A very serious administration would know – and admit to – the fact that we are not just at war with al Qaeda, but with Jihad itself. Saying that we are at war only with al Qaeda would have been tantamount to saying, during World War II, that we were at war with only the 25th Panzer Division of the German Army, and not with the entire German Army itself.

Yes, we are at war with al Qaeda… and also with Hamas and Hezbollah and Egyptian Islamic Jihad and al-Gama’at al-Islamiyya and Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigade and Ansar al Islam and Harakat ul-Mujahadin …well, you get the idea. What animates, connects and indeed unites these various groups – and many more? Jihad. Holy War against the infidels.

Unfortunately, our president actually believes that Hamas and Hezbollah have “legitimate claims!” Read the New York Times’ interview for yourself, then read the terrorist groups’ charters to see what their claims are.

But while we are drawing comparisons to WWII, what would this country have done had FDR announced that Hitler had legitimate claims? I doubt that would have gone over well.

In all fairness, all administrations have done a piss-poor job of handling the threat of Islamic jihad, some worse than others, but the past is the past. It is time for the government to move forward and announce that these jihadist groups threaten our liberty and security and are therefore our enemy. That avoids the whole politically incorrect distraction that the Islamist apologists will throw up, because while not all Muslims are jihadist, all jihadists are Muslim.

[Originally posted at Blackfive]

Ryan Mauro writes at Pajamas Media:

The lead prosecutor of Saddam Hussein, Ja’far al-Musawi, says that he has seen official documents that prove that his regime was involved with Osama bin Laden and Ayman al-Zawahiri. Last year, a Kurdish newspaper published an Iraqi intelligence document from 2002 referencing a proposed meeting with al-Zawahiri to discuss a “revenge operation” against Saudi Arabia at Saddam Hussein’s request. If previous ties had not been maintained and if there was such hostility between the secularist government of Saddam and al-Qaeda as is assumed, such a plan would never have been hatched by Saddam or been acted upon by his intelligence service.

A source at the Iraq Memory Foundation, which is going through thousands of files to document Saddam Hussein’s reign, has reported that they have seen documents showing a link between Saddam and al-Qaeda.

But Western civilization has all but accepted terrorism as a legitimate way to fight and govern.

Does putting a bullet in a captured al Qaeda cell leader sound cruel and unusual? Not as cruel and unusual as allowing them to terrorize their own people, as al Qaeda and the Taliban are wont to do. Or as messed up as turning them loose on our judicial system, a move that will lead to the destruction of something that suicide bombers and hijacked airplanes couldn’t touch.

FrontPage has more on the situation with the upcoming court-martial of three Navy SEALs, whose capture of a high-value terrorist may or may not have resulted in a “fat lip.”

As far as legality is concerned, terrorists like Abed are lucky to be left among the living after their capture. As conservative columnist Thomas Sowell rightly points out, Islamic terrorists have never followed the Geneva Convention regarding the rules of warfare, as can be easily discerned in the case of the Blackwater security guards alone. More importantly, however, the terrorists themselves are not covered by the Convention’s provisions.

“Neither the Constitution of the United states nor the Geneva Convention gives rights to terrorists who operate outside the law,” writes Sowell.

Legally, under the Convention’s terms, the American military in wartime has the right to shoot any captured enemy not in uniform. Sowell states, “There was a time when everyone understood this” and cites World War Two’s Battle of the Bulge as an example. German troops caught in American uniforms during that battle were shot almost immediately and without trial. Their executions were even filmed and shown years later on American television with no fuss ever made regarding legality.

60-something years ago, the U.S. transitioned from a peacetime economy to simultaneously defeating the two greatest militaries the world had seen in no time flat. In fact, in the time we have spent fighting in Afghanistan and Iraq, we would have won World War II twice by now. Our troops stopped the Wehrmacht cold, but we can’t seem to put a dent in a bunch of RPG-toting terrorists who want to turn the clock back to 600 A.D.

Perhaps the world would be better off if we abandoned the political correctness that affords Constitutional rights to those who have no regard for civilization. Perhaps folks like the aforementioned terrorist should be treated like we did the German spies – shot on sight.

While researching for an article, I learned that the Holocaust Museum shooter from back in June was actually a left-winger, not the right-winger the media portrayed. And how many folks bought that lie? Jonah Goldberg writes:

A few months ago, an anti-Semitic old nut named James von Brunn allegedly took a gun to the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum to get payback against “the Jews” and killed a black security guard in the process.

In response to this horrific crime, the leading lights of American liberalism knew who was to blame: Glenn Beck, Rush Limbaugh, and the GOP. One writer for the Huffington Post put it succinctly: “Thank you very much Karl Rove and your minions.”

The fact that Von Brunn was a 9/11 “truther” who railed against capitalism, neocons, and the Bush administration didn’t matter. Nor did the glaring lack of evidence that Rove et al. ever showed antipathy for the museum. It was simply obvious that Von Brunn was the offspring of the “right-wing extremism (that) is being systematically fed by the conservative media and political establishment,” wrote columnist Paul Krugman.

What puts me at a loss for words is the fact that although the infamous DHS report warned of right-wing extremists – and these attacks couldn’t be further from conservatives – the state-run media are suggesting that these attacks have made Janet Napolitano into some sort of visionary.

The Nazis had the Jews; Islamic supremacists have the U.S. and Israel; the Soviet Union had the U.S. and the capitalist West – each tyranny has to have a villain on which to focus the hate of their followers.

In the age of Obama, we have Conservatives.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=k2EwvAsMUh4

It may be hard to comprehend the twisted logic that led to this tragedy.

Really Mr. President? Perhaps you missed the whole Allahu Akbar/al Qaeda/Muslim first, American second/beheading non-Muslims and pouring boiling oil down their throats thing.

But this much we do know – no faith justifies these murderous and craven acts…

Maybe you should brush up on the Qur’an.

…no just and loving God looks upon them with favor.

But Allah is apparently quite pleased with the murder of infidels, and Muhammad – his prophet – was a terrorist himself.

And for what he has done, we know that the killer will be met with justice – in this world, and the next.

With the same Justice Department that allows the Black Panthers to intimidate white voters? Not likely.

The problem is that what these so-called “radicals” say is supported in the Qur’an. When is America going to wake up and realize that this is not a problem that will go away when we bury our heads in the sand?

www.youtube.com/watch?v=W5BtQgTGOI4

In no conflict throughout history were people still confused about the threat eight years after hostilities began. For America, neither WWI nor WWII had lasted half that long. And in those wars we not only achieved victory in that time, but we knew long before that – with crystalline precision – who our foes were and what we had to do to defeat them.

How is it that many Americans are still confused eight years on? Because while the media has no problems showing footage of American troops dying (which they somehow obtain from the terrorists) they forbid showing footage of the World Trade Center. That might whip Americans into a patriotic frenzy and make us question why we haven’t been allowed to do squat to turn the tide against the terrorists.

Democrat politicians feel that any mention of 9/11 is a dirty Republican trick as they have fully invested themselves in the defeat of our military – to the point that sick, politically-correct Rules of Engagement deny our fighting forces air and artillery support – even if that unit is being overrun. No words can describe the anger I feel towards politicians and the activist, state-run media on this day each year.

Our military sacrifices so much, and we have only them to thank as they have been left flapping in the breeze by two administrations for eight years now. They have fought the Islamic terrorists in Iraq, Afghanistan, and other countries that many Americans couldn’t find on a map for years, and what progress they have made has been despite the best efforts of gutless politicians in Washington.

If we want to fight the Islamic terrorists with our military, then the U.S. had better get its collective head out of the sand and realize who our enemy is and their intentions. If not, we will resume fighting them with firefighters, police officers, and other emergency workers. The casualties won’t be senior al Qaeda and Taliban leaders, they will be innocent women and children as they were eight years ago. That is unacceptable.

An SH-60B Seahawk assigned to the "Scorpions" of Light Helicopter Anti-Submarine Squadron (HSL) 49 lifts off from the USS Thach. The SH-60B conducts anti-submarine and anti-surface warfare missions from the decks of cruisers, destroyers and frigates. (U.S. Navy photo by Mass Communication Specialist 2nd Class Joseph M. Buliavac)

Pirates aboard the captured Taiwanese-flagged fishing vessel M/V Win Far fired at a U.S. Navy helicopter performing “routine surveillance” Wednesday. According to the Navy, the shots were fired from what appeared to be a “large caliber weapon” at a range of 3,000 yards – greatly beyond the effective range for an AK-47.

View the video here.

No rounds struck the helicopter and no injuries were reported. In fact, the SH-60B crew from Helicopter Anti-Submarine Squadron Light (HSL) 49, of the USS Chancellorsville, did not know they had been fired upon until after a review of the helicopter’s Forward-Looking Infrared Radar (FLIR) footage.

Somali pirates aboard Motor Vessel (M/V) Win Far firing at the Navy helicopter. (U.S. Navy photo from video)

Lt. Nathan Christensen, a spokesman for the Navy’s 5th Fleet, told The Associated Press that Wednesday’s incident was the first time pirates shot at U.S. Navy helicopters while conducting daily surveillance flights.

Christensen also said that four other merchant ships and 105 crew members are being held hostage near the Win Far. Over 30 crew members are being held aboard the Win Far, since its capture on April 6, 2009.

Pirates use the Win Far as a “mother ship” to stage attacks, most notably the April attack on the U.S.-flagged Maersk-Alabama in which Capt. Richard Phillips was held hostage for several days until rescued by Navy SEALs.