The Scourge That Obama Dare Not Name

From S.E. Cupp, at the New York Daily News, "Islamic extremist terrorism: The scourge that Obama dare not name":

There's nothing more childish than living in a fantasyland.

There's a famous painting of a pipe, by Belgian artist Rene Magritte. Under the pipe it says in French, "Ceci n'est pas une pipe" — "This is not a pipe."

The average onlooker says, "of course that's a pipe!" But Magritte is challenging the viewer to acknowledge that, in fact, they are not looking at a pipe, but, more accurately, a painting of a pipe.

It's surrealism at its most annoying. Magritte was that know-it-all at the party who corrects your grammar during a fun game of beer pong: "It's with 'whom' am I playing next."

To the average person, it's pretty clear we're at war with Islamic extremists. Yet, to hear President Obama tell it, we are not technically at war, and even if we are, he wants you to believe religion has little to do with it.

He and his surrogates have repeatedly refused to say the words "Islamic extremism" or "radical Islam" when describing our enemies in groups like Al Qaeda, Jabhat al-Nusra, ISIS and Boko Haram, just to name a few.

His administration was caught flatfooted last week when White House spokesman Eric Schultz painfully strained to justify negotiating with Taliban, insisting it was not a terrorist group but "an armed insurgency."

Surreal indeed...

Cowardly.

Obama's a coward. Simple as that.

Keep reading.

U.S. Intelligence Warns of Growing Threat from Islamic State

Well, no doubt.

Britian's Andrew Parker, head of MI5, warned of an immediate al-Qaeda threat just last month, so it's just confirmation at this point. Pretty good timing, considering the Jordanian pilot and all.

At the Los Angeles Times, "Pentagon official lists militants, Russia and China as threats to U.S.":

Russian military activity is at its highest level since the Cold War, destructive state-sponsored attacks on U.S. computer systems are on the rise and Islamic State is expanding into unstable parts of North Africa, the Pentagon's top intelligence official told Congress on Tuesday.

The warnings came against the grim backdrop of the release of a video that appeared to show a Jordanian military pilot being burned alive by his Islamic State captors, and a day after President Obama proposed reversing a five-year decline in military spending to help battle the Sunni Muslim extremists who control parts of Iraq and Syria.

Lt. Gen. Vincent Stewart, director of the Defense Intelligence Agency, said the militant group Islamic State has steadily extended its reach despite near-daily U.S.-led coalition airstrikes that began in August. More than two dozen extremist groups around the world have merged with or pledged allegiance to Islamic State, and its ranks continue to swell with new recruits.

"With affiliates in Algeria, Egypt, Libya, the group is beginning to assemble a growing international footprint that includes ungoverned and undergoverned areas," Stewart, who took command of the Pentagon's spying arm last month, told the House Armed Services Committee in an annual review of national security threats.

The militant group's appeal apparently extends to Canada. Police there on Tuesday charged three men suspected of having ties to an Islamic State recruiting cell in Ottawa. The three reportedly were trying to travel to Syria and were not plotting an attack in Canada when they were arrested.

Rear Adm. John Kirby, a Pentagon spokesman, told reporters that Islamic State "has a fairly evangelical strain about it."

"They want to metastasize. They want to grow. They want to increase their influence," Kirby said. "We're watching it as closely as we can."...

Keep reading.

Prime Minister Shinzo Abe Vows Revenge for Beheadings — #KenjiGoto

This is like, "Whoa!"

At the New York Times, "Departing From Country’s Pacifism, Japanese Premier Vows Revenge for Killings":

TOKYO — When Islamic State militants posted a video over the weekend showing the grisly killing of a Japanese journalist, Prime Minister Shinzo Abe reacted with outrage, promising “to make the terrorists pay the price.”

Such vows of retribution may be common in the West when leaders face extremist violence, but they have been unheard of in confrontation-averse Japan — until now. The prime minister’s call for revenge after the killings of the journalist, Kenji Goto, and another hostage, Haruna Yukawa, raised eyebrows even in the military establishment, adding to a growing awareness here that the crisis could be a watershed for this long pacifist country.

“Japan has not seen this Western-style expression in its diplomacy before,” Akihisa Nagashima, a former vice minister of defense, wrote on Twitter. “Does he intend to give Japan the capability to back up his words?”

As the 12-day hostage crisis came to a grim conclusion with the killing of Mr. Goto, the world has suddenly begun to look like a much more dangerous place to a peaceful and prosperous nation that had long seen itself as immune to the sorts of violence faced by the United States and its Western allies...

More.

'I'm with the terrorists' — 8-Year Old Boy Questioned by French After Remarks on #ParisAttacks

I don't think 8-years-old is too young to be indoctrinated. The ISIS kid who executed the two hostages was about 12 or so. They start 'em young these days.

But still, maybe this is a little heavy handed.

At WSJ, "French Police Question 8-Year-Old Over Remarks on Terror Attacks: Probe Into Child’s Comments Spurs Debate Over France’s Efforts to Crack Down on Extremism":

PARIS—French police have questioned an 8-year-old boy after he allegedly made comments in support of terrorists, part of a controversial crackdown on extremist propaganda in the wake of this month’s deadly attacks in the capital.

Police in the French city of Nice said Thursday that they have questioned a boy and his father to determine how the boy picked up what they describe as “alarming statements” in support of the gunmen who killed 12 people in a terrorist attack on French satirical newspaper Charlie Hebdo on Jan. 7.

“I’m with the terrorists,” the boy—identified only as Ahmed—said in class discussions, according to Sefen Guez Guez, a lawyer for the family. He says the boy didn’t understand the meaning of the word “terrorist” and described the decision to refer him to police as “total insanity.”

The father and son weren’t held by police.

The investigation into the circumstances surrounding the boy’s alleged remarks, which police say is continuing, underscores the challenge France faces in balancing free speech with combating terrorism. Last fall, the government increased penalties for condoning or inciting terrorism by moving the provision from a less-enforced press law into the national penal code to stem terrorist recruitment in France.

The attack on Charlie Hebdo, and another two days later at a kosher grocery in Paris, have pushed the government to heighten its efforts—which free-speech advocates have criticized as being too heavy-handed at times. Between the Jan. 7 assault on the magazine and Jan. 26, prosecutors opened 144 criminal cases on charges of supporting or inciting terrorism, which have so far led to 16 prison sentences, the French justice ministry said. Including instances where suspects have also been charged with other crimes, such as drunken driving, the number rises to 234 cases.

French stand-up comedian Dieudonné M’Bala M’Bala has been ordered to stand trial next month on criminal charges of being an apologist for terrorism, after he appeared to liken himself to Amedy Coulibaly, one of the gunmen in the Paris attacks. “I feel like Charlie Coulibaly,” the comedian posted to his Facebook page days afterward.

“My client’s comments aren’t, by far, an endorsement of terrorism,” Jacques Verdier, Mr. M’Bala M’Bala’s lawyer has said, adding that his client had been “harassed by French authorities.”

In another instance, 34-year-old Kamal Belaidi was sentenced to a four-year jail term on charges including drunken driving and for praising the killing of the three police officers in the Paris terror attack and shouting “Allahu akbar” at the scene of a car accident in the northern French town of Valenciennes, local prosecutors said.

Schools have been a particular battleground.

More.

While Jews Are Slaughtered, the Left Worries About Islamophobia

The "Islamophobia" lie gives the left cover for enabling Islam's existential assault on the West.

From Brendan O'Neill, at the Australian:

THE parallel moral universe inhabited by Europe’s chattering classes and celebs was starkly ­exposed last week.

In Paris, shortly after the Charlie Hebdo massacre, an extremist stormed a kosher store, terrorised its patrons, and murdered four of them. Their crime? Jewishness.

And yet as this act of anti-Semitic barbarism was taking place, what were the opinion-forming set and the right-on glitterati worrying their well-groomed heads about? Islamophobia. The possibility of post-Charlie Hebdo violence against Muslims.

They fretted over violence that hadn’t occurred, rather than violence unfolding before the world’s eyes in a store frequented by Jews.

So we had the bizarre spectacle of British newspapers thundering about a possible outburst of anti-Muslim madness at precisely the moment an outburst of anti-­Semitic madness was taking place. Beware “Islamophobes seizing [the Charlie Hebdo] atrocity to advance their hatred”, hollered The Guardian as an anti-Semite was seizing a kosher shop to advance the world’s oldest hatred.

The day after the assault on the kosher store, three of the top 10 most-read articles on The Guardian’s website were dire warnings about potential Islamophobic violence post-Charlie Hebdo. Some folk seemed more concerned about possible attacks on Muslims than they were about actual ­attacks on Jews.

The gaping disconnect between observers’ fears of what would happen in France after the Charlie Hebdo massacre and what actually did happen was summed up in comments made by George Clooney. On Monday, as the ­bodies of the four murdered Jews were being prepared for the flight to Israel, Clooney was telling fawning hacks about the scourge of “anti-Muslim fervour” in ­Europe. It got to a point where it wouldn’t have felt surprising to hear a journalist say: “Oh no, Jews have been attacked — will this cause yet more problems for ­Muslims?!”

Of course, it’s entirely legitimate to worry about a backlash against Muslims in the wake of Islamist terror. That some blank grenades were thrown into the courtyard of a mosque in France suggests there are indeed Muslim-loathing hotheads. But there’s no escaping the fact that observers struggle to acknowledge the seriousness of anti-Semitism.

They find it easier to fantasise about a mob-led war on Muslims than to confront the real, growing problem of Jew-baiting.

We saw this last year, too, when there were numerous anti-Semitic outbursts during the Gaza conflict. Those who pose as progressive, who instantly reach for political placards whenever Muslims or ­another minority suffer abuse, didn’t say much.

They fidgeted, ermed and aahed, or, worse, offered an apologia for the new anti-Semitism. “If Israel didn’t treat Palestinians so badly, maybe Jews wouldn’t get ­attacked”, they hinted. This ugly excuse-making for anti-Semitic violence reared its head again this week when a BBC reporter in Paris, Tim Wilcox, said to a shaken French Jewish women that “the Palestinians suffer hugely at ­Jewish hands as well”.

In short: maybe there’s a logic to anti-Semitic violence. Maybe it’s just a reaction to Israeli — or as Wilcox put it, “Jewish” — wickedness. Maybe you deserve it. Wilcox expressed a common view in right-thinking sections of society: that anti-Semitism isn’t quite as bad as other forms of racism because it’s often misfired anger with Israel.

We’re witnessing the terrifying meshing together of anti-Zionism and anti-Semitism, with those who claim merely to hate Israel often slipping into expressions of disdain for “the Jews” and targeting Jewish shops for boycotts.

Indeed, if Amedy Coulibaly, the killer in the kosher store, thought a simple shop was an appropriate place to act out his foul radicalism, it isn’t hard to see why: anti-Israel protesters have been targeting Israeli-linked or just Jewish-owned shops for years now. Jewish produce, Jewish shoppers — all fair game, apparently.

The increasingly unhinged nature of many leftists’ loathing for Israel has led them to problematise the Jews themselves. They speak darkly of Jewish lobbies, of super-powerful forces making our leaders kowtow to Israel. Their swirling, borderline conspiratorial fear of Israel means they often cross the line from yelling at Israel to wondering about the trustworthiness of the Jews...

Absolutely sickening.

And don't miss the final word at the link.

Police Arrest Fugitive Greek Communist Christodoulos Xiros

He had "absconded" while out on "leave."

Yeah, because those progressive prison furloughs sure keep those crack prisoners on the straight and narrow.

At Euronews, "Greece: Police rearrest fugitive Marxist extremist Christodoulos Xiros":

The formerly dark-haired member of the Greek Marxist guerrilla group November 17, seized by security forces on Saturday in a coastal town outside Athens, now has shoulder-length blond locks and a beard.

Serving multiple life sentences for his role in the now defunct militant group which has killed Greek, US and British diplomats, he had absconded while on leave from jail 12 months ago.

Authorities say he was armed when rearrested.

“He had altered his features. He had long hair, a beard, he was wearing glasses and carrying a gun,” Hellenic Police Chief Dimitris Tsaknakis told reporters, adding that Xiros had erased the identifying features on the weapon.

“He had 13 bullets in the magazine and one in the chamber. He didn’t resist arrest.”

Despite a one million euro reward for his capture, Xiros made a video after his escape, vowing armed action to avenge the pain of austerity cuts suffered by Greeks under international bailout programmes.

As in other European countries, including Germany and Italy, a number of violent leftist groups were active in Greece from the 1970s and 1980s and authorities have been concerned about the prospect of a resurgence during the economic crisis.

Islamic State Gains Support in Pakistan

This is truly a nightmare omen for trends in global terrorism. The world's worst terror state throwing its weight behind the world's newest source of Islamic terrorism.

At the New York Times, "Allure of ISIS for Pakistanis Is on the Rise":

LONDON — Across Pakistan, the black standard of the Islamic State has been popping up all over.

From urban slums to Taliban strongholds, the militant group’s logo and name have appeared in graffiti, posters and pamphlets. Last month, a cluster of militant commanders declared their allegiance to Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, the self-proclaimed caliph of the Islamic State.

Such is the influence of the Islamic State’s steamroller success in Iraq and Syria that, even thousands of miles away, security officials and militant networks are having to reckon with the group, also known as ISIS or ISIL.

Its victories have energized battle-weary militants in Pakistan. The ISIS brand offers them potent advantages, analysts say — an aid to fund-raising and recruiting, a possible advantage over rival factions and, most powerfully, a new template for waging jihad.

Although the Islamic State is not operational in Pakistan, just its symbolic presence is ample cause for concern. It is there, after all, that Al Qaeda was founded in the 1980s, followed by other extremist ideologies that easily found the means and support to carry out international attacks...

More.

Senior Democrats Slam Congressional Leaders After Party's Epic Thrashing in Midterm Elections

At the Hill, "Dems fault leaders for brushing off losses."

The criticisms are going to fall on deaf (and dumb) ears. With the Obama-Dems it's like a runaway train to far-left extremist oblivion.

Islamic State Executes Scores of Fellow Sunni Muslims

As I said numerous times over the summer, ISIS just kills everybody. Their program is about death and power. That's it.

At the Los Angeles Times:

Islamic State forces have carried out another mass killing of civilians in western Iraq, officials said Saturday – the systematic executions of at least 50 fellow Sunni Muslim men and women belonging to a tribe that has defied the extremist militants.

Amid a months-long onslaught by the Islamic State, Iraq is growing ever more violent. The United Nations mission in Baghdad reported Saturday that at least 1,273 Iraqis had been killed in October, about two-thirds of them civilians.

In the latest grisly episode, members of the Albu Nimr tribe were lined up by the militants and shot dead late Friday in the village of Ras al-Maaa, in Anbar province, according to Naim Al-Kaood, an Albu Nimr tribal leader. He spoke to the Iraqi broadcaster Al-Sumariyah.

Social media websites were flooded with pictures of the dead, their blood seeping out onto the pavement from apparent close-range shots to the head...

RELATED: At Human Rights Watch, "ISIS Executed Hundreds of Prison Inmates in Iraq."

Obama Presses World to Act Against Islamic Jihad

At WSJ, "U.S. Presses World to Act Against Extremism: Obama Implores Leaders to Join Coalition Against Islamic State":

UNITED NATIONS—The U.S. unleashed a barrage of diplomatic pressure on world leaders gathered in New York, imploring them to join an international coalition against Islamic extremism.

President Barack Obama, in a series of appearances throughout the day, outlined a very different U.S. approach to the Middle East than he did last year at the same forum—one that leans heavily on American military power and tightly focuses on ways to diminish Islamic extremism. He urged leaders in the region to do more to combat what he described as the most pressing threat to global progress.

In his sixth address to the United Nations General Assembly, Mr. Obama said "the cancer of violent extremism" embodied in groups such as Islamic State now dominates his foreign-policy agenda.

"The only language understood by killers like this is the language of force," Mr. Obama said. "So the United States of America will work with a broad coalition to dismantle this network of death."

While leaders met at the U.N., the Pentagon said U.S. and Arab warplanes carried out a new wave of strikes on extremist group Islamic State in Syria, emphasizing regional support for the latest expansion of the air campaign against the group. Heads of state recoiled at a new extremist video showing the beheading of a French hostage.

Despite the U.S. appeals, the scope and longevity of his coalition to fight Islamic State remained unclear.

Major European allies—France, the U.K. and Germany, so far all have declined to send their aircraft into Syrian airspace, in part, because of the lack of U.N. Security Council resolution authorizing the use of such force.

In Paris, French Prime Minister Manuel Valls reiterated the government's refusal. Instead, the French premier bemoaned how world powers had missed the opportunity to deploy air power over Syria in the wake of the alleged chemical attacks last year—when France believed there was a clear legal basis for intervention.

"We wouldn't be in this situation in Syria if the international community had intervened," Mr. Valls said.

British Prime Minister David Cameron is still smarting from the defeat he suffered last year when Parliament opposed his plans to join the U.S. in the airstrikes that Mr. Obama eventually called off. Although Mr. Cameron has the authority to launch military action unilaterally, lawmakers say the Syria experience makes it important for the U.K. leader to secure parliamentary approval before taking military action in Iraq.

On Wednesday, Mr. Cameron's government said Parliament would meet on Friday to debate a request from the Iraqi government for airstrikes against Islamic State in Iraq, but not Syria.

In his General Assembly speech Wednesday night, Mr. Cameron backed a U.K. military response in advance of the Friday vote, but left open whether it would entail a combat role against Islamic State militants.

"We should be uncompromising, using all the means at our disposal—including military force—to hunt down these extremists," Mr. Cameron said in his address, while adding in anticipation of criticism that the West should avoid the mistakes of the past in Iraq.

The president heralded the inclusion of five Arab states, including Saudi Arabia, Jordan and the United Arab Emirates, in the airstrikes in Syria this week. And the U.S. welcomed commitments by Belgium and the Netherlands to each deploy fighter jets for military operations.

However, a number of Washington's closest Mideast allies—particularly Turkey and Qatar—appeared to be on the fence in terms of how significantly to support the U.S. campaign, though four Qatari planes provided surveillance for coalition attacks on Islamic State Monday.

More.

U.S. Promises Long Campaign in #Syria

At the Wall Street Journal, "Syria Strikes: U.S. Reports Significant Damage in Attacks on Islamic State, Khorasan; American, Arab Warplanes Hit Targets Around Iraq-Syria Border":

WASHINGTON—The first U.S.-led airstrikes on extremist groups in Syria hit militant leaders, training camps and control centers, U.S. officials said, promising this was only the start of a long campaign.

The attacks were conducted with the aid of Arab allies, but the U.S. carried out the bulk of the raids. After the first wave of strikes, the U.S. said it conducted follow-on attacks during the day Tuesday that hit two Islamic State armored vehicles in Syria.

The U.S. and its allies unleashed more than 160 missiles and bombs on targets inside Syria, disrupting infrastructure used by the extremist groups Islamic State and al Qaeda-linked Khorasan, Pentagon officials said in the first assessments of the impact of the strikes.

While it will be days before a definitive conclusion can be drawn, U.S. officials said they believe some leaders of both Islamic State and Khorasan were likely killed in the strikes on training camps and headquarters buildings.

The expansion of the military campaign against Islamic State from Iraq to Syria carries significant risks for President Barack Obama's administration.

Mr. Obama has spent his presidency extricating the U.S. from two long and costly wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Now there is the prospect of getting mired again in a protracted Middle East war.

Western-backed rebels fear U.S.-led airstrikes on Islamic State and other extremist groups inside Syria will ultimately tip the balance in the multi-sided civil war in favor of the Syrian regime that Washington opposes.

Also, Islamic State made a new threat against a Western hostage. The family of British captive Alan Henning, an aid-convoy volunteer being held by the group, said on Tuesday that they had received an audio recording of the prisoner pleading for his life.

Islamic State has released videos showing the beheadings of three Western hostages—two of them Americans—since the U.S. began airstrikes on Islamic State targets in Iraq in early August.

U.S. officials didn't provide estimates of casualties, though local residents said many were killed, including civilians. American officials said there were no indications of civilian casualties and promised to review any such claims.

The U.S.-led strikes will continue over coming days, U.S. officials said, though they cautioned that future waves are likely to be smaller than the opening round as the campaign quickly settles into a lower, but persistent beat.

"I can tell you that last night's strikes were only the beginning," said Rear Adm. John Kirby, the Pentagon press secretary...

More.

And don't miss Walter Russell Mead, "THE PARALLELS BETWEEN BARACK OBAMA AND GEORGE W. BUSH" (via Instapundit).

Still more at Memeorandum.

Extremist Climate Change Rhetoric Heats Up as the Warming 'Consensus' Collapses

From John Fund, at National Review, "The Crumbling Climate-Change Consensus":

One reason the rhetoric has become so overheated is that the climate-change activists increasingly lack a scientific basis for their most exaggerated claims. As physicist Gordon Fulks of the Cascade Policy Institute puts it: “CO2 is said to be responsible for global warming that is not occurring, for accelerated sea-level rise that is not occurring, for net glacial and sea-ice melt that is not occurring . . . and for increasing extreme weather that is not occurring.” He points out that there has been no net new global-warming increase since 1997 even though the human contribution to carbon dioxide in the atmosphere has risen by 25 percent since then. This throws into doubt all the climate models that have been predicting massive climate dislocation.

Other scientists caution that climate models must be regarded with great care and skepticism. Steven Koonin, the undersecretary for science in the Energy Department during President Obama’s first term, wrote a pathbreaking piece in Saturday’s Wall Street Journal in which he concluded:

We often hear that there is a “scientific consensus” about climate change. But as far as the computer models go, there isn’t a useful consensus at the level of detail relevant to assessing human influence. . . . The models roughly describe the shrinking extent of Arctic sea ice observed over the past two decades, but they fail to describe the comparable growth of Antarctic sea ice, which is now at a record high. . . . Any serious discussion of the changing climate must begin by acknowledging not only the scientific certainties, but also the uncertainties, especially in projecting the future. Recognizing those limits, rather than ignoring them, will lead to a more sober and ultimately more productive discussion of climate change and climate policies. To do otherwise is a great disservice to climate science itself.

Even scientists who accept the conventional scientific treatment of the subject by the U.N. International Panel on Climate Change increasingly question just how much it would help to curb emissions or to radically redistribute wealth, as activists like Klein urge us to do. Bjørn Lomborg, director of the Copenhagen Consensus Center, told me that all of the carbon-reduction targets advocated by the U.N. or the European Union would result in imperceptible differences in temperature, at enormous cost. “We would be far better off and richer if we did simple things like painting roofs in hot climates white and investing in new technologies that could help us adapt to any change that is coming,” he says. Even the U.N.’s own climate panel admits that so far, climate change hasn’t included any increase in the frequency or intensity of so-called extreme weather.

More.

PREVIOUSLY: "'The modern climate alarmism movement has been hijacked by the remnants of those who still adhere to the defunct tenets of revolutionary Marxism...'"

Jordan Arrests 11 Islamic State Jihadists

At the Times of Israel:

Security official says suspects admit to plotting attacks in Hashemite Kingdom; Israel has indicated it will act should group reach neighboring state.

Jordan said it arrested 11 members of the Islamic State group suspected of plotting terrorist attacks inside the Hashemite Kingdom

A security source said the suspects were planning to harm high-value interests in the country and admitted to the charges against them, Israel Radio reported.

Earlier this month, Israel told the US that should the extremist group start operating in neighboring Jordan, it will not hesitate to act, according to a Channel 2 TV report which cited diplomatic sources.

The report did not specify what actions Israel might take if Islamic State started impacting upon Jordan, but Israel is wary of its eastern neighbor being challenged by the brutal terror group, and would seek to guard against further inroads that would directly threaten Israel...

More.

Bwahaha! Fight Against Islamic State Threatens Obama's Defense Budget 'Peace Dividend'

Well, I guess "the tide of war" isn't receding so much after all, lol.

At LAT, "Cuts to defense budget threatened by battle against Islamic State":

Members of Congress and the White House anticipated a peace dividend by winding down America's foreign wars, closing bases and shedding tens of thousands of troops.

But President Obama's new, open-ended strategy to confront Islamic State fighters in Iraq and Syria is likely to eat into some of the nearly $500 billion in Pentagon spending cuts that were planned over the next decade.

The first five weeks of U.S. airstrikes in northern Iraq has cost $262.5 million, according to the Pentagon, and Obama personally lobbied key members of Congress in recent days to appropriate $500 million to help train and arm Syrian rebels at camps in Saudi Arabia.

While that's still a pittance compared with the total $496-billion Pentagon budget, or the $1.2 trillion spent for the ground wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, the costs of intervention are certain to increase under the plan to step up airstrikes, intensify surveillance and conduct counter-terrorism operations against the Sunni extremist force and its leaders.

There are already calls in Congress to eliminate the $45 billion in sequestration spending cuts that are set to hit next fiscal year, which starts Oct. 1, and to increase the supplemental appropriations used to fund the actual war-fighting, as opposed to other parts of the Pentagon budget.

Rep. Peter T. King (R-N.Y.), who chairs a House subcommittee on counter-terrorism and intelligence, said lawmakers should reconsider cuts to the defense budget to ensure the latest military venture is funded for the long haul.

"This is not just bombing a mountainside or securing a dam," he said. "This is a war that could go on for another 10, 15 years. And to do that we're going to have to recalibrate our thinking toward defense, and realize that we have to be on a wartime footing when it comes to spending."

House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-San Francisco) said budget discussions were already underway to address the new national security priorities.

"Every time we talk about any initiative for the use of force or the initiation of hostilities, it's a question of resources," she said. "There is a concern and it's been brought up in our meetings. But we have a first responsibility to protect and defend. That is the oath we take."

The military action has meant a policy reversal for Obama, who vowed in May 2013 to take America off its "permanent war footing" and to curtail the use of drones. As of Saturday, the U.S. had launched 160 airstrikes in northern Iraq in five weeks, compared with 147 drone strikes over the last three years in northwest Pakistan, where Al Qaeda is still based.

For lawmakers, voting to increase military spending may be easier than approving other spending hikes, given the public outcry since videos surfaced last month showing Islamic State fighters beheading two American journalists. A third video released Saturday appeared to show the beheading of a British aid worker. Opinion polls show broad public support for U.S. airstrikes against the insurgents.

Yeah, well, I'm sure unicorns and rainbows would have been less expensive, but keep reading.

Countries Around the World Trying to Suppress the Flow of Jihadists to #ISIS

Well, good luck with that.

At the New York Times, "Nations Trying to Stop Their Citizens From Going to Middle East to Fight for ISIS":

UNITED NATIONS — France wants more power to block its citizens from leaving the country, while Britain is weighing whether to stop more of its citizens from coming home. Tunisia is debating measures to make it a criminal offense to help jihadist fighters travel to Syria and Iraq, while Russia has outlawed enlisting in armed groups that are “contradictory to Russian policy.”

The rapid surge of the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria, and its ability to draw fighters from across the globe, have set off alarm bells in capitals worldwide. Countries that rarely see eye to eye are now trying to blunt its recruitment drive, passing a raft of new rules that they hope will stop their citizens from joining extremist groups abroad.

The United States has seized on the issue, pushing for a legally binding United Nations Security Council resolution that would compel all countries in the world to take steps to “prevent and suppress” the flow of their citizens into the arms of groups considered to be terrorist organizations.

Recruits from 74 countries are among the estimated 12,000 foreign militants in Syria and Iraq, many of them fighting with ISIS, according to Peter Neumann, a professor at King’s College London, who has culled the figures largely from government sources. The largest blocs of these fighters come from nearby Muslim countries, like Tunisia and Saudi Arabia, but smaller contingents come from countries as far away and disparate as Belgium, China, Russia and the United States...

Continue reading.

Unexpectedly! Arab States Give Tepid Support in Fight Against #ISIS

It's just like Ralph Peters said: Arab regimes don't trust Obama. He's f-ked 'em over too many times by now.

At the New York Times, "Arabs Give Tepid Support to U.S. Fight Against ISIS" (via Memeorandum):

BEIRUT, Lebanon — Many Arab governments grumbled quietly in 2011 as the United States left Iraq, fearful it might fall deeper into chaos or Iranian influence. Now, the United States is back and getting a less than enthusiastic welcome, with leading allies like Egypt, Jordan and Turkey all finding ways on Thursday to avoid specific commitments to President Obama’s expanded military campaign against Sunni extremists.

As the prospect of the first American strikes inside Syria crackled through the region, the mixed reactions underscored the challenges of a new military intervention in the Middle East, where 13 years of chaos, from Sept. 11 through the Arab Spring revolts, have deepened political and sectarian divisions and increased mistrust of the United States on all sides.

“As a student of terrorism for the last 30 years, I am afraid of that formula of ‘supporting the American effort,’ ” said Diaa Rashwan, a scholar at the Al-Ahram Center for Political and Strategic Studies, a government-funded policy organization in Cairo. “It is very dangerous.”

The tepid support could further complicate the already complex task Mr. Obama has laid out for himself in fighting the extremist Islamic State in Iraq and Syria: He must try to confront the group without aiding Syria’s president, Bashar al-Assad, or appearing to side with Mr. Assad’s Shiite allies, Iran and the militant group Hezbollah, against discontented Sunnis across the Arab world.

While Arab nations allied with the United States vowed on Thursday to “do their share” to fight ISIS and issued a joint communiqué supporting a broad strategy, the underlying tone was one of reluctance. The government perhaps most eager to join a coalition against ISIS was that of Syria, which Mr. Obama had already ruled out as a partner for what he described as terrorizing its citizens...

More.

The Obama Depression: Long-Term Job Losses Still at Record Levels

Well, things won't really being to turn around until the Depressor-in-Chief is retired for good.

At the Los Angeles Times, "Despite 'recovery,' long-term jobless still at record levels":

It has come down to this for Brian Perry: an apple or banana for lunch, Red Sox ballgames on an old Zenith TV and long walks to shake off the blues.

At 57, Perry has been unemployed and looking for work for nearly seven years, ever since that winter when the Great Recession hit and he was laid off from his job as a law firm clerk.

By his count, Perry has applied for more than 1,300 openings and has had some 30 interviews, the last one a good two years ago. With his savings running dry, this summer he put up for sale his one asset — a three-bedroom house his parents used to own in this suburb of Providence.

"I'm not looking for pity, just one last opportunity," said Perry, a boyish-looking man with bright blue eyes and a nasal New England brogue.

The national economy, now in its sixth year of recovery, is gaining momentum and the unemployment rate has fallen sharply over the last year to 6.1%. But the number and share of people out of work for more than six months, the so-called long-term unemployed, remain at historically high levels.

Of the 3 million long-term jobless today, about one-third have been unemployed for more than two years, Labor Department data show. A small minority — roughly 100,000 Americans like Perry — have been actively looking for at least five years.

They might be called the super long-term unemployed. While others have quit looking, taken early retirement or entered disability rolls, these workers have pressed on year after year despite the increasingly long odds of finding a new job.

Extreme as their cases are, they reflect the devastating effects of the worst economic downturn in 75 years and how much the risks of being unemployed for extended periods have increased compared with the past.

The longer people remain jobless, the more likely they are to suffer the scarring effects of unemployment that can hurt their earnings permanently and create a cycle of instability.

More.

Frankly, I'd be angry. And that "cycle of instability" could easily devolved into extremist political violence.

Gee, thanks Obama and the "equality"-obsessed Democrat Party.

PREVIOUSLY: "The Obama Depression: In Poll, 7-in-10 Say Economy Has Permanently Changed for the Worse Since '09."

Al-Qaeda Eclipsed by Brutality and Influence of Islamic State

Clearly ISIS has taken al-Qaeda's inhumanity to a higher level.

And of course Ayman al-Zawahri's not pleased at being overshadowed.

At USA Today, "Al-Qaeda overshadowed by Islamic State's influence":

WASHINGTON — Al-Qaeda's call Thursday for a jihad (holy war) in India is the latest sign of how the terror group is battling to stay relevant in the face of the rival Islamic State's savage rampage in Iraq and Syria.

The Islamic State, an al-Qaeda breakaway group whose brutality has gained it global notoriety, is overshadowing the old-guard terrorist group from which it sprang.

"They are today's story as compared to al-Qaeda, which is definitely yesterday's story," said Omar Hamid, an analyst at IHS, a consulting firm.

The rivalry between the two groups and the growing power of the Islamic State have forced the United States to rethink its approach to combating terrorism in the region.

President Obama and British Prime Minister David Cameron, writing a joint newspaper opinion piece Thursday, called the Islamic State "brutal and poisonous" and urged NATO leaders meeting in Wales to confront the militant group.

The Islamic State "threatens to outpace al-Qaeda as the dominant voice of influence in the global extremist movement," Matthew Olsen, director of the U.S. government's National Counterterrorism Center, said Wednesday.

Particularly worrying to Olsen are 100 Americans and more than 1,000 Europeans recruited by the Islamic State to fight in Syria's 3-year-old civil war. "These foreign fighters are likely to gain experience and training and eventually return to their home countries, battle-hardened and further radicalized," Olsen said.

"Everybody wants to join ISIS (Islamic State of Iraq and Syria) because ISIS looks like it's on the march," said Evan Kohlmann, an analyst with the security firm Flashpoint Global Partners.

Al-Qaeda leader Ayman al-Zawahri released a videotape Thursday calling for the establishment of a wing of the group based in the Indian subcontinent.

"Our brothers in Burma, Kashmir, Islamabad, Bangladesh, we did not forget you and will liberate you from injustice and oppression," the al-Qaeda leader said.

Analysts say the plea is less about expansion than it is an attempt to prove its relevance in a world where its influence is declining...

More.

Brutal Rise of Islamic State Turns Old Enemies Into New Friends

At WSJ, "Nations Long at Loggerheads, Such as Iran and Saudi Arabia, Find Common Ground in Bid to Curb Extremists":

In the brutal calculation of Middle East politics, the baseline for friendship has always been simple: The enemy of my enemy is my friend.

By that standard, the Islamic State extremist group is creating friendships aplenty. An odd set of bedfellows or potential bedfellows, transcending geographical, ideological and alliance bounds, is emerging from the ranks of those threatened by what many see as the most dangerous militant movement in a generation.

Shiite Muslim Iran and Sunni Muslim Saudi Arabia, for instance, have been bitter foes since at least 1979, when the Iranian revolutionary government of Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini hoped to inspire similar revolutions in the Sunni world. But both countries now fear Islamic State's armed radical Islamist movement, which seeks to usurp their own claimed leadership of the Muslim world.

That led Iran and Saudi Arabia to independently back the same candidate to lead Iraq, in a push for a new government that might unite Sunnis and Shiites to battle Islamic State. This week, Iranian and Saudi diplomats held a rare meeting to consult.

Turkey has long distrusted and worked against ethnic Kurds, especially a violent splinter group known as the PKK that operates out of the mountainous environs of northern Iraq. But the Turks looked the other way when Syrian Kurdish militias affiliated with the PKK played a starring role in the rescue from Islamic State fighters of thousands of Yazidis stranded on a mountainside.

Russia and the U.S. are at loggerheads in Ukraine and elsewhere, including the Middle East. But they agree that the sort of violent Islam practiced by Islamic State, which now controls large swaths of Iraq and Syria, endangers the global order in which both countries compete for influence.

Islamic State even has had a falling out with al Qaeda, the group that spawned it. Al Qaeda's official Syrian branch, known as the Nusra Front, is outflanked and mocked by Islamic State. So Nusra has joined the fight against Islamic State, clashing violently on the battlefields of Syria.

These countries and movements may be at odds over nearly everything else, but nothing focuses the mind like a mortal threat, say some analysts and former top security officials. Given not only Islamic State's savagery but its potential to overthrow regimes and spill over borders, they all seem to agree on only one thing: It needs to be stopped.

Lacking a coalition of the willing, the Obama administration should muster up a sort of alliance of the unwilling, these analysts argue. Whether that is possible, and whether the U.S. has the guile and clout to unite such disparate forces—either formally, or more likely in a combination of overt, covert and arm's-length arrangements—is an open question.

"It has to be patched together, somewhat ad hoc, with maybe some sort of informal and even clandestine agreements on who does what," says Zbigniew Brzezinski, a former U.S. national-security adviser.

More at that top link.

Islamic State Captures Major Air Base in #Syria From Government — UPDATE: Captured Syrian Soldiers Beheaded!

At the Wall Street Journal, "The Base Was the Last Government-Held Outpost in a Province Dominated by Islamic State":

"SashTam Islamic State Captures Major Syrian Air Base From Gov't http://t.co/sH3dYVpjJE #ObamaForeignPolicy #ISIS pic.twitter.com/Hlw3FcjsnU
— Mike Beacham (@Mike_Beacham) August 24, 2014

BEIRUT—The extremist group Islamic State captured a major air base in the northeastern province of Raqqa, driving out regime forces and gaining full control of an entire Syrian province for the first time in the civil war.

Several opposition activists based in the Raqqa area said Islamic State fighters were able to pierce the defenses of the Tabqa air base earlier Sunday and take it over. The capture came after fierce clashes with regime forces for five days at the gates of the military installation located near a town and a dam on the Euphrates River that bear the same name as the Tabqa air base.

It was the latest strategic conquest for the group, which has captured large swaths of territory in Syria and neighboring Iraq. Its recent advances in northern Iraq toward the semiautonomous Kurdish region and threats to religious minorities drew U.S. airstrikes on the militants in Iraq.

The U.K.-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, an opposition group tracking the conflict through its own network of activists inside Syria, said Islamic State militants captured most of the air base. A contingent of regime forces that had been stationed there withdrew to the town of Athraya to the southwest on a major supply route controlled by the regime, the Observatory said.

The regime's state-controlled news agency SANA described the withdrawal from the air base as a tactical one, an apparent attempt to soften the impact of the loss on regime supporters.

"Our forces have completed a successful regrouping operation after withdrawing from the air base, and they are still carrying out precision strikes against the terrorist groups in the area," said SANA.

The fall of the base to Islamic State fighters gives the group full control of Raqqa province, which shares borders with Turkey to the north and the crucial province of Aleppo to the west. East of Raqqa, the group already controls parts of Hasakah province and more than 80% of Deir-Ezzour province, both bordering Iraq.

Over the past month, Islamic State has succeeded in capturing the headquarters of the Syrian Army's 17th Division in Raqqa and another base for the 93rd Brigade of the same division also located in Raqqa.

The beheading of American journalist James Foley has prompted American officials to begin working to knit together a broader international campaign to combat Islamic State, an effort that the Pentagon warned will require taking the fight beyond Iraq and into Syria.

JWF has the update on Twitter. Click through for the report from McClatchy:

Islamic extremists seize Syrian military base then behead captured Assad soldiers http://t.co/4T4evr1Lhc

— JWF (@JammieWF) August 24, 2014