Hashmonean | Israel vs The Global Jihad » Al Qrazy

Damning: BBC Documentary Reveals Shocking Truth About Flotilla (Video)

saus — Thu, 19 Aug 2010 08:54:45 +0000

Hard Core of Islamist Activists Seized Ship Long before Israel

This surprisingly candid BBC Panorama documentary lays out the events surrounding the Mavi Marmara Turkish Flotilla designed to break the Gaza blockade, and the Israeli seizure of the ship.

The facts are presented with compelling video evidence and they are quite damning, but not for Israel as the media onslaught portrayed. Rather for the organizers, Turkey, and the IHH (now designated a terrorist supporting entity by Germany).

We learn..

The Organizers were prepared to break the siege at all costs, sanctioned violence.
Islamists seized the Ship before Israel arrived.
Islamists prepared for martyrdom, violence, and an assault on the IDF.
Turkey was complicit.
The so called AID was a farce, cover for a violent confrontation.
The IHH set out to create a staged media disaster against Israel.
Hundreds of passengers were used as pawns.
Islamists sought to 1st lynch, then murder IDF troops.

Here is the video in 2 parts

Part 1

Part 2

The world rushed to judgment

But as usual the real story is a familiar one. Radical Islam, terrorists, violence, lies, manipulation.

Ground Zero Mosque: The Audacity of Jihad (Video)

saus — Thu, 15 Jul 2010 06:09:34 +0000

Sacred Ground

VIDEO - Click here to view the post & embedded video.

Offensive

I don’t buy the notion that a massive Islamic Center with a top 13th story Mosque overlooking Ground Zero is ‘community outreach’ & neither should you.

In Shanksville PA at the site of United Flight 93′s tragic 9/11 crash, deluded Jihad sympathizing leftists tried to mark the hallowed ground with a giant crescent made of trees pointing to Mecca in the traditional Islamic custom. Out of over 1000 design submissions, the so called ”Crescent of Embrace” was the one selected for the official 9/11 memorial. Madness, a huge Islamic symbol to mark the site of one of Islam’s ugliest moments.

Now at the WTC site, another symbol of victory?

That’s what Jihadists & their supporters revel in, symbols of victory over the infidel. They dedicate buildings, sites, children.. you name it to martyrs & atrocities. How this project is going forward is beyond me. Then again no it isn’t..

America’s own government seeks to strip the worlds radical Islam, Jihad, Islamic terrorism from the lexicon.. Sweep it all under the rug in the name of political correctness. Why not stick a huge honking Mosque up with a view over Ground Zero? It fits in with the progressive agenda nicely, it’s not as if Islamic terrorists viciously slaughtered 3000 people in the name of Radical Fundamentalist Islam anyhow.

Islam Gone Wild: Hezbollah New Secret Flotilla Weapon Is Cancer Stricken Women (Update)

saus — Sun, 20 Jun 2010 03:15:43 +0000

They Are Sick All Right.. Sick In The Head.

More Flotillas are coming and once again they are packed with martyrs. This time in order to extract maximum propaganda punch and feed eager progressives their requisite dose of Israel hating outrage, Islam is now packing secret weapons..

Samar Alhaj, the woman leading the Hizbullah-linked Lebanese boat that is scheduled to try to block the naval blockade on Gaza, said in an interview with a regional Israeli Arabic- language radio station in Nazareth that women were “the new secret weapon” in use against the “thieving enemy.”

Asked on Radio A-Shams by Zohair Bahloul why the ship, Mariam, would only be carrying women, she said, “We are women in order not to give the thieving enemy an excuse to use arms against the ship.” She said the ship would be carrying cancer medication for children, and women suffering from breast cancer and cancer of the uterus due to “chemical bombs” dropped on Gaza by Israel.

Alhaj is the wife of an officer in the Lebanese security service who was jailed for four years for alleged involvement in the assassination of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri. Alhaj and her husband met with Hizbullah leader Sheikh Hassan Nasrallah on May 22.

In other words another ‘peace’ flotilla, powered by the new Islamic Feminism!

The levels radical Islam and its western sympathizers & enablers will now go to in order to de-legitimize the Jewish State have reached cataclysmic new lows. Encouraged by a planet that reflexively condemns Israel, radical Islam is now serving up cancer stricken women readied for martyrdom - All in order to feed the insatiable need of anti-semites everywhere for more pure unadulterated Jew hatred.

It’s like a Pay Per View horror show of depravity. Hezbollah, which actively preaches martyrdom is sending its own sickened & blindly following Allah women out to goad Israel to violence against them for the cameras. As a cherry on top for their narrative from hell, they are armed with heart string pulling cancer medicines for ‘children’, which should prove to make an excellent by-line in news stories everywhere trashing us when we are forced to act – By maintaining our legal blockade against an entity with whom we are in fact at war.

Lest you for a moment be a European sucker..

Or perchance believe this is actually about Gaza, the organizers make clear exactly what the real mission is..

Meanwhile, Yasser Kashlak, a Syrian businessman of Palestinian descent who heads the “Free Palestine Organization” and is funding this boat, as well as another that is to carry journalists and parliamentarians, said over the weekend on Hizbullah’s al-Manar television station that he was more and more optimistic that one day these same boats would take “Europe’s refuse [the Jews] that came to my homeland back to their homelands.

“Gilad Schalit should go back to Paris and those murderers go back to Poland, and after that we will chase them until the ends of the earth to bring them to justice for their acts of slaughter from Deir Yassin until today.” Kashlak, a fervent Hizbullah supporter, called Israel a “rabid dog sent to the region to frighten the Arabs.

He said he had a message for Israelis: ‘Get on the ships we are sending you and go back to your lands. Don’t let the moderate Arab leaders delude you, [you] cannot make peace with us. Our children will return to Palestine, you have no reason for coexistence. Even if our leaders will sign a peace agreement, we will not sign.’” He said the boat carrying journalists and parliamentarians will carry 12 former American diplomats as well..

The destruction of Jews, the destruction of Israel, the de-legitimization of our very existence is the goal. No one could care less about humanitarian aid to Gaza, in fact if everyone in Gaza died de-legitimizing the filthy Joooz that would be fantastic!! Just a bit more propaganda grist for Allah’s sick mill.

In order to garner legendary hate ratings Allah’s servants in radical Islam are now serving up their own women, complete with cancer and every other manner of propaganda for an eager audience. How can we combat this when so called ‘normal people’, nihilists everywhere are not only not repulsed, but are actively supporting this depravity under the guise of being humanitarians?

Leader of the Free World – President Obama.

How can Israel a tiny country which stands almost alone in a sea of billions combat this, when the President of the United States of America – The leader of the free world himself cannot even show enough fortitude to stand up and say his own country is at war with this depravity & radical Islam, its chief breeding ground? When by his own order the words Jihad, radical Islam, and Terror are to be stricken from the lexicon..

Do you know what term then replaces these words in such a vacuum of moral leadership & fortitude? The word Humanitarians.

UPDATE: Hezbollah interprets our moral outrage & conundrum over this depravity as ‘more weakness’

‘The Zionists fear boat carrying women who want to deliver aid to Gaza, so how will they be able to face rockets in next war?’

Not only that, but to wipe the taint of Hezbollah from all this the ship is purporting itself to be a Christian Mission! Including praying at shrines of the Virgin Mary. Taqiyya at its best. Black is white, up is down. It’s a brave new nihilist world.
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More from the memeorandum.

Dear John: National Security Adviser Brennan Professes Love for Al Quds; Hezbollah (Video)

saus — Thu, 20 May 2010 19:04:58 +0000

PR Job – Obama Admin Displays Its Effective Israel Outreach

Lots has been made of late of the massive PR job the Obama administration has been selling American voters & Jewry regarding Israel. Everything is just great, there never was a crisis, the whole thing was really just some ‘faulty messaging’.. In fact, we may have imagined the whole thing here in Israel *eyeroll*.

I do have a vivid imagination.. But never in my wildest dreams did I imagine that a US Deputy National Security Adviser (tasked with advising the President on the war on terror no less) would lavish praise on the Hezbollah terrorist organization!? Then follow that outrageousness up by referring to the Capital of the State of Israel Jerusalem as Al Quds in an official statement, on official White House video no less!

John Brennan calls for the US to build up Hezbollah moderates!

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The Obama administration is looking for ways to build up “moderate elements” within the Lebanese Hezbollah guerrilla movement and to diminish the influence of hard-liners, a top White House official said on Tuesday.

John Brennan, assistant to the president for homeland security and counter-terrorism, met with Lebanese leaders during a recent visit.

“Hezbollah is a very interesting organization,” Brennan told a Washington conference, citing its evolution from “purely a terrorist organization” to a militia to an organization that now has members within the parliament and the cabinet. “There is certainly the elements of Hezbollah that are truly a concern to us what they’re doing. And what we need to do is to find ways to diminish their influence within the organization and to try to build up the more moderate elements,” Brennan said.

He did not spell out how Washington hoped to promote “moderate elements” given that the organization is branded a “foreign terrorist organization” by the United States. “We don’t deal with them,” he acknowledged.

Last month, the United States and Israel accused Syria of arming Hezbollah with increasingly powerful missiles and weapons technology. Brennan said he raised those concerns during his recent visit to the region.

This is the man advising the President on Counter Terrorism, and this is the administration that has a “rock solid commitment to Israel’s security”.

This terrorist organization is now viewed as legitimate because it has members in Lebanese parliament? Despite starting a war with Israel 3 years ago, bombarding Israeli civilians with thousands of rockets and now arming itself with tens of thousands more including long range weapons most normal countries do not even possess, let alone any other terrorist groups. They need to be ‘engaged’ like Iran & Syria to ‘promote their moderation’.

It’s total progressive insanity from the Muslim / Arabist outreach capitol of the World – The Obama White House! Hamas cannot be far behind.

Michael Rubin at AEI unleashes..

Reuters reports that the Obama administration wants to help shore up “moderates” within Hezbollah. In order to help the White House identify terrorist moderates, I offer this list:

Hezbollah: The moderates are the ones who make car bombs only out of midsize vehicles rather than SUVs or trucks.

Hamas: Moderates still believe in annihilating Israel, but they refrain from advocating throwing all the Jews into the sea because of environmental impact; they propose burying some instead.

Taliban: Ask Colin Powell. It’s been almost nine years since he spoke of moderate Taliban, so his definition might be ready by now. But, generally, moderate Taliban dilute the acid somewhat before they toss it into unveiled women’s faces.

Al Qaeda: The moderates are the ones who would have taken down only one World Trade Center tower, rather than both.

PLO: Moderates are pragmatists: They are willing to speak about tolerance and reform so long as the State Department keeps the subsidy flow coming. They accuse radicals of making the purchase of Western weaponry to funnel to terrorists that much more difficult.

Abu Sayyaf: Moderates refrain from using a blunt knife when beheading captive Western tourists.

IRGC: Moderates firmly believe that they should keep their nuclear bomb yields below 50 kilotons so that the radiation cloud from nuking Israel doesn’t blow back too far.

Pandering to Islam.. Obama Style.

If all this was not disturbing enough, here’s Brennan putting the cherry on top just in case you were buying the White House PR Job about Israel, Jerusalem or anything else.

VIDEO - Click here to view the post & embedded video.

Evolution!

I’m not the Prime Minister of Israel, just a citizen.. But I can’t imagine anyone here is going to be overly thrilled with the notion of ‘embracing the moderates’ in the terrorist organizations trying to kill us, or by the White House referring to our Capital as Al Quds!?

I seem to recall Hezbollah murdering US Marines, French soldiers, Americans (including CIA station chiefs) but I guess this was the phase when they were terrorists. Now that they only fire tens of thousands of missiles at Israelis, murder our boys ect they are militiamen come diplomats.. Isn’t that just special?

Enough Already: Rioting in Mea Shearim & Jerusalem is Not Kosher

saus — Mon, 31 Aug 2009 12:31:16 +0000

Sympathy is now all rioted out..

Every week, now seemingly every day. Rioting, stoning police, setting fires to police cars, garbage bins, buildings. Over what? A parking lot. A mentally unstable woman who abused her child!? An autopsy for a Haredi man murdered? Where does it end exactly.

The crime scene in Jerusalem’s Geula neighborhood has turned into a battleground between police and haredim. A few dozen ultra-Orthodox people threw stones at police officers dispatched to the hostel on Tsfaniya Street, where a 50-year-old man was murdered Sunday night during a fight. The protesters tried to block removal of the murdered man’s body from the scene.

In the Mea Shearim neighborhood intense clashes broke out between the two sides. Haredim threw stones and metal objects at police officers, who responded with stun grenades. Eight police officers and an ultra-Orthodox man were lightly wounded. Three police officers were evacuated to the hospital for medical attention. The rest of the wounded were treated by ambulance crews on the spot. Damage was caused to a police patrol car and two motorcycles.

Haredim started fires at a number of different locations throughout the city. A police cruiser was set ablaze on David Yellin Street [...]

I had some sympathy at first. Yes it’s true that being beyond ultra Orthodox to the point of removal from modern day society at every level is certainly a challenge in a modern state, even if it is the Jewish state. Personally it is a bit absurd for me, but to each his own - To a limit. This is not 150 BCE. Nor do we live in the Shtetl in some remote part of Poland or Lithuania. Polling originally done in Israel by Channel 2 of religious & haredi populations showed they overwhelmingly did not support this rioting. Most polled did not see any benefit, only continued detriment to Haredi & non Haredi relations within Israel. Many called it Hillul Hashem - Those are the understatements of the year!

Lack of respect

These rioters are extremists beyond normal definition of the word, Mea Shearim has become an alien landscape. They claim that the state does not respect them, but to date they have given very little reason for the state or anyone else to accord them very much respect, as they do not respect others in any shape manner or form & they seem to relish this fact. They seemingly do not respect law, be it biblical or state law for that matter. Throwing stones, lighting fires, all on Shabbat? This is not a siege & the Romans are not at the gate. For many it seems this has become a game, we see many smiling & laughing in the TV footage as they hurl stones at security forces.

There must be accommodation for all, these extremists do not own title to Jerusalem or Israel. They are citizens like all others even though many do not recognize themselves as such. They must respect the rule of law. Their customs & beliefs are already very much respected within areas of the city with massive Haredi populations, if that is not enough that is simply too bad. They are behaving like animals and destroying the image & reputation of hundreds & thousands of peaceful law abiding and valued Haredi Israeli citizens for what can only be described as absurdity.

No one will win here, least of all this minority of the Haredi population.

Personally, I’ve had enough and I am very late to the party. The vast majority of Israel had enough weeks ago. The Hezbollah has created a terrorist state within a state in Lebanon. That is totally unacceptable. It is just as unacceptable that a group of extremist nutcases should venture to do the same in the heart of Israel. I find it particularly distasteful that like the Palestinians many of these anti-Israel protesters are using not only violence, but sending their children out to do so in their stead. Just like the Arabs in the territories & the Hamas.

We should react in kind, enough is enough. Bring out the water cannons, start arresting everyone & put it down like an Intifada because that is exactly what this is. I asked my Haredi neighbor here in Tel Aviv what he thought about all this as we met taking out the trash. He’s fully Orthodox with 8 kids, aside from the fact that he is raising chickens in my backyard (lol) I consider them model citizens. As an example the Rooster, which I was fully prepared to slaughter in the kosher manner has been removed in favor of accommodation. He answered “Busha” – Embarrassment / Shame, and he was not referring to the State.

Coup D’etat: The Revolutionary Guards In Control of Iran Had Nothing to Fear From Obama Biden (OP-ED Update II)

saus — Mon, 15 Jun 2009 13:10:25 +0000

Last night I was struck by the fact that one of the net’s top bloggers Allahpundit, who’s stellar coverage of Iran at Hotair has been remarkable struggled to wrap his head around what in reality is going on in Iran like much of the West in general.

On the surface, none of what is going for many American minds makes much sense. If the Theocracy controls Iran, hand picks the candidates, and already resisted a ‘reformist’ presidency previously without much difficulty why is the Supreme Leader so invested in Ahmadinejad. Yesterday in two of his amazing posts on the issue he asked himself and readers that very question twice.. It is an excellent question.

Why is Khamenei so invested in an Ahmadinejad victory?

As a frequent commenter at HotAir I responded to the query, but it is so vitally important to understanding these events that it deserves some expounding. By the same token, the answer sheds some light as to why the entire American administration is seemingly equally clueless & impotent regarding events in Iran in general, and why the Americans are now failing miserably with their new Hope & Change strategy and engagement policy. A strategy which has now been thoroughly shredded, despite the fact that Obama, Hillary & CO. are living in convenient denial.

The initial Revolution has undergone Evolution

The answer is simple enough if one understands Iran in its current incarnation. The Theocracy is invested in Ahmadinejad because the Revolutionary Guard are invested in Iran. When I say invested I mean literally and figuratively. Over the last number of years the Revolutionary Guards have instituted a near full takeover of Iran. Wielding incredible power internally they have utilized Iran’s great wealth and their positions as the upper crust of Iranian society or access to it, to seize power across the board. The relationship between the guards & Khameni is symbiotic, as much as the Guards need Khameni, the Supreme Leader needs the guards.

Commanding Heights

Iran’s great oil wealth has been squandered on weapons, the military, terrorism, ballistic missiles and illicit WMD programs. All of which is under the control and auspices of the Guards or those that serve them. The real Coup D’etat has not occurred in the last 48 hours, it has been occurring over the last few years. Key families & individuals through Islamic cronyism now control vast amounts of wealth in Iran, its key businesses and industries, its key centers of influence, and its key economic pillars, the guards control important components of the commanding heights of the Iranian economy.

They are also the instruments of Iran’s foreign policy, and by the same token they are the baton of Iran and the key power keeping Iran in line domestically through force and intimidation, in a rapidly changing world seemingly moving in a direction that can only be described as the antithesis of Iranian theocratic philosophy. Every dictatorship needs its brownshirts. Another famous maniac, Adolph Hitler used the same tactics but was somewhat more strategic. When Hitler sensed his brownshirts (the implements of his initial power) were themselves growing too powerful he cut them down to size, lest they one day rival his own megalomaniac thirst for messianic greatness. He was always mindful of keeping the brownshirts and later the SS firmly under his thumb.

Khameni, Iran’s Supreme Leader naturally is also similarly aligned with his own brownshirts the Guards, but unlike the Fuhrer the implements of his own power have evolved to seize much more control than even the Supreme Leader can himself a lone man wrestle through the worship of his Islamic masses. Ahmadinejad, hand picked by Khameni for the last elections is a Guardsman, he is not a man of the people as western media likes to portray, he’s a man of the original Revolution and more importantly he is a man and now a key leader of the Evolution to total Guard control.

America in all of this

Iranian expats and Iranian experts in the west understand this, but it eludes the liberals in America. Looking at Obama, he first declared in the campaign he was willing to meet Ahmadinejad without preconditions. When others pointed out to him the folly of this strategy (including fellow Democrats running for high office) he altered that position. Mahmoud is simply too tainted by radicalism and hatred, too big a pill for America to swallow. As such the mantra became that the Supreme Leader would be the man to engage as he controls Iran, as if this is some big distinction. The truth is the far left liberals will alter realities & disregard fact to tailor their delusional views of the world and their even more deluded solutions for it, irrespective of reality.

In contrast, those more grounded in the previous Bush administration acknowledged these realities clearly. Both the aspects of ruling power in Iran, as well as the realities of who controls Iran militarily & economically. They quickly ascertained that sanctions, the only leverage they had were not working. Attempts to pin down Iranian central banks and big business were failing because Iran today is not like normal countries. Its key economic systems were not playing by the normal rules. Normally, one can pressure a nation politically by pressuring its economic institutions. Why was this failing? The answer lies in the realities of the immense power internally & externally of the Revolutionary Guards.

The Solution – Kyl-Lieberman.

In order to put pressure on these key organs in Iran, which were of course also killing American soldiers and destabilizing American efforts, the US Senate adopted the proposed Kyl-Lieberman act in late 2007. The proposal to designate the Iranian Revolutionary Guards, these key wielders of Iranian power as a terrorist organization. In doing so, real leverage and the power imbued in American legislation and tools to fight terrorism could be wielded against these Iranian forces. Money could be monitored, seized and traced. Key Guard individuals now in control of vast power as mentioned above could be sanctioned, their businesses which operate outside normal chains, part of these commanding heights in Iran - seized. Weapons sales, proliferation could be stemmed with tough action, which would have been another massive blow to the circle of power that the Guards wield in Iran.

Obama / Biden

Two notable candidates for the Presidency vehemently, & stunningly opposed Kyl-Lieberman. Barack Obama, & Joe Biden. One a total neophyte with zero foreign policy experience, the other a supposed ‘master’ of foreign policy. Both share something in common however, liberal democrat delusion. They called the proposal a ‘carte blanche’ for war as their talking point. Of course, that was not the case. That was merely a ruse to whip up support from the Bush Derangement Syndrome crowd. In reality, this was an opportune moment to recognize how little these two now leaders of the free world understood the planet beyond America. They were not able then to detach themselves from their liberal world view delusions, just as they cannot do so now.

VIDEO - Click here to view the post & embedded video.

They could not grasp what is really going on, or how to best combat it to further American interests, both were and are too busy hoping on their bandwagon to fame & power – Hope & Change. So while they hoped, Iran has indeed continued to change. The Revolution has continued to Evolution, but the American administration has no understanding, policy, or ability to grasp and deal with these realities. Just as these men made the wrong calls then, they have continued to do so since coming to power.

The result is the poll driven, Axelrod formed fence straddling impotency we see daily now from America. Where Biden goes on Meet the Press to confess it is too soon to formulate policy or make conclusions, no doubt because Rham & Axelrod haven’t been able to poll leftists on these issues yet to determine what to do & maintain Obama’s artificial image..

This unwillingness to come to terms with what Iran really is today is a great danger to not only America, but the world. It is part of the reason even Europe was scratching its head over Obama’s proposed policies. From Sarkozy to Merkel the Europeans were far less enthused than others over Hope & Change and the resulting inevitable Iranian nuclear weapons and terrorist middle finger to the world.

Just this week Sec. Def Gates stated that Iran is destabilizing Afghanistan, just as it did so in Iraq, just as it did so in Lebanon. Now we hear rumors that the realist at NSA Jim Jones is on his way out, we hear rumors that Dennis Ross is being pulled as the Obama envoy to Iran. Both these men are unlikely to cow tow to the hope & change delusions, they must be purged just as the Guards purge those who oppose their own deluded views of reality.. We are seeing it on TV, and the Web.

The Evolution will not be televised

Perhaps these concepts are a bit too deep for the great thinker President Obama, he has shown so far much unwillingness to challenge his cocoon based liberal delusions & views. But just as the Guards’ evolution to the power centers of Iran was not televised widely and worked in the shadows, neither will the failures of this administration in the realm of policy and foreign affairs ever be well illuminated either.

There is too much media infatuation and self glorification. Better to downplay the realities on TV, lest the One be tainted by the stench of his own policy failures and limited understanding of reality in the world around him. Words must mean something? On the contrary. Words mean nothing. Actions speak much louder than words. Obama & Biden could not face the guards then with Kyl-Lieberman, and they cannot face them now as they wrest final control of Iran and beat its peoples to death in the streets.

Link Update
Here’s the NY Times analysis, there are some correlations in regards to the consolidation of power by the guards. I am looking for more..
Here is Stephen at the Standard on Flynt Everett & his Wife, the chief architects of engagement with Iran.. We can thank them later.
Here’s a now regular read for me, Gateway Pundit on over a dozen dead in Iranian rallies today (videos too). Here’s Peretz at TNR on Denis Ross
As usual, Gabe’s memeorandum is king..

The UK Telegraph..

Obama’s deafening silence over the Iranian election is a disgrace. According to The New York Times, the president “did not even convene any high-level White House meetings or conference calls on Sunday”. That’s not the mark of a leader but a clear display of weakness. It’s a sad day when the greatest power in the world withholds criticism of a brutal, tyrannical and illegitimate regime for fear of upsetting its rulers.

Yup.. We won’t see that on MSNBC though.. Worst Leader in The Woooooooorld!! Can’t dare tip the engagement boat and expose this President for the sham he is right?

UPD I: Here’s the Iranian version of this analysis, minus the USA stuff at the daily beast (ht Hotair)

UPD II, June 17:

More and more, awareness of what has gone on is seeing some light as experts weigh in. Totten looks at the issue with some good links, including one to an op-ed by Danielle Pletka of AEI (Whom I may be in love with in general, take your pick whom I mean as well, Danielle or AEI). She writes..

The seeds of this coup were planted four years ago with the election of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. And while he has since disappointed his public, failing to deliver on promised economic and political reforms, his allies now control the country. In the most dramatic turnabout since the 1979 revolution, Iran has evolved from theocratic state to military dictatorship.

This isn’t a reference to the last 72 hours..

This creeping militarization has not been restricted to the central government: provincial governors, press commissars, film directors, intelligence officers and business leaders are increasingly former members of the guard. The elite force controls much of the economy either directly – the Basij has rights to oil extraction – or through proxy companies like Khatam al Anbiya, which dominates construction throughout Iran.

Who’s going to pay the piper?

While I’m certainly pleased I didn’t road runner off a cliff with my opinions here, a more central concern for me is the other aspect I looked at. I tried to raise two key notions in this post. One, the realities of what has gone on in Iran the last half decade or so, and two its effect or the lack of cognizance the new US administration has exhibited regarding foreign policy in general, and in this case specifically the engagement strategy with Iran.

Whether it be the crux of the Israeli Palestinian issue and Jews thousands year long covenant to the land, the absurd Quid Quo Pro tabled earlier that Israel is the key to solving the Middle East, the walk back to allowing Iran to enrich uranium which is in effect cover for a path to nuclear weapons at any time with microwave speed & convenience, or the overall strategy of appeasing and engaging with tyrants.. This new American administration is wrong on all counts.

That is stunning in itself. The concepts, the philosophies behind the strategies themselves are flawed. The think tanks & experts funded by left wing groups and the cadre of experts formulating & advising the President are dangerously mistaken on every score. Hope & Change is a farce and the cost to America & its allies will be great, the damage & hefty bill will long outlast Obama’s presidency.

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My thanks to the Watchers & SD for a non-council nomination this week. Incidentally, there are some other super posts on Iran nominated as well, check them out for all the theories and amazing blog coverage. Best of luck to the members and non council submissions as everyone wins.