1) Democrats say we must exit Iraq in order to fight Al Qaeda.

2) Al Qaeda is currently most active, and most murderous, in Iraq, and probably has the most actual terrorists in that country.

Just curious. If Democrats are so gung-ho to fight Al Qaeda, why are they so eager to withdraw from the one place in the world where we have 1) lots of Al Qaeda and 2) lots of American troops (at the moment, at least) equipped and ready to fight Al Qaeda?

Are the Democrats basically only willing to fight Al Qaeda in an area of the world (NW Pakistan) which US troops cannot reach (except in tiny squads of special forces operators, which have thusfar been unable to cover enough ground to get bin Ladin)?

Where, exactly, do Democrats want to fight Al Qaeda? They don't want to fight them where we have troops and suggest "fighting them" where our troops simply cannot go.

Posted by: Ace at 10:07 AM | Comments (129)
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Now here's a frisbee game I like. Ultimate Freath.

The Air Force recently tapped Triton Systems, out of Chelmsford, Mass, to develop [a] "Modular Disc-Wing Urban Cruise Munition."

"The 3-D maneuverability of the Frisbee-UAV [unammned aerial vehicle] will provide revolutionary tactical access and lethality against hostiles hiding in upper story locations and/or defiladed behind obstacles," the company promises.

The circular drones will be lanuched "from munitions dispensers or by means of a simple mechanism similar to a shotgun target (skeet) launcher," Triton adds. Once in the air, they'll be tele-operated by soldiers on the ground. Or, if needed, the fightin' frisbees will pilot themselves as they hunt for guerrillas.

Once they catch up to the baddies, the drones will use a series of armor-piercing explosives, shooting jets of molten metal, to eliminate their targets. And these MEFP [Multiple Explosively Formed Penetrator] "warheads will be controllable so as to provide a single large fragment (bunker-buster) or tailorable pattern of smaller fragments (unprotected infantry or light utility vehicles)." The decision of
whether to go bunker-buster or infantry-annihilator mode can either be determined by the drones' human operators, "or autonomous target classification routine built into the UAV."

Bonus: This is one of the few weapons systems for which potsmoking will not only be permitted, but actively encouraged.

Link Fixed. Sorry. I had the wrong link saved because I'm working on a really harebrained idea to get myself a good computer at heavily discounted Ace of Spades Lifestyle (TM) prices.

I'm offering adspace for a price break. How Kathy Griffin is that?

People are reacting as if I just offered to replace their eyes with cats-eye marbles.

Posted by: Ace at 09:16 AM | Comments (27)
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I was done guest-blogging here until I saw this. Then I got pissed.

So I checked to see if Ace had cut me off yet. Nope, I still have access.

Dang, that's ugly. There's a bunch of oil on the water in this small-scale photo.

Still, it doesn't really look like an environmental catastrophe. So when you read the following, just check out the name of the author. And be advised that "AFP" stands for Agence France-Presse (yes, we're talking about the Fwenchie perspective).

by Salim Yassine
Mon Sep 4, 12:49 PM ET

BEIRUT (AFP) - The Israeli blockade on Lebanon is preventing the widescale intervention needed to clean a massive oil slick caused by the Jewish state's bombardment of a power station, Greenpeace has said.

"You have to be able to overfly Lebanese waters to pinpoint surface slicks and fuel oil deposits deeper down, as well as intervention by skimmers (cleaning boats) -- and that is not possible while the blockade continues," Greenpeace Lebanon's spokesman Omar al-Naim told AFP Monday.

"The use of pumps is also necessary, which means being able to operate freely on the surface of the sea, which is impossible because of the blockade," Naim said.

"The more time that passes, the more the slicks are dispersed by the wind and the currents," he added.

See, according to AFP, the whole problem is the Israeli blockade. No mention of Hezbollah's use of Lebanese waters to import weapons destined to attack Israeli civilians.

Of course, those weapons came from Syria.

Syrian officials said on Sunday that a new oil slick had reached its shores after initial pollution at the end of July, caused by Israeli air strikes in the middle of the month against the Jiyeh power station 30 kilometres (19 miles) south of Beirut.

Two attacks by Israeli warplanes hit fuel oil storage tanks at the coastal generating station, spilling up to 15,000 tonnes of fuel into the Mediterranean and fouling three quarters of Lebanon's 200-kilometre (124-mile) coast.

The air assaults came after Israel launched its blistering 34-day offensive on July 12 against Lebanese Shiite fighters from Hezbollah, and subsequent fires at Jiyeh burned for nearly two weeks.

The latest slick washed up on Syrian shores between the Lebanese frontier and Tartus, 260 km (161 miles) northwest of Damascus, Hassan Murjan, the head of environment services in Tartus, told AFP on Sunday.

"As long as the Lebanese coastline has not been cleaned there will be a risk for Syria," Murjan said. "We're waiting for the clean-up in Lebanon so we can get started again."

Murjan, let me set you straight. You're waiting for the clean-up in Lebanon because you are a lazy piece of shit and your fucktard government wants to get some PR out of a few oil-fouled Syrian beaches.

Here's the best part of this article. AFP (the Fwenchies) found an American to opine on the situation.

According to Rick Steiner, an American expert sent to the region by the World Conservation Union at the request of the Lebanese non-governmental group Greenline, "the longer pollution lasts, the more dangerous it becomes".

Wow, Rick, thanks for that expert opinion. Did you really need a high school diploma to come up with that?

Rick, I just don't have the words to describe what an unwitting, fucktardaceous, ridiculous dupe you are.

Israel blockade on Lebanon prevents oil spill clean-up

Posted by: Ace at 10:44 PM | Comments (38)
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How often, in recent weeks, have you heard a lefty say, in essence, the following: The Republicans can only win elections on fear.

I've heard it. Ace has written about it. In fact, were I to create an "autorantic moonbat screed" it would probably read as follows:

"Not long after, [Rush Limbaugh], a [conservative] radio commentator who is [George W. Bush's] favourite talkback host, prophesied the implosion of the [American] "civilisation" due to an "overdose of tolerance". The culmination of these events was that the [President] seized his chance, declaring that Muslims needed to integrate, accept [American] values, and treat women with equality.

A well-rehearsed script? One cannot doubt the Murdoch-owned [Fox-News] media have, wittingly or not, been a tool of the Government. Of greater concern is the blatant attempt to scapegoat Muslims and infuse mass panic into the community by using events not pertinent to our society."

or some variation thereof.

Because, folks, as you know, it is election time. And anyone with half a brain knows that the only way mean, evil, nasty, conservative, rethuglicans, can win is by creating a fictitious threat, and a phony war, while scapegoating a collection of innocent, dusky goat-herders. Am I right or amirite?

Apparently, I'm wrong. Because the above comments were made not in reference to George W. Bush, but in reference to John Howard, the Prime Minister of Australia, in a letter entitled "An election looms, so Howard incites moral panic."

All I did was swap an Australian reference for an American reference. If you don't believe me check the original quote for yourself.

The letter was written by one Amjid Muhammed, who is a member of something called the Ahlus Sunnah Wal Jamaah Association of Australia.

Crikey, those Australian names just roll of the tongue, don't they?

Much like the sympathizers he might find common cause with amongst the American left, Mr. Muhammed even has a historical figure to compare Prime Minister Howard to as well.

Hitler? You might be thinking that. Nope...I have a feeling an apologist for Islamic-fascism might actually find that a flattering appelation. Instead, Mr. Muhammad chooses to compare Mr. Howard to Nero, who "scapegoated Christians" much as Mr. Howard apparently needs to "scapegoat Muslims".

Because, after all, Christians and Muslims are brothers in arms in unwarranted religious persecution! They have similar interests and can certainly find common cause. So what if I can count the number of times Christians have hi-jacked and flown airplanes into office towers on, well, zero fingers. Unite to fight the oppressive regimes that threaten us both, my brothers!

Or something. Truth be told, I think I can be excused if I allow Mr. Muhammed's assurances that "there is nothing to see here" fall on deaf ears. Especially with the 9/11 anniversary fast approaching.

What I can't let slide, however, is Mr. Muhammed's condemnation of the Howard government using a "well rehearsed script".

If anything, this infidel thinks he's heard Mr. Muhammed's lines spoken all too often by folks much closer to home. If anything, Muhammed owes somebody at Berkeley, or the DNC, some royalties.

So pay up, buddy. Or at least come up with some new talking points. The ones you are using are so damn old that even Ace has heard them before.

And that takes some doing.

Posted by: Ace at 03:33 PM | Comments (29)
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"For political reasons."

According to Regev, El Al flights bearing heavy loads that arrive from U.S. bases “are not given approval by European states to make stopover landings for refueling, for political reasons.

“As a result, cargo planes are taking off from the U.S. with much lighter weight, and are reaching Israel with significantly fewer munitions than needed.”

Regev called this “a substantial blow to state defense.”

Europe has apparently forgot how all those pesky Jews got to Israel in the first place.

Hint: They used to live somewhere else.

'Sokay. What we call Europe will be entirely dead in fifty years.

Thanks to Larwyn.

Posted by: Ace at 02:07 PM | Comments (89)
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Allah's got the BBC "Let's Give Appeasement A Chance" video.

Of course no one admits they're advocating appeasement. No, not appeasement. Merely surrendering to the enemies' wishes and subcontracting American foreign policy to Al Qaeda.

And of course they don't want much-- just Israel wiped from the map, and America to join in their hostility towards "apostate" Muslim regimes (i.e., any regime more liberal than the Taliban).

And of course that's merely a start.

If this were 1944, Michael Scheuer would be helping the Nazis find "renegade Jews."

You gotta go along to get along, right?

Let me turn the "chickenhawk" argument on our jihadi-appeasing friends:

You want to give in to Al Qaeda? Fine, have the courage of your convictions. Go sign up for a "tour of duty" in Islamabad for two or three years. If you can live under Islamofascist rule yourself, then you have earned the right to urge it on the rest of us.

Until then, have a nice tall glass of shut your irrelevant sissy mouth juice.

I'm tired of the chickendhimmis. If you want to live in dhimmitude, by all means, go ahead. Stop the 'backdoor draft" on me into dhimmitude as well.

Posted by: Ace at 01:58 PM | Comments (24)
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They have to make light of it. If they accept it as real and important, they're required to actually reevaluate their irrational assumptions.

And they're just not willing to do that.

So this is what we get instead.

Posted by: Ace at 01:54 PM | Comments (10)
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Nope, no appeasement going on anywhere on the left. After all, if they do not straight-up announce "I am in favor of appeasing terrorists," it doesn't count.

They have to specifically use that word themselves, or else you're just chilling their right to dissent, and/or appease.

So is it time to talk to al-Qaeda?

According to General Ali Shukri, former counter-terrorist adviser to King Hussein of Jordan, it is not something that should be ruled out.

"There is no harm in talking," he told me.

"Engagement is not endorsement. Are the Americans prepared to wage war for the next 25 years?"

Yes.

Actually, I'm prepared to wage war for about ten years, and then if that doesn't work, finish the war by any and all means necessary.

One person who does agree with General Ali Shukri is the Harvard academic, Professor Mohamed Mohamedou.

Shocker.

"At some point we should create a space for a cogent, rational discourse that thinks outside of this box. Responsible leadership calls for a more nuanced understanding," he told me.

But there are very few takers.

Although no-one is seriously thinking about MI6 or CIA setting up back channels to Osama bin Laden's cave, perhaps it is worth paying some attention to what he has been saying for the past 10 years.

His statements are not about any Caliphate, a pan-Muslim state which is rarely mentioned...

Ummm, then that does mean some of his statements are about a Caliphate, right? How does this guy first declare he doesn't mention "any Caliphate," and then say it's "rarely" mentioned?

...but about US support for Israel, its backing for "apostate" Arab regimes in the Middle East and the presence of US troops in Muslim lands.

In reality, the issue is US foreign policy.

In the words of Mike Scheuer - who headed the CIA's Bin Laden Unit before and after 11 September, 2001, and who warned his superiors about the consequences of invading Iraq - "the only indispensable ally bin Laden has in terms of generating a worldwide Jihad is US foreign policy. Without that, his task is almost insurmountable."

So let me get this straight: We are to do everything Osama bin Ladin demands of us, in hopes that this will placate him, but that's not appeasement.

It's just a "nuanced understanding" of the fact we need to surrender and hope for the best.

Via Allah, who's begging for a Brit with a TiVo to record the appeasement special on the BBC tonight.

He's also got the details of the arrest of Abu Abdallah, Abu "Captain Hook" Hamza's successor, in connection with the SkyBomb plot.

Posted by: Ace at 10:21 AM | Comments (266)
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Our Muslim partners in peace:

Shiekh Omar Bakri Mohammed, the exiled British Muslim cleric, was detained by Lebanese police last week and then released after passing a bribe. He was questioned about his possible involvement with the foiled sky terror plot. Bakri denied any involvement.

...

Pakistan has arrested what it calls the leader of the sky-terror plot, a 25 year old Birmingham man named Rashid Rauf. Rauf is a member of Omar Bakri Mohammed's now banned al-Muhajiroun group.

Bakri was also asked by his al-Muhajiroun followers about jihad training and recruitment at the Jameah Islameah School. Bakri indicated that he knew the school's owner, Balil Patel. Bakri seemed to be pleased that the Patel was not among those arrested.

...

Bakri Mohammed also claims that he was released after a bribe was given to the Lebanese authorities detaining him. He also believed that this bribe would keep him immune from further arrests.

A Jawa exclusive.

Posted by: Ace at 09:21 AM | Comments (5)
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Looks like the guest bloggers are starting to check out, and I don't want to be the last. So, I'd like to thank Ace for his hospitality, and for indulging my tendency towards irresponsibly lame blogging (I admit it; two Tom Cruise posts was over the top).

I'd also like to trash his site with one more music video, courtesy of the crew of the U.S.S. Shreveport.

Thanks, guys. We're proud that you are America's Sledghammer.

Posted by: Ace at 10:17 PM | Comments (11)
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