MISSION ACCOMPLISHED. 22 NOVEMBER 2008, VICTORY IN IRAQ DAY.

The war in Iraq is over. The US won. The Intrepid Reporter has an amazing firsthand account:

"Jesus wept. You go to sleep on an airplane that stated the destination as "Baghdad" and you wake up somewhere over the fucking rainbow...

Yepper dear readers, the Intrepid Reporter is back in Baghdad... formerly known as the "Club Saddam-A-Go-Go" and it being the favorite third world shooting gallery for Al Queda and the other refuse from the Slums of Syria and Pitfalls of Palestine... well let me tell you... things changed

A LOT.

Got me a hunch that the current IR Reports are going to be a hell of a lot more boring than my writings of yesteryear in '04 and '05. Hell, even '06 with the "Today I washed my sox and my ass during a rocket attack." being the highlights are going to seem positively electric compared to this snoozefest.

INSANELY changed doesn’t begin to describe this place. I’ve landing in Baghdad under fire before and watched random acts of anti-aircraft fire overhead as the locals would try and unsuccessfully utilize old triple a flak guns… I’ve seen Baghdad under lock and key so to speak throughout 04 and 05. NUTHIN and I do mean NUTHIN can begin to describe the change. Quick observations included the fact that the city was all lit up where it had never been before. Try standing on the runway and not having to worry about random acts of rockets, mortars and suchlike. Try no body armor seen on anyone anywhere since I’ve been here… This place is so laid back its stupid... Hell the place I'm currently dossing used to be considered "Indian Country" back in '04... as in the insurgents used to infiltrate through this very area that I'm staying in and try to ambush mo'fo's as they tooled down the hardball..."

What a difference one year makes. The following video shows you shots taken in Baghdad's Dora neighborhood on April 29, 2007 by a reporter embedded with 1/4 Cav., 4th IBCT. Then follow images taken in the same area on October 26, 2008 by someone with 7/10 Cav. 1st IBCT. Hat tip Outsidethewire.



More interesting analysis and commentary over at zombietime.

This victory has of course come at the terrible cost of now close to 4,100 fatalities among US troops, thus not even counting the also not to be underestimated, though of course far smaller, number of casualties among coalition troops. Thousands more have been wounded and maimed. Of those who came out without physical harm, some suffer from PTSD. The human cost also involves broken families, friendships and relations with parents and siblings severed. Taken those 4,100 dead, I don't feel like I should point out that it's "far less" than WWII, Korea, Vietnam or the Civil War. Doing so would make me feel like a douchebag. Every death is a tragedy and as I am typing this, somewhere out there thousands are grieving and hurting and facing shattered lives. So no, I am NOT going to belittle the human sacrifice...

.. but neither am I going to let the Left get away with their blatant hypocrisy and alleged sympathy for the troops. During the five and a half years that the Left was crying crocodile teears over the now 4,100 American servicemen and -women who paid the ultimate price, their legislation facilitated the murder of an estimated six million Americans in the womb of their mother through induced abortions. For those needing even more perspective, consider the following statistic. Over the past summer, an estimated 125 people were shot and killed in Chicago, nearly the double of US military deaths in Iraq during the same period:





Apart from taking out a strategic enemy, the liberation of Iraq was also, and perhaps foremost, about implementing a Battle of Ideas in what is essentially a conflict between two civilizations - the civilized western world vs. the barbaric islamic world. The festering conflict between Israel and the arab world is but the most visible symptom of the major disease of the ummah sphere, namely its unwillingness to live in peace with other peoples and cultures. By 2003, the West, and in particular the US, had been trying to treat that symptom for far too long, using the worn out tactic of endless negotiations. Some would say that the Israeli-Arab conflict is but a sideshow in the whole spectacular dysfunctional show that islam is presenting literally everywhere it gets a foothold. One would be mistaken. Let us not forget that it was because of the 1973 victory of Israel over the arabs that the latter deemed it "right" that the West was punished with higher oil prices, thus causing a severe worldwide recession. Add to that the numerous incursions in the West of islamic terrorists from even before Muenchen to this very day, and it's hard to escape the conclusion that over the pas six decades, the islamic world, and more specifically the Middle East, has been a pain in the ass because of its two major export products, oil and islamic extremism. Anno 2008 I am glad to have witnessed, five years ago, that the West, and in particular the United States, still could spawn a leader like George W. Bush. He had the guts and the character to leave the safe but utterly useless path of smooth talking to muslim barbarians and try instead the radical tactic of forcing democracy upon them. His endeavour was never an easy one, and even though Iraq is now stablised, Al Qaeda defeated, the insurgencies quelled and the Iraqis themselves now seeming to be solving their disputes via parliamentarian votes instead of AK-47's, the ultimate result of the whole undertaking still remains to be seen. However, I WILL gladly put the jubilant "Victory in Iraq Day" banner on this blog, for the troops who made this tactical victory possible deserve it. The larger, strategic victory will be celebrated when one day, non-muslims will be able to walk freely in Mecca and muslim fathers will not kill their daughters, with the support of their wives, because those daughters are dating christians. Is it foolish to even expect such things ever to happen? Perhaps it is. But IF the Bush Administration's Grand Strategy ever fails, it won't be its fault. It handed democracy, rule of law and the tools for constructing a modern, wealthy society to the Iraqis on a silver plate, be it splattered with the blood of thousands of its soldiers. It is now for Iraqis to PROVE that they are worth the American sacrifice. Will they be? It remains to be seen. Just recently, in an ominous development the Iraqi parliament scrapped a provision in the country's electoral law that guaranteed seats for Iraqi Christians. One priest at Baghdad's Sacred Heart Church, Thair al-Sheekh, was quoted as saying "They told us we don't have a place in our government, and we don't know why"...

... so IF, at the end of this all, perhaps decades in the future, the non-muslim part of humanity decides it really has had enough of the followers of an inhumane, intolerant, xenophobic, mysoginic and utterly incurable religion called islam and sees no other way than to turn Mecca in a smoldering radioactive sea of black glass, it won't be because no other things have been tried first.

It is now up to Iraqis. It is up to muslims. The rest of the world is waiting. For the moment, let the troops celebrate their rightful victory, just like British troops celebrated theirs at El Alamein in 1942, when, too, a positive outcome was also by no means certain, but cheers were nevertheless well deserved.





MFBB.

CHURCHILL WOULD NOD.

Winston Churchill once famously said: "The best argument against democracy is a five minutes conversation with the average voter."

Indeed.





Mind you, I don't think the picture is that different on the Republican side. It's just that apparently the clueless people on the left far outnumbered their counterparts on the right. Being somewhat of a political junkie myself, upon seeing this video I had a sense of déjà vu. Basically it's the same over here, with people being completely unable to answer even the simplest questions. They may know the Prime Minister but once you start asking what exactly the difference between executive and legislative power is, you get blank stares most if not all of the time. As society evolves and becomes more complex, as the whole world in all its facets, from the technology that surrounds us to the legislation that governs our life to the infrastructure that is being raised around us... becomes more complex.... isn't it appropriate that people should at least be able to present a basic understanding of how the political system works, the issues politicians stand for, and the way their votes can make a difference? Years ago I toyed with the idea that in order to be able to cast a vote, people should first be required to submit a test consisting of a limited set of questions proving that at least they understand what is at stake. I don't think such a test would be undemocratic. It's not undemocratic that you are required to have a driver's license before you are allowed on the street in a vehicle weighing a ton and capable of reaching 130 miles an hour. Not requiring a license would lead to a plethora of grave accidents and great loss of life.

Likewise, letting clueless people decide the fate of a nation - people who cast a vote based on a fluffy warm feeling rather than on solid, rational, verifiable facts - strikes me as an act of folly just as crazy, only of a millionfold magnitude. Hey, like I said, society evolves. Why shouldn't the electoral process? Why shouldn't tests be in order?

Hat tip Quid Nimis.



MFBB.

ISLAMIC CANCER EATING AWAY INDIA.

For a vast country and emerging superpower as India, it sure gets little attention. I was reminded of that upon reading the entry "The muslim insurgency in India" in today's Gates of Vienna. Baron Bodissey has some astute remarks:

"India is the single largest theater of conflict in the Counterjihad. There are about 140 million Muslims in India — roughly equivalent to half the population of Western Europe — and they comprise more than 13% of the nation’s population. Since the Partition of 1947, which separated India from Pakistan (and what is now Bangladesh), the percentage of Muslims in India has increased significantly, while the Hindus and Sikhs of Bangladesh and Pakistan have all but disappeared.

India is subjected to frequent and horrendous terrorist attacks committed by Muslim extremists. If the amount of death and suffering caused by the average Muslim terrorist attack in India were experienced in the West, it would be a crisis of unprecedented magnitude. But such things happen in India all the time.

According to the few contacts I have in India, the political culture on the subcontinent is as much in thrall to the madness of political correctness as is the United States or Europe. Well-meaning people want to believe that Muslims in India are just like anybody else, and that any problems with them are due to a lack of understanding or a failure of outreach."

For those offended by the provocative title of this post, read again the first paragraph of the Baron's post. Indeed, despite the fact in 1947 vast migrations took place between what was then West and East Pakistan and India - muslims moving from India to the Pakistans and Hindus into the opposite direction - large numbers of muslims and hindus remained in both countries (it should be recalled that in 1971 East Pakistan became Bangladesh). And yet, sixty years later, both Pakistan and Bangladesh are practically Hindu-free (or shall we say Hindurein), while in India, majority Hindu to begin with, tens of millions of muslims have apparently, if not thrived, then at least lived good enough to prefer to continue live in the world's largest democracy.

It is precisely this observation, which for some reason until now eluded me, that caused me to put the above title in place instead of the more politically correct "Islamic extremism eating away India".

Why is that in EVERY country where a large muslim body becomes majority, the tipping point heralds an accelerated religious cleansing of non-muslim minorities thereafter?

India's The Sunday Pioneer has a compelling article, by Chandan Mitra:

"It's 63 and counting. That's the number of bomb blasts that have happened in India over the last six months. This works out to an average of one every three days! Of course, blasts usually don't happen singly. Most of the time, they are serial in nature for jihadis have perfected the art of creating a cascade of terror, be it in Mumbai, Hyderabad, Jaipur, Ahmedabad, Bangalore, Delhi or Guwahati.

The Government will not admit this, but the jihadis have succeeded in their diabolical aim of creating an atmosphere of insecurity and fear across the country. No city, no State is immune to this. Even if explosions haven't happened in Kerala yet, it doesn't mean that terror merchants don't have the State on their radar.

...

The terrorists' strategy is two-pronged. First, they wish to destabilise the economy and cripple visible symbols of India's success -- the Bombay Stock Exchange building, Indian Institute of Science and offices of IT giants in Bangalore, to name just two. Alongside, they seek to knock the bottom out of Narendra Modi's Vibrant Gujarat, paralyse Rajasthan's tourism-driven economy, and spread panic through Delhi since events in the national Capital have a multiplier effect on publicity.

Their second, but parallel, strategy is to create pockets of Muslim dominance to serve as recruiting grounds through exploitation of the community's perceived sense of victimhood. That explains the concerted manner in which liberal and "secular" opinion was mobilised in defence of the Batla House terrorists in Delhi and the selective targeting of Bodo people in the Assam blasts -- a transparent bid to coerce indigenous populations of the North-Eastern States into submission...."

I'm sorry to spoil the happy multiculti dreams of a bunch of naives out there, but as time goes by, the evidence becomes undeniable. Islam is Cancer.


MFBB.

UPCOMING: VALKYRIE.

Here's one movie you don't want to miss. Even if you're not a World War Two nutjob like me.



Numerous attempts took place to assassinating Adolf Hitler. None came as close as the one staged by Count Colonel Klaus Schenk Von Stauffenberg on July 20, 1944. The fascinating story of that long ago endeavour was just begging to be filmed. Say about Tom Cruise what you will, but over the years I have grudglingly come to respect him as an actor. There was a time in my student's years when he did not seem all that indistinguishable from the Brat Pack, you know, Molly Ringwald, Judd Nelson, Rob Lowe, Matthew Broderick etc etc. After all these years, there's basically only one still standing - and standing tall: Cruise. I'm sure there are other great actors out there able to play the charismatic Colonel - I think Clive Owen might have pulled off a good job too - but with Cruise I'm sure it's going to be a failsafe shot. The time for release seems incongruous - near year's end and Christmas. But then this is a timeless story. Don't miss it.


MFBB.

DESMOND TUTU IS A SCHTOOPID FOOKING IDIOT.

Some exerpts from an November WaPo article by South Africa's mentally/dentally challenged Archbishop Desmond Tutu on the occasion of Obama's victory:

When war began, first in Afghanistan and not long after in Iraq, we read allegations of prisoner abuse at Bagram air base in Afghanistan and of rendition to countries notorious for practicing torture. We saw the horrific images from Abu Ghraib and learned of gruesome acts performed in the name of gathering information. Sometimes the torture itself was couched in the government's euphemisms -- calling waterboarding an "interrogation technique."... To the outgoing administration's record on torture we must add a string of other policies that have damaged the standing of the United States in the world: its hostility to the Kyoto Protocol on greenhouse gases; its refusal to assent to the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court, establishing the ICC's role in prosecuting war crimes; its restrictions on the use of U.S. funding to fight AIDS; and the arrogant unilateralism it has employed in declaring to be enemies any countries it deemed "against us" because they were not "for us."

Oh yeah f*cking *sshole? Sorry you blistering old fool. The war did not begin in Afghanistan nor in Iraq. It began in New York, on 9/11. May I also draw your attention to the fact that your revered Kyoto Protocol is a sham and that over the period 1990-2004 greenshouse gas emission by China and India - signatories to the Protocol - actually rose by 47 and 55% respectively (compared to the US's 15.8%)? As for "the horrific images from Abu Ghraib", how about this?



One of the 1,600 murder victims, the overwhelming majority of them white, in over 10,700 attacks by blacks on white-owned South African farms since 1994. Now, one has to be very cautious by suggesting a link between these horrible murders (plaasmoorde in Afrikaans) and the ANC-dominated government, but it is a fact that the sheer brutality aimed specifically at white farmers is starkly reminiscent of the Zimbabwean example whereby the government, with disastrous results, deliberately let loose gangs of thugs on its white farmers as part of its "land reform programme". The official aim of the SA government is to transfer one third of white-owned farmland to black farmers by 2014. The friendly ties between the Zimbabwean and South African governments are well known, and the ANC has always been a hotbed of radical murderous terrorists. Isn't it entirely plausible that radical ANC elements in the SA government, with the silent approval of the "decent" cadres, have been simply applying Mugabes tactics to scare and chase away the Boers in order to facilitate South African "redistribution"? A telling ANC slogan was "Kill the Boer, Kill the Farmer" by Peter Mokaba, an ANC youth leader later turned Deputy Minister for Environmentalism and Tourism (he was also an AIDS denialist, ironically he died a couple of years back from that same disease). And then there is of course the example set by that old commie hag of a Nelson Mandela himself, caught here on tape advocating the murder of whites:



There's a gigantic body of evidence there hinting very strongly at involvement of ANC elements and even South African Police in the "plaasmoorde". Tutu must be aware of this.

But even the scandalous dismissal of the horrible murders on white farmers as random acts of murder by the SA government and important black personages like Tutu is trumped by the sheer negligence and denial with which that government treats the country's greatest peril: the AIDS endemic. Here are some conservative (?) estimates on the prevalence of HIV in the New South Africa:

National estimates based on all surveys

Based on a wide range of data, including the household and antenatal studies, UNAIDS/WHO in July 2008 published an estimate of 18.1% prevalence in those aged 15-49 years old at the end of 2007. Their high and low estimates are 15.4% and 20.9% respectively. According to their own estimate of total population (which is another contentious issue), this implies that around 5.7 million South Africans were living with HIV at the end of 2007, including 280,000 children under 15 years old.

The ASSA2003 model produces a similar estimate of 5.4 million people living with HIV in mid-2006, or around 11% of the total population. It predicts that the number will exceed 6 million by 2015, by which time around 5.4 million South Africans will have died of AIDS.

Of course, the picture is no different in the rest of black Africa, but South Africa presents an especially grave case, even more so in light of the position of relative prosperity vis-à-vis other African countries that white rule has given the nation. But of course, what can you expect if for years on end ANC thugs can produce no one better than a Manto Tshabalala-Msimang for Health Minister, whose recipe in 2006 against AIDS was... eating garlic and beetroot. It took the departure of Thabo Mbeki as SA President for Tshabalala-Msimang to disappear from the scene... in September 2008.

Along the way of Africa's plight something happened though, in 2003. That was the year PEPFAR was launched. PEPFAR stands for the "President's Emergency Plan For AIDS Relief" and involved a $15 billion commitment over five years (2003–2008) from President Bush to fight the global HIV/AIDS pandemic, with an almost exclusive focus on African countries. PEPFAR initially aimed to give antiretroviral treatment (ART) to 2 million HIV-infected people in the worst affected areas, to prevent 7 million new cases, and to provide care for 10 million people (the "2-7-10 goals") by 2010. PEPFAR was a very effective initiative, increasing the number of Africans receiving ART from 50,000 in 2003 to 1.1 million by March 2007 and an estimated 1.4 million by early 2008, at about the time that Michelle Obama deemed this accomplishment as yet another US feat she, as a African American, could not be proud of. Even though 1.4 million is still small compared to the roughly 33 million HIV/AIDS sufferers worldwide, it's not exaggerated to state that PEPFAR is one of the most successful medical/humanitarian programs of the past decades.




Actually, by early 2008 he money spent was rather 18 billion dollars, 3 billion up from the original goal of 15. But you wouldn't know that from the MSM. Nor would you know from them that, as PEPFAR I expired earlier this year, President Bush had a PEPFAR II in the scaffolds:

(HealthNewsDigest.com) - WASHINGTON - AIDS Healthcare Foundation (AHF), hailed President Bush for signing legislation to re-authorize PEPFAR (the President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief). The measure, which was signed in a formal signing ceremony earlier today in Washington, increases funding for the successful global AIDS program from $15 billion up to $48 billion over the next five years. As a result, PEPFAR, which is likely to be among the President’s most successful and lasting legacies, will save five to seven million lives over the next five years.

“Passage of this historic legislation is a crucial turning point in the battle to control AIDS around the world,” said Michael Weinstein, President, AIDS Healthcare Foundation, which provides medical care and services to more than 79,000 individuals in 20 countries worldwide. ”Over the past several months, AHF worked diligently to persuade legislators to restore PEPFAR’s priority on treatment. We take our hats off to everyone who helped ensure that this lifesaving global AIDS bill became a reality.”

It was all to no avail.

On November 9, 2008, Desmond Tutu was allowed to write in the Washington Post:

Today Africans walk taller than they did a week ago -- just as they did when Nelson Mandela became South Africa's first black president in 1994. Not only Africans, but people everywhere who have been the victims of discrimination at the hands of white Westerners, have a new pride in who they are. If a dark-skinned person can become the leader of the world's most powerful nation, what is to stop children everywhere from aiming for the stars? The fact that Obama's Kenyan grandfather was a convert to Islam may -- shamefully -- have been controversial in parts of the United States, but elsewhere in the world, Obama's multi-faith heritage is an inspiration.

And the president-elect has one additional key quality: He is not George W. Bush.

Someone tell this... f*cking fool, asshat superdeluxe, ignorant dimwit, overrated fourteenth rank "bishop", blistering idiot with long overdue porridge for brains... THAT IF MILLIONS OF AFRICANS ARE TODAY WALKING TALLER THAN THEY DID FIVE YEARS AGO... IT IS BECAUSE OF GEORGE W. BUSH!!!





In Flanders, we have a saying: "Ondank is 's werelds loon" - Ingratitude is the world's reward.

It most certainly is.


MFBB.

SUNDAY BEAUTIES.

Every week on Sunday our own personal Gunnery Sergeant Hartmann has a "Sunday Funnies" up. I hope he's not offended by me calling him sgt, btw. Personally, I think the CDR is a Rear Admiral or something, or at least the skipper of a nukular carrier. Anyway, I figured we should do something similar since, hey, we can't rail against the socialization of the US or the f*cking islamization of Europe all the time. In vain looking for something worth repeating every seventh day, and alas being a rather humorless and dour character myself, I quickly bumped against the limitations of my sphere of interests. So here it is, I will have to confine myself to this topic. I'm sure you'll all heartbroken.





Hey, admit it's better than looking at a faucet. Charles Johnson eat your heart out!!! DowneastBlog-LGF 1-0!!!


Obersturmbannfuehrer MFBB.