Category Archives: The War

Know your enemy

I’m sure progressives everywhere will find it oh, so comforting, to know that even the Taliban bars smoking among its troops. But they’d certainly be discomfited by the nineteenth of the terrorist group’s recently disclosed thirty rules of conduct, which include requirements to kill teachers, and burn schools and clinics.

"…fighters may not take young boys without facial hair into their private quarters — a public acknowledgment, NATO officials say, that the sexual abuse of young boys is a problem within the Taliban’s ranks," according to the Associated Press.

There’s a limit, it seems, even to pedophilia among the religiously pure. Well, not much of a limit, according to Jamie Glazov in his "Boys of the Taliban," and Pat Santy of Dr. Sanity demonstrates how the perversion proceeds naturally from a religion and a culture that represses women.

Via Fresh Bilge 

Attack on the border

Army National Guard overrun at the border? Well, they retreated, anyhow:

"U.S. Border Patrol officials are investigating the 11 p.m. Wednesday incident and trying to determine who the armed people were and why they approached the post near Sasabe, in the desert corridor between Nogales [Arizona] and Lukeville. Balaban said the troops didn’t know how many people were involved because it was so dark."

What? No night-vision equipment? It would be interesting to know why the guard didn’t stand and fight.

UPDATE  Well, it turns out that "very few" of these Arizona guard folks are armed. The ones in Texas and New Mexico are armed, but "very few" in Arizona and California. That is remarkably stupid.

US trains Ethopians

Some of the Ethopian army which recently drove the Jihadis out of Somalia’s capital were trained by the 1st ID’s 1st Battalion, 16th Infantry Regiment and the Guam Army National Guard:

"The…training is part of a larger U.S. effort aimed at preventing Islamist militants from gaining a foothold in a region that has been plagued by poverty, armed conflict, drought and famine…(It) has taken on added urgency recently, with the Ethiopian military’s battle against Muslim militants in Somalia, and the ongoing threat of war with its breakaway rival, Eritrea."

Rest here.

Surge or escalation?

Democrats already are calling the proposed surge of troops into Iraq "an escalation," reiving the terms of Vietnam. But apparently Bush’s coming speech about what a surge would mean will turn on some aspect of this "secret plan" captured with the Iranians of recent days–who were, then, incredibly, let go.

Omar at Iraq the Model is astounded that anyone would think that the plan’s disclosure of Iranian and Syrian cooperation with the Sunni insurgents and the Shia death squads is unusual:

"This war is different from conventional wars; networks of terror and their relationships with their supporting regimes and the manner in which they work are complex and different than those of conventional enemies and this situation necessitates that our ways evolve and adjust accordingly."

Meanwhile, the Navy says a second carrier battle group for the Persian Gulf won’t leave Washington until later this month. Perhaps it’s just another empty show of force. Or perhaps Bush has finally decided to do something about Syria and Iran, the latter hinting that its bomb will be ready by March 20.

Waiting for a Sherman or a Grant

Historian Victor Davis Hanson returns from Iraq dreaming of the emergence of an American general capable of more than midnight assignations with the MSM for anonymous complaints:

"The traveler to Iraq is struck not by dearth, but opulence—everything imaginable from new SUVs to Eskimo Pies. Internet Service there was far faster than from my home in rural Fresno County…Somewhere in the US military right now is a Grant, Sherman, Patton, Ridgeway, or Abrams…Now is the time to let them come forward—as they have always arisen from obscurity in past American wars when their nation’s hour of need has come."

A good read in which history offers more hope than the shoulda, coulda, woulda war hearings the Dems are about to begin.

About time

From StrategyPage

"Without much fanfare, much less a press release, the [Iraqi] government and Coalition troops have gone to war with Moqtada al Sadr’s Madhi Army militia. Leaders are being arrested or killed. The raids are being carried out with overwhelming speed and force, so that pro-Sadr gunmen have little chance to put up effective resistance."

General Abizaid told Congress last year things would start to turn around by February.

A welcome and a warning

President Bush, who lately seems to be dithering, welcomes the new Congress in Opinion Journal, with a warning for the party most identified with retreat:

"If democracy fails and the extremists prevail in Iraq, America’s enemies will be stronger, more lethal, and emboldened by our defeat. Leaders in both parties understand the stakes in this struggle. We now have the opportunity to build a bipartisan consensus to fight and win the war."

He also notes that Republicans will get their say in anything the Dems seek to pass, and he has a veto to use, if necessary. Tough stuff.