Quick Takes

Wash Post Says Iraq War is WON!
At least they admitted it before Obama was able to claim credit!

In Iraq, the Day After
The War, in a Sense, Is Over. But a New Struggle Begins As Citizens Ask the Inevitable Question: What Next?By Anthony Shadid
Washington Post
Friday, January 2, 2009; Page A01

BAGHDAD Maybe it was the only shot heard for days in a neighborhood once ordered by the cadence of gunfire. Perhaps it was the smiles at checkpoints and the shouts of Iraqi policemen navigating the always snarled traffic. "God's mercy on your parents," they beseeched. "God's blessings on you." Maybe it was the music box still playing "Santa Claus Is Coming to Town" at a kiosk overflowing with Christmas tree decorations and heart-shaped red pillows.

For anyone returning to Baghdad after spending time here during its darkest days two years ago, when it was paralyzed by sectarian hatred and overrun by gunmen sowing despair, the conclusion seemed inescapable.

Iraqi Christians prepare to celebrate Christmas which was declared an official holiday for the first time in 2008.

"The war has ended," said Heidar al-Abboudi, a street merchant.
...
"There is a disintegration in the entire sectarian establishment in Iraq," said Wamidh Nadhme, a political science professor sitting in the Adhamiyah quarter, over a leisurely lunch of a wintertime soup that mixed turnips with balls of ground meat. "Everyone now is trying to wash their hands of the blood that had stained them."

And now, Iraq takes it's place as an ally whose troops and police have killed more jihadi terrorist scum than any other nation except the United States. It's a testament to the Bush legacy of a free Iraq, able to govern and defend itself as an ally in the war on terror!

Who is to blame for latest Middle East Violence? Do the Math!

Palestinian civilian deaths from Israeli strikes at Hamas: >20%.
Israeli civilian deaths from Hamas rocket strikes ~100%.

Israel set to begin ground war against Hamas in Gaza.

Israeli troops are set to unleash a violent ground offensive against Hamas strongholds any minute. As they do so, expect the purveyors of false moral equivalence to once again leap into action to denounce Israel. As they do, ask yourself where these poseurs for peace were when Israelis were fired upon and killed for the years leading up to this latest battle?

The suffering that Hamas causes
By Jeff Robbins
The Boston Globe
December 30, 2008

To the list of grotesque human rights violators must be added Hamas, whose disdain for the suffering its policies cause the Palestinian residents of the Gaza Strip is exceeded only by its open, and even proud, infliction of atrocities on Israeli civilians.

This year alone, Hamas, which expressly calls for the obliteration of Israel, has launched approximately 3,000 rockets and mortar bombs into Israeli civilian centers, always for the purpose of killing and maiming Israelis if possible, and terrifying those who are not actually hit. In the last week or so, Hamas has fired some 200 rockets and bombs into Israeli communities.

Under these circumstances - circumstances which would have continued without end had the Israelis failed to act - it seems clear that the Israeli military response was not merely a necessary one. It was, regrettably, the only one left.

Jeff Robbins, an attorney, was a US delegate to the United Nations Human Rights Commission during the Clinton administration.

Democrats to Bar the Senate Door from a Black Man but WILL Seat a Clown?

As Curt points out, Harry Reid and Democrats in the U.S. Senate are threatening to bar the door if the black man appointed by Illinois Governor Blagojevitch to fill the Senate seat left vacant by Barack Hussein Obama should dare to show his face.

Furthermore, they've threatened to have him forcibly removed if he attempts to enter the Senate Chamber.

Meanwhile, Democrats seem eager to seat Al Franken, the tragic clown (pictured right) who has yet to finalize his theft of Norm Coleman's Senate seat. Franken's current lead in the laughable recount where they kept counting until he was ahead currently stands at 50. But if more votes are required, George Soros and friends have a Xerox machine standing by.

Apparently Harry Reid and his Democrat friends in the Senate long for the good old days when you could just turn the dogs on uppity black men: