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July 8, 2008

The Jewish Ethicist by Rabbi Dr. Asher Meir: Q. Duty to save gullible from themselves?

Frank J. Gaffney, Jr.: Islamists have the West just where they want us

JWisdom:: Putting the Spirit Back into Spirituality, Part 3: The Fully Loaded Human Being by Rabbi Dovid Gross

July 3, 2008

Rabbi Dr. Abraham J. Twerski: A spiritual budget (TOUCHING!)

Jeff Jacoby: Israel still paying for its defeat

JWisdom:: Re-Jew-venating prayer, Part IV by Rabbi David Aaron

JWisdom:: The Moses Method by Rabbi Sroy Levitansky

July 2, 2008

Jonathan Tobin: Appeasers Make Poor Patriots

The Kosher Gourmet By Kathleen Purvis: Slaw, y'all: For BBQs or Sabbath dinner, these southern recipes are something else!

JWisdom:: Rabbi Mordechai Becher: Jewish Rx for A Simpler Life

July 1, 2008

The Jewish Ethicist by Rabbi Dr. Asher Meir: Q. I think it's important to leave a legacy to my children. How much should I save towards this end?

Paul Greenberg:A President who is history deficient?

JWisdom:: Holocaust in the Perspective of Faith by Rabbi Nosson Scherman: Poland's Unique Antisemitism

June 30, 2008

Jonathan Rosenblum: Remembering the architect of Torah Judaism for the modern world

Abe Novick: Hulk: Still a Jew?

JWisdom: : Putting the Spirit Back into Spirituality, Part 2: The Abandoned Child

June 26, 2008

Rabbi Abraham J. Twerski: Quantum leap to evil

Caroline B. Glick: Victimized families must not be allowed to dictate policy

June 25, 2008

Rabbi Yonason Goldson: Today in Biblical History: King Jeroboam of Israel prevents pilgrimage to Jerusalem

Jonathan Tobin: Real Friends and Real Enemies

JWisdom: Raping of reason By Rabbi Sroy Levitansky

June 25, 2008

Steven Emerson: Kristof: Never Mind the Terrorists

Stratfor Intelligence Briefing: Mediterranean Flyover: Telegraphing an Israeli Punch?

JWisdom: Rabbi David Aaron: Re-Jew-venating prayer, Part III

June 24, 2008

Caroline B. Glick: What were they thinking!?

Frank J. Gaffney, Jr.: Guilty knowledge

JWisdom: Holocaust in the Perspective of Faith by Rabbi Nosson Scherman: Warping Innocence

June 23, 2008

The Jewish Ethicist by Rabbi Dr. Asher Meir: Diploma dilemma

Jeff Jacoby: A world without children

JWisdom: Rabbi Dovid Gross: Putting the Spirit Back into Spirituality --- Introduction

June 20, 2008

Rabbi A. Henach Leibowitz: Man: The Crowning Glory of Creation

Caroline B. Glick: Israel's darkest week

JWisdom: We aren't worthy? by Rabbi Sroy Levitansky

June 19, 2008

Rabbi Elazar Meisels: The saints who don't come marchin' in

Chris Christoff: Muslim woman demands an apology from Obama after camera snub

June 18, 2008

Jonathan Tobin: Still Dancing Around Jerusalem

The Kosher Gourmet by Steve Petusevsky: Chilled fruit and vegetable soups

JWisdom: Souls Need A Check Up? by Rabbi Mordechai Becher

June 17, 2008

Rabbi Avi Shafran: Baby Einstein

Caroline B. Glick: Bush's rhetoric, Bush's policies

JWisdom: Re-Jew-venating prayer, Part II by Rabbi David Aaron

June 16, 2008

Varda Branfman: Bob Dylan, won't you please come home?

Diana West: Academic dares to question the 'religion of peace'

JWisdom: Holocaust in the Perspective of Faith by Rabbi Nosson Scherman: Positive Backfire

June 13, 2008

Rabbi Berel Wein: Trading manna for whine

Caroline B. Glick: Peace with friends

JWisdom: From the mouths of … by Rabbi Sroy Levitansky

June 12, 2008

Michael Feldberg: Meet Paul Revere's pal, the Orthodox Jew who played a key role in laying Boston's cultural and business infrastructure

The Kosher Gourmet by Kathy Manweiler: No need to be tempted by Wendy's mandarin chicken salad

JWisdom: Re-Jew-venating prayer, Part I by Rabbi David Aaron

June 11, 2008

Rabbi Avi Shafran: What would Hillel say?

Jonathan Tobin: UNRWA and NGOs: The Real U.N. 'Insult'

JWisdom: Sara Yoheved Rigler: Greatness Made Simple: How a momentary decision shifted life's course and destination

June 6, 2008

Rabbi Pinchas Stolper: Revelation: The basis of faith

Binyamin L. Jolkovsky: Mere hours after becoming Israel's new 'best friend' Obama backtracks on status of Jerusalem

Caroline B. Glick: UN choosing to protect rogue nuclear programs

JWisdom: Sameness in difference by Rabbi Sroy Levitansky

June 5, 2008

David Lightman: Now Obama wants to be Israel's newest 'best friend'

Obama's remarks to AIPAC policy conference

The Kosher Gourmet By Ethel G. Hofman: Shavous cuisine: Ruby Fruit Soup, Lokshen Kugel with Cheese, Key Lime Curd, Calsone Casserole Frittata with Wild Mushrooms, Sun-dried tomatoes and Olives, Baked Tilapia with Pepper Cheese Cream and Brown Sugar Shortbread

JWisdom: Why a Jewish Jerusalem makes so many nervous by Rabbi Mordechai Becher

June 4, 2008

Jonathan Rosenblum: A different sort of 'religious broadcaster'

Jonathan Tobin: Misgivings on the Road to Damascus

JWisdom: 44 Years Without An Argument? by Sara Yoheved Rigler

June 3, 2008

Daniel Pipes: Obama vs. McCain on the Middle East

Everything's Relative: There is a crisis growing in Orthodox synagogues worldwide, reveals Jordan "Gorf" Gorfinkel

JWisdom: White Facades; Black Secrets by Rabbi Mordechai Becher

June 2, 2008

The Jewish Ethicist by Rabbi Dr. Asher Meir: Q: Lie to outsmart discriminator?

He writes the songs that make our souls sing:Gavriel Aryeh Sanders interviews Jewish music legend Ben Zion Shenker; includes stirring, uplifting song

JWisdom: Holocaust in the Perspective of Faith by Rabbi Nosson Scherman: Of laws and lives

March 22, 2007

J-Rhythms with Avraham Rosenblum: JWR's cutting-edge music program showcasing performers -- singers, song writers, musicians, and bands -- who learn and live the Torah lifestyle (OUR NEWEST IGODCAST !)

Oct. 29, 2003
Mortimer B. Zuckerman: Graffiti On History's Walls (MUST-READ!)

Jewish World Review March 23, 2006 / 23 Adar, 5766

Iraq: Just the (damning?) facts, ma'am

By Michael Graham


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http://www.JewishWorldReview.com | It's been just over three years since Sen. Ted Kennedy quoted dire predictions on the floor of the US Senate that toppling Saddam would involve "running through a battalion a day" and that the fighting would "look like the last fifteen minutes of Saving Private Ryan." Three years since the United Nations predicted half a million injured Iraqi civilians and the Germans promised "millions of [Iraqi] victims of U.S. rockets."


In other words, three years since the opponents of the Iraq War got it just about completely wrong.


And yes, it's been three years since the Bush Administration launched its mission to secure Saddam's "weapons of mass destruction," which may or may not have existed when this war began. Three years of a war that began without a plan to fight an insurgency or to secure basic services after Saddam's fall.


There's been so much senseless spin, from "No War For Oil" to "Saddam Ordered 9/11," it's easy to forget there are actual facts available to us. These facts, by themselves, prove nothing. They aren't comprehensive. But they are concrete pieces of data that, in the days before we debated the meaning of words like "is," might have carried some weight.


I offer them for your consideration. Ignore them or embrace them--either way, they will still be the facts.


Fact #1: Invading Iraq and toppling Saddam has SAVED lives, not cost them. Under Saddam, some 5% of the 25 million Iraqi population were murdered or disappeared. The low estimates are that a thousand people died on average during Saddam's twenty years in power. Other estimates go as high as 4,000 a month. Before they started hating President Bush, anti-war activists insisted that evil UN sanctions against Iraq were killing 5,000 children a month-a "fact" they completely abandoned when the war began.


Today, according to the anti-war website IraqBodyCount.net, the maximum Iraqi death toll in these three years was under 40,000 Iraqis. Or the equivalent of eight months of "peaceful" UN sanctions.


Fact #2: It's Iraqis, not Americans, who are dying in the battle with insurgents. As that notorious right-wing rag USA Today has reported, the number of U.S. forces killed during the war has declined steadily since November, while Iraqi soldiers and police are dying faster than ever. A RAND Corporation military analyst told USA Today this "means Iraqi security forces are in positions of responsibility," while the US is "doing fewer patrols on its own and more in support of Iraqi operations."


In September there were 37 Iraqi units taking the lead role against the terrorists. Today there are at least 63 of them. The number of Iraqi security forces has jumped too, from 127,000 in January 2005 to almost twice that number today. The amount of battle space controlled by the Iraqis has tripled since January 2006.


Fact #3: The vast majority of American soldiers and Marines who go to Iraq come home safely. While more than 1 million Americans have served in Iraq over the past three years, only 2,320 have been killed. Each of these lives is precious, of course, but that total number of casualties over three years equals just one month of the Vietnam War, and isn't close to the worst single day in WWII or Korea.


Fact #4: Saddam Hussein was connected to Al Qaeda. For knowledgeable people, this debate ended long ago with a mountain of circumstantial evidence and common sense. It was the Clintonistas who feared Osama would "boogie to Baghdad" in 1999, not the Bushies. Now we have obtained Iraqi intelligence service documents that clearly state "OBL and The Taliban are in contact with Iraq." We have additional documents detailing money from Saddam to buy weapons for Al Qaeda operations in the Philippines.


Fact #5: Congressman John Murtha is lousy at math. OK, OK, that's an opinion. Rep. Murtha said recently "25 thousand Iraqis are fighting with each other inside the country…that's a civil war!" Uh, no. As Secretary of Defense Rumsfeld points out, there are 25 million Iraqis and only 135,000 of us. If the Iraqis decide they want a civil war, nobody will have to guess about it. But one-tenth of one percent of the population isn't a civil war. It's terrorism. It can be bloody and ugly, yes. Murder is an ugly thing. But civil warriors must have some hope of governing the land they're fighting over, and Al Qaeda, the insurgents and the hold-out Sunni elements have no hope of that whatsoever.


All they can hope is that the above facts will be ignored and we will lose the will to win. We cannot lose this war. We will either win, or we will quit.


And that's a fact.

Every weekday JewishWorldReview.com publishes what many in in the media and Washington consider "must-reading". Sign up for the daily JWR update. It's free. Just click here.

JWR contributor Michael Graham is a talk show host and author of the highly acclaimed "Redneck Nation: How the South Really Won the War." To comment, please click here.



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