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"No problem can be solved from the same consciousness that created it. We must learn to see the world anew."
Albert Einstein

With tongue squarely in cheek...

Bush Names Wolfowitz President of al-Qaeda

Hopes to Undermine Terror Network

In a bold move to undermine the international terror network, President George W. Bush today named former deputy defense secretary and World Bank president Paul Wolfowitz to be the new president of al-Qaeda.

Mr. Wolfowitz, who has no experience running an international terror organization, struck many Washington insiders as an unlikely choice for the al-Qaeda job.

But in a White House ceremony introducing his nominee for the top terror post, President Bush indicated that Mr. Wolfowitz's role in planning the war in Iraq and bringing scandal to the World Bank showed that he was "just the man" to bring chaos and disorder to al-Qaeda.

"I've seen Paul Wolfowitz in action," said Mr. Bush, a beaming Mr. Wolfowitz at his side. "If anyone can mess up al-Qaeda, it's this guy."

More evidence of surge failure

The U.S. military said 10 soldiers were killed in Iraq on Monday, taking the total for May to 114, the deadliest month for U.S. troops since November 2004, when 137 soldiers were killed.

AP

Al-Qaeda Enabler

Check out this post from Andrew Sullivan.  Stinging endictment of the President.

There was more to remember this memorial day...

3,444

Poignant Memorial Day

At least eight U.S. soldiers were killed in restive Diyala province north of Baghdad on Memorial Day, two of the victims in a helicopter that went down, the military reported Tuesday.

All the dead were Task Force Lightning soldiers. The military said six soldiers died in explosions near their vehicles, but gave no further information.

Moderate Islam

It exists, and should be encouraged.  This article from CNN shows moderate Muslims hoping to create a better future and world.

Enhanced Interrorgation Techniques=Torture

Andrew Sullivan writes: "Second, of course, the hideous term: "enhanced interrogation techniques.' I'm not sure where exactly this came from..." and gets an answer from a reader:

"enhanced interrogation techniques" is a fairly decent English translation of the Gestapo euphemism "verschaerfte Vernehmung" which was the code word for torture in the Third Reich. Look it up." The dictionary confirms it.

How wonderful that the Bush Admininstration looks to the Nazis for its verbage. What's next? "The Final Solution to the Iraqi Question"?

VP for Torture

In an earlier post the Pilgrim said that a 'fish rots from the head down.'

How's this for a headline supporting that old saying?

Cheney criticizes the Geneva Conventions in Military Academy commencement address

"Capture one of these killers, and he'll be quick to demand the protections of the Geneva Convention and the Constitution of the United States," the Vice President said in the Saturday morning speech. "Yet when they wage attacks or take captives, their delicate sensibilities seem to fall away."

Wonderful. Rather than live up to the highest moral standards- which is what is truly great about America- let's live down to the standards of the terrorists.

Even worse, he criticizes the Geneva Conventions in front of graduates of the military academy- those whose responsibility should be to uphold those conventions out in the field upon graduation.

When will Cheney and the others who condone torture recognize and admit that their stance is not only morally reprehensible, but actually puts Americans at risk?

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God acts mercifully not by contradicting his justice but by doing what is over and above it .... Mercy does not displace justice; rather it is the fullness of justice.

- Thomas Aquinas

Surge failure

Great post from Andrew Sullivan:

 

"The level of sectarian violence is an important indicator of whether or not the strategy that we have implemented is working," - president Bush, May 10.

"More than three months into a U.S.-Iraqi security offensive designed to curtail sectarian violence in Baghdad and other parts of Iraq, Health Ministry statistics show that such killings are rising again. From the beginning of May until Tuesday, 321 unidentified corpses, many dumped and showing signs of torture and execution, have been found across the Iraqi capital, according to morgue data provided by a Health Ministry official who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to release the information. The data showed that the same number of bodies were found in all of January, the month before the launch of the Baghdad security plan," - Washington Post today.

It's not working.

 

Cartoon 2

Cartoon

A relatively encouraging survey

Muslim Americans: Middle Class and Mostly Mainstream

Key findings include:

• Overall, Muslim Americans have a generally positive view of the larger society. Most say their communities are excellent or good places to live.
  
• A large majority of Muslim Americans believe that hard work pays off in this society. Fully 71% agree that most people who want to get ahead in the United States can make it if they are willing to work hard.
  
• The survey shows that although many Muslims are relative newcomers to the U.S., they are highly assimilated into American society. On balance, they believe that Muslims coming to the U.S. should try and adopt American customs, rather than trying to remain distinct from the larger society. And by nearly two-to-one (63%-32%) Muslim Americans do not see a conflict between being a devout Muslim and living in a modern society.
• Muslim Americans reject Islamic extremism by larger margins than do Muslim minorities in Western European countries. However, there is somewhat more acceptance of Islamic extremism in some segments of the U.S. Muslim public than others. Fewer native-born African American Muslims than others completely condemn al Qaeda. In addition, younger Muslims in the U.S. are much more likely than older Muslim Americans to say that suicide bombing in the defense of Islam can be at least sometimes justified. Nonetheless, absolute levels of support for Islamic extremism among Muslim Americans are quite low, especially when compared with Muslims around the world.
  

Lost in the shuffle

Much media focus has been placed upon the 3 US soldiers disappeared. What about the 40 who have died?

Source: IraqSlogger

Forty US Mil Deaths in Iraq Since Kidnapping

After May 12 Episode When Four Killed, Three Kidnapped, 40 Other US Troop Deaths

	May 13	May 14	May 15	May 16	May 17	May 18	May 19	May 20	May 21	May 22	May 23	Total
Troop Deaths	2	6	0	0	6	6	9	0	3	6	2	40

The future (is now??)

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To keep struggling against hate and to practice forgiveness need not mean abdicating one's rights or renouncing justice. This should be emphasized over and over again. It is part of loving one's enemy that Christians must remind the "enemy" of justice and right. It is part of loving to speak the truth.

Naim Ateek

Dems surrender

Bush's controversial veto apparently served him well, at least in the short term, as Democrats put to rest their weeks-long endeavor to bundle US Iraq policy with appropriations legislation.

So much for the will of the people expressed in the midterm elections.

 

We stay the course.  Right over the cliff.

More War??

An International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) report was expected to show Iran had significantly expanded its program, exposing it to broader sanctions. But there are signs of discord between Western powers and the IAEA on how to handle Tehran.

 

In the meantime...

U.S. warships staged maneuvers off Iran's coast highlighting American concern over Iran's nuclear ambitions and Iraq....  The U.S. navy said the ships, including two aircraft carriers, would conduct exercises as part of a long-planned effort to reassure regional allies of U.S. commitment to Gulf security. Naval officials described it as the largest daytime assembly of ships since the 2003 Iraq war.

Speaking the truth, even when it hurts

The following is a letter from Michael F. Scheuer, former Chief of the CIA's Osama bin Laden Unit, to the editor of Antiwar.com, regarding Congressman Ron Paul's exchange with Rudy Giuliani about why the al Qaeda network has targeted the United States.

Sir,

In the dozen-plus years I have been active in matters relating to Osama bin Laden and al-Qaeda, I have watched them go from a small Islamist organization to a worldwide insurgent movement, while bin Laden has established himself as the primary source of inspiration and leadership for tens of millions of Muslim Islamists. This process has been made possible by two things: (a) the skill, courage, patience, and ruthlessness of bin Laden and his ilk, and (b) the refusal of the U.S. government to understand the motivation of bin Laden and his allies.

Last week, Representative Paul did all Americans an immense service by simply pointing out the obvious: Our Islamist enemies do not give a damn about the way we vote, think, or live. Though any country they ruled would surely not look like ours, they are motivated by the belief that U.S. foreign policy is an attack on Islam, its lands, and its believers. This, of course, is not to say that America is to blame for the war it is now engaged in, but it is to say that it is foolish – and perhaps fatal – for Americans to believe that are we are being attacked for such ephemera as primary elections, R-rated movies, and gender equality. If our Islamist enemies were motivated by such things their numbers would be minuscule and they would be a sporadic lethal nuisance, not, as they are, the most serious national security threat we face today.

Of the eighteen presidential candidates now in the field from both parties, only Mr. Paul has had the courage to square with the average American voter. We are indeed hated and being warred against because we are "over there," and not for what we are and how we live. Our failure to recognize the truth spoken by Mr. Paul – and spelled out for us in hundreds of pages of statements by Osama bin Laden since 1996 – is leading America toward military and economic disaster.

At day's end, Mr. Paul has at least temporarily shaken the pillars of the bipartisan consensus on U.S. foreign policy. Neither party, and none of the candidates, want to discuss the Islamists' motivation because they would have to deal with energy policy, support for Israel, and the 50-year record of U.S. support and protection for Arab tyrannies. These holy cows of U.S. politics have long been off limits to debate, but Mr. Paul has now accurately identified them as the source of motivation for our Islamist enemies, and implicitly has said that the obsessive interventionism of both parties has inspired al-Qaeda and its allies to kill 7,000-plus U.S. civilians and military personnel since 11 September 2001. The war we are engaged in with the Islamists is a long way from over, but it need end in America's defeat only if Mr. Paul's frank statements are ignored.

And no matter how you view Mr. Paul's words, you can safely take one thing to the bank. The person most shaken by Mr. Paul's frankness was Osama bin Laden, who knows that the current status quo in U.S. foreign policy toward the Islamic world is al-Qaeda's one indispensable ally, and the only glue that provides cohesion between and among the diverse and often fractious Islamist groups that follow its banner.

Respectfully,
Michael F. Scheuer
Falls Church, VA

 

Source:  AntiWar Blog