Michael Barone at Opinion Journal:
It has been a tough 10 days for those who see current events through the prisms of Vietnam and Watergate. First, the Democrats failed to win a breakthrough victory in the California 50th District special election--a breakthrough that would have summoned up memories of Democrats winning Gerald Ford's old congressional district in a special election in 1974. Instead the Democratic nominee got 45% of the vote, just 1% more than John Kerry did in the district in 2004.
Second, U.S. forces with a precision air strike killed Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, on the same day that Iraqis finished forming a government. Zarqawi will not be available to gloat over American setbacks or our allies' defeat, as the leaders of the Viet Cong and North Vietnam did.
Third, special prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald announced that he would not seek an indictment of Karl Rove. The leftward blogosphere had Mr. Rove pegged for the role of Bob Haldeman and John Ehrlichman. Theories were spun about plea bargains that would implicate Vice President Dick Cheney. Talk of impeachment was in the air. But it turns out that history doesn't repeat itself. George W. Bush, whether you like it or not, is not a second Richard Nixon.
....
Historians may regard it as a curious thing that the left and the press have been so determined to fit current events into templates based on events that occurred 30 to 40 years ago. The people who effectively framed the issues raised by Vietnam and Watergate did something like the opposite; they insisted that Vietnam was not a reprise of World War II or Korea and that Watergate was something different from the operations J. Edgar Hoover conducted for Franklin Roosevelt or John Kennedy. Journalists in the 1940s, '50s and early '60s tended to believe they had a duty to buttress Americans' faith in their leaders and their government. Journalists since Vietnam and Watergate have tended to believe that they have a duty to undermine such faith, especially when the wrong party is in office.
That belief has its perils for journalism, as the Fitzgerald investigation has shown. The peril that the press may find itself in the hot seat, but even more the peril that it will get the story wrong. The visible slavering over the prospect of a Rove indictment is just another item in the list of reasons why the credibility of the "mainstream media" has been plunging. There's also a peril for the political left. Vietnam and Watergate were arguably triumphs for honest reporting. But they were also defeats for America--and for millions of freedom-loving people in the world. They ushered in an era when the political opposition and much of the press have sought not just to defeat administrations but to delegitimize them. The pursuit of Karl Rove by the left and the press has been just the latest episode in the attempted criminalization of political differences. Is there any hope that it might turn out to be the last?
(accent mine)
(via Instapundit)
Friday, June 16, 2006
Sunday, June 04, 2006
GLOBAL War on Terror
The Canadian terror cell recently eliminated seems to have global connections. Canadian cell with 3 tons of fertilizer, London chemical weapons factory, Georgia and NYC terrorist arrested, all in a few days. Powerline quotes National Post:
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A Canadian counter-terrorism investigation that led to the arrests of 17 people accused of plotting bombings in Ontario is linked to probes in a half-dozen countries, the National Post has learned.
Well before police tactical teams began their sweeps around Toronto on Friday, at least 18 related arrests had already taken place in Canada, the United States, Britain, Bosnia, Denmark, Sweden, and Bangladesh.
The six-month RCMP investigation, called Project OSage, is one of several overlapping probes that include an FBI case called Operation Northern Exposure and a British probe known as Operation Mazhar.
The Toronto busts are linked to arrests that began last August at a Canadian border post near Niagara Falls and continued in October in Sarajevo, London and Scandinavia, and earlier this year in New York and Georgia.
The FBI confirmed Saturday the arrests were related to the recent indictments in the U.S. of Ehsanul Sadequee and Syed Ahmed, who are accused of meeting with extremists in Toronto last March to discuss terrorist training and plots.
The intricate web of connections between Toronto, London, Atlanta, Sarajevo, Dhaka, and elsewhere illustrates the challenge confronting counter-terrorism investigators almost five years after 9/11.
--------
This is a reminder of how global the war on terror is, and it is far from over. We should also take from this story, the excellent communication and global coordination of the authorities in these free nations to work together to eliminate these threats.. Nice work, and Thank You for your vigilance.
--------
A Canadian counter-terrorism investigation that led to the arrests of 17 people accused of plotting bombings in Ontario is linked to probes in a half-dozen countries, the National Post has learned.
Well before police tactical teams began their sweeps around Toronto on Friday, at least 18 related arrests had already taken place in Canada, the United States, Britain, Bosnia, Denmark, Sweden, and Bangladesh.
The six-month RCMP investigation, called Project OSage, is one of several overlapping probes that include an FBI case called Operation Northern Exposure and a British probe known as Operation Mazhar.
The Toronto busts are linked to arrests that began last August at a Canadian border post near Niagara Falls and continued in October in Sarajevo, London and Scandinavia, and earlier this year in New York and Georgia.
The FBI confirmed Saturday the arrests were related to the recent indictments in the U.S. of Ehsanul Sadequee and Syed Ahmed, who are accused of meeting with extremists in Toronto last March to discuss terrorist training and plots.
The intricate web of connections between Toronto, London, Atlanta, Sarajevo, Dhaka, and elsewhere illustrates the challenge confronting counter-terrorism investigators almost five years after 9/11.
--------
This is a reminder of how global the war on terror is, and it is far from over. We should also take from this story, the excellent communication and global coordination of the authorities in these free nations to work together to eliminate these threats.. Nice work, and Thank You for your vigilance.
Foundation for Victory
I haven't read President Bush's speech that he gave at West Point, this year, but I've heard several inferences to it. I have read this piece at The Belmont Club and it has encouraged me to make time to read the president's speech. We need more history lessons like the one Bush gave. And we need more debate about such lessons. Unfortunately, it seems as thought, when a relevant lesson is presented, it often get buried under more important stories like The Bikini Strangler
-------------
President Bush's May 27 commencement address at West Point lays out, maybe not for the first time but more clearly than previously, his understanding and proposed roadmap to today's "long war" (hat tip: Austin Bay). The metaphor he invokes to describe what's been called the War on Terror is the Cold War. The Cold War is the last "Big One" of which large numbers of people still have a first hand memory. Only a slowly shrinking number of old people can actually remember the Second World War. But Vietnam, Checkpoint Charlie, Chrome Dome and Cuban Missile crisis are within living memory and it is on this that Bush hangs his rhetorical hook by recalling the first five years after World War 2.
"In 1947, communist forces were threatening Greece and Turkey, the reconstruction of Germany was faltering, mass starvation was setting in across Europe. In 1948, Czechoslovakia fell to communism; France and Italy appeared to be headed for the same fate, and Berlin was blockaded on the orders of Josef Stalin. In 1949, the Soviet Union exploded a nuclear weapon, giving our new enemy the ability to bring catastrophic destruction to our homeland. And weeks later, communist forces won their revolution in China, and claimed the world's most populous nation for communism. And in the summer of 1950, seven North Korean divisions poured across the border into South Korea, marking the start of the first direct military clash of the Cold War. All of this took place in just the first five years following World War II."
It's hard now, in the first years of the 21st century to even imagine the succession of foreign policy disasters which appeared to engulf the US a few short years after its triumph over Nazi Germany and Japan's surrender in Tokyo Bay. The "fall of China"; the Soviet sweep across Eastern Europe punctuated by the annihilation of a US task force in Korea -- Task Force Smith -- were a succession of catastrophes orders of magnitude greater than any debacle facing GWB today. And they swept over Harry Truman's administration like an evil and apparently unstoppable tide. But Bush went on to describe how Harry Truman found in it not defeat but the framework of victory.
"Fortunately, we had a President named Harry Truman, who recognized the threat, took bold action to confront it, and laid the foundation for freedom's victory in the Cold War. President Truman set a clear doctrine. In a speech to Congress, he called for military and economic aid to Greece and Turkey, and announced a new doctrine that would guide American policy throughout the Cold War. He told the Congress: "It must be the policy of the United States to support free peoples who are resisting attempted subjugation by armed minorities or by outside pressures." With this new doctrine, and with the aid to back it up, Greece and Turkey were saved from communism, and the Soviet expansion into Southern Europe and the Middle East was stopped."
The implication, though it will be a hard act to follow, is that the time is ripe to create a new version of the doctrine which guided the Cold War and GWB says this bluntly. "Today, at the start of a new century, we are again engaged in a war unlike any our nation has fought before -- and like Americans in Truman's day, we are laying the foundations for victory."
-------------
President Bush's May 27 commencement address at West Point lays out, maybe not for the first time but more clearly than previously, his understanding and proposed roadmap to today's "long war" (hat tip: Austin Bay). The metaphor he invokes to describe what's been called the War on Terror is the Cold War. The Cold War is the last "Big One" of which large numbers of people still have a first hand memory. Only a slowly shrinking number of old people can actually remember the Second World War. But Vietnam, Checkpoint Charlie, Chrome Dome and Cuban Missile crisis are within living memory and it is on this that Bush hangs his rhetorical hook by recalling the first five years after World War 2.
"In 1947, communist forces were threatening Greece and Turkey, the reconstruction of Germany was faltering, mass starvation was setting in across Europe. In 1948, Czechoslovakia fell to communism; France and Italy appeared to be headed for the same fate, and Berlin was blockaded on the orders of Josef Stalin. In 1949, the Soviet Union exploded a nuclear weapon, giving our new enemy the ability to bring catastrophic destruction to our homeland. And weeks later, communist forces won their revolution in China, and claimed the world's most populous nation for communism. And in the summer of 1950, seven North Korean divisions poured across the border into South Korea, marking the start of the first direct military clash of the Cold War. All of this took place in just the first five years following World War II."
It's hard now, in the first years of the 21st century to even imagine the succession of foreign policy disasters which appeared to engulf the US a few short years after its triumph over Nazi Germany and Japan's surrender in Tokyo Bay. The "fall of China"; the Soviet sweep across Eastern Europe punctuated by the annihilation of a US task force in Korea -- Task Force Smith -- were a succession of catastrophes orders of magnitude greater than any debacle facing GWB today. And they swept over Harry Truman's administration like an evil and apparently unstoppable tide. But Bush went on to describe how Harry Truman found in it not defeat but the framework of victory.
"Fortunately, we had a President named Harry Truman, who recognized the threat, took bold action to confront it, and laid the foundation for freedom's victory in the Cold War. President Truman set a clear doctrine. In a speech to Congress, he called for military and economic aid to Greece and Turkey, and announced a new doctrine that would guide American policy throughout the Cold War. He told the Congress: "It must be the policy of the United States to support free peoples who are resisting attempted subjugation by armed minorities or by outside pressures." With this new doctrine, and with the aid to back it up, Greece and Turkey were saved from communism, and the Soviet expansion into Southern Europe and the Middle East was stopped."
The implication, though it will be a hard act to follow, is that the time is ripe to create a new version of the doctrine which guided the Cold War and GWB says this bluntly. "Today, at the start of a new century, we are again engaged in a war unlike any our nation has fought before -- and like Americans in Truman's day, we are laying the foundations for victory."
Friday, June 02, 2006
Haditha
Executing women and children? I don't believe it. Killed by accident, maybe. Killed by terrorists and blamed on the US, most likely. The values of the Marines, the values of Americans, the values of civilized nations, would not allow this to happen. Let's wait for the whole story to come out. As usual, we have one side of the story. And a sizable portion of this story seems to be from questionable sources.
"the doctor who certified the civilians as having been shot is, shall we say, not exactly objective. "
Here's a somber article about where the war could be going based on it's length and the media coverage. Basically, "stop the war because we have .01% bad troops." How about prosecute the bad troops, and stay to coarse to rid the world of terrorist intento in killing men, women and children because they don't follow a certain religion?
And on a similar note:
"As Peter Beinart noted... , the difference between the United States and most other countries isn't that we're perfect, but that we follow up stuff like this. That tends to get missed in the coverage."
"the doctor who certified the civilians as having been shot is, shall we say, not exactly objective. "
Here's a somber article about where the war could be going based on it's length and the media coverage. Basically, "stop the war because we have .01% bad troops." How about prosecute the bad troops, and stay to coarse to rid the world of terrorist intento in killing men, women and children because they don't follow a certain religion?
And on a similar note:
"As Peter Beinart noted... , the difference between the United States and most other countries isn't that we're perfect, but that we follow up stuff like this. That tends to get missed in the coverage."
Friday, May 26, 2006
This is the last straw
That's it! I've had it! I've tried to back the president. I've tried to understand the difficulties this country faces. I've tried to listen to both size and not jump into hysterics at each media inflamed "scandal". I thought the Dubai deal was not an issues. I believe Katina was handled fairly well given the circumstances. Harriet Myers? Didn't agree, but, hey every makes tough choices. Iraq, I'm 100% behind the president. It's going well, and at this pace, this will be remembered as a total victory when history is written. Immigration? Well, it's not all Bush's fault, and there's no silver bullet, so choices have to be made.
But the Republican congressional response to the Jefferson investigation is last straw. This is absurd. It's foolish. It's incomprehensible. Literally! I don't get it! Even IF there is a constitutional discussion necessary, it shouldn't be the first, only and LOUDEST point being made by the Republican leadershit! (Freudian Slip) You have got to be kidding me. The Republicans are in the tank. They're being pounded for "corruption" and, finally, FINALLY, there is an opportunity to show that there are corrupt people on both sides, and that there is media bias, and there is blame to share. And what does Hastert do? He puts his arm around Pelosi and says that they are united in the premise that they are above the law, you lowly, dirty, peasants." Nice job, Hastert. Good luck in '06. I'll be watching from the sidelines.
Please is you live in Tennessee, or know someone in Tennessee, Vote for Bob Krumm. He's feels the same way I do.
P.S. And, friends, don't give me this, "They're still better than the alternative." Cuz they ain't. That's the sad fact.
But the Republican congressional response to the Jefferson investigation is last straw. This is absurd. It's foolish. It's incomprehensible. Literally! I don't get it! Even IF there is a constitutional discussion necessary, it shouldn't be the first, only and LOUDEST point being made by the Republican leadershit! (Freudian Slip) You have got to be kidding me. The Republicans are in the tank. They're being pounded for "corruption" and, finally, FINALLY, there is an opportunity to show that there are corrupt people on both sides, and that there is media bias, and there is blame to share. And what does Hastert do? He puts his arm around Pelosi and says that they are united in the premise that they are above the law, you lowly, dirty, peasants." Nice job, Hastert. Good luck in '06. I'll be watching from the sidelines.
Please is you live in Tennessee, or know someone in Tennessee, Vote for Bob Krumm. He's feels the same way I do.
P.S. And, friends, don't give me this, "They're still better than the alternative." Cuz they ain't. That's the sad fact.
Wednesday, May 24, 2006
How little me know
It's time that I post again about media incompetence. This is a case to highlight the damage the media has done. In a rush for viewer ratings, the media's sensationalization of an event became lore. Katrina was a devistating event all across the gulf coast of American. But what was communicated to us was not the facts. And now the facts a lost in history. And the legends of Katrina live on.
This is an eye opening article about the mainstream media's coverage of Katrina (via. Instapundit).
------------
As I’ve written before, virtually all of the gripping stories from Katrina were untrue. All of those stories about, in Paula Zahn’s words, “bands of rapists, going block to block”? Not true. The tales of snipers firing on medevac helicopters? Bogus. The yarns, peddled on Oprah by New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin and the New Orleans police chief, that “little babies” were getting raped in the Superdome and that the bodies of the murdered were piling up? Completely false. The stories about poor blacks dying in comparatively huge numbers because American society “left them behind”? Nah-ah. While most outlets limited themselves to taking Nagin’s estimate of 10,000 dead at face value, Editor and Publisher—the watchdog of the media—ran the headline, “Mortuary Director Tells Local Paper 40,000 Could Be Lost in Hurricane.”
...
This barely captures how badly the press bungled Katrina coverage. Keep in mind that the most horrifying tales of woe that captivated the press and prompted news anchors to scream—quite literally—at federal officials occurred within the safe zone around the Superdome where the press was operating. Shame on local officials for fomenting fear and passing along newly minted urban legends, but double shame on the press for recycling this stuff uncritically. Members of the press had access to the Superdome. Why not just run in and look for the bodies? Interview the rape victims? Couldn’t be bothered? The major networks had hundreds of people in New Orleans. Was there not a single intern available to fact-check? The coverage actually cost lives. Helicopters were grounded for 24 hours in response to media reports of sniper attacks. At least two patients died waiting to be evacuated.
... in the race to prove the federal response incompetent, the “real journalists” missed some important details. As Lou Dolinar exhaustively documents, the National Guard did amazing work in New Orleans. From the Superdome, the Guard managed some 2,500 troops, a dozen emergency shelters, more than 200 boats, 150 helicopters (which flew more than 10,000 sorties moving 88,181 passengers, 18,834 tons of cargo, and saved 17,411 survivors), and an enormous M*A*S*H operation that, among other things, delivered seven babies.
This is an eye opening article about the mainstream media's coverage of Katrina (via. Instapundit).
------------
As I’ve written before, virtually all of the gripping stories from Katrina were untrue. All of those stories about, in Paula Zahn’s words, “bands of rapists, going block to block”? Not true. The tales of snipers firing on medevac helicopters? Bogus. The yarns, peddled on Oprah by New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin and the New Orleans police chief, that “little babies” were getting raped in the Superdome and that the bodies of the murdered were piling up? Completely false. The stories about poor blacks dying in comparatively huge numbers because American society “left them behind”? Nah-ah. While most outlets limited themselves to taking Nagin’s estimate of 10,000 dead at face value, Editor and Publisher—the watchdog of the media—ran the headline, “Mortuary Director Tells Local Paper 40,000 Could Be Lost in Hurricane.”
...
This barely captures how badly the press bungled Katrina coverage. Keep in mind that the most horrifying tales of woe that captivated the press and prompted news anchors to scream—quite literally—at federal officials occurred within the safe zone around the Superdome where the press was operating. Shame on local officials for fomenting fear and passing along newly minted urban legends, but double shame on the press for recycling this stuff uncritically. Members of the press had access to the Superdome. Why not just run in and look for the bodies? Interview the rape victims? Couldn’t be bothered? The major networks had hundreds of people in New Orleans. Was there not a single intern available to fact-check? The coverage actually cost lives. Helicopters were grounded for 24 hours in response to media reports of sniper attacks. At least two patients died waiting to be evacuated.
... in the race to prove the federal response incompetent, the “real journalists” missed some important details. As Lou Dolinar exhaustively documents, the National Guard did amazing work in New Orleans. From the Superdome, the Guard managed some 2,500 troops, a dozen emergency shelters, more than 200 boats, 150 helicopters (which flew more than 10,000 sorties moving 88,181 passengers, 18,834 tons of cargo, and saved 17,411 survivors), and an enormous M*A*S*H operation that, among other things, delivered seven babies.
Monday, May 22, 2006
How to handle terrorists, Russian Style
This comes via Rantburg, an excellent site for the latest news on the War of Terror (WoT) and more.
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Russian special forces kill latest Khasavyurt emir in Dagestan
Special forces killed two rebels on Sunday in the southern Russian region of Dagestan after a firefight lasting several hours, police said.
Three policemen were injured in an attack on the house in the town of Khasavyurt in western Dagestan, in which the gunmen had blockaded themselves earlier on Sunday, said Sergei Solodovnikov, deputy police chief of southern Russia.
"One of the two gunmen were killed included Bulat Abdullayev, who was recently proclaimed the amir (warlord) of the Khasavyurt district," he told reporters in the Dagestani capital of Makhachkala.
"This amir is responsible for at least 10 grave crimes."
Police used an armoured personnel carrier to quell the rebels' fire, Solodovnikov said. The two had been killed after the private two-storey house in which they had barricaded themselves was set ablaze. Blasts were heard inside, he said.
----------
Russian special forces kill latest Khasavyurt emir in Dagestan
Special forces killed two rebels on Sunday in the southern Russian region of Dagestan after a firefight lasting several hours, police said.
Three policemen were injured in an attack on the house in the town of Khasavyurt in western Dagestan, in which the gunmen had blockaded themselves earlier on Sunday, said Sergei Solodovnikov, deputy police chief of southern Russia.
"One of the two gunmen were killed included Bulat Abdullayev, who was recently proclaimed the amir (warlord) of the Khasavyurt district," he told reporters in the Dagestani capital of Makhachkala.
"This amir is responsible for at least 10 grave crimes."
Police used an armoured personnel carrier to quell the rebels' fire, Solodovnikov said. The two had been killed after the private two-storey house in which they had barricaded themselves was set ablaze. Blasts were heard inside, he said.
Sunday, May 14, 2006
NSA History
Here's a short video report by Michelle Malkin about the NSA. She tours the National cryptography Museum and teaches us about the founding of the NSA, It's mission and several example of NSA victories over our enemies in WWII. Just another example of the scare-mongering of the anti-Bush movement. And let me clarify that "anti-Bush movement" is aimed at all for the parties (Dems and Reps) exposing, publicizing and trying to politically capitalize on secret programs aimed at saving American lives.
Thursday, May 11, 2006
Iraq by the numbers
Here are a couple posts about the data reported from Iraq. Yes, data. Numbers that can be use to evaluate a situation; trends and progress. All Things Conservative has a post summarizing the data. A couple notable to me (with my comments) are:
3. Actionable tips from Iraqis have increased every month this year. In January, 4,025 tips were received; February, 4,235; and March, 4,578.
5. Crude oil production reached 2.14 million barrels a day (MBD) in April of this year. It had dropped to 0.3 MBD in May of 2003. (Remember when this was a metric in the media?)
6. Revenues from oil export have only slightly increased from pre-war levels of $0.2 billion, to $0.62 billion in April. (Only slightly? That's a 200% increase. If you were the mainstream media, and this was bad information, you would phrase it, "Revenue has risen by 200% from $200M to $620M." That's an annual increase of 67%! Exxon/Mobil is called a criminal for a 16% increase.)
7. Electrical output is almost at the pre-war level of 3,958 megawatts. April's production was 3,600 megawatts. In May of 2003, production was only 500 megawatts. The goal is to reach 6,000 megawatts. (This was also an early media metric, which has lost favor)
8. The unemployment rate in June of 2003 was 50-60%, and in April of this year it had dropped to 25-40%.
13. As of January 2006, 64% of Iraqis polled said that the country was headed in the right direction.
14. Also as of January 2006, 77% said that removing Saddam Hussein was the right thing to do.
15. In May of 2003, Iraqi Security Forces were estimated at between 7,000-9,000. They numbered 250,500 in March of this year.
16. The breakdown of foreign terrorists by country of origin is interesting. The largest number come from Algeria, at 20%. The next two countries are Syria and Yemen, at 18% and 17%, respectively. (Where is Saudi Arabia?)
17. The number of foreign terrorists fighting in Iraq was estimated at between 300 and 500 in January 2004. That number increased in April of this year, to between 700 and 2,000. (Lest we forget where the front line of the war on terror is.)
18. From May 2003 and April 2006, between 1,000 and 3,000 anti-Iraqi forces have been killed each month.(Nominally, that's 72,000 defenders of tyranny dead)
The Futurist says the situation in Iraq will be close to complete by 2008 (November, to be exact).
(All via Instapundit)
And don't forgot to check in at Iraq The Model and Healing Iraq for up-to-date views of Iraq from citizens of Baghdad.
Update: IraqPundit says:
To me, these are indications that Iraqis are using their freedom to improve their personal lives and, in the process, to build their country. One of the most infuriating aspects of the Western media's presentation of Iraq is that Iraqis themselves are reduced to being the bleeding, mourning victims of terror; they are bit players in a narrative that is about Bush wrecking the country. The material in the Brookings report not only credits Iraqis with initiative, it restores to them the dignity that the Western media's one-dimensional presentation denies them.
3. Actionable tips from Iraqis have increased every month this year. In January, 4,025 tips were received; February, 4,235; and March, 4,578.
5. Crude oil production reached 2.14 million barrels a day (MBD) in April of this year. It had dropped to 0.3 MBD in May of 2003. (Remember when this was a metric in the media?)
6. Revenues from oil export have only slightly increased from pre-war levels of $0.2 billion, to $0.62 billion in April. (Only slightly? That's a 200% increase. If you were the mainstream media, and this was bad information, you would phrase it, "Revenue has risen by 200% from $200M to $620M." That's an annual increase of 67%! Exxon/Mobil is called a criminal for a 16% increase.)
7. Electrical output is almost at the pre-war level of 3,958 megawatts. April's production was 3,600 megawatts. In May of 2003, production was only 500 megawatts. The goal is to reach 6,000 megawatts. (This was also an early media metric, which has lost favor)
8. The unemployment rate in June of 2003 was 50-60%, and in April of this year it had dropped to 25-40%.
13. As of January 2006, 64% of Iraqis polled said that the country was headed in the right direction.
14. Also as of January 2006, 77% said that removing Saddam Hussein was the right thing to do.
15. In May of 2003, Iraqi Security Forces were estimated at between 7,000-9,000. They numbered 250,500 in March of this year.
16. The breakdown of foreign terrorists by country of origin is interesting. The largest number come from Algeria, at 20%. The next two countries are Syria and Yemen, at 18% and 17%, respectively. (Where is Saudi Arabia?)
17. The number of foreign terrorists fighting in Iraq was estimated at between 300 and 500 in January 2004. That number increased in April of this year, to between 700 and 2,000. (Lest we forget where the front line of the war on terror is.)
18. From May 2003 and April 2006, between 1,000 and 3,000 anti-Iraqi forces have been killed each month.(Nominally, that's 72,000 defenders of tyranny dead)
The Futurist says the situation in Iraq will be close to complete by 2008 (November, to be exact).
(All via Instapundit)
And don't forgot to check in at Iraq The Model and Healing Iraq for up-to-date views of Iraq from citizens of Baghdad.
Update: IraqPundit says:
To me, these are indications that Iraqis are using their freedom to improve their personal lives and, in the process, to build their country. One of the most infuriating aspects of the Western media's presentation of Iraq is that Iraqis themselves are reduced to being the bleeding, mourning victims of terror; they are bit players in a narrative that is about Bush wrecking the country. The material in the Brookings report not only credits Iraqis with initiative, it restores to them the dignity that the Western media's one-dimensional presentation denies them.
Monday, May 08, 2006
Fracture
Is the Republican party destined to lose this November? And if they are going to lose, is it just the blessing of democracy that no one party can rule for too long? Instapudit has some links to related thoughts.
Hugh Hewitt has faith that the Democratic party will come to the rescue and once again make the Republicans the lesser of two evils.
Hugh Hewitt has faith that the Democratic party will come to the rescue and once again make the Republicans the lesser of two evils.
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