NATO AIN'T DEAD!

Brothers in arms: a patrol consisting of a Dutch Fennek light armoured recce vehicle followed by an unrecognizable US troop carrier. The Fennek's size belies its weight, 10.4 tonnes combat-ready.

It is true that the brunt of the fighting in Afghanistan is borne by the US Army. It is true that most NATO members have issued lots of caveats with regards to the deployment of their troops. It is true that some of those members who do fight - Canada, The Netherlands - face increasing pressure from leftist defeatists at home to end the deployment altogether. It is true that the Taleban are not defeated yet and that the end is not in sight yet. But...

But on the other hand, is there, after all, really reason to despair? Should not cautious optimism be the norm instead of anxious fretting? While the lackluster support among most NATO allies for Operation Enduring Freedom and the NATO/ISAF mission is worrisome, should one not be also elated that, after all, ALL NATO countries are present and contributing, be it to varying degrees? I live in a continent where right after the Wall came down, the leftist bozos who all the time had been part of the problem rather than of the solution started asking whether an organization like NATO was really necessary in the post communist era. Doubts about NATO's purpose in a time when a world-acclaimed author concluded that history had come to an end, afflicted even those sympathetic to an organization which had seen the light when Truman was president.

And yet here we are, eighteen long years later, and even though there is some coughing and hiccups and the occasional spasms, to state that NATO is dead couldn't be farther from the truth. ALL 26 NATO members have troops in AF. True, it's always the same who do the fighting: the US of course, Canada, the UK, The Netherlands, the Danes and Estonians. But service in the relatively quiet north and west isn't always a piece of cake either. Germany e.g., which its 3,210 troops responsible for Regional Command North and the third largest contributor, has had 29 fatalities thus far. While not comparable to the losses the US has suffered, not exactly a Club Med resort assignment either. The French, with their 1,515 personnel mainly around Kabul (currently under Opération Pamir XVII), are indeed highly constrained by caveats - but they do a prodigious job of demining dangerous areas. Less glorious perhaps, but just as necessary. They also do extensive patrols and there have been skirmishes with Taliban, check out this video. Then there is the fact that ISAF, as the very acronym implies - International Security and Assistance Force - is essentially not a fighting operation. It is an operation meant to help the democratically elected Afghan government establish its hold over the country, and support it wherever necessary with reconstruction. Combat brigades were never intended to be ISAF's spearheads - its PRT's (Provincial Reconstruction Teams, there are currently 25 of them) were. Norway's 495 troops are mainly deployed in the Meymaneh PRT in Faryab province, part of Spain's 740 personnel lead the Qala-i-Naw PRT in Badghis province. Hungary's 230 troops are responsible for the Pul-e Khumri PRT in Baghlan province. Slovenia's 70 troops of the 2nd motorised company, 20th motorised battalion (Celje) soldier on in Herat. And the Slovenian government donated 10,000 AK 47 automatic rifles to the ANA, the Afghan National Army. While all these operations miss the drama of the fierce combat in the south, they just as much contribute to the success of Enduring Freedom, America's mission in Afghanistan. So far, despite the setbacks and the caveats, it is not exaggerated to state that the US's NATO allies conducted an operation Enduring Support. At the recent Munich Conference, TIME's Michael Elliott had a conversation with retired US Army Lt. Col. Ralph Peters, a novelist and essayist. The following is an exerpt from Elliott's article, A Call to Arms, in the February 25, TIME Europe issue:

... That is to say, there are, today, German troops in Afghanistan - 3,500 of them. They may not be in the most dangerous parts of the country or hunting down well-armed bands of Taliban guerrillas, but they are there. That, when you think about it, is astonishing. American author and columnist Ralph Peters (who is nobody's idea of a softie on defense matters) was at the Munich conference, and put things in perspective for me. When he was serving in the U.S. Army intelligence in Germany, Peters said, "We couldn't get the Germans to move 8km. Now we've got them moving 8,000 miles."

But honest is honest, some are doing more than their share. Canada has had 78 fatalities so far. The Netherlands, which is actually punching above its weight, 14 or so. The following video contains some footage of Dutch Commandos in Uruzgan province:



The shortage felt on the ground is such that this spring, an additional 3,200 US Marines from the 24th Marine Expeditionary Unit and the 7th Marine Regiment will be dispatched to southern Afghanistan. This shouldn't have to be necessary. Are there any signs that the burden will be carried more evenly in the near future? Luckily, there are. The French will send hundreds of fresh troops to eastern Afghanistan (check out this clip of French Chasseurs Alpins in the hills around Kabul). Under the staunch leadership of its PM Anders Fogh Rasmussen, Denmark stays committed. And look out for Spain, which will have parliamentary elections come 9 March. With clear signs that the Spanish economy is tilting towards a recession - Zapatero's main concerns were rather legalizing gay marriage and gay adoption, talking with ETA terrorists and a red carpet treatment for 4 million illegal immigrants - the Spanish conservatives stand a good chance to win. This may then imply a bigger Spanish commitment. And as we have seen, even my country will send some additional troops plus four fighter bombers - finally with a mandate to bomb and strafe Taliban strongholds.

NATO may become a sextagenarian in a little over a year, but this old warhorse has by no means lost its teeth - quite the contrary.



Dutch F-16 taking off from Kandahar Airfield, on its way to kick some Taliban ass.


MFBB.

BURQINI OR BIKINI? TAKE YOUR CHICK, UH, PICK!

Zwolle, The Netherlands. February 26, 2008. 11.59 am. Public swimming pool "Hanzebad". Director Hans Meijer confirms that the burqini remains barred from his facilities. One week before, a Dutch muslim convert, Yvonne Buitelaar, had appeared in "Hanzebad" clad in a burqini, shocking those present. In a letter addressed to Mr. Meijer, the City Council of Zwolle protested the latter's decision to ban the all-covering bathing suit, arguing that "The argument that other visitors may experience the burqini as insulting is no objective criterion." (By contrast, the argument that muslims may experience a 10 minute YouTube movie as insulting does seem to be an objective criterion.)

Zwolle, The Netherlands. February 26, 2008. 16.29 am. Public swimming pool "Hanzebad". Director Hans Meijer confirms that the burqini is allowed in his facilities. Four hours and thirty minutes before, Director Meijer had received a letter from Zwolle's City Council to reconsider his opposition to the all-covering bathing suit, offering several sound reasons to do so, and apparently Mr. Meijer thought they cut wood. One of the arguments for lifting the ban is that in their eternal wisdom, the City Councillors think that wearing the burqini will promote integration. As for now, the whole matter is an academic issue since a.) most burqinis are worn by converts, of which there are - until now - relatively few, and b.) muslim women of non-Dutch extraction are not allowed in public swimming pools anyway, burqini or not.

That leaves us poor infidel kufars with the burning question....

Burqini?



Or Bikini?



Needless to say, Outlaw Mike endorses the latter as the Preferred Swimming Attire for the Modern, Confident, Conservative-Libertarian, Hayek-reading, Reagan-worshipping, Devoutly Christian 21st Century Woman. Yeeee-haw!!!

And Director Hans Meijer should change the name of his swimming pool from Hanzebad to Islamabad.


MFBB.

IN MEMORIAM WILLIAM F. BUCKLEY (1925-2008)

A Giant of the Right has passed away. William Frank Buckley, author, TV personality and conservative commentator, was found dead at his desk - as befits him - in the study of his Stamford, Connecticut home this very Wednesday, February 27. William F. Buckley's signal achievement in life was the foundation of the renowned political rightwing magazine National Review in 1955 in New York, from which he retired as an active editor only 35 years later, in 1990. Under his guidance, National Review formulated the ideological basis for modern conservatism, which is essentially a marriage between traditional conservatism and libertarianism. The role of Buckley in paving the way for the "Reagan Revolution" can therefore not be underestimated.

Buckley's yeoman's work at NR and his countless columns as a nationally syndicated newspaper columnist did not prevent his versatile personality of manifesting itself in other arenas. He was a staunch defender of Joseph McCarthy and in 1964 strongly supported the presidential candidacy of Arizona Senator Barry Goldwater. In 1965 he ran for mayor of New York City (and lost to democrat John Lindsay), and from 1966 to 1999, he hosted the television show Firing Line . As a novelist he wrote a series of novels around the character of CIA agent Blackford Oakes, a reminder of his brief stint as an undercover CIA agent in Mexico City in the early fifties. Apart from this series, he wrote together a stunning number of books on writing, speaking, history, politics, and sailing. To complete the image of a pure western conservative, he was a practicing Christian who often attended Latin Mass in Connecticut. In 1991, he received the Presidential Medal of Freedom from President George H. W. Bush. William F. Buckley was married to Canadian-born Patricia Alden Taylor, who gave him a son, Christopher Buckley, and who died last year after a long period of illness.

I have been looking for some quotes that might best typify this apparently Great American Personality of the Right. As a European, I must confess I am not all that well acquainted with WFB's work, but then I had the misfortune of growing up in a poisonous socialist environment, where anything that reeked of another opinion than the Dogmas of the Leftist Church was either downright rejected, and as such I was first tempted to choose this quote:

“Liberals claim to want to give a hearing to other views, but then are shocked and offended to discover that there are other views.”

... or, if it is not simply rejected, it is invariably labeled Nazism, whereby our moral betters time and again forget that it's actually them who are the ideological confrères of that repulsive brand of leftism. I was reminded of that when I came across the famous exclamation Buckley made in a heated encounter with leftozoid douchebag Gore (what's in a name) Vidal, who called him "a proto- or crypto-Nazi":

“Now listen, you queer, stop calling me a crypto-Nazi or I will sock you in your goddamn face, and you will stay plastered.”

Honestly, I don't mean to offend gay people. I'm just quoting the man who may (probably) or may not have harbored less nice feelings about you. Anyway, when I pondered my fate as a small business owner working his ass off for the benefit of the common good and the monthly check of the imam next door, I decided I'd post this money quote:

“Back in the thirties we were told we must collectivize the nation because the people were so poor. Now we are told we must collectivize the nation because the people are so rich.”

In the end however, recognizing at last a Fellow Christian (who, I am convinced, was convinced, as I am convinced, that we christians can never be really good christians), I was won over for this humble jewel:

“You cultivate the essential virtues: high purpose, intelligence, decency, humility, fear of the Lord, and the passion for freedom.”

Rest in Peace Mr. Buckley. I will pray for you.


MFBB.

Economic Facts and Fallacies

Peter Robinson of National Review has been interviewing Thomas Sowell regarding his new Book, Economic Facts and Fallacies.  I'm currently reading this book and as is always the case with Sowell, he presents an impeccably researched and clearly articulated dismantling of many of the left's core beliefs.  It's simply stunning how many things that we've all been told our whole lives regarding economic issues are based on faulty logic, misinterpretation of data, or outright lies.

Watch the interviews (Robinson usually splits these into 5 parts) but more importantly, buy the book.  

Peter Robinson's Interview with Thomas Sowell

LONG LIVE SOCIALISM! LONG LIVE SOCIALISM! LONG LIVE SOCIALISM! LONG LIVE SOCIA... HUH?!??

June 2004, San Francisco. Hillary Clinton (D-NY) addresses a meeting of woman Senators for US Senator Barbara Boxer (D-CA), who is up for reelection in the fall. The senator (Clinton) tells those present that under the Democrats, the Bush tax cuts will be a thing of the past.

"Many of you are well enough off that ... the tax cuts may have helped you," Sen. Clinton said. "We're saying that for America to get back on track, we're probably going to cut that short and not give it to you. We're going to take things away from you on behalf of the common good."

..............MEANWHILE...............


..............BACK IN EUROPE...............


..............WHERE THINGS ARE TAKEN AWAY FROM YOU ON BEHALF OF THE COMMON GOOD.........


An article by Per Wirten, Swedish journalist, Chief editor at Arena magazine.

UNACKNOWLEDGED, UNSEEN, UNMENTIONED
Poverty in Europe

Impoverished German children dream of the USA; one Greek person in four is behind with their most basic bills; sixty per cent of the poor in Romania have outdoor toilets. Cracks are appearing in Europe's beloved image of itself as the egalitarian alternative to the United States, writes Per Wirtén.

What do we really know about poverty in Europe? Not a lot. The constant flow of facts, images and stories from the other side of the Atlantic means I know more about American poverty than its European counterpart. There is a steady stream of books and articles about "the working poor" at Wal-Mart, Latinos in Los Angeles and Afro-Americans in run-down slum districts. How many of us have read books like Nickel and Dimed, Barbara Ehrenreich's account of struggling to get by in low-wage hell? Or avidly immersed ourselves in the slums of Baltimore in the TV series The Wire?

.....

Last summer I walked in the shadow of thunder clouds through Stockwell in south London: dilapidated buildings, worn pavements, grilles over the doors and windows of each individual shop. The whole environment was reminiscent of the former GDR. The next day, I travelled through small, dreary, post-industrial towns in the north of England. On my journey I read that a British report had found that the proportion of poor people is back at the level it was in the 1960s, that growing class divisions are tearing the middle classes apart, and that the only positive news is the reduction in numbers of the most vulnerable.

.....

In October 2007, while in Berlin, I read two German sociologists' description in the anthology Neighbourhoods of Poverty of the situation of the poor in the working class district of Neukölln. Those interviewed had a monthly income of between 300 and 500 euros, that half had not had a proper job for 15 years, that they have given up on the labour market, and that, by relying on a disciplined "management of scarce resources", they get by on odd jobs and welfare handouts. Children become locked into poverty when they are forced to give up school to help bolster the family's meagre income. Many dream of emigrating (maybe to the US).

.....

In the autumn of 2005, New Orleans was submerged after hurricane Katrina breached the levees. It was the city's poorest quarters that suffered the greatest devastation. The authorities' arrogance and inability to react shocked the rest of the world. Europe offered the US emergency relief; in Paris, intellectuals wondered how the country could afford to wage war in Baghdad but not to protect its own people; and Swedish premier Göran Persson declared that a catastrophe of such a kind would be unthinkable in European welfare states. Exactly two years later, Greece was in flames. The Greek state was just as ineffectual as the American state had been after Katrina. Help from the EU was slow to arrive; people died and villages were left in ruins. Of course, questions were asked in the European media, but the criticism came nowhere near the wave of indignation that was directed at the US after the New Orleans disaster. Yet Greece's position in the EU as one its most corrupt, unequal and poorest member states is not unlike that of Louisiana in the US.

.....

For most of my adult life, I have wanted Europe to resemble the United States more. It's not that I don't see the wrongs in American society, it's just that plain old sense tells me that if the US are the world's most favorite destination for immigrants it can't be that bad. Sadly, lately it seems exactly the opposite is going to happen. To those Americans who think that it's America which should resemble Europe more, be careful what you wish for.

Hat tip No Pasaran! Hillary graphic Hilldabeast.


MFBB.

WHOA!!! FIVE YEARS ALREADY?!?!??

Sigh. You know when you are getting old when Roy Scheider dies at 75 and you have to celebrate a lustrum for defending western civilization. Well, no lustrum for me personally, actually. While DowneastBlog indeed celebrates its fifth birthday this month, I only came on board ten months later, in November 2003. One of the co-founders of this blog, Kerry, had the swell idea was so foolish to bombard me European guestwriter. But by then DB, a project of Kerry, her husband Tom, and Scott, had been online since 9 February 2003, that's right, the month before OIF started. I think it's appropriate, at the occasion of our fifth birthday, to reprint that very first post. It's a time document, a sketch from the past, a snapshot of the mood. Here goes! The actual posting was done by Tom, but actually it's a rant from Kerry:

Kerry's vent:
If I see one more thing about "Iraq making concessions for U2 planes" I am going to lose it! How can they concede something that they already "conceded" in 1991.

As far as all of the people that don't want war, not many people actually "like" going to war, or actively want it to happen, however, history has shown us that in times it is a justified and necessary fight. I love all of these people in Hollywood that think that they know better than those actually having to do the job. No matter what they say about Bush, they can hardly say that he is a "war monger" if they are as "open minded" as they claim to be, he hardly hides his Christianity as his guiding influence. Thankfully after his State of the Union address some people are getting that, with his proposals on funding for the AIDS crisis in Africa, etc. To anyone reading that thinks it is easy to say that if you aren't on the receiving end of the destruction of war, I have more to lose than a lot of these people, my husband is still IRR in the Navy, and could get called up and we have close friends that will have to fly missions if it goes more than a couple of months. My husband's two brothers are in the Army, and his father died serving the Navy for this country. I'd like to see Sean Penn giving equal time to the families living on military bases without their husbands and wives, moms and dads so that he has the freedom to take trips to Baghdad. I'd like to see him talking to those that have nightmares, depression, and all of the other horrific fallout from living through 9-11-01.

Do people actually believe these people that "report" from the streets of Baghdad about the "anti-Americanism" that is there? As if anyone that values their own or their families lives are going to say anything against the regime! I can much more appreciate the Pope's sending a "peace envoy" to try admittedly "as a very long shot" to get the Iraqi regime to cooperate. That is the moral high road, to strive for peace until every possiblity is exhausted, but we differ on where that line is drawn. They've had 12 years to co operate. Anyone in basic management or parenting should get this. It is like saying to your child, "if you keep treating your toys poorly then we will take them away." "Now we really mean it this time, you'd better stop." Imagine a parent doing that for 12 years with a kid. Guess what you'd have? An out of control kid that then believes that nobody is going to follow through because that is the experience. Guess what we have? A dicator that is out of control for the same reasons, thanks to the fabulous leadership of the UN. The lack of commonsense just baffles me.

OK, another Iraq related thing. Tom is going nuts over the word "unilateral". "We are making unilateral moves, rushing to war", you can read in various periodicals on a daily basis. Guess what folks? There are somewhere about 16 nations with us, that isn't "unilateral". And as far as a rush to war, we've been in a "war" with Iraq still since 1991. There was a cease fire agreement, which they have violated at every turn for 12 years. Yes, we have to take some responsiblity for not pushing the UN to do something before this. We have hardly been a rush to war, when it has been 12 years that we have tried the waiting game, which has only fostered growth of defiance and production of weapons of mass destruction. September 11 has changed everything, that is a reality. Boy, it is a good thing that we "waited" to deal with Al Queda and Bin Laden, huh? What does it take for people to get it?

God Bless our troops, our President, our people, every last one, and especially those that misguidedly don't understand that much as you wish for peace, you can not negotiate it with a fanatic.

Five years on, I still find myself in agreement with the basic tenets of this vent, or rant, or whatever you want to call it. Of course, it's easier for me to say so than those who face(d) the enemy on the battlefield. Many brought sacrifices - and too many, by now, the ultimate sacrifice. But I believe that if fate had placed me in their shoes, my reactions and opinions on this conflict still wouldn't have changed. These days I get the impression that far too many people desperately want to get back to the time when all we had to care about was a grounded spy plane in China and how to set your first steps on the Internet, and the most exciting news was that Saparmurat Niyazov was proclaimed President for Life in Turkmenistan. Sorry, but it ain't gonna happen. These days don't come back, and besides, Saparmurat Niyazov is a goner anyway. There is but one sole option: carry on this WOT till we have won.

Over here at DowneastBlog, we are willing to continue, and do what little we can to support those who do the real fighting. As far as I am concerned, if that takes staying around long enough for celebrating the next five years, I'm ready for it. Are you?


MFBB.

BELGIAN GOVERNMENT TO SEND F-16'S TO AFGHANISTAN. SOCIALIST OPPOSITION GOES BONKERS.

For five long years, the bulk of the Belgian ISAF contingent in Afghanistan - 300 troops drawn from various units - has been guarding KAIA, Kabul International Airport, a job I gather is considered the safest in the Hindu Kush. The photo above shows two Pandur troop carriers and two of the new Dingo MPPV's (centre) on patrol in the greater Kabul area (apparently global warming hasn't reached Afghanistan yet). In addition to the KAIA guard detachment, a staff of 60 is performing the actual management of the airport itself. Finally there is a platoon-sized unit assisting the Germans in Kunduz, primarily with demining activities. By contrast, our northern neighbour, The Netherlands, has been actively engaged in the fighting, its contingent being among the five or so NATO contributors which actually confront the Taliban on a daily basis. And the sight of body bags returning to Holland has become, unfortunately, a constant reminder of the danger the Dutch troops are facing. The bulk of the 2,000 strong force - with heavy matériel at its disposal, including mechanized howitzers, scores of tracked AIFV's and Apache attack helicopters, is engaged in the volatile Uruzgan province. They get air support from six Dutch F-16 fighter bombers.

Over the past year, the pressure put on Belgium for doing more in AF has been growing steadily, and when US Secdef Robert Gates recently warned against NATO becoming a "two-tiered alliance of those willing to fight and those wo are not", he certainly must have had Belgium in mind - amongst others.

The Belgium interim government under Guy Verhofstadt - he is to be succeeded by the Christian-Democrat Yves Leterme on March 24, but only fools believe that - has now announced, for the first time, a truly active participation in the fight against the Taliban. Four F-16 fighter bombers and 100 ground personnel will be sent to Kandahar Airfield (KAF), where they will join the six Dutch planes in an Air Task Force. Even though the extra Belgian effort is still very modest, the Dutch are pleased with it. Like Gates, they have been asking for a long time for more support from their partners. Back in June 2007, right after the Belgian parliamentary elections, Dutch PM Jan-Peter Balkenende called Yves Leterme - at the time everyone was still convinced Leterme would quickly assume the post of Belgian PM - and asked him "Yves, do something for us in south Afghanistan!" Too bad for the Dutch June 10, 2007 marked the start of the longest coalition talks in Belgian history, which would ultimately drag on for 192 days during which Verhofstadts caretaker government was unable to answer the Dutch call. And even then no satisfactory accord was reached, since pressure from the EU, which needed an active Belgian government to sign the Lisbon Treaty, forced an interim government upon the Belgians - under Verhofstadt again! This interim government, in its second month now, is actually composed of the losers of the June 10 elections, but there is one bright spot: the disastrous Defense Minister André Flahaut (Parti Socialiste) has been succeeded by Pieter De Crem, a Christian Democrat who under Verhofstadt II had constantly lamented the demise of the Belgian military. And it is De Crem who has been the catalyst in the decision to send the fighter bombers to aid the Dutch. To be sure, this is not the first time Belgian F-16's head to Afghanistan. Four other ones were deployed from KAIA two years ago, but Flahaut did not permit combat flights, only patrols. This time will be different, and the planes will be actively engaged to pound Taliban positions - a welcome reinforcement for the Dutch, be it, unfortunately, only from September on.

Socialists would not be socialists if they did not object to even this almost negligible contribution. Barely had the decision been announced or Dirk Van Der Maelen, MP for the SP.a (Flemish socialists) asked for a parliamentary round to debate the deployment. To illustrate how extremely difficult it is in Belgium to pursue a realistic defense policy, including a responsible and fair attitude within the NATO framework, I'll now cite several top ranking SP.a officials:


a.) Caroline Gennez, Chairwoman SP.a, a cunt of the first order.

"Belgium should not blindly wage a war. This is an unwinnable war. We absolutely disagree to send combat troops at a time when the conflict escalates."

b.) Ludwig Vandenhove, Chairman of the Defense Commission in Parliament. Asshole Superdeluxe. Vandenhove on February 7, 2008, during the debate on the mission in Parliament:

"If the government decides to commit our country and our soldiers to such a dangerous, lost war, it is only logical that this decision is explained as quickly as possible in Parliament. In addition, because of this engagement, Belgium will become more than ever the target of terrorist attacks."

c.) Johan Vandelanotte, MP, former SP.a chairman. Wants to starve what remains of the Belgian Army by reducing its strength of 40,000 to 20,000 and cutting its budget in half. The money thus freed should go to development aid, even when it is crystal-clear that 50 years of extensive Belgian development aid in a.o. Africa has achieved nothing.

"Pieter De Crem is the errand boy of Balkenende."

d.) Dirk Van der Maelen, MP and Fraction Leader for SP.a. A coward, a f*cking dhimmi and an outspoken enemy of corporate Belgium. Got himself huffed and puffed up two years ago in the Belgian press with a litany against Paul Wolfowitz and the pay raise the latter gave to his girlfriend. Was less concerned about the fact that a certain Sabine Steels, girlfriend of his mate Patrick Janssens, the socialist mayor of Antwerp, landed herself without exams a cushy job as Antwerps "Safety Director" via a stop between Janssens sheets. But I digress. Van der Maelen on sending just four Belgian jets to AF:

"Now that George W. Bush sees the end of his term, he realizes all the more that he will enter history as the president who lost two wars (Iraq and Afghanistan). Hoping that American troop reinforcements can turn the tide in a lost cause, the US are pushing for more. But do we really want to go to Afghanistan to save the honour of Bush?

...

Therefore we plead to open the debate and, e.g., think about a bigger role for the UN. A greater UN-mandate directed at development and stabilization, reinforcement of the institutions... that is what the country needs. No poodle wagging his tail running after Bush without a thought, in the process wasting money which harms purchasing power or, worse, endangers the lives of soldiers and/or citizens."

[note from MFBB: I fail to understand how the purchasing power of Belgian citizens can be badly affected with a Defense budget amounting to 1.3% of the GNP. If Van Der Maelen was really concerned about our purchasing power, he might want to do something about our taxes, among the highest in Europe.]


Just remember, these ball-less assholes are total military ignoramuses - I doubt there is even one among them capable of distinguishing a spare track for a Leopard from an ammo canister.

But there is more.

Money and defense, sometimes they do go together for or moral betters.

A "high" mark in the not so brilliant history of Belgian contributions to NATO is the appointment of Willy Claes to NATO Secretary General in September 1994 - an function he held for a mere fifteen months, when he was forced to step down. The reason? The involvement of Claes in the so-called "Agusta scandal", an affair whereby the socialist parties (both the Flemish and Walloon ones) received kickbacks for pushing the Belgian Army in 1988 to buy 48 mediocre A-109 attack helicopters from the Italian helicopter maker Agusta S.p.A.. Trials had revealed other choppers to be far better, but Agusta sealed the US$267-million contract by paying the Flemish Socialistische Partij US$1.72 million in bribes. When the purchase took place, Claes was Economic Affairs Minister. Six years later, as NATO Secretary General, he first vehemently denied any knowledge of the payments, then admitted that he had indeed been at a meeting where the kickbacks were discussed. As the investigation into Claes' involvement deepened, the affair began to stink to high heaven. Still, even as late as February 27, 1995, the Vice President of the United States, a certain Al Gore, deemed it necessary to issue a statement saying:


"The United States has full and complete confidence in Secretary General Claes."

It should be noted that Agusta was a state-owned company controlled by Bettino Craxi's PSI, the Partito Socialista Italiano. If you still have the stomach to follow that link, yes, that's a hammer and sicle in the PSI's logo. The difference between Italian socialists and Italian communists is basically that the former have a better stocked canteen. Where was I? Oh yes, Claes. Back in 1988, when the decision to buy the A-109's was taken, two ministerial signatures were absolutely needed. One was the signature of Willy Claes as Minister of Economic Affairs, as we have seen. The other one was, of course, the signature of the Defense Minister himself. AMAZING!!!!!!!!!!!! The Defense Minister in the late eighties was none other than Guy Coeme, a Walloon of the Parti Socialiste!!!!! By the time the scandal broke out, this illustrious predecessor of André Flahaut was being investigated not only for his involvement in the Agusta scandal - the PS also received part of the bribes - but into another scandal as well, namely the payment by French aircraft manufacturer Dassault of a 2 million US$ bribe to the Walloon Socialist Party for a contract to modernize the Belgian Air Force's F-16 and Mirage III jets in 1989. This affair became known as the case of "The Three Guys", since the main protagonists were Guy Coeme, the Parti Socialiste Defense Minister, Guy Spitaels, the Chairman of the Parti Socialiste, and Guy Mathot, a former Budget Minister from the Parti Socialiste whose most memorable quote regarding the Belgian state deficit was: "the deficit came out of the blue, it will disappear the same way."

All three had to resign in 1994, and it seems the success of the investigation was due to the results of yet another investigation, namely the inquiry into the murder of a former Parti Socialiste Chairman, André Cools, who was shot in broad daylight in 1991 in Liège, reportedly because he had threatened to reveal nasty details about the party's finances - not that Cools himself was a saint, far from. However, you know how it goes in the Mafia. But the really interesting year with regards to the bookkeeping of both the Socialistische Partij and the Parti Socialiste was 1995, when Etienne Mange , chief of the Belgian Postal Services AND Treasurer of the Flemish Socialist Party (and a close collaborator of Willy Claes) - was arrested in connection with the Agusta kickbacks. When Belgian magistrates discovered a secret bank account in Switzerland early in 1995, Mange confessed that the Flemish SP had indeed received a gift of $160 million Belgian francs (the 1.72 million US$ from above, you will recall) from Agusta via a Swiss bank account held by Luc Wallyn, a Belgian employee of the European Commission (as a sidenote, Wallyn was also vice secretary general of the Flemish Socialist Party). It was Mangé who sealed Claes' fate. He told the police that he had discussed Agusta's offer to pay bribes to the Flemish Socialist Party with a.o., Claes. Claes finally stepped down in December 1995. While it is entirely possible that even at that stage Al Gore still had full and complete confidence in the man - Socialists-'R-Us - most if not all NATO officials had by then distanced themselves from their chief, one US official saying that the real question "was how Willy Claes could have gotten NATO Secretary General in the first place." He was right. In the early eighties, the Reagan administration installed tactical nukes in Western Europe, a.o. in Belgium. This to counter the threat of Soviet SS-20 tactical nuclear missiles already deployed. In Brussels, a giant demonstration was staged by the usual moonbats: 400,000 people, the largest in Belgian history. One of the prominent organizers was... Willy Claes.

And so we can conclude that you can always count on socialists to do the wrong thing after they have tried all the other wrong things. They were dead wrong in opposing US nukes while they were hunky dory with their Soviet counterparts - and one of the great unwritten books of that timeframe is the one dealing with the reportedly very intensive and friendly contacts which then existed between western european socialist parties and their comrades from across the Iron Curtain. They were dead wrong when Afghanistan was invaded by the USSR - I have been a keen follower of Belgian politics since I was 16, and I can assure you that our dear do-gooders never questioned the Soviet invasion - quite unlike another "invasion" in the region some five years back. They were dead wrong in the Agusta and Dassault scandals, and they were dead wrong in the first Gulf War, when the socialist Defense Minister refused to sell artillery ammo to the UK. And speaking of Iraq, they were dead wrong when they did everything to hamper the preparations for OIF, the lunatic André Flahaut at some point even threatening to deny Belgian airspace to US warplanes.

And now they are dead wrong in opposing the dispatching of a mere flight of four fighter bombers to Afghanistan to be deployed against islamic extremists of the worst possible kind - who just days ago blew up 80 marketgoers in the worst carnage since the country was liberated in 2001.

What do our moral betters from the SP.a propose then, apart from getting the UN involved? Well, as you probably know by now, Messrs. Claes, Vandenhove, Vandelanotte and Van der Maelen, to name but a few, are the co-authors of a pact between Belgium's so-called democratic parties to never talk or form coalitions with the Vlaams Belang, Flanders' only truly conservative party. This situation is called the so-called cordon sanitaire. With regards to the Taliban, however, the gentlemen propose to hold talks with the "moderate ones" among them.

I get it. For socialists, talks with the VB are haram. Talks with the Taliban however are halal. You know what talks I prefer? I can't wait till those four F-16's start pounding Dirk Van der Maelens preferred speaking partners.




MFBB.

LONG LIVE DENMARK!!!

Some muslim a-holes were rounded up who wanted to murder Kurt Westergaard for his Mohammed cartoon. Danish newspapers responded by reprinting the Mohammed cartoon. Other muslim a-holes think this entitles them to set Danish cars and schools ablaze. Their fruitcake nephews and cousins in the dar al-islam show their support by burning Danish flags again. So what Mohammed cartoon are we talking about? This is the Mohammed cartoon we are talking about:



DowneastBlog stands together with the Danes. LONG LIVE DENMARK!!!




Guds hjælp, Folkets kærlighed, Danmarks styrke

("The Help of God, the Love of the People, the Strength of Denmark")


MFBB.

Obama’s Economic and Constitutional Ignorance

Barack Obama is co-sponsoring the Patriotic Corporation Act, which is such a blatant example of wrong headed and damaging legislation that it boggles the mind.  The great irony is that the Democrats who have for so long accused conservatives of abusing the term "patriot" are now using the term as a smoke screen for a bill that advances an insidious agenda. The following is taken from the National Association of Manufacturer's website:

February 12, 2008

Government-Defined Patriotism

An interview in The Nation's blog with Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-OH):

I've talked to Barack a lot about his Patriot Corporation Act, which is not trade per se, but it's certainly part of the economic package around globalization. ThePatriot Corporation Act has not gotten the attention that I would hope it would. But, basically it says that if you play by the rules, if you pay decent wages, health benefits, pension; do your production here; don't resist unionization on neutral card check, then you will be designated a "Patriot Corporation" and you will get tax advantages and some [preference] on government contracts.

There is so much here that's profoundly objectionable. On card check, it's "patriotic" to support the elimination of the secret ballot in the workplace? It's "patriotic" to pay an employee $14 an hour, but not $13.83? Play by the rules? What does that mean?

The most striking offense here is the idea that the federal government would be defining patriotism, company by company. And if the federal government defines a company as a patriot, than it will be defining -- if only by omission -- the companies that are not patriots.

A terrible, terrible idea.

*New thread for continued discussion*

Never let Outlaw say that I don't contribute enough to this blog.

SUPER TUESDAY OPEN THREAD

As I am writing this, it's 1.28am. Outside, the wind is howling. In here, it's cozy and warm. It was a busy working day, which lasted until around 10pm. The house is asleep. I can see my wife lying in the sofa - she surrendered to Morpheus about one hour ago. Inside their respective rooms, our kids - aged 6 and eight-and-a-half- months - dream with little angels' faces of Ratatouille (perhaps) and mommie's milk (almost certainly). Downstairs, the cat is either out (madness) or preferred a spot for the night where I couldn't detect her. And here I sit, wasting precious sleeping time again because I am glued to the computer screen, swapping as I am between CNN, FOX, the BBC or even our own goddam media. I would never have guessed I'd become such a news junkie for the American elections. But in this age of limitless and ultrafast data, news about the hottest elections in decades crosses the Atlantic slower than a schooner, or so it seems. I will quit any moment now - gotta get up early tomorrow, rough day ahead. But I seem not to be able to say the Toshiba goodnight.




So come on. Spill.


MFBB.

ANTI-ISLAMIC ACTIVITY IN EAST LONDON.

From the East London Advertiser, January 30, 2008:

HOLOCAUST DAY MARRED BY 'RACIST' STONE-THROWING.

THE Holocaust Memorial Day marking the genocides of the 20th century was marred on Sunday when a gang of youths stoned Jewish tourists on a guided tour of London's East End. A group of 96 visitors looking at sites of Jewish interest were attacked by youths hiding behind a fence in a back street in Whitechapel.

Two were struck by the missiles, an American woman just starting a new post at London's Metropolitan University and a Canadian lecturer. The woman had blood pouring from her head and needed hospital treatment. The tour was organised by leading local historian Clive Bettington, who was later asked by police if he wanted officers to accompany him in future, but declined.

"That would be admitting there are 'no go' areas," he said. "I won't be intimidated. We have a right to walk our streets unmolested."



He has now written to Tower Hamlets chief executive Martin Smith for an urgent meeting... [] ...An eye-witness said: "Stones started to come down on us and some in the group were scared and ducked. "I looked over the fence and saw four Asian youths throwing stones. They were laughing, then ran away." The woman who was injured, a New Yorker now living in London, started her job running the IT department at the Met University the following day.

"It wasn't exactly a nice welcome to the East End," she said. "You're just so surprised standing in a large crowd like that being pelted with stones. I was shocked and didn't know what happened at first, then realised I was bleeding and knew I had been hit. My head was cut open."

She was treated at the Royal London Hospital and had to miss an inter-faith mdmorial service she was going to at the East London Central synagogue. Her friend, Canadian Eric Litwack was hit by a missile, but did not need stitches. He said: "It was obviously we were being targeted on a tour talking about Jewish history."
...

There was condemnation across the political spectrum at the multi-faith service at the synagogue later. The Mayor of Tower Hamlets blamed it on "narrow religious views" in the community. "It's horrifying this could happen in the East End in this day and age, on Holocaust Memorial Day of all days," Cllr Ann Jackson told the Advertiser. "We must mediate between the narrow religious views of some in the Bangladeshi community. [emphasis mine] There is narrow mindedness in all communities. Everyone must realise ours is a tolerant society."

"There is narrow-mindedness in all communities." Riiiiiiiiiiiiiight. I guess some people just need to be nuked before they will finally realize they have been fuked.

It seems I may have been a tad too optimistic a few months ago when I gave a fairly optimistic assessment of the UK's Gordon Brown government. Take David Miliband e.g., Brown's Foreign Secretary. Since assuming the job he has blamed Israel for the 2006 war in Lebanon's south, suggested that the EU include also - as member states - Russia, Middle Eastern North African countries, and scoffed at the US's role as the backbone of NATO. The Higher Education minister, John Denham, is a blunt idiot who is of the opinion that Israel's policy makes the UK a target for terror and who resigned from the Blair government over the UK's participation in the liberation of Iraq. The Minister for Africa, Asia and the UN is Sir Mark Malloch Brown, a fiercely anti-American former UN official who downplayed the "Food for Oil" scandal and is Vice President of the Quantum Fund, an organization headed by George Soros.

But perhaps the prize for Prime Gaga Minister in Golden Brown's cabinet should go to Jacqui Smith, Britain's Home Secretary. Believe it or not, but halfway January this lady had the honour of announcing the UK's official renaming of muslim terrorism. According to Mrs. Smith, from now on islamic terrorism will be called "anti-islamic activities". The inimitable Mark Steyn, currently being prosecuted by the Canadian Human Rights Commission because the Canadian Islamic Congress launched human rights complaints against him for writing this "America Alone" exerpt, is his usual godlike self in "First They Came For Piglet":

My favorite headline of the year so far comes from The Daily Mail in Britain: "Government Renames Islamic Terrorism As 'Anti-Islamic Activity' To Woo Muslims."

Her Majesty's Government is not alone in feeling it's not always helpful to link Islam and the, ah, various unpleasantnesses with suicide bombers and whatnot. Even in his cowboy Crusader heyday, President Bush liked to cool down the crowd with a lot of religion-of-peace stuff. But the British have now decided that kind of mealy-mouthed "respect" is no longer sufficient. So, henceforth, any terrorism perpetrated by persons of an Islamic persuasion will be designated "anti-Islamic activity." Britain's Home Secretary, Jacqui Smith, unveiled the new brand name in a speech a few days ago. "There is nothing Islamic about the wish to terrorize, nothing Islamic about plotting murder, pain and grief," she told her audience. "Indeed, if anything, these actions are anti-Islamic."

Well, yes, one sort of sees what she means. Killing thousands of people in Manhattan skyscrapers in the name of Islam does, among a certain narrow-minded type of person, give Islam a bad name, and thus could be said to be "anti-Islamic" — in the same way that the Luftwaffe raining down death and destruction on Londoners during the Blitz was an "anti-German activity." But I don't recall even Neville Chamberlain explaining, as if to a five-year old, that there is nothing German about the wish to terrorize and invade, and that this is entirely at odds with the core German values of sitting around eating huge sausages in beer gardens while wearing lederhosen.

Still, it should add a certain surreal quality to BBC news bulletins: "The Prime Minister today condemned the latest anti-Islamic activity as he picked through the rubble of Downing Street looking for his 2008 Wahhabi Community Outreach Award. In a related incident, the anti-Islamic activists who blew up Buckingham Palace have unfortunately caused the postponement of the Queen's annual Ramadan banquet."

Yeah well right, Anti-Islamic Activities huh. So, if I follow the good Home Secretary, with that stone-throwing at Jews on Holocaust Memorial Day we simply witnessed an Anti-Jewish Anti-Muslim Activity. That makes sense.

Not.



This is Outlaw Mike reporting for DowneastBlog from the European Loonybin, erm, Union.


MFBB.

IF FILIP DEWINTER DID NOT EXIST, THEY'D HAVE TO INVENT HIM.

Fortis is Belgium's biggest bank and ranks among Europe's 20 top financial institutions. Its site claims it has a market capitalisation of EUR 43 billion. It is present in over 50 countries and employs 60,000 people. Chairman of the Board of Directors is Maurice Lippens, a Fleming. Current CEO (since October 2004) and the man behind the international expansion is Jean-Paul Votron, a Walloon. If you consider that Maurice Lippens is also a count with close ties to the Royal Family, one can conclude that Fortis is one of those few truly genuine "Belgian" enterprises.


Filip Dewinter, VB strongman and fraction leader in the Flemish Parliament, has written Count Lippens a letter. An open letter. Here is the translation:

Antwerpen, 21 januari 2008

Open letter

Fortis NV
To the Chairman of the Board of Directors
Sir Maurice Lippens
Koningsstraat 20
1000 Brussels,
Belgium


Dear Sir Lippens,

From media reports I learned that Fortis, as the first Belgian bank, launches an investment product in compliance with the rules of sharia, the islamic law. More specifically, the "Fortis B Fix 2008 Islamic Index 1", a bevek [ ] offered in 80 Fortis franchises. The investment fund comprises only sharia-approved shares. Indeed, it is coupled to the so-called 'Dow Jones Islamic Market Index' (DJIM) a Dow Jones Index excluding shares from companies whose principal activities are not allowed by sharia.

On the 'Dow Jones Indices' site I found which companies are exempt from this index. They are companies active in the fields of alcoholic beverages, tobacco, pork-related products, conventional financial services (banking and insurance), arms/defence and leisure (hotels, casinos, movies, music, ...). Compliance with the sharia rules is controlled by the 'Sharia Supervisory Board', an advisory board of islamic theologists.

With this letter I wish - also in my capacity as a Fortis client - to protest against the fact that you - presumably out of commercial interests - offer these sharia investment products to your clients. By selling these products, you legitimize the ideology of muslim fundamentalism, the ideology that strives for a society based on sharia law. The teachings of sharia are, by the way, fundamentally incompatible with our western values of democracy and rights and freedom. Sharia stands amongst others for an inhumane judicial system with corporal punishments, prosecution of other religions, female inferiority and a total rejection of whatever kind of distraction. By promoting these sharia investment funds, you simultaneously promote the rise of muslim fundamentalism and you seriously hamper efforts by moderate muslims who are willing to integrate and are themselves no advocates of sharia. Indeed, you foster the notion that one can only be a good muslim when one obeys sharia rules. In the meantime, I took the trouble to check out which islamic theologians have a seat in the 'Sharia Supervisory Board' which determines whether a share fulfills the requirements of the 'Dow Jones Islamic Index' (and thus also your Fortis-sharia investment fund). They are: Sheikh Nizam Yacubu from Bahrein, Sheikh Mohd Daud Baker from Malaysia, Sheikh Justice Muhammed Taqi Usmani from Pakistan, Sheikh Mohamed A. Elgari from Saudi Arabia, Sheikh Abdul Sattar Abu Ghuddah from Syria and Sheikh Yusuf Talal DeLorrenzo from the United States. Apparently you let fatwas from fundamentalists determine which shares you offer, by means of your investment funds, to your clients.

The members of the 'Sharia Supervisory Board' are controversial. One of them is Sheikh Justice Muhammed Taqi Usmani, one of the most important islamic theologians and former sharia judge in Pakistan's Supreme Court. During his tenure he opposed an amendment furthering the protection of women in Pakistan. This amendment aimed for the abolishment of several extremely woman-unfriendly measures which, a.o., obliged rape victims to come up with four male witnesses, lest, in the absence thereof, the woman not be accused of adultery, a crime to be punished by stoning.

Usmani is also a proponent of violent jihad. In an interview with the Times (08/09/2007) he stated last year that 'muslims have to live in peace in countries such as Great Britain, until they acquire enough power to enter battle'. In his book 'Islam and modernism', Usmani pleads for an agressive military jihad as a means to achieve islamic world dominance. The Times writes that his book is a polemic against the islamic modernists who 'want to transform the whole Koran in a poetic and metaphoric book'. According to Usmani these modernists are 'bewitched by western culture'.

Another member of the 'Sharia Supervisory Board', Abu Ghuddah, is Chairman of the Sharia Board in the Saudi bank 'Al Baraka Investment and Development Corporation'. A group of relatives of more than 1,000 victims of the attacks of 9/11 has filed a lawsuit against this bank because it reportedly is one of the main financiers of these terrorist attacks. Another member of the 'Sharia Supervisory Board', DeLorrenzo, is also a member of the Fiqh Council of North America (FCNA), which counts many fundamentalists within its ranks and which was the subject of an investigation regarding the financing of muslim terrorism.

Because your bank is selling these sharia investment funds en because this constitutes a surrender to muslim fundamentalism, I feel compelled to scrap my accounts at your bank.

Yours sincerely,


Filip Dewinter

You can see an ad for Fortis' Sharia-approved investment fund, the 'Fortis B Fix 2008 Islamic Index 1', here. The ad promotes "een veilige belegging gekoppeld aan een halal beursindex" (a safe investment coupled to a halal stock index).

Je-sus Christ. There comes no end to it. In this whole stinking mess I see one bright spot. One. That's where Dewinters letter mentions, almost in passing, that there is something like "islamic modernists who 'want to transform the whole Koran in a poetic and metaphoric book'." So they are out there, somewhere. Not your run of the mill "moderate" who basically subscribes to the same goals as his head-chopping nephew and only uses a different timeframe. But true reformers, prepared not to treat the koran as the literal word of God.

Too bad Count Maurice Lippens prefers the company of a guy who is of the opinion that a woman who got raped committed adultery, and should therefore be stoned.

I know who's stoned.


MFBB.

SUNDAY FUNNIES OUT OF THE BLUE.

(Sorry for stealing your line CDR.) We have all missed the news, what with the RoP, VB and the frikkin primaries, but on January 4, 2008, Warner finally went Blu Ray.




Prof Crackaquack sez:

Blu-ray Disc (aka BD) is a high-density optical disc format for storing digital information, including high-definition video. The name Blu-ray comes from the blue/violet laser beam used to read and write this type of disc. The blue laser's shorter wavelength (405 nm) means that far more data can be stored on BD than on the ordinary DVD format, which uses a red laser with a wavelenght of 650 nm. A single-layer Blu-ray Disc can store 25 gigabytes (GB), more than five times the capacity of a single layer DVD (4.7 GB). Consequently, a dual-layer Blu-ray Disc can store 50 GB, or almost six times the capacity of a dual layer DVD (8.5 GB).

Its competitor HD DVD or High-Definition DVD was designed to be the successor to the standard DVD format and is a logic continuation of it derived from the same underlying technologies. Ironically, it's kind of a Blu Ray disc format too since all variants except the 3x DVD employ a blue laser with a shorter wavelength. It can store about 3 1/2 times as much data per layer as its predecessor (maximum 17 GB per layer instead of 4.7 GB per layer).

So then, there you know it. Warner Bros. Entertainment will be releasing its high-definition titles "exclusively in the Blu-ray disc format beginning later this year." Barry Meyer, Warner's Chairman & CEO, described the move as a "strategic decision focused on the long term and the most direct way to give consumers what they want." I don't know what Barry Meyer looks like, but the CEO of the HD DVD Promotion Group strongly reminds me of a famous socialist I read about. No wonder they used red lasers to begin with.

Hat tip Smetty's Soapbox.


MFBB.

PERSON OF THE YEAR 2007: GENERAL DAVID PETRAEUS.

Mind you, my choice. Until further notice DowneastBlog is still Tom, Scott, Kerry and me; I can't claim the good general is also their choice. But I bet a crate of Duvel that I'm not stepping on sore toes here. Anyway, better late than never and yes, I know the Redhunter has beaten me to it. Well, TIME may nominate an unapologetic dictator of a country where critics of the regime - Litvinenko, Politkovskaya, Safronov - meet untimely ends, over at DowneastBlog a man is honoured who more than anyone else contributed to the success of the Surge, and by consequence to the political fortunes of the American Right: the commander of the Multinational Forces in Iraq (MNF-I), General David Petraeus.





David Petraeus, born in 1952, is a scion of a Dutch American family. His father, Sixtus Petraeus, was a sea captain who fled to the US when Holland was overrun in 1940 and who commanded a Liberty ship throughout the war. His mother was Holly Knowlton, from Brooklyn and the daughter of West Point's superintendent. Young Petraeus graduated from West Point in 1974 and returned there in 1981 to earn the General George C. Marshall Award as the top graduate of the U.S. Army Command and General Staff College Class of 1983 at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas. He went on to earn an MPA in 1985, and a Ph.D. in International Relations in 1987 from Princeton University’s Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs. Later yet he served as an Assistant Professor of International Relations at the U.S. Military Academy, so in short, he's not somebody John Kerry would like to refer to to illustrate his theories on the correlation of IQ and Service in the US Army.

Petraeus began his career with an assignment to the 509th Airborne Infantry Battalion at Vicenza, Italy. The 509th was essentially a light infantry unit and looking back now, one concludes that's the branch which has been at the core of his career throughout the years. It is therefore not surprising that in March 2003, then Major General David Petraeus commanded a "light infantry" division, the famous 101st Airborne (Screaming Eagles) in its drive through Karbala, Hilla and Najaf to Baghdad. After the fall of the latter, the division spent much of the year in Iraq's north, where its brigades were responsible for Mosul and surroundings. In Mosul, Petraeus oversaw a program of public works and political reinvigoration whereby approximately 4,500 reconstruction projects were launched, not to forget the restoration and reopening of the University of Mosul. I especially recall a story from that time detailing the prodigious efforts of soldiers of the 101st laying scores of fibre optics cables to modernize Mosuls telecom infrastructure - I still must have that story somewhere, btw. Such was the impression of the general on the Iraqis he was working with that some nicknamed him "King David" (!) From that time too dates his slogan "Money is ammunition", and together with his insistence his soldiers mingle freely and unprovocatively with the local populace, this illustrates the intelligent approach with which he kept Mosul a model of "winning hearts and minds" for a long time. As much as I regret to say it - I still hold Donald Rumsfeld in very high esteem - I fear that much of the credit Petraeus built was lost when Rummy decided to replaced the 101st's foot soldiers with fast racing Strykers. As it was however, Petraeus' experiences found their way into the U.S. Army Counterinsurgency Field Manual, which by the way he co-authored.

And late in 2006, when much of Iraq was a mess - or so it seemed - people high up in Washington and the Pentagon remembered Petraeus' successful stint in Mosul. One year ago, on January 26, 2007, he was confirmed by the Senate as Commanding Officer of MNF-I, and as such, with the rank of a Four-Star General (in Europe, we would call that a Colonel-General) he oversees the operations of all coalition forces in Iraq and the implementation of what has become known as the Surge. In practice, Petraeus deployed what he had - the troops present and the newcomers - in a totally different way. Before, US troops were garrisoned in five huge main bases, from which they regularly ventured out in high-speed motorcades. Petraeus on the other hand developed a network of joint security stations in Baghdad's neighborhoods and in al-Anbar Province, in which U.S. and Iraqi troops lived and worked together. This established a constant military presence in the streets, a heavily armed community policing that is an essential element in the Counterinsurgency Strategy as co-developed by Petraeus during his time at Fort Leavenworth. In addition, he was not too proud to not encourage and fund the Sunni tribes organizing themselves in the anti-AQ Anbar Salvation Country from fall 2006 on, even though he knew these men had quite literally just the other week assaulted his troops. This especially was a risky move, but one year on it is safe to say that it worked. Baghdad and by extension Iraq may be far from safe, but Petraeus' tenure has undoubtedly heralded an new era of relative security and prosperity. And as Iraqis see what they have to gain by cooperating, they bet in ever greater numbers on the strong horse. The battle is not won yet, but with the remnants of AQI clinging to some fringe vestiges from where they spordically carry out their hallmark grueseome killings, it is beginning to look more and more like a giant mopping-up operation.

And that is largely because of Petraeus. Despite being beset from foes in Iraq and from foes in Washington, he may not only have won Iraq. If the senator who called him "the de facto spokesmen for what many of us believe to be a failed policy" is kept out of the White House... he may have won even far more.


MFBB.

CHARLES JOHNSON'S HUGE PROBLEM: OBSESSION.

Charles Johnson just can't get enough of it. A recent post sheds light on JihadWatch's Robert Spencer's decision to distance himself from the Vlaams Belang, on the grounds that it "allied" itself with the BNP (British National Party). What has happened? First of all, delegations from a number of rightwing parties - most commentators dub them "extreme right", "far right" etc. - have recently convened in Antwerp, northern Belgium, to announce the formation of a new organization, "Cities against Islamization". According to The Australian:

SEVERAL European far-right parties announced a new organisation aimed at fighting the "Islamisation" of Europe. The group dubbed "Cities against Islamisation" was presented to the media in the northern Belgian city of Antwerp by Filip Dewinter, head of the far-right Belgian party Vlaams Belang (Flemish Interest) along with Austrian FPOE leader Heinz-Christian Strace and Robert Spieler of the regionalist Alsace First group. Parties from Britain (the British National Party), Denmark, Germany and Italy were also represented at the launch of the group which has a road-sign-style crossed-out mosque as its logo.

I must admit that, although I have been aware of the existence of the BNP for many years, I never took a close look at their programme. It is therefore with more than a frown that I came across the following membership statement, as posted on their site:

Membership of the British National Party is open to those of British or kindred European ethnic descent. While we welcome contact and co-operation with nationalists and patriots of other races, and with the many non-whites who also oppose enforced multi-racialism, we ask them to respect our right to an organisation of our own, for our own, as we respect and applaud their measures to organise themselves in like fashion.

Although further on the BNP's site strictly denies claiming to be white supremacists - and does offer some arguments to back that up - I fear that, were I a Brit, the requirement to be of white race only would withhold me from becoming a member. Luckily, I am not confronted with the same dilemma in my party, the Vlaams Belang, which is open to people of all races and yes, religions. It is therefore very regrettable, that in much the same way that Johnson took the arguments against the VB hook, line and sinker, Robert Spencer now has done the same with the info obtained from the Top Lizardoid. In my book, BNP's refusal to accept people of other races is racist in nature. There is no such refusal within the VB. So why then does Spencer write:

As I have said before, I completely disavow all racist and neo-Nazi ideas. I also disavow all race-based approaches to the jihad threat, for the reasons explained above, and will not work with the VB or the BNP. I hope other anti-jihadists will find those arguments compelling and follow suit. In the recent bitter controversy between Charles Johnson and a group of counterjihadists over the nature of the VB, it does appear quite clearly from this new alliance, if it wasn't already, that Charles was right. The VB needs to do much more, and much more clearly, if it really wishes to avoid appearing to oppose Islamization solely on racial grounds.

Do your homework Robert Spencer! During all these months, Johnson has never come up with a photo like the one below. I'm afraid it does not fit his agenda, you see.



Is this Filip Dewinter with a scary Obersturmbannfuehrer? Nope. It's Filip Dewinter with a very fine young lad, Pieter Van Boxel, of Indonesian descent but raised in a Flemish household, hence the name. He is a local chapter leader in the small community of Malle. There are others like him. There would be many more, if not the Belgian media, political parties and unions had not been unleashing a tidal wave, for thirty years now, of the most vile disinformation regarding my party. The real reasons the VB is so hated is NOT because it would be racist, but firstly, because it is unashamedly CONSERVATIVE in a political environment where even the Right - or what passes for it - is leftist to a considerable degree. Secondly, and this is especially indegistible for the Belgian establishment, because it strives for Flemish Independence (note that I am not in favor of that, but that is another question). The last reason, perhaps the most compelling one, can be summarized in the following photo:



The banner behind Mr. De Winter reads: "BUSH IS RIGHT. STOP ISLAMIC TERROR."

The photo was taken in early fall 2001, at about the time Mullah Omar fled Kabul in the back of a pickup with his djellaba sporting some suspicious smelly brown streaks. At the very same moment, Green MP Jef Tavernier gave a TV interview urging the US to immediately stop bombing the wifebeaters since "enough was enough". But I digress. Suffice to say these are the real reasons why the VB is so hated here, and unfortunately the PC crowd is succeeding to tar my party's reputation on yonder side of the Atlantic too. I suppose the VB's access to Washington channels, back in February, was more than they could bear.

But I digress. Back to the BNP. Johnson and now Spencer too make it appear as if the "Cities against Islamization" campaign is a broad strategic alliance. It is not. As a matter of fact, the BNP was not even present at the Counterjihad Conference in fall 2007 in Brussels. It is a specific action field aimed especially at some key cities suffering most from an uncontrollable influx of islamic customs and all this accompanies: sharia, a religious police, no-go zones, soft, or not so soft expulsion of indigenous people etc etc. Personally, I can live with the VB joining hands with the BNP in this particular initiative. Americans should understand this. In WWII, they allied themselves with a monstrous regime in order to defeat an even worse enemy. And in more recent times, we had the good fortune of seeing the famous photo of George W. Bush shaking hands with his new ally from the Anbar Salvation Front, Sheikh Abu al-Shattar (who was shortly thereafter murdered by AQI). One year ago, the good Sheikh orchestrated or at least supported attacks by his men on American columns. In Iraq, US troops are now allies of groups like the 1920's Revolutinary Brigades, who until recently ambushed them. I don't recall BNP guerrillas ever taking potshots at VB members. So I wonder what exactly is wrong with the VB working together with the BNP on one particular issue?

Were the VB proscribing from tomorrow on that it only accepts whites, I quit immediately. It does not. In the same manner that the US did not tar its reputation - at least not in my book - by working with the USSR to defeat Nazi Germany, I fail to see why the VB should now become political pariahs by working with the nationalist Brits. And if their programme smells racist, have you taken into consideration what may have spurred them to take such a hard stance? No? Take a look at this video then. From The Brussels Journal: This video is a disgrace:




Mr. Johnson, sitting safely on his warm ass in distant La-La Land, can possibly permit himself a Holier-Than-Thou attitude. The lads from the BNP are past that stage, I fear. I want my kids to grow up in a FREE society. If that requires the VB cooperating with the BNP, I see no problem with that. Congratulation Charles Johnson. And congratulations Robert Spencer. Nice rift you got us there. I suppose you DO know which party laughs most, don't you?


MFBB.

NO MUSLIMS INVOLVED IN FUAT DENIZ MURDER.

About one month back I posted a story about the murder on Dr. Fuat Deniz, an Assyrian Christian professor living and working in Orebro, Sweden. In that post, I stated that muslims had carried out the assassination. I was wrong. The truth is more prosaic. According to the excellent Gates of Vienna, which has followed this affair closely, Mr. Deniz was the victim of an old family feud:

But now the Swedish police have arrested a suspect, and politics was apparently not involved. Instead it was, like so many murders, a family quarrel:

Murder suspect ‘was related’ to lecturer

Police in Örebro have confirmed that university lecturer Fuat Deniz was related to a 42-year-old man being held in connection with his murder.Police said that an old feud between the two family members constituted the most likely motive for the killing. “The political motive is no longer valid,” police spokesman Torbjörn Carlson told SVT. The suspect was questioned by police on Thursday evening and the investigation is said by Carlson to be progressing well. Prosecutors have applied for the suspect to be remanded in custody, with a hearing scheduled for 1pm on Friday. Deniz, 40, was stabbed in Örebro University’s sports complex on December 11th last year. He died of his injuries two days later. Police in Örebro have questioned hundreds of people in a wide-ranging investigation into the murder.

I apologize to the DowneastBlog readership for the incorrect information.


MFBB.

BY THEIR FRUITCAKES YE SHALL KNOW THEM...

Please bear with me. I am sorry.
There's lots of good, interesting stuff out there. Fascinating stuff. Truly fas-ci-nating!
The Large Hadron Collider, a particle accelerator designed to find a.o. the Higgs-boson aka the "God Particle", is scheduled to begin operation in May!
2008 will see the launch of Europes very first spacetruck, the Jules Verne. It will carry cargo to and from the ISS.
Also, Europes new spacelab Columbus is scheduled to finally begin operation this year... and a new launch missile, smaller than the Ariane V, is making its entry: the Vega.
Contrary to what you would think, there IS substantial progress in much of (black) Africa. A country like Botswana e.g. deserves far more attention than it gets.
Between 1997 and 2004, carbon dioxide emissions from countries which signed he Kyoto protocol rose on average 21.1%. Carbon dioxide emissions from the US rose 6.6% in that same period.
Al Qaeda has lost in Iraq. Harry Reid is as depressed about that as Brian de Palma over his summer 2007 earnings, but that don't change a thing.

But...

But in spite of myself, I keep coming back to what is quickly evolving into an existential issue for Europe. The following topic is but one in a kaleidoscope of faits divers, societal trends, side effects and very visible developments, which all point in the same direction: the islamization of my continent. It is but a small topic. But it will tell you a lot.

Spirit is a Flemish "leftist liberal" party, an offspring of the now defunct Volksunie, which once was a relatively normal Flemish nationalist party. More than thirty years ago, some unsatisfactory accord, the so-called Egmontpact, was reached between Flemings and Walloons which angered the more radical part of Volksunie's electorate enough to flock to the then brand new Vlaams Blok. Some ten years ago, what was left of Volksunie split into a "rightwing" part, NVA, and a "leftwing" part, ID21. NVA attracted the saner guys, ID21 the nutters. ID21 quickly crumbled and morphed into the even nuttier Spirit under the guidance of a certain Bert Anciaux. Leftist, progressive, ecologically responsible, pluralism, general nuttiness plus a mellow variant of Flemish nationalism were the main credos of the hodgepodge of weirdos making up Spirit. The founder, Bert Anciaux, somehow made it Minister of Culture on a Blue Monday, some five or six years back. I recall a story from those days, when there was a serious row about a school director who had sent a kid back home because he was so stitched up with piercings and earrings that he'd set off a metal detector at Zaventem International Airport by simply thinking of using a plane. Minister Bert Anciaux rushed to the defense of... the pupil, on the grounds that, fasten your seatbelts, all great cultures of humanity had worn earrings.

But we digress.

These days, the chairwoman of Spirit is Bettina Geysen. Spirit's bigshots are a bit pissed off, because their ideological brothers, the Flemish socialists from SP.a, find themselves in the opposition now that there is a government (other big losers of the June 10, 2007 elections, the Walloon socialists, hold minister portfolios though). So it was not exactly in the best of moods that Mrs. Geysen climbed the stage to give the annual New Years' speech, two weeks late.

Guess what she was wearing.





Geysen lambasted the fact that the City Council of Ghent, in a rare show of realism and not a little influenced by a VB proposal, approved in November 2007 of a decree requesting Ghent's public servants working in a visible position to not wear the veil. Before you think that is discriminatory, know that the decree also forbids the wearing of any religious symbol, be it a Christian cross around the neck or a jewish yarmulke. Also, the rule does not apply to muslim women working in some back office where they are not seen by ordinary citizens. All this to ensure strict neutrality. No protests btw from the crusaders and the world's evil machinists, only from you-know-who.

You just remember.


These are the people actively promoting abortion.

These are the people actively promoting euthanasia.

These are the people who fiercely opposed any reference to Europes judeo-christian roots in the EU Constitution.

These are the people who spit on our traditions and who mock the Catholic Church.

These are the people who would love Bush, Powell, Rummy and Cheney to be tried by the ICC.

These are the people who think America is a dictatorship (one lunatic, Geert Lambert, "observed" the 2004 Presidential elections anxious to prevent another theft of the election by Bush)

These are the people actively promoting gay marriage.

These are the people actively promoting gay adoption.

These are the "Boss In Own Belly" feminists.

These are the BOM-Mothers (Bewust Ongehuwde Moeders, "Consciously Unmarried Mothers").

These are the people who would suggest instead of a stable family transitional relationships whereby the initial biological mother and father swap partners every number of years, creating ever more complicated so-called "composed families".

And they lie in bed with a belief system that, once in power, will crush them first.


I, Outlaw Mike, live in the world's Biggest Open-Air Loonybin.




One day, we will come to Columbus. And Vega. And Botswana. And the ISS. And the God Particle. God willing. One day we will come to that.


MFBB.

MASSIVE TERROR ATTACKS FOILED IN BRUSSELS AND ROTTERDAM.

I meant to post this right after my return from Poland on January 3, but frankly, I was so sick of it all that at the moment I could not bring myself to complete the post back then. Then the Iowa caucus caught my attention. But I still owe it to you. Here's what I learned upon returning in my country:

A.) BELGIUM.

No traditional New Year's Eve festivitities and fireworks in Brussels last time. Lots of coverage in Belgian media, but of course all in Dutch and/or French. However, FOX News had a good article in English:

BRUSSELS, Belgium — Traditional New Year's Eve fireworks in central Brussels have been canceled due to a continuing terror threat in the Belgian capital, officials said Sunday. The popular downtown Christmas market will close early, at 6 p.m., on Dec. 31 rather than staying open all night, and the adjacent skating rink will shut at 8 p.m. Authorities warned of an increased risk of attack after police last week detained 14 people suspected of plotting to help an accused Al Qaeda militant break out of jail.

The inmate, Nizar Trabelsi, 37, is a Tunisian ex-professional soccer player who is serving 10 years for plotting to drive a car bomb into the cafeteria of a Belgian air force base housing about 100 U.S. military personnel.

I got back from Poland only this evening, so I did not hear of all this firsthand, but my neigbour's wife just told me there was a terrible show of force by Police in Central Brussels, with streets cordoned off and huge police visibility. We have sadly all come to know the Brussels mayor, the infamous Freddy Thielemans, Parti Socialiste. If a scoundrel like him complied immediately with the recommendations of the Ministry of Interior's Crisis Centre, which got its information from OCAD, the Anti-Terror Cell, things must have been very serious indeed.

It is highly likely that the security measures were related to the arrest of 14 terror suspects, earlier in December, who allegedly planned to blow up bombs in the Brussels Subway system. Among he fourteen arrested was Malika El Aroud, the widow of the assassin of the Afghan warlord Ahmed Shah Massoud, who was murdered days prior to 9/11. Another was Trabelsi's girlfriend Naima. Tapped telephone conversations revealed that Naima had boasted that her daughter, who studies chemistry, was able to make explosives. When interrogated about these phone talks, Naima defended herself by saying "that she was only joking."



B.) THE NETHERLANDS.

On the last day of the year, an arrest took place in Rotterdam whereby three suspects were rounded up who reportedly planned a terror attack. Police got its information from the Dutch Anti-Terror Service, the AIVD, and reacted immediately. The three men, aged 31, 32 and 39 years, were two Moroccans with Dutch nationality and a Sudanese without fixed domicile. So far, so good. Happens all the time these past few years.

But then, immediately after New Year, details emerged. Dutch blog GeenStijl reports:

But now it appears that the three terror suspects rounded up days ago wanted to stage a HUGE BOMB ATTACK during the New Year's Eve. Target: Veronica New Years Eve on the Erasmus Bridge. Purpose: blow everything up during Kane's live concert [note by MFBB: they probably mean the popular band Keane]. Two Moroccans and oen Sudanese almost had theor own Ground Zero. They were arrested only hours prior to 00:00. Kudos for the arrest, but the whole affair leaves us with an unpleasant feeling...

The prestigious Dutch daily De Telegraaf confirms:

Only the past few days, the muslim extremists' internet communication revealed their intention: cause a bloodbath on the busy new year's party taking place on and around the Erasmus Bridge.

Immediate action [by security services and police] in all likelihood prevented a disaster of unknown proportions. The party was attended by more than 15,000 people perched onto each other, following the concerts, a mass of people which can hardly, if at all, be protected. Yet that very evening special measures had been announced. Visitors were not allowed on the bridge. Of the Moroccan suspects is known that they have Dutch nationality. The Sudanese had been on our country for auite some time illegally, but would not have been sent to Holland with the specific purpose of staging an attack...

And in a move very likely related to the arrests of the would be bombers, another roundup took place on January 4. An alert citizen was able to shoot the whole thing, probably with a cell camera. Geenstijl again:

A spectacular arrest this afternoon near Goirle in Brabant. There, a heavily armed arrest team plucked two suspects, involved with the foiled Rotterdam attack, from the national road A58. The whole thing was filmed by a prototype GS onlooker [sorry - Geenstijl writes 'prototype GS reaguurder' but even I sometimes have trouble with Dutch slang] who coincidentally had duty as a cameraman for Brabant Broadcast. The movie of the arrests can be found here.

Jesus. Christ. W-T-F is going on lately?



MFBB.