Posted on 11/27/2006 9:21:15 PM PST by HAL9000
Excerpt -
WASHINGTON, Nov. 27 — A senior American intelligence official said Monday that the Iranian-backed group Hezbollah had been training members of the Mahdi Army, the Iraqi Shiite militia led by Moktada al-Sadr.The official said that 1,000 to 2,000 fighters from the Mahdi Army and other Shiite militias had been trained by Hezbollah in Lebanon. A small number of Hezbollah operatives have also visited Iraq to help with training, the official said.
Iran has facilitated the link between Hezbollah and the Shiite militias in Iraq, the official said. Syrian officials have also cooperated, though there is debate about whether it has the blessing of the senior leaders in Syria.
~ snip ~
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
I really DIDN"T need another reason to whack Sadr, but maybe the US government does.
Good thing the US State Dept. forced a cease fire on Israel during their cleansing of Southern Lebanon this summer so we could free up Hezbollah to train our enemies in Iraq! Good job Condi!
This is one more reason for the U.S. to stay in Iraq.
Gee, I'm so profoundly shocked...about as much as I am when Upchuck Schumer calls for more gun control and Ted Kennedy offers a toast to the proposed legislation.
What are we waiting for? Do we really need to have a city, or a half dozen, go up in a mushroom cloud before we decide to do the Islamofascists what our grandfathers did to the Nazis and Japanese? To avoid this, several steps are necessary:
Step 1 is to terminate Sadr, with extreme prejudice, followed quickly thereafter (i.e. in a week or 2) by as many of the rest of his followers as possible.
Step 2 is to give Syria and Iran an ultimatum - stop sending and/or allowing terrorists into Iraq from your nation, or else. The next week, when Syria sends more terrorists to Iraq, we make the Syrian armed forces a dim and fading memory - and no nation-building, just break lots of things and kill lots of people, and let them fend for themselves.
Step 3 is to reiterate our warning to Ahwannajihad and the other jackass nutjobs in Iran. If they continue to do as they have, KO their navy, air force, intelligence agencies and electrical generating facilities on some fine afternoon, simultaneously seize as many oil platforms and refineries as possible (and destroy those refineries we can't capture quickly or cheaply), and drop cargo planes full of weapons, ammo and explosives to the Iranian Kurds. Those things will keep them a bit too busy to put any more people into Iraq.
Sounds like a plan to me. I don't know why we aren't doing things like your plan. It makes more sense then what we are now doing at least to me.
Book 1
ON THE NATURE OF WAR
3. Utmost use of force.
Now, philanthropists may easily imagine there is a skillful method of disarming and overcoming an enemy without causing great bloodshed, and that this is the proper tendency of the art of War. However plausible this may appear, still it is an error which must be extirpated; for in such dangerous things as war, the errors which proceed from a spirit of benevolence are just the worst. As the use of physical power to the utmost extent by no means excludes the co-operation of the intelligence, it follows that he who uses force unsparingly, without reference to the quantity of bloodshed, must obtain a superiority if his adversary does not act likewise. By such means the former dictates the law to the latter, and both proceed to extremities, to which the only limitations are those imposed by the amount of counteracting force on each side.
This is the way in which the matter must be viewed; and it is to no purpose, and even acting against one's own interest, to turn away from the consideration of the real nature of the affair, because the coarseness of its elements excites repugnance.
We can't afford to blink...neither in the Middle East or in North Korea. If nuclear weapons are unacceptable in Iran and NK and our government makes a statement to that effect then I expect our elected officials to be on the same page as we the people regarding the term "unacceptable". I am not convinced that is the fact. If this is War then we need to finish it. It would be immoral to bequeath it to our children if we have the means to end it in our time.
The short version?
We need to cut to the chase.
No need for any chase, we know where they are.
The only cutting that needs doing involves making a whole bunch of Iranian Ayatollahs and Syrians Baathists into Eunuchs.
Take it up with the Wall Street Journal
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1744755/posts
Cut to the chase means to get to the point without wasting time.
The phrase comes from the name of a large hunting knife, the Coutre Chasse. A heavy bladed weapon- almost a short sword , it was used as a general purpose tool during the hunt, used to dispatch the kill if it wasn't already dead, and then to prepare and butcher the meat. Since the (original) point of hunting was for food, the Coutre Chasse was the conclusion of business, as it were.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cut_to_the_chase
Hezbollah is training terrorists in Lebanon to kill American troops in Iraq.
It's a major front page story at the NY Times.
Not worthy of front page story status on FR and it generates very little interest from Freepers.
Maybe it's unimportant.
High volume. Articles on Israel can also be found by clicking on the Topic or Keyword Israel, WOT
..................
This will end as soon as we talk to them. So will their ability to cross Syria. As soon as the Golan Heights are ceded.
Your #s 5 and 6:
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1737561/posts
Seems like we're nearly prepared. Jan 2nd to Jan 20th, 2007 is my bet. Ten bucks to the first 100 takers.
Count the number of mosques in your neighbourhood, then stay well armed and safe................FRegards
cut to the chase means to get to the point, get the job done, stop messing around.....
Unfortunately, at the precise point you looked at Wikipedia the article had been vandalised. The article now reads "The phrase originated from early silent films. Such films, particularly comedies, often climaxed in chase scenes. An inexpert screenwriter or director, unsure how to get to the climax, would just make an abrupt transition, known as a cut."
This is confirmed by the references quoted in the article.
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