Headlines

Even if you take the Nunes memo seriously, it makes no sense

Dow plunges 666 points, suffers worst week in 2 years

Trump approval pops to 49% ...

Poll: Only 16% of Americans rooting for Patriots to win ...

Russian probe lawyers think Mueller could indict Trump

Trump Nuclear Posture Review shows greater willingness to use nukes first, say critics

Pentagon ends Obama-era push to reduce nuke arsenal ...

WH shows 15 jihadis who got visas via lottery or chain migration

Nunes: Deputy AG Rosenstein will have a 'long career'

North Korea earned $200 million from banned exports, sends arms to Syria. Myranmar, UN report

Russia 'developing' undersea nuclear-armed torpedo ...

Trump to Democrats: Compromise on immigration now or get nothing after election

Headlines

Alabama earthquake: Democrat Jones wins

FBI agent praised Hillary Clinton while he was leading email investigation

Bitcoin officially biggest bubble in world history

Report: China bans [NKorea] refugee calls on its border

Republicans close in on historic tax deal

Fusion GPS confirms hiring DOJ officials wife to investigate Trump

[USAToday on Trump] ... Unfit to clean the toilets in Obama's Presidential Library ...

Food stamp costs hit seven year low

Playbook: Ryan reiterates DACA fix will be separate from spending talks

Trump's tweets are protected speech, Appeals Court confirms

People mortgaging homes to buy Bitcoin ...

Russian security official: Jihadis returning from Suria 'a real problem'

Dichotomy

There is an unnerving dichotomy within the Muslim faith. The radicalized elements therein seem to have no fear of death as a consequence of their fervent actions ... whereas the Muslim proletariat seem quite frightened of being killed if they speak out against the jihadis. Why is there this consequential divergence? Is this the flaw in the DNA of Islam?

A Difficult Recipe

How will the world (mainly the U.S., Russia, China and India) suppress the radical Muslim movement before it becomes too large to deal with within their criminal justice systems? Whatever the answer, I don't believe it will be accomplished with "containment" and half measures. The brutality being displayed by these jihadis will need to be matched and even exceeded by the rest of the world to cause this existential evil to be squashed. This will not be pretty. It will cause outrage and gnashing of teeth within the pacifist class ... those naive ones who choose to believe that they could not be touched by this metastasizing menace.

I can't predict exactly what measures might be required to  effect this ultimate victory over the caliphatists ... but, be assured that, if it were here known, it might turn the stomachs of the squeamish. Just as the incredible brutality of the last days of the Second World War finally humbled the Axis aggressors, such mayhem will realistically need to be repeated or even exceeded to triumph over these radical Muslims. I would wish this need not happen, but the flaming fanaticism now being displayed by the jihad movement does not give me much optimism.

Can all this bloodshed be avoided? Yes, I believe that it might ... but only through a radical reformation of Islam ... one equivalent to what occurred in Christianity in the 1500's. This would require the zealots within the jihadi movement to adopt modernity from a world that is itself rotting from within ... rife with sinfulness, self-indulgence and sloth.

This is a  very difficult recipe with lots of bitter herbs.

Afterward: Russia's Putin has already suggested using atomic weapons against ISIS ... see: UK Express Story. I realize it is uncomfortable to discuss or even think about such solutions to this Islamic extremism ... but when Iran goes nuclear or if the crazies take over in Pakistan, then the apocalyptic desires of the jihadis need to be reckoned with realistically. Then the Putin solution may be the only answer.

Straw Man

Once again our pusillanimous president has erected a straw man to suit his misguided notion that "radical Islamic terrorists" are not our enemy. He is now saying that it is an "ugly lie" that the West is at war with Islam ... see: Breitbart Article. Duh! Of course the West is not at war with the entire Muslim religion. We are ... or should be at war with the jihadis, those Muslims who want, in the name of Mohammad, to establish a world-wide caliphate ... subjugating all other religions through taxation, conversion or murder.

By saying that we are not at war with Islam, President Obama is suggesting that someone, somewhere, at sometime has asserted this to be true. I haven't seen a scintilla of evidence to back up this silly claim. Does Obama want the over one billion Muslims in the world to believe that this is occurring on a regular basis? Certainly these words would so suggest ... and have sinister implications as to the motivations of the "leader of the free world." To me Obama's refusal to make a clear distinction between all Muslims and those Muslims who are so radicalized as to pose a serious threat to world order ... is, in itself, a swipe at a hornets nest ... an act that may have serious world-wide consequences for many years to come.

This posing of a straw men by Obama ... coupled with his foot dragging in creating a viable strategic push-back to ISIS, Boko Haram, the Taliban, and the various factions of al Qaeda (such as in Yemen) ... has me questioning his true motivations. This is particularly so when I see his continual cozying up to Iran and the Muslim Brotherhood ... his refusal to see the benefit that can come from Egypt's stance against radical Islam ... and his blatant animosity toward Israel. Clearly, whatever our president's deep-seated intentions are ... and despite his smooth Teleprompter rhetoric ... the result of his presidency has been to make a dog's breakfast out of the winning track he inherited from his predecessor.

Can this be what he meant by his vow to "change" things? God, I hope not!

Pulling No Punches

On the anniversary of 9/11 and in the midst of battling some unspecified health problems, W. Lewis Amselem, the writer of the Diplomad 2.0 blog and long-time career U.S. diplomat, has let go with both barrels in his latest post. Apparently President Obama’s equivocating about the true nature of ISIS/ISIL and President George W. Bush’s statement that Islam is a “religion of peace” has caused this clear-eyed writer to pick up his poison pen to state unequivocally that our centuries-long battle is with Islam … not radical Islam or Jihadis … but with Islam itself. He says: 

The war with Islam did not begin September 11, 2001. It began some 1400 years ago and continues. That September 11 was just a reminder that we live in a world of Islamic war..

If you are of a mind to confront this type of unvarnished reality, I suggest that you read his post here: Year Thirteen in a 1400-Year War, the other posts referenced therein, and the attached comments. I know we “heathens” all like to shrink from the realization that there might be legions of people who, to various degrees, might like to kill us (or to join with them). The Diplomad, even in his infirmity, does not … he here is pulling no punches.