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I appeared on Silvio Canto Jr.'s radio show from Dallas yesterday.  You can hear it here.

Happy birthday, Fred Astaire.  I have a piece up at Power Line right now celebrating the birthday of Fred Astaire, with links to some of the greatest performances you'll ever see, featuring Eleanor Powell, Rita Hayworth, Ginger Rogers, Cyd Charisse and Barrie Chase.  I think you'll like it.  It's here.

Thanks to all the readers who sent e-mails about the Fred Astaire piece.  I hope to answer each one personally.  To answer the most asked question:  No, I never knew him.  I wish I had because he had a great reputation.  Of the Astaire ladies, I only met Ginger Rogers, who, by the way, was an ardent conservative.  I got about ten feet from Rita Hayworth, but, unfortunately, no closer. 

MAY 10,  2011

RUDY STARTS TO MAKE HIS MOVE – AT 11:01 P.M. ET:  We've been writing about terror today, and if America has a "Mr. Anti-Terror," it's Rudy Giuliani.  It's both his credit and his curse.

Rudy has been acting more like a presidential candidate recently.  We've expressed our doubts about a possible second run by the former New York mayor and hero of 9-11, citing his poor showing in the 2008 GOP primaries, and the fact that 9-11 is now ten years past.  But national security is Rudy's credential, and he's playing the terror card.  From The Politico:

Rudy Giuliani warned that the major party national conventions are obvious terrorist targets during a stop in Charlotte on Tuesday.

The former New York mayor, who's contemplating another presidential run in 2012 and who has made national security a focus of his speeches for years, made the remarks as he spoke to a police foundation luncheon in the city that will host the Democratic National Convention next year.

According to WSCOTV.com, Giuliani said, "You want everyone to leave your city enjoying it, because the benefit to your city is people wanting to come back."

But he also raised the specter of the 2004 Republican National Convention in New York City, and the logistical and security factors involved, given that the city had endured the 9/11 terror attacks just three years earlier.

"The conventions will always be targets," he said. "They always are. Not only because of the presence of the president and presidential candidates, but the presence of so many significant people. It's just a place for terrorists and would-be terrorists to make a statement."

COMMENT:  There is a certain grim reality here.  Candidates often rise because they meet certain needs.  Right now, I don't think the country believes it needs a Rudy.  But if we are attacked severely between now and the 2012 conventions, Rudy's stock will rise dramatically.  That's simply the way it goes.  Whether that, and national fear, will be enough to drive him to the nomination is impossible to predict.

One of Rudy's problems, as former New York Mayor Ed Koch once said, is that he's seen as a cop, and not much more than that.  Cops are wonderful, but you don't elect them to solve an economic crisis.  So I think Rudy's national future is entirely dependent on whether Americans feel they need a supercop as president.  In Giuliani they'd have the best, but I hope it never comes to that.

May 10, 2011       Permalink

MORE SERIOUS THAN WE THOUGHT – AT 10:29 P.M. ET:  As we reported earlier, there were a number of "scare" incidents in the United States yesterday, reflecting our nervousness over possible retaliation for our providing rest to Osama bin Laden.  But one incident may be more serious than we'd thought.  From AP:

SAN FRANCISCO – A Yemen native who disrupted a San Francisco-bound flight was portrayed by prosecutors Tuesday as a dangerous and erratic passenger who tried to barge into the cockpit twice, did not carry any luggage and yelled "God is great" in Arabic.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Elise Becker said Rageh Al-Murisi, 28, was carrying several valid and expired forms of identification from New York and California, $47 in cash and two postdated checks totaling $13,000 in his wallet. One check was made out to himself, she said, but did not specify where the other was from.

She also said he didn't tell his relatives in California that he was traveling there.

Al-Murisi faces one count of interfering with flight crew members and attendants as pilots on American Airlines Flight 1561 were preparing to land in San Francisco on Sunday, one week after the death of Osama bin Laden at the hands of the U.S. military that has raised fears of a possible retaliation.

"He attempted to enter the cockpit right before a critical part of the flight," Becker said in prosecution arguments to withhold bail for Al-Murisi. 

The "God is great" stuff really spooks us.  God is indeed great, but not in the way that this chap thinks.

Becker said that the same Arabic phrase was uttered by the hijackers of Flight 93 as they took over the plane that eventually went down in Shanksville, Pa., on Sept. 11, 2001, and by a Nigerian man who allegedly tried to detonate explosives in his underwear on a Detroit-bound flight on Christmas 2009.

Yeah.  It's not the kind of thing you shout to motivate, say, a tennis player.  It's a serious kind of shout.

I suspect we'll be hearing more about this case.  Expect some kind of mental plea.

May 10, 2011       Permalink

IT'S COME TO THIS – AT 10:23 A.M. ET:  Our deteriorating relationship with Pakistan apparently played into planning for the bin Laden raid, according to this report in London's Telegraph:

President Barack Obama ordered the team sent to raid Osama bin Laden's compound be large enough to fight off Pakistani forces should they intervene, according to reports.

Mr Obama raised the prospect of a clash 10 days before the May 1 raid, resulting in an extra two fighter helicopters being sent to protect the commandos raiding the compound, according to officials.

"Some people may have assumed we could talk our way out of a jam, but given our difficult relationship with Pakistan right now, the president did not want to leave anything to chance," an official told The New York Times. "He wanted extra forces if they were necessary."

The Times also reported that two teams of specialists were on standby for the mission: one to bury the al-Qaeda leader if he were killed, and another made up of lawyers, interrogators and translators in case he was captured.

It said the latter team was likely aboard the aircraft carrier Carl Vinson in the North Arabian Sea.

Bin Laden was buried at sea after he was shot dead in the raid, officials have said.

COMMENT:  The slide in our relations with Pakistan has accelerated since the raid.  Yesterday the Pakistani prime minister threatened military action against American forces if we try that kind of raid again, without seeking Pakistani permission.  I suspect that this threat was mostly for internal consumption, but the fact is that there are very hostile elements within Pakistan.  It is inconceivable that someone didn't know that bin Laden was living a few blocks from Pakistan's West Point.  

Our problems with Pakistan are a reflection of our problems throughout much of the Muslim world.  Given the alarming slippage in Egypt since the revolution there only months ago, and the growing power of the Muslim Brotherhood, those problems don't seem to be getting any better.

May 10, 2011       Permalink

DIDN'T WE FIGHT A CIVIL WAR OVER THIS? – AT 9:28 A.M. ET:  What I find so adorable about some liberals is their delightfully apartheid attitude toward the rest of us.  Don't feel inferior when you read this:

TUCSON, Arizona (Reuters) - A long-simmering movement by liberal stalwarts in southern Arizona to break away from the rest of the largely conservative state is at a boiling point as secession backers press to bring their longshot ambition to the forefront of Arizona politics.

A group of lawyers from the Democratic stronghold of Tucson and surrounding Pima County have launched a petition drive seeking support for a November 2012 ballot question on whether the 48th state should be divided in two.

The ultimate goal of the newly formed political action committee Start our State is to split Pima County off into what would become the nation's 51st state, tentatively dubbed Baja Arizona.

Backers have until July 5 next year to collect the 48,000 signatures required to qualify for a spot on the ballot. If they succeed, it would mark only the first hurdle in a long, circuitous process that even the most determined of supporters readily acknowledge has little chance of bearing fruit.

"We at least need to get it on the ballot, as a nonbinding resolution, to ask the people of Pima County if they want to be a part of Arizona," Tucson attorney Paul Eckerstrom, a former Pima County Democratic chairman who launched the campaign, told Reuters. "All the stars would have to align for this to happen, but it could conceivably happen by the fall of 2013."

COMMENT:  You know, wouldn't it be great if we had a national referendum on this, and decided to let them go?  What would they do then?  They're like adolescents who run away from home with five dollars in their pocket. 

Incredible, that in this day and age, people still talk about secession.  Maybe if they had some better arguments, they could win some elections in the real Arizona.

May 10, 2011       Permalink

SNIPPET OF THE DAY – AT 9:15 A.M. ET:

From the New York Post:  LOS ANGELES — Former California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and his wife of 25 years, Maria Shriver, announced that they are separating.

Well, let's see:  Former governor, former movie star.  As the Post says, "Hasta la vista, baby."

May 10, 2011       Permalink

NO BETTER THAN BIN LADEN – AT 8:24 A.M. ET:  That's a fair description of Muammar Qaddafi, who remains in power, even as NATO air strikes continue, with no apparent end in sight to the conflict.  From Fox:

NATO warplanes struck Tripoli early Tuesday in the heaviest bombing of the Libyan capital in weeks, hours after an uptick in fighting between rebels and Muammar Qaddafi's forces on a long deadlocked front line in the country's east.

NATO struck at least four sites in Tripoli, setting off crackling explosions that thundered through the city overnight. One strike hit a building that local residents said was used by a military intelligence agency. Another targeted a government building that officials said was sometimes used by parliament members.

It was not immediately clear what the other two strikes hit, but one of them sent plumes of smoke over Tripoli. Libyan officials would not say what that strike hit but the smoke appeared to come from the sprawling compound housing members of Qaddafi's family.

Between explosions, an aircraft dropped burning flares. Some residents responded by raking the sky with gunfire and beeping their horns.

The Tripoli bombing came just hours after heavy fighting was reported Monday on the eastern front, south of Ajdabiya, a rebel-held town about 90 miles (150 kilometers) south of Benghazi, the rebel headquarters in the east.

COMMENT:  Look, this isn't going anywhere.  Obama spoke brave words about getting Qaddafi out of power, then never followed up.

It's known that Qaddafi follows American military action closely, with an eye to self-preservation.  It was just after the U.S. captured Saddam Hussein that Libya suddenly gave up its nuclear program, the better to avoid American action that might bring down the house of Qaddafi.

I would hope that the U.S. and its allies would now use the killing of bin Laden as a weapon against the Libyan leader.  The message would be clear:  "Look, Muammar, you saw what happened to your pal Osama.  He got in our way, he sleeps with the fishes.  Now, we know where you are, Muammar.  You could wind up like Osama, or you could get out of Libya and maybe face some legal charges.  But at least you'll have your life and three squares a day.  We've got a planeload of missiles pointed at your bedroom, Muammar.  So what do you say?"

Given Qaddafi's history, I'll bet he takes the first jetliner out.  I hope we do it.

May 10, 2011       Permalink 

JITTERY NATION – AT 8:02 A..M. ET:  A number of stories that normally wouldn't see print made it into news media yesterday because the country is jittery, fearful of an Al Qaeda retaliation for the forced retirement of Osama bin Laden.  From The New York Daily News:

Fears that Osama Bin Laden's followers want payback for his execution fueled a nationwide wave of jitters - causing evacuations, a flight diversion and higher blood pressure.

Part of Lincoln Hospital in the Bronx and a nearby apartment building were evacuated early Monday after the discovery of a parked 1998 Dodge Caravan running for hours with 24 pipelike devices inside.

Police used a robot to blow out the vehicle's windows before giving the allclear just before 1 a.m.

Investigators determined that the pipes were harmless foam tubes used to protect glass. The Caravan's driver, a windshield installer, had abandoned his vehicle to deal with a severe asthma attack and left the tubes behind.

Late Sunday, a Yemeni man who had lived in New York was tackled by passengers on an American Airlines flight to California when he began pounding on the cockpit door about 30 minutes before landing.

The man, Rageh Almurisi, 28, may have thought it was a rest room. "He's not a terrorist, trust me," said his cousin Rageh Almoraissi, 29, who owns a store in Vallejo, Calif. "You don't knock on a door as a terrorist act. I think it was just a misunderstanding," he added, saying that his cousin has a math degree and loves America.

COMMENT:   We have no objection to the country being on heightened alert, and "if you see something, say something" is a perfectly logical slogan.  These stories will fade away in a few days, leaving us with a simple reality:  Al Qaeda is a suicide organization that uses kamikaze tactics.  The only answer to a suicide attack is detection and prevention.  Once the plan is in motion, it's almost impossible to stop.  That is our nightmare.

May 10, 2011       Permalink

MAY 9,  2011

ECONOMY LIMITING OBAMA'S BIN LADEN BUMP – AT 9:47 P.M. ET:  The polls we've seen show that the president did get a post-raid bump, but that economic reality is limiting the bump's size and tenure.  From MSNBC:

WASHINGTON — In the days after Barack Obama ordered the successful mission to kill Osama bin Laden, the president’s approval rating on foreign policy issues reached an all-time high, even as public opinion regarding his handling of the economy sunk to the lowest point of his administration, according to a new NBC News poll.

The survey shows a mixed picture for Obama, whose overall job-approval rating was bumped higher by a modest three points after the al-Qaida leader’s death was announced late Sunday.

What has changed for the president since the raid at bin Laden’s compound: The number of respondents seeing Obama as a strong leader and a good commander in chief has spiked, and public opion for his handling of the war in Afghanistan jumped to an all-time high.

But here’s what hasn’t changed: Just a third of Americans believe the country is headed in the right direction; less than four in 10 approve of Obama’s handling of the U.S. economy; and nearly 70 percent think the economy will get worse or stay the same in the next year.

COMMENT:  The problem for the president is that there aren't any other targets of bin Laden's stature out there, whereas there are plenty of chances for the economy to go into a number of ditches.  (A report today, for example, said that housing values are continuing their dive, and that almost 30% of American homeowners are underwater – that is, their homes are worth less than what they must pay out on their mortgages.) 

The election, if current trends continue, will be fought mainly about the economy, unless a huge foreign crisis intervenes.  The president is vulnerable on the economy, but the GOP isn't off the hook.  It is often seen as too cozy with big business and obsessed with keeping down tax rates on the comfortable.  The Republicans must come up with an imaginative plan to rescue the economy, and it must be a fair plan.  Otherwise, they will squander the opportunity they're being given.

May 9, 2011       Permalink

ARAB-AMERICAN CHRISTIANS DISTANCING THEMSELVES FROM MUSLIMS – AT 9:30 P.M. ET:  This is a remarkable, if somewhat sad, story about internal tensions within the Arab-American population.  Christians are starting to assert their identity and are moving away from identification with Muslims.  From The Washington Times: 

STERLING HEIGHTS, Mich. — Arab Christians here are trying to separate themselves from a boisterous Muslim community that has served as a punching bag for “terrorism” stereotypes since Sept. 11.

Many have moved to Detroit’s northern suburbs — Sterling Heights, Madison Heights, Farmington Hills and the Bloomfield areas — to get away from the high concentration of Muslims in Dearborn, said Pastor Haytham Abi Haydar of Arabic Fellowship Alliance Church. Other Christians, he said, have turned their backs on their Arab heritage and integrated with American culture.

But just like Middle Easterners often assume America is a Christian nation, many Americans assume all Arabs are Muslims. That’s made life in a post-9/11 world difficult for a group of people who is proving religion has no borders.

“On many, many, many occasions, if you’re an Arab, you might as well be a Muslim to many people here,” Mr. Abi Haydar said. “Unfortunately, the majority don’t see the dynamic that Christianity came from the Middle East, that Jesus was from the Middle East.”

Mr. Abi Haydar said some Americans know the difference and do not stereotype. “You can’t label all Americans as ignorant,” he said.

And...

Many of these problems were brought on by al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden, when he started drawing attention to the Arab community after he masterminded the 9/11 attacks. Arab Christians hope the tension dies now that he’s dead, so they can move on.

COMMENT:  The problems faced by Christian Arab-Americans preceded 9-11.  They always felt they were lumped in with the Muslim majority, and America's problems with Islamic extremism didn't begin with the 9-11 attacks.

I saw this firsthand when a member of my family was operated on by a Lebanese-American surgeon.  He introduced himself to us by saying, "I'm Lebanese.  I'm a Christian."  He wore a cross.  I always thought it odd that a man would introduce himself by religion, but I later learned that the Arab-American Christians want to be seen as a distinct religious culture, and not lumped in.  I suspect we'll be seeing much more of this in the years to come.

May 9, 2011      Permalink

KNOWLEDGEABLE COMMENT – AT 11:20 A.M. ET:  There have been so many talking heads and writing heads in action since the death of bin Laden, that it's gratifying to find some knowledgeable people who are actually contributing something to the discussion.  Max Boot is one of them, and he warns that the death of bin Laden actually changes very little.  From RealClearWorld:

Those who claim that we can disengage from Afghanistan now that the "emir" of al Qaeda is dead seem to assume the whole organization will disappear with him. It might, but it might not. Other terrorist groups such as Hamas and Hezbollah have survived the loss of their leaders.

Opponents of the war effort also argue that the Navy SEAL raid should be a model for the kind of counterterrorist approach we should adopt more generally, relying on pinpoint strikes rather than dispatching 100,000 ground troops to carry out a grueling counterinsurgency campaign.

President Obama has repeatedly provided superficial support for this view by claiming that our "core goal" in Afghanistan is limited to "disrupting, dismantling and defeating al Qaeda." No doubt he put the emphasize on al Qaeda because it is the terrorist group that most Americans worry about the most. But since 2001 it has never had more than a few dozen fighters at a time inside Afghanistan.

Of greater immediate concern are al Qaeda's allies: the Quetta Shura Taliban, the Haqqani network and Hezb-e-Islami Gulbuddin (HiG), which among them deploy thousands of hardened terrorists. These groups, in turn, are part of a larger conglomeration of extremists based in Pakistan including the Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan (the Pakistani Taliban), Lashkar-e-Taiba and Jaish-e-Mohammed.

All of these organizations share an eagerness to slaughter civilians and a desire to create a totalitarian regime modeled on Taliban-era Afghanistan. All are rabidly hostile to Westerners, Jews, Hindus, Shiites and anyone else who does not share their hard-core Salafist beliefs.

COMMENT:  We are facing an ideology, not merely an organization.  Many people don't want to accept that.  Drilled in the multicultural dribble of the universities, they believe we're just having a problem with some rotten apples. 

Churchill warned of militant Islam a century ago.  As usual, he wasn't taken seriously.  Now we have those who, with every turn of events, argue that the fight is over and that we can go home.  There is speculation that Obama may use the death of bin Laden to argue that our mission in Afghanistan is nearly complete, and that we can start withdrawing a large contingent of troops.  Maybe we can.  I'm not an expert on Afghanistan.  But those who think this battle is over are underestimating the power of ideas, especially when those ideas are spread through the influence of mass media. 

This is the long war, or what President Kennedy called a "twilight struggle," most of it waged without large land battles.  Our victory is far from guaranteed.  Our defeat would change civilization very much for the worse.

May 9, 2011       Permalink

IT IS HARD TO MAKE THIS UP – AT 10:51 A.M. ET:   Maybe Britain should stick to royal weddings.  They do it so well.  When it comes to legal decisions...uh, there is room for improvement.  From London's Daily Mail:

Rules to prevent religious discrimination can now also be used to protect a belief in the BBC’s ethos of public service broadcasting, a tribunal has ruled.

Its extraordinary decision elevates the BBC’s core principle to a place in the law equivalent to Christianity.
And the move leaves the way clear for long-serving employee Devan Maistry to sue the Corporation for wrongful dismissal.

South African-born Mr Maistry, who worked for the BBC Asian Network, says he suffered discrimination for six years until he was dismissed last year.

He has filed a claim for ‘religious or belief discrimination’, which allegedly took place against his philosophical view that ‘public service broadcasting has the higher purpose of promoting cultural interchange and social cohesion’.

Birmingham employment tribunal chairman Pam Hughes decided Mr Maistry has a worthy case, and gave him the right to a full hearing later this year.

COMMENT:  Oh dear, oh dear.  What will come next?  Our Lady of CNN?  The Church of NPR?  Temple Beth Fox?  True, the BBC has long been more a religious experience than a news operation, but this carries things to an absurd level.

Just a second.  I want to turn on the morning service at CNBC. 

May 9, 2011       Permalink

WATCH THE JOBS REPORT STATE BY STATE – AT 9:55 A.M. ET:  The national unemployment picture is muddled, with contradictory reports confusing an already tough situation.  But it's important to see unemployment not only nationally, but state by state.  The political implications are heavy.  We vote by state in presidential elections, and unemployment in key states can have a large impact on President Obama's reelection chances.  From The Hill:

The April jobs numbers offered tentative hope for President Obama’s reelection bid, but a potentially more telling indicator will come later this month -- the latest state-by-state unemployment data.

Despite a slight uptick in the national unemployment rate -- now at 9 percent -- the economy added more private-sector jobs last month than economists predicted, allowing Obama to claim Friday that there had been further "progress" toward a full economic recovery.

But in several key 2012 battleground states, where economic progress will likely be critical to Obama's reelection hopes, the unemployment rate remains above the national average.

New data is set for release May 20, but the current numbers hover near or over double digits.

Unemployment in Florida, Nevada, Colorado and North Carolina is above the 9 percent mark, with Nevada claiming the highest unemployment rate in the nation at 13.2 percent.

Florida's rate is the nation's third highest, coming in at 11 percent. North Carolina's unemployment rate stands at 9.7 percent with Colorado at 9.2 percent.

Florida is considered a must win for Obama if he wants a second term, while North Carolina is among the states the president would like to keep in the purple column.

COMMENT:   This may be the deciding issue, and the 2012 election looks, at least from this distant point, to be potentially very close.  One or two states with high unemployment (or low) could make the difference. 

We will be looking at unemployment figures in the battleground states – the ones actually in contention.  Some states are solid for either party.  California will vote Democratic until an earthquake sends it out to sea.  And then it will demand recognition as a multicultural island republic.  Other states are more reasonable in their ambitions.

May 9, 2011      Permalink

BRAVE NEW SENATORS – AT 8:46 A.M. ET:   While I haven't seen definitive proof, there is a substantial belief that much of the Tea Party movement wants America to scale back its international actions, resorting to a kind of isolationism.  We recall just where that got us in the 1930s.

There are some gutsy new Republican senators who aren't buying it, and are sticking up for the McCainian and Bushian view of the world, and they're drawing a line in the Capitol Hill cement separating themselves from the new isolationists.  From The Politico:

Political uprisings in the Muslim world, and now the death of Osama bin Laden, are giving rise to a new generation of foreign policy hawks in the Senate who are breaking with the tea party when it comes to America’s role in the world.

Three Republican freshmen — Marco Rubio, Mark Kirk and Kelly Ayotte — share the tea party’s goal of slashing domestic spending but have rejected the movement’s isolationist inclinations and called for greater military action and tougher sanctions overseas in places such as Libya and Syria.

The senators have appeared on cable news programs, written op-eds and introduced bills pushing for more U.S. involvement abroad, and they’re building their national security credentials by taking every chance to travel to conflict zones.

It’s a route that has helped build the careers of prominent senators like Republicans John McCain of Arizona and Lindsey Graham of South Carolina and independent Joe Lieberman of Connecticut, who have long driven the foreign policy debate in Washington. For the freshmen, taking the establishment path on foreign policy could help raise their profiles and even lay the groundwork for a presidential bid, which many observers expect of Rubio in 2016.

COMMENT:  Isolationism, which is being pushed by the Ron Paul faction of the party, is a disaster.  It never works, and never has.  I don't usually quote Marxists here, but Leon Trotsky did say one wise thing when he noted that "you may not be interested in war, but war is interested in you." 

Isolationism may delay conflict, but it never avoids it.  We're watching Marco Rubio very carefully, and we like the fact that he is taking a wise, principled stand on foreign policy.  I think the great majority of conservatives will be with him, as most don't yearn for the 1930s.

May 9, 2011       Permalink

DIVORCE COMING? – AT 8:21 A.M. ET:  If this were a legal marriage, the lawyers and counselors would already be in the room.  The U.S. and Pakistan "enjoy" a relationship that seems to be going downhill fast.  We are not popular among the Pakistani people, who are informed by Islamists and an anti-American press.  This is not good, for Pakistan has a nuclear arsenal.  From the Wall Street Journal:

Pakistani media aired the name of a man they said is the Central Intelligence Agency's station chief, prompting questions about whether the Pakistani government tried to out a CIA operative in the wake of the killing of Osama bin Laden.

The U.S. is looking into the matter. There are no plans at this time to withdraw the station chief. If the government had attempted to publicize the name, that would be the second such outing in the past six months, a sign of how deeply U.S.-Pakistan relations have soured.

The CIA declined to comment. Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence agency didn't respond to a request for comment.

Tensions, which have been building between the two countries for months, exploded after the bin Laden strike, which sharply embarrassed the Pakistani government. In another source of strain, the U.S. is pressing the Pakistanis for access to bin Laden's three wives, who are being held in Pakistani custody. The Pakistani government isn't complying with the request, a U.S. official said.

COMMENT:  Another source of friction is the U.S. drone strikes into Pakistan, which harbors a string of terrorist groups along its border with Afghanistan.  And still another source is America's generally good relationship with India, Pakistan's arch-enemy.

If Pakistan slips behind the Islamist curtain, the security of its nuclear arsenal – said to contain more than 100 weapons – will become critical.  If even a few of those weapons fall into the hands of terrorists, the world can be changed, at the cost of hundreds of thousands of casualties. 

And this is what happens when we allow unstable countries like this to acquire nuclear weapons.  Those who minimize the nuclear threat from Iran, please notice.

May 9, 2011     Permalink