Target Centermass

Day: April 7, 2005

  • Consider Yourselves Warned

    It will happen here. The terror that Israel regularly has to deal with will happen here. I’ve blogged before that I’m surprised it hasn’t already.

    I will also take another bold stance: the opponents of President George W. “Dubya” “Chimp Bushitler” Bush are right — his aggresive war against Islamist terror and his efforts in its Iraqi and Afghani theaters have made the world more dangerous. The important thing here is that I am not taken out of context. The Bush Doctine is a decided choice to parlay short-term danger against a gambit to reshape the Islamic world.

    Israelis have seen terror — pizzarias, nightclubs and bus stops strewn with blood. I believe we will see it here at malls and McDonald’s. The question that Bush has chosen to present is this: will the American fortitide crack before we can present the Arab world a viable alternative to the suffering and oppression they’ve dealt with so long? Not an alternate place to lay blame to, although that would eventually be a given as a replacement to the “all things evil stem from Israel and America” mindset must be offered, but an alternate goal of hope, prosperity and self-rule.

    Yes, we could’ve continued to play the game meekly. We would be safer now. But would we have bought any safety in the future? I say no. What I predict now for our homeland, I say would have reached our homeland anyway. Maybe not as fast, as we would not have forced desperation upon the terrorist Islamists. The dangers I now predict soon for America would have eventually found their way here. Hell, 9/11, the spur that drove the Bush Doctrine charge, was concieved during the days of the timid reactions that preceded the current administration. Now, at least, we are actively working to undercut the strength of the threat.

    Will the terror happen here? Yes. It should be remembered that we fight not only for our way of life, but also for the civilization that our children and grandchildren will inherit. I present these two stories as just small possible pieces of evidence that the nightmares will fall upon us.

    NYC Teens Held in Suicide Bomb Plot

    The sources said the parents of one of the girls had gone to police to complain about her. One official said investigators were concerned the girls could be recruited for a suicide mission, so they were detained on immigration charges.

    “The girls were already part of an investigation. When the parents came forward with their complaints, it was more of two things coming together,” said one law enforcement official.

    Ten Memphis Women Arrested for ‘Sham-Marriages’ with Moroccans
    Normally, I’d hat tip Chad at In the Bullpen and point to the news story. However, in this case, his examination makes the story.

    It’s not just alarming that United States women would get married to import immigrants; it’s alarming where these immigrants were to come from and how much these women were to be paid. $15,400 is not chump change for Moroccans as it equals 133,076 Moroccan Dirham. Moroccans live in the lowest 10 percent in the world in terms of annual household income.

    Just how do 10 Moroccans get their hands on over $15,000? At this time there are no direct signs these were terrorists trying to enter the United States, however based upon the country of origin and and money they were willing to dish out, this does seem like a plausible scenario.

    Yes, the Bush Doctrine has made the world more dangerous … for now, and it still may fail. That said, the alternatives are the same danger later and, should the doctrine fail, the choice between radical Islamist dreams of subjugation to barbarity and the survival of western civilization. In other words, should the doctrine fail, the only choice for America may be mass destruction — theirs or ours.

  • Shia Named New Iraq PM

    A Kurd was sworn in as president. A Sunni and a Shiite took the oaths of the vice-president positions. Ibrahim Jaafari, another Shiite, was named to the key post of prime minister of Iraq, and interim Prime Minister Iyad Allawi stepped aside. Hail to the first Iraqi government selected as a result of the power of the ballot rather than the fear of the bullet.

    Shia Islamist Ibrahim Jaafari was named as Iraq’s next Prime Minister today, moving the country a step closer to its first democratically elected government in more than 50 years.

    Jaafari announced his own nomination shortly after Iraq’s new President, Kurdish former guerrilla leader Jalal Talabani, was sworn into office in parliament, along with two deputies.

    “Today represents a big step forward for Iraq and a big responsibility for me,” Jaafari, who spent more than two decades opposing Saddam Hussein from exile, said.

    His appointment to the most powerful post under the interim constitution had long been agreed in principle but was held up by weeks of bargaining over other posts among the Shia and Kurdish groups that dominate the parliament elected on January 30. Jaafari said interim Prime Minister Iyad Allawi had resigned from his post but would continue as caretaker while Jaafari worked on putting the finishing touches to his cabinet line up. “I hope within one or two weeks maximum I will name the cabinet,” a smiling Jaafari said after his formal appointment by Talabani and the Shia and Sunni vice-presidents.

    Talabani, 71, took the President’s oath of office a day after his election by parliament, as political and religious leaders looked on at a ceremony inside Baghdad’s fortified Green Zone, seat of government and the vast US embassy. “I swear by God the great that I will work with devotion to preserve the independence and sovereignty of Iraq,” Talabani said.

    As I predicted, the pieces quickly fell into place after the initial logjam cleared Sunday with the compromise that led to naming Sunni Hajem al-Hassani as speaker of the National Assembly.

    Other interesting reading on the shape of the Iraqi government:

    Editorial: Toward a Multiethnic Future

    The convoluted constitutional process that has brought Iraqis thus far has been criticized for its unwieldiness. But most Iraqis are generally content with an arrangement that ensures that their country’s politicians work together on the basis of consensus. Extremists within the different communities have not found a way to exploit the delays caused by weeks of negotiations.

    Editorial: Iraq has Done Well

    As the parliament’s new speaker-elect, Hajem Al Hassani said after the vote: “This is the new Iraq — an Iraq that elects a Kurd to be president and an Arab former president as his deputy. What more could the world want from us?”

    Quite right. It is a great achievement amidst the noise and dust, sound and fury, of the insurgency in Iraq for the country to come up with a political arrangement that represents and accommodates the three ethnic and sectarian factions. But given Iraq’s situation, the new Iraq and its leaders will have to do more. Not because the world wants them to do more but because doing so is Iraq’s own necessity to survive as an honourable member of the world community.

    Doctor’s Mission: Heal Land Torn by War

    Dr al-Jaafari has been a favourite for the post since the religiously conservative block reversed generations of Sunni dominance in government in the landmark polls. The 58-year-old doctor was widely favoured by supporters for being a devout Shia Muslim, but one who eschewed the religious trappings of many of his colleagues.

    He has also said his government will not rule as a Shia leadership but as an Iraqi administration, and hopes to draw in Sunnis who have largely rejected involvement in the political process.

    President Talabani, himself a former guerrilla fighter who battled Saddam for years, held out an olive branch to the Sunni insurgents who make up the backbone of the 20-month uprising that has left thousands dead.

  • Court Won’t Stop Guardsman’s Deployment

    It’s called a contract for a reason: you signed it and it is binding.

    For the second time in two days, a federal appeals court declined to halt an Oregon National Guardsman from being deployed to Afghanistan on Friday.

    Emiliano Santiago, 27, an electronics technician and a helicopter refueler now living in Pasco, Wash., is fighting his deployment because his 8-year service agreement expired last year. His lawyers told the court Santiago is the victim of a “backdoor draft.”

    On Wednesday, a three-judge panel of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, sitting in Seattle, declined to halt his looming departure. On Thursday, the court declined to rehear the case with 11 judges.

    No U.S. federal appeals court has sided with similarly situated military personnel fighting their deployments.

    The courts have generally upheld the so-called “stop loss” law that authorizes President Bush to suspend service agreements of many armed forces personnel for national security reasons. Thousands of soldiers have been redeployed under stop loss orders.

    The last paragraph there is rather misleading. The president is not suspending service agreements with the stop-loss program. Rather, he is exercising an option in the contract signed by Santiago, an option that his service commitment may be extended beyond terms specified.

    While I have sympathy for Santiago personally, I hold no sympathy for his cause. Put the uniform back on, Emiliano, and report — your country has legally called you.

  • Reciprocity XV

    I’d again like to pause and thank those who have blogrolled or linked to Target Centermass.

    First, thanks to the following fine blogs for adding TCm to their blogrolls:

    Second, thanks to the following for recent links to TCm:

    As always, if you’ve linked or blogrolled Target Centermass and I haven’t found you, please send an email or post a comment. No good deed should go unacknowledged.

  • Congress May Extend Daylight-Saving Time

    Please, please, pretty please extend daylight savings time.

    If Congress passes an energy bill, Americans may see more daylight-saving time.

    Lawmakers crafting energy legislation approved an amendment Wednesday to extend daylight-saving time by two months, having it start on the first Sunday in March and end on the last Sunday in November.

    “Extending daylight-saving time makes sense, especially with skyrocketing energy costs,” said Rep. Fred Upton, R-Michigan, who along with Rep. Ed Markey, D-Massachusetts, co-sponsored the measure.

    The amendment was approved by the House Energy and Commerce Committee that is putting together major parts of energy legislation likely to come up for a vote in the full House in the coming weeks.

    “The more daylight we have, the less electricity we use,” said Markey, who cited Transportation Department estimates that showed the two-month extension would save the equivalent of 10,000 barrels of oil a day.

    The country uses about 20 million barrels of oil a day.

    Do it for the energy savings. Do it for whatever reason you can come up with, just do it.

    I am most assuredly not a morning person, and this move would give me a little bit more daylight during the time I actually am awake. Yeah, I’m just that selfish.