This election is a slap on the faces of all Bush minions who ate up his ‘Democracies dont start war’ nonsense.
From Iraq to Lebanon to West Bank, radical Islamists are on the march while the commander in chief and his lackey in chief condi are singing paeans to democracy. Freedom is indeed on the march!
I do take issue with the inclusion of Pakistan in the above group. Pakistan is not a Middle Eastern Nation and its politics are a litte different.
I also dont share the assessment that the Islamists will win a free and fair election in Pakistan. They did have free and fair elections in the 90’s and the Islamists could not win over 10% of the votes in either election.
They have substantial support in only one province (NWFP) where they already control the state government.
In a nation wide election, they will not win over 6-8% of the total votes.
PAKISTAN HAS CHANGED SIGNIFICANTLY (AS HAS THE ENTIRELY MUSLIM WORLD) SINCE THE ’90s–BECOMING MUCH MORE EXTREME. AN ELECTION TODAY WOULD ELECT ISLAMISTS. THERE’S A REASON A.Q. KHAN IS A NATIONAL HERO THERE. AS FOR IT NOT BEING IN THE MID-EAST, IT IS CLOSE ENOUGH, AND IS, IN FACT, A MUSLIM NATION.
DEBBIE SCHLUSSEL

lawman on January 26, 2006 at 12:38 pm

I completely agree with your assessments, Debbie. I’ve been saying this for a long time and been called a paleocon or isolationist, when in reality I am neither. I’m glad you could see past Buchanan’s serious flaws and point out where he’s right and many neoconservatives are wrong. One thing though, is that you left out Turkey. Turkey is not an ally, it’s an Islamist snake in the grass that has increasingly shown its true colors. Not to mention, all these terrorists long for the glory days when it REALLY showed its true colors, whether they care for Turks or not. Remember, to them a rival jihadi is better than an infidel any day. Why is the West trusting a country in which, more than any other nation on Earth, nostalgic nationalism and Islamism are one in the same?

KnightoftheImpaler on January 26, 2006 at 3:45 pm

Lameman:You saying it’s a slap in the face? Your muslim animal pals wouldn’t + can’t understand anything besides death to all .Let alone voting.

danny on January 26, 2006 at 3:45 pm

Easily the best hope to separate Islamic “terrorists” from “moderates”is a Moslem civil war…from sand dune to sand dune…where only Moslems can be victims of their fellow Moslems and morally discredited “religion.”

jaywilton on January 26, 2006 at 4:20 pm

Easy to joke,jaywilton:.Gasa + west bank young kids that go on to have kids (2 more generations from now)will have to be trained as the animal they have become.That death to others might bring them heaven.But on this earth it will bring the death back at them.

danny on January 26, 2006 at 5:29 pm

I agree with Danny and sincerely hope there is Palestinean infighting or a civil war, or Israel will have to fight a war with Hamas while staying cautious of that maniac Ahamadinejad. Meanwhile, we’re bogged still bogged down in Iraq, not too mention unprepared for the problems in Detroit Debbie bravely keeps bringing up. And don’t even get me started on Europe. They’re finally starting to wake up to this, but they’re in no shape to do anything but handle their own problems at this point. That’s Western Europe. Eastern Europe is more keen to the Islamist menace because of the region’s history and because they haven’t really had the luxury of becoming soft and weak, but they are not economically or politically up the level of the rest of the West. And while Israel finds herself on the defensive, the other two fronts are still swarming with fifth columns and appeasers. This is definitely not looking good right now.

KnightoftheImpaler on January 26, 2006 at 5:45 pm

Dannyboy,
You are the only animal here as you apparently cant have respect for anyone you disagree with.

lawman on January 26, 2006 at 5:52 pm

Hamas is a Hebrew word too. It is used in the story of Noah and the Flood to describe the depraved state of mankind before the Flood. “And the earth was full of hamas.” Hamas in Hebrew means violence, brutality, cruelty. That’s a perfect description of our contemporary Hamas.

Eliyahu on January 26, 2006 at 6:05 pm

THERE’S A REASON A.Q. KHAN IS A NATIONAL HERO THERE.
Well its because hes the father of their nuclear technology. I dont believe that its a product of their Islamist pride as much as its a product of national pride.
I think a better example for you would be the rather surprising popularity of Bin Laden in that country.
Their two main political parties (Muslim League and People’s Party) are pretty well entrenched with networks and party workers all over the nation. If there is a free and a fair election, where both these parties are allowed to run, they will get more than 80% of the vote between them. To win an election you need a grass root network and support base and both these parties are pretty well established.
AS FOR IT NOT BEING IN THE MID-EAST, IT IS CLOSE ENOUGH, AND IS, IN FACT, A MUSLIM NATION
Sorry for being pedantic, but the classification of a Middle Eastern nation is based on geographical location and not religion of the populace. Israel does not have a Muslim majority, but is located in the Middle East. I think Iran is as far East as you go when we talk about the Middle East. Afghanistan is more Central Asia and Pakistan is definitely South Asia along with India/Bangladesh and Sri Lanka. Not that it matters! 🙂

lawman on January 26, 2006 at 6:06 pm

I apologize to others here for getting in the gutter with Danny but I was getting a little sick of his Lame-Man nonsense.
I am of course going to ignore him in future.

lawman on January 26, 2006 at 6:11 pm

The Arab-Israeli conflict is the biggest issue in the Middle East; we canít just say we wonít talk. We knew this most likely would happen, were we just not ready once again for Middle Eastern politics, have we no plan again for what is happening? We should have been better prepared for this outcome. We wanted Democracy in the Middle East, we have it. Now what do you do when it is not to your liking?
Raymond B
http://www.voteswagon.com

raymondb.voteswagon.com on January 26, 2006 at 8:32 pm

Lameman; you have time and again shown the love and understanding you have for your muslim brothers.

danny on January 26, 2006 at 8:42 pm

Trying to promote democracy in the Middle East is an idealistic cause … right up there with building a snowman in Hell.
After WW2 we rebuilt Europe with American tax dollars, and got an entire generation of ungrateful anti-American SOBs for our trouble, and they still went socialist.
The same thing is happening in Iraq. Except, of course, they do not want to be saved or rebuilt by the Great Satan. Even now they are distancing from the U.S.and courting Iran. And, if I were a Muslim, I wouldn’t have it any other way.
I spent over ten years in uniform fighting America’s enemies. The words inscribed on my heart are right out of the Declaration of Independence:
“And for the support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes and our sacred Honor.”
I consider it a great honor to have served the American People. Yet, in this day we see the ‘Loyal Opposition’ promoting anarchy and cowardice, and elivating them to political virtues.
Our first and foremost obligation is to one another, Americans.
The only ones screaming bloody murder about Bush’s homeland security arrangements are terrorists, drug dealers, and Democrats … and I have to wonder if that’s just a coincidence.
How can we promote democracy abroad when it is under duress at home?

Athling on January 27, 2006 at 3:03 am

Debbie has once again put the clear facts on the table.I am a wounded veteran of the Vietnam war and have for many years been discouraged by what I heard from the Main Stream Media and by the course this counry has taken. But then I found the Blogs and learned I was not alone that there are couragous people like Debbie putting the word out.Some of my faith has been restored.I believe that violent attacks against Israel will increase dramaticly by an embolden Hamas. When they do then the United States must remove it’s restraining hand from Israel.Also calling names and making fun of someones name only makes us look like democrats.

Jack Hamilton on January 27, 2006 at 5:29 am

I’m not joking,Danny;I think some endless version
of Iran-IraqII is long overdue,made worse my (Ham)
ass’s election success.To have an idea what it’s
like to deal with the “poor Palestinians”,check out Palestinian Media Watch(www.pmw.org.il/new).

jaywilton on January 27, 2006 at 11:39 am

What happened is a bad thing in that I think that the so-called “cease-fire” will die and there’ll be a lot more attacks on Israelis, but I think it’s a good thing in that all these European nations who either blamed Israel all the time or claimed that the problem is simply Israel being too mean to the Palestinians will shut up and feel a little more sympathy (especially since Muslim militants are a growing problem in many of their own countries and in a decade or two could vote themselves into France, etc as well).
Ditto the US. Now (despite ex-President Carter’s traitorous calls on how to get around it) it is illegal for our government to give foreign aid to the Palestinians. And though America’s degree of support for Israel has always been better than Europe’s was (with the exception of the 1956 Suez War, but that was because Europe had their own greedy interests involved), I think the “true colors” have now been revealed for all the world to see and you will see US support for Israel become stronger and less “two-sided”.
They got what they deserved. You’re right, Debbie, no surprise at all, just the greater of two evils (or maybe the middle of three if Islamic Jihad ran).

hairymon on January 27, 2006 at 11:40 am

Looks like some post-election Fatah vs. Hamas
shooting has started;here’s hoping that a lot of both groups end up dead and that their national
pastime is broadcast on ESPN.

jaywilton on January 27, 2006 at 4:30 pm

What’s that terrorist doing with the M-16? I expected an AK-47

KOAJaps on January 27, 2006 at 5:22 pm

Lawman, Danny and I have our disagreement, but be cool in here

KOAJaps on January 27, 2006 at 5:23 pm

It’s 2:35P.M. sunday california time. The head of hamas has just given his statement via.T>V> to the american people. “YOUR GOING TO HAVE TO LEARN THE NEW MEANING OF TERROISM”.Meaning that others are the aame, went on to teach us how ‘little Israel’ is the same, just like.

danny on January 29, 2006 at 5:54 pm

Fanatastic analogies!!! Great column.
“Remember, this is a region where Nick Berg videos are more popular than porn videos; where beheadings and multiple wives are more popular sports than even soccer; where sand and wannabe homicide bombers are plentiful, but new ideas and civilized behavior are rare.”

omega-man on January 29, 2006 at 7:14 pm

israel should not be alone.

danny on January 29, 2006 at 9:16 pm

remember this a region that hates life as we know it.

danny on January 29, 2006 at 10:10 pm

And remember this is a country where we are free no mater what some punk might say.

danny on January 29, 2006 at 11:15 pm