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PFC Gregg sent this to me today: a reminder that even in the midst of war's travail, the world can be a beautiful place. Lexi is doing fine, incidentally, and reminded me that she has only 17 days to go before her mid-deployment leave.
Here are two facts about the vicious attack on CBS News correspondent Lara Logan that should surprise no one who has the slightest familiarity with contemporary Arab society. The first is that the mob that assaulted and raped her screamed “Jew! Jew!” as they went about their business. The second is that Logan’s ordeal was by no means an isolated incident. Harassment of women, frequently rising to the level of outright sexual assault, is a common occurrence in Egypt.
Violent anti-Semitism and systemic misogyny: fine foundations on which to build a new, democratic order!
What does this tell you about the quality of life in Chicago, supposedly "the city that works"?
Chicago Population Sinks to 1920 Level
The U.S. Census Bureau reported Tuesday that during the decade ended in 2010, Chicago's population fell 6.9% to 2,695,598 people, fewer than the 2.7 million reported back in 1920.
Now it could be that this startling population decline is the result of decades of misgovernment and tax increases, coupled with poor-quality schools, sky-high crime rates and a declining regional economy. On the other hand, maybe people are simply getting fed up with Chicago winters in this era of global warming…
Here's a really disturbing story from the Egyptian street, reminding us that revolutions often have their ugly side, and that the journalism trade can sometimes be dangerous:
Logan is now hospitalized in the United States, and is said to be recovering from this horrific attack.
Very often, the choices placed before a statesman range from bad to worse. The ability to craft a least-worst policy, and the moral courage to implement it, are the qualities that separate a Bismarck or a Kissinger from, well, an Obama.
Look at the mess that the Obama Administration has made of US foreign policy in the Middle East. Caught by surprise when popular demonstrations began to destabilize the regime of Egyptian strongman Hosni Mubarak, the President and his people reacted with deer-in-the-headlights paralysis. Instead of acting, they reacted, to the dismay of our allies and the delight of our enemies in the region.
Of course, the Administration faced an excruciating dilemma. Mubarak, though no Saddam Hussein, was nonetheless an iron-fisted dictator. But he was also a key US ally whose maintenance of Anwar Sadat’s peace agreement with Israel was the lynchpin of US policy in the region. So the decision about what to do when he ran into trouble on the home front was a difficult one. Obama and his team seemed incapable of making that tough call. Depending on what day it was, and who you were listening to, the Administration wanted Mubarak gone ASAP, they wanted him to stick around for an “orderly transition,” the Muslim brotherhood was a moderate, secular organization (!), etc, etc. The net effect was to alarm, disappoint or disgust all out allies in the region, while confirming our enemies in their belief that America under Obama is a paper tiger.
Then Obama Administration’s handling of this crisis reminds me of Winston Churchill’s stinging 1936 characterization of the British government of his day: “So they go on in strange paradox, decided only to be undecided, resolved to be irresolute, adamant for drift, solid for fluidity, all-powerful to be impotent.”
As it happens, the outcome in Egypt was the best that could be expected: a military coup that got rid of Mubarak without bringing the Muslim Brotherhood, which is the only organized opposition party in Egypt, to power. But America’s ability to influence events has been seriously compromised by the Obama Administration’s feckless and irresponsible fumbling. Nothing good will come of this—mark my words.
Ugh. Media pundits and prognosticators across the political spectrum are still giddy over the "revolution" in Egypt. That the despised strongman, Hosni Mubarak, was outsted not by the mob but by a cabal of senior military officers, seems to have escaped everybody’s attention. In short, Mubarak fell victim to a military coup. When it became clear to the generals who run the show behind the scenes in Egypt that he had become a liability, they got rid of him. In so doing, the generals bought the time they need to stabilize the political situation and assure their own continued dominance.
So don’t believe all this hopeful chatter about the birth of Arab democracy. The September elections, if they’re held at all, will surely be rigged in such a way as to keep the Army in charge. The Egyptian generals didn’t retire Hosni Mubarak as a favor to liberal intellectuals or Western media pundits.
Yesterday we heard via the media that a series of bomb attacks had taken place in Kandahar, the main target being a an Afghanistan National Police station. Today we were able to Skype with PFC Gregg, who gave us the good news than no US troops were injured in the attacks. Sadly, however, some 65 Afghan nationals were killed or wounded. You can read more about it here.
Lexi also told us that the enemy attacked a US military installation that night, while she was on guard duty in one of the towers. This installation is only a couple of miles from Lexi's FOB, and she said that the sounds of the firefight were clearly audible. She added that one of the other tower guards could see muzzle flashes, tracer rounds and explosions. Once again, however, no US troops were killed or wounded.
Needless to say, Lexi and her comrades are on high alert in anticipation of further attacks. So far during this deployment, no soldier of the 511th Military Police Company has been killed or wounded in action. God willing, and with the help of our prayers, the 511th will maintain that record in the months ahead.
The United States spends a cool $40 billion per year on intelligence—not, obviously, of the IQ variety, or we wouldn’t have Obamacare, but to find out what’s going on around the world in counties and regions deemed vital to the national interest. So how well is that investment (as the Obama Administration prefers to call spending) paying off? Check it out:
CIA Director Leon Panetta helped touch off an avalanche of erroneous expectations Thursday when he testified that there was a "strong likelihood" that Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak would step down by the end of the day.
Within minutes, senior aides to Panetta sought to tamp down the impact, saying he was merely referring to media reports. But by then, the comments had ricocheted around the Internet, underscoring U.S. confusion about events unfolding in Egypt, as well as the perils of publicly weighing in on such developments while serving as director of CIA.
Now when I put these two things together in my head, they simply do not add up: (1) We’re spending—excuse me, investing—$40 billion so that Leon Panetta & Co. can gather and evaluate intelligence; (2) Leon Panetta is apparently getting his information from CNN. Call me hypher-critical, but somehow this story fails to inspire confidence in the (perhaps mislabeled) intelligence community…
I like Mona Charen, but my goodness, she must have woken up in a cranky mood on the day that she wrote this column. In the course of an extended rant about how we baby boomers simply refuse to grow up and grow old, she launches the following rhetorical ICBM:
Yet why single out boomers? No one these days is encouraged to act his age. The Vermont Teddy Bear Company recommends sending stuffed animals to grown women for Valentine’s Day. There are also ads for “hoodie/footie” pajamas for people who haven’t waited up for Santa in well over a decade. The sexual innuendo in the ads doesn’t counteract the fact that they are peddling gifts more appropriate for six-year-olds.
My wife thinks that the Vermont Teddy Bear thing is stupid too—but apparently a lot of women don’t, or the company wouldn’t be spending big dollars year after year to peddle them on TV. As for the hoodie/footie PJs, well, if you live in those vast regions of the continental United States still untouched by global warming, they might actually count as a thoughtful gift.
I’m all for acting one’s age…most of the time. Sometimes, though, as the song reminds us, “For as rich as you are/It’s much better by far/To be young at heart. And I think that Ronald Reagan, for own, would agree with me. Remember that, Mona.
PFC Gregg on patrol in Afghanistan, packing her M4 rifle:
