It seems the President is getting more support from muslim countries than the US Congress these days.

Moderate Arab states told the United States on Tuesday they supported President George W. Bush's plan for a military buildup in Iraq, hoping it would halt a slide to civil war.

Foreign ministers of six Gulf Arab states, Egypt and Jordan, all concerned that chaos in Iraq could spread to the entire region, expressed their backing for the 20,000 extra troops at talks with U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice in Kuwait.

"We expressed our desire to see the president's plan to reinforce American military presence in Baghdad as a vehicle ... to stabilize Baghdad and prevent Iraq sliding into this ugly war, this civil war," Kuwaiti Foreign Minister Sheikh Mohammad al-Salem al-Sabah told a joint news conference with Rice, who is on a regional tour to marshal support for Bush's plan.

At least that appears to be the lesson learned in the Israel/Hezbollah throwdown last summer.

The Israelis, as they have in all past wars, collected detailed information on each tank that was hit by enemy fire. Israel won't, for obvious reasons, release all this information. But they have provided some data. There were "several hundred" Merkavas sent into southern Lebanon in 2006. Of those, ten percent were hit by enemy fire (including mines and roadside bombs). Merkava faced modern anti-tank guided missiles (ATGM) for the first time in 2006. Only 18 tanks were seriously damaged, and only a third of those were from several hundred ATGMs fired by Hizbollah. Only two of the 18 heavily damaged tanks were destroyed, and both of those were damaged by roadside bombs. In those two cases, the tank was over the bomb when it was detonated.

Will Franklin argues that it will disappear in 18 months based on the Treasury figures he has been looking at (The PDF is linked at his site). I hope he is right, but I have my doubts because if we even get close, the Dems will into a spending frenzy unlike anything we saw pre-1994.

There are quite a few people on the right that love this guy. He is right on the fence, abortion and illegal immigation in general. Over at Restate however, one of the front page posters is taking issue with some of his contributers. Quite a dustup in the comments there. Click the link to make up your own mind.

In fact, it's not clear Tancredo is in line with the mainstream, social conservative wing of the GOP he seeks to align himself with. According to campaign finance reports, one of Tancredo's biggest financial backers has been the family of Dr. John Tanton, the founder of the Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR). Wall Street Journal editorial-page features writer Jason Riley wrote a devastating piece about the organization back in 2004, in which the group's pro-abortion and pro-eugenics roots were revealed.

Tanton is also one of the most prominent conservative financiers of Planned Parenthood in the United States, having helped found in the mid-1960s the first Planned Parenthood chapter in northern Michigan.

Tancredo appears to have embraced FAIR's extreme and repugnant policy positions, having accepted more than $20,000 from the FAIR PAC and personal donations from Tanton between 1996 and 2006. Over the past ten years, according to Federal Election Commission reports, FAIR has provided more than $15,000 to Tancredo campaigns and PACs. Tanton has given Tancredo $7,000, while donating $28,000 to FAIR's political action arm.

That horrible economy that Bush built is still fooling people! Can you believe it? After all this time????

The Index of Economic Freedom for 2007, sponsored by the Wall Street Journal and the Heritage Foundation, is out. Here is Mary Anastasia O'Grady's article in the Journal on it, and here is the Heritage website entry, the data, and the rankings. Only seven countries receive "free" ratings, with a score above 80, and every single one of them is primarily or substantially English-speaking: Hong Kong, Singapore, Australia, the United States, New Zealand, the United Kingdom, and Ireland. The next nine countries, with scores between 75 and 80, are mostly smaller European countries: Luxembourg, Switzerland, Canada, Chile, Estonia, Denmark, the Netherlands, Iceland, and Finland. Canada, of course, is primarily English-speaking, and my impression is that knowledge and use of English is widespread in Denmark, the Netherlands, and Iceland.

Michael Totten interviews Sayyed Husseini. He is a moderate cleric that Hezbollah like to try to keep hidden from view because he has a different outlook on Islam and free government.

“Hopefully you can help,” he said. “We need support. What did Hezbollah do to become popular up until now? They had four hospitals in the dahiyeh. They had 30 madrassas, or schools. They had 30 foundations for supporting work for the people. Also they bring engineers, doctors, and they have plenty of money. They have a TV channel, radio, newspapers, soldiers. They are a country inside a country, a government inside a government. They have all the money. They have the force to do this. They pushed so hard to help the people that all the poor Shia and some of the rich support them. Also, in the South the same situation. They built hospitals there, and also in Baalbeck. All the Shia places where there are many people they spend money, money, money, money, money. Hezbollah pays for the people to build and repair their houses. So the two reasons are money and services. They use those to gather the people around them.”

How can the likes of Sayyed Husseini possibly compete with Hezbollah’s power and wealth? Most Lebanese Shia are unaware that Husseini’s path is even an option. Hezbollah’s very real smashing of dissent ensures that it stays that way.

“What is the solution to this problem?” I said.

“The problem here in Lebanon,” Husseini said, “is that if we want to change we need an alternative. If you want to remove me from my position, you need to have a replacement, another person. The people who lived in Iraq with Saddam Hussein, they lived on Saddam’s money and Saddam’s services. When the United State army came to Iraq, they didn’t give them the money. Here in Lebanon the Iranian money, for example, is paying for portable water tanks with Iranian flags on them. It is from Iran. If you want to take Iran out of Lebanon you must bring another one with a Lebanese flag on it.”

That is what Michael Yon has to say from the streets of Mosul in an interview with Pundit Review radio. He also believes Gen Patraeus is the man for these tough times. Keep an eye on Michael, if things turn he'll be the first to report it.

Oil is under $52 and dropping.

The price of a barrel of oil has fallen to $51.21. The total drop in oil prices is 3.4% today, and the Saudis are telling the other OPEC nations not to panic.

A judge has decided that any sexual penetration during an adulterous relationship, it is a felony in Michigan.

In a ruling sure to make philandering spouses squirm, Michigan's second-highest court says that anyone involved in an extramarital fling can be prosecuted for first-degree criminal sexual conduct, a felony punishable by up to life in prison.

"We cannot help but question whether the Legislature actually intended the result we reach here today," Judge William Murphy wrote in November for a unanimous Court of Appeals panel, "but we are curtailed by the language of the statute from reaching any other conclusion."

"Technically," he added, "any time a person engages in sexual penetration in an adulterous relationship, he or she is guilty of CSC I," the most serious sexual assault charge in Michigan's criminal code.

You can glean a bit from past writings. The American Future blog found a Washington Post article that quotes from a report the General wrote about Vietnam.

On fighting insurgencies

Vietnam planted in the minds of many in the military doubts about the ability of U.S. forces to conduct successful large-scale counterinsurgencies. These misgivings do not in all cases spring from doubts about the capabilities of American troops and units per se. . . .

Rather, the doubts that are part of the Vietnam legacy spring from a number of interrelated factors: the previously noted worries about a lack of popular support for what the public might perceive as ambiguous conflicts; suspicions about the willingness of civilian policy-makers—not just those in the executive branch—to stay the course; and lurking fears that the respective services have yet to come to grips with the difficult tasks of developing the doctrine, equipment, and forces suitable for nasty "little" wars. . . .

Others, who believe that the U.S. could develop suitable American forces for counterinsurgency operations, have doubts about the existing capabilities of U.S. units in this area. As one U.S. officer put it, "I submit that the U.S. Army does not have the mind-set for combat operations where the key terrain is the mind, not the high ground. We do not take the time to understand the nature of the society in which we are fighting, the government we are supporting, or the enemy we are fighting."

 

Allahpundit has the video... You decide. 

I can't link it directly (too dumb to figure it out I guess) but MSNBC has some excellent interviews with Dr King. It is under 'US politics'. Both King 'disappointed' with civil rights bill and King's 'Meet the Press' interview capture the good Doctor's prospective well.

Addendum: If you still see the links to the videos, I am sorry but they do not work. I wish I could make them, but I can not.

It is both a blessing and a curse. On one hand, they are acknowledging the superiority of the allied forces but at the same time if they run, it will be harder to kill them.

Both cases indicate that the bad guys are adjusting their plans as the government and US military adjust theirs. The clear and hold tactic means militants will have little chance to maneuver within Baghdad like they used to do to work around previous crackdowns so now they are planning to make long-range maneuvers in provinces outside Baghdad.

Although the main objective of the new security plan is securing Baghdad, it would be a good idea for the military commanders to keep an eye on a few other provinces because we don't want to fight the same men twice, or thrice!

The result is a peek into the mind of an Iraqi who is up to his eyebrows in the violence. He brings an interesting perspective.

INDC: Tell me about the history of the Iraqi police, they've been sort of up and down, they've gone from zero to being massacred, to being reconstituted by the Americans ... where do you think they are now?

Mohammed: "I think only the Americans can (maintain order) with the Iraqi Army."

INDC: What about the police?

Mohammed: "I don't think they can, because they are easy targets. Most of the police get attacked at home and killed."

INDC: Right. Whereas the Iraqi Army and the Americans live in barracks and bases, and their families are elsewhere.

Mohammed: "Yes."

(clip)

I totally agree with the end of the interview.

INDC: How many insurgents do you think are operating in Fallujah?

Mohammed: "A little more than 500. Maybe more than that."

"Actually I need to go, because I don't want to stay a long time."

INDC: Ok. One last, quick question: what do you think of Americans, and has that opinion changed over time?

Mohammed: "I think we need the Americans. If they go out right now it's gonna be a disaster. And believe me, even if they get out of Fallujah, Washington itself will be a target."

He is all but demanding Congress bring it. It reminds me of an old joke. If pro is the opposite of con then what is the opposite of progress?

“I’m not going to try to be popular and change principles to do so,” Bush said in a television interview that aired on Sunday night.

Digging in for confrontation, Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney say they will not budge from sending more US troops to Iraq no matter how much Congress opposes it. “I fully understand they could try to stop me,” Bush, a Republican, said of the Democrat-run Congress. “But I’ve made my decision, and we’re going forward.”