r ===Political Correctness has won, the Demwits have embraced it and Obama is too arrogant to care about protecting our nation and upholding the First and Second Amendments. Obama believes we should become the dumping ground for radical terrorists in order to protect them from climate change and unemployment. Europe is finished! Time favors ISIS , Russia, Iran and China!
As I have said repeatedly, Norman Podhoretz has been correct all along - World War 4 has now begun!
Congress, Obama, Kerry meet and talk. Europe immigrates. Meanwhile, ISIS acts. I suggest putting your money on ISIS as long as these scenarios continue - Obama remains in office and the lights of intellectuals remain off! (See 1 and 1a below.)
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I went Sunday, with a dear friend and fellow memo reader, to listen to a presentation by a PHD professor who is teaching counter terrorism at The War College. He is a native born Brazilian, very bright, certainly qualified and knowledgeable.
I did not bring paper and pencil so am listing these bullet points from memory and in no particular order:
a) He began by describing how ISIS evolved and pointed out that ISIS and the various other terrorist groups are not in sync. In other words, ISIS and al Qaeda, Taliban etc. are not in agreement nor use the same means.
He stated we should not concern ourselves with characterizing everything and everyone terrorists but only do so when they become active.
ISIS allows those living under its rule to party (no alcohol) to listen to music etc. unlike al Qaeda and the Talban etc.
ISIS allows those who do not wish to adhere to their beliefs to leave but only after buying their freedom. This is true for Christians as well but should Christians remain they must embrace Islam or be beheaded.
From an economic standpoint, ISIS raises money in a variety of forms. The one above (ransom for freedom) from manufacture and sale of items, and oil production etc. They earn in the vicinity of 1/2 billion dollars annually.
They now occupy large territory but mostly desert whereas, the predicted future attacks/wars will be more urban and in financial centers - think Paris!.
ISIS is not a threat to America's homeland at present but does threaten our vital interests in The Middle East.
ISIS is not centrally structured and the loss of top leadership is not, therefore, likely to be their ruin.
ISIS' appeal and effectiveness is remarkable because of their expertise in technology unlike the Taliban and al Qaeda. ISIS makes excellent and effective use of the internet and their videos are highly professional.
They attract adherents because they offer the opportunity to participate in the overthrow of infidels.
For instance there is a known and identified group of American Somalians from which ISIS draws a significant number of adherents. and participants.
The greatest problem for the Western World's security people is the fact that many nationals have legal passports from their country, travel to Syria etc. and then return home. Over 100 Americans have done this and are not all known and their activities tracked
Obama was late in recognizing the threat and has finally designed a policy that is proving only partially effective.
A component of this policy was to arm and equip those we thought we could train to be effective opponents of ISIS (Iraq National Guard) only to find they ran when challenged and/or sold their equipment etc.
If we are to defeat ISIS, we must think in terms of confronting them on the ground and the ratio configures to be around 30 to one. There are between 30 to 50,000 members of ISIS.
There are those within the Administration who believe we should put our troops on the ground and then there are those who believe it is the job of the most impacted in The Middle East who must confront ISIS on the ground.
The speaker's concern regarding America developing any kind of strategy is that the first component must include an exit otherwise, we are likely to repeat the mistakes of Viet Nam.
The problem with our coalescing allies is they are constantly changing governments. He cited Canada as an example. Canada has been engaged, supportive and effective and then Trudeau gains power and now is withdrawing and the same is true for the governments of France, Spain etc.
Each Middle East nation is conflicted. For instance Turkey may be threatened by ISIS but fears our arming Kurds. The Saudis fear ISIS but object to our joining Russia in protecting Assad in Syria and so it goes. These various schisms thwart a cohesive effort on our part.
The speaker believes America must be engaged and should continue its efforts to bring about an agreement between The Palestinians and Israelis.
Second, though he has serious concerns about Iran's willingness to adhere to the terms of the Iran Deal, be believes we should use this agreement to probe whether other areas of potential agreements can be pursued.
It was one of the better and broader discussions I have heard on the subject but his solutions,though rational, are highly unlikely to be achieved because Palestinians are not going to trade economic support for peace since they believe their dual/duel strategy of resistance and terrorism are gaining adherents, Israel will tire and the Palestinians want it all. As for Iran it is not likely they will adhere to what they say or sign.
The war that will emanate from Islamic Terror is unlike any we have faced in modern history.
Therefore, I believe the mess we are in will continue and escalate and will only worsen as long as Obama remains in office because he is who he is - a man who sees solutions through a Muslim lens, is a pacifist at heart and does not understand what it is to be an American or have the soul of an American.
You decide! (See 2 below.)
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Is America destined to become an Argentina? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=33i_BAhuiE0
Or
Will Muslims fight it out with Hispanics to take over America: https://www.conservativereview.com/commentary/2015/11/7-shocking-facts-about-islamic-immigration
Locusts destroyed cotton in the south. Muslims have overtaken Europe: https://youtu.be/44vzMNG2fZc
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Dick
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------1) Why the Paris Massacre Will Have Limited Impact
by Daniel Pipes
The murder of some 127 innocents in Paris by a jihadi gang on Friday has again shocked the French and led to another round of solidarity, soul searching, and anger. In the end, however, Islamist violence against Westerners boils down to two questions: How much will this latest atrocity turn public opinion? And how much will it further spur the Establishment to deny reality?
As these questions suggest, the people and the professionals are moving in opposite directions, the former to the right, the latter to the left. In the end, this clash much reduces the impact of such events on policy.
Public opinion moves against Islamists specifically and Islam more generally when the number of deaths are large enough. America's three thousand dead on 9/11 stands out as by far the largest mortality but many other countries have had their equivalent – the Bali bombings for Australia, the railroad bombing for Spain, the Beslan school massacre for Russia, the transportation bombings for Britain.
Sheer numbers are not the only consideration. Other factors can multiply the impact of an assault, making it almost the political equivalent of mass carnage: (1) The renown of those attacked, such as Theo van Gogh in the Netherlands and the Charlie Hebdo office in France. (2) The professional status of the victim, such as soldiers or police. (3) High-profile circumstances, such as the Boston Marathon bombing.
In addition to the over 27,000 attacks globally connected to Islam since 9/11, or more than 5 per day (as counted by TheReligionOfPeace.com), a huge increase in illegal immigration from the Middle East recently exacerbated feelings of vulnerability and fear. It's a one-way street, with not a single soul ever heard to announce, "I used to worry about Islamism but I don't any more."
These cases make more Westerners worried about Islam and related topics from the building of minarets to female infibulation. Overall, a relentless march rightwards is underway. Surveys of European attitudes show 60 to 70 percent of voters expressing these concerns. Populist individuals like Geert Wilders of the Netherlands and parties like the Sweden Democrats are surging in the polls.
But when it comes to the Establishment – politicians, the police, the press, and the professors – the unrelenting violence has a contrary effect. Those charged with interpreting the attacks live in a bubble of public denial (what they say privately is another matter) in which they feel compelled to pretend that Islam has no role in the violence, out of concern that to recognize it would cause even more problems.
These 4-P professionals bald-facedly feign belief in a mysterious "violent extremist" virus that seems to afflict only Muslims, prompting them to engage in random acts of barbaric violence. Of the many preposterous statements by politicians, my all-time favorite is what Howard Dean, the former governor of Vermont, said about the Charlie Hebdojihadis: "They're about as Muslim as I am."
This defiance of common sense has survived each atrocity and I predict that it will also outlast the Paris massacre. Only a truly massive loss of life, perhaps in the hundreds of thousands, will force the professionals to back off their deeply ingrained pattern of denying an Islamic component in the spate of attacks.
That pattern has the very consequential effect of shutting out the fears of ordinary voters, whose views thereby have negligible impact on policy. Worries about Shari'a, rape gangs, exotic diseases, and bloodbaths are dismissed with charges of "racism" and "Islamophobia," as though name-calling addresses these real issues.
More surprising yet, the professionals respond to the public's move to the right by themselves moving to the left, encouraging more immigration from the Middle East, instituting more "hate speech" codes to suppress criticism of Islam, and providing more patronage to Islamists. This pattern affects not just Establishment figures of the Left but more strikingly also of the Right (such as Angela Merkel of Germany); only Eastern European leaders such as Hungary's Viktor Orbán permit themselves to speak honestly about the real problems.
Viktor Orbán's Hungary may not last long in the EU. Or maybe he is the group's future leader?
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Eventually, to be sure, voters' views will make themselves heard, but decades later and more weakly than democratically should have been the case.
Placing the murderous rampage in Paris into this context: it will likely move public sentiments substantially in one direction and Establishment policies in quite the opposite way, therefore ultimately having only a limited impact.
Mr. Pipes (DanielPipes.org, @DanielPipes) is president of the Middle East Forum. © 2015 by Daniel Pipes. All rights reserved
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1a) What France and Europe Might Learn
Today, every Palestinian child knows that in the best case, a future Palestinian state will be run by Hamas or Islamic Jihad, and in the worst case by the Islamic State and its affiliates. Has it occurred to anyone in Europe that the Palestinian people might not want to live under the rule of any of the groups, any more than Europeans would?
France and the rest of the EU countries have long been working against their own interests in the Middle East. By constantly endorsing pro-Palestinian and anti-Israeli policies, France has obviously been seeking to appease the Arab and Islamic countries. France seems convinced that such policies will keep Muslim terrorists from targeting French nationals and interests. That is probably why the French have made the catastrophic mistake of believing that the policy of appeasement toward Arabs and Muslims would persuade the Islamist terrorists to stay away from France. The French are now in grave danger of mistakenly believing that the November 13 attacks occurred because France did not appease the Muslim terrorists enough.
1a) What France and Europe Might Learn
- By constantly endorsing pro-Palestinian and anti-Israeli policies, France has obviously been seeking to appease Islamic countries. France seems convinced that such policies will keep Muslim terrorists from targeting French nationals and interests. The French are now in grave danger of mistakenly believing that the November 13 attacks occurred because France did not appease the Muslim terrorists enough.
- When the terrorists see that pressure works -- increasing the pressure should work even more!
- The French and Europeans would do well to understand that there is no difference between a young Palestinian who takes a knife and sets out to murder Jews, and an Islamic State terrorist who murders dozens of innocent people in Paris.
- The reason Muslim extremists want to destroy Israel is not because of the settlements or checkpoints it is because they believe that Jews have no right to be in the Middle East whatsoever. And they want to destroy Europe because they believe that Christians -- and everyone -- have no right to be anything other than Muslim.
- The terrorists attacking Jews also seek to destroy France, Germany, Britain and, of course, the United States. These countries need to be reminded that the Islamist terrorists' ultimate goal is to force all non-Muslims to submit to Islam or face death.
Earlier this year, France was one of eight countries that supported a Palestinian resolution at the United Nations Security Council, calling for a full Israeli withdrawal to the pre-1967 lines by the end of 2017.
This vote means that France supports the establishment of an independent Palestinian state, likely to be ruled by the same type of people who on Friday carried out the most grisly terror attacks in France since World War II.
Today, every Palestinian child knows that in the best case, a future Palestinian state will be run by Hamas or Islamic Jihad, and in the worst case by the Islamic State and its affiliates. Has it occurred to anyone in Europe that the Palestinian people might not want to live under the rule of any of the groups, any more than Europeans would?
Sadly, the two earlier terrorist attacks that took place in Paris this year -- against the Charlie Hebdo satirical newspaper and the HyperCacher Jewish supermarket -- failed to convince the French that the policy of appeasement towards Arabs and Muslims is not only worthless, but also dangerous.
Instead of learning from these previous mistakes and embarking on a new policy toward the Israeli-Palestinian conflict in general and extremist Islam in particular, the French continued with their strategy of appeasement even after the Charlie Hebdo and the HyperCacher supermarket attacks.
Instead of learning from these previous mistakes and embarking on a new policy toward the Israeli-Palestinian conflict in general and extremist Islam in particular, the French continued with their strategy of appeasement even after the Charlie Hebdo and the HyperCacher supermarket attacks.
Most recently, France voiced its backing for EU plans to label products from Israeli settlements, doubtless thinking that such a move would make the Muslim terrorists happy with the French. But, as last Friday's terrorist attacks showed, the Islamic State and its supporters are not particularly impressed by anti-Israel moves.
Muslim terrorists do not care about the settlements. For them, that is a trivial issue compared to their chief goal and dream: truthfully, to kill all infidels and establish an Islamic empire. The Muslim terrorists who have been murdering Jews in Israel and other parts of the world also seek to kill anyone they perceive as being friends of Western values in general. These include, above all, Christians -- either those unfortunate enough still to be living in the Middle East, but also those living in France and other Western countries.
The reason Muslim extremists want to destroy Israel is not because of the settlements or checkpoints. They want to destroy Israel because they believe that Jews have no right to be in the Middle East whatsoever. And they want to destroy Europe because they believe that Christians -- and everyone -- have no right to be anything other than Muslim. That is also why Muslims seem not particularly interested in the EU's decision to label products from Israeli settlements. It is worth noting that the decision to label Israeli goods was not even an Arab or Islamic initiative.
The EU's decision to boycott products from Israeli settlements has sent entirely the wrong message to the enemies of Israel and the enemies of Western values. These enemies of the West see the decision to label products as just the first step toward labeling all of Israel as an "illegal settlement." It is no surprise that the first to celebrate the decision were Hamas and Islamic Jihad.
What France and other Western countries do not understand is that concessions and gestures are being misinterpreted by the terrorists as signs of weakness, which just invite more violence. When the terrorists see that pressure works, increasing the pressure should work even more!
What France and other Western countries do not understand is that concessions and gestures are being misinterpreted by the terrorists as signs of weakness, which just invite more violence. When the terrorists see that pressure works, increasing the pressure should work even more!
The European boycotts are seen by the people here as nothing but cynical and heartless -- attempts to court a thieving leadership at the expense of the people. The boycotts are seen here as nothing but keeping the Palestinian people in the grip of its corrupt leadership and prompting us to take another look at the extremists -- the only choice offered up.
What the Europeans might have learned is that the assaults in Paris are what all of us here -- Muslims, Christians and Jews -- have been living with for decades.
During the past 22 years, all Israel's territorial concessions and goodwill gestures have resulted only in increased terrorism against Israel, including us Arabs. Many Palestinians incorrectly saw the Israeli withdrawal from the Gaza Strip in 2005 only as a retreat and a sign of weakness. If shooting at Jews made them leave Gaza -- as it appeared -- keep shooting at Jews. The result was that Hamas took credit for driving the Jews out of the Gaza Strip with rockets and suicide bombings, and quickly rose to power.
In the same manner, each time Israel has released Palestinian prisoners (including dozens with blood on their hands) as a gesture to Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas or U.S Secretary of State John Kerry, the Palestinians regarded the gesture as having their demands met. So the next step is to increase the violence and demand more. The Palestinians saw Israel's withdrawal from southern Lebanon and Gaza, and the release of Palestinian prisoners, not as a sign that Israel was interested in peace and calm, but as a reward for terrorism.
Two months ago, France took another step in appeasing the Arabs and Muslims. This time, the French voted in favor of raising a Palestinian flag at the UN headquarters. "This flag is a powerful symbol, a glimmer of hope for the Palestinians," UN French Ambassador Francois Delattre said. Again, the French apparently thought that the vote would satisfy the Arabs and Muslims and persuade the terrorists that France was on their side in the fight against Israel.
France's -- and Europe's -- flawed policy toward the Israeli-Palestinian conflict did not start in the past year or two. Four years ago, France voted in favor of granting the Palestinians full membership of the UN's Educational Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO). Last month, the Palestinian Authority leadership unsuccessfully tried to use UNESCO to pass aresolution declaring the Western Wall a holy site for Muslims only. The resolution was changed at the last minute into one just condemning Israel, but instead of opposing the resolution, an embarrassed France chose to abstain. UNESCO, however, did vote that two ancient Jewish heritage sites symbolic of the Biblical era, Rachel's Tomb and the Cave of the Patriarchs, would henceforth be known as Muslim heritage sites. The same week, another Biblical site, Joseph's Tomb, was set on fire (for the second time; the first was in 2000) by people whose government, the Palestinian Authority, had agreed to protect it.
For the past few weeks, Palestinians have been waging a new wave of terrorism against Israelis. This time, the Palestinians are using rifles, knives, stones and cars to murder as many Jews as possible. But we still have not heard any real condemnation -- from France, Europe or anyone -- of the Palestinian terrorism.
We have also not heard France or other EU countries demand that President Mahmoud Abbas condemn the terrorist attacks against Israelis. Most French media outlets and journalists have even refused to refer to the Palestinian assailants as terrorists -- despite many of the terrorists being affiliated two Palestinian groups that share the same ideology as Islamic State: Hamas and Islamic Jihad.
By failing to condemn the terrorist attacks against Israelis and name the perpetrators for what they are -- ruthless murderers and terrorists -- France and Western countries are once again sending the wrong message to the Islamists: that killing Jews is not an act of terrorism.
What these countries do not realize is that the terrorists who are attacking Jews also seek to destroy France, Germany, Britain and, of course, the "Big Satan" (the United States). These countries need to be reminded every day that the Islamist terrorists' ultimate goal is to force all non-Muslims to submit to Islam or face death. Sometimes, the terrorists do not even have the patience to offer this choice to the "infidels," and just kill them while they are watching a concert or a soccer match.
It now remains to be seen whether the French will wake up and realize that radical Islam is at war with the "unbelievers" and all those who refuse to accept the dictates of Islamic State and other Muslim extremists. This is a war that Israel has been fighting now for more than two decades, but, sadly, with little support -- and most often with venomous obstruction -- from countries in Europe, including France.
The French and Europeans would do well to understand that there is no difference between a young Palestinian who takes a knife and sets out to murder Jews, and an Islamic State terrorist who murders dozens of innocent people in Paris. Once the French and other Europeans understand this reality, it will be far easier for them to engage in the battle against Islamic terrorism.
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Bassam Tawil is a scholar based on the Middle East.-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
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