Why We Need Spies

By Alan Caruba

In West Point and military academies around the world, a book written two and a half thousand years ago is studied. It is “The Art of War” by Sun Tzu and it deftly spells out the difference between victory and defeat.

“The art of war teaches us to rely not on the likelihood of the enemy’s not coming, but on our own readiness to receive him; not on the chance of his not attacking, but rather on the fact that we have made our position unassailable.”

On the topic of spies, Sun Tzu wrote, “to remain in ignorance of the enemy’s condition, simply because one grudges the outlay of a hundred ounces of silver in honors and emoluments, is the height of inhumanity.” He then names five classes of spies. “Be subtle! And use your spies for every kind of business.”

The lesson from 9/11, published in the Commission report that followed, was that while the U.S. had a fairly massive espionage and counter-espionage community, they were not effectively communicating with one another. Part of the problem was a legal “wall” that had been put up between spymasters and law enforcement personnel.

A series, “Top Secret America”, running in The Washington Post, was initially decried as giving away America’s secrets regarding its intelligence gathering community, but as the report points out, it took two years to put together and was based “on government documents and contracts, job descriptions, property records, corporate and social networking Web sites, additional records, and hundreds of interviews with intelligence, military and corporate officials and former officials..”

If Dana Priest and William M. Arkin were able to access such information, then you can be sure that intelligence agencies in the nations of both our allies and enemies have already done so. The recent exposure of a Russian sleeper spy ring should be a reminder, not just of the bad old Cold War days, but that such spying goes on all the time by every nation.

Despite the initial displeasure expressed in some circles, I think the two reporters (Priestly is a Pulitzer Prize winner) have done the nation a favor. Consider the following:

# Some 1,271 government organizations and 1,931 private companies work on programs related to counterterrorism, homeland security, and intelligence in about 10,000 locations across the United States.

# An estimated 854,000 people, nearly 1.5 times as many people as live in Washington, D.C., hold top-secret security clearances.

# Many security and intelligence agencies do the same work, “creating redundancy and waste” according to the series. For example, 51 federal organizations and military commands, operating in 15 U.S. cities, track the flow of money to and from terrorist networks.

# Some 50,000 intelligence reports are published each year by security analysts.

Anyone who has to process a lot of information every day knows that too much information is almost as bad as too little because it is virtually impossible to reduce to an “actionable” level where response time may be a matter of hours.

And, yes, there probably are too many government organizations and private companies generating “intelligence.”

The Christmas underwear bomber is an example and, of course, the failed Times Square bomber, another, when the system does not work as hoped. The terrorists who are targeting the U.S. only have to be lucky once. The intelligence community has to get it right every hour of every day.

All these intelligence gathering and analyzing operations reflect the fact that the world is a very large place with lots of individual nations and lots of non-state terror organizations.

So, maybe, a little redundancy is not so awful? It is always useful in any situation that involves making war and the West is locked into a very long war with Islamic fascism and other enemies like North Korea, the dictatorship in Venezuela, the Russians as always, and the Chinese who have an enormous, sophisticated espionage operation.

Reading the Washington Post series, I was reminded of a famous quote of Marcus Tullius Cicero (106 BC – 43 BC) who said, “A nation can survive its fools, and even its ambitious, but it cannot survive treason from within. An enemy at the gates is less formidable for he is known and carries his banner openly, but the traitor moves amongst those within the gate freely, his sly whispers rustling through all the alleys, heard in the very halls of government itself…”

“He rots the soul of a nation. He works secretly and unknown in the night to undermine the pillars of the city. He infects the body politic so that it can no longer resist.”

Wise words and a warning as timely as the morning’s headlines.

© Alan Caruba, 2010

New Rules for Air Travel

By Alan Caruba

The simple fact of the matter is that the only reason the Christmas Delta flight was not blown out of the sky with a powerful explosive was that the detonator didn’t work. Does it strike anyone as ironic that, according to government officials, the “answer” to airline safety is more and better technology?

El Al, the Israeli airline has never had a terrorist incident and that is because they actually profile the heck out of everyone who wants to fly with them. Blond, blue-eyed, Scandinavian? They want to know why you’re going to a particular destination, how long you intend to be there? Do you have family or friends there? And you had better have all your visas and passports in proper order. You may be a member of the Master Race, but you better have some damned good answers.

In America, it’s now routine for passenger to have to show up a day in advance, sleep on the terminal floor, take off your shoes and all the rest of your clothes, submit to an anal cavity search, and not bring anything as dangerous as a nail-clipper with you. No liquids unless they are less than three ounces and in a zip-closed plastic bag. None of this makes anyone the slightest bit safer except the morons at the TSA that came up with these rules.

There are now new rules such as not being able to take a leak for an hour before the plane lands, no pillows, no blankets, and nothing that even vaguely resembles comfort in airline seats that have been reduced in size to the equivalent of straight-jackets. Looking out the window will be considered suspicious activity.

Here’s what’s NOT suspicious:

Having “Muhammad” as part of your name such as Muhammad Abdul Muhammad.
Being Muslim.
Having no passport.
Being Muslim.
Paying for a one-way ticket with cash.
Being Muslim.
Not having any baggage.
Being Muslim.
Spreading a prayer rug in the waiting lounge, facing Mecca, and loudly praying.
Being Muslim.
Being Arab.
Being Muslim.
Being African.
Being Muslim.

And, finally,
Being Muslim!

Here’s my suggestion for a really good new rule: The United States Department of State should simply not issue visas to young, Arab or African Muslims for any reason. If you’re young and sporting a raggedy beard, you may not get a visa either. If you’re young, female, and are wearing a burka or comparable Muslim attire, you don’t get a visa.

I don’t care if they want to study anything at a U.S. college or university. There are lots of other places to study anything. I don’t care if they want to visit Disneyland. I don’t care if they want to become a rock’n roll star. If they want to be in the movies, let them go to Bollywood, not Hollywood.

This is the same State Department whom the father of the latest bomber warned weeks ago. When your daddy says you’re a jihadist that should be proof enough. At the U.S. Embassy in Nigeria they are still looking up the word “jihadist” because it is not in the handbook, “How to Spot a Freaking Terrorist!” Oops, sorry, I forgot that according to the present administration there is no “war on global terrorism” and the term “terrorist” cannot be spoken.

I find it quite strange that Americans think there is something wrong with being especially careful about letting anyone Arab, African, and Muslim on any flight to, within, and from the United States.

I find it even stranger that some Americans still are unable to figure out that there are people who are at WAR with them and live for the privilege of dying, becoming a martyr, and having 72 virgins in paradise for the honor of killing as many Americans as possible.

These people are called MUSLIMS.

Some of them even live in America and, frankly, I don’t want them getting on a plane here either.

When imams anywhere around the world tell them every Friday that the only reason they have for living is to die while killing infidels, some reasonable degree of caution is called for.

Note: For those who are offended by this indictment of Muslims, I fully understand that there are many decent Muslims in America and throughout the world. The point of this exercise is to demonstrate how incompetent and idiotic our government has become in protecting us against the bad ones.

The Worst Places on Earth: 2010 Edition

By Alan Caruba

The President of the United States and many politicians are fond of telling us what a terrible place America is. They point to those who, often by choice, are “uninsured” for healthcare costs, but they never mention that by federal law no one, citizen and non-citizen alike, can be turned away from any hospital.

It’s one thing to want to correct inequities of one sort or another. It is quite another to attack the structure of society by imposing laws that authorize gay marriage or to forbid the public celebration of Christmas, or even to display the Ten Commandments in court houses.

There are, however, places far worse in which to live.

The obvious choices are those under the rule of Islam where seventh century sensibilities still rule and countless restrictions exist. When it became apparent that the Taliban were within miles of Pakistan’s capital, the government woke from its slumber and sent the army to destroy them. Pakistan’s neighbor, Afghanistan, is much in the news and not famous for modernity.

The United States and other Western nations have had to invest billions in treasure and many lives to keep the Middle East from inflicting more pain on the rest of the world insofar as it is the site of a lot of oil.

Here are a few nations that remain in constant turmoil:

Somalia is a nation that must surely qualify for the worst place on Earth. Armed gangs roam the streets as two Islamic groups vie for the ability to become its government. What government exists does so only because Africans from outside Somalia guard the president palace and government buildings. Meanwhile the population barely survives on whatever food supplies reach that hell hole.

Zimbabwe surely qualifies as a horrid place. Its president, Robert Mugabe, refused to relinquish the office after the last election. The nation’s currency is printed in a lunatic asylum where a single piece is said to be worth $10,000,000. It will not buy a loaf of bread.

Other African nations are among the most wretched places on Earth, from Equatorial Guinea to Sudan, Libya to Ethiopia to Swaziland. All are run by dictators. Yemen is the new center of al Qaeda planning of future terrorist attacks on the U.S. and the west.

Asia is not much better.

The top contender for worst, however, is North Korea which is utterly devoid of any freedom and a place where the average 7-year-old boy is almost 8 inches shorter and twenty pounds lighter than a South Korean boy of the same age.

The people of Myanmar, formerly Burma, live under the iron rule of a military junta. The 1991 winner of the Nobel Peace Prize Aung San Suu Kyi has been under house arrest for years. Myanmar is famous for forced labor on its construction projects and the use of children as soldiers. Nearby Laos suffers from being another worker’s paradise.

Communism remains a blueprint for failure and oppression. Uzbekistan is famous for its torture rooms. A 2003 law made Islam Karimov, its dictator, and all members of his family immune from prosecution forever. A mass murder of protesters in 2005 has discouraged any efforts to rid themselves of him ever since. In Turkmenistan the government has found many ways to make life there unbearable and you can add Belarus to the list as well.

Iran is likewise a dictatorship that has begun to see protests. Its leaders have not only demonstrated utter ruthlessness against its captive citizens, but constantly engage in seizing foreign hostages. They are increasing their provocative actions. Syria is no better, having lived under the Assad family, father and son, for decades. Both nations are allies.

Say what you will, but Iraq, after three decades of Saddam Hussein’s cruelties and plunder, has emerged as a democracy and is struggling to remain one. Iraqis may discover that too great a withdrawal of American troops is an invitation to chaos.

After China rejected the idiocy of Mao in favor of a capitalist economy, life has improved for many Chinese, but they still have no political freedom. If China stops buying U.S. securities, the U.S. will financially implode.

Closer to home, Cuba remains a dictatorship under Fidel Castro’s brother, Raul. Despite the way various Hollywood stars praise Cuba after visiting, it is still a Communist prison-state and, of course, Hugo Chavez has fashioned one in its image in Venezuela.

Though Mexico is largely ignored by Americans except for its many citizens fleeing across our southern border (along with many other South Americans and those from the Caribbean), it too is in a precarious condition as its oil reserves have begun to decline from lack of exploration and development. Naturally, the oil company is owned by the government. Kidnappings and murders perpetrated by the narcotics kingpins are a part of everyday life in Mexico and are spreading like a cancer to America’s southwestern states.

The United Nations has proved to be a sinkhole of corruption and friend to every dictatorship worldwide.

It’s always a good idea to look around and do a quick comparison between life in America and much of the rest of the world.

These may well be the last days of an America where a sober and prudent government ensured careful management of its financial resources. As 2009 comes to a close, America totters on the brink of resembling other failed nation-states around the world.

Al Qaeda Sends a Christmas Message

By Alan Caruba

If there is an American remaining who does not understand that the Islamic revolution is at war with our nation and the West, then they are in serious denial.

For general purposes, it began with the Iranian revolution that overthrew a U.S. ally, the Shah of Iran, in 1979 and then took our diplomats hostage, holding them for 444 days. Only recently have we learned that Iran has been providing sanctuary to the family of Osama bin Laden, the founder of al Qaeda, the perpetrators of 9/11 and an earlier attempt to destroy the Twin Towers.

This raises serious questions about the Obama administration’s first year in which considerable effort was made to open diplomatic communications with Iran, the primary source of all the conflicts in the Middle East as the guide and funding source for Hezbollah in Lebanon and Hamas in Gaza, and the provider of weapons against our troops in Iraq.

No Middle Eastern nation is safe from Iran, least of all its obsession, Israel. Its quest for nuclear weapons is not merely just another nation seeking to join the Nuclear Club.

On Christmas day, Abdul Farouk Abdul-Mutallab, aka Umar Farouk Abdul Madallad, a 23-year-old Nigerian and former engineering student at University College in London, attempted to set off an explosive device over the U.S. as Delta-Northwest Flight 253 was soon to land in Detroit.

Eight years ago this past week, Richard Reed, aka Abdul Raheem and Tariq Raja, tried to blow up a flight from Paris to Miami. There is an important message to be understood from these two incidents and it is the contempt for both Christianity and Judaism that Islam has always displayed. It’s worth remembering that Israel was attacked in 1973 on Yom Kippur, one of its holiest days.

The other message is that al Qaeda’s war on the West and its quest for the establishment of a new caliphate to rule the world is far from over.

The fact that the vast intelligence gathering machinery of the United States, in cooperation with that of many other nations, have not been able to find and kill Osama bin Laden and his colleagues has been a major failure.

In 2007, Strategic Forecasting released a report saying, “All signs indicate this group is no longer functional and cannot be replicated. Whether or not Osama bin Laden is still alive, al Qaeda as it once was is dead.”

There are ample signs of life from al Qaeda and events in Somalia and Yemen suggest that some elements of it are still very much alive. One of Osama bin Laden’s earliest goals was to replace the Saudi Arabian monarchy.

It does not help that the U.S. Department of Homeland Security has, during the first year of the Obama administration and its Secretary, Janet Napolitano, refused to even use the word “terrorism” throughout 2009. It does not help that President Obama has gone out of his way to display his sympathies for Islam.

What I have found interesting is the way the perpetrators of acts of terrorism against the West frequently involve well educated Muslims willing to die for Islam, but not before killing large numbers of innocent infidels, “unbelievers”, in places like U.S. embassies in Nairobi, Kenya, Dar es Salaam in Tanzania, against the citizens of Madrid, London, and, of course, New York.

After attacking the Taliban in Afghanistan following 9/11 and then ridding Iraq of its dictator, Saddam Hussein, I am beginning to believe that former President Bush had a better understanding of the threat of militant Islam than anyone has ever given him credit for. As war-weary as Americans may be at this point, the fact is we have a fairly substantial military engagement precisely where it needs to be in the heart of the Middle East.

Reducing our troop levels now or even in the near future is very likely a very bad idea.

Something is very wrong in the Obama administration’s decision to give Khalid Sheikh Muhammad a civil trial in New York. It defies the obvious fact that he is an enemy combatant who should be subject to a military tribunal, not the full rights of an American citizen. The decision goes beyond just being stupid. It makes New York City “ground zero” for another spectacular attack in 2010.

In large and small ways, the Obama administration betrays sympathies for al Qaeda’s larger mission and the election of a President who spent several years of his youth in a Muslim nation as the step-son of a Muslim father, and whose very first message as President was an interview with Al Jezeera, the popular television channel that serves the Middle East, does not bode well for our national security.

Al Qaeda has sent America a Christmas message. Are we paying sufficient attention to the one the White House is sending?

Islamists Think It's Open Ended

Babbling About Afghanistan

By Alan Caruba

The President is going to address the nation about his plans for Afghanistan and if ever there was an exercise in futility, this is it.

Obama’s spent, we’re told, a goodly amount of time deciding what to do about this “war of necessity”, but he has never really explained why it’s necessary. Presumably it is because the Taliban want to take over Afghanistan. They did that before and, following the 9/11 attack, George Bush decided to kill as many as possible while doing the same to whatever members of al Qaeda were around.

Bush had a fairly simple approach to Afghanistan and it worked in the short term, but everything about the Middle East involves the long term whether you are looking back at history or trying to influence its future.

If you look back, you discover that the former Soviet Union had 100,000 troops there and spent ten years in Afghanistan. Like all occupying powers before them, they lost out to the tribes that function throughout the nation. Covert U.S. assistance expedited their losses, but that help was predicated on the long Cold War between the U.S. and the Soviet Union.

One day in 1989 they just packed up and went home to Russia. Shortly thereafter the Berlin Wall fell followed by the entire Soviet government in 1991. If you look further back, you will find that the formerly great British Empire achieved little more than getting large numbers of their troops killed there.

Most military and other historians would draw the conclusion that invading and occupying Afghanistan is a really bad idea.

We have been listening to a lot of babble about its importance for eight years, but it was not important enough for the Bush administration to invest much effort. Iraq was far more than a war of necessity. It was a major oil producer, centrally located, and not incidentally, bordered Iran, a nation that has been in a state of belligerency with the United States since 1979. Beyond that, Saddam Hussein threatened any hope of stability in the Middle East.

As far as I can tell, Afghanistan’s major export is opium. The average life expectancy there is age 44 for men and women. The whole place is tribal with the Pashtuns being the largest one. Complaining about “corruption” in Afghanistan’s government or in any other aspect of life there is idiotic. What we call corruption is an ancient, established way of life for the whole of the Middle East.

Having fled from the Sudan, Al Qaeda set up shop there pre-9/11 because it is one of the most inaccessible places on Earth. He is believed to be in one of the frontier areas of Pakistan, bordering Afghanistan.

The problem of Afghanistan will not be solved until the problem of Pakistan is solved. And Pakistan does not like Afghanistan, but then Pakistan really hates India and one wonders who it considers a friend. It’s certainly not America, even though we have thrown billions down the Pakistani rat hole and only lately, when the Taliban were a short drive from downtown Islamabad, did the Pakis decide they were a problem.

One has to ask (1) why, after eight years, we haven’t found and killed Osama bin Laden and (2) why, after eight years, we are still militarily engaged there? Are we nation-building? If so, Afghanistan has passed through various stages of nationhood with not much to show for it. The present administration’s governing power extends to the city limits of Kabul.

If we can learn anything from the Soviet Russian experience, what are we doing there? The short answer is that we are getting our troops killed just as we did in Vietnam. NATO generals have openly questioned their nation’s participation. Meanwhile, a war-weary America is now drawing down our troops in Iraq.

President Lyndon Johnson wrestled with the Vietnam quandary in just the same way President Obama has had to do with Afghanistan and both came up with the same bad answer: more troops.

The American Empire is shrinking. The American economy is so bad that it is on life support from China, Japan and other lenders. Meanwhile, the Obama administration is pushing two pieces of legislation, Obamacare and Cap-and-Trade that would destroy the economy

A little bit of humility would be useful at this point, starting with some concentration on how to get Americans back to work and to find ways to keep American industry from leaving for places where the government doesn’t outlaw their products or some obscure specie is not the reason for denying irrigation water to farmers.

It is the habit of empires to never want to be seen abandoning the field of battle and right now we’re told that is in Afghanistan.

Hubris will prevent this President from defying history while, at the same time, shepherding a malevolent program to destroy America through Congress.

Afghanistan is the least of our problems.

Here's a Photo You Won't Find in the MSM

This is a photo of George W. and Laura Bush, seen with the family of one of the Fort Hood soldiers who was shot by a MUSLIM TERRORIST. The Bushes showed up without an entourage. They drove in from their ranch and met with the hospitalized victims.

We have a President who will not say the word "terrorist" and has directed that no one in his administration refer to or say the words, "war on terrorism."

Muslim, but Presumed Innocent

By Alan Caruba

The earliest indications are that Major Malik Nadal Hasan, the alleged killer of thirteen soldiers who wounded 30 more at Fort Hood, broke under the stress of his forthcoming deployment to Iraq in his capacity as a psychiatrist. Up to the shooting on November 5, he was reportedly doing everything he could to avoid being sent to the Middle East.

Native-born and deemed a good American who enlisted in the U.S. Army, Hasan is the son of Jordanian immigrants and a Muslim. Reportedly, he had encountered some difficulties as the result of that and there are reports, unsubstantiated at this point, that he had posted some thoughts on a personal website regarding his feelings about the role of the U.S. in the Middle East.

If the early news reports are any indication, most will avoid the fact that Major Hasan is a Muslim. Neither CBS Evening News, nor NBC Nightly News in their East Coast feed made any mention of it. As the story continues to develop, it will be instructive to see how the U.S. news media deals with this obvious fact.

On Fox and Friends, Friday morning, it was reported that he shouted “Allah Akbar”, God is great, as he fired at his trapped and helpless victims. There is, in addition, the factor of premeditation.

There are some four to five million Muslims of Arab descent in America, some native born, others who have immigrated. One presumes their patriotism, but there are also too many troubling incidents of these citizens and of converts to Islam to ignore.

Still, nothing—least of all a mass shooting—happens in a vacuum. That is why the November 10th execution of John Allen Muhammad is going to be another occasion for the nation’s media to avoid the fact that he, too, is Muslim. Muhammad, along with Lee Boyd Malvo, were the Beltway snipers who, for three weeks in October 2002, randomly killed ten people and critically wounded three others.

No one is suggesting that all Muslims are killers. What is not being addressed, however, is the way Islam and its holy book, the Koran, is a call to battle.

Starting in 1972, ten members of a local mosque in New York ambushed responding officers, killing one of them. Some fifty-five incidents, including 9/11, have Islam as a component. In the 1970s, adherents of the Nation of Islam, Oakland, California, were particularly active.

As Iran celebrates the thirtieth anniversary of the hostage taking of American diplomats, one is reminded of a July 1980 killing in which a political dissident living in Bethesda, Maryland was assassinated in front of his home by an Iranian agent who was an American convert to Islam.

In the 1990s, events began to pick up. In January 1993, for example, a Pakistani with Mujahideen ties gunned down two CIA employees outside its headquarters. In 1997, a Palestinian left an anti-Semitic suicide note behind, went to the top of the Empire State Building, and shot seven people. Events continued apace in the present decade. In March 2000, a local imam gunned down a deputy sheriff in Atlanta and, in Los Angeles, in July 2002, a Muslim killed two people at the Israeli airline counter at the Los Angeles airport.

The 2001 attack on the Twin Towers was Muslim in conception and fulfillment, dependent on the wish for martyrdom by its perpetrators and over three thousand Americans lost their lives.

Honor killings became part of the news stream. In 2004, a Muslim father killed his wife and attacked his two daughters. In 2008, a Muslim father strangled his 25-year-old daughter and this year in Glendale, Arizona, on November 2nd a Muslim father ran over and killed his daughter, fearing she had become too westernized.

Earlier this year, in February, the founder of a Muslim television station beheaded his wife who was seeking a divorce. The manner of the killing is worth noting.

Terrorism experts continue to warn us that some Muslims here in America are engaged in plots to advance jihad. Curiously, the Department of Homeland Security just named two Muslims to top posts. If an American Muslim who rose to the rank of major could commit mass murder, one has to wonder about the wisdom of those choices, admitted to the inner sanctum of the agency charged with protecting the nation.

The signs were there with Major Hasan, but it is likely that the political correctness that infects common sense in America allowed his unhappiness to erupt in a brutal, senseless act.

No religion is exempt from a history of warfare or individual acts of violence, but today’s world is a reminder that of all the killings taking place in the Middle East these days, it is Muslims killing Muslims. Initially spread by warfare, Islam is the newest of the most populous religions of the world and is distinguished by its zeal to impose a global caliphate.

Islam is not a religion of peace. It is a battle plan that divides the world between the world of Islam, Dar al-Islam, and the world of war, Dar al- Harb. Guess which part of the world that puts most of us?

America's Enemies

By Alan Caruba

Listening to President Obama one might think that America doesn’t have a single enemy that could not be turned into a friend if only he was given the opportunity to just talk to them. He is a great believer in diplomacy even though diplomacy has rarely stopped a war if one party was determined to wage it. War doesn’t need the consent of both.

Perhaps because I was born just prior to the outbreak of World War II and grew up aware of terrible things happening in both Europe and Asia, followed by having an older brother who served during the Korean War, plus my own service in the U.S. Army, my attitude about wars has been shaped by a lifetime in which I cannot recall a minute when America wasn’t at war, engaged in a war, or threatened by a war.

To this day I have considerable antipathy for “peaceniks” and war protesters even though, as the ill-fated Vietnam War dragged on, I joined a march or two. If ever there was a wrong war in the wrong place, Vietnam was it. For those unfamiliar with it, it was essentially a civil war into which the U.S. inserted itself due to a “domino theory” that, if Vietnam fell to communism, all the other Asian nations would as well. At the time, the Cold War was still raging since the end of WWII and Chairman Mao was still in charge of China.

Just because you’re paranoid doesn’t mean someone isn’t plotting against you, so it’s always a good idea to take a very general survey of those nations who wish us ill.

After a slow start, the U.S. is contemplating putting North Korea back on its list of terror-sponsoring nations. I suspect many Americans with no memory of the Korean War during the 1950s dismiss North Korea’s nuclear weapons and missile capability. Not only will this thugocracy sell its WMDs to anyone, but the renewal of the Korean War is never more than 24 hours away. The U.S. is committed to intervene.

Iran, despite being on the other side of the globe, is working toward having its own nuclear weapons and missile delivery systems. As far as the Middle East is concerned, that’s a war just waiting to happen.

Americans seem to have forgotten that Saddam Hussein fought a war with Iran for eight years, settled for a stalemate, and then invaded Kuwait. If ever there was a good reason to fight a war to rid the region of this troublemaker, I cannot think of one. Now the problem has shifted to Pakistan, under attack from an enemy of its own making, the Taliban. Since Pakistan has nukes, it cannot be allowed to fall into the hands of fanatical Islamofascists.

Right next door India keeps a wary eye on Pakistan. Bordering Pakistan to the north is Afghanistan, a nation of tribes that, though occupied over and over again, has resisted all invaders for centuries. Just because 9/11 was planned there doesn’t mean the U.S. needs to maintain a military presence there. The prospect of an effective central government is quite distant despite the money, military manpower, and other efforts the U.S. is making.

So the enemies we can identify include any and all Muslims who support the view that Islam must rule the entire world. There are more than a billion of them.

Russia is no friend to the United States, but Russia is no friend to Europe or China either. Almost entirely dependent on the export of oil and natural gas, its fate rises and falls with the cost of a barrel or cubic foot of both. The fall of the Soviet government and the loss of its satellite nations in Eastern Europe have not significantly brought about a change of attitude in the Kremlin although much of the population would be more than happy to embrace the free market capitalism of the United States.

China is no friend either even though it is highly dependent on its ability to manufacture and export its goods to the United States. Our current economic woes worry the Chinese who own billions in U.S. treasury bills along with the fact that Americans aren’t buying as much of their stuff lately. China has perhaps the largest espionage effort regarding the U.S. of any other nation in the world.

Americans have been slow to respond to yet another enemy, Mexico. The U.S. has been literally invaded by Mexicans though they came looking for jobs and a better life. The result, however, has been enormous financial burdens on all aspects of our society from schools to hospitals to welfare and to crime. There are an estimated 12 million illegal Mexicans and others from south of the border and Harry Reid, the Senate Majority Leaders, wants to push through another amnesty bill.

The last amnesties only resulted in a greater rush to enter the U.S. Only a handful in public office will address the fact that the Mexican government has openly encouraged this invasion because the money sent home is a significant part of its economy. It is a major trading partner, but it looks to become totally controlled by the narco lords.

We have been slow to say or do anything about Venezuela, led by the dictator, Hugo Chavez. This likely has much to do with the oil that nation exports to the U.S. Chavez, however, is closely allied with Hezbollah which, in turn, is allied and controlled by Iran. Chavez has been buying up a lot of weapons of late and it has nothing to do with defense and everything to do with his bad intensions. Once a democracy, Venezuelans are now totally under the control of their government.

The U.S. just got around to arresting two former members of the State Department who had allegedly been spying for Cuba for thirty years. President Obama wants to lift restrictions on that dictatorship that have been in place for at least 50 years. Since the Soviet Union fell in the 1990s, Cuba has fallen on hard times, but it is still an enemy.

Africa is fairly dormant though Somalia has fallen to the Islamofascists. The U.S. has conspicuously done little to relieve the horrors in Darfur, inflicted by the Muslim Sudanese government. Overall, there is little likelihood that the U.S. will become embroiled in a war in Africa. It too is a significant source of oil.

If there is a common theme to our present threat levels, it is oil and, more precisely, the failure since the 1970s of the U.S. to access the abundant reserves of our own oil in the interior of the nation and from its offshore continental shelf. Since the Obama administration is hell bent on covering the U.S. with wind turbines and solar panels, we shall remain hostage to oil-producing nations.

The enemy that is only beginning to make himself known to Americans is President Barack Obama who has swiftly created an administration that ignores its many cabinet departments in favor of “czars” that have been ceded power over all elements of our nation. They rarely hold any press conferences, nor do they seem responsive to the inquiries of Congress. The only function of the cabinet secretaries appears to be to stand behind the President when he makes various announcements. No wonder he greeted Hugo Chavez with a big smile.

Taking control of automobile companies is unconstitutional. Giving bailouts to them is unconstitutional. Permitting the Federal Reserve to print money without regard to the inflationary impact this will have is reckless. Voting for a “stimulus” bill without reading or even debating it is reckless. Running up the national debt is reckless. Putting the value of the U.S. dollar in doubt is criminal negligence.

Trying to take over the nation’s health systems and to require all Americans to purchase health insurance flies in the face of free market capitalism and cedes control over the most intimate aspects of our lives to the government.

We now have a Homeland Security Department that identifies any American who disagrees with the Obama administration as an “extremist.” This includes people who oppose abortions, oppose illegal immigration, support the Second Amendment right to own and bear weapons, and veterans returning from the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Terrorism is no longer part of its vocabulary, but “man-caused disasters” is.

If Americans don’t besiege and change Congress to reverse these assaults on the economy and the Constitution, this nation will fail and our liberties will be memories.

Pakistan as a Perennial Problem

By Alan Caruba

Pakistan is another way of spelling T-R-O-U-B-L-E. Just ask anyone living in Mumbai or anywhere else in India, Kashmir, or neighboring nations.

Pakistan shares a 5,000 year old history with India. In 1,500 BCE, Aryan invaders from the northwest founded a thousand year Vedic civilization, but Pakistan and India’s real troubles began in 712 CE when Arabs invaded, bringing with them Islam. What followed was the Mogul Empire from 1526 to 1857 when the British Empire took an interest in the vast subcontinent, bringing with it the benefits of a modern civilization such as trains for transport and the machinery of governance.

When the British withdrew after World War II, on August 14, 1947, all hell broke loose as millions of India’s Muslim population fled into the area now known as Pakistan and to the east, Bangladesh, separated by a thousand miles of Indian territory. The turmoil of the separation and establishment of Pakistan has been a source of enmity between it and India ever since. To put it mildly, Pakistan has never been able to achieve a status of modern self-government. This is in part because Islam does not recognize any separation of church and state.

Since the 1970’s, Pakistan has largely been governed by its military. In 1971, a war broke out between Pakistan and India, one result of which was that Bangladesh broke away and became an independent nation. Millions fled in all directions, some into India, others into Pakistan, repeating the history that accompanied the establishing of Pakistan. By December, Pakistan surrendered and on July 13, 1972, the two nations signed a pact agreeing to withdraw their troops and resolve their problems peaceably.

After India, to the astonishment of the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency, tested its first nuclear weapon, Pakistan followed suit in 1998. The U.S. applied sanctions to both nations, later removed, but has since wisely tilted toward India, an emerging world economic power.

During the Cold War Soviet Russia provided North Vietnam with the weapons and support it needed and, after the Russians invaded Afghanistan, the U.S. mounted a covert support of the Afghani tribes that resulted in Russian defeat and withdrawal. The route through which American weapons made their way to that front line was Pakistan. Similarly, after 9/11 Pakistan became a staging area to pursue the Taliban and support U.S. troops still stationed in Afghanistan. The result of this has been that U.S. billions have been pumped into Pakistan. Any continuation of a U.S. military presence in Afghanistan requires the cooperation of whoever is running Pakistan.

Despite being Islamic, there is evidence that Pakistanis do want a secular government and the benefits of modernization. Living under a military dictatorship makes this difficult.

There are vast areas of Pakistan over which even its military has been unable to exert any control. The Northwest Provinces and Waziristan, the likely home to Osama bin Laden, are impenetrable. Then there is the disputed territory of Kashmir between the two nations. The result is that “non-state actors” such as al Qaeda and Kashmiri separatists have been able to operate and to create havoc between the two nations and inflict their murderous campaign to impose a new caliphate on the world. These people need to be killed.

The Indian government has acted with admirable restraint following the Mumbai attacks, but how long that will last will depend on international action. We can rule out the United Nations as utterly useless in this and all other atrocious behavior by fanatical Muslims. Consider the UN’s failure in resolving the Darfur crisis in the Sudan or inability to deal with comparable problems on the continent of Africa, the northern area of which is dominated by Muslim nations.

Robert Kagan, a senior associate at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, has recommended that “it would be useful for the United States, Europe and other nations to begin establishing the principle that Pakistan and other states that harbor terrorists should not take their sovereignty for granted. In the 21st century, sovereign rights need to be earned.”

If this sounds a lot like the Bush Doctrine of preemption, you’re right.

The military who run Pakistan, along with its intelligence services, despite the appearance of a democratic governing body, a president, elections, et cetera, are not to be trusted. It is entirely likely they played a role in equipping and training the Mumbai terrorists.

Thus, we are now living in a world where the largest international institution, the United Nations, continues to demonstrate its impotence and inability to respond to the rise of “non-state actors”, but the U.S. is also engaged in two separate conflicts in which Pakistan is geographically critical to our objectives to bring democratic reform to both Iraq and Afghanistan.

Can you spell T-R-O-U-B-L-E? It’s currently spelled P-a-k-i-s-t-a-n; trouble for the United States, trouble for India, and trouble for the whole of the Middle East given its nuclear weapons. Do you wonder still why Iran wants them too?

It is doubtful that President-elect Obama or his designated Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton, will be able to resolve this Islamic time bomb. It is doubtful, too, that an international military operation will be mounted to root out al Qaeda and other terrorist forces.

Our attention to the Middle East is likely to exist for a very long time and our efforts to introduce democratic reforms in Iraq, Afghanistan, and elsewhere in the region will require the same kind of patient containment the Cold War necessitated from the end of WWI until the fall of the Soviets in 1991.

In the meantime, we can all hope that the incoming administration and Congress will be able to do something about the financial crisis—international as well as national in scope—before conditions arise that make war look like a viable response to India’s problems with Pakistan.

Can you say “World War Three”?

Why Aren't US Mosques Burning?

By Alan Caruba

Here’s a question worth asking. Why didn’t 9/11 initiate a nationwide retaliation against the many mosques in America? Why were America’s Muslims relatively free of widespread individual acts of retaliation?

And since then, despite the fact that U.S. troops have been engaged in a long-term insurgency in Iraq, as well as fighting and dying in Afghanistan, why has the Muslim community in America been, in a sense, protected? Or at least free of being blamed for what their co-religionists are doing around the world?

Frankly, the answer should make you very proud of America.

It has a lot to do with a nation that has a Constitution guaranteeing the right to practice one’s religion without interference, but it also has a lot to do with the liberal notion of “diversity” in which all cultures, races, and belief systems are deemed to be of equal value and merit. In reality, they are not equal nor comparable. Some cultures, like our own, are unique and are superior to others.

And, yes, we do have our protests in the streets. Of late, gays have marched in Los Angeles and, before that, illegal immigrants! In the 1960s, blacks marched for equality and they got it!

It helps that Muslims are still a true minority in America, numbering about 4,749,632 at the last census. In dramatic contrast, however, in Muslim nations Christian Arabs find themselves under constant attack and many, like Jews, have been forced to flee for their lives. As often as not, they found refuge in Israel.

For a nation engaged in war in two Muslim nations and a general “global war on terror”, the protective response to “our” Muslims is nothing less than remarkable. You won’t find this kind of tolerance elsewhere. On the occasion when a new Muslim immigrant attempts to impose his cultural biases, it is usually vocally resisted. "This is America, pal, we don't do that here."

France has responded to problems with its Muslim population by banning the wearing of all religious symbols whether it be the veil, a crucifix or a Star of David. European nations with large Muslim populations have been slow to respond on the level of public policy to the problems they represent. London has seen bombings. Paris was subjected to weeks of rioting and property destruction. This is what military professionals call “a fourth generation war” in which the citizens of an invading or host nation are gradually induced to avoid confrontation.

It is no small irony that, in many Muslim nations, the attacks such as those in Mumbai, India are evoking a greater revulsion than did 9/11. Writing in The National, a newspaper published in the United Arab Emirates, Sultan Al-Qassemi, had this to say:

"It is not enough for moderate Muslims to be revolted by the attacks in Mumbai as we have been revolted by the attacks on the New York office towers, Amman wedding, London transport system, Madrid trains, Beslan school, Jerusalem pizzeria, Baghdad markets and numerous other places. It is time to take a serious stand against these perpetrators and reclaim our religion.”

“Muslims must be more vocal in their sentiments regarding such criminals, and Islamic states must counter this behavior [forcefully]. To borrow an unpopular phrase, the Islamic states must launch a psychological preemptive strike against these terrorists, and, more importantly, [against] those who encourage them. Muslim preachers who fail to condemn terror must either be reeducated or discredited completely, and those who excuse terror [by] using certain conflicts as a pretext must be silenced, because the poison that they spread today will come back to haunt us all tomorrow.”

Thus, if change is to come to the Middle East, it will have to be from within and reflect the general opinion of the public. In nations where the public plays almost no role in self-rule, that change is likely to come more slowly than we would prefer.

It is significant, too, that America has not been attacked again and one suspects that some in the Muslim community have been cooperating with our law enforcement and national security agencies. That makes them patriots.

In a very real way, Americans should take pride in the restraint they have shown with regard to the Muslims among us. Clearly many of them take pride in being Americans.