Joel Stein is against the troops.

That says it all.

IÂ’ll waste no more bandwidth on him.

MORE AT: Michelle Malkin, Jawa Report, Wizbang,

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The Cut-&-Run-ocrats don't support the mission in Iraq or the troops that are are successfully carrying it out. But they are more than willing to use their deaths for political purposes in Buks County, PA.

A Republican group is calling for the removal of a death count of American servicemen in Iraq from the Doylestown headquarters of the Bucks County Democratic Committee.

Democrats have a sign in the front window of their Court Street office that includes the words "We honor our fallen heroes" and a running tally of U.S. military deaths in Iraq.

The count stood at 2,224 on Saturday.

Don Petrille, chairman of the Bucks County Federation of Young Republicans, said his group thinks Democrats are "using the numbers for political gain, and that's not something we think helps our mission or is an appropriate use for our soldiers."

Democrats defended the sign, though, saying it's a valid way of honoring fallen service members.

Your party has come out infavor of making their sacrifice meaningless -- it is therefore disingenuous to claim that you are honoring the dead.

Take down the sign -- or support them and their mission.

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I was surprised to see this USA Today headline.

U.S. tally of wounded drops 26%

After all, that isn't the picture the press has spent the last year painting. It has, in fact, painted the opposite -- American troops under siege taking heavier casualties.

But what is the real story?

The number of U.S. troops wounded in Iraq fell by more than a quarter in 2005 from a year earlier, Pentagon records show. Military officials call that a sign that insurgent attacks have declined in the face of elections and stronger Iraqi security forces.

The wuestion is, will the press report thisinformation widely? And will the Cut-&-Run Party acknowledge this and quit calling the mission in Iraq a failure?

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Historian Niall Ferguson offers this glimpse of the future -- a scenario of what may yet come to be if the United States fails to stop the Iranian nuclear weapons program.

Prior to 2007, the Islamists had seen no alternative but to wage war against their enemies by means of terrorism. From the Gaza to Manhattan, the hero of 2001 was the suicide bomber. Yet Ahmadinejad, a veteran of the Iran-Iraq War, craved a more serious weapon than strapped-on explosives. His decision to accelerate Iran's nuclear weapons programme was intended to give Iran the kind of power North Korea already wielded in East Asia: the power to defy the United States; the power to obliterate America's closest regional ally.

Under different circumstances, it would not have been difficult to thwart Ahmadinejad's ambitions. The Israelis had shown themselves capable of pre-emptive air strikes against Iraq's nuclear facilities in 1981. Similar strikes against Iran's were urged on President Bush by neo-conservative commentators throughout 2006. The United States, they argued, was perfectly placed to carry out such strikes. It had the bases in neighbouring Iraq and Afghanistan. It had the intelligence proving Iran's contravention of the Non-Proliferation Treaty.

But the President was advised by his Secretary of State, Condoleezza Rice, to opt instead for diplomacy. Not just European opinion but American opinion was strongly opposed to an attack on Iran. The invasion of Iraq in 2003 had been discredited by the failure to find the weapons of mass destruction Saddam Hussein had supposedly possessed and by the failure of the US-led coalition to quell a bloody insurgency.

Americans did not want to increase their military commitments overseas; they wanted to reduce them. Europeans did not want to hear that Iran was about to build its own WMD. Even if Ahmad-inejad had broadcast a nuclear test live on CNN, liberals would have said it was a CIA con-trick.

So history repeated itself. As in the 1930s, an anti-Semitic demagogue broke his country's treaty obligations and armed for war. Having first tried appeasement, offering the Iranians economic incentives to desist, the West appealed to international agencies - the International Atomic Energy Agency and the United Nations Security Council. Thanks to China's veto, however, the UN produced nothing but empty resolutions and ineffectual sanctions, like the exclusion of Iran from the 2006 World Cup finals.

Only one man might have stiffened President Bush's resolve in the crisis: not Tony Blair, he had wrecked his domestic credibility over Iraq and was in any case on the point of retirement - Ariel Sharon. Yet he had been struck down by a stroke as the Iranian crisis came to a head. With Israel leaderless, Ahmadinejad had a free hand.

As in the 1930s, too, the West fell back on wishful thinking. Perhaps, some said, Ahmadinejad was only sabre-rattling because his domestic position was so weak. Perhaps his political rivals in the Iranian clergy were on the point of getting rid of him. In that case, the last thing the West should do was to take a tough line; that would only bolster Ahmadinejad by inflaming Iranian popular feeling. So in Washington and in London people crossed their fingers, hoping for the deus ex machina of a home-grown regime change in Teheran.

This gave the Iranians all the time they needed to produce weapons-grade enriched uranium at Natanz. The dream of nuclear non-proliferation, already interrupted by Israel, Pakistan and India, was definitively shattered. Now Teheran had a nuclear missile pointed at Tel-Aviv. And the new Israeli government of Benjamin Netanyahu had a missile pointed right back at Teheran.

The optimists argued that the Cuban Missile Crisis would replay itself in the Middle East. Both sides would threaten war - and then both sides would blink. That was Secretary Rice's hope - indeed, her prayer - as she shuttled between the capitals. But it was not to be.

The devastating nuclear exchange of August 2007 represented not only the failure of diplomacy, it marked the end of the oil age. Some even said it marked the twilight of the West. Certainly, that was one way of interpreting the subsequent spread of the conflict as Iraq's Shi'ite population overran the remaining American bases in their country and the Chinese threatened to intervene on the side of Teheran.

Yet the historian is bound to ask whether or not the true significance of the 2007-2011 war was to vindicate the Bush administration's original principle of pre-emption. For, if that principle had been adhered to in 2006, Iran's nuclear bid might have been thwarted at minimal cost. And the Great Gulf War might never have happened.

Do we want this to be the history learned by our children's children's children? Isn't the restrained use of conventional weapons against a rogue regime a better option than nuclear war?

Based upon my study of history, I see many of the same parallels that Ferguson does. We must not allow our desir for true peace to prompt us to accept a counterfeit one that leads to a bigger, more destructive war.

Hat Tip: Ace of Spades, Link Mecca, Protein Wisdom, Relapsed Catholic, American Future, Craig Meister

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Well, a young Israeli Arab man has been denied entry into the IAF.

He has instead been offered something almost as prestigious.

he IDF's Personnel Directorate has decided to reject the request of an18-year-old Arab Muslim from northern Israel who sought to join the army's prestigious pilot training course, Israel's leading newspaper Yedioth Ahronoth reported Tuesday.

Instead of becoming a pilot, the army offered the teen to volunteer to the paratroopers.

The disappointed youth, who graduated from high school with honors and already holds a civilian pilot's license, is expected to undergo initial tests on Thursday for the IDF's paratroopers unit.

However, the teen's father said the youth plans to appeal the decision to IDF Chief of Staff Dan Halutz, and if needed even take the matter to court, in order to open the pilot course for Arab Muslims as well.

Muslims are not obligated to join the army, and only a few dozens volunteer to the IDF every year. Hence, the Arab teen's unusual request managed to surprise the defense establishment.

He will fight the decision, even as he fulfills what he views as an important obligation as an Israeli citizen -- one that few Muslims in that country take up, despite the fact that service is mandatory for Jews.

The teen's father said Monday that "in the past few days I spoke with a senior official at the IDF's Personnel Directorate who explained to me that the course is closed to the Arab sector for the moment."

"The official made it clear that if the course opens in the next year or two, my son would be able to try and join the course. In the meantime, he will get an opportunity somewhere else," the father added.

The reason for the rejection is shrouded in mystery.

The IDF's Personnel Directorate refused to issue an official statement to explain why the teen would not be summoned to the pilot course. However, IDF officials said that apart from the youth's matriculation exam results and his flight abilities, other criteria were also being examined, and it is not certain the teen met all of them.

I hope there is a Knesset inquiry into the matter. If Muslim and Jew are to live together in harmony, discrimination cannot happen.

(Previous post here)

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Israel claims that Arab citizens have equal rights in Israel. Now a young man is testing that claim by seeking to join the Israeli military as a pilot.

An 18-year-old youth from northern Israel is an outstanding student who completed his high school diploma with top grades. He is also a gifted civilian pilot. His dream is to become a pilot in the Israeli air force, but one thing may stand in his way: He is an Arab Muslim.

The young and motivated teen has already passed the IDF's first stages of the draft, and recently submitted a request to be recruited to the IAF's prestigious pilot training course, Israel's leading newspaper Yedioth Ahronoth reported Monday.

If he succeeds, he is set to become the country's first Israeli-Arab military pilot.
"I ask that you allow me to fulfill my dream and my civil duty to serve in the armyÂ… my greatest dream and aspiration is to become a pilot. I feel I have the potential, the knowledge and the ability to serve in the IAF, or in any other elite unit," he wrote in his letter to the army.

That this young man is getting special scrutiny is somewhat disturbing. But he has one strong supporter – a major in the Israeli Air Force who was his flight instructor.

Luckily for the teen, he already has one devoted advocate who greatly supports his ambition to be recruited to the air force: Major Michael (res.) trained him to be a civilian pilot and has much confidence in his young student.

"I was amazed by his capability and love of flying. He learned to fly quickly, feels excellent while in the air, and the harder the maneuvers get, the more thrilled he is," Michael wrote in a recommendation letter submitted to the army.

"He functions well, is very bright and highly motivated to succeedÂ… I would very much like to see the army enabling him to make his dream come true and join one of the IDF's elite units, pending of course that he meets the requirements in full equality," Michael said, adding that he believes this move would give the army a chance to exhibit its openness to all citizens of Israel, and to display that equal opportunity is granted to all.

As Michael noted, his young student is bound to face the question of where his loyalties lie.

"I sincerely told him that there is the problem of loyalty. I told him that it would be hard to send an Arab to bombard other Arabs, whether in Gaza or in Lebanon," Michael said.

"But he said, 'I belong to the state of Israel, just try me and you'll see. I live in this country, and am willing to do what is required of me,'" Michael recalled.

Come on, Israel – for years you have talked the talk – now is the time to walk the walk.

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It seems we are preparing to deal with the Iranian nuclear program. Not is that the only one we need to take out.

First on Iran.

The United States government reportedly began coordinating with NATO its plans for a possible military attack against Iran.

The German newspaper Der Tagesspiegel collected various reports from the German media indicating that the North Atlantic Treaty Organization are examining the prospects of such a strike.

According to the report, CIA Director Porter Goss, in his last visit to Turkey on December 12, requested Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan to provide military bases to the United States in 2006 from where they would be able to launch an assault.

The German news agency DDP also noted that countries neighboring Iran, such as Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Oman, and Pakistan were also updated regarding the supposed plan. American sources sent to those countries apparently mentioned an aerial attack as a possibility, but did not provide a time frame for the operation.

Although Der Spiegel could not say that these plans were concrete, they did note that according to a January 2005 New Yorker report American forces had entered Iran in 2005 in order to mark possible targets for an aerial assault.

Given the comments of the Iranian president in recent weeks, it might not be a bad thing to have plans prepared. Especially when he continues to make comments like this.

Iran warned Sunday of a "crushing" response if its nuclear and military facilities are attacked by the United States or Israel.

Top nuclear negotiator Ali Larijani said, however, talk of such an attack most likely is "psychological warfare."

"Iran has prepared itself...they will get a crushing response if they make such a mistake," Larijani said on Iranian television late Sunday.

Larijani said Israel would "suffer greatly" if it launched an attack.

"If there is any truth in such talks, Israel will suffer greatly. It's a very small country within our range."

"Our (defence) preparedness is a deterrence," he said.

He also said a Russian proposal the two countries enrich uranium on Russian territory could not ignore Iran's right to carry out enrichment at home.

"It's not logical for a country to put the fate of its nation at the disposal of another country, even if it's a friend. You can meet part of your fuel needs from abroad."

"But is there a guarantee that nuclear fuel producers won't play with you over price or other things? History and experience show that if you don't have technology, you will damage your independence," he said.

So what we have is an anti-Semitic, Holocaust-denying regime making military threats against Israel and the US -- with US troops on its border. These folks are clearly nuts!.

But the North Korean threat cannot be ignored, either.

NORTH KOREA is working to restart a reactor that would produce enough plutonium to make 10 atomic bombs a year, a leading American nuclear scientist has revealed.

Siegfried Hecker, former director of the US governmentÂ’s top secret Los Alamos laboratory, also said the North Koreans reprocessed 8,000 fuel rods to make up to 14kg (30lb) of plutonium last summer, despite taking part in six-party talks hosted by China to end their weapons programme.

“They have the plutonium,” he said. “We have to assume the North Koreans can and have made a few nuclear devices.”

HeckerÂ’s revelations were based on information gleaned during two visits to North Korea, the last in August 2005, in which he met physicists and, in a pure moment from spy fiction, was handed a specimen of weapons-grade plutonium, stored in a marmalade jar.

His findings are being studied with increasing concern in Washington. North Korea further hardened its defiant stance this weekend by ending all United Nations food distribution to its people and by ordering out aid workers, including a British team from the charity Save the Children.

Thousands will be put at risk by the decision. The UNÂ’s World Food Programme had been feeding up to 6.4m of North KoreaÂ’s 23m people since the famine of the 1990s.

Diplomats believe the expulsions are part of a clampdown ordered by Kim Jong-il, North Korea’s “Dear Leader”, as he prepares to stand alongside Iran to confront the Americans over their right to have nuclear weapons.

Given the clear instability of the North Korean regime, actions will likelyhve to be taken to demilitarize the North Korean nuclear program. the problem is that the North Koreans have already violated agreements on the production of weapons-grade material more than once.

Will we see military actionon one or both fronts in 2006?

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