Body Counts

Finally, U.S. leadership is announcing the numbers of terrorists killed in Iraq. Hugh Hewitt has the quote from President Bush's speech...

In Iraq, our troops are taking the fight to the extremists and radicals and murderers all throughout the country. Our troops have killed or captured an average of more than 1,500 al Qaeda terrorists and other extremists every month since January of this year. (Applause.) We're in the fight. Today our troops are carrying out a surge that is helping bring former Sunni insurgents into the fight against the extremists and radicals, into the fight against al Qaeda, into the fight against the enemy that would do us harm. They're clearing out the terrorists out of population centers, they're giving families in liberated Iraqi cities a look at a decent and hopeful life.

Doing the quick math, that comes to 10,500 dead terrorists since January (not counting any in August). If the Administration would continue to put these numbers out and if the media would publish them, there would be 2 effects: the American public would start to take heart that we're making progress and the surviving terrorists would become disheartened and lose hope (and maybe prospective terrorists would think twice when faced with the odds of quickly becoming part of the body count.

Killing For Congress

Ralph Peters from the New York Post has an excellent column about how the latest massacres committed by the terrorists in Iraq are a sign that they're getting desperate and trying to send a message to Congress.

al Qaeda needs to portray Iraq as a continuing failure of U.S. policy. Those dead and maimed Yazidis were just props: The intended audience was Congress.

Al Qaeda has been badly battered. It's lost top leaders and thousands of cadres. Even more painful for the Islamists, they've lost ground among the people of Iraq, including former allies. Iraqis got a good taste of al Qaeda. Now they're spitting it out.

The foreign terrorists slaughtering the innocent recognize that their only remaining hope of pulling off a come-from-way-behind win is to convince your senator and your congressman or -woman that it's politically expedient to hand a default victory to a defeated al Qaeda.

Congress needs to see the big picture--and it's not about the election in 2008. It's about having the intestinal fortitude to finish what we started. To send a message to our allies and enemies that it is a mistake to mess with the U.S. And that we'll stick by our friends, that we can be trusted to stick it out.

Here's how Gen. Petraeus summed it up for The Post on Tuesday: "Right now, we're on the offensive, striving to build on the gains made in the past two months by conducting strike operations to retain the initiative against al-Qaeda-in-Iraq, to address the challenge of the Iranian-supported Shia extremists and to try to reduce further the level of ethno-sectarian violence in Baghdad and other fault line areas."

Al Qaeda down, Iran out and sectarian violence reduced. Sounds like a plan.

A religion of peace?

Grant Swank has a great commentary at The Conservative Voice about how Christians are increasingly being attacked in Muslim countries, with authorities turning a blind eye, passing on the story of a 78-year-old Christian man in Egypt who was killed while at church. A Muslim stormed into the church with two long knives and stabbed several people, shouting "god is great!"

When these atrocities occur, little if nothing is done by the authorities. They too are extremist Muslim. They too read the Koran and its demands that non-Muslims be put out. Therefore, why should Christians be guarded when they are to be extinguished?

What free nations need to realize is that Christians living in these conditions elsewhere put up with this murderous threat every day of their lives. It is not just an occasional trap. It could happen any day, any hour, any time. Christian children are brought up to be on the watch for fear of their lives.

Again, in free countries Muslims demand freedom of religion. They expect freedom to erect their mosques, have their clerics teach whatever they want to preach, hold their secret meetings, run their propaganda-filled web sites and see through the eventual Islam World Rule.

On Muslim web sites, for instance there are stark warnings to Muslims to watch out for persecution in free nations. They are instructed step by step how to report any discrimination and then press for immediate, accurate action.

However, when Christians are slain in a Muslim country such as Egypt, it’s over and out for the Christians. Another life lost. So it goes. It’s just another "Christian story."

Swank goes on to describe the dangers that women, both Muslim and non-Muslim, face in Islamic countries.

The Human Rights Commission of Pakistan in a recent report said that violence against women had increased alarmingly, with some of the incidents incited by Mullahs opposed to women’s emancipation.

"Islamists also campaigned against the Women Protection Bill which was recently passed by parliament, which seeks to provide protection to women who have suffered discrimination under Islamic Sharia laws.

"Women make up just over 20 per cent of the lower house of parliament, according to the country’s main human rights group, and there are three women ministers in the cabinet of the federal government. But widespread discrimination against females continues to be a problem in what remains a male-dominated society, particularly in the countryside, where most Pakistanis live."

It is time for "moderate" Muslims to step up in countries where they can speak freely and speak out against the atrocities that so-called extremist Muslims are committing against mankind. If they don't speak out soon, there will be no need to use the word "extremist" when describing these terrorists.

Morale of soldiers in Middle East high

Michael Yon has an excellent post on how the American perception of how the world views us is much different than the reality. And how the morale of soldiers over there is high--much higher than the MSM would have us believe. Yon's just arrived back in Kuwait, so I'm expecting some more great reporting on the war--NOT a bunch of drivel from mainstream journalists who rely on stringers to bring them their news. Here's an excerpt from his post:

This war is strange. I never hear soldiers worried about their own morale sagging. Contrary, the war-fighters here are more concerned to bolster the morale of the people at home. Here in Kuwait, where the dining facilities are bedecked in Christmas decorations, soldiers stream in from Iraq on convoys and stream back north along those bomb-laden roads. The service members here are not all rear-echelon people who never see fighting or blood. Yet their overall morale obviously is high. Few of them know I am a writer, and so they speak freely at the tables around me. In Qatar, from which I’d just departed, I spoke with troops taking 4-day R&R passes, some having just returned from the most dangerous parts of Iraq, and others heading straight back and their overall morale was also very high. The morale at war is higher than I have ever seen it at home; makes me wonder what they know that most Americans seem to be missing.

Terrorists are targeting Channel tunnel

The Observer is reporting that the CIA has informed the French that the threat of a terrorist attack on the Channel tunnel is "sky high".

According to the French sources, the plan was put together in Pakistan and is being directed from there. The plotters are believed to be Western Europeans, possibly Britons of Pakistani descent. The DGSE say that levels of 'chatter', the constant communication that takes place between militants, has not been so high since 2001. Last week Sir Ian Blair, the head of the Metropolitan Police, described 'the threat of another terrorist attempt' as 'ever present' adding that 'Christmas is a period when that might happen'.
'It is a far graver threat in terms of civilians than either the Cold War or the Second World War,' he said. 'It's a much graver threat than that posed by Irish Republican terrorism.'

American security sources told The Observer that the threat was 'sky high'.

The news of the threat to the Channel Tunnel comes as Eurostar trains transport record numbers of passengers heading home for Christmas and as fog continues to affect flights to and from the continent.

More than 8 million passengers travelled on Eurostar trains last year. Staff on the line went on strike earlier this year in protest at what they said were lax security arrangements.

'A successful attack on such an installation would be almost as spectacular as September 11', said one terrorist expert. 'Al-Qaeda and those they inspire are trying everything from low-level strikes to major attacks on critical infrastructure.'

Unfortunately, while counterterrorist agencies will hopefully foil any attacks against the tunnel and other transportation hubs and arteries in Europe, this report will most likely cause many travelers to choose a different means of travel or cancel travel entirely during the Christmas holiday. This means that the terrorists have already succeeded to a limited extent by causing us to change the way we behave. Hopefully, the majority of travelers will flip the terrorists a collective middle finger by continuing to use the tunnel.