Daily Dish
The only people who believe that the Islamist fighting in Iraq are not anti-Democratic insurgents are those who don't want to admit it for whatever reason. Perhaps they have to protect their political world-view from disintegrating, I don't know. Whatever drives them, they have to dismiss, or remain intentionally unaware of al-Zarqawi's latest statement where he declares war on Democracy. He does not defend the insurgency on the grounds of "occupiers" or that American forces will skew the elctions in their favor. He does not say that once the Americans are gone, Iraq can have fair elections with fair results. He does not claim that his forces are the equivelent of American "Minutemen" fighting for Freedom. Not he makes it very plain that they are fighting to end Democracy. "We have declared a fierce war on this evil principle of democracy and those who follow this wrong ideology. Anyone who tries to help set up this system is part of it." A CNN report quotes "Democracy is also based on the right to choose your religion," he said, and that is "against the rule of God." Clear enough? I understand why the Conservative Left would be in sympathy with the anti-Democracy message, but they have to be blind to not see that if successful in Iraq, these anti-Democratic forces would use the Oil wealth and infrastructure to attack Democracies everywhere. And they may not be a force that can easily be used and exploited to bring down Capitalism without incuring a price: they may very well turn on the would-be Masters especially since they will not recongnize that there was ever an alliance to begin with. The Sunni gambit in Iraq is such that it makes them natural allies of the Islamists; for now. But if they succeed, the end result would likely be similar to the experience of South Vietnam when America left; brutal purges and totalitarianism that also will not recognize them as allies unless ideological (and religious) purity can be proved to their Masters satisfaction. And that won't be easy.
Signs of the Islamist's prejudice and anti-Liberalism is evident everywhere especially in Europe where it has beeen tolerated for too long. Germany is deporting hundreds of Islamists. As Eid begins, we still see too few voices of moderation in the Muslim world. Meanwhile, Iraq prepares to vote a week from now. And even ex-pats are worried about security.
Attacks on Israel drop dramatically and Israel credits Abbas with the improvement. For its part Israel is offering to halt military operations.
The UNs conference on disater reduction ends and they have decided they just might be able to do something. They have a "framework for action," and resolved to pursue "substantial reduction" of disaster losses in the next 10 years. Of course the result of the five-day session is non-binding, committed no new money to risk reduction and set no hard targets for assessing progress. But they ate and drank well had some really good hotel accomodations. Unfortunately, the poor slobs to were assigned to actually do something had only the spartan luxuries offered by the USS Abraham Lincoln who had not representatives at the UN Conference. They were do busy actually doing stuff to help people. The poor UN workers would, I'm sure, rather be out saving the world which can only really be done with good food, good wine, and really good hotel accomodations. Oh and Indonesian government and rebels will meet this week in Helsinki to discuss a formal cease-fire in tsunami-ravaged Aceh province. The UN is not involved. There weren't enough good Hotel accomodations in Aceh, but they may be around in Helsinki. There're some great food and Hotels in Helsinki.
Activists on both side mark the Anniversary of Roe v Wade.
Whiteboards are now dangerous. Why don't these people just save time and declare living dangerous?
Robo Doc makes its debut.
A violent craze in which thugs slap strangers across the face and record it on video phone is sweeping Britain.
