Judgement Day

In Iraq, that is. Strategypage.com has an excellent, brief look at what is happening in Iraq, and illustrates why all that is needed for us to win is to hang in there.

For thousands of Sunni Arabs who worked for Saddam’s security apparatus, the day of judgment is getting closer, and that is a major cause of the increase in the violence. Saddam’s enforcers rarely hid their identities, and many Kurds and Shia Arabs know the names, and faces, of the Sunni Arab thugs that tormented, and tortured them, and murdered their friends and family. These thugs have supported al Qaeda’s terror campaign in Iraq, and participated in some of the non-suicide attacks on Iraqis and foreigners. For the last two years, the enforcers were able to hide out in Sunni Arab towns and neighborhoods that were free of government control. But this provided only temporary refuge, and created other problems. The lack of police meant that criminal gangs, terrorist groups and warlord militias were in charge. These three groups didn’t always get along with each other. But they all left the old Saddam thugs alone. Now, with the government taking control of Sunni Arab areas, the Saddam thugs are in trouble, and getting desperate. These guys have several options. They can leave the country. Many have already done this. But there are no real sanctuaries for former Saddam killers. Syria is safe for the moment, but that is expected to change soon. Eventually, however, these guys can expect the war crimes indictments to catch up with them. If they stay in Iraq, they can either hope for an amnesty deal, or getting themselves back into power. Both of these options are being pursued, which means that violence and peace negotiations are both getting more intense. The problem here is that the Kurds and Shia Arabs are not willing to give a lot of Saddam’s killers a free pass. In response to that, the killers are getting more involved in the violence. Now Arab diplomats are being attacked. The message is clear; make a deal with the Sunni Arabs, or get more reminders of how Saddam stayed in power for so long. Playing it this way only makes more Iraqis determined to join the police and army, and go after the killers where they live, and bring them to justice (often on the spot.) The bullets are going both ways.

Set on War

There has been this persistent myth about George Bush and Iraq that has been circling around, seemingly under the radar. Critics claim Bush intended to go to war with Iraq when he first took office, that he wanted revenge, etc. This is pure skepticism, of course, but it is also logical that perhaps Bush did enter office with some sort of intent of removing Saddam. After all, it was official US policy.

That's right, his removal was official US policy after 1998. Of course, it did not stipulate going to war with Iraq, but it illustrates that Bush was not the only person in America who wanted Saddam gone before 2001.

The War and the Media

Those in the MSM (main-stream-media) really should all hang their heads in shame. It certainly appears that they at least want the USA to lose, if they are not actively rooting for the terrorists. This is bad for two reasons. For one, it will tend to drive down morale at home. By showing endlessly the carbombings, which constitute an incredibly small portion of Iraq, gives the impression that the entire country is daily sujected to terrorist attacks. This is quite simply false. The majority of the country is quiet, and these attacks would be but a blip in the radar but for the attention they are paid, far out of proportion to any actual effect. It all paints a picture that is quite simply false. Then too, the endless bombardment of stories about Abu Ghraib and the non-torture there. If not for new alternative media, such as talk radio and the internet, this war would have been lost long ago. The media is actively against the war, against democracy, against anything that Bush thinks is good, which would all apparently make them pro-Saddam and pro-totalitarianism. Is that really how they want to be percieved?

It also does something more sinister. It encourages the terrorists to further deeds. The constant showing of the bombings, while probably inconsequential in actuality, prods them to continue it, because they are not stupid, they know that such bombardment by the media will lead to demoralization, and so the constant attention keeps them at it. Of course, it is not the only factor, and it would not dissapear overnight, but it is a sad thing that people must go to the internet and Chrenkoff for good news, of which there is much. And then much is made of the supposed 25,000 civilian dead, with no context inserted or no mention of the 300,000 in Saddam's mass graves.

It also incites many of the terrorists to action, and actually gets good people killed. It's bombardment of Abu Ghraib stories, and its assertions of koran flushing at Gitmo, which were false and based on flimsy sources in the first place, all result in innocent deaths, which were quite visible in the Koran story. And after that story what do they do? They flock to Newsweek's defense. "Maybe this instance is false but this is essentially accurate" goes the reply. This again: False but accurate. This is the kind of "reporting" that is getting our boys killed and making the war harder to win. The war is winnable, all that is needed is to wait it out. After all, there can only be so many suicide bombers. But it still makes one think: Do they want us to win? And the answer is, sadly, no.

Linkfest: Continually Updated

This is really only for my own personal use, so I don't lose any of my bookmarks (I have in the past) Here is what's on my browser; it should give you some insight into my thinking.

Last Update: March 24, 2008 - All links checked through Economics.

Blogger is retarded, I can't really post new links in here, so here's links to posts with linkdumps.

Huge Stack, pretty much something about everything

Links II: Global Warming, tax cuts, diet, income inequality, jewish refugees, hate crimes, healthcare, Iraqi deaths.

Everything from diet, science, Global Warming, iraqi casualties, wmd, economics, iran report, soros, etc.

Conspiracy Theories
9/11: Debunking the Myths
Evidence That a Boeing 757 Really Did Impact the Pentagon on 9/11
Photos of Flight 77 Wreckage inside the Pentagon
Refuting the 9/11 Conspiracy Theories
Clavis Moon Base

Gay Rights/Marriage/Abortion
Same Sex "Marriage" is not a Civil Right
Why "Gay Marriage" is Wrong
The Divorce Threatens Marriage Lie
Gay Marriage is not Only Wrong; It's Socially Destructive
New Genetics Study Undermines Gay Gene Theory
Roe Effect: Right to Abortion has Diminished Democratic Voters
Symposium: The Radical Lies of Aids
Destroying Abortion Myths
Post Abortion Depression
On Gay Marriage
College Taught her not to be a Heterosexual
The African Heterosexual AIDS myth
Human Personhood begins at conception
Such thing as a good divorce?
The Gay Propaganda Machine
Abortion Distortion

Catholicism/Religion
Catholic Bashing and Pedophile Priests
The Myth of the Pedophile Priest
Hitler's Mufti, Not Hitler's Pope
A Righteous Gentile: On Pius
The Galileo Controversy
Could God create a rock so heavy He could not lift it?

History
Remembering WWII: Revisionists Get it Wrong
Crusading Against History
How the Cowboys of the West Defeated the Nazis
The Lincoln Bedroom: A Critical Symposium
On Founders as Terrorists
Of Arms and Freemen: America: Just Another Imperial Power?
Crusade Propaganda
Crusade Myths
Hollywood Does the Crusades
The Real Inquisition: Investigating the Popular Myth
Why Truman Dropped the Bomb
Thank God for the Atomic Bomb
The POWs we left Behind
The Black Family: 40 years of lies
Myths of Vietnam/lessons for Iraq
Founders were christians
Who's Screwing Up America?: On sep of church, state
Looney Clooney Smears Senator McCarthy
Rosenburg Reruns: They were guilty
"Teddy" and Time (mag)

Politics/Cold War/Etc.
Spare Me the Indignation: Shiavo
Rove is Right
Rove Was Right About MoveOn
The Lie of the Assault Weapons Ban
Fishing For Rush Limbaugh
NYT Alter's Hillary's Imigration Quote
Bush's Advantage on Military Service
Rewriting Reagan
Al Gore or Al Jazeera?
Bush Bashers
Clinton's Fantasy World
The Worst Ex-President
A Convention in Wartime: What Bush Has in Common With FDR and Lincoln
Just Like Stalingrad: If Bush is Another Hitler, What Words Are Left to Describe Hitler?
Bush's Greatness
A Bill for the 1990s: Clinton's New Book Underscores the Insignificance of his Presidency
The Real Reagan: He Was a Leader of Impressive Skill and Stunning Vision
One For the Gipper: Reagan Dies, and Liberals Keep Underestimating Him
Freedom's Team: How Reagan, Thatcher, and John Paul II Won the Cold War
Elite, Arrogant, Condescending: The L.A. Times' Editor is Terrified of Fox News. How Pathetic
Post Cold War Reconsiderations
How the Liberal Media helped re-elect Bush
The Plame Facts about distraction
What would it cost to deport illegals?
Is Hurricane Katrina racist?
Clinton Legacy
A Failed former President
Media Appalled that George Bush Dare Defend Himself
Bill's Legacy
Still Paying for Carter's Mistakes
The enduring taint of Clinton

Anti-Americanism/Media Bias
How Unreliable is David Brock?
Michael Moore Lies and Distortions Documented
The Red Cross and Congress: The ICRC's Propaganda Campaign Against America
The Intellectual's Michael Moore
Beatiful Indifference: Coverage of the War in Iraq, etc
The Coercive anarchism of Noam Chomsky
Imperium Americanum?
David Brock: Media Liar
More media coverups
Aiding and abetting the enemy
No end to bad news
NYT smears patriots
"World opinion" is worthless
Useful Idiots: Islam’s Best Soldiers

Humor/Parody
George W's Quagmire: Different War, Same Old Complaints (1776)

Science
Infinite Universe or Intelligent Design?
Reflections on Human Origins
Specification: The Pattern That Signifies Intelligence
Macroevolution: One Long Argument From Ignorance
The Global Warming Hoax
More Big Fat Lies: Obesity Stats are as Bogus as Weight-Loss Scams
Why Global Warming Should be at the Bottom of the World's Priorities
The fine-tuning design argument
The Pre-Cambrian to Cambrian
Meteorites point to big chill on mars
Arctic Census reveals surprising results
The Monkey Wrench
400 Scientist Believe Darwinism Fails
Nearly 2/3 of Doctors Skeptical of Darwin's Tale
Scientist's spirituallity surprises
Gore and global warming
The strength of natural selection in the wild
The vexing eye
The inverted retina
Flat-earth myth BS
Hurricane of misinformation
The case against darwin
Climate Change on Mars
Sun Causes global warming
Mars getting warmer
ID offers competing explanation for origin of life
Creationism reluctance to enter IDs big tent
Dawkin's on tiny molecular motor
No More hot air over global warming
Lawyers now suing over global warming
Global warming petition
A scientist blames americas problems on religion
The Gods must be tidy
Bird-like dinosaur forces rethink
EU's Rules Destroying Rain Forest
Evidence of intelligent design is everywhere
Some scientists cast doubt on Darwin
Was Darwin Right After All?
Why Natural Selection Cant design anything
Fossil Find "No Threat" To Theory of Intelligent Design
Billions of Errors: Sagan
Passive smoking doesn't cause cancer
There IS a problem with global warming... it stopped in 1998
Media Overblows Claims of "Human Evolution": Examining the Newest "Missing Link"
For Darwinian Evolution, It’s One Step Forward, Acknowledging Two Steps Back: Taking A Look at Tiktaalik
An Open Letter to the European Governments and the European Commission: Kyoto
The Myths of Vegetarianism
The Cholesterol Myths
The Real Inconvenient Truth: Greenhouse, global warming and some facts
Scientists respond to Gore's warnings of climate catastrophe

Economics
Class Struggle?
Krugman's Job-Robbing Calculus:
Report on a Deluded Mind: Krugman
Oil Prices: Cause and Effect
The Rapidly Declining Deficit
Paying Taxes for Months on End
Unsocialized Medicine: A Landmark Ruling Exposes Canada's Healthcare Inequality
Trade, Not Aid
Great Myths About the Great Depression
Evidence, Evidence, and More Evidence: Taxes
Lack of Economic Freedom Burdens Kentukians
Be Not Afraid: Personal Accounts Are No Radical Idea
What Rocks is Capitalism
Taxing the Will to Give
Windfall for Washington: Deficit Shrinking Thanks to Bush Tax Cuts
America's Record Trade Deficit: A Symbol of Strength
The wage gap, give me a break
Lower Tax Rates, Higher Revenues
A Little Competition can go a long way:Health Insurance
Krugman and China's revaluation
Krugman does a Rather on Alabama
French Choice: Krugman
Teen Jobs and illegals
Gouging? No such thing
LBJ's other quagmire: welfare state
New orleans: the follies of the great society
Gouge on
The oil bubble: price will come down
Crushing economic burden of illegal imigration
High tech job migration: reality or myth
The debacle of delphi
Trap door? Revolving Door?
"Wal-Mart: Ready, Aim, Fire!"
Guaranteed Pain and Suffering: The Recent Research on Drug Price Controls
Medicare's muddled meddling
How congress pumps up prices
Petropower
Socialized Medicine
5% Unemployment Better than Good
Destroying Vaccine Development
Excessive Health insurace regulation leads to high costs
How Tax Relief Works
Great American Jobs Machine
The minimum wage vision

EU/Europe
EU to Voters: Drop Dead!
Why Did the French and Dutch Vote No?
Europe is an Indulgence We Can't Afford
Enter Eurospeak
America, Jews, and the Euro Constitution
Is Europe Dying?
EU Constitution has many in Frace galled
Trouble in Europe
Goodbye Habeas Corpus
The Rise of Euronationalism
Leviathan: The Grand Deception of the European Constitution
The EU's Four-Stage Strategy to Reduce Britain to Servitude
The EU No Votes Can't Be Just Laughed Off
Soft Power; Hard Truths: America Cannot Long Be Partners With a Weak and Self-Righteous Europe
The Decline of Europe
Economics
Europe's '70s Show: The Continent's economic death spiral
The European Disease: Economic Anxiety is a Product of the Welfare State
A 35 Hour Week is Hard Work in France
Europe: one sick welfare puppy
Born in the USSR: barely surved soviet healthcare

Gitmo/Ghraib/"Torture"
Amnesty International and Atrocity
A Study in Abuse
Amnestry Unbelievable
Selective Angst
An American Gulag?
More Media Mistakes on Gitmo
Gulag Guantanamo
The Truth About Guantanamo Bay
Captives Told to Claim Torture
Durbin's Slander
Abu Ghraib Stories in NYT
Koran Desecration as a Weapon
Guantanamo Human Rights Commision
Club Gitmo: Inmates the Thugs
Gitmo "Abuse"
'Torture' on Trial: The Graner Jury Just Rejected the Media's Abu Ghraib Narrative
Pursuing Moral Equivalence
Why Abu Ghraib Matters
War is Hell
Information Warfare 101
Investigating the Obvious
The Facts on Abu Ghraib
Conventional Warfare: The Pentagon and the Military Respect the Geneva Conventions
Tortured Arguments: How to Interpret those Bush Interrogation Documents
The Tortured Canard: Treating Terrorists with Kid Gloves won't Protect American Soldiers
Torture by any other Name
On Banning torture, etc
Sometimes cruelty, coersion necessary
Baghdad’s Real Torturers
'Continent' Cares About Human Rights Only When it can Bash America
US Torture?
Torture at Gitmo? boortz
Gitmo It was great, say boys freed from US prison camp
Scapegoating Guantanamo

Israel
How Strong is the Arab Claim to Palestine?
Occupation and Settlement: The Myth and Reality: Jews
The Koran and the Jews
Israel as a stabilizing force in the mid east
Israel's right to self-defense
Where's the outrage?: anti-semetism
Only Israel can do wrong
Why Israel is the victim
Misrepresentations of israel
'All Irael citizens targets'
Sharon
UN Claims Map Erasing Israel Just "Historical"
War versus Hezbolla
Drinking From Home: Extreme Makeover - Beirut Edition
Reuters admits altering Beirut photo
Reuters admits to more image manipulation

Terrorism/Warfare in General
The Myth of Terrorist Sophistication
The irrelevance of an oath: bin laden and zarqawi are brothers in arms
"Destroy a village to save it"
The My Lai Lie
Moslems Killing Moslems is not a Winning Tactic
The Anticipated Attack
al Qaeda Planned to Build WMD
Iranian Women Defy Authorities, Demand Freedom
How the Left Undermined America's Security Before 9/11
Leveraging Lawfare and Defending the Rights of Terrorists
Top Ten Reasons Islam is Not a Religion of Peace
Enter Bush Doctrine: The Four Pillars of the Presidents Strategy for Winning World War IV
Mangling the 9/11 Commission's Report
And Then They Came After Us: We're at war. How about acting like it?
Muslims Pay Attention: bin Laden's popularity dip
'Global Jihad' and other Misnomers Hinder Fight Against Terror
Muslims United Against Terrorism
The American Islamic leaders' fatwa is bogus
Jihadist can't be reasoned with, only defeated
The myth of moderate islam
Terrorism cannot win
9/11 Coverup Commision
Why Bush is innocent and the Dems are guilty (911)
Clinton ignored 9/11 warning
Oklahoma bomber had jihad material
Why ask why: causes of terrorism
We are fighting for an islamic state
Recruits join armed forces seeking war
Politics and Military Recruiting
Riehl World View: 2005: The Year In Military Heroism
White House lists ten foiled attacks
Terrorist blamed his failure on Bush
The US did not create Osama
How the Patriot Act Saves Lives
More On Casualties In Times of War and Peace
Pacifists versus Peace
Women in War/related issues
GI Jane, By Stealth: The Army Tries to Pull a Fast One
A Man's Job: Ground Combat
Stealth Plan for women in combat
Time to rethink women and combat
Cultural destruction in the military
Gender equality has weakened military
Army Betraying women...and men
Woman's place is not in combat
Collocating Coffins
The military ethos: politics of don't ask don't tell
Jessica lynch's story is about a girl, not a soldier
jessica lynch reality shatters amazon myth
Women in combat: still a bad idea
Debunking the israeli women in combat myth
Women should not serve in military combat
The folly of feminism
'Able Danger'/911 Commision
Able Danger timeline
Able Danger Politics
Able Danger's Hidden Hand
Officer says pentagon barred sharing pre-911 data with FBI
State Dept. says in warned about bin laden in 1996
The Omission Commision
Pentagon finds more who recall atta intel
Sins of Commision
Accounting for the Final Report
See no evil, Hear no evil
The Writing on The Wall
Millenial Mistake: The Wall
Saddam + al-Qaeda/Terrorism
Why Hitting Saddam hit al-Qaeda
The Osama Saddam Link Confirmed
The Connection Continued
Saddam's Iraq Was Motel 6 for Terrorism
Inconvenient Facts
The Worst of Intentions: What Saddam's Iraq was up to
The Mother of All Connections
Jordan King: Iraq Refused to Deport Zarqawi
The Osama-Saddam connection: in Yemen
Another Link in the Chain
Saddam Sponsord Birth of al Qaeda in Iraq
Saddam and al Qaeda
The Al-Douri Factor
The Four Day War
An Evolving Assessment
Saddam and bin Laden
The Rise of ansar al islam
The Pope of Terrorism Pt. 1
The Pope of Terroism Pt.2
What the terrorists want
The Algerian connection
IRAQ: FORMER PM REVEALS SECRET SERVICE DATA ON BIRTH OF AL-QAEDA IN IRAQ
Atta in Prague?
Saddam's Links to Al Qaeda
Prague Revisited - The evidence of an Iraq/al-Qaida connection hasn't gone away
Iraq-al Qaeda Cooperation Documented
Saddam's Philippines Terror Connection
Connecting the Saddam-Osama dots
Saddam Letter to Osama
General - WMDs in Syria, also al Qaeda ties
Saddam Targeted American interests for Terrorism
Saddam Targeted American assests: case closed
Saddam and Osama: The New Revelations
Saddam's Chemists Trained "Arab Fedayeens"
The Saddam-Osama Connection: The Terrorist Testimony
Iraq How-to Manual Directed Arab Military Operatives In Afghanistan
WMDs
Letter shows Saddam ordered plans for chemical attack
Case Closed
No WMDs? Really?
Is this one of Saddam's labs?
WMD --The Iraqi Official Record
Saddam and the Bomb
Not Missing: Moved
Democrats Say the Darndest Things!
Iraqi Terrorists Almost Snatched Chemical Warheads
Iraq's WMDs
Pesticides
Case Not Closed: WMD
WMDs-The Dem Betrayal
wmd_report.pdf
About Those Iraqi Weapons . . .
Saddam Shipped Out Weapons Before and After War: Inspectors
Marines reportedly find cyanide, mustard agents in Euphrates
GOP.com The Duelfer Report
HAVE WAR CRITICS EVEN READ THE DUELFER REPORT?
Saddam hid WMDs
Iran and Syria Agree to Share, Hide WMDs
Iraq's WMD Secreted in Syria, Sada Says
Ex-Officer Spurned on WMD Claim
Where are the WMD?
Saddam's WMDs: The Russian-Syrian Connection
Are you sure you want to keep saying we were fooled by Chalabi?
No WMDs, no blame
Saddam Had Secret Enrichment Program
General - WMDs in Syria, also al Qaeda ties
Info from various reports
The Saddam Tapes and Media Distortion
'Iraq has transported chemical and biological weapons'
US Intell Believed Saddam was "Close to Acquiring Nuclear Weapons" at End of Clinton Administration
About that 500 tons of Yellowcake...
The UN, al-tuwaitha, and nukes
Hundreds of chemical weapons found in Iraq : US intelligence
Weapons of Mass Destruction Exist in Iraq
Saddam’s WMD: Discovery and Denial
War in Iraq/Afganistan
We were right to invade Iraq
Iraq battle stress worse than WWII
When Sanctions don't work
Iraq's Faux Capitulation
Why We Freed Iraq
Iraq's Fourth of July: Democracy Won't Come Easy, but Then it Never Does
Rewriting History
Saddam Hussein's definance of UN resolutions
'Only regime change will avert threat'
A Litany of Leftist Lies
US "involvment" in Afganistan is about more that POW camps
How Wrong They Were
Saddam's Business Partners
Iraq: A View Worth Considering
The Doomed Insurgency
An Empty Insurgency
A Fix on Downing Street
The Willing: Other Troops in Iraq
'Friendly Fire'
It's All About 9/11
Debunking the 8 Anti-War Myths About the War in Iraq
Iraqis March Against Terror
Intelligence confirms Iraq's wmds, Syria's role
Soldier Survies Attack; Captures, Medically Treats Sniper
The Idiocy of Appeasement
The Left Should Admit: We Don't Support the Troops
The Mystery of the Insurgency
The U.S. Cavalry: The Alternative to U.S. "Unilateralism" and "Hegemony" is Catastrophe
Hearts, Minds, and Suicide Bombs
UN Sanctions didn't stop Iraq
Breeding Stupidity
How not to count bodies
Iraq Body Count
An Essential War
Saddam's useful idiots
The Imminence Myth
The Yellowcake Con
Strategy and Saddam
Iraqis do not support terrorists
Editor's ponder how to present broad picture of iraq
US Soldier: I'd be depressed too
Italian red cross may have hid insurgents
War causing terrorism?
Some thoughts on casualties
Reality v. fiction: sacrifice in iraq
The "resurgence" of the taliban
Minutemen, mosques and the geneva conventions
Zawahiri's lament: what our enemy thinks about iraq
The letter is real
Iraqis carry photo of Bush
Iraqis are much more optimistic about their country than American opinion makers.
Wealth and prosperity in iraq
Democracy as a weapon
The troops strength question
Are Terrorists POWs?
Clare Luce Dems: They're lying about lied into war
Iraq Amnesia: The Real Coalition of the Bribed was at the UN
We are fighting for an islamic state
Kurds Thank US for Liberation
Why Iraqis are Optimisic
Iraq and Vietnam
Terrorists' Toys For Tots
The Connection between the Spring 1995 Saddam Tape and the March 2003 Invasion
Another CIA Attack on Bush: Presuring intel?
On the troops poll
New Documents from Saddam Hussein's Archives Discuss Bin Laden, WMDs
Saddam’s Tapes, WMDs and the Osama Connection
Invasion was the courageous thing to do
Saddam can't strangle filmmakers anymore
Saddam's Horrors
Mass Grave Found
Iraq is no distraction from al Qaeda
About that Iraq 'Deception'
On planting stories in Iraqi Papers
White Phosophorus Lies
Republic of Fear
Troops in Support Of the War
CIAs war with White House
Media
Media coverage distorts Iraq reality
BBC uses propaganda video
Media Blog: "Its kind of disheartening sometimes"
Russert's Vendetta Against White House
Good Leaks, Bad Leaks
Imagine MNF Being Covered Like Iraq
Defeated by Defeatism
Eighty Percent of What?
MSM Gone Wild: Saddam Tapes
Wilson/Plame/Niger
The French Connection - Niger
Wilson found evidence of iraq-niger deal
The white house, CIA, and wilsons
Husband is conspicuous in leak case
Myths to a plame, the case against rove
Plame's lame game
Four Facts and Five Conclusions
NRO: Our man in Niger
The Uranium Joe didn't mention
Bush cited two allies over arms
Wilson contradictions leave senator's speachless
The non-story of the non-outing
The Incredibles
Joe wilson, liar
Obstruction for what?
Libby, as miscariage of justice
Joe Wilson's 60 Minutes
Investigate the CIA
More Stories from Joseph Wilson
Anatomy of a Leak
The Plame Truth about Judith Miller
The Untold Story
Covering up Iraq's Quest for Uranium
Wilson's House of Lies
Wilson contradictions leave Democrat senators speechless
Iraq Did Seek Niger's Uranium After All
But Iraq did try to buy uranium in Niger
The Butler Report, Revisited
Oil
Iraqis Assume Command of Oil Industry
Middle East/Islam General
Middle East Embraces Democracy--and the American President
Hyping Islam's role in history of science
Major Progress in Middle East
Symposium: Lebanon: The Spark of Liberty in the Middle East
The Arabs' Berlin Wall has crumbled
The Koran Oppresses women
The Big Story of 2005 (Someone Tell The New York Times)
Blame the Americans and Praise the Result
The Growing Syrian Missile Threat
Muslim Lowlights
Religious Law Does not forbid use of Nuclear Weapons
Other/Inspectors/Inspections
Saddam's Spying Reached Everywhere: Russian Help
Russian Military Rushes to Help Saddam
Iraq Liberation Act of 1998
Intelligence Team finds french passports in Iraq
When Hitler Bombed London, was Churchill to blame?
Gephardt's 16 words
Peace Kooks
Profiling
Call it profiling - or common sense
Terrorist profiling
Immigration and terrorism
UN is victim of Iraqi Spies
Al-Jazeera and Al Qaeda
Al-Jazeera and the Saddam Oil Bribes
Agent behind fake uranium documents worked for France
Dems Back Saddam Hussein in New Poll
Moscow spies tipped Saddam on U.S. war plan
Did Russian Ambassador Give Saddam the U.S. War Plan?
Putin Vindicated?

NSA/Leaking
The NSA Hysterics
Partisan Reporting and tracking dirty numbers
Thank You for Wiretapping
Bush's Spying: Scandalous, or Echo of Clinton-Era "Echelon"?
Fit to Print?
On the Legality of the NSA Electronic Intercept Program
The NSA 'Scandal'
The Wisdom in Wiretaps
Its Legal
Clinton claimed authority to order warrentless searches
Clinton's other Domesitc Spying Program
Under Clinton, Times called surveilance necessary
McCarthy's Political Donations
Leaking At All Costs
The New McCarthyism

IRAN
US reveals details of Iran's nuclear ambition
Iran al Qaeda Axis
Defector Says Iran Played Role in 9/11
Iran's Growing Threat
The Iran-9/11 Connection?
More Evidence of an Iran-Al Qaeda Connection
The Nuclear Dots
Unholy Alliance
Iran using schools to hide nuclear program
UN officials find evidence of secret uranium enrichment plant

UN
The UN: Corruption Junction
More UN Scandal
Following Saddam's Secret Money Laundering Trail
Oil for food's Syrian connection
Oil for food as usual
Envoy's admit taking payoffs

Socialism, etc.
Pol Pot
Kim-Jong gave swiss watches with thousands starved

Other
Why is PETA Killing Animals?
Crime: The open borders lobby's dirty little secret
Illegals: the crime rampage
Illegal Immigration
Crime and illegal aliens
Jobs Americans won't do?
Texas Hospitals Reflect Debate on Immigration
Jesus isn't a pig: PETA
Hitchens v. Galloway transcript
Media Malpractice: Shiavo
The reparations argument revisited
Americans Generous
Proportional Representation Lead to Gridlock
Video Games Can Save Your Life

Russia: Ally or Enemy?

I just thought I would do some digging into some older stories, and point out that Russia is not exactly our greatest ally, or at least hasn't been.

Here:
"
Russia

The highest-ranking Communist bloc defector, Ion Mihai Pacepa (defected from Romania when it was still Communist) has warned that Russia has an interest in having Iraq’s WMDs disappear. He explains that Russia had a key role in Saddam receiving the weapons initially, and had a secret operational plan to make them “disappear” should it become necessary. The plan was called “Sarindar”, or, “Emergency Exit”. Pacepa played a key role in Operation Emergency Exit in Libya. The goal of the plan? To remove all WMDs from any third world ally that was being invaded by the West. The plan, he writes, originally developed for Libya (and to hide Russia’s complicity in the activity) was quickly expanded to other allies of Russia including Iraq. As a bonus, the operation “would frustrate the West by not giving them anything they could make propaganda with.”

WMDs would be burned or buried deep at sea (in Libya’s case, most likely underground for Iraq), but technical documents would be preserved in small water-proof containers for future use. All the plants for WMDs would have a civilian cover, so the West could not prove they were WMD sites. The plan involved an intense propaganda campaign, in which the politicians making the accusations towards the Soviet/Russian ally would be mocked. Among the propaganda activity would be anti-Western demonstrations and protests. Pacepa says he knows first-hand that the Operation Emergency Exit was applied to Iraq, because Ceausescu, Brezhnev, Andropov and Primakov all informed him about it. It is interesting that Primakov also is known to be close to Saddam Hussein and to regularly consult with him (and was in Baghdad from December 2002 up until when the war began). Pacepa concludes Russia advised Iraq on how to implement its old Emergency Exit plan.[72]

Pacepa’s theory makes plenty sense. As stated above, a senior bodyguard for the Iraqi inner circle has said Russian technicians were present at a major WMD site. Former head of Biopreparat, Ken Alibek has said that it is likely that Soviet biological weapons were sent to Iraq, and that Russia assisted Saddam Hussein’s chemical and biological weapons programs even after the Soviet Union fell.

The Wall Street Journal’s Robert Goldberg has cited a bioterrorism expert explaining that Russia was Iraq’s main supplier of materials and technical know-how to make anthrax, smallpox and botulism. Former UN inspector Richard Spertzel reports that Russia gave Iraq some fermentation equipment to produce biological weapons, and that Russians on his UN inspection team were “paranoid” about his efforts to uncover Iraq’s smallpox production. Goldberg explained that no nation has helped Iraq rebuild WMDs more than Russia.[73]

It is also well-known that retired Russian generals have gone to Iraq to help guide Saddam Hussein on defending the country from invasion. They were there right up to the days before war. A Russian diplomat in New York in early April 2003 confirmed that several Russian military advisors were in Iraq, and that Putin knew about it. The Russian advisors were teaching the Iraqis how to fight urban warfare, and not to engage on open fields.[74]

Captured files also show that Russian agents informed Iraqi intelligence on the status of US war preparations, and gave them a heads-up that the war would begin in mid-March.[75] On March 26th, US troops south of Baghdad claimed to have found Russian chemical warheads with a launcher and a chemical weapons specialist. A reporter with the Third Infantry Division confirmed the incident.[76] We heard nothing about it afterwards. It is highly possible, in my opinion, that the US covered the story up, because it would upset our “ally”, Russia. If going public with such a claim would hurt the chances of Russia helping get international forces in Iraq or to help with Iran, then that would explain why such a cover-up occurred. Of course, that is assuming the story is true.

The conclusion of the report is that there is no conclusion. Will the United States take action against Syria? Did Russia have a role in the disappearance of the WMD? All that is left is questions unanswered. But one thing is for sure, there is a geopolitical game being played with the US, and the WMDs are just a tool in that game. Thus, all these questions can be summed up in one question: Does the United States care enough about the game to just accept its war against Iraq, and to proceed with winning the game?
"

Now, for all of you brain-washed by the media, I thought I bring up this incredible article again, so that you can see just how the media operates in this country, burying what it does not like.

"
Ignoring Putin's revelation
Published June 23, 2004
At a press conference on Friday, Russian President Vladimir Putin delivered an extraordinary statement that might explain why President Bush felt such a great sense of urgency about driving Saddam Hussein from power. Mr. Putin said that Iraq was planning some kind of attack against the United States. Unfortunately, the same major media that have erroneously suggested that the September 11 commission's report debunks any linkage between al Qaeda and Iraq have shown little interest in Mr. Putin's revelation.

According to Mr. Putin, sometime between the September 11 attacks and the start of the Iraq war, Russia's intelligence service "received information that officials from Saddam's regime were preparing terrorist attacks in the United States and outside it against the U.S. military and other interests." The Russians passed this information on to the United States, and Mr. Bush personally thanked a Russian intelligence official for the information.

This story is a potential blockbuster for manifold reasons -- not least of which is the fact that Moscow had long been one of Saddam's closest allies and Mr. Putin was staunchly opposed to the war. Given Saddam's history of supporting terrorism -- and his attempt in 1993 to assassinate the first President Bush -- one would think that the American media would take this story seriously, and be deluging American and Russian officials with questions about the specifics of the Iraqi plot.

But the reaction has been subdued. While ABC's "World News Tonight" covered the story on Friday, other networks felt that they had more important things to talk about than a possible attack on America by Saddam . According to the Media Research Center, Friday's CBS "Evening News" didn't mention Mr. Putin's revelation, even though it spent more than two minutes on the debate over ties between Iraq and al Qaeda. (Dan Rather thought that a more important story was Bill Clinton's statement, in his new book, that he warned President-elect Bush about Osama bin Laden, but Mr. Bush didn't care.)

NBC "Nightly News" skipped the Putin story and focused on something else: a story undermining the Bush administration's contention that arch-terrorist Abu Musab al-Zarqawi -- given refuge by Saddam -- is linked to al Qaeda. On "Today" the next morning, NBC buried the Putin story behind excerpts of Mr. Clinton reading a passage from his book about how Martin Luther King Jr. had inspired him. On Saturday, The Washington Post relegated the story to Page A11.

The public is poorly served by such coverage. The fact that the president of Russia effectively is taking Mr. Bush's side on the question of whether Saddam posed a threat to this country is a major news story and should be treated as such. That it is not getting this kind of coverage suggests that many journalists do not have their priorities straight.
"

US Troops are the Monsters?

The way the coverage has been, one would think the US soldiers are the monsters, harming and abusing harmless little old arb men, who never wanted to hurt anyone. This is of course flat wrong. The terrorists are the monsters. And if you had any doubt who is what, read this incredible story:

Soldier survives attack; captures, medically treats sniper
Pfc. Stephen Tschiderer is a native of Mendon, N.Y. — During a routine patrol in Baghdad June 2, Army Pfc. Stephen Tschiderer, a medic, was shot in the chest by an enemy sniper, hiding in a van just 75 yards away. The incident was filmed by the insurgents.

Tschiderer, with E Troop, 101st “Saber” Cavalry Division, attached to 3rd Battalion, 156th Infantry Regiment, 256th Brigade Combat Team, 3rd Infantry Division, was knocked to the ground from the impact, but he popped right back up, took cover and located the enemy’s position.

After tracking down the now-wounded sniper with a team from B Company, 4th Battalion, 1st Iraqi Army Brigade, Tschiderer secured the terrorist with a pair of handcuffs and gave medical aid to the terrorist who’d tried to kill him just minutes before.

There is a video of the attack at the site.

Reading Assignments

Here are some stories worth reading:

The title says it all, and how true it is. The Left Should Admit: We Don't Support the Troops

Europe is definitely not what it used to be.

It didn't work for Hitler, it didn't work for Saddam and isn't working for N. Korea. Why appeasement is a policy for morons.

I haven't yet read all of this monster, but it is one to save: That pesky "non-link" between Saddam and Osama.

There are definitely some myths out there about the Iraq war. I hope I've broken some, but in case not, here's another explanation for all you leftists out there.

Something I was going to touch on, and may still: What's with all of the shrill talk about "its our fault, we are not innocent either" concerning the bombings? It makes no sense.

Yes, Paul Krugman is at it agian, with his bad math and false columns.

And the EU is off doing important things, like banning vitamins.

What Media Bias?

Please. This media bias.

UPDATE: Nope, no agenda here.

On Evolution Pt. 1

Evolution has become quite the subject recently, and why not. After all, there are problems in the theory, and they are more frequent and much larger than most would believe or acknowledge. First, let us look at one of the more unknown problems with evolution.

In the study of evolution, the only real way to authenticate the theory is to study the past, to find if it happened. Based on the theory of evolution, there are several things one would expect to find in the fossil records, which are virtually the only way to study the development of life over time without getting into speculation and theory. The fossil record is the best and perhaps only way to prove or disprove evolution. The question then becomes, what do the fossils have to say?

The Fossils

However surprising it may seem, the fossil record almost totally contradicts evolution. Looking only at the fossil evidence, one would never come to the conclusion that evolution happened. With Darwinian theory, one would expect to find fossils of hundreds of thousands of slightly different transitional forms between species. From fish to amphibian, from reptile to bird, etc. However, this is not the case. Rather the opposite is true. Species appear quite suddenly and without any evolutionary evidence, remain stasis over time, changing almost not at all, and then either die, or remain with us today. Take the Cambrian explosion. This period is often called such because of the very sudden appearance of a startling variety of complex and fully formed organisms such as clams, snails, worms, brachiopods, sea lilies and other equally complex creatures. There are no previous transitional forms to link these creatures to. Previous to this period, the only organisms found are both soft bodied, microscopic, and typically unicellular. "The facts of greatest general importance are the following. When a new phylum, class, or order appears, there follows a quick, explosive diversification so that practically all orders or families know appear suddenly and without any apparent transition." This was said by the evolutionist Goldschmidt many decades ago, but it still rings remarkably true in almost every aspect to this day. Transitional forms are nonexistent (except for a few misconceptions, which I’ll cover later). This is a severe problem, as the fossil record is very complete, and no long can the "not enough fossils" excuse be used. We have thousands upon thousands of fossils, and not a single one of them is a transitional form, that is, being relatively halfway between two species on the evolutionary tree.

The fact that evolution is not supported in the field of paleontology is not unknown to evolutionary professionals, and usually constitutes the biggest challenge to evolutionary theory. These expects have come up with several remarkable theories to account for this, each one becoming more fantastic, unbelievable, unproveable, and even contradictory to Darwin’s theory. At the end of the day, evolutionists still acknowledge a problem in the fossils. Take Stephen J. Gould on the matter:

The extreme rarity of transitional forms in the fossil record persists as the trade secret of paleontology. The evolutionary trees that adorn our textbooks have data only at the tips and nodes of their branches; the rest is inference, however, reasonable, not the evidence of fossils.

The history of most fossil species includes two features inconsistent with gradualism: 1. Stasis. Most species exhibit no directional change during their tenure on earth. They appear in the fossil record looking much the same as when they disappear; morphological change is usually limited and directionless. 2. Sudden Appearance. In any local area, a species does not arise gradually by the steady transformation of its ancestors; it appears all at once and "fully formed."

The three-level, five-kingdom system may appear, at first glance, to record an inevitable progress in the history of life . . . Increasing diversity and multiple transitions seem to reflect a determined and inexorable progression toward higher things. But the paleontological record supports no such interpretation. There has been no steady progress in the higher development of organic design. We have, instead, vast stretches of little or no change and one evolutionary burst that created the whole system.

Some other statements to consider:

Darwin’s theory of natural selection has always been closely linked to evidence from fossils, and probably most people assume that fossils provide a very important part of the general argument that is made in favor of Darwinian interpretations of the history of life. Unfortunately, this is not strictly true . . . The evidence we find in the geologic record is not nearly as compatible with Darwinian natural selection as we would like it to be. Darwin was completely aware of this. He was embarrassed by the fossil record because it didn’t look the way he predicted it would and, as a result, he devoted a long section of his Origin of Species to an attempt to explain and rationalize the differences . . . Darwin’s general solution to the incompatibility of fossil evidence was to say that the fossil record is a very incomplete one. . . . Well, we are now about 120 years after Darwin and the knowledge of the fossil record has been greatly expanded. We now have a quarter of a million fossil species but the situation hasn’t changed much. The record of evolution is still surprisingly jerky and, ironically, we have even fewer examples of evolutionary transition than we had in Darwin’s time. By this I mean that some of the classic cases of Darwinian change in the fossil record, such as the evolution of the horse in North America, have had to be discarded or modified as a result of more detailed information—what appeared to be nice simple progression when relatively few data were available now appears to be much more complex and much less gradualistic. So Darwin’s problem has not been alleviated. . . . ---D.M. Raup

Modern apes, for instance, seem to have sprung out of nowhere. They have no yesterday, no fossil record. And the true origin of modern humans—of upright, naked, tool-making, big-brained beings—is, if we are to be honest with ourselves, an equally mysterious matter.---Lyell Watson

Oftentimes evolutionists will attempt to get around this lack of transitional forms in the record by pointing to som new promising skeleton recently uncovered that looks to be a link, so to speak. Besides the fact that these almost invariably turn out to not be links of any kind, it ignores the larger issue, mainly that there should be thousands of transitional forms, to the point that they really should be everywhere. That is what is called for in Darwinian evolution, but reality is a stark contrast.

Next: More in-depth on the Cambrian explosion.

Kooks for Kyoto

President Bush has shown that his is wise in the face of critisim and pressure from the left and other foreign nations. He is absolutely correct about the treaty and not signing it. For one, it is not going to work. In fact, it isn't even lowering emissions, much less changing the global climate. Cutting emissions while hamstringing the economy is not worth it, for the simple fact that it is not really going to effect the global temperature. It would so damage the US economy while not doing anything of actual value that the only people advocating its signings are either uninformed kooks, or perhaps someone who desires to see the USA fall. Then take into consideration another point, that soon emmisions leaders are going to be countries not even sitting at the table, notably China and India. Even the house of Lords recently concluded in a report that the protocal will make little difference in the progression of Global Warming. Another point to note in all of this blather is that the US is not the problem, but rather the solution. The USA takes in as much as it puts out in CO2. We are not the cause of the problem, (if it really is one) we are the solution.

Then comes the issue of whether Global Warming is something we can control, hence something we caused, whether it is really even happening the way some scenarios portray, and the ability of the models to acuratly show trends in temperature.

For one, there is certainly no "scientific consensus" for global warming, it just happens some scientists get all of the air time in the media. Scientifically, the case for global warming is on very unstable ground. For one, its not like CO2 is some sort of toxic pollutant, monumentally bad for the earth as a whole. It is anything but. Plants need it to grow, and plants are a part or our intricatly (making models and predictions often irrelevant as they can't account for everything) structured planet earth. In fact, the earth has a sort of carbon cycles that regulate our temperature and keep it from getting too far in any extreme. (no doubt there are many such regulators we don't even know about.) If CO2 builds up in the atmosphere, that encourages more plant growth, and more moss-covered rocks chemically erode easier, burying CO2. The earth is replete with negative feedback loops such as these, and we are really quite naive to think we might actually be affecting the earth. The moral of the story is, don't underestimate planet earth.

Another problem with models is that they cannot predict the past. Thirty years ago the "concensus" was on future global cooling. The problem for the models is, they are unable to predict the past. If they cannot predict what has already happened, how can they predict what is going to happen? Putting faith in such models is lunacy. The year 1000 saw temperatures the same as present day CO2 emissions? How? The earths climate fluctuates, and always has. The models predict no such thing, and are ultimately just over-hyped by those we want to believe that man is inherently evil, or something like that.

One thing we can be almost absolutely sure about is that in terms of human impact, global warming is probably a hoax. Perhaps the earth is warming, but it is hardly anything to be alarmed about. It is currently proceeding at such a miniscule rate anyway, and the earth's history is one of stability--with variations here and there.