Category Archives: Iraq

“…the ICU at Bethesda Naval fills up…”

And nobody in Obozo’s court media gives a rat’s rear. Or, for that matter, among Mittens and his entourage.

‘Course, if Mittens wins in November, it will all be different. The court media will suddenly get crackin’ on being journalists, so-called, again. They always do with Republicans in the White House, you know.

And then maybe they’ll notice our troops who’ve been hung out to dry in Afghanistan by Obozo (though they certainly won’t mention that part) and start demanding that Mittens do something about all those American wounded clogging the ICU at Bethesda Naval…

Returning to Iraq

It seems likely to me that our military departure can’t last long. Iran will meddle in Iraqi affairs even more than they already do, and the political coalitions we helped scrape together will fall apart. Some of them already are.

We’ve kept troops in Germany since 1944, but a decade in Iraq is too long? Leaving Afghanistan I understand. It’s a pity, considering all the Americans who died there, but staying isn’t producing much of value to anyone.

Quite the opposite, it seems to me, in Iraq. But Obumbles is nothing if not inept. So we’re leaving, largely to keep the Donkey base happy. But I won’t be surprised if it becomes necessary to return before the 2010s are out.

Bomb, bomb, bomb, bomb, bomb Iran

Messy? You bet. Otherwise, however, we have as Lee Smith wrote last week in Tablet, become Iran’s ally in its drive to create a nuclear weapon. And Obamalot’s recent decision to withdraw our troops from Iraq, only adds to the problem.

“It was misguided to turn American soldiers into potential hostages to Iranian terror. It’s a hundred times MORE misguided now to pull our forces out of Iraq: we need the capacity to deter Iran from swinging its weight in Iraq and turning it into a Persian satrapy. (The Baghdad government might not like this, but if we really want to, we have ways to persuade regimes like this to cooperate.)”

After all, if we can cooperate in Daffy Gadaffi’s execution… And if Obamalot must remain gutless on Iran, at least they can pull our forces out of Europe. They’ve been there, and very expensively, since 1945.

9/11 ten years later

What’s changed since that awful morning?

Well, nothing on the Islamic war against the West. It continues. Our all-volunteer military, while benefiting from a new generation of volunteers, remains stressed with two major campaigns and a host of smaller ones. For the first time, the National Guard and Reserves have become continuously- active parts of the active-duty force.

But the war is not (officially) called the War on Terror anymore (which, though clumsy and avoiding the main [Muslim] issue, was, at least, descriptive)—thanks to the Dumbocrats and their academic, Hollywood and media surrogates, who’ve impeded it every step of the way.

They’ve always been more concerned with nomenclature than reality. Green energy, anyone?

The war itself is still pretty much of a loser. Caroline Glick says it’s because Bush Jr.’s toughest words never got translated into action, the USA still refuses to admit it’s fighting radical Islam, and appeasement of Muslim countries in the Middle East remains the order of the day. Sigh.

Airline travel has become (if possible) even more onerous. We take off our shoes now, in order to get aboard, in honor of would-be terrorist Richard Reid (serving a life sentence in Britain, which means he’ll probably be out soon). Also no bottles of liquid allowed unless they’re purchased within the gate area, in honor of someone I forget, there have been so many of them.

For a long time afterward most previously-open military installations were closed to the public. Austin’s Camp Mabry recently reopened, making its good military history museum accessible once more. Fort Hood, after enduring its own terrorist shoot-em-up by a Muslim major, still is closed—probably for good.

One thing that hasn’t changed: Israel’s perpetual 9/11, a suicide bomber here, a suicide bomber there, and, as always, few media elsewhere pay any attention—except to write pitying profile stories about the Muslim bombers, only rarely about their Jewish victims.

UPDATE:  The Third Jihad, a film still worth watching, for a reminder of the war that likely will still be with our children’s children.

The Middle East’s Holy War, 1967 version

“….today, worshipers in the mosques and crowds in the streets are treated to a special Friday prayer.  The muezzins call for a Holy War against bad Jews everywhere in the world, and urge the rulers and people of every country to chase them away and clean their soil of them.  There is no doubt that ‘bad Jews’ could eventually mean all Jews, especially the nearest victims still living in Iraq….

“Whenever the country was in trouble, our community had to suffer in this manner, because the government could not grapple with the problems facing it.  So it finds a scapegoat to busy the people with; to focus their attention on something else.  And if arbitrary arrest meant only being in jail, it might be tolerable.  But in abnormal circumstances it always meant torture also, and in some cases the victims were never seen again.”

From “All Waiting to be Hanged,” by Max Sawdayee, a former Iraqi Jew’s poignant diary. It’s pre-POD and therefore now out of print (one of the little-known drawbacks of “traditional” publishing), but excerpts are here.

There’s still hope for the Arab Spring

“For decades we watched protesters in the Middle East burn the flags of America, the UK and Israel, as these countries were believed to represent the ‘enemies of the people.’ For the first time, we see protesters burn the flags of Iran, Russia and Hezbollah for a change! Are we witnessing a moment of redefining the ‘enemies of the people’ in the Middle East?”

News and analysis from Iraq the Model.

Dustin R. Donica

This Texas soldier, dead in Iraq in 2007, still has a website maintained by his family. No surprise, of course, but worth a look. Turn the sound on.

I just hope the fools of Obamalot stick to their pledge not to put ground troops into Libya.