by Joseph Puder*

Alireza Jafarzadeh, president of Washington-based Strategic Policy Consulting and spokesperson for the National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI), was the guest of the Middle East Forum at Philadelphia’s Cozen O’Connor law offices last Wednesday over lunch. Bob Guzzardi, chairman of the Middle East Forum, introduced Jafarzadeh, who used his visit with the Middle East Forum to promote his new book, The Iran Threat: President Ahmadinejad and the Coming Nuclear Crisis.

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Obama calls resolution to support Petraeus “empty politics”

by Bill Levinson

Senate Approves Resolution Denouncing MoveOn.org Ad reports,

WASHINGTON, Sept. 20 — The Senate approved a resolution on Thursday denouncing the liberal antiwar group MoveOn.org over an advertisement that questioned the credibility of Gen. David H. Petraeus, the American commander in Iraq.

…Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton of New York and Senator Christopher J. Dodd of Connecticut, both Democratic candidates for president, voted against the resolution, which passed 72 to 25.

…Mr. Obama issued a statement calling the resolution, put forward by Senator John Cornyn, Republican of Texas, “a stunt.” Mr. Obama said, “By not casting a vote, I registered my protest against these empty politics.”

Res Ipsa Loquitur, the thing speaks for itself. Here is the roll call vote that shows who voted to support the Armed Forces of the United States, and who chose to stand with the anti-Semitic and anti-Catholic hate group MoveOn.org in defaming a distinguished four star general and gentleman.

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By Bill Levinson

It is a well known principle from anthropology that someone who can name a person or thing controls that person or thing. To do so, however, requires considerable skill and experience. The name that MoveOn.org applied to General David Petraeus, “General Betray Us,” could have come from any grade school’s sandbox, and it will no more stick to this distinguished soldier than water will adhere to Teflon.

Not only did MoveOn.org publish a defamatory advertisement that made the worst possible accusations–lying and betrayal–against a distinguished military officer, MoveOn.org’s Executive Director, Eli Pariser, stood behind the ad while the Daily Kos’ Markos Moulitsas dismissed the ad as a nonissue. Although Markos Moulitsas deserves a little credit for not overtly backing the ad, he failed to denounce it. Eli Pariser then went on to accuse General Petraeus of “spinning the facts,” thus reiterating his accusation of lying. Whom do you believe: the West Point graduate and leader of character with four stars on each shoulder and numerous service ribbons on his chest, or the proven liar?

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by Bill Levinson

(A letter with similar content was sent to njdc “at” njdc.org and nynjdc “at” njdc.org (Wed, 12 Sep 2007 ))

Last week, MoveOn.org published a defamatory advertisement (http://pol.moveon.org/petraeus.html) in the New York Times. The advertisement makes accusations that would be insulting to any lady or gentleman of character, but especially to a serving military officer who follows a very strict code of honor.

MoveOn.org’s propaganda, like its derogatory cartoon of Pope Benedict waving a gavel in front of the U.S. Supreme Court, along with the anti-Semitic and anti-Catholic hate speech it promoted on its now-disgraced Action Forum, is admittedly less than competent. MoveOn.org took a very dignified picture of a gentleman with four stars on his shoulder, army skill badges that include Parachutist and Air Assault, and numerous service ribbons, and applied a name that any child in a grade school playground could develop. Now let’s take a look at MoveOn Executive Director Eli Pariser, the individual behind all this.

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By Barry Rubin

Everybody in Washington has been waiting for General David H. Petraeaus to give his report on the Iraq war. Expectations became most inflated, as if he would deliver America of this seemingly unsolvable problem in a messianic manner.

Now Petraeaus has spoken and he has done a pretty good job. There are some major paradoxes in his analysis and prescription but given the nature of the issue that was certainly inevitable.

For Democrats, eager to have an American withdrawal from Iraq, Petraeaus became something of a trap. To show they were patriotic and supported the troops, congressional Democrats praised Petraeaus. Now, however, disliking some of the things he said, they look rather craven trying to find ways to criticize him.

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By Kamal Nawash

Recently, several reports by various military experts have painted a grim picture of Iraq. The assessments differ in key conclusions, however all the experts, including Gen. David Petraeus and former Gen. James Jones agree that Iraqi forces are currently unable to take over security operations from American troops. While this assessment may be disappointing to many Americans, the Free Muslims Coalition believes that Iraqi forces’ inability to takeover security operations may be the only leverage the United States has to facilitate reconciliation and a political solution between the parties in Iraq.

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By Andrew L. Jaffee

Ramadi is one of Iraq’s success stories. Can the U.S. and Iraqis leverage this lesson into future successes? From the Times Online:

How life returned to the streets in a showpiece city that drove out al-Qaeda
An American ‘martyr’ is being hailed in the Sunni Triangle for restoring peace to a town where soldiers now fight only water leaks

…Captain Patriquin played a little-known but crucial role in one of the few American success stories of the Iraq war.

He helped to convert Ramadi from one of Iraq’s deadliest cities into arguably the safest outside the semi-autonomous Kurdish north. This graveyard for hundreds of American soldiers, which a Marine Corps intelligence report wrote off as a lost cause just a year ago, is where the US military now takes visiting senators, and journalists such as myself, to show the progress it is making. Ramadi will be Exhibit A when General David Petraeus, the US commander in Iraq, appears before Congress in two weeks’ time to argue that the country as a whole should not be written off.

In Ramadi last weekend I did things unthinkable almost anywhere else in this violent country. I walked through the main souk without body armour, talking to ordinary Iraqis. Late one evening I strolled into the brightly lit Jamiah district of the city with Lieutenant-Colonel Roger Turner, the tobacco-chewing US marine in charge of central Ramadi, to buy kebabs from an outdoor restaurant – “It’s safer than London or New York,” Colonel Turner assured me. …

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by Andrew Garfield*

Defeat of the insurgency and terrorism in Iraq requires not only a military approach but also a political component. Although the “surge” may stabilize parts of Iraq and reduce the level of violence while the additional troops remain in place, long-term stability requires a more holistic approach.

Frank Kitson, a retired British military officer whose writings influenced British operations in Northern Ireland, argues that the “main characteristic that distinguishes campaigns of insurgency from other forms of war is that they are primarily concerned with the struggle for men’s minds.”[1] To defeat the insurgency, coalition forces must persuade the Iraqi population to reject extremism and deny safe haven to those fighting the new Iraqi political order. This will require dialogue, inducements, and the proportionate use of force to win the battle for “hearts and minds.”

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By Salim Mansur, Toronto Sun

There comes a point at which diminishing returns on most issues begin to go negative.

Such a point in denouncing Islamist terrorism and equally the Muslim majority’s silence against this menace was reached sometime ago.

As Islamist terrorism, however despicable, became mundane occurrence in the daily news cycle, the deafening silence of Muslims — except for lonely voices of feeble opposition — has given credence to growing numbers of non-Muslims that Islam is as much a religion of peace as the Klanmen’s politics is an expression of multiculturalism.

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By Andrew L. Jaffee

There really has been a sea-change in France — the turning point being the 2005 riots. The Foreign Minister today saying France “could offer support to end sectarian violence” in Iraq? From the Beeb:

French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner has arrived in the Iraqi capital Baghdad for a visit at the invitation of the country’s president.

The trip marks the first time a French minister has been to Iraq since France opposed the US-led invasion in 2003.

The election in May of Nicolas Sarkozy as French president brought an improvement in relations with the US.

Mr Kouchner said France could offer support to end sectarian violence, but the solution lay in Iraqi hands.

“I want to listen to the people… We have to understand this country, we have to understand what’s going on between the Shiites and the Sunnis, not only in Iraq,” he said in a joint news conference with Iraqi Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari. …

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by Daniel Pipes*

Quiz time: Which Middle Eastern country disappeared from the map not long ago for more than six months?

Answer: Kuwait, which disappeared from August 1990 to February 1991, becoming Iraq’s 19^th province. This brutal conquest by Saddam Hussein culminated intermittent Iraqi claims going back to the 1930s. Restoring Kuwait’s sovereignty required a huge American-led expeditionary force of more than half a million soldiers.

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By Andrew L. Jaffee

The [Iraqi] team includes Sunni and Shia Muslims, as well as Kurds.

- BBC, 7/29/07

Another small glimmer of hope for Iraq (see also here)? One would hope that if Kurds, Shiites, and Sunnis could play soccer together, and pull off upset victories over the South Korean and Saudi teams, then they could learn to live together in peace. Who can tell? In the very stochastic realm of human emotions, sometimes even a single event can galvanize a previously fractured society. But the historic — and to me, minor — divisions separating Iraq’s Sunnis and Shiites run deep. Time will only tell. I hope that Iraqis can accentuate and perpetuate their football fever. From the BBC:

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“Maybe Again,” instead of “Never Again.” Obama also opposed legal protections for babies that survive abortions.

by Bill Levinson

“It Didn’t Happen:” Democrats go soft on crimes against humanity by James Taranto in yesterday’s Wall Street Journal reports,

Barack Obama’s latest pronouncement on Iraq should have shocked the conscience. In an interview with the Associated Press last week, the freshman Illinois senator and Democratic presidential candidate opined that even preventing genocide is not a sufficient reason to keep American troops in Iraq.

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By Andrew L. Jaffee

They cheered and waved Iraqi flags, sharing, perhaps, the first such moment of national pride in recent years…

Which is precisely why the Islamo-fascists struck. They are not interested in liberty, national reconciliation, integrity, or evolution. The Islamists want absolute power based solely on terrorizing, subjugating, converting, or killing those they consider “infidels:”

Two bomb attacks have killed at least 50 people and injured 135 in Baghdad as crowds celebrated a famous victory by the national football team. …

…the football team’s win was a genuine moment of national pride and pleasure which had crossed the sectarian divisions between Iraq’s different communities.

Just as the Iraqi team has Sunni and Shia Muslims and Kurds playing alongside each other, the celebrations brought members of all those communities out onto the streets…

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by Daniel Pipes*

Two positions dominate and polarize the American body politic today. Some say the war is lost, so leave Iraq. Others say the war can be won, so keep the troops in place.

I split the difference and offer a third route. The occupation is lost but the war can be won. Keep U.S. troops in Iraq but remove them from the cities.

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