It's a fact: We're at war

We are at war with Islam. How do we know? The Islamists tell us: from their pulpits, in their literature, on their websites and in their holy books. More precisely, they are waging Jihad against us as unbelievers (the “Kuffar). It is nothing we have done, and there is nothing we can do peaceably to stop it. This will come as a blow to the “Blame America First” adherents, who sincerely believe that if only America would “straighten out”, all the problems in the world would go away. Jihad is a process of forcing the “Kuffar” to submit to the Shari’ah and to pay a terribly expensive Jizya tax or to die(Qur’an Suras 2:16, 4:89, 9:5, 9:36). It is a process built into the Faith and has been underway for 1400 years, long before there was a United States or its foreign policy, and long before there was an Israel.

The longer we in the West stay in denial of this fact, the more rapidly our society, with its freedoms and prosperity, will disappear! Our attempts to assure the Muslims we mean them no harm and that we are not at war with them is irrelevant. Our wishful thinking that somehow not all Muslims subscribe to Jihad is just that! Wishful thinking! Our mythical construct of “moderate Muslims” that are benign denies the fact that Jihad is an obligation of all believers, by “Scholarly Consensus”! This means a believer is required to believe and to obey on pain of apostasy! (Reliance of the Traveller,o9.1).

An old anti-war sticker asked a rhetorical question “What if somebody gave a war and nobody came?” The answer is clear: you are enslaved very quickly.

We need to understand that Jihad can be waged four ways: with the mouth, with the pen, with money as well as with the sword. Our government’s concentration on Al Qaeda as the only threat is incorrect! The Muslim Brotherhood, and it’s myriad of front organizations, such as ISNA, CAIR, MAS and MPAC, are working right here to subvert our democracy with the other modes of Jihad.

Slowly but surely they are working to force us to submit to the Shari’ah! Their demands, in the guise of “Muslim rights”, are in reality designed to uproot our culture and prepare our society for eventual Islamization. Foot washing stations and prayer rooms in public schools and Universities are a prime example. Such facilities are non-existent even in Muslim countries! Their only purpose is to force the school systems to submit to the Shari’ah Law.

The so called “war on terror” has floundered for 8 years because the strategy is incoherent! Terror is a tactic, not an ideology! We need to construct our strategy for survival against the ideology of Islamic Jihad and nothing else. When we do that, what must be done becomes crystal clear!

Concept of "radical Islam" goes down the memory hole

Sympathy and warmth toward US Muslims is up in the past two years, while concern for Islam's tendency to violence is down, according to a Pew survey reported in USA Today on this, the eighth anniversary of 9/11. Bush's "religion of peace" mantra, combined with his refusal to speak bluntly about jihad or radical Islam, set the stage for Obama's truly Orwellian purge of America's vocabulary for thinking about those sworn to destroy us. And voila, today's poll findings are the result. Here is part of the USA Today story: According to the Pew survey, belief among Americans that Islam encourages violence has fluctuated since the Sept. 11 attacks, and was at its lowest level — a quarter of those surveyed — in March after the terror strikes.

By 2007, 45% of Americans believed Islam was more likely than other faiths to encourage violence. This year, that number fell to 38%. The group most likely to say Islam encourages violence this year was conservative Republicans, at 55%. But that dropped 13% from two years ago, making them the group with the biggest change of opinion since 2007.

The survey, conducted by telephone, also indicated that Americans have grown steadily more knowledgeable about Islam: 41% knew that the Muslim name for God is Allah and the Quran is the Islamic sacred text, compared to 33% in March 2002.

The "small and gradual, but noticeable" change has an affect, Smith said. Those most familiar with Islam were least likely to link the religion with violence. Fifty-seven percent of people who knew the names Muslims use to refer to God and their sacred text, and were also acquainted with a Muslim, said Islam did not encourage violence more than other faiths.

The same percentage of that group said their overall opinion of Muslims was favorable and 70% of that group said there's discrimination against Muslims.

Focus on jihadists, not DC gunman

The real danger of the shooting in DC will be the moral equivalence struck by the media between this lone nut and Islamic terrorists. This incident will be used to validate the recent statement by Janet Napolitano on the “Threat of Right-Wing Extremism”. For CBS, NBC, ABC and CNN, it will be six of one, half a dozen of the other. Thus, to serve one's country is to be put on a suspicion list by the DHS. After all, the man arrested in Washington DC was "another of those veterans" -- having served in World War II over 60 years ago! The key feature that’s intentionally glossed over is the magnitude of the subversion by the Islamists in the United States in comparison with the “white supremacy” groups. Documents outlining the vast scope of the Saudi funded Islamist efforts are basically ignored! As if one elderly 88 year old is equivalent to a quarter of a million black prison converts to Islam, many voicing hatred of America and white people!

As was said before, the “shooter” in Washington DC is 88 years old. The question one has to ask is this: what can be done to an 88 year old man? Life imprisonment? The death penalty? The man has already exceeded the average life expectancy! In either case, he will leap into his grave laughing!

Afghan War winnable & important

(Washington, May 10) As news from Iraq got progressively better in the last year the reflexive pessimists among us have shifted their focus to Afghanistan where they tell us portents of gloom and doom can be found in abundance. We hear of a resurgent Taliban advancing on several fronts, the capital of Kabul under siege, insurgents controlling ever more of the countryside, attacks and suicide bombings way up, the Pakistan border uncontrollable, and U.S. and civilian casualties increased dramatically.

Back in fashion are the words “quagmire” and of course “Viet Nam”. In fact a Newsweek cover story called Afghanistan “Obama’s Viet Nam”.

All these grim tidings, of course, lead to the inevitable advice that the U.S. should cut its losses, and escape this “graveyard of empires”, ASAP.

While most of the alarmist assertions cited above contain the proverbial grain of truth, collectively they represent a gross distortion of reality in Afghanistan.

A vital key to these misrepresentations is that increases in attacks or casualties are invariably reported as percentile increases over a previously established base number while failing to report how relatively tiny that number may be or offering any comparisons from similar conflicts (e.g. Iraq).

For example the Brookings Afghanistan Index reported a 48 % increase in attacks for 2008 in regional Command-Capital which includes Kabul and environs and has a population of over four million people. What is not reported is that the actual number of attacks went from just 106 to 157 for the entire year or that 157 was the average number of attacks that occurred in Baghdad every four days during the summer of 2006.

Similarly while civilian casualties are increasing in Afghanistan the total for 2008 represents only one sixteenth of the casualties in Iraq in the pre-surge year of 2006.

Thus when we hear as we do of late that attacks or casualties for a given week or month were greater in Afghanistan than Iraq this is much more a reflection of the dramatically improved situation in post-surge Iraq than any gross deterioration in Afghanistan.

In assessing the validity of comparing the two countries consider that Afghanistan ( 249,934 sq. miles) is a much larger country than Iraq ( 167,884 sq. miles) and its 30 million people exceed the population of Iraq as well.

In terms of results the Afghan war from the beginning has been a considerable success story despite being greatly “under resourced” when compared to Iraq. Today there are just 38,000 U.S. troops in Afghanistan and even with the recently authorized 17,000 increase the total will be barely one third the number in Iraq during the surge (160,000).

Similarly the Afghan National Army (ANA) which has performed most effectively and is universally regarded as the most trusted indigenous institution in the entire country numbers only 80,000 men. Even adding the 70,000 men of the far less effective Afghan National Police (ANP) 150,000 total security personnel is small when compared to the 500,000 men in Iraq’s army and police.

Finally we frequently hear that “primitive” Afghanistan can never be a real nation but only an aggregation of feuding tribes.

This ignores the fact that while highly tribal Iraq has been a nation for less than one hundred years (1919) Afghanistan has been an independent country since the 18th century with a history of strong monarchs ruling a reasonably stable country. The last of these- Mohammed Zahir Shah (1933-1973) – oversaw substantial economic and political progress including a fairly democratic written constitution. Only a 1978 Marxist coup and the subsequent Soviet invasion precipitated the tragic period of war and civil conflict that has characterized the last thirty years.

By no means should we minimize the very daunting challenges we face in Afghanistan or conceal the fact that only a strong multi-year U.S. commitment can assure success.

However neither should we minimize the severe price of failure.

Many critics including President Obama long derided Iraq as the “wrong” war and a distraction from Afghanistan which was the “right” war and the one we “had to win”. The 17,000 additional troops President Obama authorized are a commendable first step in backing that conviction with deeds. In continuing along this necessary road of many difficult steps he deserves our strongest support.

William Moloney’s columns have appeared in the Wall St Journal, USA Today, Washington Post, Washington Times, Philadelphia Inquirer, Baltimore Sun, Rocky Mountain News and the Denver Post.

Obama's harsh retribution

When the word retribution is talked about amongst friends, family, or co-workers, it does not have a positive connotation. According to Webster, retribution means something given or exacted in recompense. With all its harshness, this is the only word I can think of that does justice to what the Obama administration is doing by releasing very sensitive information from the CIA about interrogation techniques used on terrorists. I still have not heard a compelling reason as to why the Obama administration felt compelled to divulge this information.

To actually have the gumption to consider prosecuting former Bush administration officials is unprecedented. If this is such a forward looking administration why must they continue to look back on the “mistakes” of the past administration?

I wonder how Americans would feel if they knew these interrogation methods saved their lives from further attacks. Furthermore, what message does this send and what type of example does this set for future administrations?

But perhaps the most critical argument: how are people that are supposed to be working on keeping our country safe -- CIA agents, lawyers, etc. -- going to do their job effectively if they feel the constant threat of future retribution upon themselves?