The War Against Terrorism Continues

Within days of Juan Williams' firing by NPR for admitting apprehension when seeing passengers in airports wearing Muslim garb and the over-the-top walk-out from "The View" TV talk show by Whoopie Goldberg and Joy Behar when Bill O'Reilly failed to use an adjective to describe the Muslims who attacked the US on 9/11, the FBI arrested the man shown above for plotting to attack various Metro stations in Northern Virginia. The man shown is Farooque Ahmed, a naturalized US citizen who was born in Pakistan, but has been living in the US for 17 years.

Ahmed thought he was plotting with members of al-Qaeda, but was actually conspiring with undercover FBI agents. The FBI was tipped off to Ahmed in January, when a source inside the Muslim community said the 34-year-old telecommunications worker was asking around, trying to join a terrorist group to kill Americans. This is the latest in a series of undercover FBI stings that have caught Muslim extremists in the US who have sought to join in the holy war against Americans, even though many of these extremists have been living in the US for years.

Around the DC beltway and interstate highways, there are electronic signs that advise motorists to "report suspicious activity" with a phone number noted to call. The street vendors who reported the suspicious SUV in Times Square in May (that was discovered to be packed with explosives by another Pakistani born US citizen of the Muslim faith) said they reported the vehicle to police because New Yorkers know that "if you see something, say something".

Within the last few days, another credible terrorist threat was discovered when explosives were found in packages on cargo planes bound for Chicago. This threat, of course, started in Yemen, not in the US, but it demonstrates once again that the Muslim extremists continue their war of terror aimed at Western targets and the US in particular.

So it must be asked: if Juan Williams or anyone else saw the man above taking photos inside Metro stations in Northern Virginia and/or otherwise acting suspiciously, wouldn't it cause an average citizen to be nervous or concerned? And should that concern lead such a person to report the activity to police or the FBI?

Or would the recent reactions of the Politically Correct Police at NPR, the co-hosts of "The View" or Time magazine cause average citizens to think that they could be accused of overreacting or being Islamophobic or racist and cause them not to "say something" like the Times Square street vendors did?

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Virginia's Experience with New Republican Governor Recognized by the Washington Post

As previously noted (and foretold) in posts on this blog, there is much that Washington can learn from the Republican Governor that Virginians voted into office last year. My previous comments on what Governor McDonnell has been accomplishing can found on the posts of April 8, 2010 at http://jaxonnews.blogspot.com/2010/04/what-washington-can-learn-from-richmond.html; July 24, 2010 at http://jaxonnews.blogspot.com/2010/07/more-lessons-for-washington-from.html and August 30, 2010 at http://jaxonnews.blogspot.com/2010/08/additional-lessons-from-richmond-for.html. Finally, it appears that some in the mainstream media are also noticing.

The Washington Post on Saturday, October 30, 2010, ran a front page story entitled: "Virginians share lesson learned: GOP in power not so bad". The Post story begins by noting that President Obama's theme in campaign appearances this year has been: don't vote for the Party that drove the car into the ditch. The Post then states:

"Virginians overwhelmingly ignored [Obama's] advice, and a year later many say they have few regrets and are generally pleased - if not ecstatic - about what Republicans have done.

Voters, including some who didn't back him, credited Gov.

Robert F. McDonnell with working hard and engineering deep budget cuts from a generally fractious General Assembly with relatively little heartache. The result of those efforts was a narrow surplus by the end of the fiscal year, achieved through bipartisan action and without the tax increase that Gov. Timothy M. Kaine proposed before leaving office."

In addition, of course, New Jersey elected a Republican Governor last year who is receiving a lot of national attention. The Post noted that result as well:

"Only Virginia and New Jersey held elections in 2009, and both states elected Republican governors after being firmly behind Obama in 2008. The GOP has since pointed to McDonnell and New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie as examples of new kinds of Republicans and also of what voters could expect if they return the party to power in Washington.

'I hope that what I've been able to do, in some small measure . . . will at least create confidence that if people elect Republicans at the federal level, that they're going to get similar good results,' said McDonnell." http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/10/29/AR2010102907043.html

President Obama's plea to voters not to vote for the same people that "drove the car into the ditch" also fails to be accurate because so many of the Republican nominees for office this year are newcomers inspired by the revolt against big government and deficit spending, most visibly demonstrated by the Tea Party protests held across the country over the past year.

This is not the same GOP you love to demonize anymore, Mr. President.

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Why the US and NATO are still in Afghanistan

Do the Code Pink anti-war ladies want to abandon Afghan women like the one pictured above on a recent cover of Time magazine? Do the Democrats that President Obama was worried about last year when he announced a decision to send 30,000 additional troops to Afghanistan want to abandon such women to the terrors of the Taliban? Reports about Bob Woodward's new book about the Obama administration indicated that Obama inserted a promise to begin withdrawing troops from Afghanistan in July 2011 in his troop increase announcement because he said "I can't lose all the Democrats". Does Obama realize that he is President of the United States and that he should make decisions that are in the best interests of the country, not just the Democrats?

The woman pictured above, named Bibi Aisha, was disfigured by her husband after local Taliban leaders in her village (where NATO troops have not yet taken over) found her guilty under Sharia law of abandoning her abusive husband when she moved out of his house. The penalty ordered by the Taliban was to have her husband cut off her nose and ears.

Such practices under Sharia law were common during the Taliban rule that preceded the US and NATO invasion nine years ago to overthrow the Taliban government. That objective was quickly achieved, but establishing a competent new government has taken much longer, and it seems that many are growing weary of protecting those Afghans who are now living in a more civilized society than existed in that country before 2001 while also taking the necessary military action to drive the Taliban and its extremist influence out of other areas.

One person who remembers why we need to remain in Afghanistan until the Karzai government can stabilize its control of the country and secure its own countrymen and women is Laura Bush, the former First Lady. On Sunday, she wrote an editorial about the struggles that Afghan women face even today and what could be at risk if Western troops leave too soon.

"Nine years ago, many around the world learned of the severe repression and brutality against women that was common in Afghanistan under the Taliban. Girls were forbidden to attend school. Women were imprisoned in their homes and denied access to doctors when they were sick. And Afghanistan had the highest infant and maternal mortality rates in the world.

Today there are encouraging signs of progress: More than 6.2 million students are enrolled in Afghanistan's schools, and 35 percent of them are girls. Afghan women serve as government ministers and lead as provincial governors. Women have been elected or appointed to the National Assembly. Afghan women work as entrepreneurs, educators, lawyers and community health workers. And their work is essential to the growth of the Afghan economy.

Yet serious challenges remain. A culture of fear still silences women. In many rural areas, those who dare to teach receive letters threatening not only their own lives but their children's as well ......

Though some Afghan leaders have condemned the violence and defended the rights of women, others maintain a complicit silence in hopes of achieving peace. But peace attained by compromising the rights of half of the population will not last. Offenses against women erode security for all Afghans -- men and women. And a culture that tolerates injustice against one group of its people ultimately fails to respect and value all its citizens."
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/10/08/AR2010100806343.html

There is no moral justification for pulling our troops out of Afghanistan just to appease anti-war Democrats and "peaceniks" who live in cozy suburban homes when the Afghan government is not yet able to secure the rights of all of its citizens without the risk that the Taliban fanatics could regain control.

It is strange that left wing liberals are often campaigning for the US to help oppressed people around the world, even as Americans contribute more generously to victims of disasters, disease and oppression than citizens of other countries and our government does more to help foreign countries than any other. But when action to help others results in violent conflict, national resolve is limited due to the cries for withdrawal from the conflict by the same left wingers.

Well, at least Bibi Aisha has received the generous help of American charity and goodwill. She has received a new nose from plastic surgeons in California and has escaped the terrors of the Taliban. Sphere: Related Content