Category Archives: Iraq
Name that Enemy
Eli Lake thinks he knows why President Obama won’t name the enemy. In a Bloomberg column Lake says it’s because many of our allies in the Muslim world share the same beliefs but not the violent tactics of Islamic radicals. He cites a 2013 Pew Survey that says 74 percent of Egyptian Muslims favor Sharia law for Muslims and infidels alike.
Three-quarters of Pakistani Muslims support laws banning blasphemy. A majority of Muslim Iraqis said they supported “honor killings” of women who engage in premarital sex or adultery.
All of this gets to a paradox of the war on terror. It has never been a war on the tactic of terrorism, and it has always been a war against networks of radical Islamists. But in order to wage that war, the U.S. has had to ally with Muslim countries and people, many of whom believe the state should punish apostates, adulterers and blasphemers.
Can’t have a War without an Enemy
The administration doesn’t like to call it a war either – try overseas contingency operations. John Kerry in his 2004 run for the presidency called it a nuisance.
That would explain the detainees at Gitmo. If there’s no war they’re not POWs. If they can’t be prosecuted they have to be released.
Here’s a link to Roosevelt’s Day of Infamy speech.
Third String quarterbacks and JV Terrorists
Cardale Jones, the quarterback for Ohio State’s national champion football team says he’s not yet ready for the NFL. He wants to work his way up from third string to second or maybe even first team for the Buckeye’s first.
Cardale has set the tone for benchwarmers everywhere. The Islamic State scrubs come to mind. ISIS doesn’t just hack off heads anymore. It’s now a cyber terror group. ISIS is taking credit for hacking US Central Command computers and exposing military personnel through social networking accounts.
The Commander in Chief, whose address is already exposed, once proclaimed ISIS the JV team.
Bush Lied Thousands Died
It turns out that Saddam Hussein did have weapons of mass destruction when President Bush invaded Iraq. It’s just that they were old weapons the NYT reports. Whatever their age some of the weapons are now in the hands of ISIS and may have been used against the Kurds.
Bush
Professor Victor Davis Hanson points out that President Obama is now preemptively bombing ISIS. As usual he’s not asking Congress for approval. He’s relying on Bush’s 12 year old congressional authorization.
Turkey, Kurds, and Isis
Turkey seems content to allow ISIS to wipe out the Kurds on its border in the Syrian town of Kobani. The Kurds have threatened to renew guerrilla war against the Turks if they don’t give a little help.
Meanwhile tribal forces in Iraq’s Anbar province say they can’t resist Isis without American ground troops.
David Ignatius, in the Washington Post, says that limited conflicts have a way of ratcheting upwards. He adds, “since the days of the Romans limited warfare has rarely been successful”.
Wartime President
The man elected to “end war” has become a wartime president.
In a UN speech on Wednesday President Obama called the civilized world to arms against the barbarians. He sounded positively Bushian.
There can be no reasoning, no negotiation, with this brand of evil. The only language understood by killers like this is the language of force. So the United States of America will work with a broad coalition to dismantle this network of death.
Axis of Evil anyone? Dana Milbank thinks so.
Wartime
The WSJ (The Latest Mideast Breakdown) said he sounded like a “Nobel Peace Prize winner mugged by reality”.
