The Bosque Boys

A must read article from the New York Sun by Efraim Karsh. The Long War.

Link from JihadWatch.

The British government has given the go-ahead for human-animal embryos. Story here.

Paging H.G. Wells. We need you to write an update of The Island of Dr. Moreau.

Almost every day we kill Islamic terrorists and their supporters in Afghanistan and Iraq; daily, weekly, or monthly in Chechnya, Thailand, the Philippines, India, north Africa, the Middle East, more are killed. But, body counts should offer us small comfort; we cannot win a war of attrition as presently conducted. New jihadists arise daily.

On a regular basis jihadis are arrested in the U.S., Europe, and elsewhere. But, imprisoning Islamic terrorists or their supporters should offer us small comfort; we cannot imprison all those active in terrorist causes. And, new jihadists arise daily.

We have made some progress against the infrastructure of the Islamofascists: Afghanistan and Iraq and Somalia are denied them, finance networks have been disrupted, and communication has been made difficult. On the negative side, Western money for oil continues to provide immense funding. But, even if the money were to be cut off, jihadists would continue to arise. (more below)

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A must read by Christopher Hitchins. God save Britain.

Japan has taken its first step toward revising its U.S. imposed Constitution. The current Prime Minister wants to change the "pacifist" provision so as to enable Japan to have a fully capable military. Story here. (ignore the request to install Chinese character pack, the story is in English from the China Post of Taiwan)

This is a realistic step. Their neighborhood is growing increasingly dangerous with a belligerent Korea and an expanding China. They also must be asking themselves if the U.S. would go to war to protect them. And, given the Japanese dependence on imports, a blue-water navy makes sense for them.

From the China Post (in English, just hit cancel if it asks you to install a Chinese pack):

Christians in northwest Pakistan are fleeing after threats to convert to Islam or else. This ultimatum follows bombings of music stores for selling CDs (strict Islam is against any music), threats to barbers if they shave beards, and pressure to close girls' schools.

Progress certainly is not inevitable.

Iran and Syria. It should have been obvious to someone in the decision-making circles that Syria and Iran would not remain neutral in our effort to build a free society in Iraq--they have too much to lose. While I think the Vietnam analogy is false in many ways, in one way it has a bearing. We are allowing the enemies of a free Iraq to oppose us without penalty. See this video that is linked by Powerline.

What will we do?

Story from the Washington Post here. While the Post does acknowledge the special pressures facing women in Islam, they do make a mistake in trying to separate Islam and culture on this issue. In the Quran women are regarded as male property, and wife beating is advocated. And, in Islam interpretation is considered to be now closed: in other words, new intepretations of the Quran are disallowed.

While the Post states that spouse-abuse is found in other cultures, which is true, nowhere in the Bible is wife-beating advocated. And, while the Bible is patriarchal, women are not lowered to the level of property.

From Australia this news article. Lead paragraph

The senior cleric of the biggest mosque in Canberra has been ordered not to attack fellow worshippers after an outbreak of violence split the city's small Islamic community.

In April several house church leaders were arrested while meeting with American Christians. The Americans also were detained. Story here.