By Diana West on Friday, March 19, 2010 4:31 AM

Photo: Islamic Republic of Afghanistan flag over Marjah

From the AP:

MARJAH, Afghanistan — Crouched on packed earth at a barricaded Marine encampment, the village elders issued their complaint: U.S. troops had killed an innocent 14-year-old boy. Secretly, the Marines didn’t believe them. No matter. They apologized, called the death a tragedy and promised to offer a condolence payment to the boy’s family.

Here we see the act of assuaging "Arab anger" -- something of primary concern to Gen. Petraeus and the Obama administration -- in its wider Islamic context: Apologize for no reason and pay up. Or, in Islamic terms, prostrate one's self as befits an infidel and offer jizya-style protection money. Call it the COIN/sharia twofer.

It’s all part...

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By Diana West on Thursday, March 18, 2010 7:04 PM

There is an intensifying debate over how exactly Gen. David Petraeus regards Israel. (I have written about it here, here  and here.) On the one hand are the general's words -- first, as related in a blog posted at Foreign Policy, and, later, in the general's own written statement recently submitted to the US Senate Armed Services Committee. On the other hand are his supporters, who don't believe his words, either as reported in Foreign Policy (which they don't believe, either) or even...

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By Diana West on Thursday, March 18, 2010 2:54 PM

This week's column:

Phew. We can breathe easier now that the Obama administration has taken a tough-as-scimitars line with Israel, whose existentially threatening architectural blueprints for new housing, the administration says, pose a dire threat to U.S. troops and interests. Or, as Vice President Joseph Biden put it, referring to a new housing project in Jerusalem, as reported by Yedioth Ahronoth: "This is starting to get dangerous for us. What you're doing here undermines the security of our troops who are fighting in Iraq, Afghanistan and Pakistan." In other words, maybe it's not the Muslim-made IED planted in the roads of Helmand Province that's the problem; maybe it's the Jewish-built condo in Jerusalem. Such is the babble of the jihad-blackmailed. And the problem with giving in to blackmail is that it never ends.

...

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By Diana West on Thursday, March 18, 2010 2:15 AM

Power clasp: Murdoch and Talal at the Abu Dhabi Media Summit last week.

I know the story of the day about Fox News is Brett Baier's interview with President Obama but this short American Thinker piece by Jed Gladstein shouldn't be missed:

"Is Fox News Tiling Toward the Arabs?" the title asks. The answer is yes -- although I would characterize it more precisely as a tilt toward Islam and its narratives (we have to start thinking macro, people) -- as I have   written here, here...

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By Diana West on Wednesday, March 17, 2010 11:11 AM

Here's corroboration of the report indicating a distinctly Arabist outlook on the part of  Gen. Petraeus, who seems to view Israel as a root cause of problems, even American problems, in the Islamic world. It comes from the CENTCOM chief's own testimony before the Senate yesterday. Setting up "a number of cross-cutting issues that serve as major drivers of instability, inter-state tensions, and conflict," factors that "can serve as root causes of instability or as obstacles to security," he began with Israel. He said in his prepared statement:

Insufficient progress toward a comprehensive Middle East peace. The enduring hostilities between Israel and some of its neighbors present distinct challenges to our ability to advance our interests in the AOR.

Does he mean by "enduring hostilities" the fact that the Islamic world wants to eradicate Israel?

Israeli-Palestinian tensions...

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By Diana West on Tuesday, March 16, 2010 4:35 AM

Dear Mayor Margareta Ritter (margareta.ritter@stadt.monschau.de),

I have had the pleasure of visiting your exquisitely beautiful German town, the second member of my family to do so. The first was my dad, who, as a member of the 102nd Cavalry Reconnaissance Squadron in Gen. Bradley's Army, had, with time out to recuperate from wounds incurred at the Battle of St Lo, fought across nothern Europe from D-Day plus 2 until reaching Monschau by the end of 1944.

I only bring this up because I read this morning that you have declared Geert Wilders, who recently weekended in your town, "not welcome" in Monschau. "People who, just like Mr Wilders, encumber the Dutch integration debate with right-wing populism and who want to ban the Qur'an, comparing it to Mein Kampf,...

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By Diana West on Monday, March 15, 2010 10:36 AM

Last June, I noted Gen. David Petraeus's MoveOn.org-like take on Guantanamo Bay -- close it because it causes us problems and violates (unspecified) Geneva Conventions -- and his willingness to attribute to the Palestinian war on Israel "justifications" for the existence of Hezbollah.

Now this from Foreign Policy (via Judeosphere):

On Jan. 16, two days after a killer earthquake hit Haiti, a team of senior military officers from the U.S. Central Command (responsible for overseeing American security interests in the Middle East), arrived at the Pentagon to brief Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Adm. Michael Mullen on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. The team had been dispatched by CENTCOM commander Gen. David Petraeus to underline his...

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By Diana West on Friday, March 12, 2010 5:42 PM

Shinwari tribal elders arriving to pick up their US booty, I mean, convene a shura: Quick, Mohmand subtribe or Alisher subtribe? Or Khogyani, perchance? And does it make any difference to US national security??

----

Been a while since I posted about Afghanistan, having been focused on potentially hopeful developments in Europe -- specifically the potentional for reverse Islamization as manifested by Geert Wilders' recent political successes in the Netherlands. Remember, the fate of Europe (repeat after me) matters more to the US than the fate of Afghanistan. That's because an Islamic Europe of the possibly near future is of far deeper, graver concern to the future of Western-style liberty than whether an Islamic narco-kleptocracy in South Asia functions at some minimal level according to Western lights. The only thing important in Afghanistan are the lives...

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By Diana West on Friday, March 12, 2010 7:59 AM

On the floor of the House yesterday, Rep. Ted Poe, Texas Republican, had this to say about Geert Wilders:

Mr. Speaker, freedom of speech continues to be shouted down by the politically correct police. In the Netherlands, it is against the law to say something that offends someone else’s religion. That is why Dutch lawmaker Geert Wilders is on trial for hurting people’s feelings.He made a movie about terrorists and radical Islamic clerics encouraging violence in the name hate. Now he is on trial for insulting Islam.

He is charged with discrimination and incitement to hatred. Because Dutch law is intolerant of intolerance.The Dutch courts say even truthful insult speech is a crime. Sounds like the law has become the enemy of free speech and a protector of the radicals.

Geert Wilders boldly brings to the world’s attention the dangers of religious radicals who believe...

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By Diana West on Thursday, March 11, 2010 4:49 PM

Murdoch and Talal, together, in Abu Dhabi this week: It's a long way from Rudy Giuliani's Big Dis in Manhattan

This week's syndicated  column:

When Glenn Beck, Charles Krauthammer and Bill Kristol each from their respective Fox News perches branded Dutch political phenom Geert Wilders as beyond the political pale, it was shocking and outrageously so, and for several reasons.

One. I’ve grown used to Fox News and all other media ignoring not just the Wilders story but also the cultural story of the century, altogether – namely, the  Islamization of Europe, something Wilders, a great admirer of Ronald Reagan and a committed supporter Israel, is dedicated to halt and reverse. The survival instinct of the Dutch, who, earlier this month gave unprecedented electoral victories to Wilders and his party, is a strong indicator that this civilizational transformation...

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By Diana West on Thursday, March 11, 2010 4:29 AM

When Qaddafi's Libya is "satisfied" something is wrong.

Andrew Bostom has published an essential and timely essay at Pajama Media throwing the light of the ages, historically and Islamically speaking, on Qaddafi's declaration of jihad on Switzerland for its act of self-determination to ban construction of the tool and symbol of political Islam, the minaret. And yes, as the title of this post promises, he also sets the recent electoral successes of Geert Wilders into the context of European pushback against such outbursts of Islamic aggression and continuing demographic colonization.

Bostom's piece is mandatory reading, and particularly in order to appreciate the low-down depths to which the United States has sunk with its "apology" yesterday to Libya for State Department spokesman Philip Cowley's unfocused non-response to a question last month about...

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By Diana West on Wednesday, March 10, 2010 3:45 PM

This sketch almost got a man killed. Sorry, Sharia-inspired assassins almost killed a man over this sketch.

Story -- not the picture, of course, because the MSM are chicken-dhimmis -- by the AP

STOCKHOLM — The point of a caricature depicting the Prophet Muhammad as a dog was to show that artistic freedom allows mockery of all religions, including the most sacred symbols of Islam, the Swedish artist who created it said Wednesday.

Update: The essential backgrounder on the whole story at Gates of Vienna. 

Lars Vilks — the target of an alleged murder plot involving an American woman who dubbed herself "Jihad Jane" — told The Associated Press he has no regrets about the drawing, which is considered deeply offensive by many Muslims.

Oh, please....

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By Diana West on Tuesday, March 09, 2010 12:56 PM

Perhaps in response to major viewer push-back, Fox News ("fair and halal") pulled its video clips of the two evening slams on Geert Wilders that appeared last night, first by Glenn Beck and then by Bill Kristol and Charles Krauthammer. That's right: Fox pulled the videos from all Internet sight.

Well, not quite. Thanks to the invaluable Gates of Vienna, we can still watch  the Beck outburst:

By Diana West on Tuesday, March 09, 2010 7:36 AM

Prince Talal has pals and they all have pockets filled with Westerners.

From the AP:

ABU DHABI, United Arab Emirates — With an economy based on pumping oil and landmarks that include one of the Mideast's grandest mosques, buttoned-down Abu Dhabi has little obvious in common with freewheeling media magnets like Hollywood or midtown Manhattan.

This week, the Arab emirate is hoping the world takes another look. The city-state, best known of late for bailing out its flashier neighbor Dubai, is bringing together some of the industry's biggest names for a summit...

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By Diana West on Monday, March 08, 2010 5:45 PM

It was pile-on time at Fox News tonight as Glenn Beck, Charles Krauthammer, a gal whose name I missed [update -- A.B. Stoddard] and Bill Kristol all branded Geert Wilders beyond the pale tonight.

Beck classified Geert as a fascist.

Krauthammer said Geert didn't know the difference between Islam and Islamism -- never mind that according to Krauthammer's idea of  Islamic scholarship, neither did Mohammed.

[Stoddard] said she agreed with Imam Krauthammer and added that if people like this (Geert) are elected to lead Holland it will suffer the consequences.

Kristol called Geert a demagogue.

In other words, a stomach-turning display -- or should I say halal?

...

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By Diana West on Sunday, March 07, 2010 7:48 AM

Never heard of Russia TV before I went on Friday but hey, at least they're interested in talking about the Wilders phenom -- as opposed to some fair and balanced most trusted names in news I could mention. (Don't miss host's wrap-up equating Islamic imperialism & Western imperialism -- the new moral equivalence?)

By Diana West on Friday, March 05, 2010 7:40 AM

AP photo: Geert Wilders arriving for a press conference in London today

Below is the text of Geert Wilders' address today in the House of Lords, where, at the invitation of Baronness Cox and Lord Pearson, both members of United Kingdom Independence Party (UKIP), he showed his film Fitna.  Thank you. It is great to be back in London. And it is great that this time, I got to see more of this wonderful city than just the detention centre at Heathrow Airport. Today I stand before you, in this extraordinary place. Indeed, this is a sacred place. This is, as Malcolm always says, the mother of all Parliaments, I am deeply humbled to have the opportunity to speak before you. Thank you Lord Pearson and Lady Cox for your invitation and showing my film ‘Fitna’. Thank you my friends for inviting me. I first have great news. Last Wednesday city council elections...

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By Diana West on Friday, March 05, 2010 5:34 AM

Author's photo: Antwerp, Belgium 2008

This week's syndicated column further unwraps the hijab and finds  totalitarian ideology underneath:

When the Netherlands' Party for Freedom leader Geert Wilders recently addressed voters in Almere, a Dutch city of 200,000 where his party handily won elections this week, he told them what to expect as his once-tiny, anti-Islamization party started flexing its new political muscle. Aside from lower taxes and other political staples, his plans for this city not far from Amsterdam include a ban on Muslim headscarves.

Wilders' ban would apply to "headscarves in municipal bodies and all other institutions (that) receive even one penny of subsidy from the municipality." He continued: "And for all clarity: This (ban) is not meant for crosses or yarmulkes because those are symbols of religions that belong to our own culture and are not -- as is...

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By Diana West on Thursday, March 04, 2010 12:39 PM

From the amazing team of GoV, Vlad Tepes and VH, the Wilders victory speech (in Dutch with English subtitles) last night in Almere, the Netherlands.

By Diana West on Thursday, March 04, 2010 2:50 AM

 

How do you say "Reconquista" in Dutch? Anyway, so it begins in Almere, the Netherlands, where Geert Wilders's PVV party looks like the Big Winner in yesterday's munipal elections, also coming in second in The Hague. Best news in a long time.

An only somewhat jaundiced report from the Guardian:

Geert Wilders, the Dutch far-right anti-immigrant maverick, scored big gains in yesterday's local elections in the Netherlands, according to projections last night, indicating he may dominate the political scene in the run-up to the general election in three months.

OK. Let's break it down.

Is Wilders "far-right"? That conjures up visions of state-controlled fascism. What is state-controlled-fascist about a politician such as Wilders who wants to lower taxes, which necessarily reduces the goverrnment power? And what, to take a couple of other Wilders programs, is "far right" about fighting crime and keeping the retirement age at 65? Indeed, what is "far-right" or fascist about Wilders' anti-Islamization program to halt and reverse the creeping totalitarianism of sharia (Islamic law), a religio-fascist program based on mosque-control of public and private life?

...

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By Diana West on Wednesday, March 03, 2010 3:25 AM

"Playful" students and teachers in The Hague protest Geert Wilders' proposal to de-Islamize the Dutch public square with a ban on the hijab, the Islamic uniform, in institutions funded by taxpayer money. Via Gates of Vienna.

"They want to make it clear that a headscarf is not something exclusive to Muslims: “Brigitte Bardot in the sixties also often wore headscarves...."



Are they kidding?

 

 

 

...

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By Diana West on Tuesday, March 02, 2010 10:08 AM

Remember our British friend Nigel Farage's bracing if also entertaining pushback against the anti-democracy European Union machine posted here?

That'll be 3,000 Euros, says the EU -- which converts to $4,078 bucks.

From the United Kingdom Independence Party website (via Paul Belien):

UKIP MEP Leader Nigel Farage has been hit with a €3000 fine for accusing the President of the European Council Herman van Rumpuy of having "the charisma of a damp rag".

Mr Farage was informed this afternoon by Jerzy Buzek, president of the European Parliament the he had decided to fine him €3000 for his comments relating to Mr van Rompuy and Belgium.   The fine represents...

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By Diana West on Tuesday, March 02, 2010 5:19 AM

Photo: Geert Wilders campaigning in Almere, the Netherlands

Tomorrow, in municipal elections in Almere, the Netherlands, Geert Wilders' PVV party -- Partij voor de Vrejheid, or Party for Freedom -- is poised to emerge the big winner as polls show PVV winning as much as 30 percent of the vote.

A few days ago, Geert Wilders spoke in Almere, an excellent speech full of insights into the Dutch political scene in the wake of its government having fallen. Toward the end of the speech, Wilders describes how his burgeoning political power to reverse the Islamization process may manifest itself.

I still have other good news for you. I heard from our party leaders in Almere and the Hague [the other city where the PVV joins the municipal elections], Raymond de Roon and Sietse Fritsma, what the main effort will be for the [coalition] negotiations in Almere and the Hague after March 3 [the municipal elections]: That will be a ban on headscarves in municipal bodies and all other institutions, foundations, or associations, if they receive even one penny of subsidy from the municipality. Thus an immediate ban on headscarves, get rid of that woman-humiliating Islamic symbol. And for all clarity: this is not however meant for crosses or yarmulkes, because those are symbols of religions that belong to our own culture and are not — as is the case with headscarves — a sign of an oppressive totalitarian ideology.

...

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By Diana West on Sunday, February 28, 2010 6:53 AM

MG Paul Vallely has some excellent questions for our civilian and miitary leadership today. He also has some excellent answers -- all of which involve abandoning once and for the self-destructive, self-defeating, not to mention masochistic, strategies of "counter-insurgency" (COIN) doctrine and nation-building.

As Gen. Vallely points out: "The COIN principle is not based on winning; it is based on political whims and is not a true tenet of warfare. Warfare is, and always should be, about WINNING."

Winning this specific war against forces impelled by Islamic ideology calls for unconventional measures, Gen. Vallely writes, not the conventional actions followed by lengthy occupations such as we have seen and are seeing in Iraq and Afghanistan. Such an unconventional war doctrine, as he writes below, "heavily leverages the core capability to break enemy states, target and destroy the...

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By Diana West on Saturday, February 27, 2010 3:25 AM

From Marx to Lenin to Gramsci to Marcuse ... the subversion of academia is complete: Cultural relativism is taught (an old story), and promiscuity is not just non-judgmentally tolerated (as per cultural relativism), it is now actively  encouraged by the Yale Dean's Office. And do, the dean says, tell us all about it.

From the Yale Daily News (via Michael Rubin at The Corner):

The Yale Dean's Office's is planning a web venture: hosting student essays "by current undergraduates, allowing them to reflect anonymously on their sexual experiences at Yale and their impressions of the sexual culture here."

It goes one from here. And don't miss the comments.

New motto suggestion from what you might almost call an Old Blue:

Lux and Voyeurism.

 

 

...

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By Diana West on Friday, February 26, 2010 10:51 AM

Chalk one up for their side. Again.

From the AP: "Danish daily issues apology over prophet drawing"

That would be this, in case you didn't know:



A Danish newspaper on Friday apologized for offending Muslims by reprinting a cartoon of the Prophet Muhammad with a bomb-shaped turban, rekindling heated debate about the limits of freedom of speech.

Danish daily Politiken said its apology was part of a settlement with a Saudi lawyer representing eight Muslim groups in the Middle East and Australia.

The Breitbart story...

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By Diana West on Friday, February 26, 2010 3:20 AM

Sheriff Joe Arapaio is for Hayworth; Sarah Palin is for McCain. Why? Answer below

What drew me to the Arizona GOP Senate primary story, the subject of this week's column (below and here), was not just the face-off between liberal John McCain and conservative J.D. Hayworth. It was also the weird warning bells that went off with some big-name conservatives, particularly conservative poster-girl Sarah Palin, endorsing John McCain. Not only is the philosophical breach seemingly unpassable, it's hard to forget what a rat he was to her as both he and his staff savaged her in the wake of the prez campaign. 

Meanwhile, Romney, Dick Armey, Fred Thompson and Sen. Kyl, I believe, have linked arms with McCain as well.

...

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By Diana West on Thursday, February 25, 2010 5:18 AM

By Diana West on Thursday, February 25, 2010 3:54 AM

I almost forgot what it felt like to experience McCain Derangement Syndrome. Then I saw this web ad attack on McCain's Senate primary challenger J.D. Hayworth (who only shows common sense and a modicum of grit in pointing out that "questions will remain" until Obama releases his birth certificate paperwork). Then I wrote this week's (upcoming) column. Then I felt better.

 

By Diana West on Wednesday, February 24, 2010 4:19 AM

I'm driving along, I turn on the radio , a gravelly voice with an unplaceable Northeastern accent comes on ...

"...and during that period with Nazism and fascism growing -- a real danger to the United States and Democratic countries all over the world -- there were people in this Congress, in the British parliament saying, 'don't worry! Hitler is not real! It'll disappear! We don't have to be prepared to take it on....'" My gosh, who is that talking so forthrightly about the failure of the West to face up to the existential threat of Islam -- on AM drive-time radio?

Darn that dream. The speaker was Bernie Sanders, Vermont's "independent" senator, and he was talking not about Islamic apologists who deny the perils of Islamization and the spread of liberty-strangling sharia (Islamic law), but about those of us who have by now figured out that global warming -- sorry, climate-change -- is a lot of bunk based on a noxious brew of cooked scientific data and warmed-over Karl Marx.

...

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By Diana West on Tuesday, February 23, 2010 6:09 AM

Two pieces by esteemed contributors to this blog have come out elsewhere this week, both on topics largely ignored by the media, the punditry and the military and civilian leadership, and both on topics related to the appalling failures of the same to ensure that the nation's military forces receive justice and a fair shake as they struggle with hostiles abroad and a hostile miiltary justice system at home.

"John Murtha Forgot Semper Fi" by Tom Stone appears here in the Washington Examiner.

"Imprisoned for Saving American Lives" by John L. Work appears here at Frontpagemag.com.

Must reads.

...

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By Diana West on Monday, February 22, 2010 1:38 PM

Astonishing how quietly retired General and former Secretary of State Alexander Haig passed away this past weekend, slipping the mortal coil practically incognito -- at least for a significant historical figure whose decades of service to this nation spanned war and tumultous peace.

Sure, there were front-page obituaries in the big papers, and yes, they all pounced one more time on his post Reagan-assassination-attempt "I'm in charge" routine -- a bogus splice of life, the way the media played it, that always cut the part where he said he would of course be informing the vice president if anything came up while he was in transit back to Washington ....

Tom DeFrank discusses Haig's key contributions in the darkest days of Watergate here.

Arnaud de Brochgrave recounts Haig's impressive military career (and strange-sounding later-life devotion to communist China) here.

...

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By Diana West on Sunday, February 21, 2010 2:43 PM

Here is the fourth part of "Flirting with Afghanistan," text, photos and captions by Paul Avallone. (See here for Part 1, Part 2 and Part 3.) In this final installment, Avallone examines the exploitation, segregation and enslavement of girls and women in Afghan Islamic society -- a society the US-led coalition is prepared to die for, defend and perpetuate.



Stare into this girl's eyes, stare long, and she'll capture you, and you won't be able to look away. Then realize that I took this photograph in early 2003, when I and my Special Forces team mates played in our "Chocolate Alley" Jalalabad neighborhood of our safehouse base with the scores and scores of kids who trusted us and were unafraid of us, confident of our intent for good rather than bad, to the point that even the girls were photographical. Look again at this girl, then realize that, seven years later, she has been long married as well as long under a burqa. Under a burqa. Not just the pure beauty, but--look at her--whatever is going on in that mind.

...

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By Diana West on Saturday, February 20, 2010 9:53 AM

The Dutch government has fallen for the fifth time since 2002.

”This is a beautiful day,” Mr Wilders said. ”The worst cabinet in Dutch history no longer exists and people can let their voices be heard by voting in a few months’ time.”

 

 

By Diana West on Saturday, February 20, 2010 9:37 AM

Our leaders, military and civilian, all wanted to ignore the June 2009  jihad attack on Pvt. William Long outside an Army Navy recruiting center in Little Rock.

They still do.

Watch this video interview with Pvt. Long's father Daris Long and see if you can, too.

This week's column:

Remember last June when President Obama traveled to Saudi Arabia because, as he put it, "It was very important to come to the place where Islam began and seek his majesty's counsel"?

I argued at the time, gagging, that rather than visiting "the place where Islam began," the president of the United States should have gone to the place where Islam had just ended the life of a U.S. soldier. I refer to the U.S. Army-Navy recruiting center in Little Rock, Ark., where on June 1, Muslim convert...

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By Diana West on Thursday, February 18, 2010 7:55 AM

Left to right: Capt Roger Hill, Officer in Charge of the Honor Guard at Ronald Reagan's funeral, and in Afghanistan.

Remember Capt. Roger Hill? Almost exactly one year ago to the day, I wrote:

After four years at West Point, nine years of honorable service, including two wars (Iraq and Afghanistan) and a Bronze Star for valor, Captain Roger Hill now faces a "less than honorable discharge" in a massive miscarriage of military "justice."

The story?

As three retired senior officers--Army Col. Andy O'Meara, Air Force Lt. Gen. Thomas McInerny and Army Maj. Gen. Paul Vallely--explained his case in an op-ed posted at the time, Capt. Hill was commanding a lonely outpost in 2008 in Wardak Province, Afghanistan, "an area the size of Connecticut with many Taliban lurking amid...

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By Diana West on Wednesday, February 17, 2010 7:42 AM

Photo: A U.S. soldier returns fire as others run for cover during a firefight with insurgents in the Badula Qulp area, West of Lashkar Gah in Helmand province, southern Afghanistan, on Sunday, Feb. 14, 2010. (AP Photo/Pier Paolo Cito)

-----

At the end of an AP "analysis" today by Anne Gearan and Anne Flagerty comes this comment from C. Christine Fair in response to happy talk from national security advisor James Jones about how Marjah "will demonstrate, I think successfully, that the new elements of the strategy will work." Jones, the AP writers note, "listed economic reform and good local governance in the same breath with the security bought with military might."

"That's where I get really skeptical," said Georgetown University professor C. Christine Fair, a former U.N. official in Afghanistan.

"I don't know where they found 2,000 Afghan police [mentioned earlier in the...

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By Diana West on Wednesday, February 17, 2010 6:01 AM

Oh, to see former US Rep. J.D. Hayworth (GOP) trounce current Sen. John McCain ("Maverick") in Arizona's Republican Senate primary on August 24. Hayworth announced his candidacy this week.

McCain is everything wrong with the Republican Party, and despite the deep despair the Obama administration inspires, I still think (I think) a McCain presidency would have been somehow worse in the long run (if there is a long run ...).

A McCain administration would have been merely lousy. But it would have left the republic adrift in some similar and significant ways -- the disastrously prosecuted war, the drumbeat for illegal alien amnesty (one of Hayworth's major claims to fame is his staunch determination...

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By Diana West on Tuesday, February 16, 2010 3:00 PM

I don't know why the British newspapers seem to offer better war  coverage, but they often do. Here, vivid and extremely disturbing reporting (compare to Wall Street Journal here) from Ben Anderson of the Times of London on what our ROE-handcuffed troops are going through to take that prize package Marjah (above).

We clung to the steep sides of the canal trying to find some safe ground halfway up the bank. A rocketpropelled grenade came in just over our heads and exploded against the wall behind us. The Marines either side of me were hit with shrapnel. One, Doc Morrison, took a chunk of metal in his leg that severed an artery. The helicopter called to evacuate him came under machinegun and rocket fire.

Captain...

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By Diana West on Tuesday, February 16, 2010 11:54 AM

Radio News Netherland reports:

A conference centre in The Hague has cancelled the launch of a book criticising Islam. The book launch was scheduled for Thursday at The World Forum, but was cancelled because the director of the venue does not believe he can guarantee the safety of his guests.

The book in question is Islamofobie? (Islamophobia?), written by Islam critic and PVV supporter Frans Groenendijk. The PVV, or Freedom Party is an anti-Islamic opposition party led by Geert Wilders.

Must be Geert's fault somehow.

By Diana West on Tuesday, February 16, 2010 6:25 AM

Photo: Afghanistan Marine BG Lawrence "Eat Lots of Goat" Nicholson

The Battle of Marjah continues, only it's not a "battle" as understood in the traditional sense of the word. Marjah is a deadly foray into "armed social work" for US troops who probably thought they had signed up to fight for their country.

Wrong country.

“What are we here for?” Brig. Gen. Larry Nicholson, the top Marine commander in Afghanistan, would shout to his troops.

“The people!” was the troops’ refrain.

And yes, that would be "the people" of Afghanistan.

More from the AP:

MARJAH, Afghanistan — Some American and Afghan troops say they’re fighting the latest offensive...

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By Diana West on Monday, February 15, 2010 2:00 PM

Here is the third installment of "Flirting with Afghanistan," text, photos and captions by Paul Avallone. Catch up on Part 1 here and Part 2 here.

 

GIs inspect a school, built the previous year through US aid and contracts, and subsequently destroyed by the Taliban. 2008.



A villager says his piece in a meeting with American soldiers. 2008.



"Afghan TV":...

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By Diana West on Monday, February 15, 2010 7:38 AM

Via ISAF: Valentine's Day at the Battle of Marjah.

The news from Marjah is increasingly surreal as "counterinsurgency" theory goes into battle -- "counterinsurgency" being a fancy word for hearts-and-minds nation-building.

Example: A rocket hits the wrong compound, killing 10 "civilians." Since COIN means always having to say you're sorry, the commanding general not only "apologizes" in the middle of the battle, he suspends the further use of the rocket in the middle of the battle. This is in line with the guiding fantasy of COIN warfare -- that it is possible to "win" the confidence, trust, "hearts and minds," whatever of the "people," as though war were a popularity contest, and after eight-plus-years the Muslims of Afghanistan still can't make up their...

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By Diana West on Sunday, February 14, 2010 9:32 AM

LTC Allen West (ret.) is a man who isn't afraid of enemy fire or speaking the truth, and voters in Florida's District 22, from Jupiter to Ft. Lauderdale, are lucky pups to be able to vote him into Congress this November. When they do -- and they better not blow it -- the rest of the United States will finally have his leadership where we need it ... in Washington, DC.

Via Andrew Bostom.

 

By Diana West on Friday, February 12, 2010 6:13 AM

Asia Times map via Long War Journal report on post-Keating Taliban rule in Kamdesh.

This week's column is about an age-old story, how Big Fish sacrifice small fry to stay Big Fish. The story the column was triggered by came out last Friday, when the Washington Post reported on military investigations into battles at Wanat, Ganjgal and Kamdesh, all in Afghanistan.

The U.S. military has reprimanded an unusually large number of commanders for battlefield failures in Afghanistan in recent weeks, reflecting a new push by the top brass to hold commanders responsible for major incidents in which troops are killed or wounded, said senior military officials.     

Fyi, "top brass" = Big Fish in this story.

Having covered -- no, railed about -- the rules of engagement inflicted on commanders by top brass in thrall to the PC doctrine of "counterinsurgency"...

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By Diana West on Thursday, February 11, 2010 8:14 AM

 

Touching down at COP Keating, March 2009

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The battle of Kamdesh on October 3, 2009 is the focus of this week's upcoming column -- specifically, the Pentagon's reported decision to punish mid-level commanders for intelligence failures that preceded the brutal battle that left eight Americans dead. According to an investigation, commanders ignored local intelligence indicating that a large attack against COP Keating was likely andfailed to take appropriate defensive measures.

That may be. But why was a small US outpost in Kamdesh in the first place? And, if there, why was it based for three years in an indefensible position? The real blame for the battle of Kamdesh lies with the military brass behind this fatally pointless and needlessly dangerous mission. Before deciding whether you agree, watch the below video of the base and battle site, COP Keating, taken last summer by Britain's News 4 photographer Stuart Webb (via Burnpit,  which has more Keating video.)

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By Diana West on Wednesday, February 10, 2010 4:59 AM

Just another day in Pakistan, where jihadi symps last week expressed their opinion of the US conviction of "Lady Al Qaeda," Aafia Siddiqui, who was found guilty in a Manhattan court of trying to kill US personnel in Afghanistan.

Now for something completely new and different:

Headline: "British parliamentarians for public inquiry into Dr. Aafia Siddiqui's conviction"

Lead: Describing the conviction of Pakistani neuroscientist Dr.Aafia Siddiqui as “miscarriage of justice”, British Parliamentarians have called for withdrawal of case against her and repatriation to Pakistan.

British parliamentarians?

Muslim members of British Parliament is more to the point. The story from the Associated Press of...

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By Diana West on Tuesday, February 09, 2010 10:59 AM

 

Remember Omer Bajwa, Yale's "Muslim Victory" Chaplain?

The one who was reported to have told an Islamabad audience "Muslims will win the final victory in the West if they conform to their beliefs and disseminate the message of Islam with wisdom and politeness"?

The one who slandered Kurt Westergaard by publicly stating at Yale in front of the cartoonist that he, the Muslim Victory Chaplain, had read in the New York Times that Kurt's son had converted to Islam -- when there was no such story in the New York Times, while Kurt's son has not converted to Islam?

The one who, practicing taqiyya,...

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By Diana West on Monday, February 08, 2010 7:40 AM

Protocol calls: Who in the EU gets to receive President Obowma?

While EU officials mud wrestle each other for the fun of receiving Obama and, more important, his bow in a US-EU summit to be, the words "Greek" and "economy" come together and threaten to pull the EU apart. Paul Belien explains in "The EU's Horrible Honeymoon" at the Brussels Journal:

Last week, Barack Obama snubbed the Europeans by refusing to attend next May’s European Union summit in Madrid. The Europeans are very upset. But that is not the worst of their problems, and neither is the looming bankruptcy of Greece. Analysts fear that Spain might sink the euro, the EU’s common currency, and with the euro also the dreams of greater political integration.

At this point Europe is not even halfway its 100-day political “honeymoon” since the Treaty of Lisbon, which transformed the EU into a state in...

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By Diana West on Sunday, February 07, 2010 8:10 AM

Ilmar Reepalu is the Mayor of Malmo, Sweden, but he could well serve as the Mouthpiece of Eurabia, having crystallized its essence in a recent interview about rocketing Antisemitism in his city. Malmo (pop. 250,000), a confortable train ride across the Oresund strait from Copenhagen, is Sweden's third-largest city, a Leftist-jihadist territory where like-minded Leftist "antifa" Swedes and Muslim immigrants, the 21st-century's alliance of Brown Shirts and Black Shirts, effectively arm "civilized" Socialist rule with the under-flowing threat and as-necessary implementation of violence.

You may recall the March 2009 Davis Cup match between Sweden and Israel that was played in Malmo sans spectators after the City Council voted five to four to hold the match in an empty stadium. As the Jerusalem Post noted...

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