FIRE WITH FIRE

I read with interest in the Washington Post this morning how the Crown Prince of Saudi Arabia had called the US intervention in Iraq as an "illegitimate occupation". Additionally, the Saudis have backed out of a Bush state dinner that was to held this next month, although the Bush government has denied that a dinner was even planned.

All this points to the Arabs taking a more direct control on the diplomatic situation that is escalating out of control in the Middle East. However, it appears that the real drive behind this is an effort to reestablish Sunni superiority in the region over the increasing presence of Shiite influence being exerted mainly by the Iraqi government and the Shiite's in Iran. It seems that we are back to the old eons old power struggle between the Shiites and Sunnis in the region.

The Arabs are also weighing in on the Palestinian issue and working to pressure Israel to accept peace negotiations. Any US efforts that are currently being made in the region are being thwarted by the Saudis as they act to take a greater role in the region filling a power vacuum.

Posted by The Watcher at Friday, March 30, 2007 | Permalink | Comments | links to this post   

Coming soon to a gas station near you may be terror-free gasoline. You can read the full article here. Exactly what I mean when I say terror-free, is that these fuels are ethanol-based and do not come from Middle Eastern countries that could be funding terrorism with their oil incomes.

So check your pump station and look for more ethanol based fuels in the future. Not only will you be doing the environment some good, but you will be actively working to take income out of the pocketbooks of those who sponsor terrorism. I consider that a very good thing.

Of course this has the oil producers in the Middle East up in arms, but I for one would be glad to help to break their monopoly on the fuel supply worldwide. How about you?

Posted by The Watcher at Wednesday, March 28, 2007 | Permalink | Comments | links to this post   

Well, well, well, Iran is up to their old tricks again. That is taking hostages for either money, influence, puffed power, or blackmail. This time instead of American hostages taken from the Embassy and held by students sanctioned by the Iranian government, now we have Iranian military police taking British hostages.

Iran seems to simply be adding fuel to the fire when it comes to world opinion and now they have stepped up the stakes in an effort to draw attention away from their nuclear strategy and growing internal dissatisfaction with the regime.

You will definitely want to visit this link to read what the political pundits say now about Iran's strategy and why their taking of British hostages is a strategic move.

I personally think that this is a blackmail attempt to push Bush and Blair into a corner given the distaste for the Iraqi war and growing international conflicts in both national populations. However, it is a very dangerous game that the Mullahs and Ahmedinijad are playing with the stakes growing every day.

Posted by The Watcher at Monday, March 26, 2007 | Permalink | Comments | links to this post   

You'll want to check this broadcast out today, Monday March 26th, with Walid Phares talking about the British hostage crisis and Iran.

You can catch it here:

Dr Wald Phares, author of the newly released The War of Ideas: Jihadism against democracy (Palgrave) will be interviewed on Fox News around 1 PM today on the Iran-UK crisis.

If you don't know who Walid Phares is, I am here to tell you that he is one of the most insightful commentators on television and the Web on Middle Eastern affairs. I have read many of his books and find that he has an extraordinary grasp of the situation in part due to his ethnic identity with the region. He is Lebanese.

This interview is a must watch for today.

Posted by The Watcher at Monday, March 26, 2007 | Permalink | Comments | links to this post   

I am the Watcher and I have returned to Fire With Fire. Stay tuned for commentary in the next several days and weeks that are sure to get you talking.

Iran has been at it again with the snatching of British hostages, continuing to defy the United Nations, and continuing their quest for a nuclear bomb.

All this will make for very interesting reading.

Posted by The Watcher at Monday, March 26, 2007 | Permalink | Comments | links to this post   

That's it in a nutshell. Just like the children's game you sometime see at the fair or at a kid's game arcade -- it's the whack a mole. A mole pops out of a hole just as you whack another one on the head with a rubber mallet. The game speeds up and suddenly you are all over the place trying to whack moles, but they keep coming faster and faster. You just can't win!

Well, guess what, Islamic extremist warfare is just like that. You fight and think you have an area under control and then the enemy just disappears; melts into the crowd and resurfaces in another place hitting harder. Israel is experiencing the "whack a mole syndrome" right now in Lebanon. The US is fighting this same fight in Iraq and guess what, Americans fought the "whack a mole syndrome" battle in Viet Nam too. Rumsfeld even said it: "the harder we hit the behinder we get, right?" Right!

The Israel army even has a name for the "whack a mole" battle -- asymmetrical war fare. That means we (the Israelis) bring in tanks and heavy troops and try to smash out the enemy with overwhelming force, you (Hezbollah and Hamas) have light-weight guerilla fighters that are nimble, communicate with cell phones, make group decisions in the heat of the battle, and then melt into the population when feeling overwhelmed. The fight two days ago in Lebanon for the Hezbollah stronghold, Bint Jbeil,, in the south was a perfect example of a "whack a mole" battle.

Now Al Qaeda's deputy leader, Ayman al-Zawahiri, said al-Qaeda would not stand by while "these [Israeli] shells burn our brothers" in Lebanon and Gaza.

"The war with Israel does not depend on ceasefires... It is a jihad for God's sake and will last until religion prevails ... from Spain to Iraq,"

"The entire world is an open battlefield for us and since they are attacking us everywhere, we will attack everywhere."

Ayman al-Zawahiri, al Qaeda second in command

Wow, "whack a mole" at its finest. This new style of urban guerilla war fare and aggressive rhetoric is enough to make your blood run cold. We just have to get a hold on these issues that are polarizing the Muslim community and creating strife between countries in the Middle East.

Unfortunately the US has squandered its political clout with Europeans and countries in the Middle East with the last six years of "Cowboy politics" and a "we'll go it alone attitude." Now is when we need a cohesive European coalition and honest credibility with countries in the Middle
East. We have so badly tarnished our own reputation as a world leader who advocates for all people, a leader in fairness and independence, and a leader in human rights. It is no wonder that worldwide countries are leery of getting on board with any ceasefire plans that Condoleezza Rice is trying to put together.

Posted by The Watcher at Monday, March 26, 2007 | Permalink | Comments | links to this post   

Right in front of our eyes a new Middle East is being shaped. New power brokers are arising from the ashes of the crisis in Iraq and Palestine. Otherwise silent governments are now speaking out. The Middle Eastern countries are rising to shape their own destiny. I for one am hopeful that something good will arise from the mess that the Middle East has become in the last few years.

What I find highly interesting is that the United Nations and NATO are literally not playing a part in the new vision and the United States is playing a very small part if any at all. New players are emerging to shape the destiny of the Middle East as they rightfully should.

These are some of the new players that I see changing the face of the Middle East right now: Iraqi President Jalal Talabani, Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, Syrian President Bashar al-Asad, and Lebanese President Emile Lahoud.

Missing from this list is the Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, and unfortunately that bodes poorly for the success that will come out of these new power brokers. More of the us against them mentality will eventually doom all the new Middle Eastern efforts.

Until the new leaders who are shaping the Middle East accept Israel's presence and importance, the biggest problem in the Middle East will simply be the elephant in the room that they are all trying to ignore.

Posted by The Watcher at Monday, March 26, 2007 | Permalink | Comments | links to this post   

"It is simply no longer possible to maintain that the United States is
winning the war on terror. The number of terrorists is growing, as is the
pool of people who may be moved to violence, and the means and know-how for carrying out attacks, including catastrophic ones, are becoming more readily
available."

The Next Attack The Failure of the War on Terror and a Strategy for
Getting It Right by Daniel Benjamin and Steven Simon

The extremist jihad threat to everyday individuals is growing worldwide, but there one specific thing that can be done to mitigate this increasing trend right now. Something, that even you can do, right now in your own community. Offer the Muslims you know, and greater Muslim community, the respect and acceptance that they need and deserve. Only a small portion, albeit a growing one, is responsible for the violence that is caused by Islamic extremists. Most followers of Islam are peaceful, righteous, law-abiding citizens, who love their respective countries, and believe that suicide bombers and the violent Islamic extremists are acting outside of the teachings of the Qur'an (their sacred book).

One of the biggest draws to "the extremist jihad" side for many young Muslims is they feel that they and the umma (Muslim worldwide community) are being humiliated and not respected for their religious beliefs. Because of this feeling of humiliation and perceived lack of status in communities, the desire to embrace change is strong. Through internet discussion groups and local peer groups, sometimes the movement to take action to regain "their place in the world" has taken hold -- and a bloody hold it is. This has propelled some Muslims who are seeking to live in the purity of their faith, right into the arms of waiting terrorist recruiters, ready to shape this discourse further in their training camps.

Many Muslins have perceived the treatment of prisoners in Abu Ghraib and Guantanamo as humiliating and as an overt act of atrocity against the greater Muslim community worldwide. The treatment of the Muslim's sacred book in some of these incidents, the Qur'an, has been downright shameful to non-believers, and horrific from the viewpoint of Islamic believers.

Add to this the atrocities perpetrated by a small number of American soldiers in Iraq against Muslim civilians and families, fanning more feelings of degradation and humiliation that are imprinted on the greater Islamic group. Then, add open discrimination against Muslim immigrants in numerous European countries, and we wonder why there is a current of discontent in the greater Muslim worldwide community in regard to acceptance and respect for their faith, religious tenants, and way of life.

We need to reach out to the Muslim community. We need to work together to insulate ourselves collectively and our countries from further violence. If we work to help empower the Muslim leaders of mosques, leaders of young Muslim focus groups, and other members of the faith to openly discuss these topics with their followers and members, while we work together to change patterns of discrimination and abuse, we can emerge together strengthened and with the common focus of peaceful coexistence.

Posted by The Watcher at Monday, March 26, 2007 | Permalink | Comments | links to this post   

It is becoming more and more evident that the problems in Iraq are not just a struggle isolated to this country, but that this is a global struggle between Sunnis and Shiites of the Muslim faith using Iraq as their battleground.

The Associated Press has just released and article pointing to Saudi funding being trucked into Iraq to fund the Sunni struggle there. You can read this must see article here. Just to clarify, this is not the Saudi government funding the insurgency, but rather Muslim clerics and every day Muslim followers. Their charitable contributions, as required by their faith, are being funneled by their own Clerics into Iraq.

In the Muslim faith, one of the tenents of the faith is to give generously to Muslim brothers and those in need. Usually this donation is given to the Cleric and then the Cleric has personal discretion on how the money is spent. Trunks of cash are being found on trucks going into Iraq to fund the Sunnis there.

This is now becoming a wider struggle than just one for the government in Iraq, this is becoming a religious struggle. That is a very dangerous situation. At the same time, Bush is stating that he will cherrypick the ideas from the Iraq Report. Several he has stated that he will ignore are the pivotal ones working to create a consensus drawing in Syria and Iran.

Clearly we are in for chaos in the Middle East, we know the solutions, but Saudi Muslim followers and President Bush are simply ignoring them. Sorry, but the situation is doomed to blossom and spiral out of control.

Posted by The Watcher at Monday, March 26, 2007 | Permalink | Comments | links to this post