Iran Takes Over in IraqGemayel Assassinated in Lebanon

BREAKING: Anti-Syrian Christian Leader Pierre Gemayel Assassinated in Lebanon . Christian Lebanese Parliament member Pierre Gemayel was shot and killed today in Beirut, senior Lebanese government officials said. More here.

Syria was never  punished for the murder of Hariri - why wouldn't they kill anyone who fought for freedom and criticized Syria? Despite Michael Young's take on it. The Iranian foreign legion Hezb'Allah has made it known they intend to have Lebanon. And so they will while the West stands idly by and UNIFIL complains of Israeli security flyovers.

No matter how many times you read the following articles, it will still hit you upside the head.  Iran is largely responsible for the ongoing terror in Iraq and Iran is hosting security talks? Like Jeffrey Dahmer giving a class in getting along with others.
Careening out of control. All the feel good lefties will love it, but this is tragic. Bad news all round.

Iran to Host Iraq Security Talks
Iraq's President Jalal Talabani has accepted an invitation from his Iranian counterpart to discuss ways of tackling the violence in Iraq. Talabani's office said he would meet President Ahmadinejad in Tehran on Saturday. Some reports say Syria's President Bashar al-Assad may attend. The Iraqi government has also said Syria and Iraq are planning to restore full diplomatic ties, cut in 1982. Meanwhile, Syrian Foreign Minister Walid Moallem paid a visit to Iraq - the highest-ranking Syrian official to travel to Iraq since the U.S.-led invasion in 2003 - and promised his country's support in helping Iraq restore security. (BBC News)

And the organ grinder's monkey"

    See also Syria, Iraq Restore Diplomatic Ties (VOA News)

US Says 100 Fighters a Month Enter Iraq From Syria

Syria Lends a Hand - Bret Stephens
On Sunday, Syrian Foreign Minister Walid al-Moallem paid a visit to Baghdad to pledge his cooperation with the Iraqi government and urge a timetable for American withdrawal. On Friday, the New York Times reported that Moallem had met in New York with James Baker's Iraq Study Group to explain why it is in Syria's "national interest to try to help stabilize the situation in Iraq." Who is Walid Moallem? Would the U.S. be wise to "engage" him and his government in the cause of Mideast peace?
    According to last year's Mehlis Report, which details the preliminary findings of the UN investigation into the assassination of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri and 22 others, Moallem met with Hariri two weeks prior to his assassination. Their exchange was secretly taped: Hariri: "I cannot live under a security regime that is specialized in interfering with Hariri and spreading disinformation about Hariri and writing reports to Bashar Assad....Lebanon will never be ruled from Syria." Moallem: "We and the [security] services here have put you into a corner. Please do not take things lightly." Moallem later falsely described the meeting to UN investigators as "friendly and constructive." He would thus seem to be guilty of obstructing an ongoing criminal investigation, if not actually of conspiracy to murder. (Wall Street Journal, 21Nov06)
    See also Don't Let Syria Get Away with Killing Rafik Hariri - Michael Young
Syria never accepted its forced withdrawal from Lebanon last year, and has worked tirelessly since then to reimpose its writ there. Now there is new hope in Damascus: It was music to Syrian President Bashar Assad's ears to hear James Baker, co-chairman of the Iraq Study Group, advocating dialogue with Syria and Iran in an interview last month. Syria's Lebanese foes fear they will pay if the U.S. and Damascus cut a deal. In 1990, Baker was a leading light in President George H.W. Bush's administration, which ceded Lebanon to Syria in exchange for President Hafez Assad's agreement to be part of the international coalition against Iraq. (Wall Street Journal)

John Bolton's remarks on the Hariri investigation back on December 12th, 2005.  Listen to his entire speech audio Download Bolton_Speech_final.mp3  

UPDATE: BREAKING: US military discovered the  vehicles transporting the Sunni Muslim leader to the Iraqi parliament were wired with explosives.

Fears of Mideast "Shiite Bloc" Rise
The fear of a powerful "Shiite bloc" has reached almost fever pitch across the Middle East and some of America's crucial allies are among the most worried. The violence in Iraq and the growing power of Shiite Iran are the main factors, while the Shiite Hizballah's new influence, after the summer war with Israel, is also key. Together, the trends are prompting a backlash from Sunni Arab governments, says Vali Nasr, an Iran expert at the Naval Postgraduate School in the U.S.

UPDATE: Wretchard: The Rout Continues

And Jim at Gateway Pundit has the best coverage of the assassination anywhere.

Sandmonkey has reactions here

Click below for more on the Gemayel assassination

BEIRUT, Lebanon  — Prominent anti-Syrian Christian politician Pierre Gemayel was assassinated in a suburb of Beirut on Tuesday, his party's radio station and Lebanon's official news agency reported.

His fatal shooting will certainly heighten the political tension in Lebanon, where the leading Muslim Shiite party Hezbollah has threatened to topple the government if it does not get a bigger say in Cabinet decision making.

Witnesses said Gemayel was shot in his car in Jdeideh, a Christian neighborhood, his constituency on the northern edge of Beirut. The witnesses said a car rammed his car from behind and then an assassin stepped out and shot him at point blank range.

Gemayel was rushed to a nearby hospital seriously wounded, the Lebanese Broadcasting Corp. and Voice of Lebanon, the Phalange Party's radio station, reported.

The party radio later said he was dead, as did the National News Agency.

Click here to go to FOXNews.com's Mideast Center.

Gemayel, the minister of industry and son of former President Amin Gemayel, was a member of the Phalange party and supporter of the anti-Syrian parliamentary majority, which is locked in a power struggle with pro-Syrian factions led by Hezbollah.

Gemayel is the third prominent figure in Lebanese politics to be assassinated in the past two years. Former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri was killed in a massive car bombing in February 2005 and lawmaker and newspaper manager Gibran Tueni was killed in a car bombing in December.

Saad Hariri, leader of the anti-Syrian parliamentary majority, broke off a televised news conference after hearing that Gemayel had been shot.

In an television interview later, Hariri hailed Gemayel as "a friend, a brother to all of us" and appeared to break down after saying: "we will bring justice to all those who killed him."

Gemayel was first elected to parliament in 2005 and was believed to be the youngest legislator in the legislature, where anti-Syrian groups dominate.

He hailed from a prominent family of politicians. His father, Amin, served as president between 1982 and 1988 and his grandfather, the late Pierre Gemayel, led the right-wing Christian Phalanage Party that fielded the largest Christian militia during the 1975-90 civil war between Christians and Muslims.

Comments

[chsw]

From the Iranian point of view, the assassination of Gemayel may be an example to Talabani and other Iraqis.

chsw

[Richard Davis]

As Dennis Prager said, we are witnessing the Islamic takeover of a Christian country right before our eyes. He said it wasn't too long ago, 1930's that Lebanon was mostly Catholic, but the Muslims came in and started killing them and throwing them out (google Brigitte Gabriel to learn about her life in Lebanon).

Now they have reached the point where, if you are Christian and outspoken, you are murdered, assassinated. This is the Islamic form of discussion.

[Richard Davis]

I found this on a new blog I was reading the other day and I like the author's idea. It's hard core tough, just like the proprietor. This is how he hoped we would react after 9/11.

"Go directly to the sources of terrorism in the Middle East and utterly, and without warning, destroy the three capitals of the three major sponsors of Islamic fascism: Tehran, Baghdad, and Damascus, in that order. Then, explain to the world that the United States of America took this unilateral action to demonstrate to the world that it would not tolerate the promotion, funding, or initiation of any terrorist act in the United States or anywhere else in the world. With the three major terrorist capitals in ruins, a real dialog could begin with the remaining Arab and Islamic states (especially Saudi Arabia) to bring to an end the scourge of its suicidal religious fascist radical philosophy, and to begin to promote the idea in the Muslim world that a religious belief does not give one a license to kill. As Chuck Colson once said, “when you’ve got them by the balls, their hearts and minds will follow.”

[turn]

And Prager's point was that 1930's Lebanon troubles were BEFORE the state of Irael existed.

Wherever they are in the world in sufficient numbers, there you'll find trouble. Between Muslims and any other people, or among themselves.

[DoctorDentons]

RD: He, Chuck Colson, also added that if that did not work...SQUEEZE !

[cfbleachers]

Ted Koppout wants to get the "groupthink" crowd into a mindset that these are people you can "talk to"

Considering in almost every charter, of every "leadership group" that exists in the area... EXPRESSLY disavows any dialogue whatsoever...either the Ministry of Media is willfully ignorant or is intentionally misleading the public and once again (for the googleth time) is purposely violating a public trust.

For the Ministry of Media, truth is like Kryptonite. For the Raging Jihadists, dialogue is a sort of halftime break from blowing up things, like innocent women and children.

[angrycritter]

Destroy three countries' capitials?
Now that is not only inappropriate and insane it reeks of Hitler and Final Solutions. But that is you folks' real dream of "ethnically cleansing" the world of Muslims. Just b/c you're a jew does not mean you can't be a facist - Menachem Begin proved that point quite well in the Late 1940's and early 1950's.
I really hope the counterterror folks are watching this blog. Pamela and her fellow travellers on this nut site are constantly calling for the murder of innocents and the assassinations of politicians.

[Zhubin]

Jesus CHRIST, Richard, what a disgusting idea. You want the murder of 20 million innocent lives to avenge the actions of the 9/11 terrorists?

At least before you people kept your bloodthirst limited, in word if not in thought, to "terrorists," however loosely you defined that term. Now that you've expanded it to innocent lives whom you deem to be guilty by mere association, how on earth do you distinguish yourselves from bin Laden and Al-Qaeda? I mean, do you not even see the irony in your statements?

[Zhubin]

And for God's sake, even if we did that, do you honestly think they'll respond with "dialogue?"

Why do you guys always think other nations will submit to displays of military might? The whole history of colonialism, Vietnam, Iraq, and even just common sense should teach you otherwise. If Europe suddenly bombs the hell out of D.C., New York, Atlanta, and Chicago, to force us to get out of Iraq, do you think we'd all agree that we should consider it? Why do you think OTHER nations would?

[wxjames]

Zhubin, you're on a roll, babe, what would a clear thinker like you do ?
What, nothing ? 9/11 happened, Zhubin, What to do ? Can you stop Islam from the continued killing of non-muslims worldwide ?
How ?
Our leaders will find a way ?
Our leaders aren't even talking about it.
They are stuck on stupid.
Zhubin, help me out here.

[maryatexitzero]

Jesus CHRIST, FDR, what a disgusting idea. You want the murder of 20 million innocent lives to avenge the actions of the Pearl Harbor bombers?

At least before you people kept your bloodthirst limited, in word if not in thought, to "fascists," however loosely you defined that term. Now that you've expanded it to innocent lives whom you deem to be guilty by mere association, how on earth do you distinguish yourselves from Hitler and Tojo? I mean, do you not even see the irony in your statements?

Why do you guys always think other nations will submit to displays of military might?

[Richard Davis]

I got news for you Zhitbut. I said I found it on another site, written by a different blogger. It's AN OPTION... granted, an extreme option, but it's an option that should be considered. I'm open to all ideas. And I'll tell you this too, I like this option and there are A LOT of people who like it. A whole whole lot. And there's different ways to do it, nukes might not be needed to drive the message home to STOP THE BULLSHIT! Americans are tired of fighting a Politically Correct war. 9/11 opened my eyes and the Jews already experienced one Holocaust. I don't want to see us or them get massacred again.

These are extremists we're dealing with, and extreme option might be our only answer.

maryatexitzero made a great point. BZ!

9/11-never forget, never again.

[angrycritter]

9/11 was 3000 people - you're saying that the deaths of around 20 million people would start to make you feel vindicated?
You can't be a Christian b/c there's that part about turning the other cheek.

Pamela is into OT revenge fantasies, silicone implants, Cartier watches and Manolo Blahniks and other conspicuous consumption - but not peace.

You are so crazy I'm surprised you haven't choked on your own tongue from a hate induced seizure.
When you pop a vein in your head from thinking such awful crap then the world will be a little safer.
Just keep thinking about all the investigations that are coming in the next sessions of Congress. Just think of Nancy Pelosi. Think of all the Democrats who are going to stop the insanity that you folks support. Sleep well.

[maryatexitzero]

You are so crazy I'm surprised you haven't choked on your own tongue from a hate induced seizure.
When you pop a vein in your head from thinking such awful crap then the world will be a little safer.

Angrycritter, I'm sure you don't see the irony in your blithering expressions of misdirected rage, but fortunately everyone else does.

[turn]

I can't know the mind of G*D, but I've done a fair amount of thinking on 'turn the other cheek'. Ironic, that.

As Christians, we hold forgiveness in high regard as a necessary and moral value. Offering an enemy to strike the other side of one's face may even cool his temper.

But nothing I've read or contemplated from the Old Testament to the Gospels suggests that the people of G*D must refrain from defending themselves and offer up their lives in sacrifice to those that would murder us.

In point of fact, what would the world of today look like if men of faith had never gone to war? It's a dichotomy, but it's part of the human condition.

Now, as to the topic of the post. We ilks recognize the right of Israel to exist. Some of us ilks even want Israel to thrive.

Iran, Syria, and Hizbollah don't like Israel for a variety of reasons. So anytime they get up to some mischief people die. Innocent people. Innocent Israelis, innocent Iraqis. And then, other men have to stop them. Men of faith.

And may we all come together this Thanksgiving and celebrate our ilkhood.

turn (the other cheek) /out

[angrycritter]

There is a difference between behaving like a normal country and behaving like South Africa under apartheid.

But you folks advocate the wholesale slaughter of Muslims so how are you any different from Nazis? You're the flip side of the same coin.

[Zhubin]

I got news for you Zhitbut.

Wow. You are witty.

Americans are tired of fighting a Politically Correct war.

By "politically correct war," do you mean one where we try to separate innocent lives from combatants? I don't think Americans are, but I'm sure you are.

These are extremists we're dealing with, and extreme option might be our only answer.

That's literally the exact same justification bin Laden uses. No difference. Nothing separates you from him.

As for mary's ridiculous point: there's no similarity between World War II, where armed nations declared war against each other, and our current conflict against Islamic terrorism. Our success in this war is entirely contingent on winning the support of Muslim populations and isolating terrorist factions. Your mass-murder capital-bombing solution, besides being the worst of all crimes against humanity, would make the situation a million times worse.

I'll never understand why you look at a group of people who fight us because they believe we are murdering conquerers, and think that we can stop them by murdering and conquering.

[Richard Davis]

zhitbut - it's not our fault. Only people that think it is are commies. are you a commie?

[maryatexitzero]

Our success in this war is entirely contingent on winning the support of Muslim populations and isolating terrorist factions

Their primary support does not come from the general Muslim population, it comes from wealthy Arabs and Muslims who hope to use these paramilitaries to gain power.

I'll never understand why you look at a group of people who fight us because they believe we are murdering conquerers, and think that we can stop them by murdering and conquering

They're fighting us for the same reasons anyone wages war - they want more land, more money and more power. Also, they think they can win.

As long as we believe a cheesy, improbable idea like "Our success in this war is entirely contingent on winning the support of Muslim populations and isolating terrorist factions", they will win.

Wars are won by dismantling the enemy's infrastructure, by military or economic means. No one has ever won a war through community outreach programs.

[Zhubin]

Richard, go to bed and let grownups talk.

Mary, this is not a "war" in the conventional sense, and you guys need to stop thinking of it like one. We're essentially fighting a radical ideology - there's no infrastructure to attack, there's no one group that has some sort of motive like land or money or power. It's just different loose coalitions that have widely diverging goals and who even fight each other, in a dense and complex web of connections and alliances.

If we have to eliminate radical Islam, ultimately we have to eliminate the sources that foment radical Islam. That means (in addition to killing terrorists and their recruiters) addressing the causes of radicalism, and that means convincing the Muslim world that the U.S. is not the arrogant imperialist they think it is.

[maryatexitzero]

Mary, this is not a "war" in the conventional sense, and you guys need to stop thinking of it like one. We're essentially fighting a radical ideology - there's no infrastructure to attack, there's no one group that has some sort of motive like land or money or power. It's just different loose coalitions that have widely diverging goals and who even fight each other, in a dense and complex web of connections and alliances.

Yes, and they all want more money, land and power. It's a collection of connections and alliances that are similar to any mob/gangster organization, no more complicated than the Gottis and Gambinos (if those organizations ruled over desert fiefdoms and were fueled by billions in oil money).

If we have to eliminate radical Islam, ultimately we have to eliminate the sources that foment radical Islam.

'Radical Islam' is a recruiting tool, not a goal. Other recuriting tools include drugs, the nihilistic impulse to slaughter lots of innocent people, the hopes of gaining political power and money. The Muslim/Arab world has been carrying out campaigns of enslavement and ethnic cleansing throughout Africa and the Middle East. These arrogant racist imperialist thugs resent us because we're in their way.

That means (in addition to killing terrorists and their recruiters)

Now you're talking. In your opinion, which recruiters should we kill first?

[Thomas Carney]

If one looks at the history of Muslim interactions with non-Muslim countries, the ONLY thing that slows or stops Muslim incursions is a thorough ASS-KICKING of Muslim armies.

September 11, 1683: The Polish Army stopped the Ottoman Turks at the gates of Vienna, Austria. It was not a small defeat of the Ottomans, it was an ass-kicking by the Polish. It took another 238 years for the Ottoman Empire to disappear completely but the Ottomans were never the same after that.

The so-called leaders of Western nations must understand that Islam is not something to be negotiated with. It is a sociopathic ideology masquerading as a religion that seeks forced takeovers.

How should the United States have done this? Well, for one, W. should have followed the Constitution and asked Congress for a declaration of war on the Taliban. The Taliban should have been actively been battled with until Afghanistan was made US territory. Historically, that's how wars were fought. A thorough and complete annihilation of the Taliban and their poppy fields would have given a message to the rest of the Muslims that we weren't fooling around. Unfortunately, our State Department is full of traitors and derailed the start of a good ass-kicking.