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JUNE 17,  2014

SHORT TAKES ON THE DRIFTING WRECKAGE – AT 11:14 P.M. ET: 

SUCCESS – From The New York Times:  "In a secret operation, American Special Operations forces captured Ahmed Abu Khattala, the suspected leader of the 2012 attack on the U.S. diplomatic mission in Benghazi, Libya, and took him out of that country."  Good.  The accused will be tried in Washington, D.C.  I would have much preferred he be sent to Guantanamo and tried before a military tribunal, but the Obamans are insisting on a regular trial in Washington.  We must now be on special guard against a terror attack launched in retaliation for the capture.

JUST WHAT WE NEED – From Newsmax:  "George Clooney is reportedly mulling a foray into politics, according to sources who claim the Oscar-winning actor is considering a run for California governor in 2018.  A source close to the 53-year-old 'Ocean's Eleven' star told the U.K.'s Sunday Mirror that he could even run for president in 2022."  Well, we had the great Ronald Reagan, but the Gipper actually knew the issues and read books.  We had Ahnold, who did a credible job.  I haven't heard any great political insights from Clooney.  I'd prefer a late-night talk-show host, who at least knows what's happening in the world through the jokes written for him.

HILLARY HICCUPS AGAIN – Today's Hillary Clinton gaffe, from The Hill:  "Hillary Clinton said she supports a ban on automatic weapons and that those opposed to stricter gun control measures 'hold a viewpoint that terrorizes' people.  Speaking during a Tuesday town hall event hosted by CNN, the former secretary of state and prospective presidential contender said she does think reinstating a ban on assault weapons and banning high-capacity magazines would help prevent school shootings.  'I don’t think any parent, any person should have to fear about their child going to school or going to college because someone, for whatever reason ... could possibly enter that school property with an automatic weapon and murder innocent students,' she said."  Will someone please slip a note to Hillary informing her that automatic weapons are already banned.  I have no idea what she's talking about, and neither does she.

WHAA..? – President Obama again enters weird mode with this, about college tuition.  "The main reason that tuition has gone up so much is that state legislatures stopped subsidizing public universities as much as they used to, in part because they started spending money on things like prisons and other activities that I think are less productive. And so schools then made up for the declining state support by jacking up their tuition rates."   Yeah, all those unproductive activities like keeping killers off the street by incarcerating them.

June 17, 2014       Permalink

OH SWELL – AT 10:32 A.M. ET:   This is one of these nightmares that we were warned about years ago.  The warnings are coming true, but the media won't focus on the problem until there's a tragedy.  From Fox: 

U.S. officials with access to the latest U.S. intelligence on Iraq told Fox News it "appears likely/probable" that U.S.-made Stinger missiles have fallen into the hands of Sunni insurgents.

It is possible that the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) fighters acquired them from army bases they have taken over in recent days, the sources said.

The Stinger missile is a shoulder-fired surface-to-air weapon that is used against aircraft.

As ISIS forces have advanced through Iraq, concerns have increased that more U.S.-made weaponry could fall into the hands of the radical group.

Iraqi intelligence officials said ISIS fighters managed to take control of two big weapons depots late last week holding some 400,000 items, including AK-47 rifles, rockets and rocket-propelled grenades, artillery shells and mortars. A quarter of the stockpiles were quickly sent to Syria in order to help the group's comrades there, they said.

Also last week, according to a report from the West Point Combating Terrorism Center, the ISIS "now possesses scores of Iraqi military equipment originally provided by the United States, from Humvees and cargo vehicles to small arms."

COMMENT:  What an accomplishment on our part.  But remember that Barack (come to save us) "ended" the war in Iraq.  Shall we applaud him? 

This is serious stuff.  A Stinger can bring down an airliner, and it's small enough to be transported, say, across our open southern border.

Maybe the president, amidst all his contemplations, can contemplate that.

June 17, 2014       Permalink 

HILLARY A PUBLISHING BOMB – AT 9:48 A.M. ET:  The great blockbuster has busted.  Hillary's book isn't selling.  Zillions of copies were rushed out to a presumably eager public.  Looks like most of them will be returned to the publisher.  As they say in the book trade, "Gone today, here tomorrow."  From The Weekly Standard: 

In an email this evening, a veteran publishing source calls the latest Hillary Clinton book, Hard Choices, a memoir of her State Department years, a "bomb." The source is referring to the early but underwhelming sales figures.

"Between us, they are nervous at S&S [Simon & Schuster]," says the source, who gave permission for his email to be published. "Sales were well below expectations and the media was a disaster."

According to this source, a Simon & Schuster insider, "They sold 60,000 hard covers first week and 24,000 ebooks." The publishing house was "hoping and praying for 150,000 print first week."

"The 60k represents a less than 10% sell thru based on what they shipped," says the source.

It's been reported that one million copies of Clinton's book were shipped weeks before the June 10 publication date. "They will be lucky to sell 150,000 total lifetime," the source writes in the email.

Hillary reportedly received a near-$14 million advance, a sum the publishing house will unlikely make back.

"It's a bomb but it will be interesting to see how they spin it."

COMMENT:  And spin they will, as spin they must, until Hillary is in the White House.  But the sales figures are startling.  Why?  Probably because Hillary has been oversold, and probably because the reality is so much less than the promise.

Her book tour has been a disaster, with one gaffe after another.  And, increasingly, Hillary sounds like something out of the 1960s, a relic who has little connection to her own country.

But, I don't know, maybe we should root for her.  Her replacement at the top of the Democratic Party could be far worse.

June 17, 2014       Permalink

BRILLIANT – QUOTE OF THE DAY – AT 9:07 A.M. ET:  Victor Davis Hanson has emerged as one of the most important historians in the United States, a welcome breath of fresh air and a relief from the predictable leftist "scholars" who dominate our university and who can find nothing good about the United States.  Hanson examines Barack Obama's pathetic record in foreign policy and notes the president's clear failure to learn the lessons of the past.  From PJ Media: 

Leon Trotsky probably did not quite write the legendary aphorism that “you may not be interested in war, but war is interested in you.” But whoever did, you get the point that no nation can always pick and choose when it wishes to be left alone.

Barack Obama, however, never quite realized that truth, and so just declared that “the world is less violent than it has ever been.” He must have meant less violent in the sense that the bad guys are winning and as they do, the violence wanes — sort of like Europe around March 1941, when all was relatively quiet under the new continental Reich.

One of Obama’s talking points in the 2012 campaign included a boast that he had “ended” the war in Iraq by bringing home every U.S. soldier that had been left to ensure the relative quiet and stability after the successful Petraeus surge. In the world of Obama, a war can be declared ended because he said so, given that no Americans were any longer directly involved. (Remind the ghosts of the recently beheaded in now al Qaeda-held Mosul that the war ended there in 2011.)

Iraq is in flames, as is “lead from behind” Libya, as is “red line” Syria, and as are those places where an al Qaeda “on the run” has migrated. Had Obama been commander in chief in 1940, he would have assured us that the wars in Czechoslovakia, Poland, and France were “over” — as they were in a sense for those who lost them, but as they were not for those next in line.

COMMENT:  Read the whole thing.  It's well worth it.  Is Obama intentionally trying to damage the United States?  Or does he honestly believe we're an evil country that must be restrained, and made weaker, to serve humankind?  Honestly, I don't see a third possibility.  Do you readers see one?  I'd love to know.

June 17, 2014       Permalink

IRAQ – AT 8:43 A.M. ET:  Situation desperate.   U.S. president mildly involved.  From The Hill:

Sectarian violence reached Iraq’s capital of Baghdad late Monday while Sunni militant forces grew closer to the city, The New York Times reports.

Police found four young Sunni men shot to death in a mainly Shiite neighborhood, the report said.

Members of the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS), an al Qaeda affiliate, edged closer to the capital as they attacked a city just 44 miles away.

Armed militants attacked a police station in Baquba, which erupted into a three-hour gunfight, Brig. Gen. Jameel Kamal al-Shimmari, the police commander in Baquba, told the Times. Two officers were killed and five were wounded, according to the report.

According to the Associated Press and the BBC, at least 44 prisoners were also killed in the attack, but it's unclear exactly who was responsible.

Police officers at the station, which holds a small jail, told the AP they came under attack when the militants tried to free the detainees, who were suspected to be Sunni militants.

The officers said members of a Shiite militia killed the prisoners, but Iraq's chief military spokesman Lt. Gen. Qassim al-Moussawi said ISIS attacked the facility.

As the violence quickly advances toward Baghdad, President Obama is still mulling a more comprehensive U.S. response to break ISIS’s momentum.

COMMENT:  As we noted, the American Contemplation Society gave Barack Obama its highest award last week for his record of contemplation.  Now we hear that the National Society for the Advancement of Mulling will hold a dinner in Obama's honor this week to celebrate the president's remarkable ability to mull his way through any crisis, until the cause is lost.  It is a mulling achievement that even Jimmy Carter envies. 

June 17,  2014     Permalink

JUNE 16,  2014

SHORT TAKES ON THE DRIFTING WRECKAGE – AT 9:22 P.M. ET: 

U.S. TROOPS TO BAGHDAD – From London's Daily Mail: "President Obama announced on Monday evening that US ground troops 'equipped for combat' are being sent to Iraq - just days after claiming that no American soldiers would be deployed to the war-torn country.  In a letter to Congress, the president said American troops will be returning to Iraq only three years after they left and their deployment began on Sunday.  However, Obama said that their only purpose will specifically be to protect US personnel and the US Embassy in Baghdad - and not join in the fierce fighting raging outside the Iraqi capital."  Soon we'll be told that they're going there to stop global warming.  Many would believe it.

MAJORITY TURNS THUMBS DOWN ON BENGHAZI – From CNN:  "Six in 10 Americans are dissatisfied with the way the Obama administration has handled the deadly terror attack on the U.S. diplomatic compound in Benghazi, Libya, a new poll shows.  The CNN/ORC International poll released on Monday indicates only 37% are satisfied with the administration’s response to the September 2012 assault that killed four Americans, including the ambassador to Libya.  Republicans have been strident in their criticism of the slow-to-evolve explanation of what happened in Benghazi, first said to be linked to demonstrations over an anti-Muslim film produced in the United States. That proved untrue.  The administration also has come under scrutiny over security arrangements at the consulate before the attack and its response to the armed assault by militants as it was happening.  The issue has been a major point of attack against Hillary Clinton, who oversaw the State Department at the time and ultimately took responsibility for the safety of diplomatic personnel."

THE HYPOCRITES – As readers know, there's a worldwide campaign by pro-Palestinian ideologues to boycott anything Israeli, which makes this note from The Times of Israel particularly ironic:  "Doctors in Israel performed surgery on Amina Abbas, the wife of Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, at a private clinic near Tel Aviv over the weekend, as tensions between Israel and the PA mounted over the kidnapping of three Israeli teenagers by Palestinian terrorists."   I guess Mrs. Abbas didn't get the memo.  Either that or ArafatCare doesn't cover Arab hospitals.

AND WE THINK BAGHDAD IS BAD – From Breitbart:  "It was another bloody weekend in Obama's hometown of Chicago as the city celebrated Fathers day. By the time the weekend drew to a close, two were dead and 25 wounded in violence across the city.  As the weekend began on Friday, June 13, a 15-year-old boy was among six wounded on the City's South and West sides. Most of the victims were in their 20s and 30s but on Friday afternoon a 15-year-old was wounded in Avalon Park."  Note the interest of the president.

June 16, 2014       Permalink

WASHINGTON CONFUSION – AT 9:21 A.M. ET:  As the Iraq crisis deepens, and we see the chance that Iraq may dissolve as a nation, there are calls for air strikes.  But who do we strike?  Two great reporters, Eli Lake and Kimberly Dozier, tell us that we really don't know.  From the Daily Beast: 

The U.S. military has the capability to conduct air strikes over Iraq within hours. The problem is they don’t know exactly who they are supposed to be targeting.

President Obama is repositioning military assets closer to Iraq, in case he wants to strike at the terrorists who are threatening to tear the country apart. The problem is, the U.S. doesn’t know who it’s supposed to hit.

Current and retired American defense and intelligence officials tell The Daily Beast that the CIA and the Pentagon are not certain who exactly makes up the forces that have taken so much of Iraq. Moreover, these intelligence and defense officials says that they believe that some of the people fighting with Islamic State of Iraq and al-Sham (ISIS) are former U.S. allies who could be turned against the hard-core fanatics—if they can be identified.

“We don’t have boots on ground providing intelligence and we don’t have confidence in information that the Iraqi government provides, because they’ve [been] so heavy-handed in the use of force against Sunni villages,” said Rep. Adam Schiff, D-Calif., a senior member of the House Intelligence Committee.

In other words, the American intelligence community is only now scrambling to draw up a potential target list in Iraq, and possibly Syria—even though the threat of ISIS has been visibly growing for years. And while the analysts are trying to figure out who they should zero in on, Obama administration lawyers are wrestling with what legal authorities the president might have to carry out an attack.

While ISIS is taking over cities like Mosul and Tikrit—acquiring the equipment of a modern army in the process—a strike on ISIS wouldn’t be as simple as, say, attacking one of Saddam’s tank columns during the last Iraq war. It requires a different kind of intelligence. The prime objective is to detain or kill individuals who are indispensable to the networks used by terrorists to conduct their attacks. This model means that the drone strike is the last piece of a long process to identify, locate and verify where an individual target resides. And while that work has been enhanced by high-tech gadgets that can intercept cellphone traffic, it still requires the basic tradecraft of human spying.

But the United States lost much of its visibility into the foreign fighter network in Iraq when it withdrew forces from Iraq in 2011 and pulled its intelligence officers—CIA and defense—inside the U.S. embassy in Baghdad, according to a former senior U.S. official who had been stationed there during the process.

COMMENT:  Poor human intelligence – intelligence about people and their motives, not about equipment – has always been an American weakness. 

Obama's pathetic decision to pull everything out of Iraq comes back to haunt him.  But it isn't Obama who will pay the price down the line.  The United States will pay the price.

June 16, 2014       Permalink

OUR PRESIDENT, HAPPY AT LAST – AT 8:47 A.M. ET:  The world is coming apart, but look what's happening in sunny California.  From the Desert Sun: 

President Barack Obama is scheduled to fly out of the Coachella Valley with his wife and daughter on Monday morning, ending a sunny weekend of golf in Rancho Mirage.

Although much of his trip was recreational, escalating violence in Iraq demanded the president's attention on Sunday morning.

Those rotten Islamists, delaying our president's golf!  A million curses on their miserable heads.

Obama was briefed by White House officials before he teed off at Porcupine Creek, a private estate owned by billionaire Larry Ellison.

The president spent the afternoon inside Thunderbird Heights, a gated community where the home of interior designer Michael S. Smith and his partner James Costos likely played host to the first family. Obama appointed Costos, a prominent campaign donor, as a U.S. ambassador, and Smith is a close friend of first lady Michelle Obama, who joined the president in the desert along with eldest daughter Malia.

The White House did not release information about how Michelle Obama and Malia spent their time in the valley. Nearly all of the first family's activities were held behind closed doors or on private estates.

This was the third time in a year that President Obama has traveled to the Coachella Valley, and it appears he has taken a liking to the area because each successive visit has been less work-related and more like vacation.

COMMENT:  You know, appearances count in politics.  Does Obama care about his being seen lounging with the very, very, very rich while international crises boil over?  If this had been BUSH (!!) the press would have been in an uproar.  But it's Barack (come to save us), so he gets a media pass.

The president should be in Washington, making policy, meeting with members of Congress on the international situation, and organizing the government to deal with growing threats.

I'm not so sure he cares.  It's always been about Barack, never about America, and it shows.

June 16, 2014       Permalink

THE VERDICT – AT 8:21 A.M. ET:   Increasingly, even journalists for liberal papers are pronouncing negative verdicts on Obama's foreign policy.  Fred Hiatt, at WaPo, notes that Obama's administration was at first divided between two schools of thought on foreign policy – the engagers, represented by Hillary Clinton, and the minimalists, represented by Joe Biden.   Ultimately, the minimalists won, and Obama started taking minimal action in foreign situation.

Now Iraq is disintegrating. Of course, as many commentators write, Iraq’s politicians are to blame. But if the United States had maintained a presence, it might have steered Iraqi politics in a more constructive direction.

If Libya, Syria and Iraq were only human rights catastrophes — as each assuredly is — the Minimalists might hold firm. Terrible things happen in many places, they would say, and Americans can’t set them all right.

But the unraveling threatens the United States, too. A ruthless medieval dictatorship controlling territory from Syria into Iraq is luring and training Islamist extremists, including from America and Europe, who “could end up being a significant threat to our homeland,” Obama acknowledged Thursday. So he has had to turn back to Iraq, facing nothing but unpalatable options.

If Minimalism doesn’t work, what would? The answer will be different in each case. It won’t generally be to send in the Marines. It will, though, rest on lessons that the country learned, for a time, after 2001: Stateless, ungoverned territories can be dangerous to the United States. Ignoring dangers doesn’t make them go away. If we want countries to help us, including by combating terrorists, we have to help them, too, with training and aid that improves people’s lives.

It’s true that helping states build their capacity to govern is difficult and time-consuming and doesn’t always work. But over the years, the United States has helped more countries, and in more ways, than many Americans realize — including, with Obama’s commitment, Afghanistan. Engagement is hard, but over time it can succeed. Which is more than the other team can say.

COMMENT:  Well said.  Read the whole column.  Obama's policies have failed, and we are in greater danger as a result.  Compare please to Ronald Reagan, called a "warmonger" by the usual suspects, but whose legacy was an honorable peace.

June 16, 2014       Permalink

KNOW YOUR ENEMY – AT 8:07 A.M. ET:  Islamism is on the march, not only in the Mideast, but in Africa.  We've had a taste of it here.  Be forewarned.  From Fox: 

Kenyan officials said that at least 48 people were killed by Islamist militants Sunday in a town not far from a coastal resort popular with Western tourists.

And the tourists will be next.

David Kimaiyo said Monday the gunmen targeted two hotels, a bank and a police station in the town of Mpeketoni. Kenyan officials said at least two of the hotels were set on fire. It was not immediately clear how many attackers were involved, but a police spokeswoman said it was believed that "several dozen" took part.

Sky News reported that the gunmen's assault began at approximately 8 p.m. local time (1 p.m. Eastern Time) and gunshots were heard four hours later. Cafes and bars in the town were reportedly packed with people watching the World Cup soccer match between Switzerland and Ecuador. Kenya's National Disaster Operations Center said military surveillance planes were launched shortly afterward.

One police commander said that as residents were watching the World Cup at the Breeze View Hotel, the gunmen pulled the men aside and ordered the women to watch as they killed them. The attackers told the women that that's what Kenyan troops are doing to Somalia men inside Somalia. The police commander insisted on anonymity because he was not authorized to share that detail of the attack.

Kenya's Interior Ministry said the gunmen arrived in two hijacked minivans. An army spokesman told Sky News that the Al Qaeda-linked, Somalia-based terror group al-Shabaab is likely behind the attack, though no group has claimed responsibility.

Al-Shabaab has been blamed for a number of attacks in retaliation for Kenya's deployment of troops in neighboring Somalia, where the group has been trying to seize power. Most notably, al-Shabaab was thought to behind last September's attack on Nairobi's Westgate shopping mall, in which 67 people were killed.

The U.S., U.K., France, Australia, and Canada have all recently upgraded their terror threat warnings for the country.

Mpeketoni is about 30 miles southwest of the tourist center of Lamu. Tourism in Mpeketoni is mostly local, with few foreigners visiting the region. The town is about 60 miles from the Somali border and 360 miles from Nairobi.

COMMENT:  Barack Obama is of Kenyan heritage.  His father was Kenyan.  Will he show any interest in this? 

It is startling to see how Islamism is rising, and becoming more audacious.  At the same time, the far left in the United States is also rising, with its corrupt base on American college campuses.  Is there a coincidence here?  I don't think so.  Both Islamists and the fringe left hate the United States, and you don't see them criticizing each other.

June 16,  2014     Permalink