Oct 24 2007
20,000 Iraqis Sign Up To Destroy al-Qaeda
Harry Reid is really regretting he ever opened his mouth and declared the Surge a failure (and we all know he did it before it even started getting in place). If I was a GOP strategist I would play commercial after commercial that begins with Harry Reid’s idiotic claim, and then follow up with one after another of the statistics that show just how far we have come in Iraq. Each statistic would get its own commercial, with an explanation of what it means in the war on terror and prospects for Iraq.
For example, I would have one commercial deal with the stunning statistic that 20,000 Iraqis have signed up to destroy al-Qaeda’s presence in Iraq:
October is on course to see the second consecutive monthly decline in U.S. military and Iraqi civilian deaths, and U.S. commanders said they know why: the U.S. troop increase and an Iraqi groundswell against Al Qaeda and Shi’ite militias.
Maj. Gen. Rick Lynch cites the Shi’ites and Sunnis who have joined the U.S. fight. He said he has signed up 20,000 of them in four months.
20,000 in four months is a mobilization that nearly equals the US Surge (of 30,000 in four months). And these are people who can detect an al-Qaeda foreigner in their midsts. People who are signing up to protect their families and their country. I posted before on the lines of people in Diyala that wrapped around the block to have a chance to hunt al-Qaeda. Recently it was reported the numbers were 30,000 in six months, but I am sure that it has grown beyond that by now.
Iraqis are fighting to defeat Bin Laden’s thugs. Who would have thought, as the fires still burned in the heart of rubble that was the WTC, that we would see Iraqis signing up to fight with the US to destroy al-Qaeda? I would have called anyone predicting that scenario insane at the time. Maybe that is why it is so hard to get our heads around what is happening in Iraq. It does sound too good to be true – but it is happening.
And the truly blessed news is our sacrifices are not in vain, and our sacrifices are becoming much, much less as each week passes:
As of Tuesday, the Pentagon had reported 28 U.S. military deaths in October. At the current pace, the monthly total could be 37 or 38.
That would be the lowest total since March 2006 — when there were 31 — and the second-lowest monthly toll since February 2004, when 20 soldiers died. In September, 65 U.S. soldiers died in Iraq.
Each death is tragic, but now we can see a possible future where these deaths were not wasted. If these brave people died so that al-Qaeda would become an enemy of Islam and never be able to create a wave of Islamo Fascism in the broad and dispersed Muslim community then they died protecting this world for a bloody debacle. If these deaths mean fewer future 9-11s because Iraqi and American bonds were born in the bloody sands made by al-Qaeda, then they will have died for something good.
Which why surrender should never, ever have been an option. Ensuring the lives were wasted should never be a policy of the United States. Especially from a body that authorized the war in the first place. Don’t go in unless you go in to win and make the sacrifices worth it.
Good News! Get er done!
Nonie Darwish, who was in Obsession and wrote the book: Now They Call Me Infidel, gave a speach for Islamo fascism Awareness Week. It was great.
http://frontpagemag.com/Articles/Read.aspx?GUID=17069DA6-6C04-4E06-81C7-010C9F29AD55
Snips:
The sad thing about this whole event was the feeling that radical Muslims and their far Left supporters would rather never criticize Islamic culture than stand up against the culture that flogs, stones, beheads and amputates limbs. Not offending a religion has become more important to the far Left (unless it is Christianity or Judaism) than human rights of Muslims and victims of terror. Honor killing and female genital mutilation can be tolerated — but noone better dare utter the word “Islamo-fascism.”
American universities are becoming tyrannical when it comes to Conservative values and to Arab Americans who dare to speak out against the culture of jihad. It does not matter how many people in my early life in Egypt suffered from honor killing, female genital mutilation and oppression of women, I must shut up on American campuses.
The best weapon in the war on terror and Islamo-Fascism is the truth.
I attended Gaza elementary schools. It is there that we learned hatred vengeance and retaliation; peace was never an option; but a sign of defeat and weakness. Jews were portrayed as less than human; I was told ‘don’t take candy or fruit from a stranger, it could be a Jew trying to poison you’. They filled our hears with fear of Jews; that made hatred come easy and terrorism acceptable, even honorable.
After two years of intense Fedayeen operations, my father was killed in the first targeted assassination in Gaza in 1956. I was 8 years old. In Nasser’s famous speech to nationalize the Suez Canal, he hailed my father as a national hero, a Shahid. President Nasser vowed that all of Egypt would take revenge and made no mention of the heavy toll of death and destruction brought upon Israel by the Fedayeen. My siblings and I were asked by top government officials “which one of you will avenge your father’s blood by killing Jews.” I felt very uncomfortable with a question. We were speechless.
I moved to the US in 1978. In my first visit to a mosque in America, we were told not to assimilate in America and that Islam is here to become the dominant religion. I was told to cover up in Islamic clothes; but how can I do that when I have never worn Islamic clothes in Egypt? Women in Egypt until the 1980’s did not wear Islamic clothes.
Under criminal Sharia, punishment could be flogging, stoning, beheading and amputation of limbs. Cruel and unusual punishment by Western and humane standards. Leaving Islam is punishable by death. If the State fails to kill an apostate, his death is guaranteed at the hands of a street mob. That makes Islam more than a religion; it is a one party state; and also an elaborate legal system, called Sharia, that can put you to death if you leave Islam. Sharia must guarantee there is no defection from the Berlin Wall of the Muslim State
As many as seventy-five percent of women in Pakistani prison are behind bars for the crime of having been raped.
Islamic Sharia law is a dictator’s dream handed to him by Allah.
On Arab TV, I once saw a Muslim preacher telling little children that lying is not allowed except under three conditions 1- Lying to non-Muslims when it is in the best interest of Islam. 2- Lying to Muslims if it will end conflict between them. And 3rd: Lying to one’s wife to improve the relationship.
Lying thus has become an obligation in international relationships, Muslim relationships and family relationships.
Arab governments have access to build mosques in the West, but give Americans no access to build churches or synagogues in Muslim countries. They finance Muslim and Middle East studies departments on American Universities — but there is not one University in any of the 52 Muslim countries that have a Christian or Judaism Studies Department. They freely preach Islam all around the world, but imprison and kill Christian missionaries.
And now Islamists have caught the West in a time of political correctness and multiculturalism. By tolerating hatred and violence, the West is not doing Muslims or Islam a favor. Tolerating intolerance is not a sign of compassion; it is gross negligence.
To conclude: Religion, any religion, must adapt to the universal concept of Human Rights, freedom of choice of one’s religion, equal rights of women and minorities. As Arab Americans what are we going to do about it? Are we going to remain silent and defensive? We owe America honest answers. We need to inspire true reform in our culture of origin. There are 7 women in Iran right now awaiting death by stoning — are we going to stand by them or are we going to fail them?
It’s all worth your time.
I still have to wonder, if we ever can leave Iraq and Afghanistan, will these newly liberated countries actually become a place where people of ALL Faiths can live in peace? Time Will Tell, but probubly not until we are gone.
20,000 Iraqis sign up to destroy AlQeada and the AlQeada accomplises in the US congress and Senate.
Its’ been a horrible month for “Baghdad Bob”/Harry Reid.
First ,the Iraqis and W. refuse to lose the war in spite of the Dems best efforts.
Second Baghdad Bob/Harry Reid chooses to attack a private US citizen exercising his first amendment rights and enlists 40 of his comrades in said miserable failure of a venture.
Third when said US citizen shoves it down his throat, or up his a__ ,whichever you prefer, he tries to say that was the result he was looking for in the beginning, and actually wa s encouaging said US citizen (Rush) to shove it down his throat or up his a__.
Sorry to insult Baghdad Bob here, he probably had a closer grasp of reality than the 41 senators mentioned above and one of them wants to be the first female CIC.
I enjoy your blog very much. However, I don’t share your optimism. With the Shia in control of the elected government and their strong ties to Iran, I see a future Iraq dominated by Iran’s sphere of influence.
I see no way we can prevent it.
Bombing Iran will only cause the Iranian population, which is mostly US friendly, to rally around the current government. We do not have the manpower or public will to invade and occupy Iran. So we have no good options to prevent Iran from extending it’s influence as it still does in Lebanon and Syria and which we have been powerless to counter.
R0nham,
Well thanks much for posting your comments. I actually DO listen to them. I agree Iran is a very complicated issue. I doubt bombing indescriminately would work out – but surgical strikes may be a different story.
Personally, I hope we can avoid it. Iran doesn’t seem to be of the same mind.
Hey Ron,
I think a Military Victory of sorts is achievable, in both Iraq and Afghanistan. I just have aprehensions about what it will be like if we ever leave both those countries. It’s funny, the left is silent on use staying in Japan, Germany, South Korea, etc. for decades now, but in an area of constant trouble and termoil, the Middle East, they want us out yesterday. Actually, I hope we stay in these countries for decades, I cant see peace and any stability without us. But if we leave, that is when I see everything reverting back to the way it has been for the last milenium. With them DEMANDING the Sharia Law being the Cornerstones of both Constitutions, it’s hard to imagine either country ignoring what that really meens in terms of governance after we leave.
I’m currently reading a book by Bat Ye’or titled: EURABIA The Euro-Arab Axis. Wow! It’s got my eyes wide open! I highly recommend it.
But for today, I thought I’d share some things I did not know about Saddam Hussein. Check this out!
On June 4, 1994, Saddam’s regime issued Decree 59, which prescribed- in accordance with traditional SHARIA rulings- amputations of the Right Hand for a theft of LESS than $10.00, amputations of the left foot for a second thft, and DEATH for a third.
Decree 109, issued on August 18, 1994, prescribed tattooing or brandin with an “X” between the eyebrows all persons who had undergone legally sanctioned amputations.
Decree 115, which was issue on August 25, 1994, ordered the “Cutting off of the auricle of one ear for each person evading military service” or deserting, as well as those who sheltered such offenders. Pages 24-25
It doesn’t sound like the kinds of things a “Secular” Saddam would do. These are Islamic Punishments in “Secular ” Iraq!