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Lindsey Graham Says He Plans To Introduce An Authorization For The Use Of Military Force In Iran By Summers End

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Photo Credit: donkeyhotey Just days after saying the same thing in an interview at the Capital last Tuesday, Sen. Lindsey Graham R-SC) again said in front of a friendly audience at a conference put on by the Christians United for Israel that he [will] introduce a resolution to authorize war with Iran.

“If nothing changes in Iran, come September, October, I will present a resolution that will authorize the use of military force to prevent Iran from developing a nuclear bomb,” Graham told the conference audience.

“The only way to convince Iran to halt their nuclear program is to make it clear that we will take it out,” he continues.

The National Iranian American Council came out today condemning Graham’s call to war.

Read more from this story HERE.

Netanyahu to Obama: Attack Iran or We Will

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Photo Credit: Yonatan SindelPrime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is reportedly to launch a new, last-ditch effort in the next few days to persuade the United States to credibly revive the military option against Iran.

If this proves unsuccessful, Channel 2 reported, Netanyahu will have to decide whether to launch an attack on Iran’s nuclear facilities by this winter at latest, because after that, the report indicated, the assessment is that Israel’s window for military intervention will close.

Israel desperately wants to see the Obama Administration harden its position on Iran immediately — to convey to Iran that if it does not halt its nuclear program, its regime will not survive. Instead, however, Jerusalem sees what it considers an overly tolerant and patient attitude by Washington DC to Tehran, the Channel 2 report said.

Next week, the P5+1 powers — the five UN Security Council members, plus Germany — are set to meet to coordinate positions ahead of possible talks with incoming Iranian President Hasan Rouhani’s leadership. The fear in Jerusalem, the TV report said, is that Iran will prove capable of buying more time in such talks, while its centrifuges spin, its other nuclear facilities move forward, and it becomes too late for effective military intervention.

Read more from this story HERE.

US and China Smile for Cameras While Pentagon, PLA Prep for All Out War

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Photo Credit: Reuters Rarely have relations between China and the United States been so cordial. On Wednesday, the superpowers agreed to an impressive slate of measures to fight climate change by cutting emissions. Last month’s summit between Barack Obama and Xi Jinping saw the leaders finally agree on an approach to North Korea. China is allowing its currency to rise in value, reducing the danger of global imbalances. And while spying and dirty tricks are rife, recent revelations about U.S. Internet surveillance have placed the countries on a level playing field. It’s a period of peaceful cohabitation.

So why are the two countries’ militaries preparing to do battle with each other?

Both the Pentagon and the People’s Liberation Army are arming for an all-out war and pursuing enormously expensive master strategies that assume that such a war will occur.

In the case of the United States, this appears to be taking place without any authorization or approval from the White House or Congress. The Pentagon is now basing its global strategy on a detailed plan known as the AirSea Battle concept, in which the U.S. Army and Air Force defend the presence of 320,000 U.S. troops in the area by readying themselves for a full-scale land and air assault on China in the event of a threat in the South China Sea or its surroundings.

In a detailed analysis paper in this summer’s issue of the Yale Journal of International Affairs, the famed sociologist and military-policy expert Amitai Etzioni asks, “Who authorized preparations for war with China?” His answer is stark: Mr. Obama has spoken of a “pivot to Asia,” but there has been no political intent or desire to have such an active military confrontation with China – in fact, the politics and diplomacy have been moving in the opposite direction.

Read more from this story HERE.

If Muslim Brotherhood Chooses War in Egypt, It Will Lose Badly

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Krauthammer: Muslim Brotherhood ‘will lose badly’ if it battles Egyptian military

By Jeff Poor. On Friday’s “Special Report” on the Fox News Channel, Washington Post columnist Charles Krauthammer predicted that if the Mohamed Morsi regime and the Muslim Brotherhood chose the route of going to war by creating its own military and fighting Egyptian forces instead of seeking a peaceful solution, the Muslim Brotherhood will lose.

“[The Muslim Brotherhood] is obviously the largest, the most organized and disciplined of all the elements, all the parties in Egypt,” Krauthammer said. “However, it is not a majority. It isn’t even close to a majority. And what was so remarkable about the demonstrations that led to the overthrow of the government and about the people standing behind the chief of staff when he announced the coup, where you had representatives of the Christians, of the largest and most respected Sunni Muslim mosque and university, where you had even a representative of a far more radical Islamist movement, a newer party. So you had all the elements of society lined up against the Brotherhood, each with their own grievances. So, if the Brotherhood decides that it’s going to turn to violence, it’s going to lose because you have a wall-to-wall coalition against it.”

“The irony here is that the two most disciplined institutions in the country are the ones who will decide where this goes,” Krauthammer continued. “The army has discipline, and the Brotherhood. And that’s why I think up until now the violence has been relatively restrained. The Brotherhood leadership, I think, understands that if it does an Algeria and decides it’s going to go and make war on the army, it’s going to lose and it will lose badly and be imprisoned and disperse or go back to the 1950s. If there is an outbreak, it’s going to come from a fringe of a fringe who are not under the discipline of the party. And that, I think, is possible. But that would be radical sort of al Qaida types who want to make this into a bloodbath. And they, if there are enough of them, it could actually provoke a bloodbath.”


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Photo Credit: Daily CallerFears of radicalization rise as Egypt descends into chaos

By Charles Rollet. Essam el-Haddad, Morsi’s foreign policy advisor, warned on his website that the toppling of elected Islamists in Egypt would spark more terrorism than the Western-led wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

No major acts of terrorism have occurred so far, but the violence is worse than ever. At least 20 were killed on Friday alone as pro- and anti-Morsi protestors clashed across Egypt.

That includes four Christian Copts in the Delta town of Khosous, who were machine-gunned during sectarian clashes.

As the military arrests leaders of the Muslim Brotherhood and pro-Morsi journalists, disturbing videos have turned up showing Islamists threatening mass violence.

“I want to say to [General] al-Sisi: Beware! Know that you have created a new Taliban and Al Qaeda in Egypt,” said a bearded man in one video. Read more from this story HERE.

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Coptic priest shot dead in Egypt attack: sources

By Reuters. Gunmen shot dead a Coptic Christian priest in Egypt’s lawless Northern Sinai on Saturday in what could be the first sectarian attack since the military overthrow of Islamist President Mohamed Mursi, security sources said.

The priest, Mina Aboud Sharween, was attacked in the early afternoon while walking in the Masaeed area in El Arish.

The shooting in the coastal city was one of several attacks believed to be by Islamist insurgents that included firing at four military checkpoints in the region, the sources said. Read more from this story HERE.

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Egypt’s new regime born in chaos as violence spreads

By Kim Sengupta. There was confusion last night after Mohamed ElBaradei was authoritatively reported to have been appointed as Egypt’s interim prime minister by the acting president, Adly Mansour. He was expected take the country along a military-imposed political roadmap amid vicious strife, including growing sectarian attacks and a rising death toll.

However, this was contradicted late last night by Egyptian state television, which denied any such appointment had been made.

The former head of the International Atomic Energy Commission met the armed forces chief, General Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, yesterday and, according to officials, agreed to act as executive head of a new “salvation government” until fresh elections can be held.

But shortly afterwards the Muslim Brotherhood declared that the appointment of Mr ElBaradei, who had led a coalition of left-wing groups, was “illegitimate”. “We reject this coup and all that results from it, including ElBaradei,” a senior representative of the Brotherhood was reported to have told an Islamist gathering in Cairo.

Mr ElBaradei was among liberal leaders who opposed the Islamist President Morsi, ousted by the military on Wednesday. Thousands of Brotherhood supporters in Cairo yesterday were preparing to march to a military base where the deposed president is thought to be held. Read more from this story HERE.

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Egypt’s New President Asserts Authority

By Associated Press. Egypt’s new president moved to assert his authority and regain control of the streets Saturday even as his Islamist opponents declared his powers illegitimate and issued blood oaths to reinstate Mohammed Morsi, whose ouster by the military has led to dueling protests and deadly street battles between rival sides.

But underscoring the sharp divisions facing the untested leader, Adly Mansour, his office said pro-reform leader Mohamed ElBaradei had been named as interim prime minister but later backtracked on the decision saying consultations were continuing. A politician close to ElBaradei said the reversal was due to objections by an ultraconservative Islamist party with which the new administration wants to cooperate.

Mansour’s administration, meanwhile, has begun trying to dismantle Morsi’s legacy. He fired Morsi’s intelligence chief and the presidential palace’s chief of staff. Prosecutors, meanwhile, ordered four detained stalwarts of Morsi’s Muslim Brotherhood held for 15 days pending an investigation into the shooting deaths of eight protesters last week.

No major violence was reported between supporters and opponents of Morsi as the two sides sought to regroup after a night of fierce clashes that turned downtown Cairo into a battlefield. Clashes were also fierce in the port city of Alexandria, where thousands from both sides fought each other with automatic rifles, firebombs and clubs.

Friday’s violence left 36 dead, taking to at least 75 the number of people killed since the unrest began on June 30, when millions of protesters took to the streets on the anniversary of Morsi’s inauguration as Egypt’s first democratically elected president. Read more from this story HERE.

Rising Red tide: China Encircles U.S. by Sailing Warships in American Waters, Arming Neighbors

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Photo Credit: Andy Wong

China has been quietly taking steps to encircle the United States by arming western hemisphere states, seeking closer military, economic, and diplomatic ties to U.S. neighbors, and sailing warships into U.S. maritime zones.

The strategy is a Chinese version of what Beijing has charged is a U.S. strategy designed to encircle and “contain” China. It is also directed at countering the Obama administration’s new strategy called the pivot to Asia. The pivot calls for closer economic, diplomatic, and military ties to Asian states that are increasingly concerned about Chinese encroachment throughout that region.

“The Chinese are deftly parrying our ‘Pivot to the Pacific’ with their own elegant countermoves,” said John Tkacik, a former State Department Asia hand.

Chinese President Xi Jinping is expected to question President Barack Obama about the U.S. pivot during the summit meeting set to begin Friday afternoon in California. Chinese state-run media have denounced the new U.S. policy as an effort to “contain” China and limit its growing power.

The Chinese strategy is highlighted by Xi’s current visit to Trinidad, Costa Rica, and Mexico where he announced major loans of hundreds of millions of dollars that analysts say is part of buying influence in the hemisphere.

Read more from this story HERE.

US Intervention Not the Answer to the Terrorist War in Syria

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Photo Credit: National Review

By Jonah Goldberg. If there was a moment when the United States could have productively intervened in Syria, it looks like that moment has passed.

Shiite militants, including Hezbollah — partly at the behest of their paymasters in Iran — are racing to the defense of Bashar Assad’s regime. According to a witness account in the New York Times, there were some 11,000 Hezbollah fighters in the besieged town of Qusayr alone.

A Shiite religious student in Najaf, Iraq, told the Times that his colleagues believe the leader of Qatar, a backer of Sunni Syrian rebels, is a long-prophesied demonic figure who, it is foretold, will raise an army in Syria to wipe out Shiites in Iraq. As a result, devout Shiites are racing to defend their faith.

Sunnis around the world, meanwhile, are being called on to join the conflict, with the material support of Saudi Arabia and Qatar. The Sunni Muslim Scholars Association of Lebanon issued a fatwa calling on followers to support the rebels “by words, money, medical aid, and fighting.”

The hugely influential Sheikh Yusuf Qaradawi, a Sunni Egyptian cleric based in Qatar, called on Sunnis everywhere to come to Qusayr’s aid and proclaimed Hezbollah “more infidel than Jews and Christians.” Read more from this story HERE.

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Jordan: U.S. to deploy F-16s, anti-missile batteries to protect against Syria

By Cheryl K. Chumley. Jordan security heads said on Wednesday that the United States is going to deploy anti-missile batteries and F-16 fighter jets to the nation as a precautionary measure against a Syrian attack.

The deployment is set for the coming days, said two security officials involved in the mission who requested anonymity, The Associated Press reported. The United States is going to send and maintain either one or two Patriot missile launchers on Jordan’s northern border with Syria, along with several F-16 jets, AP reported. Read more from this story HERE.

The Cost of Losing: A Thousand Years of Darkness

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Photo Credit: Moyan_Brenn

Imagine trying to fight a war against an enemy led by ruthless tyrants, while granting that enemy authority to train your own military. After all, you reason, sending your soldiers to the enemy’s training centers frees up your time and resources for other priorities. Moreover, the tyrants have graciously promised to train your men in good faith, so denying them this privilege might seem ungrateful.

What are your chances of winning that war? You might win a skirmish here and there, if a few of your soldiers remain independent enough to question the lessons in surrender they were taught by the enemy. But your long-term prospects are, of course, dismal, since after their rare provisional successes, your soldiers will only use their newly-gained territory to set up a tent for conciliatory peace talks with the other side, in accordance with the rules of engagement they have learned in training.

Civilization — all of it — is currently under the domination of progressive collectivism in ethics, authoritarianism in politics, irrationalism in epistemology, and nihilism in metaphysics. The architects of this calamity have paved the road to the devil’s dominion over several generations. Their recent boldness, moving in for the kill on the last, crumbling bastion of principled resistance, America, shows that they believe ultimate victory is at hand, which, in human terms, means we face a thousand years of darkness.

We who reject the progressives’ knee-jerk historicism, however, need not accept the inevitability of this result. Doom does not follow necessarily from any mechanism beyond human control. It does, however, follow necessarily from inaction and resignation. That is to say, civilization is doomed unless she begins to mount a deliberate and determined defense.

The first step to mounting an effective defense is to understand how progressivism has won so much territory, geographical and spiritual, over this multi-generational war. I mean, specifically, how they have done it in practice, for concrete results derive from concrete actions. The nations of the semi-free world have, over the course of generations, voted themselves into servitude, voted away their property rights, acquiesced in the breakdown of the family, and willingly given over their souls en masse to the rule of all the wanton and stupid desires and fears that men for millennia knew they had to control in order to remain men; they have forsaken the human heritage for the false promises of tyrants.

Read more from this story HERE.

A Tradition of Sacrifice, From Yorktown to Ramadi

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Photo Credit: Getty Images In 2006, my SEAL Task Unit deployed to Ramadi, Iraq. Among the rubble-pile buildings, bomb craters and burned-out hulks of vehicles, we experienced firsthand the harsh realities of war. We fought alongside the U.S. Army’s Ready First Brigade of the First Armored Division to take Ramadi back from a brutal and determined insurgency.

Combat is hard. It is alarmingly violent, ear-shattering, dirty, exhausting and ugly. It is marked by chaos and confusion and self-doubt. But combat also highlights the determination and sacrifice—and courage—of those who persevere. Through such times, an unbreakable bond is formed with brothers-in-arms.

Those bonds were tested greatly as our task unit suffered the first SEAL casualties of the Iraq War: Marc Lee and Mike Monsoor. Later, Ryan Job died of wounds received in combat. These men were three of the most talented and capable SEALs I have known. They were also loyal friends. Their loss is deeply personal to their families and to their SEAL teammates. As Marc’s and Ryan’s platoon commander, I bear the crushing burden of responsibility. I will forever wish that I could somehow take their place.

As a result, Memorial Day is deeply personal—to me, as it is to any veteran, to any military family. It is a time of mixed emotion: solemn reflection and mourning, honor and admiration for those who made the ultimate sacrifice in the service of their country.

Let’s remember on Memorial Day—and every other day, for that matter—that America did not become a nation without a fight.

Read more from this story HERE.

Japanese Mayor Draws IRE for Saying Wartime Sex Slaves ‘Necessary’

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Photo Credit: APAn outspoken nationalist mayor said the Japanese military’s forced prostitution of Asian women before and during World War II was necessary to “maintain discipline” in the ranks and provide rest for soldiers who risked their lives in battle.

The comments made Monday are already raising ire in neighboring countries that bore the brunt of Japan’s wartime aggression and that have long complained that Japan has failed to fully atone for wartime atrocities.

Toru Hashimoto, the young, brash mayor of Osaka who is also co-leader of an emerging conservative political party, also told reporters that there wasn’t clear evidence that the Japanese military coerced women to become what are euphemistically called “comfort women.”

“To maintain discipline in the military, it must have been necessary at that time,” said Hashimoto. “For soldiers who risked their lives in circumstances where bullets are flying around like rain and wind, if you want them to get some rest, a comfort women system was necessary. That’s clear to anyone.”

Historians say up to 200,000 women, mainly from the Korean Peninsula and China, were forced to provide sex for Japanese soldiers in military brothels.

Read more from this story HERE.

Time to Re-Think Islamic Terrorism…it’s a War Stupid

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Photo Credit: Irish CentralThe Boston terror bombing brings home the fact we are in a state of war, even though our government leaders don’t want to acknowledge it.

The attitude by the present administration is eerily similar to what the Clinton administration had, that lead up to the 9/11/2001 terror attacks. Criminalizing terror is in fact ignoring the active war being waged against our country and western society. As if we don’t name it, then it doesn’t really exist.

During the Clinton administration, our world trade center was attacked with a truck bomb and our embassies in Africa were bombed killing hundreds.

The reaction by the Clinton administration was to classify them as criminal acts, to be dealt with as if they are common lawbreakers.

Later, in a frank moment, Clinton admitted he screwed up when he had a chance to kill Osama Bin Laden and didn’t take it, because: He had “no controlling legal authority to do so.”

This is lawyer talk, not a commander in chief who is responsible for the safety of American citizens….

The terror war against our country is by radical Islamic terrorists,

The Obama administration still refers to the slaughter of American soldiers at Ft. Hood Texas by Major Hassan, as workplace violence, even though he had ties to radical Islam and he was uttering Allah Akhbar as he squeezed the trigger killing our unarmed soldiers.

The underwear bomber who tried to blow up a passenger airplane over Detroit was whisked away and given Miranda, although he wasn’t an American citizen.

This administration downplayed the attack on our embassy in Benghazi that killed 4 of our personnel including our Ambassador. They initially tried to put the blame on an unruly mob enraged by a cheesy internet video. When in fact it was a well organized attack by an Al Qaeda connected group.

But the Boston bombings have brought this war squarely in our face, on our soil again. From preliminary reports, Russian intelligence warned us one of the bombers was tied to radical Islamic organizations. Why didn’t the administration pursue this? Were they afraid to offend someone?

But Islamic radicals want to kill us in the name of their religion…Why? Because we are Americans. Boston was an act of war, not a criminal act.

Shortly after the bombings, a gunfight erupted outside of a nuclear power plant in Tennessee. The assailants escaped on a boat and the FBI is investigating. See Fox story

In this same time frame, a terrorist plot was foiled in Canada when authorities arrested two radicals with ties to Al Qaeda in Iran. They were planning to blow up a passenger train bound for New York.

How long will it be before Al Qaeda and other radical Islamic groups are equipped with far more lethal means of attacking us? Iran is close to nuclear weapons capability and is closely tied to Syria with vast supplies of chemical and biologic weapons.

These are not criminals who are trying to destroy us and our way of life, they are soldiers in a war against us.

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Ed Farnan is the conservative columnist at IrishCentral, where he has been writing on the need for energy independence, strong self defense, secure borders, 2nd amendment, smaller government and many other issues. His articles appear in many publications throughout the USA and world. He has been a guest on Fox News and a regular guest on radio stations in the US and Europe.