Diana West - Page 3

“There Goes the Neighborhood,” Shariah Finance Watch reports. What does that mean? From the must-read story: In downtown Washington, there is a major real estate development known as CityCenterDC. This $700 million development is described as a combination of office

Grand Ayatollah to US troops: Here’s your turban, what’s your hurry? — One of the strangest (unique?) national spectacles ever is that of the US apparently begging Iraq ro allow US troops to remain in Iraq after the 2011 deadline

Photo by Paul Avallone — The debate over Afghanistan — which this week comes down to how many troops Barack Obama will announce he is withdrawing from that wretched country beginning in July through 2012 — is being conducted with

What should we take away from the following story? Once upon a time, the man who was given charge of all the secrets of the nation was then given charge of all of its soldiers and weapons. And none of

My best guess is the sun is hot. I feel its heat. I see by its light. I understand its role in the growth of crops and other living things. If I were to come across scholarly data attesting to

Over the weekend, Drudge posted an alarming story from CNSNews.com high on the page: “China Divests 97% of Holdings in US Treasury Bills.” What does that mean? I checked with financial hawkeye George Ford for his take. As I read

I greatly appreciate this blog (below) by British commentator Nile Gardiner on the president’s crummy decision to get in a golf game after fufilling his presidential duties at Arlington on Memorial Day. It’s not that anyone begrudges the president his

The poppy harvest in A-stan is in; is it time for Thanksgiving? Nah. It’s IED-increase-time. As USA Today reports: “Pentagon expexts IED hits to rise” From the story: “We’re at the front edge of the fighting season,” said Lt. Gen.

Drudge, correctly, is trumpeting the White House shut out of the Boston Herald from pool coverage of a Boston fundraiser the President is attending today because the tabloid ran an op-ed by Mitch Romney on its front page ON MARCH

Cutest story of the day comes from Iran’s PressTV. Headline: “Iraq to expand military ties with Iran.” Isn’t that cute? Meanwhile, American officials have been in and out of Iraq begging Maliki, pretty please, to let our roughly 47,000 troops

When (if) future historians look back to early 21st-century America, they should examine two cultural controversies of May 2011 for a quick read on Establishment sensibilities. One involves the bestowal, revocation and re-bestowal of an honorary degree on playwright Tony

In the small newspapers and TV stations around the country, in what are known as “local interest” stories, the national scandal of Afghanistan is being documented, article by article, segment by segment. These are the stories of our returning heroes,

AP photo: Pakistani “ally” driving US stealth helicopter secrets to China? — Stirrings of life on Capitol Hill: Rep. Ted Poe, R-Texas, has introduced a bill to stop distribution of $3 billion in aid that Congress appropriated for Pakistan this

After I watched this ABC report on the secrets which the hulk of the helicopter wrecked and left behind during the bin Laden raid have revealed, I couldn’t stop thinking about the situation. Because of the crash, the world now

Separated at birth? — I’ve had a sneaking suspicion that the Obama White House would ultimately nix the release of Dead Bin Laden, and here it comes, the prepatory rumblings: Gates and Hillary, ABC’s Jake Tapper reports (via Drudge) are

… Geert Wilders made his final statement in court yesterday where he is still on trial for telling the truth about Islam. This, as often noted, is a judicial outrage, a public nightmare, and an existential threat to liberty as

Maybe a helicopter like this one brought bin Laden’s corpse to the USS Carl Vinson late last night where in the wee hours of Monday morning the bullet-pocked corpse of the terror-mastermind received full jihad honors. Or was that full

Early in 2009, I interviewed Gen. Paul Vallely (US Army Ret.) and learned about the “lily pad” strategy — a strategy, Vallely explained, that relies on “the maximum use of unconventional forces,” such as Navy SEALS and other special forces,

Rejoice. But. Osama bin Laden was killed in a mansion located in a “densely populated” area called Abbottabad, 30 miles outside Islamabad — not in that dark, wet cave in the North West Territories where, it was often imagined, his

Beautiful, downtown Kandahar. Hey, it works, says Jim Lacey, so let’s go. — Jim Lacey is a professor of strategic studies at the Marine Corps War College. Good. Judging by his recent piece at NRO, he has common sense, the

The caption on this EPA photo is: “Afghan Army soldiers secure the military base after a shooting incident.” The killer of nine NATO troops and a contractor was an Afghan Air Corps officer. Is the base secure? — The carnage

Required reading for Libya Hawks — Forget Sun Tzu and von Clauswitz. With tea-meister Mortenson unmasked, US military strategists are now turning to Lewis Carroll for tips on moving effortlessly from war to war, from mess to mess, from Iraq

Photo by Paul Avallone — I have struck up some mighty fine e-meetings of the mind through my column over the years; none more appreciated than my military penpals. After last week’s musings and column on the spectacular unravelling of

Writing at The Corner, Nina Shea recaps the latest in the saga of Terry Jones, who has been trying to take a peaceful, non-flammable protest of sharia and jihad to the sidewalk outside the largest mosque in America in Dearborn,

This is “postcard” from Afghanistan by Paul Avallone, someone who has drunk more than his share of cups of tea there, first as a Green Beret and later as a photojournalist. Readers will recall his pungently evocative writings and photos

I don’t know which is more outrageous: the State Department memo claiming that the Libyan “rebels” — sorry, their “political arm” — has “embraced the Geneva Conventions” (death grip?), or that Uncle Sucker (you) will be catering their halal meals

For some years now, there have been a few voices sounding the alarm on “Muslim outreach” — the intensive engagement the US government entered into post 9/11 with a rogue’s gallery of Imam Flim Flams and Muslim taqiyya artists that

Reading about another catastrophically maimed casualty of the counterinsurgency strategy (COIN) in Afghanistan, I was struck by a biographical note. This young American, now a triple amputee after stepping on an IED while on foot patrol, an integral feature of

Where’s Captain Bligh when we need him? — Catch-and-release wrought tragedy and injustice in Iraq; it does the same thing in Afghanistan. Now, it also rules the waves — but first, a halal meal: From the Daily Mail Via Vlad

Recon Marine Cpl. Todd Love (above) got a hero’s welcome in his hometown of Acworth, Georgia this week. Love lost both legs and his left arm in an IED explosion in Afghanistan a few months ago. The Washington Examiner story

Back in April 2009, I wrote a column, based around an interview with Army Maj. Gen. Paul Vallely (Ret.), called “Let Afghanistan Go.” Almost two years later to the day, here’s another go. Two more American soldiers were killed this

Gen. David Petraeus, ISAF commander, February 11, 2011 (with thanks to an eagle-eyed ex-Marine). I write about David Petraeus now and then — ok, considering him a primary architect and implementer of the Arabist-tilted policy (long denied on the Right)

What happens when Everyguy Icon Bill O’Reilly pushes the calamitous absurdity that Pastor Terry Jones “has blood on his hands,” and Hezbollah puts a $2.4 million bounty on Jones’ head? We don’t know. We do know the epic scale of

Terry Jones, last American standing — Not to be outstyled by the “avenging” Gray Lady, The Christian Science Monitor wins Dhimmi of the News-Day today for this headline: “Terry Jones: How free speech and Quran burning can lead to violence“

NYT photo: Payola Day in Marja, April 2009, — With the lion’s share coming from the US, the world put at least $100,000,000 into Marja and environs half a century ago — snd that worked out so well. After seizing

I shouldn’t do this, at least not on the weekend, but I glanced at the NYT (which used to be called The Gray Lady) and saw this A1 headline: “Afghans Avenge Koran Burning, Killing 12” As someone who knows that