Hearing through the Bullhorn Grapevine that Iraq is Lost

Michael Ledeen this morning at NRO said:

“The fight in Iraq is part of a broader struggle that’s unfolding across the region...The same regime in Iran that is pursuing nuclear weapons and threatening to wipe Israel off the map is also providing sophisticated IEDs to extremists in Iraq who are using them to kill American soldiers.

The same Hezbollah terrorists who are waging war against the forces of democracy in Lebanon are training extremists to do the same against coalition forces in Iraq.

The same Syrian regime that provides support and sanctuary for Islamic jihad and Hamas has refused to close its airport in Damascus to suicide bombers headed to Iraq.

...the war against extremists and radicals is not only evident in Iraq, but it’s evident in Lebanon, the Palestinian Territories and Afghanistan.”

What part of the “surge” to retreat addresses this reality and why might it just disappear? What part of the Lugar-Warner amendment improves upon diplomacy in the region where the U.S. pulls out, leaving its allies hanging? How do fewer numbers of troops improve a situation that is challenging to the large number there now?

Yesterday, reference to Iraq being an issue that can only be resolved politically suggested this idea to mind:

“Let’s try this plan: Iraq is lost. Put all the Iraqi leaders in a sealed room of a sealed building and let them work it out and come and solve it politically. While solving in politically allow devastation, murder, blood and death to continue unabated outside; but leave them to solve it politically.

Once they have solved it politically, open the doors and let the light of day enter (if you can see it through the smoke). What happens to that political resolution now?

One piece, not the other, no two can be combined. Politically the problems cannot be resolved without military assistance. Militarily the problems cannot be resolved without political assistance.”

The military piece of the puzzle being suggested does not come close to that necessary to hold off the hoards while those political solutions are being discussed."

USA Today opinion from Friday July 13, 2007:

“In Washington Thursday (7/12), the Iraqi ambassador, astoundingly, talked of Americans as being too focused on "instant gratification" — this more than four years into a grinding war that has cost more than 3,600 American lives.”

The day to day view of “instant gratification” is somewhat offended by this remark, but it speaks more realistically of Iraq then anything coming out of our Democrat leadership and those few Republicans lacking this same spine and myopic WORLD view. The ambassador was correct in his assessment for those that actually want Iraq seen through to the time that we can drawdown as we inch along toward that goal.

To those stubbornly holding to a view that good will come of our leaving, the recent Iraq Assessment was proof that we “have” failed in our mission in Iraq. Had the assessment been more than the 50/50 that it was in the obviously moving forward positively column, the assessment would still have been proof that we “have” failed our mission in Iraq.

These views are of the same vein as hate in that hate is much simpler than love or even like. They are the same pessimistic views that can only invest intellect in the discovery of what is wrong rather than what might be right. It is the same simplistic view that ones way is the only way and anyone that disagrees is an idiot.

You won’t find many that are in favor of continuing on in Iraq, especially with an eye toward hearing from General Petreus in September disagree that war is a drag; the deaths are painful; many in the Middle East hate us; that this can and does generate bad guys etc..

What you won’t find is anyone that disagrees with our being in Iraq and want us to pull out NOW (now is the “instant gratification” of next spring) agreeing with those that want to continue the fight for now on anything Iraq. I guess that’s because we’re the stubborn ones.

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Martyrs, Jihadists Are NOT the Brightest Bulbs on the Porch

Interesting reads today from NRO from three very good writers. The overall impression put forward by the media has been that these latest attacks by terrorists are not really al Qaeda linked because the skillset of the "would bes" lacks a certain proficiency or professionalism; this of course is due to the fact the intended outcome failed.

We wouldn't want to discount their abilities obviously by suggesting they cannot succeed again. Yet when they have not had a successful attack, in the U.S. especially the public and media tends to discount that as though there were no threat. When they fail, the failures are looked upon as lacking that 007 aspect, so of course these cannot be real terrorists, al Qaeda or not.

While the main thrust of these articles, with the exception of Ledeen's may not be on the subject of "IQ" the reader does get the underlying sense that the terrorists/suicide bombers/martyrs aren't all that quick on the uptake.

Michael Ledeen takes the question of "smarts" as main thesis in his article this morning, ‘“Stupid Terrorist” Is it any surprise?”’

"Did you really expect high-I.Q. martyrs? Maybe clever killers, but somebody should have pointed out — long since — that it isn’t very smart to blow yourself up. And for the most part, the martyrs haven’t come from the best-educated sectors of the population. But so many scribblers have been impressed by the deep faith of the suiciders, that they’ve shied away from this fairly obvious point. And one could go further. Indeed one should go further: All those parents and siblings who speak with reverence of their exploded child or brother or sister or cousin or uncle, they should be ashamed of themselves. Because they’re fools."

Andrew McCarthy speaks this morning that “Islamic Terror Strikes the U.K. … Again” so ultimately does it really matter whether al Qaeda, an off-shoot or even unrelated as far as the underlying belief system?

"Britain’s new prime minister, Gordon Brown, has been explicit in his public statements that this new series of attacks is linked to al Qaeda. The nature of that linkage is has not been revealed, and many experts have expressed skepticism about the possibility because the explosive devices here were poorly constructed. This, though, gives way too much credit to al Qaeda. Yes, several of its operations have been highly professional, but its operatives are not all ten feet tall and they have produced their share of amateur-hour moments."

Finally, James Robbins considers that it is not all about Iraq, with "Club Bombers - Jihad runs deep"

"There are several lessons to be learned from the failed terrorist attacks in Britain. Some are obvious, such as the fact that the terrorists are still a threat, the war is still on. Also that the terrorists are seeking softer targets, which speaks to the effectiveness of hardening others. The Glasgow airport attack in particular illustrates this — despairing of actually getting on an airplane, the bad guys just rammed the gate with a Jeep Cherokee with a bomb in the back. It was not a well-planned or thought-out attack; the vehicle was hung up on the static defenses, which worked as intended. And did one of the perps really as was reported pour gasoline directly on an open flame? No wonder he ignited. These are not superstars."

It shouldn't take much of a stretch for those that either don't see it or refuse to believe it, that this problem we have is not just about Iraq, but is all around us. We shouldn't wait forever for that smoking gun, as even a smoking gun can be denied as being a smoking gun.

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Ledeen on Iranian Nukes and Hostages for Peaceful Purposes

“Esfandiari has been accused of an additional crime: being married to a Jew. In the words of a website closely tied to President Ahmadinejad, Esfandiari is “married to Shaul Bakhash, a Jew, (and) is one of the leading figures in the international Zionist lobby planning the overthrow of the Iranian regime, including the Zionist regime’s plans to attack Iran.”’ – Michael Ledeen

“Iran has a unique way of dealing with the West. The leadership there or Tehran Tehrrorists take hostages; in 1979 it was during the Iranian Revolution that 53 Americans were taken hostage. In the very recent past it was 15 British Navy and Royal Marines.”

“Iran is doing what it does best; playing games that will gain it prestige in its part of the world. If it can convince enough people of its power at the way it tweaks the U.S.’ nose, continuing to flaunt and taunt as Iraq’s Saddam Hussein did; it will likely succeed in unifying the Islamic world under its leadership. As Majlis Speaker Gholan-AliHaddad-Adel stressed yesterday; “Islamic unity and coherence as the most important need of the Islamic world.”

According to Michael Ledeen at NRO:

"The Americans were taken hostage for the same reasons the regime has routinely taken foreign hostages from the first year of its existence: to resolve internal power struggles, to demonstrate to the Iranian people the hopelessness of their condition by directly challenging the infidels to do anything about the humiliation of their countrymen, and to impose their will on a Western world the mullahs view as feckless and paralyzed. When the American embassy was overrun in the fall of 1979, Khomeini famously proclaimed that the Americans “can’t do a thing,” and today the regime is trying to show that neither the Americans nor the Brits (five more of whom were taken hostage in the past couple of days) can do anything to challenge the mullahcracy."

Read it and heed it……

The U.S. is being challenged and not in just a chest thumping manner; we need to wake up. The media could help too I suppose, but as was weakly reported by Reuters and read in the NY Times, it was just a case of dual citizens being nabbed.

The game is much deeper than this and the only ones that seem to notice are the ones in Tehran; we’re too busy judging ourselves to bother to notice.

Did you know:

“the mullahs have launched a new wave of political repression against students, teachers, women, intellectuals and, most recently, scientists. The information ministry, a.k.a. the secret intelligence service, recently declared that any Iranian who attended overseas conferences would automatically fall under suspicion of cooperating with foreign-espionage operations.”

Voice of America has an article regarding the strange behavior; not as convincing to me as the Ledeen article; a bit tepid, with a hint of “no big deal” attached but of further interest nonetheless.

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