Al-Qaeda’s Mr. Number Two, aka Ayman al-Zawahiri, is calling on Muslims to join the Jihad, especially in Iraq. Apparently, Al-Qaeda is disappointed that more Muslims aren’t hurrying to the battlefield to die for a cause they may not necessarily believe in.

Al-Qaeda is apparently having trouble convincing real Muslims to join up with their fake sect of Islam, that completely misinterprets all of their holy books and beliefs.

Does this sound like a group that is winning a war? I may be in the complete minority these days that disapproves of President Bush, but still backs the war in Iraq. I still feel it was a legal, necessary and up to this point extremely successful military operation. It may not have been perfect, but no war is.

Al-Qaeda is crumbling, and if this isn’t evidence of that, I don’t know what is. Put Mr. al-Zawahiri in front of Congress, and he’d likely get quite a boost of confidence from the liberals that tell him that he and Gen. Petraeus are out of their mind, but I have a hunch that they both understand what’s happening better than Ted Kennedy and the Democratic presidential candidates.

In between a bunch of idiots going on television every night telling us how this “illegal war” is failing and the terrorists are winning, there are some fascinating facts coming out of Iraq. If only people were interested in hearing them.

Most importantly, people need to understand that Al-Qaeda and the insurgents are not battling the United States Armed Forces, they are battling non-Muslims. This isn’t about oppression, foreign policy or Iraq. It’s about militant, radical Islam wanting to defeat the infidels. As long as this is the matchup, peace cannot be achieved without the elimination or total defeat of one. Who would you rather it be?

Anyone who thinks that this war will end with an American pull out is just plain wrong. It will give Al-Qaeda a chance to regroup and rebuild and continue the fight. At this point, they are severely weakened, and their complete elimination is the most likely and most possible final conclusion to this war. If that can be achieved, American troops can come home safely, and Iraq can rebuild properly.

Easier said than done. I know I’m alone on this one — an atheist who supports President Bush on the war and tax cuts — who knew we existed. But now and then, I feel the need to point out an interesting article on the war, that isn’t filled with political quotes from American Congressmen.

The article also goes on to mention how Jimmy Carter was completely lied to, or completely lied about hs meeting with Hamas. Carter said Hamas would recognize Israel, and Hamas said that they never said that. Carter is an idiot, and completely overstepping his bounds.

Oh the irony if Jimmy Carter were to have been taken prisoner and (in his mind) he’s the only one who could have negotiated his release. There’s a movie waiting to be made.

Spc. Jeremy Hall said in a federal lawsuit that was refiled on Wednesday that he was denied his constitutional right to hold meetings on atheism, and that his atheism cost him a promotion in the United States Army.

According to the Associated Press:

“According to the lawsuit, Hall was counseled by his platoon sergeant after being informed that his promotion was blocked. He says the sergeant explained that Hall would be “unable to put aside his personal convictions and pray with his troops” and would have trouble bonding with them if promoted to a leadership position.

Hall responded that religion is not a requirement of leadership, even though the sergeant wondered how he had rights if atheism wasn’t a religion. Hall said atheism is protected under the Army’s chaplain’s manual.”

Among those named in the lawsuit are Defense Secretary Robert Gates. The AP continued:

“The lawsuit alleges that Gates permits a military culture in which officers are encouraged to pressure soldiers to adopt and espouse fundamentalist Christian beliefs, and in which activities by Christian organizations are sanctioned.

Hall’s attorneys say Fort Riley has permitted a culture promoting Christianity and anti-Islamic sentiment, including posters quoting conservative columnist Ann Coulter and sale of a book, “A Politically Incorrect Guide to Islam,” at the post exchange.”

There have been whispers in the past that the United States military pushes a pro-Christian agenda, but it’s not often that it gets a chance to go to court to prove as much. Later in the article, Mikey Weinstein of the religious freedom foundation is quoted and it mentions previously sued the Air Force for imposing Christianity, but that it was thrown out. Other than that, I know of no other lawsuits that allege of the military engaging in these actions.  (By the way — Mikey? Really, you’re still going by Mikey?)

I don’t really know what can be accomplished here, seeing how all the courts could do to make changes would be to enforce what is already written — that being that the military can not discriminate based on religion, or lack thereof in this case.

I have never been in the military, so I won’t speculate as to how soldiers treat atheists, or as to how that stands to change. I will say that if these allegations are true, then things need to change. The first and top priority of the military is to do their job, and they should be given everything they need to do that. I don’t see why it is so difficult to let people pray or not pray however they choose.

The wars that this nation are fighting are not against Islam, and they are not fighting on the side of Christianity. The United States is fighting against terrorists who are radical Muslims, but we are not fighting against all Muslims. Teaching the military pro-Christian, anti-Islam beliefs is wrong on far too many levels for me to even get into. I’m no fan of Islam either, but I am equally against Christianity, Judaism and every other organized religion in the world.

We atheist are people, and we’re good people at about the same rate as any other denomination. If a man or woman is willing to risk their life to fight for this nation, then what God, if any, they pray to should be of no concern to anyone but themselves. It should be like that in any walk of life, but the military has always had a stronger bond than most fields.

I respect everything our men and women in uniform do, but there seems to be a “good ‘ol boys” network growing amongst the higher ups. The extremely high number of sexual assaults at military academies falls into this as well. I can’t imagine it would be difficult to have the greatest armed forces in the world and teach them to respect women and non-Christians.

I will continue to follow this lawsuit as it unfolds and hopefully something good will come of this in the long run.

Like I’m sure many of you are, I’m getting very disturbed by the stories about Pat Tillman that I’ve seen on the news and the Internet this week. Over the last week, we’ve learned that medical examiners feel that Tillman was killed from a mere 10 yards away, contradicting the official story that he was killed by friendly fire from about 90 yards away.

About the only thing we know for sure about Pat Tillman’s death is that we were not told the truth. Without making a personal indictment of anyone, it is clear that there has been a cover-up, and Pat’s family was lied to. After doctors examined Tillman’s body, they asked for an investigation and were denied. The doctors believed that the official report on Tillman’s death did not match the evidence they saw. From the Associated Press:

“Army medical examiners were suspicious about the close proximity of the three bullet holes in Pat Tillman’s forehead and tried without success to get authorities to investigate whether the former NFL player’s death amounted to a crime, according to documents obtained by The Associated Press.

“The medical evidence did not match up with the, with the scenario as described,” a doctor who examined Tillman’s body after he was killed on the battlefield in Afghanistan in 2004 told
investigators.

The doctors - whose names were blacked out - said that the bullet holes were so close together that it appeared the Army Ranger was cut down by an M-16 fired from a mere 10 yards or so away.”

Another disturbing piece of information has to do with the lies told to the family after Tillman’s death. After being told that Tillman died protecting his unit from enemy fire, it was long after he was layed to rest that his family was told that Pat died from friendly fire. The new documents said that “Army attorneys sent each other congratulatory e-mails for keeping criminal investigators at bay as the Army conducted an internal friendly-fire investigation that resulted in administrative, or non-criminal, punishments.”

The report also said that “no evidence at all of enemy fire was found at the scene - no one was hit by enemy fire, nor was any government equipment struck.” This also does not match up with the story we were all told when Tillman died.

Among other things that are not right in this story, Tillman’s personal diary was destroyed after his death, rather than be returned to his family. Tillman’s uniform and equipment were also destroyed. The White House is refusing to give Congress documents relating to Tillman’s death, claiming “Executive Branch confidentiality interests.” An Army Ranger with Tillman was ordered to not tell the Tillman family the truth.

There will be another Congressional hearing this week about Tillman’s death. I will continue to give the benefit of the doubt on this until we are told with absolute certainty that it was anything other than friendly fire. For all of the people on the Internet claiming that Tillman was murdered, I say wait until we get all of the information before we make a very, very heavy claim like that. I do not want to make this about politics, I don’t want that on this site, but Pat’s family deserves to know the truth, and we deserve to know if we were lied to.

On a personal level, I lived in Phoenix for the last decade,and had the opportunity to know and talk with Pat Tillman several times. I watched him play for Arizona State when I was taking classes there, and later covered the Arizona Cardinals as a reporter when Tillman played for them. I was at the Cardinals training facility in Tempe, AZ on the day he died. I still remember waking up to a phone ringing off the hook on the day he died, and spending the day in a city in mourning. I cannot imagine what his family has been through in the last three years.

It’s bad enough to have found out that Pat’s family was lied to initially following his death. The theories now that Pat may have been murdered disturb me beyond words. As I said earlier, I am not indicting any specific people, but if these theories end up being even partly true, all I can ask is that those responsible for Pat’s death, the initial lie to his family, and the ensuing cover-up, pay very dearly for what they’ve done.

**The previous was reprinted with permission from lukekohler.com.

I agree with waiting until all of the evidence is in on this because it can be an extrememly sensitive issue. No soldier’s family should ever be lied to, under any circumstances. The only time when it could be considered remotely acceptable was if the soldier was a part of a covert mission that could risk national security if revealed, which wasn’t the case here. I personally doubt that this goes all the way up to the President’s office, but I’m not as doubtful that someone slightly lower down the chain of command took this into their own hands to help stir up patriotism and support for the war. I’m referring only to the cover-up in the aftermath of the death, not the death itself.

Many websites in the last week have jumped to the conclusion that President Bush ordered Pat Tillman’s death, or that he was murdered to keep him from speaking out against the war. I find this to be completely without merit, and would ask for overwhelming amounts of evidence to believe it. I’m by no means a blind supporter of the President, nor am I part of the anti-war crowd. But until I see real evidence that something here was premeditated, I am giving all benefit of the doubt to the Army and the government.

Reprinted with permission from lukekohler.com.

Pro-war Libertarian. This is what I consider myself I suppose. I didn’t think of it until I saw this article and it got me thinking about it. Which made me start thinking of the war and my views on it, so here they are.

I don’t think I’m “pro-war” per se, just not Cindy Sheehan style anti-war. For some reason, people want to think that civilization could ramble on for eternity without fighting another war ever again. That’s just unrealistic and flat out stupid. War is an unfortunate, but necessary part of world politics. There will never, and I repeat NEVER, be a time when the entire world thinks alike under one government. Or even multiple governements. There will always be that group that thinks socialism will work, it just hasn’t been done right. And the group that says the Bible, or Koran, or whichever religious text is “in” at the moment, is the only way to see the world. But this will never happen. So unfortunately, war is going to happen.

Nothing is really different about this point in time, except that technology is taking over. Weapons are more advanced, so anyone can now fight a war, even a 10-year old that doesn’t know what he’s fighting for. But the technology has also made it possible to severely limit the casualties of war. As of right now, over 3600 U.S. deaths have been confirmed in Iraq by the Department of Defense. Compare that to the 58,000+ who died in Vietnam. Or the 400,000+ who died in World War II. I’m by no means saying that they’re any less tragic, just saying that it’s not war that’s changed for the worse, or the reasons for it - it’s that the coverage and images of it make it more difficult to handle.

Because the liberals in this country have become so anti-war, this country is bound to be ruined by that mentality eventually. There will come a time when this country is legitimately threatened, and because of our inability to finish, or even start a previous war, we’ll be unable to defend ourselves the way we should. If there were no television cameras, the anti-war movement in this nation would be miniscule. It’s no coincidence that the anti-war movement came along at about the same time every house in America had a TV in it. Just because you don’t want to watch brave men and women defend your right to be an idiot, doesn’t mean that they shouldn’t be doing it or there is not a legitimate reason for it.

This country was founded by fighting a war, and has had to fight to defend it’s freedom several times since then. What do you think would have happened if this anti-war “fad” came along during the Civil War. I’ll tell you what, half of this country would live in the Confederate States of America amongst, or as part of, the slave population. When the north began to dislike the war, people wanted them to stop fighting. If Lincoln had listened to the (thankfully) small number of anti-war northerners, the Union would have lost that war. This nation being split into two would have likely spelt death for both nations eventually. Thankfully, there was no TV, so the people who wouldn’t have been able to stomach what was going on, never knew how bad it was. The C.S.A.’s goal during the end of the Civil War was to just survive long enough for the northerners to call for a “pull-out”. That’s exactly what the terrorists and Iranians are hoping for right now.

Ask yourself this, anti-war folks: what will this country be like in fifty years? Will we have fought a war in that time? Against who? If you think there won’t be another war because we’ll have become a peaceful nation, you’re wrong. If that’s the attitude this country takes, there will be no more USA in 50 years. If we have fought a war in that time, there is a 75% chance it is against Iran and/or some other Islamic Middle Eastern nation. There is about a 15% chance it’s against Russia, and about 5% that it is with China. There is also about a 5% chance that it is against Cuba or Venezuela or the other smaller socialist nations.

If this war that is being fought today is finished properly, meaning that a democratic ally is created safely in the heart of the Middle East, that will reduce the chance of a future war with someone in that region drastically. If Iraq and Iran can be “taken care of” in the same war, it will be better for the future of our nation. That is what wars are about. Protecting the current and future safety of a nation.

No matter what the liberals want to say, this is not an “illegal war”. Nothing could be further from the truth. Saddam Hussein was given plenty of options to avoid this war. His continual breaking of every rule set out for him by the United Nations is what started this war. There was plenty of legal justification for taking Hussein out of power. Instead of regurgitating liberal talking points, try to look at objective historical fact. Too many people are remembering what they’re told to remember, instead of what actually happened.

I am by no means a “blind supporter” of President Bush. I am a proud atheist and a registered libertarian, and I disagree with many things that have happened in the last six and a half years. But I am a student of history and feel that this war, like anything else, has to be judged objectively and fairly. I don’t think that is happening in this country right now.

And please, will you stop calling our troops children? Stop saying “bring our children out of Iraq”…”Congress is killing our kids”. These are men and women who have volunteered to fight to defend this nation. If you want to help them, respect them. Respect the choice that they made. We have an all volunteer army, and they do a damn good job. There is not a single soldier from this country who has been killed or injured that didn’t volunteer to take that risk to fight for their nation. Not a single one. I’m not trying to minimize the casualties, I’m saying that nobody should be twisting the facts the other way either. These men and women should be thanked and respected, but as they would likely just as soon tell you, not pitied.

So yes, I support this war in Iraq, and I don’t think we should be withdrawing our troops. I don’t want to just blindly send troops in either. Do I think the war has been mismanaged? Yes, no doubt. But pulling out doesn’t fix that. Managing it right does. Instead of plans to get our troops out, lets come up with a plan to acheive total victory. This is a war that needs to be WON, not abandaned. Ask yourself this, where will we be in ten years if we pull out? And where will we be in ten years if we finish our job? Personally, I’ll choose the latter, because it’s better for the United States, and the rest of our allies.

Hassan Butt, a former radical muslim and member of the British Jihadi Network, says that the world is wrong for thinking that Islamic extremists want to kill innocent people for the reasons of Western foreign policy.  Although many don’t want to say it out loud, the reason is quite clear: religion.

It’s not about bombs in the Middle East, it’s not about our free living lifestyles, or about Guantanimo Bay.  It’s because their religion tells them too.  In the Muslim world, there is no separation of church and state, they are one and the same.  Which leads the extremists to come to the conclusion that you are either a believer or an infidel.  This is the justification they use to attack innocent people all over the world.  They are eliminating infidels, not getting revenge for what they see as unfavorable foreign policy.

This comes as no surprise I’m sure to most atheists or anyone who has studied the violent history of organized religion.  All religions have a history of violence.  While Christianity, Judaism, and Islam all have violent pasts, what the extremist Islamists are engaging in now is above and beyond what any church has pulled before.  The technology and communication are so improved that recruiting, planning and executing are all so much easier to pull off, all with much lower risk.  The willingness of suicide bombers to give their life for their cause has given the powers that be in these groups never seen before “weapons” to achieve their goals.

One of the biggest problems with Islam today is their lack of a vocal leader that officially represents the religion.  Catholics have the Pope, and disagree with him as much as I do, he has power over his congregation.  There is much less likelyhood of a fanatical, violent, Catholic terrorist group forming because their extreme views can be countered by a higher authority in their religion.  Muslims leave too much open for interpretation, so much that you will always have someone who interprets the Koran in an extremist way.  You won’t often find me defending a religion, but Islam should take lessons from the other major religions in heirarchy and spreading their message.  Too many Muslim children are being raised extremist, with no one to point them in the direction that the religion intends to stand for.

Having a former “terrorist” explain that religion is the root of Islamic terrorism should be a lesson to all religions.  Not once has a religion learned from it’s past or from the actions of it’s counterparts.  Yes, atheists have fought wars and been bad people also, but they don’t initiate wars to defend their atheism.  I consider being an anti-semite, or persecuting anyone based on religion no better than one of the churches doing the same thing.  An atheist who wants to violently rid the world of religion is no better than someone who wants to make the world all one religion.

Hopefully it is eye opening to some people to see that terrorism today is not all about the evil United States.  It all comes down to the brainwashed terrorist.  It doesn’t matter what we do in this country, and until the people in this country accept that, a solution is not going to show up.  You can’t please these people politically, it will just create more problems.  The only way to end terrorism from extreme Islamists is to continue to strike at the root of the movement.  While I don’t support religions starting wars, I fully support countries finishing them.  This is a war that will not go away until one side wins.  The sides are radical Islam and everyone else.  Including Jews, Christians, and non-radical Muslims.  Everyone is a target because we apparently are all infidels.  Finishing the war is the only way for the extremists to stop fighting.

I didn’t mean for this to be a post on the war or historical religious violence, but they are all tied together.  I do welcome your comments and discussion.