Islamists Assassinate Bhutto

UPDATED ALL DAY: SCROLL!

UPDATE: The Washington Times has a GREAT ROUND-UP and they quote yours truly here.

“I put my life in danger and came here because I feel this country is in danger. People are worried. We will bring the country out of this crisis.” - Benazir Bhutto in a speech moments before her assasination

After a number of attempts (including using infants as homicide bombers) they have murdered pro American, pro-woman, pro-democracy, Benazir Bhutto. The scene in Islamabad and at the hospital according to eyewitnesses is absolute chaos. They are screaming Musharaff DOG!

This may very well be a defining historical moment much the way the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand was the match that set the world on fire and set off the outbreak of World War I.

Surak writes;

Benazir Bhutto, murdered in Rawalpindi - probably friendly to America - pro-Pakistan first, of course, but totally anti-jihadist and pro-women - extremely popular in Pakistan with the common urbanites who don't want to live under shari'a.  Yes, it is Islam, ISLAM, ISLAM!  But there are good people there as well.  It's time for a Pakistani civil war - flatten those Northwest Frontier Provinces and Waziristan - the Pakistani military has been afraid to go in there and clean up - what's stopping them now?  And the nukes...  G-d help us all.

U.S. Checking al Qaeda Claim of Killing Bhutto

Gateway Pundit has the story here;

Bhutto was shot in the neck and the chest---  A suicide bomber then blew himself up. At least 20 others were also killed in the blast.
Al-Qaeda took responsibility for the assassination.

JWF notes that this assassination comes 12 days before national elections.

Here is the last footage before she was murdered (posted today);

BUSH:

Islamic Fascism – the Focus of Evil in the Modern World Steve Beren

The assassination of Benazir Bhutto is a sharp reminder of the danger posed by Islamic fascist terrorism. America is already a nation at war, and it is indeed a world war. The war being waged by Islamic fascist terrorism is fought not only in Iraq and Afghanistan, but on a global scale - we have seen the slaughter of innocents from Madrid and London to New York City and Bali, and now we see the terrorist assassination of a pro-democracy leader in Pakistan.

Those who minimize the threat of Islamic terrorism are dangerously wrong. We must achieve greater unity as a nation, with a clear understanding of the aims and goals of the enemy. This war is military and ideological – a war of freedom, liberty, and democracy against the spread of fascism, terrorism, and tyranny. We must reject the voices of denial and defeatism.

A quarter of a century ago, in his famous "evil empire" speech, Ronald Reagan spoke about the danger facing America and the world at that time:

"[T]hey are the focus of evil in the modern world…. [S]ome would have us accept them at their word and accommodate ourselves to their aggressive impulses. But if history teaches anything, it teaches that simple-minded appeasement or wishful thinking about our adversaries is folly. It means the betrayal of our past, the squandering of our freedom…. I believe we shall rise to the challenge. I believe that communism is another sad, bizarre chapter in human history whose last pages even now are being written." (President Ronald Reagan, speech to National Association of Evangelicals, March 8, 1983)

Today, the focus of evil in the modern world is Islamic fascism. Once again, history teaches that appeasement and wishful thinking is folly. Weakness in the face of terrorism would mean the loss of our freedom.

UPDATE: David Horowitz on the Bhutto assassination: The importance of being on offense

Pakistan is a country of 100 million people. It has nuclear weapons; its intelligence services created the Taliban; it is poised on the edge of a civil war between forces that want to join the Islamo-fascist crusade against the West and those who do not. Benazir Bhutto, whatever her faults, was of the anti-jihadist party. Now she has been assassinated by a Muslim fanatic.

The political situation in Pakistan is perilous and not only for Pakistanis but for us.This is something that the liberal wiseguys who attack the Islamo-Fascism Awareness movement don't seem to get. I'm not talking about the Nation and DailyKos leftists who are part of the unholy alliance against the West. I'm talking about the liberals at The American Propsect and Talking Points Memo who think that the jihad is a crime problem and that Islamo-Fascism is a bad term to describe our enemies because they control only mid-size nation states such as Iran.

The Assassination of Benazir Bhutto is a wake up call. We are in a war and the war is getting closer to home. The sooner Americans understand this, the safer we will be.

STEYN! STEYN! STEYN!

Shades of Gray   [Mark Steyn]

Michael Rubin's point is well taken. Almost every institution in Pakistan has been hollowed out by agents of the forces it claims to be opposed to. That's why thinking of these factions only in terms of the front man is not useful. Whether Musharraf represents "the army" any more than Nawaz Sharif represents "democracy" is unlikely. All that matters on the street is a crude symbolism: Miss Bhutto was seen as Washington's choice. Now she's dead. From an Islamist point of view, when we try to export our influence to Islamabad, it's a bust. When they try to export their influence to the west - via the perpetrators of the London Tube bombing, the Daniel Pearl killing, etc - they seem to have rather more luck.

By the way, I would like to believe that JPod is right about Benazir's murder marking the end of Campaign '08's Holiday from History. But my sense is that the entire Democratic primary base and a good chunk of the GOP's is in the mood for a post-"war on terror" election, and that one more dead distant foreigner will not shake them from that.

UPDATE: Worldwide round-up

UK urges restraint after Bhutto killing

UAE 'tormented' by Bhutto's killing (hard to believe when one considers this act is the poison fruit of Islam)

India calls Bhutto death terrible blow to democracy

UPDATE: Did you catch Bolton on FOX earlier? The point he makes is "worry about the nukes.  We pushed for elections and got this." 

Pakistan's Nuclear Weapons Arsenal at Play

UPDATE: Times Online: Bhutto spoke of family tragedy moments before assassins struck

Comments

[Josef K]

A horrific atrocity.

This is a crime against humanity that simply shouldn't stand. I mean, who's next...

Gee, if you had to think about that, you haven't read this blog.

Check six, Atlas. And please, for the love of America, don't stand up in an SUV.

[Josef K]

Oh and BTW, small dead animals calls Islam the religion of detonation.

I was serious though - Pamela, please be careful.

[Thomas Carney]

Bad news for the whole world, not just for Pakistan and the United States.

It's very ironic how al Qaeda and the Taliban consider themselves to be big, brave, warriors and yet, they were DEATHLY AFRAID of ONE WOMAN. One woman. A woman who cared deeply for her country and knew democracy was the only good way for Pakistan.

What a bunch of pussies the Taliban and al Qaeda are.

Next: SECURE THE BLOODY NUKES!!!

[EJO]

Dear Pamela;
This is part of what Debbie Schlussel had to say: "Our soldiers are dying there, fighting the Taliban, and Bush tried to re-insert upon Pakistan the woman who enabled the Taliban in the first place".
Sincerely;
EJO

[Muslims Against Sharia]

Muslims Against Sharia condemn the murderers responsible for the assassination of Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto and her supporters.

Our prayers are with the victims of this atrocity. We send our condolences to their loved ones.

May the homicide bomber rote in hell for eternity. May his accomplices join him soon!

http://muslimsagainstsharia.blogspot.com/2007/12/prime-minister-benazir-bhutto-murdered.html

[Timur]

Pamela, sadly I doubt this will have any great effect on the world. Archduke Ferdinand was the nephew of Emperor/Kaiser Franz Joseph, which is why Germany and Austria got involved in WWI. Bhutto was "just a woman", whose mere presence threatened the moslem terrorists with her Western values of freedom and independence...

[SalamiBaloney]

Beautiful lady, Ms.Bhutto may you R.I.P. - how sad - we all lose today.

When will Islam stop the bloodshed?

[Surak]

The picture you posted is the best one I've seen, Ms. Geller. Unfortunately, the caption below it belongs to a completely different picture, to be found at the Reuters link. The black and white photo above is clearly a much older picture - but it's the one I prefer.

[Pamela Geller]

Thanks Surak........... fixed

[Pamela Geller]

I think about it everyday ......everyday

[Josef K]

BTW, some good news...

It seems Kevin07 is not this Commie leftard. Apparently, Australian PM Kevin Rudd has said in the wake of the Bhutto assassination by the religion of detonation,

"It reminds us all ... that terrorism is alive and well in the world, that terrorism remains an enemy of all civilised people and that terrorism therefore needs to be confronted with the full vigour and resolve of the democratic community of states."

This is also the same Prime Minister who has recently visited Afghanistan & Iraq and made long-term commitments to coalition efforts there. I think American Democrats have much to learn from Kevin07.

[EJO]

Dear Pamela;
This is from Yahoo News:

Sardar Qamar Hayyat, a leader from Bhutto's party, said at the time of the attack he was standing about 10 yards away from her vehicle — a white, bulletproof SUV with a sunroof.

"She was inside the vehicle and was coming out from the gate after addressing the rally when some of the youths started chanting slogans in her favor. Then I saw a smiling Bhutto emerging from the vehicle's roof and responding to their slogans," he said.

"Then I saw a thin, young man jumping toward her vehicle from the back and opening fire. Moments later, I saw her speeding vehicle going away," he added.

Now seriously; if you knew that hundreds of people hated your guts, and wanted you dead, why would you do such a stupid thing like sticking your head out through the roof of your car?
I mean, I'm sorry she's dead. Although I believe the first time I heard her name was just about two months ago. But she committed a very foolish act. She wasn't even wearing a bullet proof vest.
Sincerely;
EJO

[Jane]

I am deeply sorry that Bhutto was murdered. There is no excuse for such violence. Bhutto was highly educated, spoke well, was charming and unique. She appealed to those of us in the west who are desperately searching for a leader within Islam that we can connect to. Her charm enabled us to feel a bond that we have not experienced with any other Muslim leader. We viewed her as someone we could work with - a Moderate. She offered hope to many of us for good relations with Islam.

However -

There was another side to Ms. Bhutto, and if the reports are accurate, she had the blood of innocent victims on her hands. Our Hindu friends do not view her as a charming Moderate. It is widely documented that she sanctioned ethnic cleansing in the Kashmiri region. Thousands of innocent people lost their lives, women were raped, homes burned, and families destroyed. The survivors of such brutality were forcibly removed from the area into refugee camps - despite the fact that their people had resided in this region for centuries. The reason - they were not Muslim. Such actions are no different then what is presently being inflicted upon our Christian friends in Kosovo at the hands of another group of Islamists. Nor are these actions any different then what is about to be inflicted upon Israel by another set of Islamists.

I fully understand our need to find one person within the Muslim community that we can relate to. I understand the principle that we must find ways to work with what we have. However, I believe we need to start being more selective about who we choose. Many of our problems occur because we are far to willing to turn a blind eye to such "indiscretions". Inevitably these tawdry relationships lead to trouble in our own countries, and others. Furthermore, it is unfair to align ourselves with Hindus so that we can win the "war on terror", while praising the attributes of an individual who inflicted tremendous trauma on Hindu lives. If we do, then we aren't really the best of friends we are just fickle users.

The truth about Ms. Bhutto is that she was just another Islamist who knew how to play the game with the west. If she could condone the ethnic cleansing of innocent non-Muslims, (the very thing we are trying to stop in the west, and Israel), then she was no friend of ours, and doesn't warrant our adoration.

[Thomas Carney]

SalamiBaloney wrote, "When will Islam stop the bloodshed?"

The answer is simple: Islam collectively will NOT stop the bloodshed. Islam has no head. Islam has no "Vicar of Mohammed on Earth". It has no "pope", no "primate", and therefore NO ONE to lead Islam to reform itself and become a civilized community.

To expect Islam to collectively give up its violent tendencies is both very naive and idiotic to expect.

Islam was held in check for decades by European colonial powers. The PC crowd denounces the colonialism and maybe it should be denounced but for a different reason than the PC Leftard idiots. Prior to the colonialism of the late 18th Century to the mid-20th Century, the Middle East was constantly at war, with Muslim tribes fighting each other constantly, and no consensus on how Islam was to act with the rest of the world. When Britain took over Egypt and Israel, and part of Saudi Arabia, plus France having Syria, Lebanon and Jordan, the Muslims could get a breather and re-organize against a new enemy: the Europeans. Fine examples: the Muslim Brotherhood forming in Egypt in the mid 20th Century, the Grand Mufti of Jerusalem Hajj al-Husseini allying himself with Hitler to destroy Jews and get the British out of Israel.... and on and on.

The assassination of Benazir Bhutto is another fine example of Islamists being very unwilling to give up violence...and Islam will NEVER collectively give up violence... unless it is forced to by assured destruction.

The West has to go on the offensive against Islam. Nothing less will stop them.

I was totally stunned when Leftards made charges that it was the USA's fault that Ms. Bhutto was assassinated because America didn't do enough to protect her.... for crying out loud, get real!!!!

[Razdan]

Jane wrote, "I fully understand our need to find one person within the Muslim community that we can relate to. I understand the principle that we must find ways to work with what we have. However, I believe we need to start being more selective about who we choose. Many of our problems occur because we are far to willing to turn a blind eye to such "indiscretions"."

First of all, I wish to thank you Jane for your very well expressed comments. As a Kashmiri Hindu, whose family was driven out of Kashmir, in large part by the actions of Benazir Bhutto, I find it appalling how she is being made out to be this great and beautiful lady who was trying to bring democracy to Pakistan when in actuality she was nothing more than an opportunist. The Pakistani leaders are nothing more than extortionists who have sold credulous US policy makers (unfortunately, that seems to include Mr. Bolton) on the notion that without them the Paki nukes will be in the hands of the jehadists. Well, I have news for all you folks... these nukes are already in the hands of jehadists! Mush, Benazir... and all the other leaders of Pakistan are deeply involved in setting up the Paki jehadi machinery. Just because Mush wears a suit and says he is aligned with the USA does not mean he is. His actions speak far louder than his words. Our foreign policy with regard to Pakistan can never succeed if we keep putting our blinkers on and refuse to acknowledge the reality that stares us in the face.

[Jane]

Razdan: I am really glad you posted your excellent comments. I'm heading out to an appointment, but wanted to let you know that I had seen your post. I promise to reply more fully when I return home. The suffering that Hindus experience at the hands of Islamists is important and warrants much more discussion.

[Jane]

I am really glad you have posted your comments. Most do not realize the depth of brutality that is continually inflicted upon the Hindu community at the hands of Islamists. I know I’m not telling you anything you don’t already know when I say that every single day Hindus are murdered, tortured, threatened, girls/women are kidnapped and forcibly converted to Islam or raped and discarded, and homes and temples are destroyed. It is rare that these atrocities are covered in the press. Can you provide any links to web sites that discuss what Hindus experience at the hands of Islamists? The topic deserves greater awareness.

Initially I thought these facts were being kept hidden because of bigotry towards Hindus. While indeed that may be the case in certain situations, I’ve come to the conclusion that Islamic atrocities are hidden whether they are inflicted upon Hindus, Jews, Christians, Buddhists and others. Media and politicians ardently protect the reputations of Islamists at the expense of all other religious groups. It is time WE changed these policies. The more information that can be disclosed by all religious groups about these atrocities, the better chance we have of provoking meaningful change. Hiding Islam’s dirty little secrets under the carpet, or excusing atrocities committed by individuals such as Bhutto only prolongs the heartache for all non-Muslims.

Atlas Shrugs does a wonderful job of disseminating information regarding atrocities that are committed against all religious groups. Pam has a huge following of readers. If you can contribute further information on this topic, I know that her readers will spread the word. It will help the Hindu community. Religious groups from all non-Muslim persuasions should work together to destroy the myths regarding Islamists. Throughout the world, the media and politicians need to be shamed into doing the right thing. It is absurd that these atrocities continue to be hidden or ignored, and as citizens of the world we should not tolerate it any longer. Undeniably Islam carries great power and influence because of oil, and other unworthy excuses. Their numbers are huge. However, if the various non-Muslim religious groups can come together into a cohesive force, the potential to shut down Islamists is greater. They understand the power of their numbers. As of this moment we are fragmented and disorganized, and it works against us.

I completely agree with your comments about the jihadis controlling both Pakistan, and the nuclear weapons. It is short-sighted and foolish to think otherwise. I continue to be astounded by the naivety and/or corruption of our western leaders. Alliances that our politicians make with Islamists will destroy our lives. Islamists are not our friends, never have been, and never will be. They can never be trusted, despite the suits or the pretty words they utter. They are the enemies of all non-Muslims and all democracies. Period! There is no grey area on this issue. Their intent and goals have been clearly articulated, and are well documented. Our misguided or greedy idiots/traitors in both the political and corporate world continue to ignore these threats. Our lives are being toyed with. Corporations that are in bed with Islamists should be boycotted. Why should they be allowed to profit while sacrificing our lives and future to Islam? Shut them down. Inept politicians need to be replaced with individuals who are willing to do the dirty work to crush the Islamist movement. Our survival depends on us saying enough to the deadly games that politicians are playing with our lives. The longer we tolerate their betrayals the greater the risk.

Ordinary citizens are easily lulled into a stupor because someone like Bhutto speaks softly, or wears a suit like Musharef. Our senses have been dulled by the concept of celebrity. We trust too easily, and are enamored of individuals who exhibit charm and charisma. Musharef tells the world that he is a friend of the U.S. and that he is helping us to fight the war on terror. It is a blatant lie. Western politicians who reiterate his falsehoods are blatantly lying too. Billions of dollars have been spent lining pockets with little if any return. If we have any hope of winning the war against Islamists, we need to be selective of whom we choose as our friends, and who receives our money. Every cent that has gone to Pakistan and other Islamic countries, or to Fatah, finances the suffering and death of millions of innocent non-Muslim victims. It is time people stopped being gullible and buying into the lies being presented to them by their own politicians and Islamists. People need to wake up. Nothing will change unless we come together, create a powerful lobby, and raise our voices in protest.

I don’t believe that western politicians are serious about stopping Islamists. Everything they do is counter productive to ending these problems. Our politicians are either the dumbest people on the face of the earth or the most corrupt. Either way their actions are destroying the lives of millions. Our leaders have laid the foundation for a very bleak future for all non-Muslims. These politicians need to be replaced with individuals who actually understand the threat, are willing to take strong measures to stop it, and are not motivated by greed. Until such time, our lives will increasingly be at risk and the future looks bleak. We are facing a future of butchery, torture, death, or servitude. That is not the future we should be leaving our children.

[Jane]

Sleepwalking Into A Nightmare

Gingrich Transcript - Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich delivered the following remarks to a Jewish National Fund meeting at the Selig Center

I just want to talk to you from the heart for a few minutes and share with you where I think we are.

I think it is very stark. I don't think it is yet desperate, but it is very stark. And if I had a title for today's talk, it would be sleepwalking into a nightmare. 'Cause that's what I think we're doing.

I gave a speech at the American Enterprise Institute Sept. 10 at which I gave an alternative history of the last six years, because the more I thought about how much we're failing, the more I concluded you couldn't just nitpick individual places and talk about individual changes because it didn't capture the scale of the disaster. And I had been particularly impressed by a new book that came out called Troublesome Young Men, which is a study of the younger Conservatives who opposed appeasement in the 1930s and who took on Chamberlain. It's a very revealing book and a very powerful book because we tend to look backwards and we tend to overstate Churchill's role in that period. And we tend to understate what a serious and conscientious and thoughtful effort appeasement was and that it was the direct and deliberate policy of very powerful and very willful people. We tend to think of it as a psychological weakness as though Chamberlain was somehow craven. He wasn't craven. Chamberlain had a very clear vision of the world, and he was very ruthless domestically. And they believed so deeply in avoiding war with Germany that as late as the spring of 1940, when they are six months or seven months into they war, they are dropping leaflets instead of bombs on the Rohr, and they are urging the British news media not to publish anti-German stories because they don't want to offend the German people. And you read this book, and it makes you want to weep because, interestingly, the younger Tories who were most opposed to appeasement were the combat veterans of World War I, who had lost all of their friends in the war but who understood that the failure of appeasement would result in a worse war and that the longer you lied about reality, the greater the disaster.

And they were severely punished and isolated by Chamberlain and the Conservative machine, and as I read that, I realized that that's really where we are today. Our current problem is tragic. You have an administration whose policy is inadequate being opposed by a political left whose policy is worse, and you have nobody prepared to talk about the policy we need. Because we are told if you are for a strong America, you should back the Bush policy even if it's inadequate, and so you end up making an argument in favor of something that can't work. So your choice is to defend something which isn't working or to oppose it by being for an even weaker policy. So this is a catastrophe for this country and a catastrophe for freedom around the world. Because we have refused to be honest about the scale of the problem.

Let me work back. I'm going to get to Iran since that's the topic, but I'm going to get to it eventually. Let me work back from Pakistan. The dictatorship in Pakistan has never had control over Wiziristan. Not for a day. So we've now spent six years since 9/11 with a sanctuary for Al-Qaida and a sanctuary for the Taliban, and every time we pick up people in Great Britain who are terrorists, they were trained in Pakistan.

And our answer is to praise Musharraf because at least he's not as bad as the others. But the truth is Musharraf has not gotten control of terrorism in Pakistan. Musharraf doesn't have full control over his own government. The odds are even money we're going to drift into a disastrous dictatorship at some point in Pakistan. And while we worry about the Iranians acquiring a nuclear weapon, the Pakistanis already have 'em, So why would you feel secure in a world where you could presently have an Islamist dictatorship in Pakistan with a hundred-plus nuclear weapons? What's our grand strategy for that?

Then you look at Afghanistan. Here's a country that's small, poor, isolated, and in six years we have not been able to build roads, create economic opportunity, wean people off of growing drugs. A third of the GDP is from drugs. We haven't been able to end the sanctuary for the Taliban in Pakistan. And I know of no case historically where you defeat a guerrilla movement if it has a sanctuary. So the people who rely on the West are outbribed by the criminals, outgunned by the criminals, and faced with a militant force across the border which practiced earlier defeating the Soviet empire and which has a time horizon of three or four generations. NATO has a time horizon of each quarter or at best a year, facing an opponent whose time horizon is literally three or four generations. It's a total mismatch.

Then you come to the direct threat to the United States, which is Al-Qaida. Which, by the way, we just published polls. One of the sites I commend to you is AmericanSolutions.com. Last Wednesday we posted six national surveys, $428,000 worth of data. We gave it away. I found myself in the unique position of calling Howard Dean to tell him I was giving him $400,000 worth of polling. We have given it away to both Democrats and Republicans. It is fundamentally different from the national news media. When asked the question "Do we have an obligation to defend the United States and her allies?" the answer is 85 percent yes. When asked a further question "Should we defeat our enemies?" - it's very strong language - the answer is 75 percent yes, 75 to 16.

The complaint about Iraq is a performance complaint, not a values complaint.

When asked whether or not Al-Qaida is a threat, 89 percent of the country says yes. And they think you have to defeat it, you can't negotiate with it. So now let's look at Al-Qaida and the rise of Islamist terrorism.

And let's be honest: What's the primary source of money for Al-Qaida? It's you, recirculated through Saudi Arabia. Because we have no national energy strategy, when clearly if you really cared about liberating the United States from the Middle East and if you really cared about the survival of Israel, one of your highest goals would be to move to a hydrogen economy and to eliminate petroleum as a primary source of energy.

Now that's what a serious national strategy would look like, but that would require real change.

So then you look at Saudi Arabia. The fact that we tolerate a country saying no Christian and no Jew can go to Mecca, and we start with the presumption that that's true while they attack Israel for being a religious state is a sign of our timidity, our confusion, our cowardice that is stunning.

It's not complicated. We're inviting Saudi Arabia to come to Annapolis to talk about rights for Palestinians when nobody is saying, "Let's talk about rights for Christians and Jews in Saudi Arabia. Let's talk about rights for women in Saudi Arabia."

So we accept this totally one-sided definition of the world in which our enemies can cheerfully lie on television every day, and we don't even have the nerve to insist on the truth. We pretend their lies are reasonable. This is a very fundamental problem. And if you look at who some of the largest owners of some of our largest banks are today, they're Saudis.

You keep pumping billions of dollars a year into countries like Venezuela, Iran and Saudi Arabia, and Russia, and you are presently going to have created people who oppose you who have lots of money. And they're then going to come back to your own country and finance, for example, Arab study institutes whose only requirement is that they never tell the truth. So you have all sorts of Ph.D.s who now show up quite cheerfully prepared to say whatever it is that makes their funders happy - in the name, of course, of academic freedom. So why wouldn't Columbia host a genocidal madman? It's just part of political correctness. I mean, Ahmadinejad may say terrible things, he may lock up students, he may kill journalists, he may say, "We should wipe out Israel," he may say, "We should defeat the United States," but after all, what has he done that's inappropriate? What has he done that wouldn't be repeated at a Hollywood cocktail party or a nice gathering in Europe?

And nobody says this is totally, utterly, absolutely unacceptable. Why is it that the No.1 threat in intelligence movies is the CIA?

I happened the other night to be watching an old movie, To Live and Die in L.A., which is about counterfeiting. But the movie starts with a Secret Service agent who is defending Ronald Reagan in 1985, and the person he is defending Ronald Reagan from, is a suicide bomber who is actually, overtly a Muslim fanatic. Now, six years after 9/11, you could not get that scene made in Hollywood today.

Just look at the movies. Why is it that the bad person is either a right-wing crazed billionaire, or the CIA as a government agency. Go look at the Bourne Ultimatum. Or a movie like the one that George Clooney made, which was an absolute lie, in which it implied that if you were a reformist Arab prince, that probably the CIA would kill you. It's a total lie. We actually have SEALs protecting people all over the world. We actually risk American lives protecting reformers all over the world, and yet Hollywood can't bring itself to tell the truth, (a) because it's ideologically so opposed to the American government and the American military, and (b), because it's terrified that if it said something really openly, honestly true about Muslim terrorists, they might show up in Hollywood. And you might have somebody killed as the Dutch producer was killed.

And so we're living a life of cowardice, and in that life of cowardice we're sleepwalking into a nightmare.

And then you come to Iran. There's a terrific book. Mark Bowden is a remarkable writer who wrote Black Hawk Down, has enormous personal courage. He's a Philadelphi a newspaper writer, actually got the money out of the Philadelphia newspaper to go to Somalia to interview the Somalian side of Black Hawk Down. It's a remarkable achievement. Tells a great story about getting to Somalia, paying lots of cash, having the local warlord protect him, and after about two weeks the warlord came to him and said, "You know, we've decided that we're very uncomfortable with you being here, and you should leave."

And so he goes to the hotel, where he is the only hard-currency guest, and says, "I've got to check out two weeks early because the warlord has told me that he no longer will protect me." And the hotel owner, who wants to keep his only hard-currency guest, says, "Well, why are you listening to him? He's not the government. There is no government ." And Bowden says, "Well, what will I do?" And he says, "You hire a bigger warlord with more guns," which he did. But then he could only stay one more week because he ran out of money.

But this is a guy with real courage. I mean, imagine trying to go out and be a journalist in that kind of world, OK? So Bowden came back and wrote Guest of the Ayatollah, which is the Iranian hostage of 1979, which he entitled, "The First Shots in Iran's War Against America." So in the Bowden worldview, the current Iranian dictatorship has been at war with the United States since 1979. Violated international law. Every conceivable tenet of international law was violated when they seized the American Embassy and they seized the diplomats. Killed Americans in Lebanon in the early '80s. Killed Americans at Khobar Towers in '95 and had the Clinton administration deliberately avoid revealing the information, as Louis Freeh, the director of the FBI, has said publicly, because they didn't want to have to confront the Iranian complicity.

And so you have an Iranian regime which is cited annually as the leading supporter of state terrorism in the world. Every year the State Department says that. It's an extraordinary act of lucidity on the part of an institution which seeks to avoid it as often as possible.

And you have Gen. Petraeus come to the U.S. Congress and say publicly in an open session, "The Iranians are waging a proxy war against Americans in Iraq."

I was so deeply offended by this, it's hard for me to express it without sounding irrational. I'm an Army brat. My dad served 27 years in the infantry. The idea that an American general would come to the American Congress, testify in public that our young men and women are being killed by Iran, and we have done nothing, I find absolutely abhorrent.

So I'm preparing to come and talk today. I got up this morning, and a friend had sent me yesterday's Jerusalem Post editorial, which if you haven't read, I recommend to you. It has, for example, the following quote: "On Monday, chief Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat said, 'The problem of the content of the document setting out joint principles for peace-making post-Annapolis has not been resolved. One of the more pressing problems is the Zionist regime's insistence on being recognized as a Jewish state. We will not agree to recognize Israel as a Jewish state. There is no country in the world where religious and national identities are intertwined.' "

What truly bothers me is the shallowness and the sophistry of the Western governments, starting with our own. When a person says to you, "I don't recognize that you exist," you don't start a negotiation. The person says, "I literally do not recognize" and then lies to you. I mean the first thing you say to this guy is "Terrific. Let's go visit Mecca. Since clearly there's no other state except Israel that is based on religion, the fact that I happen to be Christian won't bother anybody." And then he'll say, "Well, that's different."

We tolerate this. We have created our own nightmare because we refuse to tell the truth. We refuse to tell the truth to our politicians. Our State Department refuses to tell the truth to the country. If the president of the United States, and again, we're now so bitterly partisan, we're so committed to red-vs.-blue hostility, that George W. Bush doesn't have the capacity to give an address from the Oval Office that has any meaning for half the country. And the anti-war left is so strong in the Democratic primary that I think it's almost impossible for any Democratic presidential candidate to tell the truth about the situation.

And so the Republicans are isolated and trying to defend incompetence. The Democrats are isolated and trying to find a way to say, "I'm really for strength as long as I can have peace, but I'd really like to have peace, except I don't want to recognize these people who aren't very peaceful."

I just want to share with you, as a grandfather, as a citizen, as a historian, as somebody who was once speaker of the House; this is a serious national crisis. This is 1935 or 1936, and it's getting worse every year.

None of our enemies are confused. Our enemies don't get up each morning and go, "Oh, gosh, I think I'll have an existential crisis of identity in which I will try to think through whether or not we can be friends while you're killing me." Our enemies get up every morning and say, "We hate the West. We hate freedom." They would not allow a meeting with women in the room.

I was once interviewed by a BBC reporter, a nice young lady who was only about as anti-American as she had to be to keep her job. Since it was a live interview, I turned to her halfway through the interview and I said, "Do you like your job?" And it was summertime, and she's wearing a short-sleeve dress. And she said, "Well, yes." She was confused because I had just reversed roles. I said, "Well, then you should hope we win." She said, "What do you mean?" And I said, "Well, if the enemy wins, you won't be allowed to be on television."

I don't know how to explain it any simpler than that.

Now what do we need?

We need first of all to recognize this is a real war. Our enemies are peaceful when they're weak, are ruthless when they're strong, demand mercy when they're losing, show no mercy when they're winning. They understand exactly what this is, and anybody who reads Sun Tzu will understand exactly what we're living through. This is a total war. One side is going to win. One side is going to lose. You'll be able to tell who won and who lost by who's still standing. Most of Islam is not in this war, but most of Islam isn't going to stop this war. They're just going to sit to one side and tell you how sorry they are that this happened. We had better design grand strategies that are radically bigger and radically tougher and radically more honest than anything currently going on, and that includes winning the argument in Europe, and it includes winning the argument in the rest of the world. And it includes being very clear, and I'll just give you one simple example because we're now muscle-bound by our own inability to talk honestly.

Iran produces 60 percent of its own gasoline. It produces lots of crude oil but only has one refinery. It imports 40 percent of its gasoline. The entire 60 percent is produced at one huge refinery.

In 1981, Ronald Reagan decided to break the Soviet empire. He was asked what's your vision of the Cold War. He said, "Four words: We win; they lose." He was clearly seen by The New York Times as an out-of-touch, reactionary, right-wing cowboy from California who had no idea what was going on in the world. And 11 years later the Soviet Union disappeared, but obviously that had nothing to do with Reagan because that would have meant he was right. So it's just a random accident the Soviet Union disappeared.

Part of the war we waged on the Soviet Union involved their natural gas supply because we wanted to cut off their hard currency. The Soviets were desperate to get better equipment for their pipeline. We managed to sell them through third parties very, very sophisticated American pipeline equipment, which they were thrilled to buy and thought they had pulled off a huge coup. Now we weren't playing fair. We did not tell them that the equipment was designed to blow up. One day in 1982, there was an explosion in Siberia so large that the initial reflection on the satellites looked like there was a tactical nuclear weapon. One part of the White House was genuinely worried, and the other part of the White House had to calm them down. They said, "No, no, that's our equipment blowing up."

In the 28 years since the Iranians declared war on us, in the six years since 9/11, in the months since Gen. Petraeus publicly said they are killing young Americans, we have not been able to figure out how to take down one refinery. Covertly, quietly, without overt war. And we have not been able to figure out how to use the most powerful navy in the world to simply stop the tankers and say, "Look, you want to kill young Americans, you're going to walk to the battlefield, but you're not going to ride in the car because you're not going to have any gasoline."

We don't have to be stupid. The choice is not cowardice or total war. Reagan unlocked Poland without firing a shot in an alliance with the pope, with the labor unions and with the British. We have every possibility if we're prepared to be honest to shape the world. It'll be a very big project. It's much closer to World War II than it is to anything we've tried recently. It will require real effort, real intensity and real determination. We're either going to do it now, while we're still extraordinarily powerful, or we're going to do it later under much more desperate circumstances after we've lost several cities.

We had better take this seriously because we are not very many mistakes away from a second Holocaust. Three nuclear weapons is a second Holocaust. Our enemies would like to get those weapons as soon as they can, and they promise to use them as soon as they can.

I suggest we defeat our enemies and create a different situation long before they have that power.

[Razdan]

Jane, thank you so much for your seriously thought out articles. I really can't think of anything more that I could add to your superb analysis. I just hope others are still reading these comments. For those of you who would like to learn more about how Islam has totally transformed a relatively peaceful and beautiful land into a hell-hole have a look at the following sites:
http://ikashmir.net/
http://www.kashmiri-pandit.org/sundry/genocide.html
http://www.kashmir-information.com/
http://www.kashmirherald.com/main.php?t=M&st=M

[Jane]

Razdan: Thank you very much for the links. I greatly appreciate you posting them. I hope others see your links. Take care.

[Jane]

Razdan - I have been to all of the sites you recommended and they are excellent. Thank you. I do hope that people check back here and see your links. If I can find another location to post your links (where it's relevant to the topic) I will repost them so that they don't get lost - as this topic re Bhutto is now old. People need to understand the truth about Kashmir. Thanks to the media & politicians it is NEVER clearly articulated who the bad guys are in this region.