U.S. Officials: Al Qaeda in Iraq Behind Deadly Bombings in Damascus and Aleppo, Syria

By: Jeff Emanuel (Diary)  |  February 10th at 10:26 PM  | 

U.S. officials have reportedly confirmed that deadly bombings in the Syrian cities of Damascus (in December and January) and Aleppo (Friday) were the work of al Qaeda in Iraq, whose members were acting with authorization from al Qaeda central head and Osama bin Laden successor Ayman al-Zawahiri. According to McClatchy: The Iraqi branch of al Qaida, seeking to exploit the bloody turmoil in Syria to | Read More »

Why We’re Not Going to War with Iran

By: Jeff Emanuel (Diary)  |  January 20th at 05:30 PM  | 

“U.S. Ponders Ways to Use Force on Iran” “Here’s How the U.S. Could Invade Iran” “U.S. Said Set to Attack Iran” “Does [the U.S. President] Plan to Invade Iran?” “Saudis Deny U.S. Planned to Attack Iranian Oilfields” “U.S. May Attack Iran Missiles: White House Mulls Ways to Protect Gulf” “[U.S.] Navy Denies Plan to Attack Iranian Ships in Persian Gulf” “U.S., Allies Setting Stage to | Read More »

‘Bin Laden’s Legacy’: Al Qaeda’s Economic War on the West

By: Jeff Emanuel (Diary)  |  January 13th at 12:01 AM  | 

TEN YEARS HAVE passed since terrorists hijacked airliners and flew them into the World Trade Center and the Pentagon.  In that period, America has fought wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, carried out hundreds armed drone attacks in Pakistan and Yemen (among other locations), and conducted covert operations around the world, all in the name of what President George W.  Bush termed the “Global War on | Read More »

Benjamin Netanyahu’s Speech to Congress: a Reinforcement, not a Renegotiation

By: Jeff Emanuel (Diary)  |  May 24th at 04:00 PM  | 

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu spoke to a joint session of the U.S. Congress for the second time today (and for the first time in fifteen years), fresh off a meeting with President Obama on Friday, Obama’s Middle Eastern address Thursday, and dueling weekend speeches between the two leaders at AIPAC. The first few minutes were well-used defining the scope of the current fight against | Read More »

Strikingly, Obama’s Afghan Strategy Manages to Repeat Almost Every Single Mistake Made in Iraq

By: Jeff Emanuel (Diary)  |  December 2nd at 11:30 AM  | 

Handed a top-to-bottom review of, and a revised strategy for, this long-ignored front in the Global War on Terror by the outgoing Bush administration, President Barack Obama stepped to the microphone in February and gave a platitudinous speech that echoed precisely what his predecessor had said in the last months of his own presidency. When that speech alone failed to miraculously make the war in | Read More »

The Lost Heroes of the War on Terror: Gallant Deeds and Untold Tales

By: Jeff Emanuel (Diary)  |  May 25th at 01:30 PM  | 

Despite taking place in the Information Age, very few of the heroic exploits of American soldiers, sailors, airmen and Marines since September 11, 2001, have made their way into the living rooms of ordinary Americans — at least in any lasting way. Whether this is the result of changing values among the American people, the general population’s perpetually dwindling attention span, or because there are | Read More »

“Cam Sham”: Obama’s Photo Op with Cheering, Camera Wielding Troops 100% Staged

By: Jeff Emanuel (Diary)  |  April 12th at 05:06 PM  | 

Isn’t it just a pain in the neck when there’s an alternative media that prevents strict message control by a staged-photo-op of an administration and its willing mouthpieces in the MSM? It’s painless for us, of course; rather, that pain is being felt in the necks of those who want to insist that a bow to a Saudi king isn’t a bow, that an omnibus | Read More »

Joe Biden: Obama’s administration wholeheartedly endorses the Bush Iraq Strategy

By: Jeff Emanuel (Diary)  |  January 13th at 01:06 PM  | 

VP-to-be Joseph Biden (D-DE) came out of hiding this week to boast that he and his boss will be following the post-Iraq-conflict blueprint drawn up by the Bush administration to a T. At an appearance in Baghdad today, Biden said that “the new administration will stick to the timetable in the [U.S-Iraq Status of Forces] agreement.” As AP writer Robert Reid points out, “Obama pledged | Read More »

Bernie Sanders (Socialist-VT) appears to have his wires crossed (I know, I know…)

By: Jeff Emanuel (Diary)  |  January 11th at 06:47 PM  | 

I can’t hope to compare to the Moe Lane Treatment (©?) already given this story, but I did feel compelled to make a couple of points about it. Let’s refresh: Independent [Ed: Read: Socialist] Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders says language next to president’s portrait is misleading because it says the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks led to the war in Iraq. … Sanders, a strong | Read More »

New Iraqi Museum to Stand as Reminder of Saddam’s Decades of Brutality, Counter to Anti-War Movement’s Attempt to Rehabilitate the Late Tyrant

By: Jeff Emanuel (Diary)  |  January 7th at 11:33 AM  | 

Torture chambers. Rape rooms. Chemical and biological warfare conducted by a government against its own people. Limbs cut off. Political opponents slaughtered. Wetlands converted to uninhabitable desert to punish inhabitants for their sectarian affiliation. International-level athletes burned and scarred for underperformance in competition. Villagers and tribesmen indiscriminately murdered or mutilated simply so their dictator could demonstrate the awful extent of his power. This, along with | Read More »

Destination: Baghdad

By: Jeff Emanuel (Diary)  |  December 12th at 06:39 PM  | 

Sources close to Barack Obama have said the President-elect plans to make a speech from an Islamic capital somewhere in the world within 100 days of his inauguration. This announcement prompted a flurry of speculation amongst reporters, pundits, and bloggers about which capital the Democrat would choose. Names like Riyadh, Kuwait City, Tehran, Damascus, Amman, and Ankara were thrown out by media, and discarded for | Read More »

Biden: “U.S. is succeeding in Iraq because Petraeus is implementing the plan Barack and I came up with”

By: Jeff Emanuel (Diary)  |  September 27th at 12:10 AM  | 

Joe Biden dropped this little nugget of previously unknown information in a post-debate chat with Fox News’s Chris Wallace Friday evening: Biden: (at 0:18) “The fact of the matter is, the only thing succeeding in Iraq right now is the plan that Barack and I talked about that Petraeus is implementing — giving local control in the very areas with a limited central government.” This | Read More »

Biden: “Iraq working because General Petraeus did what Barack and I told him to do”

By: Jeff Emanuel (Diary)  |  September 26th at 10:10 PM  | 

In a three minute interview, that was the biggest lie. Wow.

General Petraeus’s final letter to troops as commander of Multinational Force-Iraq

By: Jeff Emanuel (Diary)  |  September 15th at 08:24 AM  | 

Below the fold is the entire text of General David Petraeus’s final letter to troops before departing his command of Multinational Force-Iraq and assuming leadership of United States Central Command. A scan of the original can be seen in .pdf form here.

Say What? Now Barack Obama claims he wanted to join the military in 1979, but didn’t because U.S. wasn’t at war

By: Jeff Emanuel (Diary)  |  September 7th at 07:17 PM  | 

Asked by George Staphanopoulos this morning whether or not he had ever considered serving in the military, Democratic presidential nominee and freshman Senator from Illinois Barack Obama had the following to say: “You know, I actually did. I had to sign up for Selective Service when I graduated from high school. And I was growing up in Hawaii. And I have friends whose parents were | Read More »

“The Audacity of Hopelessness”: John McCain puts up a fight, and the AP gets its facts wrong (again)

By: Jeff Emanuel (Diary)  |  July 25th at 08:15 PM  | 

“The safe political choice” for some time now has been “to support some sort of retreat” in Iraq, John McCain acknowledged today in a speech to veterans and media. “Many observers said my approach [of advocating victory in Iraq no matter what the political cost] would ruin my hopes of becoming President,” he said. “My choice was not smart politics. It didn’t test well in | Read More »

Democrat Congressman: “We’ve taken public positions which … forced the president … into the surge … which is working”

By: Jeff Emanuel (Diary)  |  July 13th at 02:37 PM  | 

Rep. Paul Kanjorski (D-PA), who recently gained media attention for his videotaped admission that, due to “temptation to want to win back the Congress,” Democrats “stretched the facts” regarding their ability to actually end the war in Iraq, appears to be back for a video encore. This time, the Democratic Congressman appears in a video making two distinct statements regarding the ‘Surge’ strategy that has | Read More »

Congressman admits Democrats “stretched the facts,” misled anti-war supporters about supposed plans for ending War

By: Jeff Emanuel (Diary)  |  July 13th at 09:48 AM  | 

Congressman Paul Kanjorski (D-PA) has been a fairly undistinguished member of the House of Representatives for nearly a quarter of a century. He is a career member of the Financial Services Committee who has made little or no name for himself since his first electoral victory, and has maintained incumbency through the funneling of pork back to his district. Even his Wikipedia entry says that | Read More »