Thought for Today

"You may gain temporary appeasement by a policy of concession to violence, but you do not gain lasting peace that way."

~~~~~ Anthony Eden

Thought for Today

"An infallible method of conciliating a tiger is to allow oneself to be devoured."

~~~~~ Konrad Adenauer

Thought for Today

"Tragically, this administration seems hell-bent to avoid seeing acts of terrorism against the United States as acts of war. The very phrase 'war on terrorism' is avoided, as if that will stop the terrorists' war on us. The mindset of the left behind such thinking was spelled out in an editorial in the San Francisco Chronicle, which said that 'Khalid Shaikh Mohammed, the professed mastermind of the 9/11 terrorist attacks, will be tried the right way -- the American way, in a federal courtroom where the world will see both his guilt and the nation's adherence to the rule of law.' This is not the rule of law but the application of laws to situations for which they were not designed. How many Americans may pay with their lives for the intelligence secrets and methods that can forced to be disclosed to Al Qaeda was not mentioned. Nor was there mention of how many foreign nations and individuals whose cooperation with us in the war on terror have been involved in countering Al Qaeda -- nor how many foreign nations and individuals will have to think twice now, before cooperating with us again, when their role can be revealed in court to our enemies, who can exact revenge on them."

~~~~~ Thomas Sowell

Thought for Today

"Conservatism is the political belief that best mirrors human nature across time and space; but because its precepts are sometimes tragic and demand responsibility rather than ever-expanding rights, it requires adept communicators – not triangulators and appeasers whose pleasure is only for the moment."

~~~~~ Victor Davis Hanson

Thought for Today

That liberals aren’t enamored of real freedom may have something to do with responsibility -- that cumbersome backpack which all free men have to lug on life’s aerobic nature hike. The second item in the liberal creed, after self-righteousness, is unaccountability. Liberals have invented whole college majors -- psychology, sociology, women’s studies - to prove that nothing is anybody’s fault. No one is fond of taking responsibility for his actions, but consider how much you’d have to hate free will to come up with a political platform that advocates killing unborn babies but not convicted murderers. A callous pragmatist might favor abortion AND capital punishment. A devout Christian would sanction neither. But it takes years of therapy to arrive at the liberal point of view.

~~~~~ P.J. O'Rourke

The Old Jarhead: I'm Tired

I'm Tired is a truly great blog post written 4 months ago by Marine Vietnam veteran Robert A. Hall. It has spread virally all over the internet, and finally made it into my mailbox a little while ago. If you haven't read it yet, you need to. Here's how it begins:

I’ll be 63 soon. Except for one semester in college when jobs were scarce, and a six-month period when I was between jobs, but job-hunting every day, I’ve worked, hard, since I was 18. Despite some health challenges, I still put in 50-hour weeks, and haven’t called in sick in seven or eight years. I make a good salary, but I didn’t inherit my job or my income, and I worked to get where I am. Given the economy, there’s no retirement in sight, and I’m tired. Very tired.

I’m tired of being told that I have to “spread the wealth around” to people who don’t have my work ethic. I’m tired of being told the government will take the money I earned, by force if necessary, and give it to people too lazy or stupid to earn it.

I’m tired of being told that I have to pay more taxes to “keep people in their homes.” Sure, if they lost their jobs or got sick, I’m willing to help. But if they bought McMansions at three times the price of our paid-off, $250,000 condo, on one-third of my salary, then let the leftwing Congresscritters who passed Fannie and Freddie and the Community Reinvestment Act that created the bubble help them—with their own money.

I’m tired of being told how bad America is by leftwing millionaires like Michael Moore, George Soros and Hollywood entertainers who live in luxury because of the opportunities America offers. In thirty years, if they get their way, the United States will have the religious freedom and women’s rights of Saudi Arabia, the economy of Zimbabwe, the freedom of the press of China, the crime and violence of Mexico, the tolerance for Gay people of Iran, and the freedom of speech of Venezuela. Won’t multiculturalism be beautiful?

You can read the rest of it, along with the many comments it has attracted, here.

North Korea As Seen by Zack Rawsthorne

Here's the Diversity Lane take on the North Koreans and how not to handle the situation:

More from Thomas Paine: Open Letter to President Obama

Last month, I wrote about my old shipmate Bob Basso and his very popular series of Thomas Paine videos. Bob just dropped me a note about his latest effort. I watched it, and recommend it wholeheartedly. It's an outstanding video. As good as the previous three have been, I think this one is the best of all. Here it is:

Mark Steyn: "Israel Today, the West Tomorrow"

In "Israel Today, the West Tomorrow," an essay appearing in the May, 2009 issue of Commentary Magazine, Mark Steyn brings us up to date on the dramatic changes occurring in the nations of Western Europe, and even in Canada. Here's how he begins this very disturbing article:

On Holocaust Memorial Day 2008, a group of just under 100 people—Londoners and a few visitors —took a guided tour of the old Jewish East End. They visited, among other sites of interest, the birthplace of my old chum Lionel Bart, the author of Oliver! Three generations of schoolchildren have grown up singing Bart’s lyric:

     Consider yourself
     At ’ome!
     Consider yourself
     One of the family!

Those few dozen London Jews considered themselves at ’ome. But they weren’t. Not any more. The tour was abruptly terminated when the group was pelted with stones, thrown by “youths”—or to be slightly less evasive, in the current euphemism of Fleet Street, “Asian” youths. “If you go any further, you’ll die,” they shouted, in between the flying rubble.

It seems that in response to relentless pressure from the increasingly bold and aggressive practitioners of the Religion of Peace, governments all over Europe and Canada are caving in and allowing violent mobs to commit egregious acts of anti-semitism, assault, and destruction of property. He describes one such incident, boldly and proudly videotaped by the perpetrators themselves, in which a sizable mob dressed in identical green "Boycott Israel" t-shirts invaded and trashed a Carrefour superstore in France. You can see the video for yourself (dialogue is in French) – watch it and draw your own conclusions.



While the mob stripped the store of every item with a connection to Israel and terrorized the shoppers, no one lifted a finger to stop them.

When (not if) such incidents begin to occur here in the US, our first line of defense is our local and state authorities. Most of them – certainly those here in Tennessee – are equal to the task. That's very fortunate, because if push comes to shove – as it already has in Great Britain and the countries of Western Europe – how likely is it that Barack Hussein Obama would take any action to stop them?

Mark's article is both urgent and important. Unfortunately, it's a harbinger of things to come in the US if we continue to follow along the same suicidal path as our British, Canadian, and European friends. It may well be too late for them. We still have a little time – but none to waste. From this point forward, we must begin to enforce our immigration laws in order to keep undesirable elements out of the country and deport those who already live among us. If we fail to do so, we will seal our own fate – and we will deserve it.

By all means go read the whole piece.

A Prophetic Cartoonist

Eleven months ago, I posted this Gary Varvel editorial cartoon:


In view of recent events, it seems eerily prescient, doesn't it?

The Audacity of Naïveté

My late father used to tell me, "If somebody spits in your eye, don't just look up and say 'It's raining.'" Apparently, our PITOTUS* hasn't yet learned that lesson.


*President-in-Training of the United States

Hat tip: Zack Rawsthorne of Diversity Lane.com

Motivation

Hat tip: Michael Ramirez and Townhall.com

Hat tip: Steve Kelley and Jewish World Review

Piracy: The Family Business?

Travis Kavulla, a journalist and scholar with an intimate knowledge of African history, disagrees with the prevailing opinion that Somalian piracy is the result of anarchy. Instead, he posits, it is, in effect, a family business, run as a profit-making enterprise by surprisingly well-organized Somali clans. His post to NRO's The Corner, "Piracy: The Family Business?" expounds upon his theory:

Clan’s usefulness became obvious to me last November, when I went to Mombasa, Kenya’s coastal port city, to attend the trial of eight Somali pirates who had been dumped there by the U.S. navy for prosecution. Sitting in the courtroom, waiting for the pirates to be brought forward, I watched as Kenyan after Kenyan was called to the dock to have read charges against him. Each defendant, whether on trial for murder or armed assault or simple theft, lacked defense counsel. Then came the Somalis and, as their case number was read, a figure in black robe and white wig leapt forward: the pirates’ attorney, one of Mombasa’s best, who later told me he was being paid from a Dubai account to the tune of thousands of dollars. Clan had come through for these pirates.

Kavulla believes that our response to the Maersk Alabama hijacking was exactly right, while the feckless response of most European nations exacerbates the problem.

I think he makes a great deal of sense. Read it and see if you agree.

Just Wondering ...

By now, everyone knows that the hostage situation off the coast of Somalia has ended well. Capt. Richard Phillips is safe, and will shortly be rejoining his family. On the other hand, three of the pirates have not fared too well after experiencing first-hand the effects of a perfectly aimed high velocity projectile when it enters the human skull. Presumably, being adherents of the ROP, they have already joined their promised 72 virgins. Their diminutive 16-year-old colleague, having had the good sense to inveigle his way aboard the USS BAINBRIDGE to "negotiate," is still alive, in reasonably good health, in custody, undoubtedly enjoying the best food and most comfortable quarters he has ever experienced – and is looking forward to an involuntary trip to New York and a lengthy prison sentence.

All in all, a nice day's work for the U.S. Navy, and in particular for the incomparable SEALs and the captain and crew of the BAINBRIDGE. Capt. Phillips deserves a tremendous amount of credit for his own survival, too. He kept his wits about him under the most trying circumstances imaginable, and managed to maneuver his captors into an untenable situation from which they had no realistic possibility of escape. Finally, credit where credit is due: overall, President Obama handled this situation just about perfectly. Bravo Zulu to all! (That's Navy-ese for "Well Done.")

Nevertheless, I'm just wondering about one thing. When Capt. Phillips attempted to escape from his captors by jumping out of the lifeboat and trying to swim to the nearby USS BAINBRIDGE, apparently no one aboard the destroyer made any attempt to help him. Consider: Capt. Phillips is a 53-year-old man – obviously a man in excellent physical condition, but nevertheless 53 years old &ndash yet he intentionally leaped into shark-infested waters at night. Isn't it likely that he fully expected the crew of the BAINBRIDGE to come to his aid? I'm sure that they wanted to help him – so why didn't they?

As a former U.S. Navy officer, I can think of only two possibilities. Either there was some other factor of which we are not aware which precluded any assistance from the BAINBRIDGE, or – far more likely, I'm afraid – the captain of the BAINBRIDGE was operating under rules of engagement that prohibited him from using force without direct presidential authorization.

In due course, and following not one, but two requests from the Defense Department, the captain of the BAINBRIDGE was finally authorized to do what needed to be done. As soon as the opportunity presented itself, he did it – flawlessly.

But what took so long? Considering the nature of his assignment, why was the captain of the BAINBRIDGE not authorized from the beginning to use his own judgment? And why did the Secretary of Defense have to ask the President twice to grant permission?

As I said, just wondering ...

UPDATE: Over at Pajamas Media, Jeff Emanuel, a military veteran with actual experience as a Special Forces soldier, has also been wondering: The Story of a Successful Rescue (and the Obama Adminstration’s Attempt to Claim Credit). He mistakenly refers to "the small inflatable lifeboat" (it was a 28-foot rigid fiberglass-hulled pod-type craft with a diesel engine), but aside from that minor detail, he's right on the money when he states:

What should have been a standoff lasting only hours — as long as it took the USS Bainbridge and its team of NSWC operators to steam to the location — became an embarrassing four-day-and-counting standoff between a rag-tag handful of criminals with rifles and a U.S. Navy warship.

It'll be worth your time to click the link and read the rest of Jeff's piece. When it comes to Special Ops, he knows what he's talking about – a claim I certainly cannot make. (My three years' experience as a Navy officer was spent aboard a geological survey ship which never fired a shot in anger during my entire tour of duty.)

UPDATE II: Take a look at How the rescue happened by retired Special Forces Master Sergeant Uncle Jimbo, writing at the superb milblog Blackfive. Be sure to read the comments, too – particularly those from Major Kong. Here's a small sample:

Now, how do we deal with the problem of piracy on the Horn of Africa on the larger, long-term, strategic level? Here are my ideas (nothing particularly original here):

1. Arm the merchant ships. If the shipping companies don't want to arm the crews for liability reasons, then hire professional security companies to provide armed escorts while transiting that particular region. Blackwater (or Xe, or whatever they're calling themselves these days) sounds like a perfect fit for this mission, given their roots in the Naval Special Warfare community, and they're probably looking for a few new gigs after losing their biggest contract in Iraq.

2. Utilize "Q-Ship" operations. That is, outfit a number of vessels to look like harmless, helpless merchant ships. Have them ply up and down the East Coast of Africa, making port calls in Mombassa, etc., where the crews disembark and drink it up at the local bars, telling everyone about the fantastically valuable cargoes they are carrying. In fact, of course, the ships are full of special ops-types in full kit, with camouflaged heavy weapons like M2s, Mk-19s, and Barrett .50s. When pirates attempt to assault the Q-Ships, smoke them like beef jerky. Wash, rinse, repeat...

Great stuff!

UPDATE III:


Hat tip: Henry Payne and Townhall.com

Putting Israel At Risk

Israeli author Naomi Ragen tell us about Learning the Hard Way. Here's a pull quote:

I know that I am helpless to stop this juggernaut towards disaster. Perhaps it is America's turn to experience first hand what we in Israel experienced: the consequences of electing a leadership which does not have the best interests of the country in mind; which has an agenda that has nothing to do with those interests. Sometimes people have to make horrible mistakes in order to learn that they are horrible mistakes. In Israel, this included over 25,000 terrorist attacks. Children dying in the streets. Being afraid to walk to the bus stop or enter a store.

Kyle-Anne Shiver read it, then wrote this Open Letter to Americans Who Love Israel. It begins like this:

Please, dear reader, do call me a skeptic; I am one. I started learning the price of gullibility in first grade. I traded my chocolate chip cookies to a third grader for his promise of a new pencil sharpener at recess. He lied; I learned.

My grandfather helped. He taught me to “always consider the source” before believing a promise and to never place my trust in an untrustworthy person. I lived and I learned.

Now that I’m well into my sixth decade of life, I’m a very hard sell. And the higher the stakes riding on the promise, the more care I put into my decision to proffer my trust.

When it comes to Israel and her survival as a free nation, the stakes are so high that it behooves even the most trusting American to examine closely the words and records of our candidates in this regard. And, sadly, we are forced to admit that the only reason Joe Biden had to make the reassuring statement above to Jews in Florida is that his candidate, Barack Obama, has the most tenuous, nearly nonexistent, and utterly unreliable “record” of any candidate ever to seek the presidency.

Especially in the arena of foreign affairs. Especially with regard to Israel and the Palestinians.

If you care at all about the fate of Israel, you'll want to read both columns carefully.

"In his world … intentions and words do all the heavy lifting."

In Evil Under the Sun – Barack Obama and American exceptionalism, Noemie Emery presents a sobering assessment of Obama's worldview.

Yes, way back on June 17th, I predicted that Obama's Going to Lose, and I still believe it. But if I'm wrong, we're in for a very rough ride during the next few years.

Obama-ism "New"? Not Hardly!

Trying to discuss the specifics of The Obamessiah's proposals can be difficult, because they keep zigging and zagging according to his handlers' perception of what his audience of the moment wants to hear. Last week, in frustration at yet another sudden policy shift during a debate, exasperated McCain adviser Douglas Holtz-Eakin exploded, "I think they just made it up. They will say anything in the moment. This is like trying to pin Jello to the wall."

Nevertheless, there are a few constants in the fog. One is the Obamabots' firm belief that Their Hero's policies are new and different. In his latest column, Obama's Not ‘New’, Jonah Goldberg proves that they are anything but. In fact, Obama is proposing that we adopt century-old ideas which have failed every time they have been tried.

There’s an old saying: The oldest word in American politics is “new.” Only in that sense is there anything new to Barack Obama.

Obama prefers the word “progressive” to “liberal” because it makes it sound like he’s shedding old liberal ideas. But if he is, it’s only to embrace older ones.

America first encountered the vision Obama espouses under Woodrow Wilson, the first progressive president and the first to openly disparage the U.S. Constitution as a hindrance to enlightened government. His new idea was to replace it with a “living constitution” that empowered government to evolve beyond that document’s constraints. The Bill of Rights, lamented the progressives, inhibited what the government can do to people, but it failed to delineate what it must do for people.

The old conception of individualism needed to be replaced by a new system in which the citizen would “marry his interests to the state,” in Wilson’s words. This would allow the state to fulfill the progressive pledge to “spread the prosperity around.” Obama shares Wilson’s faith in a living constitution and has argued that Supreme Court judges should be confirmed based on their empathy for the downtrodden.

Read the rest of it, and learn how Obama is merely the latest in a long line of leftists attempting to implement the statist ideas of the saint of the "Progressive Education" crowd, John Dewey.

"If you care about Israel’s security, vote for McCain."

One of the Chicago Boyz, David Foster, tells us that Israelis Support John McCain.

…most of them do, anyhow. Polls show that 70% of Israelis would vote for McCain if they were eligible to vote in the U.S. election.

And some of them are. There are an estimated 40,000 Americans residing in Israel who are eligible to cast absentee ballots, and many of them will be voting in swing states. The chairman of Republicans Abroad in Israel predicts a 75% vote for McCain, although other reports show a large number of undecideds.

Read the rest of it and find out why.

Leftists As Perpetual Teenagers

Dmitry Radyshevsky, the Executive Director of the Jerusalem Summit, has written a fascinating YNetNews.com column in which he posits the failure of leftists in general, and Barack Obama in particular, to complete their metamorphosis from children to adults. Instead, he believes that throughout their lives, they remain in a mental state of perpetual "teenage-ness ··· unrelated to their physical age." In the piece, Obama in the Tube, he writes

The politicians of the Left are in a sense like rock stars (whom they court so arduously): their teenage-ness is unrelated to their physical age and stems from the need to keep up their image among their fans – that is, voters. Shimon Peres, “Still Crazy after All Those Years”, is still calling for peace with Palestinian jihadists, as if his Oslo process had not led to thousands of victims. Another eternal teenager, Tony Blair, proposes that we pump hundreds millions more euros in Near East dictatorships.

And now Barack Obama, the youngest of them all, intends to sit down for tea with Ahmadinejad in order to solve all the problems about the Coming of Mahdi. One of these problems is that hundreds of millions of Shiites have a good mind to commemorate the said arrival with an Armageddon. (Some Obama critics claim that his main argument with Ahmadinejad will be “But I am the Messiah! I am the one you have been waiting for!”)

Radyshevsky's hypothesis uniquely explains a great deal of leftist behavior which is otherwise incomprehensible to conservatives. By all means read it through.

"Is America Really Going To Do This?"

Nashville blogger Kay Brooks highly recommends Melanie Phillips' latest contribution to the British Spectator in her post Getting down to brass tacks. Phillips, a brilliant author (most recent book: Londonistan) and essayist, asks in disbelief, Is America really going to do this?

Kay was particularly struck by these words

McCain believes in protecting and defending America as it is. Obama tells the world he is ashamed of America and wants to change it into something else. McCain stands for American exceptionalism, the belief that American values are superior to tyrannies. Obama stands for the expiation of America’s original sin in oppressing black people, the third world and the poor.

about which she commented "That's as succinctly worded a paragraph about the difference between these two men as I've read thus far."

Particularly for those with an interest in Israel and its fate, I'd recommend reading Melanie Phillips' entire essay. It will be well worth your time.