Here are my observations and opinions from my select news of the day.
BEWARE THE ENEMY WITHIN – Among the many comments from the “blame America first” crowd regarding the death of the terrorist Qasem Soleimani, I came across this message by the Imam Ibrahim Kazerooni to his Dearborn, Michigan faithful in the Islamic Center of America, the largest mosque in this country.
He said, “(Pray for) the soul of the late General Soleimani and Abu Mahdi Al-Muhundis, who were assassinated together … a cowardly and heinous act … in the name of Allah the merciful and compassionate.
TLAIB AND DINGELL, the Dearborn duo.
“Who was this general? the Imam intones, “his presence brought hope to the marginalized and to those who were afraid, and it brought hatred and fear to the enemies of Islam … particularly the United States.”
He can thank the First Amendment for his right to free speech, but if the Imam thinks that the deaths of Soleimani and Al-Muhandis were “cowardly and heinous acts,” what does he call the deaths of the hundreds of American troopers killed and maimed by Soleimani-conceived roadside IED’s? You don’t want to know.
You should be aware that Dearborn, Michigan, home to more than 100,000 Muslims, is represented in the 12th Congressional District by Democrat Rep. Debbie Dingell. The city is surrounded by the 13th Congressional District, represented by Democrat Rep. Rashida Tlaib, a member of the “Squad,” who, after her mid-term win said, “we’re going to impeach the mother f**ker.”
Obviously, the GOP cannot retake their seats, but we can marginalize them if we regain the House.
‘SWIFT BOAT’ KERRY, more recently President Barack Obama’s Secretary of State John Kerry, who took the U.S. to the cleaners with a flawed nuclear deal with Iran designed to seal the former president’s legacy, decided to author an op-ed in the leftist New York Times to further cite his hate for President Trump.
Accusing Trump of destroying “anything done by the last administration ahead of his duty to keep the country safe,” he said the Iran nuclear deal was working, and by pulling out of the deal he “only empowered” Soleimani.
AT LEFT- I get them confused.
While Kerry likes to falsely criticize Trump’s “incoherent” Middle East strategy, look where his boss’s appeasement strategy got us. Kerry recognized that Soleimani was a “sworn enemy” of the U.S. and admitted earlier that the pallets of cash Obama provided Iran would possibly be used for furthering Iran’s terrorist effort. And who can forget how the Obama administration allowed a dozen of our sailors to be humiliated after being captured by members of Soleimani’s thugs? Defense Secretary Ash Carter (reluctantly, I imagine) thanked Kerry for his “diplomatic engagement with Iran to secure our sailors’ swift return.” That was 15 hours later, long enough for Iran to provide embarrassing video footage to the world’s media – forced to kneel at gunpoint and interrogated for hours.
The administration even sent out Apology Joe Biden to dismiss the incident, denying that the U.S. had apologized to Iran over the incident, that had been widely rumored, according to Robert Spencer at PJ Media.
Iran’s Ayatollah Kahmenei awarded the five IRGC Navy commanders involved in the capture with the Order Fath medals, normally reserved for war heroes.
President Trump doesn’t need John Kerry’s “diplomatic expertise” to guide him.
DRIP, DRIP, DRIP – As each day passes, we learn more of Obama’s “kid gloves” treatment of Soleimani. Learning of Israel’s intention to kill Soleimani in 2015, he was able to block it. Nothing was going to interfere with the nuclear deal, wrote Daniel John Sobieski in American Thinker.
“Found buried on page 86 of the annex of Obama’s “historic” deal with Iran, Soleimani was granted amnesty, and removed from a list of Iranian outlaws,” according to Tyler O’Neil at PJ Media.
SOLEIMANI WASN’T GENERALLY KNOWN by John Q. Public, but our military and intelligence leaders knew him and certainly had opportunities to capture or kill him and prevent his carnage.
PATHETIC ANTI-WAR PROTESTOR in LA with photo of Soleimani. (@davedunndee)
“Perhaps no American military commander knew Soleimani better than former Gen. David Petraeus,” writes Karim Sadjadpour in his Wall Street Journal feature, “The Sinister Genius of Soleimani.” Petraeus considered him a combination CIA director, special ops commander and regional envoy, with “the blood of well over 600 U.S. and coalition soldiers on his hands, and the blood of countless others as well in Iraq, Syria, Lebanon, Yemen and Afghanistan – in each of which he supported, funded, trained, equipped and often directed powerful Shiite militias,” the general told Sadjadpour.
Middle East military and political leaders hated Soleimani, resenting his heavy-handedness, his instructions on what to do and what not to do. They feared his constant threat that he’d have them fired or even assassinated if they didn’t toe the line. They should be grateful for President Trump’s decision to silence him.
SOLEIMANI PROTECTED NO LONGER – Writing of Trump’s decision to end the Iranian’s reign of terror, “It shouldn’t have been surprising,” said John Podhoretz in the New York Post, “The purpose of the Soleimani strike was to make it clear that the world’s foremost power would no longer tolerate the increasingly intense provocations and offenses Iran had aimed in our direction for four decades and especially the half year leading to the Soleimani killing.”
LEAVE IT TO COLUMNIST Peggy Noonan to align herself with her elite east coast colleagues in the media and the Democrat candidates for president. While she hesitatingly agreed that Soleimani was a monster, she couldn’t help but criticize President Trump’s morning-after address, referring to him as the Great Mental Case.
(Courtesy Gary Varvel)
While most people thought his remarks were strong, they were measured. After all you don’t take out someone like Soleimani one day and sound apologetic the next.
Noonan disapproved of his referring to Iran’s leaders as a “regime,” and slamming their “destructive and destabilizing behavior.” And she objected to his statement that Soleimani “should have been terminated long ago.”
Noonan, having experienced the feckless Middle East policies of previous administrations that has us where we are today, should have stepped away from her keyboard, taken a deep breath, and thought better than to observe that we got lucky and that we shouldn’t get cocky.
NOONAN COULD LEARN from Erielle Davidson’s piece in The Federalist, in which she suggests that “those reporting on national security issues, are deeply and inexorably challenged at providing reasonable and thoughtful analysis due to a blinding animus towards President Trump.”
I FOUND IT INTERESTING that Tom Brokaw, the long-time news figure at NBC News, voiced concern over the state of communications today in an interview with Artful Living, a Minneapolis-based lifestyle magazine. “I think the most extraordinary powerful tool and the most destructive development in modern life is the current media,” he said, according to Paul Bedard of the Washington Examiner.
Noting that “this is obviously the most unsettling time I’ve ever experienced in national politics,” Brokaw says the media “could be a unifying factor,” but concedes that “it’s a dividing factor,” and adds “I don’t know how to get beyond that.”
“I don’t know what leader can come along and say, ‘Look, we’re all in this together. We’ve got to find a way to work together.’”
Brokaw could play a mediator role between the media and the White House, but I wonder if the hate for the president runs too deep.
I’m reminded how Sean Hannity frequently admonishes Brokaw when NBC/MSNBC anchors and contributors go over top attacking the president, saying, “are you proud of them?”
MY LAUGH-OF-THE-DAY comes from Elizabeth “I’ve got to get me a beer” Warren, who, when asked about her skincare routine by a Cosmopolitan reporter, she responded, “Pond’s Moisturizer … every morning, every night. And I never wash my face.” Okaaaaaaay.
May God continue to bless the United States of America.
