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This should shut down those pathetic rumors that the administration might seriously considering asking Iran to help stabilize Iraq:
Bush warns Syria, Iran after Lebanon killing
US President George W. Bush accused Syria and Iran of fomenting violence and instability in Lebanon, as he condemned the assassination of Lebanese cabinet minister Pierre Gemayel.Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice meanwhile made a hasty telephone call to Lebanon's Prime Minister Fuad Siniora, amid signs of US concern over the fate of the Beirut government which emerged from Lebanon's 'cedar revolution.'
"Today we saw again the vicious face of those who hate freedom," Bush told American troops in Hawaii during a trip home from Asia.
"We strongly condemn the assassination today in Lebanon of Pierre Gemayel."
Bush did not apportion direct blame but called for an investigation into "those people and those forces" behind the killing of the anti-Syrian Christian leader.
"We support the Siniora government and its democracy and we support the Lebanese people's desire to live in peace and we support their efforts to defend their democracy against attempts by Syria, Iran and allies to foment instability and violence in that important country," said Bush.
The killing came against a backdrop of global calls, so far resisted by the United States, for a dialogue with Syria and Iran over chaos in Iraq.
But Bush's tone, further bolstered in a written statement on the killing, appeared to cast further doubt on already slim chances of such a diplomatic opening.
The Liberal tactic of using a physical attack to prevent someone from speaking was seen again at Ball State this month:
Conservative activist David Horowitz got a 50-foot "not welcome" sign, 15 cheese pizzas and nearly a cream pie in the face before speaking at Ball State University about political agendas of professors Wednesday night.
Two women were arrested by university police near the Teachers College in connection with the pie-throwing incident, but the identity of the pizza pranksters remains a mystery.
Sgt. John Foster said one woman, Ball State junior Cassandra Reed, ran at Horowitz with a cream pie in her hand. Director of Public Safety Gene Burton stood between the two, and he and other officers were hit with the pie, Foster said.
"Gene saw it coming and got in the middle," he said.
The police pursued Reed and Grace Mitchell, Columbia City, who was with Reed at the time of the attack, Foster said.
Reed was arrested on suspicion of resisting law enforcement and three counts of battery of a police officer, and Mitchell was arrested on suspicion of resisting law enforcement, Delaware County Jail officials said. Reed remained in jail on $17,500 bail, but Mitchell was released Wednesday night on a $2,500 bond, officials said.
Libs are building a reputation as being authoritarian repressors of free speech. If they want to avoid that, they'd better stop things like this from happening.
Since critics always evoke Vietnam, we should carefully examine its three phases: (1) 1963-1969, a phase of constant troop increases; (2) 1970-73, a phase of a steady downsizing of the American presence as Vietnamization took hold and counterinsurgency improved; (3) 1974-5, a phase of abandonment of the South Vietnamese government, followed by the conventional victory of the Communists. The second phase was the wisest course and should be the closest to our present strategy.
One can see why our military would expect 500,000 Americans to battle a North Vietnamese army of one million, with Soviet and Chinese advisors manning batteries in the North, along with another couple of hundred thousand Viet Cong guerrillas in the South.
Even generous estimates of the number of insurgents in Iraq conclude there are about 10,000 active killers - a fraction of just the irregulars in the south of Vietnam alone. Why then, when the numerical disparities are so much more favorable to our cause than during the Vietnam War, are we, rather than our vastly outnumbered enemies, lamenting the paucity of troops? That we have not secured the country may be due to the limitations put on our soldiers rather than their number; and to our preference for conventional rather than counter-insurgency fighting....Any gain from having more military forces "freed" from Iraq to face crises elsewhere would be vastly overshadowed by the far greater number of new crises that would soon arise - once Iranians, Syrians, Chinese, North Koreans, and the new Latin American Communists sought to emulate the successful Iraqi formula of defeating and humiliating the U. S. military.
...So yes, let us talk about sending more troops, or taking them out altogether, or cry about bad news coverage. But the truth is that, if they were given more tactical leeway to go on the offensive, we would already have enough soldiers in Iraq to win a victory that even a hostile media will have to acknowledge and enemies watching must respect - but only if we persevere here at home in this latest climate of renewed hysteria.
Hanson brilliantly brings a historical perspective to an analysis of today's MSM:
...Third, what does unbalanced reporting really mean? We all harp that the media - specifically, the wire services, network television, and the international stations like the BBC and CNN - all focused on Abu Ghraib, Guantanamo Bay, the carnage left by IEDs and suicide bombers, and the allegations against the Marines at Haditha, and neglected entirely the damage we did to the terrorists and Islamic fascists, or the singularity of seeing parliaments in places like Kabul and Baghdad.
But the important question left unspoken is Why? Was the unbalanced converge, in the case of leftwing elites in the American media, a simple effort to embarrass Republican policy, allowing more sympathetic Democrats to regain power? In the case of the envious European media, was it to take down the Americans a notch or two to remind us that we are not as powerful as we think?
...One can grasp that generic hypocrisy by reviewing all the journalists' charges leveled against Gulf War I - too much realpolitik; too much pay-as-you-go war thinking; too much Colin Powell and James Baker and not enough Paul Wolfowitz; too much worry about stability and not enough about millions of poor Kurds and Shiites; too much worry about empowering Iran. Then compare those charges to those leveled against Gulf War II - too much naïve idealism; too much expense in lives and treasure; not enough Colin Powell and James Baker and too much Paul Wolfowitz; too little worry about regional stability and too much given to ungovernable Iraqis; and too little thought about empowering Iran.
The one common denominator? Whatever the United States does is suspect; and journalists without responsibility for governance, either for setting policy or for its implementation, are always brighter than generals, politicians, and policy planners saddled with it.
"Fake relics sold on eBay 'funding terrorism':"
Forged archaeological artefacts traded on internet auction sites such as eBay are helping to fund international terrorism, it was disclosed today.
The faked historical relics, purporting to be genuine, Middle Eastern artefacts dating from as far back as 2000 BC, are being sold to innocent collectors and tourists for up to £2,000 each.
Police believe the profits are flowing back into criminal networks in the Middle East and that some is helping to fund insurgency in places like Iraq.
Some of the seized artefacts were on display at an exhibition of fake and forged works of art at the Victoria and Albert Museum in London today.
The exhibition is being held by the Metropolitan Police's specialist Arts and Antiques unit to raise awareness of the increasingly sophisticated fraud, estimated to worth up to £200 million a year in Britain alone.
Detective Constable Ian Lawson said of the artefacts: "We know for a fact that there is a terrorism link. Archaeological stuff is being exported by the tonne load from Middle Eastern countries. If the money goes back into criminality, some will inevitably end up in the hands of terrorists."
