For a transcript of the Pew Forum event CLICK HERE.
Or click on the book title for more information on Michael Gerson's book Heroic Conservatism: Why Republicans Need to Embrace America's Ideals (And Why They Deserve to Fail If They Don't)
"Tax Cuts Matter":
Gov. Huckabee on Camera and Voice-over Graphics: “In a hundred and sixty years in Arkansas , we’d never really had a broad-based, wide-spread tax cut. I was able to sign the first ever. The economic policies that we did in my state, cutting taxes, streamlining government, resulted in the largest number of job creations. I cut taxes over 90 times. Balanced the budget every year I was governor. Left a surplus of nearly a billion dollars, and did it in the face of an overwhelmingly Democratic legislature. That's a pretty good record.”
"Our Values":
“The pro-life position was the one espoused by our Founding Fathers when they said that all of us are created equal, endowed by our Creator with certain inalienable rights. The first one they listed was life. Nobody has a greater level of intrinsic worth or value than another person. Being unborn doesn’t make you less valuable. Maybe instead of having our values trampled all over every single day and night, we would express to America what those values are: family, life, freedom – those things matter to us. Always has, always will."
Huckabee Confounds Elites as Reagan Did
by Doug Patton
It is interesting to note that Democrats are not attacking Mike Huckabee now that he has surged to the top of the Republican polls. Perhaps Howard Dean, the Democratic National Committee and the leading Democrat presidential candidates all believe that Huckabee is a Republican they can easily defeat.
Huckabee’s national campaign chairman, Ed Rollins, was typically glib in his comparison of Mike Huckabee, circa 2008, and Ronald Reagan, circa 1980. Rollins, who managed the Gipper’s 49-state landslide re-election campaign in 1984, says he remembers Democrats salivating over the prospect of running against the former actor, both in his campaigns for California governor and for president.
“I remember them saying, ‘Please, let us run against Reagan,’” Rollins recalled.
(Read more . . . )
Dear Friend,
If you have not already made a commitment on whom to vote for in the January caucus, I hope you will consider Gov. Mike Huckabee. Let me share with you why I’ve endorsed Gov. Huckabee.
Gov. Huckabee believes in our values. He has spent a lifetime promoting them. We don’t have to go to bed at night wondering where he stands on the life issue or the marriage issue.
The next president will probably appoint three judges to the Supreme Court. With Gov. Huckabee as president, we don’t have to worry about the kind of judges he will nominate.
We will not be embarrassed by his personal life.
He is the person whom all social conservatives can rally around.
Do I agree with Gov. Huckabee on all the issues? No. But I do believe he would be the candidate who best could bring us together, and who best represents the values which helped make this a great nation.
One final point. I am sure that you have noticed that the media is making a big deal of Gov. Huckabee’s Christian faith. The impression is that it would be a bad thing for our country for a person who is a Christian to be President. I’m sure you will see more of this as the campaign progresses.
Thank you for considering Gov. Huckabee. I hope you will talk with your family and friends and encourage them to support Gov. Huckabee.
Thanks for caring enough to get involved.
Sincerely,
Donald E. Wildmon
Black Conservatives Voice Support for Huckabee
By Michelle Vu
Christian Post Reporter
Dozens of black conservative leaders nationwide are expressing support for Republican White House contender Mike Huckabee, who they believe best represents the values of American conservatives.
The African American leaders praise the former Arkansas governor’s track record on traditional values; his support for education and immigration reforms; his tax policies, which they say allows for economic growth; and his good relations with the black community.
“The fact that 47 percent of African-American voters supported the reelection of Governor Huckabee in 2002 is testament to this laudable achievement improving the lives of Arkansans across the entire economic range,” wrote Donald E. Scoggins, president of Republicans for Black Empowerment and organizer of the list, in a statement.
Scoggins, who is endorsing Huckabee as an individual, also pointed to the “unprecedented” number of appointments of African-Americans, about 300, to state boards, commissions and key executive level positions within the Arkansas state government under Huckabee’s administration.
“We are proud and honored to give our support to the bid of Mike Huckabee to become the Republican Party’s nominee as the next President of the United States of America,” the statement reads. (Read more. . . )
Click Here to see the video from Mike Huckabee's announcement that he will NOT be responding with the filmed counter-punch to Mitt Romney's smear campaign.
"WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Two negative ads recently launched by Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney, who has spent more on advertising than any other candidate, either misrepresent his rival's records or include distortions, according to a CNN analysis of the commercials." (Read more . . . )
New Year's Day, 2008
As we enter this New Year, we reflect on the past and look forward to a promising year ahead.
A future of hope and opportunity begins with a robust economy. Thanks to America's workers and entrepreneurs, our economy grew at a vigorous rate last year. Keeping taxes low and exercising fiscal restraint helped ensure that the number of jobs increased and the deficit once again fell ahead of schedule. The underpinnings of our economy have proven strong, competitive, and resilient enough to overcome the challenges we face. In the coming year, we will continue to encourage growth in the economy so Americans have more money to invest in their businesses, spend on their families, and put aside for the future.
In addition to our efforts here at home, the United States continued its work to spread freedom and peace around the world. America is determined to defeat terrorists and extremists, and we will remain on the offensive against the enemies of freedom. In 2008, we will continue to stand beside our partners in the international community to lay a foundation of peace for our children and grandchildren.
America is grateful for the service and sacrifice of our Nation's troops and their families. During this hopeful time of year, we remain mindful of the courage and resolve of the fine men and women who protect our country and defend freedom's cause.
As we welcome this New Year, we move forward with trust in the power of the American spirit, confidence in our purpose, and faith in a loving God who created us to be free.
Laura and I send our best wishes for a happy New Year. May God bless you, may God bless our troops and their families, and may God bless America.
GEORGE W. BUSH
Mr. Snell was standing on a sturdy platform he had attached to the top of his vehicle in order to offer help to women over a fence that had been erected to prevent pro-lifers from speaking to them. Witness John McTernan said that a man who was escorting a woman into the abortion clinic, "leaped on the vehicle with Ed and catapulted him off of the vehicle and onto the ground." Mr. Snell struck the pavement with his head. He was transported by ambulance to the hospital where he was treated for multiple trauma, bleeding in the area between the brain and the tissues that cover the brain, compression fractures of four vertebrae, right scapula fracture, and fracture of the fourth and fifth ribs.
Three officers arrived to investigate but allowed the perpetrator to leave the scene. When Mr. McTernan objected and demanded an arrest, the female officer threatened to arrest him for interfering with a police investigation. (Click here to read the entire story.)
"It is unbelievable that an officer would allow an attacker to go free after inflicting life-threatening injuries on an elderly gentleman, then threaten to arrest the witness to the crime," said Operation Rescue President Troy Newman. "That was not only unprofessional conduct, but it showed a fundamental lack of respect for Mr. Snell's life and beliefs. She should face serious discipline."
Mr. Snell was released from the hospital the following day. His recovery is expected to take a full 8 weeks. Meanwhile, upon learning the seriousness of Mr. Snell's injuries, the police finally arrested and charged the man with felony assault.
This incident adds to a growing list of attacks on pro-lifers in recent months, which have all included unprofessional police conduct. Operation Rescue recommends that pro-lifers establish regular communications with local police supervisors in order to educate them as to the peaceful nature of pro-life activities and their protection under the First Amendment.
Any concerns about Harrisburg Bureau of Police conduct may be addressed to:
Police Chief Charles Keller
Phone: 717-255-3103
E-mail: charleskeller@cityofhbg.com
Joe Carter at Evangelical Outpost has recently written three articles that are must reading for conservative evangelicals as we prepare to enter a brand new year with no mistakes in it, yet:
1. Conservatives Are Sheeple Too
2. A Pre-Caucus Candidate Quiz
3. Has National Review Jumped The Shark
Pro-Gay Romney Upsets Family Values Leader
ByMichelle Vu
Christian Post Reporter
WASHINGTON – A prominent pro-family leader is urging fellow conservatives to withdraw their support for Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney over his recent expressed support for a “sexual orientation” non-discrimination law.
Romney during an interview with NBC’s “Meet the Press” said he supports the contentious Employment Non-Discrimination Act (ENDA), which adds “sexual orientation” to a list of federally protected classes that prohibits discrimination on the basis of race, color, religion, sex or national origin.
The bill upsets conservative leaders because it grants special protection to employees based on their “actual or perceived” sexual orientation. Moreover, it would force Christian organizations that oppose homosexuality to hire gay employees.
“Mitt Romney’s Christmas present to the homosexual lobby disqualifies him as a pro-family leader,” said Peter LaBarbera, longtime pro-family advocate and founder of the Republicans For Family Values website.
“Laws that treat homosexuality as a civil rights are being used to promote homosexual ‘marriage,’ same-sex adoption and pro-homosexuality indoctrination of schoolchildren,” he said. “These same laws pose a direct threat to the freedom of faith-minded citizens and organizations to act on their religious belief that homosexual behavior is wrong.”
The former Massachusetts governor responded on “Meet the Press” that ENDA “makes sense” at the state level. But LaBarbera warns that if Romney “openly” promotes homosexual agenda at the state level then he cannot be trusted at the federal level.
He pointed out that the state’s “sexual orientation” nondiscrimination law laid the groundwork for Massachusetts legalizing gay “marriage” – the first in the country to do so.
Moreover, the ENDA-like law forced Boston’s Catholic Charities to shut down its century-old adoption agency because it refused to place children in gay households against Catholic teaching.
“Given Romney’s extensive pro-homosexual record and willingness now to depart from principle on this crucial issue, should we trust a ‘President Romney’ not to reverse course again on federal pro-homosexual laws such as ‘Hate Crimes’ and ENDA?” LaBarbera posed. (Read more. . . )
From the Baptist Press article by Michael Foust
WASHINGTON (BP)--Presidential candidate Duncan Hunter of California is the senior Republican on the House Armed Services Committee, one of the more powerful committees in Congress. He's also a Christian and a Southern Baptist.
A member of Congress since 1980 and a Vietnam veteran, Hunter was saved at the age of 14 during a revival meeting led by professional baseball player Albie Pearson. He remembers it well.
"He was five-foot-six. He was one of the original Los Angeles Angels," Hunter told Baptist Press. "A great Christian and a Christian minister, who now has a Christian home for kids who have suffered from drug abuse in California."
Chairman of the House Armed Services Committee from 2002 until the Democrats took control earlier this year, Hunter is one of nine Republican candidates for president. Some consider him a long-shot, but Hunter hopes his experience in the military and on the committee will serve to attract votes, particularly with America at war.
From MSNBC:
DES MOINES, Iowa - Appearing on NBC's "Meet the Press," Mike Huckabee called Mitt Romney a dishonest politician who can't be trusted with the presidency, turning up the heat Sunday in a close-and-getting-closer Republican race in Iowa. (Read more . . . )
* "[Romney] Told Reporters In Iowa That He Recalled His Father Changing His Mind, And Deciding To March Even Though It Was Sunday." (The Boston Phoenix, 12/21/2007)
* Romney National Press Secretary Kevin Madden Admitted Mitt Romney Never Marched With King. Matthews: "In 1978 … your candidate said, 'My father and I marched with Martin Luther King through the streets of Detroit.' Did Mitt Romney, your candidate, your client, march with Martin Luther King or didn't he?" Madden: "No, he did not." (MSNBC's "Hardball," 12/21/07)
* "Romney Spokesman Eric Fehrnstrom Acknowledged That Was Not True. 'Mitt Romney Did Not March With Martin Luther King.'" (The Boston Globe, 12/21/07)
* Grosse Pointe Historical Society Curator Suzy Berschback: "We're A Small Town ... Governors Don't Come Here Very Often, Except For Fundraisers.'" (The Boston Phoenix, 12/21/2007)
* Romney: "You Know, I'm An English Literature Major As Well. When We Say, 'I Saw The Patriots Win The World Series, It Doesn't Necessarily Mean You Were There -- Excuse Me, The Super Bowl." (The Associated Press, 12/21/07)
* In 2003, Romney Told The Boston Globe That He "Won't Be A Cheerleader" For Tax Cut Proposals With Which He Did Not Agree. "At the time of the [2003] votes, Romney was in his first stint in elective office, leading Massachusetts. The Boston Globe reported that year that during a meeting in Washington with the Massachusetts congressional delegation, Romney was asked about the tax cuts and said he 'won't be a cheerleader' for proposals he did not agree with." (The Associated Press, 12/22/07)
* Later Romney Admitted He Had Only Been Hunting Twice But Rushed To Add He Used To Shoot "Varmints" Like Rabbits. "When challenged, his campaign said that Romney had gone hunting just twice -- once when he was 15 and once last year, when he shot at quail on an outing with GOP campaign contributors. Romney subsequently argued that he'd done more than that: 'I've always been a rodent and rabbit hunter,' he said. 'Small varmints, if you will. I began when I was 15 or so and I have hunted those kinds of varmints since then. More than two times.'" (Salon.com, 12/21/07)
* "The Gun Rights Group Did Not Endorse Either Candidate, And Gave A Higher Issues Rating To [Romney's] Democratic Opponent." (The Associated Press, 12/21/07)
* According To The New York Times, Romney's Boasts On Meth Were Misleading - Meth Legislation Never Passed The State Legislature. "But both the advertisement and Mr. Romney's claims on his record were misleading. Mr. Romney's office proposed legislation that would have toughened penalties on those in possession of methamphetamine and the chemicals to manufacture it, but the bill stalled in the state legislature." (The New York Times, 12/22/07)
* Romney Then Corrected The Record: He Did Not Get Tough But Rather "Proposed We Get Tough" On Meth. "After The New York Times pointed out Mr. Romney's misstatement in a posting on its politics blog, he made sure to correct himself before taking questions from reporters at his next campaign stop here. 'If I said this morning that we 'got tough' on methamphetamines, I proposed we get tough on methamphetamine, and I've corrected that right here for all of you,' he said.'' (The New York Times, 12/22/07)
* In Truth, Romney Declared His Candidacy For Govenor Two Days After Returning From The Olympics. "Romney returned to Massachusetts from Utah on Sunday, March 17, 2002. He declared he was running for governor on Tuesday, March 19." (The Associated Press, 12/21/07)
* Romney Roughly 48 Hours After Returning To Massachusetts: "I'm In. … The Bumper Stickers Are Printed, The Web Site's Going Up. The Papers Are Going In Today." (The Associated Press, 12/21/07)
* Parker: "We Haven't Seen A Politician Parse A Sentence Like This Since Bill Clinton Dissected The Meaning Of The Verb 'Is' And Explained That It Was Monica Who Had Sex With Him And Not The Other Way Around." (Human Events, 12/21/07)
* Parker: "How Ironic That Romney Chose To Insert This Apparent Whopper In His 'Faith In America' Speech. Perhaps The Governor's Idea Of Faith Is What Groucho Marx Had In Mind With His Line, 'Who Are You Going To Believe, Me Or Your Own Eyes.'" (Human Events, 12/21/07)
The Pew Forum invited Wilfred McClay, a distinguished professor of intellectual history, to speak on the historical relationship between religion and secularism in America. McClay argued for a distinction between two types of secularism.
Political secularism, he says, recognizes the legitimacy and even moral necessity of religious faith, while preventing any one faith from being established. Philosophical secularism, on the other hand, views religion more negatively and attempts to establish a common unbelief as a basis for government. McClay contends that the first understanding of secularism was at the heart of the founders’ vision and has resulted in a unique if imperfect mingling of religion and government in American public life.
For a transcript of Wilfred McClay's presentation CLICK HERE.
The following is an excerpt from the speech given by Stephen Prothero at the Pew Forum's biannual Faith Angle Conference on religion, politics and public life. Stephen Prothero, chair of the Department of Religion at Boston University, discussed the issue of religious illiteracy in the United States.
Prothero is the author of Religious Literacy: What Every American Needs to Know - And Doesn't. Prothero says the United States is one of the most religious countries on earth, but Americans know little about their own religion or the religions of others.
* * *
So instead of seeing religious illiteracy as a religious problem for religious people, I'm looking at it as a civic problem and I'm looking at it from two angles. The first is the domestic angle, where we have politics now where we used to have one religious party and now we have two religious parties, in the sense that Democrats have now joined Republicans in deciding that it's smart to talk about God and it's smart to talk about faith because that's the way you get elected.
And the way that the Republicans, over the last generations, were able to attach to the good words like God and family and values and the Democrats seem to be attaching to less good words or less resonant words like rights and reason, things like that. It didn't seem to be such a good strategy for the Democrats in a country with 96 percent of the citizens believing in God to be the non-God party against the God party. So basically we have a politics where politicians on both sides are being encouraged to talk about religion, about their own faith, but also to connect their public policy initiatives to religious ideas, particularly to biblical ideas and Jewish and Christian ideas.
So Hillary Clinton now, when she talks about immigration, she's quite likely to talk about the Good Samaritan story and to say why don't I think that an immigration bill, where we have to turn in people who come over the border illegally, why do I think that's wrong? Well, because the Good Samaritan story. You know, we're supposed to treat foreigners in a good way. We're supposed to treat them like our neighbors, according to the Bible.
In this kind of politics, it seems to me that it's imperative for citizens to know something about religion. How can you engage a politician who is rightly or wrongly invoking the Bible or invoking religion for political purposes on issues like gay marriage or abortion or the environment or poverty or euthanasia or capital punishment or war?
Mike Huckabee on the "establishment" quoted in the Weekly Standard:
"They don't mind having us vote for them. They don't mind having us empower them. They don't mind even coming and patting us on the head and telling us they'll think very seriously about taking to heart the issues we think important. But when they get elected, they forget who we are and they never push the issues we think are important. And they are scared to death that someone who isn't part of them might actually get elected and might actually go to Washington with a view saying "I do know where I come from and I haven't forgotten where I've been and I go for all those people whose odds are stacked against them 20 to 1."
Huckabee sees Iowa as nothing less than the beginning of the change he envisions. "Folks," he closed his speech in Marshalltown, "if we can do it, we'll change politics in this country and we won't turn it upside down but we'll turn it right side up, like it ought to. That's what America is supposed to be. Not a nation of a ruling class and a servant class. The way our Founding Fathers had it, the ruling class is the regular folks out there voting, the servant class is the one who gets elected. We're not elected to be the ruling class, we were elected to be the servant class serving the people who are the ruling class. Let's make that happen." (Click Here to read more . . .)
American Right To Life Action Launches its First 527 Political TV Ad
MEDIA ADVISORY, Dec. 20 /Christian Newswire/ -- American Right To Life Action, a new 527 political organization, is running its first political television ad statewide in Iowa starting today and through the Iowa Caucuses on January 3, 2008. "We have tested this ad with focus groups," said Steve Curtis, president of ARTL Action, "and it has everyone laughing, laughing with us, at Mitt Romney for being such an obvious liar about the most important issue for any leader in America: abortion."
Romney Fairytale ScriptOnce upon a time there was a man named Mitt who said a very bad thing:
Romney: "I believe that abortion should be safe and legal in this country"
Then he thought of campaigning in Utah and said something different. "I am NOT pro-choice!"
But when he came back to liberal Massachusetts:
Romney: "I will preserve and protect a woman's right to choose."
Then in 2004 he magically became pro-life, but only six months later:
Romney: "I am absolutely committed to my promise to maintain the status quo with regards to law related to abortion and choice."
The spell must have worn off.
Now he's on the campaign trail again, and he's back to being pro-life.
Romney: "I was pro-choice; I'm pro-life." … "I changed my position" … "I never said I was pro-choice."
Narrator: BR: Mitt Romney, willing to sacrifice children, lying for your vote.
Paid for by American Right-to-Life Action.
According to their website, ARTLAction.com, "American RTL Action exists to provide leadership in the fight to advocate enforcement of God's enduring command, Do not murder (Luke 18:20), especially in the realm of government. For decades, the pro-life industry provided campaign cover for pro-choice candidates by deceiving well-meaning pro-lifers. ARTL Action is determined to end that ability to mislead Christians into supporting those who defend various forms of intentional child-killing. When it comes to child killing, exceptions are a window to the soul. ARTL Action will throw open that window so all well-meaning people can see where a political candidate actually stands. At ARTL Action, we expose the liberal in the conservative."
From CBS News' Joy Lin:
OSCEOLA, IOWA -– Gesturing to a wild turkey that had been taxidermied, Mike Huckabee joked, “I thought that was one of my opponents.” He paused during the laughter, “That’ll make the blogs.”
Huckabee continued his quest to set his record straight today, shifting to a strategy of calling out Mitt Romney, by name, for misrepresentation as well as going too far in putting up attack ads against John McCain, who Huckabee called a “rival” but a “honest, decent…American hero.”
“It’s like Mitt doesn’t have anything to stand on, except to stand against,” said Huckabee.
“And I’m saying enough is enough. Ladies and gentlemen, what I’m going to say to you today is, if a person is dishonest in his approach to get the job, do you believe he will be honest in telling you the truth when he does get the job?" (Read More . . . )
MEDIA ADVISORY, Dec. 24 /Christian Newswire/ -- The following statement has been issued by John Lofton, Recovering Republican; Editor, TheAmericanView.com; co-host of "The American View" radio show with Michael Anthony Peroutka, the Constitution Party's 2004 Presidential candidate. You may hear a radio show on this subject by clicking on http://www.theamericanview.com/index.php?id=965.
"And Jesus answering said unto them, Render to Caesar the things that are Caesar's, and to God the things that are God's. And they marvelled at him." -- Mark 12:17.
The religious significance of the birth of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ is well known. But, what is not so well known and understood is that our Lord's birth is "the most important single political event in history," as Dr. R.J. Rushdoony says in his book "The Foundations Of Social Order: Studies In The Creeds And Councils Of The Early Church" (1968). He says the coming of God in the flesh "handed Statism its major defeat in man's history" because it established God as "the true sovereign and the true source of law."
Dr. Rushdoony notes: "Western liberty began when the claim of the State to be man's savior was denied. The State then, according to Scripture, was made the ministry of justice. But, wherever Christ ceases to be man's Savior, there liberty perishes as the State again asserts its messianic claims. Man is in trouble, and history is the record of his attempt to find salvation. Man needs a savior, and the question is simply one of choice: Christ or the State? No man can choose one without denying the other, and all attempts at compromise are a delusion.
"Thus, the key issue of our time is lordship or sovereignty: Who is the lord or sovereign, Christ or the State? Christmas reminds us once again of the birth of this world's only true Lord or Sovereign. We will either acknowledge Him or be judged by Him."
Amen!
Thus, all talk about "freedom" and "liberty," as if either may be obtained apart from the rule of King Jesus, is a lie. As God's Word tells us it is only when His Son sets us free that we are "free indeed" (John 8:36), free from the power of sin which is the Christian definition "freedom/liberty," a definition radically different from the modern definition which sees "freedom/liberty" as merely an absence of all restraints - which is license and not true liberty. See also II Corinthians 3:17 where God tells us that "where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty."
A footnote: All those candidates who say there should be no "religious test" by voters for public office are saying, in effect, that Jesus Christ is irrelevant to politics. They are engaging in Christ-denial. They are refusing to confess Christ before men which means that He will deny them before His Father (Matthew 10:32-33).
SAULT STE. MARIE, Mich., Dec. 27 /Christian Newswire/ -- As China prepares to host the 2008 Olympic Games, a recent debate of whether athletes will have personal access to Bibles during their stay in Beijing sparked international controversy.
An announcement stated that the country intended to ban Bibles for security reasons, as well as all religious symbols in the Olympic Village -- a report that came on the heels of China's official pledge to encourage religion during the 2008 Games.
The news outraged human rights groups as well as U.S. politicians, including Senator Lindsey Graham, who contacted the Chinese ambassador for an explanation of the Bible ban, and House Representative Thaddeus McCotter, who introduced a resolution condemning the attack on Christianity.
But representatives from China have dismissed the report as an unfounded rumor, claiming that the government has not imposed any such rule and will guarantee religious freedom during the Olympic Games.
While the U.S. Olympic Committee has received confirmation that visiting athletes, journalists and tourists will in fact be allowed to bring Bibles into Beijing for personal use, the mere possibility of the ban's existence has been seen as yet another attempt by the Chinese government to suppress religious freedom within its borders, despite its repeated claims to the contrary.
Although the "underground" church in China has grown by the millions in recent years, the printing and distribution of Bibles in the communist nation remains severely restricted. Reports also indicate that more than 100 foreign Christians have recently been expelled from the country in a 90-day period -- one of the government's largest assaults on Christianity since 1954.
Christian Freedom International (CFI), a Michigan-based nonprofit organization dedicated to assisting persecuted Christians, is encouraging all believers to pray for the persecuted church in China.
As the international community keeps a watchful eye on a country still defending itself against a long history of religious and human rights abuses, even as it prepares to welcome the world to the 2008 Olympic Games, CFI is challenging Christians everywhere to remember those in China who routinely suffer harassment, torture and even martyrdom for their faith.
Under the direction of CFI president Jim Jacobson, a former White House policy analyst, CFI has "smuggled" thousands of Bibles into China since 1996. But with less than half of all Chinese Christians currently owning a copy of the Bible, and as the country's "underground" church continues to grow in record numbers, the demand for Bibles remains overwhelming.
To learn more about CFI's Bible deliveries in China, or to learn more about Christian persecution worldwide, visit www.christianfreedom.com.
Contact: Taun Cortado, 972-300-7777
ORISSA, India, December 26 /Christian Newswire/ -- Christians across India's Orissa state were terrorized this Christmas season by hate groups opposed to the Gospel. Anti-Christian extremists attacked Gospel for Asia native missionary Matish Junni on December 23. They also destroyed a newly-built GFA-related church building on Christmas Eve.
"This violence against believers in Orissa breaks my heart," said K.P. Yohannan, founder and president of Gospel for Asia. "This is the same state where missionary Graham Staines and his two sons were martyred. The believers know they will face opposition, but this outburst of persecution at Christmas time is especially disturbing."
Opposition began for Matish when his church decided to construct a building. As construction began, anti-Christian fanatics in the area threatened the missionary and the believers. Then, last Sunday, a mob of extremists surrounded Matish while he traveled to conduct worship services.
The mob beat Matish and shaved his head. Then they mockingly paraded him around the village, shouting slurs against him and other Christians. They also forced Matish to go to their religious temples. When the mob finally released him, they warned him not to continue the construction.
Anti-Christian radicals also destroyed a GFA-related church building in another area of Orissa on Christmas Eve. Although local police were there, the mobs were so out of control that the church received no protection. The extremists have completely blocked the roads to this village and are not allowing Christians to travel.
The church building stood for only one month before the militants attacked. Anti-Christian hate groups have also taken over another GFA-related church building in Orissa and plan to destroy it soon.
All across Orissa, political and religious extremists have been acting against believers and Christian organizations. According to news reports, the mobs disrupted Christmas services, destroying at least 14 church buildings. Gangs also attacked Christian relief groups, including World Vision's office. Several pastors and missionaries have been beaten as well.
The recent attacks began when believers prepared to celebrate Christmas. The extremist organizers saw an opportunity to bring more sadness and grief to the Christians by attacking them on their most joyous holiday. Tensions rose when one of the anti-Christian leaders was allegedly attacked.
One person was killed on Christmas day during an extremist "bandh," a form of protest in India in which activists force the entire community to strike from their daily tasks. Although formally outlawed, many extremist groups still conduct "bandhs" in an effort to persuade others to join their cause.
"I hope that the government in Orissa will do everything in its power to protect the believers and bring peace to the state," Yohannan said. "Please join with our leaders in Orissa as they pray for Matish and other missionaries during this time, that they will be examples of Christ's love to those who are persecuting them. Also pray that the anti-Christian extremists will come to know the Prince of Peace."
Gospel for Asia is a mission organization involved in evangelism and church planting in Asia's unreached regions. Currently Gospel for Asia supports more than 16,500 native missionaries in 10 countries. On average, these missionaries establish approximately 10 fellowships every day among unreached villages and people groups. Gospel for Asia is also committed to training native missionaries in its 54 Bible colleges.
Romney Fact Check on Preserving the Sanctity of Life
Contact: Press Office, 571-730-1010; www.Fred08.com
MEDIA ADVISORY, Dec. 16 /Christian Newswire/ -- Romney's Claim: "...every piece of legislation which came to my desk in the coming years as a Governor, I came down on the side of preserving the sanctity of life." - Mitt Romney, Meet the Press 12/16/07
Fact Check
From Joseph Farah's article, "The Many Faces Of Mitt":
"First, from a logical standpoint, this makes no sense. If you can't see why stabbing an unborn baby in the head with a pair of scissors is an overtly evil act, I don't think any amount of study of embryonic stem cell research will awaken your sense of moral outrage. But that's what Romney would like us to believe. After all, he's got to explain why he discovered so late in his public life that people have an inherent right to life." (Read More . . . )
From Rasmussen Reports:
"Among the leading Presidential candidates, New York Senator Hillary Clinton and former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney have the highest level of core opposition among voters. Forty-seven percent (47%) say they will vote against each of these candidates no matter who else is on the ballot." (Read more . . . )
In Pakistan Churches are Bombed and Believers are Murdered, Tragically the State Favors the Perpetrators Over the Victims
Contact: Amy Jo Jones, Christian Freedom International (CFI), 906-253-2336
SAULT STE. MARIE, Mich., Dec. 28 /Christian Newswire/ -- The murder of Benazir Bhutto highlights Pakistan's position as the most dangerous nation on earth, says Jim Jacobson, head of Christian Freedom International. The country "is an unstable nuclear weapons state, infiltrated by terrorists and hostile to the West," he explains.
With Bhutto's death, the dream of a democratic Pakistan recedes even further into the future. The most America can hope for in the short term, warns Jacobson, is that "Pakistan not explode, spreading nuclear weapons and terrorists throughout South Asia and the Middle East."
Since 9/11, Washington has invested $10 billion in Islamabad, but appears to have received little in return. The country remains an economic and political wreck.
Even before Bhutto's assassination, Pakistan remained far from true democratic rule. Worse, the Pakistani military has little control over the provinces bordering Afghanistan, which shelter the Taliban and al-Qaeda forces, perhaps including Osama bin Laden.
However, the problems in Pakistan run even deeper. "Like so many Muslim states, Pakistan persecutes members of minority religious faiths," Jacobson explains.
The basic issue is not democracy, "but a tolerant culture willing to protect vulnerable groups and individual conscience," he says.
Respect for other faiths is the proverbial canary in the mine, the true test of whether a society is ready for democracy. By that standard Pakistan lags well behind.
The government routinely discriminates against Christians, Hindus, and others. Those who question Islam are imprisoned for blasphemy while Christian communities are denied essential services.
Moreover, observes Jacobson, "Violence against religious minorities is rife." Churches are bombed and believers are murdered. "Yet the state favors the perpetrators over the victims," explains Jacobson, rarely bringing anyone to justice.
Thus, it should come as no surprise that Pakistan is an inconsistent partner in the war on terrorism as well as the crusade for democracy. Explains Jacobson: "Pakistan simply does not have the basic social building blocks upon which a liberal and free society is built."
The U.S. has little choice but to deal with Pakistan, given its strategic position. However, the abominable murder of Benazir Bhutto demonstrates that policymakers must look beyond political and military considerations in dealing with Pakistan and similar states.
Jacobson concludes, "Unless Americans can encourage the development of the sort of civic institutions that we take for granted in the West, countries like Pakistan will remain violent, unstable, and dangerous."
For more information about Pakistan, visit www.christianfreedom.org
Contact: Randall Terry, 904-461-0834
MEDIA ADVISORY, Dec. 28 /Christian Newswire/ -- "Rudy Giuliani is a Benedict Arnold. He wears the GOP uniform, while warring against its' most sacred principles and most revered heroes - like Ronald Reagan. He must be exposed, opposed, and soundly defeated in the next 40 days." Randall Terry
"Awake, and strengthen what remains as is on the point of death..." (Rev. 3:2)
Full Statement of Randall Terry Follows.
"From today - December 28, until February 5 - the staff and associates of The Society for Truth and Justice begin 40 days of activism, prayer, and fasting aimed at the demise of Rudy Giuliani's Presidential campaign.
"Our goal and prayer is to celebrate the 'funeral' of Giuliani's campaign on Super Tuesday, February 5. We are urging all faithful Republicans nationwide to reject Giuliani and his 'culture of death' agenda at the voting booth from now until then.
"Our actions have begun in earnest in New Hampshire (click to see video of arrests for peaceful protests) and will continue there until the election on January 5.) We will then spend the rest of January traveling throughout Florida, holding protests, literature drops at churches, sign holding at busy intersections, and dogging Giuliani at every campaign stop we possibly can until the January 29 primary.
We are working with leaders and activists in Super Tuesday 5 (Feb 5) states to follow this template of activism to expose and oppose Giuliani in every peaceful way possible.
We are frequently asked: Why are we - who are mostly Republicans - focusing so intently on Giuliani who is also a Republican, when Democrats like Hillary Clinton and Barak Obama are in the race?
Answer: Rudy Giuliani is a wolf in sheep's clothing; a closet Democrat.
Giuliani unashamedly supports the killing of unborn babies by abortion; he has been a brazen supporter of special rights for homosexuals, including civil unions and 'homosexual marriage' in Massachusetts; he is a proven enemy of our God given right to self-defense, delineated in the Second Amendment.
Giuliani is a faithful practicing enemy of the Church. While he was Mayor of NYC, he revoked the Church's St. Patrick Day parade permit because the Church would not allow homosexual floats in a Christian parade. The Church had to go to federal court to get her permit back; Rudy in turn marched in successive 'gay pride' parades which are so lewd they cannot be shown on the evening news.
Ethically, socially, and politically Giuliani is the mirror image of the most debauched elements of the Democrat Party.
We are Christians first, Republicans second. To remain faithful to our Creator, His Laws, and the Culture of Life, we must expose and oppose an enemy like Giuliani.
As well as being a traitor to Eternal Laws, Giuliani is a turncoat to the Republican Party. He wears our uniform, while warring against our most sacred principles and most revered heroes - like Ronald Reagan. Rudy Giuliani is a Benedict Arnold - a traitor - to the core principles or the GOP, and therefore must be stopped.
Some ask: What about Hillary Clinton and Barak Obama?
We must not let our preoccupation with enemies outside the camp blind us to the enemies within. An enemy in the camp can cut our throats, poison our food, or engineer a 'palace coup' - a coup which could be far worse in the long run than the temporary victory of an enemy from without. We must cast out our own demons, then focus on the Democrats.
If devout Christians within the Republican Party sit silently by and Rudy ends up getting the nomination, they will soon find themselves begging for scraps from a tyrants table - or maybe worse. They may find themselves politically homeless, driven into exile by the treacherous they chose to ignore or embrace.
Besides acting decisively, we are praying and fasting for 40 days - beginning today, the Feast of the Holy Innocents when the Church remembers the children slain by Herod . We are asking God to wake the faithful from their stupor, and 'strengthen what remains and is on the point of death...' within the GOP and the religious right. We invite all who recognize our peril to join us.
Those interested in joining our efforts to expose and oppose Giuliani from the New Hampshire primary to Super Tuesday and beyond are invited to call our office at 904-461-0834 for a template of actions that can be easily done in any community in America. All you need is heart!
Randall Terry
President, Society for Truth and Justice; Founder, Operation Rescue.
To Schedule an Interview with Mr. Terry call 904-461-0834
Contact: Rev. CJ Conner, 651-373-9137
MEDIA ADVISORY, Dec. 28 /Christian Newswire/ -- Mit Romney has enjoyed somewhat of a surge both in the polls and in popularity after his historic address on his Mormon faith.
Afterwards, Romney operatives were quick to take to the airwaves in a defense of Mormonism. The message driven home by hosts like Sean Hannity and Michael Medved was that Mormons are Christians too.
The only problem is, Mormons have far more in common with Muslims.
Mormons believe that Joseph Smith is the last chief prophet of God in the end times, come to restore the "true faith." Muslims believe that Mohammed is the last prophet.
Mormons believe that when you die, you get your own world, over which you reign as its god. Muslims believe that when you die, particularly in martyrdom, you get 72 virgins.
Mormons believe that Jesus was merely a spirit child, no more a son of God than any other Mormon believer. Likewise, to Muslims, Jesus was merely a prophet, lesser than Mohammed.
Joseph Smith espoused polygamy. Mohammed espoused polygamy.
The Mormon writings of Joseph Smith have been shown to be fraught with misquotes of the Judeo-Christian scriptures and history. The Koran is also full of similar mistakes, sharing with Mormonism an inherent ignorance of the faiths it claims to be built upon.
So why would any of this matter?
There's something altogether too slick about Mit Romney, something about him that is too rehearsed. Some have even called him phony.
Romney says that he has "evolved" politically, in some cases just in time for this presidential election. From gay marriage, to government run healthcare, unfettered access to abortion, and porous borders, Romney has worked hard to convince the nation that his positions today are solidly conservative. He has courted the evangelical vote with the promise that he shares their political priorities. After all, his campaign insists, he's a Christian just like them.
The truth is, he isn't.
You see, conservative Christians have no problem at all voting for a Mormon, but not for a man who would deceive a nation by telling us that Mormons are Christians too.
And if a candidate and his campaign can work so deftly to deceive us on matters as important as faith, in what other ways is he willing to pull the wool over our eyes?
Rev. CJ Conner is author of Jesus and the Culture Wars: Reclaiming the Lord's Prayer.
Mitt Romney's Christmas Present to the 'Gay' Lobby Should End Pro-Family Leaders' Support for his Candidacy
Contact: Peter LaBarbera, 630-717-7631, rffv@comcast.net
CHICAGO, December 26, /Christian Newswire/ -- Peter LaBarbera, longtime pro-family advocate and founder of the Republicans For Family Values website, is calling on pro-family leaders who have endorsed Mitt Romney to withdraw their support for his candidacy in light of his recent comments on NBC's "Meet the Press" supporting pro-homosexual "sexual orientation" state laws.
"Mitt Romney's Christmas present to the homosexual lobby disqualifies him as a pro-family leader," LaBarbera said. "Laws that treat homosexuality as a civil right are being used to promote homosexual 'marriage,' same-sex adoption and pro-homosexuality indoctrination of schoolchildren. These same laws pose a direct threat to the freedom of faith-minded citizens and organizations to act on their religious belief that homosexual behavior is wrong.
"Romney may have had a late conversion on abortion, but it appears his ninth-inning flip-flop on homosexuality is falling short due to his strong commitment to 'gay rights,'" LaBarbera said. (See the 'Mitt Romney Deception' report) "Now some pro-family leaders –– who have raised millions of dollars over the years opposing 'gay' activism –– will need to explain how they can go on supporting an openly pro-homosexual-agenda candidate."
LaBarbera said it is "inconceivable after Massachusetts' twin disasters involving homosexual 'marriage' and homosexual adoption that Romney now is recommending pro-homosexual 'orientation' laws –– long derided as "special rights" among social conservatives — to the rest of the nation.
"In Romney's own state of Massachusetts, the state 'sexual orientation' nondiscrimination law laid the groundwork for homosexual activists' campaign to legalize 'same-sex marriage' –– which then-Gov. Romney brought to fruition with his unnecessary and illegal directive granting marriage licenses to homosexual partners," LaBarbera said. "The same pro-gay state law also forced Boston's Catholic Charities to shut down its century-old adoption agency because it would not pledge to place children in homosexual-led households against Catholic teaching.
"Given Romney's extensive pro-homosexual record and willingness now to depart from principle on this crucial issue, should we trust a 'President Romney' not to reverse course again on federal pro-homosexual laws such as 'Hate Crimes' and ENDA (Employment Nondiscrimination Act)?" LaBarbera said.
The following is excerpted from Romney's "Meet the Press" interview December 16 with Tim Russert:
MR. RUSSERT: You said [in 1994] that you would sponsor [Sen. Ted Kennedy's federal] Employment Nondiscrimination Act. Do you still support it?
GOV. ROMNEY: At the state level. I think it makes sense at the state level for states to put in provision of this.
MR. RUSSERT: Now, you said you would sponsor it at the federal level.
GOV. ROMNEY: I would not support at the federal level, and I changed in that regard because I think that policy makes more sense to be evaluated or to be implemented at the state level.
Republicans For Family Values is a website dedicated to defending pro-life and pro-natural-family principles within the GOP. For identification purposes only, LaBarbera is also president of Americans For Truth about Homosexuality.
Chicago Tribune
December 25, 2007
Romney's big ad buys don't pre-empt foes
So far, he's getting little bang for buck
By Mike Dorning
The return on investment probably would not have impressed Mitt Romney in his former life as a cold-eyed venture capitalist.
As of Dec. 16, the Romney campaign had spent $16 million on television advertising -- more than the two leading Democratic candidates combined, according to data compiled by TNS Media Intelligence Campaign Media Analysis Group.
Yet the former Massachusetts governor is struggling in national polls against Mike Huckabee and Rudy Giuliani, who had spent $600,000 and $2.3 million respectively, according to the same data. (Read More . . . )
Chicago Tribune
December 25, 2007
Romney's big ad buys don't pre-empt foes
So far, he's getting little bang for buck
By Mike Dorning
The return on investment probably would not have impressed Mitt Romney in his former life as a cold-eyed venture capitalist.
As of Dec. 16, the Romney campaign had spent $16 million on television advertising -- more than the two leading Democratic candidates combined, according to data compiled by TNS Media Intelligence Campaign Media Analysis Group.
Yet the former Massachusetts governor is struggling in national polls against Mike Huckabee and Rudy Giuliani, who had spent $600,000 and $2.3 million respectively, according to the same data. (Read More . . . )
From Time Magazine
McCain Campaign Responds to Romney
ARLINGTON, VA — U.S. Senator John McCain’s New Hampshire Vice Chair, former Congressman Chuck Douglas (R-NH), today issued the following statement:
“From his claims of being a ‘lifelong hunter’ to receiving the NRA’s endorsement to marching with Martin Luther King, Jr., it’s clear that Mitt Romney has trouble with the truth. His latest attacks are yet another example of his complete inability to level with the voters of New Hampshire. The facts are clear: Romney refused to endorse the Bush tax cuts he now claims to champion, maybe because he was too busy raising taxes in Massachusetts by over $700 million per year — more than any other state in his first year in office. New Hampshire voters expect and deserve integrity and authenticity in their leaders, not someone who changes his positions to fit the politics of the moment and can’t seem to tell the truth.” (Read More . . . )
From an article by Jonathan Martin:
In 2003, the story noted, Romney told the Massachusetts congressional delegation that when it came to the Bush tax cuts, he wouldn’t “be a cheerleader” for proposals he didn’t support.
“But I have to keep a solid relationship with the White House,” Romney noted to his state’s representatives in Washington.
Similarly, when Romney raised McCain’s unpopular immigration views in a campaign appearance Wednesday, the Arizonan’s campaign was ready.
“Last Year, Romney Supported ‘Path Toward Citizenship’ for Illegal Immigrants, Said Republicans Breaking With President Bush on Immigration ‘Made a Big Mistake,'" McCain’s aides reminded in a press release over 2006 stories in the Lowell Sun and Associated Press.
Also included was the November 2005 story from the Boston Globe where Romney deemed McCain’s immigration approach “quite different” from amnesty and “reasonable.”
Romney and his campaign have at-the-ready answers to counter the counters.
But his challenge is that there are seemingly few issues where he has not been previously more moderate than he is now or where a rival can’t at least find a discrepancy sufficient to blur an attack.
Abortion is the one issue that he fesses up to having flat changed his mind on, but that the list only begins there.
On gay rights, campaign finance reform, gun control and even his own political identity, Romney has tonally, if not substantively, moved to the right.
From the New York Times:
But Mr. Romney’s latest ad contains some misleading information on Mr. Huckabee’ spending record. Mr. Romney says in the commercial that Mr. Huckabee is “soft on government spending” and took the state budget from $6 billion to $16 billion while he was governor of Arkansas, citing an article in the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette. Fred D. Thompson, another Republican presidential hopeful, has also mentioned the figures while attacking Mr. Huckabee on the stump.
But a check with the Arkansas Department of Finance and Administration reveals the figures are erroneous. In addition, a comparison of annual spending growth, adjusted for inflation, between Mr. Romney’s four-year term as governor of Massachusetts and Mr. Huckabee’s ten-year tenure in Arkansas shows the difference between the two is hardly dramatic.
by Serafin Gomez
Governor Huckabee took an indirect shot at his rival Mitt Romney, who has been shelling both Huckabee and John McCain with negative ads, or as the Romney campaign calls them ” contrast” ads, on both flanks. Huckabee was asked if he planned on going “negative” to counter these ads against him. Huckabee said he didn’t plan on going negative, but wanted to show that a “positive campaign works”.
However, Huck then then dropped the hammer with this phrase:
” If you are dishonest in getting the job, then you’ll be dishonest in carrying the job. I think that’s what is at risk here,”he said, alluding to Romney,but never specifically naming him. (Click Here to watch the video)
| |||||||
|
NEWS RELEASE:
MIKE HUCKABEE DELIVERS MAJOR FOREIGN POLICY SPEECH IN WASHINGTON, D.C.
Washington, D.C. – Former AR Governor and Presidential Candidate Mike Huckabee delivered the following speech, “Paths and Priorities in the War on Terror,” at a foreign policy forum hosted by the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) in Washington, D.C. this morning [September 28, 2007].
The following text is a copy of his prepared remarks as written:
* * *
“Saying American foreign policy needs a change in tone and attitude, or an opening up and a reaching out, is as obvious as saying O. J. Simpson might be having a bad month. This Administration’s bunker mentality has been counter-productive both at home and abroad. They have done as poor a job of communicating and consulting with other countries as they have with the American people.
“A more successful foreign policy begins at home with better communication to the American people about Islamic terror. Six years after 9/11, it is still difficult for us, with our religious tolerance, our separation of church and state, to grasp how these people think. After we attend different churches on Sunday, or no church, Americans share meals or movies -- we don’t slaughter each other. We have thrived on our diversity – religious, ethnic, racial -- to become the world’s only superpower. We don’t merely tolerate diversity, we embrace and celebrate it. To Islamic extremists, the concept of a melting pot is as alien as the concept of a theocracy is to us. It takes an enormous leap of imagination to understand what these people are about, that they really do want to kill every last one of us and destroy civilization as we know it.
“The Administration has never done an adequate job explaining the theology and ideology behind Islamic terror, never done an adequate job of convincing us of their ruthless fanaticism. The first rule of war is “Know your enemy,” and most Americans don’t. To grasp the magnitude of the threat, we first have to understand what makes Islamic terrorists – and their suicide bombs – tick, and the Administration has not explained it well. Very few Americans are familiar with the writings of Sayyid Qutb, the Egyptian radical executed in 1966, and the Muslim Brotherhood, whose call to active jihad, influenced bin Laden and the rise of Al Qaeda. Qutb is to bin Laden as Karl Marx is to Lenin. Qutb raged against the decadence and sin he saw around him and sought to restore what he considered the “pure” Islam of the seventh century. Besides opposing non-Muslims, besides opposing Shiites, he was a Sunni who opposed Sunni governments because he believed they required their citizens to worship them like “gods,” and so were guilty of a polytheism forbidden by Islam. To him, the only answer was a return to a theocratic caliphate without national borders, and he saw nothing decadent or sinful in murder to achieve that end. Americans, who go to extreme lengths to save lives, can’t comprehend human beings who delight in taking lives, it just doesn’t compute. In our culture, the death of a child is about the worst trial a person can endure, while parents of suicide bombers feel joy, not grief. We believe that every individual has intrinsic worth and value. This culture of life is a cornerstone of our society, illuminated by the conflict with the Islamic jihadists and their culture of death.
“It is also difficult for us, with our culture of assimilation, to understand that life for European Muslims is different from life for American Muslims. Muslims in Britain or the Netherlands or Germany are second-class citizens because those countries have more homogenous populations that don’t readily integrate outsiders. Instead of melting pots, Europe has separate pots boiling over with alienation and despair. In some countries, like France, it is more a lack of economic integration, while in others, like Britain, it is more a lack of cultural integration, but whatever the reason, Europe is a much more fertile breeding ground for terror than the United States. Unintentionally, some of our closest allies are producing some of our clearest threats. Because of our special relationship with Britain and all our similarities with them, most Americans don’t realize that it is very different to be a Muslim citizen of Britain than a Muslim citizen of the United States, so we have trouble accepting that doctors in Britain become terrorists. We have to understand that while educated Muslims in Europe may not be materially deprived, many of them feel socially and emotionally deprived by a lack of acceptance. Earlier this month we saw the arrest of German citizens plotting a terror attack against American targets there. Also this month we saw Danish citizens arrested for plotting an imminent bombing. Both plots had links to Al Qaeda.
“Besides the threat of small groups of educated people launching isolated attacks, we face the danger of mass movements of the dispossessed and discontented rising up in the Islamic world and overthrowing their governments, movements like those that led to the current government in Iran when the Shah was overthrown and to the Palestinians’ election of Hamas and then their takeover of Gaza. To create havoc in the world, you need educated people to provide the intellectual underpinnings and poor, desperate people to provide the manpower. Before the Russian Revolution, the rural peasants who formed the overwhelming bulk of the population weren’t sitting around reading Karl Marx, they were illiterate. It took a small number of intellectuals to provide the theory and then rally oppressed peasants behind them. The ruling class is the spark, but the underclass is the fuel. A strong middle class is the firewall.
“Our biggest challenge in the Arab and Muslim worlds is the lack of a viable moderate alternative. On the one hand, we have existing repressive governments that stay in power by force and suppression of basic human rights -- many of which we support, either with our oil money, like the Saudis, or with our foreign aid, like the Egyptians, who are our second largest recipient. On the other hand, we have radical Islamists, who are willing to fight dictators with terror tactics that moderates are too humane to use. This is how Iran went from the brutal Shah to the brutal Ayatollahs, despite all the Iranians who wanted a moderate government then and who want one now.
“We can’t ‘export’ democracy as if it was Coca Cola or KFC, but we can nurture native moderate forces in all these countries where Al Qaeda seeks to replace modern evil with medieval evil. This moderation may not look like or function exactly like our system, it may be more of a benevolent oligarchy, it may be more tribal than individualistic, but both for us and for the people of those countries, it will be better than either the dictatorships they have now or the theocracy they would have under the radical Islamists.
“We see this potential in the way Sunni tribal leaders in Iraq, who had been working with Al Qaeda, have now turned against them and are working with us. They couldn’t stand living under Al Qaeda’s fundamentalism and brutality. The people of Afghanistan turned against the Taliban for the same reason. To know these extremists is not to love them.
“My goal in the Muslim world is to correctly calibrate a course between maintaining stability and promoting democracy. It is self-defeating to try to accomplish too much too soon, you just have elections where extremists win, but it’s equally self-defeating to do nothing. First, we have to destroy the terrorists who already exist, then we have to attack the underlying conditions that breed terror, by helping to improve health and basic quality of life, create schools that offer an alternative to the extremist madrassas that turn impressionable children into killers, create jobs and opportunity and hope, encourage a free press, fair courts, and other institutions that promote democracy. We have to help other governments mount an active counter-insurgency wherever the terrorists are to be found, but we also have to help them improve their infrastructure to make future terrorists unwelcome. Our strategic interests as the world’s most powerful country coincide with our moral obligations as the world’s richest country. If we don’t do the right thing to make life better in the Islamic world, the terrorists will step in and do the wrong thing.
“We have to support moderates with no favoring of Sunnis or Shiites. As for the underlying dispute between them that’s been going on for almost fourteen hundred years, we don’t have a dog in that fight. Our enemy is Islamic extremism in all its guises. The Saudis want us to support extremist Sunni groups to counter growing Iranian power. The Saudis assure us that they can control these groups and keep them from turning against us. We saw how well that turned out with Al Qaeda.
“We all have much to lose if the Middle East becomes chaos. We have made the Saudis rich – the wealth of their oil is seed money for terrorism. They and Pakistan have much to lose if we lose. They will ultimately accommodate whoever they think has the stamina to win.
“In the past, we’ve been constrained because our dependence on imported oil has forced us to support repressive regimes, to conduct our foreign policy with one hand tied behind our back with an oil-soaked rope. It’s time, it’s past time, to untie that hand and reach out to the moderates with both hands. Oil has not just shaped our foreign policy, it has deformed it. When I make foreign policy, I want to treat Saudi Arabia the way I treat Sweden, and that requires us to be energy independent. These folks have had us over a barrel – literally – for way too long. Saudi Arabia funds madrassas all over the world that teach extremism. The first thing I will do as president is send Congress my comprehensive plan for energy independence, which we will achieve by the end of my second term. To those who say it will take twenty years, I compare the lackadaisical pace of work when you bring your car in for service with the urgent, concentrated effort made when a NASCAR driver pulls up for a pit stop. We must view becoming energy independent like a pit stop where every second counts, not like dropping off the family station wagon for Goober and Gomer to work on. We will explore, we will conserve, and we will pursue all avenues of alternative energy – nuclear, wind, solar, hydrogen, clean coal, ethanol and other biomass, and biodiesel. Why did Iraq and Iran fight? Oil. Whoever controls oil controls the Middle East and the world. If all the Middle East unites behind Iran, then the price of oil won’t be our problem – we won’t get any.
“But supporting Islamic moderates and moving toward energy independence won’t protect us from the terrorists who already exist. We still have to fight this war on terror hard and we have to fight it smart, using all our political, economic, diplomatic, and intelligence weapons as well as our military might. The terrorists have sympathizers all over the world, people happy to show up and be filmed shouting “Death to America,” but the actual number of those willing to sign up for suicide missions is relatively few, and they train and plot in small, scattered groups.
“It’s an enemy conducive to being tracked down and eliminated by using the CIA and our Special Forces. We can accomplish a great deal, we can achieve tremendous bang for the buck, with swift, surgical air strikes and commando raids by our elite units, as we’ve recently done with the Ethiopians in Somalia. These operations are impossible without first-rate intelligence. When the Cold War ended, we cut back on our human intelligence, just as we cut back on our armed forces, and both have come back to haunt us. As president, I will beef up our human intelligence capacity, both the operatives who gather information and the analysts who figure out what it means. I’d rather have more people in Langley, so we can deploy fewer in Baghdad. Once we gather information, it will be immediately shared with those in other agencies to whom it is relevant. Anyone in my administration caught protecting his turf instead of protecting us from terror will be shown the door.
“We have urgent concerns about Iran’s military and financial support of Shiite militants in Iraq, the Taliban in Afghanistan, Hezbollah in Lebanon, and Hamas among the Palestinians. We have urgent concerns about Iran’s development of nuclear weapons. More is at stake than just Iran going nuclear -- faced with a nuclear Shiite Persian Iran, the Sunni Arab regimes to the west will feel the need to match them.
“The Administration has quite properly said that it will not take the military option for Iran off the table. Neither would I. But if we don’t put other options on the table, eventually the military option becomes the only viable one. Right now we are proceeding down only one track with Iran – armed confrontation. Nothing would make Osama bin Laden happier – he would welcome war between the United States and Iran, his two biggest enemies. I try to avoid doing anything that brightens bin Laden’s day.
“Al Qaeda and Iran seek control of the same territory – what Iran sees as its potential Shiite crescent is a large part of what would be Al Qaeda’s Sunni caliphate from Spain to Indonesia – not just Iraq, but Syria, Lebanon, Jordan, the Gulf States and Saudi Arabia. Both Al Qaeda and Iran seek not just to dominate Israel, but to destroy her, and control the Palestinians. The Huckabee Administration will not waver or flinch in standing by our ally Israel. The difference in America’s mission is that Al Qaeda must be destroyed as a movement, while Iran just has to be contained as a nation. How do we achieve that?
“To contain Iran, it is essential to win in Iraq. When we overthrew Saddam Hussein, who functioned as a bulwark against Iran, we upset the balance of power in the region. We must stabilize and strengthen Iraq not just for their security, but the security of the entire region, and our own security. We can’t allow Iran to push the power of its theocracy westward into, and then beyond, Iraq.
“Another way to contain Iran is through diplomacy, while never taking the military option off the table. We must be as diplomatically aggressive as we have been militarily aggressive since 9/11.
“We must intensify our diplomatic efforts with Europe, Russia, China, South Korea, and India to put more economic pressure on Iran. If we end up taking military action, they will bear responsibility for failing to maximize peaceful options. So far, they have been much more interested in maintaining their trade relationships and making money. We have all kinds of leverage in our wide-ranging relationships with these countries, and given the severity of the threat from Iran, we need to demonstrate unequivocally how important it is for them to stand with us. With the change in France from Chirac to Sarkozy, we now have an ally much more willing to join us in taking on Iran, and we should take full advantage of this new opportunity to explore fresh initiatives. I agree with President Sarkozy’s statement at the U. N. earlier this week that ‘We can only resolve this crisis by combining firmness with dialogue.’
“To show how seriously we take the Iranian threat here at home, we must encourage the burgeoning movement of our states and private entities like the Teamsters to divest their pension funds of Iran-related assets. We should put more of our money where our mouth is.
“Normally we speak to Iran only indirectly, through the Swiss embassy in Tehran. Our recent direct negotiations about Iraq have been very narrowly-focused and not productive because we are not exploring the full range of issues. We have valuable incentives to offer Iran in exchange for helping to stabilize Iraq; not supporting the Taliban, Hamas, and Hezbollah; and abandoning its nuclear ambitions – trade and economic assistance, full diplomatic relations and security guarantees. While there can be no rational dealing with Al Qaeda, Iran is a nation state looking for regional power, it plays the normal power politics that we understand and can skillfully pursue, and we have substantive issues to negotiate with them.
“Time is of the essence and the situation continues to deteriorate and become more complex. The recent Israeli strike against Syria is said to have involved nuclear material from North Korea. If that is the case, then we know Iran is somehow involved because Syria is an Iranian proxy in the Arab world.
“The wisdom of Sun-tzu from almost 2,500 years ago is relevant today: keep your friends close and your enemies closer. We haven’t had diplomatic relations with Iran in almost thirty years, my whole adult life. A lot of good it’s done us! Putting this in human terms, all of us know that when we stop talking to a parent or a sibling or a friend, it’s impossible to accomplish anything, impossible to resolve differences and move the relationship forward. The same is true for countries.
“Our experience in Iraq provides a valuable lesson for Iran. We have since learned that when we overthrew Saddam, we invaded an “imaginary country” because our information was so out of date. We relied on exiles who had long since fled the country, who exaggerated the condition of Iraq’s infrastructure, the strength of its middle class, and the secular nature of its society. If we had had diplomatic relations with Iraq and an ambassador in Baghdad, we obviously would have had better information. So before we put boots on the ground in the future, we’d better have some wing tips there first.
“Many Iranians are well-disposed toward us. We should remember that on 9/11, while there was dancing in the street in other parts of the Muslim world, there were candlelight vigils and mourning in Tehran. When we first invaded Afghanistan, Iran helped us, especially in our dealings with their allies, the Northern Alliance. They wanted to join us in fighting Al Qaeda, hoping this would lead to better U. S.-Iranian relations. The CIA and the State Department supported this partnership, but some in the White House and Pentagon did not. When President Bush included Iran in his Axis of Evil, everything went downhill fast. As the only presidential candidate with a theology degree, along with years of political experience, I know that theology is black and white, but politics is not. My enemy today on one issue is my friend tomorrow on another.
“The bottom line is this: Iran is a regional threat to the balance of power in the Middle and Near East; Al Qaeda is an existential threat to the United States. I know we can’t live with Al Qaeda, but there’s a chance that we can live with a domesticated Iran. There is no way Iran will acquire nuclear weapons on my watch. But before I look parents in the eye to explain why I had to put their son’s or daughter’s life at risk in military action against Iran, I want to know that I have done everything possible to avoid that conflict.
“While our failure to engage Iran seems to be leading inexorably to our attacking them, our failure to engage Al Qaeda in Pakistan seems to be leading inexorably to their attacking us again.
“When we let bin Laden escape at Tora Bora in December 2001, and he fled Afghanistan into Pakistan, we played Brer Fox to his Brer Rabbit. We threw him into the perfect briar patch, protected directly by Islamic extremist tribal leaders who revere him and don’t consider their land part of Pakistan, protected indirectly by the Pakistani government who believe that it is.
“On September 12, 2001, President Musharaff agreed to sever his relationship with the Taliban and let us fight Al Qaeda inside Pakistan. Distracted by Iraq, we have allowed Musharaff to go back on his word. While warning us not to violate Pakistan’s sovereignty with our forces, he promises to go after Al Qaeda for us, then claims he can’t because he doesn’t control the territory where Al Qaeda has its safe haven.
“What exactly is our policy toward Pakistan? Just like Musharraf since 9/11, the Bush Administration has played both ends in the middle – assuring the American people that it is doing everything it can to protect them, while tiptoeing around our supposed ally, afraid of upsetting the apple cart, even though that cart contains poisoned apples destined for export to the United States.
“This muddle of a policy became apparent in July, when a National Intelligence Estimate confirmed what we already knew: Al Qaeda has successfully regrouped and enjoys a safe haven from which to plot and train for attacks against us in the Federally Administered Tribal Areas of Pakistan, the remote lawless region along its border with Afghanistan. Several intelligence officials testified before Congress on July 11. Asked why we weren’t doing more against Al Qaeda in Pakistan, the Deputy Director of National Intelligence, Tom Fingar declared, “It’s not that we lack the ability to go into that space. But we have chosen not to do so without the permission of the Pakistani government.” Speaking off the record, other officials confirmed that permission was being denied. When a congressman asked the CIA’s Director for Intelligence, John Kringen, why the CIA wasn’t coordinating with tribal leaders to get bin Laden, he replied that those leaders “are the very people who are protecting him.”
“Then Frances Townsend, who heads the Homeland Security Council at the White House, struck a more aggressive – and encouraging -- note. When asked about military action against Al Qaeda in Pakistan, she said that if we had “actionable targets, anywhere in the world, we would pursue those targets. The president’s been clear: Job No. 1 is to protect the American people, and there are no options that are off the table.” But when Pakistan took offense, Assistant Secretary of State Richard Boucher dodged and weaved, backing off of Townsend’s statement by saying that we respect Pakistan’s sovereignty, which seemed to take the unilateral military option off the table. His boss, Deputy Secretary of State John Negroponte repeated that message just a couple of weeks ago.
“Also contradicting Townsend’s assurance that we will go after “actionable targets” was the news leaked in early July about a classified, aborted raid into Pakistan by Navy Seals, Army Rangers and the CIA in early 2005 that had targeted bin Laden’s top deputy, Zawahiri. Despite pleas by Porter Goss, head of the CIA, Donald Rumsfeld called off the raid at the last minute when Navy Seals were already in C-130’s in Afghanistan with their parachutes on. He acted not because he questioned the intelligence, but because he felt the size of the mission had grown to the point where we couldn’t do it without Musharraf’s permission. A dozen former and current military and intelligence officials leaked this story because they were furious that we gave up this opportunity, which they considered our most promising since Tora Bora.
“The leaked report raises tantalizing questions. Why did Rumsfeld call it off and not President Bush? Did the President even know about it? Did Rumsfeld ask for Musharraf’s permission or just assume he wouldn’t get it? One thing I can assure you is that when I’m president, I will make the final call on such actions, not my secretary of defense or any other official.
“When this story broke, a former administration official said, “The Special Operations guys are tearing their hair out at the highest levels” because “they are looking at targets on a daily basis and can’t move against them.”
“This missed opportunity in 2005 was especially detrimental because in September of 2006, Musharraf agreed to a cease fire with the frontier tribal leaders that helped Al Qaeda and the Taliban operate even more easily and freely. The cease fire was actually signed by leaders of the Taliban rather than the tribes. Musharraf agreed to leave the tribal leaders alone if they would keep the Taliban from making cross border raids and would go after Al Qaeda. Musharraf kept his end of the bargain, but the tribal leaders did not. Despite their constant breech, the cease fire stayed in effect until this July, when Musharraf raided extremists who had taken over the Red Mosque in Islamabad, angering the tribal leaders.
“Lamenting that cease fire in July, Frances Townsend said, ‘It hasn’t worked for Pakistan. It hasn’t worked for the United States.’ We lost a whole year when they should have been going after terrorists, and we have no assurance, now that the cease fire has broken down, that they will try to go after targets of high value to us, like bin Laden or Zawahiri.
“More recently, Townsend said on September 9, in response to Osama bin Laden’s latest tape to mark the 9/11 anniversary, ‘This is a man on the run, from a cave, who’s virtually impotent other than these tapes.’ She said this two days after CIA Director Michael Hayden reached a very different conclusion: ‘Our analysts assess with high confidence that Al Qaeda’s central leadership is planning high impact plots against the American homeland.’
“It cannot be denied that Al Qaeda has made excellent use of its safe haven in Pakistan. When we went after them right after 9/11, they were a tumor that needed to be cut out. By failing to do that, we allowed Al Qaeda to metastasize and get into the blood stream of the Islamic world, with its “franchises” of local terror groups who give their allegiance to headquarters in Pakistan and get assistance in return. Bin Laden and Zawahiri are charismatic, inspirational leaders and eliminating them would be an important psychological blow to the movement.
“Al Qaeda has of course sent fighters to Iraq and made that country a revolving door of terror. Fighters pour into Iraq to train and conduct operations there, then they pour out to use their evil skills elsewhere. Some of them return home, but what is especially frightening is that the training they get in the urban environments of Iraq translates well into unleashing terror in similar environments in Europe and the United States. Not only will they follow us home if we leave Iraq, they’ll know what to do when they get here.
“Al Qaeda collaborated with Kashmiri terrorists in the multiple bombings in Mumbai, India, in July 2006 that killed more than 200 people. It has similarly been working in Lebanon with Fatah al Islam, in North Africa with Al Qaeda of the Islamic Maghreb, in Saudi Arabia, and Jordan.
“While I disagree strongly with Democrats who claim that we are fighting on the wrong battlefield, I am convinced that our focus on Iraq at the expense of Pakistan or Iran is like dealing with a neighbor’s house that is on fire, while ignoring the house on the other side that is filled with carbon monoxide. Iraq may be the “hot” war, but Pakistan is where the cold, calculating planning is going on. Al Qaeda in Iraq is a branch office, corporate headquarters is in Pakistan. If Al Qaeda attacks us tomorrow, that attack will be postmarked Pakistan, not Iraq. Pakistan is the new Afghanistan.
“Another attack will spark justified outrage that we let bin Laden and his top people get away. Concerns about Pakistan’s delicate sensibilities will be drowned out by the wailing over American casualties. The American people will not understand why our supposed ally refused to help us or why our government put up with their intransigence.
“I would prefer to skip the next attack and the exasperated fury it will rightly generate and cut to the chase by going after Al Qaeda’s safe haven in Pakistan. We almost suffered that next attack – the plot Britain foiled last year to blow up ten airliners belonging to American, Continental, and United over the Atlantic was hatched in Pakistan. We almost suffered the attack against American targets in Germany that was planned to coincide roughly with the sixth anniversary of 9/11 and has been traced back to Pakistan.
“We’re in an absurd Catch-22 -- the Pakistanis say they have to pursue the terrorists because it’s their territory, but then they say they can’t do it because they don’t control that territory. If they’re really our ally and can’t go after bin Laden, they will allow us to do it; if they can go after him and won’t, they’re not our ally. The successful raids they conducted earlier this month against extremists who had attacked their troops indicate that it may be a matter of will rather than ability. If they lack will, that’s fine, because we don’t. Someone has to step up to the plate before our luck runs out and Americans are attacked again, either here or abroad.
“We have no desire whatsoever to ‘invade’ Pakistan, fight its forces, or harm its citizens. But we have an urgent need to pursue non-Pakistani terrorists who have declared war on us into this no man’s land. I greatly prefer to do it with Pakistan’s blessing and cooperation, but, one way or another, it has to get done. If we have to step onto their soil briefly to protect our own, so be it. As a child sometimes goes into a neighbor’s yard to collect a baseball hit over the fence, so we may be forced to go over the fence.
“As commander in chief, our president must constantly balance risks and threats in calculating how best to protect the American people. We know we are living on borrowed time against the next terror attack. That risk is far more likely and far graver than the risk that a quick and limited strike against Al Qaeda would bring extremists to power in Pakistan.
“Pakistan is an inherently unstable country that has never had a constitutional change of government in its sixty years of existence. It has alternated between military and civilian rule, punctuated by assassinations and coups. Pakistan has never known true democracy because, even during times of nominal civilian rule, the army and its affiliated intelligence service, the ISI, have been the most powerful institutions in the country. That is not about to change.
“Both civilian and military governments have consistently favored the rich. Economic growth has been strong under Musharraf, but the benefits have gone mainly to those who were already well off, not to the poor. Social progress has lagged dramatically behind economic progress, with per capita income in 2006 at $720 a year. Estimates of its literacy range from 30 to 50%. While the military gets twenty-five percent of the budget, health, education, and other social services get less than 3%.
“Musharraf’s top priority is not American survival, but his own, both physical and political. While he does his best to convince the Administration that our destiny and his are inextricably interwoven – that after him, the deluge – it is not true. Musharraf isn’t keeping Islamic extremists from seizing power in Pakistan, they simply don’t have the strength and support to do it.
“Many of Musharraf’s problems have nothing to do with us or the war on terror, they are purely internal and of his own making. His insistence on being both president and army chief of staff, by virtue of a constitutional amendment that expires at the end of this year, led him to suspend the chief justice of Pakistan’s Supreme Court because he knew this justice would oppose his seeking reelection while keeping his army post. This led to widespread rioting and deaths. The chief justice was recently restored to office, but the incident left Musharraf weakened and more unpopular.
“He was further weakened by the Supreme Court decision allowing former prime minister Sharif to return from exile, followed by Mursharaff’s arresting Sharif supporters and deporting him to Saudi Arabia as soon as he arrived.
“We are backing someone with an extremely tenuous grip on his office.
Musharraf has called for a presidential election by the parliament and national assemblies on October 6, promising to give up his army position only after he is re-elected, not before, as many have demanded. He has made it clear that he will remain as army chief of staff if he is not re-elected. Challenges to his running have just been rejected by the Supreme Court. Since announcing the election, he has had dozens of opposition leaders and activists arrested, which isn’t exactly the best way to run free and fair elections. Yesterday, the Supreme Court ordered that they be released.
“Added to the unstable mix is a new tape from Osama bin Laden calling for the Pakistani people to rise up and overthrow Musharraf. As we stand by and watch, things are getting better for Al Qaeda and worse for us in Pakistan.
“The United States isn’t terribly popular in Pakistan, not because the people back religious extremists, but because they see our aid benefiting the increasingly unpopular military, not them. Instead of our making Musharaff unpopular, he makes us unpopular, since we are so closely tied to him.
“Musharraf claims that he agreed to our demands on September 12, 2001 under Richard Armitage’s threat to ‘bomb Pakistan back to the Stone Age.’ Instead of making such a threat, I’d rather promise to help build them into the 21st century. If we help meet the needs of Pakistan’s poor, they will have less reason to support the religious parties. If we support just the top of Pakistani society, we may someday see that layer swept away, and in the ensuing struggle, extremists could take power.
“Since 9/11 we have given Pakistan about $10 billion. About $5.6 billion has been specifically to pay them back for counter-terrorism along the Afghan border, i.e. going after Al Qaeda and the Taliban. We have reimbursed Pakistan for counter-terrorism operations that it didn’t conduct – kind of like the “no show” and “no work” jobs that Tony Soprano used to arrange. Of that $10 billion, less than $1 billion has been used for projects that directly help the Pakistani people – schools, food, medical aid. The lack of schools creates demand for the madrassas that produce terrorists. We’ve wasted all this money on counter-terrorism that hasn’t happened and very little on projects to win hearts and minds. Congress recently tied our continued aid to progress on counter-terrorism, and to me, that means fighting not just current Al Qaeda and Taliban, but those who will inevitably join them if we don’t address Pakistan’s poverty and lack of human rights.
“Having put all these golden eggs in Musharraf’s basket, we now see his power waning. Musharraf’s reign has worked against our need to strengthen moderates. He has done his best to sideline Bhutto’s and Sharif’s mainstream parties. Because these parties are personality-driven, they have languished during the absences of Bhutto and Sharif. It is in our interest to see them reclaim votes from the religious parties.
“Both Pakistani clerics and military leaders tend to come from the middle class, so there is a natural alliance between them. We would expect the military to be more of a secular institution, a bulwark against the religious parties, as it is in Turkey, but the situation in Pakistan is counter-intuitive. The political leaders of the mainstream, non-religious parties tend to come from the upper class of feudal landowners. This is another way in which Pakistan is the new Afghanistan – the same lawlessness and lack of justice that exist in Pakistan’s feudal areas are what led the people of Afghanistan to turn against the war lords and embrace the Taliban. The religious extremists in Pakistan are gaining support among their powerless peasants the same way. This is what we should be afraid of, not the after-effects of a raid against Al Qaeda.
“Whatever happens in the emerging power struggle among Musharraf, Bhutto, and Sharif, policy toward the United States is unlikely to change. Sharif would sound more anti-American, Bhutto more pro-American, but both their parties are secular and centrist. We won’t have our Al Qaeda problem magically solved for us. It is our problem, and we have to face up to it.
“We need to assure Pakistan that we will be with them for the long haul. In the past our relations with them have been on-again, off-again. When the Russians left Afghanistan, we lost interest in Pakistan pretty quickly. They fear the same would happen without Al Qaeda and the Taliban to keep us engaged. We can’t blame them for not trusting our intentions, for taking our money and running while they can. To the extent that we sign long-term agreements with them, that will show our good faith. As part of this effort, we must use our good offices with our strong ally India to improve their relationship with Pakistan and increase trade and cooperation between them. We need to bring greater stability not just to Pakistan, but to the Afghan-Pakistani-Indian region. Just as Pakistan poses a regional rather than an isolated problem, so does Iraq.
“I have supported and continue to support the surge. Given that the surge reached full strength only in mid-June, the gains in security have been significant, but remain fragile and tenuous. The National Intelligence Estimate released in late August, which represents the consensus of all our intelligence agencies, made it clear that if we withdraw too early or too quickly, these hard-won gains will be lost and the cycle of violence will spiral upward. Now is not the moment to lose heart or lose faith, too much has been sacrificed and too much is at stake. When has an army ever turned the tide and then given up? War is about will. Whoever gives up loses. We can’t afford to lose. How we handle this will determine the kind of world our grandchildren will live in – or die in.
“I have confidence in General Petraeus and the plan he has presented. He has earned our trust by the significant progress he has made in a short time. Things were going downhill fast when the surge began, he has reversed that spiral dramatically.
“I would certainly not withdraw any faster than he recommends. His plan should take us to pre-surge levels of about 130,000 troops by the middle of next July. We will bring home the Marine Expeditionary Unit from the surge now, one Army brigade in December, and then four additional Army brigades and two Marine battalions in the first seven months of next year. I agree with the General that we can’t schedule additional withdrawals beyond next summer because there’s no way to predict what conditions on the ground will be like then. By not projecting beyond pre-surge levels, we send a strong signal to the Iraqis that we will be there for them and to our enemies that they can’t just wait us out. Our troops must come home based on conditions on the ground, not the calendar on the wall.
“General Petraeus’ reasoning makes eminent sense to me – it is too soon to reduce our mission simply to counter-terrorism and transition to the Iraqis without focus on population security as well. If we don’t continue to maintain and expand population security, with the significant number of forces that requires, we can lose all of our hard-won gains. As the General points out, if we hurry our withdrawal, as the Democrats want us to do, we will just be “rushing to failure.” I would rather take the slower, steadier path to victory.
“The Sunnis rejecting Al Qaeda to stand with us in places like Anbar and Diyala and parts of Baghdad has been a truly extraordinary shift, a blessing. Anbar is only one of Iraq’s 18 provinces, but before the “Anbar Awakening,” almost one-third of American casualties occurred in Anbar. By April of this year, every tribal leader in the province was cooperating with us, a truly stunning reversal. Iraqi Sunnis who embraced Al Qaeda as liberators now see them for what they are – brutal oppressors who want to take Iraq back to the seventh century. The Sunnis have joined us at tremendous risk to themselves and placed enormous trust in us that we will protect them. If we abandon them, Al Qaeda will kill them. We are winning this crucial war within the war – the war against Al Qaeda in Iraq. Just as our withdrawal would be an enormous propaganda victory for them, so the turning of local Sunni populations against them is an enormous propaganda victory for us in the overall war on terror. Sunni insurgents rejecting Al Qaeda is a “man bites dog” story that will resonate throughout the Muslim world.
“We must continue funneling aid directly to these tribes for local projects and salaries for those willing to fight on our side, bypassing the government in Baghdad. This model of the Sunni tribes turning against Al Qaeda is being used to turn Shiite tribes against their militants. We’ve been banging our head against the wall dealing with ineffectual leaders in Baghdad – with local leaders, we can poke our head into open doors and get some results. The goal is to end the violence – the paradigm we use to get there is less important. In future elections, some of these local leaders may become national leaders who can end the paralysis in Baghdad.
“Contrary to the Democrats’ gloom, we are seeing reconciliation, only it is ‘bottom up’ rather than ‘top down.’ Bottom up reconciliation can end the violence faster, since it comes directly from the people. We must stay to strengthen and expand this grass roots reconciliation, which shows that many Iraqis are fed up with violence and with their own ineffective leaders. Just as violence can intensify and spread quickly, so can peace. We also must recognize that most of the benchmarks we have set for Iraq depend on top down reconciliation, so we have to come up with alternative benchmarks that gauge bottom up progress.
“We also are seeing some of the goals of the benchmarks being achieved in fact, if not in law. As Ambassador Crocker told Congress, oil revenues are being distributed, de-Baathification is taking place, and the Shiite-dominated government is giving financial resources to the provinces, including to Sunni areas, even without passage of legislation called for in the benchmarks. These actual deeds among the people are more meaningful than mere words on paper would be.
“We are getting control of situations that seemed beyond our control. The Iranians have been sending fighters, trainers, and weapons, including rockets and the especially deadly explosively formed penetrators (EFPs) across their border. We are building a base, which will be completed in November, four miles from the Iranian border to stop this flow. We are adding X-ray machines and explosives detectors at the main border crossing. Soldiers from the former Soviet republic of Georgia are going to man six checkpoints on the main roads from Iran to Baghdad.
“We have seen our “peace dividend” from the fall of the Soviet Union turn into a ‘war deficit’ with the rise of Islamic terror. We didn’t send enough troops to Iraq initially. Admiral Fallon, chief of the Central Command and General Petraeus’ boss, is especially worried about Iran and has been pushing for troop reductions in Iraq. In fact, we can’t continue the surge any longer than we now plan without extending deployments beyond fifteen months, so the size of our military is dictating that we get down to pre-surge levels by mid-July. We don’t have enough troops in Afghanistan – neither does the rest of NATO – and we are losing our hard-won gains there.
“Our current armed forces simply aren’t large enough – we have relied far too heavily on our National Guard and our Reserves to provide the support structure for our active duty forces, we have worn them out. This has been a strain not just on them, but on their families and communities. It has also left us under-manned here at home in coping with natural disasters and terror attacks.
“When our enemies know that we’re spread thin, as we are now, they’re more apt to test us by provoking a crisis. Having a sizeable standing army makes it less likely that we’ll have to use it. The Administration plans to increase the Army and Marines by about 92,000 over the next five years. We can and must do this in two to three years. I recognize that it will be a challenge to increase our enlistments without lowering standards and to expand our training facilities and personnel, but that is one of the reasons why we must increase our military budget. Right now we spend about 3.9% of our GDP on defense, while we spent about 6% in 1986 under President Reagan. We need to return to that 6% level.
“We have to stop using our active duty forces for nation building and rely on other government agencies for building schools, hospitals, roads, sewage treatment, water filtration, electricity, legal and banking systems. The State Department should be in charge and coordinate with the relevant departments of Energy, Housing, Education, Treasury, Justice, and Transportation.
“If I ever have to undertake a large invasion, I will follow the Powell Doctrine and use overwhelming force. The notion of an “occupation with a light footprint” that was our model for Iraq always struck me as a contradiction in terms. Liberating a country and occupying it are two different missions. Our invasion went well militarily, but the occupation destroyed Iraq politically, economically, and socially. In the former Yugoslavia, we had twenty peacekeeping soldiers for every thousand civilians. For the occupation of Iraq, that would have worked out to a force of 450,000. Instead of marginalizing General Shinseki when he said we needed several hundred thousand troops for Iraq, I would have met privately with him and carefully weighed his advice and his underlying analysis. Our generals must be independent advisers to the president, always free to speak without fear of retribution or dismissal.
“Staying in Iraq will bring continued challenges, but leaving now will bring chaos. To withdraw before Iraq is internally stable and secure in its borders would have serious strategic consequences for us and horrific humanitarian consequences for the Iraqis. Iraq’s neighbors on all sides will face a refugee crisis and be drawn into the war: Iran to protect the Shiites; Saudi Arabia, Egypt, and Jordan to protect the Sunnis; and Turkey to protect its control over its own Kurd population. Iraq is the crossroads where Arab meets Persian and Kurd, Sunni meets Shiite, so if it’s not a peaceful buffer, it can easily become a tinder box. When we deposed Saddam, we emphasized Iraq’s central location as a prime place to establish democracy and have it spread. That was the potential dramatic upside. Now we face the potential dramatic downside that the terrorists want to take advantage of – Iraq’s central location as the perfect place to create anarchy and have it spread. That is both an unnecessary and an unacceptable outcome. The answer is not to stay the course, but to continue to adapt the course, to take advantage of change faster than our enemies, as we have the last six months, to bring the Iraqis to that safe place where they will thrive and terror will not.
“Cancer treatment can be rough, but the alternative is death. That’s how it is in Iraq: difficult as it is to stay, the consequences of leaving would be disastrous for the Iraqis, for the entire region, and for us. Those who say we don’t owe the Iraqis any more are ignoring what we owe our own children and grandchildren. We have to make our stand against Al Qaeda in Iraq and against Iranian expansionism there, and we have to make it now.
“We will remain in Iraq into the next administration, and I am prepared to finish this war with honor and victory.
“Ambassador Crocker told Congress: ‘The process will not be quick, it will be uneven, punctuated by setbacks as well as achievements, and it will require substantialU. S. resolve and commitment.’ Does this sound familiar? Does this remind you of anything? It sounds to me like our Revolution, like our Civil War, like World War I and World War II. We paid a heavy price each time, but we won those, and we will win this one for tolerant and peace-loving people all over the world. Our history has been one of perseverance, from the snows of Valley Forge to the flames of 9/11. Our way of life, our economic and moral strength, our civilization is at stake. I understand exactly what we face, and, as president, I am determined to look this evil in the eye, confront it, defeat it, and emerge stronger than ever. It’s easy to be a peace-lover; the hard part is being a peace-maker.”
USA Today has posted audio from Mike Huckabee's conference call today with the media. You can listen to it by CLICKING HERE.
I guess I misunderstood when I heard Mitt Romney say he was in favor of language immersion. I assumed he was speaking about the English language. Evidently I was wrong....
From Sam Youngman's article in The Hill:
State and national Republicans say they are disappointed and dismayed by the shape in which former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney left the state GOP when he left office early this year.
Romney’s critics point to lost Republican seats in the state legislature, a lieutenant governor who suffered a landslide defeat, a significant amount of debt and overall devastation to morale.
Allies of Romney say he raised more money for the state party than any of his predecessors, and that a tough political environment is to be blamed, not the White House hopeful.
Critics insist electoral failures could have been avoided or mitigated if the governor had been dedicated to building the state party instead of traveling to build what became his presidential campaign.
“The last two years of his term, he was really running for president,” GOP State Treasurer Brent Andersen said. “His first two years he did give it a go, and then he gave up on us.”
An excerpt from the new Los Angeles Time/Bloomberg Poll:
The poll found Huckabee dominates Romney and the rest of the field not only among born-again Christians and regular churchgoers in Iowa, but also among women and disaffected voters.
He was supported by 46% of the women surveyed, and 44% of the people who believe the country is headed in the wrong direction. Huckabee has argued with other Republican candidates, saying the party needs to acknowledge the pocketbook anxieties of middle-class voters.
The Iowa race is essentially a two-man race between Huckabee (37%) and Romney (23%); the other candidates are far behind. McCain and former Sen. Fred Thompson drew 11%, and former New York Mayor Rudolph Giuliani and Reps. Ron Paul and Duncan Hunter were in the single digits.
Excerpts from Steve Chapman's article "Only Huck Can Win" in the Minneapolis-St.Paul Star Tribune:
"We already know it's almost impossible to elect people from certain places -- like Massachusetts, which hasn't produced a president (or even a vice president) since John Kennedy in 1960. Ted Kennedy, Michael Dukakis and John Kerry might want to break the news to Mitt Romney."(Read more...)
"Americans also don't elect candidates from New York, even though it has a horde of electoral votes. We used to find presidents there quite often, including Chester Arthur, Grover Cleveland and both Roosevelts. But not since 1944 has someone from the Empire State (Franklin Roosevelt) been elected. The last New Yorker to make a plausible run for his party's nomination was Nelson Rockefeller in 1968, and he didn't come very close."
"That's bad news for Rudy Giuliani, who has something else working against him: He used to be a mayor. Only two former mayors have ever reached the White House -- Grover Cleveland and Calvin Coolidge. But both of them went on to serve as governors before seeking the presidency, a step Giuliani has skipped."
[Snipped text]
"Recent history suggests that to win the presidency, you have to be a white male from the South or West, preferably with experience as a governor. That description fits only one candidate in the race -- Mike Huckabee. So by examining the portents of history, we find that he's the only person who can possibly be elected next year."
CLICK HERE to visit One Mom's post;
As Mitt Romney Drops In The Polls, He Launches Scurrilous Attacks Against His Republican Colleagues And Breaks Ronald Reagan’s 11th Commandment: “Thou Shalt Not Speak Ill Of A Fellow Republican.” (Read more...)
From ArkansasMatters.com:
Presidential Candidate Mike Huckabee will receive the endorsement of Florida State Senator Mike Haridopolos Today in Orlando.
Senator Haridopolos was re-elected to the Senate in 2006 where he serves as Majority Whip and Chairman of the Senate Committee on Finance and Tax.
When talking about why he is backing the former governor he released this statement: "I support Mike Huckabee because of his positive, optimistic message... He, better than any candidate on either side, is listening to the voter and projecting a message that communicates with all Americans." (Read more...)
Huckabee Picks Up Cash, Support In Florida
BY PHIL LONG
ORLANDO -- Bolstered by new poll numbers that now put Mike Huckabee in the tight cluster of top GOP candidates, the former Arkansas governor is trying to capitalize on the wave and Thursday wrapped up two days of private fund raising in Florida that brought him between $350,000 and $400,000.
Huckabee's supporters are hustling to marshal volunteers and raise enough advertising money to put him at the top of the Republican pack in Florida's Jan. 29 presidential primary.
He began a seven-minute stump speech in Orlando on a somber note: Thursday's assassination of former Pakistani primer minister Benazir Bhutto.
He called it, "A terrible incident for Pakistan a terrible incident for the world; a stark reminder of the transition in our country. When we change our leaders, we do so not with bullets but with ballots."
"But in many parts of the world violence is a way of life for the transition of power."
He asked for sympathy and prayers for Bhutto's family and nation. (Read more...)
The following is Mike Huckabee's response to the assassination of Benazir Bhutto:
I am deeply troubled by the news accounts this morning of Pakistani opposition leader and former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto’s assassination in a suicide attack. This is devastating news for the people of Pakistan, and my prayers go out to them as we follow developments regarding this dire situation.
The terrible violence surrounding Pakistan’s upcoming election stands in stark contrast to the peaceful transition of power that we embrace in our country through our Constitution. On this sad day, we are reminded that while our democracy has flaws, it stands as a shining beacon of hope for nations and people around the world who seek peace and opportunity through self-government.
Benazir Bhutto's assassination should also stand as a stark reminder for those who doubt the nature of our enemy.
I believe that we are currently engaged in a world war. Radical Islamic fascists have declared war on our country and our way of life. They have sworn to annihilate each of us who believe in a free society, all in the name of a perversion of religion and an impersonal god. We go to great extremes to save lives, they go to great extremes to take them. This war is not a conventional war, and these terrorists are not a conventional enemy. We must fight the war on terror with the intensity and single-mindedness that it deserves.
Iowa - Mike Huckabee (Strategic Vision)
New Hampshire - Mitt Romney (Boston Globe)
Michigan - Mitt Romney (Detroit News)
Nevada - Mitt Romney (American Research Group)
South Carolina - Mike Huckabee (CBS News)
Florida - Rudy Giuliani (Survey USA)
Alabama - Fred Thompson (Capital Survey Research Center)
Arizona - John McCain (Rasmussen)
Arkansas - Mike Huckabee (Global Strategy Group)
California - Rudy Giuliani (Field)
Colorado - John McCain (Rasmussen)
Georgia - Mike Huckabee (Strategic Vision)
Illinois - Rudy Giuliani (Chicago Tribune/WGN TV)
Missouri - Mike Huckabee (Rasmussen)
North Carolina - Mike Huckabee (Public Policy Polling)
New Jersey - Rudy Giuliani (Quinnipiac)
New York - Giuliani (Siena)
Ohio - Mike Huckabee (Rasmussen)
Oklahoma - Mike Huckabee (Tulsa World)
Kansas - John McCain (Rasmussen)
Washington (Caucus Feb. 9 - Primary Feb. 19) - Rudy Giuliani (Washington Poll)
Wisconsin - Rudy Giuliani (Wisconsin Public Radio/St. Norbert's College)
Texas - Mike Huckabee (IVR)
Pennsylvania - Rudy Giuliani (Quinnipiac)
From Governor Geringer's endorsement of Mike Huckabee:
"I've known and worked with Mike Huckabee for twelve years, both as an elected official and as a businessman. Of all the candidates, Mike is the genuine article. We've worked together on matters of energy, math and science education, small business opportunities, music and arts in our schools, healthy America and the value of integrity in public office. Governor Huckabee has great respect for the creativity and ingenuity of Wyoming people."
"We want a President who knows the value of hard work, individual effort, helping your neighbor and limiting federal government. Mike Huckabee is that person."
"Sherri and I give our full support to Mike Huckabee for President without hesitation."
Mike Huckabee leads in the Tulsa World's poll of Oklahomans: THE NUMBERS - REPUBLICANS Mike Huckabee, 29 percent John McCain, 17 percent Rudy Giuliani, 11 percent Mitt Romney, 9 percent Fred Thompson, 8 percent Don't know/refused 22 percent
From Star Parker's article "Romney Symbolizes GOP's Problems":
The Detroit Free Press says it has no record of Romney's father, onetime Michigan Gov. George Romney, ever marching with King. According to the Free Press, when Dr. King marched in Detroit, their archives show that Romney's father did not participate because he said his religion prohibited him from public appearances on Sunday.
How ironic that Romney chose to insert this apparent whopper in his “Faith in America” speech. Perhaps the governor's idea of faith is what Groucho Marx had in mind with his line, “Who are you going to believe, me or your own eyes?”
The following is an excerpt from the New Hampshire Union Leader:
Romney has all the advantages: money, organization, geographic proximity, statesman-like hair, etc.
But he lacks something John McCain has in spades: conviction.
Granite Staters want a candidate who will look them in the eye and tell them the truth. John McCain has done that day in and day out, never wavering, never faltering, never pandering.
Mitt Romney has not. He has spoken his lines well, but the people can sense that the words are memorized, not heartfelt.
Last week Romney was reduced to debating what the meaning of "saw" is. It was only the latest in a string of demonstrably false claims -- he'd been a hunter "pretty much" all his life, he'd had the NRA's endorsement, he marched with Martin Luther King, Jr. -- that call into question the veracity of his justifications for switching sides on immigration, abortion, taxes and his affection for Ronald Reagan.
In this primary, the more Mitt Romney speaks, the less believable he becomes.
The following is an excerpt from the endorsement of the Dallas Morning News:
And he is one social conservative who's acutely aware of the call to racial healing. In 1997, when Little Rock Central High commemorated integration's 40th anniversary, Gov. Huckabee delivered a magnificent speech about race, justice and reconciliation that left many in the audience weeping.
It was a profound and profoundly moving address, and it revealed an unusual gift for leadership. Plain-spoken and eloquent, Mr. Huckabee strikes us as decent, principled and empathetic to the views and concerns of others – an antidote to the power-mad partisanship that has led U.S. politics to a dispiriting standstill.
"I'm a conservative," he likes to say. "I'm just not mad about it." Along those lines, what sold us on Mr. Huckabee is a sense that of all the Republicans, he is the change agent the nation most needs. John McCain, whose candidacy is quite appealing despite concern about his age and temperament, was arguably that man once. But his moment has passed.
America needs a clean break from the bitter politics of the recent past. From the right, Mike Huckabee, a progressive conservative with a pastor's heart, can deliver.
An excerpt from Daniel Alcott's article "Romney, Get Real About Your Abortion Record":
In a new Los Angeles Times/Bloomberg poll, only 13 percent of Republican voters felt Romney’s faith made them less likely to vote for him, while 10 percent said it made them more likely to vote for him, and 73 said it made no difference.
Meanwhile, when Republican voters were asked which of the top-tier GOP presidential candidates were the “best at saying what they believe, rather than just saying what they think voters want to hear,” Romney came in dead last, with just 8 percent of the vote.
The following is an excerpt from the Concord Monitor's anti-endorsement of Mitt Romney:
When New Hampshire partisans are asked to defend the state's first-in-the-nation primary, we talk about our ability to see the candidates up close, ask tough questions and see through the baloney. If a candidate is a phony, we assure ourselves and the rest of the world, we'll know it.
Mitt Romney is such a candidate. New Hampshire Republicans and independents must vote no.
An excerpt from an article by Paul Edwards:
The Republican establishment has looked down its nose at social conservatives far too long, tolerating us because they need our votes. But now the tables are turned. The grass roots are looking up at the establishment with the will of a Lech Walesa, demanding that fiscal issues take a back seat to moral issues for a change. It’s long past time for the moral and social issues of our times to be given more than just lip service. It’s now time for our fiscal policies to be informed by our social policies rather than sacrificing our morality to our economic standing in the world.
Don’t expect the Republican establishment to take this lying down. The New Media tanks are already rolling in to suppress the revolt.
by Kevin Stilley
(Another Example Of How Fox News May Do The Absolute Worst Job Of Political Reporting, Analysis, And Commenting Of Any Television Network)
In a recent segment of Hannity & Colmes, Alan Colmes and Mark Steyn (sitting in for Sean Hannity) were joined by Robert Novak to discuss Mike Huckabee and his Baptist supporters. The following is a copy of the transcript with my comments inserted in red.
* * *
COLMES: Mike Huckabee's presidential campaign has defied the odds with his recent upswing in the polls. The former Arkansas governor and Baptist minister has become a major player for the Republican nomination. But not all his fellow Baptists have lined up behind him. With us now, syndicated columnist and Fox News contributor Robert Novak.
Not all his fellow Baptists have lined up behind him? Please name me one person in the history of all American politics of whom it could be said that everyone in his denomination lined up behind him. Before we even get into the silliness that follows in this interview, the topic itself is complete and utter nonsense. Can someone please look up straw-man argument in the dictionary and email the definition to Fox News.
Someone please tell me that out of 16 million Southern Baptists Novak does not rely upon what one single Baptist has to say to argue that "Baptists are not supporting Mike Huckabee." I have a nine-year old son who can see the problem with this. Can someone please look up scientific polling in the dictionary and email Fox News a copy of the definition.
Novak refers several times to the Baptist movement. However, he never tells us what Baptist movement he is talking about. The reason? There is no such thing as a current Baptist movement. There are Baptists of many stripes, Baptists with a plethora of agendas, Baptists who want change, and Baptists who are completelty tuned out; but there is no current monolithic "Baptist movement." Novak knows little to nothing about Baptists.
The Conservative Resurgence in the Southern Baptist Convention began to gather steam in the 1970's and finally took control of the denominational structure in the 1990's . However, Novak extrapolates beyond the Conservative Resurgence to imply that there is currently some kind of movement. Utter nonsense.
What about the Conservative Resurgence? Was Huckabee on the wrong side of the Baptist Wars? I was there, I was part of the Conservative Resurgence, and I can tell you that Mike Huckabee is not a liberal Baptist. However, maybe it would be good to inquire as to the identity of the candidate whom Huckabee ran against in the 1989 election for President of the Arkansas Baptist Convention. This is the person that Judge Pressler indicates was the candidate of the right, so it would be interesting to see what he has to say about Huckabee.
In 1989 Mike Huckabee ran against Dr. Ronnie Floyd for the presidency of the Arkansas Baptist State Convention. What does Dr. Ronnie Floyd think of Mike Huckabee? Ronnie Floyd has endorsed Mike Huckabee and serves as an advisor to him on his Faith and Family Values Coalition.
If Mike Huckabee was a "liberal Baptist" as Bob Novak is trying to make him out to be, Ronnie Floyd would not be in his camp at this time.
Let's move to the next lame argument in Novak's smear piece. He claims that Judge Pressler's endorsement of Fred Thompson will surely swing Baptists away from Huckabee. Well, Pressler's endorsement took place months ago and is well known to any Baptist who might care. Has Fred Thompson seen a surge of Baptists flocking into his pasture? No. Why?
Soul competency is an important tenet of Baptist identity. No need to look it up in the dictionary unless you want to send the definition to Fox News -- I will explain. Baptists are not herd animals. We believe that we stand before God as individuals and we do not allow someone else to make up our minds for us. Endorse all you want, but most Baptists critically examine the facts and decide for themselves.
This was illustrated in Judge Pressler's endorsement of a candidate in the 2005 Southern Baptist Convention presidential race. His endorsement did not seem to move the needle at all for his preferred candidate. Judge Pressler was of great service and influence decades ago during the Baptist Wars, but a new day has arisen. Baptists continue to respect Pressler, but it is a mistake to overestimate his influence even in Baptist affairs, let alone in the field of secular politics.
What was it that General MacArthur said, "....old soldiers never die; they just fade away."
This isn't just nonsense, it is an out and out lie. Mike Huckabee has never taken the position that Baptists are obliged to support him. This is either another example of Novak's poor journalism/research, or it is another example of him engaging in misrepresentation in an attempt to lead people astray (of which numerous examples could be cited).
