Bin Laden Dead: Curb Your Enthusiasm

On the surface, the news is what we’ve all been waiting to hear for nearly 10 years: Osama bin Laden, the founder of the jihadist terror organization al-Qaeda and the monster behind numerous terrorist attacks, including the 9/11 attack on the US is dead.

All devout Americans celebrate his departure from this light and his descending directly into the bowels of hell.  Michelle Malkin has done her usual stellar job in listing some of bin Laden’s most dastardly deeds, in addition to 9/11. No person with a soul will miss the vicious bastard.

But before we declare today a national holiday, let’s take stock in some additional points that should be taken into consideration:

• In a report from About.com, as of last week-end, 4683 American soldiers have died in the combined conflagrations in Iraq and Afghanistan since the launch of Operation Enduring Freedom (Afghanistan) on October 7, 2001 and Operation Iraqi Freedom (beginning with the invasion of Iraq on March 19, 2003).  This does not take into consideration the number of deaths to coalition soldiers from other countries fighting in support of US Troops.
• According to a March 29th report from the Congressional Research Service, Congress has approved a total of $1.283 trillion for military operations, base security, reconstruction, foreign aid, embassy costs, and veterans’ health care for the three operations initiated since the 9/11 attacks: Operation Enduring Freedom (OEF) Afghanistan and other counter terror operations; Operation Noble Eagle (ONE), providing enhanced security at military bases; and Operation Iraqi Freedom (OIF). This estimate assumes that the current CR level continues through the rest of the year and that agencies allocate reductions proportionately.

Looking at the above, bin Laden’s death comes with a mighty high price tag. But it shows the world, that the United States will not shrink away from a fight when we’ve been attacked. And whether it’s Afghanistan, Pakistan or Any-other-stan, you can’t hide indefinitely.

With the completion of the bin Laden mission, many will deem it time for American troops to leave the region. However, former President Bush added to the agenda as we moved forward. That goal was to establish a democracy in the middle-east region in hopes of creating some level of stability the region. Whether this was his Achilles heel, an idiot’s folly or a shrewd move will be debated for years. The bottom line is American troops are still there and will most likely still be in harm’s way in the middle east for years to come.

The Bottom Line:

When America was attacked at Pearl Harbor on December 7th 1941, most of the Japanese celebrated their victorious moment. Japanese Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto was the only one who saw the bigger, more ominous picture as he (reportedly) said, “I fear all we have done is to awaken a sleeping giant and fill him with a terrible resolve.”

Osama bin Laden has now learned the meaning of the term “Terrible Resolve.”  However, we would be fools if we didn’t acknowledge that Muslim extremists are also filled with a terrible resolve now that bin Laden is dead. It would not surprise me if the word goes out from whoever no leads al-Qaeda, to seek revenge on the United States for bin Laden’s death. And the options they could possibly have in their possession already  include dirty bombs, nuclear weapons and who knows what kind of chemical poisons. Perhaps worse, given the porous American border (thank you Congress, Presidents Bush and Obama), these weapons could already be in place in numerous locations around the United States… perhaps even in your town or city.

Now, more than ever,  we need a true leader in the White House, one with the kind of experience and ability to make the right decisions in a timely manner. If President Obama was ever looking for the chance to prove his leadership capabilities, that opportunity now lies at his feet.

I’m glad the monster (bin Laden) is dead. But we’re a long way from being safe, my friends.

Gerry Ashley

The Approach of Tyranny

“When the people fear the government, there is tyranny. When  governments fear the people, there is liberty.”

Whether it was Thomas Jefferson who actually said it, does not matter. The sentiment expressed is so strongly American and Founding-Father-ish in flavor that the exact source is not worth arguing about; the very essence of the statement remains American to its heart. And as Americans, we have always, unthinkingly, unhesitatingly believed that the government–our government–feared We the People enough so that liberty, not tyranny, has always our watchword.

But the times, they are a-changing. A CNN poll released late last month reports that a majority of people believe that the federal government threatens the rights of Americans. That’s right. A majority of citizens of this nation fear that the government represents a threat to our freedom:

“Fifty-six percent of people questioned in a CNN/Opinion Research Corporation survey released Friday say they think the federal government’s become so large and powerful that it poses an immediate threat to the rights and freedoms of ordinary citizens.”

What was that again, Mr. Jefferson? When the people fear the government, there is tyranny? But then again:

“Americans overwhelmingly think that the U.S. government is broken – though the public overwhelmingly holds out hope that what’s broken can be fixed.”

“The public overwhelmingly holds out hope that what’s broken can be fixed.” That too, is so uniquely American–the expectation that we can fix what’s broken; the can-do attitude; the eternal optimism that flashes out as the very best of the American spirit. As Sissy Willis describes it, the Shining City on the Hill.

We didn’t need to vote in “Hope” and “Change” in 2008. They are, as they have always been, an integral part of the American character. The pale imitations represented by Obama, Pelosi, and their ilk, are no more than faint and slightly sinister simulacra of the real things.

We have elections coming up in November. It’s time to take back our government, toss the tyranny, and let freedom ring.

Stoutcat

H/T: Classical Liberal

CNN Reports: Here Be Hostages!

 

That’s what happened to one couple in Mumbai. Hiding under a table at the Taj Hotel, Lynne and Kenneth Shaw of Wales begged the CNN reporters to be very cautious about what was broadcast. They believed that the terrorists were watching CNN as it was broadcast over the hotel’s English language channel. And it seems the Shaws were correct. Safe at home after a harrowing experience, Mrs. Shaw said:

“The terrorists were watching CNN and they came down from where they were in a lift after hearing about us on television. For that reason I would appeal to the media to be very careful about what they broadcast.”

Clearly, the bright boys and girls at CNN disregarded the Shaws’ plea, perhaps figuring face-time and logo time outweighed the potential of further endangering those already in peril.

 But CNN has no reason to worry. They’re just keeping alive the flickering mainstream media flame, that long tradition of press reports that end up informing terrorists about things better off kept secret. Remember the Treasury Department’s Terror Tracking Finance Program? Sure you do. The New York Times reported on it back in 2006. It was top secret before then, but the Times decided that everyone needed to know about it, including of course, the very terrorists who were being monitored. So much for that successful anti-terrorist tool.

What about that NSA program that monitored terrorists’ international communications? Yep, we heard about that, too, again courtesy of the New York Times. As a result, terrorists now favor untraceable disposable cell phones.

And then there was the CIA’s agreement with our allies in the war on terror to detain high-level Al Qaeda operatives? Reported by our good friends at the Washington Post and Time Magazine.

So CNN is certainly in “good” company when it endangers innocent civilians in its reporting. After all, these days, if it weren’t for terrorists, who’d be paying any attention to the mainstream media at all?

H/T Gateway Pundit, Michelle Malkin

Stoutcat