The four sure things in this world are death, taxes, the intent of Iran’s Khomeinist theocracy to build a nuclear arsenal, and the absolute necessity of stopping them. Saturday’s Paris meeting of Britain, China, France, Russia, and the United States, all United Nations Security Council members, plus Germany will consider yet another round of sanctions aimed at inducing Iran to halt its nuclear program.
Today saw one last attempt by the EU to gain some concessions from Iran on their nuclear program prior to the Saturday meeting. It was just the most recent in what has proven to be a wholly fruitless attempt by the EU to convince Iran using stern diplomatic language and mean looks. The end result to this charade was more than predictable. Read the story here. Iran is convinced that the West is too weak, greedy and corrupt to take any actions to stop it, be they economic or military.
Certainly nothing the EU has done to this point has given theocracy any reason to doubt their belief. Germany and France, who together are deeply involved in the Iranian economy, have refused to engage in meaningful sanctions. And EU military capability is, sad to say, a bit of an oxymoron.
Nor could Iran be any more correct in their assessment of the US, hamstrung as we are by a wholly partisan Democratic leadership that values power above our national security. We have Obama promising to drink with Ahmedinejad in Tehran if he’s elected. The Democrats are as a group flatly refusing to consider military action against Iran. And today, that constitutional scholar, Joe Biden, promised that he will lead the impeachment of President Bush if Bush takes any military action against Iran.
We could see meaningful sanctions come out of the meaning Saturday, even if China forces the sanctions outside of the UN Security Council by their veto power. Let us hope, as this may well be the last round of sanctions with any hope of keeping the nuclear genie from escaping the Iranian bottle. If not, than Joe Biden aside, we need to be prepared to attack Iran and make them pay a very heavy price indeed. Their's is a regime every bit as evil, expansionist and dangerous as was Nazi Germany. It needs to be treated similarly.
Friday, November 30, 2007
An Iranian Saturday
Watcher's Council Results
The winning council post for the week was Buchanan's New Book: “Prepare Ye for the End” by Rightwing Nuthouse.
The winning non-council post for the week was Have Our Copperheads Found Their McClellan in LTG Sanchez by yours truly.
You can find the full results of the vote here.
Interesting News From Around the Web
They are calling it a “dirty-bomb plot” thwarted. Police caught two Hungarians and a Ukrainian with a pound of weapons grade powdered uranium. Uranium is considered weapons grade when it consists of 85% or greater uranium 235. The uranium recovered by the police was 98.6% uranium 235.
‘The Prophet would have not have disapproved of 9/11, because it was carried out in his example. When he came to Medina, the Prophet had a revelation, of jihad. After that, it became an obligation for Muslims to convert others, and to establish an Islamic state, by the sword if necessary.” An interview with Ayaan Hirsi Ali
The choice of questions and questioners approved by CNN amounts to a fiasco. Gateway Pundit tells the sordid tale.
Some problems are surfacing in Britain’s NHS. More than 90,000 patients die and almost one million are harmed each year because of hospital blunders, according to a just released report.
Al Qaeda and Iran are the wolves at the door. China is not far behind, and poses a much more potent threat.
And in the “working hard for a good cause” category, one enterprising Chilean prostitute has auctioned off 27 hours of sex for approximately $4,000 to be donated to a charity for poor children. To break that down, that’s about $150 per hour or . . . well, probably best to stop the itemization there . . .
According to Sarkozy, the cause of the riots in the Parisian suburbs were the result more of a “thugocracy” than social problems. As to the social problems, Sarkozy seems likely to beat the unions in France as he seeks to reform the French economy.
Iraq Military & Security Roundup
Apparently, even Rep. Jack Murtha (D-Pa) can see it. He just returned from a Thanksgiving trip to Iraq and proclaimed "I think the 'surge' is working." I am amazed. Meanwhile, Blackfive is pondering the ingredients in Murtha’s Thanksgiving meal Read the entire post. DOD is reporting signficant increases in Iraqi unit effectiveness: Read the entire article. And in a related story, the Iraqi intelligence cycle - gathering, processing and coordinating targets - is now producing results on par with U.S. forces.
Security continues to improve throughout Iraq. Even a turkey stuffed Murtha can see it. Bill Rogio provides a good overview of operations. Black Five and CENTCOM have individual engagement reports. DOD has some very positive news about Iraq unit effectiveness and improvements in their intelligence capability. And Michael Yon has up the third in his his riveting report from his embed with British forces:
Security continues to improve in Iraq, as reported by the NYT:Recent American military data indicates that for the fourth week in a row, the nationwide weekly number of attacks is at its lowest level since January 2006. The number of civilians killed, as measured by the American and Iraqi governments, continued to decline in November. The number of weekly casualties, wounded as well as killed, suffered by Iraqi civilians, Iraqi forces and American forces, increased last week by 56 percent but was still below the level for most of 2006 and 2007.
Bill Rogio at the Long War Journal describes the major operations being conducted:As al Qaeda in Iraq attempts to re-establish its networks in the Northern provinces, the Iraqi military and Multinational Forces Iraq have been shaping the battlefield in the north for a showdown with the terror group. Iraqi and US forces received a big boost the past week when a significant number of Iraqis formed a Concerned Local Citizens group in the region. Meanwhile, the Islamic Army of Iraq in Mosul has vowed to dig in and fight the Coalition.
Blackfive has the story of a successful night air assault northeast of Baghdad
Centcom has daily news releases on the result of operations over the past week:Coalition forces detained 12 suspects during operations Thursday targeting al-Qaeda operations in central and northern Iraq.
Coalition forces detained 12 suspects, including two local leaders of al Qaeda, Tuesday and Wednesday during operations targeting al-Qaeda networks in central and northern Iraq.
During operations north of Bayji, Iraq, Coalition forces observed several individuals begin to maneuver in and around the area reported to be a logistical sanctuary and safe haven where terrorists allegedly plan and coordinate attacks. Perceiving hostile intent, the ground force called for supporting aircraft to engage, killing two terrorists.
Iraqi Forces, advised by U.S. Special Forces, detained one suspected al Qaeda in Iraq terrorist commander and two suspected extremists, as well as uncovered 18 improvised explosive devices during three separate operations Nov. 25 targeting criminal groups within Iraq. The Habbaniyah Special Weapons and Tactics team, along with U.S. Special Forces, conducted a raid west of Baghdad specifically targeting an AQI commander. The individual is reported to be responsible for murder and intimidation campaigns against Iraqi Police and their families in Saqlawiyah, and multiple improvised explosive device attacks against Iraqi and Coalition Forces.Iraqi security forces have taken “huge steps forward” in growing and moving toward independent operations, a senior commander in Iraq said today.
And they’ve made this progress despite fighting a war on their own soil and working through an immature bureaucracy, said British Army Brigadier S. M. Gledhill, deputy commanding general for the Multinational Security Transition Command Iraq. The command is charged with helping the Iraqis to organize, man and equip their force and to develop the ministries of Defense and Interior.
“Fundamentally, Iraqis are now taking ownership of the battle space themselves. I think this is an extremely positive move and it really demonstrates their capability,” Gledhill said to a group of Internet journalists and “bloggers” in a conference call.
“An increasing number are moving into the leading role, and I have every confidence that over the next 12 months Iraqi battalions and brigades will increasingly take the lead in the battle space,” he said.
In the past year, the Iraqi security forces have rocketed to nearly a half million, including both the police and army. The 158,000-member armed forces are expected to grow to 190,000. The police forces number more than 300,000, Gledhill said. A year ago, the police forces numbered less than 200,000, and the armed forces were about 135,000 strong.
Between the army and national police, 191 Iraqi battalions are in the fight, with more than half operating without coalition force support, he said. . . .
And last but not least, do read Michael Yon’s Men of Valor Part III. Its riveting.
Thursday, November 29, 2007
Of Federalism & Hookers
The federalization of criminal law is both a waste of resources and a gross assault upon the Constitutional concept of federalism - that the powers of the federal government are limited and there are spheres of governing that can and should be restricted to the states.
Yet the federalization of criminal law continues apace. The latest is legislation approved by the House to make prostitution a federal crime. How we get there is a bit of very well intentioned insanity.
The genesis of this legislation arises out the criminal enterprise of human trafficking – itself already a federal crime. Under federal laws, a person is guilty of trafficking if they hold someone else in "a workplace through force, fraud or coercion." In cases where human trafficking is found, it usually involves prostitution or forced labor. There are highly committed activists who are convinced that trafficking is evil and very widespread. The former is beyond argument, the latter is dubious:
The government estimated in 1999 that about 50,000 slaves were arriving in the country every year. That estimate was revised downward in 2004 to 14,500 to 17,500 a year. Yet since 2000, and despite 42 Justice Department task forces and more than $150 million in federal dollars to find them, about 1,400 people have been certified as human trafficking victims in this country, a tiny fraction of the original estimates. Some activists believe that if all prostitutes were considered victims, the numbers would rise into the predicted hundreds of thousands.
Read the article. So there you have it. If the facts do not bear out their beliefs, these activists are still too emotionally committed to acknowledge reality. So with full confidence in their motivation, they just change the underlying definitions. And a Democratic Congress says fine. Amazing.
The federal government has no business whatsoever inserting itself as a matter of federal law into the wholly local matter of prostitution. That is a purely local concern. Someone living in Washington should not be paying their tax dollars to prosecute a pimp and his girls in Florida just so an activist can sleep better at night. Raise your hand if you feel it more appropriate for the FBI to intestigate national issues, such as terrorism, rather than play vice cop.
Former Chief Justice Rhenquist spoke to precisely this issue when he said:
The pressure in Congress to appear responsive to every highly publicized societal ill or sensational crime needs to be balanced with an inquiry into whether states are doing an adequate job in these particular areas and, ultimately, whether we want most of our legal relationships decided at the national rather than local level."And from the same ABA bulletin in which the Rhenquist quote appears:
. . . [A]n increase in the volume of federal criminal cases, driven primarily by additional cases that could as well be tried in state courts, diminishes the separate and distinctive role played by federal courts. The role of the federal courts is not to simply duplicate the functions of the state courts. Although many of the newly federalized laws may be rarely used, their presence on the books presents prosecutorial opportunities that may be exploited at any time in the future. There are many other adverse implications of the federalization of criminal law that [a 1998 ABA Report] treats, including the impact for the federal prison system, local law enforcement efforts, on citizen perception of state and federal responsibility, and on the application of limited federal resources. Where federal and state laws exist for the same crime, a citizen prosecuted for a state crime is subject to a set of consequences appreciably different from one prosecuted for a federal crime, and sentencing options—including the length of sentence and location and nature of confinement—as well as opportunities for parole and probation, will differ greatly.
Read the memorandum here. If you want a snapshot of what happens when there is no real federalism, one need only look across the pond to the UK and the EU
Wednesday, November 28, 2007
Interesting News From Around The Web
Saudi Arabia says they have captured 200 al Qaeda types who planned attacks on the oil infrastructure.
Geert Wilders, a conservative Dutch politician, is making a film to highlight the "fascist" passages in the Quran. Muslim immigrants now account for 1,000,000 of the 16,000,000 in population of the Netherlands.
Musharaff has stepped down as Pakistan’s military commander and been sworn in as President.
“Iraq? What does that have to do with an