U.S. FORCES KILL SIX ANTI-AL-QAEDA FIGHTERS IN CENTRAL IRAQ. A U.S. air strike on March 22 near the central town of Samarra killed six members of a local awakening council allied with U.S. forces against Al-Qaeda in Iraq, Iraqi and international media reported on March 23. Abu Faruq, a leader of the awakening council in Samarra, told AFP that the six men killed were members of his group, which were manning a checkpoint outside Samarra. "At 5 a.m. today [March 22], I got a call from the...fighters to say that a helicopter had fired flares above their checkpoint and had then launched an attack. Six of the members were killed and two others were wounded," Faruq said. He also said that his fighters were wearing reflective vests, clearly identifying them as members of the awakening council. The U.S. military confirmed that "an incident" occurred in Samarra that resulted in the deaths of six people and the wounding of two others, but did not say whether they were members of the awakening council. The military did say it would conduct a full investigation. Awakening councils are coalitions of local tribesmen that have been established in eight governorates in an effort to root out Al-Qaeda-linked elements. SS

U.S. WANTS BRITISH TROOP SURGE IN SOUTHERN IRAQI CITY... U.S. military officials are expected to urge Britain to implement a U.S.-style troop surge in the southern city of Al-Basrah in an effort to control the spiraling violence there, "The Sunday Mirror" reported on March 23. Rival militias and armed gangs have waged a campaign of killings, kidnappings, and oil smuggling in the city and the spike in violence and lawlessness has prompted the Iraqi government to send forces into the region to establish control (see "RFE/RL Newsline," March 6, 2008). There are approximately 4,100 British troops in Al-Basrah, all of them housed in the outskirts of the city at the airport, and British officials have been reluctant to send soldiers into the city for fear of inciting even greater violence. However, a senior U.S. military official told "The Sunday Mirror" that the situation in Al-Basrah has become so critical that British forces need to be redeployed into the city. "U.S. and Iraqi forces are involved in a huge operation to attack an Al-Qaeda stronghold in Mosul. But after that the plan is to turn the coalition's attention onto Al-Basrah and we will be urging the British to surge into the city," the official said. "The feeling is that if southern Iraq is hugely unstable it will affect the success of the surge in the north and destabilize the whole country." SS

IRANIAN ELECTION OVERSEER CONFIRMS VOTE RESULTS. The Guardians Council, a body of jurists and clerics that validates Iranian election results, on March 23 confirmed the results for 30 constituencies following the March 14 parliamentary elections, Radio Farda reported on March 24, citing Iranian news agencies. The constituencies were outside Tehran and included Qom, a conservative area south of Tehran, and Sanandaj and Shahr-i Kurd in western Iran, which are inhabited mostly by Kurds. The council earlier confirmed results for 30 other constituencies, IRNA reported on March 24. Guardians Council spokesman Abbas Ali Kadkhodai told IRNA in Tehran on March 23 that the council has also confirmed results for mid-term polls for several seats in the Assembly of Experts, a body of clerics that supervises the supreme leader's office. The elections have so far given conservatives control of the next parliament, the eighth since 1979, though there is to be a second round of voting for some seats and reformists have challenged the results, in Tehran and elsewhere (see "RFE/RL Newsline," March 17, 18, 19, and 20, 2008). The council has stated that there could be random recounting of some ballot boxes, but no large-scale or systematic recount, Radio Farda reported on March 24. Guardians Council spokesman Kadkhodai said in Tehran on March 24 that a second round of voting will take place on April 25, Fars news agency reported. VS

Sources: Various, noted in body of text.

FOR THOSE OF YOU ON THE "CONSERVATIVE" SIDE OF THE FENCE, READ THIS AND LEARN TO UNDERSTAND YOUR FEELINGS BETTER THAN EVER. FOR THOSE OF YOU NOT ON THE "CONSERVATIVE" SIDE OF THE FENCE, PLEASE READ AND LEARN A DIFFERENT VIEWPOINT.

Wherever you stand, please take the time to read this; it ought to scare the pants off you!

We know Dick Lamm as the former Governor of Colorado. In that context his thoughts are particularly poignant. Last week there was an immigration overpopulation conference in Washington , DC , filled to capacity by many of America 's finest minds and leaders. A brilliant college professor by the name of Victor Hansen Davis talked about his latest book, "Mexifornia," explaining how immigration – both legal and illegal was destroying the entire state of California . He said it would march across the country until it destroyed all vestiges of The American Dream.

Moments later, former Colorado Governor Richard D. Lamm stood up and gave a stunning speech on how to destroy America . The audience sat spellbound as he described eight methods for the destruction of the United States . He said, "If you believe that America is too smug, too self-satisfied, too rich, then let's destroy America . It is not that hard to do. No nation in history has survived the ravages of time. Arnold Toynbee observed that all great civilizations rise and fall and that ‘An autopsy of history would show that all great nations commit suicide.'"

"Here is how they do it," Lamm said: "First, to destroy America , turn America into a bilingual or multi-lingual and bicultural country." History shows that no nation can survive the tension, conflict, and antagonism of two or more competing languages and cultures. It is a blessing for an individual to be bilingual; however, it is a curse for a society to be bilingual. The historical scholar, Seymour Lipset, put it this way: "The histories of bilingual and bi-cultural Societies that do not assimilate are histories of turmoil, tension, and tragedy." Canada , Belgium , Malaysia , and Lebanon all face crises of national existence in which minorities press for autonomy, if not independence. Pakistan and Cyprus have divided. Nigeria suppressed an ethnic rebellion. France faces difficulties with Basques, Bretons, and Corsicans."

Lamm went on: Second, to destroy America , "Invent ‘multiculturalism' and encourage immigrants to maintain their culture. Make it an article of belief that all cultures are equal That there are no cultural differences. Make it an article of faith that the Black and Hispanic dropout rates are due solely to prejudice and discrimination by the majority. Every other explanation is out of bounds.

Third, "We could make the United States an 'Hispanic Quebec' without much effort. The key is to celebrate diversity rather than unity. As Benjamin Schwarz said in the Atlantic Monthly recently: "The apparent success of our own multiethnic and multicultural experiment might have been achieved not by tolerance but by hegemony. Without the dominance that once dictated ethnocentricity and what it meant to be an American, we are left with only tolerance and pluralism to hold us together."

Lamm said, "I would encourage all immigrants to keep their own language and culture. I would replace the melting pot metaphor with the salad bowl metaphor. It is important to ensure that we have various cultural subgroups living in America enforcing their differences rather than as Americans, emphasizing their similarities."

"Fourth, I would make our fastest growing demographic group the least educated. I would add a second underclass, unassimilated, undereducated, and antagonistic to our population. I would have this second underclass have a 50% dropout rate from high school."

"My fifth point for destroying America would be to get big foundations and business to give these efforts lots of money. I would invest in ethnic identity, and I would establish the cult of 'Victimology.' I would get all minorities to think that their lack of success was the fault of the majority. I would start a grievance industry blaming all minority failure on the majority population."

“My sixth plan for America 's downfall would include dual citizenship, and promote divided loyalties. I would celebrate diversity over unity. I would stress differences rather than similarities. Diverse people worldwide are mostly engaged in hating each other - that is, when they are not killing each other. A diverse, peaceful, or stable society is against most historical precedent. People undervalue the unity it takes to keep a nation together. Look at the ancient Greeks. The Greeks believed that they belonged to the same race; they possessed a common Language and literature; and they worshipped the same gods. All Greece took part in the Olympic games. A common enemy, Persia , threatened their liberty. Yet all these bonds were not strong enough to overcome two factors: local patriotism and geographical conditions that nurtured political divisions. Greece fell. "E. Pluribus Unum" –From many, one. In that historical reality, if we put the emphasis on the 'pluribus' instead of t he 'Unum,' we will balkanize America as surely as Kosovo."

"Next to last, I would place all subjects off limits; make it taboo to talk about anything against the cult of 'diversity.' I would find a word similar to 'heretic' in the 16th century - that stopped discussion and paralyzed thinking. Words like ‘racist' or 'xenophobe' halt discussion and debate. Having made America a bilingual/bicultural country, having established multi-culturism, having the large foundations fund the doctrine of 'Victimology,' I would next make it impossible to enforce our immigration laws. I would develop a mantra: That because immigration has been good for America , it must always be good. I would make every individual immigrant symmetric and ignore the cumulative impact of millions of them."

In the last minute of his speech, Governor Lamm wiped his brow. Profound silence followed. Finally he said,. "Lastly, I would censor Victor Hanson Davis's book "Mexifornia." His book is dangerous. It exposes the plan to destroy America. If you feel America deserves to be destroyed, don't read that book."

There was no applause. A chilling fear quietly rose like an ominous cloud above every attendee at the conference. Every American in that room knew that everything Lamm enumerated was proceeding methodically, quietly, darkly, yet pervasively across the United States today. Discussion is being suppressed. Over 100 languages are ripping the foundation of our educational system and national cohesiveness. Even barbaric cultures that practice female genital mutilation are growing as we celebrate 'diversity.' American jobs are vanishing into the Third World as corporations create a Third World in America - take note of California and other states - to date, ten million illegal aliens and growing fast. It is reminiscent of George Orwell's book "1984." In that story, three slogans are engraved in the Ministry of Truth building: "War is peace," "Freedom is slavery," and "Ignorance is strength."

Governor Lamm walked back to his seat. It dawned on everyone at the conference that our nation and the future of this great democracy is deeply in trouble and worsening fast. If we don't get this immigration monster stopped within three years, it will rage like a California wildfire and destroy everything in its path especially The American Dream.

If you care for and love our country as I do, take the time to pass this on just as I did for you. NOTHING is going to happen if you don't.

Geopolitical Diary: The Olympics and Beijing's Tibet Paranoia

March 25, 2008

Immediately after meeting with Indian Foreign Minister Pranab Mukherjee in Washington on Monday, U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice repeated her call for the Chinese government to talk directly with the Dalai Lama to resolve unrest in Tibet. Beijing sees Tibet as an internal domestic issue, so it probably will not engage in direct dialogue with the exiled Tibetan leader. China accuses the Dalai Lama of conspiring to incite violence to force concessions on Tibetan independence during the politically sensitive period ahead of the Beijing Olympics.
The U.S. statement fulfills dark expectations in Beijing. And it is the timing of Rice’s statement, not the call for talks itself, that the Chinese will take note of.
Alarm is rising in Beijing that the United States, India and other nations — including the United Kingdom — are actively supporting the Dalai Lama in an attempt to force policy changes in China. Protecting its territorial integrity is of utmost concern to China, as its absorption of Tibet and regions such as Xinjiang and Inner Mongolia have created buffer zones protecting China’s core population centers. Beijing is hypersensitive to real or perceived threats to these buffers, always assuming the worst about outsiders’ motives.
India’s decision to allow the Dalai Lama to seek refuge in northern India in 1959 has perturbed the Chinese government ever since. Beijing believes India could control him more effectively if it wished to — and as New Delhi has in the past — but is simply choosing not to.
In reality, granting the Dalai Lama asylum does not constitute an active bid by New Delhi to undermine Chinese sovereignty over Tibet, given that India has no desire to see a separatist movement spring up on its doorstep — though India might offer additional autonomy for Tibetans in the region. India in fact recently has clamped down on Tibetan protests within its borders. Overall, while the Dalai Lama enjoys tacit support from many countries, Tibetan independence campaigners have not received outside offers of a launchpad for a Tibetan independence campaign.
Despite this fact, the Rice meeting will only stoke fears in China that the United States is seeking to bolster India as a counterweight to China. Chinese fears of a U.S.-Indian alliance stem from historically rooted fears of an international conspiracy against China’s rise on the world stage. But the United States is not actively supporting such a confrontation, and has no interest in doing so. Washington is interested in maintaining ties with India less to counter China than to counter Pakistan, and to maintain stability within the Indian Ocean basin.
But any U.S.-Indian cooperation that touches on Chinese sovereignty will encourage the two-against-one mentality that will be a persistent feature of Chinese-Indian-U.S. relations for years to come. In reality, this is not a clear-cut game. In the last decade, India and China have stepped up defense, trade and political cooperation on multiple fronts, even conducting joint defense exercises in each other’s backyards. China is working hard to keep India out of the U.S. orbit, and India itself does not want to be completely subsumed within Washington’s grasp. Nevertheless, China will continue to fret about India and the United States exploiting the Tibet issue to force political change in Beijing.
At the same time, it also is useful for Beijing to portray such a conspiracy, which helps to undercut the legitimacy of the Tibetan protests and to increase nationalism among the Han Chinese. There is much domestic and foreign advantage for China to portray itself as the victim of foreign intrigue as opposed to the victimizer of Tibet. And Beijing is genuinely concerned about the potential spread of “color” revolutions — which have swept former Soviet republics in recent years — to Tibet.
In the short term, China will continue to face much more international pressure on the Tibet issue (more than it did during the days immediately following the Chinese troop deployment around Buddhist monasteries March 14, when protests in the Tibetan capital of Lhasa turned violent). Beijing’s probable response at home will not be to ease up on crackdowns on protesters, but to consolidate security. If China is swift and firm, the protests may die down soon and international attention to the issue will subside in a few months (though Tibet activists and international human rights groups will certainly bring up the issue until the Olympics).
While the United States and India have no interest in rising unrest along the Indian-Chinese border, they do have an interest in maintaining some leverage over Beijing. But Beijing’s paranoia over the Tibet issue will remain unchanged; if anything, it will increase. This may result in intensified Chinese public relations campaigns overseas, increased oversight of local and foreign interest groups inside China, and intensified use of economic leverage to lobby foreign governments and businesses to see their own interests as tied to a successful Beijing Olympics