Quotes of the day

posted at 10:45 pm on February 24, 2012 by Allahpundit

A senior Pentagon official apologized Friday to Washington-area Muslims for the burning of Qurans at a military base in Afghanistan…

“‘I come here today to apologize on behalf of the Department of Defense for the incident that took place in Afghanistan this week,’ Lavoy told worshippers, saying the burnings were done ‘unknowingly and improperly.’…

“‘This is an issue we know is of concern, not only to Afghans, but to other Muslims around the world, including in the United States,’ Little said. ‘We want to send a strong signal to the American Muslim community that we deplore what happened and apologize for it.’…

“‘It was very satisfying, very heartwarming to hear an apology three times in one speech,’ Magid said after the services.”

***

“‘We should not be satisfied with mere protests and empty slogans but the military bases of the invaders, their military convoys and their troops should become a target of our courageous attacks,’ [Taliban] spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid said in a statement directed to Taliban fighters and the ‘zealous and faithful people of Afghanistan.’

“‘Kill them, beat them, take them as prisoners and teach them such a lesson that they never summon the courage to abuse the Holy Qur’an again,’ he said.

“Mujahid said the Taliban called on the world’s Muslims to condemn the incident, ‘both practically and verbally and back the legitimate struggle of the Muslim Afghans’ against the ‘American aggressors.’”

***

“In an attempt to calm rising tensions, the commander of ISAF and U.S. forces in Afghanistan, Gen. John Allen, made a surprise visit – and an impassioned plea – to troops at the military base where the two [murdered] US servicemen were based.

“‘This is not the time for vengeance,’ he told a large gathering of U.S. and NATO troops. ‘Now is the time to look deep inside your souls, remember your mission, remember your discipline, remember who you are. We’ll come through this together as a unit.’

“Following his speech, Afghanistan’s top military commander, Gen. Sher Mohammad Karimi, echoed the same sentiments, vowing that the troops had sacrificed their lives ‘for humanity, not just the Afghan people.’”

***

“After German soldiers were pelted with stones by an angry crowd in Takhar Province, in northern Afghanistan, the German military decided to withdraw its soldiers from a small base there several weeks earlier than planned. The base had just 50 soldiers, so the withdrawal will have little impact, but the early departure appeared symbolic of a growing disengagement by members of the NATO coalition. France announced last month that it would bring home its troops in 2013, a year earlier than expected.

“It was unclear on Friday night whether, after four days of protests, the violence that has rolled through the country was finally spent, or if the Koran burning had uncorked an inexhaustible well of fury over the continuing presence of Western troops after 10 years of war. In some measure, the angry demonstrations were to be expected in a religious country fed up with foreigners, but the tension this week seems more pervasive and irresolvable than in the past.

“‘The violence is almost within the normal realm of things that you would see after this kind of incident,’ said Martine Van Bijlert, a director of the Afghanistan Analysts Network, a policy and research institute in Kabul. ‘The big question is, how long does it go on? You have to watch who jumps on the bandwagon. It is very intense, and there’s the feeling that all areas need to have had their own demonstration if they haven’t had one yet.’”

***

Via Mediaite.

***

Click the image to watch.

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Contrast with this.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=reuK2msTzec&feature=list_related&playnext=1&list=AVGxdCwVVULXcB8xMJo3FisfM1vHyySXmQ

Bmore on February 25, 2012 at 3:18 AM

Solid offering.

I don’t listen to enough of him. Not that I dislike him…quite the contrary. Just haven’t ever got into enough of a habit of listening to him to really appreciate him.

CycloneCDB on February 25, 2012 at 3:23 AM

CycloneCDB on February 25, 2012 at 3:06 AM

*Looks around to make sure coast is clear*..PAB Rules!!..:)

Dire Straits on February 25, 2012 at 3:23 AM

*Looks around to make sure coast is clear*..PAB Rules!!..:)

Dire Straits on February 25, 2012 at 3:23 AM

Yeah – I have to keep my love for her on the down-low. I already told the wife if Megyn Kelly ever became available that we may have to split up. I don’t think she’d let me say that about a second Fox fox.

CycloneCDB on February 25, 2012 at 3:26 AM

CycloneCDB on February 25, 2012 at 3:13 AM

This is my favorite Boss song..:)

Dire Straits on February 25, 2012 at 3:26 AM

CycloneCDB on February 25, 2012 at 3:26 AM

+ 100..Megyn Kelley rocks!!..:)

Dire Straits on February 25, 2012 at 3:28 AM

I know I’m late but the show must go on..The GOP will betray you..:)

Dire Straits on February 25, 2012 at 1:28 AM

heh. slacker. I had to wait till page three for the announcement tonight.

SparkPlug on February 25, 2012 at 3:31 AM

This is my favorite Boss song..:)

Dire Straits on February 25, 2012 at 3:26 AM

Nice. Glad it wasn’t Dancin’ In the Dark!

My favorite…

CycloneCDB on February 25, 2012 at 3:32 AM

SparkPlug on February 25, 2012 at 3:31 AM

opps. Page 2, OK that’s not bad. Page 2 is appropriate. Page 3 is a bit late. Page 4 is out of the question.

SparkPlug on February 25, 2012 at 3:32 AM

CycloneCDB on February 25, 2012 at 3:23 AM

He is a legend, an understated one. If you do get interest, Wired and Blow by Blow are a good place to start. My favorite off Blow By Blow. A little tune Stevie Wonder wrote for Beck to interpret. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cm1wAqco_EE&feature=fvsr
And with that folks I’m out. Got to get some sleep. Good night all.

Bmore on February 25, 2012 at 3:33 AM

+ 100..Megyn Kelley rocks!!..:)

Dire Straits on February 25, 2012 at 3:28 AM

Yeah – but if I switched my allegiance to PAB, then I am just going to look like a flake to my wife. So I have to keep Megyn in the lead-off spot and PAB in the bullpen.

CycloneCDB on February 25, 2012 at 3:33 AM

Did Pink leave a mess on the carpet?

SparkPlug on February 25, 2012 at 3:33 AM

He is a legend, an understated one. If you do get interest, Wired and Blow by Blow are a good place to start. My favorite off Blow By Blow. A little tune Stevie Wonder wrote for Beck to interpret. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cm1wAqco_EE&feature=fvsr
And with that folks I’m out. Got to get some sleep. Good night all.

Bmore on February 25, 2012 at 3:33 AM

Thanks for the help. I may have to download some tunes this weekend. Maybe I should listen to that at work instead of talk-radio…save myself from getting another ulcer.

Arrividerci!

CycloneCDB on February 25, 2012 at 3:37 AM

Newt is exactly correct… as is the young woman in the other video thread. Morgan makes some unsubstantiated assumptions that General Allen set the tone that Obama listens to. Morgan also overlooks the alleged provocation that the Koran was used as a message means to incite jihad violence among the detainees.

Negotiating with the Taliban, which has made its goals clear of reassuming power and driving out foreigners (who have sacrificed much to protect the Afghanis from the excesses of this extremist group) is a fool’s errand.

Karzai’s position is tenuous without the Allies’ protection. He may feel the need to save face, but he has used and abused those who allow him to play this double game.

The time for American apologies is over, Mr. President, unless you apologize for not serving and protecting the American people and the Constitution, which you have sworn to uphold.

onlineanalyst on February 25, 2012 at 3:38 AM

Newt is exactly correct…

As per usual. He’s sharp – and is the only one that can consistently present a coherent message.

I just wish I could get behind him. His problem is that when he steps in it – he REALLY steps in it.

CycloneCDB on February 25, 2012 at 3:42 AM

Goodnight all.

CycloneCDB on February 25, 2012 at 3:43 AM

Hey for you peeps slobbering over Patty Ann Brown on RedEye, who is she? I never noticed her on fox before. Yeah, she is cute, but almost all of their gals are cute.

karenhasfreedom on February 25, 2012 at 3:50 AM

Wow what a thread to read!!!!

It’s so simple, really.

Forget the tunes, for now. I love music, but you need to focus on your own survival.

Choose darkness or choose light.

Opinionator on February 25, 2012 at 3:50 AM

CycloneCDB on February 25, 2012 at 3:32 AM

LoLz..My brother and a lot of my friends thought Born in USA was too commercial and bubble gum pop..I was impressed with the “B side” Downbound Train..:)

Dire Straits on February 25, 2012 at 3:53 AM

CycloneCDB on February 25, 2012 at 3:32 AM

That is a very good tune..From an excellent LP I might add..:)

PS..Great to see you posting with the “zoo crew”..Enjoyed it!!..:)

Dire Straits on February 25, 2012 at 4:06 AM

Jimmy
Page
White
Clapton
Zappa

Gedge on February 25, 2012 at 5:38 AM

Politics means never having to say you’re sorry.

Foreign Policy: Hopscotch

Joint Chiefs Marine Gen. Cartwright and retired Navy Adm. William Fallon, also speaking Thursday at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, said they would not advise the Obama administration to take military action against Iran.

“I don’t see a lot of value in going in,” said Gen. Cartwright.

“It’s certainly not a preferred option,” said Adm. Fallon, former commander of U.S. Central Command. “No one that I’m aware of thinks there’s a real positive outcome of a military strike.”

maverick muse on February 25, 2012 at 6:25 AM

CATO Institute credentials

Sheldon Richman, senior fellow at The Future of Freedom Foundation, discusses his article “Obama Administration ‘Brainwashes’ Public on Afghanistan;” George Romney’s (Mitt’s father) courageous – but badly phrased – turn against the Vietnam War in 1967; how Lt. Col. Daniel Davis’s report on Afghanistan shows a similar “brainwashing” of the American public by the generals and MSM; the failure to make progress in three core areas in Afghanistan (Afghan government competency by 2014, decrease in violence, and a dead-end for the Taliban); why junior officers are losing faith in the war effort; and why Mitt and his many sons seem to have more important priorities than serving in the military, despite their pro-war rhetoric.

interview MP3

maverick muse on February 25, 2012 at 6:37 AM

Dereliction of Duty II: Senior Military Leaders’ Loss of Integrity

Lt. Col. Daniel L. Davis “spent last year in Afghanistan, visiting and talking with U.S. troops and their Afghan partners … [in] every significant area where our soldiers engage the enemy,” Davis wrote in Armed Forces Journal. “As the numbers depicting casualties and enemy violence indicate the absence of progress, so too did my observations of the tactical situation all over Afghanistan.”

Davis’s article summarizes longer classified and unclassified reports, including his 84-page report bluntly titled “Dereliction of Duty II: Senior Military Leaders’ Loss of Integrity Wounds Afghan War Effort” (PDF). His conclusion is unequivocal.

“What I saw bore no resemblance to rosy official statements by U.S. military leaders about conditions on the ground,” he wrote.

Senior ranking US military leaders have so distorted the truth when communicating with the US Congress and American people in regards to conditions on the ground in Afghanistan that the truth has become unrecognizable. This deception has damaged America’s credibility among both our allies and enemies, severely limiting our ability to reach a political solution to the war in Afghanistan. It has likely cost American taxpayers hundreds of billions of dollars Congress might not otherwise have appropriated had it known the truth, and our senior leaders’ behavior has almost certainly extended the duration of this war. The single greatest penalty our Nation has suffered, however, has been that we have lost the blood, limbs and lives of tens of thousands of American Service Members with little to no gain to our country as a consequence of this deception.

Obama administration: “the violence is waning”…

Why Should You Listen to Me?
I am a Lieutenant-Colonel in the United States Army, serving as a Regular Army officer in the Armor Branch. I have just completed the fourth combat deployment of my career (Desert Storm, Afghanistan in 2005-06, Iraq in 2008-09, and Afghanistan again in 2010-11). In the middle of my career I served eight years in the US Army Reserve and held a number of civilian jobs, one of which was an aide for US Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison (Legislative Correspondent for Defense and Foreign Affairs). This report does not constitute a comprehensive investigation into the corrupt nature of the senior ranks, but rather will be limited to the programs and combat tours in which I have personally engaged since 1997. Though the number is limited, the assignments I have had have placed me in arguably the most significant Army programs of the past 15 years.

During my most recent Afghan deployment my duties required that I travel extensively throughout Regional Command (RC) – North, RC-East, and RC-South, covering 9,178 miles. I conducted mounted and dismounted combat patrols with our troopers, travelling at various times in MRAP vehicles, MRAP All-Terrain Vehicles, and Strykers. I spent time with both conventional forces and Special Forces troops. While on dismounted patrol I once stepped on an IED that we discovered and somehow did not detonate; was in an MRAP patrol that was attacked with an IED (no one was injured); was twice on combat outposts attacked by Taliban dismounts; was rocketed and mortared more times than I could count, several times impacting so close my ears rang for hours afterwards.

As mentioned earlier in this report, were I able to share the classified reports the gulf between what some of our leaders have said in public and what they know behind the scenes would be dramatic. Nevertheless, even with what I’m about to provide from open source material the gulf will still be clearly evident. In the following sub-sections, I’ll cover:
Deception at the Strategic Level
o The Truth: (U) Afghan NGO Safety Office Q.4 2010 Report
o The Truth: (U) Center for Strategic and International Studies, “The Failures
that Shaped Today’s War”, by Anthony Cordesman
Deception at the Operational/Tactical Level
o Early 2011 Closing of the Pech Valley:
o Statements of “Clear Progress” in Helmand Province
Deception against the American Public
o Statements by Senior Uniformed Leaders from 2004-2010
o Statements by General David Petraeus 2008-2011

maverick muse on February 25, 2012 at 6:56 AM

Has anyone seen Canopfor, I’m missing my bud for three days. Hope all is well.

angrymike on February 25, 2012 at 7:09 AM

At least 25 people have been killed and hundreds wounded since Tuesday when it first emerged that Korans and other religious items had been incinerated at Bagram Airbase, north of Kabul.

US President Barack Obama was forced to apologise saying the incident was a terrible mistake, and Afghan leader Hamid Karzai called for restraint.

But Republican presidential candidate Newt Gingrich attacked the President for apologising, saying it was “astonishing” and undeserved.

http://news.sky.com/home/world-news/article/16176798

Forced? FORCED? Yeah right, nobody forced him to apologize, he was more than willing AND happy to do so.

So thanks to the boy king, the world now has the image of the United States of America being forced to grovel for forgiveness to a pack of wild animals?

grrrr. Not the way I wanted to start my day.

Flora Duh on February 25, 2012 at 7:20 AM

And now all you infidel Catholics STFU and PAY for Those Abortions.

roflmmfao

donabernathy on February 25, 2012 at 7:20 AM

No one has apologized to me for having to watch ladies hold their skirts down as they jumped from the World Trade Center.

JPeterman on February 24, 2012 at 10:57 PM

Exactly. When are the Afghans going to apologize to Americans for allowing their cesspool of a country to be used as a staging ground for unprovoked attacks that killed thousands of innocent Americans? When are the Afghans going to apologize for all the dead U.S. service men and women who gave their lives trying to free Afghanistan from the vicious terrorists who’ve taken up residence there? When are the Afghans going to apologize for the billions of dollars we’ve wasted trying to build schools and roads and train police forces for them so that Afghans can have better lives? When are the Afghans going to apologize for all the poppies they grow and sell on the black market so that it can be made into drugs that kill American kids?

I’m sick of these “noble” people, but I’m even more sick of the craven American politicians and generals who grovel before them.

AZCoyote on February 25, 2012 at 7:24 AM

Hey Scooter, where’s our apology?
My take.

kingsjester on February 25, 2012 at 7:40 AM

Has anyone seen Canopfor, I’m missing my bud for three days. Hope all is well.

angrymike on February 25, 2012 at 7:09 AM

No, I don’t recall seeing him for a few days. Like you, I hope all is well.

Hey Scooter, where’s our apology?

kingsjester on February 25, 2012 at 7:40 AM

I choose #3.

Top Ten Alternatives to Apologizing to Afghanistan

With President Obama, the United States was supposedly getting a worldly figure who had lived in other lands and understood the foreign brain.

Turns out Obama has little knowledge of how other cultures think, which is why he believes bowing, offering the hand of friendship, and apologizing to overseas savages works.

Such activities, as any veteran of the schoolyard playground will tell you, breed only one thing: Disrespect, contempt, and, eventually, even worse violence.

It’s becoming clear that the more the United States apologizes to Afghanistan for burning a few Korans, the more Afghans leap into the streets. So White House Dossier has helpfully compiled for Obama a list of ten alternative approaches that the president could have taken to deal with the problem.

None, we believe, will be any less effective than “I apologize.”

Here they are.

Flora Duh on February 25, 2012 at 8:04 AM

“It was unclear on Friday night whether, after four days of protests, the violence that has rolled through the country was finally spent, or if the Koran burning had uncorked an inexhaustible well of fury over the continuing presence of Western troops after 10 years of war.

Because it’s what they DO. It’s pathological, much like serial sexual predators. The percentages of radical Muslims coincides with the percentage of child molesters who simply cannot be “cured”. The numbers vary, and of course the conventional wisdom claims that those numbers are much higher than they actually present. Think approximately 1-4% in reality, versus the erroneous meme that “they’re all like that and can’t be changed”.

” … and why Mitt and his many sons seem to have more important priorities than serving in the military, despite their pro-war rhetoric.

interview MP3

maverick muse on February 25, 2012 at 6:37 AM

I’ve been saying and writing that ever since Mittens stood on stage with those five wimps he raised. There is nothing “patriotic” about any of them.

~(Ä)~

Karl Magnus on February 25, 2012 at 8:05 AM

Has anyone seen Canopfor, I’m missing my bud for three days. Hope all is well.

angrymike on February 25, 2012 at 7:09 AM

Sometimes, our Canadian stalwart has billing/bandwith issues with his ISP.

This too shall pass; (we hope!) and Canopfor will be back.

massrighty on February 25, 2012 at 8:16 AM

Massrighty

Thank you, I didn’t know, you have made me feel better. I usually see him everyday, and got worried.

angrymike on February 25, 2012 at 8:36 AM

The Supplicant-in-Chief continues to embarrass our country the world over.

Fortunately, Newton has been hammering the Supplicant while on the stump. I believe that most Americans are sick and tired of the United States prostrating itself upon the altar of political correctness and expedience.
What the American people want is a man who has the intestinal fortitude to simply state:
“It was unintentional. Get over it.”
Short, sweet and to the point. Time to move on …

~(Ä)~

Karl Magnus on February 25, 2012 at 9:02 AM

Are you in the military, Maverick Muse? Do you run a business which employs thousands of people? Are you a former Senator? Professor? What makes you uniquely a “patriot”?

Those are rhetorical questions for you to ponder. I could cite a few Bible verses, but I’ll let you guess what they might be…..

Buy Danish on February 25, 2012 at 9:05 AM

BB King has it right, the thrill is gone. What we are left with is disgust at our dear leader for doing the apology tour one more time. BTW, Patton would have gone through that sand pit known as Afghanistan in less than a year leaving behind a pile of burned out rubble. He would have torched the poppy fields, too. The do-gooders could then come in to help rebuild with shovels and seed packs. We wouldn’t have been wasting 10 years and the lives of our soldiers lost if someone in the top military brass had any balls.

Kissmygrits on February 25, 2012 at 9:54 AM

This “man”, this “president” is a complete disgrace.

GhoulAid on February 25, 2012 at 10:11 AM

Trower
Beck
Vaughan
Gibbons
Iommi

Were/are pretty good too.

Bmore on February 25, 2012 at 10:24 AM

I guess we haven’t apologized enough as two more American soldiers were killed!

fbcmusicman on February 25, 2012 at 10:29 AM

Muslims consider the Koran the literal word of God and treat each book with deep reverence.

Civilized people consider each human being a literal creation of God and value each human life with deep reverence, as opposed to mere books, which are created my men.

fred5678 on February 25, 2012 at 1:34 PM

No one has apologized to me for having to watch ladies hold their skirts down as they jumped from the World Trade Center.

JPeterman on February 24, 2012 at 10:57 PM

That should be required viewing beforehand for anyone wishing to apologize to Islam for anything less than carpetbombing.

kim roy on February 25, 2012 at 6:05 PM

Dereliction of Duty II: Senior Military Leaders’ Loss of Integrity

maverick muse on February 25, 2012 at 6:56 AM

Yes, it does seem that Lt. Col. Daniel L. Davis is blowing the whistle on these lying traitorous career uber alles b-astards like H.R. McMaster did about Vietnam with his book on the dereliction of duty on Lyndon Johnson, Robert McNamara and of the military brass.

VorDaj on February 25, 2012 at 7:39 PM

I really wonder if there are any thinking people on this planet that consider the absurdity of adults rioting and acting like screaming monkeys over a burning book is ok?

I’m serious, I don’t even think the Afghanis or any other bunch of schmucks probably paid to go out and look all angry and scary looking, think it makes any sense.

But it’s the game they play. It’s supposed to scare the bejeesus out of us fat Americans, these angry Mooselimbs whose precious book you dare to burn. A book that was used to pass secret enemy messages in prison I might add, not that truthful details matter much.

Yes, it’s time for America, either via its President or somehow, to take a common sense stand, tell them to knock it off, tell them we are unimpressed.

patfish on February 25, 2012 at 7:49 PM

How much will it take for some grown-up to stand up and say enough is enough. To live your life in fear of fanatics is not living it is at best existing.

DDay on February 25, 2012 at 8:54 PM

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