Aug 14, 2006 | Dollars & Crosses
From Cox and Forum:
Regarding the Lebanese army ... Dafka posted an interesting July 30th letter by a Lebanese who described Lebanon's culpabilty in this war, in particuar how his country completely failed to disarm Hezbollah under the last U.N. resolution: A Lebanese Speaks Out.[O]ur army, reshaped over the years by the Syrian occupier so it could no longer fulfill its role as protector of the nation, did not have the capacity to tackle the militamen of the Hezb [hezb-Allah : the party of Allah. Translator's note]. Our army whom it is more dangerous to call upon – because of the explosive equilibrium that constitutes each of its brigades – than to shut up behind locked doors in its barracks. A force that is still largely loyal to its former foreign masters, to the point of being uncontrollable ; to the point of having collaborated with the Iranians to put OUR coastal radar stations at the disposal of their missiles, that almost sunk an Israeli boat off the shores of Beirut. ...
It is easy now to whine and gripe, and to play the hypocritical role of victims. We know full well how to get others to pity us and to claim that we are never responsible for the horrors that regularly occur on our soil. Of course, that is nothing but rubbish! The Security Council's Resolution 1559 – that demanded that OUR government deploy OUR army on OUR sovereign territory, along OUR international border with Israel and that it disarm all the militia on OUR land – was voted on 2 September 2004.
We had two years to put implement this resolution and thus guarantee a peaceful future to our children but we did strictly nothing. Our greatest crime – which was not the only one! – was not that we did not succeed but that we did not attempt or undertake anything. And that was the fault of none else than the pathetic Lebanese politicians.
Our government, from the very moment the Syrian occupier left, let ships and truckloads of arms pour into our country. Without even bothering to look at their cargo. They jeopardized all chances for the rebirth of our country by confusing the Cedar Revolution with the liberation of Beirut.
From AFP: Truce will be Israel's last, Lebanon envoy declares. (via LGF)Lebanon's UN ambassador bitterly slammed Israel's month-long bombardment of his country ahead of a hard-won truce, and vowed that the treaty would be Israel's last with any Middle East country.
"Lebanon will be, I think, the last state to sign a peace treaty with Israel," UN ambassador Nouhad Mahmoud told CNN television's "Late Edition" program, without explaining the remark. ...
The diplomat added that the 15,000 Lebanese soldiers to be dispatched to south Lebanon to help keep the peace alongside a similarly-sized international UN force "are not going to use force" to disarm the Hezbollah militia which has been battling Israel.
"Hezbollah will just leave the area as armed elements as I understand it, and the Lebanese army will take over the whole region along with the United Nations forces," he said
From Haaretz: Hezbollah torpedoes Lebanese gov't meeting on disarmament. (via Donald Sensing who has more)A meeting of the Lebanese government on the disarming of Hezbollah south of the Litani River was canceled on Sunday following an announcement by the Shi'ite organization that it was not willing to discuss the subject. ...
A Lebanese government source wrote on the Arab internet site Ilaf that "when it comes to crunch time, Hezbollah is refusing to give up its arms."
More on the Lebanese army's complicity in arming Hezbollah. From The Australian: Iran's rocket route to Israel. (via Tom Minchin)The Lebanese army said the transportation and storage of ammunition belonged to the "resistance". Once inside Lebanon it was subject to a ministerial policy statement of the Lebanese Government, which considers the "resistance" to be legitimate.
"As the Government of Lebanon has confirmed, the Lebanese Armed Forces has thus not been authorised to prevent further movement of the ammunitions, which had been a common practice for more than 15 years," UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan said in a letter to the Security Council in April. "Hezbollah publicly confirmed that the arms were destined for the group."
It's this uninterrupted flow of weapons, mostly made in Iran, under the nose of the Lebanese Government, that has allowed Hezbollah to stockpile some 12,000 Katyusha rockets. Over the past 29 days of conflict, Hezbollah has fired more than 3000 rockets into Israel.
The fact that Annan knew this before the latest cease-fire resolution was signed shows that there never been any real intention to disarm Hezbollah.
Aug 14, 2006 | Dollars & Crosses
Irvine, CA—Following news of the foiled plot to bomb airlines, the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) criticized President Bush for calling the would-be killers "Islamic fascists."
"CAIR is demanding that we evade the actual goal of those trying to kill us," said Dr. Yaron Brook, executive director of the Ayn Rand Institute. "Just as the Soviet Communists and the Nazis sought to impose their version of socialism on the world, so the new killers seek to impose their version of Islam on the world. They seek total power to enact the dictates of Islam. Theirs is an Islamic totalitarian movement.
"I wish Bush would take his own rhetoric seriously, because understanding this fact about the killers is crucial to achieving victory in the war. Only when the political aspiration of Islam--the imposition of its religious dogmas by force--has been shown to result in the deaths of Islamists, not their victims, will we be safe. Only when the cause of Islamic totalitarianism has been thoroughly discredited, will victory be achieved.
"CAIR's demand that we evade the role of religion in this conflict is undermining America's self-defense. For this, the group should apologize to all Americans."Aug 13, 2006 | Dollars & Crosses
From Cox and Forum:
From FoxNews: Israeli Cabinet Approves U.N. Cease-Fire Deal Amid Military Push.Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said the cease-fire agreement would ensure that "Hezbollah won't continue to exist as a state within a state."
"The Lebanese government is our address for every problem or violation of the agreement," Army Radio quoted him as saying. ...
The deal was seen at best as a draw with Hezbollah, and some felt Israel — unable to subdue a guerrillas force — had lost.
Neither the Lebanese army nor U.N. forces can be counted on to challenge Hezbollah and prevent the Iran-supplied guerrillas from rearming, military experts and commentators said.
The deal buys a period of calm, at best, and sets the region up for the next war with Tehran's proxy army, critics said. The truce will be "a time-out until the next confrontation, and maybe not even this," commentator Nahum Barnea wrote in Israel's Yediot Ahronot daily.
Regarding U.N. forces ... From Reuters: Hizbollah says it will abide by ceasefire. (via LGF)The U.N. resolution authorizes up to 15,000 U.N. troops to move into Lebanon to enforce a ceasefire. France is widely expected to lead the force, which will expand the existing U.N. Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL), but have a stronger mandate. ...
French Foreign Minister Philippe Douste-Blazy made clear in an interview with Le Monde newspaper that the mission of the larger UNIFIL would not include disarming Hizbollah by force.
"We never thought a purely military solution could resolve the problem of Hizbollah," he said. "We are agreed on the goal, the disarmament, but for us the means are purely political."
Regarding the Lebanese army ... Dafka posted an interesting July 30th letter by a Lebanese who described Lebanon's culpabilty in this war, in particuar how his country completely failed to disarm Hezbollah under the last U.N. resolution: A Lebanese Speaks Out.[O]ur army, reshaped over the years by the Syrian occupier so it could no longer fulfill its role as protector of the nation, did not have the capacity to tackle the militamen of the Hezb [hezb-Allah : the party of Allah. Translator's note]. Our army whom it is more dangerous to call upon – because of the explosive equilibrium that constitutes each of its brigades – than to shut up behind locked doors in its barracks. A force that is still largely loyal to its former foreign masters, to the point of being uncontrollable ; to the point of having collaborated with the Iranians to put OUR coastal radar stations at the disposal of their missiles, that almost sunk an Israeli boat off the shores of Beirut. ...
It is easy now to whine and gripe, and to play the hypocritical role of victims. We know full well how to get others to pity us and to claim that we are never responsible for the horrors that regularly occur on our soil. Of course, that is nothing but rubbish! The Security Council's Resolution 1559 – that demanded that OUR government deploy OUR army on OUR sovereign territory, along OUR international border with Israel and that it disarm all the militia on OUR land – was voted on 2 September 2004.
We had two years to put implement this resolution and thus guarantee a peaceful future to our children but we did strictly nothing. Our greatest crime – which was not the only one! – was not that we did not succeed but that we did not attempt or undertake anything. And that was the fault of none else than the pathetic Lebanese politicians.
Our government, from the very moment the Syrian occupier left, let ships and truckloads of arms pour into our country. Without even bothering to look at their cargo. They jeopardized all chances for the rebirth of our country by confusing the Cedar Revolution with the liberation of Beirut.
And naturally Iran doesn't want its proxy disarmed ... From Reuters: Iran says disarming Lebanese Hizbollah "illogical".The U.N. Security Council adopted a resolution on Friday calling for a "full cessation of hostilities" and for the implementation of a previous U.N. resolution requiring the disarming of armed groups including Hizbollah.
"We are happy for the ceasefire in Lebanon. But the resolution is not balanced," Foreign Ministry spokesman Hamid Reza Asefi told a weekly news conference.
"It does not condemn the Zionist regime (Israel) and its crimes in Lebanon."
Asked about the call for disarming Hizbollah, Asefi said: "This is a totally unreasonable demand. It is illogical."
"Let us not forget that as long as there is occupation there is resistance," he added.
As I said before, the only party to benefit from the cease-fire is Hezbollah, and by extension its sponsor, Iran.
Aug 10, 2006 | Dollars & Crosses
From Cox and Forum:
From FoxNews: Terror Plot Suspects Planned 'Dry-Run' of Attacks in Next 2 Days, Sources Say.Suspects arrested Thursday for planning to stage a massive mid-air terror attacked were in the final stages of planning and planned to run a dry-run of the plan within two days, U.S. intelligence officers said Thursday.
One official said the suicide attackers planned to use a peroxide-based solution that could ignite when sparked by a camera flash or another electronic device.
The test run was designed to see whether the plotters would be able to smuggle the needed materials aboard the planes, these officials said. They spoke only on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the subject matter.
The development came as British authorities said they were "urgently" seeking the arrests of up to 10 more suspects in the terrorist plot uncovered early Thursday morning to blow up U.S.-bound flights with liquid explosives carried onto planes via carry-on luggage, FOX News learned.
Police arrested 24 main suspects were arrested earlier Thursday, according to Scotland Yard, in what U.S. officials suspect was an Al Qaeda-planned attack.
From FoxNews: Bush Praises Effort to Thwart Terror Plot.President Bush on Thursday praised the coordinated government efforts to stop a terror plot to blow up airline flights from the United Kingdom to the United States, and said American flyers will be inconvenienced for a while in order for officials to keep them safe.
"The recent arrests that our fellow citizens are now learning about are a stark reminder that this nation is at war with Islamic fascists who will use any means to destroy those of us who love freedom, to hurt our nation," Bush said on a tarmac in Green Bay, Wis., before delivering a speech on the economy.
"Cooperation on this venture was excellent, the cooperation between U.K. and U.S. authorities and officials was solid, and the cooperation among agencies within our government was excellent," Bush said.
Aug 9, 2006 | Dollars & Crosses
VanDamme Academy, an acclaimed private school in Orange County, CA founded by noted Objectivist educator Lisa Vandamme has a developed system for providing its comprehensive history curriculum to homeschoolers and parents everywhere. The school has named this educational initiative the "Remote History Program."
Starting in September 2006, VanDamme Academy's elementary grades history teacher, Scott Powell, will offer classes to students across the country.
Mr. Powell explains, "Our program spans the entire history of the West, from Ancient Egypt to Modern America. This year, to keep the program synchronized with our own curriculum, we will be offering the history of Europe (from AD 300 to the present)."
The story of Europe, Mr. Powell elaborates, "is both an exciting story in its own right, and an important background and foil to the development of America. We will look at the emergence of Europe out of the Dark Ages, following the fall of Rome, and the evolution of its various nations up to the present day, noting especially the role of Christianity and monarchy in shaping their cultures. Quite simply, it is an amazing epic, with both shocking villains and powerful heroes. Children love it!"
"To make this program available as widely as possible," explains Ms. VanDamme, "Mr. Powell's lectures will be broadcast both as live teleconferences, which teachers and their students can attend by phone, and by internet, via the school's website. In this latter format, students will be able to access recorded lectures on their own time, if the class times are not convenient. This truly represents an unprecedented opportunity for students everywhere to access an essential curriculum component that has sadly been displaced in public and private schools alike."
The Remote History program is now accepting enrollment applications.Aug 9, 2006 | Dollars & Crosses
From Canada's
National Post:
On Sunday morning, Hezbollah rockets slammed into the UN peacekeepers' Lebanon headquarters in the town of Henniye. Because the U.N. has -- finally -- wised up and removed most of its unarmed observers from the war zone, there were mercifully few casualties. Three Chinese soldiers were injured. But had the headquarters been fully staffed to pre-war levels, the results almost certainly would have been tragic.
About 12 hours later, the dusk calm in a northern suburb of the Israeli city of Haifa was shattered as Syrian-made rockets fired by Hezbollah terrorists slammed into residential neighbourhoods. At least two apartments were struck. One building reportedly took five direct hits. Three Israeli civilians were killed: Hana Hamam, 62, Labiba Mazawi, 67, and Roni Rubinsky, 30. Medical authorities claim a forth victim, Dr. Tamara Lucca, 84, died of a heart attack while trying to make it to a bomb shelter. So in a single day, we had a Hezbollah attack on an unarmed UN outpost and the deliberate targeting of Israeli civilians by Hezbollah, and yet there was no outrage from Secretary-General Kofi Annan or the international press corps.
On July 25, when Israeli jets hit UN Patrol Base Khiam and killed four unarmed observers, Annan reacted instantaneously with outrage at what he called Israel's "apparently deliberate targeting" of the outpost. But so far he has been silent on the Henniye rocket attack.
[...] Then witness the reaction to the Israelis' accidental bombing of an apartment in Qana, Lebanon, last weekend and Hezbollah's deliberate rocketing of the Haifa apartments this weekend.
Yes, again, Israel's attacks, whether accidental or not, were more deadly. But the press and UN claim their outrage is moral, not numeric. Kofi Annan claims his indignation is driven by his revulsion at the deaths of innocent non-combatants on both sides, and by attacks on known UN positions, period. Ditto, most media. The BBC, for instance, proclaimed in a news story that the Qana bombing had "shocked the world." Yet it barely mentioned the Haifa deaths, even though it professes to be equally furious about Israeli and Lebanese deaths. Nor did most of the outlets that expressed indignation at Israel's killing of four UN military observers at Patrol Base Khaim even mention the missile attack at Henniye. Their outrage is neither moral nor numeric; it is selective. [8 August 2006]
