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Jun 30, 2009

The return of the revenge of the Little D 

HE'S TWO!
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And dear lord he's gettin' big...

Happy Birthday, Little D!
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Jun 23, 2009

Fair winds and following seas 

Jun 22, 2009

Freaking. Classy. 

They want to have the Iranian regime celebrate Independence Day after brutally repressing a freedom movement in Iran? Sickening.
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... a gesture of solidarity per our two nations’ shared interest in life, liberty, and shooting women in the heart on the street, I guess.
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UPDATE, 24 June: No tofurkey dogs for the Mahdi's boys. How bold!
Yesterday’s left-wing conventional wisdom: We can’t jeopardize diplomacy by taking a meaningless moral stand! Today’s left-wing conventional wisdom: Obama has taken a bold moral stand against regime abuses!
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Keep on their ass 

The headline is what grabs the attention. "Al Qaeda says would use Pakistani nuclear weapons." We all know it's true - it's not like it's a secret. But in the west, this is what gets play.
"God willing, the nuclear weapons will not fall into the hands of the Americans and the mujahideen would take them and use them against the Americans," Mustafa Abu al-Yazid, the leader of al Qaeda's in Afghanistan, said in an interview with Al Jazeera television.
But what gets overlooked here is far more telling, and is a huge indicator for anyone who pays the least bit of attention.
The militant leader said al Qaeda would be willing to accept a truce of about 10 years' duration with the United States if Washington agreed to withdraw its troops from Muslim countries and stopped backing Israel and the pro-Western governments of Muslim nations.
10 years? Why 10 years? Because that's what The Big Mo did back in the day, when he was in danger of getting his ass kicked.
Hudna (هدنة) is an Arabic term meaning a temporary "truce" or "armistice" as well as "calm" or "quiet", coming from a verbal root meaning "calm". It is sometimes translated as "cease-fire". ...

A particularly famous early hudna was the Treaty of Hudaybiyyah between Muhammad and the Quraysh tribe.

According to Umdat as-Salik, a medieval summary of Shafi'i jurisprudence, hudnas with a non-Muslim enemy should be limited to 10 years: "if Muslims are weak, a truce may be made for ten years if necessary, for the Prophet made a truce with the Quraysh for that long ...
Of course, what is a hudna really, but a time to rearm, recruit, and gain strength. And those 10 years? Don't count on it...
Islam spread widely and quickly during the two years that the treaty was in effect. While Muhammad had 1,400 followers when he signed the treaty in Hudaybiyya, he had well over 10,000 for his conquest of Mecca two years later.
The openness to a "10 year truce" is - literally - the oldest trick in the book when it comes to Islamic warfare. What they count on is that their enemies haven't read the book. This is the time to press the bastards as hard as possible in Afghanistan and Pakistan.

Sadly, the forthcoming orders from Gen McChrystal would seem to take a different tack. Not dropping bombs in order to ensure the safety of Afghan civilians will only increase the likelihood of the Taliban literally taking up residence in their homes. Of course, the Taliban was already doing that to a certain extent.

The fact of the matter is that we can only advance in Afghanistan the same way we advanced in Iraq - more troops in the cities interacting with the populace and squeezing the enemy out a few hundred meters at a time. That brings with it a whole host of difficulties all it's own, but if done right, it works. Any way you slice it, it will get worse before it gets better.

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More here on the history of hudna.
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Jun 20, 2009

Well no $h!t... 

The fate of three of nine foreigners abducted in Yemen last week is known — their bodies were found, shot execution style. The whereabouts of the other six — including three children under the age of 6 — remain a mystery.

But terrorism experts say their abductors and killers are almost certainly not a mystery. They say the crimes bear the mark of Al Qaeda, and they fear they are the handiwork of the international terror organization's No. 2 man in the Arabian Peninsula: Said Ali al-Shihri, an Islamic extremist who once was in American custody — but who was released from the U.S. detention center in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. ...

No one has claimed responsibility for the abductions and murders, but experts say killing women and children is considered off-limits among many jihadist groups — though not to
al-Shihri, a Saudi national who was released from Guantanamo in November 2007 and sent to a Saudi Arabian "rehabilitation" program for jihadists. It wasn't long before a "cured" al-Shihri was released from the program, crossed into Yemen and rejoined Al Qaeda, with whom he quickly rose to deputy commander.
Who was it just mentioned this? Hmmm... oh, let me think...
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Jun 15, 2009

Winning the battles, losing the war 

For all the buzz about the recent release of those Uighurs from Gitmo, here's a little tidbit that has been largely overlooked, and is - to my mind - of much greater significance.
During a hearing in Guantanamo in October 2004, Zuhair was accused of involvement in the 1995 killing in Bosnia-Herzegovina of William Jefferson, a U.S. official with the United Nations. At the tribunal, U.S. officials said Jefferson's watch was found on Zuhair.
Regardless of whether they ever did or did not train with Al Qaeda, the Uighurs never personally attacked us. In fact, their main beef is with the Red Commie Chinese, which tells me that we at least have grounds for an understanding of some sort. But Ahmed Zuhair - murderer, car bomber convicted in absentia by the Bosnians, and self-professed participant in the attack on the USS Cole that killed 17 American sailors - is unquestionably an enemy of America. And he is now sitting in Saudi Arabia, taking part in their "terrorist rehabilitation program"... which of course means that you'll see him again soon, coming to a theater (of operations) near you.

Like Pakistan, the Saudi's don't give a flying f@#k about terrorism, provided it doesn't happen inside their borders and isn't a threat to their rule. They'll be more than happy to house and feed the guy for a while. And then, when they think enough time has gone by, he'll up and disappear. And the Saudis will be shocked, shocked, by his "escape".

This is what happens when terrorists are handled in the same manner as shoplifters. Guantanamo IS NOT the 37th Precinct holding tank and the animals contained therein should not be treated like common con-men and thieves who can lawyer up, be let out on bail, or get off on technicalities. But what the hell do I know? Maybe the FBI will be able to clear all this up with the solid application of Miranda warnings to Al Qaeda members that we catch in the act of detonating IEDs.

We can win every battle in the field, but if this is how we're going to treat the enemy - rub down, shiatsu, and all expenses paid travel to either the island paradise or terrorist supporting nation of their choice - then we will most certainly lose the war.
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Jun 6, 2009

Always Faithful 



To those boys of Point du Hoc, and all the others that were there on that Day of Days, I offer the best tribute I can as a Marine... two simple words: Semper Fi.
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