Saturday, July 02, 2016

While Washington is too busy minding other people's business, who is busy minding ours?

It's Time for America to Disengage From the Middle East


The Orlando and San Bernardino shootings have led important personalities to make several suggestions, both workable and unworkable. These range from banning the entry of Muslim immigrants into the United States to tighter gun control. However, hardly anyone seems to have asked the fundamental question: why have some radicalized inhabitants of broader Middle Eastern origin developed such hatred for Americans that they are willing not only to inflict tremendous suffering on innocent civilians, but also to lay down their own lives in the process?

The answer lies in the history and extent of American involvement in the broader Middle East ranging from Turkey to Pakistan, what has been called the “arc of crisis”. The United States was often involved on the wrong side of the internal and regional conflicts in this region, supporting authoritarian regimes to maintain control over restive populations. More important, the extent of its involvement—especially in the post–Cold War era—has far exceeded its economic and strategic interests in the region.

There are multiple reasons for such a high degree of American involvement in the broader Middle East but most of them are now passé. First, it has become a matter of habit—a holdover from the days of the Cold War when competition with the USSR drove much of American foreign policy. However, whatever justification this may have had until 1990 it lost much of its rationale once the Soviet Union disappeared from the scene and Russia was forced to drastically retrench its presence in the region.

The second reason used to justify American involvement especially in the oil-rich Persian Gulf was dependence on oil imported from the region. Again whatever force this argument may have had until a decade or two ago it is almost completely redundant today. According to figures provided by the U.S. Energy Information Administration, in 2015 the United States imported approximately 9.4 mbd of petroleum from eighty-two countries. Persian Gulf countries accounted for only 16 percent of this total with Saudi Arabia accounting for just 11 percent. It should not be too difficult for the United States to replace the entire Gulf supply (and certainly that from Saudi Arabia) from other sources in today’s market, which is flush with oil. The oil-rich countries of the Middle East have therefore become increasingly irrelevant as far as U.S. energy requirements are concerned. In fact, given Saudi Arabia’s increasingly rash foreign policy moves in recent years, Riyadh has dragged Washington into unnecessary conflicts such as in Yemen. It has indeed become an albatross around America’s neck.
Moreover, the spread of Saudi influence in the Middle East has led to the emergence of the most virulent form of radical Islamism threatening not only the region but American interests as well. Saudi Arabia should be put on notice that its support of radical Islamic groups will no longer be tolerated by the United States.

Furthermore, the security of Saudi Arabia and the balance of power in the Gulf are no longer vital American concerns, especially since Washington’s relations with Tehran are on the upswing following the nuclear deal. In addition, there is the newfound realization in Washington that Tehran does not pose a major threat to American interests in the region. Saudi Arabia should, therefore, be advised not to depend on American support in its rivalry with Iran and gracefully accept the new balance of power in the region.

The third reason advanced to justify a high degree of American involvement is related to concerns for Israeli security. This is an outdated argument given Israel’s tremendous military superiority over all its Arab neighbors and the Arabs’ preoccupation with killing each other rather than addressing the question of Palestine or confronting Israel. Disengaging from the Middle East would mean above all extricating the U.S. from the quagmire of the Israel-Palestine conflict that defies resolution thanks to factors that cannot be addressed in this short article. A hard-headed analysis will demonstrate that there are no vital American stakes in this issue and it better be left for the Israelis and the Arabs to sort out by themselves.

The invasion of Iraq in 2003 was an extremely bad idea and the country is paying the price for it until today. So is the involvement, without much forethought, in the civil war in Syria. Both Iraq and Syria have turned into failed states and continuing American involvement in the Fertile Crescent does nothing but exacerbate hostility toward the United States among radical factions, above all the ISIS, in the region. The United States ought to cut its losses and withdraw from both Iraq and Syria especially since no American vital interest is involved in either of these countries. Access to Iraqi oil in the present market is of no particular concern to Washington (it may be to some American oil interests) nor is the character of the Syrian regime.

The same applies to U.S. involvement in Afghanistan and Pakistan. The invasion of Afghanistan in 2001 may have been justified in the light of the 9/11 terror attacks but there is no reason for America to be involved in the continuing civil war in that country which is likely to drag on for decades. Pakistan is headed toward becoming a failed state although one with nuclear weapons. The United States has poured billions of dollars into that country without much to show for except increasing hostility toward itself on the part of large segments of the Pakistani population. As long as America knows where Pakistani nukes are placed and has the ability to take them out in case of a threat of radical Islamists coming to power in that country, there is no strategic reason for Washington to be involved in the affairs of Pakistan or its relations with its neighbors, especially India and Afghanistan.

The only country in this arc of crisis where one could reasonably argue that American strategic interests are at stake is Turkey because of its membership of NATO. But, this should not mean that the United States should get drawn into Turkey’s regional adventures as in Syria or its domestic quarrels with its Kurdish population. Erdogan’s short-sighted policies on both fronts have put Turkey in an untenable position and even raised the specter of its division into separate Turkish and Kurdish states. Ankara should, in fact, be advised to retrench its involvement in Syria and come to terms with its restive Kurdish population on terms acceptable to the latter to prevent a major catastrophe for itself and for the region. The United States should make it clear to the Turkish government that it does not consider the defense of Turkey a NATO matter if it is unwilling to heed Washington’s advice on these two issues, neither of which have anything to do with NATO’s mission.

It is time for the United States to begin disengaging from the broader Middle East. After the terrorist attacks in Orlando and San Bernardino, such disengagement has become a matter of homeland security. These two incidents have made clear even more than 9/11 that the greater the American involvement in the affairs of the broader Middle East, the greater chance of blowback that could inflict great damage on the security of its people at home. While such disengagement may not put an end to terror attacks within the American homeland immediately, it will drastically curtail the chances of such attacks being repeated in the future.

Mohammed Ayoob is a Senior Fellow at the Center for Global Policy and University Distinguished Professor Emeritus of International Relations, Michigan State University; author most recently of Will the Middle East Implode? (Polity, 2014)


ONE RESULT OF NOT MINDING OUR OWN BUSINESS IS ISIS - OUR FORMER AMBASSADOR TO ISRAEL COULD NOT HAVE BEEN MORE WRONG FOUR YEARS AGO





96 comments:

  1. Makes sense. It's something I have been advocating all along. Unfortunately ISIS is the current evil that America must slay especially for the two presumptive POTUS candidates - Hillary 'America is exceptional' Clinton and Donald 'let's fight like them' Trump.

    ReplyDelete
  2. On the other hand, Iraq is pumping 3 Million bbl/day, and the price I saw most often on my trip to Ms was $1.85/gal.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Unfortunately the pump price doesn't include all the blood and treasure expended.

      Delete
    2. .

      Thank (or not) Saudi Arabia for the lower oil prices we have seen not Iraq.

      But it's always pay me now or pay me later when it comes to the ME.

      All I can say regarding the article is ditto. The author could have been channeling my thoughts on all of those issues.

      .

      Delete
  3. Ash is quite correct. He was the first I remember at The Belmont Club to say we had no business there and would make things work. I thought he was nuts at the time and probably told him so. I was wrong then.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. We have business and friends and interests in the region but waging war will not, and has not, helped advance them.

      Delete
    2. Excellent Idea.

      Deportation of all middle easterners from both Europe and the Americas is a great 1st step.

      That's what you are advocating of course?

      Disengagement of peoples?

      Delete
    3. "we had no business there and would make things work. I thought he was nuts at the time and probably told him so. I was wrong then."

      So deportation of all Arabs and the deportation of all western folks in arab/islamic lands is the key to peace?

      Delete

    4. Would the 'Westernized" Zionists be willing to leave, peaceably, "O"rdure?

      Delete
    5. Nope, they are not the issue or the problem.

      Your friends, Jihadists, are.

      Delete
    6. But when are you moving off the 1st American people's lands?

      Delete
    7. This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.

      Delete
  4. .

    Twenty years ago people could make a reasonable argument for the US being in the ME. Today there is none.

    Every state the US enters there goes to shit. They may have gone to shit anyway but there is no way to deny our presence there escalated the decline to light speed.

    .

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Maybe a little history for you Quirk, 20 years ago doesn't make a history of engagement.

      Delete
  5. On the other hand, Iraq is pumping 3 Million bbl/day, and the price I saw most often on my trip to Ms was $1.85/gal.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. .

      It's $2.45 around here and it has little to do with Iraq.

      Besides all the oil is being held by either the Kurds or Baghdad. Always has been. There is no way ISIS would or could have changed that.

      .

      Delete
    2. You wouldn't know the real history about anything. Talk to Bob over at your own blog.

      Delete
    3. 1783 it wasn't the Jews that attacked American interests...

      LOL

      You are so funny in your own ignorance

      Delete
  6. That's right. We should just mind our own business until the sworn enemy of every other ideology is ready to strike.
    Sounds perfectly logical. Not.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Minding other peoples business does not require military action, by US troops.

      Delete
    2. Unless, of course, you could get the Congress to "Declare War" upon the miscreants.

      But the US Congress will not provide the President with even an Authorization for Use of Force against the Islamic State.

      So why are we involved, militarily, if Congress has not authorized that military involvement?

      Delete
    3. .

      Doug believes its the US right, no duty, to save the would.

      The fact that we destroy the village to save it, the fact that that we turn millions into refugees, the fact that our actions result in the deaths of hundreds of thousands even millions, the trillions of dollars we wasted on these 'kinetic' adventures that could have been spent on useful things like infrastructure or, well gee, people, the fact that we are more hated now than when we started, the failed states we leave in our wake, the fact that it was the US that helped create al Qaeda and ISIS, nothing of that matters. The US has a mission to save the world.

      Well, at least to Doug and the other nitwits here.

      Genius. Pure genius.

      .

      Delete
    4. I think it my duty to first warn others of an impending threat. Islam is a "religion" that stalks its targets. Meaning the people that choose to keep their heads buried in the sand. If someone was stalking you, wouldn't you want to know about it asap?

      Delete
    5. Furthermore, what do we tell our kids when they leave toys laying around? "Pick them up so we don't fall and get hurt." When my son was five years old he told me, "Daddy, you should pick up those terrorists so people won't get hurt."
      If indeed we did create them than it requires we eliminate the threat of harm, does it not?

      Delete
    6. Create them, then throw up your hands and hope it goes away.

      Delete
  7. Strikes in Syria

    Near Manbij in Syria, attack and remotely piloted aircraft conducted three strikes that struck two separate ISIL tactical units and destroyed an ISIL fighting position.

    Strikes in Iraq

    Attack, fighter, and remotely piloted aircraft conducted 15 strikes in Iraq, coordinated with and in support of Iraq’s government:

    -- Near Baghdadi, five strikes struck two ISIL bomb-making factories, an ISIL weapons cache, an ISIL staging facility and an ISIL bed down location.

    -- Near Beiji, a strike destroyed an ISIL tunnel entrance and an ISIL cave entrance and denied ISIL access to terrain.

    -- Near Habbaniyah, two strikes destroyed two ISIL front-end loaders and two ISIL vehicles.

    -- Near Qayyarah, four strikes struck an ISIL tactical unit and destroyed an ISIL-used road, two ISIL assembly areas, and an ISIL checkpoint and denied ISIL access to terrain.

    -- Near Ramadi, two strikes struck two separate ISIL tactical units and destroyed four ISIL vehicles and an ISIL boat.

    -- Near Sinjar, a strike suppressed an ISIL mortar system.

    ReplyDelete

  8. Ten Years Of War In Mexico: The Bloody Decade


    Mexicans, At The Cry Of War

    Suddenly, as never before, the streets of many cities of our country lost a virginity that it had maintained since the 1910 Revolution: Mexican Army units were displaced but not to the barracks, not to any community in a tragedy by a hurricane or an earthquake. They came with their weapons in front to stay there, in the corners, on the sidewalks, where cops were before.

    It wasn’t a minor change for a majority who were used to seeing soldiers on television. With them, from the night to the morning, bulletproof vests appeared, machine guns mounted in open vehicles, outlines of federal police. And what seemed to be a temporary thing kept spreading for months, and then years. Armored cars became common throughout the country while terms such as “executed”, “sicario”, “kidnapped”, “agitated”, “company”, or “decapitated” became part of the jargon of many in the media, of journalists and of the population in general.


    http://www.borderlandbeat.com/2016/06/ten-years-of-war-in-mexico.html

    ReplyDelete
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    1. This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.

      Delete
    2. This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.

      Delete
  9. The Presbyterians are calling a spade a spade:

    JNS.org – Presbyterian Church USA passed a series of resolutions at its general assembly in support of the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement against Israel, while calling on Israel to leave the disputed territories.

    Among the measures passed by the Presbyterian Church includes the approval of a report, in a 429-129 vote, that seeks to examine the two-state solution for the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and possible alternatives “including but not limited to that of two sovereign states — Israel and Palestine.” The report says that Israel’s “policy trajectory of continued settlements and brutal occupation” is “deeply troubling.”

    “Not only does it make a two-state solution increasingly difficult, if not impossible, to achieve, but the emerging, de facto single state’s systematic violation of Palestinian rights and democratic values is eroding Israel’s moral legitimacy,” the report adds.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Interesting that you don't mention continued incitement and violence by the arabs that self identify as "Palestinians"?

      But the "2 state" solution is over, the arabs that call themselves "Palestinians" now want 4 states.

      Gaza, Judea and Samaria, Israel, Jordan

      So sad, to bad...

      There never will be an arab "palestine", it is over, the Arabs of the region? are becoming ISIS.

      Delete
  10. White House National Security Adviser Susan E. Rice slammed Israeli settlement activity in the West Bank Monday night, while she pledged that the Obama administration will increase U.S. military support for Israel.

    “Settlement activity corrodes the possibility of two states. It moves us toward a one-state reality,” Ms. Rice told the American Jewish Committee’s Global Forum in Washington.

    She said the administration opposes settlement activity in the West Bank “just like every administration since 1967, Republican and Democratic, just as we oppose counterproductive Palestinian actions including incitement and violence.”
    Referring to talks last week in Paris talks on Israeli-Palestinian peace, Ms. Rice said the participants emphasized “that a negotiated two-state solution is the only way to achieve an enduring peace.”
    “Peace is necessary, just and possible,” she said.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Israel should annex lands of terrorists, expanding Jewish construction in historic areas in response to terror.

      The cannot be peace with the ISIS of the West Bank and Gaza.

      Just as America flies 8000 miles to bomb islamists across the area?

      Israel will have to do the same, just as turkey, russia, france, arabia, jordan and egypt.

      The arabs that call themselves "palestinians"? Are the same as ISIS.

      Delete
  11. French Foreign Minister Jean-Marc Ayrault has warned that Tel Aviv's ban on the entry of all Palestinians into Israel could further escalate tensions.

    “The decision by the Israeli authorities to revoke tens of thousands of entry permits could stoke tensions, which could lead to a risk of escalation,” he said on Friday.

    The decision followed a shooting attack at an open-air complex in Tel Aviv on Wednesday in which four Israelis were killed and 16 others were injured.

    Israel imposed travel restrictions Thursday on Palestinians and sent hundreds of additional troops into the West Bank.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Too bad, so sad...

      Dont murder American teenagers in their beds and then honor the killers as heroes.

      Delete
  12. Over 150,000 sign petition calling on Airbnb to pull out of Israeli settlements as part of the #StolenHomes campaign, which was launched by a consortium of organizations following an investigative report by +972 and Local Call.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. 850,000 Jews were driven from their homes by the arabs, why the silence?

      Delete
  13. AIPAC and the Israeli Lobby are doing their best to destroy The First Amendment:

    Andrew Cuomo’s BDS Blacklist Is a Clear Violation of the First Amendment

    Political boycotts are a form of protected expression. So why is New York’s governor trampling this constitutional right?
    By Dima Khalidi

    overnors have significant authority in issuing executive orders, and in many situations, they do so to circumvent legislative roadblocks. But executive orders cannot wish away the Constitution.

    This, however, is precisely what New York State Governor Andrew Cuomo tried to do when he signed Executive Order 157 on June 5. The executive order requires the state to create a blacklist of institutions and companies that engage in or promote boycott, divestment, and sanction (BDS) activities against Israel—and then further requires the state to withdraw or forgo investments in these blacklisted entities. The move has earned well-deserved comparisons to the red-scare tactics of Wisconsin Senator Joseph McCarthy. It is also unconstitutional.


    https://www.thenation.com/article/andrew-cuomos-bds-blacklist-is-a-clear-violation-of-the-first-amendment/

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. .

      One would think it was against the 1st Amendment. However, bringing a case on those grounds would probably lose. The US declares boycott's of foreign states by organizations as an encroachment on the governments ability to conduct foreign policy.

      Now, anyone who wants can simply boycott or divest. They just can't organize the effort.

      .

      Delete
    2. I'm not sure that applies. The BDS movement is boycotting goods. That is free speech as actions speak louder than words.

      Official boycotts against foreign governments are considered a security threat. No one is protesting a governmental ban, they are lobbying for the US government to instate a ban and leading on the issue.

      The tactic was used in the civil rights movement in the sixties, the most famous being against the Birmingham Transit Company.

      Should the government force US citizens to buy a product or service?

      "Buy America" campaigns by implication are asking consumers to not buy from China or Mexico or any foreign country, all who have trade agreements with the US.

      Delete
    3. Deuce ☂Sat Jul 02, 02:39:00 PM EDT
      AIPAC and the Israeli Lobby are doing their best to destroy The First Amendment:


      And yet you delete my words on a regular basis..

      1st Amendment only for Jew haters? Eh Deuce?

      Delete
  14. NY Gov. Cuomo signs “unconstitutional, McCarthyite” pro-Israel exec. order punishing BDS boycott movement
    Andrew Cuomo pushed through discriminatory policy to punish groups that boycott Israel for Palestinian human rights


    New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo signed a pro-Israel executive order on Sunday that will punish people and groups who support a boycott of Israel on behalf of Palestinian human rights.

    Legal experts have described this long pending anti-boycott policy as “21st-century McCarthyism,” warning it would effectively create a discriminatory “blacklist” of Palestinian human rights advocates who endorse boycotts like those organized in order to combat U.S.-backed apartheid in South Africa.

    Prominent legal organizations including the Center for Constitutional Rights, National Lawyers Guild, the New York Civil Liberties Union and Palestine Legal say these politically motivated anti-boycott policies constitute an unconstitutional attack on the freedom of speech.

    The New York legislature has unsuccessfully tried to push through anti-boycott legislation for months, amid intense pressure by pro-Israel lobby groups. Now it appears that Gov. Cuomo has decided to instead circumvent the legal process and implement the policy on his own.


    http://www.salon.com/2016/06/05/ny_gov_cuomo_signing_unconstitutional_mccarthyite_pro_israel_exec_order_punishing_bds_boycott_movement/

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Sucks to be on the wrong side of history....

      BDS is being shut down across the globe, it's being recognized for being anti-Semitic.

      Now I KNOW you are so sensitive about that word.

      Delete
  15. A pro-Israel group has lost its legal action against three local authorities who passed resolutions in support of the Palestinians.


    Today’s High Court, in London, ruling in favor of three councils which have boycotted Israeli settlement goods has been hailed as a “victory for the Palestinian-led boycott, divestment and sanctions campaign and for democracy”, according to the PNN.

    The landmark ruling is also a rejection of the government’s attempts, in February, to stop councils from adopting ethical procurement and investment policies by implying that legal action could be brought successfully against them.

    Sara Apps, interim Director of Palestine Solidarity Campaign (PSC), said:

    “Today’s High Court ruling is an important victory for the Palestinian-led Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions campaign and for democracy itself. Councils have been told categorically by the High Court that there is nothing unlawful in ethically boycotting Israeli settlement goods, and PSC welcomes this ruling.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. You should boycott all Israeli goods.

      Start with smart phones, your computer and of course, PLEASE boycott all Israeli life saving medical advances...

      PLEASE....

      Delete
  16. Every American should reject the work of a foreign lobby, covering for Israeli crimes, with an attempt to undermine US Constitutional rights. Our Lords and Masters in DC love the US Constitution until it is inconvenient and an impediment to their service to their masters in the Lobby.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. The world is shifting and is seeing the anti-israel screeds for what they are. PURE JEW HATRED.

      Be honest Deuce....

      Delete
  17. The alien and sedition laws were "constitutional," until they weren't.

    ReplyDelete
  18. PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) — A Mexican national charged with aggravated murder in the shooting deaths of three people at a rural Oregon blueberry farm had been deported six times, most recently in 2013, according to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

    https://www.yahoo.com/news/officials-man-held-oregon-farm-shooting-deported-6-212722156--election.html

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Presumptive Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump tweeted about the case Friday, saying the suspect "should have never been here."

      RACIST!

      Delete
    2. Give the guy a break. He was probably just stealing blueberries when someone made the mistake of interfering. These spics should be given free food so this kind of thing doesn't happen again.

      Delete
  19. http://www.breitbart.com/jerusalem/2016/05/30/bds-fail-mcgill-univ-professors-boycott-anti-israel-movement/

    BDS Fail: McGill Univ Professors Boycott Anti-Israel Movement

    http://www.breitbart.com/big-government/2016/03/21/bds-fail-illinois-becomes-first-state-penalize-firms-boycotting-israel/

    BDS Fail: Illinois Becomes First State to Penalize Firms Boycotting Israel

    http://www.breitbart.com/jerusalem/2016/05/25/bds-fail-spanish-tribunal-bans-anti-israel-discrimination/

    BDS Fail: Spanish Tribunal Bans Anti-Israel Discrimination

    http://www.breitbart.com/big-hollywood/2016/03/28/bds-fail-plethora-of-rock-stars-line-up-to-perform-in-israel/

    WATCH – BDS Fail: Rock Stars Line Up to Perform in Israel

    want more?

    ReplyDelete
  20. Get Back in there, Loser!

    BOSTON (AP) — A teenager who sent her boyfriend dozens of text messages encouraging him to take his own life and told him to "get back in" a truck filled with carbon monoxide fumes must stand trial for involuntary manslaughter, the state's highest court ruled Friday.

    The Supreme Judicial Court ruled Friday that a grand jury had probable cause to indict Michelle Carter, then 17, in the 2014 death of Carter Roy III, 18.

    Carter's lawyer had argued that her texts were free speech protected by the First Amendment and didn't cause Roy to kill himself.

    But the court, in a strongly worded decision, said the grand jury heard evidence suggesting that Carter engaged in a "systematic campaign of coercion" that targeted Roy's insecurities and that her instruction to "get back in" his truck in the final moments of his life was a "direct, causal link" to his death...

    http://www.sfgate.com/news/crime/article/Court-OKs-trial-for-girl-who-texted-boyfriend-8336351.php

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. You mean if I encouraged the gas bags, Smirk, Quirk etal (the usual suspects) for the good of us all to finally gas himself and not others and they actually did it I could be held for involuntary manslaughter ?

      That doesn't sound fair.

      I would have thought I'd be up for a public service award of some kind.

      Life's not fair.

      Delete
    2. Smirk, Quirk etal aren't impressionable teens.

      They're not even teachable.

      Delete
  21. Deuce says the Israelis control the US Congress.

    He has said it many many times.

    That statement alone is enough to find the man guilty of being TOTALLY LOONEY TOONS.

    It is embarrassing to read him when he is talking about Jews and Israel.

    ReplyDelete
  22. Notice how Deuce is silent when an American teenager is murdered by Palestinians?

    He screams and yells about Rachael Corrie, the USS Liberty, but is silent as a church mouse when Americans are butchered by his pals, the palestinians....

    time after time, palestinians have murdered American and he is silent....

    What gives el Deucie?

    Jews that are American don't warrant a shout out by you?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Jews soaked the sand around Corries feet with Super Jew Glue.

      Delete
  23. Shocking Polls Show What U.S. Muslims Think of U.S. Laws

    As July 4 approaches, new polling data reveal non-Muslim Americans are increasingly cognizant of the threat Sharia -- Islam’s totalitarian religio-political “law” -- poses to their basic liberties. Overwhelmingly, they reject its encroachment in the United States.

    But polling data also reveal that an ominous, growing proportion of American Muslims wish to impose Sharia on America.

    https://pjmedia.com/blog/shocking-polls-show-what-u-s-muslims-think-of-u-s-laws/

    I never found the numbers on Muslims supporting Sharia in the article, or in the fucking linked study.

    Perhaps someone else has more patience.

    Clarity is a thing of the past.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. OF COURSE moslems want to impose Sharia Law. That is what they are, what they do.

      How hard is this to understand ????

      When the numbers build up to a certain point then the demands begin......

      Look at Hamsstranck (sp) Michigan.....they finally take over the City Council and it's immediately:

      "First we show the Poles, then everybody else"

      The USA will die of abject stupidity before it dies of cowardice.

      The Japanese are much better at protecting their way of life these days than we are....their Supreme Court affirmed the right to profile, and snoop away at will at moslems in Japan 'for the sake of national security'.

      Good on the nips, I say.

      Delete
  24. ELIE WIESEL DEAD....DRUDGE

    He was 87.

    May you R.I.P. good man.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I still have his book 'Night' around here somewhere, read so long ago....

      Delete



  25. Disabled Teen Beaten Bloody by TSA Agents

    For sheer stupidity and incompetence, this incident involving the TSA and a disabled teenage girl suffering from brain cancer who was savagely thrown to the floor when she became confused about a metal detector going off, can't be beat.

    Why these bullies weren't thrown in jail is a mystery.

    Seventeen-year-old Hannah Cohen was preparing to fly from Memphis to her home in Chattanooga with her parents last year. Hannah was going home following her annual treatments at St. Jude hospital for brain cancer.

    Her years of treatment left the teenager partially deaf, blind in one eye, and limited in her abilities to walk and talk. She also, according to her mother, can become easily confused.
    When Hannah went through the metal detector at the airport, an alarm went off. Disoriented by the noise, she did not immediately cooperate with TSA agents who asked to conduct further screening.

    Shirley Cohen tried to inform the agents about her daughter's disabilities, she told television station WREG, but airport police kept her away. That's when the situation between Hannah and the TSA officials became violent:

    "She's trying to get away from them but in the next instant, one of them had her down on the ground and hit her head on the floor. There was blood everywhere," said [Shirley].

    Security personnel arrested Hannah (though all charges against her were later dropped), and what should have been a night of celebration with family and friends because a night of terror and confusion in a jail cell.

    A year later, the family is suing the airport, its police, and the TSA for damages, including medical expenses and emotional injuries. According to the lawsuit, they are asking for a "reasonable sum not exceeding $100,000 and costs."

    https://pjmedia.com/trending/2016/07/02/disabled-teen-beaten-bloody-by-tsa-agents/

    ReplyDelete
  26. HILL'S HELL WEEKEND: GRILLED BY FBI FOR HOURS....DRUDGE

    Sounds like she didn't take the 5th.

    Now we wait for the report and see if Comey caves, or not.

    ReplyDelete
  27. It's time to shoot on site any and all Hamas leaders.

    http://www.jewishpress.com/news/breaking-news/hamas-animated-video-threatens-assassination-of-mk-glick-video/2016/07/02/

    Hamas Animated Video Threatens Assassination of MK Glick

    Are we looking at the next phase in terrorism — creating artist’s renderings of the next murder to be carried out by your group, then posting it in order to intimidate your intended victim? This is what Hamas appears to have done on Friday. Just hours after Rabbi Mickey Mark of Otniel was murdered in his car, front of his wife and children in a drive-by shooting south of Hebron, this video was uploaded to YouTube threatening MK Yehuda Glick’s assassination. Make that his second assassination, seeing as the Likud freshman MK and Temple Mount activist has already undergone one point blank shooting by an Arab assassin.

    The animated video, titled “Yehuda Glick .. You’re next. You have no place in Palestine,” uses video game technology to display two maksed terrorists infiltrating the community of Otniel and shooting Glick after he gets out of his car.


    Make no bones about it. Just like ISIS releasing a hit list, Hamas is doing the same.

    AND like ISIS, it's soldiers must be taken out...

    ReplyDelete
  28. Just as I expected, the recent Austrian election was stolen by the leftists.....

    Oh, by the way… Austria’s presidential election was overturned


    posted at 11:31 am on July 2, 2016 by Jazz Shaw


    http://hotair.com/archives/2016/07/02/oh-by-the-way-austrias-presidential-election-was-overturned/

    Mail in ballots seem to have been tampered with.....

    Now comes a do-over new election.

    ReplyDelete
  29. .

    I never found the numbers on Muslims supporting Sharia in the article, or in the fucking linked study.


    Why would you need that when you've got Bongo Bob assuring you all the Muslims want to impose Sharia law.

    How hard is this to understand ????, dummy.


    .

    ReplyDelete
  30. .

    Just as I expected, the recent Austrian election was stolen by the leftists.....


    Just as you expected? Riiight?


    .



    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Yup, I expected it when I noticed some oddities about the mail-in ballots.

      'It's not the votes that count, but who counts the votes.'

      Didja ever hear that one, Quirk ?

      Delete
    2. In Chicago, a guy was saving his father there always voted Republican, but that after he died he had been voting straight Democrat.

      Didja ever hear that one, Quirk ?

      Delete
    3. a guy was saying his father there always voted...

      Delete
    4. .

      You ought to take that act on the road.

      Please.

      .

      Delete
  31. .

    I think it my duty to first warn others of an impending threat.

    Gee, Doug, thanks for the heads up.


    .

    ReplyDelete
  32. .


    Furthermore, what do we tell our kids when they leave toys laying around?


    Toys laying around? Are you nutz? It's bodies being left around, millions of them and our fingers are all over a hell of a lot of them. If you start looking art root causes we are responsible for even more.


    If indeed we did create them than it requires we eliminate the threat of harm, does it not?

    You, sir, are batshit crazy. You are suggesting that even though we go over there and cause all this devastation time after time using the same 'kinetic' means time after time that you expect that if we just keep doing it over and over that eventually we will get it right.

    What is it you don't get about the 'Law of Holes' or Einsteins definition of insanity?

    .

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Quirk's back to his usual 'Blame American First' mode.

      This allows him to pump and bellow his big hairy ethical chest, his oneupmanship move.

      He never offers any alternative courses of action. Only bellows about how it's all 'our fault'.

      Well, not Quirk's fault, just everyone else's fault.

      Meanwhile the muzz in Michigan continue to hone their long term plans to take his ass down.

      He used to be better than this, folks, I can testify.

      These days he's slippin' like Bill Clinton.

      Soon he will be chewing his lips over a vacant blank stare.

      Delete
    2. What is it you don't get about the 'Law of Holes' or Einstein's definition of insanity?

      Appeasing islam over and over and expecting a different outcome?
      What is it that you don't get?

      You also seem so very distraught over the deaths of a sworn enemy.
      Why is that?

      Delete
    3. .

      He never offers any alternative courses of action. Only bellows about how it's all 'our fault'.

      Your wrong again.

      First, I have certainly never said is was all 'our fault'.

      It is certainly not my fault.

      It is not a lot of people's fault.

      What I have said is that it's the fault of the righteous elitist pricks who believe, like Superman, that truth, justice, and the 'American Way' demand that we spread America's exceptional values and beliefs to the poor benighted nations of the world whether they want it or not and if they are stupid enough to resist we destroy the village to save it.

      These elitist pricks are the neocons and the liberal hawks who see America as the most powerful country in the world and ask what good are all those guns and bombs if you can't use them? And in the background supporting them is the MIC who sees every kinetic adventure as support for their strategy of designed obsolescence and a major opportunity for increased profits. And behind these are the ill-informed sheeple who can be molded and shaped by political hacks like Trump, Bibi, Hillary, Bush, (add your own example), useful idiots who in Bibi's words 'can be easily moved'. He also said, 'its amazing'.

      Do the sheeple really see the contempt with which they are held by these elitist demagogues?

      Of course not. They're sheeple.

      But I digress.


      He never offers any alternative courses of action. Only bellows about how it's all 'our fault'.

      Nonsense. I've offered an alternative dozens of times. You simply refuse to hear it.

      I did it today when I responded 'ditto' to all the points made in the lead article to this stream. If you can't understand me simply read the article and assume it is me speaking.

      I also answered it yesterday when you offered the same argument(?). The fact that you brought it up again today is an example of why I seriously think you need some help.

      Let put it to you as succinctly as I can.

      Get the hell out of the Greater Middle East. There is nothing there that involves this countries national interests. In our interventions to date we have proven that we are ham fisted bumblers and it is costing lives, ours and theirs. Wherever we go we leave failed states in our wake. For every terrorist we kill we create 10 more. In the words of a 'great American hero', "How hard is this to understand ????"

      I leave you with the same question I asked Doug Saxun, "What is it you don't get about the 'Law of Holes' or Einsteins definition of insanity?"

      .




      Delete
    4. This comment has been removed by the author.

      Delete
    5. .

      Appeasing islam over and over and expecting a different outcome?
      What is it that you don't get?


      You can piss and moan all you want about appeasing Islam. I've complained myself about the PC bullshit. But please explain to me what that has to do with the incompetence the US has displayed in its foreign affairs over the past quarter century. Do you read the papers? Are you aware of the damage we have done to ourselves and others around the world? Do you have any concept of what the $ trillions we have wasted in the ME wars over the past 15 years could have actually bought if used for a productive use instead of wasted? Are you concerned at all that we have created failed states all over the ME? Are you concerned at all about the millions of refugees around the world that are the result of wars we started? Do the millions of lives lost bother you at all? Doesn't the fact that the very people dying are the people we supposedly went to war to help bother you? Do you realize that our efforts in the WOT has simply created more terrorists? Having watched the last 25 years do you really believe if we keep doing the same shit over and over again in the same ways things will be different? Can you offer me one example of an existential national interest that demands we have troops in the ME?

      Does all the death and destruction we have visited on the people of the ME bother your conscience or is your way of not appeasing Muslims that of a modern day Almaric who says "Kill them all and let God sort them out."

      .

      Delete
    6. I asked, "You also seem so very distraught over the deaths of a sworn enemy.
      Why is that?"

      And you don't give a direct answer but come back with multiple questions of your own.

      Will you answer the question?

      Delete
    7. Does all the death and destruction we have visited on the people of the ME bother your conscience...?

      No

      Delete
    8. .

      Will you answer the question?

      Distraught doesn't really describe my feelings. A more accurate statement is that I don't brook fools lightly.

      I am not distraught in the least about the deaths of of our sworn enemies. What I am distraught about is what seems to be your characterization that 1.5 billion are our sworn enemies.

      I am distraught that there are many like you who support the endless war that is the WOT, a war that has proved disastrous for this country in lives and treasure, a war that multiplies the terrorist threat we face on a daily basis. I am distraught that those like you who seem to think continuing the same benighted foreign policy we have pursued for the last 15 years is the right thing to do. And yes I am distraught about the millions that we have turned into refugees and the millions more we have put in the ground who are/were ordinary people trying to scrape by most of them under of the rule of religious nut jobs like you.

      .

      .

      Delete
    9. Thank you for answering and expanding on that answer.

      Delete
  33. Do you have a garage, Quirk ?

    Just wondering.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. .

      Yes, but Jay Leno is using it right now for some TV show.

      .

      Delete
    2. He's on the track.

      https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E4-ZUZHBp1Y

      Delete
  34. UC Irvine gave the Muslim Student Union Ten Thousand Dollars.

    UC Irvine gave the College Republicans One Hundred Eighty One Dollars.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. .

      Yea, but the Republicans are all rich.

      :o)

      .

      Delete
  35. Hacked Emails Reveal NATO General Plotting Against Obama on Russia Policy

    RETIRED U.S. AIR FORCE Gen. Philip Breedlove, until recently the supreme commander of NATO forces in Europe, plotted in private to overcome President Barack Obama’s reluctance to escalate military tensions with Russia over the war in Ukraine in 2014, according to apparently hacked emails from Breedlove’s Gmail account that were posted on a new website called DC Leaks.

    Obama defied political pressure from hawks in Congress and the military to provide lethal assistance to the Ukrainian government, fearing that doing so would increase the bloodshed and provide Russian President Vladimir Putin with the justification for deeper incursions into the country.

    Breedlove, during briefings to Congress, notably contradicted the Obama administration regarding the situation in Ukraine, leading to news stories about conflict between the general and Obama.

    But the leaked emails provide an even more dramatic picture of the intense back-channel lobbying for the Obama administration to begin a proxy war with Russia in Ukraine.

    In a series of messages in 2014, Breedlove sought meetings with former Secretary of State Colin Powell, asking for advice on how to pressure the Obama administration to take a more aggressive posture toward Russia.

    “I may be wrong, … but I do not see this WH really ‘engaged’ by working with Europe/NATO. Frankly I think we are a ‘worry,’ … ie a threat to get the nation drug into a conflict,” Breedlove wrote in an email to Powell, who responded by accepting an invitation to meet and discuss the dilemma. “I seek your counsel on two fronts,” Breedlove continued, “how to frame this opportunity in a time where all eyes are on ISIL all the time, … and two, … how to work this personally with the POTUS.”

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. (email to Powell)


      Breedlove attempted to influence the administration through several channels, emailing academics and retired military officials, including former NATO supreme commander Wesley Clark, for assistance in building his case for supplying military assistance to Ukrainian forces battling Russian-backed separatists.

      “I think POTUS sees us as a threat that must be minimized, … ie do not get me into a war????” Breedlove wrote in an email to Harlan Ullman, senior adviser to the Atlantic Council, describing his ongoing attempt to get Powell to help him influence Obama.


      (email to Harlan Ullman)


      “Given Obama’s instruction to you not to start a war, this may be a tough sell,” Ullman replied a few months later, in another string of emails about Breedlove’s effort to “leverage, cajole, convince or coerce the U.S. to react” to Russia.

      Breedlove did not respond to a request for comment. He stepped down from his NATO leadership position in May and retired from service on Friday, July 1. Breedlove was a four-star Air Force general and served as the 17th Supreme Allied Commander of NATO forces in Europe starting on May 10, 2013.

      Phillip Karber, an academic who corresponded regularly with Breedlove — providing him with advice and intelligence on the Ukrainian crisis — verified the authenticity of several of the emails in the leaked cache. He also told The Intercept that Breedlove confirmed to him that the general’s Gmail account was hacked and that the incident had been reported to the government.

      “The last conversation I had about it with General Breedlove, he said, ‘Yeah, I’ve been hacked several times,’” said Karber. He added that he noticed at least one of his personal emails appearing online from the leak before we had contacted him. “I turned this over to the U.S. government and asked them to investigate. No one has given me any answer.”

      Delete
    2. “I have no idea whose account was leaked or hacked,” said Powell, when reached for comment about the emails. Powell said he had no comment about the discussions regarding Obama’s response to the conflict in Ukraine.

      In the European press, Breedlove has been portrayed as a hawkish figure known for leaning on allied nations to ditch diplomacy and to adopt a more confrontational role again Russian-backed separatists in Ukraine. Breedlove, testifying before Congress earlier in February of this year, called Russia “a long-term existential threat to the United States and to our European allies.”

      Der Spiegel reported that Breedlove “stunned” German leaders with a surprise announcement in 2015 claiming that pro-Russian separatists had “upped the ante” in eastern Ukraine with “well over a thousand combat vehicles, Russian combat forces, some of the most sophisticated air defense, battalions of artillery” sent to Donbass, a center of the conflict.

      Breedlove’s numbers were “significantly higher” than the figures known to NATO intelligence agencies and seemed exaggerated to German officials. The announcement appeared to be a provocation designed to disrupt mediation efforts led by Chancellor Angela Merkel.

      In previous instances, German officials believed Breedlove overestimated Russian forces along the border with Ukraine by as many as 20,000 troops and found that the general had falsely claimed that several Russian military assets near the Ukrainian border were part of a special build-up in preparation for a large-scale invasion of the country. In fact, much of the Russian military equipment identified by Breedlove, the Germans said, had been stored there well before the revolution in Ukraine.

      The emails, however, depict a desperate search by Breedlove to build his case for escalating the conflict, contacting colleagues and friends for intelligence to illustrate the Russian threat. Karber, who visited Ukrainian politicians and officials in Kiev on several occasions, sent frequent messages to Breedlove — “per your request,” he noted — regarding information he had received about separatist military forces and Russian troop movements. In several updates, Breedlove received military data sourced from Twitter and social media.

      Delete
    3. Karber, the president of the Potomac Foundation, became the center of a related scandal last year when it was discovered that he had facilitated a meeting during which images of purported Russian forces in Ukraine were distributed to the office of Sen. James Inhofe, R-Okla., and were published by a neoconservative blog. The pictures turned out to be a deception; one supposed picture of Russian tanks in Ukraine was, in fact, an old photograph of Russian tanks in Ossetia during the war with Georgia.

      Breedlove stayed in close contact with Karber and other officials who shared his views on the Ukrainian conflict.

      “Phil, can’t we get a statement to counteract the Russians on use of force? what can I do to help? If the Ukrainians lose control of the narrative, the Russians will see it as an open door,” wrote retired Gen. Wesley Clark, who forwarded on his messages with Victoria Nuland, the assistant secretary of state for European and Eurasian affairs. He also passed along concerns from the Bulgarian president that Bulgaria might be Russia’s next target.

      In other messages, Clark relayed specific requests for the types of military aid desired by Ukrainian officials. In addition to radar systems and other forms of military equipment, Clark recommended that Breedlove “encourage Ukraine to hire some first rate pr firms and crisis communications firms in U.S. and Europe.” He added, “They need the right tools to engage in information warfare.”

      Ukraine did hire several D.C. lobbying and communication firms to influence policymakers. In June 2015, the government signed a deal with APCO Worldwide, an influential firm with ties to senior Democratic and Republican officials.

      Delete
    4. In an email in February 2015, Karber told Breedlove that “Pakistan has, under the table, offered Ukraine 500 TOW-II launchers (man-portable version) and 8,000 TOW-II missiles,” adding that deliveries of the anti-tank weapons could begin by the end of the month. “However,” Karber wrote, “Pakistan will not make these deliveries without U.S. approval; moreover they will not even request that approval unless they have informal assurance that it would be approved.”

      Karber told The Intercept that the Pakistani arms deal never materialized.

      Breedlove was most recently in the news explaining that he now thinks we need to talk to the Russian government to resolve the conflict in Ukraine. “I think we need to begin to have meaningful dialogue,” he said last week, while reiterating his views on the need for a strong NATO to militarily match Russia. “Russia does understand power, and strength, and unity,” he said.

      The emails were released by D.C. Leaks, a database run by self-described “hacktivists” who are collecting the communications of elite stakeholders such as political parties, major politicians, political campaigns, and the military. The website currently has documents revealing some internal communications of the Hillary Clinton presidential campaign and George Soros’s Open Society Foundation, among others.

      Are All Air Force Generals Crazy, or Just the Ones That Work For Us?

      Delete
    5. "Fuck the EU! - Exactly!" - Victoria Nuland & Geoffrey Pyatt

      https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CL_GShyGv3o

      Delete