~ Featuring ~
Lessons America Should
Learn From the Long War
Harold Hutchison
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A New Chicago Muslim College's Islamist Ties
By Hesham Shehab
{ americanthinker.com } ~ The Prayer Center of Orland Park (OPPC), Illinois, recently declared the establishment of an Islamic university at its premises, the Universal Islamic College of Chicago (UICC) that will provide “higher Islamic education to the American Muslim community... as well as serve as a seminary that would prepare imams for mosques” in North America. The foundation of this four-year university is a joint effort between the OPPC and the Universal School in Bridgeview, Illinois. The identities of the founders and faculty of the university are deeply concerning and suggest the seminary will be promoting an Islamist ideology to Muslim students in Illinois and throughout the United States. In the video announcing the college’s founding, Universal School is represented by its Superintendent Safaa Zarzour. Zarzour has extensive ties to Islamist groups linked to the Muslim Brotherhood, including serving as a board member and president of the Chicago chapter of the Council on American Islamic Relations (CAIR), and currently vice-president and formerly Secretary General of the Islamic Society of North America (ISNA). Zarzour also served as operations officer for the Zakat Foundation. CAIR has its origins in the Muslim Brotherhood’s establishment of infrastructure to support Hamas, according to documents released as evidence during the Holy Land Foundation (HLF) trial, in 2008, when HLF, the largest Islamic charity in the U.S. at the time, was blacklisted by Washington for supporting Hamas in 2001, and eventually convicted of financing the terrorist group in 2008...
This a bad situation and shouldn't happen and must be stopped. https://www.americanthinker.com/articles/2019/09/a_new_chicago_muslim_colleges_islamist_ties.html .
US should consider strike on Iranian oil
refineries after attack on Saudi Arabia
By TAL AXELROD
{ thehill.com } ~ Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.), a prominent foreign policy hawk, said the U.S. should consider striking Iranian oil refineries in response to new attacks on Saudi oil refineries by Iranian-backed Houthi rebels... “It is now time for the U.S. to put on the table an attack on Iranian oil refineries if they continue their provocations or increase nuclear enrichment,” Graham tweeted. “Iran will not stop their misbehavior until the consequences become more real, like attacking their refineries, which will break the regime’s back,” he added.Graham, who sits on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, is one of Congress’s chief critics of Iran, warning in June that Tehran should prepare for “severe pain” after it shot down an unmanned U.S. surveillance drone. The South Carolina Republican is a former critic of President Trump who has become one of his staunchest supporters. His tweet comes the same day as Houthi rebels in Yemen launched drone strikes against two oil refineries deep into Saudi territory in response to Riyadh’s air campaign against the rebel group. “Air Force of the Yemeni Army and Popular Committees, Saturday morning carried out a large-scale operation with 10 drones, targeting Abqaiq and Khurais refineries east of Saudi Arabia,” Brig. Gen. Yahya Sare’e said, adding that operations will “expand” and be “more painful” as Saudi Arabia continues its military efforts in Yemen. Riyadh is heading a U.S.-backed regional campaign to oust the Houthi rebels in Yemen as the country’s civil war descends into a proxy war between Saudi Arabia and Iran. The conflict has killed thousands of civilians, caused millions to leave or lose their homes, and sparked widespread starvation. The Houthi rebels have attacked refineries in Saudi Arabia before in an attempt to strike at the country’s chief economic sector, though Saturday’s strike hit about 500 miles from Yemeni territory and was one of the largest operations they’ve launched yet.
https://thehill.com/homenews/senate/461419-graham-us-should-consider-strike-on-iranian-oil-refineries-after-attack-on .
United Auto Workers members to strike
Sunday night as GM deal deadline passes
By Matthew McNulty
{ foxbusiness.com } ~ United Auto Workers members will begin a strike Sunday night after the union and General Motors failed to reach a new labor agreement ahead of Sunday’s midnight deadline... UAW vice president Terry Dittes said. UAW-represented janitors were the first to go on strike early Sunday, and 49,200 workers are planning to join them Sunday night. "UAW helped rebuild General Motors when they were near extinction, now they’ve reached record level profits," the union said in a statement Sunday. "If GM refuses to give even an inch to help hard-working UAW members and their families then we’ll see them on the picket lines tonight." Roughly 850 janitors, who are employed by Aramark but represented by the UAW, walked off the job at eight GM plants in Michigan and Ohio after the two sides failed to come to terms on a contract extension following 18 months of negotiations. Major concerns for the janitors range from caps on health insurance and wages to vacation time and 401(k) plans,“We have contingency plans in place to cover any potential disruptions,” GM said in response to the janitors strike. The Detroit Free Press reported that union-represented GM workers “reluctantly” crossed picket lines Sunday set up by the UAW after the union told its autoworkers to report for work on Sunday in spite of the Aramark strike. But after a 10 a.m. meeting, Dittes announced the decision to strike.
https://www.foxbusiness.com/industrials/united-auto-workers-union-gm-strike .
‘It’s An Assault On Our Way Of Life’: Cattle
Rancher Slams 2020 Dems Over ‘War On Beef’
by STEPHANIE HAMILL
{ dailycaller.com } ~ Andy Harmon, whose family owns Harmon Ranch in Talala, Oklahoma has a lot to say about the Democrats’ war on beef... Several Democratic presidential hopefuls have said they would like to see people eating less red meat to combat “global warming.” Harmon says his family feels like they’re being attacked from all angles when it comes to the policies the Democrats are pushing for. “It’s an assault on our way of life, it means everything to us, we love the outdoors, we love our ranch, we feel like we are stewards of the land,” said Harmon. The cattle rancher went on to criticize the left’s push for more gun control and the media’s constant attacks on President Donald Trump.
https://dailycaller.com/2019/09/14/cattle-rancher-slams-2020-democrats/?utm_source=&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=10019 .
liar-Pelosi confirms she intends
to run for Congress again in 2020
by conservativeinstitute.org ~ Here’s something that progressive Democrats probably don’t want to hear. House Speaker liar-Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) has revealed that she does, indeed, plan on running for another term in Congress... liar-Pelosi made her intentions known during an interview with C-SPAN on Friday. “Oh, yeah, well I’m not making any political plans right now, but we’ll just take it one day at a time,” she told host Steve Scully who had inquired about her future. liar-Pelosi, obviously, was trying to make it clear that she remains devoted to her current position. But, lest anyone get the wrong idea, liar-Pelosi didn’t leave any room for doubt. “I intend to file,” she declared. “We have to file by December of this year. We have to file. So, I’ll be filing, yes.” liar-Pelosi was first elected to Congress in 1987, which means that if she were again to be selected by the voters, she would be entering her 17th term. During this period she has been chosen to be the House Speaker, the position she currently holds, twice. Not only is this an accomplishment in itself, but liar-Pelosi would be doing so in her 80s, as she will be celebrating the eight-decade mark this upcoming March. As the Washington Examiner pointed out: “liar-Pelosi is set to become the oldest person in history to hold the speaker’s gavel. The California Democrat will be almost 81 when her term ends, making her a year older than Speaker Sam Rayburn (D-TX) who died in office less than two months before he turned 80.”...
https://www.conservativeinstitute.org/conservative-news/pelosi-confirms-run-congress.htm .
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Lessons America Should Learn From the Long WarHarold Hutchison: In the 18 years since the unprovoked and dastardly attacks on the World Trade Center and Pentagon, the United States has been fighting the Global War on Terror, or what we have often called the Long War. And America has learned some lessons. There are also some very harsh truths that we must accept and deal with.
The first lesson is that terrorism was not and is not a “law enforcement” issue and addressing it as such is a huge mistake. To see why, read this 2009 post from 9/11 Families for a Safer America, especially the parts about discovery requirements. Andrew McCarthy, a federal prosecutor, explains what discovery did in detail in this 2006 piece in The Wall Street Journal.
Tied in with this is a harsh truth: The work of gathering intelligence, especially human intelligence, is very difficult and it involves doing a lot of distasteful stuff. It isn’t just enhanced interrogation. You have to induce someone with information you need for America’s national security to betray their country. At best, you’re dealing with someone who is appalled by what his or her country is doing. More likely, you’re paying them off with money. Or you are getting their cooperation through some form of extortion or blackmail involving skeletons in their closet. As such, it is something presidents will shy away from, and Donald Trump is no exception (if you believe CNN’s fake news).
The next lesson learned: We need to have the backs of those who step up to protect this country. Whether it’s making sure the wounded are cared for, that returning vets can transition to civilian life, or even making sure that their service is not denigrated, America must step up for the Patriots in both the military and the intelligence community. We learned the lesson for the former in the wake of the Vietnam War.
The harsh truth is that we haven’t done so, especially in the case of the intelligence community. In fact, the CIA has had it the worst: In the wake of 9/11, Americans were willing to do what it took to keep the country safe, but as memories faded, we allowed a number of politicians to turn on the intelligence community for political gain. In the process, Patriots like James Mitchell, Jose Rodriguez, and Gina Haspel, who took part in the enhanced interrogation program, have been publicly smeared in the best of circumstances, and are being persecuted by the “Gitmo bar” at worst. Seeing this, is it any wonder that our enemies think they can wait us out?
Which leads to another lesson: We should always assume we have underestimated the difficulty of victory. In the wake of 9/11, George W. Bush was correct to go for victory, but his biggest mistake was not asking for a massive military buildup in terms of force structure. In World War II, America made a massive military buildup. At the end of the war, many planned ships, planes, and tanks were canceled, but that was when victory was practically assured. The reason Desert Storm was relatively easy and with such a low casualty count was precisely because we had a military ready for the worst (World War III with the Soviet Union).
The harsh truth of today is that by not building up the military after 9/11, we have badly limited options. In Afghanistan and Syria, America has defaulted to a “let Special Operations Command handle this” mentality. That has led to a major price being paid by these heroes, and may have contributed to some recent controversies, especially while the rest of the military gets back in shape to deal with a resurgent China and Russia.
This leads us to a very profound lesson: We need to remember 9/11 and put that into the same pantheon as Pearl Harbor, the battleship USS Maine, and other reminders of what the lack of preparedness can cost us. “We the People” are ultimately responsible for ensuring those elected to office keep our military ready to defend this country.
The harsh truth is, though, that in the case of too many Americans, the answer to the question posed by Darryl Worley’s 2004 hit song, “Have You Forgotten?,” is “Yes” in some very key regards. We should be able to see the unvarnished news coverage of what happened that day — and not allow politicians, the media, and Silicon Valley to “manage” our remembrance of that horrific day.
The lessons of the Global War on Terror have come at a huge price. Some of it was paid on 9/11, a fair bit paid afterwards. But we need to learn those lessons and accept the harsh truths in order to keep this country safe. The alternative is seeing another 9/11 — or something worse — take place. ~The Patriot Post
https://patriotpost.us/articles/65410?mailing_id=4526&utm_medium=email&utm_source=pp.email.4526&utm_campaign=snapshot&utm_content=body
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