Hey Kiddies, It’s Jihad Mickey

You have to to hand it to the Palestinians. They certainly understand the impact of early indoctrination and don’t hesitate to use it, no matter how repugnant.

From the same folks who routinely run a music video that features a real-life mother preparing to blow herself up in a suicide-bombing, while explaining to her daughter, who will never get to know her mommy, why she did this “heroic” deed, we now have a Mickey Mouse knockoff proclaiming to Palestinian school children that  “we are laying the foundation for the world to be led by Islamists” during a popular children’s TV show on Hamas TV.  Okay, hardly a catchy jingle, but the message is what is important here.

Hamas sponsored Al Aksa TV pulled the show but only when it came to light outside of the Middle East. If not for the negative publicity, one can rest assured that the program would have continued unabated. Palestinian Information Minister Mustafa Barghouti called it a “mistaken approach” and stated that the TV network was placed “under review.” Yeah.

The show featured a near Mickey Mouse lookalike (apparently Palestinians aren’t too concerned either about copyright infringement, which is a minor issue when you consider the greater goal of indoctrinating Palestinian youth into their army of homicide bombers) in a near Mickey Mouse voice, encouraging young viewers to call in and sing Hamas songs about defeating Israel and its Western allies.  The almost-Mickey would then heap praise upon the little callers for their enlightenment. What a country.

All of this should come as no surprise however from a region where official textbooks teach children that Jews are directly descended from pigs. Hatred seems to form the basis for life in Palestine and in other Middle East countries dedicated to the elimination of Israel and the United States. It is ingrained from the time children are able to crawl and reinforced through the glorification of suicide-bombers.  

It will take several lifetimes, if ever, to overcome the hateful thought being forcefed upon innocent children who grow up filled with ignorant hatred.

It is important that leaders of the free world understand the insidious nature of what we are up against in fighting such vile hatred.  

Iraq Just Another Political Game To Dems

You have to admire the Democrats in Washington for their consistency if nothing else.  It’s all about power and elections for America’s party of the left and nothing more. In their world, whatever tactic is necessary will be pursued if it means reclaiming power and their media cohorts will be there to help them, marching in lockstep.

Today you will hear a lot of bleating from the party of the left about Iraq timetables, funding and “standing with the American people,” to quote Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid. The reality is that the Democrats have cleverly timed the arrival of a supposed Iraq funding bill to arrive on President Bush’s desk exactly four years to the date after President Bush appeared on deck of a US Naval carrier in celebrated acknowledgment of the downfall of Saddam Hussein. Think the timing is coincidental? Hardly. Commercials are already running by Democratic party front groups making the connection between this misguided bill and the anniversary of the President’s appearance.

The bill itself of course is frought with danger. The bill attempts to hamstring our efforts in Iraq by placing a date on troop withdrawals and threatening to remove funding for our troops should these timetables not be met. Even during the height of the Vietnam War (the Democrats’ favorite bogeyman), Congress never removed funding while our troops were still in combat.

While we all can acknowledge a desire to see an end to the conflict in Iraq, setting a timetable would be catastrophic. The enemies of democracy, and those seeking revenge, would simply pull back and lay in wait, knowing the exact date when they could attack without fear of reprisal. What greater disservice could we provide the new government of Iraq than to abandon them to the mercy of the enemies of democracy? Well, give the enemies the exact date and time at which they can attack.

The war has not gone as well as anybody would have liked, but this is real life and a real war. This is not war waged on a Sony Playstation or on a computer. Real war means things do not go according to plan.

We need to maintain our resolve and not cut and run when things turn ugly. It means standing tall in the face of adversity, something the Democratic leaders in Washington seem to have forgotten, or more likely, never learned.

In recent weeks we have seen the spectacle of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi donning traditional Muslim head garb while telling the leader of Syria that Israel was willing to open diplomatic relations. This caused Israel to immediately refute Pelosi’s statement. Following hard on her heels, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid declared to America that the “war is lost.”

It seems that the Washington Democrats are more interested in undercutting the morale of our troops while cozying up to the enemies of democracy, all in an effort to appear to be appealing to the American public. Don’t be fooled.

In pushing the latest Iraq spending bill, which thankfully President Bush will veto, the Democrats have shown their true colors by stuffing it with over $20 billion in pork. They howl that their patriotism should not be questioned yet stand hand-in-hand with the enemies of freedom while pushing a dishonest bill. How else should they be judged?

Sometimes the mirror is the harshest critic. Right now the Democrats are avoiding the looking glass like a leftist avoids Fox News. But you can’t hide from the facts and the fact is that while the Democrats froth over potential political gains, our troops are being used as pawns for their own gain.

Just another game of politics.

Honoring A Hero, Despite the Chicken Little Crowd

Danny P. Dietz of Littleton, Colorado grew up to be the kind of young man any American parent would be proud to call a son.

 Dietz, after graduating high school, decided to serve his country and joined the United States Navy. Dietz and the Navy proved to be a solid combination as the young Colorado native trained hard and became a Navy SEAL. It meant of course that Dietz would likely find himself in harm’s way as the SEALS are the Navy’s Special Operations Forces, highly skilled and trained in counter-terrorism and other more unconventional means of warfare. Only the best of the best make it through SEALS training. 

Dispatched to Afghanistan, Dietz found himself in the middle of an ambush in June, 2005 and performed heroically in combat. Right up to his death.  

Tipped off by anti-coalition Taliban sympathizers of their location, Dietz and another member of the SEALS, Matthew Axelson of Cuppertino, California, were flanked on all sides by Taliban fighters.  

The SEALS’ mission had been to locate a central figure in the Taliban leadership in the mountains of Asadabad. Instead the fighters had found Dietz and Axelson and were pummeling the two Americans who called for assistance. The Chinook helicopter dispatched to aid the courageous SEALS never made it as it was shot down by anti-aircraft fire. In all, eight SEALS and another eight Army Nighthawks lost their lives in what would be the worst single combat loss for the Navy SEALS since Vietnam. Accounts from the battle indicated that Dietz fought until his last dying breath. 

Dietz was awarded the Navy Cross, this country’s second-highest military honor. His SEALS teammate, Matthew Axelson also was so honored. Dietz’s widow and parents received the posthumous award on his behalf in a ceremony on September 13 at the US Navy War Memorial in Washington, DC.   

Dietz’s hometown was also justly proud and wanted to honor this brave young man, commissioning a statue of Dietz that would reside in a municipal park. The statue, of a crouching Dietz in battle gear with his rifle at the ready, was commissioned and the city pushed forward in its efforts to honor its fallen hero. 

If the town of Littleton, Colorado sounds familiar, that’s because 8 years earlier, in 1999, the Colorado enclave made worldwide news thanks to the wanton, senseless slaughter at Columbine High School when two misfits murdered twelve of their fellow classmates before literally turning their guns on themselves. Here though was a chance for the community to rally around a hero with a gun, instead of being remembered for a couple of thugs. 

The statue of Dietz will be near Littleton Middle School, in Berry Park, which happens to also be near a couple of other schools (really, in a city the size of Littleton, what isn’t near a park or a school?) which seems to bother some misguided souls who seem to believe that a statue of an American hero is a bad message for the children.  

“After our experience with Columbine and the clear message that we teach within the Littleton schools…what were we thinking?” stated Emily Cassidy Fuchs to the Rocky Mountain News. Which makes one wonder what is being taught in the Littleton schools. Fuchs was part of a coalition of parents who were distributing flyers objecting to both the design and placement of the statue. “If I’ve got my 4-year old at the playground, I feel it would be a threatening image that would frighten her,” Fuchs amazingly added, apparently unable to explain to her child that the man in the statue with the M4A1 assault rifle and grenade launcher was there to protect her. 

But Dietz’s widow, Patsy, had a ready answer in her response according to the same newspaper account when she said comparing the guns used in Columbine to her husband’s weapon was like comparing a criminal’s use of a knife to a surgeon’s scalpel. “One is used to take lives…and the other is used to save them,” she told the Rocky Mountain News. Dietz’s mother, Cindy, also, thankfully was able to bring this silliness into perspective when she told the paper that the statue “is about a hero. It’s not about war, and it’s definitely not about a gun.”  

Thankfully Littleton has already made the decision to proceed with the statue as planned.   

Despite the small but rabid chicken little crowd, a hero gets his just due.