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FEBRUARY 24,  2011

A NEW LIBYAN NIGHTMARE – AT 7:22 P.M. ET:  Late reports say that regime thugs, including foreign mercenaries, are now attacking protesters in areas around Tripoli.  A brief report this afternoon said that Qaddafi was dead, but there is absolutely no confirmation, and news organizations are completely skeptical.  It appears, and this is pure informed speculation, that Qaddafi will make his last stand in a bunker in Tripoli.  He must have seen a lot of war movies.

And now there is a new worry, from CBS News:

As Muammar Qaddafi continues his violent crackdown on opposition protesters, U.S. officials are worried how far the embattled Libyan leader may go to neutralize the growing threat to his power.

According to a Wall Street Journal report, Qaddafi still possesses caches of mustard gas and other chemical weapons, as well as a stockpile of Scud B missiles and 1,000 metric tons of uranium yellowcake, leaving Washington skittish.

"When you have a guy who's as irrational as Qaddafi with some serious weapons at his disposal, it's always a concern," a U.S. official told the paper. "But we haven't yet seen him move to use any kind of mustard gas or chemical weapon."

Libya abandoned its nuclear program in 2003 in favor of normalized relations with the U.S. and the West, but plans to destroy its chemical weapons stockpiles were waylaid by bureaucratic spats with the U.S., officials told the paper.

Given the escalation of violence in an attempt to quash the opposition and Qaddafi's unpredictability, the officials' concerns may have merit.

COMMENT:  Saddam Hussein used chemical weapons.  Why wouldn't Qaddafi?  Dictators facing the end have often fought with enormous ferocity, and, like Hitler, can turn on their own people.

The violence in Libya is, by far, the greatest we have seen in the current wave of Arab revolts.  The protesters may, in the end, be crushed.  Even if they win, the cost can be ghastly.

Meanwhile, the American administration is involved in "consultations" with allies.  I'm sure there's an app for that.

February 24, 2011      Permalink

JUST A GUY WHO WANTS TO GIVE BACK – AT 7:15 P.M. ET:  George Soros, the ultra-left international money trader, presents himself as just a rich guy who wants to help society.  Yeah, right.  His "helping" of society always seems to have an asterisk.  The Washington Examiner reports:

George Soros -- whom we're always told is not serving his own economic interests at all by promoting liberal politicians and big-government policies -- is launching a new investment fund that plans to profit off of the "green energy" boom, which is entirely dependent on government subsidies supported by the groups Soros funds.

As the press release puts it, this fund will "leverage technology and business model innovation to improve energy efficiency, reduce waste and emissions, harness renewable energy, and more efficiently use natural resources, among other applications." As Soros puts it in the same release: “Developing alternative sources of energy and achieving greater energy efficiency is both a significant global investment opportunity and an environmental imperative.” Cadie Thompson at CNBC's NetNet flagged this.

So, yeah. The big-government policies advanced by the liberal outfits he funds -- like Center for American Progress -- will enrich the companies in which Soros is investing.

But this story gets better.

The press release casually mentions whom Soros is hiring to run this new fund: Cathy Zoi. As Cadie Thompson at CNBC's NetNet (edited by my brother John Carney), puts it,

Zoi was Barack Obama's "Acting Under Secretary for Energy and Assistant Secretary for Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy." An Al Gore acolyte, Zoi was Obama's point-woman on subsidizing green tech. Now she's going to work for George Soros to profit off of subsidized green tech.

COMMENT:  I'm just shocked by this.  George Soros, a profiteer?  My whole world view is shattered.  Say it isn't so, George.  Say you live in a one-bedroom apartment in a bad part of Brooklyn.

We now await the reaction of liberal "good government" groups.  And we wait.  And we wait.  And we'll wait a long time because many of them are filling out their applications for Soros money.

The damge one man can do.

February 24, 2011       Permalink

AND ANOTHER, JUST IN – AT 11:25 A.M. ET:  Another alleged terror plot on our soil, presumably thwarted.  Just in:

Khalid Ali-M Aldawsari, 20, a citizen of Saudi Arabia and resident of Lubbock, Texas, was arrested late yesterday by FBI agents in Texas on a federal charge of attempted use of a weapon of mass destruction in connection with his alleged purchase of chemicals and equipment necessary to make an improvised explosive device (IED) and his research of potential U.S. targets.

The arrest and the criminal complaint, which was unsealed in the Northern District of Texas, were announced by David Kris, Assistant Attorney General for National Security; James T. Jacks, U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of Texas; and Robert E. Casey Jr., Special Agent in Charge of the FBI Dallas Field Division.

Aldawsari is expected to make his initial appearance in federal court in Lubbock at 9:00 a.m. on Friday morning. Aldawsari, who was lawfully admitted into the United States in 2008 on a student visa and is enrolled at South Plains College near Lubbock, faces a maximum sentence of life in prison and a $250,000 fine if convicted of attempted use of a weapon of mass destruction.

According to the affidavit filed in support of the complaint, Aldawsari has been researching online how to construct an IED using several chemicals as ingredients. He has also acquired or taken a substantial step toward acquiring most of the ingredients and equipment necessary to construct an IED and he has conducted online research of several potential U.S. targets, the affidavit alleges. In addition, he has allegedly described his desire for violent jihad and martyrdom in blog postings and a personal journal.

COMMENT:  It is important that we not jump to conclusions, but instead appreciate cultural difference.  In Saudi Arabia jihad is like, well, soccer. 

February 24, 2011      Permalink

IS THE BIG GAS STATION NEXT? – AT 10:58 A.M. ET:  No country in the Arab world is more important than Saudi Arabia, the big gas station in the desert.  Saudi Arabia is oil.  I can't think of anything else.  Well, maybe religious patrols to make sure women don't drive cars.  (Chevy Malibu is a high sin.) 

Will Saudi Arabia be next on the revolution list?  Charles Krauthammer urges us to watch closely.  From The Daily Caller:

Here’s something Americans should certainly keep their eyes on – the potential for unrest in Saudi Arabia, which the United States imports more oil from than any other country outside of North America.

Fox News Channel contributor Charles Krauthammer warned of that potential on Wednesday night’s “Special Report Online,” aired on FoxNews.com, which could be foiled by the Saudis' intelligence apparatus.

“The big one is March 11,” Krauthammer said. “There’s a Facebook call in Saudi Arabia for a day of rage all over Saudi Arabia on March 11. Now, the Saudis have really good intelligence. They are tough. They’re ruthless and they’re effective. There isn’t a lot of anti-government activity in Saudi Arabia.”

If it isn’t foiled though, Krauthammer said such unrest could spell dire consequences for the world economy and would warrant intervention.

And...

...there are humanitarian concerns in Libya that are significant,” he continued. “There are also strategic concerns, but there’s nothing compared to Saudi Arabia and it’ll be interesting. I’m not sure anything will happen on March 11, but if something does we got a whole new world we’re living in.”

COMMENT:  That is correct, but the Saudi government is expert at bribing the population with some petro dollars, and it can probably count on help from the U.S. and Europe because this is a gas station that can't close.

Gas at the pump is averaging about $3.50 a gallon where we are, for regular.  If the disruptions in the Mideast continue, we could be looking at catastrophically higher prices, with a possible impact on the 2012 presidential election. 

February 24, 2011       Permalink

GUESS HE FORGOT TO HIT THE "DELETE" BUTTON – AT 9:20 A.M. ET:  You've no doubt watched as a parade of Mideast "experts" crossed your television screen, giving us the benefit of their vast wisdom and knowledge.  Some are good, some are great, like Fouad Ajami of Johns Hopkins, whom we often quote here, and some are world-class duds, who couldn't learn the difference between red and green on a traffic light.

Among the duds we now count one Stephen Walt of Harvard.  Walt is famous for writing, along with his partner in crime, Professor John Mearsheimer of the University of Chicago, a book-length smear of American supporters of Israel that was, to put it mildly, factually challenged.  As The Wall Street Journal reports, Walt, last year, wrote this about his excellent adventure in Libya:

Although Libya is far from a democracy, it also doesn't feel like other police states that I have visited. I caught no whiff of an omnipresent security service—which is not to say that they aren't there. . . . The Libyans with whom I spoke were open and candid and gave no sign of being worried about being overheard or reported or anything like that. . . . I tried visiting various political websites from my hotel room and had no problems, although other human rights groups report that Libya does engage in selective filtering of some political websites critical of the regime. It is also a crime to criticize Qaddafi himself, the government's past human rights record is disturbing at best, and the press in Libya is almost entirely government-controlled. Nonetheless, Libya appears to be more open than contemporary Iran or China and the overall atmosphere seemed far less oppressive than most places I visited in the old Warsaw Pact. . . .

The remarkable improvement in U.S.-Libyan relations reminds us that deep political conflicts can sometimes be resolved without recourse to preventive war or "regime change." One hopes that the United States and Libya continue to nurture and build a constructive relationship, and that economic and political reform continues there. (I wouldn't mind seeing more dramatic political reform—of a different sort—here too).

COMMENT:  If you're debating where to go on your next vacation, better not call Stevie. In fact, better not call a lot of the academics we're seeing on TV these days, "scholars" whose professorships are sometimes subsidized by the Saudis or other worthies. 

Maybe journalists will start doing real research again and question some academics on their past statements about the Mideast.  Might make for some genuinely embarrassing conversation. 

The sad fact, though, is that academics like Walt are just the kind invited to give lectures to high-ranking government and military officials, which is one reason we often get things so wrong.

February 24, 2011       Permalink

ESCAPEE NEWS – AT 8:58 A.M. ET:  Just to get a taste of the pain, the suffering, experienced by Democratic lawmakers in Wisconsin who escaped across state lines to avoid voting on Governor Scott Walker's reform package, a vote they would lose to the GOP majority.  They are joined by Dem lawmakers from Indiana and Ohio.   From The New York Times:

CHICAGO — By now, Jon Erpenbach, one of 14 Democratic state senators on the run from Wisconsin, has switched hotels in this city three times, a necessity, he says, as word kept slipping out about where he was staying.

At first it was unsettling: the essentials were forgotten — extra slacks, socks, even underwear — in a last-minute race to get south of the state line. But gradually the lawmakers restocked, thanks to packages delivered by family members and trips to discount stores.

Our hearts are breaking.  Now we know what war refugees feel like.  We're trying to get an address where Urgent Agenda readers can send contributions.  Any amount helps.

And while they seem to be adjusting to the rhythms of life on the lam, they are still trying to come to grips with being part of a sudden Democratic diaspora that everyone knows about but that the lawmakers themselves do not want to reveal. Speaking by telephone, many of them will say merely that they are staying “somewhere in northern Illinois,” in hotels or homes or something else, together or separately or both.

Diaspora?  Soon this will have religious overtones.

“It all feels very spylike,” said Senator Chris Larson, who managed to get a belt from his Milwaukee-area home with help from a friend who met him in a parking lot. “It’s almost like a reality TV show,” Mr. Larson said, ticking off some in the melting pot of personalities who find themselves together — a lot: a pregnant mother, a dairy farmer, an urban senator, a lawmaker who was first elected in 1956, and Mr. Larson himself, who took office less than two months ago.

COMMENT:  I can see the movie.  I can cast it now.  Ava Gardner as the pregnant mother; James Cagney as the urban senator...  Oh, wait, they're no longer available.  Let me call my agent.

February 24, 2011      Permalink

LIBYA NOW – AT 8:27 A.M. ET:  The situation in Libya is awful, as government troops are attacking protesters in a number of places.  The capital city of Tripoli is reported to be a ghost town, with citizens afraid to go outside.  A number of Americans are reported trapped in Libya, unable to get out.  There is a possibility of a civil war, assuming the dissidents have the weapons to wage one.  From AP, via Fox:

BENGHAZI, Libya -- A Libyan army unit loyal to Muammar al-Qaddafi attacked anti-government protesters holed up in a mosque in a key city west of the capital Thursday, blasting a minaret with anti-aircraft missiles and automatic weapons, a witness said.

Protesters who had been camped inside and outside the mosque suffered heavy casualties in the attack on Zawiya, 30 miles west of Tripoli, the witness said, but he couldn't provide an exact toll.

Pro-Qaddafi forces have fought back fiercely as the longtime leader has seen his control whittled away, with Zawiya and other major Libyan cities and towns closer to the capital falling to the rebellion against his rule. In the east, now all but broken away, the opposition vowed to "liberate" Tripoli, where the Libyan leader is holed up with a force of militiamen roaming the streets and tanks guarding the outskirts.

Qaddafi's use of excessive force has so far helped him maintain control of Tripoli, a city that holds about a third of Libya's 6 million population. But the protesters' determination has divided the country and threatened to push it toward civil war.

The witness, who spoke on condition of anonymity for fear of reprisals, said the 9 a.m. attack came a day after a Qaddafi aide identified as Abdullah Megrahi came to the city and warned the protesters to"leave or you will see a massacre."

COMMENT:  A few weeks ago, Western journalists were denouncing Egypt's Hosni Mubarak as perhaps the worst man who'd ever lived.  Now he looks almost gentle, the authoritarian who wouldn't order troops to fire on Egyptians. 

Qaddafi has vowed to remain in Libya and die as a martyr, if need be, and I think we should take him at his word. 

But there is a reality here.  We can be inspired by the Libyan protesters, as we should be.  But their fate will depend on forces that have little to do with inspiration.  We again remind readers of the comment by Douglas MacArthur that those who think the pen is mightier than the sword have never faced automatic weapons.  There is no guarantee that the Libyan revolution will succeed even in getting Qaddafi out of office.  He will take the whole country down with him, if he has to.

Libya is a major oil producer.  A cutoff of Libyan oil, added to unrest elsewhere in the Mideast, could cause fuel prices to soar here.  And what is Obama's response?  Nothing.  He has restricted offshore drilling and refuses to open areas with proved reserves to drilling.   This nation faces a possible energy crisis, and Obama faces fanatical environmentalists in his party.  The nuts are winning, the nation is losing, which has been part of the story of this administration.

February 24, 2011     Permalink

FEBRUARY 23,  2011

QUOTE OF THE DAY – AT 7:57 P.M. ET:  Reflecting on the rough treatment given to former Army Sergeant Anthony Maschek, severely wounded in combat and in a wheelchair, when he tried to make a pro-ROTC speech to a meeting at Columbia University, where he is now a student.  From an editorial in the Washington Times:

It would be interesting to see how mollycoddled undergraduates and administrators might react to being forced to make a sacrifice far less significant than those Mr. Maschek has made. Congress could restrict federal funding, including student loans, from schools that continue to ban ROTC programs from campus. Freedom isn’t free, and it may be time for the anti-military bigots to learn that their position carries a price.

COMMENT:  Excellent idea, something I've always believed was the correct course.  In our entitlement society, universities have gotten the idea that they have a right to federal grants.  They do not.  Congress might remind these schools that they're part of the nation, and that universities at one time joined proudly and vigorously in the national defense.  Withholding funds would be a powerful reminder that there are obligations along with rights.

February 23, 2011       Permalink 

HE SPEAKS – AT 7:33 P.M. ET:  Apparently bugged by the criticism of his failure to speak out on Libya, and presumably aware that Libya is a greater threat to the world than Wisconsin, President Obama spoke out today about the Libyan revolution.  Frankly, it wasn't much:

The American people extend our deepest condolences to the families and loved ones of all who’ve been killed and injured. The suffering and bloodshed is outrageous and it is unacceptable. So are threats and orders to shoot peaceful protesters and further punish the people of Libya. These actions violate international norms and every standard of common decency. This violence must stop.

The United States also strongly supports the universal rights of the Libyan people. That includes the rights of peaceful assembly, free speech, and the ability of the Libyan people to determine their own destiny. These are human rights. They are not negotiable. They must be respected in every country. And they cannot be denied through violence or suppression.

That's nice.  Fine words, signifying nothing.  Compare please with Obama's getting on the phone to American ally Hosni Mubarak and ordering him to get the hell out.

Yesterday a unanimous U.N. Security Council sent a clear message that it condemns the violence in Libya, supports accountability for the perpetrators, and stands with the Libyan people.

Uh, Mr. President, a message isn't a resolution.  The message was at the lowest level.  Not exactly a ringing denunciation.

I’ve also asked my administration to prepare the full range of options that we have to respond to this crisis. This includes those actions we may take and those we will coordinate with our allies and partners, or those that we’ll carry out through multilateral institutions.

Oh dear, oh dear.  What comes next?  A college seminar.  This means nothing.  The crisis is now.

By the way, I was stunned to find out, in the last day, that the U.S. doesn't have a single aircraft carrier in the Mediterranean.  How this can be at a time of such convulsion I cannot fathom.  Some enterprising journalist assigned to the Pentagon ought to look into this.  The crisis began in Tunisia many weeks ago.  It doesn't take that long to sail across the Atlantic.

The entire world is watching, and we will coordinate our assistance and accountability measures with the international community. To that end, Secretary Clinton and I have asked Bill Burns, our Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs, to make several stops in Europe and the region to intensify our consultations with allies and partners about the situation in Libya.

Take that, Gaddafi.  More consultations.  You understand that, you bad boy?

I’ve also asked Secretary Clinton to travel to Geneva on Monday, where a number of foreign ministers will convene for a session of the Human Rights Council. There she’ll hold consultations with her counterparts on events throughout the region and continue to ensure that we join with the international community to speak with one voice to the government and the people of Libya.

Is that a serious statement?  Sometimes a president needs someone to whisper to him, "Sir, do you really want to sound as inept and foolish as you actually are?"  The UN Human Rights Council is one of the most corrupt bodies in the world.  Among its members is Libya.

It's hard to imagine Ronald Reagan rushing Secretary of State George Shultz over to a meeting of the Human Rights Council.  Did Clinton try to talk Obama out of this? 

February 23, 2011       Permalink

SNIPPET OF THE DAY – AT 10:32 A.M. ET:

From American Thinker:  According to federal Judge Gladys Kessler of the DC US District Court, the powers granted to the federal government on the Commerce Clause extend to regulating "mental activity." Ruling on an ObamaCare challenge brought by 2 individuals, the good judge made the leap from "physical activity" to "mental activity" in extending the reach of the federal government. This is not a joke.

Well, since they're regulating mental activity, I guess the people who run MSNBC have nothing to worry about.

February 23, 2011       Permalink

THUNE OUT – AT 10:03 A.M. ET:  Republican Senator John Thune of South Dakota, considered by many observers one of the more attractive prospects for 2012, has bowed out of the presidential race:

Washington (CNN) - After months of speculation, Sen. John Thune, R-South Dakota, told supporters Tuesday that he will not seek the Republican presidential nomination in 2012 and instead will focus his time and efforts on Capitol Hill.

Thune released a joint statement with his wife, Kimberley, on his Facebook page shortly after noon saying that, for now, he needs to be in the Senate.

"There is a battle to be waged over what kind of country we are going to leave our children and grandchildren and that battle is happening now in Washington, not two years from now," Thune said in the statement. "So at this time, I feel that I am best positioned to fight for America's future here in the trenches of the United States Senate."

COMMENT:  Although Thune is less-well-known than other candidates, he has a winning personal quality, and has a good record in the Senate.

I do wish political writers would pay some attention to the newer prospects, like Marco Rubio of Florida.  The party needs a dynamic candidate to take on Obama, not simply someone who's been standing in line.  And choosing a Hispanic-American would be good politics.  Some would argue that Rubio lacks the experience to be president, an argument not likely to be raised by Obama, whose serious experience when he ran in 2008 could be written on a postage stamp.  Rubio was speaker of the Florida House of Representatives, a high state position, before being elected to the United States Senate in November. 

I fear that a divided GOP will make a hash of things in 2012, allowing this failed president to sail into a second term, with potentially catastrophic damage to the nation's foreign policy.

February 23, 2011       Permalink

UNDER THE RADAR – AT 9:17 A.M. ET:  Funny, but I couldn't find much about this in the usual media.  It's a good first step, but it's only a beginning:

(CNSNews.com) - The House of Representatives has voted to defund a United Nations climate change panel after the Republican who introduced the proposal said the body had “whipped up a global frenzy” over climate change because its members were politically motivated.

“It is tragic that some perhaps well-meaning but politically motivated scientists who should know better have whipped up a global frenzy about a phenomenon which is statistically questionable at best,” Rep. Blaine Luetkemeyer (R-Mo.) said on the House floor late Saturday night.

Luetkemeyer introduced the amendment to the Full Year Continuing Appropriations Act, a bill that will fund the federal government for the balance of the year. His amendment prohibits any of the money the government plans to spend this year from supporting the U.N. Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), the U.N. body that reports on climate change science.

COMMENT:  The vote may be purely symbolic, as prospects in the Senate are iffy, but the message sent is a strong one.  The climate-change lobby will call it "anti-science," but it isn't.  The vote expresses displeasure with the UN's irresponsible handling of "climate change," and Luetkemeyer is correct:  political motivation plays a key role.  What we have often seen is political science, not real science.

As we have screamed here before, it is time, in this advanced country, for a Challenger-like commission to investigate the whole area of climate change and definitively report what we know, what we don't know, and what we have to know.  We are being asked to spend trillions of dollars to defeat a phenomenon that may not actually exist.

One element here that bears investigating – and President Eisenhower predicted it some half century ago in his farewell address to the nation – is the impact of government grants on scientific findings.  When grants are only available to those who go along with the party line, you may be sure that the line will find favor in laboratories throughout the country.  Even in science, money talks.

The left will ask no questions.  So we'll have to.

February 23, 2011       Permalink

WHERE OBAMA STANDS – AT 8:51 A.M. ET:  The Gallup organization has some grim political news for President Obama this morning, but the president can still seek political asylum in the approving state of Hawaii:

PRINCETON, NJ -- Residents of Hawaii gave native son President Barack Obama the highest average 2010 job approval rating (66%) of any of the 50 states, surpassed only by the 84% Obama received in the District of Columbia. Obama's lowest average state approval rating in 2010 was 28% in Wyoming.

Half of the 10 most approving states in 2010 were located in the Northeast: New York, Delaware, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, and Connecticut. Three exceptions were Maryland, California, and Obama's home state of Illinois. All of these states tilt significantly more Democratic in terms of political party identification than the national average.

Five of the 10 least approving states in 2010 were in the West: Wyoming, Idaho, Utah, Alaska, and Montana. The other least approving states were mostly in the middle of the country, including Oklahoma, Kentucky, Arkansas, and Kansas.

Obama's overall average approval rating in 2010 was 47%, down 11 percentage points from the 58% he recorded in his first calendar year in office. For purposes of this state-by-state analysis, Obama's average is calculated for the calendar year, and is therefore slightly different than the yearly average calculated beginning with his inauguration on January 20, 2009.

And...

Obama's approval rating fell in 2010 compared with 2009 in all 50 states and the District of Columbia, although the general rank order of the states based on Obama job approval was quite similar in both years.

COMMENT:  Right now the president seems to be going through another period of decline.  We'll check his standings in the Rasmussen poll when they're posted in about half an hour, but recent Rasmussen numbers have been in indigestion territory.  It's hard to say exactly why, but Mr. Obama seems to be out to lunch on the major issues of the day, showing little leadership, moral or otherwise.  I don't know, maybe he misses the Libya that was.

February 23, 2011       Permalink

THERE, SOMEONE HAS SAID IT – AT 8:17 A.M. ET:  No Western country has closer ties with Libya than does Italy, so the words of the Italian foreign minister carry some weight.  And he expresses a concern that too many pundits and journalists seem unwilling to echo.  From The New York Times:

ROME — Italian Foreign Minister Franco Frattini on Wednesday said the death toll from days of unrest in Libya was likely more than 1,000, and worried that violence there could spark Islamic extremism.

Europe has played ball with the Libyan dictatorship because of oil.  Now that the regime is under siege, the Libyan chickens – I think they're allowed to eat chicken – are coming home to roost.  Waiting in the wings in most Arab countries are the militant Muslim groups, often the best-organized political forces available.

Noting that the situation was chaotic, Mr. Frattini told reporters in Rome that he believed estimates that more than 1,000 Libyan civilians had been killed in the clashes with security forces and government supporters “appear to be true.”

Later, addressing the Italian parliament on Wednesday morning, Mr. Frattini added that he was concerned about a rise in “Islamic radicalism” and “the rise of an Islamic emirate” in Eastern Libya, including the Cyrenaica region, which he said was “no longer under the Libyan government’s control.”

“This radical Islamism worries us because it is only a few hundred kilometers from the European Union,” Mr. Frattini said, adding that, “nothing can justify the violent killing of hundreds of innocent civilians.”

COMMENT:  Frattini is a pretty decent guy, but I wish he'd convince some European leftists and "intellectuals" that nothing justifies the violent killing of hundreds of innocent civilians.  After our 9-11, plenty of Europeans justified the attacks as retribution for American "policies."  You'll notice the silence of those same European leftists and "intellectuals" today.   They apparently haven't figured out a way to blame the U.S. and Israel for the Arab uprisings, but they will.

I'm glad Frattini used the forbidden term "Islamic radicalism," a term banned by our own Defense Department.  There is enormous danger that legitimate revolution in the Mideast will be hijacked by the Islamists, and that we will all wind up worse off than before.  Don't expect much on this from the politically correct mainstream media.

February 23, 2011     Permalink