deceived..

i think that it's important to really look at the motivations of the people who would believe that 9/11 was an inside job facilitated by the 'inept' and 'incompetent' george w bush. a man that had been in office only months before the attack.. a man who had barely put his cabinet together in time to plan such a spectacular event.. if you recall, the bush whitehouse was still trying to find all of the missing 'w' keys from the computer keyboards and trying to determine where the doorhandles had gone at this point.. everyone conveniently forgets the state that the clintonites left the white house (porn, vandalism and other white trash indulgences.)

david kupelian hits it on the head in this article.. the mindset that it takes to believe this type of thing should tell you much about the individual who buys in to it.

And for this cause, God will send them strong delusion that they should believe a lie..
2 Thessalonians 2:11
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Anger, conspiracy and 9/11 truth
By David Kupelian

A recent Scripps Howard survey reports that one in three Americans believe or suspect their democratically elected government is guilty of the worst crime in American history – of participating in the wanton murder of thousands of its own citizens and the destruction of the national economy in order to advance some nefarious, secret agenda.

If that poll is accurate, then I think it's time for us to face some hard truths.

First, we need to understand that, when it comes to 9/11 conspiracy theories, the choice is not between believing that the Bush administration is as pure as the newly fallen snow or believing that the president is a murderous extraterrestrial shape-shifter (as at least one conspiracist alleges). There's a lot in between those extremes.

In fact, if you line up all the possible alternative explanations for 9/11 next to each other, you get a continuum – everything from the most eminently reasonable concerns to the most demented and moronic theories imaginable.

Questions such as whether Flight 93 was actually shot down by the U.S. military over rural Pennsylvania before it could crash into the White House or the Capitol are legitimate. Indeed, the history of clandestine government operations in our own lifetime suggests our government is not only capable of taking such an action (which might well have been the right thing to do under the circumstances), but also capable of keeping it a secret, for whatever reasons.

Likewise, all issues regarding the government's lack of preparedness before 9/11, its myriad intelligence failures, its failure to pay sufficient attention to the growing Islamist threat even after the 1993 World Trade Center car-bombing and other attacks on American interests worldwide, are legitimate.

Cover-ups, official obfuscation and other attempts at hiding past failures, ineptness and gross incompetence are all fair game. Citizens have the perfect right and duty to hold their government accountable.

However, where 9/11 conspiracy theorists cross the line into Bizarro Land is when they conclude, utterly without proof, that the Bush administration is filled with the most craven mass murderers in American history – in other words, that 9/11 was an "inside job."

Stop and think. To believe that 9/11 was an "inside job," that it was accomplished with the blessing of the U.S. government, requires that you believe not only that George W. Bush is a demonically inspired, genocidal monster, but also that dozens and perhaps hundreds of other people in the government are likewise crazed mass-murdering psychopaths.

How can bright and intelligent Americans believe such things?

Perhaps the Scripps Howard poll provides a clue. It cited two major findings:

1. More than a third of Americans believe the U.S. government somehow assisted in the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, or else took no steps to stop them from occurring, so the Bush administration could launch a war in the Middle East; and

2. A record number of Americans (54 percent of respondents) claimed they "personally are more angry" at the government than in the past.

In case you're not aware, brainwashers and dictators and master manipulators of all sorts have long known and exploited the knowledge that when people are angry, emotional and upset, they are automatically more vulnerable to outside suggestion (that is, to believing nonsense) than if they were not angry. (That's why Hitler always insisted on appealing to the German population on the basis of powerful emotion, never reason and logic.)

If, in addition, the people are in denial – that is, they've rejected the truth – then they are open to believing virtually anything. Having already denied reality, they literally have a need for lies.
Let's bring this down to earth with an illustration: Have you ever wondered why so much of the Arab-Muslim world eagerly believes the wildest, most laughably absurd conspiracy theories?
Right now, for instance, Hezbollah's Al-Manar TV is broadcasting with a straight face the claim that "Zionist squads specializing in car bombs" are terrorizing Iraq. Meanwhile, Hezbollah's leader, Sheikh Hassan Nasrallah, insists that all the bombings of Christian churches in Iraq have been the work of the CIA and Mossad.

Then of course there are all the old classics – like the claim that Jews regularly murder Christian children and grind up their bodies as ingredients for their Passover matzah.
And, bringing it back to our subject, millions of Muslims to this day believe "the Jews" were responsible for the 9/11 terror attacks on the U.S. (which supposedly occurred only after 4,000 Jews had been secretly ordered to stay home from the World Trade Center that day).
How can so many Muslims believe such things?

For one thing, when you're brainwashed from birth to believe Jews are the cause of all evil, you feel no need to examine your own life, culture or religion. The natural need all humans have to understand right and wrong, to solve problems, to feel like they're good people, and so on, are all satisfied by the all-consuming hatred of Jews and other "infidels." Blaming others – Jews, Christians, Americans, "crusaders," collaborators, apostates, women, whatever – feels to them exactly like righteousness and strength. It's an almost perfect illusion.

In such a state, having rejected reality and embraced self-righteous hatred, they are perfectly comfortable believing sheer madness. In fact, not only are they vulnerable to believing lies; they need lies to sustain their delusions.

But wait. Doesn't common sense ever intervene and say to them, "You're believing a lie"? Of course, for some. But you never hear about those, because if they made their realizations known they'd be beheaded as "collaborators" or "apostates." But for millions of Muslims, raised to hate infidels and especially the detested Jews, that Zionist scapegoat simply becomes the source and repository for all evil, in their minds. Thus, if something goes wrong, it just has to be because of the Jews (or sometimes the Americans).

Now, what about America's 9/11 skeptics?

If radical Muslims can drink in conspiracy theories like water in a desert because they hate Jews so intensely, then who do America's 9/11 conspiracists hate with an all-consuming passion? That's easy: George W. Bush!

They hate him so much, they see him as such an evil and detestable person that they find it easy to make the wild leap of faith whereby they see the president as terrorist-in-chief.
How is it possible that just because you dislike a president, disapprove of his politics and worldview, and even disagree with his decision to involve the nation in a controversial war, you can so easily deny his very humanity and label him a monster – not to mention condemning countless other lesser "monsters"?

You want truth? Here's some: Right now, as you read these words, Christians and Jews are being attacked by hate-filled Muslim radicals – not only in Israel and Sudan and in-the-news hot spots, but all over the world, including in Europe and even the U.S. (remember the one-man terror attack at the Seattle Jewish center recently?). Ever-increasing numbers of Muslims, inflamed by the medieval, convert-or-die jihad mandate of world domination, are raping, slashing, burning, torturing and murdering infidels. They are bombing trains in Spain, and subways in London, and schools filled with children in Russia, and rioting in France, and butchering countless innocents in Indonesia because some reporter made a comment about Miss Universe, and killing countless more because a newspaper published some cartoons depicting Muhammad, and last month were busted shortly before they carried out their long-planned campaign to blow up 10 passenger jets bound for the U.S., and – oh wait, maybe George Bush was actually responsible for all of this. Never mind.

People, in case you hadn't heard, there's a world war going on, between Western Civilization and global Islamo-fascism. This war is 14 centuries old and counting. Like the evil portrayed in Tolkien's "Lord of the Rings" – which, after earlier conquests, went dormant for centuries, only to re-emerge in the latter days with a newly rekindled imperative to conquer the world – so it is with radical Islam.

When we embrace wild conspiracy theories that the U.S. government, and not the global Islamic jihad, is the real enemy, not only are we accusing our leaders of committing the most despicable crimes in U.S. history, but we are also, wittingly or unwittingly, now in the service of the enemy. After all, at that point, we are literally embracing the same false reality they preach – that America is the "great Satan" behind all the evil in the world.

In fact, the rapid radicalization of Islam worldwide, with its murderous eruptions occurring ever more frequently, is being driven, more than any other single reason, by conspiracy theories!
The Aug. 10 edition of the CNN show "Anderson Cooper 360 Degrees," focusing on that day's arrest in the UK of two dozen Muslims who had planned to kill thousands of innocent human beings by blowing up 10 passenger jets, included this revealing exchange between host Cooper and CNN reporter Christiane Amanpour:

Cooper: You know, Christiane, I think it's hard for a lot of us to comprehend how young men, young Muslim men, in a country like Great Britain, could turn themselves into suicide bombers.

Amanpour: And – and be so virulently against the United States. And there is some evidence that is coming out now, five years after 9/11, that many, many Muslims in England and around the world, according to documentaries that have been produced, are really succumbing to the conspiracy theories. They're really now saying that 9/11 was not al-Qaida; it was a U.S./CIA, Mossad/Israel, Zionist plot, basically designed to cause a war against Islam. This is what is in the mindset now of increasing numbers of these young people.

Get it? Sept. 11 conspiracy theories are throwing gasoline on the Islamist fire that threatens Western civilization.

The U.S. government is a lot of things, many of them bad. But it did not cause 9/11. And if we believe such a preposterous lie, we are in danger of losing history's most important war – and of contributing to that loss.

Muslim terrorists tried to destroy the World Trade Center in 1993. Don't you remember Ramzi Yousef and his uncle, key al-Qaida operative Khalid Shaikh Mohammed, whom the "9/11 Commission Report" called "the principal architect of the 9/11 attacks"? They didn't bring down the buildings that time, but they did succeed in killing six Americans and injuring over 1,000. Eight years later, their al-Qaida comrades came back to finish the job.
That's the truth – if you can handle it.

UN <3 Israel

as if there was any question on the impartiality of the united nations when it comes to dealing with Israel, we have this golden piece of news.. apparently the un was broadcasting Israeli troop movements in lebanon for hezbollah to read..

lets remember that the un has condemned Israel more than 320 times and has done nothing to help protect the borders of the only democracy in the region.

now, the same force that was to have removed and disarmed hezbollah in resolution 1559 and was providing Israeli troop movements during the recent month long war is once again going to be leaned on to provide the security of Israel's northern border..

the fact that the united nations still absconds with any ounce of legitimacy in the public arena is a testament to the state of world affairs..

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What did you do in the war, UNIFIL?
You broadcast Israeli troop movements.
by Lori Lowenthal Marcus

DURING THE RECENT month-long war between Hezbollah and Israel, U.N. "peacekeeping" forces made a startling contribution: They openly published daily real-time intelligence, of obvious usefulness to Hezbollah, on the location, equipment, and force structure of Israeli troops in Lebanon.

UNIFIL--the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon, a nearly 2,000-man blue-helmet contingent that has been present on the Lebanon-Israel border since 1978--is officially neutral. Yet, throughout the recent war, it posted on its website for all to see precise information about the movements of Israeli Defense Forces soldiers and the nature of their weaponry and materiel, even specifying the placement of IDF safety structures within hours of their construction. New information was sometimes only 30 minutes old when it was posted, and never more than 24 hours old.

Meanwhile, UNIFIL posted not a single item of specific intelligence regarding Hezbollah forces. Statements on the order of Hezbollah "fired rockets in large numbers from various locations" and Hezbollah's rockets "were fired in significantly larger numbers from various locations" are as precise as its coverage of the other side ever got.

This war was fought on cable television and the Internet, and a lot of official information was available in real time. But the specific military intelligence UNIFIL posted could not be had from any non-U.N. source. The Israeli press--always eager to push the envelope--did not publish the details of troop movements and logistics. Neither the European press nor the rest of the world media, though hardly bastions of concern for the safety of Israeli troops,
provided the IDF intelligence details that UNIFIL did. A search of Israeli government websites failed to turn up the details published to the world each day by the U.N.

Inquiries made of various Israeli military and government representatives and analysts yielded near unanimous agreement that at least some of UNIFIL's postings, in the words of one retired senior military analyst, "could have exposed Israeli soldiers to grave danger." These analysts, including a current high ranking military official, noted that the same intelligence would not have been provided by the U.N. about Israel's enemies.

Sure enough, a review of every single UNIFIL web posting during the war shows that, while UNIFIL was daily revealing the towns where Israeli soldiers were located, the positions from which they were firing, and when and how they had entered Lebanese territory, it never described Hezbollah movements or locations with any specificity whatsoever.
Compare the vague "various locations" language with this UNIFIL posting from July 25:
Yesterday and during last night, the IDF moved significant reinforcements, including a number of tanks, armored personnel carriers, bulldozers and infantry, to the area of Marun Al Ras inside Lebanese territory. The IDF advanced from that area north toward Bint Jubayl, and south towards Yarun.

Or with the posting on July 24, in which UNIFIL revealed that the IDF stationed between Marun Al Ras and Bint Jubayl were "significantly reinforced during the night and this morning with a number of tanks and armored personnel carriers."
This partiality is inconsistent not only with UNIFIL's mission but also with its own stated policies. In a telling incident just a few years back, UNIFIL vigorously insisted on its "neutral ity"--at Israel's expense.

On October 7, 2000, three IDF soldiers were kidnapped by Hezbollah just yards from a UNIFIL shelter and dragged across the border into Lebanon, where they disappeared. The U.N. was thought to have videotaped the incident or its immediate aftermath. Rather than help Israel rescue its kidnapped soldiers by providing this evidence, however, the U.N. obstructed the Israeli investigation.

For months the Israeli government pleaded with the U.N. to turn over any videotape that might shed light on the location and condition of its missing men. And for nine months the U.N. stonewalled, insisting first that no such tape existed, then that just one tape existed, and eventually conceding that there were two more tapes. During those nine months, clips from the videotapes were shown on Syrian and Lebanese television.

Explaining their eventual about-face, U.N. officials said the decision had been made by the on-site commanders that it was not their responsibility to provide the material to Israel; indeed, that to do so would violate the peacekeeping mandate, which required "full impartiality and objectivity." The U.N. report on the incident was adamant that its force had "to ensure that military and other sensitive information remains in their domain and is not passed to parties to a conflict."

Stymied in its efforts to recover the men while they were still alive, Israel ultimately agreed to an exchange in January 2004: It released 429 Arab prisoners and detainees, among them convicted terrorists, and the bodies of 60 Lebanese decedents and members of Hezbollah, in exchange

for the bodies of the three soldiers. Blame for the deaths of those three Israelis can be laid, at least in part, at the feet of the U.N., which went to the wall defending its inviolable pledge never to share military intelligence about one party with another.

UNIFIL has just done what it then vowed it could never do. Once again, it has acted to shield one side in the conflict and to harm the other. Why is this permitted? For that matter, how did the U.N. obtain such detailed and timely military intelligence in the first place, before broadcasting it for Israel's enemies to see?

8/23

outside of being my good friend libby's birthday today (happy birthday!) today is also the day after the much anticipated 8/22 date iran gave to respond to un demands... we're all still standing, and Israel hasn't been wiped off the map..

a good article:
-------------------------------

After August 22

By Robert Spencer
FrontPageMagazine.com August 23, 2006
Iran drew concern worldwide for refusing to respond in a timely fashion to the West’s offer of an incentives package in exchange for Tehran’s abandonment of its nuclear program. Iranian officials brushed aside the June 29 deadline set by the West and said Iran would respond on August 22. Some, including Farid Ghadry of the Reform Party of Syria (as I reported several weeks ago) and Islamic scholar Bernard Lewis, suggested that Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and the mullahs in Iran’s inner circle may have chosen that date in order to establish a connection with the Islamic prophet Muhammad’s fabled Night Journey, during which Allah is said to have miraculously illuminated the night sky over Jerusalem to facilitate the prophet’s journey from Mecca to Jerusalem, and thence to Paradise. Would Iran’s answer to the West’s tribute package be to illuminate the night sky over Jerusalem again, this time with a nuclear device?

Obviously not – at least not on August 22 itself. That was a cue for some of the loudest advocates of Western appeasement and surrender to the global jihadists to condemn right-wing hysteria, despite the fact that no one who reported on this possibility had ever stated with any certainty that anything in particular would happen on August 22. Brian Whitaker, a columnist for The Guardian who once suggested that Gandhi would admire jihad, sneered: “The purpose of all this scaremongering is obviously to build up fears about an Iranian nuclear attack. The main obstacle to promoting such fears is that Iran does not possess any nuclear weapons but Lewis seems determined not to let that stand in the way and apparently believes that Iran already has a fully-prepared arsenal.” In dismissing these speculations as “scaremongering,” however, Whitaker and others neglect to consider one possibility: that they were correct.

How could this be, when doomsday did not materialize on August 22? Because the Iranian regime has made its desire to illuminate the night sky over Jerusalem abundantly clear. The fact that they first set the date for their reply as August 22, and then delivered a reply that budged not one inch toward conciliation, and made it clear that they had no plans to give up their nuclear ambitions, suggests that such an attack is still in the cards. When Whitaker and his ilk dismiss “fears about an Iranian nuclear attack” as “scaremongering,” they ignore both Iran’s present bellicose activities and clear indications it has been giving of its future plans:

* According to the Times of London, Iran “is seeking to import large consignments of bomb-making uranium from the African mining area that produced the Hiroshima bomb.”

* On August 22 itself, an Iranian warship fired upon a Romanian oil tanker moored in the Persian Gulf; Iranian troops occupied the ship.

* Lethal roadside bombs strong enough to penetrate American and British tank armor are being turned out in large numbers by three Iranian factories. A large cache of other Iranian-made weapons and materiel were discovered last Monday in the Iraqi city of Um Qasr.

* After decisively altering the balance between Hizballah and Israel by supplying military hardware to the Lebanese Shi’ite terror organization, Iran continues even after the ceasefire announcement to ship arms and materiel to Hizballah.

* Ahmadinejad continues to indulge his now well-established taste for pugnacious rhetoric, declaring last week: “If you want to have good relations with the Iranian people in the future, you should acknowledge the right and the might of the Iranian people, and you should bow and surrender to the might of the Iranian people. If you do not accept this, the Iranian people will force you to bow and surrender.” Hardly a promising foundation for the negotiations that American officials so desperately want to initiate with Tehran.

* The Iranian President also threatened George W. Bush during his recent interview with Mike Wallace. Referring to the letter he sent several months ago to Bush inviting him to accept Islam, Ahmadinejad said to Wallace: “We are all free to choose. But please give him this message, sir: Those who refuse to accept an invitation will not have a good ending or fate.”

This is in accord with Islamic tradition. Muhammad, the Prophet of Islam, tells his followers to call people to Islam before waging war against them: “Fight in the name of Allah and in the way of Allah. Fight against those who disbelieve in Allah. Make a holy war…When you meet your enemies who are polytheists, invite them to three courses of action….Invite them to (accept) Islam; if they respond to you, accept it from them and desist from fighting against them….If they refuse to accept Islam, demand from them the Jizya [the tax on non-Muslims specified in Qur’an 9:29]. If they agree to pay, accept it from them and hold off your hands. If they refuse to pay the tax, seek Allah’s help and fight them (Sahih Muslim 4294).” (Muhammad sent a letter much like Ahmadinejad’s to one of Ahmadinejad’s early predecessors, Chosroes, emperor of Persia – who contemptuously tore it to pieces. Muhammad, hearing of this, called upon Allah to tear the Persian emperor and his followers to pieces (Bukhari, vol. 5, book 64, no. 4424)). Ahmadinejad has followed Muhammad’s instruction to the letter both by calling Bush to Islam, and then by warning that his refusal would have bad consequences.

* Iran has in the last few days conducted large-scale military maneuvers and tested a new short-range missile.

* Ahmad Khatami of the Iranian Assembly of Experts said last week on government-controlled Iranian television that if Bush and Olmert “decided to display the slightest aggression against Islamic Iran, they should…fear the day that our missiles, with a range of 2,000 kilometers, land in the heart of Tel Aviv….They should know that playing with Islam is like playing with a lion’s tail.”

* Ahmadinejad continues to call for “elimination of Zionist regime.”

August 22 has come and gone. But the threat of Iran continues to hang over the world. Those who choose to ignore or downplay it may be in before too long for a most unpleasant surprise, courtesy of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.

messianic delusion

it's interesting to juxtapose the current leader of iran and the coming invasion of israel by a group including russia and iran..

Ahmadinejad’s Apocalyptic Faith
By Patrick Poole
FrontPageMagazine.com August 17, 2006

When Mike Wallace of 60 Minutes recently sat down in Tehran with Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad for an interview, perhaps the most important questions were the ones that went unasked. They talked about Hezbollah, nuclear weapons, Israel and President Bush, but the one question that ties all of these together in Ahmadinejad’s mind is his religious faith. It is the prism through which he views all of these other policy issues, which is why it is of singular importance to understand the ideology that drives this man. This was apparently lost on Mike Wallace.
No one can accuse Ahmadinejad of being circumspect about the religious views that shape his worldview. He speaks on those views quite frequently, but they are a taboo subject for Westerners unaccustomed to thinking that is self-consciously religious. The reactionary response is to dismiss it as mental instability or label it as “fundamentalist”, but facing the reality of a nuclear Iran, such a reaction is not only short-sighted and narrow minded, but possibly suicidal.

Ahmadinejad’s worldview is shaped by the radical Hojjatieh Shiism that is best represented by Ayatollah Mesbah Yazdi, the Iranian President’s ideological mentor and marja-e taqlid (object of emulation), of the popular Haqqani religious school located in Qom. The affection seems to be mutual: in the 2005 Iranian presidential campaign, Ayatollah Yazdi issued a fatwa calling on his supporters to vote for Ahmadinejad.

The Hojjatieh movement is considered to be so radical that it was banned in 1983 by the Ayatollah Khomeini and is still opposed by the majority of the Iranian clerics, including the Supreme Leader of the Supreme National Security Council, Ayatollah Ali Khamanei. That should be telling in and of itself. That opposition notwithstanding, it is believed that several adherents of the Hojjatieh sect are in Cabinet-level positions in Ahmadinejad’s government.

Most Shiites await the return of the 12th Shiite Imam, Muhammad ibn Hasan, the last direct male descendent of the Prophet Mohammed’s son-in-law Ali, who disappeared in 874AD and is believed to be in an invisible, deathless state of existene, or “occultation”, awaiting his return. Though it is discounted even by the most extremist clerics, a popular belief in Iran holds that the 12th Imam, also called the Mahdi or the sahib-e zaman (“the Ruler of Time”), lives at the bottom of a well in Jamkaran, just outside of Qom. Devotees drop written requests into the well to communicate with the Mahdi. His reappearance will usher in a new era of peace as Islam vanquishes all of its enemies. The Sunnis, who reject the successors of Ali, believe that the Mahdi has yet to be born.

But rooted in the Shiite ideology of martyrdom and violence, the Hojjatieh sect adds messianic and apocalyptic elements to an already volatile theology. They believe that chaos and bloodshed must precede the return of the 12th Imam, called the Mahdi. But unlike the biblical apocalypse, where the return of Jesus is preceded by waves of divinely decreed natural disasters, the summoning of the Mahdi through chaos and violence is wholly in the realm of human action. The Hojjatieh faith puts inordinate stress on the human ability to direct divinely appointed events. By creating the apocalyptic chaos, the Hojjatiehs believe it is entirely in the power of believers to affect the Mahdi’s reappearance, the institution of Islamic government worldwide, and the destruction of all competing faiths.

Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has clearly indicated that he is a true believer in this faith. It has been reported that he has told confidants that he anticipates the immanent return of the Mahdi. When he previously served as Mayor of Tehran, he advocated for widening the roads to accommodate the Mahdi’s triumphal entry into the city. One of his first acts of office as President was to dedicate approximately $20 million to the restoration and improvement of the mosque at Jamkaran, where the Mahdi is claimed to dwell.

This personal belief directs his official policies as President. He has publicly said, “Our revolution’s main mission is to pave the way for the reappearance of the 12th Imam, the Mahdi. We should define our economic, cultural and political policies on the policy of the Imam Mahdi’s return.”

However, Ahmadinejad’s messianism doesn’t stop with the Mahdi. In fact, he has made it clear that he believes he has personally received a divine appointment to herald the imminent arrival of the Mahdi, tacitly acknowledging his own role in setting aright the problems of the world.

His belief in a personal divine appointment was best confirmed after his speech to the United Nations last September, which was laden with references to the Mahdi. Upon his return to Iran, he met with Ayatollah Javadi-Amoli, where the two discussed an alleged paranormal occurrence while Ahmadinejad spoke wherein he related to the cleric:

On the last day when I was speaking, one of our group told me that when I started to say 'Bismillah Muhammad,' he saw a green light come from around me, and I was placed inside this aura. I felt it myself. I felt that the atmosphere suddenly changed, and for those 27 or 28 minutes, all the leaders of the world did not blink. When I say they didn't move an eyelid, I'm not exaggerating. They were looking as if a hand was holding them there, and had just opened their eyes – Alhamdulillah!

As the recipient of this divine appointment, he not only a leading actor in what he believes is a divine drama taking place on the world stage, but it also feeds the Gnostic elitism inherent in Hojjatieh ideology. Not only are his acts reflective of divine inspiration, they are also above questioning. As an interview back in May with Der Spiegel, while talking about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, this “populist” makes clear his lack of enthusiasm for popular sovereignty:

It does not make sense that a phenomenon depends on the opinions of many individuals who are free to interpret the phenomenon as they wish. You can't solve the problems of the world that way. We need a new approach. Of course we want the free will of the people to reign, but we need sustainable principles that enjoy universal acceptance - such as justice.

Another part of his divine mission is confronting infidel world leaders and inviting them to accept Islam – a necessary step in Islamic warfare before attacking an opponent. In May, Ahmadinejad sent President Bush an 18-page letter calling for a change in the Bush Administration’s foreign polices and challenging him to embrace Islam. A similar letter was sent to German Chancellor Angela Merkel. Robert Spencer of JihadWatch immediately recognized Ahmadinejad’s letter as a call to accept Islam – an opinion that Ahmadinejad later confirmed – that contextualized his respective letters as a pretext for future military confrontation and escalation.

Referring to his letter in his 60 Minutes interview, Ahmadinejad made it clear that rejection of his personal invitation to Islam would invite personal destruction for President Bush:

Please give him this message, sir. Those who refuse to accept an invitation to good will not have a good ending or fate.

The confrontational approach taken by Ahmadinejad colors his official decision-making as President of the Islamic Republic. The kidnapping of the Israeli solider by Iran’s Lebanese proxy, Hezbollah, resulted in the conflict between Israel and the terrorist organization that has killed more than a thousand people in Lebanon and Israel and displaced more than a million citizens in both countries. This provocative act by Hezbollah had to have the approval of Ahmadinejad and reflects the belligerence that marks virtually all of his policies related to the Middle East region and Iran’s relations with the West.

But it is the apocalyptic element to Ahmadinejad’s faith combined with Iran’s nuclear ambitions that should draw the most serious attention. He believes that a great cataclysm of bloodshed anticipates the return of the 12th Imam, in particular the destruction of infidels – Jews and Christians – that will usher in a new dawn of Islamic worldwide dominance.

With Israel in range of Iranian missiles, he has promised to “wipe Israel off the map”. Here Ahmadinejad draws from what Andrew Bostom recently identified as a theological current within the broader confines of Islam that holds that the destruction of the Jews will inaugurate the appearance of the Mahdi. Other Hojjatieh ideologues, such as one of Ayatollah Yazdi’s chief students, Mohsen Ghorourian, have openly advocated the use of nuclear weapons to assert Iranian/Islamic preeminence over Israel and the West.

In recent weeks Islam scholars have noted how Ahmadinejad’s selection of August 22nd to respond to the UN’s demand to cease the Iranian uranium enrichment program has roots in Quranic mythology. On July 27th, Robert Spencer wrote for FrontPage that this date corresponds to Muhammed’s “Night Journey” and ascension into heaven recounted in Islamic lore. Two weeks later, noted Islamic scholar Bernard Lewis reitterated these same concerns about the date chosen by Ahmadinejad’s government to respond to the UN’s demands. Could a nuclear event or other terrorist attacks directed against Israel, the West, or both, by Iran deliberately timed to coincide to utilize the perceived power of Islamic myth be in store? The scenario is not far-fetched.

Some commentators have dismissed the notion that Iran might launch an attack that would precipitate a catastrophic response from Israel and the US, relying on the Cold War logic of Mutually Assured Destruction (MAD). But yet again, the religious ideology that permeates the mind of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is extremely important to understand.

The whole structure of Shiite belief is built around a cult of martyrdom that assumes lethal retribution by the infidels against the true believers for their righteous conduct. Ahmadinejad constantly utilizes the Shiite images and slogans relating to martyrdom, as can be seen in his comments this past February in a speech reported by the IRNA:

We are all obliged to keep alive the culture of martyrdom-seeking in the society. Culture of martyrdom-seeking is our most effective weapon and best guarantee for our national security. Ruthless enemies who have a chronic enmity against our country and our nation have not succeeded in achieving their objectives so far thanks to the existence of this culture of martyrdom-seeking among our nation. He who is ready for martyrdom is always victorious. Martyrdom is the peak of mankind's perfection and the martyrs enjoy the highest status of humanity in this world and the Hereafter. People spend tough years of strenuous work in a bid to achieve the peaks of grandeur and pride, while our dear martyrs achieved those high peaks in shortest possible time.

An attack launched by Israel or the US that would kill tens or hundreds of thousands of Iranians would only serve to confirm the self-fulfilling prophecy of Shiite martyrdom and vindicate Ahmadinejad’s suicidal policies. In his mind, an apocalyptic act of self-initiated martyrdom unparalleled in Islamic history would undoubtedly serve to jump start the arrival of the Mahdi. In his religious calculus, the use of nuclear weapons is a win-win scenario. Such actions are not only entirely appropriate, but divinely sanctioned and wholly justified by the messianic and apocalyptic elements that Ahmadinejad and his ideological allies have attached to the Shiite martyrdom mythology.

We should then seriously consider the practical consequences of Ahmadinejad’s religious worldview and ask how this knowledge should help shape our foreign policy with regards to Iran and their nuclear ambitions. The political leaders in the West should understand that the Shiite and Hojjatieh beliefs play an integral role in shaping Ahmadinejad’s understanding of reality.

When he says that Iran’s nuclear development program are peaceful, he really means it. He has in mind the universal Islamic peace that will be established with the return of the Mahdi, and if rivers of infidel blood have to be shed to accomplish it, his religious faith leads him to understand that such is part of the divine plan. That is the way that ultimate “peace” will finally be achieved. And when he states that Israel will be “wiped off the map”, he unshakably believes that as well because it has been crafted into the overall religious narrative that guides his policies.

Because of this, we should understand that there is no negotiating position acceptable to them except for the complete and unconditional submission of the non-Muslim world to the rule of shari’a. Diplomacy is a vain illusion when dealing with adherents of this apocalyptic worldview. They have constructed an ideology where the most extreme actions on their part are not only justified, but divinely sanctioned; and all retributive responses by the “infidels” accounted for.

There is a glimmer of hope, however. Mahmoud Ahmadinejad stands at the fringe of Iranian politics (which should illustrate how relative a term as “fringe” can actually be). Most hard line clerics do not share his vision and he is opposed by some of the leading politicians in Iran, like former President Rafsanjani. Our response should exploit those divisions. But that can only be done if we are relentless in constantly checking every move that Ahmadinejad makes. He cannot be allowed even the slightest victory. Allowing him any breathing room or agreeing to any concessions is fraught with extreme peril. A persistent escalation of hostilities between Iran and the US may force the hard line clerics to deal with Ahmadinejad on their own out of sheer self-preservation.

In conclusion, this brief examination has been intended to demonstrate that current Iranian policy is designed to vindicate the self-fulfilling prophecy of Ahmadinejad’s apocalyptic and messianic beliefs. This highlights that regardless of what West chooses to believe, we are in a religious war and we must fight it as such. At some point, we will be forced to take actions designed to shake their faith – a prospect that will not be well met by the postmodern pluralistic forces in the West. But the West and Israel is not the only one threatened: the Islamic world itself, Sunni and Shiite alike, is held hostage by this extremist religious ideology. When the day of reckoning comes for Iran, may our leaders fully understand the religious dimensions of the threat and have the nerve to do what is needed to protect our interests and security in both the short and long term. In this battle, there will be no substitute for victory.

who's really riding the weaker horse?

another worthy article..
-----------------------------------------------
Who's really riding the weaker horse?
Vox Day

When people see a strong horse and a weak horse, by nature, they will like the
strong horse.
– Osama bin Ladin

In examining the events of the past five years, it is increasingly apparent that Western leaders and commentators alike have fundamentally misconceived the relative positions of the primary parties in this third great wave of Islamic expansion. While there are nearly as many grand strategic recommendations floating around the Internet as there are editorialists, it is intriguing to note that virtually none of the Western analysts have grasped the basic reality that from the perspective from which a clash of civilizations must be considered, it is the West that is the weak horse.

The overwheening confidence which so often colors statements from men such as bin Laden and Mahmoud Ahimajihad always rings strange in Western ears. It stands so powerfully at variance with what we know of Western wealth, technology and military advantages that it seems to be indicative of false bravado at best, at worst, clinical insanity. The fact that this sort of thing sounds exactly like Baghdad Bob's surreal rantings only makes it that much more difficult for anyone to take it seriously.

And yet, history is rife with examples wherein a wealthy or more technogically advanced society is defeated by its lesser rival. Despite its lack of a navy, the intrepid Romans defeated Carthage on both land and sea, while the technical superiority of its machine guns, tanks, submarines, rockets and airplanes were not enough to allow the Germans to overcome the allies in World War II. The knights of Western Europe lost numerous battles and a number of wars to Mongols, Magyars, Turks and Saracens even though none of their enemies could stand before an armored cavalry charge.

Neocon ravings notwithstanding, national will, (or more accurately, cultural will), is not the issue at hand here. The majority of Americans are largely indifferent to the Bush administration's Global Struggle Against Violent Extremism while an ovewhelming majority of the rest of the West is openly against it. But most Muslims are similarly indifferent to this third round in the great clash of civilizations too. An anecdote from William Manchester's biography of Winston Churchill is most informative in this regard:

During the early 1950s, when this writer was living in Dehli as a foreign correspondent, social scientists began a comprehensive poll of Indian villages to determine how many natives knew British rule had ended in 1947. The survey was aborted when it was discovered that a majority didn't know the British had even arrived.

And while it might be tempting to dismiss those Indians as ignorant illiterates, it might be illuminating to ask your neighbor if he knows the name of his congressman, his state representative or his city councilman.

Christendom has twice previously endured periods of Islamic expansion and even managed to roll back Islamic gains with the Reconquista, and, more temporarily, during the Crusades. But that was when the Christian West saw Islam as an enemy and bitterly contested it on every side. Now, a secular West no longer sees itself as a player in the great game, but as a referee, and views Islam as being merely one of the various contestants.

The unavoidable challenge is this. In the same way that atheism provides no moral basis for an individual to resist evil, secular, religious-neutral government provides no practical foundation for opposing Islamic expansion. If Congress funds no mosques, neither can it prevent them from being constructed by militant Saudi Wahhabists. If the Supreme Court requires no one to pray towards Mecca, neither does it allow the banning of immigrants on the basis of a religious adherence to jihad. The range of options accessible to the leaders of the West are formidable; they are also irrelevant.

Bin Laden's statement about horses can perhaps be best understood thusly: Unlike its Christian predecessor, the secular West is structurally incapable of resisting an Islamic expansion due to its demographic disadvantages and philosophical weaknesses. If this is an accurate characterization, one can only conclude, unfortunately, that his statement is logically, historically and psychologically sound. Certainly the actions of the West's leaders, especially those of the Bush administration, have done nothing to disprove the assertion, the establishment of a modern-day Kingdom of Acre in Iraq notwithstanding.

None of this means that Islam cannot be turned back a third time; it does, however, suggest that the concept of Western secularism is doomed to failure one way or another. Secularism does not inspire, it enervates. The spirit which led to the sapping of British spirit and the decline of the Raj has been at work in America for decades, it should surprise no one that the lion's heir is following the mighty tracks of its predecessor.

The impotence of secularism is only the first of several realities that must be recognized if the West is to survive its third test of character. Here are some other important verities:
Democracy does not reduce radicalism or inhibit religion.

Exposure to Western culture does not eliminate radicalism. Even complete immersion in it does not guarantee its elimination.

Western shock and awe cannot impose permanant defeat upon an Eastern culture of retreat and regroup.

Technological proliferation is inevitable. This includes nuclear weapons.

Internal dissension, not external force, ends offensive expansion.
The West turned back the forces of an expansionary Islam twice before. Those hoping to see it turned back a third time would be wise to examine precisely how it was accomplished on the previous occasions.

america as a superpower = bad

an article from the la times that's actually worth reading.. the last sentence really hits home, and i think we're not far from letting the world get what they want.

----------------------
Niall Ferguson: Look! Up in the sky! It's America!
Tony Blair doesn't share Europe's vision of American power, and he's right.
July 31, 2006

WHEN TONY Blair flew to the United States on Friday for his meetings with President Bush and Rupert Murdoch, I hope the in-flight entertainment was "Superman Returns." It's a film that perfectly encapsulates the British prime minister's very un-European view of America.Blair, you'll recall, was one of the few European leaders who bought the White House line that — as he told the House of Commons in September 2002 — Saddam Hussein had "existing and active military plans for the use of chemical and biological weapons, which could be activated in 45 minutes."

An essential part of all Superman scripts is a villain — usually the dastardly Lex Luthor — who is poised to blow up the world with just such weapons of mass destruction. Needless to say, Superman alone can save the world. The question is: Can he be persuaded to?

Superman is always reluctant to exercise his powers. Although born on the planet Krypton, he has grown up as Clark Kent in the idyllic Midwestern town of Smallville, imbibing the simple, self-effacing values of the flyover states. In truth, he feels more comfortable tilling the soil than saving the planet. As the new Superman (Brandon Routh) puts it: "It's not easy for me to live my life, being who I am."

It's partly this reluctance to wield power that makes Superman, of all the superheroes, the one who exemplifies the American self-image. His other quintessentially American trait is that it takes a messianic impulse to get the better of his natural modesty. "Your father used to say that you were put here for a reason," his stepmother tells him. "Every day I hear people crying for a savior," says Superman. And if you're still missing the New Testament parallel, here's what Superman's real father told him back on Krypton: "They [meaning earthlings] could be a great people…. They only lack the light to show the way. For this reason, above all — their capacity for good — I have sent them you, my only son."

This is precisely the kind of stuff for which Blair has had a lifelong weakness. When he addressed a joint session of Congress in July 2003 — at a time when the smell of victory in Iraq was still in the air — he revealed his debt to the myth of America-as-Superman: "In some small corner of this vast country … there's a guy getting on with his life, perfectly happily, minding his own business, saying to you, the political leaders of this country, 'Why me, and why us, and why America?' And the only answer is because destiny put you in this place in history in this moment in time, and the task is yours to do." Unfortunately for Blair, the rest of the world has a diametrically different view.

According to a Pew Global Attitudes Project survey, even Britons regard the American presence in Iraq as a bigger danger to world peace than Iran or North Korea. A third of Britons think the U.S. invaded Iraq "to control Mideast oil." A quarter think America aims "to dominate the world." And yet it is Blair who is closer to the truth.

Take two measures of American power: the number of U.S. soldiers overseas, and the scale of U.S. transfers to foreign governments. The United States has a population in excess of 290 million, of whom nearly 75 million are men between 15 and 49 years old. Yet the number of military personnel on active duty overseas is little more than a quarter of a million — roughly 0.1% of the U.S. population. When Britain "ruled the world," that figure was six times higher.

Many Europeans imagine that Washington is in a position to dictate to the Israeli government because of the latter's dependence on U.S. economic and military aid. So when Condoleezza Rice failed to press harder for a cease-fire between Israel and Hezbollah last week, the press here overwhelmingly assumed American bad faith: "If they really wanted to stop the fighting, they could." In fact, U.S. aid to Israel in 2004 was equivalent to just 3.2% of Israel's gross domestic product, compared with 14% in 1986. Could the harsh truth be that the present crisis in the Middle East is a symptom of American weakness rather than the reverse?

Like Superman, the United States has vast potential strength. If it wants to be, it really can be "faster than a speeding bullet, more powerful than a locomotive, able to leap tall buildings in a single bound." It is richer by far than the other countries. It has mind-boggling firepower, enough to incinerate Iran and North Korea in an afternoon. And yet, as Blair understands, this Superman would really rather revert to being Clark Kent in Smallville.

Of course, the moral of "Superman Returns" is that when the messianic Man of Steel retreats into provincial isolation, the world is not the utopia of foreign imaginings. The way things are going, we shall soon find out the hard way that there are worse things than an American superpower.

obsession

http://www.obsessionthemovie.com/

this is a must see movie for everyone. this really demonstrates the view of the islamic street. this shows the true face of islam, sad to say. it also underscores the threat that continual appeasement poses to our way of life. if you haven't seen it, see it soon.

incapable of victory

after watching the world community reaction after the events of this weekend, i've come to the conclusion that the desire in the international community to rid themselves of an american unipolar world and their annoyance with this gnat of a state Israel is greater than their fear of nuclear terror states or the command of islam to be spread from iraq to spain. no, those folks in europe are more concerned with perceived american arrogance and appeasing their own islamic populations.

but europe has been anti-semetic for quite some time.. and the eu is a counterweight against american trade prowess. not to mention the corrupt governments on the take from saddam in the oil for food scandal. (france, russia, germany to name a few)

and we have our beloved american left who would have you believe that america is the source of all the trouble in the world and if they were just in power, we would not be having any of this middle east conflict..

“If you think what's going on in the Middle East today would be going on if
the Democrats were in control, it wouldn't, because we would have worked day
after day after day to make sure we didn't get where we are today. We would have had the moral authority that Bill Clinton had when he brought together the
Northern Irish and the IRA, when he brought together the Israelis and the
Palestinians.” -howard dean

talk about american arrogance - as if howard dean's party
has any moral authority or clarity. this has been going on since isaac and
ishmael but howard dean has the right idea.. how could american voters ever have
not got his party in power ??? a party that will say anything, sell anyone out,
promote any point of view just to try to get elected.

but alas, the
party of no one, yet everyone, or the party of whatever the polls may be reading
are hoping to seize control of the house and senate this year.. these are the
whims of the unprincipled. these are the people of the jimmy carter wing of
american politics.. those who continually snatch defeat from the jaws of victory
time and time again.
--------------------------------------

Jaws of Defeat
By David Horowitz
FrontPageMagazine.com July 31, 2006

The United States and Israel
and every sentient being in the path of the Islamist crusade are teetering on
the brink of a massive defeat in Lebanon and thus in the war on terror. Lest it
be forgotten, this is a war that began with the Ayatollahs’ revolution in Iran
in 1979 which established the first radical Islamic state whose masters’ war cry
was “Death to America” and the establishment of a global Islamic empire. Nearly
thirty years later, Iran is on the verge of acquiring nuclear weapons and its
imperial war is now being waged on Iran’s Lebanese frontier by its Hezbollah
proxy. One month into the fighting which began with the attacks by Hamas and
Hezbollah on the state of Israel, the scenario for the West’s defeat in this
phase of the war is quite obvious and quite simple.

The appeasers of
Islamofascism, who have been calling for a ceasefire and bewailing “civilian
casualties” in Lebanon and Gaza, will succeed. Hezbollah will agree to turn over
its arms to the pro-Hezbollah Lebanese army. The pro-Hezbollah UN will establish
a security zone on Lebanon’s southern border to keep the area clear of
non-government militias, of which the Hezbollah “militia” is the only one. The
credulous in the Western camp will greet this as a victory for the peacemakers.
But exactly the opposite will be the case.



According to a recent
poll in Lebanon eighty percent of the Lebanese Arabs support Hezbollah. In other
words, just as Hamas, which was created by the same Muslim Brotherhood that
spawned al-Qaeda, is now the Palestinian government, so Hezbollah will emerge as
the government of Lebanon. The Lebanese army will become the new Hezbollah
“militia.” Only it won’t be a militia. It will be the terrorist army of a
sovereign power, with the right to openly negotiate its arms deals with Syria
and Iran. The next battle with Iran, in other words, will be World War III.



In fact, the next battleground in the spread of Shi’ia fascism
is already in progress and aflame. It is Iraq, where Iran’s Shi’ia armies are
already in the field under the command of the sheik of Sadr City, the
America-hating cleric Moqtadar al-Sadr. Al-Sadr, it should be noted, is alive
and in the field because the appeasers in this country, beginning with the
Democratic Party but extending into the Bush State Department, stymied the first
battle of Fallujah and the Bush offensive generally when al-Sadr was trapped in
Najaf and could have been killed and his militia destroyed. The Bush
administration had to delay the Fallujah attack until after Kerry’s defeat in
the November 2004 elections in order to avoid the political complications that
would have attended the battle in the midst of an election campaign. By then
Sistani had staged a "peace march" and going after Sadr was off the table.



But the first battle of Fallujah is only one of many defeats
inflicted by the appeasers and abettors of Islamic imperialism in the West. The
aid to the enemy within the Western camp has taken many forms, beginning with
the hysterical and reckless attacks on the commander-in-chief of America’s
forces as a liar and murderer, and the source of the terror that the Islamists
create. Are there terrorists in Iraq? There were none there before George Bush
created them. Is Hezbollah a Nazi army? It’s because the Jews “occupied”
Palestinian lands. Of course, this is two lies in one. All Israeli “occupation”
is the product of four aggressive Arab wars against Israel. When Israel
withdraws – as in Lebanon – it is attacked. The source of the terror in Lebanon,
as in Iraq, is to be found in the Koran and in the despotisms of the Arab Middle
East. But the appeasement camp cannot face the reality that its enemy is
implacable and its hatred uncaused by anything its targets – Jews, Christians,
“infidels” – have done.



The division of America is the greatest
threat to our ability to prevail in the War on Terror – and the Left knows this
and is incited by it. America is not divided enough for the American Left, which
is now in full purge mode in Connecticut, where it is attempting to bring down
the one statesman in the Democratic Party who might re-unite this country in the
face of its enemies.

Those who in the midst of these wars clamor for
ceasefires with an implacable foe, those who call for withdrawals that would
leave sovereign states in the hands of the terrorist forces, those who decry
civilian casualties caused by the only forces in this war who do not target
civilians, those Blame-America-Firsters who exploit the Abu Ghraibs on our side
and not their atrocities, those whose hysterical fear of the conflict we face
takes the form of pathological denial and projects the rabid hatred of the enemy
for us onto our own commander in the war, are destined to have a lot to answer
for before this conflict is over.

the coming burden of damascus ?

"See, Damascus will no longer be a city but will become a heap of ruins. The
cities of Aroer will be deserted and left to flocks, which will lie down, with
no one to make them afraid." (Isaiah 17:1-2)

i think i've gone through this once before here in blog land, but i think that with the recent events in the middle east, it's important to look at this prophesy as it relates to current events. we know that the current flare up among the muslim world and Israel is due to iran pulling strings behind the scenes. we know that iran has an apocolyptic ruler who has called for the destruction of Israel. we now also know that syria and iran have signed a defense accord and there is strong evidence that russia is now involved with syria and iran in a defense accord as well. this sets up the alliance for the gog-magog invasion of Israel and it also sets up the impending destruction of damascus (inhabited continously for over 5000 years).

DEBKAfile reports a war council in Damascus chaired by Syrian president Bashar Assad, attended by Hizballah’s Hassan Nasrallah and senior Iranian official Ali Larijani

Iran‘s state news agency confirmed Nasrallah’s presence in the Syrian capital “for consultations.”
DEBKAfile’s military sources note that Nasrallah crossed over despite the heavy Israeli air bombardment of Lebanese-Syrian border regions. The war conference is attended also by Hamas leaders Khaled Meshaal and Mussa Abu Marzouk as well as the Palestinian Jihad Islami chief Abdallah Ramadan Shelah. The Palestinian terrorist leaders were invited in their capacity as commanders of the second front against Israel in Gaza.

This anti-Israel coalition will no doubt decide on the two fronts’ next steps in their war against the “Zionist enemy.” The fact that Assad is there and the consultation is taking place in his capital indicates that he and the other participants feel confident enough to decide on a further escalation of the violence.

The conference began hours after the Israeli cabinet decided against broadening the campaign against Hizballah or attacking Syria indicating that Tehran, Damascus, Hizballah and the Palestinian terrorists sensed a weakening of Israel’s resolve to fight back. This sort of soft talk from Jerusalem is not taken on trust but makes the Syrians suspect that Israel is playing a double game. Their response will be to redouble their hostilities in the very near future.

---------------------------------------------------------------

add to that syria's current war footing

additionally, hizballah has threatened 'surprises' for Israel.. interestingly, many rumors have surfaced that russian special forces moved the WMD from iraq to lebanon's bekaa valley prior to the us lead invasion of iraq. this valley is under the control of syria and hizballah and if they have WMDs at their disposal and aim them at Israel, i think we would have a smoldering, ruined damascus on our hands..

it's a very interesting time to be alive and to be a student of Bible prophesy.. it's coming to life on the top stories of the news each and every day. there is not a single thing that has to happen before the church is raptured out.. thank Christ for the gift we've been given every day! and if you haven't accepted that gift, there is no better time to do it than now!

The End of Israel's "Peace Through Weakness"

The End of Israel's "Peace Through Weakness"
By Michael Reagan
FrontPageMagazine.com July 20, 2006

We were right all along, and that gives us the right to say “we told you so.”

Nobody wanted to listen when former Israeli Prime Minister Bibi Netanyahu and a lot of American conservatives warned that you cannot negotiate with terrorists such as Arafat, Hezbollah, and Hamas, or their sponsors in Syria and Iran. We were accused of being warmongers and told that the future of Israel lay not in defending itself, but in making concession after concession to an enemy sworn to demolish the Jewish state and drive its people into the sea.

Goaded by the peace-at-any-price crowd who can never recognize evil when it stares them in the face (because they don’t recognize that evil exists), Israel attempted to mollify the anti-Israel United Nations and the hand-wringing leftists here and abroad by playing nice with their sworn enemies.

Israel withdrew from Gaza, driving their own people – who had settled there with Israel’s approval and encouragement – out of their homes and land. In return for this magnanimous gesture, the terrorists showered missiles on Israeli territory almost daily.

Undaunted by this display of the real and vicious nature of the enemy, Israeli’s government pushed on with plans to evacuate the West Bank, and hand it over to what purports to be a Palestinian state aborning.

The response: more missiles raining down on innocent Israeli citizens and more threats to destroy Israel.

When it finally dawned on the Israeli government that appeasement does not work when the enemy refuses to be appeased with anything less than total victory and the total destruction of the state of Israel, one would have thought that the international left-wing appeasement movement would have applauded Israel for going all-out to defend its people.

It’s obvious that this was not to be – the appeasers merely stepped up their rhetoric, demanding that the international community intervene and force Israel to sit down and negotiate with Hezbollah and Hamas. There is now a great hue and cry demanding diplomacy and negotiations, all aimed at preventing Israel from finally putting an end to the terrorism that they have for so long endured. Nobody echoes Douglas MacArthur’s warning that there is no substitute for victory.

You’d think the appeasers would learn from what happened when MacArthur was prevented from achieving victory in the Korean War. The reality of a crazed North Korea would not exist as a nuclear-armed communist dictatorship had MacArthur been listened to.

The international community, which is content to let the United States and Britain shoulder the burden of fighting the war on Islamic terrorism, stands on the sidelines. Instead of cheering us on, it condemns us for defending them against the terrorism that threatens them as much as it does us.

They whine about the need to accommodate the displaced Palestinians by allowing them to have a state of their own, side-by-side with Israel, but ignore the fact that the Palestinians could have their state for the asking, but are prevented from doing so by Hamas and Hezbollah and their sponsors in Iran and Syria who will accept nothing less than the destruction of Israel.

It really irks me to hear the networks give time to the likes of Madeline Albright, Clinton’s Secretary of State and one of those demanding diplomacy as the only means of dealing with the Mideast crisis. The administration she served sat idly by in the face of such outrages as the first World Trade Center bombing and the bombing of the USS Cole. In return for their patience we got 9/11. In return for their efforts to broker peace between Israel and the PLO, all we got was continued tension and unrest in the Middle East. In return for her submission to North Korea we got missiles aimed at the U.S. and Japan.

Newt Gingrich is right. We are in the midst of World War III, and you don’t win wars by courting the enemy; you win them by doing what Israel is doing: fighting back with everything you’ve got. God help the Israelis if they listen to the siren song of peace through weakness, of victory through negotiation.

We were right all along, and we have a right to crow.

August 22, 2006

the western powers that be have given iran a deadline for an answer to their proposal to appease the iranians to cease their rogue nuclear ambitions... that deadline was june 29th. iran countered with an august 22nd date and has since offered up rhetoric about being afraid of traveling to europe because of assassination attempts..

so, i'm out browsing my daily reading sites and i run across a headline.. the headline reads: Apocalyptic signals from Iran worry U.S. intelligence

some chatter about the us intelligence community being concerned with why 8/22 seemed to be arbitrarily chosen by the iranian government.. well, seeing as it takes a subscription to find out what they were going to say, i went to the internet to figure out what the heck 8/22/06 is on the islamic calendar..

so, this is obviously something worth looking up !!! *grin*

well, come to find out, 8/22/06 is the anniversary of the day that mohammed ascended to heaven according to islamic tradition.. so, now, we've put the pieces of the puzzle together. western intelligence has concern that iran is planning some sort of event timed with mohammed's magic carpet ride. and to boot, you now have this out of iran today:

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad warned on Friday that continued Israeli strikes against Palestinians in the Gaza Strip could lead to an "explosion" in the Islamic world that would target Israel and its supporters in the West.

Again, Ahmadinejad questioned Israel's right to exist. "This is a fake regime ... it won't be able to survive. I think the only way (forward) is that those who created it (the West) take it away themselves," the president told a rally in Teheran in support of Palestinians.

it will be interesting to see what the summer brings.. what a great time to be alive!

hating on canada

this is an interesting piece that outlines what the mindset of the militant muslim looks like. canada, the most pc country on earth, ever conscious to not offend anyone has made friends in the islamic community... and i think this further points out the lack of understanding that most people have about what we are facing.

it's interesting, i often have discussions with some of my hippy friends who call the united states a 'Christian theocracy' and that our rights are being trampled by the evil Christians in power.. yet, they claim the plight of the palesinians as their own, talking about how they have been trampled by the zionist crusaders (interesting term).

it would almost be entertaining to see a community of hippies and their free wheeling subculture juxtaposed with shari'ah law.. but i digress. anyway, take a read and think about the implications.

-------------------------------------
"We Hate Canada"
By Robert Spencer
July 5, 2006

Investigators have recently uncovered a series of Internet postings made by the wives of a group of suspected jihad terrorists. They include these comments (all spelling and punctuation is as it was written):

“Know what you will face one day. Let them call you a terrorist, let them make you look like a savage, but know that THIS [the American military] is the filth of the earth, the uncivilised destroyer of humanity.”

“[And] if [my husband] ever refuses a clear opportunity to leave for jihad, then i want the choice of divorce.”

“All muslim politicians are corrupt. There's no one out there willing to rule the country by the laws of Allah, rather they fight to rule the country by the laws of democracy.”

“Are you accepting a system that separates religion and state? Are you gonna give your pledge of allegiance to a party that puts secular laws above the laws of Allah? Are you gonna worship that which they worship? Are you going to throw away the most important thing that makes you a muslim?”

“May Allah crush these jews, bring them down to their kneees, humuliate them. Ya Allah make their women widows and their children orphans.”

“May Allah curse the jews.. Ameen”

These posts and others like them were written not in Pakistan, Saudi Arabia or Yemen. They were written in Canada by several of the wives of the jihad terror plotters recently arrested there: Mariya, the wife of the suspected plot ringleader, Fahim Ahmad; Nada Farooq, wife of Zakariya Amara, who is thought to have been Ahmad’s second-in-command; Rana, the wife of another suspect, Ahmad Ghany; and Cheryfa MacAulay Jamal, a convert to Islam and the wife of Qayyum Abdul Jamal, who is alleged to have stirred the others to act with his fiery sermons preaching jihad and hatred of Christians, Jews, and the West – and whose violent exhortations were tolerated by mosque officials because he took out the garbage.

Leftist analysts who explain Islamic jihad as a reaction to Western atrocities and oppression, as well as those on the Left and the Right who assume that education and exposure to Western culture and values will blunt the force of that jihad, are hard-pressed to explain the phenomenon of jihadists and jihad sympathizers who are born and raised in Western countries. Of course, the Council on American Islamic Relations and other advocacy groups attempt to fill this gap with their largely trumped-up reports of hate crimes against Muslims in Western countries, but when the best they can come up with are some insults at a supermarket, it’s hard to build a case for large-scale oppression of Muslims.

But if they are not oppressed, what would possibly have inspired the hatred and contempt these women feel for their own country? When asked what she thought was unique about Canada, Nada Farooq replied, “Who cares? We hate Canada.”

Why would someone who lives in Canada and benefits from its freedom and prosperity hate Canada? Almost certainly because she has been taught to do so. Nada Farooq and the other women who wrote the comments above have no doubt been taught that all non-Muslim society and culture is jahiliyya – ignorance or barbarism, worthless and to be despised.

The Egyptian Qur’an commentator and Muslim Brotherhood theorist Sayyid Qutb (1906-1966), whose writings are popular today among Muslims in the West, emphasized this: “It is not the function of Islam to compromise with the concepts of Jahiliyya [the society of unbelievers] which are current in the world or to co-exist in the same land together with a jahili system….Islam cannot accept any mixing with Jahiliyyah. Either Islam will remain, or Jahiliyyah; no half-half situation is possible. Command belongs to Allah, or otherwise to Jahiliyyah; Allah’s Shari’ah [law] will prevail, or else people’s desires: “And if they do not respond to you, then know that they only follow their own lusts. And who is more astray than one who follows his own lusts, without guidance from Allah? Verily! Allah guides not the people who are disobedient.”[Qur’an 28:50]…The foremost duty of Islam is to depose Jahiliyyah from the leadership of man, with the intention of raising human beings to that high position which Allah has chosen for him.”[1]

Likewise, Syed Abul Ala Maududi (1903-1979), founder of the Pakistani political party Jamaat-e-Islami, which is still the largest exponent of political Islam in Pakistan, declared that non-Muslims have “absolutely no right to seize the reins of power in any part of God’s earth nor to direct the collective affairs of human beings according to their own misconceived doctrines.” If they do, “the believers would be under an obligation to do their utmost to dislodge them from political power and to make them live in subservience to the Islamic way of life.”[2]

This is a matter of religious conviction. These ideas will not be dislodged by education about Western values, which are all part of the jahiliyya these women and their husbands despise, or by better access to jobs or housing. One primary lesson that authorities should draw from these Internet postings is that Islamic terror is not a problem that can be solved by social engineering. It cannot be assuaged by gestures of good will, negotiations or concessions. There is in Western countries today a large and growing population of Muslims, among whom are many who have no intention of assimilating or adopting Western values and perspectives, and who regard the West with as much or more disdain and contempt as these women show in their Internet postings. The jihad ideology as such must be confronted and combated, or it will continue to spread, and breed terrorists and subversives.

But for authorities to understand this and take positive steps to deal with it, they would first have to admit that Islam has anything to do with terrorism at all – something they have taken great pride in denying. And that denial only ensures that there will be many more jihad cells in Canada and Western countries, with the wives of the plotters cheering from the sidelines.

palestinian folly

i think the article below is notable.. while the bush haters in the united states continue their chant of bush lied, Israel is faced with a legitimate threat with WMD's. even in the face of the evidence of WMD's found in iraq, the power hungry left wing of american politics plays their dangerous game of abandoning the truth and principal to forward their quest for office.

this is also important as it relates to the forthcoming palestinian civil war and the effect on Israel that will have. i can see Israel making good on it's promise to eliminate the hamas leadership if they do not return the IDF soldier being held hostage. this would work to unify the palestinian cause and you really wouldn't be surprised to see hizbullah launch attacks in the north against Israel. since hizbullah is financed by iran and syria, and with the recent defense accord between those two countries any action by Israel would likely be responded to by factions loyal to both groups, if not from both directly.

if a terrorist group attacks Israel with WMD's, then i anticipate Israel's response to be overwhelming in scope.

An interesting prophesy.. Isaiah 17:1 - The burden of Damascus. Behold, Damascus is taken away from being a city and it shall be a ruinous heap..

*Damascus is the oldest continually inhabited city in the world - it's never been destroyed in recorded history.
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Al-Aksa claims chemical capabilities
By KHALED ABU TOAMEH

The Aksa Martyrs Brigades announced on Sunday that its members have succeeded in manufacturing chemical and biological weapons.

In a leaflet distributed in the Gaza Strip, the group, which belongs to Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas's Fatah Party, said the weapons were the result of a three-year effort.

According to the statement, the first of its kind, the group has managed to manufacture and develop at least 20 different types of biological and chemical weapons.

The group said its members would not hesitate to add the new weapons to Kassam rockets that are being fired at Israeli communities almost every day. It also threatened to use the weapons against IDF soldiers if Israel carried out its threats to invade the Gaza Strip.

"We want to tell [Prime Minister Ehud] Olmert and [Defense Minister Amir] Peretz that your threats don't frighten us," the leaflet said.

"We will surprise you with our new weapons the moment the first soldier sets foot in the Gaza Strip."

for the record..

just because i've had this discussion a few times already tonight..

there is one path to salvation. one path to eternity. that path is through the blood of Jesus Christ. there is no one singualar event in history i am more grateful for. i am not worthy for the gift i've been given and for that i am forever thankful.

i am one happy child, you should be too :-)

apostate

2 Timothy 4:3-4

3For the time will come when men will not put up with sound doctrine. Instead, to suit their own desires, they will gather around them a great number of teachers to say what their itching ears want to hear. 4They will turn their ears away from the truth and turn aside to myths.
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the recent discussions by the episcopal church as it relates to gay clergy and salvation through Jesus Christ are telling indeed. the below article describes the inner workings of an apostate church. one that will die on the vine as it's faith in Jesus has faded.

Episcopalians refuse affirmation of Christ
By Hans Zeiger
COLUMBUS, OHIO (6/20/06)
The House of Deputies of the 75th General Convention of the Episcopal Church today overwhelmingly refused to even consider a resolution that affirmed Jesus Christ as the "only name by which any person may be saved."

"This type of language was used in 1920s and 1930s to alienate the type of people who were executed. It was called the Holocaust. I understand the intent, but I ask you to allow the discharge to stay," said the Rev. Eugene C. McDowell, a graduate of Yale Divinity School and Canon Theologian for the Diocese of North Carolina.

The convention's Committee on Evangelism first heard the resolution and discharged it to the chagrin of that committee's chairman, the Rev. Colenzo Hubbard, a noted evangelist and director of Emmanuel Episcopal Center in the Diocese of West Tennessee. The Rev. Hubbard motioned to lift the resolution from the discharge list, but after heated debate, more than seven tenths of the House of Deputies rejected the motion.

Drafted by the Rev. Guido Verbeck, rector of St. Paul's Episcopal Church in the Diocese of Western Louisiana, Resolution D058 declared the Episcopal Church's belief in an "unchanging commitment to Jesus Christ as the Son of God, the only name by which any person may be saved," and it acknowledged evangelism as "the solemn responsibility placed upon us to share Christ with all persons when we hear His words, 'I am the Way, the Truth, and the Life. No-one comes to the Father except through me' (John 14:6).

" The resolution further affirmed "the substitutionary essence of the Cross and the manifestation of God's unlimited and unending love for all persons," while calling on the Episcopal Church to renew its Scripture-based witness to "all persons."

The Rev. Hubbard said that he voted for the resolution in committee because of his simple responsibility as a Christian. Hubbard quoted several verses of Scripture to demonstrate his conviction. "I do agree that Jesus Christ is both the substitutionary essence of the Cross and the manifestation of God's unlimited and unending love for all persons," said Hubbard, once a star on the University of Alabama football team.

Echoing Hubbard, Canon Dr. Kendall Harmon, a leading conservative in the denomination, argued for a "reaffirmation of what some have called 'the scandal of particularity' of the Cross."

Judy Mayo from the Diocese of Fort Worth also opposed discharge. "My friends, this is a church convention, and this is the very essence of our faith. This may be the most important thing we deal with at this entire convention...Surely we can say together that Jesus Christ is Lord. And if we can't, we have no reason to be here."

But liberals outnumbered Hubbard, Harman, and Mayo by far.

The Rev. McDowell of the Diocese of North Carolina told VirtueOnline after the floor vote, "In the Episcopal Church we don't do up and down votes on Jesus Christ as Lord, and to do so is potentially a mean-spirited approach, to ask questions that aren't meant to be questions."

McDowell explained that how one lives his life is the more important issue than whether one affirms Jesus as Lord. To place a statement of belief over actions is the essence of "self-righteousness," he said. "Actions speak louder than proclamations...What Jesus calls us to do is to live our lives."

McDowell outlined his basic theology of grace: "Salvation by grace is remembering that we are the children of a living God. Grace is already there. And salvation is realizing we now live into that salvation. And sanctification is the transforming of my life from one that's me-centered to one that's God-centered."

But to acknowledge the exclusive Lordship of Christ in a resolution would be too much for McDowell and the majority of deputies at the 75th General Convention of the Episcopal Church.

The Rev. Robert Certain of the Diocese of San Diego told the House of Deputies that he refused to consider the resolution because the General Convention of 1982 had endorsed salvation through Christ alone, and a resolution was unnecessary.

But the message was clear to the Rev. Donald Perschall, rector of St. John's Episcopal Church in Centralia, Illinois, as he left the convention hall Tuesday, shocked by the events of the day. "On top of leaving the Anglican Communion, we've decided to leave Jesus Christ behind as well."

It was not a surprise vote though; the liberalization of the Episcopal Church predates 1982. Episcopalians have made it clear by their rejection of traditional marriage and other recent innovations that a new set of principles now dominate the Episcopal Church. Though the trend toward liberalism in the Episcopal Church has been ongoing for decades, it was in 2003 that the consecration of a homosexual as Bishop of New Hampshire crystallized the departure of the denomination from its bearings in classical Anglicanism.

Dr. Michael Howell of the Diocese of Southwestern Florida and a member of the Special Committee that deliberated the Convention's response to the global Anglican Communion's Windsor Report, told VirtueOnline that the discharge of Resolution D058 is "very much related" to the failure of Resolution A161 moments earlier.

A161 would place a moratorium on the consecration of homosexual bishops and the blessing of homosexual unions in a minimal effort to comply with the Windsor Report. It was soundly defeated on the floor of the House of Deputies Tuesday.

"If we cannot affirm the unique salvific power of Jesus Christ as our Lord and Savior, we are no longer a Christian church." Switching to a sarcastic tone, Howell declared, "We have no need for a Creed. Why do again what we did in the past?"

"This clearly shows that we are of a mind that does not affirm Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior. And we should not be surprised that our church is dying spiritually," said Howell.

The final tally on the electronic vote was 70.5 percent for discharge (675 votes) and just 29.5 (242 votes) to consider the resolution affirming Jesus Christ as Lord.

FULL TEXT RESOLUTION D058 SALVATION THROUGH CHRIST ALONE Discharged in committee. Discharge upheld by House of Deputies, 75th General Convention.

Resolved, the House of _____ concurring, That the 75th General Convention of the Episcopal Church declares its unchanging commitment to Jesus Christ as the Son of God, the only name by which any person may be saved (Article XVIII); and be it further Resolved, That we acknowledge the solemn responsibility placed upon us to share Christ with all persons when we hear His words, "I am the Way, the Truth, and the Life.

No-one comes to the Father except through me" (John 14:6); and be it further Resolved, That we affirm that in Christ there is both the substitutionary essence of the Cross and the manifestation of God's unlimited and unending love for all persons; and be it further Resolved, That we renew our dedication to be faithful witnesses to all persons of the saving love of God perfectly and uniquely revealed in Jesus and upheld by the full testimony of Holy Scripture.

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2 Timothy 3
1 But know this, that in the last days, grievous times will come.
2 For men will be lovers of self, lovers of money, boastful, arrogant, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy,
3 without natural affection, unforgiving, slanderers, without self-control, fierce, no lovers of good,
4 traitors, headstrong, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God;
5 holding a form of godliness, but having denied the power thereof. Turn away from these, also
6 For of these are those who creep into houses, and take captive gullible women loaded down with sins, led away by various lusts,
7 always learning, and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth.
8 Even as Jannes and Jambres opposed Moses, so do these also oppose the truth; men corrupted in mind, reprobate concerning the faith.
9 But they will proceed no further. For their folly will be evident to all men, as theirs also came to be.
10 But you did follow my teaching, conduct, purpose, faith, patience, love, steadfastness,
11 persecutions, and sufferings: those things that happened to me at Antioch, Iconium, and Lystra. I endured those persecutions. Out of them all the Lord delivered me.
12 Yes, and all who desire to live godly in Christ Jesus will suffer persecution.
13 But evil men and impostors will grow worse and worse, deceiving and being deceived.
14 But you remain in the things which you have learned and have been assured of, knowing from whom you have learned them.
15 From infancy, you have known the holy Scriptures which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith, which is in Christ Jesus.
16 Every Scripture is God-breathed and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for instruction in righteousness,
17 that the man of God may be complete, thoroughly equipped for every good work.

2 Peter 3-4
3 knowing this first, that in the last days mockers will come, walking after their own lusts,
4 and saying, "Where is the promise of his coming? For, from the day that the fathers fell asleep, all things continue as they were from the beginning of the creation."