21st Century Barbarism – Washington Post editorial
On reason the debate over Iraq can seem so perplexing at times is that the nature of the violence can be so horrendous as to be nearly unfathomable. The inexcusable killing of civilians by insurgents and militias is so common as to go almost unremarked upon. But four simultaneous truck-bomb explosions in one small community in northwestern Iraq on Tuesday night, all directed against defenseless civilians, provided a savage and jarring reminder. The suicide bombers targeted members of the ancient religious sect known as the Yazidis. Women were killed at market; children were buried as clay and mud houses collapsed. At least 250 people were killed and hundreds more wounded, according to Iraqi officials, which would make the attack the deadliest of the war. Gen. David H. Petraeus, U.S. military commander in Iraq, blamed al-Qaeda in Iraq for the "horrific and indiscriminate attacks." Another U.S. general called the bombings "an act of ethnic cleansing, if you will, almost genocide." Extremist Sunni elements have been targeting the Yazidis at least since the spring, when a cellphone video was widely circulated on the Internet showing -- also unfathomable to most Americans -- a 17-year-old Yazidi girl being stoned to death because she had fallen in love with a Sunni man.
The Toll of Intolerance in Iraq – Boston Globe editorial
The truck bombings Tuesday that killed more than 250 members of the religious sect known as Yazidi in northern Iraq appear to reflect local, parochial enmities. Still, this atrocity casts light on a more diffuse phenomenon in Iraq that US policy makers have failed to comprehend and that cosmopolitan Iraqis have long ignored or denied -- a ruthless intolerance of the other. Beyond the obvious struggles for power and resources, old sectarian and ethnic animosities -- some from as far back as the 7th century -- are being revived. Long-dormant vendettas between Shi'ites and Sunni Arabs, between Kurds and Turkmen, or between Islamists and secular Iraqis have been let loose. Acknowledging this reality need not mean giving up all hope that Iraqis may eventually find ways to live in peace. Still, for American policy makers, the lesson is that an invading power cannot destroy the administrative and security structures of a fragile society and expect to harvest a pluralist democracy. The lesson for the disparate Iraqi communities is that if they don't find a way to live together, they will go on killing each other.
Serial Killers of Americans – Washington Times editorial
The Bush administration's decision to designated Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), the elite military arm of the radical Islamist regime in Tehran, as a "specially designated global terrorist" (SDGT) organization strikes a huge blow against one of the world's most deadly jihadist groups. The IRGC, through its longstanding relationship with Hezbollah, has the blood of hundreds of Americans on its hands — among them the 241 American servicemen who were killed in the Oct. 23, 1983, bombing of the U.S. Marine barracks in Beirut, Lebanon. In essence, SDGT designation will treat the Revolutionary Guards, who are heavily involved in obtaining nuclear weapons technology and supporting terrorist organizations, much the same as the Cali and Medellin drug cartels, making it possible to move relatively quickly to seize the organization's business assets — which are substantial. Federal officials said that the IRGC would become the first military branch of a national government to be included on the terrorism list — which generally consists of non-state actors.
Killing for Congress - Ralph Peters, New York Post
Two days ago, al Qaeda detonated four massive truck bombs in three Iraqi vil lages, killing at least 250 civilians (perhaps as many as 500) and wounding many more. The bombings were a sign of al Qaeda's frustration, desperation and fear. The victims were ethnic Kurd Yazidis, members of a minor sect with pre-Islamic roots. Muslim extremists condemn them (wrongly) as devil worshippers. The Yazidis live on the fringes of society. That's one of the two reasons al Qaeda targeted those settlements: The terrorist leaders realize now that the carnage they wrought on fellow Muslims backfired, turning once-sympathetic Sunni Arabs against them. The fanatics calculated that Iraqis wouldn't care much about the Yazidis. As far as the Thieves of Baghdad (also known as Iraq's government) go, the terrorists were right. Iraqi minorities, including Christians, have been classified as fair game by Muslim butchers. Mainstream Iraqis simply look away. But the second reason for those dramatic bombings was that al Qaeda needs to portray Iraq as a continuing failure of U.S. policy. Those dead and maimed Yazidis were just props: The intended audience was Congress.
Amateur Hour on Iran – New York Times editorial
The dangers posed by Iran are serious, and America needs to respond with serious policies, not more theatrics. Labeling Iran’s Revolutionary Guard Corps as a foreign terrorist organization — as the State Department now proposes — is another distraction when what the Bush administration needs to be doing is opening comprehensive negotiations with Tehran, backed by increasing international economic pressure. Those negotiations need to deal with all real and alleged facets of Iran’s many dangerous behaviors: its nuclear ambitions; its sectarian meddling in Iraq; its providing of missiles to Hezbollah in Lebanon and the charges it is arming the Taliban and others in Afghanistan. And any talks must take into account Iran’s concerns about its own security — with a clear offer that it can come in from the diplomatic and economic cold if it improves its behavior.
Ashes and Dust – Jeff Emanuel, Weekly Standard
A key attribute of the enemy in Iraq for the past few years has been his unwillingness to directly engage Coalition forces in armed combat. Whether this is a result of the enemy's good sense or his cowardice (or some combination of the two), insurgents and sectarians from al Qaeda in Iraq to the Jaisch al Mahdi have almost entirely avoided direct confrontation with the Coalition, instead choosing to target soldiers with IEDs and snipers, while saving more aggressive attacks for soft targets like the Iraqi National Police (NP) and surrounding civilian populations. "It's very clear that they want nothing to do with us directly," said Captain Rich Thompson, a former enlisted Ranger and currently the commander of Baker Company, 1-15 Infantry (from the 3rd Infantry Division). Lieutenant Colonel Jack Marr, the 1-15 Battalion Commander, echoed that sentiment, observing that "They will go out of their way to avoid targeting us with their big operations, and to focus them on the NPs or another target they perceive to be weaker."
Soccer Victory Provides a Lesson for Iraq - César Chelala, Philadelphia Inquirer
Two dissimilar events with contradictory results took place recently in Iraq, practically simultaneously: the withdrawal by five Sunni ministers from the so-called unity government of Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, and the victory of the Iraqi national soccer team over Saudi Arabia for the Asian Soccer Cup. The first was indicative of the battle for power being waged among the factions present in that troubled country, while the second occurred precisely because those factions were able to overcome their deep-seated differences and work toward a common goal. The politicians could learn a valuable lesson from the athletes. The withdrawal from cabinet meetings by the five ministers leaves the already paralyzed Maliki government without any active Sunni representation, other than Vice President Tariq al-Hashimi, who has said he will attend reconciliation talks. Furthermore, relations between Maliki and the Kurdish minority remain tenuous, even though the country's president, Jalal Talabani, is Kurdish. In a recent meeting with the Turkish prime minister, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Maliki agreed "to attempt to expel" a Kurdish separatist organization - the Kurdistan Workers Party - from northern Iraq. Erdogan had hoped for a stronger commitment, but Maliki's shaky relations with the Kurds require taking a more prudent path. The Iraqi national soccer team's victory was all the more remarkable in that its adversary in the final Asian Cup match was Saudi Arabia, a three-time winner, the defending champion, and the country all observers had favored to win the cup again.
From Belfast to Baghdad: What Have We Learned? – Douglas Borer, Christian Science Monitor
In analogous fashion, American forces in Baghdad were welcomed as liberators in 2003. However, within a year, the United States was faced with a full-blown insurgency, primarily led by Sunni militants who perceived the US as siding with the Shiites. As occurred in Belfast, the new Iraqi military and national police force were seen as being partial to one side. Baghdad's Sunnis feared the Shiite death squads operated by the firebrand cleric Moqtada al-Sadr (whose Mahdi Army also attacked Americans), but they equally feared the Shiite dominated national police. As a result of a sharp upswing in sectarian killing in the capital, Baghdad became the center of gravity in American strategy, resulting in the "surge" of forces this spring. However, after witnessing growing levels of cooperation between American forces and Sunni tribal leaders in Anbar Province, it is now the Shiites who increasingly distrust the Americans, with serious tensions arising recently between US Army General David Petraeus and Iraq's Shiite Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki. And Shiite militias are presently the biggest threat to US forces in Baghdad. Northern Ireland was a tough and thorny situation, but in terms of relative complexity, it was a game of checkers compared with the three-dimensional chess board that Iraq has become. Indeed, what began as a simple, old-fashioned war between the US and Iraq has now evolved into a nest of infernal complexities that almost defies description. When the US does something to support or appease one party, it creates hostility in at least two of the other internal actors and one or more external players. Like the British in Ireland, the US has morally constrained itself from simply choosing one side and repressing or killing everyone else, but as a result the only "middle ground" in Iraq is the ground American combat forces now occupy. It took 38 years in Northern Ireland for the British to bring the warring sides to the middle ground, to make peace, and to withdraw. Anyone who claims the US can resolve the situation in Iraq more quickly is sadly mistaken.
Victory for our Security - Vito Fossella, Washington Times
If left unchecked, al Qaeda will topple another building in the United States, hijack another airliner filled with innocent victims or detonate a nuclear or chemical bomb on a crowded street. An new Internet message from the terror group shows the White House engulfed in flames and the words "Soon... God willing" — a chilling reminder that September 11, 2001, may have occurred nearly six years ago, but the terrorists' thirst for blood remains unquenched. That is why it was a victory for the security of American people and a major blow for our enemies when Congress passed legislation earlier this month to update the law that governs the surveillance of terrorists overseas.
Weapons of Mass Preservation – Anthony Cordesman, New York Times
In an ideal world, arms sales are hardly the tool the United States would use to win stability and influence. America does not, however, exist in an ideal world, nor in one that it can suddenly reform with good intentions and soft power. Those pressuring Congress to kill the Bush administration’s proposed $20 billion arms deal with Saudi Arabia and other Persian Gulf states need to step back into the real world. America has vital long-term strategic interests in the Middle East. The gulf has well over 60 percent of the world’s proven conventional oil reserves and nearly 40 percent of its natural gas. The global economy, and part of every job in America, is dependent on trying to preserve the stability of the region and the flow of energy exports. Washington cannot — and should not — try to bring security to the gulf without allies, and Saudi Arabia is the only meaningful military power there that can help deter and contain a steadily more aggressive Iran.
The Making of a Homegrown Terrorist - Christopher Dickey, Newsweek
What happens when politics and politicians, legislation and regulations fail to address the real and continuing threat that terrorists pose to our homes, families and businesses? Do we pretend that the fundamental laws we’ve got in the United States, including the Constitution and Bill of Rights, need not apply? Or should we declare war half a world away, imagining that with shock and awe and open-ended military occupation we can terrorize the terrorists? No. We’ve been there, done that, and there’s every indication the threat is not only growing but growing closer to home. Maybe as close as next door. “Radicalization in the West: The Homegrown Threat,” which I read in draft form several weeks ago and just reread on the Web, provides the most succinct and pragmatic analysis of recent terrorist trends I have seen anywhere. Its conclusions are based on a close study of 11 cases, from London, England, to Lackawanna, New York; Sydney, Australia, to Portland, Oregon; Madrid, Spain, to Herald Square in the heart of Manhattan, with some revealing insights into the September 11, 2001, plot as well.
How Terror Grows at Home - New York Post editorial
An eye-opening new report from the NYPD's Intelligence Division turns a spotlight on the threat posed by homegrown terrorists. And it underscores the relentless efforts by civil libertarians and leftist groups - with The New York Times at the head of the line - to thwart counterterrorist efforts. No small feat in one 90-page report. "While the threat from overseas remains," NYPD Commissioner Ray Kelly says in the study's preface, "many of the terrorist . . . plots against cities in Europe, Canada, Australia and the United States have been conceptualized and planned by local residents/citizens who sought to attack their country of residence." The study notes that such radicals began as normal-seeming folks living among the citizenry: "They had 'unremarkable' jobs, had lived 'unremarkable' lives and had little, if any, criminal history." That is, they can live next door.
Illegals and Terrorists - Pittsburgh Tribune-Review editorial
The "what" of two confidential government reports about illegal immigration -- devastating indictments of the Bush administration's utter indifference toward protecting American soil and souls -- is not as disturbing as the "when." A report by the Drug Enforcement Administration claims Islamic extremists, embedded in the United States and posing as Hispanic nationals, are partnering with violent Mexican drug gangs to finance terror networks in the Middle East, according to The Washington Times. And that, the report says, could lead to "a catastrophic event by terrorists." A report by the Department of Homeland Security, also obtained by the newspaper, states nearly every part of the Border Patrol's national strategy is failing and that al-Qaida -- targeting the most vulnerable border areas -- has been trying to smuggle terrorists and weapons into this republic. The DEA report is from 2005. The DHS's, 2006.
Whose Genocide Will it Be? - John Thomson, Washington Examiner
Throughout most of the Muslim world, in madrassas and mosques, in the press and on television, with hardly a voice countering the calumnies, the United States is charged, tried and convicted as the world’s modern leader in genocide aimed at Muslims. President Bush, supported by his accomplice Israel, supposedly leads this Muslim massacre. America is berated for heinous crimes, minimizing whatever may have been done by the regimes of Adolf Hitler, Joseph Stalin, Pol Pot, Saddam Hussein and, currently, Sudanese President and Field Marshal Omar al-Bashir. This propaganda campaign seeks to distract the world’s attention from the real murderers, the true ethnic and religious cleansers. For the truth is, the perpetrators to an overwhelming degree are the Muslims themselves.
Whacking Iran - Ralph Peters, New York Post
The media missed a big one yesterday. They ran with the story that the Bush administration will soon designate Iran's Revolutionary Guard Corps - a major troublemaker in Iraq - as a terrorist organization. But they didn't look past the public-consumption explanation that the move lets our government go after the Revolutionary Guards' finances and the international companies that cut deals with Tehran's thugs. The real reason for the move is to set up a legal basis for airstrikes or special operations raids on the Guard's bases in Iran. Our policy is that we reserve the right to whack terrorists anywhere in the world. Now we have newly designated terrorists. And we know exactly where they are. This doesn't mean we won't go after their money, too. The Revolutionary Guards have built up a financial empire - they're religious fanatics, but, in their version of Islam, "greed is good." Hurting Iran's assassins in the pocketbook reduces their ability to export terror.
Jihad 101 – Deroy Murdock, National Review
Give Islamic extremists this: They are as clear as the desert sunshine about their plans for us infidels. Unlike America’s former Cold War enemies, who swaddled their barbed wire and ballistic missiles in warm words about proletarian liberation, Muslim hotheads state their intentions with disarming candor. “The wave of the Islamic revolution will soon reach the entire world,” Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has said. “One of the primary responsibilities of the Muslim ruler is to spread Islam throughout the world,” said South Africa’s Mufti Ebrahim Desai. “If a country doesn’t allow the propagation of Islam to its inhabitants in a suitable manner or creates hindrances to this, then the Muslim ruler would be justified in waging jihad against this country.” These statements appear in What Americans Need to Know about Jihad, by Robert Spencer, director of Jihad Watch (JihadWatch.org), at Los Angeles’ David Horowitz Freedom Center. Spencer has authored seven books, including the forthcoming Religion of Peace? Why Christianity Is and Islam Isn’t.
Web of Terror - Rachel Ehrenfeld and Alyssa A. Lappen, Washington Times
On Aug. 8, the Treasury Department finally listed the Al-Salah Society as "one of the largest and best-funded Hamas charities." The director of the Treasury Department's Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC), Adam Szubin, said, "Today's action alerts the word to the true nature of Al-Salah and cuts it off from the U.S. financial system." An Aug. 1 report by the Gelilot, Israel-based Intelligence and Information Center, documents that while the U.S. government attempts to stop U.S. funds from benefiting Hamas, American companies continue to facilitate Hamas fundraising and incitement by selling them Internet and television services. They thereby enable Hamas — designated a terrorist organization by the United States in 1995 — to spread its virulent anti-American propaganda, and to recruit, communicate and raise money.
Two Steps in One Go – Roger Cohen, International Herald Tribune / New York Times (subscription required)
A brief document called "Two Steps in One Go" that attempts to fast-forward Palestinian statehood has landed on the desks that matter in the Middle East and is arousing considerable interest. Written by Terje Roed-Larsen, a senior United Nations official immersed in the region for decades, the proposal envisages the creation of a Palestinian state with provisional borders followed by state-to-state negotiations on final-status issues using principles agreed before Palestine's establishment. Israelis and Palestinians might agree, for example, on the principle that the borders of Palestine would be those of 1967 adjustable by territorial swaps involving 5 percent of the land. These swaps would be the object of subsequent state-to-state talks. "Palestinians are fed up with gradualism and don't believe it works," Roed-Larsen, a Norwegian who heads the New York-based International Peace Academy, told me. "Israelis are saying they don't trust the Palestinians enough to go to final-status talks. So we need something between the gradual and the total."
Hamas Rules – Jonathan Schanzer, National Review
The Hamas terror organization that gained power through a violent coup in the Gaza Strip in June is now signaling that it will maintain its rule through a combination of violence, authoritarianism, and Islamism. Witness the Talibanization of Gaza. The Gaza Strip has never been idyllic. But, under Hamas, as one New York Times reporter notes, “Gaza looks like Somalia: broken and ravenous.” Hamas conquered Gaza by force. It will need to maintain its grip on power by force. This is the beginning of the Talibanization of Gaza, and the end of hope for the rule of law.
Can U.S. Diplomacy Get Religion? – Christian Science Monitor editorial
In much of the world, religion – not ideology – is the prime motivator propelling people and events, often leading to violence. Congress had a sense of that a decade ago when it began considering how the US might better promote religious freedom and tolerance in its foreign policy. It's a subject worth revisiting. What lawmakers came up with was the International Religious Freedom Act, which was eventually signed in 1998. The law tasked the US State Department with the job of advocating for religious tolerance around the world – through an ambassador and through annual reports that rate country performance. The act also created an independent commission to advise the government. But the world looks very different from 10 years ago. It's in a period of unprecedented religious pluralism and contact between believers. Religious interest and intensity seem to be accelerating. One result is faith-based tension. Look just about anywhere – the Middle East, Asia, Africa, and even Europe – and it's at a simmer or boil. A thought-provoking discussion of US diplomacy under the Act was sponsored in May by the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life. Thomas Farr, a former director of the Office of International Religious Freedom summed it up best: "There are hundreds of people, maybe even thousands of people, walking the earth free today because of our religious freedom policy." But, he went on, "if you ask the macro question, has religious persecution diminished internationally [in] the last decade, the honest answer has got to be, no, it hasn't." The challenge now is to figure out how to make religious expertise more widespread than the department's 20-person staff – and how to move beyond a diplomacy of naming and shaming violators into action to one which better helps countries recognize that religious tolerance is in their own interest.
India at 60: A Cause to Celebrate and Reflect – London Daily Telegraph editorial
Sixty years of independence for the most populous democracy in the world is a worthy cause for celebration. Yet in his speech from the ramparts of the Red Fort in New Delhi yesterday, Manmohan Singh bravely reminded his audience of where India had failed to live up to the dreams of its founding father, Mahatma Gandhi. Two generations after the Union flag was finally lowered, nearly half the population of 1.1 billion is living in grinding poverty, and about a third is illiterate. The infrastructure is so decrepit that the lights can go out in Bombay, and the bureaucracy so incompetent that the spectre of polio has emerged once again. Dazzled by India's technological and entrepreneurial flair, the world has failed to appreciate how much of the country remains a basket case.
It’s Our Drug War Too – Roger Noriega, Washington Post
U.S. and Mexican authorities are nearing agreement on an aid package to support Mexico's courageous new offensive against the deadly drug syndicates that threaten both our nations. The stakes are high for the United States: We depend on Mexico as a cooperative neighbor and trade partner, and most of the marijuana and as much as 90 percent of the cocaine consumed in this country pours over our southern border. If Mexico cannot make significant headway against the bloodthirsty cartels, our security and our people will suffer the consequences. Since President Felipe Calderón's victory last year, Mexican authorities have stepped up efforts to fight drug sales and have paved the way for increased cooperation with the United States. Calderón has subjected hundreds of senior-ranking police officials to polygraph testing and has dismissed thousands more suspected of corruption. After years of internal legal obstacles, Mexico has captured and extradited major traffickers to the United States in record-breaking numbers.
Heroism and the Language of Fascism - Rosa Brooks, Los Angeles Times
The empty rhetoric of heroism is everywhere these days. You know what I mean. Pat Tillman -- the former NFL star -- is "an American hero," apparently because he volunteered for duty along with several hundred thousand other people, then had the misfortune to be accidentally shot by his own side. Every wounded service member is a "hero" too: Sen. Hillary Clinton proudly sponsored the "Heroes at Home Act of 2007," intended to improve medical care for wounded military personnel, and the Defense Department recently sponsored the "Hiring Heroes Career Fair" to encourage companies to hire wounded veterans. No soldier left behind! Bah, humbug. Before you run me out of town on a rail, let me be clear: I respect the service and sacrifice of the troops. It takes guts to volunteer for the military. Injured service members deserve top-quality care, and the families of those killed deserve our deepest compassion. Soldiers, firefighters, police and many others accept risk and privation to serve the public, and we should be grateful. But it's a big mistake to mix up the idea of service -- or the idea of sacrifice and suffering -- with the idea of heroism. As most dictionaries explain, true heroism involves "extraordinary courage, fortitude or greatness of soul." So firefighters who take unusual risks to save others can legitimately be called heroes -- but just showing up for work and turning on a fire hose when required isn't quite enough. Similarly, suffering doesn't magically turn an ordinary person, however beloved, into a hero. Some of the office workers who died on 9/11 were truly heroic, sacrificing their own chance of escape to help others. But many of those who died never even got a chance to be heroic.
No More Anonymous, Please! – Victor Davis Hanson, Real Clear Politics
The New Republic magazine recently ran into big trouble for publishing a first-person account of military savagery in Iraq. The author, Pvt. Scott Thomas Beauchamp, used the pseudonym "Scott Thomas" to write of the debasement of war that he claims he saw in the cauldron of Iraq. But it was soon discovered that one of the gruesome "wartime" incidents the private described -- the author, desensitized by war, mocking a disfigured woman -- took place in Kuwait before his unit actually went into Iraq. And when, post-publication, The New Republic rechecked Beauchamp's other suspicious anecdotes and assured its readers they were at least still accurate, the magazine would not identify the sources it used for verification. The result of keeping these sources anonymous is that the reading public still can't believe the once-anonymous Beauchamp's account -- or what his New Republic editors are now saying. Anonymity on rare occasions may have a place in protecting whistleblowers or honest journalistic sources fearful of retaliation. But lately it is being misused in a variety of different contexts to destroy people and institutions -- and as a way for authors of all sorts to avoid responsibility for what they write.
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