See previous: 2007.04.30 Dem Perfidy // Islamism Delenda Est Roundup   

Below the fold (newest items at the top):

• Expected and Overdue
• Hamas Official: Kill All Americans
• Military Already Feels The Consequences Of Delayed Funding
• Video: President Bush addresses Centcom
  Breaking: Bush will veto the spending bill
• Democrats surrender
• While the troops wait, the Dems diddle
• AQI Leader Killed?
• Why Congress Should Embrace the Surge
• Five guilty of fertiliser bomb plot
• Small War Deep Think
• The Virtue of "Torture"

Bush to Address Nation After Veto of Iraq War Spending Bill

WASHINGTON  —  Congressional Democratic leaders sent a war spending bill to the White House on Tuesday with full expectation of a presidential veto and recognition that both sides will have to go back to the drawing board on funding troops in Iraq.

But in a signing ceremony ahead of the bill's delivery, Democratic leaders urged President Bush to reconsider his plan to veto the legislation, which sets an Oct. 1 deadline for U.S. troops to being pulling out of Iraq.

“We renew our call to President Bush, there is still time to listen to the American people, there’s still time to sign this bill and change course in Iraq,” Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid said on Capitol Hill.

Bush will address the nation late Tuesday from the White House after he vetoes the bill, a move that comes exactly four years after the commander in chief declared the end of major combat operations in Iraq.  ...

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Just watched Bush's address. Way too short, way too matter of fact; I was hoping he'd use the opportunity to tear the Dhimms a new one. I haven't found a linkable video yet but I'll post the link when I do.

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Bryan Preston has the video here, whitehouse.gov has the transcript here.

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Expected and Overdue
Posted by Jim Lynch

Hardly unexpected, and long overdue, the President vetoed the Cut and Run funding bill.

[...]

There is an interesting story about the pen used to veto the bill.

Bush signed the veto with a pen given to him by Robert Derga, the father of Marine Corps Reserve Cpl. Dustin Derga, who was killed in Iraq on May 8, 2005. The elder Derga spoke with Bush two weeks ago at a meeting the president had with military families at the White House.

Derga asked Bush to promise to use the pen in his veto. On Tuesday, Derga contacted the White House to remind Bush to use the pen, and so he did. The 24-year-old Dustin Derga served with Lima Company, 3rd Battalion 25th Marines from Columbus, Ohio. The five-year Marine reservist and fire team leader was killed by an armor-piercing round in Anbar Province.

One key reason for the rejection is beyond obvious, and it confounds me that others refuse to see it. From the President’s remarks:

[...]

Well, yeah. ...

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Hamas Official: Kill All Americans 
Ed Morrissey

Pam at Atlas Shrugged had this earlier, but the Jerusalem Post has a fresh report on the latest threat from Palestinians against the West. The Speaker of the Palestinian Authority parliament has called Palestinians to the task of murdering all Americans, in addition to the mission of wiping Jews off the face of the Earth:

Sheik Ahmad Bahr, acting Speaker of the Palestinian Legislative Council, declared during a Friday sermon at a Sudan mosque that America and Israel will be annihilated and called upon Allah to kill Jews and Americans "to the very Last One". Following are excerpts from the sermon that took place last month, courtesy of MEMRI.

Ahmad Bahr began: "You will be victorious" on the face of this planet. You are the masters of the world on the face of this planet. Yes, [the Koran says that] "you will be victorious," but only "if you are believers." Allah willing, "you will be victorious," while America and Israel will be annihilated. I guarantee you that the power of belief and faith is greater than the power of America and Israel. They are cowards, who are eager for life, while we are eager for death for the sake of Allah. That is why America's nose was rubbed in the mud in Iraq, in Afghanistan, in Somalia, and everywhere.

This speech took place in April. Coincidentally, that was the same month that we sent $59 million in aid -- to the same Palestinian Authority in which this lunatic serves as Speaker. The US has provided the Palestinians with more than $1.6 billion in aid since Oslo. This is what our money buys.

Kim Priestap has more here.

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Military Already Feels The Consequences Of Delayed Funding
Ed Morrissey

One of the points in dispute about the Iraq war supplemental bill about to get vetoed by the President is whether the delay has affected military operations. Harry Reid said that the current funding will cover operations until mid-July, while the White House insists that it has already begun degrading operations and readiness. A Congressional Research Service analysis supports the Democrats -- but only by saying that robbing Peter to pay Paul will still have impact on a broad range of activities (emphases mine): ...

[Read the whole thing, then while you're at CQ read the post just below it. ]

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Video: President Bush addresses Centcom
Breaking: Bush will veto the spending bill
Bryan Preston (H/T: Michelle Malkin)

President Bush addressed the Centcom conference today. His speech centered on the war on terrorism, and while much of what he said will be familiar to readers here, he does mention some plots that have been broken up thanks to good anti-terror activities among our allies. He also connects terrorist action around the world to the global war on terrorism which is currently centered in Iraq. Click to play.

Update: Just heard from Tony Snow that President Bush will announce at 6:10 pm tonight that he will veto the war funding bill. He will transmit that veto to Congress tomorrow.

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Democrats surrender
Don Surber

S.A. Miller of the Washington Times had some good news:

Democratic leaders in Congress are slowly backing down from a standoff with the White House over tying war funding to a troop-withdrawal timetable, saying they can use other bills to confront President Bush on Iraq.

This whole timetable fiasco has been a sop to the ultra lefties, whom the Democratic leaders wrongly credit with November’s victories. Congressional Republican blew it. Rare was the liberal Democrat who knocked off a Republican last fall. It was all conservative and moderate Democrats.

So why all the left turns since then? This isn’t NASCAR.

The Miller story pointed to Harry “The War Is Lost” Reid as the main leader caving. Nancy Pelosi is tougher.

Said Reid’s spokesman John Manley: “There are a number of opportunities to try to force a change of policy in Iraq.”

And Reid’s taxpayer-paid flack also said: “We have to see if we can get that is acceptable to Republicans. I don’t know if that is possible.”

To be fair, Reid is a plurality leader. He has only 49 Democrats and he needs to keep Joe “The Hawk” Lieberman happy to remain as the Senate leader. Irony, isn’t it, that the main guy the Netroots targeted is the reason the Dems cannot cave to the demands of the Netroots? ...

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AQI Leader Killed?
Ed Morrissey

That's right, put a big fat question mark at the end of that sentence, because so far the only source on record for that assertion comes from the Iraqi Interior Ministry, which has a track record of overenthusiasm with kill reports. Abu Ayyub al-Masri, the successor to Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, reportedly died in a battle today with other insurgents: ...

Michelle Malkin and SeeDubya have more. Also Richard Miniter (H/T: Don Surber). Don't miss Confederate Yankee Bob Owens's excellent related post here.

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While the troops wait, the Dems diddle
Michelle Malkin

85 days and counting. From the office of Sen. John Cornyn:

*In case you missed it, according to Congressional Quarterly today, even though the conference report on the supplemental bill for our troops was adopted by the House and cleared by the Senate last week, House Speaker Pelosi “wanted time to personally read it and sign it before sending it to Pennsylvania Avenue.” [CQ Daily, “President’s Veto Dependent on House Speaker’s Signature,” May 1, 2007]

*Responding to this report on the Senate floor this morning, Senator John Cornyn, Vice-Chair of the Senate Republican Conference, said, “Today is a sad day for our nation because it represents the 85th day that our fighting men and women in uniform have been waiting for emergency aid from the Congress, yet they have been left waiting because of political gamesmanship and political theater here in Washington D.C. The latest is reported in “Congressional Quarterly” today…the report is that Congresswoman Pelosi wanted to personally read the emergency supplemental bill and to sign it before sending it to Pennsylvania Avenue. I would have thought that Congresswoman Pelosi and that Members of the Congress would have read this legislation before they voted on it – not afterwards.”

* Senator Cornyn continued speaking on the floor, stating, ....

Ed Morrissey has more here.

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Why Congress Should Embrace the Surge 
By Owen West

WHEN the civilian hierarchy fails them, soldiers tend to seek solace in Clausewitz’s observation that war is an extension of politics. But in 2005 and 2006 the reverse was true in Iraq: the battle churned in place, steadily eroding the administration’s credibility and America’s psyche, while most politicians stood on the sidelines, content to hurl insults at one another until the battlefield offered a clear political course.

What was most remarkable, however, was the military’s inability to grab the reins and articulate a realistic war plan for Iraq. At home, recruiting, supply and deployment crises were solved; but in Iraq the generals continued to offer assessments of the fight that were as obviously inaccurate as those trumpeted by the politicians. The goal was to put Iraqi forces in the lead, but as a consequence, large-scale battlefield adaptation was scarce.

Today the civil-military relationship has righted itself, yet soldiers like me who believe that Iraq can be stabilized face a bitter irony. On one hand, the military is finally making meaningful adjustments to the complex fight. On the other, the politicians are finally asserting themselves. The tragedy is that the two groups are going in opposite directions. ...

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Five guilty of fertiliser bomb plot
By Sally Peck (U.K. Telegraph)

Five men were found guilty today of conspiracy to cause a series of deadly explosions using home-made fertiliser bombs as it emerged today that the men had links to the July 7 bombers.

Omar Khyam, who boasted of working for the number three in al-Qa'eda, was found guilty along with Jawad Akbar, Salahuddin Amin, Waheed Mahmood and Anthony Garcia of conspiracy to cause explosions made from chemical fertiliser which would endanger life.

The security service has always maintained that the London suicide bombers were merely on the “periphery” of another operation and a court order had banned the media from reporting the link with the fertiliser gang, who were arrested 16 months before the July 7 attacks on London transport system killed 52 people. ...

See-Dubya has more here.

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Small War Deep Think
Jules Crittenden

Small Wars Journal loaded with good stuff:

Australian LTC David Kilcullen, senior counterinsurgency advisor to Petraeus, on the controversial “gated communities” of Baghdad.

Juxtapositon of a couple of curiously related topics: “DoD Models Insufficient for (Gaming) Unrestricted Warfare,” the latter being not Clausewitzian absolute war but anything goes war; and excerpts and related links on Yingling’s “Failure in Generalship.”

Meanwhile, a series of must-reads on counterinsurgency: Luttwak in Harpers on US failings, and Kilcullen in Baghdad on Luttwak’s failings.

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The Virtue of "Torture"
Hatched by Dafydd ab Hugh

Ayn Rand once published a book titled the Virtue of Selfishness, which I didn't actually read: While I like her fiction, I find her nonfiction bombastic and often hilariously uninformed about everything from philosophy to science.

But that won't stop me from stealing the title for this post. What I really want to talk about is Dean Barnett, John McCain, Khalid Sheikh Mohammed (hereafter KSM), and the moral status of both torture and "torture."

Virtue, in this case, means showing that some technique will save innocent lives while not itself being morally repugnant... which is precisely the case I prove for "torture" -- but reject for torture. ...