40 Years Ago Today

By Findalis of Monkey in the Middle


In the Jewish calendar today is Yom Kippur.  40 years ago on this date Egypt and Syria attacked Israel in the hope to destroy that nation.  They almost succeeded.

On October 6, 1973, Yom Kippur (the Day of Atonement), the holiest day on the Jewish religious calendar, Egypt and Syria took advantage of optimal circumstances to launch attacks that took Israel by surprise. So complete was the element of surprise that when war erupted, Israel was only beginning to mobilize the reserve forces which form the bulk of the IDF. The thin forces stationed along the two fronts had to contain the invading armies until the IDF was prepared to meet them in force. The IAF was hampered by the dense anti-aircraft missile system which the enemy had deployed close to the front.

Egyptian forces succeeded in crossing the Canal and establishing beachheads on the Israeli-held east bank. On the Golan Heights, the Syrians pushed past the cease-fire lines and occupied a large area. They also seized the key Israeli intelligence- gathering position high on Mt. Hermon.

Within two days, the IDF, now fully deployed, blocked the Egyptian and Syrian

advances and took the offensive. Because of the huge quantitative superiority of the Syrian forces, a situation compounded by the proximity of Jewish settlements on the Syrians' path of advance, it was decided to give priority to the northern front. By October 10, the Syrians had been pushed back and the entire Golan was again in Israeli hands, except for the Hermon position, which was only recaptured toward the end of the war. Between October 11 and October 14, the IDF pushed the Syrian forces across the cease-fire lines and penetrated Syrian territory. An Iraqi expeditionary force dispatched to reinforce the Syrians was also successfully blocked.

On the southern front, an early Israeli counter-offensive failed. But Israeli units managed to overcome an attack by Egyptian tank forces, destroying 200 enemy tanks in the process. Shortly afterward, on 15 October, the IDF renewed the counter-offensive. The main thrust of the fighting now was to push across the Canal and strike at Egyptian forces on the other side.

A gap between the Egyptian 2nd and 3rd Armies was chosen as the crossing point. It was a difficult operation, preceded by heavy fighting to clear the approach lines. The Engineering Corps constructed a bridge across the Canal in the face of concerted Egyptian resistance. By October 19, Israeli troops were well established on the west bank. Until the first scheduled cease-fire on October 22, the IDF enlarged the territory under its control. Although the Egyptians had agreed to the cease-fire, it did not take effect at the designated time. By the time an effective cease-fire was actually implemented, on October 24, the IDF had completely surrounded the Egyptian 3rd Army.

On the northern front, the IDF regained control of the Hermon by October 22, removing the last Syrian forces from the area they had seized at the start of the war. The war ended on October 24 in a decisive victory for the Israeli Army. In the north, the Syrians failed to achieve any territorial gain, while the IDF had crossed the old cease-fire lines into Syrian territory, acquiring new vantage points on the Golan. The Syrian Army suffered major losses of manpower and equipment.

Lessons of the War
In the first months after the war, Egyptian and Syrian forces renewed the War of Attrition along the cease-fire lines. The IDF focused on building its force on an unprecedented scale. The enemy attempted to prevent the IDF from conducting a war of movement dominated by tank and air power. Arab armies made extensive use of infantry equipped with anti-tank weapons, exploiting their inherent numerical superiority. In response, the IDF took steps to upgrade and increase its manpower utilization. Extensive and intensive training programs were initiated, focusing on the doctrine of combined operations in which the various branches of the IDF were integrated in a harmonious whole.

A special central training base was established to advance this doctrine. Another lesson of the war was a renewed awareness of the importance of the Infantry. Rearmament continued apace, including the purchase of ground-to-ground and ground-to-air missile systems.

SOURCE

This was the last major war that Israel and her neighbors have fought.  The last war in which armies actually lined up and fought tank to tank, plane to plane and man to man.  Unlike her enemies, Israel held a commission to discover why they were unprepared for war.  And corrected the problems and vow never to be unprepared again.  The wars that Israel fights now are against terrorist and not "freedom fighters" and not an military.  They are fighting pseudo-military men.  Men who have no honor, no military skills and only want to kill civilians.  They can be defeated, but it takes the resolve to shake off the fake pictures of children killed.  The world screams when Israel defends itself.  No tears for dead Israeli children, but tears for dead terrorists.  It is no longer wrong to be an anti-Semite.  In fact it is a badge of honor.

Israelis cannot rely on others for their protection.  For 2000 years Jews have done that with disastrous results.  Such protection brought about rapes, murders, theft of property, dislocation from homes, with the final horror of the Holocaust.  All because Jews were told not to fight and let others protect them.

Once again Israelis are being told to let others protect them.  President Barack Hussein Obama has told Israel that he will prevent Iran from obtaining a nuclear weapon.  Yet he has lifted some of the sanctions on Iran and Russia is sending Iran S-300 anti-aircraft missiles.  The meaning behind this is that Obama is happy with a nuclear Iran and with the idea of genocide against the Jews.  Israel has to realize that they have no friends and have to act alone in this matter.

If Israel acts soon she will be condemned by every nation on Earth.  But will have saved the Jewish people and the Middle East from Nuclear Annihilation by the hands of the Iranians.

Am Yisrael Chai!

Muslim Persecution Of Christians: June, 2013

By Findalis of Monkey in the Middle

The Degradation of Christian Women under Islam

The degradation of Christian women living in the Islamic world continued in the month of June. In Syria, after the al-Qaeda linked rebel group conquered Qusair, a city of the governate of Homs, 15-year-old Mariam was kidnapped, repeatedly gang raped according to a fatwa legitimizing the rape of non-Sunni women by any Muslim waging jihad against Syria's government, and then executed.
According to Agenzia Fides, "The commander of the battalion 'Jabhat al-Nusra' in Qusair took Mariam, married and raped her. Then he repudiated her. The next day the young woman was forced to marry another Islamic militant. He also raped her and then repudiated her. The same trend was repeated for 15 days, and Mariam was raped by 15 different men. This psychologically destabilized her and made her insane. Mariam became mentally unstable and was eventually killed."

In Pakistan, Muslim men stormed the home of three Christian women, beat them, stripped them naked and tortured them, and then paraded them in the nude in a village in the Kasur district. Days earlier, it seems the goats of the Christian family had accidentally trespassed onto Muslim land; Muslims sought to make an example of the Christian family, who, as third-class citizens, must know their place at all times.

The rest of June's roundup of Muslim persecution of Christians around the world includes (but is not limited to) the following accounts, listed by theme and country in alphabetical order, not according to severity:

Attacks on Christian Worship: Churches and Monasteries

Iraq: During the middle of the night, armed men attacked St. Mary's Assyrian Catholic Church in Baghdad; they wounded two Christian guards, one seriously. Later the same day, bombs were set off at two Christian-owned businesses, both near the church; they killed one Christian shop owner, a parishioner at St. Mary's. Since the U.S. "liberation" of Iraq in 2003, 73 churches have been attacked or bombed, and more than half of the country's Christian population has either fled or been killed.

Kenya: Motorbike assailants hurled an explosive device into the Earthquake Miracle Ministries Church in Mrima village church compound during the Sunday of June 9, injuring 15 people, including one pastor who had both his legs broken, another pastor who sustained serious injuries, and a 10-year-old child. Said another church leader, "The Christians living around the scene of the incident are still in shock and are wondering as to the mission behind the attack, while several pastors looked demoralized. But others said prayers will help them stand strong in sharing the Christian faith." Islamic extremists from Somalia's jihadi organization Al Shabaab are suspected of this and other attacks on Christians in the coastal areas of Kenya.

Nigeria: Four churches were burned in an attack committed by members of the jihadi group Boko Haram in Borno State in the Muslim-majority north of the country. According to Agenzia Fides, "A group of armed men with improvised explosive devices and petrol bombs attacked the Hwa'a, Kunde, Gathahure and Gjigga communities on Gwoza Hills, burning the 4 churches, raiding and looting cattle and grain reserves belonging to the population." Discussing the ongoing terrorism Christians in the north are exposed to, one pastor lamented, "There are Christian villages that have been completely wiped out by these Muslim terrorists… Christian fellowship activities and evangelism outreaches are no longer possible…. For a number of years, the attacks on Christians in these three local government areas have caused the displacement of thousands of Christians there. There is a very lamentable problem, as we are no longer able to worship God as Christians in this part of Nigeria."

Syria: An Islamic jihadi rebel wearing a suicide belt reportedly detonated himself outside the Virgin Mary Greek Orthodox Church in an old Christian quarter in Damascus; the attack left four people dead and several injured. Rebel sources confirmed the attack but said it was caused by a mortar bomb. Around the same time, jihadi rebels massacred the Christian village of al-Duwair near Homs, while destroying its churches. Also, according to Agenzia Fides, a Belgian Catholic priest, Fr. Daniel Maes, 74, of the religious Order of "Canons Regular Premonstratensian," was last reported as being "in the sights of jihadi groups who intend to eliminate him and invade the monastery of San James mutilated in Qara," which dates back to the fifth century. Earlier the priest had denounced the "ethnic cleansing" carried out on Christians in Qusair, after the town was taken by the rebels and jihadi groups: "The surrounding Christian villages were destroyed and all the faithful who were caught were killed, according to a logic of sectarian hatred… For decades, Christians and Muslims lived in peace in Syria. If criminal gangs can roam and terrorize civilians, is this not against international laws? Who will protect the innocent and ensure the future of this country? … Young people are disappointed, because foreign powers dictate their agenda. Moderate Muslims are worried, because Salafists and fundamentalists want to impose a totalitarian dictatorship of religious nature. The citizens are terrified because they are innocent victims of armed gangs."

Attacks on Christian Freedom: Apostasy, Blasphemy, Proselytism

Indonesia: The Indonesian Ulema Council in Tegal issued a fatwa against Catholic schools, saying they are "forbidden" and "morally unsound" for young Muslim students, despite its pupils, both Muslim and Christian, routinely scoring higher than in other schools. "For the schools," reported Asia News, "the fatwa is a great blow, coming in the wake of attacks from Muslim extremists and local governments that included threats of closure that were however eventually dropped… [M]any Muslim families have come to the defence of the two schools, claiming their right to a quality education. In fact, many schools run by nuns, priests and lay Catholics offer such excellence in education that they are sought after by non-Christians." Earlier the influential Indonesian Ulema Council lashed out during flag-raising "because Mohammed never did it;" before that announcement, the Islamic clerics "launched anathemas against Facebook for its 'amoral' nature, as well as yoga, smoking and voting rights, in particular for women."

Pakistan: A 16-year-old boy who converted to Christianity from Islam a year ago, and began attending Bible lessons in a Protestant community, was abducted in Peshawar. Local sources said he was kidnapped by Taliban-linked Islamic militants "and his fate may already be marked, as he is considered 'guilty of apostasy,'" the penalty of which is death. As one Pakistani pastor explained: "If a young Muslim converts to Christianity in Pakistan, he is forced to live in hiding. Every Muslim might feel compelled to kill him. The change of religion is not punished by the civil law, it is punishable by Islamic law. For this reason cases of Muslim conversion to Christianity are very rare and some convert in secret."

Somalia: Islamic terrorists from Al Shabaab ("The Youth") publicly executed a 28-year-old man after determining that he had in fact become a Christian. Aiming at his head, he was shot "to death." As Morning Star News explains, "Somalis are considered Muslim by birth, and apostasy, or leaving Islam, is punishable by death." After the execution, the man's parents, widow and son fled the region. The Al-Qaeda linked Al Shabaab has vowed to cleanse Somalia of all Christian presence, and its members have murdered dozens of Muslim converts to Christianity.

Uzbekistan: Four police officers raided the home of a 76-year-old Christian woman, ill with Parkinson's disease. After removing her from her bed and without producing a search warrant, they "turned everything in the home upside down," and confiscated her Bible and other Christian materials. Since then, the woman has been subjected to innumerable legal proceedings. Most recently, she was convicted of "Illegal production, storage, or import into Uzbekistan with a purpose to distribute or distribution of religious materials by physical persons." The judge ordered that her Bible, 14 Christian books, six DVDs and a video be destroyed. She was told by court officials, "This is a Muslim country and all of your Christian books including the Bible are outlawed." Because these proceedings have caused her extreme anxiety, after one hearing an ambulance was called for her.

Dhimmitude: A Climate of Hate and Contempt

Bangladesh: A mob of some "60 extremists" raided a predominantly Christian village. According to the Barnabas Aid group, "they plundered the residents' livestock and other possessions and threatened to return to burn down homes. The attackers then moved on to nearby Bolakipur and targeted a Christian seminary. Battering down the doors, they forced their way into the building and severely beat the rector and a number of students. The previous day, two church leaders from Tumilia were beaten and robbed."

Egypt: "Unknown persons" kidnapped a 7-year-old Christian girl in Dakhaleya Province in northern Egypt. The girl, Jessica Nadi Gabriel, was attending a wedding ceremony with her family when she was seized and torn away. Her father later revealed that the 7-year-old girl's abductors called him demanding a ransom of 650,000 Egyptian Pounds (nearly $100,000 USD). Two weeks earlier, a 6-year-old Coptic boy who was kidnapped and held for ransom, was still killed and discarded in the sewer—even after his family paid the Muslim kidnapper the demanded ransom. Also, a Coptic Christian man named Milad, living in Tanta, said that "unknown persons" invited him and his family to renounce Christianity and submit to Islam and convert. According to widely-read Egyptian newspaper, Youm7, "They also snatched at the crucifix he was wearing around his neck, and threatened to kidnap his children and wife if he refused to convert to Islam." As they wore the trademark white robes and long beards, the man identified them as members of the Salafi movement in Egypt. Meanwhile, U.S. ambassador Anne Patterson was urging the Coptic pope to forbid the Copts from protesting against Muslim Brotherhood rule -- even though they, as Christians, would suffer under it most -- while Al Azhar, the world's oldest Islamic university, based in Cairo, called on new Catholic Pope, Francis I, to declare that "Islam is a peaceful religion."

Iran: According to a June 19 Morning Star News report, "Six more Christians were sentenced for practicing their faith last week, while Iran's presidential election of a moderate politician was not expected to soften the regime's persecution of religious minorities." The same six Christians had been arrested earlier in February 2012, when police raided their house-church meeting. Officials rejected their appeal for release on bail; they are being held in Adel Abad Prison in Shiraz, which houses hardened criminals and often lacks heating or health facilities, and where officials routinely deny medical treatment to prisoners.

Pakistan: Three months after a mob of 3,000 Muslims attacked a Christian neighborhood in Lahore, burning down two churches and 160 Christian homes, few of the perpetrators are in prison. Hundreds of those detained immediately after the incident were released; of the 83 who were arrested, 31 have been released on bail. "Most of the people who were stopped after the attack were declared innocent by the police and immediately released, for corruption or political pressure," said a Christian lawyer. Meanwhile, the Christian whose arrest on blasphemy charges was the occasion for the rampage has gone on trial, even as he insists he never insulted Islam's Prophet Muhammad.

Palestinian Authority: Five schools in Gaza—two Catholic and three Christian—face closure if the Hamas government follows through on an order forbidding co-educational institutions. According to Fr. Faysal Hijazin: "This will be a big problem. We hope they will not go through with it, but if they do, we will be in big trouble. We don't have the space and we don't have the money to divide our schools." In addition to finding additional space, he said, the schools face having to hire more teachers. Under Islamic law, men and women teachers would not be allowed to teach classes to members of the opposite sex older than the age of 10. "It is a concern that in education things are getting more conservative," said the priest. "It reflects the whole society. This is of concern to both Christians and moderate Muslims. It is not easy to be there."

Tanzania: Two Christian pastors were attacked by Muslims. On the night of Sunday, June 2, a Muslim mob broke into the home of Robert Ngai, the pastor of the Evangelical Assemblies of God Church in northeastern Tanzania, and attacked him with machetes. The pastor received serious cuts on his hands and arms when he raised them to protect his head from the blows; when last heard of, he was in the intensive care unit. Two nights earlier, the home of Daudi Nzumbi, Pastor of the Free Pentecostal Church of Tanzania congregation in Geita, also came under attack. However, the attackers fled after they were confronted by Pastor Nzumbi's large, barking dogs. When Nzumbi called police, the officer in charge told him, "I cannot protect every pastor!"

About this Series

Because the persecution of Christians in the Islamic world is on its way to reaching pandemic proportions, "Muslim Persecution of Christians" was developed to collate some—by no means all—of the instances of persecution that surface each month. It serves two purposes:

1.  To document that which the mainstream media does not: the habitual, if not chronic, Muslim persecution of Christians.
2. To show that such persecution is not "random," but systematic and interrelated—that it is rooted in a worldview inspired by Sharia.

Accordingly, whatever the anecdote of persecution, it typically fits under a specific theme, including hatred for churches and other Christian symbols; sexual abuse of Christian women; forced conversions to Islam; apostasy and blasphemy laws that criminalize and punish with death those who "offend" Islam; theft and plunder in lieu of jizya (financial tribute expected from non-Muslims); overall expectations for Christians to behave like dhimmis, or second-class, "tolerated" citizens; and simple violence and murder. Sometimes it is a combination.

Because these accounts of persecution span different ethnicities, languages, and locales—from Morocco in the West, to India in the East, and throughout the West wherever there are Muslims—it should be clear that one thing alone binds them: Islam—whether the strict application of Islamic Sharia law, or the supremacist culture born of it.

Norman Podhoretz Nails Obama in Wall Street Journal

Gary Fouse
fousesquawk
http://garyfouse.blogspot.com


Hat tip Miggie

Norman Podhoretz in the Wall Street Journal nails it in my view in analyzing President Obama's agenda. The crux of the matter is that Obama and his minions are not as incompetent as they appear to be as they dismantle the US economically, militarily and diplomatically.

It has all been by design.

Obama's Successful Foreign Failure The president may look incompetent on Syria. But his behavior fits his strategy to weaken America abroad. By NORMAN PODHORETZ It is entirely understandable that Barack Obama's way of dealing with Syria in recent weeks should have elicited responses ranging from puzzlement to disgust. Even members of his own party are despairingly echoing in private the public denunciations of him as "incompetent," "bungling," "feckless," "amateurish" and "in over his head" coming from his political opponents on the right. For how else to characterize a president who declares war against what he calls a great evil demanding immediate extirpation and in the next breath announces that he will postpone taking action for at least 10 days—and then goes off to play golf before embarking on a trip to another part of the world? As if this were not enough, he also assures the perpetrator of that great evil that the military action he will eventually take will last a very short time and will do hardly any damage. Unless, that is, he fails to get the unnecessary permission he has sought from Congress, in which case (according to an indiscreet member of his own staff) he might not take any military action after all. President Obama on Friday at the G-20 economic summit in St. Petersburg, Russia. Summing up the net effect of all this, as astute a foreign observer as Conrad Black can flatly say that, "Not since the disintegration of the Soviet Union in 1991, and before that the fall of France in 1940, has there been so swift an erosion of the world influence of a Great Power as we are witnessing with the United States." Yet if this is indeed the pass to which Mr. Obama has led us—and I think it is—let me suggest that it signifies not how incompetent and amateurish the president is, but how skillful. His foreign policy, far from a dismal failure, is a brilliant success as measured by what he intended all along to accomplish. The accomplishment would not have been possible if the intention had been too obvious. The skill lies in how effectively he has used rhetorical tricks to disguise it. The key to understanding what Mr. Obama has pulled off is the astonishing statement he made in the week before being elected president: "We are five days away from fundamentally transforming the United States of America." To those of us who took this declaration seriously, it meant that Mr. Obama really was the left-wing radical he seemed to be, given his associations with the likes of the anti-American preacher Jeremiah Wright and the unrepentant terrorist Bill Ayers, not to mention the intellectual influence over him of Saul Alinsky, the original "community organizer." So far as domestic affairs were concerned, it soon became clear—even to some of those who had persuaded themselves that Mr. Obama was a moderate and a pragmatist—that the fundamental transformation he had in mind was to turn this country into as close a replica of the social-democratic countries of Europe as the constraints of our political system allowed. Since he had enough support for the policies that this objective entailed, those constraints were fairly loose, and so he only needed a minimum of rhetorical deception in pursuing it. All it took was to deny he was doing what he was doing by frequently singing the praises of the free-enterprise system he was assiduously working to undermine, by avoiding the word "socialism," by invoking "fairness" as an overriding ideal and by playing on resentment of the "rich." But foreign policy was another matter. As a left-wing radical, Mr. Obama believed that the United States had almost always been a retrograde and destructive force in world affairs. Accordingly, the fundamental transformation he wished to achieve here was to reduce the country's power and influence. And just as he had to fend off the still-toxic socialist label at home, so he had to take care not to be stuck with the equally toxic "isolationist" label abroad. This he did by camouflaging his retreats from the responsibilities bred by foreign entanglements as a new form of "engagement." At the same time, he relied on the war-weariness of the American people and the rise of isolationist sentiment (which, to be sure, dared not speak its name) on the left and right to get away with drastic cuts in the defense budget, with exiting entirely from Iraq and Afghanistan, and with "leading from behind" or using drones instead of troops whenever he was politically forced into military action. The consequent erosion of American power was going very nicely when the unfortunately named Arab Spring presented the president with several juicy opportunities to speed up the process. First in Egypt, his incoherent moves resulted in a complete loss of American influence, and now, thanks to his handling of the Syrian crisis, he is bringing about a greater diminution of American power than he probably envisaged even in his wildest radical dreams. For this fulfillment of his dearest political wishes, Mr. Obama is evidently willing to pay the price of a sullied reputation. In that sense, he is by his own lights sacrificing himself for what he imagines is the good of the nation of which he is the president, and also to the benefit of the world, of which he loves proclaiming himself a citizen. The problem for Mr. Obama is that at least since the end of World War II, Americans have taken pride in being No. 1. Unless the American people have been as fundamentally transformed as their country is quickly becoming, America's decline will not sit well. With more than three years in office to go, will Mr. Obama be willing and able to endure the continuing erosion of his popularity that will almost certainly come with the erosion of the country's power and influence? No doubt he will either deny that anything has gone wrong, or failing that, he will resort to his favorite tactic of blaming others—Congress or the Republicans or Rush Limbaugh. But what is also almost certain is that he will refuse to change course and do the things that will be necessary to restore U.S. power and influence. And so we can only pray that the hole he will go on digging will not be too deep for his successor to pull us out, as Ronald Reagan managed to do when he followed a president into the White House whom Mr. Obama so uncannily resembles. Mr. Podhoretz was the editor of Commentary from 1960-95. His most recent book is "Why Are Jews Liberals?" (Doubleday, 2009) ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Comment:   Tell me where the above doesn't make sense. As Obama thrashes around on Syria, in come the Russians to offer a diplomatic solution, which their Syrian clients embrace. Vladimir Putin is looking like the strong, clear-eyed leader the world can follow-at least for now as he offers up a way out of the Syrian mess. Putin has no love lost for Islamo-terrorists; he is fighting the Chechens, remember? And why is Obama backing the rebel forces even though they are infested with al Qaeda elements, who would install an Islamic dictatorship and drive the Christians out of Syria? Because he backs the Muslim Brotherhood, that's why. Both domestically and internationally, it all makes perfect sense. Sure, he will leave Washington much as Harry Truman did-in discredit, but decades later, a progressive America will give him full credit in the history books for making the country just another big socialist country in the Global Village. (And no, I am not comparing Barack Obama to Harry Truman, so save your cards and letters.)

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Anti-War Protest in Westwood

Gary Fouse
fousesquawk
http://garyfouse.blogspot.com




Yesterday, I was up in Los Angeles attending my 50th high school reunion. In between events, I was driving down Wilshire Blvd killing time at about 4:30. Passing the Federal Building on Wilshire Blvd, there was a big anti-war (Syria) demonstration going on. Several hundred people were in front of the Federal Building with posters and banners against military action in Syria. Naturally, I found a parking place and wandered over to take a few pictures.

It was the usual crowd, Arabs, 60s type leftists, communists (really!), LA Jews for Peace, someone from the (Communist) National Lawyers Guild, and even Native Americans dressed in loincloths and war paint-protesting for peace!

I would judge that there were a variety of opinions/reasons expressed for opposing the war. Note one poster that read, "Stop Wahhabism in Syria". There was one that accused Obama of supporting Al Qaeda.

Some Arabs were wearing t-shirts that read, "Arab-Americans for Syria". There was a multitude of Syrian flags including one with Bashar Assad's image on it. Others read, "Hands off Syria" or "No war on Syria".

I would thus conclude that a fair amount of the Arabs present were supporters of the Assad regime.

Someone handed me a flyer from the Revolutionary Communist Party USA, which assigned all kinds of dastardly reasons for the US to attack Syria. The text can be read at the below link:

http://revcom.us/a/315/only-worse-suffering-and-horror-can-result-from-US-attack-on-Syria-en.html

At some point, several dozen of the protesters broke off and marched up Wilshire Blvd before turning into Westwood Village followed by LAPD, who blocked traffic for their procession.

Having seen enough, I soon became bored and decided it was time to find a friendly pub in the Village to while away the time before my reunion dinner.

"Justice" in France

Gary Fouse
fousesquawk
http://garyfouse.blogspot.com


Hat tip Gallia Watch


The French Blog Gallia Watch has an important video of an interview with France's Justice Minister Christiane Taubira, a liberal who is looking for alternatives to prison. The show is entitled, Des Paroles et deS Actes. During the interview, the moderator brings on the mother of a young girl viciously attacked and beaten by a career criminal who was on work release during the day and returning to prison at night. The reaction of Taubira is basically one of nonchalance.

This interview in French is without sub-titles, but Gallia Watch has translated the dialogue into English. It gives a valuable insight into the arrogant thinking of the left. The linked article also gives the background of this vicious crime.

http://galliawatch.blogspot.com/2013/09/taubira-faces-mother-of-victim.html#links

Obama's Confusion

Gary Fouse
fousesquawk
http://garyfouse.blogspot.com


It is highly instructive that when General Martin Dempsey of the Joint Chiefs of Staff was asked in Congress this week, just what it was that (the administration) was seeking, he couldn't answer the question. To do so, he would have had to turn to President Obama and pass the question to him. And Obama wouldn't have answered it either.

Look how has Obama has waffled and wandered all over the map. After proclaiming last year that any use of chemical weapons by the Assad regime would be a "game changer", Assad (presumably) went ahead and did it. Now Obama wants to act, but he sees that he has next to no support. So what is it he wants to do/? Well, we are not going to put boots on the ground even though a "top secret" analysis provided by his crack intelligence team of John  Brennan, Jim Clapper, and Susan Rice has concluded that it would take 75,000 troops to secure the chemical weapons sites. Nor are we seeking regime change although Obama, Hillary Clinton and John Kerry have been saying for over a year now that Assad "must go". It seems now that Obama is desperately trying to find international and congressional support for firing a shot over Syria's bow to warn them not to do it again. What kind of policy is this?

Add to that all the possible consequences of Iran and Russia getting involved, who we will be supporting, who might attack Israel, and how this could escalate into the next, Iraq, Afghanistan or Libya, and it is clear that Obama is way in over his head. he knows it. Congress knows it. We all know it. Obama has put his country's prestige on the line and now that everybody is laughing at us, some feel the need to pull his chestnuts out of the fire and support him.

It still comes down to this: We need to learn our lesson about this part of the world, which we still have yet to do. There is only one civilized and friendly country in the region; Israel. It is time to stop sacrificing our blood and treasure trying to bring the 20th century to the region-let alone the 21st century. However, there is one clash we will not be able to avoid-unless the Iranian people-succeed in toppling the mullahs from power. We need to focus on Iran and their nuclear weapons capability instead of wasting our time on hellholes like Syria. Right now, there are multiple groups of bad guys all trying to kill each other in Syria (including Iranians) and doing a pretty good job of it. We can't do anything about it nor I suspect, should we. Yet this president wants to insert us in the middle of what is largely a sectarian war between Sunnis and Alawites. I strongly suspect this is really part of his support for the Muslim Brotherhood.

That is reason enough for Congress to keep us out of this war.

Literature Featured at Islamic Society North America Annual Dinner

Gary Fouse
fousesquawk
http://garyfouse.blogspot.com


As reported, President Obama sent his videotaped greetings to the Islamic Society of North America recently on the occasion of their 50th anniversary dinner.

http://garyfouse.blogspot.com/2013/09/obama-ignores-persecutiuon-of-copts-and.html

Here is an example of some of the literature featured at ISNA's event. At the below link, you can download volumes one and two of A Summary of Islamic Jurisprudence. This book comes from the Saudi publisher Islam House, considered a highly respected publisher and is written by a member of the Saudi Committee for Scholarly Research and Fatwa. If you are interested in an explanation of jihad, go to page 471 and the chapter on Jihad. It is well worth  reading. It describes both the inner struggle part of jihad as well as the duty to fight part of jihad.

http://www.islamhouse.com/250010/en/en/books/A_Summary_of_Islamic_Jurisprudence

In addition, here is an excerpt on apostasy from page 642:

ISNA is a branch of the Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt, which is sending its followers onto the streets to burn Christian churches and attack the current government all in the guise of peaceful protests. Incredibly, they also enjoy the support of our government and our president.