At Strategy Page. (Via Lex.)
Middle East
“Getting to Know Your Shrapnel”
A woman in Israel who was injured in a terror bombing in 2002 blogs her observations (via SondraK, via Steve):
Unless the shrapnel is causing damage, doctors will leave it where it is. Unfortunately there appear to be some differences between “causing damage” as defined by doctors and “causing damage” as defined by the average layman. For instance, many doctors do not define shrapnel which makes one’s face numb in parts and lumpy to the touch as “causing damage”. One doctor concluded his examination of my face with a cheerful “Zeh lo catastrof”, this isn’t a catastrophe. On the bright side, I am using this experience to force myself to pick up that essential, Israeli trait: the ability to argue with ANYBODY, including one’s doctor, even if the doctor is a neurosurgeon who might be called upon later to do very delicate surgery on one’s face. In the meantime, however, my shrapnel has been classed as “mostly harmless”, a good chunk of it is still in me and I should be setting off metal detectors for years to come. Theoretically, the average terrorist should have an easier time getting into the Central Bus Station than I will (more on that later).
The Last Three Years in Iraq
Alec Rawls over at Error Theory has an interesting analysis concerning al Qaeda, Iraq, and the Democrats.
I think that Alec is substantially right about the situation in that the majority of the Iraqi population has turned against the terrorists, and they are currently hostile towards Islamic extremism. It also seems to me that the creation of a truly secular democracy (Alec refers to it as a “republic in the American sense”) is possible within the next decade, instead of in 30 or 40 years as I once thought.
But I’m not ready to agree completely with Mr. Rawls about some of the details when it comes to how this came about, mainly because I think whatever success we are currently enjoying is more due to mistakes made by the jihadis than a masterful stroke of genius on the part of the Bush administration. Our main advantage is that we can adapt when conditions change, something that our enemies seem to have a very hard time accomplishing.
But enough nitpicking. The essay is certainly though provoking if nothing else, and I think it would be worth your while to give it a read.
(Hat tip to Ace.)
Quote of the Day
Once the US squandered its post-Sept. 11 leverage with Pakistan it was left with only bad options for coping with the nuclear-armed jihadist incubating country. And these too, it has ignored in favor of the chimera of democracy and elections.
After Sept. 11, President George W. Bush declared war on the forces of global terror and their state sponsors. But as the years have passed since then, he has done more to lose the war than he has to win it simply by ignoring it.
Bhutto’s murder is not a sign that elections and democracy frighten al-Qaida and therefore must be pursued. It is a sign that the Taliban and al-Qaida – together with their supporters in the Pakistani military and intelligence services and Pakistani society as a whole – don’t like people who are supported by the US. Her assassination was yet another act of war by the enemies of the West against the West.
If democracy and freedom are the US’s ultimate aims in this war, the only way to achieve them is to first fight and win the war. Bhutto – like her Palestinian, Egyptian and Lebanese counterparts – was a sideshow.
Sinn Fein in Madison
Click photo for larger.
I am frequently amazed what bumper stickers folks put on their vehicles. Living in the epicenter of BDS territory, I see a lot of angst. Most of the stickers are snappy sayings like “buck fush” or pleas for peace or diversity. Yesterday I was stunned to see this one. You will have to enlarge the photo to read it.