Moonhowlings

Islam is but a teenager still.  John and Jon remind each other of the teenage years of the 3 Abrahamic religions.

Every since 9-11 people have asked the question why?  All sorts of platitudes  have been give:  “They” are jealous of our freedoms, our material wealth, our material possessions.  None of these answers made the least bit of sense to me.  Why would any of those things make 11 grown men get in an aircraft and drive it into a building as a soaring speed, killing themselves and others? It doesn’t make sense.  Who is “they?”

Morning Joe, aka Joe Scarborugh seems to think he has the answer.  He say regardless of who he speaks with in the intelligence community, he gets told the same thing when he asks the question, why do they hate us:

1.  their religion

2.  their culture

3.  peer pressure

They hate us because they hate us.  No other reason.  Everything else is just an excuse.

I am not sure I agree with that and I am not sure I want to go to war over it if it is true.  Who is “they?”  Are we talking Middle Easterners?  Muslims?

Is Morning Joe right or is he full of it?

Gen. David Petraeus said a church's Quran-burning "is precisely the kind of action the Taliban uses."

Several weeks ago we put up a thread about a minister in Florida who planned to burn copies of the Quran on 9/11. To date, there seems to be mo change in his misguided plans.

CNN reports:

CNN) — The U.S. commander in Afghanistan on Monday criticized a Florida church’s plan to burn copies of the Quran on September 11, warning the demonstration “could cause significant problems” for American troops overseas.

“It could endanger troops and it could endanger the overall effort in Afghanistan,” Gen. David Petraeus said in a statement issued Monday.

The Dove World Outreach Center in Gainesville, Florida, plans to mark the anniversary of al Qaeda’s September 11, 2001, attacks on New York and Washington by burning copies of the Muslim holy book. The church insists the event is “neither an act of love nor of hate,” but a warning against what it calls the threats posed by Islam.

Good for General Petraeus. Its time someone called out this arrogant man. Who better than the commander of all US troops in Afghanistan.

More from CNN:

With about 120,000 U.S. and NATO-led troops still battling al Qaeda and its allies in the Islamic fundamentalist Taliban movement, Petraeus warned that burning Qurans “is precisely the kind of action the Taliban uses and could cause significant problems — not just here, but everywhere in the world we are engaged with the Islamic community.”

And one of his deputies, Lt. Gen. William Caldwell, told CNN’s “The Situation Room” that event “has already stirred up a lot of discussion and concern” among Afghans.

“We very much feel that this can jeopardize the safety of our men and women that are serving over here in the country,” said Caldwell, the head of NATO efforts to train Afghan security forces.

Caldwell said American troops “are over here to defend the rights of American citizens, and we’re not debating the First Amendment rights that people have.” But he added, “What I will tell you is that their very actions will in fact jeopardize the safety of the young men and women who are serving in uniform over here and also undermine the very mission that we’re trying to accomplish.”

“I would hope they would understand that there are second- and third-order effects that will occur that will affect that young man and woman who’s out there on point for America, serving their nation today, because of their actions back in the United States,” he said

The stupidity and arrogance of this minister is almost unspeakable. When the U.S. Commander tells you that you are endangering the troops, you should listen. If even one of our men or women is killed because of this ignoramous, his entire ministry should be held responsible. How sad that Americans would involve themselves with book burning. Sounds Third Reich to me. I would have no problem with the press being ordered to stay away and the minister barred from his bonfire on 9/11, as a matter of national security. The first amendment is not without some limitations.

Meanwhile, we can only hope that our troops will be safe.

Remember the dude who was released from Scottish prison back in August of 2009 and sent home to Libya?  He wasn’t just your run of the mill thug.  Megrahi had received a life sentence for his involvement in the Lockerbie bombing.  189 Americans lost their life on Pan Am Flight 103.   290 lives were lost in all. 

The public was told that Megrahi had only weeks to live and he was being released for  humanitarian reasons.  Americans were outraged at the time, but this guy just seemed to float off the radar.  Did I mention that Megrahi is still alive?   So much for days, weeks, or months left.

Read more…

From the NY Times:

WASHINGTON — The United States has discovered nearly $1 trillion in untapped mineral deposits in Afghanistan, far beyond any previously known reserves and enough to fundamentally alter the Afghan economy and perhaps the Afghan war itself, according to senior American government officials.

The previously unknown deposits — including huge veins of iron, copper, cobalt, gold and critical industrial metals like lithium — are so big and include so many minerals that are essential to modern industry that Afghanistan could eventually be transformed into one of the most important mining centers in the world, the United States officials believe.

An internal Pentagon memo, for example, states that Afghanistan could become the “Saudi Arabia of lithium,” a key raw material in the manufacture of batteries for laptops and BlackBerrys.

The vast scale of Afghanistan’s mineral wealth was discovered by a small team of Pentagon officials and American geologists. The Afghan government and President Hamid Karzai were recently briefed, American officials said.

While it could take many years to develop a mining industry, the potential is so great that officials and executives in the industry believe it could attract heavy investment even before mines are profitable, providing the possibility of jobs that could distract from generations of war.

“There is stunning potential here,” Gen. David H. Petraeus, commander of the United States Central Command, said in an interview on Saturday. “There are a lot of ifs, of course, but I think potentially it is hugely significant.”

The value of the newly discovered mineral deposits dwarfs the size of Afghanistan’s existing war-bedraggled economy, which is based largely on opium production and narcotics trafficking as well as aid from the United States and other industrialized countries. Afghanistan’s gross domestic product is only about $12 billion.

“This will become the backbone of the Afghan economy,” said Jalil Jumriany, an adviser to the Afghan minister of mines.

We have already know about the Afghanistan lapis lazuli, better known as just lapis.  It has become increasingly more costly since the Afghanistan war, mainly because it is harder to get the mineral.   Afghan miners go far up into the mountains where the vast lapis deposits are and bring out the rough on mules and human packs.  The best lapis in the world comes out of Afghanistan.  I got my stash from a friend’s husband who has a good eye for jewelry. 

Now what about all this lithium, iron, copper, cobalt, gold, etc?  Supposedly trillions of dollars worth.  How would a primitive country like Afghanistan ever develop to the point where some of these riches could be mined and distributed world wide?  What would keep the Taliban and Al Quada from taking control of the wealth? 

It sounds to me like if anything is done with these riches, the Americans out to put on their ugly American hat and simply be the big, bad watch dog.  Besides, that war has cost us a small fortune.  Pay backs are expensive.  Royalties are expensive.

Well, in her case, Helen Thomas, White House reporter for years, put her foot in her mouth.

Ok. While we might not agree with her words, there is something bothering me about the hue and cry over her remarks. For starters, she offered an opinion. She said she felt that Palestine was occupied by Israel. I never heard her utter the word ‘Jews.’ There are an awful lot of people in the world who believe that. Why is Helen Thomas, daughter of Lebanese immigrants, not allowed her opinion? Additionally, she said that those occupying needed to go home. Good grief, that is said every day towards Latinos here in this county.

Helen Thomas is almost 90 years old. She apologized. Many news agencies have said her apologies were not good enough because she didn’t really mean it. This is where the thought police come into play. There is just something about that kind of mind control that bothers me a great deal. Who are we to tell others how to think? While we can be held accountable for what comes out of our mouths, how can anyone hold us accountable for what they think we should think.

On June 4, Helen Thomas issued the following apology:

“I deeply regret my comments I made last week regarding the Israelis and the Palestinians. They do not reflect my heart-felt belief that peace will come to the Middle East only when all parties recognize the need for mutual respect and tolerance. May that day come soon.” (June 4, 2010)

To her credit, Ellen Ratner of Fox News issued the following:

Helen Thomas has apologized. What more do people want?

If I had a dollar for every American who has said something in private about a racial, ethnic, or sexual minority in this county I would be a multimillionaire many times over.

Let’s face it we all have said things — or thought things — about “other” groups of people, things that we would not want to see in print or on video. Anyone who denies it is a liar.

Helen is three months short of ninety and her brain’s filters might not work as well as a forty year old’s. Give her a break.

Ellen Ratner is Washington bureau chief for Talk Radio News Service and a Fox News contributor.

Helen Thomas has resigned. Her resignation was announced around noon. I think the greater tragedy is that a 90 year old woman can’t be allowed to retract her statements, especially a lady of her stature.

She is a very remarkable woman. I can’t image being her age and doing the job she is still doing. Many of us who grew up with Helen Thomas will miss her. The good news is, now she is a free agent, she can also speak freely. I expect she will, knowing Helen Thomas and I wouldn’t want to be on the receiving end of that acerbic tongue.

[disclaimer: This post does not imply agreement with Helen Thomas]

Initial News Bulletins

8 years ago. It seems like yesterday and it seems like a life time ago. It feels like 2 wars ago, and yet we are still at war– we have troops in harm’s way. The war in Afghanistan, where many of the criminals of 9-11-01 got their training, rages on, and Americans lose lives daily.

Every one of us has added to our collective memory that knowledge of knowing exactly where we were and exactly what we were doing the moment we learned that our country was under attack, much like older people can tell you what they were doing when they learned of  Pearl Harbor or  where they were  when they first learned of  the assassination of JFK. No incidents have recorded themselves quite as permanently, quite as indelibly, as those three events in the minds of Americans. You and every sentient person alive  on 9-11-01 will forever have this memory in common.

This thread will be an open 9-11 thread. Many of you have much to share regarding this day.

Links of Interest:

Memorial and Museum

Liberatio-9/11 Tribute Video 

God Bless the USA Video 9/11

Slideshow Tribute (Enya and Lee Greenwood)

Tribute to 9/11 Victims    (has thumbnail pictures)  slideshow

President Bush Speaks to America 9/11/01

 [UPDATE: Day 7 of protests continue in Tehran.]

Only one glance at the TV set tells us that all is not well for ‘He Whose Name I Cannot Pronounce.’   Ahmadinejad, the president of Iran, was declared the winner of the presidential election in Iran last week.  He was declared the winner within hours after the polls closed, so soon that ballots could not possibly been counted.

Iranians have taken to the streets and the numbers continue to grow.  Meanwhile, Ahmadinejad is galavanting around Russia as his country errupts into violence.   He has declared the demonstrations unimportant.  

Basically, what has happened, according to MSNBC:

Is Iran headed into civil war?  Will the Iranian people take control of their own country?  Is another Iranian revolution far off?  Do these demonstrations protesting the election make the region more or less secure?

Saturday, June 20–

Foreign press has been banned.  Citizens are exporting video and text on twitter, home video, cell phone, Facebook, Youtube, etc.  Thousands are protesting. 

Reminder, the actual leader of this country is the Ayatollha.  Regardless of who is president, Iran is still a theocracy. 

A few of us have been revisiting the Powder Keg thread for several days now discussing the fighting on the Gaza Strip. The Middle East just scares me and I am one of those rare birds who see 2 sides to the Palestinian/Israeli on-going issue. Basically I want to scream at both and say STOP DOING THAT!

Usually a war that involves Israel gets top billing on the news. Many people stayed glued to their televisons during the Hezbollah/Israeli conflict 2 years ago However, so much else is going on that the current battle in Gaza is often is taking a backseat to the financial crisis, the Inauguration, and Blagojevich. The Pew Institute provides us with the following chart:

Fewer people are interested in the conflict with Hamas than they were with the conflict with Hezbollah 2 years ago. Now that Hezbollah is firing missiles on towns in northern Israel, perhaps the interest will ratchet up some. It makes for a very dangerous situation in that region.

Blogger Gainesville Resident has referenced 2 very good reading resources on the current conflict. One is from Time Magazine and the other is from The Jewish Voice and Opinion. Don’t be mislead by the title on the later. It gives a variety of points of view. Neither are quick reading but are highly recommended.

Can Israel sustain a 2 front war? What should the United States role be in this conflict? Is our position weakened by a change in the Presidency? Are America’s enemies waiting and watching to see what President Obama will do? When a conflict is going on involving Israel, are we more vulnerable for a terrorist attack? What do you all think?

Click for more information from the Pew Institute on current events.