MEET FREDDY THIELEMANS, MAYOR OF BRUSSELS. COWARD. TRAITOR. DHIMMI. SOCIALIST STINKER.

Comment 849. E K Cohen From Arizona, USA: To Mr. Mayor Freddy Thielemans: My US Army father did not endure the Battle of the Bulge so that I could watch Belgians kneel before barbarian invaders. Shame on you!

OK, so what happened? On September 11, 2007, the SIOE organization [Stop The Islamization of Europe - MFBB] intended to organize a demo in Brussels, in front of the European Parliament, to protest against what they call the "invasion of muslim customs". In particular, SIOE protests against the encroaching influence of islamic sharia law on relations within Europes muslim communities - and, by extension, to the relations of muslims with indigenous Europeans. Societal trends and separate cases give indeed ample reason for concern, and to name but a few we cite the results of a 2006 UK poll, which revealed that 40% of British muslims wanted sharia law to be introduced in parts of the country; the purposeful "soft" expulsion and discreet intimidation of indigenous shop owners by their moroccan counterparts in Borgerhout, Antwerp; the steeply rising number of honor revenge cases, e.g. in Rotterdam; the molestation of gays and muslim apostates in Amsterdam, the continentwide building of highly visible mosques, funded with money from the Gulf region and under the auspices of Milli Gorus, the Muslim Brotherhood etc etc etc...



Europe had to wait a long time for it, but apparently we are reaching a point whereby sufficient indigenous Europeans are saying "Enough is enough". And so it was that three apolitical European organizations, concerned about the growing influence of Islam, decided to bundle their forces and hold a peaceful demonstration against the Islamization of Europe in Brussels. The event was scheduled for the 11th of September, the West's most symbolic date in its conflict with political islam, and indeed SIOE planned to hold a 1-minute silence to commemmorate the victims of 9/11. SIOE groups the UK's No Sharia Here, led by Stephen Gash, the Danish SIAD (Stop Islamiseringen af Danmark) from Anders Gravers, and last but not least the German Pax Europa, under the chairmanship of Dr. Udo Ulfkotte.


The aims of SIOE, as stated on their site, are:

1° SIOE exists to legally combat the overt and covert expansion of Islam in Europe.

2° SIOE condemns racism as the lowest form of human stupidity, but considers Islamophobia to be the height of common sense.

3° SIOE states that Islam and democracy are incompatible due to teachings within the Koran itself and some of the hadiths which comprise sharia law.

4° SIOE sees that such incompatibility is self-evident when those tenuous democracies in countries where Islam is the dominant religion are scrutinized.

You can agree or disagree with these aims, and personally, with regards to 3°) and 4°) I am still waiting for the US-led effort to implant democracy in the ME to succeed. I still hope the resulting growth in wealth and prosperity, coupled with the Rule of Law, will allow afree enough intellectual climate to take root from which truly moderate religious scholars will step forward, proposing more benign teachings of islam. At the very least, greater material wealth in the ME will in itself stem the influx of muslims in Europe, who now flee their native countries because they live in squalor and under tyranny, and who seem not to comprehend that the very lifestyles they import here are exactly the reasons they lived in squalor and under tyranny.

But these are only minor differences. While the US's prodigious and bold undertaking in the ME can, and should, continue its way, the current ongoing Islamization of Europe does present a "clear and present danger", to be addressed immediately and simultaneously. This really is a clash between civilizations, and typically for our respective cultures, the West's move to finally bring the muslim world in line with the rest of humanity is highly visible and open, while their move to cast a whole continent back into the Middle Ages is mostly a treacherous and covert affair, planned and orchestrated from MB headquarters and Ministries of Religious Affairs.

Well then, as late as Tuesday 7 August, SIOE's Ulfkotte and co-organizers had a meeting with some fifteen Brussels police officials and according to Ulfkotte "there were no problems whatsoever". Two days later, on 9 August, the demonstration had been forbidden by Brussels' Mayor, Freddy Thielemans. According to press reports, he did so after conferring with police and "other services", and he "feared that there would be incidents between demonstrators and immigrants who live in the neighborhood." His spokesman Nicolas Dassonville added:

"The danger for public order is too great. There is an important immigrant community nearby which might react. Moreover, the organization uses islamophobic language."

As if to provoke, Thielemans and Dassonville hastened to declare that every year, they receive between five and six hundred requests for demonstrations, and that over the past five years they only forbade five or six. So there you have it. An apolitical organization asks for permission to stage a demonstration to highlight a very obvious and worrisome development, and is denied the right to protest. By contrast, last year muslim organizations staged a demonstration in Brussels against the headscarf ban, WITHOUT EVEN HAVING ASKED PERMISSION, and... were given a free hand. The news of Thielemans' capitulation to islamic radicals, since that is what it is, caused quite some uproar in the Belgium. In response to this, Thielemans declared "that it was not so much violence from islamic immigrants he feared, but rather from rightwing extremists". Which is, of course, total bullshit. Ulfkotte's SIOE most emphatically distances itself from any political leanings or agenda, and has clearly demanded its demo be not abused by politicians of whatever stripe for their own purposes. Mr. Ulfkotte:

"We are no extreme rightwing stone-throwers but peaceful people who want to come up for our rights. Is this no longer possible in the Capital of Europe? This strenghtens us in our resolve. Has radical islam advanced so much that a scared mayor takes such decisions? We will possibly hire lawyers to fight this decision."

Dr. Udo Ulfkotte knows what he is talking about when the subject is islam. This professor and former journalist spent twelve to fifteen years in islamic countries, mostly as a correspondent for the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, and his experiences with this backward, mysogynic and utterly inhuman "religion" were so bad that back home in Europe he endeavoured on a personal quest to make westerners aware of the dangers of islam. Recently, during an interview with Muenchener Merkur, he remarked on his motives:

"I have seen executions in KSA and in Yemen, how hacked off hands were attached to the City Gate. I have seen stonings of women, how people are classified in different categories and experienced the antihuman world view of muslims."

Thielemans' decision to stifle freedom of speech becomes understandable when we learn about the person behind the name. He is a prominent member of the Parti Socialiste, the "Party of 1,000,000 scandals". This is not the time to elaborate on the subject, but it is safe to say that very likely no other party in the western hemisphere has such a dismal record of scandal, fraud, gross incompetence, political murder and silencing of political opponents. The Parti Socialiste has been governing Wallonia, Belgium's southern French-speaking half, for over sixty years. In so doing, they have so thoroughly ruined Wallonia morally, economically and financially that Wallonia cannot survive without important financial transfers from rich Flanders, Belgium's northern half. Yet further evidence of the bankruptcy of the Parti Socialiste way of governance was offered this week, when stats comparing cardiac arrests in Ghent, a typical Flemish city, with those in Charleroi, a typical Wallonian city, revealed that as a male citizen in Charleroi your chances on an acute cardiac arrest are twice as high as in Ghent.

It is a common phenomenon in all European areas that where socialists are losing indigenous votes, they start catering to the audiences they see as the next most important vote reservoir: immigrants, and in Europe that means mostly islamic immigrants. The prime constituency among these are not the first generation workers who came here searching for jobs, but rather the second and third generations, marred by high unemployment and characterized by their growing radicalization (third generationers are often far more religious than their predecessors). For over two decades now these people have been told by socialist politicians that the reason they live in squalor is not their own culture, but (western) society and racism from indigenous locals. This story fell not on deaf ears in a community which is notorious for its lack of self-criticism and love for conspiracy theories. In short, this is how socialism and islam found each other, and it shows. Brussels is the Belgian city with the largest number of islamic immigrants, and not surprisingly the PS is Brussels largest party. In the City Council, it holds 17 of the 47 seats. Of those 17, 10 are Muslims. The PS's coalition partner are the Christian-Democrats, with 11 councillors, of whom 2 are Muslims. Taking apart the non-islamic immigrants, then less than half of the City of Brussels' governing coalition, 13 out of 28 councillors, are native Belgians - among them Thielemans. And it is not so hard to imagine how the 10 muslim councillors in his fraction of 17 advised him how to deal with a "Stop the Islamization of Europe" demonstration.

This is not the first time that Freddy Thielemans - btw, not related to Toots - reveals himself to be a big friend of muslims, even though his buddies utterly despise his party's "progressive" ethics such as gay marriage, gay adoption, the facilitating of abortion etc etc. He is a notorious bon vivant - his rosy-red, fat appearance being so typical for a lot of Parti Socialiste bigshots - and last year, when he had to undergo a medical treatment on account of his lavish lifestyle, he appointed as Deputy Mayor the Algerian born Faouzia Hariche, who is, you guess it, a muslim. One explanation for Thielemans' love for the followers of the prophet is that they, like him, hate Christianity and Christians. A nice illustration thereof is the incident he had with his colleague of Angoulême, France. Angoulême and Brussels compete with each other for the title of European Cartoon Capital. Delegations from both rivals visit each other though, and in April 2005, when the Angoulême delegation led by Mayor Philippe Mottet, was visiting Brussels and having a drink with Thielemans, the latter received an SMS on his cell phone informing him of the death of Pope John Paul II. Instantly Thielemans, an atheist, exclaimed to those present: "Du champagne pour tout le monde et de l'eau pétillante pour M. Philippe Mottet!" [Champagne for everyone and sparkling water for Mr. Philippe Mottet! - MFBB]. The center-right Mr. Mottet (he is a member of Sarkozy's UMP as well as a catholic) and his delegation left the meeting in disgust prematurely, and were not present on an inauguration ceremony the following day. Apparently the brave Mr. Thielemans has no fear of offending adherents of certain other religious denominations.


Thielemans' refusal to grant permission for SIOE's demonstration is but one illustration of how, throughout Europe, socialism and islam have gotten in bed with each other. All over Europe, prominent socialists take care not to "offend" their newfound constituency, muslims. Take Amsterdam, for example, where recently the Jewish (!) mayor, Job Cohen, of the Dutch socialist party PvdA, upon learning of the involvement of the Muslim Brotherhood in the building of Amsterdam's Westermoskee, declared that the MB was "not a dangerous organization". The radical islamist organization MB, founded by Hassan al-Banna in 1928, is known to have spawned several terrorist groups, like Hamas and Islamic Jihad. As if that wasn't bad enough, Cohen found it necessary last month to apologize for... several of the late Theo Van Goghs rowdy opinions on islam. Across the Channel, Cohen's colleague in the British Capital is even farther down the cliff. The lunatic Ken Livingstone, nicknamed "Red Ken", already made headlines by calling a Jewish journalist a concentration camp guard, befriending Hugo Chavez and apologizing for British Muslims leaving for the ME to commit terrorism. Livingstone is the big promotor of London's Mega Mosque Project, the Markaz, which is designed to accommodate up to 70,000 worshippers. The organization behind the Markaz is Tablighi Jamaat, according to the FBI an organization with ties to... Al Qaeda.


In Paris, the openly gay Socialist Mayor Bertrand Delanoe does his utmost best to please the followers of the prophet, just like his Dutch and British counterparts. The new Al-Dawa mosque and the planned adjacent socio-cultural centre will be built on a terrain of 3,000 square meters, generously offered by Mr. Delanoe - whose office also organizes yearly events at the occasion of the Ramadan. In October 2006, Mr. Delanoe personally inaugurated a new "Institute of Muslim Cultures", built in an old state school in the Rue Léon, Paris. A zeal like that is a bit strange, given that Mr. Delanoe narrowly escaped death in 2002 when he was stabbed in the stomach by... a muslim. Upon arrest, the perpetrator, a certain Azedine Berkane, admitted he "disliked gays".


Over to Berlin, where the end of this year will probably see the completion of the new Ahmadiyya Mosque in Pankow, a neighborhood in the former East Berlin. Berlin's mayor is a jolly good fellow by the name of Klaus Wowereit, openly gay and like so many socialists (he's a prominent member of the SPD) a pork barrel spender, see this TIME article: "Even though the financial and economic situation of a city may be bad," Wowereit says, "you must show a sense of enjoyment in life." Enjoy the good life while you still can, Mr. Wowereit. Btw, now that we were talking about pork and pork barrel spending, last year, during a television debate with his Christian Democrat contender for burgomaster of Berlin, Mr. Wowereit declared himself to be in favor of a "world-open Berlin" [Weltoffenes Berlin], as well as a strong advocate of the building of the new Ahmadiyya mosque in Pankow. It can be seriously doubted whether the good people of said mosque appreciated Mr. Wowereits concern and support, since their website cites, a.o., Khalifa [a religious bigshot in the Ahmadiyya sect] Hazrat Mirza Tahir Ahmad, who wrote that the higher visibility of homosexuals in the West (couples walking hand in hand, Gay Pride parades etc.) can be connected to the consumption of pork meat! Probably Mr. Wowereit simply ate far too much Schweinefleisch.


This list would not be complete without Philippe Moureaux, the mayor of Molenbeek, one of the 19 communes of Greater Brussels. Moureaux is one of the top Parti Socialiste officials in the whole of Brussels, and Molenbeek is his personal fiefdom. It was he who, in 2005, forbade his police officers to drink coffee and eat sandwiches in the streets during Ramadan. He also ordered them to limit their patrols significantly. Today, Molenbeek is a hotbed of Islamic extremism. Apart from his career in local politics, Moureaux has also been, in times past, a pivotal figure in Belgium's federal political arena, where he was deeply involved in drafting the law allowing non-Belgians to vote in municipal elections, as well legislation against racism and xenophobia. Over the years, this legislation was time and again amended until it was tailor-made, so to say, to "kill" the Vlaams Blok - or so Moureaux & Co thought. That was in 2004, and the VB only escaped being completely outlawed by changing its name. Philippe Moureaux' hatred of the VB is not only because of the "racism" he and his ilk perceive in this party or in each and everyone who dares to object to obvious problems caused by muslim immigrants. No, this man hates Flemings because he is a racist himself, and a fierce anti-Fleming racist at that. I have known him for over twenty-five years now, and during all this time I have never heard this cretin utter a single word in Flemish. I bet however, that by now he does speak quite a mouthful of arabic. After all, he married a muslim wife.


EPILOGUE.

The following comment was left on a De Standaard poll page, put up to feel the pulse with regards to the rightness of Thielemans' decision. The comment is from a Flemish student living in Molenbeek.

As a Flemish student in Molenbeek I seem to discern a problematic, cultural islamic influence: during the day or at night I have, until now, never been harassed. Women on the other hand are inevitably addressed at night if they aren't accompanied by a man. Young muslims call the women then denigrating names and follow them on foot or with their cars. I am not talking here about threats or robberies. Still, this practice is daily bread and legally speaking difficult to penalize. As a consequence, women feel unsafe and dare no longer venture out alone at night. And even if there are more than two, they still prefer that a boy accompanies them. In this way muslim culture, in a subtle way, achieves its goal. Namely that the woman without headscarf has no business on the streets at night. And so the indigenous woman unwillingly accepts muslim culture. Like I already said, the deeds look futile, the consequences are not!!! Frederic.

If you love freedom, sign that petition:




MFBB

NEW TOYS FOR BELGIAN CONTINGENT IN AFGHANISTAN.

Imagine my surprise when I came across these photos, picked from the Belgian Army website. It shows troopers on a shooting range near Kabul, equipped with a weird-looking gun. After scrutinizing them, it was clear that the weapon in question is the FN F-2000, first shown to the public in 2001.



Despite its short length, an F-2000 is a relatively bulky weapon with (for a handheld gun) large vertical surfaces, which is why these examples are camouflaged. Notice that Belgian soldiers retain the older Kevlar PASGT helmet [PASGT = Personal Armor System for Ground Troops - MFBB]. Personally, I fail to comprehend why the US Army dispensed with them in favor of the new ACH [ACH = Advanced Combat Helmet], which is distinctively smaller. I have read all the stuff concerning its lighter weight and comfortable feeling, its alleged better ballistic and impact protection, its compatibility with the most recent night vision devices and communication equipment and so on. But it seems to me the soldier on the ground had definitely less protection in the neck and ears area, and I fear troopers will once again pay the price in blood for it. The reason the US Army adopted the M1 helmet back in 1941 was just because the WWI-era M1917 helmet only protected the top of the head, and it looks that in this regard the ACH is a step back over the PASGT. Murdoc Online agrees with me. Check out his post on this subject, it has a good graphic to illustrate the increased vulnerability.



The vehicle in the back is a Kraus Maffei-produced Dingo 2 multipurpose armoured vehicle with a remote-controlled machinegun on top. The Belgian army purchased 220 Dingo 2's in its various forms and currently has a handful in Afghanistan as well as some in Lebanon. Together with a host of other wheeled vehicles they are meant to replace ALL tracked armoured vehicles, which basically is an insanity, but then Belgium had for the past eight years a socialist Defense Minister, André Flahaut, who singlehandedly helped the armed forces a good way towards it transformation to the world's biggest kaki-clad transportation company, with the majority of its obese and middle aged truckers running silly errands. As has been stated on these pages before, civilized countries should have written it in their constitution that a socialist can never run a defense ministry. For some time, it looked like Canada might have committed the same fatal error as Belgium when it considered scrapping all its Leopard MBT's in favor of armoured cars. Luckily, they didn't and its Leopards have come in mighty handy in AF. Other western countries, like Sweden, are even worse off than Belgium, see this article, "Years of Cuts have left Sweden defenseless", but then Sweden has the most abominable history in Europe when it comes to leftist governance. All of this does of course not detract from the Dingo's undisputable qualities, but in my view it is rather an up-armoured Humvee than a wheeled Bradley AIFV. It will never be able to perform the duties of the latter, and this is where our policy makers have (again) gone wrong.



Now for the FN F-2000. It is probably the world's most modern assault gun, combining all modern features required of this weapon such as compact bullpup design [bullpup = shooting mechanism and magazine located behind the trigger - MFBB], modularity (the FN-2000 can literally be tailor-made by adding or leaving off diverse options), and fully ambidextrous handling. The latter means that its design is such that it can with the same easy be used by right and left handed users. It can be fitted with 40 mm FN EGLM grenade launchers as well as a computerized fire control system. The F2000's calibre is 5.56x45 mm NATO, it weighs 4.6 kg with a 40mm grenade launcher, and it's a gas operated, rotating bolt, selective-fire weapon, utilizing a short-stroke gas piston and a 7-lug rotating bolt which locks into the barrel extension. Possibly the most unique feature of the F-2000 is its patented front ejection system: the spent cases, extracted from the chamber, exit the gun via an ejection tube lading from the gun's rear its ejection port near the muzzle, where they fall out at a safe distance from the shooter's face! A special swinging guide, entering the way of the closing bolt, directs the spent case, held on the bolt face, to this ejection tube. At the same time, lower lugs of the bolt strip a fresh cartridge from the 30-round magazine.



This photo, when compared to the picture before, leaves not a shred of doubt anymore about the gun's identity. The gun sight is different... but then the rail on top of the weapon allows for different sights and scopes. An F-2000 is shorter than an M-4, but its barrel is actually comparable, possibly longer (400mm) due to the bullpup design. Its rate of fire is 850 rounds/minute, its effective range 500 meters (without gunsights).

On most Internet sources you'll find that the FN F2000 rifle is only operated by Belgian Special Forces (since 2004), the Slovenian Army, and Peruvian and Chilean Special Forces. Since the current batch of soldiers on duty in Afghanistan is actually drawn from an artillery unit (2nd Artillery Regiment) these photos prove that the FN F-2000 has found its way to mainstream Belgian Army units. With regards to other users beyond the ones above, I cannot exactly rejoice in the rumour that Saudi Arabia signed a deal with FN Herstal in 2005 to procure 50,000 (!) F-2000's... to complement its FN P-90's!

Whether the FN F-2000's will ever be used against Taliban is another matter. The 300 troops in Afghanistan are still only guarding KAIA (Kabul International Airport), and the Belgian government issued a truckload of caveats with regards to their use. The Netherlands is a comparable country, but they have been effective and stalwart allies of the US in Iraq and especially in Afghanistan, where they have the equivalent of a light brigade (some 2,000 personnel with a LOT of heavy matériel) operating in the dangerous Uruzgan province. Maybe, just maybe, Belgium's engagement in the WOT may be upgraded a bit in the coming months. I admit it's a big maybe since Belgian politicians, regardless of their stripe, usually have backbones as consistent as spaghetti which has been lying in boiling water for over one week. There have been parliamentary elections on June 10 and while we are still waiting for a government to be formed, it does look as it's going to be a coalition of liberals and christian democrats. Not that these have any basic understanding of defense matters, but at least the socialists will very likely land in the opposition. And that alone is a big step in the right direction.


MFBB.

AMSTERDAMS WESTERMOSKEE AND OTHER STORIES: NEVER TRUST ISLAMISTS. OR IS IT RATHER 'NEVER TRUST ISLAM ITSELF?'

On March 20, 2006, we reported on these pages how the then Duch Justice Minister Piet Hein Donner, a dhimmi multiculti idiot if ever there was one, had his signature chiseled in a commemmoration plaque marking the start of the construction of the Westermoskee, in Amsterdams "De Baarsjes" neighborhood. This mosque is to become Hollands biggest, with a 43-meter high minaret and a sprawling complex with apartments and offices around it. One year and a half later, the project is bogged down in shady conflicts between the muslim overseers from Milli Görüs on the one hand and the Dutch building association "Het Oosten" and the Dutch authorities on the other hand, and between muslims themselves. There is a huge fraud scandal with so-called "Green funds" involving a former Turkish financier and Milli Görüs, which is, according to the German Bundesverfassungsshuetz, an extremist organization. In the course of one year and a half, the muslim project organizers have behaved so callously and untrustworthy that in Dutch Parliament even the socialist party PvdA now wants to scrap the Westermoskee's building authorization.

The following is the response in the Dutch magazine Trouw of Fatih Dag, strongman of the Dutch Milli Görüs branch responsible for building the mosque:

He [Fatih Dag] would find that "very stupid". "I will then immediately call for a demonstration. A bus [with demonstrators] from every Milli Görüs mosque in Europe, that's going to be busy you know. I haven't tipped Al Jazeera, but it will certainly get a whiff of it, and I will speak to them. This is going around the whole arabic world, I brace myself for the backlash. All muslims have a satellite disc, so they see how a magnificent muslim project is forbidden here. Don't forget: we started out here with some Turks, but after all the objections it has become quite something for a lot of muslims in Europe. I expect among them an uprisal, of course (sic) within legal bounds,but still: our people are more emotional than you, Europeans. And there may be a madman among them." Is that a threat? "No, it is insight in how sensitive this issue is. I worry about that."

What has happened is that:

a.) Shortly after the symbolical first stone laying on March 20, 2006, the two strongmen of the mosque project were shoved aside. First the chairman of the local Milli Görüs branch, Haci Karacaer, who resigned "because he was tired". Then it was the turn of moneymaker and businessman Üzeyir Kabaktepe , who, it seems, had to go because of the German branch, which is (not so) secretly pulling the ropes behind the whole project. Of course, given Europes experience with "liberal" muslims, it is not too far fetched Kabaktepe was as liberal as someone who favors throwing gays off buildings instead of burning them to death.

b.) Exit Karacaer and Kabaktepe, enter Fatih Dag. Immediately upon arrival, it became clear that Dag's new Milli Görüs staff had AND close ties with the Milli Görüs HQ in Koeln, Germany, AND that he had no interest anymore in following the "liberal" line promised by Kabaktepe. Indeed, the main reason the Dutch building association "Het Oosten" and Amsterdam Mayor Job Cohen (a jew) had given their full support for the project was that Kabaktepe & Co. had promised the new mosque would herald the grandiose start of "the international renewal of islam". By the way, the multiculti fata morgana had been so convincing that two gullible jewish architects had been found willing to design the mosque in the first place. When Fatih Dag made it clear that the Westermoskee would definitily NOT follow a progressive course, the relation with "Het Oosten" and mayor Cohen worsened. A silly attempt by the Amsterdam City Council was made to "assure" themselves that the new mosque board would still follow the "liberal" course, whatever that may have meant, and to unconditionally cut all ties with the German branch of Milli Görüs, by proposing a Declaration of Intent to be signed by all parties. Dag signed... and kept visiting Yavuz Çelik Karahan, Chairman Milli Görüs Germany.

c.) Another element undermining the credibility of Milli Görüs is a fraudulous scheme whereby countless ordinary Turks had been duped for possibly millions of euros by a dubious Pyramid Game organised by so-called "Green Funds" [islamic funds - note by MFBB] and offered by Milli Görüs. Explains Fatih Dag: "Maybe we offered some office space for that, but it [the Pyramid Game] never happened under our authority. Only one of the curent Board members had links with the game. We investigate that now. He will likely (sic) resign.... the guilt lies with my predecessor [Kabaktepe] and his board."

d.) The gist of the Trouw article is that by the time that "Het Oosten" and Cohen realized what a Trojan Horse of islamic radicalism the Westermoskee would become, they wanted to get rid of the whole project - and Milli Görüs' Pyramid Game scandal came in just handy to stop the whole thing.

e.) The worst of all is that apparently both Cohen and "Het Oosten", probably struggling to find a way to get out of the whole affair without the stigma of having gullibly allowed islamic radicals in, blundered in providing Milli Görüs with an exit mechanism for "Het Oosten" - read, it seems that Milli Görüs can legally buy "Het Oosten" out of the whole project. In their despair, both the building association and Cohen probaly thought that if they could convince the public they were no longer involved, they could not be blamed for the Westermoskee becoming some kind of madrassah.

f.) Fatih Dag answer: "I won't go away." ... "We are going to build the whole area full ourselves. Apartments, parking garages, commercial spaces and the mosque. We pay those 6.2 million euros [the exit sum needed to buy "Het Oosten" out - MFBB] and say: "Bye bye, Het Oosten. You can sod off." The Trouw article says laconically: "Building association Het Oosten was yesterday unavailable for comment."

g.) On May 19, 2007, Fatih Dag issues his infamous threat, see above.


And how do things stand today, August 1st, 2007? For the moment, the whole affair seems to be in limbo - which is not a good sign. Keep in mind that in March, the city neighborhood council of "De Baarsjes" did issue a building permit, although at the same time it started an investigation into the Pyramid Game fraud. Because of Milli Görüs' financial troubles and the negative publicity, it is unlikely that building activities will start this year, but next year? What is certain is that the whole affair has - once again - cast a very bad light on the reliability and credibility of the muslim organizations when dealing with local authorities. Time and again the latter herald with great fanfare another fantastic initiative - based on mutual respect of course -meant to "build bridges" amongst the different communities, only to find out they have been cheated and lied to. One and a half year after a beaming Piet Hein Donner laid the first stone for what was to become a model project for a tolerant islam, the "bridges" are blown up and not exactly by Jan Klaas, building corporation "Het Oosten" does not want to have anything to do anymore with the mosque itself, "only the apartments" [good luck with that, idiots - MFBB], and the guys at the steering wheel are extremist muslims in a Koeln, Germany HQ.

The Westermoskee is but one amongst a great many mosques being built in Europe. Unlike their predecessors, they are now highly visible, with domes and minarets. Of this so-called "third generation" mosque, Germany can "boast" 159, and a further 184 are under construction. An overview of the political affiliation of the mayors in all the localities where these builing projects have either been completed, are underway or else being considered, almost reads like a membership list of the socialist party. Amsterdam: Job Cohen, PvdA (Dutch Socialists); Londen: Ken Livingstone (Labour); Haarlem (The Netherlands): Bernt Schneiders, PvdA (Dutch Socialists); Aachen (Germany): Juergen Linden, SPD (German socialists). The latter, upon issuing the building permit for his city's mosque, even proudly proclaimed the advent of the mosque "that Muslims have become a part and parcel of society." Only they haven't. Or at least not in the way gullible fools like Linden would like them to be. They think the increasingly visible mosques will help integration. The opposite is true. Many of these mosques are built, as we have seen in the case of the Westermoskee, with adjacent and even surrounding apartment blocks. Those who think that indigenous Dutch, Spaniards, French or Germans will hurry like madmen to procure these flats because they like so much to be awakened by the call of the muezzin at 5 o'clock in the morning, are ludicrous fools. The apartments will be inhabited by muslims, period. Even in localities where there is no place for an ambitious building scheme around the mosque, the dome and minarets invariably attract muslim-oriented facilities and shops, like e.g. in Mannheim, where the Yavuz Sultan Selim I-mosque and its surrounding centers and - dare we say it - soukhs, now attract thousands of muslims: a purposefully created muslim-only community. A much more realistic view was offered by Borough of Newham Councillor Alan Craig, of the Christian Peoples Alliance , who at the occasion of the building plans for London's megamosque "Markaz"-project remarked:

“I am concerned about the community and security impact of the mosque…although permission has not yet been given, Muslims are moving into the area in preparation. The Savile Town area of Dewsbury where Tablighi Jamaat is currently based is now more than 90 per cent Muslim. This part of London has always been a very diverse community and that is how it should be kept. We can't have one group taking over."

The Markaz mosque is a gigantic monstrosity which will, if built, be able to accommodate 70,000 worshippers. It is actively supported by London's mayor Ken Livingstone, who coincidentally happens to be a socialist. The organization behind the project is Tablighi Jamaat, to which the would be Glasgow bombers had ties.

It is tempting to see this sudden surge in highly visible mosque buildings as part of some hidden policy, and unfortunately, many indicators do indeed point in that direction. Not for nothing Msgr. Georg Gaenswein, Pope Benedict's secretary, stated last July that "Attempts to Islamize the West cannot be denied..." The danger for the identity of Europe that is connected with it,” he said, “should not be ignored out of a wrongly understood respectfulness." And if it wouldn't be bad enough to find out that this attempt at islamization was the work of "local" muslims, unfortunately there's growing proof that it is stimulated, if not coordinated, from the muslim world itself. Saudi Arabia has long been known as a financier of muslim centers across Europe, one notorious example being the Saudi-funded King Fahd Academy in Cologne, Germany - a breeding place for hatred of everything the West stands for. But then take a look at the financiers of the planned Cologne Mosque itself, which is scheduled to offer place for 2,000 worshippers and will have two 170-foot minarets. It will be funded by Diyanet İşleri Türk İslam Birliği (DITIB), a branch of the Turkish government's Ministry of religious affairs... Who financed the Freimann Mosque in Muenchen, southern Germany? Libya. (notice that this is possibly the Muenchener mosque which is under poice surveillance because of its ties to extremists). The proposed new mosque in Sendling, also in Muenchen? To be financed by DITIB again. Can you imagine a European Ministry of Religious Affairs - assuming such a folly could exist here - financing a newly to be built church in, say, Egypt? Of course you can't. But here we have coordinated attempts by foreign governments to interfere in the religious life of ethnically related population groups living abroad. And not only in the religious life. The Moroccan Interior Ministry issues a list with first names where Moroccan parents living abroad have to choose the names for their newborns from. The so-called Amazigh names, or names from pre-islamic times, are haram - forbidden. If parents do choose these names, their children will not be regarded by the Moroccan state. It is indeed true that Morocco keeps regarding children born off Moroccan parents as Moroccan state citizens - even if they are third generation immigrants elsewhere. In the meantime useful leftist idiots keep blabbering about integration, reaching out to other faiths and other nonsense.

As the reporter from the Dutch magazine Trouw entered Fatih Dag's office for an interview, he remarked a gleaming silver plaque emblazoned with the heraldic symbol of the Ottoman Empire above the door. Fatih Dag said to him: "The weapon of the Ottoman Empire - I am not a nationalist you know, but I like it."

Fatih Dag and his Board have long since stopped speaking about their mosque as the Westermoskee. To them, it's going to be the Aya Sophia Mosque.


EPILOGUE.

We don't want to fight
but by Jingo if we do,
We've got the ships,
we've got the men,
we've got the money too


MFBB.

TRIBUTE TO HARRY REID.

I'm not a guy who easily copies other bloggers' stuff, but this one struck me so that I had to do my bit to get it known to the rest of us mortals. It's a letter from Uncle Jimbo over at Blackfive to Sen. Harry Reid, of 1.2 million US$ land fraud fame, and there's no way on God's green earth Outlaw could have put it better. Enjoy and may the Farce be with you!












Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid's approval rating was 19% as of July 9, 2007, well below President Bush's, who is in his seventh year in office.

MFBB.

TAX MARS!!!

A.) DECEMBER 6, 2001.

MOC Observes Changes in the South Polar Cap:
Evidence for Recent Climate Change on Mars

One of the most profound benefits of being able to continue photographing Mars in the Mars Global Surveyor (MGS) Extended Mission is the opportunity to go back and re-image a site that was seen in the previous martian year. New MGS Mars Orbiter Camera (MOC) images have provided a startling observation: The residual martian south polar cap is changing. The fact that it is changing suggests that Mars may have major, global climate changes that are occurring on the same time scales as Earth's most recent climate shifts, including the last Ice Age.

MOC images of the south polar cap taken in 1999 were compared with images of the same locations taken in 2001, and it was discovered that pits had enlarged, mesas had shrunk, and small buttes had vanished. In all, the scarps that enclose the pits and bound the mesas and buttes retreated about 3 meters (3.3 yards) in 1 martian year (687 Earth days). This rapid retreat of polar scarps can only occur if the ice is frozen carbon dioxide (also known as "dry ice"). Retreat of scarps made of water ice is much slower and would not have been measurable from one martian year to the next...


B.) DECEMBER 8, 2003

Mars Emerging from Ice Age, Data Suggest
By SPACE.com

Scientists have suspected in recent years that Mars might be undergoing some sort of global warming. New data points to the possibility it is emerging from an ice age.

NASA's Mars Odyssey orbiter has been surveying the planet for nearly a full Martian year now, and it has spotted seasonal changes like the advance and retreat of polar ice. It's also gathering data of a possible longer trend.

"One explanation could be that Mars is just coming out of an ice age," Feldman said. "In some low-latitude areas, the ice has already dissipated. In others, that process is slower and hasn't reached an equilibrium yet. Those areas are like the patches of snow you sometimes see persisting in protected spots long after the last snowfall of the winter." "Odyssey is giving us indications of recent global climate change in Mars," said Jeffrey Plaut, project scientist for the mission at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory.

C.) SEPTEMBER 20, 2005.

8 Years at Mars #4: Four Mars Years of South Polar Cap Scarp Retreat
by Malin Space Science Systems

"One of the most profound discoveries that would not have been possible if the Mars Global Surveyor (MGS) mission had not been extended beyond its 1 Mars year (687 Earth days) Primary Mission is that of dramatic changes that take place in the south polar residual ice cap each martian year. To make this discovery, the MGS Mars Orbiter Camera (MOC) had to be employed during a second Mars year to repeat images of sites on the south polar cap that had been imaged during the Primary Mission."

According to a September 20 NASA news release, "for three Mars summers in a row, deposits of frozen carbon dioxide near Mars' south pole have shrunk from the previous year's size, suggesting a climate change in progress." Because a Martian year is approximately twice as long as an Earth year, the shrinking of the Martian polar ice cap has been ongoing for at least six Earth years.

The shrinking is substantial. According to Michael Malin, principal investigator for the Mars Orbiter Camera, the polar ice cap is shrinking at "a prodigious rate."

"The images, documenting changes from 1999 to 2005, suggest the climate on Mars is presently warmer, and perhaps getting warmer still, than it was several decades or centuries ago," reported Yahoo News on September 20.

D.) FEBRUARY 28, 2007.

Mars, too, appears to be enjoying more mild and balmy temperatures.

In 2005 data from NASA's Mars Global Surveyor and Odyssey missions revealed that the carbon dioxide "ice caps" near Mars's south pole had been diminishing for three summers in a row.

Habibullo Abdussamatov, head of space research at St. Petersburg's Pulkovo Astronomical Observatory in Russia, says the Mars data is evidence that the current global warming on Earth is being caused by changes in the sun.

"The long-term increase in solar irradiance is heating both Earth and Mars," he said
The conventional theory is that climate changes on Mars can be explained primarily by small alterations in the planet's orbit and tilt, not by changes in the sun..."

Don't get me wrong here. A quick glance on Google learned me that for every version advocating Mars' global warming, you'll find another one blaming the apparent continuous receding of Mars' South Polar Cap on fluctuations in the tilt of the planet's axis, dust storms lessening its albedo (percentage of light reflected, therefore lower when more light is absorbed, e.g. by "darker" dust storms) and what not.

In that case, the global warming on Mars (OK, some would say it's local warming) would therefore be just coincidentally occur at the same time Earth heats up, and not be a result from increased Sun activity. However, studies also show that a.o. Triton (Neptune's moon), Jupiter and even Pluto experience higher temperatures. And when you then hear the same fellas claim Triton's warming may be the result of an extreme southern summer, a season "occurring every few hundred years), or that Pluto's heating up can be attributed to possible eruptive activity and/or a delayed thawing from its 1989 close approach to the Sun, or that Jupiter might be warmer because of a recurring climatic cycle that churns up material from the gas giant's interior and lofts it to the surface, where it is heated by the Sun...

...then you start to think something is stinking.

I'm all for a clean environment, and willing to do my extra bit. As a matter of fact, I pay to have my company's waste selected and processed in an eco-friendly way in my city's container park. Personally, I think that greenhouse gases may play a role in global warming, at least, I would not dismiss the possibility downright. But the hype of the past several months? Every time I see politicians jump on a propaganda vehicle offering them a cheap excuse to tax us even more, my stink radar beeps alarmingly. Especially when a socialist cunt who on a blue monday became Belgian budget minister, one of those people who like to swap us Eco-Neanderthals around the ears for trodding on Mother Earth, sees no bone in flying to Thailand only to wed some doofus from her cabinet "according to Buddhist rites".

Or when our fat soon-to-be-history (I hoooooooooope so!) Secretary of Defense flies 90 kloms in an attack helicopter from Brussels to Hasselt just to see An Inconvenient Truth.

Or when our fookin gumint considers a ... you guess it ... Gore-Tax.

Global Warming? First explain me the heating up of Mars, and in a decent way, presto. Either that dumbass who has been Prez of the US for six years now secretly built a huge defense industry on the Red Planet, spawning gazillions of tons of carbondioxice in the atmosphere, or the Sun is shining hotter. What will it be?


MFBB.

CHANGE OF THE GUARD IN DOWNING STREET 10...

... Tony has left the building.



One of those nice expressions the French have is: "Voilà un homme!" Meaning "Now there's a ballsy fella!" or "Ese hombre tiene cojones!" depending on whether you live north or south of the Bush Border Fence. It's been ten years since Tony Blair first set foot in Downing Street 10 and he certainly left his mark, so much that the quiet way he slipped away last Wednesday came as an anticlimax. In his place has come Gordon Brown, a Scotsman and Blairs Chancellor of the Exchequer - in the UK something like a Super Minister responsible for Finance, Economy, Budget and Treasury - during three Labour governments. If popular myth is to be believed, the two men arranged for the takeover thirteen years ago in the Granita restaurant in Islington, where they reportedly struck a deal in which Brown would stand aside for some time while the more charismatic Blair would win over Middle Englands crucial swing voters. The bold goal was to end 15 years of Tory rule, first under Margaret Thatcher and then under John Mayor. The agreement would have promised Brown unparalleled power over domestic policy as Chancellor, should Labour win the 1997 elections, and, "at some future date", the premiership itself. Whether or not this story is true, that day has now come.

At first sight the Blair years meant ten years of socialist rule over Britain, but in many respects Blair has been a socialist the way Joe Lieberman has been a Democrat. Already prior to Labour chasing the Tories from power, there was an expression in the UK which went that "I am Tony Blair, MP" in reality meant "I am Tory, Plan B". Interesting is also that young Blair, while a pupil in Choristers School, Durham, northern England, served as the Conservative candidate in a mock school election, and that his father Leo, who Tony named a son after, was Chairman of one of Durham's conservative associations. Certainly it is so that Tony Blair led the Labour Party away from its hard-left leanings towards a rather centrist course, earning his politico-economic philosophy the moniker "The Third Way" (although other, not necessarily comparable policies have also been called that way"). Blairs "Third Way" was a radical mix of free market and interventionist theories, rejecting both the pure laissez-faire aproach as old-school socialism with its nationalizations and massive redistribution schemes through heavy taxing. In fact, he had a clause referring to Labour's committment to "the common ownership of the means of production", read nationalization of key industries, scrapped from the party's constitution. Of course, it would be wrong to label him as a closet rightwinger - after all, the man was e.g. instrumental in developing a controversial Minimum Wage policy. And in the ethical field, he once even supported lowering the age of consent for gay sex to 16 (!), something not exactly jibing with his being a devout Christian. Which, btw, is yet another feature which made him stand out in Britains top leftwing spheres.

But taking it all together, ten years of "socialist" Blair rule over the British Isles hardly compares to socialist rule on the Continent. True, public spending has increased sharply, especially in the fields of Health Care and Education - but at the same time Blairs government has introduced market based reforms in these areas. And, all that extra money did buy something: shorter hospital wait times, better care through tens of thousands more of doctors, nurses and teachers, and a tuition scheme that has put Britains universities on a better financial footing. Economic growth has been sound, though not spectacular, on average some 2.5% per year. However, it was steady, and in fact "The Blair Years" marked the longest uninterrupted period of economic growth in 200 years. Of course, some will say this period of recovery started before the Blair/Gordon tandem, when John Major was PM and Kenneth Clarke Chancellor of the Exchequer, but the fact remains that at least the growth continued on a relatively stable level for ten years, which is an accomplishment in itself. One cannot deny that Blair (and Brown) proved themselves good, though probably boring, stewards of the economy.

In line with the importance the "Third Way" adheres to technological development, under Blair spending on scientific research tripled. Add to this - apart from the longest sustained period of economic growth in modern British history - low inflation, actually less spending on unemployment benefits AND all this while not (significantly) enhancing income taxes, and you begin to understand why the UK's Conservative Party has such a hard time re-establishing itself - New Labour fulfilled part of its agenda. Of course, one notices that the inflation graph to the left shows an upwards jerk over the past two years, but this has of course everything to do with the surging prices for energy and raw materials - we feel that just as well over here too.

In light of all this, it is perhaps remarkable that a man who is, apart from his being an able and efficient statesman, by his very nature an amiable person, towards the end seemed to have lost all this credit on account of just one decision. Naturally, we are talking here about his decision to ally himself unconditionally with President Bush and his Middle East initiative, the toppling of Saddam Hussein and the enforcing of democracy with arms. Time will tell Bush's decision was the right one, and in time too, historians will merely be able to confirm that. Ergo, many years ahead from now Blair, without the alleged "stain" of the Iraq "adventure", and with basically only positive accomplishments to be remembered, will be judged much more favorably than today. And then we haven't even talked about that fitting end to his career as PM, the Northern Ireland Peace Deal. Personally, from the (limited) POV of a foreigner, I have but one caveat concerning Blair rule, and that's his government decade-long keeping the gates wide open for all kinds of immigrants, but especially those from muslim countries. Plus, of course, its apparent failure to deport any hate-inciting mad mullah on the first Hercules available to the hellhole he came from. A price will have to be paid for that - not all nightclub porters will see the smoke in time. Plus, creeping islamization does in fact not need carbombs at all. Mindless walking tents willing to breed like rabbits for their usurpers can do the trick too, in a matter of decades. By the time everyone realizes what a visionary Enoch Powell was, it may be far, far too late.

In the here and now, however, Tony Blair has been succeeded by Gordon Brown. With regards to economic policy, not much change is to be expected, Brown in fact being the architect of much of the good work of the past ten years. David Cameron's Tories like to depict Brown as a more leftist Blair, but they forget that the two men long ago agreed on a Labour which should distance itself from the socialist dogmas. The reality is that the Blair AND Brown tandem not only gave free market mechanisms a "free" hand in the private sector, but that they ALSO introduced them in the public sector: the NHS, national security and even in jails (!). It is safe to say that under Brown, the days of John Smith and Neil Kinnock won't come back. Where Browns accents will differ from Blairs is in his approach to the EU though. Blair was pro-Europe, an advocate of more European integration beyond the economical aspects. Brown, on the other hand, is a staunch Euroskeptical: e.g., it was his work that Britain did not join the eurozone in 1999. So if there is more European integration in the coming years, it will be without the UK, at least as long as Gordon Brown rules.

Less change, if any at all, is to be expected with regards to the transatlantic relationship. Like Sarkozy in France, Brown is a great admirer of the US. And just like Blair, Brown sees a solid relationship with America as the cornerstone of the UK's foreign policy. It is therefore unlikely that Brown will suddenly downgrade the UK presence in Iraq or Afghanistan anytime soon. In short, Tony Blair may be gone, at least as PM, and many Americans may - will - remember him with fondness. But under his successor, the fabric of the US/UK alliance will remain strong.

And six years into the WOT, that is something to be grateful for.





MFBB.

A FORGOTTEN CAMPAIGN. FORGOTTEN VALOUR.

May 28. 1940. 8.30 am. French PM Paul Reynaud in a radio address:

"The Belgian Army has brusquely and unconditionally surrendered, in full campaign, on the orders of its King, without warning to its French and English brothers-in-arms, opening the road to Dunkirk to the German divisions. Eighteen days ago, the same King sent us an appeal for help. To this appeal, we responded according to a plan drafted up last December by the allied general staffs. Well then, here's how King Leopold II (sic) who, before May 10, always trusted the word of Germany as much as the one from the Allies, King Leopold II (re-sic), without warning General Blanchard, without regard, without a word for the French and British soldiers who, after his distress call, had come to the rescue of his country, King Leopold II (re-re-sic) of Belgium has laid down the arms. This is a fact without precedent in history."

Such were the words of a man white with rage at the sudden Belgian capitulation. The message stuck with the French. Belgian refugees in France suddenly faced a hostile population. The scornful soubriquet "Les Boches du Nord" was born. But worse than this still was the reaction of the British, and especially their Prime Minister Winston Churchill. In a subsequent radio address to the British people, Churchill suggested that the Belgian surrender was an act of cowardice and the king a traitor. Often I have been wondering if not, in these two radio broadcasts, lies the origin of the low esteem for my country, especially in defense matters among allies, ever since that fateful month in that lang ago Year of the Blitzkrieg. But while the poor reputuation my country enjoys in this field may be justified in the world of today, and the lackluster Belgian support in the WOT thus far is but one example, debunking Belgium for its alleged traitor role in May 1940 is grossly unfair. I'm honored to be able to tell a part - because that's what it is, even if it is just a very small part - of the real story. What had really happened in these 18 days since the beginning of the German invasion?


Throughout the latter half of the thirties, it had become clear to most Europeans that war, sooner or later, would break out again. To the credit of the Belgian government, it must be said that it understood this full well from an early stage on. Starting in 1936, and following an announcement by the Belgian King, Leopold III, our small country on the North Sea pursued a policy of "Armed Independence", reckoning that any attacker - any - planning to militarily deploy on its territory would think twice before doing so. To be sure, before 1936 it had had a pact of mutual assistance with France, but as the war clouds over Europe grew more menacing, and the French strategy seemed to be to wage the next war with Germany on Belgian rather than French soil, Belgium's government thought it wise to return to a policy of the strictest neutrality, to be safeguarded by the strongest army ever in Belgium's history. To this end, no less than 25% of the GDP was spent on military purposes, a figure nowadays belonging in the realm of phantasy. This surge in military funding had by early 1940 led to a total of 650,000 men under arms - an impressive number by any standard. The bulk of these served in the Army, which fielded 22 divisions - 17 of them infantry, two Cavalry, one heavy artillery, several specialized regiments and last but not least, two divisions of the famous "Chasseurs Ardennais", elite formations which would give the Germans a hard time. The other two services, the Militair Vliegwezen (Air Force) and Marinekorps (Naval Corps) were small and, especially in the case of the latter, actually rather neglected. In early May 1940, another 150,000 men were drafted to be organized in reserve formations in France. Thus, by the outbreak of the war, a total of 800,000 men were either in active service or on their way to reserve units. If you count that the Belgian population numbered 8 million at the time, one wonders if World War II would even have taken place had Belgium's allies invested comparatively in their armies. Because then Britain would have fielded an army of 4.8 million instead of the paltry 237,000 it had in the 10 divisions plus auxiliary units of the BEF, the British Expeditionary Force under Lord Gort, on May 10. Judging by numbers, the French armed forces, totalling over 6 million men, represented a fearsome adversary, but of these, only 2.2 million served in the North on May 10, organised in 93 divisions, and morale was low. As for the Dutch, they had only mobilised 350,000 men, out of a population of over 10 million. Their ground forces numbered no more than eight or nine divisions, all very badly equipped and with barely a couple of armored cars for AFV's.


Belgium did possess a small albeit not negligible armoured force at the outbreak of hostilities in 1939. Estimates place the number of Belgian (tracked) AFV's at around 278. However, their effect on combat operations was purely local since none were assigned to "true" armoured divisions. Instead, they were dispersed piecemeal among the infantry, cavalry and Chasseurs Ardennais divisions. Belgium's most potent AFV available in a comparatively significant number was the T-13 which, though it had a rotating turret, was a self-propelled gun rather than a tank. This gun, a caliber 47mm of Czech origin, was quite potent for its time and was also used widely throughout the Belgian army in its tracted version. The T-13's undercarriage was actually a Vickers-Carden-Loyd design, up-armoured and upgunned as a stop-gap measure to circumvent the politicians' decision not to buy, or build, actual Renault tanks (see later). As it was, almost 200 T-13's were built under licence by the Ateliers de Construction de Familleureux and the Miesse company at Buizingen. Of course the T-13 was a diminutive vehicle, but so was the bulk of the Panzerwaffe, of which only a couple of hundreds were the heavier PzkW (Mark) IV type, which the T-13's gun was quite able to deal with. The majority of German tanks were the lightweight Mark I (armament only two machineguns!) and II types and the Mark III. The era of the German heavies, Panther and Tiger, still lay some three years into the future. It was tactics and concentration in armoured divisions which made the German tanks Kings of the Battlefield.



Despite some powerful voices like a De Gaulle in France and Liddell Hart and Fuller in Britain, French and British military thinking in the interbellum hadn't evolved much beyond the 1918 stage. It was with little imagination and even less attention for novel tactics that the military planners envisaged how the coming conflict with Germany would develop. In fact, generally it was assumed that the German offensive would be a simple copy of the Von Schlieffen Plan used in summer 1914, which had guided the mass of the German army over Belgian territory north of the Meuse river, thus avoiding the Ardennes Forest, towards the Borinage border region whence the major southern thrust towards Paris had been made. In fact, the first plan drafted by the German General Staff under Halder envisaged just that. But Hitler, not content with merely repeating Schlieffens "strong right one", wanted something else. And two field generals, Guderian and Von Manstein, did come up with something else: while the "classic" approach opposite Liège would go through, as it had in 1914, the real knockout would be delivered by two Panzer groups consisting of a large number of armored divisions. These Panzer Groups would - and herein lay the novelty - attack right through the Ardennes Forest, deemed impenetrable for tanks. Once on the other side and across the Meuse/Maas river, they would move as fast as they could towards the coast in a wide arc roughly following the Franco-Belgian border, thus trapping the French and British armies, coming to the rescue of the Low Countries, in a gigantic bag. This manoeuvre was the famous "Sichelschnitt" move.




War in the West started on the 10th of May. Among the first to know it were the pilots and ground crews of Belgium's small air force. By the end of the day, at least one quarter of its two hundred planes would be lying like smoldered wrecks on the airfields. The following is an excerpt from a log written by Captain Max Guisgand, commander of the 15 Gloster Gladiators of the 1st "Comet" squadron, 1st Fighter Group at Schaffen airfield, in Belgium's east. Since the Belgian High Command suspected the Germans knew the exact locations of all operational airfields, every squadron had been assigned a "secret" (so it was hoped) airfield to which the planes would redeploy before assuming combat operations:

A glance on my watch, it's 4.20 am. Already the first engines are humming. They turn, sputter, give up, start again. In the pale blue sky white trails appear and these become ever more numerous. Big offensive against England! That's the opinion of the majority of those present. An alarm just like the other ones. Once again we will get off with tiredness and agitation. Suddenly I have a feeling of looming danger. The pilots walk by still sleep-drunk. One looks for his goggles, the other one for his flying helmet, yet another one for his maps. I hear Rolin bitch and curse in a hundred different ways while young Pirlot looks on laughing and Wegria carefully closes his equipment bag before it is loaded onto a truck. Suddenly I give a series of frantic commands: it would be too foolish to be caught off-guard by the planes with the black crosses. I shout on the top of my lungs to shake off the apathy, which was the result of numerous useless alarms. They have understood me and everyone hurries to his plane. At 4.25 am the fifteen Glosters are ready, engines running, the wheelblocks are removed.

400 meters to the right the eleven Hurricanes are lined up. They are the only Belgian planes which are qualitatively a match against the enemy. They are lined up impeccably. The engines have been tested but the planes don't take off. The minutes crawl by slowly. Finally a Hurricane is taxying, then another one but the second wingman does not seem to be in a hurry. The waiting starts again. I can't take it any longer. Contrary to the given orders, I give the "Go!" sign to my Glosters. I quickly cross the field followed by my two wingmen and we lift off after a few seconds and set course for Bevekom (Le Culot). During the flight we hear explosions from the direction of the airfield."

For the Glosters it was not a moment too early. The commander of the 2nd "Thistle" squadron, whose Hawker Hurricanes were the most advanced fighter planes of the BAF, was not as alert as Captain Guisgand. At 4.32 am, the first three of eighteen Heinkel He 111 bombers swooped over Schaffen airfield, strafing everything on the ground with machinegun fire and dropping 50kg bombs. The last two of the fifteen Gladiators were shot up or bombed to rubble, as were nine of the eleven Hurricanes. The cream of Belgium's fighter aircraft was destroyed on the ground, a scene repeated on most Belgian airfields that morning. Only Captain Van Den Hove and Corporal Jacobs succeeded in taking off with their Hawkers amidst the inferno. Between Leuven and Brussels Van Den Hove spotted a formation of some fifteen Heinkel bombers. After three attacks from an angle of 90 degrees, he saw how the right wingman of the last Kette of three bombers dropped away from the formation. This is believed to be the only aerial victory by a Belgian Hurricane during the Eighteen Day Campaign. At Schaffen airfield, Belgian AA guns accounted for one Heinkel bomber shot down.



The opening shots of the Blitzkrieg were just as devastating for the garrison of Fort Eben-Emael, Belgium's eastern bulwark guarding the Meuse/Maas river crossings and dubbed "the strongest Fort in the world" by Hitler himself. Although it contained more than 700 men and boasted 16 75mm guns, two 120mm guns and several machinegun cupolas, it was rendered useless in a couple of hours by no more than 85 German glider troops who landed on the fort's "roof" in a surprise attack and neutered most of the guns using the novel "hollow charges", able to blast a hole through 30cm of armor.



Indeed, Eben-Emael was no fort in the classical sense of the word, but a 65 meter high rocky hill with a diamond-shaped plateau, measuring 800 by 650 yards, on top. Out of this plateau protruded the numerous gun emplacements, observator "bells" and machinegun cupolas, while inside the "Rock" were endless hallways, ammo compounds, sick bays, communication centres and so on. As it was, 11 DFS-230 gliders landed with hair-raising, cold blooded determination in the concrete "stub-field" which was the fort's "roof" and spilled their deadly charge. This was one engagement which the men inside the bunkers could never have envisaged. The hollow charges killed the men inside after which the glider troops took possession of the bunkers. Ground troops from 7th Division counterattacked and at one point forced the Germans to the northern end of the fort's plateau, but they were unable to dislodge them completely. Also, they were constantly under aerial attack by Stuka divebombers who could pinpoint every enemy move. Major Jottrand, the fort's commander, asked the nearby forts of Pontisse, Barchon and Evegnée to lay an artillery barrage on his own fort's roof to get rid of the invaders and in one day and a half 2,200 rounds were fired, but this had the adverse effect of making the counterattacks impossible, while the Germans were relatively safe inside their concrete strongholds. It was to no avail, for German ground forces were soon crossing the Maas river in two localities nearby, Vroenhoven and Veldwezelt. Only in the third village, Kanne, was the bridge across the Maas blown up in time, but there the Germans immediately set to work on a pontoon bridge. Gradually, as the German bridgeheads across the Maas were consolidating, the full weight of Von Reichenau's Sixth Army with its eleven divisions, attacking over the roughly 30 kilometers wide river front, was making itself felt. Eben-Emael, with its long-range 120mm guns, had been designed specifically to cope with the threat of such a breakthrough between The Netherlands and the Ardennes. But most of its guns had been silenced one day after the attack, and the scene inside the fort was hellish, with electricity cut off and ammo dumps exploding. At noon on May 11, Major Jottrand decided to surrender, and nearly 700 men went into captivity.

The loss of Fort Eben-Emael, deemed invincible, was a terrible blow not only to Belgian, but to allied morale as a whole.





Without the fort's strong support, and under constant aerial attack, the Maas defense was crumbling. Despite occasional successes, such as the heavy losses sustained by the German 269th Infantry Division, it was clear that the undamaged bridges across the Maas at Vroenhoven and Veldwezelt, as well as another one at Briegden, a little further north, would seal the fate of the Belgian defense. The High Command ordered bombers to destroy them, but this attempt failed completely. For one thing, the only bombers technically capable of such a task, were the 15 Fairey Battles of 5th squadron, III Bomber Group of the 3rd Aerial Regiment. Of these, only 9 could be readied for the attack, and to make matters worse, on its emergency airfield not even 125kg bombs were available. The nine Battles took off with the useless 50kg bombs, escorted by six Gloster Gladiator fighters. The few bombers which reached their assigned targets barely scratched the bridges' surface. Of the 15 aircraft, 10 were shot down.

Thus ended the first two crucial days of the War in the West. In the north, Von Kuechlers 18th Army had succesfully invaded The Netherlands. In the centre, Von Reichenau's 6th Army had cracked the Maas/Meuse defence. And in the Ardennes, the entire Army Gropu "A", consisting of 15th Panzer Corps under Hoth, 41st under Reinhardt, and 19th under Guderian, were advancing like a whirlwind through the rugged woods, deemed impenetrable for tanks. They were pushing aside the thin screen of Belgian Chasseurs Ardennais and French Cavalry troops and would soon reach the Meuse, Dinant and Sedan in a broad, southwesterly sweeping manoeuvre (blue arrow). One hundred and fifty kilometers to the west, the British Expeditionary Force and the French armies of the north, crossed into Belgium along a northeasterly axis (dotted red arrows), thinking the main adversary was Reichenau's army. The Sichelschnitt was about to begin, and the harvest would be rich.


(end of Part I)


MFBB.

PARLIAMENTARY ELECTIONS IN FRANCE AND BELGIUM

In line with what's happening in the rest of Europe, Belgium's voters shifted to the right. Or at least, away from the left. The ruling coalition of liberals and socialists suffered huge blows to the extent that the PM, Guy Verhofstadt, of the liberal VLD party, could definitely abandon his plans for a third term and the socialist candidate for the top job, Johan Vandelanotte, who was also party chairman, resigned brusquely and clearly depressed, leaving party HQ in disarray.

The big winners of the Sunday, June 10 elections are however not the Vlaams Belang in Flanders, nor the Front National in Wallonia. Instead, in Flanders the Christian Democrats (CD&V) of Yves Leterme, who is also Minister-President of the Flemish Region, won big, while in Wallonia - and this is extraordinary - the center-right Mouvement Réformateur (MR) of federal Finance Minister Didier Reynders finally de-throned the Parti Socialiste as Wallonia's biggest Party. The success of the Christian Democrats in Flanders is remarkable, given the fact that the grand majority of Flemings do not attend church anymore. Personally, I suspect that after eight years Verhofstadt, whereby the latter's once grandiose visions for a model state all too quickly watered down to a nightmare of even more pork barrel spending, spiced with gay marriage, gay adoption, municipal voting rights for non-Belgians, dhimmitude vis-à-vis an ever more radicalizing muslim community, and steeply rising criminiality, people just had enough of it. But instead of opting for the VB, many Flemings, perhaps not surprisingly, chose for the more boring alternative.

The results for Flanders: big wins for the opposition party CD & V (Christian Democrats, first pillar from the left), a slight win for the VB (second pillar from the left), heavy losses for the ruling liberals (third pillar) and socialists (fourh pillar), sudden emergence of breakaway rightwing party LDD (fifth pillar, light blue), Green nutters (last pillar) winning a bit. If not a shift to the right, definitely a shift away from the left.

Noteworthy too is the sudden rise of a small breakaway rightwing party from the liberal VLD. This LDD party, for Lijst De Decker, which secured in Flanders some 7% of the vote, seems to have attracted most of the malcontent "dark blue" liberals of the VLD, who could not stomach anymore how their once great party - I myself was a VLD member till 2004 - had become nearly indistinguishable from the socialists.

In light of the shift towards the centrist Christian Democrats and the sudden appearance of the rightwing LDD (rightwing only with regards to economics, ethically it has a "progressive" agenda, it is perhaps surprising that the VB still stood its own, and even gained 1.1% as compared to the previous parliamentary elections. Given the peculiarities of the Belgian voting system this will however not translate in another seat in Parliament, to the contrary, the VB loses one, from 18 seats to 17. By contrast, the Christian Democrats now have 30 seats in the 150-seat Kamer (Lower House).

To sum it all up, there IS a rightwing shift in Belgium, both in Flanders and Wallonia. In Wallonia, the loss of the Parti Socialiste the "Party of 1,000,000 scandals" - and its being second now cannot be underestimated. Theoretically, in Flanders a rightwing family, a "Forza Flandria", is possible between CD&V, LDD and VB. It won't happen though, because the Christian Democrats hold onto the vile concept of the cordon sanitaire, a nineties vow of the so-called "democratic" parties never to cooperate with the VB, as if it was some leper colony - keep in mind that the VB programme is as clean as the GOP's, and extremely similar. No, the most likely outcome for a federal government is a minority government of Christian Democrats with ... some of the losers of the June 10 elections, the Flemish Liberals of the VLD. The federal government's coalition would then encompass CD & V and VLD (Christian Democrats and Liberals on the Flemish side) and CDH and MR (the same, but on the Wallonian side). Most likely choice for Prime Minister would be Yves Leterme. This does not have to be a bad thing in se. The eighties saw just such a coalition, from 1981 till 1987, and it performed quite well. Actually, the Budget Minister in that period was... Guy Verhofstadt, who succeeded in a remarkable two-year stint to dramatically reduce a severe budget deficit. For this, he was rewarded with his ousting by a powerful Union Leader - in those days, Unions decided Belgian politics. Today, their influence has a little waned however, and the next government eighties style may perform even better. Internationally, Belgium may (finally) follow the rest of the European countries in abandoning the virulent anti-Americanism so characteristic for European politics only three years ago. Gradually, European voters turn away from socialism, and with their departure a new era of cooperation with the US becomes possible. In this light, it is perhaps telling that the second man of the Flemish Christian Democrats, Pieter De Crem, has, shortly before the elections, spoken out in favor of "more risky operations" for the Belgian Army. This may very well be interpreted as a more active involvement in the WOT. It is about time. For eight long years, the Belgian Army has been mismanaged to an unprecedented extent by a Defense Minister of the Parti Socialiste, André Flahaut, and anno 2007 the Belgian Army is on the brink of collapse. It is this Pieter De Crem who last spring announced in Parliament that "André Flahaut is the biggest disaster happening to the Belgian Army since the defeat against the Germans in 1940." And about two months ago, shaken by the umpteenth Flahaut blunder, he even exclaimed, trembling with rage, in full Parliament, "that he would make sure that Flahaut would never again be Secretary of Defense". By God, do I hope so. Civilized countries should have written it in their constitution that a socialist can never be Secetary of Defense. It's akin to appointing Naomi Klein for Fed Chairman. Worse. Ask the Israelis.


As for the first round of France's parliamentary elections, also on June 10, Royal's socialists suffered another huge setback. The map shows in blue the districts were Sarkozy's UMP and its allies had the majority. The purple districts are Royal's. The map speaks bookmarks. Ten years of forced 35-hour working weeks have driven an awful lot of French into poverty and not lessened unemployment a bit. Analysts forecast Sarkozy's UMP could win at lest 383 of French Parliament's 577 seats. In fact, it is now already certain there will be no cohabitation - a French President having to work with a stubborn and antagonistic Parliament. Instead, Sarkozy is likely to get the green light for sweeping economic reforms. Sarkozy has vowed a new finance bill which will no longer tax overtime earnings. The 35-hour week will very likely abolished. There will be tougher immigration rules. And France may finally become a true ally to the US again.

Something is changing in Europe.


MFBB.

NO JIHAD STREET.

For Filip Dewinter, VB-strongman and leader of the VB faction in the Flemish Parliament, it was business as usual again last week, i.e. a full frontal bashfest from the well-meaning community, politicians and media alike, in this country. What had happened? On Wednesday, he hung a sign reading "Zonder Jihad Straat" - No Jihad Street - on a lamppost on the Turnhoutsebaan in Borgerhout, an Antwerp suburb. Normally I would not have commented on this, but since I picked it up at several English-spoken websites - here, here and here, and found the background lacking, I changed my mind. After the short film, you find some context:



About one year ago, an 18-year old lunatic from Antwerp called Hans Van Themsche bought himself a shotgun, went out on the streets dressed like a Trenchcoat Mafia gangster, and shot a two-year old toddler and her Malinese nanny as well as a Turkish woman sitting on a bench. Only the latter survived. Had it not been for an alert police officer who shot the loon in the stomach, the carnage might have been much worse. The perpetrator obviously being extremely influenced by Nazi ideology and White Power nonsense, for the politically correct establishment the incident was Gefundenes Fressen to attack the Vlaams Belang. For the umpteenth time a "Silent March" was organised to condemn "senseless violence" while in reality the aim was to discredit the VB. An utterly dishonest move, since the VB's streetfighting days are over since 25 years and the pary itslef condemned the crime in the strongest possible terms. In fall 2006, a subsequent initiative was organized, a "Zonder Haat Straat" pamphlet campaign whereby supporters hang such a sign - you guess it, it says "No Hate Street" - behind their windows. Here, too, the idea was and is to discredit the VB by suggesting the party is inciting "Haat" - hate. Hate between the different communities, while the VB is basically only demanding that immigrants abide the law.

Then, from fall 2006 on, a couple of trends became clear. Or rather, one trend, highlighted by several meaningful incidents. First, there's a muslim group operating in full Taliban garb active in Antwerp. To the wider public, it manifested itself for the first time on December 9, when a group of those islamonutters - pakistanis, so it seems, of the sect Da'wah Tabliegh - tried to block the entrance to immigrant youngsters visiting the Roma youth center/dancing in Borgerhout. Try to imagine the scene: bearded fundamentalists appropriating entrance tickets and threatening violence if their less fanatic co-religionists intended to proceed with visiting a western Temple of Doom. A curious conversation took place afterwards with the local imam, a certain Nouredine Talouil. This "gentleman" calls music "a sin". Not a great sin, but a sin nevertheless. In an interview, he deplored that the Da'wah Tabliegh arseholes used violence to block the entrance to the Roma dancing, but discouraged visiting the place anyway. "Discos and concert halls are usually places where youngsters go to to learn bad manners."

Know what I'm thinking of? Police flicks with good cops and bad cops. Only, substitute "cop" with "muslim", and you have Da'wah Tabliegh nutters operating as the "baddies" and Nouredine Talouil as the "goodie". But their aim is the same.


Second, in January four armed and masked men broke in at 8pm in the Lawyer's Office of Marijke Dillen in Borgerhout. Marijke Dillen is the daughter of VB founder Karel Dillen. She herself was not present, but the wife of her business partner was. The perpetrators threatened her with a gun and wanted to know where Mrs. Dillen was. Then the business partner intervened, and after a short fight the perps fled. Mrs. Dillen was moved to a secret location and received police protection.


Thirdly, the islamification of Borgerhout continues unabated. We have already remarked on these pages that during last fall's municipal elections the VB seemed to stagnate in this place. The reason? Not less VB appeal among indigenous Belgians. But a simple question of numbers instead. Indigenous Belgians pack up and leave, since life in the wonderful multicultural utopia does not seem to be that great taking it all together. From time to time, heartbreaking stories emerge where you can read between the lines (or not so between the lines) how our wonderful "new" Belgians interpret concepts like solidarity and mutual respect. Here's an April 7 interview excerpt, from a desperate (indigenous) "shopping street manager", Koen Borms. Note that the shopping street in question is the Turnhoutsebaan, see intro.

"Only a quarter (of the small business owners) want to invest in their business, even though half of them think they could do better". Don't tell me these are indigenous Belgians. "Six 'Belgian' business owners consider to pack up and leave. This would bring the neighborhood in a new negative spiral". Aha. "The indifference is great." And then it comes: "Indigenous shop owners have a very negative idea of their immigrant colleagues. Especially the many telephone and nightshops and barbers cause irritation".

Fourthly, in late April a number of concerned indigenous Belgian clients of Moroccan eateries and pizza parlors on the Turnhoutsebaan in Borgerhout took to the authorities to report that a significant number of the restaurants and snackbars they frequented had scrapped alcohol off the menu. While it is clear that a number of business owners did so out of free will - they don't feel well selling alcohol, not even to filthy infidel clients - there were strong indications that in a number of cases, a group of fundamentalist muslims had toured the Turnhoutsebaan and warned the owners to get alcohol off the menu, or else! Alain Herremans, Chairman of a society of neighborhood shop owners, noted: "The fear exists that soon (indigenous) Belgian eateries will be targeted." A not inconceivable development, given the fact that the salafist gang has until now disturbed at least one catholic mass by ostentatively entering a church on the Coxplein in Borgerhout and holding a quran in front of the priest!


Fiftly, and this starts with a flying pig moment, the socialist mayor of Antwerp, Patrick Janssens, is, for the moment at least, pushing through his plans to forbid town personnel of wearing religious symbols. There is no problem with Christians wearing small crosses, nor with (the very few) jews wearing yarmulkes. There is however a HUGE problem with islamic female town personnel wearing headscarves. Instead of doing like all the rest, they are organizing protests, supported, foolishly enough, by a group of artists, leftists and feminists(!), which set up the action BOEH (Baas Over Eigen Hoofd - Boss Over one's Own Head). In short, these fruitcakes' slogan is that "the woman decides herself whether she wears the headscarf or not". Now, I'm willing to buy that - for the ones who really want to wear it. For those the headscarf has simply become a "fuck you" signal towards everything the West stands for. For the other ones, however... only a loon would believe that salafist-fathered muslim girls not wanting to wear the headscarf could choose themselves. But then we are talking about loons here. Btw, BOEH... If you ever spent some time in Europe in the eighties, you may remember the slogan hey had then was BIEB (Baas in Eigen Buik - Boss in One's Own Belly). The goal then was to liberate European women from the yoke of male chauvinist pigs craving to procreate like, uh, myself, and in this they succeeded wonderfully well since every day in Europe around 3,300 children are murdered in the mother's womb. Or, 1,200,000 a year. Or, over the past 5 years, some 6,000,000 white Europeans who would today have come in handy as a counterweight to a certain reciprocal demographic reality. Btw, 6,000,000 humans killed over a period of five years time reminds me of another age and another breed of socialism. But I digress.

Where was I? Oh yeah, abortioning feminists who labored their entire lives for liberating themselves from the tiranny of their western men and who now fight for the plight of their breeding like rabbits islamic sisters, living pleasant lives under the benign guidance of their muslim men. Anyway, the headscarves controverse is getting very hot, what with the June 10 Parliamentary elections and all, and on May 30, a group of 6 female politicians of islamic background, none of them wearing headscarves, organized an election debate in the Brede IMS School along the... Turnhoutsebaan in Borgerhout. It is a girl's school, and a frightening number of pupils are muslim and wearing headscarves. Many, if not most, indigenous girls have already left. The glorious multiculturalism is a bit too much of a sour apple to bite through, especially if one of the cultures has no interest in multiculturalism. One of the six politicas was Mimount Bousakla, until recently belonging to the socialist party but now member of a centre-rightwing (!) splinter party. Mrs. Bousakla is the muslim politician who in 2004 received death threats from an islamonutter who could not stomach her liberal lifestyle or sumpin.

Mrs. Bousakla was the only woman who dared defend the decision of the mayor to forbid the wearing of religious symbols including headscarves for civil servants while in function. The hall, packed with muslim girl students erupted in jeers. Insults were hurled at Bousakla and she left the building. Or had to leave? Notice that she had police protection. I wonder for what? Global warming mayhaps? Well, these young muslim students are the future (sixtuple) Belgian mothers. They gave a very fine show of their interpretation of a typical western value like freedom of speech indeed. With citizens like them, who needs jihadists?


So, I think that this will do, for starters anyway, to explain that there is definitely something going on not very halal in Borgerhout and especially along its Turnhoutsebaan. It is in this light that one has to see Filip Dewinters "Zonder Jihad Straat" initiative. One would think, that with such an obvious disintegration of a neighborhood and flatly frightening developments, he'd at least get the benefit of the doubt. Or at least someone in charge would start paying serious attention to the slow but unmistakable islamification of not only a suburb, but an entire metropolis.

Not so.

I will spare you the plethora of negative reactions. Suffice to mention the comment made by Karel De Gucht, Belgian Foreign Minister:

Foreign Minister Karel De Gucht (Open VLD) cannot appreciate the "No Jihad Street" action organised by the Vlaams Belang on Wednesday in Borgerhout. "In such a manner you stigmatise an entire population group and you add nothing to society." he stated in a TV debate with VB strongman Filip Dewinter.

What will it take for the Karel De Guchts of our time to wake up?


EPILOGUE.

The June 2, 2007 news from Antwerp.

One dead and three gravely wounded men in shooting an stabbing incident in Borgerhout

Two police inspectors gravely wounded by Moroccans

Police arrests thirty Moroccan youngsters terrorizing supermarket

I know, I'm stigmatizing an entire community.


MFBB.

MEMORIAL DAY 2007.

The Henri-Chapelle American Military Cemetery, where almost 8,000 American soldiers and airmen rest. May we never forget.

"On Memorial Day, Americans pause with solemn gratitude and deep respect for all our fallen service men and women who have given their lives for our country and our freedom.

Through the generations, the courageous and selfless patriots of our Armed Forces have secured our liberty and borne its great and precious cost. When it has mattered most, patriots from every corner of our Nation have taken up arms to uphold the ideals that make our country a beacon of hope and freedom for the entire world. By answering the call of duty with valor and unrelenting determination, they have set a standard of courage and idealism that inspires us all.

All Americans honor the memory of the lives that have been lost in defense of our freedom. Our Nation mourns them, and their example of strength and perseverance gives us resolve. We are also thankful to those who have stood by our service men and women in times of war and times of peace..."

Excerpt from the Memorial Day 2007 Proclamation by George W. Bush, President of the United States.


MFBB.