Senior IDF officers, government officials gather in Carmiel to honor IDF's Druze soldiers. Druze brigade to be presented with Commander in Chief's Citation for actions in Second Lebanon War
The IDF celebrated its Druze soldiers' day Sunday, honoring the 110,000 Druze soldiers in its ranks.  
The official military ceremony was held in Carmiel, where senior members of the government and the military spoke of the community's valuable contribution to the IDF.  
The IDF's Druze brigade is also to receive the Commander in Chief's Citation, for their actions in the Second Lebanon War.  
"It is our duty to serve our country and we take pride in it – that's the way I was brought up and that's the way I raised my children," Riad Assad, a Druze from Beit-Jan who served in the IDF in the 1970s and now has five sons serving in the army, told Ynet Sunday.  
The service, said Assad is somewhat of a way of life in his family: His eldest served is the Druze brigade as a paramedic, his second son serves in the regular army, his third son serves as a deputy company commander, his fourth son is on the last ...   more »

By RICHARD LARDNER      
  WASHINGTON (AP) - Frequent tours for U.S. forces in Iraq and Afghanistan have stressed the all-volunteer force and made it worth considering a return to a military draft, President Bush's new war adviser said Friday.
"I think it makes sense to certainly onsider it," Army Lt. Gen. Douglas Lute said in an interview with National Public Radio's "All Things Considered."
"And I can tell you, this has always been an option on the table. But ultimately, this is a policy matter between meeting the demands for the nation's security by one means or another," Lute added in his first interview since he was confirmed by the Senate in June.
President Nixon abolished the draft in 1973. Restoring it, Lute said, would be a "major policy shift" and Bush has made it clear that he doesn't think it's necessary.
The repeated deployments affect not only the troops but their families, who can influence whether a service member decides to stay in the military, Lute said.
"There's both a personal dimension of this, where this kind of stress plays out across dinner tables and in living room conversations within these families," he said. "And ultimately, the health ...   more »

There are six things doth the Lord hate: yea, seven are an abomination to him: A proud look, a lying tongue, and hands that shed innocent blood, An heart that deviseth wicked imaginations, feet that be swift in running to mischief, A false witness that speaketh lies, and they that soweth discord among brethren.
– King Solomon, Proverbs
I remember a few months ago reading an intriguing article on Breitbart.com about Amsterdam's red light district which recently unveil a bronze statue. You may say big deal, Ellis! Amsterdam is a very old European city and has perhaps hundreds if not thousands of statues all over the country. I would then say you have deduced correctly dear reader, but this statute is very different from the ones erected to Holland's best and brightest sons of a bygone era.
Who, you may ask, is the statute dedicated? Not Rembrandt, not William I of Orange, not Erasmus, not Grotius, not Spinoza, not Van Gogh, nay, this statute is to none other than the prostitute and to the ancient, glorious art of prostitution. And not just prostitution in Holland, but this statute memorializes prostitutes all over the world. Take that, Spinoza!  
Yes, but ...   more »

Buoyed up by the triumphs of Hizballah’s war offensive against Israel in 2006 and Hamas’ takeover of Gaza, the clerical rulers of Tehran have invested so heavily in their expanding power structure across the region that a fiasco could push their regime and military prop, the fierce Revolutionary Guards, into a perilous slide at home. To play it safe, DEBKA-Net-Weekly’s Iran sources reveal they have hatched a plan to replace the vacillating figure in Damascus with a puppet at their beck and call, modeled on Hizballah’s Hassan Nasrallah in Beirut.
Thus far, Assad has not strayed too far from the guidelines he and his Iranian allies laid down together, but Tehran can never be sure when he might swerve from the straight and narrow to make his peace with the Americans. The can only guarantee Syria stays in their pockets by installing a pro-Iran loyalist in the presidential palace in Damascus.
Sources close to Persian Gulf rulers believe that if Tehran opts for this course, its chosen instrument for throwing up a military ruler would be the Syrian armed forces, on the assumption that a general has the best chance of unifying the country and its ethnic and religious minorities ...   more »

 Quiz time: Which Middle Eastern country disappeared from the map not long ago for more than six months?
Answer: Kuwait, which disappeared from August 1990 to February 1991, becoming Iraq's 19th province. This brutal conquest by Saddam Hussein culminated intermittent Iraqi claims going back to the 1930s. Restoring Kuwait's sovereignty required a huge American-led expeditionary force of more than half a million soldiers.
This history comes to mind because an Iranian spokesman recently enunciated a somewhat similar threat against Bahrain. Hossein Shariatmadari, an associate of Iran's supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, and editor of the daily newspaper Kayhan, published an op-ed on July 9 in which he claimed: "Bahrain is part of Iran's soil, having been separated from it through an illegal conspiracy [spawned] by ... Shah [Mohammed Reza Pahlavi, along with] the American and British governments." Referring to Bahrain's majority Shiite population, Mr. Shariatmadari went on to claim, without any proof: "The principal demand of the Bahraini people today is to return this province … to its mother, Islamic Iran."
These comments, the Middle East Media and Research Institute (MEMRI) reports, "caused a storm in Bahrain," with protesters outside the Iranian Embassy, severe statements by the government, alarmed resolutions ...   more »

By Jerome R. Corsi
A Texas congressman is leading discussions with the White House to develop a military plan to assist Mexico in the war President Felipe Calderón is waging against the drug cartels.
Yolanda Urrabazo, spokeswoman for Rep. Henry Cuellar, D-Texas, told WND the discussions involve the possibility of utilizing the U.S. military directly in the effort in addition to providing military assistance.
The Bush administration is considering a multi-year multi-million dollar military assistance package that could include telephone-tapping equipment, Blackhawk helicopters, radar to track drug shipments and training, according to the Associated Press.
Until now, there has been no mention that the assistance might include direct U.S. military involvement in Mexico.
Urrabazo also confirmed to WND that the issue of involving the U.S. military and providing military assistance to Mexico would be on the agenda of the upcoming third summit of the Security and Prosperity Partnership of North America, or SPP, scheduled Aug. 20-21 in Montebello, Quebec.
Cuellar's district includes Laredo, Texas, which has been considered ground zero for spillover of the Mexican drug war into the U.S..
On Jan 17, Cuellar filed H.R. 502, entitled the "Prosperous and Secure Neighbor Alliance Act of 2007," which originally proposed ...   more »

Russian President Vladimir Putin has announced what he called a vast programme to upgrade the country's missile defence system.
Visiting a new radar early-warning station near St Petersburg, Mr Putin said it was the first step in a major construction project lasting till 2015.
Russia has grave concerns about plans to deploy parts of a new US missile defence system in Eastern Europe.
Mr Putin has warned that Russia will take measures to counter the plan.
The US insists its programme is aimed to deal with threats from countries such as Iran and North Korea, and says Russia should have nothing to fear.
Russia has offered a compromise solution, which would allow the US to share use of a radar installation in Azerbaijan.
Mr Putin described the new early-warning station - at Lekhtusi, 50km north of St Petersburg - as "the first step in the implementation of a major early-warning programme up to the year 2015".
The station was built in just 18 months and opened in December last year.
It replaces the Soviet Union's Skrunda radar station in Latvia, which was dismantled in 1998.
A similar installation is under construction at Armavir in southern Russia.
Original Source


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