Blatant Reality

This is why we need to continue the fight in Iraq, so that these ruthless barbarians never gain control of that country.

Remote-controlled explosives strapped to two mentally retarded women detonated in a coordinated attack on Baghdad pet bazaars Friday, police and Iraqi officials said, killing at least 73 people in the deadliest day since the U.S. sent 30,000 extra troops to the capital this spring.

 

The chief Iraqi military spokesman in Baghdad, Brig. Gen. Qassim al-Moussawi, claimed the female bombers had Down syndrome and that the explosives were detonated by remote control, indicating they may not having been willing attackers in what could be a new method by suspected Sunni insurgents to subvert stepped up security measures.

Ed Morrissey sums up what I feel about this situation (emphasis added):

If nothing else has shown the remarkable bloodthirstiness and heartlessness of the AQI terrorists, this should do it. People who would exploit the mentally handicapped as walking bombs have no sense of humanity, justice, or peace. They are, simply put, evil people who have no capacity for negotiation or co-existence.

 

In a way, this shows how desperate AQ has become. They obviously cannot fill their ranks with willing participants, and even hostages won’t suffice. Instead, they exploit the weakest and most innocent and use them as commodities to kill as many people as possible.

 

The Iraqis have seen this evil up close and have rejected it. They understand now that there is no accommodation with evil. It has to be defeated, and defeated utterly.

Because of the terrorist activities that have been generating from the Gaza Strip, Israel has decided to retaliate with slowly cutting off its electricity and fuel.

Israel’s Supreme Court on Wednesday upheld the government’s decision to reduce fuel and electricity deliveries to the Gaza Strip as a form of “economic warfare” against the armed Hamas group in control there.

 

In doing so, the three-judge panel rejected the arguments of Israeli and Palestinian human rights groups that the blackouts and shortages caused by the cuts represent a form of collective punishment against Gaza’s 1.5 million residents.

 

“We emphasize that the Gaza Strip is controlled by a murderous terror group that operates incessantly to strike the state of Israel and its citizens, and violates every precept of international law with its violent actions,” the judges wrote.

 

The ruling clears the way for the Israeli government to begin reducing its delivery of electricity to Gaza on Feb. 7, and to continue cutting back the shipments of fuel used to run Gaza’s power plant, generators and vehicles. Most of Gaza’s electricity is supplied by power lines from Israel.

I like it how not only is Hamas a terrorist group, its a “murderous” terrorist group. Way to go Israeli Judges for not being politically correct!However, Israel is probably going to get a lot of crap from the international community for this and this incident will probably end up being discussed in today’s democratic debate. Be prepared to hear stories about how the US and Israel are the reasons why all these terrorists exist in the first place.

Israel has been taking a lot of flak in the news this past week due to it stopping the normal flow of commercial goods into the Gaza Strip. Many have said that this Israeli “blockade” eventually led to a blackout throughout Gaza. However, when looking at the facts more closely, one will find that the terrorist organization Hamas is actually responsible for the outage. Take a look at what Bob Owens from Pajamas Media has to say about this:

By Sunday evening, Gaza City was in a complete blackout. And of course, it was Israel’s fault. Or was it?

 

Hamas spokesmen blamed Israel for the power shortage, claiming that they were forced to shut down power because of a fuel shortage brought about by the blockade. That same night, Al Jazeera began live broadcasts of a “spontaneous” candlelight protest in a darkened Gaza. The heart-wrenching images were broadcast throughout the Arab world and picked up by wire services and cable news outlets internationally.

 

It was great theater, but it was far from accurate news reporting. Gaza was not without electrical power during that time, and both the darkness and the candlelight protests were the results of a calculated ploy by Hamas.

 

The Gaza Strip receives 70 percent of its electricity from the Israeli Electric Company (IEC) (perhaps the only power company in the world regularly attacked by their customers.) Egyptian power companies chip in another five percent. The energy flowing into Gaza from Israel and Egypt, and making up three-quarters of Gaza’s power supply never ceased and never slowed during the “blackout.”

And who is responsible for these blatant falsehoods being paraded as facts worldwide? If you guessed the MSM then you are correct. Remember: a little bit a skepticism can often help you find a whole lot of truth.

It seems as if a series of bombings in Europe has been stopped after the bombers were detained in Barcelona according to The Daily Telegraph.

A GROUP of alleged Islamist extremists were planning a wave of suicide attacks across Europe before they were detained in Barcelona last weekend.

 

The group intended to carry out three attacks in Spain and one each in Portugal, France and Germany, an unnamed man who infiltrated the group told top-selling daily El Pais.

 

The report comes one day after Spanish judicial sources said that three of the six members of the group, who allegedly planned to blow themselves up, were still at large.

 

The preferred targets were public transportation networks, especially metro systems because of the difficulty which emergency services would have in reaching the injured there, according to the newspaper.

Ed Morrissey from Captain’s Quarters has a post about what message this should send the rest of the world.

What do Spain, Portugal, France, and Germany have in common? None of them belong to our fighting coalition in Iraq. None of them contribute combat troops to the hot zones in Afghanistan, either. In fact, only Spain among these nations ever did contribute combat troops, in Iraq, and they withdrew them after the bombings in Madrid in March 2004. It seems that retreat didn’t keep the jihadis from targeting Spain again.

 

This shows — again — that appeasement and retreat does not sate the bloodthirstiness of radical Islamist terrorists. It only makes them more confident of their ability to cow their opponents into concessions. They want to continue murdering non-Muslims (and Muslims) until they can triumph over the West and take their ordained place as our masters in the worldwide Caliphate.

This morning, Hamas militants blew up several holes in the fence surrounding the Gaza Strip which has allowed thousands of Palestinians to pour into Egypt.

Hamas militants blew 15 holes in a security fence separating the Gaza Strip and Egypt, enabling thousands of Palestinians to leave the blockaded enclave to search for food and supplies.

 

After detonating bombs along the fence at about 4 a.m. local time today, militants used bulldozers to remove barbed wire and concrete emplacements, witnesses said. By late afternoon, as many as 350,000 people, a fifth of Gaza’s population, had crossed into Egypt, Israel’s Haaretz daily said, citing the United Nations.

Gateway Pundit has more on this story and how the “Jews” are being blamed for all of this.

A bomb went off in Beirut, Lebanon today presumed to have been targeting a US Embassy vehicle.

BEIRUT, Lebanon – State Department spokesman says four Lebanese were killed in the explosion targeting a U.S. Embassy vehicle in Beirut on Tuesday, The Associated Press reported.

 

Ambulances and security forces rushed to the scene, witnesses said.

 

Sources told Reuters that a passenger of the diplomatic vehicle was wounded in the attack. Reuters later reported a source as saying no U.S. personnel had been killed in the blast.

UPDATE (10:24pm EST)

Here is TIME’s account of the bomb attack in Beirut.

Last night, a United States’ diplomat in Sudan was gunned down on his way home from a New Years Eve Party.

In Washington, the United States Agency for International Development identified the victim as one of its officials, John Granville, 33, originally of Buffalo, N.Y. American officials said it was “too early to tell” if the shooting was random or planned, but Sudanese officials said the circumstances were suspicious, especially because gun crime is rare in Khartoum, considered one of the safest cities in Africa.

 

The United Nations had recently warned its staff in Sudan that there was credible evidence that a terrorist cell was in the country and planning to attack foreigners.

Well, a recent study seems to have severed that link. And what, pray tell, is the best remedy for terrorism? Democracy of course. Read Hot Air’s article on it here.

Today, the senate voted on whether to consider Iran’s Revolutionary Guards as a terrorist organization.

The Senate on Wednesday approved a resolution urging the State Department to designate the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps a terrorist organization, a move aimed at bringing additional economic pressure on Iran.

 

The measure passed 76-22.

 

The proposal by Sen. Joe Lieberman, I-Conn., and Jon Kyl, R-Ariz., attracted overwhelming bipartisan support. But a small group of Democrats said they feared that labeling the state-sponsored organization a terrorist group could be interpreted as a congressional authorization of military force in Iran.

To find out exactly who voted for what, go here.

Joseph Bell, in an article on OpinionEditorials.com, lamented over America’s politicians inability to see what a premature withdrawal from Iraq would do to the credibility of our War on Terror.

What is lost in the debate about timetables, withdrawal and the effectiveness of the government in Baghdad is the overriding reality that there is a war going on in Iraq and the conclusion of that war will determine in large part the shape of the Middle East, the next phase of the war against the global terrorism network, the strength and influence of al Qaeda and America’s leadership role on the international stage.

 

During an August 22 speech in Kansas City, Missouri, President Bush said America’s enemies have a firm understanding of history. He said, “In an interview with a Pakistani newspaper after the 9/11 attacks, Osama bin Laden declared that ‘the American people had risen against their government’s war in Vietnam. And they must do the same today.’ …Here at home some can argue our withdrawal from Vietnam carried no price to American credibility – but the terrorists see it differently.”

 

No doubt America’s enemies also remember that in the aftermath of Washington’s abandonment of Vietnam, America’s adversaries sprang into action across the globe. Max Boot, a member of the Council on Foreign Relations, recently observed, “In the late 1970s America’s enemies seized power in countries from Mozambique to Iran to Nicaragua. American hostages were seized aboard the SS Mayaguez (off Cambodia) and in Tehran. The Red Army invaded Afghanistan. It is impossible to prove the connection with the Vietnam War, but there is little doubt that the enfeeblement of a superpower encouraged our enemies to undertake acts of aggression that they might have otherwise shied away from.”

 

There are a number of parallels between Vietnam and Iraq. In the case of Vietnam, American politicians forced a withdrawal of U.S. forces at a time when South Vietnam was becoming able to defend itself with negligible U.S. ground support. Boot wrote that by 1972 much of the South was considered secure and South Vietnamese forces were able to turn back the Easter Offensive with U.S. air support but with minimal U.S. ground assistance.

 

Boot concluded, rightly, “The danger is that American politicians will prematurely pull the plug in Iraq as they did in Vietnam. If they do so, the consequences will be even worse since Iraq is much more important strategically than Vietnam ever was