FOUR APPEASERATI TO MEET IN PARIS 3/18

(AFP) -

The leaders of France, Russia, Germany and Spain are to meet in Paris March 18 for a working dinner designed to accommodate Russian President Vladimir Putin's wish to see a closer EU-Russia dialogue, French officials said Friday. It will be the first time such a meeting will take place, the officials from French President Jacques Chirac's office said. As well as Chirac and Putin, the dinner's guests will include German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder and Spanish Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero.

More than any other nations on the world, these four nations now enable and appease the enemy; here are a FEW of their RECENT perfidious acts:

(1) France refuses to allow the UN or the EU to officially recognize that Hizballah is a terrorists group (thereby allowing them to continmue to raise money in Europe), and France recently gave all of ONE soldier to help train Iraqis; (2) Spain recently withheld information about a possible terrorists attack against the USA - and Grand Central Terminal in NY - for 5 months; (3) before the Iraq War, Germany and France twisted Turkey's arm in order to get Turkey to refuse to allow the USA to use its Turkish bases in the war; this prevented the USA military from entering Iraq from the north, and may be WHY the neojihadists and Baathists who were north and east of Baghdad were able to "fade away" and regroup; in other words, because of France and Germany and Turkey, the "insurgents" were given a route of escape, and this lead directly to the strength and persistence of their attacks against Iraqis and the coalition for the last year; (4) Russia is currently arming Syria with missiles and Iran with dual-use nuclear technology, and they're NOT helping us with North Korea at all.

These four appeaserati - Chirac, Schroeder, Zapatero and Putin - are NOT ALLIES; they are truly an AXIS OF TREACHERY. Replacing these four appeaserati with pro-democracy/libertarian leaders is as important to our eventual success in WW4 as getting rid of Assad and Khatami and Kim Jong Il.

LONDON'S SOCIALIST MAYOR LIVINGSTONE PROVES HE IS ANTI-SEMITE SCUM

(1) What Livingstone wrote in the Guradian, 0n 3/4/05: "Ariel Sharon, Israel's prime minister, is a war criminal who should be in prison not in office. Israel's own Kahan commission found that Sharon shared responsibility for the Sabra and Shatila [Palestinian refugee camps in Beirut] massacre."

(2) HAARETZ: These comments were made two weeks after the London mayor controversially likened a Jewish reporter to a Nazi concentration camp guard.Livingstone has refused to apologize for his comments, repeatedly emphasising his anti-racist stance and denying that his words were anti-Semitic, the Independent reported.

In Israel, Foreign Ministry spokesman Mark Regev said the mayor's comments "aren't even worthy of an Israeli response."

(3) His comments are unlikely to ease already fraught relations between the mayor and the Jewish community in Britain. Tensions came to light last year when Livingstone invited the Muslim cleric Yusuf al-Qaradawi to speak at a conference in London, the Independent reported.

Here is my response, and the FACTS:

(4) 1982: Sabra and Shatila Massacres

As discussed on the Palestine Facts topic page on Sabra and Shatila, on September 16, 1982 the Lebanese Christian Phalangist militia entered the Beruit refugee camps looking for PLO fighters. The Phalangist forces, allies of Israel and in an area controlled by the IDF, carried out a 62-hour rampage of rape and murder that left hundreds dead.

In 1983, an Israeli government commission of inquiry, known as the Kahane Commission, determined that Defense Minister Sharon was negligent and should have foreseen that permitting the Phalangist forces to enter the camps carried a potential for catastrophe. They charged that Sharon should have taken precautions against such a massacre. But the commission rejected the idea that Minister Sharon was directly responsible for the crime, an idea that was also rejected by the federal court in New York that heard Sharon's 1985 libel suit against Time magazine who repeated unfounded allegations about Sharon's role. Nonetheless, due to Israeli discomfort with the event, Sharon was forced to resign and face widespread public opprobrium that nearly ended his political career. The matter was therefore lawfully settled in Israeli and US courts with a reasonable conclusion and outcome.

For years, Mr. Sharon's political opponents, in Israel and abroad, along with a host of Arab leaders, have exploited Sabra and Shatila to score moral points against Israel -- even as Syria made an ally of Elie Hobeika, the Phalangist personally responsible for carrying out the massacres. They continue to accuse Sharon of crimes for which he has already been cleared.

MORE FACTS ABOUT SHATILA HERE .

MY POINT:

Only an anti-Semite - like Livingstone - would blame a Jew and an Israeli (like Sharon) for crimes committed by Christian Arabs against Muslim Arabs. Blaming Sharon for crimes committed by the Arab Christian Phalange (like those committed at Shatila) in Lebanon is like blaming Rumsfeld for crimes comnmitted by the Northern Alliance in Afghanistan. It's simply absurd. It's an absurd charge that reveals MORE about Livingstone than Sharon. It reveals that Livingstone is an anti-Semite.

(5) Yusuf al-Qaradawi [...] condemned the terrorists responsible for the 9/11 attacks but who advocates Palestinian suicide bombers against Israeli citizens as a "legitimate and recommended" means of deterring the Israeli "enemy." Livingstone agrees with - and has publicly praised Qardawi, and so implicitly agrees that neojihadist terror against Jews is okay. THAT'S ANTI-SEMITIC.

Livingstone has also FALSELY charged Israelis with ethnic-cleansing against Muslims and Arabs when the EXACT OPPOSITE is true. TAKE THE GAZA WITHDRAWAL AS AN EXAMPLE: Sharon is ethnically-cleansing Gaza of Jews - while 20% - THAT'S RIGHT TWENTY-EFFING PERCENT - of Israel's VOTING POPULATION is Arab Muslim!

Palestinian Arabs - like the "moderate" Abbas - want "Judenrein" in the West Bank too - by requiring that all Israeli/Jewish setlements be emptied as a condition to a settlement; therefore, IT IS THE ARABS WHO WANT ETHNIC-CLEANSING, NOT THE ISRAELIS!!!!

If these illustrate ethnic-cleansing by Jews against Muslims than Livingstone is Chief Rabbi of Lodz! Of course, Livingstone is NOT chief rabbi of anything; he is an abhorrent anti-Semite - like so many on the Left. Like Senator Byrd, Livingstone's recent tirade has exposed him for what he really is: a bigot.

THE LEFT'S FIXATION ON SEPARATION OF CHURCH AND STATE

Barry Lynn (of Americans United for the Separation of Church and State - and one of the Leftists who filed a brief in the "ANTI-TEN COMMANDMENTS" case before the SCOTUS) appeared on C-SPAN today.

Lynn said that, according to his reading of the first amendment - (which reads: Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof;) - "the government shall not own or operate or display religious symbols."

That's a DIRECT QUOTE.

I guess that means that he and the ACLU will next sue the Department of Defense to remove all the crosses from Arlington National Cemetery!!! Don't laugh - they'll probably get to it right after they remove the word GOD from our motto our money and our pledge!

WHY IS THIS ANTI-RELIGION EFFORT SUCH AN IMPORTANT PART OF THE LEFT'S AGENDA? Because the Left worships the State - and they want the State run by atheistic socialist intellectuals; therefore traditional religion - and priests and rabbis - are quite simply THE COMPETITION!

PS: Another thing Lynn said today: that "the Ten Commandments is a symbol of just one religion." I wonder which one that is!? The "Judeo-Christian" one?! The Jewish one!? The Protestant one!? The Catholic one!? The Lutheran one!? And so on... IT'S EFFING RIDICULOUS! The constitution says the government shall not establish a religion; it does not say that it may not express or reflect some religiousness or any relgiousity - and the fact that Congress opens each day with a prayer IS PROOF that this is so.

The atheistic socialist intellectual elites have been trying to destroy Western Civilization since they fomented the Counter-Culture Revolution in the 1960's; (I know: I was part of it!). They have the same aim now, only now they're trying to use the courts to accomplish what they could not accomplish by popular revolution.

The Left's basic anti-Western attitude is why they've had such a hard time joining in with Bush and attacking the neojihadists; in the neojihadists the Left saw a powerful ally in their long-standing effort to destroy America, and with America the West and Western traditions. It's also why they would rather align themselves with Third World dictators like Fidel and Chavez and Mugabe ( and Ho Chi Minh and Pol Pot and Mao before them) than with the capitalist/industrialized/God-fearing West: to the Left, cultural and economic colonialism are the "capital crimes" that the West committed against the Third World; they're the reason why the West deserves to die - as far as the Left is concerned.

Here's another illustration of this essentially anti-West attitude: a sign at a "pro-Ward Churchill" rally at UW proclaimed: "Capitalism = terrorism" - (hat tip PRESTOPUNDIT) and this is EXACTLY WHY Churchill argued that the victims of neojihadist terror on 9/11 were "little eichmanns."

Of course the premise of the Left-wing attack on Western Civilization and capitalism and industrialization is preposterous on its face. NEED PROOF!? Well, the First World's excellent wealth and health is a result of capitalism, trade and industrialization; Third World poverty and short life-spans are a result of their LACK OF ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT, TRADE AND INDUSTRIALIZATION.

If the Left truly wanted people in the Third World to have more wealth and live longer healthier lives, then they'd advocate more globalization and more industrialization for the Third World, and not less consumption or less production in the West, in the First World.

The Left, though, remains opposed to capitalism and industrialization - it's basically why they are pro-KYOTO (which is a horrifying "anti-economic/anti-industrial growth" treaty which threatens global economic ruin).

But reality has VERY LITTLE to do with the Leftist agenda; Marxist orthodoxy has EVERYTHING to do with it. And, after all, Marx was anti-religion. And that's basically why Barry Lynn is too. It has NOTHING to do with the First Amendment, and everything to do with Marxist socialism. Take it from me: I used to be a Leftist. Before I saw the Light.

And you can look it up: ALL the founders of the ACLU were Marxists. And their cohorts in the NLG - the National Lawyers Guild - (like CONVICTED NEOJIHADIST COHORT LYNN STEWART) still are!

The Left knows that they could never get any Amercian legislature to ban religious symbols and references to the Creator from all government auspices, events, objects, etc. That's why they've taken the issue to the courts: this is the Left's last chance at inflicting their atheistic, anti-traditional, anti-West program on to all Americans, and if we can defeat them on this issue NOW, then it will be as big a blow to them as the Bush Doctrine has been to tyranny in the Middle East.

I am praying that the SCOTUS does the right thing!

UPDATE - 3/7: Welcome DISSECTING LEFT readers! (And if you're not one - YOU SHOULD BE - EVERYDAY!

SPAIN'S ANTI-AMERICAN SOCIALISTS

ACCORDING TO THE SPANISH DAILY EL MUNDO:

After the horrific ATOCHA bombing in Madrid - (which won the ANTI-AMERICAN socialists the election - JUST as AL QAEDA wanted!) - Zapatero - the newly elected socialist prime minister of Spain - had evidence that AL QAEDA was planning to attack the USA in NYC at Grand Central Station AND WITHHELD IT UNTIL AFTER THE USA ELECTION!

Zapatero probably withheld the info deliberately. Probably because he and his pinko cohorts hoped that an attack by AL QAEDA against the USA between March 2004 and the election in Novemeber would tip the Amercian election to the socialistic Kerry juist as Atocha had tipped the Spanish election to the anti-war pinkos in Spain.

Socialist scum. Like the wise man once said about the Left: "They are not anti-war; they're on the other side."

SUPREME COURT CONTINUES LEFT-WING INFANTILIZATION

The SCOTUS ruled to day that the death penalty may not be applied to anyone under age 18.

Just 17 years ago, in 1988, the SCOTUS said the age limit was 16 and over.

But then - way back in the 1980's 18 year olds could drink, too.

NOW... if you're under 18, you are a JUVENILE - an as of yet un-formed adult - and not allowed to drink booze (legally) and not fully responsible for your actions even if those actions include premeditated murder.

WHAT'S HAPPENED SINCE 1988 TO CHANGE THINGS?!

ARE 18 year olds more infantile now than then!?

NO.

What's happened is that a few Leftists on the SCOTUS have succeeded in making 18 year old people LESS responsible for themselves - which is of course at the HEART of the Leftists agenda: they don't want people to be responsible for themselves; they want the state to be responsible for you, instead.

Well, I say: If you're old enough to volunteer for the armed forces, and old enough to vote, then you are old enough to drink booze and to suffer the death penalty if a jury says you deserve it.

If the Left had their way, illegal juvenile aliens (even those convicted of felonies) would have the right to vote, but not to smoke or drink or die for committing murder. HOW EFFING WEIRD IS THAT!? Maybe the Left will RAISE the voting age!? Or do they think that voting requires less thought and responsibility than killing?!

There is NO consisitency or sense to the Left's position EXCEPT as part of a program to make people LESS responsible for themselves - and the State MORE POWERFUL; that is the ONLY context in which this decision makes sense. It's court-ordered nanny-statism at its worst, and - now that the GOP controls the White House and the Congress - it's the ONLY way the Left can stuff their Leftist agenda down our throats.

Which also means it's further proof that the GOP controlled Senate ought to abolish the Senate rule that requires cloture for court nominees, so the GOP can get a few non-Leftist jurists on the court - - jurists who won't legislate from the bench, or aggrandize the state as they infantilize the citizenry.

GERMAN ECONOMY KEEPS SPEEDING IN THE FAST LANE...

... on the road to serfdom, that is!

BBC: More than 5.2 million Germans were out of work in February, new figures show. The figure of 5.216 million people, or 12.6% of the working-age population, is the highest jobless rate in Europe's biggest economy since the 1930s.

WHY IS GERMANY DOING SO BADLY?! Well, Germany is a socialist economy with a socialist government - one allied to environmentalists. Their economy - and Continental Europe's - is doomed unless and until Germany - and France - elect Thatcherite/Reaganite governments which embrace Hayekian principles and cut taxes and reduce the size of government.

THIS IS NOT DOCTRINAIRE; HAYEKIAN POLIICES MAKE ECONOMIES GROW BETTER BECAUSE THEY LIBERATE PEOPLE TO BE MORE INDUSTRIOUS AND CREATIVE!

UPROAR IN THE ARAB STREET

Funny: there're more Arabs protesting in Beirut against Assad and Syria than ever protested in any Arab street ANYWHERE against US "occupation" of Iraq. (Hat tip JOHN GIBSON of FOX NEWS.)

UPDATE 3/1: Hitchens has more to say on the "Arab Street."

THE BELL TOLLS FOR THE LEFT

No man is an island, entire of itself; every man is a piece of the continent, a part of the main. If a clod be washed away by the sea, Europe is the less, as well as if a promontory were, as well as if a manor of thy friend's or of thine own were: any man's death diminishes me, because I am involved in mankind, and therefore never send to know for whom the bell tolls; it tolls for thee. - John Donne

The "me generation" Left, and the anti-traditional counter-culture they fomented, used moral relativism to transform the old laissez faire bromide -"live and let die" - into the isolationist "let me live, and let them die." These Leftists believe that their own state should be their nanny - caring for them from the cradle to the grave - and that we have no business "muddling in the domestic affairs of other nations or cultures." To them it is arrogant, colonialist, and dangerous - because it causes "blowback."

Bush and the neocons are universalists who believe that personal liberty is an innate human right of all humans born anywhere and everywhere, and a basic universal human right which must not be limited by local culture or government - which are both temporal and relative.

Bush and the neocons believe that those of us who are free and rich and strong have a moral obligation to help our brothers and sisters whose basic universal human rights have been taken away from them; we must help them them get their innate rights back, AND we should help them form mutually consensual governments that recognize their rights - in other words - democracies. After all, the self-determination of nations can only be a product of democracy- tyrannies are not in any sense self-determined. And contrary to what the Old Left believes, self-determination can NEVER be "imposed;" rather it is tyranny which is imposed; democracy is the only way a free people can have a limited mutually-consensual self-government; democracy is the absence of imposition.

Bush's aggressive pro-human rights/pro-democracy policy is working - now, at a rate that is truly STUNNING. Georgia, Ukraine, Afghanistan, Iraq - even in Arab Palestine, Lebanon, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Abu Dhabi, and so on... all becoming more democratic. Because of Bush's policies. Bush's bold polices have rung the bell of liberty and the toll resounds worldwide!

The pealing bell is also an alarm for the Left; it signals that the time has come for the Left to wake up, renounce their moral relativism, shed their isolationism and join the good fight.

If they do shed the vestiges of their failed ideology, they will find the experience very liberating!

BUSH DEMOCRACY AGENDA CLAIMS ANOTHER VICTORY

The Lebanese government has resigned in solidarity with the protesters demanding Syria exit at once.

This is a HUGE victory for Bush. It comes on the heels of other HUGE Bush victories: democracy in Afghanistan; democracy in Iraq; elections in Saudi Arabia; democracy emerging among the Arabs of the occupied territories; Libya's caving in on WMD; election reform in Egypt; and the democratic revolutions in Georgia and in Ukraine.

This is just more proof that the neojihadists and the Left and the euroweenies are on the WRONG side of history, and that Bush and the neocons are on the right side of history: humanity's long hard march toward ever more personal liberty and toward consensually formed and limited government has been and remains humanity's greatest mission.

Iran and Syria and Russia and North Korea and China remain that last great looming obstacles.

They are on notice.

FIRST THEY WHACKED HARIRI; IS ABBAS NEXT?????

The neojihadist/baathist falange (Iran and Syria and al Qaeda and Hizballah and Hamas and IslamicJihad) are attempting to rollback democracy in Iraq by using terror.

They have attempted to forestall democracy and self-rule in Lebanon by assasinating Harriri. And by bombing a disco in Tel Aviv.

They will NOT likely stand idly by and watch the Palestinians become democratic - settlement of the Israeli-Arab conflict and establishment of a democratic sate of Plaestine would be a HUGE blow to the neojihadists and baathists.

As Afghanistan, and Iraq, and Saudi Arabia, and Abu Dhabi - and Mubarak and Qadafy and Lebanon and Arab Palestine each move closer to democracy - the neojiohadist/baathist falange becomes increasingly isolated and at more at risk of collapsing -- as if being painted into a corner, as if CORNERED. And cornered beasts are more likely to lash out - STUPIDLY, as the Hariri assassination and the Tel Aviv disco bombing prove.

SO WHAT'S NEXT? Well, certainly they might try to whack Mubarak AGAIN, but I think that the ripest target they have is ABBAS: he is critical to the success of the Israeli Arab detente.

Each day the Bush Doctrine seems more true and just and right and inevitable - and that means that each day Iran and Syria have less to lose.

That's why we should WHACK Assad's regime in Syria first. As I wrote: The longer we wait to more dangerous the cornered beast becomes... and the greater the likelihood that Assad or Iran will order something stupid, and horrible.

I pray I am wrong... I fear that I am right...

ASSAD TOSSES BUSH "A BONE"

Today we learned that Saddam's half-brother was turned over to Iraqi forces by Syrian forces. This is SUPPOSED to be a "goodwill gesture."

I guess that is something like a "charm offensive."

And to me - it's equally offensive!

Gestures like this are TOTAL BS PROPAGANDA! ESPECIALLY this one! WHY!? Well, do you think that Syria just happened to capture this half-brother in the last day or so? OF COURSE NOT! They have known about him (and let him FREELY OPERATE HIS TERROR-MACHINE in Syria) from the GET-GO, and CONVENIENTLY gave him to us in a BLATANT attempt to buy some time for themselves (now that the HARIRI assassination and the Tel Aviv disco bombing have blown up in their faces)!

WELL, I AM NOT BUYING THIS CYNCAL GESTURE! There're PLENTY MORE like Saddam's half-brother ALL OVER Syria, some who work for "insurgency groups" in Iraq, and others who work for "insurgency groups" like HAMAS and HIZBALLAH. THEY MUST ALL BE HANDED OVER! NOW!! Or we should target them and their assets with CRUISE MISSILES!

Actually, it is LONG PASSED TIME for an OPERATION DESERT FOX-type attack against Syrian Forces in Lebanon, and along Syria's Iraqi border. (Operation Desert Fox was the week-long missile attack against Saddam that was ordered by Clinton in 1998 - WITHOUT U.N. or Congressional or NATO approval - (and without the Left and the euroweenies complaining one iota!)

YUP: it's time to KILL the bad-guys; killing bad guys like Assad and Nasrallah is a GOOD thing: good for peace and freedom and democracy EVERYWHERE - and it's ESPECIALLY good for the emerging democracies in Iraq and Lebanon and in the occupied territories.

BUSH SAID THE RIGHT THINGS IN NEW EUROPE

Regular readers know I have been VERY tough on Bush and Rice's performance on the recent European "charm offensive;" I found it simply OFFENSIVE!

But I just read a speech that Bush gave in Slovakia - to a crowd of 20,000 cheering Slovakians who waited 3 hours in the cold to see Bush. (Hat tip THE CORNER.)

And this speech was 1000% GREAT! I wish the ENTIRE trip had consisted of Bush delivering this kind of speech in Poland and in Denmark and in Italy and in Ukraine and in all the other nations that have stood WITH us, and that Bush IGNORED the pinko appeasers Chirac, Putin and Schroder.

Here's an excerpt:

In recent times, we have witnessed landmark events in the history of liberty, a Rose Revolution in Georgia, an Orange Revolution in Ukraine, and now, a Purple Revolution in Iraq. With their votes cast and counted, the Iraqi people now begin a great and historic journey. They will from a new government, draft a democratic constitution, and govern themselves as free people. They're putting the days of tyranny and terror behind them and building a free and peaceful society in the heart of the Middle East, and the world's free nations will support them in their struggle. (Applause.)

The terrorist insurgents know what's at stake. They know they have no future in a free Iraq. So they're trying desperately to undermine Iraq's progress and throw the country in chaos. They want to return to the day when Iraqis were governed by secret police and informers and fear. They will not succeed. The Iraqi people will not permit a minority of assassins to determine the destiny of their nation. We will fight to defend this freedom and we will prevail. (Applause.)

Victory in this struggle will not come easily or quickly, but we have reason to hope. Iraqis have demonstrated their courage and their determination to live in freedom, and that has inspired the world. It is the same determination we saw in Kiev's Independent Square, in Tbilisi's Freedom Square, and in this square almost 17 years ago. (Applause.)

Slovakia has taken great risks for freedom in Afghanistan and Iraq. You have proved yourself a trusted friend and a reliable ally. That is why I recently announced a new solidarity initiative for nations like Slovakia that are standing with America in the war on terror. We will help you to improve your military forces so we can strengthen our ability to work together in the cause of freedom. We're working with your government to make it easier for Slovaks to travel to the United States of America. (Applause.)

Hundreds of thousands of our citizens can trace their roots back to this country. Slovak immigrants helped build America and shape its character. We want to deepen the ties of friendship between our people, ties based on common values, a love of freedom, and shared belief in the dignity and matchless value of every human being. (Applause.)

The Velvet Generation that fought for these values is growing older. Many of the young students and workers who led freedom's struggle here now struggle to support families and their children. For some, the days of protest and revolution are a distant memory. Today, a new generation that never experienced oppression is coming of age. It is important to pass on to them the lessons of that period. They must learn that freedom is precious, and cannot be taken for granted; that evil is real, and must be confronted; that lasting prosperity requires freedom of speech, freedom to worship, freedom of association; and that to secure liberty at home, it must be defended abroad. (Applause.)

By your efforts in Afghanistan and Iraq and across the world, you are teaching young Slovaks these important lessons. And you're teaching the world an important lesson, as well: that the seeds of freedom do not sprout only where they are sown; carried by mighty winds, they cross borders and oceans and continents and take root in distant lands.

Old Europeans must be held to account for their FAILURE to stand with us in Iraq - and to the core values of Western Civilization - or they should be ignored and denied our aid and the free safety of our military defense. In other words, Bush should've said to Putin, Schroder and Chirac: "Old Europe - join us on the front-lines of the Good Fight, or be damned!"

ISRAELI DEFENCE MINISTER: SYRIA BEHIND BOMBING

BBC: Israeli Defence Minister Shaul Mofaz has accused Syria of involvement in Friday's Tel Aviv suicide bombing in which four people were killed. He was speaking hours after Palestinian militant group Islamic Jihad's Damascus office said it carried out the attack. ... A statement issued by Mr Mofaz's office said the defence minister had ruled that "Israel sees Syria and the Islamic Jihad movement as those standing behind the murderous attack in Tel Aviv".

Here's the remedy: the USA, Israel AND the democratic elements of Lebanese society and Palestinian Authority should issue the following terse ULTIMATUM (with or without the UNSC): "Syria's forces must leave BEFORE the impending Lebanese election and Nasrallah's forces must DISARM after the election (because paramilitary groups with split allegiances are subversive to any democracy), or they will be forcibly ejected from Lebanon - or destroyed. "

SUICIDE BOMBER IN TEL AVIV A SYRIAN & IRANIAN STOOGE FROM HIZBALLAH

HAARTEZ IS REPORTING THAT AL AKSA BLAMES THIS SUICIDE ATTACK ON HIZBALLAH (hat tip ROGER L. SIMON) - THE SAME THUGS WHO ASSASSINATED HARIRI.

THIS IS ANOTHER DIRECT ASSAULT ON THE PEACE PROCESS - AND ON THE DEMOCRATIZATION PROCESS - BY IRAN AND SYRIA - (RUSSIA'S TWO BIGGEST CLIENTS IN THE REGION).

ISRAEL AND THE USA AND THE LEBANESE PEOPLE MUST RETALIATE AGAINST SYRIA - NOW - BY ATTACKING AND DESTROYING THE SYRIAN MILITARY FORCES IN LEBANON AND BY ANNIHILATING HIZBALLAH AND THEREBY FREEING SOUTHERN LEBANON FROM THEIR NEOJIHADIST STRANGLEHOLD.

UPDATE: "Reuters" reports that Islamic Jihad claims resposibility for the attack. This is NOT a subsatntial difference: both Islamic Jihad and Hizballah are fronts for Iranian and Syrian hegemony and neojihadism:

Syrian Operational and Logistical Support

As early as 1993, Shiqaqi [a founder of Islamic Jihad] acknowledged that he received Iranian funding and channeled it to operatives in Gaza and the West Bank. "Iran gives us money and supports us," he said in an interview with Newsday, "then we supply the money and arms to the occupied territories and support the families of our people. Just about all of it goes there because that's where most of our organization is."7

The most detailed evidence that Islamic Jihad leaders in Damascus planned attacks, sent orders for attacks to operatives in the territories and funneled money to them, comes from the documents of PA intelligence agencies seized by Israeli forces in the West Bank earlier this year and deemed authentic by American officials. In an October 2001 document, Palestinian Preventive Security chief Jibril Rajoub briefed Yasser Arafat on the activities of Palestinian terrorist groups in Syria, citing intelligence indicating that "intensive meetings are being held in Damascus, in which leaders of the Hamas, Islamic Jihad, the Popular Front and the Hezbollah take part, in an attempt to increase the joint activities "inside," with financial support
from Iran."8

Until we destroy the tyrannies in Syria and Iran there can be no peace and no democracy in the Holy Land. Destroying the Syrian and Iranian tyrannies would be easier with Putin's help, but he has evidently decided to screw us and to use Syria and Iran to try to reestablish Russian hegemony in the region. That's okay: Syria's defeat and Iran's defeat will be Putin's defeat too.

BUSH'S FAILED EURO-DIPLOMACY

A few readers of this blog have expressed to me their HOPE & BELIEF that Bush has probably been tougher on the euro-weenies "behind closed doors" on his recent trip to Old Europe, than he appeared to be in public; (in public Bush appeared obsequious and weak; MORE HERE).

The belief that Bush talked tough behind closed doors is nothing more than WISHFUL THINKING. And even if it were true, THERE IS ABSOLUTELY NOTHING TO SHOW FOR IT. And as Bush is fond of saying about himself: I AM A RESULTS GUY!

Has Russia canceled it's arms sales to Venezuela? NO! To Syria? NO! Has Putin canceled the missile sale to Syria? NO! Has Putin canceled the nuke technology sales to Iran? NO! Have France or Germany or Spain or Turkey or NATO really stepped up to the plate and begun to do what they should do in Iraq? No, no, no, no, no and no!!!!!

SO: even IF Bush is "talking tough behind closed doors," it is NOT having any positive effect out here in the real world., because out here, there have been ZERO ZILCH NADA NIL positive results, so far.

Therefore I stand by my assessment of the public record of this trip: it was a TOTAL FAILURE; Bush has come off as a weenie, as a loser with his hat in his hand as he brown-nosed the WORST pinko appeasing schmucks in all of Old Europe - AND HE HAS NOTHING TO SHOW FOR IT!

This does NOT bode well.

In addition, some readers have written to me that my critique of Bush on Lebanon is too harsh, because we have to stay "behind the scenes" in Lebanon, too - because if their "Orange Revolution" looks like it has our support, then it would be "BAD PR."

This bad-reasoning perpetuates the "ugly America is a Zionist tool" BS and plays right into nasty false stereotypes WHICH WE SHOULD BE DISPELLING, NOT PLAYING INTO!

It's actually long passed the time for the Muslims of the world to accept that we have been their best allies for decades: saving Kuwait - TWICE (from Saddam); saving Afghanistan - TWICE (from the USSR and the Taliban); saving Egypt with aid (Egypyt is our second largest aid recipient); saving Somalia; and for decades allied to Pakistan against India; saving the Kosovars from Serbian genocide, and by defending for decades the Arabian Peninsula. It's HIGH TIME that all Muslim to be as pro-USA as Karzai and Sistani and the good half of the House of Saud. And that includes Jumblatt and the rest of the Lebanese nationalists - and ALL the Palestinians. It's time they woke up and smelled REALITY: forming democracies and allying themselves to America are their best way for a better future.

By "playing down" our aid to the "Orange Revolution" in Lebanon, Bush is perpetuating the misconceived anti-Americanism in that part of the world.

This would be a ANOTHER "tip of the hat" to "realpolitik" by Bush, and a virtual renunciation of everything Bush's foreign policy has come to stand for since 9/11. Again: it seems more like Powell and Scowcroft than Bush and Rice, and it's evidence that Bush is weakening his foreign policy in order to curry favor with the very leaders who have been - and remain - his and the Free World's ADVERSARIES: Chirac, Schroder, and Putin.

I think that this pandering is pathetic.

Do you need more proof that Bush is misplaying his strong hand: REAGAN WOULD NOT HAVE DONE IT THIS WAY. Bush seems like he's repudiating the policies he'd been defending up-to-now - from withering criticism - just as these policies are succeeding!!!

This is bizarre, stupid, hypocritical, and COUNTER-PRODUCTIVE. Why is he doing it?

I think to make Rice look good to our euroweenie foes as she starts her new assignment. And I think it's a bad bad BAD move.

IF...(in the coming 8 weeks) Bush wins unanimous UNSCR's which authorize military attacks against Syria and Iran - IF they fail to play ball with previous international agreements, (and if Russia now puts BIG PRESSURE on North Korea) then I will admit that I am now being too critical, and that Bush and Rice were right and shrewd.

Anything short of that would mean that I am right, and that Bush had SQUANDERED a major chance to bear down hard on the euro-weenies and get Old Europe to ante-up NOW.

Stay tuned.

UPDATE: Denis Boyles - who covers euroweenieland and euro-weenie media for the NRO - is also critical of Bush's trip.

ADDENDUM: Bush must soon appoint a UN Ambassador. If he appoints a "neocon" - (like Kirkpatrick or Moynihan) - then he will be signalling the world that his core policies haven't changed. If he appopints a career State Department type, then it will signal that Bush is capitualiating to the "realists" - perhaps because he is exhausted and ready to coast from here on out, perhaps prefering to take on domestic challenges.

BOTTOM-LINE: defeat in Iraq - and Iran and Syria and North Korea - lurks around the corner; if Bush continues to appease our pseudo-allies in Old Europe, then defeat is MORE likely to happen, not less. We need INCREASED resolve and devotion to the priciple of confronting and defeating evil, NOT a greater willingness to moderate our tactics to appease vestigial pseudo-allies who have neither the will or the means to be effective/REAL wartime allies.

Two weeks ago I would have NEVER thought Bush capable of abandoning the Bush Doctrine - especially NOT coming on the heels of its greatest victories. But his recent pandering in euroweenieland has made me very VERY concerned.

BUSH SQUANDERING HIS INTERNATIONAL POLITICAL CAPITAL

Bush made a great point - after his re-election - that his win gave him a big deposit of political capital and he was going to spend it boldly. He has already won a major change in class actions and he is taking on the "third rail" of American politics - Social Security.

Bush also got a huge deposit of more political capital from the Iraqi election - BUT HE SEEMS TO BE SQUANDERING IT!

Instead of using this capital to get concessions from the pinko appeasers of Old Europe, he is kow-towing to them and trying to "mend-fences." It's the kind of BIG MISTAKE I expected during the Powell Era, but not from Condi. I AM VERY DISAPPOINTED!

Chirac and Schroder and Zapatero and Putin should be ashamed of how they behaved during the Iraq Crisis, and now they should be BEGGING forgiveness - and asking if they can do more! Instead: Bush is letting them off the hook!

Now: Bush and Condi should be ashamed of themselves for lowering themselves down to their level!

Instead of sucking up to the pinko appeasers of Old Europe, Bush should be rewarding the brave allies who stood with us and liberty. But Bush is doing the OPPOSITE: he's rewarding the BUMS who were too cowardly and selfish to help their brothers and sisters in the USA and ther UK liberate their brothers and sisters in Iraq.

SURE: It's very magnanimous, but it'll only hurt us AGAIN down the road: by letting them off the hook, Bush is reinforcing their cynicism: the pinko appeasers of Old Europe will always just feel that they can always screw us without ever having to pay the price because we always forgive them!

Well I say: enough is enough. Let's quit NATO and remove our troops from Germany and Turkey. (We can negotiate bi-laterally to base them elsewhere - like Bulgaria and Romania and the Czech Republic.)

IT SEEMS TO ME THAT BUSH SHOULD BE AT LEAST AS TROUGH WITH THE PINKO PSEUDO-ALLIES AS HE SAID HE'D BE TO STEVE FORBES (according to "Weasel Wead's" tapes!). According to the tapes, Bush said:

"Steve Forbes is going to hear this message from me. I will do nothing for him if he does to me what he did to Dole. Period. There is going to be a consequence. He is not dealing with the average, you know, 'Oh gosh, let's all get together after it's over.' I will promise you, I will not help him. I don't care."

I REPEAT: Bush should be as AT LEAST as tough with Chirac and Schroder and Putin and Zapatero as he CLAIMED he would have been with Forbes.

DISLOYALTY TO THE USA AND TO THE CAUSE OF UNIVERSAL HUMAN RIGHTS AND LIBERTY MUST HAVE CONSEQUENCES! Bush's pathetically obsequious trip sends EXACTLY THE WRONG MESSAGE! He is rewarding Putin and Chirac and Schroder. This will set us back YEARS in the GWOT...

The ONLY acceptable excuse is if Bush's PUBLIC PERFORMANCE is a ruse, and if we are in fact deeply - and surreptitiously - engaged in fomenting democratic revolutions in Lebanon and Iran and North Korea (and even Russia) - RIGHT NOW. As we should be.

Time will tell: if the Lebanese Orange Revolution - and the upcoming Lebanese election - fail to bring real change; if Mahmous Abbas fails; if Iraq becomes like Iran is now (instead of the reverse) - THEN BUSH WILL HAVE FAILED, AND IT WILL HAVE BEEN BECAUSE HE SQUANDERED THE POLITICAL CAPITAL HE GAINED IN THE IRAQI ELECTION.

Bush has squandered his political capital because he has chosen to be magnanimous instead of "going in for the kill" - which is VERY un-cowboy-like.

It's sort of like, well, it's sort of like if Bush was "Marshall Will Kane" (the Gary Cooper character in the classic Western, "HIGH NOON") - who - having just faced-down a gang of murderous outlaws ALL BY HIMSELF, and just as he's outdrawn the baddest badguy and the ringleader of the gang that was after him, suddenly turns his back to take a bow in front of the town that ABANDONED HIM and made him face the gang alone - and he gets shot in the back!

Which is why Gary Cooper didn't do it. And why George W. Bush shouldn't have. The pinko appeasers of Old Europe will shoot him in the back the first chance they can. Unless we get them first.

Sound too harsh? Too hawk-like and extreme? Not if you remember this simple dictum: the pinko appeasers are NOT anti-war; they're on the other side.

WW4 will not end until we have utterly defeated the enemy, and that cannot happen until we defeat THE AXIS OF EVIL, which means overthrowing Iran and Syria and North Korea.

That NOW means we must also defeat Putin - and his sycophants in Old Europe - the part of Europe we liberated in WW2, protected in the Cold War - (WW3), and that took our efforts for granted. We must defeat Russia and Old Europe because their selfish and short-sighted arms deals nuke deals strengthen our enemies: Iran and China (and even that thug Chavez in Venezuela), and thereby they hurt us (because these EU/Putin strengthened enemies will INEVITABLY cause us more casualties in the inevitable battles that lie ahead).

TRUE: The "spirit of magnanimity" is noble and fine; Bush and Rice are merely PREMATURELY MAGNANIMOUS. The time for sweet talk and magnanimity has not come yet; it can only come AT THE END OF WW4. And that's still a long way off.

(ASIDE: NEW EUROPE - that part of Europe we liberated from the USSR - is OKAY. Bush should have ONLY visited New Europe and Italy and Denmark, even Ukraine - the nations who stood by us in OUR time of need.)

LEBANESE ORANGE REVOLUTION GROWS IN BEIRUT'S NEW TENT CITY

FROM MY TELUS (CBC): Anti-Syrian tent city grows in Beirut -
A small tent city has popped up on Martyrs' Square in Beirut as anti-Syrian protesters call for political changes in the wake of former prime minister Rafik Hariri's assassination. Thousands of tent dwellers have spent four nights in the square and more are joining them each day.

"The people, united, will never be defeated! Power to the people! What do we want? DEMOCRACY! When do we want it? NOW!"

BUSH SHOULD BE IN BEIRUT, NOT BRATISLAVA

Bush is on a PR offensive in the EU and it makes me so SICK I want to PUKE! He should be sounding more like Reagan now; instead, he's sounding more like BJ Clinton!

Reagan went to the Berlin Wall and - over the objections of most of his "realist" foreign policy advisors - he challenged Gorbachev to tear down the Wall; thereby sending a powerful message to all the dissidents in the USSR that we were on their side!

Bush - or Rice or Cheney - should be in Beirut right now, not Bratislava.

We should be UNABASHEDLY fomenting a democratic revolution there, and not "fence-mending" with the useless, morally-relativist, pinko appeasers of Old Europe!

And as far as having a "heart to heart" with Putin: NOTHING COULD BE A BIGGER WASTE OF TIME! Putin is as bad as they come: he's helping North Korea and Syria and Iran - and he probably helped Saddam smuggle out all the WMD into Syria.

Instead of talking nice to phony allies, we need to be sending UNAMBIGUOUS messages of support to the brave people of Lebanon and Iran who are ready to take to the streets to fight for their LIBERTY!

This will do more for our security - and for the liberty and prosperity of all humanity for generations to come - than all the fake sweet-talk from bad-guys like Schroder and Chirac and Putin.

And when the democratic revolutions come to Lebanon and Iran, they'll do more to undermine these obsolete, corrupt demagogues (Chirac, Putin, Schroder) than all the phony joint-pressers and so-called joint-missions (in which we end up doing all the heavy lifting, anyhow!).

I mean, lookit: fricky-dicky France is giving all of ONE (that's right 1) soldier to help NATO train Iraqi security forces. Instead of smiling and saying thanks, Bush should SPIT IN CHIRAC'S FACE AND QUIT NATO! Making Old Europe defend themselves might just make them into responsible adults - instead of the ungrateful spoiled brats they are.

SO... BUSH: WAKE UP! Stop brown-nosing Old Europe and start using the bully pulpit to agitate for democratic revolution all over the world. The only people who will curse you are tyrants and their lackeys - the Putins and the Chiracs and the Schroders and the Kim Jong Ils and the Mugabes and the Chavezes of the world - and they're ALL SCUM. Their ever-increasing hatred of you would NOT be an indication that you were a dumb bellicose cowboy; it would be a badge of honor, and a sign that you'd be doing the right thing.

PUTIN, ASSAD, KHATAMI, NASRALLAH AND ZARQAWI

The Corner linked to a news item from ABC/AP: BAGHDAD, Iraq Feb 23, 2005 — Iraqi state television aired a video Wednesday showing what the U.S.-funded channel said was the confession of a captured Syrian officer who said he trained Iraqi insurgents to behead people and build car bombs to attack American and Iraqi troops. The video also showed an Iraqi who said the insurgents practiced beheading animals to train for decapitating hostages.

Since Assad doesn't wipe his "toochus" without Iran and Russia's approval this must be seen as a direct threat by all three nations - and they must be given "back-channel" ultimatums: "cease all interference or we will make incursions into Syria and destroy Syrian miltary in Lebanon and in Syria.")

If we have a little more patience, than we might wait until the Lebanese Orange Revolution succeeds (by summer I predict) and then form a new truly democratic government which then asks us to help them expel Syrian forces from Lebanon, and Hizb'allah from southern Lebanon. With Iraq and Lebanon (and Arab Palestine) free, and with Syria completely neutered, then we can focus on IRAN!!

PREDICTION: This autumn Tehran will fall!

WHY PUTIN IS AIDING IRAN AND SYRIA

Putin is seeling nuke parts to Iran and missiles to Syria because Putin believes that with the help of Iran and Syria he can turn Iraq into our "Afghanistan" the way the USA and Pakistan and Saudi Arabia and the mujahadeen turned Afghanistan in "the USSR's Vietnam."

Putin wants us pinned down in the Middle East - which means he wants Iraqi democracy to fail, and he wants the Israeli-Arabs peace process to fail, too. That's why he's aiding Iran and Syria.

In other words: peace and freedom in the Middle East are not in Putin's interest. Additionally, if Putin can help Noth Korea muddle things up in Asia, he will. Putin also wants high oil prices (which greatly benefit Russia), as much as he wants the American military to get bogged down in as many places as possible.

In a nutshell: Putin is an authoritarian seeking to re-establish Russia's hegemony along the borders of the old USSR. He is no longer a trustworthy partner in any shape, manner or form. He is an adversary.

WHY DID THIS HAPPEN? Well, we beat him on the ABM, and in Georgia and Ukraine, and he is PISSED OFF and doing whatever he can to "eff us up." And he is a greedy authoritarian with no meaninglfull opposition or checks on his greed. THAT'S ALWAYS DANGEROUS A THING!

Bush must make it clear to Putin that we are onto his game, and will take it to him. How? By winning Lebanon, Syrai, and Iran - AND North Korea.

And by fomenting an Orange Revolution in Russia! We must identify and aid a true democratic movement in Russia. ASAP!

BUSH INSPIRED LEBANESE ORANGE REVOLUTION GAINS MOMENTUM

More proof that Bush's bold "NEOCON" action in Iraq is paying off HUGE dividends that will benefit humanity for generations:

NRO/The Corner - TKS' QUOTE OF THE DAY [Jonah Goldberg]

Jim's right: QUOTE OF THE DAY

From David Ignacius' column in the Washington Post today: The leader of this Lebanese intifada [for independence from Syria] is Walid Jumblatt, the patriarch of the Druze Muslim community and, until recently, a man who accommodated Syria's occupation. But something snapped for Jumblatt last year, when the Syrians overruled the Lebanese constitution and forced the reelection of their front man in Lebanon, President Emile Lahoud. The old slogans about Arab nationalism turned to ashes in Jumblatt's mouth, and he and Hariri openly began to defy Damascus...

"It's strange for me to say it, but this process of change has started because of the American invasion of Iraq," explains Jumblatt. "I was cynical about Iraq. But when I saw the Iraqi people voting three weeks ago, 8 million of them, it was the start of a new Arab world." Jumblatt says this spark of democratic revolt is spreading. "The Syrian people, the Egyptian people, all say that something is changing. The Berlin Wall has fallen. We can see it."

Glenn links to this too - and adds (in his typical pseudo-snarky manner which so wondefully makes fun of the reactionary Left): "Those damn idealistic neo-cons. Don't they realize that Arabs don't care about democracy?"

I'll just concur with Glenn and Jumblatt by adding what I wrote a month ago: the road to Damascus goes through Beirut. IOW: this is still just the beginning; many more exciting democratic revolutions lie before us in the days and months ahead in Syria and then in Iran and even in Egypt - and everywhere else in the tyrannical Muslim world...

And I'll add one more thing: I BET that it will be Bush inspired indigenous democratic revolutions in Iran and North Korea which will ultimately save us all from their nukes (and NOT U.S.A. military action).

Democracy and freedom are ultimately our most potent weapon against tyranny and terror; the innate universal desire for personal liberty (combined with American resolve to defend it EVERYWHERE) ended the Cold War and it will defeat the neojhihadists and end WW4, too.

LEBANON, DEMOCRACY AND PLURALISM

Good article from NRO - HERE. RTWT. The article gives historical context to Lebanon's current crisis - and the solution.... DEMOCRACY. KEY EXCERPT: The war in Lebanon that erupted in 1975 was not at its core a civil war at all. It was triggered by a sweeping Palestinian armed assault on Lebanese sovereignty, beginning in the late 1960s.

NEOJIHADIST THUGGERY DESTROYED LEBANON. First Arafat's thugs - and now the thugs of Hizb'allah (supported by Syria and Iran). When we ERADICATE THEM, then Lebanon will once again be a jewel of tolerance and prosperity.