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Politics : Politics for Pros- moderated -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Nadine Carroll who wrote (24629)	1/16/2004 3:46:58 AM
From: LindyBill	Respond to of 794407

The person writing the "Belmont Club" Blog is so "on" about the War on Terror it is scary. His analysis of WWII is correct, also. Before We Grow Too Ugly Reader JW asks, in connection with The March Toward Total War, "how do you think we could have achieved a relatively quick victory before we grow to resemble our enemies?" And the short answer is: by finding the key pressure point. One would have thought that during World War 2, the key vulnerabilities of militaristic Japan and Nazi Germany would have been obvious. But it wasn't. In the first two years of the Pacific War, the USN used all its submarines to chase fleet units of the Imperial Japanese Navy, with poor results. It was not until about mid-1943 that the Admirals figured out that that submarines were better employed attacking Japanese commerce -- that is, the ships which brought fuel, nitrates, food and mineral ores to Japan. The results were dramatic. By late 1944, the IJN could hardly sortie, nor its pilots train from lack of fuel. By 1945, Japan was starving. The carrier task forces were the media stars of the Pacific War, but it was the commerce raiding submarines that won it. In Europe, the USAAF at first concentrated its bombardment on targets like railway junctions, ball bearings plants, aircraft manufacturing. But Nazi industrial production was hardly affected. It just went up and up. Until one day, some USAAF planner figured out that hitting oil production was the key to stopping the Nazi war machine. In due course, the Nazi armies were immobilized. What, one might ask, does such ancient history have to do with the Global War on Terror? Everything. To date, we've used our military assets to hit out at Al Qaeda terrorists, safe houses, training camps, etc. just like the USN submarines used to chase Japanese destroyers, carriers and cruisers. One day we will realize that it is the infrastructure of terror we must hit: the madrassas, the Saudi funding, the jihadi websites. The Japanese knew World War 2 was as good as lost when they didn't have enough fuel to train their pilots. Someday, the Islamists will know that the jig is up when they can't pay the rent for their factories of hate, the ones they style religious schools, and can't offer any money for impoverished suicide moms to trade their lives for a few thousand dollars. One day. But that day isn't here yet. Until then, we will trade eye-gouges, half-nelsons, drop kicks and the wholy panoply of dirty wrassling tactics with Islamic Islamists, until, in a moment of clarity, we say what the hell, draw our pistols and shoot them in the nuts. Saudi Arabia delenda est. belmontclub.blogspot.com

To: Nadine Carroll who wrote (24629)	1/16/2004 4:11:25 PM
From: Sully-	Respond to of 794407

Arabs and the Fence By Editorial Board Washington Times January 16, 2004 Web site: washtimes.com Palestinian Authority Prime Minister Ahmed Qureia's threat to push for a unitary state with Israel drew a severe and well-deserved rebuke last week from Secretary of State Colin Powell. Mr. Qureia warned that he would abandon the two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict envisioned in President Bush's road map for Middle East peace if Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon refuses to halt construction of a security barrier in the West Bank. Mr. Qureia denounced the barrier, calling it an "apartheid" measure that would "put the Palestinians in cantons." Unless Mr. Sharon stops building the barrier (which Israel says is necessary to prevent suicide bombers and other terrorists from targeting its population), Palestinians "will go for a one-state solution," Mr. Qureia declared. He suggested that Palestinians have no alternative given Israel's insistence on destroying their rights. Within the Bush administration, few senior officials have proven to be as sympathetic to the Palestinians as Mr. Powell. In recent months, for example, the State Department has been very forceful in leaning on Israel to change the route of the barrier to minimize the amount of disruption it would cause to Palestinian civilians. That's why his blunt response to Mr. Qureia's remarks was so striking. Mr. Powell defended Mr. Sharon, observing that the barrier was only a contingency plan in the event that the Palestinians fail to become a "reliable partner" for peace with Israel. In order for this to happen (and, by implication, end the need for the barrier), Mr. Powell urged Mr. Qureia to do something he will eventually need to do if the peace process is to move forward: Wrest control of Palestinian security forces away from Yasser Arafat and take action to uproot terrorist groups. "What we need right now is for the prime minister of the Palestinian Authority to get control of the security forces and to use those forces and use the other tools available to him to put down terror and to put down violence," Mr. Powell said. He added that William Burns, assistant secretary of state for Near Eastern affairs, would visit the region in an effort to persuade Egypt and other Arab parties to pressure the Palestinian Authority to take action against Palestinian terrorist groups. Mr. Powell was also very forceful — and rightly so — in shooting down Mr. Qureia's dubious idea for the idea of a unitary Arab-Jewish state between the Mediterranean Sea and the Jordan River. There are approximately 5.5 million Israeli Jews and approximately 4.6 million Arabs (3.5 million in the West Bank and Gaza, and more than 1 million in Israel ) living in this region. Given the higher Arab birthrate, this would virtually ensure that the Jews would become a minority within Israel in the coming decades. The idea is nothing more than a formula for Israel's destruction — not a serious proposal for peace between Israel and the Palestinians. If Mr. Qureia wants such genuine peace to become a reality and the security barrier to come down, he needs to take action against the terrorist infrastructure in the Palestinians' midst. defenddemocracy.org