com/?p=214378</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Will conservatives make this year historic? ]]></description>
				<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><a href="http://cdn.frontpagemag.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/01/tedcruz.jpg"><img class="alignleft  wp-image-214382" alt="US Senate Armed Services Committee hearing on 'The Impact of Sequestration on the National Defense'" src="http://cdn.frontpagemag.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/01/tedcruz-450x300.jpg" width="315" height="210" /></a>2013 was a year of revelations, a year of possible turning points. For nearly two decades, since Ronald Reagan left office, America moved steadily in the direction of the left, both culturally and politically. When the Soviet Union fell, optimistic scholars believed the world had shifted inexorably in the direction of free markets and liberal democracy. Instead, the West gradually embraced bigger government and weaker social bonds, creating a fragmented society in which the only thing we all belong to, as President Barack Obama puts it, is the state.</p>
<p>All battles for the soul begin with culture. And while the battle against Obama&#8217;s unprecedented growth of government started with the tea party victories of 2010, the cultural battle against the left didn&#8217;t truly take until 2013. The seeds were planted for this cultural battle in earnest in 2012, when Obama and his Democratic Party allies put race, sexual orientation and abortion at the core of his reelection campaign. Americans were told by the media that Obama&#8217;s competence mattered less than the fact that half the country was mean, nasty, racist and homophobic. Todd Akin&#8217;s absurd comments on conception via rape were the issue, Americans were told, not the imminent takeover of the health care system; Obama&#8217;s sudden support for same-sex marriage was the issue, not his devastating regulatory state; George Zimmerman and Trayvon Martin were the issue, not the destruction of entire swaths of the United States via leftist governance.</p>
<p>And it worked. Conservative Americans, bludgeoned into silence on cultural battles, decided to focus entirely on Obama&#8217;s economic buffoonery. Unsurprisingly, it didn&#8217;t work; culture, as my friend Andrew Breitbart was fond of stating, is upstream of politics.</p>
<p>2013 marked a turning point. From Chick-fil-A to &#8220;Duck Dynasty,&#8221; conservative religious Americans found their footing: Whether you are for or against same-sex marriage, it is plainly un-American to override someone&#8217;s religious beliefs in the name of your politics. Conservative Americans seemed to realize, for the first time in a long time, that the battle over same-sex marriage came wrapped in a larger battle over religious freedom. And they fought back, and won.</p>
<p>Meanwhile, conservatives began to fight back against the left&#8217;s uncorroborated assertion of right-wing racism. While MSNBC focused laser-like on one Confederate flag at an anti-Obamacare rally, those same MSNBC hosts laughed at Mitt Romney&#8217;s adopted black grandchild (Melissa Harris-Perry), suggested that someone ought to &#8220;p***&#8221; and &#8220;s***&#8221; in Sarah Palin&#8217;s mouth (Martin Bashir), used anti-gay slurs (Alec Baldwin), shook down businesses over race (Al Sharpton) and labeled words like &#8220;black hole&#8221; and &#8220;Chicago&#8221; racist (Chris Matthews). Race, the right realized, was an obsession only for the left.</p>
<p>And in the aftermath of the left&#8217;s successful 2012 &#8220;war on women&#8221; meme, the right began to fight back, too. Beginning with the left&#8217;s attempted deification of amoral Texas state Sen. Wendy Davis, who filibustered for 11 hours on behalf of the murder of 21-week-old fetuses, the right refused to be cowed. Abortion is a real moral issue with real lives at stake, and no amount of leftist badgering could back conservative Americans off their attempts to protect the unborn.</p>
<p>The cultural battles gradually made their way into the political arena, too. Freed from the burden of the beige and blundering Romney campaign, conservatives stood up against the growth of government on moral, not merely practical, grounds. Obama&#8217;s signature program began to collapse the moment Americans awakened to the deep immorality of government-controlled medical care. Sen. Ted Cruz&#8217;s government shutdown strategy, right or wrong, highlighted conservative opposition to the state as cradle-to-grave caretaker. American distrust of government, for the right reasons, soared.</p>
<p>This does not mean the battles are over for conservatives. They&#8217;re just beginning. The media have already geared up toward nominating Hillary Clinton in 2016 (The New York Times whitewash of Benghazi this week was only the beginning). The DC-run Republican Party has a disheartening way of crippling its own conservative base in order to cut deals. But 2013 could go down as the year that conservatives moved beyond standing athwart history shouting &#8220;stop,&#8221; and began shoving in the opposite direction, which could make 2014 historic.</p>
<p><b>Freedom Center pamphlets now available on Kindle: </b><a href="http://www.amazon.com/s/ref%3dnb_sb_noss?url=search-alias%3Ddigital-text&amp;field-keywords=david+horowitz&amp;rh=n:133140011%2ck:david+horowitz&amp;ajr=0#/ref=sr_st?keywords=david+horowitz&amp;qid=1316459840&amp;rh=n:133140011%2ck:david+horowitz&amp;sort=daterank" target="_blank"><b>Click here</b></a><b>.   </b></p>
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		<title>Turkish Jihadists Attack Israel</title>
		<link>http://www.frontpagemag.com/2010/phyllis-chesler/turkey-attacks-israel/?utm_source=rss&#038;utm_medium=rss&#038;utm_campaign=turkey-attacks-israel</link>
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		<pubDate>Tue, 01 Jun 2010 04:10:45 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator><![CDATA[Phyllis Chesler]]></dc:creator>
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		<description><![CDATA[There were no freedom seekers aboard the anti-Israel “freedom flotilla.”]]></description>
				<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><a href="http://cdn.frontpagemag.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/05/weaponsmarmara1.jpg"><img class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-61675" title="weaponsmarmara1" src="http://cdn.frontpagemag.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/05/weaponsmarmara1.jpg" alt="" width="400" height="266" /></a></p>
<p><strong>Visit <a href="http://www.newsrealblog.com/">NewsReal</a></strong></p>
<p>One may describe Hitler as a “vegetarian” (which he apparently was) but he was still a genocidally exterminationist Jew-hater whose relentless racism and imperial ambitions led to the death of more than 60 million people.</p>
<p>One may also describe the Turks on board the “freedom flotilla” (Orwell himself could not have suggested a better logo) as “humanitarian activists.” But they are still pro-terrorist Turkish jihadists whose mission was to kill Jews, one way or the other. This was a mission which aimed to further demonize the already shamefully tarnished reputation of the Jewish state. This mission planned to force a violent confrontation; were Israeli soldiers to dare defend themselves and if Muslims are therefore martyred—even better public relations, even better for international lawfare against the Israel.</p>
<p>The so-called “humanitarians,” at least on one boat, came armed with metal bars and knives. They were fighters, not pacifists, and they called out traditional Islamic battle cries: “[Remember] Khaibar, Khaibar, oh Jews! The army of Muhammad will return!&#8221; According to <a href="http://palwatch.org/main.aspx?fi=157&amp;doc_id=2323">Palestinian Media Watch</a>:</p>
<p>“Khaibar is the name of the last Jewish village defeated by Muhammad&#8217;s army in 628. Many Jews were killed in that battle, which marked the end of Jewish presence in Arabia. There are Muslims who see that as a precursor for future wars against Jews. At gatherings and rallies of extremists, this chant is often heard as a threat to Jews to expect to be defeated and killed again by Muslims.”</p>
<p>“This <a title="http://www.youtube.com/verify_age?next_url=http%3A//www.youtube.com/watch%3Fv%3DgYjkLUcbJWo" href="http://www.youtube.com/verify_age?next_url=http%3A//www.youtube.com/watch%3Fv%3DgYjkLUcbJWo" target="_blank">video</a> shows Israeli soldiers being beaten with long and heavy metal rods on one of the Turkish boats.<span style="color: blue;"> </span>Jeff Dunetz (“<span style="color: navy;"><a title="http://yidwithlid.blogspot.com/" href="http://yidwithlid.blogspot.com/" target="_blank">YidWithLid</a></span>”) has a series of disturbing and informative videos in which we can see the planned nature and intensity of the Turkish-Palestinian violence against Israeli soldiers—an attack which involved stabbings, beatings, firebombing attempts, throwing soldiers overboard, etc.”</p>
<p>Earlier today, Israel&#8217;s Deputy Foreign Minister <a href="http://www.jpost.com/Israel/Article.aspx?id=176968">Danny Ayalon</a> said that the Turkish-led flotilla was: “An armada of hate and violence in support of Hamas’ terror organization and was a premeditated and outrageous provocation. The organizers are well known for their ties with global jihad, Al-Qaeda, and Hamas. They have a history of arms smuggling and deadly terror. On board the ship we found weapons prepared in advance and used against our forces. The organizers intent was violent, their method was violent, and the results were unfortunately violent. Israel regrets any loss of life and did everything to avoid this outcome.”</p>
<p>Indeed, the death count currently stands at an estimated nine (mainly Turkish) dead and 34 wounded. Predictably, the Arab, European, and liberal media are viewing Israel as the vicious aggressor; as committing “<a href="http://www.opednews.com/flyer/news_20100531_1.html">obscene</a>” acts. <a href="http://www.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/6B75044C-34A6-4672-88F5-DEC519326043.htm">Al-Jazeera’s website</a> calls what happened “a massacre.” They refer to the dead as “martyrs.”</p>
<p>Some say that the Israeli commandos could have used taser guns, rubber bullets, or simply sent far more soldiers onto each boat. But the Israelis initially boarded the boats armed with paintball guns. And one wonders: How many Israeli soldiers can fit on a boat? One Israeli now suggests that Israel should have surrounded all the boats, stopped them dead in their tracks, shot out their motors.</p>
<p>Said I: And then done what with them?</p>
<p>Said he: Negotiate.</p>
<p>Said I: Are you crazy? Negotiate with terrorists? And then feed them, house them, coddle them—terrorists who would not even agree to bring food and a note to Gilad Shalit? Incredibly, Israel has been doing just that, treating the wounded terrorists in Israeli <a href="http://www.jpost.com/Headlines/Article.aspx?id=176977">hospitals</a> and preparing to intern the remaining “activists” in <a href="http://www.haaretz.com/news/diplomacy-defense/israel-gaza-aid-convoy-can-unload-cargo-in-ashdod-for-inspection-1.292560">air-conditioned tents</a> in Ashdod.</p>
<p>Said he: There should have been better military planning.</p>
<p>I am sure that Monday morning quarterbacking is always more ingenious than what happens in the moment of battle. The problem is that, once again, the Israelis are being attacked for having defended themselves and the jihadists are still being seen as “martyrs.”</p>
<p>Why did Turkey attack Israel? How much Iranian support did they have? Turkey was once a haven for Jews in flight from the Christian Inquisition.</p>
<p>Once, long ago, Muslim Turkey gave asylum to <a href="http://jwa.org/encyclopedia/article/nasi-dona-gracia">Dona Gracia HaNasi</a>, the noble and generous leader of the Jews who had fled from Christian Spain and Portugal. Dona Gracia, a widow, was the wealthiest Jew of her time and, after living in Italy, found final refuge in Constantinople in 1552. Some wealthy Jews still live in Turkey today—yes, despite the <a href="http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,103157,00.html">bombing</a> of two Turkish synagogues in 2003. I wonder how safe they are and for how long.</p>
<p>As to women? Locked up in harems—but if they were lucky/most unlucky, perhaps in the Sultan’s own harem or seraglio. For example, in 1784, a French girl, <a href="http://ottoman-empire.suite101.com/article.cfm/aimee-dubucq-de-rivery-the-french-sultana">Aimee Dubucq de Rivery,</a> was kidnapped on the open seas by Algerian pirates who sold her into the Turkish Sultan’s harem. Aimee became known as “Naksh,” The Beautiful One, for her fair skin, blue eyes, and blonde hair. Improbably, incredibly, Aimee became the mother of the next Sultan, whose name was Sultan Mahmoud II, the Reformer. <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Wilder-Shores-Love-True-Life-Eberhardt/dp/0786710306">Some see</a> the influence of the Sultan Valideh (The Veiled Sultan) in Selim’s letter of friendship to King Louis XVI—and in other pro-European gestures and customs.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.dhimmi.org/English.html">Myths</a> die hard. People still believe that Jews, Christians and other infidels lived safe and happy lives in Muslims lands. This is a <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Legacy-Islamic-Antisemitism-Sacred-History/dp/1591025540/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&amp;s=books&amp;qid=1275323769&amp;sr=1-2">Big Lie</a>.</p>
<p>As a matter of historical fact, the Turks have a long and bloody history of cruelty and genocide. They colonized the entire Middle East, forced conversions or murdered those who resisted. Islamic gender and religious apartheid flourished.</p>
<p>To this day, the Turks continue to deny the Armenian genocide. And, the days of Kemal Ataturk are long gone. In the early 1920s, Ataturk imposed a secular democracy upon the Islamists and unveiled the women.  Now, the Islamists are winning again: Women are veiling, honor killings are on the rise (both in Turkey and among Turks in Europe). Recently, a father and grandfather heartlessly <a href="http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/turkey/7161701/Teenage-girl-buried-alive-in-Turkey-for-talking-to-boys.html">buried</a> a 16-year-old daughter and granddaughter alive for the “crime” of presumably talking to boys. I have also written about a great Turkish feminist hero, my friend <a href="http://pajamasmedia.com/phyllischesler/2009/11/30/“i-hope-the-west-does-not-give-in”-an-interview-with-seyran-ates/">Seyran Ates</a>, here; Ates was shot for her work among Turkish immigrant girls and women in Berlin. Her 15-year-old client died. Ates, a lawyer, was left for dead—but miraculously survived.</p>
<p>And we nearly admitted Turkey into the European Union. One wonders if they would have intensified their anti-Israel Islamism had they been accepted as “Europeans,” or whether their candidacy was merely a calculated move in tandem with pre-existing pro-Iranian plans. For years, Turkey has <a href="http://www.haaretz.com/news/turkey-pm-if-you-don-t-want-iran-to-have-nukes-give-yours-up-1.5055">opposed</a> sanctioning Iran for its nuclear program. Turkey was among the first to <a href="http://www.euronews.net/2009/10/27/spotlight-on-iran-turkey-relations/">congratulate Ahmadinejad</a> on his re-election victory. During 2009, Turkey improved its economic ties to Iran.</p>
<p>I am waiting for the United Nations and for the United States to condemn this unprovoked attack on a sovereign nation.</p>
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		<title>They Fought Like Tigers</title>
		<link>http://www.frontpagemag.com/2010/humberto-fontova/they-fought-like-tigers/?utm_source=rss&#038;utm_medium=rss&#038;utm_campaign=they-fought-like-tigers</link>
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		<pubDate>Thu, 15 Apr 2010 04:00:14 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator><![CDATA[Humberto Fontova]]></dc:creator>
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		<description><![CDATA[Recounting the heroism of Cuba's fallen and forgotten freedom-fighters.]]></description>
				<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><a href="http://cdn.frontpagemag.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/04/Bay_of_pigs.jpg"><img class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-58186" title="Bay_of_pigs" src="http://cdn.frontpagemag.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/04/Bay_of_pigs.jpg" alt="" width="375" height="418" /></a></p>
<p>&#8220;They fought like tigers,&#8221; writes the CIA officer who helped train the Cubans who splashed ashore at the Bay of Pigs 49 years ago this week. &#8220;But their fight was doomed before the first man hit the beach.&#8221;</p>
<p>That CIA man, Grayston Lynch, knows something about fighting – and about long odds. He carries scars from Omaha Beach, The Battle of the Bulge and Korea&#8217;s Heartbreak Ridge. But in those battles, Lynch and his band of brothers could count on the support of their own chief executive. At the Bay of Pigs, Grayston Lynch (an American) and his band of brothers (Cubans) learned — first in speechless shock and finally in burning rage — that their most powerful enemies were not Castro&#8217;s Soviet-armed soldiers massing in Santa Clara, Cuba, but the Ivy League&#8217;s best and brightest dithering in Washington.</p>
<p>Grayston Lynch put it on the line for the U.S. Constitution unlike many living today. I&#8217;d say he&#8217;s earned the right to indulge in a little &#8220;freedom of speech.&#8221;</p>
<p>So when he wrote, &#8220;Never have I been so ashamed of my country&#8221; about the bloody and shameful events 49 years ago this month at the <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Decision-Disaster-Betrayal-Bay-Pigs/dp/1574882376">Bay of Pigs</a>, I&#8217;d say we owe him a respectful audience.</p>
<p>In his own words, Lynch helped train, &#8220;brave boys, most of whom had never before fired a shot in anger&#8221; — college students, farmers, doctors, common laborers, whites, blacks, mulattoes. The <em>Brigada</em> included men from every social strata and race in Cuba &#8212; from sugar cane planters to sugar cane cutters, from aristocrats to their chauffeurs. But mostly, this included the folks in between as befits a nation with a larger middle class than most of Europe.</p>
<p>They were known as <em>La Brigada 2506</em>. An almost precise cross-section of Cuban society of the time. Short on battle experience, yes, but bursting with what Bonaparte and George Patton valued most in a soldier — morale. No navel-gazing about &#8220;why they hate us.&#8221; They&#8217;d seen the face of Castro/communism point-blank. And that&#8217;s all it takes.</p>
<p>They set their jaws and resolved to smash the murderous barbarism that was ravaging their homeland.  They went at it with a vengeance. These &#8220;brave boys&#8221; fought till the last round, without food or water, and inflicted losses of almost 30-to-1 against their Soviet-led and arm-lavished enemy.</p>
<p>Castro defectors, some the very doctors who attended the casualties, say the invading freedom-fighters inflicted over 3,500 casualties on their Stalinist enemy. Castro and Che were jittery for a while, urging caution in the counterattack. From the lethal fury of the attack and the horrendous casualties their troops and militia were taking, the Stalinist leaders assumed they faced at least &#8220;20,000 invading mercenaries,&#8221; as they called them.</p>
<p>Yet, it was a band of mostly civilian volunteers they outnumbered 20-to-1, led by the heroic Erneido Oliva. (A black Cuban, by the way, <a href="http://www.americanthinker.com/2009/04/congressional_black_caucus_smi.html">Congressional Black Caucus</a>.) A high percentage of these men had wives and children. But to hear Castro&#8217;s echo chamber (the mainstream and academia) Fidel was the plucky David and the invaders the bumbling Goliath!</p>
<p>The invaders themselves suffered 100 dead. Four were American pilot &#8220;advisers&#8221; who defied direct orders to abandon the men they&#8217;d trained and befriended. &#8220;Nuts!&#8221; they barked — but at their own commander in chief. These U.S. volunteers — Pete Ray, Riley Shamburger, Leo Barker, and Wade Grey — suited up, gunned the engines, and joined the fight. These were Southern boys, not pampered Ivy Leaguers, so there was no navel-gazing. They had archaic notions of right and wrong, of honor and loyalty, of whom America&#8217;s enemies really are. Their Cuban brothers were being slaughtered on that heroic beachhead. Knowing their lumbering B-26s were sitting ducks for Castro&#8217;s unmolested jets and Sea Furies, all four Alabama air guard volunteers flew over the doomed beachhead to lend support to their betrayed brothers in arms.</p>
<p>All four Americans were shot down. All four have their names in a place of honor next to their Cuban comrades on The Bay of Pigs Memorial, plus streets named after them in Miami&#8217;s Little Havana and their crosses at Miami&#8217;s Cuban Memorial cemetery.</p>
<p>When Doug MacArthur waded ashore on Leyte, he grabbed a radio: &#8220;People of the Philippines: I have returned. By the grace of Almighty God our forces stand again on Philippine soil — soil consecrated in the blood of our two peoples.&#8221;</p>
<p>Cuban soil was similarly consecrated.</p>
<p>To quote author Haynes Johnson, &#8220;The Bay of Pigs was a battle where heroes were made.&#8221; And how! We call them &#8220;men,&#8221; but Brigadista Felipe Rondon was 16 years old when he grabbed his 57 mm cannon and ran to face one of Castro&#8217;s Stalin tanks point blank. At 10 yards he fired at the clanking, lumbering beast and it exploded, but the momentum kept it going and it rolled over little Felipe. Gilberto Hernandez was 17 when a round from a Czech burp gun put out his eye. Castro&#8217;s troops were swarming in but he held his ground, firing furiously with his recoilless rifle for another hour, until the Reds finally surrounded him and killed him with a shower of grenades.</p>
<p>By then the invaders sensed they&#8217;d been abandoned. Ammo was almost gone. Two days shooting and reloading without sleep, food, or water was taking its toll. Many were hallucinating. That&#8217;s when Castro opened up four batteries&#8217; worth 122 mm Soviet howitzers. They pounded 2,000 rounds into the invaders&#8217; ranks over a four-hour period. &#8220;It sounded like the end of the world,&#8221; one said later.</p>
<p>&#8220;Rommel&#8217;s crack Afrika Corps broke and ran under a similar bombardment,&#8221; wrote Haynes Johnson. By now the invaders were dazed and delirious with fatigue, thirst and hunger; too deafened by the bombardment to even hear orders. So their commander had to scream.</p>
<p>&#8220;No retreat, <em>Carajo</em>!&#8221; Oliva stood and bellowed to his dazed and horribly outnumbered men. &#8220;We stand and fight!&#8221; And so they did, and wrote as glorious a chapter in military history and the annals of freedom as any you&#8217;d care to read.</p>
<p>Right after the deadly shower of Soviet shells, more Stalin tanks rumbled up. Another boy named Barberito rushed up to the first one and blasted it repeatedly with his recoil-less rifle. It barely dented it, but so rattled the occupants that they opened the hatch and surrendered. In fact, they insisted on shaking hands with their pubescent captor who, an hour later, was felled by a machine-gun burst to his valiant little heart.</p>
<p>On another front, Lynch, from his command post offshore, was talking with Cmdr. Pepe San Roman. Lynch had just learned how the Knights of Camelot (for dread of name-calling by the Latin-American “Street” as “yankee-bullies!”) had canceled the vital air strikes to knock out Castro’s Air-force, and figured the men were doomed. &#8220;If things are really rough,&#8221; he told Pepe, &#8220;we can come in and evacuate you.&#8221;</p>
<p>&#8220;We will not be evacuated!&#8221; Pepe barked back. &#8220;We came here to fight! This ends here!&#8221; The communists had almost 50,000 men around the beachhead now. But Oliva had one tank manned by Jorge Alvarez, and two rounds. Jorge aimed — Blam! Reloaded — Blam! — and quickly knocked out two of Castro&#8217;s Stalins. But more Stalins and T-34&#8242;s kept coming. So Alvarez — outgunned, outnumbered and out of ammo — finally had no choice: He gunned his tank to a horrendous clattering whine and charged! He rammed into another Stalin tank. Its driver was stunned, frantic. He couldn&#8217;t get a half-second to aim his gun. So Alvarez rammed him again. And again. And again, finally splitting the Stalin&#8217;s barrel and forcing its surrender.</p>
<p>The Brigada’s spent ammo inevitably forced a retreat. Castro’s jets were roaming overhead at will. They long ago had sunk the ammo ships; now they concentrated on strafing the helpless men.</p>
<p>&#8220;Can’t continue &#8230;&#8221; Lynch’s radio crackled – it was San Roman again. &#8220;Have nothing left to fight with &#8230; destroying my equipment &#8230;&#8221; The radio went dead.</p>
<p>&#8220;Tears flooded my eyes,&#8221; wrote Grayston Lynch. &#8220;For the first time in my 37 years I was ashamed of my country.&#8221;</p>
<p>The battle was over in three days, but the heroism was not.</p>
<p>Now came almost two years in Castro&#8217;s dungeons for the captured Brigada, complete with the physical and psychological torture that always comes with communist incarceration. On a visit to Miami during his presidential campaign, John McCain learned that he had shared torturers with his Cuban-American freedom-fighter hosts (Castro had sent several of his regime&#8217;s most promising sadists to North Vietnamese prison camps to instruct the Vietnamese reds in finer points of their profession.)</p>
<p>During almost two years in Castro&#8217;s dungeons, Oliva and his men lived under a daily death sentence.  Escaping that sentence would have been easy: simply sign the little paper confessing they were “mercenaries of the Yankee imperialists” or go on camera and on record denouncing the U.S. Given these freedom-fighters betrayal, you might think the Castroites had a cakewalk here.</p>
<p>Hah! Neither Oliva nor any of his men signed the document. The freedom-fighters stood tall, proud, defiant, and solidly with their commander, even sparring with Castro himself during their televised Stalinist show trials. &#8220;We will die with dignity!&#8221; snapped Oliva at the furious Castroites again, and again, and again. To a Castroite, such an attitude not only enrages but also baffles.</p>
<p>&#8220;Wimps,” sneers Michael Moore in his book “Downsize This,” referring to Bay of Pigs veterans  “really just a bunch of wimps. That&#8217;s right, wimps&#8211; and crybabies too….ex-Cubans with a yellow stripe down their backs.&#8221; Knowing that anti-yankee confessions would save them from Che Guevara’s firing squads and torture chambers, these freedom-fighters refused any association with the type of slogans Michael Moore shouts weekly for free publicity.</p>
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		<title>Recapturing the University: The Hybrid Alternative</title>
		<link>http://www.frontpagemag.com/2010/sara-dogan/recapturing-the-university-the-hybrid-alternative/?utm_source=rss&#038;utm_medium=rss&#038;utm_campaign=recapturing-the-university-the-hybrid-alternative</link>
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		<pubDate>Mon, 15 Mar 2010 16:13:37 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator><![CDATA[Sara Dogan]]></dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Student Center]]></category>
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		<category><![CDATA[disadvantage]]></category>
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<p>In the contemporary battle within the social sciences between free market think tanks and liberal- dominated universities, the former labor under a huge disadvantage: they lack students.</p>
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				<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>In the contemporary battle within the social sciences between free market think tanks and liberal- dominated universities, the former labor under a huge disadvantage: they lack students.</p>
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		<title>Collaborators in the War against the Jews: Judith Butler</title>
		<link>http://www.frontpagemag.com/2010/steven-plaut/collaborators-in-the-war-against-the-jews-judith-butler/?utm_source=rss&#038;utm_medium=rss&#038;utm_campaign=collaborators-in-the-war-against-the-jews-judith-butler</link>
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		<pubDate>Tue, 09 Mar 2010 05:55:44 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator><![CDATA[Steven Plaut]]></dc:creator>
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		<description><![CDATA[Fanning the flames of anti-Semitism at Berkeley. ]]></description>
				<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><a href="http://cdn.frontpagemag.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/03/butler.jpg"><img class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-53543" title="butler" src="http://cdn.frontpagemag.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/03/butler.jpg" alt="" width="450" height="342" /></a></p>
<p><a href="http://rhetoric.berkeley.edu/faculty_bios/judith_butler.html">Professor Judith Butler</a> from Berkeley’s Department of Rhetoric and Comparative Literature is not just your ordinary deconstructionist feminist anti-Semite.  A self-proclaimed leading scholar in the pseudo-discipline of “Queer Studies,” she is also one of the leading academic defenders of anti-Semitism, which she insists is not anti-Semitic at all.  She has devoted much of her academic career to the struggle to see Israel eliminated.  While often posturing as a free speech absolutist, she is also absolutely opposed to Israelis having any academic freedom and is a <a href="http://www.badil.org/en/events-calendar/icalrepeat.detail/2010/02/08/492/-/NDRhNjIwY2RjMDMzMzc4NzQxNmM5MWU5MGE3N2MyMzk=">leader in the attempt to impose a world boycott</a> against Israeli universities.  Naturally, she has never come out in favor of an academic boycott of Syria, Libya, Iran, Cuba, or the Hamas. Hamas and Hezbollah may seek the extermination of every Jew on the planet and not just of Israel, but Butler still likes to wave her “Jewish roots” when she serves as an apologist for them.</p>
<p>Butler is perhaps best remembered as one of the most strident attackers against Lawrence Summers, the ex-President of Harvard. She was horrified when Summers proclaimed: “Profoundly anti-Israel views are increasingly finding support in progressive intellectual communities. Serious and thoughtful people are advocating and taking actions that are anti-Semitic in their effect if not their intent (September  17, 2002).”   Butler venomously denounced Summers for telling the truth, arguing that telling the truth <a href="http://www.lrb.co.uk/v25/n16/judith-butler/no-its-not-anti-semitic">threatens academic freedom</a>: “Summers has struck a blow against academic freedom, in effect, if not in intent.”</p>
<p>Edward Alexander, who is also a professor of comparative literature, <a href="http://www.campus-watch.org/article/id/1111">explains that</a> Butler’s hysterical attacks on Summers stemmed from something more than her girlish enthusiasm:</p>
<blockquote><p>“Butler had herself signed the divestment (against Israel) petition at its place of origin, Berkeley, where it had circulated in February 2001.  She therefore found Summers&#8217; remarks not only wrong but personally ‘hurtful’ since they implicated Judith Butler herself in the newly resurgent campus anti-Semitism.  Butler could hardly have failed to notice that the Berkeley divestment petition had supplied the impetus and inspiration for anti-Israel mob violence on her own campus on 24 April 2001, a few weeks after it had been circulated, and for more explicitly anti-Jewish mobs at San Francisco State University in May of the following year.”</p></blockquote>
<p>Summers insists that people who oppose Israel’s very existence are anti-Semitic.  The fact that a second Jewish Holocaust would result from Israel’s annihilation does not seem to matter to his attackers like Butler.  <a href="http://www.lrb.co.uk/v25/n16/judith-butler/no-its-not-anti-semitic">She writes</a>, “A challenge to the right of Israel to exist can be construed as a challenge to the existence of the Jewish people only if one believes that Israel alone keeps the Jewish people alive or that all Jews invest their sense of perpetuity in the state of Israel in its current or traditional forms.”   The fact that the very people calling for Israel to be annihilated are <em>not<strong> </strong></em>calling for the elimination of any other country, not even a single one of the 22 fascist Arab states, cannot possibly have anything to do with anti-Semitism, she insists.</p>
<p>Butler’s proof that anti-Israel radicals are not really anti-Semites? It is that she manages to find some anti-Israel extremists among Israelis, the Israeli equivalents to Taliban John, Lord Haw-Haw, and Noam Chomsky.  She writes, “Identifying Israel with Jewry obscures the existence of the small but important post-Zionist movement in Israel, including the philosophers Adi Ophir and Anat Biletzki, the sociologist Uri Ram, the professor of theatre Avraham Oz and the poet Yitzhak Laor. Are we to say that Israelis who are critical of Israeli policy are self-hating Jews, or insensitive to the ways in which criticism may fan the flames of anti-Semitism?”  The proper answer to her question is often: yes.</p>
<p>Butler recently <a href="http://www.ynet.co.il/articles/0,7340,L-3848550,00.html">showed up in the</a> Middle East, to strut her support for the <em>intifada</em>.   As a militant feminist, however, she was on a bizarre mission.  In February, 2010, she spent her time in the West Bank shilling for the very same Palestinian Islamic terrorist groups who make a point out of torturing and murdering homosexuals and who insist that the place of women in Muslim society is somewhere out back and out of sight, barefoot and scarved.   Like so many apologists for Islamofascism, the only “oppression” of Palestinian women Butler could find was their supposed mistreatment by the Zionist “occupiers.” You know, the same ones who have a woman Chief Justice in their Supreme Court, who have more women doctors than men, and who have elected a woman as Prime Minister.  Butler denounced Israel at length for its “mistreatment” of Arab women, and never mind that they are treated at least a thousand times better by Israel than they are inside any Arab regime.  Meanwhile, Islamic religious figures in Egypt have been proclaiming that Muslims have the natural right to rape all Jewish women. Butler has yet to issue a response to that.</p>
<p>To remove all doubt, Butler made it clear that she objects to Israel’s presence <em>not only</em> in the West Bank, where she was doing her Terrorism Grand Tour.  She also wants Israel removed from within Israel’s pre-1967 borders.  Butler has long supported a worldwide boycott of Israel, and not simply because Israel “occupies” the West Bank.  She has made it clear that she demands that Israel allow millions of Arabs claiming to be Palestinian “refugees” to flood into Israel and convert it into yet another Palestinian Arab state.  She wants this even <em>after</em> the creation of some Palestinian state.</p>
<p>While in the West Bank, Butler went to visit a “theater” in the terrorist stronghold of Jenin.  Theatrics is largely what Jenin is all about.  During Israel’s battle against terrorists there in April of 2002, the Bash-Israel Left invented fictional tales about Israel carrying out a “massacre,” some even calling it a “genocide.” As it turned out, after days of Jenin street-to-street gun battles, launched by the Palestinians intentionally in built-up urban areas, 23 Israeli soldiers were killed along with a few dozen terrorists.  Less than 20 Palestinian civilians died in the intense urban firefight, largely because Israel foreswore reducing the town to rubble using artillery to spare civilian collateral damage.  It sacrificed the lives of its own soldiers for that reason. And this was called “genocide.” A propaganda film about the battle called “Jenin, Jenin” was later produced by Israeli Arab pro-terror director Mohammed Bakri, who himself publicly admitted that his film was a tissue of lies.  Bakri is now being sued by some Israeli soldiers for libel.</p>
<p>Butler <a href="http://www.ynet.co.il/articles/0,7340,L-3848550,00.html">explained to her terrorist hosts</a> that she opposes the existence of a Jewish state even alongside some future Palestinian Arab state.  Instead, she favors what she calls a bi-national state, something along the lines of Rwanda.   She claims to be some sort of <a href="http://newsgrist.typepad.com/underbelly/2007/05/judith_butler_o.html">authority on Hannah Arendt</a> and promotes her anti-Israel “bi-nationalism” <a href="http://www.egs.edu/faculty/judith-butler/quotes">by obsessively citing</a> Arendt’s ancient writings on bi-nationalism (at Berkeley Butler is officially the “Hannah Arendt Professor”).  Of course, no one knows just what Arendt would have to say about the Arab-Israeli conflict in the twenty-first century.  But one suspects that anyone like Arendt who spent so much time studying the totalitarian mindset would retch at the willingness of people like Butler to vouch and shill for Palestinian violence.</p>
<p><a href="http://haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1152017.html">Butler writes</a>: “And if we have a bi-national state, it&#8217;s expressing two nations. Only when bi-nationalism deconstructs the idea of a nation can we hope to think about what a state, what a polity might look like that would actually extend equality.” Come to think of it, the genocidal consequences of bi-nationalism in Rwanda are pretty close to what Butler seems to have in mind for the Israeli Jews. Among the terrorists who hosted her in Jenin was <a href="http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=216735">Zakaria Zabeidi</a>, a head of the genocidal “Al Aqsa” Brigades.  Assaf Wohl, a columnist in Israel’s leading daily <em>Yediot Ahronot</em>, <a href="http://www.ynet.co.il/articles/0,7340,L-3848550,00.html">dismissed Butler as</a> a Jewish anti-Semite.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.campus-watch.org/article/id/1111">According to Professor Edward Alexander</a>,</p>
<blockquote><p>“Prior to the autumn of 2003, this University of California professor of rhetoric and comparative literature was, like many members of Berkeley&#8217;s ‘progressive’ Jewish community with which she habitually identifies herself, somebody who defined her ‘Jewishness’ (not exactly Judaism) in opposition to the State of Israel. She was mainly a signer of petitions harshly critical of the Jewish state, full of mean spite towards its alleged ‘apartheid’ and ‘bantustan’ practices, oily sycophancy towards such Palestinian figures as Sari Nusseibeh, and a habit of covering over the brutality of Arab terror with the soft snow of Latinized euphemisms. She was one of the 3700 American Jews opposed to ‘occupation’ (Israeli, not Syrian or Chinese or any other) who signed an ‘Open Letter’ urging the American government to cut financial aid to Israel; later she expressed misgiving about signing that particular petition&#8211;it ‘was not nearly strong enough&#8230;it did not call for the end of Zionism.’&#8221;</p></blockquote>
<p>Butler, whose PhD is actually in philosophy, is a walking illustration of the very worst things wrong with the humanities.  She is a leading American proponent of “Queer Theory” (which is what <em>she </em>calls it.)  You will never discover in “Queer Theory” any scientific hypotheses about what produces homosexuality.  Instead, it serves as the umbrella term for politicized militant homosexuals seeking the annihilation of America, Israel, and capitalism.  Whether such people seriously think that homosexuals are treated better in non-capitalist regimes and in the Islamic sections of the Third World is doubtful.</p>
<p>Butler’s favorite prefix is “post.”  She uses it more often than the Cliff-the-Mailman character on “Cheers.”  She proudly describes herself a “Post-Zionist,” by which she means she is anti-Zionist.  <a href="mail:jb_crittheory@berkeley.edu">Butler</a> likes to describe herself as a “poststructuralist,” and sometimes also <a href="http://www.sunypress.edu/p-4041-post-marxist-theory.aspx">as a “Post-Marxist</a>,” which &#8211; as far as we can tell &#8211; seems to mean a Marxist.  (The Marxist <em>New Left Review</em> is one of Butler’s favorite venues.)   She claims to reject “dialectics” as her political theology because it is too “phallogocentric,” and that <a href="http://psc.sagepub.com/cgi/content/abstract/31/3/343">has upset some of the members</a> of the academic Comintern.</p>
<p>Like so many members of the tenured Left &#8211; her favorite methodology of analysis is <a href="http://www.egs.edu/faculty/judith-butler/quotes">the silly polysyllable</a>.  Her writings <a href="http://www.egs.edu/faculty/judith-butler/quotes">ooze “Deconstructionist” jive</a> and are exercises in the worst forms of pseudo-academic NewSpeak.  And <em>that</em> is when she is sticking to her actual “discipline,” not pontificating about the Middle East, about which she has no expertise or training at all.  “Deconstruction” is the nonsensical infantile &#8220;philosophy&#8221; that argues that words have no meaning, there are no facts nor truth, and the only thing we can <em>really </em>be absolutely certain about are that the US and capitalism and Israel are evil and must be eliminated.  Language is the ultimate form of tyranny and source of control over us oppressed folks by those evil elites.  There are no false narratives, just different subjectivities.  Deconstructionism has become something of a pseudo-intellectual orthodoxy among certain of our academic colleagues, especially those in the academic professions that never quite found out where&#8217;s the beef.</p>
<p>Butler’s “theories” about feminism include her argument that sexual relations are “performative,” and are based on “regulatory discourse.”   The “system” attempts to impose “constructions of binary asymmetric gender.”   She has even devoted time to <a href="http://www.egs.edu/faculty/judith-butler/quotes">celebrating drag queens</a>: “There is no original or primary gender a drag imitates, but gender is a kind of imitation for which there is no original.”  A fuller collection of some of her bizarre pronouncements can be read <a href="http://www.egs.edu/faculty/judith-butler/quotes">here</a>.   She insists, “Masculine and feminine roles are not biologically fixed but socially constructed,” which seems to prove that she never took any biology courses back at Yale.</p>
<p>A typical Butler bloviation is this:</p>
<blockquote><p>“Performativity cannot be understood outside of a process of iterability, a regularized and constrained repetition of norms. And this repetition is not performed <em>by</em> a subject; this repetition is what enables a subject and constitutes the temporal condition for the subject. This iterability implies that &#8216;performance&#8217; is not a singular &#8216;act&#8217; or event, but a ritualized production, a ritual reiterated under and through constraint, under and through the force of prohibition and taboo, with the threat of ostracism and even death controlling and compelling the shape of the production, but not, I will insist, determining it fully in advance.” (From Butler, Judith 1993; <em>Bodies That Matter: On the Discursive Limits of &#8220;Sex&#8221;</em>. New York: Routledge. pp. 95. )</p></blockquote>
<p>It is almost impossible to read a sentence by Butler without reacting with a loud “Huh?”  So much of it sounds like a parody of an academic being concocted by “The Onion” or “National Lampoon.” In 1998 she <a href="http://www.denisdutton.com/bad_writing.htm">won first-prize in the Bad Writing</a> Contest sponsored by the academic journal <em>Philosophy and Literature</em>.  She won for this sentence:</p>
<blockquote><p>“The move from a structuralist account in which capital is understood to structure social relations in relatively homologous ways to a view of hegemony in which power relations are subject to repetition, convergence, and rearticulation brought the question of temporality into the thinking of structure, and marked a shift from a form of Althusserian theory that takes structural totalities as theoretical objects to one in which the insights into the contingent possibility of structure inaugurate a renewed conception of hegemony as bound up with the contingent<strong> </strong>sites and strategies of the rearticulation of power.”</p></blockquote>
<p>So much of what Butler writes is so mindless and filled with so many grammatical flaws that one wonders how her text survives a word processing program. <a href="http://www.allacademic.com/meta/p_mla_apa_research_citation/1/1/3/6/3/p113638_index.html">Butler’s take on the 9-11</a> attacks on America was that “the violent acts of 9/11 is (sic) exacerbated by the inability of Americans to recognize the precariousness of non-American (particularly Muslim) lives. They are always already dead, and therefore cannot be killed.” Huh?  She insists that <a href="http://ariel.synergiesprairies.ca/ariel/index.php/ariel/article/viewFile/2627/2577">the West is guilty</a> of this: “These excluded are brutally subjected to the “violence of derealization.” Huh?  She “claims that the War on Terror has provided a climate where the sexual freedoms she and others fought for are now misused to symbolize (sic) the shining, gleaming modernity of the West. The backwardness and inferiority of ‘others’ is counterposed (sic) and underscored against this.” Huh?</p>
<p>In <a href="http://haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1152017.html">an interview she explains</a> how her feminism differs from that of some of the others, like Catharine MacKinnon or Andrea Dworkin: “I&#8217;m not always calling into question who&#8217;s a man and who&#8217;s not, and am I a man? Maybe I&#8217;m a man [laughs].” She is not one of those folks in favor of homosexual marriage, by the way.   In fact she is <a href="http://www.counterpunch.org/cockburn03202004.html">opposed to marriage</a>: &#8220;It&#8217;s very hard to speak freely right now, but many gay people are uncomfortable with all this, because they feel their sense of an alternative movement is dying. Sexual politics was supposed to be about finding alternatives to marriage.&#8221;</p>
<p>Butler was one of the <a href="http://www.campus-watch.org/article/id/255">noisiest people denouncing</a> the <a href="../Local%20Settings/Temporary%20Internet%20Files/Content.IE5/2JSJABKX/campus-watch.org">Campus-Watch</a> website for daring to criticize anti-Israel radical Middle East Studies faculty members.  Naturally, Butler thinks that critics of anti-Israel radicals are not entitled to freedom of speech and <a href="http://www.campus-watch.org/article/id/370">that their criticism is “McCarthyism</a>.”</p>
<p>While she likes to beat on her drum about supposedly growing up in a Jewish home, there is no evidence that she knows the slightest thing about Judaism.  She claims her “Jewish values” are what drive her to embrace Palestinian anti-Semites and barbarians.   <a href="http://haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1152017.html">Here she sums up her own</a> knowledge of Judaism: “As a Jew, I was taught that it was ethically imperative to speak up and to speak out against arbitrary state violence.”  There is no such Jewish ethical imperative.  She clarifies: “There were those who would and could speak out against state racism and state violence, and it was imperative that we be able to speak out. Not just for Jews, but for any number of people.”  Needless to say, the only “state violence” she feels obliged to denounce is that supposedly practiced by Israel when it defends its civilians.  She is not exactly outspoken when it comes to the state violence practiced by Iran or Syria.</p>
<p>As part of Butler’s campaign on behalf of Palestinian terrorism, she likes to wave about the fact that she herself grew up as a “Reform” Jew.  There are very few things wrong with the world that she does not attribute to the unforgivable desire by Jews for self-determination.  Her attitude towards the Jewish homeland was summed up <a href="http://www.egs.edu/faculty/judith-butler/quotes">by her thus</a>: “The argument that all Jews have a heartfelt investment in the state of Israel is untrue. Some have a heartfelt investment in corned beef sandwiches.”</p>
<p>When it comes to academic streetwalking on behalf of anti-Semitism and Palestinian violence, that old adage is true:  the Butler did it.</p>
<p><strong>Articles in Frontpage’s Collaborators series:</strong><a href="http://frontpagemag.com/2010/02/01/collaborators-in-the-war-against-the-jews-jennifer-loewenstein/"></a></p>
<p><strong><a href="http://frontpagemag.com/2010/02/01/collaborators-in-the-war-against-the-jews-jennifer-loewenstein/">Jennifer Loewenstein</a></strong></p>
<p><strong><a href="../2010/01/05/collaborators-in-the-war-against-the-jews-ian-lustick-by-steven-plaut/">Ian Lustick</a><br />
</strong></p>
<p><strong><a href="../2010/02/01/2010/01/05/2009/11/18/collaborators-in-the-war-against-the-jews-sara-roy/">Sarah Roy</a><br />
</strong></p>
<p><strong><a href="../2010/02/01/2010/01/05/2009/12/04/2009/10/21/collaborators-in-the-campus-war-against-israel-and-the-jews-howard-zinn/">Howard Zinn</a><br />
</strong></p>
<p><strong><a href="../2010/02/01/2010/01/05/2009/12/04/2009/11/18/2009/10/16/collaborators-in-the-campus-war-against-israel-and-the-jews-joel-beinin-%E2%80%93-by-steven-plaut/">Joel Beinin</a><br />
</strong></p>
<p><strong><a href="../2010/02/01/2010/01/05/2009/12/04/2009/11/18/2009/10/14/collaborators-in-the-campus-war-against-israel-and-the-jews-mark-levine-%E2%80%93-by-steven-plaut/">Mark LeVine</a><br />
</strong></p>
<p><strong><a href="../2010/02/01/2010/01/05/2009/12/04/2009/11/18/2009/10/13/collaborators-in-the-campus-war-against-israel-and-the-jews-neve-gordon-by-john-perazzo/">Neve Gordon</a><br />
</strong></p>
<p><strong><a href="http://97.74.65.51/readArticle.aspx?ARTID=36406">Norman Finkelstein</a></strong></p>
<p><strong><a href="http://97.74.65.51/readArticle.aspx?ARTID=36238">Tony Judt</a></strong></p>
<p><strong><a href="http://97.74.65.51/readArticle.aspx?ARTID=36178">Michael Lerner</a></strong></p>
<p><strong><a href="http://97.74.65.51/readArticle.aspx?ARTID=36028"><strong>Marc H. Ellis</strong></a></strong></p>
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		<title>High Noon in Marjah</title>
		<link>http://www.frontpagemag.com/2010/ryan-mauro/high-noon-in-marjah/?utm_source=rss&#038;utm_medium=rss&#038;utm_campaign=high-noon-in-marjah</link>
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		<pubDate>Mon, 01 Mar 2010 05:18:51 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator><![CDATA[Ryan Mauro]]></dc:creator>
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		<description><![CDATA[The battle will be won in Pakistan.]]></description>
				<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><a href="http://cdn.frontpagemag.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/02/us.jpg"><img class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-52467" title="us" src="http://cdn.frontpagemag.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/02/us.jpg" alt="" width="450" height="241" /></a></p>
<p>The aggressive new strategy in Afghanistan embraced by the Obama Administration, modeled on the successful “surge” in Iraq, is costly, with a <a href="http://cnsnews.com/news/article/61811">third</a> of all American casualties in the conflict occurring since the first reinforcements were sent in May 2009. The latest offensive in Marjah in Helmand  Province is going slower than anticipated due to fierce resistance, and it is only a warm-up for a much larger battle in the coming months in Kandahar, the Taliban’s stronghold. And Pakistan remains the key to victory.</p>
<p>As tough as the fighting is in Marjah, the more difficult phase will be capitalizing on the military success by establishing local governance and civil institutions that have credibility with the Afghan people. The national flag now <a href="http://www.boston.com/news/world/asia/articles/2010/02/26/afghans_take_control_of_taliban_stronghold/">waves</a> above the city and a new <a href="http://www.csmonitor.com/World/Asia-South-Central/2010/0222/Marjah-offensive-New-Afghan-governor-takes-office-as-battle-rages">governor</a> has taken power, and the fact that for every two foreign soldiers in the offensive there were three Afghan soldiers is very helpful. Roughly a quarter of the city still remains to be taken, but the last bastions of the Taliban forces are said to be running out of ammunition.</p>
<p>The international and Afghan forces now <a href="http://www1.voanews.com/english/news/asia/General-NATO-Controls-Marjahs-Main-Roads-and-Markets-84783537.html">control</a> the main roads and markets, but a significant amount of mines and roadside bombs planted by the Taliban still need to be located and dismantled. Afghan police forces, soldiers, and government workers from elsewhere in the country are being brought into Marjah, and over 2,000 people have <a href="http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/news/world/stories/DN-afghan_26int.ART.State.Edition2.4b81d3a.html">taken</a> jobs with the new administration.</p>
<p>The effort in Afghanistan is much more difficult because of the national government’s lack of credibility. The population, including many of those who voted for Karazai, is disenchanted because of the widespread fraud in the last election. Karzai’s latest <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2010/02/24/opinion/24wed2.html">decision</a> to take control of the Electoral Complaints Commission so that he appoints all five members is a further blow to his credibility and that of the government. Unfortunately, transgressions such as these mean that the links between a national government and the people that are required for a functioning democracy probably cannot be re-established until Karzai leaves office. Luckily, the Taliban’s own failures will provide a sharp contrast to what the local administrations can offer, leaving open an opportunity for such links to be developed on the ground level that can prevent the Taliban from returning.</p>
<p>The Pakistani crackdown on the Taliban actually holds more long-term significance than the offensive in Marjah. The <a href="../2010/02/17/breaking-the-taliban/">capture</a> of Mullah Baradar, the second-in-command of the Taliban, is extremely significant as he had close control over every area of management. Subsequent analysis focused heavily on what caused the Pakistanis to finally arrest such figures operating on their soil, but new information helps to provide a clearer picture of what happened.</p>
<p>Mullah Baradar was not the target of the raid, and just happened to be among those arrested in what one American official <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2010/02/19/world/asia/19intel.html?ref=world">described</a> as a “lucky accident.” The Pakistani ISI intelligence service refused to allow the CIA to directly question him until two weeks after he was caught. Contrary to proving Pakistan’s credibility as an ally, the arrest of Baradar and their conduct in handling his interrogation actually indicts them, leaving no room for them to claim that the Taliban’s leadership isn’t in their country. It is certain that Baradar knows where Mullah Omar is located, and it is likely he has information on Bin Laden’s location as well, if reports that he was staying in Quetta last fall are accurate. The ISI’s delay and possible coaching of Baradar so their complicity can remain hidden may have led to losing some crucial opportunities.</p>
<p>The embarrassment of Baradar being captured in Karachi is a major factor in the arrest of several other figures in Pakistan, but it is still very possible that this tougher stance will be short-lived. Large amounts of Pakistani territory, particularly in Baluchistan, still need to be cleansed before the Taliban can be defeated, but this will require a lengthy, bloody battle that could quickly lose public support and exhaust the military’s resources.</p>
<p>Pakistan’s long-term commitment to the fight against the Taliban and other terrorist groups is in doubt, but their short-term cooperation is dealing the movement a mighty blow. Seven of the 15 members of the Quetta Shura Council that acts as their central headquarters have been captured by the Pakistanis. As <em>The Long War Journal</em> <a href="http://www.longwarjournal.org/threat-matrix/archives/2010/02/pakistan_detains_4_additional.php">points out</a>, this does not necessarily mean that half of the Taliban’s leadership has been eliminated, as there are four regional shuras and 10 committees that the Quetta Shura oversees. The four <a href="http://www.longwarjournal.org/archives/2010/02/the_talibans_top_lea.php">shuras</a> are located in Quetta in Baluchistan  Province; Peshawar in Northwest Frontier  Province; Miramshah in North  Waziristan; and the Gerdi Jangal refugee camp in Baluchistan  Province. These captures are important, but the leadership has not been decapitated.</p>
<p>The drone strikes in Pakistan are also making the enemy pay a heavy toll. A son of Jalaluddin Haqqani, a top Taliban commander, was recently killed in one. The Obama Administration is now <a href="http://www.newsrealblog.com/2010/02/10/obama-the-hawk/">launching</a> three strikes a week on Pakistani soil on average, a three-fold increase from the days of the Bush Administration.</p>
<p>One more development on the Pakistani side deserves more attention. The Pakistani government wants to <a href="http://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory?id=9935027">revise</a> its law that charges those guilty of insulting Islam with blasphemy, carrying a penalty of death. This is a rebuke to extremists that argue that non-Muslims (which includes those they view as apostates) need to be violently targeted. President Zardari isn’t going to repeal the law, which would be truly bold, but it is positive that the government is trying to counter the viewpoint that such oppression is acceptable under that circumstance.</p>
<p>These successes provide much room for optimism, but that doesn’t mean the second phase of the surge in Afghanistan targeting Kandahar won’t be significantly bloodier. The Taliban’s strength has <a href="http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2010/feb/22/nato-neglect-lets-taliban-build-35-more-strength/print/">increased</a> by 35 percent in the past two years, and now is estimated at about 27,000 fighters. The blood of Afghan and international soldiers and civilians is going to take the headlines, and their sacrifice can indeed prevent the Taliban from seizing parts of the country and bring stability to that country so that the West can be much safer. These sacrifices must be matched by sacrifices on the Pakistani side and the U.S. must make clear that if our soldiers are going to die in this war, we will accept nothing less than full cooperation from the Pakistanis.</p>
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		<title>The Battle for Marjah</title>
		<link>http://www.frontpagemag.com/2010/stephenbrown/the-battle-for-marjah/?utm_source=rss&#038;utm_medium=rss&#038;utm_campaign=the-battle-for-marjah</link>
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		<pubDate>Thu, 18 Feb 2010 05:30:29 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator><![CDATA[Stephen Brown]]></dc:creator>
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		<description><![CDATA[The largest U.S.-led offensive to date in Afghanistan targets a Taliban stronghold. 
]]></description>
				<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><a href="http://cdn.frontpagemag.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/02/ALeqM5grPysrX7e0p3MD2EBn2t0K-gpUsA.jpg"><img class="alignnone size-full wp-image-50626" title="APTOPIX Afghanistan" src="http://cdn.frontpagemag.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/02/ALeqM5grPysrX7e0p3MD2EBn2t0K-gpUsA.jpg" alt="" width="512" height="348" /></a></p>
<p>After promising every spring to drive foreign troops out of Afghanistan and capture Kabul, the Taliban are now facing a powerful spring offensive of their own.</p>
<p>In a massive assault launched last Saturday – the biggest since the US invasion of Afghanistan in 2001 – about 15,000 American, British and Afghan troops successfully breached Taliban defenses around Marjah in turbulent southern Afghanistan’s central Helmand province. With about 80,000 inhabitants, Marjah is the last Taliban-held city on Afghan soil and the center for 90 percent of the world’s heroin trade, a major source of insurgent funds.</p>
<p>Codenamed Operation Moshtarak (meaning “together” in the Dari language), the offensive got off to an excellent start when US troops surprised the estimated 2,000 Taliban defenders with a helicopter lift into the city center behind enemy lines. The daring attack seized important points, disrupting Taliban defensive plans and subjecting Taliban fighters to attacks from both front and rear.</p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://cdn.frontpagemag.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/02/ALeqM5ikwX8LZhy47b22HUekXkaT1u_3YA.jpg"><img class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-50629" title="Afghanistan" src="http://cdn.frontpagemag.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/02/ALeqM5ikwX8LZhy47b22HUekXkaT1u_3YA.jpg" alt="" width="512" height="318" /></a><em> Shock and awe: A helicopter assault by U.S. Marines caught the Taliban off guard in Marjah. </em></p>
<p>Since then, the going has, as expected, been tough. This is due to the Taliban having planted booby traps throughout the city as well as to their snipers. According to one report, the enemy is concentrating in a central bazaar and in a densely-populated residential neighborhood, which they are defending fiercely. “The Taliban have booby-trapped everywhere. We can’t even come out of our homes,” one Marjah resident told Reuters.</p>
<p>The Taliban have used Improvised Explosive Devices (IEDs) extensively in the Afghan conflict. But the weapon’s presence in Marjah is so widespread, Marine Captain Ryan Sparks called the IED threat “the most significant…that anybody has ever faced. “I know there’s pressure plates, command-detonated, kite-string and pressure release IEDs. That will definitely be a problem, the IEDs,” he said.</p>
<p>Clearing booby-trapped neighborhoods of enemy fighters in house-to-house fighting is a time-consuming process. Fortunately, the American army has the experience of the 2004 Battle of Fallujah in Iraq to draw on, in which American troops quickly defeated, street by street, several thousand enemy combatants. This experience should also help make the Marjah battle a short one. When all is lost, the Taliban fighters are expected to melt into the civilian population or flee, as some are reported to have already done.</p>
<p>But the task of clearing Marjah has been slowed and made more difficult by the extra sensitivity American and allied troops must now show regarding civilian casualties. This was caused by what is perhaps the biggest Taliban victory of the war so far, namely, the change made to the allied Rules of Engagement (ROE) last year.</p>
<p>Due to media controversies about civilian deaths, the ROE were altered and now state American and NATO troops have to be very careful when conducting operations around civilians. It is now much more difficult, for example, for western forces to drop smart bombs or missiles on targets where civilians might be present.</p>
<p>One military analyst claims the ROE change occurred because of the Taliban’s ability to manipulate the media and western journalists’ “enthusiasm for jumping on real, or imagined, civilian deaths”, since dead civilians are considered news. In other words, the Taliban, who are very media-savvy, successfully turned civilian casualties in Afghanistan into “a powerful propaganda weapon” that many in the western media ran with.</p>
<p>In the liberal media’s world, civilian death scandals have other uses besides selling newspapers and boosting viewer ratings. They also come in very handy for assailing the military. Worst of all, the media’s agonizing over civilian casualties in Afghanistan seems one-sided. Thus, one sees few stories about the countless civilians the Taliban have brutalized and killed. And yet, according to one report, the Taliban have killed four times as many civilians as American and NATO troops. But that kind of civilian casualty scandal does not make for headline news.</p>
<p>For example, one does not often see a quote like the following from an Afghan father whose son lost his leg to a Taliban roadside IED:</p>
<blockquote><p>“I do not mind if I am killed, provided the Americans get rid of the Taliban. Those tyrants have taken my son’s leg.”</p></blockquote>
<p>There have been even fewer stories about the brutal treatment of Marjah’s civilian population under Taliban rule. One report states that Marjah families were forced to give their daughters as wives to Taliban fighters. People have also been executed as “spies.”</p>
<p>Instead, in the first days of the assault, it appeared publications like the <em>New York Times</em> were more focused on the <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2010/02/15/world/asia/15afghan.html">12 Afghan civilians</a> that were killed in a house outside Marjah by an American missile than on the battle and the heroism of our troops. At first, it was thought this was an errant air strike, for which General Stanley McChrystal, the American commander, apologized. But it later turned out fire was being received from the house.</p>
<p>In all probability, the Taliban were using the civilians as human shields. American and NATO troops have reported similar human shield incidents in the Marjah battle. Exploiting the ROE, the Taliban have used innocent civilians as cover in attacks against western soldiers in other parts of Afghanistan as well.</p>
<p>One analyst believes the changes to the ROE have not just increased the danger to the lives of western troops, but also to those of the civilians they were supposed to benefit. Since American troops in Marjah have to advance more slowly out of concern for the civilian population, this leaves civilians longer in the unpredictable and dangerous hands of the Taliban as well as prolongs the battle.</p>
<p>Besides the bravery and professionalism of American and allied soldiers, the real story of the Marjah battle is not how many civilians have been killed, as the liberal media like to emphasize, but how few. According to one report, 15 Afghans have perished so far in the fighting. This, one observer states, is “spectacularly low by historical standards.” But that, unfortunately, is not news.</p>
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		<title>The Threat from Londonistan &#8211; Foreign Policy</title>
		<link>http://www.frontpagemag.com/2010/jlaksin/the-threat-from-londonistan-foreign-policy/?utm_source=rss&#038;utm_medium=rss&#038;utm_campaign=the-threat-from-londonistan-foreign-policy</link>
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		<pubDate>Thu, 04 Feb 2010 17:09:09 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator><![CDATA[Jacob Laksin]]></dc:creator>
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		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://frontpagemag.com/?p=48825</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[In January 2009, the head of Britain&#8217;s Security Service (also known as MI5) boasted that his agents were succeeding in cracking down on potentially violent homegrown Islamists. Although conceding that &#8220;the battle [was] not won,&#8221; Jonathan Evans told the Daily Telegraph that his agents were forcing would-be terrorists &#8220;to keep their heads down.&#8221; He went [&#8230;]]]></description>
				<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>In January 2009, the head of Britain&#8217;s Security Service (also known as MI5) boasted that his agents were succeeding in cracking down on potentially violent homegrown Islamists. Although conceding that &#8220;the battle [was] not won,&#8221; Jonathan Evans told the Daily Telegraph that his agents were forcing would-be terrorists &#8220;to keep their heads down.&#8221; He went on to note that there were undoubtedly terrorists planning attacks somewhere &#8212; but probably not in Britain.</p>
<p>His optimism, however hedged, was understandable. His interview took place 3 1/2 years after the London terrorist attacks of July 7, 2005. During that period, the British authorities put dozens of would-be terrorists on trial and thwarted numerous attacks. In the immediate wake of 7/7, the Security Service&#8217;s public critics had taken its bosses to task for infiltrating violent groups without doing more to break them up. Needless to say, Britain&#8217;s domestic spies immediately set out to do just that, in a flurry of arrests and prosecutions.</p>
<p>But that, of course, was before Christmas Day 2009, when a young Nigerian &#8212; the former head of the Islamic students&#8217; association at University College London &#8212; tried to blow up an Amsterdam-to-Detroit flight and shattered the myth of Britain&#8217;s newfound imperviousness to Islamism. Though security officials in Britain insist that Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab radicalized after he left the country for Yemen (Sanaa, in turn, <a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/jan/07/airline-bomb-plot-alqaida-london" target="_blank">blames</a> everything on London), the case of the Underwear Bomber has dramatized the extent to which Britain remains a launching pad for jihad. (Nigerian Nobel Prize laureate Wole Soyinka prefers the term &#8220;<a href="http://www.thedailybest.com/blogs-and-stories/2010-01-31/wole-soyinkas-british-problem/?cid=hp:beastoriginalsC2" target="_blank">cesspit</a>&#8221; to describe London&#8217;s function as an Islamist breeding ground.)</p>
<p>via <a href="http://www.foreignpolicy.com/articles/2010/02/03/londonistan">Londonistan | Foreign Policy</a>.</p>
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		<title>Iranians’ Cry for Freedom – by Lisa Daftari</title>
		<link>http://www.frontpagemag.com/2009/lisa-daftari/iranians%e2%80%99-cry-for-freedom-%e2%80%93-by-lisa-daftari/?utm_source=rss&#038;utm_medium=rss&#038;utm_campaign=iranians%25e2%2580%2599-cry-for-freedom-%25e2%2580%2593-by-lisa-daftari</link>
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		<pubDate>Tue, 29 Dec 2009 05:10:29 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator><![CDATA[Lisa Daftari]]></dc:creator>
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		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://frontpagemag.com/?p=43843</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Daring Iranians continue to take to the streets. ]]></description>
				<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><img class="alignnone size-full wp-image-43845" title="iran" src="http://cdn.frontpagemag.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/12/iran1.jpg" alt="iran" width="450" height="300" /></p>
<p>Iran’s Islamic regime may be in denial about sanctions and anti-nuclear proliferation proposals, but after a long weekend of renewed and intense demonstrations, it cannot deny the thousands of disenchanted and daring Iranians who took to protest despite government threats, beatings and cold-blooded murder.</p>
<p>Up to 9 are reported dead and hundreds wounded as tens of thousands of Iranian protestors clashed with government security forces in what was the bloodiest and most violent demonstrations since the aftermath of President Ahmadinejad’s allegedly fraudulent re-election six months ago. The number of deaths is reported through sites that cannot be verified, though eyewitnesses confirmed the murder of at least four protestors when guards opened fire in Tehran’s central neighborhood   College Square mid-morning Sunday.</p>
<p>Websites report that clashes were not limited to the capital city of Tehran. Demonstrations were also held in Isfahan, Mashad, Shiraz and surprisingly, the Shiite clerical headquarter, Qom.</p>
<p>The demonstrations began two days prior and led up to Sunday’s commemoration of Ashura, the Islamic day of mourning the martyrdom of Imam Hossein, the third Imam and grandson of Prophet Mohammad.  Hossein was overcome by his nemesis and heretic to Islam, Yazid, at the Battle of Karbala in the seventh century.  On this day, Shiite Muslims traditionally congregate at mosques and hold public processions of flagellation and reenactments of his death.</p>
<p>Hossein’s death is commonly referred to as the battle between good and evil, as he is said to have spoken out against oppressive rulers. Though protesters have chanted anti-Islamic and anti-regime slogans since the initial hours after the presidential election, they used this religious day to voice grievances against their own modern-day oppressive rulers.</p>
<p>Anticipating large-scale protests this weekend, the regime made threats about participating in these events, instituted a 7pm curfew and forbid the assembling of groups larger than three.</p>
<p>In some areas reports say early shots were fired in the air Saturday morning to deter rioters. In other areas, witnesses say tear gas was used to disperse crowds.</p>
<p>Similar to the violence we have seen in previous Iran protests, Basiji militiamen freely used batons and in some cases, reports indicate that daggers and knives were used. The only difference is that this time around there were also reports of protestors fighting back, and in some cases, successfully restraining security forces.</p>
<p>Losing presidential candidates Mir-Hossein Mousavi and Mehdi Karoubi made no official statements encouraging people to participate in protest. However, over the past two weeks, non-affiliated political activists called on Iranians of all backgrounds via websites, Facebook, Twitter and text messages, to come out in this new round of demonstrations.</p>
<p>The protests also coincided with the seventh day of mourning the death of 87-year-old reformist cleric Ayatollah Hossein Ali Montazeri, Iran’s most senior dissident religious figure and architect of the 1979 Islamic Revolution.  Montazeri’s death last week played a significant role in igniting demonstrations which have sporadically taken place since the elections, but gave the opposition a significant running start for this weekend’s upheaval.</p>
<p>When funeral attendees clashed with security forces in the religious city of Qom last week, the regime lost its religious constituency and the opposition gained bragging rights to an emerging opposition that is colorful and diverse and not just comprised of secular Tehranis but of conservative Muslims as well.  Supreme leader Ali Khamenei’s order to attack funeral attendees made a serious and significant escalation in the plot of this boiling Iranian Revolution.</p>
<p>The rift was further intensified this past weekend when the government ordered violent and unwarranted attacks during the holy day of Ashura.  Traditionally, this day is a peaceful, reflective one. During the eight year Iran-Iraq war, there was no fighting in honor of this holiday, and even during the 1979 Revolution, political activists took advantage of Ashura, coming out in protest knowing that the Shah would not order attacks out of respect for the holiday. Violating this sacred holiday by not just any government, but an Islamic one, reaffirmed that the regime’s hunger for power and tyrannical rule run deeper than the ‘absolute’ religious doctrines they have purported at the heart of their leadership and have utilized in gaining legitimacy.</p>
<p>As a matter of fact, the timely death of a revered clergy member coupled with violent escalations breaching one of the holiest Shiite days succeeded in giving the opposition what it has been lacking surely for the past six months, if not 30 years; homogenization.</p>
<p>Within one week, the regime helped bring the conservative and religious factions of Iran’s population to the streets. Dejected and disillusioned, members of the clergy and other conservative Iranians seamlessly joined the secular opposition.</p>
<p>It was apparent in the demonstration footage. Some demonstrators wore green, and others wore black.  Many did not color coordinate, believing that their cause was obvious absent visual manifestation.</p>
<p>Developments in Iran’s opposition movement seem promising. At the very least, these demonstrations have and continue to weaken and divide the clerical regime, and at best, they can be integral in eradicating this regime altogether. For the last six months, the opposition movement has endured bloodshed and brutality, proving to the international community and their own government that they will stop at nothing to get their country back.  They have and will continue to sacrifice their lives, jobs, families and more to overcome this tyrannical regime, and more importantly, they have showed that they will continue to resist with or without the help of the United States or any other world power.</p>
<p>Ironically, anti-American propaganda has long helped in legitimizing this regime’s absolute reign over its people.  From its inception, the government made its people believe that the United States and Israel, the two Satans, large and small, will dutifully stand in the way of Iranian advancement. Synonymous with Iranian patriotism was hatred for the United   States. The people of Iran may have believed this at first, possibly while still under the spell of this regime, but now they are awake and cynical of religion and the clerics’ regime.</p>
<p>So commonplace is the role of anti-Americanism in the backdrop of this regime’s reign that if the United   States had sided with the people of Iran, it would have naturally been a huge blow to their rule.</p>
<p>Meanwhile, the Obama administration made another attempt at curbing Iran’s nuclear proliferation agenda this week with a year-end deadline, to which President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad simply scoffed, and said he is not afraid.</p>
<p>How many attempts will it take for our ivy-league educated leaders to recognize that diplomacy will not work with Iran?</p>
<p>As a result, America has isolated the Iranians to have to take on their government on their own. There are sound arguments as to why this is actually to their benefit. This may be the case, however, that would hold true only if America was completely absent from the Iranian political scene; not involved in a sideshow attempting to fruitlessly engage this regime or to daunt them with meaningless deadlines.</p>
<p>Even if the United States did not prioritize human rights in Iran, the single way to eliminate it as a nuclear threat is to weaken its government; a task only within the capabilities of its people.  Diplomacy is not seasonal, and it is not a temporary way to achieve a goal. It is establishing a lasting relationship between powerful and sovereign countries, similar to the relationship Iran and the United States had under the late Shah. If our administration were after true diplomacy in the region, then they would sooner side with the 70 million Iranians who have looked our way for an approving nod.</p>
<p>After 30 years, the people of Iran have come to the conclusion—the same conclusion that should now be the obvious one to President Obama after failing to successfully engage the Islamic Republic; We cannot change the actions or philosophy of this terrorist government; The only thing we can change is the government. We can only hope that the pivotal moment will come soon, when those outside Iran can join those inside in unanimously acknowledging that the only solution in the case of Iran is regime change.</p>
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		<title>Monica&#8217;s back &#8211; says Clinton lied &#8211; POLITICO.com</title>
		<link>http://www.frontpagemag.com/2009/jlaksin/monicas-back-says-clinton-lied-politico-com/?utm_source=rss&#038;utm_medium=rss&#038;utm_campaign=monicas-back-says-clinton-lied-politico-com</link>
		<comments>http://www.frontpagemag.com/2009/jlaksin/monicas-back-says-clinton-lied-politico-com/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Fri, 18 Dec 2009 16:55:51 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator><![CDATA[Jacob Laksin]]></dc:creator>
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		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://frontpagemag.com/?p=42366</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[In the years since their bitter battle, both former President Bill Clinton and independent counsel Ken Starr have predicted they’d be vindicated in the history books. Now the first definitive history of the Clinton scandal is about to arrive — and neither man can be completely happy about his portrayal in its pages. “The Death [&#8230;]]]></description>
				<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>In the years since their bitter battle, both former President Bill Clinton and independent counsel Ken Starr have predicted they’d be vindicated in the history books.</p>
<p>Now the first definitive history of the Clinton scandal is about to arrive — and neither man can be completely happy about his portrayal in its pages.</p>
<p>“The Death of American Virtue,” due out in February, asserts that Clinton had yet another extramarital affair, with Susan McDougal of Whitewater fame. Also in the book, Monica Lewinsky tells author Ken Gormley that she believes the president lied under oath when he described their encounters.</p>
<p>via <a href="http://www.politico.com/news/stories/1209/30745.html">Monica&#8217;s back &#8211; says Clinton lied &#8211; - POLITICO.com</a>.</p>
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		<title>Police battle climate activists amid talks rancour &#8211; AP</title>
		<link>http://www.frontpagemag.com/2009/jlaksin/police-battle-climate-activists-amid-talks-rancour-ap/?utm_source=rss&#038;utm_medium=rss&#038;utm_campaign=police-battle-climate-activists-amid-talks-rancour-ap</link>
		<comments>http://www.frontpagemag.com/2009/jlaksin/police-battle-climate-activists-amid-talks-rancour-ap/#respond</comments>
		<pubDate>Wed, 16 Dec 2009 16:04:15 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator><![CDATA[Jacob Laksin]]></dc:creator>
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		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://frontpagemag.com/?p=42088</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Police battled demonstrators outside the UN climate summit on Wednesday as leaders of developing nations let rip at wealthy counterparts, exposing the mighty obstacles facing a deal to tame global warming. via Police battle climate activists amid talks rancour &#8211; Yahoo! News.]]></description>
				<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>Police battled demonstrators outside the UN climate summit on Wednesday as leaders of developing nations let rip at wealthy counterparts, exposing the mighty obstacles facing a deal to tame global warming.</p>
<p>via <a href="http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20091216/sc_afp/unclimatewarming;_ylt=AqgyfQHhWEvnRuO.ESMAyL9v24cA;_ylu=X3oDMTM2M2hwMjFpBGFzc2V0A2FmcC8yMDA5MTIxNi91bmNsaW1hdGV3YXJtaW5nBGNjb2RlA21vc3Rwb3B1bGFyBGNwb3MDMwRwb3MDMwRzZWMDeW5fdG9wX3N0b3JpZXMEc2xrA3BvbGljZWJhdHRsZQ--">Police battle climate activists amid talks rancour &#8211; Yahoo! News</a>.</p>
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		<title>The Yemeni Koran &#8211; by Jamie Glazov</title>
		<link>http://www.frontpagemag.com/2009/jamie-glazov/the-yemeni-koran-by-jamie-glazov/?utm_source=rss&#038;utm_medium=rss&#038;utm_campaign=the-yemeni-koran-by-jamie-glazov</link>
		<comments>http://www.frontpagemag.com/2009/jamie-glazov/the-yemeni-koran-by-jamie-glazov/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Mon, 14 Dec 2009 05:05:09 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator><![CDATA[Jamie Glazov]]></dc:creator>
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		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://frontpagemag.com/?p=41672</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Explosive ramifications result from new evidence revealing the Muslim holy book has undergone a textual evolution. ]]></description>
				<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><img class="alignnone size-full wp-image-41675" title="koran" src="http://cdn.frontpagemag.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/12/koran.jpg" alt="koran" width="450" height="496" /></p>
<p>Frontpage Interview’s guests today are Robert Spencer and Moorthy Muthuswamy.</p>
<p><strong>Moorthy Muthuswamy</strong> is an expert on terrorism in India. He grew up in India, where he had firsthand experience with political Islam and jihad. He moved to America in 1984 to pursue graduate studies. In 1992, he received a doctorate in nuclear physics from Stony Brook University, New York. Since 1999 he has extensively published ideas on neutralizing political Islam&#8217;s terror war as it is imposed on unbelievers. He is the author of the new book, <strong><em><a href="http://www.amazon.com/Defeating-Political-Islam-New-Cold/dp/1591027047/ref=ntt_at_ep_dpi_1" target="_blank">Defeating Political Islam: The New Cold War.</a></em></strong></p>
<p><strong>Robert Spencer</strong> is the director of Jihad Watch, a program of the David Horowitz Freedom Center. He is the author of nine books on Islam and Jihad, a weekly columnist for Human Events and Frontpagemag.com, and has led numerous seminars for the U.S. military and intelligence communities. He is the author of the new book, <strong><a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/product-description/1596981040/ref=dp_proddesc_0?ie=UTF8&amp;n=283155&amp;s=books"><em>The Complete Infidel’s Guide to the Koran</em></a>.</strong></p>
<p><strong>FP:</strong> Moorthy Muthuswamy and Robert Spencer, welcome to Frontpage Interview.</p>
<p>I’d like to talk to both of you today about the Yemeni Koran.</p>
<p>Moorthy Muthuswamy, let’s begin with you. Tell us about this Yemeni Koran and what it signifies.</p>
<p><strong>Muthuswamy:</strong> Thank you for the opportunity, Jamie. First, some background.</p>
<p>In 1972, during the restoration of the Great Mosque of Sana&#8217;a, in Yemen, a gravesite containing a mash of old parchment pages was discovered. It became clear that this parchment hoard is an example of what is sometimes referred to as a &#8220;paper grave.&#8221; In this case, the site was the resting place for tens of thousands of fragments from close to a thousand different parchment codices of the Koran, the Muslim holy book.</p>
<p>Using a technique called “carbon dating,” some of the parchment pages in the Yemeni hoard were dated back to the seventh and eighth centuries, or Islam&#8217;s first two centuries. Until now, three ancient copies of the Koran were said to exist. One copy in the Library of Tashkent in Uzbekistan, and another in the Topkapi Museum in Istanbul, Turkey, date from the eighth century. A copy kept in the British Library in London dates from the late seventh century. But the Sana’a parchment pages are even older. Moreover, these pages are written in a script that originates from the Hijaz—the region of Arabia where the prophet Muhammad purportedly lived. This makes the Yemeni Korans not only the oldest to have survived, but one of the earliest copies of the Koran ever.</p>
<p>In 1981, the first scientific undertaking to study the Yemeni Koran was initiated by a group headed by Gerd-R. Puin, a specialist in Arabic calligraphy and Koranic paleography based at Saarland University, in Saarbrücken, Germany. Puin and his group recognized the antiquity of some of the parchment fragments. Their preliminary inspection revealed unconventional verse orderings, minor textual variations, and rare styles of orthography and artistic embellishment. Interestingly, some of the sheets were also palimpsests—versions very clearly written over even earlier, washed-off or erased versions.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.theatlantic.com/doc/199901/koran" target="_blank">To quote Puin</a>: “So many Muslims have this belief that everything between the two covers of the Koran is just God&#8217;s unaltered word… They like to quote the textual work that shows that the Bible has a history and did not fall straight out of the sky, but until now the Koran has been out of this discussion. The only way to break through this wall is to prove that the Koran has a history too. The Sana&#8217;a fragments will help us to do this.&#8221;</p>
<p>The idea that the Koran is the literal Word of God, perfect, timeless, and permanent, is crucial to Islam, in particular, to the Islamists at the <em>forefront</em> of spreading sharia and jihad. However, some of the Sana’a fragments revealed small but intriguing aberrations from the standard Koranic text. Indeed, this evidence compels one to conclude that the Muslim holy book has undergone a textual evolution rather than simply the Word of God as revealed in its entirety to the Prophet Muhammad in the seventh century.</p>
<p>This explosive ramification has made the State of Yemen reluctant to give further access to the Sana’a fragments. Fortunately, before the door was shut to Western scholars, another German academic, Graf von Bothmer, made 35,000 microfilm pictures of the fragments, which remain at the University of the Saarland.</p>
<p><strong>FP: </strong>Robert Spencer, so the Yemeni Koran points to the fact that the Muslim holy book has undergone a textual evolution. Give us your view of the meaning and significance here.<strong></strong></p>
<p><strong>Spencer:</strong> Moorthy is quite right: the idea that the Koran is perfect and uncreated, with no textual variants, is central to Islamic proselytizing. The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) says the Koran “was memorized by Muhammad and then dictated to his companions. The text of the Qur’an was cross-checked during the life of the Prophet. The 114 chapters of the Qur’an have remained unchanged through the centuries.” This idea is also central to the worldview of jihadist groups. Osama bin Laden bragged in his 2002 letter to the American people that the Koran “will remain preserved and unchanged, after the other Divine books and messages have been changed. The Qur’an is the miracle until the Day of Judgment.”</p>
<p>The textual variants in the Yemeni Koran, simply by showing that the text is not always and everywhere the same, explode the mainstream Islamic belief that the Koran was delivered in perfect form to Muhammad through the angel Gabriel, and has always been miraculously preserved from variant readings.</p>
<p>Yet oddly enough, early Islamic traditions recorded in the Hadith assume the existence of variant readings of the Koran. The impetus for collecting Muhammad’s revelations into a single volume came after Muhammad and other important early Muslims started dying off. Late in the year Muhammad died, 632, a group of Arab tribes that Muhammad had conquered and brought into the Muslim fold revolted. The first caliph, Abu Bakr, led the Muslims into battle to subdue them.</p>
<p>The two sides met in the Battle of Yamama, in which some of the Muslims who had memorized segments of the Koran were killed. One Islamic tradition notes that “many (of the passages) of the Qur’an that were sent down were known by those who died on the day of Yamama&#8230;but they were not known (by those who) survived them, nor were they written down, nor had [the first three caliphs] Abu Bakr, Umar or Uthman (by that time) collected the Qur’an, nor were they found with even one (person) after them.” Ibn Abi Dawud, <em>Kitab al-Masahif</em> )</p>
<p>The official compiler of the Koran, Zaid ibn Thabit, explained that he “started locating Quranic material and collecting it from parchments, scapula, leaf-stalks of date palms and from the memories of men (who knew it by heart). I found with Khuzaima two Verses of Surat-at-Tauba which I had not found with anybody else.” Zaid’s recollection testifies to the ad hoc nature of his work. For example, it was Khuzaima himself, Zaid’s sole source for the last two verses of sura 9, who approached Zaid and informed him of the omission: “I see you have overlooked (two) verses and have not written them.” When he had recited them, an influential companion of Muhammad and the future third caliph, Utman, declared, “I bear witness that these verses are from Allah.” And so they were included in the Koran (9:128-129).</p>
<p>Other sections of the Koran, some mandating stringent punishments for unbelievers and other violators of Islamic law, were lost altogether. One early Muslim declared, “Let none of you say, ‘I have acquired the whole of the Qur’an.’ How does he know what all of it is when much of the Qur’an has disappeared? Rather let him say ‘I have acquired what has survived’” (As-Suyuti, <em>Al-Itqan fii Ulum al-Qur’an</em> ). Other Koranic verses dropped out of the text without replacement. One of these stated, “The religion with Allah is al-Hanifiyyah (the Upright   Way) rather than that of the Jews or the Christians, and those who do good will not go unrewarded.” Al-Tirmidhi, the compiler of one of the six collections of Hadith, or Islamic traditions, that Muslims consider to be the most reliable, said that this verse was at one time part of sura 98. It is not found there, however, in Zaid’s canonical version.</p>
<p><strong>FP:</strong> Moorthy Muthuswamy?</p>
<p><strong>Muthuswamy: </strong>The importance of the Yemeni Koran is that it was an independent discovery; it physically exists and is distinct from the Islamic doctrines presently in use.</p>
<p>Political Islam faces ideological difficulties with the likes of the Sana’a fragments pointing to the textual evolution of the Koran. Furthermore, as Robert insightfully observes, other inconsistencies in the contemporary Koran and the Hadith accentuate these difficulties.</p>
<p>The challenge ahead lies in utilizing this breach to decisively break the back of Islamic radicalism.</p>
<p>Whether it is the latest, in the form of the Fort  Hood massacre or the previous 9/11 attacks, there is one common theme: the armed jihads were carried out by mosque-going pious Muslim men who claimed to be driven by Islamic doctrines.</p>
<p>Recently, much progress has been achieved by applying statistical analysis to the Islamic doctrines themselves in order to understand why pious Muslims are waging jihad on unbelievers. Specifically, we now understand that about <a href="http://www.frontpagemag.com/readArticle.aspx?ARTID=30658" target="_blank">sixty-one percent</a> of the contents of the Koran are found to speak ill of unbelievers or call for their violent conquest; at best only <a href="http://www.politicalislam.com/blog/the-good-in-the-koran/" target="_blank">2.6 percent</a> of the verses of the Koran are noted to show goodwill toward humanity. Get this: about <a href="http://97.74.65.51/readArticle.aspx?ARTID=297" target="_blank">seventy five percent</a> of Muhammad’s biography (Sira) consists of jihad waged on unbelievers.</p>
<p>While there might be some subjectivity to the above analysis, the overwhelming thrust of the inferences should be noted. Moreover, this overall thrust exposes the sheer absurdity of excusing the Koran-inspired terror on the so-called “selective interpretation” of the Muslim holy book or its “verses being taken out of context.”</p>
<p>Additionally, there is the sharia—the so-called Islamic Law, legitimized by the Koran. The medieval sharia has stifled development and integration of Muslim communities, and has indirectly helped channel Muslim energies toward the outlet of jihad.</p>
<p>Let us discuss the evolution of Major Nidal Hasan, the Fort  Hood jihadist. Consider a hypothetical scenario: the majority of the worshippers in the mosques Hasan attended believed that the Koran couldn’t be taken literally; that that there are many mainstream Islamic sites that emphasized the textual evolution of the Muslim holy book. What would have happed? It is very unlikely that Hasan would have given the <a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/gallery/2009/11/10/GA2009111000920.html" target="_blank">pro-jihad seminar</a> (the precursor to the Fort Hood massacre) in Walter Reed  Medical Center.</p>
<p>Unfortunately, reality is just the opposite. Saudi-funded Wahhabi ideologies that emphasize the literal interpretation of the Koran have played a longstanding role at <a href="http://www.uscirf.gov/index.php?option=com_content&amp;task=view&amp;id=2206" target="_blank">grievously</a> influencing most American mosque goers.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.hvk.org/articles/1002/69.html" target="_blank">An April 2001 survey</a> by CAIR found 69 percent of Muslims in America saying it is “absolutely fundamental” or “very important” to have Salafi (similar to radical Wahhabi Islamic ideology) teachings at their mosques (67 percent of respondents also expressed agreement with the statement “America is an immoral, corrupt society”). The Internet-based mainstream Islamic portals too, almost without exception, preach radical ideologies, backed by the Muslim holy book.</p>
<p>Based on the above analysis we can unequivocally state that the Koran, through its contents and their literal interpretations, acts as an albatross around the neck of Muslim communities. Yet, our national security policy in its various incarnations builds on the fundamentally flawed assumption that the Koran is a constructive element in the lives of Muslims.</p>
<p>The challenge of mitigating the radical Islamic threat indeed comes down to questioning the very basis that the Koran is the Word of God.</p>
<p>The Yemeni Koran, backed by Koranic inconsistencies might provide a fresh impetus in this direction.</p>
<p><strong>FP: </strong>Robert Spencer, final thoughts?</p>
<p><strong>Spencer:</strong> Moorthy is right. PowerPoint slides on which Hasan proposed to show “what the Koran inculcates in the minds of Muslims and the potential implications this may have for the U.S. military” have come to light. The implications are many, and important.</p>
<p>Hasan makes the case that Muslims must not fight against other Muslims (as is mandated by Koran 4:92), and that the Koran also mandates both defensive and offensive jihad against unbelievers, in order to impose upon those unbelievers the hegemony of Islamic law. He quotes the Koranic verse calling for war against the “People of the Book” (that is, mainly Jews and Christians) until they “pay the tax in acknowledgment of [Islamic] superiority and they are in a state of subjection” (9:29).</p>
<p>Hasan seems then to have been telling the assembled (and no doubt stunned) physicians that Muslims had a religious obligation to make war against and subjugate non-Muslims as inferiors under their rule.       But surely that is “extremist” Islam, no? No. Imran Ahsan Khan Nyazee, Assistant Professor on the Faculty of Shari’ah and Law of the International Islamic University in Islamabad, in a book on Islamic law explains that “Muslim jurists agreed that the purpose of fighting with the People of the Book…is one of two things: it is either their conversion to Islam or the payment of jizyah.” (<em>Jizyah</em> is the tax referred to in Koran 9:29.)</p>
<p>Nyazee concludes: “This leaves no doubt that the primary goal of the Muslim community, in the eyes of its jurists, is to spread the word of Allah through jihad, and the option of poll-tax [jizya] is to be exercised only after subjugation” of non-Muslims.”</p>
<p>Likewise Majid Khadduri, an internationally renowned Iraqi scholar of Islamic law, explained in his 1955 <em>book War and Peace in the Law of Islam</em> that “the Islamic state, whose principal function was to put God’s law into practice, sought to establish Islam as the dominant reigning ideology over the entire world….The jihad was therefore employed as an instrument for both the universalization of religion and the establishment of an imperial world state.”</p>
<p>And Iran’s Ayatollah Khomeini put it this way: “Islam makes it incumbent on all adult males, provided they are not disabled or incapacitated, to prepare themselves for the conquest of [other] countries so that the writ of Islam is obeyed in every country in the world&#8230;.But those who study Islamic Holy War will understand why Islam wants to conquer the whole world&#8230;.There are hundreds of other [Qur’anic] psalms and Hadiths [sayings of the Prophet] urging Muslims to value war and to fight. Does all this mean that Islam is a religion that prevents men from waging war? I spit upon those foolish souls who make such a claim.”</p>
<p>Hasan’s Islam also coincides with that of the jihad terror group Hamas, which has announced its intention, once fully and firmly ensconced in power, to collect that Koranic tax – <em>jizyah</em> – from the non-Muslims luckless enough to live within its domains. Hasan would also no doubt find heads nodding in agreement with his explanation of Islam among the Muslim Brotherhood, the international Islamic organization (which operates under a variety of names in the United States) that is dedicated in its own words to a “grand Jihad in eliminating and destroying the Western civilization from within and ‘sabotaging’ its miserable house by their hands and the hands of the believers so that it is eliminated and God’s religion is made victorious over all other religions.”</p>
<p>No one in government or law enforcement has ever made any attempt to determine how prevalent such understandings of Islam are among Muslims in the United States. But if they are not Nidal Hasan’s eccentricities, but indeed mainstream views of Islam, it would be of cardinal importance for those sworn to protect us to begin making such an attempt now. The lives of innocent people depend on it. As Moorthy explained, the Yemeni Koran could help provide a way.</p>
<p><strong>FP:</strong> Moorthy Muthuswamy and Robert Spencer, thank you for joining Frontpage Interview.</p>
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		<title>The Black Caucus War Against Obama &#8211; by Dick Morris</title>
		<link>http://www.frontpagemag.com/2009/dick-morris/the-black-caucus-war-against-obama-by-dick-morris/?utm_source=rss&#038;utm_medium=rss&#038;utm_campaign=the-black-caucus-war-against-obama-by-dick-morris</link>
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		<pubDate>Mon, 07 Dec 2009 05:10:09 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator><![CDATA[Dick Morris]]></dc:creator>
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		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://frontpagemag.com/?p=40758</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[The height of hubris: the left-wing of the Democratic party thinks it can afford to fight itself.]]></description>
				<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><img class="alignnone size-full wp-image-40814" title="Waters Bank Aid" src="http://cdn.frontpagemag.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/12/Maxine-Waters.jpg" alt="Waters Bank Aid" width="532" height="640" /></p>
<p>A civil war is breaking out within the left of the Democratic Party pitting the Congressional Black Caucus against the first African-American president.</p>
<p>The battle began when California Congresswoman Maxine Waters complained publicly about the Administration&#8217;s failure to do more to help minority-owned businesses in the current recession.  (Translation: In the new Stimulus of &#8220;Jobs&#8221; Bill making its way through Congress, they want a larger take).  It continued yesterday when ten members of the Black Caucus refused to participate in a meeting of the House Banking Committee which was considering the bill to restructure financial regulations forcing Chairman Barney Frank to push the bill through by the uncomfortable margin of only 31-27.</p>
<p>The latest shot in the battle was fired by Homeland Security Chairman Bennie Thompson (D-Miss) a card carrying regular of the Black Caucus.  Faced with the need to investigate the gate crashing at the White House during the recent state dinner for India, he chose to embarrass the Administration by subpoenaing White House Social Secretary Desiree Rogers rather than quietly negotiating for her appearance.</p>
<p>That Thompson&#8217;s action was a deliberate slap in Obama&#8217;s face is obvious (even though the media has missed it).  Since when does a liberal Democratic committee chairman embarrass a liberal Democratic president by forcing a liberal Democratic Social Secretary (from Chicago no less) to resist a subpoena to appear at a hearing?   Since he wanted to send a message to Obama and Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel that the Black Caucus did not like being taken for granted.</p>
<p>The merits of the controversy are obvious.  What possible reason would a Social Secretary, for goodness sakes, have for the assertion of executive privilege that is usually reserved for issues of national security?  Obviously, none.  But Thompson chose his target well.  He struck at the social core of the Chicago Mafia that runs the White House, probably striking within the Obama family as well.</p>
<p>You don&#8217;t do that to a president of your own party, your own ideology, and even your own race unless you want to make a point.</p>
<p>The friction between the Black Caucus and Obama escalated when Waters berated the Administration for failing to rework a business loan from Goldman Sachs to the Inner City Broadcasting Corporation.  Inner City is run by Pierre Sutton, son of Percy Sutton, the long time media giant in the African-American community.  Two weeks after she raised the issue in a meeting with Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner and Emanuel, Goldman saw the light and restructured the loan.</p>
<p>Coming on top of liberal angst with the decision by the &#8220;peace&#8221; president to escalate the war in Afghanistan, this split with the black caucus comes at an awkward time.</p>
<p>But you pay a price when you mess with the African American Caucus and the Suttons. The Obama Administration is feeling it.  It&#8217;s kind of fun to watch.</p>
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		<title>A Half-Hearted Afghanistan Strategy &#8211; by Michael Reagan</title>
		<link>http://www.frontpagemag.com/2009/michael-reagan/a-half-hearted-afghanistan-strategy-by-michael-reagan/?utm_source=rss&#038;utm_medium=rss&#038;utm_campaign=a-half-hearted-afghanistan-strategy-by-michael-reagan</link>
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		<pubDate>Fri, 04 Dec 2009 05:10:21 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator><![CDATA[Michael Reagan]]></dc:creator>
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		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://frontpagemag.com/?p=40327</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[The pitfalls of a publicized end date.]]></description>
				<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><img class="alignnone size-full wp-image-40335" title="obama" src="http://cdn.frontpagemag.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/12/obama.jpg" alt="obama" width="450" height="341" /></p>
<p><span><span>As many of you will recall, in previous writings I urged President Obama to do the right thing when it came to providing Gen. McChrystal with his requested troop increases in support of the war effort in Afghanistan. And during the early debate over troop levels, I even accepted the president’s request for reasonable time to meet with his advisers to discuss all options available to obtaining military victory in Afghanistan.</span></span></p>
<p>I am pleased and encouraged to see that President Obama heeded the counsel of his generals on the matter of increased troop levels that are so critical to our continuing battle against terrorists and those who house and support them. He has called on us for unity and support, and that is how we should respond.</p>
<p>Sadly, we are already seeing many members of the president’s own political party take exception to an increase in troop levels &#8212; many pushing for a retreat from the fight against those who took the lives of so many innocent victims on September 11, 2001 and who are continually plotting for the next great attack against Americans on our home soil and/or abroad. How did so many Democrats forget that fateful day &#8212; a mere eight years ago?</p>
<p>The Taliban and Al Qaeda are now on notice that 30,000 more of America’s best and brightest military personnel are gearing up to take the fight against terror to the nearest town, village and even cave to track down and eradicate those who have done or desire to harm America and her interests.</p>
<p>But I do take exception to the fact that the Taliban and Al Qaeda have also woken up to news that this massive American military surge, one that will increase our troop levels to close to 100,000, already has a publicized end date.</p>
<p>Yes, that is correct. Our enemy has been put on notice by the president himself that by July 2011, we will begin pulling back our troop commitments in Afghanistan. What makes this date even more disconcerting is the fact that it will take us several months to implement the 30,000-troop influx that is so central to this new security offensive &#8212; hopefully in time for the often-called “Spring fighting season” there.</p>
<p>This means we will begin leaving just a year after all the troops arrive &#8212; but conveniently in advance of the beginning of the 2012 election season.</p>
<p>Now I am not a general or even a military historian, but it doesn’t seem to me that it makes any sense to let your enemy know when you are coming and when you plan to leave. All they should need to know is what you plan to do: win. And our troops on the ground need to have the confidence that these decisions and timelines are based on sound military principles rather than political calculation.</p>
<p>In his speech, President Obama had a golden opportunity to borrow a line from my father &#8212; one that would have brought the house down and instilled more confidence in the plan he appeared half-heartedly to support. All he had to do was announce: “We win &#8212; they lose.” But rather, the president’s message and demeanor presented more of a détente approach to American foreign policy, in a speech where he never once made victory our goal.</p>
<p>Gen. David Petraeus, leader of the Iraq surge and now head of U.S. Central Command, acknowledged after President Obama’s speech that there was “tension” between the desire to win the conflict and the desire to pull out quickly. Those desires are both real and understandable, but no one knows better than Gen. Petraeus how much meeting both can sometimes prove impossible.</p>
<p>Moving forward, the American people, Afghan President Karzai, and our NATO allies must now rise to the task before us. But even as I move to follow my president, I can only hope that it is this pattern, rather than political timelines, which he follows in the next two years.</p>
<p>To the men and women who now bravely go to serve, you have my deepest thanks, hopes, and prayers. You are the soul of this country, and your service will not go unmarked.</p>
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		<title>Obama’s War &#8211; by Matt Gurney</title>
		<link>http://www.frontpagemag.com/2009/matt-gurney/obama%e2%80%99s-war-by-matt-gurney/?utm_source=rss&#038;utm_medium=rss&#038;utm_campaign=obama%25e2%2580%2599s-war-by-matt-gurney</link>
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		<pubDate>Thu, 03 Dec 2009 05:10:06 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator><![CDATA[Matt Gurney]]></dc:creator>
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		<description><![CDATA[The hardest choices ahead.]]></description>
				<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><img class="alignnone size-full wp-image-40178" title="troops" src="http://cdn.frontpagemag.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/12/troops.jpg" alt="troops" width="450" height="309" /></p>
<p>Since taking office last January, President Obama has been able to blame the deteriorating situation in Afghanistan on the last administration, insulating himself from criticism. No longer. After his speech to Army cadets at the West Point academy on Tuesday night, Afghanistan is now clearly Obama’s war.</p>
<p>On balance, as <a href="../2009/12/02/obama%E2%80%99s-hedged-bet-on-afghanistan-by-jacob-laksin/">said ably</a> by Jacob Laksin, the President’s speech hit the right notes. He has taken a firm stand against the anti-war Democratic establishment and has repudiated the most defeatist branches of America’s left-wing.  This represents a clear break from the President’s past positions, and he should be praised for taking this difficult but necessary step, which leans against not only the prevailing wishes of his own party, but of the war-weary American electorate at large. Bravo, Mr. President.</p>
<p>Obama himself is clearly aware of the enormity of the challenge that he has now made his own. His address was well written, but the President’s normally outstanding oratorical skills were AWOL during the speech, which was delivered capably, but without the powerful charisma Obama is rightly known for. In short, he said all the right things, but it was clear that his heart was not it in. After months of delay, when the Administration no doubt desperately sought other options, Obama has made the right decision, but with obvious reluctance.</p>
<p>Now that the decision has been made and a further 30,000 American troops committed to the battle, attention must be turned to Obama’s plan itself, which is not without problems. An issue of particular concern is the reliability of the central Afghan government in Kabul. Afghanistan’s President, Hamid Karzai, was recently returned to power after what can only be loosely termed an election. The vote has been widely derided by international observers as having been illegitimate, hobbled by credible allegations of substantial <a href="http://www.cbc.ca/world/story/2009/10/11/afghan-vote-fraud.html">electoral fraud</a>. Karzai’s fraudulent victory, combined with his reputation for corrupt, ineffectual leadership, has eroded the patience of his Western backers.</p>
<p>Obama addressed the <a href="http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5j3hz-bWvRRq9Y9Ri9boWHpYue7dA">failings</a> of the Karzai government in his speech last night, giving public voice to America’s frustration. The President said that American funding would henceforth go directly to the ministers and provincial governors most capable of delivering tangible positive results. This was clearly a barely veiled warning to Karzai — shape up, or the funding stops. While it is true that the endemic corruption of the Afghan government is a major concern, anything America and its allies do that undermines Karzai’s authority is ultimately self-defeating.</p>
<p>For better or for worse, the ability of the Allies to withdraw from Afghanistan depends upon being able to standup the Afghan security forces. But in order for these forces to function as effective, professional combat troops rather than mere brigands, there must be a central authority capable of controlling them. The Anbar Awakening, where Iraqi tribal militias joined with American forces in defeating the Iraqi insurgency, has been cited as a model to follow in Afghanistan, but it must be recalled that despite obvious problems, Iraq has developed a functional central government that is now working to absorb the militias into the country’s broader military and political institutions.</p>
<p>Unless Afghanistan develops a similar unifying federal force, any provincial governor or tribal leader favored with Western dollars and weaponry, instead of being a stabilizing force, will become yet another faction in Afghanistan’s already dangerously disunited societal fabric. President Obama is right to call attention to Karzai’s lamentable record of fraud and corruption, but put bluntly, America is stuck with Karzai, and Obama must not cut off his own nose to spite Karzai’s face.</p>
<p>Also worrisome were the President’s remarks on funding the war. While he was right to say that an open-ended commitment to the war there was “not sustainable” and honestly warned that his proposals would cost the American taxpayer an additional $30-billion dollars a year, the stated desire to rein in costs while working to reduce America’s federal deficit rang somewhat hollow when spoken by the man overseeing <a href="http://www.reuters.com/article/newsOne/idUSTRE57K4XE20090821">unprecedented federal spending</a>. If President Obama had said that America could not afford the $30-billion, that would have been shortsighted, but arguably true. In the case of this Administration, however, there is every reason to believe that every penny not spent on winning in Afghanistan would instead be wasted pursuing one of the left’s social engineering schemes, whether that be socialized medicine or a ruinous cap-and-trade climate change policy.</p>
<p>Some members of the President’s party have in recent weeks spoken publicly about introducing a <a href="http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2009/11/23/lawmakers-propose-war-surtax-pay-troop-increase-afghanistan/">war tax</a> to fund the escalation of the war in Afghanistan, and continuing operations in Iraq. It is true that the massive debts being run up by Congress are alarming, but the prospect of introducing a new tax in the midst of an economic crisis, while still pursuing open-ended spending projects domestically, is absurd to the point of insanity. The President would have done American taxpayers a great service by using the West Point speech as an opportunity not just to wax philosophic about his desire to build America, but to explain exactly what steps he would take to keep America safe while balancing the books and returning the country to a sound fiscal footing. Recall that the extra $30-billion a year represents a mere 3% of the forecasted trillion-dollar deficit. Clearly, Afghanistan is not the primary threat to America’s economic wellbeing. Congress is.</p>
<p>President Obama has taken the first steps necessary to enable a victory in Afghanistan, despite significant political risk and no doubt ferocious resistance from his own party. He should be commended for his courage, but must also be reminded that the toughest choices are still ahead.</p>
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		<title>The Art of Political War for Tea Parties &#8211; by David Horowitz</title>
		<link>http://www.frontpagemag.com/2009/david-horowitz/the-art-of-political-war-for-tea-parties-by-david-horowitz/?utm_source=rss&#038;utm_medium=rss&#038;utm_campaign=the-art-of-political-war-for-tea-parties-by-david-horowitz</link>
		<comments>http://www.frontpagemag.com/2009/david-horowitz/the-art-of-political-war-for-tea-parties-by-david-horowitz/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Tue, 01 Dec 2009 05:04:42 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator><![CDATA[David Horowitz]]></dc:creator>
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		<description><![CDATA[How to stop the Obama machine's socialist assault on America.]]></description>
				<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><img class="alignnone size-full wp-image-39059" title="teaparty1" src="http://cdn.frontpagemag.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/11/teaparty1.jpg" alt="teaparty1" width="450" height="367" /></p>
<p>A specter is haunting America – the specter of a people rising. All across the nation Americans are waking up to the threat of a leftist elite determined to fundamentally change America, push through a socialist agenda, and make every citizen dependent on the state. The Obama machine is spending trillions of tax-payer dollars to finance their takeover of the American workplace and stifle the independence of the American people. But America is resilient nation, built on the principles of private property and individual freedom, and the resistance to their socialist plans has already begun.</p>
<p>In May 2009, just five months into the Obama administration, the people of California launched a tax revolt in the biggest spending state in the nation. So reckless were the leftist Democrats who run California (and have done so for as long as anyone can remember) that its deficit alone was larger than the budgets of most other states in the Union and of many of the nations of the world. Leftwing politicians don’t cut budgets; they propose new taxes. And California’s leftwing legislature did just that. But thanks to a constitutional amendment put in place by the California electorate through the state Initiative process, California legislators can’t raise taxes without a two-thirds referendum of the people. So they were forced to hold a special election in May to appeal to the electorate to pass five new ballot Initiatives to raise taxes.</p>
<p>But when the votes were counted, all five tax-raising Initiatives had been defeated by 60% margins. Even in San Francisco. A sixth Initiative designed by tax opponents to punish legislators who do not balance the budget passed by a more than <em>70%</em> margin. Even in San Francisco. If one of the most liberal states in the Union is saying no to the soak-the-public philosophy of leftwing legislators, Obama socialism is in big trouble.</p>
<p>The revolt in California quickly spread to the entire nation through the efforts of the Tea Parties movement, the most innovative, exciting and powerful grassroots force in the history of American conservatism. It is vital to the health of this country that the Tea Parties movement grow. More to the point: it is essential to American survival that the Tea Parties movement succeed. On the eve of the 2008 presidential election, Barack Obama said “We are five days away from fundamentally transforming America.” The Tea Parties movement is the American people saying no to Obama’s plans for revolution.</p>
<p align="center">*          *          *</p>
<p>A movement without an effective strategy for defeating its opponents cannot succeed. Therefore it is important to reacquaint ourselves with the art of political war.</p>
<p align="left">While Democrats are morally bankrupt and clueless about policy – about what makes things work &#8212; they still win elections because they understand a simple fact: American politics is driven by the romance of the underdog, the story of the little guy who goes up against the system and triumphs in the end. It is a story about opportunity and fairness. To win the hearts and minds of the American voter, you have to tap the emotions the romance of the underdog evokes. Whoever does so has a winning edge.</p>
<p>America’s heroes are all cut to this common mold. Whether it is George Washington, Abraham Lincoln, Davy Crockett, Thomas Edison, Henry Ford, Amelia Earhart, Jackie Robinson, Ronald Reagan or Colin Powell, the theme is always the same: The common man who rises against the odds. America’s political romance is “Mr. Smith Goes To Washington” to make things right. It is “Meet John Doe” who speaks for the voiceless. It is Luke Skywalker who saves the planet by using the good side of the Force to defeat the Empire. It is the odyssey of individuals who challenge power, overcome adversity and rise to the top. Everyone in America thinks of themselves as an underdog and aspires to be a hero.</p>
<p>The cause of the underdog wins American hearts because it resonates with our deepest religious and moral convictions of doing good and helping others. And because it is America’s own story. We began as a small nation, standing up to the world’s most powerful empire. We dedicated ourselves to the idea that all men are created equal. We are a nation of immigrants and a generous people who arrived with nothing and made fortunes in a new world. This is the American Dream.</p>
<p>It’s a story that will get you every time. But at election time, it’s the political left and the Democratic Party who know how to wield it as a political weapon, and Republicans and conservatives generally who don’t. Of course the Tea Parties have changed all that. And that is another sign that we are in an extraordinary political moment. The Tea Parties draw on the heritage of America’s own revolution as an underdog nation and are the voice of the people, oppressed now by their own government which is out of control and determined to crush them.</p>
<p>*</p>
<p>In positioning themselves as champions of the under-represented, neglected and oppressed, leftists employ a version of America’s story that they have manufactured through their grip on the media and the academic culture. They have transformed America’s story from an epic of freedom into a tale of racism, exploitation and domination. In their telling, American history is no longer a narrative of expanding opportunity, of men and women succeeding against the odds. Instead, it is a Marxist Morality Play about the powerful and their victims.</p>
<p>In staging their political dramas, progressives invariably claim to speak in the name of America’s alleged “victims.” Every policy of the Democratic Party is presented as a program to help these “victims”—women, children, minorities and the poor. Simultaneously, Democrats describe Republican policies as programs that will injure the weak, ignore the vulnerable, and keep the powerless down.</p>
<p>Republicans play right into the Democrats’ trap because they approach politics as a problem of management. To Republicans, every issue is a management issue—the utility of a tax cut, the efficiency of a program, the optimal method for running an enterprise. Republicans talk like businessmen who want a chance to manage the country so that it will turn a profit.</p>
<p>There is nothing wrong with instituting good policies and running things efficiently or turning a profit. But while Republicans are performing these Gold Star activities, Democrats are engaged in a different kind of drama. They are busy attacking Republicans as servants of the rich, oppressors of the weak and defenders of the strong. And enemies of “the people.”</p>
<p>Listen to Mario Cuomo describing Republicans to the Democrats’ 1996 National Convention:</p>
<blockquote><p>We need to work as we have never done before between now and November 5th to take the Congress back from Newt Gingrich and the Republicans, because ladies and gentlemen, brothers and sisters, the Republicans are the real threat. They are the real threat to our women. They are the real threat to our children. They are the real threat to clean water, clean air and the rich landscape of America.</p></blockquote>
<p>Mario Cuomo knows the language of political war.</p>
<p>Democrats connect emotionally with people’s fears and concerns. The appeal to help the underdog and defend the victim resonates with all Americans. This is because Americans are a fair-minded people. Most successful Americans came from humble origins themselves. They want to help others. They want everyone to have the chance to succeed.</p>
<p>So do Republicans and conservatives. But they rarely connect their policies and principles to this political romance.</p>
<p>There’s a good reason for this. Conservatives are busy defending the real America against the left’s attacks and the anti-American caricature they have constructed. Conservatives know that America is still a land of opportunity and freedom, and that nobody in America is really “oppressed.” (Otherwise, why would poor, black, Hispanic and Asian minorities be desperately seeking to come here? Why wouldn’t they be leaving instead?)</p>
<p>But politics isn’t just about reality. If it were, good principles and good policies would win every time. It’s about images and symbols, and the emotions they evoke. This is a battle that conservatives generally lose.</p>
<p>In the romance of the victim, as progressives stage it, Republicans and conservatives are always on the side of the bad guys—the powerful, the male, the white and the wealthy. It’s easy to see how patriotism plays into this trap. Defending America is readily mis-represented as an attitude that says: “I’m all right Jack, so you should be too.” The left relishes the opportunity to smear patriots as members of the selfish party instead of as defenders of individual freedom.</p>
<p>Ann Coulter has described the motto of the left as this: “Speak loudly and carry a small victim.” For the Democrats, the romance of the victim stirs the souls of their supporters and energizes their base. Equally important, it provides the nuclear warhead of their political attack. Conservatives are targeted victimizers, and leftists as the champions of the oppressed. Learning how to turn this around will turn around the political war as well.</p>
<p align="center">Going On The Attack</p>
<p>Fortunately, conservatives can use the left-wing attack against them. Contrary to the left’s view, America is not a land of victims. It is a highly mobile society, with a citizenry that aspires upwards <em>through</em> the system, not against it.</p>
<p>Conservatives can also turn the left’s oppression myth around, and aim its guns at <em>them</em>. In fact, using the romance of the underdog against the left is the best way to neutralize their attack.</p>
<p align="left">The way to do it is to recognize that the most powerful forces obstructing opportunity for poor and minority Americans, the most powerful forces oppressing them, are progressives, the Democratic Party, and their political creation—the welfare state.</p>
<p>There is really nothing new in this idea. Conservatives already oppose the programs of the left as obstacles to the production of wealth and barriers to opportunity for all Americans. What is new is the idea of connecting this analysis to a political strategy that will give conservatives a decisive edge in battle—that will neutralize the class, race and gender warfare attacks of the political left.</p>
<p style="text-align: center;">The Principles</p>
<p>Here are the principles of political war that the left understands but conservatives do not:</p>
<p>1. Politics is war conducted by other means</p>
<p>2. Politics is a war of position</p>
<p>3. In political wars the aggressor usually prevails</p>
<p>4. Position is defined by fear and hope</p>
<p>5. The weapons of politics are symbols evoking fear and hope</p>
<p>6. Victory lies on the side of the people</p>
<p>Here are the principles explained:</p>
<p align="center"><em>Politics is war conducted by other means.</em></p>
<p>In political warfare you do not fight just to prevail in an argument, but to destroy the enemy’s fighting ability. Conservatives often seem to regard political combats as they would a debate before the Oxford Political Union, as though winning depends on rational arguments and carefully articulated principles. But the audience of politics is not made up of Oxford dons, and the rules are entirely different.</p>
<p>For starters, you have only 30 seconds to make your point. Even if you had time to develop an argument, the audience you need to reach (the undecided and those in the middle who are not paying much attention) wouldn’t get it. Your words would go over some of their heads and the rest would not even hear them (or be quickly forgotten) amidst the bustle and pressure of daily life. Worse, while you’ve been making your argument the other side has already painted you as a mean-spirited, border-line racist controlled by religious zealots, securely in the pockets of the rich. Nobody who sees you this way is going to listen to you in any case. You’re politically dead.</p>
<p>Politics is war. Don’t forget it.</p>
<p align="center"><em>Politics is a war of position.</em></p>
<p align="left">In war there are two sides: friends and enemies. Your task is to define yourself as the friend of as large a constituency compatible with your principles as possible, while defining your opponent as their enemy wherever and whenever you can. The act of defining combatants is analogous to the military concept of choosing the terrain of battle.</p>
<p>Choose the terrain that makes the fight as loaded in your favor as possible. But be careful. American politics takes place in a pluralistic framework, where constituencies are diverse and often in conflict. “Fairness” and “tolerance” are the formal rules of democratic engagement. If you appear mean-spirited, nasty, or too judgmental, it will make the task easier for your opponent to define you as a threat, and therefore as “the enemy.” (See principle 4)</p>
<p align="center"><em>In political warfare, the aggressor usually prevails.</em></p>
<p>Conservatives often pursue a strategy of waiting for the other side to attack. In football this is known as a “prevent defense.” In politics it is the strategy of losers.</p>
<p>Aggression is advantageous because politics is a war of position. Position is defined by images that stick. By striking first you can define the issues and your adversary. Defining the opposition is the decisive move in all political war. Other things being equal, whoever is put on the defensive generally winds up on the losing side.</p>
<p>In attacking your opponent, take care to do it right. Going negative increases the risk of being defined as an enemy. Therefore, it can be counter-productive. Ruling out the negative, however, can incur an even greater risk.</p>
<p align="center"><em>Position is defined by fear and hope.</em></p>
<p>The twin emotions of politics are fear and hope. Those who provide people with hope become their friends; those who inspire fear become enemies. Of the two, hope is the better choice. By offering people hope and yourself as its provider, you show your better side and maximize your potential support.</p>
<p>But fear is a powerful and indispensable weapon. If your opponent defines you negatively enough, he will diminish your ability to offer hope. This is why Democrats are so determined to portray conservatives as mean-spirited, and hostile to minorities, the middle class and the poor.</p>
<p>It is important to work away from the negative images your opponent wants to pin on you. If you know you are going to be attacked as intolerant and bigoted it’s a good idea to lead with a position that is inclusive and fair-minded. If you are going to be framed as mean-spirited and ungenerous, it’s a good idea to put on a smile and lead with symbols that project generosity and charity.</p>
<p align="center"><em>The weapons of politics are symbols evoking fear and hope.</em></p>
<p>Conservatives lose a lot of political battles because they come across as hard-edged, scolding, scowling and sanctimonious. A good rule of thumb says be just the opposite. You have to convince people you care about them before they’ll care about what you have to say.</p>
<p>When you do get to speak, don’t forget that a sound-bite is all you have. Whatever you have to say, make sure to say it loud and clear. Keep it simple and keep it short. (A slogan is always better). Repeat it often. Get it on television. Radio is good, but with few exceptions, only television reaches a public that is electorally significant. In politics, television is reality.</p>
<p>Of course, you have a base of supporters who will listen for hours to what you have to say if that’s what you want. In the battles facing you, they will play an important role. Therefore, what you say to them is also important. But it is not going to decide elections. The audiences that will determine your fate are audiences that you will first have to persuade. You will have to find a way to reach them and get them to listen. And get them to support you. With these audiences, you will never have time for real arguments or proper analyses. Images—symbols and sound-bites—will always prevail.</p>
<p>Therefore it is absolutely essential to focus your message and repeat it over and over again. Lack of focus will derail your message. If you make too many points, your message will be diffused and nothing will get through. The result will be the same as if you had made no point at all.</p>
<p>Leftists have a party line. When they are fighting an issue they focus their agenda. During legislative battles, every time a Democrat steps in front of the cameras there is at least one line in his speech that is shared with his colleagues. “Tax breaks for the wealthy at the expense of the poor,” is one example. Repetition insures that the message will get through.</p>
<p>When Republicans speak during legislative battles, they all march to a different drummer. There are many messages instead of one. One message is a sound-bite. Many messages are an indecipherable noise. The result of many messages is that there is no message.</p>
<p>Symbols and sound-bites determine the vote. These are what hit people in the gut before they have time to think. And these are what people remember. Symbols are the impressions that last, and what ultimately defines you.</p>
<p>Carefully chosen words and phrases are more important than paragraphs, speeches, party platforms and manifestos. What you project through images is what you are.</p>
<p align="center"><em>Victory lies on the side of the people.</em></p>
<p>This is the bottom line for each of the principles and for all of the principles. You must define yourself in ways that people understand. You must give people hope in your victory, and make them fear the victory of your opponent. You can accomplish both by identifying yourself and your issues with the underdog and the victim, with minorities and the disadvantaged, with the ordinary Janes and Joes.</p>
<p>This is what leftists do best, and conservatives often neglect to do at all. Every political statement by a leftist is an effort to say: “We care about women, children, minorities, working Americans and the poor.” And: “Conservatives are mean-spirited, serve the rich and don’t care about you.” This is the left’s strategy of political war. If conservatives are to win the political war we have to turn these images around.</p>
<p>We also have to make our campaigns a cause. During the Cold War, conservatives had a cause. They were saving the country from Communism. It was a cause that resonated at every level with the American people. The poorest citizen understood that their freedom was at stake in making sure that conservatives were elected to conduct the nation’s defense.</p>
<p>In a democracy, the cause that fires up passions is the cause of the people. That is why politicians like to run “against Washington” and against anything that represents the “powers that be.” As the left has shown, the idea of justice is a powerful motivator. It will energize the troops and fuel the campaigns that are necessary to win the political war. Conservatives believe in economic opportunity and individual freedom. The core of our ideas is freedom and justice for all. If we can make this intelligible to the American electorate, we will become the majority again and stop the socialist juggernaut that threatens our American future.</p>
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