Christainity, Islam, Homosexuality, & Britain's Socialist State

I have addressed the left's two century old war on Christianity at some length here, pointing out that the left wants to rip Christianity from the foundations of society. In its stead, the left seeks to redefine morality based on whatever they believe is the greater good. We see this at work on both sides of the pond, with the most recent example coming from Britain - a Christian nation with a national Church - in a recent court case:

A judge today threw out a Christian counsellor's claim he had been wrongly sacked for refusing to give sex therapy to homosexual couples.

In a ruling which will further inflame fraught relations between the Church and the judiciary, Lord Justice Laws said that the protection of views purely on religious grounds cannot be justified.

He said it was not only an irrational idea, 'but it is also divisive, capricious and arbitrary'.

The case was brought by father-of-two Gary McFarlane, a former Relate counsellor, and backed by the former Archbishop of Canterbury Lord Carey.

Mr McFarlane, 48, from Bristol, had worked at the Avon branch of Relate where he had offered advice on sexual intimacy to straight couples.

But during his three years at the centre, he refused to work with same-sex partners because he believed it went against his religious beliefs.

This eventually led to him being sacked in 2008. Mr McFarlane later alleged unfair dismissal on the grounds of religious discrimination.

But a tribunal dismissed his claims in January last year. He had gone to the High Court to seek leave to appeal the decision.

In a ruling issued today, Lord Justice Laws, threw out his case.

He said 'We do not live in a society where all the people share uniform religious beliefs.

The 2001 British census showed the populace of Britain to be Christian - 71.6%, Muslim - 2.7%, Hindu - 1%, other - 1.6%, and unspecified or none - 23.1%. This is a judge imposing multiculturalism and socialist ethos on a predominantly Christian nation - and a nation where the Judeo-Christian ethic has undergirded its legal system for well over a millennium.

'The precepts of any one religion - any belief system - cannot, by force of their religious origins, sound any louder in the general law than the precepts of any other.

'If they did, those out in the cold would be less than citizens, and our constitution would be on the way to a theocracy, which is of necessity autocratic.

This is fatuous reasoning indeed. Leaving aside the fact that Britain is still a Christian nation, whose belief system is the judge imposing? Obviously he is imposing some belief system, he is just not being honest about it. And indeed, he is imposing the belief system of the secular left - something which history has shown to have a tendency towards the most autocratic of systems.

'The law of a theocracy is dictated without option to the people, not made by their judges and governments.

'The individual conscience is free to accept such dictated law, but the State, if its people are to be free, has the burdensome duty of thinking for itself.' . . .

A theocracy? I would expect a more sophistated argument from a high school student.

So according to this radical secularist, any laws which are undergirded by the Judeo-Christian ethic make of Britain a theocracy? That is utterly ludicrous. Britain, like all of Western civilization, has had laws based on the Judeo-Christian ethic for well over a millennium, yet no one with even the slightest passing acquaintance with British history could ever have called it a theocracy. One wonders if this judge has any idea what a theocracy is? Or did he learn his history reading Marx?

Actually what the judge is doing is the opposite of respect for conscience. Regardless of what one may think of homosexuality today, the reality is that it has been deemed a wrong for millennia in both Judaism and Christianity. Whether and to what extent it should be accepted in society today is a question of social policy to be decided by the community at large. But that is not what is happening here. The Judge, by his decision, is enforcing a modern secular belief system - the conscience of left wing socialist state - favoring homosexuals over the left's nemesis, Christianity, and making it a modern secular sin to do anything but fully accept homosexuality as a normal life-choice.

And do note, while the secular left is conducting its war against Christianity, it is wholly servile when it comes to Islam. While a Christian acting in accord with his conscience and belief is punished, Muslims are accommodated. For example, Muslim female hospital employees are allowed to wear long sleeves in hospitals despite the fact that such is much more likely to transmit "superbugs." All Brits in the UK are now paying welfare benefits for Muslims in polygamous marriages. And these are only a few of the many accommodations made to Muslims. The secular left favors Islam because, for now, it is an ally in the left's war on Christianity.

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Evil Does Exist

Perhaps the most brilliant history prof whom I had the good fortune to have for several classes in undergrad, Prof. Jack Martin, made the observation that history had proven that the worst possible form of government was a theocracy. Such governments are draconian, brutal, and irrational according to the whim of the moment of the theocrat. It is a form of government were horrid acts are justified on a twisting of religious dogma. He made that statement in reflecting upon all of history's theocracies of whatever religion and before he had the benefit of seeing the rise of the Taliban and Khomeini's final assertion of control in Iran. As he noted, religion's that take power to build utopia on earth invariably become evil when given the opportunity to use police powers rather than moral suasion.

Our recent history is replete with examples that prove Prof. Martin's argument. The latest is from Iran where, among other obscenities, the government sets the age of consent at nine and condones the rape of women on religious grounds. This from the country with whom Obama so desperately wishes to hold talks.

Robert at Seraphic Secret quotes this passage from a Jerusalem Post article:

In a shocking and unprecedented interview, directly exposing the inhumanity of Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei's religious regime in Iran, a serving member of the paramilitary Basiji militia has told this reporter of his role in suppressing opposition street protests in recent weeks.

He said he had been a highly regarded member of the force, and had so "impressed my superiors" that, at 18, "I was given the 'honor' to temporarily marry young girls before they were sentenced to death."

In the Islamic Republic it is illegal to execute a young woman, regardless of her crime, if she is a virgin, he explained. Therefore a "wedding" ceremony is conducted the night before the execution: The young girl is forced to have sexual intercourse with a prison guard—essentially raped by her "husband."

"I regret that, even though the marriages were legal," he said.
Why the regret, if the marriages were "legal?"

"Because," he went on, "I could tell that the girls were more afraid of their 'wedding' night than of the execution that awaited them in the morning. And they would always fight back, so we would have to put sleeping pills in their food. By morning the girls would have an empty expression; it seemed like they were ready or wanted to die.

"I remember hearing them cry and scream after [the rape] was over," he said. "I will never forget how this one girl clawed at her own face and neck with her finger nails afterwards. She had deep scratches all over her."

Read Richard's post, then see the Elder of Ziyon, who has much more to add to the mosaic of evil that is Iran's theocracy. As do Soccer Dad and Mere Rhetoric. Note also that the crimes for women in Iran are executed have nothing to do with crimes of violence. Prostitution and adultery lead the list.

Richard cites to a Jonathan Tobin opinion piece in the Jerusalem Post, asking how American Jews concered with support for Israel could have possibly seen their vote for Obama as meeting that concern. True, but given that Iran is equally as much a threat to the entire civilized world, how could anyone concerned our security have voted for Obama?

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Shia Clerics At Qom Attack The Iranian Regime

Iran is still simmering; there is still fire beneath the ashes of the savage repression, and no one knows what the tens of millions of anti-regime Iranians will do in the coming weeks and months.

Michael Ledeen, Refusing To See Evil Clearly, The Corner at NRO, 29 June 2009

With a brutal hand, Iran's theocracy has been successful over the past days in driving the protestors off of Iran's streets. It is a tactical victory, just as the Shah had tactical victories in the early days of Iran's year long revolution three decades ago. It does not mean that the war is won or lost.

The regime is still pushing the meme that the election was fair and that the discontent is the result of "traitors," including Mousavi, in the pay of the U.S. and U.K. Iran's theocracy, like medieval theocracies of old, depends for its legitimacy on the governed believing that their clerical overlords are acting in accordance with divine guidance. Few if any in Iran can be operating under such a fantastical belief now. And in an important development, one of the major religious organizations in Iraq issued a public statement calling the election a fraud and the government illegitimate. This from the NYT:

An important group of religious leaders in Iran called the disputed presidential election and the new government illegitimate on Saturday, an act of defiance against the country’s supreme leader and the most public sign of a major split in the country’s clerical establishment.

A statement by the group, the Association of Researchers and Teachers of Qum, represents a significant . . . setback for the government and especially the authority of the supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, whose word is supposed to be final. The government has tried to paint the opposition and its top presidential candidate, Mir Hussein Moussavi, as criminals and traitors, a strategy that now becomes more difficult.

“This crack in the clerical establishment, and the fact they are siding with the people and Moussavi, in my view is the most historic crack in the 30 years of the Islamic republic,” said Abbas Milani, director of the Iranian Studies Program at Stanford University. “Remember, they are going against an election verified and sanctified by Khamenei.”

The announcement came on a day when Mr. Moussavi released documents detailing a campaign of fraud by the current president’s supporters, and as a close associate of the supreme leader called Mr. Moussavi and former President Mohammad Khatami “foreign agents,” saying they should be treated as criminals.

The documents, published on Mr. Moussavi’s Web site, accused supporters of the president of printing more than 20 million extra ballots before the vote and handing out cash bonuses to voters. . . .

“The significance is that even within the clergy, there are many who refuse to recognize the legitimacy of the election results as announced by the supreme leader,” said an Iranian political analyst who spoke on condition of anonymity for fear of reprisal. . . .

The clerics’ statement chastised the leadership for failing to adequately study complaints of vote rigging and lashed out at the use of force in crushing huge public protests.

It even directly criticized the Guardian Council, the powerful group of clerics charged with certifying elections.

“Is it possible to consider the results of the election as legitimate by merely the validation of the Guardian Council?” the association said.

Perhaps more threatening to the supreme leader, the committee called on other clerics to join the fight against the government’s refusal to adequately reconsider the charges of voter fraud. The committee invoked powerful imagery, comparing the 20 protesters killed during demonstrations with the martyrs who died in the early days of the revolution and the war with Iraq, asking other clerics to save what it called “the dignity that was earned with the blood of tens of thousands of martyrs.”

The statement was posted on the association’s Web site late Saturday and carried on many other sites, including the Persian BBC, but it was impossible to reach senior clerics in the group to independently confirm its veracity.

The statement was issued after a meeting Mr. Moussavi had with the committee 10 days ago and a decision by the Guardian Council to certify the election and declare that all matters concerning the vote were closed.

But the defiance has not ended.

With heavy security on the streets, there is a forced calm. But each day, slowly, another link falls from the chain of government control. Last week, in what appeared a coordinated thrust, Mr. Moussavi, Mr. Karroubi and Mr. Khatami all called the new government illegitimate. On Saturday, Mr. Milani of Stanford said, former President Ali Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani met with families of those who had been arrested, another sign that he was working behind the scenes to keep the issue alive.

“I don’t ever remember in the 20 years of Khamenei’s rule where he was clearly and categorically on one side and so many clergy were on the other side,” Mr. Milani said. “This might embolden other clergy to come forward.” . . .

Read the entire article. Our concentration should be on isolating and punishing the bloody theocracy and insuring that news such as statement from the Shia clerics this makes it around government efforts to control the news in Iran. Obama's concentration is, as I posted below, the opposite.

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Foreign Policy Folly Take 2

To describe Obama and Biden as bumbling amateurs would be to give bumbling amateurs a bad name. Today's monumentaly counterproductive act - Iraq.

Iraq is a nascent democracy whose importance to the world as the only Arab democracy in the Middle East cannot be overemphasized. It could well revolutionize the Middle East and it is a huge threat to the mortal enemy of civilization that is Iran's theocracy. Iraq is a democracy that still faces significant internal challenges, particularly the Kurdish issue, as well as challenges from a host of individuals, groups and nations that want to see Iraq's secular democracy fail. The biggest external challenge comes from Iran's theocracy that wants to see the U.S. out and Iraq turned into a giant Lebanon, where the dominant power is a Shia militia controlled from Tehran. So Obama sends Biden to Iraq and what does he do:

Vice President Biden warned Iraqi officials Friday that the American commitment to Iraq could end if the country again descended into ethnic and sectarian violence. . . .

One official said the vice president made it clear that if Iraq returned to ethnic violence, the United States would be unlikely to remain engaged, “because one, the American people would have no interest in doing that, and as he put it, neither would he or the president.”

Read the entire article.

Obama and Biden may look askance at Iraq since success there is a validation of the polar opposite of Obama's foreign policy beliefs. But like it or not, Obama and Biden now own Iraq. If it fails on their watch, they can give all the excuses in the world, but the bottom line is they will have thrown away the most important development in the Middle East in the past three decades. And the statements from Biden could not highlight that any more.

Biden's statement has to demonstrate to all Iraqis that the U.S. is not a loyal ally. Indeed, in the calculus of the Middle East, where the end of a government traditionally comes in a massive slaughter, Obama-Biden just told Iraqis to hedge their bets.

The only reason Iraq is where it is today is because of Bush's absolute committment to protect the nascent democracy. Obama and Biden just announced the polar opposite. Perhaps most insidiously, Biden's statement is an open invitation to all those who want to see Iraq fall to pick up the violence and mayhem. The last time a public figure did anything this dumb was 1950. Obama says he is a "student of history." I'd love to know what books he has studied from, as his texts apparently do not extend back to Jan 12, 1950, when Sec. of State Dean Acheson, gave a speech indicating that we would not defend South Korea. North Korea, backed by Russia and China, took that as a green light to invade South Korea. Obama and Biden have just given the green light to Iran, al Qaeda, and all others who want Iraq's democracy to fail.

It would be hard to imagine anything more counterproductive from our two idiots in the White House - nor anything more dangerous for our soldiers in the country. These jokers have yet to take one action on any major foreign policy issue that is in America's interests. The bottom line, 2012 cannot come fast enough.

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Life, Death & Terrorism On Iran's Streets - Neda

The work of a basij sniper during today's protests. A young girl, unarmed, shot through the heart in the middle of Tehran's streets, her father crying in anguish as he watches her die . . .



The theocracy is truly evil. They have no morality. They act throughout the world, spreading terrorism at whatever the cost in blood. And now, it is turned inward. God help the Iranian people. For their benefit and ours, this regime must end.

Update: This girl is being identified by CNN as "Neda." As CNN reports, this horrific video has gone viral and is rapidly becoming the horrific icon of the revolution. Rest in peace, Neda.

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Focus On An Ever More Dangerous Iran

Iran is at war with the United States - and has been since 1979. It is well on its way to achieving a nuclear arsenal as the world dithers. It is a triumpahist and expansionist theocracy that places no value on human life. It is a theocracy that does not enjoy popular support within its borders, but shows no signs of weakening. Indeed, the opposite appears to be occurring as Iran slowly moves ever more under the domination of the the Revolutionary Guards. Below is a roll-up of some of the important about devleopments regarding and within Iran.

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Britian now joins with our own spy chief, Mike McConnell, in disputing the assertion in the NIE that Iran's atomic weapon's program is for "civilian" purposes. Meanwhile, the most recent IAEA report was a "whitewash" by IAEA director, Mohammed El Baradei - a man very accurately described in a recent WSJ article as "a deeply political figure, animated by antipathy for the West and for Israel on what has increasingly become a single-minded crusade to rescue favored regimes from charges of proliferation." For example, there is this from Haaretz:

Referring to Iran's simulations and experiments with high-impact explosives and planned ballistic missile warheads, ElBaradei writes that there is no indication linking these activities to "nuclear materials." The IAEA cannot therefore reach a clear decision about the Iranian nuclear program's character, he writes. In other words, it is clear even to ElBaradei that Iran is concealing, misleading and ignoring the Security Council's resolutions, yet he refrains from stating explicitly that it is developing nuclear arms."

Read the article here. There is also a good article on this IAEA report at the Christian Science Monitor.

Between the perfidious acts of the author's of our NIE, the pro-Iranian agenda of the IAEA, and the economic motivations of our "allies," I do not see any chance to stop Iran from achieving nuclear arms unless Israel itself acts alone. Further tepid sanctions will clearly have no effect on a theocracy that sees itself supported by Allah against a weak and impotent West.

The fantasy of many in the West is that the deeply unpopular Iranian theocracy would fall internally to another revolution if it did not moderate. The chances of that happening appear remote at best. Indeed, if anything, the latest trends from Iran appear even more dire. It appears not that Iran's theocracy is transforming into a military dictatorship still retaining the ideological dynamic of Khomeinist Shiaism. This from AEI:

The clerical leadership in Iran has grown increasingly reliant on the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) to help it stave off internal pressure for political and economic reform and external pressure resulting from international concern over Iran's nuclear program. But as the IRGC gets more involved in domestic politics, the Islamic Republic is gradually morphing into a military regime, albeit one governed by theocratic principles. The March 14, 2008, parliamentary elections are likely to reinforce this trend.

Read the entire article.

On the issue of Iran's deadly activities in Iraq, and although I strongly disagree with his conclusion, Richard Dreyfuss, writing in the Nation, gives an fascinating look into the byzantine nature of Iran's involvement in Iraq. Where he goes wrong is in thinking that Iraqi nationalism will only reassert itself if the U.S. leaves Iraq. It does not take much in terms of arms and money for Iran's proxy forces to exert control through murder and mayhem if they are not contested by a stronger force - and the only force capable of that is the U.S.

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"Uncle Mookie"

By 1942, the one mass murder responsible for more deaths then Hitler was the psychotic Joseph Stalin. Yet he was then being portrayed in our press as "Uncle Joe," a friendly ally beloved of his people. And that is not so different than the way the scorpion Moqtada al Sadr is portrayed today in a fawning peace in today's Washington Post.



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Moqtada al-Sadr presents a serious long term threat to the stabiity of Iraq. As I have blogged here and here, Sadr has close ties with Iran. He is attempting to increase his clerical rank by studying the velayat-e-faqi, Khomeini's Salafi bastardization of the Shia religion that breaks with a millenium of contrary tradition to justify and require theocratic rule in Shia countries. Sadr maintains a milia that he has refused to disarm. Sadr has used that militia to attack the central government and to enforce his rule and his views on medieval sharia law on parts of the country, including Karbala. There is a name for a country with a cleric linked to Iran who is in charge of a militia seperate and a apart from the government's forces and who takes other actions like Sadr's. It is called Lebanon.

None of the above facts come out in today's puff piece in the Washington Post. Instead we are told that

. . . American commanders who once considered [Sadr] an enemy . . . now refer to him respectfully . . .

Sadr is expected to announce by Saturday whether the freeze will be extended, his aides said. But interviews with more than a dozen leaders of the Sadrist movement suggest that whether or not it is continued, the freeze has already transformed the militia and its place in Iraqi society.

"The freeze brought many secrets to the surface," said Ahmed Abdul Hussein, 33, a Mahdi Army leader from Sadr City, a vast Shiite district of Baghdad. "Now we know who is good and who is bad. Now everyone thinks of the Mahdi Army in a new light. I think everything will be different now."

. . . In many Sadrist strongholds, the militia's focus has shifted from militancy to providing services to residents, as the Mahdi Army continues recasting itself as a political and social force.

Etc., etc. You can read the drivel here. Have no doubts that the soldiers are referring to him respectfully becasue they do not want to force him to lose face - but the respect being shown is that one would give to a scorpion. That is no more than the respect we showed the Chinese when our guns were pointed at them across from the DMZ in Korea. The reporter does not think it important to ask why the Mahdi Army continues to exist, given the peace that has descended on the Shia areas where it holds sway. Instead we get platitudes and the Mahdi party line.

There are several things I find incredibly upsetting about this piece. One, it is completely superficial, giving a pass to an enemy of the U.S. and a united Iraq, and giving a pass to an Iranian ally. Two, it is quite likely we are going to be fighting Sadr in the foreseeable future. Even our press in World War II did not give good press to Hitler in advance of our entry into the war. Lastly, this piece is ten times the press that is given to our soldiers fighting in Diyala province right now in daily combat missions. To say that our MSM has misplaced priorities and an inability to distinguish friend from foe would be a gross understatement.

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Former Iraqi Terrorist Discusses Iran & The Consequences of An American Withdrawal From Iraq

A former leader of the "Islamic Army" in Iraq appeared recently on Al-Arabiya TV where he discussed Iran's extensive involvement in Iraq, the consequences to Iraq if America withdraws, and the relationship between Iran and al Qaeda.






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Abu 'Azzam Al-Tamimi, a former leader in the "Islamic Army" in Iraq, was interviewed on Al-Arabiya TV on January 18. This from a translation by MEMRI:

Abu 'Azzam Al-Tamimi: . . . The resistance factions tended to reject any sort of occupation – whether Iranian, American, and so on. This changed once the Iranian activity and intervention in Iraq became very significant in the days of the Ja'fari government. Then, some [faction] leaders decided that we must reach a truce with the American forces, and reexamine our position with regard to the American forces, because of the Iranian intervention, which we consider to be more dangerous to Iraq than the American intervention, because occupation by a neighboring country is always more dangerous than occupation from afar.

Interviewer: Is there significant Iranian intervention?

Abu 'Azzam Al-Tamimi: Of course.

Interviewer: In what way?

Abu 'Azzam Al-Tamimi: Iran intervenes in every single detail in Iraq.

Interviewer: Whom does it support?

Abu 'Azzam Al-Tamimi: Everybody – it works with the government, with the opponents of the government, with the opponents of the government's opponents, with Al-Qaeda, with the enemies of Al-Qaeda, with the militias, with the enemies of the militias... Iran spreads its investments everywhere – with the Shiites, the Sunnis, and the Kurds.

Interviewer: Al-Qaeda is a Sunni organization, which claims to be fighting those they call "the Rafidites" – how can it possibly cooperate with the Iranians?

Abu 'Azzam Al-Tamimi: Of course it can. How else can you explain the fact that a large number of Al-Qaeda's leaders live in Tehran? How else can you explain the fact that the Al-Qaeda organization targets all the countries in the world – from America to Indonesia, including Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Egypt, Turkey, Algeria, and many others – and the only country absent from this list is Iran, even though it is located between Al-Qaeda's two jaws – Iraq and Afghanistan? Of course there is a very strong alliance between Al-Qaeda and Iran. There is a lot of evidence of this alliance. Iran invests in everybody in order to defend itself and its interests, and this may be legitimate, because the Iranian political regime is being targeted by...

Interviewer: What does Al-Qaeda stand to gain from its alliance with the Iranians?

Abu 'Azzam Al-Tamimi: It gets a safe haven for its leaders. No other country can give refuge to Al-Qaeda's leaders or cadres. [Iran] provides Al-Qaeda with bases and financing. Al-Qaeda is broke. It has no money now. The sources of finances in the Gulf have been bled almost completely dry. So who finances them? Iran. . .

Personally, I do not deem the American presence in Iraq a negative thing anymore. I believe an American withdrawal from Iraq at this point would spell disaster, because Iraq would then fall completely under Iranian influence – perhaps not only Iraq, but the entire region.

Read the entire transcript here. I have been harping on this point repeatedly in this blog. We face two enemies in radical Islam, with the long term threat coming from an aggressive Iranian theocracy soon to be nuclear armed (as even our spy chief, Mike McConnell now admits) The theocracy is deeply involved in Iraq and at war with us there. It is inexplicable why this is being downplayed by our State Deptartment - who are at odds with our military. A withdrawal from Iraq would be abandoning the country to Iran and an existential defeat in the war on terror. If radical Islam is to be stopped, the key ultimately lies with defeating the radical Khomeinist theocracy in Iran.

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Interesting News - 17 January 2008

Rick Moran takes issue with the anti-conservative musings of the Ayatollah Huckabee. The essence of conservatism is freedom of thought. Huckabee is proposing his own mini-theocracy the precise opposite.

The Democrats get to jettison Dennis Kucinich from their debates, but Republicans still have to give air time to Ron Paul. The scales of justice are just not balancing on this one.

The Top Ten UN Slogans. My personal favorite: "If this is an emergency, please hang up and call America." Do read them all.

When did World War II end? Read this thoughtful post and decide for yourself.

Ex-GOP Congressman Mark Siljander has been arrested and charged with a bevy of offenses connected to terrorism financing.

The reverberations from the NIE on Iran’s Nuclear Weapon’s Program continue. As I indicated at the time, the only possible conclusion is that the declassified NIE was written in such a manner as to take Iran policy out of the hands of the executive and put it in the hands of the State Department. The reverberations of that act portend to grow ever louder with the passage of time.

Bill Rogio, Michael Ledeen and several other luminaries took part in a recent symposium on Iraq. Their depth of thought is a bit more illuminating than you are likely to hear at the average Democratic Presidential Debate. See here.

Free speech is once again under fire. The victim this time is the Pope who was censored by scholars at Sapienza, one of Europe's most prestigious universities. The scholars successfully argued that it was inappropriate for the Pope to speak at their University because he had supported the 17th century trial of Galileo for heresy arising out of Galileo’s own exercise of freedom of speech. The irony of censoring the Pope on these grounds apparently went wholly unnoticed by the leftist scholars. I for one wish I had but a tenth of the moral clarity of today’s left.

Arthur Brooks at the WSJ points out that our modern left is less rational and more intolerant than are conservatives. "The very essence of intolerance is to dehumanize the people with whom you disagree by asserting that they are not just wrong, but wicked." The moniker of Bush-Hitler comes to mind. I disagree with Brooks’s labeling of the modern left as "liberal." They are "progressives" – having long ago progressed beyond the liberal traditions of intellecutal honesty and tolerance.

Stick and stones may break my bones but words will never hurt me. Unless of course I happen to be a member of the religion of peace, in which case words pose a mortal threat to my identity and justify my own homicidal temper tantrum. Do read this story about Susan Winter down under. She has really, really pissed off the Salafists. Sheik Yer Mami has the story on this one.

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Interesting News From Around the Web

An interview with an Iraqi Shiite cleric and politician who calls for secular rule, religious opposition to the Iranian concept of theocratic rule, and who says that "President Bush and America should be thanked for saving us from . . . Saddam Hussein. . ."

In Iraq, a series of raids target the Mahdi Army and, in a separate action, the capture of two men suspected of involvement in the May 12 kidnapping of three American soldiers during an insurgent attack against their checkpoint 12 miles south of Baghdad.

A sharp rise in inflation has provoked fierce criticism of hard-line President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad—not only from his reformist opponents, but also from senior conservatives who helped bring him to power but now say he is mismanaging the economy.

The story of Naomi Wolf and the incredible sophistry of our modern left.

EU propaganda - in reality, its what the EU does most effectively.

Iran expanded their terrorist activities in Iraq after the 2006 elections in America, but they have been beaten back by a combination of effective U.S. military action and an Iraq that does not buy into the Iranian theocratic model, despite the surge of mullah money and weapons into Iraq. The assertion the reduction in violence in Iraq is due in part to a conscious decision of the mad mullahs in Iran is counterfactual according to Michael Ledeen.

Der Spiegel has a timeline of "the most important political events and violent attacks in Pakistan since March 2007."

The Bhutto assassination, seen in light of the assassinations in Lebanon and elsewhere in the Middle East, is an example of how radical Islamist, both Wahhabi / Salafi and Khomeinist Shia, register their vote in elections.

An analysis of Bhutto’s legacy and the ramifications of her assassination from the Jerusalem Post.

From Wafa Sultan: "The Quran states: ‘Allah hath purchased of the believers their persons and their goods, for theirs (in return) is the Garden (of Paradise ): They fight in His Cause, and slay and are slain" (9/111).’ I believe that Muslim clerics in the US have explained this verse in the same way that the clerics in Syria had explained it to me at young age. Growing up, I had always believed that suicide bombing was justified for the cause of being a martyr."

The UK resorts to bribing criminals to self deport themselves in an attempt to deal with a glut of foreign criminals that cannot be deported under the EU’s insane immigration and deportation laws.

How utterly screwed are British multiculturalists: . . . Amis recently put to his impeccably liberal audience at the ICA: 'Do you feel morally superior to the Taliban?' Only about a third raised a hand to say they did, a nice demonstration of relativist liberal guilt.


And there is this gem from the multiculturalists in Germany: "Many of us in the West are convinced that our presence in Afghanistan cannot be justified, that our troops should withdraw and that Afghanistan should be left to the Afghans. They ask themselves: Who are we to believe that it is inhumane to sell an 11-year-old girl? Who are we to impose our values so vehemently on the Afghans, on this [40 year old] man . . . [who purchased] this girl [and married her]?"

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Woman's Rights Activist Jailed in Iran

Womens rights activist Jelveh Javaheri was arrested Sunday in Tehran. Ms. Javaheri is a sociology student and has long been active in women rights’ groups, including the ongoing One Million Signature Campaign, a campaign for women's rights whose website (translated to English) is here.

Ms. Javaheri was charged with inciting of public opinion, propaganda against the state, and publication of false information, through reporting of false news on the site of the One Million Signatures Campaign, Change for Equality. You can find a sample of Ms. Javaheri's work here. Jelveh Javaheri has since been transferred to Evin Prison’s Public Ward 3.

Jelveh Javaheri was one of 33 women arrested on March 4, 2007, during a peaceful protest outside the Revolutionary Courts objecting to pressures placed on women’s rights activists and the trial of 5 colleagues. Ms. Javaheri is due in court on the 18th of December in relation to her arrest in March.

Maryam Hosseinkhah another member of the One Million Signatures Campaign was imprisoned 13 days ago on similar charges and is currently being held in Evin Prison.

Read the article.

(Hattip: Emperical What You See Is What You Get)

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Meeting the Existential Threat of Iran

Frontpage Magazine has assembled a wide ranging group of experts to discuss the threat posed by Iran's Khomeinist theocracy and our rapidly dwindly options. This from one of the participants, retired Lt. Gen. Tom McInerney, USAF:

. . . On the 26th of Oct 2005, President Ahmadinejad said "God willing, soon there will be a world without the Americans and the Zionists”. Several months later his favorite Imam said that Iran was authorized to use nuclear weapons against its enemies even though they don’t have them (we think).

Now it is very clear to me that this is an entirely different threat than we have ever faced before and must act accordingly. His belief that the 12th Imam will come out of the well in Quom will encourage him to aid proxies to plant nuclear weapons in US and European cities once he has them. Old fashion deterrence does not work with terrorists.

Today with Western economic and covert assistance, the Iranian people can remove the current leadership and take their country back. It won’t be nice but they will be out of the WMD business like Iraq is today. If we continue to let Russia and China be enablers, we will have to kick off the covert action by a very short (48 hours) massive (2500 aim points) air campaign aimed at their nuclear facilities, Air Defense, Navy, Air Force, Shahab 3s and Command and Control. The Iranian people would be told that the military was the target and not the people who we would assist in helping them take their country back. We must have a massive Information Operations campaign to support this action. Now I can lay out the details of this air campaign later but suffice it to say that the IAF recently conducted a very successful air strike in Syria without Stealth aircraft and the numbers we possess. I would rather not do it but it may be our last ditch maneuver.

I am not worried about the Iranian retaliation because their leadership and military will be in a survival mode with chaos around them. Just as the Arab Street did not rise up when we did OEF and OIF, they will not during this action because it will be dominated by the Iranian people’s desires for freedom. Tyrants understand when we go for the juggler. If Syria and Hezbollah carry out offensive operations they will be crushed even though there may be a lot of causalities on both sides like TET. This fight is a better solution than nuclear weapons in our cities. We are either in denial or hope nothing will happen and neither is a strategy. This is an existential threat and appeasement like WWII will only get us 200 million killed versus the 60 million in WWII.

Read the entire article here. The problem arises from our left, with people like Joe Biden who has threatened impeachment if we attack Iran. He and his ilk have there heads in the sand and think freedom can be maintained at no cost, regardless of the threat. WWII and Chamberlin show just how wrong-headed that belief is.

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As Overall Violence in Iraq Dwindles, Iran Increases Their Tempo

Any suggestion that Iran's Khomeneist theocracy is stepping back the violence in Iraq by its proxies, the so-called "special groups," is belied by facts on the ground. A little over a week ago, a special group killed and injured scores of civilians when they bombed a market in Baghdad, attempting to disguise it as an al-Qaeda attack. And a few days ago, several hundred thousand Shia in southern Iraq signed a formal petition expressing their outrage at the violence Iran is causing in their areas as Iran attempts to extend its influence. Now this today:

. . . Shiite extremists using weapons linked to Iran have risen to their highest levels in months in and around Baghdad's Shiite enclave of Sadr City, despite a 75 percent decline since May in overall violence in the area.

"I remain very concerned in our sector about these special groups," Col. Don Farris, the top U.S. commander for northeastern Baghdad, told reporters by videoconference. "They're very lethal. They're organized. They're sophisticated. And I have not seen that their operations have declined or diminished in any way, shape or form here in the last several months."

In October, Farris said, his 2nd Brigade Combat Team of the 82nd Airborne Division experienced the highest number of attacks using the armor-piercing explosively formed projectiles linked to Iran since arriving in February. The spike -- nine attacks, compared with the previous high of seven -- comes despite suggestions by U.S. officials that Iran has curbed its support of fighters in Iraq.

"These are the Iranian-made weapons that are being employed by these special groups, these Shia extremists that are receiving funding, support and training from Iran," Farris said, adding that the special groups "operate from within the heart of Sadr City."

In the past six weeks, he said, the brigade has captured two Iraqi operatives, one of whom admitted to receiving training in Iran. A U.S. base in the area was also attacked this month by bombs using 107mm rockets and explosives, which Farris said were of the same types as those made in Iran.

Read the story here. And here is more information on the "special groups" from the Long War Journal:

Background on Iranian influence in Iraq and the targeting of the Special Groups

Coalition forces began targeting the Iranian networks and captured senior members of Iran's Qods Force in Baghdad in December 2006 and Irbil in January 2007. Iranian surrogates — the Qazali and Sheibani networks now collectively referred to as the Special Groups — stepped up their attacks on Iraqi and Coalition forces in January 2007.

In January 2007, the Qazali network conducted sophisticated operations against US forces at the Karbala Joint Provincial Coordination Center, kidnapping and killing five US soldiers during the aborted operation. Multinational Forces Iraq has stated Iran is behind the Karbala raid, and satellite imagery discovered a mock-up of the Karbala complex at a camp inside Iran. In March 2007, Coalition forces captured Qais Qazali, his brother Laith Qazali, and several other members of the Qazali network. Qais Qazali was a spokesperson and senior aide to Muqtada al Sadr. Coalition and Iraqi security forces have been heavily targeting these "Special Groups" and "Secret Cells" since General David Petraeus' briefing on the Qazali and Sheibani networks on April 26.

In July, US forces captured Azhar al Dulaimi, the tactical commander behind the Karbala PJCC attack. In early September 2007, Multinational Forces Iraq announced the captured of “a highly-sought individual suspected of being an Iranian Revolutionary Guards Corps-Qods Force” operative in Karbala.

One of the most significant captures occurred in the spring of 2007, when the US captured Ali Mussa Daqduq. Daqduq is a senior Hezbollah operative who was tasked by Iran to organize the Special Groups and "rogue" Mahdi Army cells along the lines of Lebanese Hezbollah. Documents seized during Daqduq's capture, along with statements made during interrogations and information given by other captured Special Groups operatives confirmed Iran's significant role in the Shia terrorist insurgency.

On September 20, Multinational Forces Iraq captured Mahmud Farhadi, an Iranian Qods Force officer in charge of the Zafr Command. Farhadi commanded one of three units subordinate to the Ramazan Corps of the Qods Force, which commands the operations in Iraq.

On October 7, General David Petraeus said the Iranian ambassador to Iraq is a Qods Force intelligence agent.

Read the article here. Iran's Khomeinist theocracy wants to extend its influence over Iraq's Shia population. They do not want a democracy to succeed in Iraq and they do not want a continued American presence protecting Iraq. The violence they are formenting is aimed at extending their influence, rekindling Sunni-Shia violence, and attacking the U.S. How long before we "make a statement" that these continued actions carry a greater penalty for Iran than the long term possibility for gain? Iran's theocracy has to be made to pay a price or this will not end.

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