Time for Thorns

I’d say West Point cadets understand  terrorism a lot better than the commander-in-chief does.

Jonah Goldberg at The Corner shares  an email from someone who knows.

For those of you interested,  here is the full text of Obama’s remarks at the Fort Hood memorial service.

And the answer to  Ralph Peters’ question is “NO.”

I watched the speech, and His Oneness went through the motions,  nothing more.   Apparently soaring rhetoric is reserved for presidential campaigns,  or is it that he didn’t wish to call any attention to a situation conflicting with his desire to ignore Islamic terrorism?  I don’t think it is merely his coolness, as mulled over by Toby Harnden.

UPDATE:   Allahpundit disagrees with me.

The FBI was super quick to say there was no evidence of a terrorism connection.    But now we know that the individual named as the primary shooter, who was shot dead by civilian police,  was Major  Nidal Malik Hasan,  per ABC News.    Two other suspected shooters,  both soldiers,  are in custody.

So far the toll is 11 killed and 31 wounded by the shooter.    His Oneness has already pronounced this a terrible tragedy,  and a “horrific outburst of violence.”     The  UK Times is already talking about the “emotional carnage” of war and all the usual claptrap.

No one is about to step up and connect the dots for you,  but we have seen an enlisted soldier turn on his crew because they were going to rape Muslim women.   And we also know that amongst the jihadists’ plans was one to put jihadis in the military and then carry out mass murder.

UPDATE:  The House just had a moment of silence.  Nancy Pelosi presided for just as long as that took,  then hurried from the podium to break more arms and offer more bribes for the health care bill.

UPDATE:  Hasan was a psychiatrist and formerly stationed at Walter Reed.    FOX News is talking to a cousin,  who is claiming Hasan was being harassed — no great surprise if an earlier guest was correct in reporting Hasan’s outbursts against the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and declarations about Muslims rising up against the occupiers.  FOX is reporting via AP that the two other suspects have now been released.

UPDATE II:  The shooter is apparently alive and in stable condition,  and the death toll is 12, wounded 31.    Now we’ll have some finger-pointing about who was responsible for letting Hasan stay in the service.

With news of a big FBI raid on a suspected Al Qaeda cell in New York,  I’m curious to see how His Oneness handles this domestic matter since there is no war on terrorism.

How will they refer to it?   Domestic outbreak of overseas contingency operations?

Peggy Noonan looks at the children of 9/11.    Google predictably ignores the date,  as do the front pages of the L.A. Times and the Chicago Tribune.  But bing.com and ask.com remember.

Charles Krauthamer takes on Van Jones as a truther,   and Jonah Goldberg looks at truthers vs. birthers.

A new book,  “Instinct: The Man Who Stopped The 20th Hijacker”,  by Philadelphia radio talk show host Michael Smerconish is out today .

Meanwhile,  Britain has released 20 convicted terrorists from jail early,  with another 75 to be freed  over the next few years.    Since many are considered still dangerous,  UK taxpayers can look forward to paying for the necessary surveillance.

In accordance with a 9/10 mentality, the Obama administration is trying to diminish the date’s importance,  so Sen.  John Kerry’s push for climate change is probably seen as helpful since it ties in with Obama’s push to make 9/11 a day of  “service and remembrance” rather than a day to remind us that renaming or ignoring terrorism is an insufficient response to it.

The official presidential proclamation is here,  and it is an insipid piece of drivel,  even for a proclamation.   CIA Director Leon Panetta’s message to his cadre is far better,  and not just because he doesn’t dismiss terrorism as just another crime.

Victor Davis Hanson gets to the heart of the matter, and Ralph Peters exposes what we have forgotten.    The consequences of the return to 9/10 thinking are likely to be extraordinarily harsh.

The CIA report is out,   providing a timely change of subject from health care reform.    I haven’t read it,  but National Review has begun and offers up some notable sections here.    Anyone who is surprised that AG Eric Holder has decided to appoint a special prosecutor,  raise your hand.    Of course,  the usual Democratic flacks are out in full force praising the “independence” of Holder,  which would be hilarious if it weren’t so dangerously untrue.    This ostensibly allows His Oneness to claim to still be looking forward and thus escape blame,  while still allowing the witch hunt to proceed apace.     Rep.  Pete Hoekstra is having none of it.    Dick Cheney didn’t allow the matter to go unnoticed,  and National Review links to a Washington Independent report  which appears to confirm Cheney’s original contention.

John Hinderaker at PowerLine points out that the  ” handful of incidents highlighted by press accounts of the report came to light precisely because they were reported as deviations from the treatment of detainees that had been authorized by DOJ lawyers.”

I tend to agree with Seth  Leibsohn that our treatment of terrorism suspects was extraordinarily good.    Michael Ledeen uses cigars to show how profoundly unnecessary the new re-investigation is.

Whether CIA director Leon Panetta  threatened to quit is the subject of much speculation,  though denied by the White House.

Liberals learn nothing from their mistakes.    An ordinary person with common sense would look back and see the damage the Church commission did and connect the dots to the inevitable consequences.    Obama is more radical than liberal,  so his mistakes will be that much worse,  and are very likely to cost the rest of us that much more.

How well do you think Obama’s  policy of appeasement and negotiation will work with this?

By the way,  if you don’t know about MEMRI,  you should.    They offer translations of Middle Eastern media,  which seldom bear any resemblance to what is said for Western ears about the same events.

The WaPo happily reports the end of Bush’s  ‘war’ on terror:

http://www.washingtonpost.com.nyud.net:8090/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/01/22/AR2009012203929.html?hpid=topnews

If you’ll recall, a week ago VP Dick Cheney advised Obama to study carefully before acting, and  Obama said on ABC’s This Week:  “I think that was pretty good advice, which is I should know what’s going on before we make judgments and that we shouldn’t be making judgments on the basis of incomplete information or campaign rhetoric.”

In 48 hours His Oneness has dismantled key components which have kept us safe.  Apparently to avoid mentioning the likely consequences , the Post ends with words from Obama’s inaugural speech, presumably because the editors believe what His Oneness says matters more than what he does.  Terrorists harbor no such illusions.

Barack and Michelle Obama have released a statement expressing their condolences for those killed and injured in the tragedy at Mumbai, India.    It is not a tragedy — it is a terrorist attack.  Obama has always called 9/11 “a tragedy,” too. In fact, a reliable indicator of liberalism is a person’s refusal to call a terrorist operation what it is.

Most indigenous cultures, including those of many American Indians, believe that if you reveal your true name to someone, that person acquires some power over you.  So how will Barack Obama fight terrorism when he refuses to name either the act or the actors?

He won’t.  Terrorism is a criminal matter, suitable for lawyers and courtrooms, not soldiers and bullets, which is why he uttered not a peep when Rep. Barney Frank proposed cutting the military’s budget by 25%.   We will hear lots of high-flown rhetoric about diplomacy and regaining the world’s respect, and talking to those disagree with us.

But remember Mumbai, because if Obama carries out his promise to close Gitmo immediately, the streets of those cities where the former Gitmo detainees are jailed will look more like India than America.