This is No Way to Win a War

Yet another example of the colossal failure that is the so-called "War on Terror" (TM), the Taliban (those folks who are actually responsible for 9/11) has re-siezed control of the Pakistan-Afghanistan border.

A power vacuum opened the door for militant Muslim clerics, dubbed Pakistani Taliban by the media.

Musharraf says they have no single leader, although they may have ties with the Afghan Taliban chief, Mullah Mohammad Omar.

But Haji Mohammad Omar, a burly, heavily bearded 45-year-old is one of the new forces in South Waziristan.

Residents say his men roam around Wana with rocket launchers mounted on the back of their pick-up trucks.

"We have brought peace in Waziristan. We have eliminated excesses, oppression, robberies and drugs from Waziristan," he told Reuters by telephone from Wana.

The militants have opened offices and set up checkposts in Wana's main market, collecting fees from vehicles entering.

They have even set up a court to conduct summary trials.

Most times the mullahs increase the fine for murders, and executions are rare, although a man convicted of killing his son was shot dead in front of a crowd of 150 tribesmen in late March.

A veteran of the mujahideen guerrilla war against the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan in the 1980s, Omar later fought with the Taliban and met al Qaeda chief Osama bin Laden.

Now, after being granted an amnesty and being paid to stop making trouble in 2004, Omar openly admits recruiting fighters to send them across the border to fight U.S. and Afghan forces.

He accuses Musharraf of "allying with infidels."

Worse still, the vast majority of the deeply conservative and largely illiterate people support this self-styled Taliban of Waziristan, according to intelligence and government officials.

Waziristan's Taliban advise men to grow beards and veil their women, cameras are banned, and the militant mullahs are trying to stop people watching television or listening to music.

What's the point of having a pet dictator when he can't even secure his own country's borders? Apart from proving to the world that we're complete hypocrites who can't find good help?

Mao was Right this Time

With all the kowtowing that the smirking chimp does for the Chinese dictatorship, you'd think he'd follow Chairman Mao's advice: capture their minds, and their hearts and souls will follow.

We've lost the hearts and minds of the Iraqi people, as Neil Mackay of the UK's Sunday Herald rightly points out in his piece summarizing the recent Pentagon report on the state of the Iraqi occupation:

The Pentagon has admitted that the war on terror and the invasion and occupation of Iraq have increased support for al-Qaeda, made ordinary Muslims hate the US and caused a global backlash against America because of the “self-serving hypocrisy” of George W Bush’s administration over the Middle East.

The mea culpa is contained in a shockingly frank “strategic communications” report, written this autumn by the Defence Science Board for Pentagon supremo Donald Rumsfeld.

On “the war of ideas or the struggle for hearts and minds”, the report says, “American efforts have not only failed, they may also have achieved the opposite of what they intended”.

“American direct intervention in the Muslim world has paradoxically elevated the stature of, and support for, radical Islamists, while diminishing support for the United States to single digits in some Arab societies.”

Referring to the repeated mantra from the White House that those who oppose the US in the Middle East “hate our freedoms”, the report says: “Muslims do not ‘hate our freedoms’, but rather, they hate our policies. The overwhelming majority voice their objections to what they see as one-sided support in favour of Israel and against Palestinian rights, and the long-standing, even increasing support, for what Muslims collectively see as tyrannies, most notably Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Pakistan and the Gulf states (emphasis mine).

Surprise, suprise, suprise. Rather than learn from history, the shrub has chosen to repeat it by taking a page from Nixon's failed foreign war playbook. Grab them by the balls and their hearts will follow didn't work in Vietnam and it isn't working in Iraq, either.

Quote of the Week: May 28, 2006

Grab them by the balls and their hearts will follow. - Richard Nixon

9/11. ’nuff said.

(click here for orignal, full-size strip)

Quote of the Week: May 21, 2006

Universal education is the most corroding and disintegrating poison that liberalism has ever invented for its own destruction. – Adolf Hitler

Self-Loathing Mary Cheney Puts the “Bull” in Bulldyke

Mary Cheney, whose father is the puppet master of an administration that has only harmed men and women in uniform more than gay people over the past five-and-a-half years, recently published her memoirs. Therein, she calls John Kerry a "son of a bitch," and John Edwards "total slime" for doing more for her during the 2004 election than either of her parents ever did up until that point: acknowledging that she is, in fact, a lesbian.

A potty-mouth may well be the best thing Mary Cheney's ever going to get from her old man. With the Republicans tanking in the polls generally, and Mr. Cheney himself trailing rectal warts and ghonorrhea in terms of popularity, the "God, guns, and gays" gears of the Republican spin machine have been put into high gear as the mid-terms loom. As if that weren't a sad enough commentary on how expendable Mary Cheney is in her father's eyes, it bears pointing out that prior to being "outed" by the Kerry-Edwards ticket, Mary Cheney's lesbianism wasn't even acknowledged by those who knew better.

As much as I hate to admit it I find myself in total agreement with Andrew Sullivan, who rightly pointed out:

"The Cheneys didn't respond to . . . [Republican senatorial candidate] Alan Keyes' direct insult of their own daughter in Illinois. They have not voiced objections to a single right-wing piece of homophobia in [the 2004] campaign."

Even worse, I find myself in total agreement with Alan Keyes himself. Mary Cheney, you are a selfish hedonist.

Shame on you.

Quote of the Week: May 14, 2006

When fascism comes to America, it will be wrapped in the flag and carrying a cross. – Sinclair Lewis

U.S.: China Not Manipulating Currency Like They’re Not Manipulating U.S. Policy

You might recall that I referenced an article from Asia Times Online that sheds some light on the nature of Sino-American economic relations and their influence on the the exercise of First Amendment rights in this country. Stephen McArthur at Orwell's Grave has done some terrific follow-up work, blogging about the dangers of China's unchecked economic growth generally to the U.S. economy and following-up on the Asia Times story in particular.

Call me paranoid, but I don't think the Chinese are going to limit themselves to trying to sway our Taiwan policy by using our $1.5B dollar-a-day debt habit against us. The fact is, China owns roughly half of the total U.S. foreign debt – a staggering $1.1 trillion dollars as of January, 2005. It's not hyperbole to say that God only knows what that figure is today; remember that in the smirking chimp's world $9B constitutes an accounting error.

What's the source of my unbridled pessimism about China and how it will wield its financial hammer against the United States of America? This article.

Apparently the United States has concluded that China, in defiance of all logic, is not manipulating its currency to increase its already enormous human capital advantage over U.S. manufacturers. As recently as last month Asia Times Online quoted Standard Chartered Bank senior economist Stephen Green as follows:

"It's true that China is manipulating its currency, but it's also true it's manipulating it in order to appreciate against the dollar. If it was following the basket [currencies such as the dollar, euro and yen used as a reference point] in recent weeks, it would actually be depreciating against the dollar," Green said.

The article goes on to explain:

When China initially revalued its currency upward last July, it committed itself to valuing the yuan against a basket of currencies. However, since the composition of the basket was never precisely defined, at least publicly, it is extremely difficult for outsiders to assess whether China is actually following the policy or not.

Note the timing: that article ran on March 31, 2006 – just ten days after Chinese dictator Hu Jintau visited the leaker-in-chief in Washington, D.C. to talk trade, and ten days before the GAO "concluded" that China is allowing market forces to determine the value of its currency. The reason that the latest currency report to Congress could state that China doesn't technically meet the legal definition of a currency manipulator is because the law forbids depreciating currency. In short, China dodged the "currency manipulator" label because they manipulated their currency!

Why is this a bad thing? Because it allows the persistence of the status quo in Sino-American relations:

• The Iraq fiasco will continue to be financed with what amounts to loans from China, keeping the already sheep-like American electorate from realizing the true cost of the war effort.
• China's ability to influence U.S. foreign and domestic policy by holding our debt over our collective heads will continue to grow in proportion to the amount of U.S. debt they hold.
• It takes some of the steam out of the Schumer-Graham import tarrifs bill, providing political cover to free-traders in both parties while depriving the progressive base of the democratic party a potent issue to rally around.
• It provides a foreign policy figleaf for the smirk to wear.
• It does nothing to stem the loss of manufacturing jobs in the United States, which is not only an economic issue, but a true national security issue as well.

You can put lipstick on a pig and it will still look just like Barbara Bush; you can call a Communist dictatorship that treats its citizens like cattle and makes bellicose threats about nuking Los Angeles a "strategic competitor" and it's still a bellicose Communist dictatorship.

Quote of the Week: May 7, 2006

Liberal policies made America the freest, wealthiest, most successful and most powerful nation in human history. Conservatism in power always threatens to undo that national progress, and is almost always frustrated by the innate decency and democratic instincts of the American people…If your workplace is safe; if your children go to school rather than being forced into labor; if you are paid a living wage, including overtime; if you enjoy a 40-hour week and you are allowed to join a union to protect your rights — you can thank liberals.

If your food is not poisoned and your water is drinkable — you can thank liberals. If your parents are eligible for Medicare and Social Security, so they can grow old in dignity without bankrupting your family — you can thank liberals. If our rivers are getting cleaner and our air isn't black with pollution; if our wilderness is protected and our countryside is still green — you can thank liberals. If people of all races can share the same public facilities; if everyone has the right to vote; if couples fall in love and marry regardless of race; if we have finally begun to transcend a segregated society — you can thank liberals.

Progressive innovations like those and so many others were achieved by long, difficult struggles against entrenched power. What defined conservatism, and conservatives, was their opposition to every one of those advances. The country we know and love today was built by those victories for liberalism — with the support of the American people. - Joe Canoson