Après Le Deluge…

(The title being a reference to the stupendous amount of rain we received last night; "buckets" would be an understatement of gigantic proportions. Which is neither here nor there. Well, it IS here... But let's get started.)

Courtesy of the NYT… “The Jihadi’s Guidebook.”

With Islamist violence brewing in various parts of the world, the set of rules that seek to guide and justify the killing that militants do is growing more complex.

This jihad etiquette is not written down, and for good reason. It varies as much in interpretation and practice as extremist groups vary in their goals. But the rules have some general themes that underlie actions ranging from the recent rash of suicide bombings in Algeria and Somalia, to the surge in beheadings and bombings by separatist Muslims in Thailand.

There are rules, according to the authors of this piece, and I find them somewhat interesting, if only for the rationalizations and excuses employed by jihadis when they violate the Koran’s teachings. Other than that? Not so much… Perhaps I should lend a little more credence to the content of this article than I do, but the whole jihad thing still strikes me as a 17^th Century movement based upon barbaric and bankrupt principles.

George Will, writing in the NYT Sunday Book Review (Land of Plenty):

Ever since mass affluence, a phenomenon without precedent in the human story, exploded upon postwar America, social and political theorists have wondered, and worried, about the moral and even the spiritual consequences of material conditions. Putting scarcity behind us has been pleasant, but has it been good for us — meaning good for our souls?

Well, yes. Yes, it has. Whereas Will goes to great length to justify his conclusion, extensively quoting from obscure (to me, at least, but probably not unfamiliar to habitual NYT readers) philosophers and economists, any fool with a passing knowledge of our history and our present circumstances realizes we are clearly much better off than we were, say, 100 years ago. I think 12 million illegal immigrants also make the point quite effectively, as well. Why else would they come here?

Robert McFarlane (Marine officer and former Security Advisor to President Reagan), writing in today’s Opinion Journal:

Thirty-nine years ago, halfway through my second tour in Vietnam, the Tet Offensive was launched by North Vietnamese and Viet Cong forces, who were soundly defeated on the battlefield. Two measures of that battle--both relevant to the situation in Iraq today--stand out for me. The first relates to an important lesson U.S. forces had learned after three years of conflict: the vital role of "winning hearts and minds" of the local population. The second concerns the power of the press to affect our ability to sustain violent warfare.

[…]

Today, four years into the war in Iraq, we've come full circle to the point reached 40 years ago--unfortunately in both respects. On the one hand we've found military leaders--men such as Army Gen. David Petraeus and Marine Lt. Gen. Jim Mattis--with a solid grasp of what is needed to turn the military tide, and who are managing that task with early evidence of success. More money is going into winning hearts and minds. More resources are being devoted to quality of life fixes that are visible to Iraqis. Shuttered factories are being opened in a major new program launched by Deputy Secretary of Defense Gordon England and headed by his subordinate Paul Brinkley. A major agricultural program is about to be launched in Anbar province, again under Pentagon leadership.

The truly good news is that the results are being felt. Sheiks and tribal leaders watching the changes being made in Anbar are coming our way, and offering various kinds of support to help root out al Qaeda and deal with the insurgents. Yet news of these successes is very hard to find in our mainstream media. It's February '68 redux--with far greater consequences I fear.

This is not news…rather it’s a familiar meme that’s appearing more and more often today in places like the WSJ, the Weekly Standard, and other right-of-center publications and blogs. Yet mainstream America, or more accurately, LEFT-wing America, pooh-poohs the notion that the tide is turning and we are beginning to succeed in Iraq. As Mr. McFarlane suggests, the mainstream media is largely responsible for this phenomenon. The media and their ultimate clients, the Democratic Party.

I remember 1968. Mr. McFarlane is spot on: the parallels are both eerie and scary. And the stakes are MUCH higher, this time around.

Today’s Pic: The plane Dubya flew during his stint with the Texas ANG…the venerable F-102, America’s first front-line delta-winged fighter. Its successor, the F-106, is in the back ground.

Hill AFB, last month.