Wow, this is difficult. Should we believe the current administration, when they claim an end to the war on terror?

“The war on terror is over,” one senior State Department official who works on Mideast issues told me. “Now that we have killed most of al Qaida, now that people have come to see legitimate means of expression, people who once might have gone into al Qaida see an opportunity for a legitimate Islamism.”

Polls show that only 11% of Americans believe this claim.
 
So if there’s no terror to be stopped, then why are we abandoning our plans for a U.S. Consulate in Afghanistan because it’s too dangerous?

After signing a 10-year lease and spending more than $80 million on a site envisioned as the United States’ diplomatic hub in northern Afghanistan, American officials say they have abandoned their plans, deeming the location for the proposed compound too dangerous.

Too dangerous?

The structure’s outer perimeter wall is composed of sun-dried bricks made from mud, straw and manure, and the contractor used untreated timber for the roof, the memo says.

Have mercy. 80 MILLION for manure bricks? It may as well have been made with pixie dust.

Or is the Taliban stronger? Especially since obama has been turning some of the worst Taliban leaders loose in Afghanistan in an effort to… er… negotiate.

As the United States has unsuccessfully pursued a peace deal with the Taliban, the “strategic release” program has quietly served as a live diplomatic channel, allowing American officials to use prisoners as bargaining chips in restive provinces where military power has reached its limits.

Jimbo:

This paragraph is a pitch perfect example of what is wrong with our lack of anything vaguely resembling a viable strategy in Afghanistan. Our military power has reached it’s limits because we posted our departure date on international TV and every media outlet on Earth two and a half years ago. The news spread all over the Af-Pak region so that even the most humble hamlet got a night letter from the Taliban informing the tribesfolk that playing nice w/ Uncle Sugar and the Karzai crime family could cost your head once the Americans bagged it. So our efforts to stabilize anyplace outside Kabul fell victim to the simple fact that the locals we needed to trust us trusted that the Taliban not us would be around for the long haul.

Our cunning plan to combat this seems to have been cutting loose the bad guys we have scarfed up in return for promises, and well in some cases nothing.

Read the entire post over at Blackfive. And here’s a tip: If you really want to know what’s going on, the milblogs are sometimes the best source for the continuing WoT, whatever obama wants to call it.

Filched from Pamela Geller.

Well, it’s finally happened; I agree with Rachel Maddow about something.

Hell, he already signed NDAA; it’s law. He can detain anyone, even American citizens, for no reason at all. If you might be a threat sometime in the future, look out!

At 5:35:
“My administration will work with Congress to develop an appropriate legal regime so that our efforts are consistent with our values and our constitution”.

A new ‘regime’ outside the courts, to imprison people indefinitely without charging them with a crime.

Leon Panetta needs to be drug behind a galloping horse… through a cactus patch.

This is how islamic extremists infiltrate the United States military.

Defense department agrees to allow Muslim cadets to wear hijabs

The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) announced today that the Department of Defense will begin allowing Muslim and Sikh students who wear an Islamic head scarf (hijab) or a turban to participate in the Junior Reserve Officers’ Training Corps (JROTC).

“We welcome the fact that Muslim and Sikh students nationwide will now be able to participate fully in JROTC leadership activities while maintaining their religious beliefs and practices,” said CAIR National Executive Director Nihad Awad.

In October, the Washington-based Muslim civil rights and advocacy organization wrote to Defense Secretary Leon Panetta after a 14-year-old Muslim student at Ravenwood High School in Brentwood, Tenn., was forced to transfer out of a JROTC class when her commanding officers told her she could not wear hijab while marching in the September homecoming parade.

CAIR requested constitutionally-protected religious accommodations for the girl and for future Muslim JROTC participants.

In a Dec. 19 letter sent to CAIR, Deputy Assistant Secretary of the Army Larry Stubblefield wrote:

”I have been asked to respond on behalf of the Secretary of Defense Leon E. Panetta to your October 13, 2011 letter concerning Miss Demin Zawity’s request to wear a religious head covering (hijab) while participating in an Army Junior Reserve Officer Training Corps (JROTC) event at Ravenwood High School.

“Based on your concerns, the Army has reviewed its JROTC uniform policy and will develop appropriate procedures to provide Cadets the opportunity to request the wear of religious head dress, such as the turban and hijab. This change will allow Miss Zawity and other students the chance to fully participate in the JROTC program. Additionally, a representative from the U.S. Army Cadet Command will contact Miss Zawity and provide her the opportunity to rejoin the Ravenwood High School JROTC unit.

“The Army prides itself in being a diverse organization, comprised of individuals from many faiths and religions. We appreciate you bringing this matter to our attention.”

None of this is surprising, given our current leadership. And the sentiment is not a new one.

Aaron Klein writes:

Much more to his piece; be sure to check it out!

Salon:

Our Constitution was written to restrict government’s power and to ensure our rights as citizens. I don’t care what a United States citizen has done, we are guaranteed the right to a trial.

Terrorism seems a cause just enough to codify such a venerated document, eh? Not when it means the military can arrest and detain us for… well, ever… on suspicion of terrorist activities. Are there homegrown terrorists? Yes. Do they deserve all the rights guaranteed them under the Constitution? Yes. YES!

What’s so difficult to understand about representation, a speedy trial and judgement carried out under the law?

And it breaks my heart that Allen West voted ‘aye’.

Muslim students at the Catholic University of America in D.C. called the lack of a room to pray in sans crosses a ‘violation of their human rights’ and a suit has been filed against the private institution.

People have even gone so far as to say that the university is exhibiting ‘malice’ toward the muslim students. John Banzhaf, a George Washington University Law School professor who has a storied history of filing meaningless complaints:

Interestingly enough, not all muslim students were… radical:

So is this another instance of muslims trying to integrate and change from within or a case of an overzealous professor with an agenda and/or a grudge?

Personally, I think that anyone having a problem with crosses should not be attending a private Catholic university. They can transfer to another school or leave altogether… but isn’t it interesting that they can’t pray with a likeness of Jesus in the room, when we’ve been told over and over that He is a part of their doctrine too? I think the malice is theirs.

Ed Morrissey writes:

Sacred Heart of Jesus, have mercy.

Truth-teller Pat Condell -

God bless him, Pat’s going to keep saying it until everyone knows the truth.

My neighborhood gardening friend Joe and his wife just returned from summering in Israel with family. He reports that things are not great.
I’d never heard Joe’s story before, but he walked along with Mike and I one night while we aired the dogs and he opened up a little. His parents fled the Nazis into Austria and that’s where he was born. We didn’t get a play by play, but he’s been a U.S. citizen for many years.

Joe is a reformed obama supporter, the very best kind of opposition. Like an ex-smoker, he’s rabid on the subject and has his litany of complaints at the ready. Basically, he was sold a lie and knows it and tells everyone within earshot how evil our president is and how we’d best vote his butt out. He works the elections at our polling place and said he’d like to sit outside with a sign that says “Obama NO” on it, but there are rules about that.

Talk about hope for change!

Couldn’t resist this…

Excellent article at Front Page by Giulio Meotti:

There’s more.

And the question is… why WOULD anyone want a Palestinian state? Aside from the obvious, of course.