Target Centermass

Author: Gunner

  • A European Conversation

    Maggie Gallagher writes of a recent discussion she had with a Swiss mother, and the column takes a look at the opposing American and Euroweenie worldviews. (Hat tip to Blackfive)

    “People hate you. Everyone hates you. The whole world hates you.” The pretty middle-aged woman, a Swiss mother and scholar, at the dinner table in Geneva earnestly wants to make that perfectly clear.

    She isn’t angry with me. She thinks the American people are totally ignorant, misled by the media and a criminal president. She also thinks the United States invaded Afghanistan in order to grab an oil pipeline.

    This is my test of whether conversation is possible. I can understand how Europeans can believe the war in Iraq was about oil. After all, European nations like France and Russia had been benefiting from sweetheart oil deals in Iraq for years. But Afghanistan?

    Go give it a read. I found this snippet rather telling:

    Does it sometimes take a war in order to achieve justice? Fifty-five percent of Americans strongly agree. Only 18 percent of Europeans do.

    Trust me, I know how these “conversations” can go. Worse yet, my girlfriend’s Swiss brother-in-law drinks the Michael Moore brand of kool-ade.

  • Women Hostages Seized in Baghdad Raid

    The abduction today of two Italian women in Baghdad may prove to be the biggest test to date for Italy and the Coalition of the Willing.

    Armed to the teeth, the kidnappers beat up a hapless guard, dragged a screaming Iraqi hostage by her hair and took off in broad daylight.

    Two Italian women — Simona Pari and Simona Torretta — and an Iraqi man were also abducted when 20 gunmen stormed a Baghdad villa housing the headquarters of two Italian humanitarian organisations today without firing a single bullet.

    The unusual abduction of women is likely to further alarm foreigners already on edge from widespread kidnappings.

    Per al-Jazeera, it appears that these two women were specifically targetted by the terrorists.

    Iraqi journalist Abd Allah Khudair told Aljazeera: “The operation only took five minutes.”

    “A three-car force broke into the organisation’s building and tied the hands of one of the staff and threw the others on the floor”.

    “The militants asked the names of the staff until they reached Simona Pari and the office head, Simona Torretta, who were captured by the militants,” Khudair added.

    At this point, any particular significance of these two is unknown, but the abduction immediately sent the Italian government scurrying.

    Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi was to return to Rome on Tuesday for an emergency cabinet meeting following the reported kidnapping of two Italian women in Iraq, officials said.

    Berlusconi, currently in northern Italy, was immediately informed of the abduction of the two, who were working for the Italian charity Un Ponte Per Baghdad (Bridge to Baghdad) in the Iraqi capital.

    A top Berlusconi aide has called an emergency meeting of all ministers concerned to discuss the situation in Iraq following the kidnapping of the women, who have been identified as Simona Pari and Simona Torretta.

    ….

    Italy, a strong supporter for the US-led war in Iraq, is still recovering from the execution of Italian journalist Enzo Baldoni.

    The kidnapped reporter was murdered on August 26 after Rome refused to bow to demands from the militant group to pull its troops out of the country.

    This was a bold and dangerous move by the terrorists, and there may eventually be no winners in this game. After all, change the nationality and this becomes the possible nightmare scenario that is still looming over the U.S. military after women were allowed on, over or near the battlefield.

    There are many possible ways this can play out for all involved:

    • The terrorists risk an immediate backlash from the muslim community for involving civilian women
    • The Italian government may have to make some hard choices — bail out of the war, deal with the scumbags, or stand firm and risk the lives of women, possibly leading to an upheaval on the home front
    • If Italy stands firm, the terrorists may execute the women, but this will almost certainly have a tremendous negative fallout in the Islamic world
    • It’s a crapshoot how Italy and some other nations would react to such an execution — knuckle under or come out guns a’blazing
    • The U.S. is forced to ride a razor’s edge here, capable of little (barring a storybook rescue), with much potentially gained and much potentially disastrously lost.

    A zero-sum game? Who knows? Perhaps a quick release is the only way to prevent losses for all involved. I’m not even going to pretend to predict the effect of execution videos hitting the internet in this case. My best hopes go out for these women, and the civilized world better pay close attention to how this one unfolds.

  • Arroyo Leading Philippines into Hell

    As if her please-don’t-hurt-us retreat from Iraq (and the accompanying $6 million payoff to terrorists) wasn’t enough, now there’s this little tidbit.

    Philippine President Gloria Arroyo says she has ordered the country’s defense minister to begin work on strengthening military ties with China.

    Ms. Arroyo told reporters Tuesday that Defense Minister Avelino Cruz will travel to Beijing soon to discuss defense and security matters with Chinese authorities and help set a framework for bilateral military cooperation.

  • They Shoot Children, Don’t They?

    In his latest column, Dennis Prager examines the current primative, barbaric state of radical Islam and the validity of “Muslim bashing” as a political hot potato.

    According to The New York Times, when the terrorists took over the Russian elementary school, they shouted “Allahu akbar” (“Allah is the greatest”).

    Does this surprise you, dear reader? Does it shock you that the people who deliberately attacked a school and then systematically shot and blew up little children did so in the name of Islam?

    Unfortunately, the question is rhetorical. Having targeted little children for death, there is no atrocity, no barbarity, no act of evil that the human race cannot imagine fanatical Muslims committing.

    We have already become almost inured to:

    The slaughtering of innocent human beings as if they were animals while chanting Muslim prayers.

    The reintroduction of black slavery and genocide against blacks.

    The murder of daughters and sisters for imagined or real sexual behavior.

    The stoning of women accused of adultery.

    The burning of Hindu temples and Christian churches, and the destruction of among the greatest Buddhist sculptures.

    The ban on women driving cars or learning to read.

    The idolization of young men who blow themselves up while murdering and maiming innocent non-Muslims — and the theology of sexual rewards in heaven for doing so.

    Prager is not painting with too broad a brush here. He specifically is targeting the Islamist radicals that are a pestilence on the face of our planet.

    It is, of course, only a minority of Muslims that engages in such horrors, but it is only Muslims who are doing all these things. Christians aren’t — even among Palestinians, there are no Christian terrorists. Jews aren’t — and when one Jew did deliberately kill innocent Palestinians in 1994, the rest of the Jewish world was horrified and demonstrated its revulsion in word and deed. Buddhists aren’t — despite the destruction of Tibet by the Chinese Communists, no Buddhists have murdered innocent Chinese, let alone non-Chinese who deal with China.

    Since 9/11, critiques of Islamic radicals and the general silence of non-radicals have been blunted by political correctness. Prager questions how long this should continue after the massacre of schoolchildren.

    … have we reached the point where people of goodwill can ask serious questions about Muslims and Islam? Or are any challenging questions still to be dismissed as “Muslim bashing” or, even more absurdly, “racist,” as if religion were a race?

    The truth is that everyone with a conscience has questions about Muslims and Islam. But the most powerful religion in America, the religion of tolerance, has rendered it almost impossible to ask any such questions.

    Have we reached the point? This must be another rhetorical question, because we reached that point, passed it, and can now barely see it as a speck in the rearview mirror.

    Yes, some people do shoot children, and good people have a right to ask why.

    Exactly!

    However, I disagree with Prager at one point where he states that “the only people asking these questions aloud [are] conservative and religious.” I stand here as an atheist exception, and I’d wager there’s a sizable portion of liberals or non-religious who would concur. After being careful with his brushstrokes on Islam, why did Prager have to go and get paint on me?

  • Hot off the Mudville Gazette presses

    Looks like one of my favorite MilBloggers — Hell! the founder of the MilBloggers — has received the summons. Best wishes and happy hunting, Greyhawk!

    EDIT: Grayhawk needs a little help if he is to keep blogging on his “trip.”

    Update: By the way, if everyone who wanders by here would see fit to hit that paypal button for a modest (really, 5 bucks would be great) donation this site will continue to provide you with the insights and diversions that I hope are your reasons for visiting. Honestly, if not, it will likely vanish within a few short weeks. That’s not a threat, it’s just an unavoidable truth.

    And whether you contribute or not, I’ll take this time to note that if you don’t vote this year I will find you on my return to the states and personally kick your ass.

    Thanks for stopping by.

    Update 2: I would consider it a great favor if fellow bloggers would kindly link this post. Thanks.

    Update 3: I suppose I should point out I’m going on a trip (ahem) and without some proper gear will be unable to continue updating this site – just to clarify. Said gear is not cheap, (think laptop and digital camera) and I think you might be interested in my reports from my destination.

  • Latest on F9/11

    I’ll be honest: I haven’t seen Michael Moore’s movie Fahrenheit 9/11 and have felt little inclination to do so. The trailer, reviews, reports on the web and words with coworkers have so far sated any curiosity save one — I suspected but was too lazy to verify an October DVD/VHS release. Well, now I know.

    Michael Moore says he won’t submit “Fahrenheit 9/11” for consideration as best documentary at this year’s Academy Awards. Instead, he’s going for the bigger prize of best picture.

    Moore’s critically acclaimed film slams President Bush’s war on terror as ill-advised and corrupt. The movie has cheered Democrats but enraged the president’s supporters, who booed Moore when he visited the Republican National Convention last week.

    “For me the real Oscar would be Bush’s defeat on Nov. 2,” Moore told The Associated Press during a phone interview Monday from New York.

    The $6 million film has become a sensation that collected $117.3 million in the United States this summer, despite an early roadblock when the Walt Disney Co. banned its Miramax Films division from distributing the political hot-potato.

    In the midst of the presidential campaign, Moore’s announcement is a strategic move for his Oscar campaign. Documentaries and animated films have their own categories, but the conventional wisdom in Hollywood is that those niche awards can limit a film’s appeal in the overall best picture class.

    Moore said he and his producing partner, Harvey Weinstein, agreed “Fahrenheit 9/11” would stand a better chance if they focused solely on the top Oscar.

    He also said he wanted to be “supportive of my teammates in nonfiction film.”

    So many documentaries — such as the gonzo fast-food satire “Super Size Me” and the sober look at Arab television news in “Control Room” — have made the rounds in theaters recently that Moore, who won the best documentary Oscar for “Bowling for Columbine,” said he wanted to give others a chance.

    “It’s not that I want to be disrespectful and say I don’t ever want to win a (documentary) Oscar again,” Moore said. “This just seems like the right thing to do. … I don’t want to take away from the other nominees and the attention that they richly deserve.”

    Moore also hinted in a recent interview in Rolling Stone he would like the movie to play on television before the presidential election. According to the rules of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, playing on TV would invalidate its contention in the documentary category, but not for best picture. With the movie coming out on DVD Oct. 5, it’s not clear whether the TV deal would happen.

    I suspect there’s more to this than Moore’s desire for television. First, this maneuver would dodge the is-this-really-a-documentary controversy that buzzed around his award-winning Bowling for Columbine, especially important as such a controversy would dwarf the previous one. Second, win or lose, nomination or no, this allows Moore to backburner Academy Award issues to well after election day. All he has to do is ride any storm in October, doing what damage he may to the president.

  • Russia, Israel Agree on Anti-Terror Union

    Based upon the shared burden of what is increasingly, albeit belatedly, recognized as a common enemy, Russia’s foreign minister has welcomed an offer by Israel of assistance against terror. It seems, however, that Russia isn’t quite to the point of understanding the story being played out on the global stage.

    While showing willingness to work with Israel against militants, Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said any counter-terrorism alliance would have to include Arab countries — in a nod to Russia’s traditional allies in the region.

    “We appreciate the very strong readiness of the Israeli people to help Russia at this hour and this will certainly strengthen the counterterrorist coalition these days,” Lavrov said.

    “We certainly are taking into account the need to be more effective,” he told reporters during a visit to President Moshe Katsav.

    In a meeting with Israeli opposition leader Shimon Peres, Lavrov said terrorism is one of the biggest challenges facing the international community.

    Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon (news – web sites), in a telephone call to Russian President Vladimir Putin (news – web sites) on Sunday, proposed expanded intelligence coordination between the two countries.

    However, Lavrov was careful to point out that Israel was one of several Middle Eastern countries with which Russia coordinated on security issues, including Saudi Arabia, Syria and other Arab states.

    “Terrorism doesn’t have any nationalities,” he said. “I believe the key to the solution of the problem is to bring all countries to fight terror and I can assure you that in addition to our very close counterterrorist cooperation with Israel we have similar counterterrorist cooperation with Arab countries.”

    Yes, I see some value in saying any mideast alliance would have to include Arab nations. That value would be the maintenance of Russia’s traditional regional allies, who are, unfortunately, part of the problem currently. Also, the insistence of the inclusion of an Arab state precludes the inclusion of Israel.

    I also note the “terrorism doesn’t have any nationalities” portion. While this is true, it would also be true, and in my mind crucially important, to finally admit that Islamic terrorism most assuredly has tendencies towards a small number of nationalities.

    The global war on Islamic terror is currently being fought in four theaters:

    • Israel and the Israeli-controlled regions
    • Afghanistan, involving the U.S., NATO and other allies
    • Iraq, with the U.S, British, Polish, Australian, Japanese forces, among others
    • Russia, with essentially anywhere and anyone in that vast region a potential target

    Unfortunately, short of the Afghani and Iraqi theaters, there is little if any realization that these four hotspots are related. In fact, the American and Euro left have worked feverishly to separate Iraq from the campaign against Islamic fascism. This is essentially akin to arguing that Operation Torch, the invasion of Vichy-controlled Northern Africa in 1943 was not part of WWII because Hitler was in Berlin.

    No, these four areas must certainly be linked if the radical and expansionist Islamist movement is to be stopped. In fact, future battlegrounds assuredly lurk in the near future (e.g. Sudan, Syria, Iran, heck, many, many more, potentially). The sooner the good guys (and I have zero qualms phrasing it that way) realize the scope of the situation and that we are now entering World War IV, the sooner the Allies can intertwine and bolster each other’s efforts. The more radIslam spreads, the greater the eventual bloodbath will be.

    I’d wager that even some in France realize this.

  • Avast! Get Your Grog Ready

    National Talk Like a Pirate Day is just around the corner on September 19.

  • Criticism and “Smears”

    Phil Gray over at Shades of Gray (Umbrae Canarum) has taken a lengthy look at the Kerry campaign’s stategy of shut-up-and-go-away.

    Perhaps we should go over the things that Kerry cannot be critiqued about, as it would be a “smear” or “questioning his patriotism.”

    1.) His Vietnam service (fine with me – a messy business all the way around, that)
    2.) His unique forum for protesting the war – i.e. a Senate committee
    3.) His statements in #2
    4.) Pronouncing “Ghengis” as “Jengis” (okay, okay, I doubt that the issue has come up, and it’s just a personal hang-up, so leave it to the side)
    ….

    There’s more. Go give it a gander.

  • When the Killers Come for the Kids

    Ralph Peters has published a column condemning the yesterday’s Russian school massacre and calling out Muslims to stand up and salvage the so-called “religion of peace.” (Hat-tip to lgf)

    THE mass murder of children revolts the human psyche. Herod sending his henchmen to massacre the infants of Bethlehem haunts the Gospels. Nothing in our time was crueler than what the Germans did to children during the Holocaust. Slaughtering the innocents violates a universal human taboo.

    Or a nearly universal one. Those Muslims who preach Jihad against the West decided years ago that killing Jewish or Christian children is not only acceptable, but pleasing to their god when done by “martyrs.”

    It isn’t politically correct to say this, of course. We’re supposed to pretend that Islam is a “religion of peace.” All right, then: It’s time for Muslims to stand up for the once-noble, nearly lost traditions of their faith and condemn what Arab and Chechen terrorists and blasphemers did in the Russian town of Beslan.

    If Muslim religious leaders around the world will not publicly condemn the taking of children as hostages and their subsequent slaughter — if those “men of faith” will not issue a condemnation without reservations or caveats — then no one need pretend any longer that all religions are equally sound and moral.

    Islam has been a great and humane faith in the past. Now far too many of its adherents condone, actively or passively, the mass murder of school kids. Instead of condemnations of the Muslim “Jihadis” responsible for butchering more than 200 women and children in cold blood, we will hear spiteful counter-accusations about imaginary atrocities supposedly committed by Western militaries.

    Well, the cold fact is that Western soldiers, whether Americans, Brits, Russians or Israelis, do not take hundreds of children hostage, then shoot them in cold blood while detonating bombs in their midst. The Muslim world can lie to itself, but we need lie no longer.

    Peters then goes on to tie this tragedy of innocence lost to the West’s efforts against Islamic terror.

    As they inevitably do, the terrorists reminded the world of their heartless barbarism. Even if France manages to beg the release of its kidnapped journalists in Iraq, it has begun to sense its vulnerability. And all Europeans with a vestige of sense will recognize that the school seizure in Russia could easily repeat itself in Languedoc or Umbria, Bavaria or Kent.

    An attack on children is an attack on all of humanity.

    No matter what differences Western states discover to divide them, the terrorists will bring us together in the end. Their atrocities expose all wishful thinking for what it is.

    A final thought: Did any of those protesters who came to Manhattan to denounce our liberation of 50 million Muslims stay an extra day to protest the massacre in Russia? Of course not.

    The protesters no more care for dead Russian children than they care for dead Kurds or for the hundreds of thousands of Arabs that Saddam Hussein executed. Or for the ongoing Arab-Muslim slaughter of blacks in Sudan. Nothing’s a crime to those protesters unless the deed was committed by America.

    The butchery in Russia was a crime against humanity. In every respect. Was any war ever more necessary or just than the War on Terror?

    I first came across Ralph Peters in ’93 when I read his novel The War in 2020. The book, written in 1991, has become somewhat dated by actual events since, but it is an excellent and thrilling read based on the U.S., struggling to escape a stagnation of its military, sending an expedition to assist the struggling Russians against militant Islamic invaders.