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Topeka Rescue Mission Serving the Homeless Since 1953 Tue, 23 Aug 2016 18:43:09 +0000 en-US hourly 1 Big Community Playground Build Tue, 16 Aug 2016 14:38:10 +0000 the rest]]>

God is building a playground and He wants your help!

The Topeka Rescue Mission Children’s Palace is almost ready for service and we are hosting a community build to complete the playground for the children who will be cared for at the facility.

WHEN: September 6 through September 10, 2016

HOW MANY: 150 individuals per shift

OPPORTUNITIES: Construction, Builders, Meal Prep and Childcare (see important information for Volunteers at the bottom of this page)

SHIFTS: 8:00AM to 12:00 PM

12:30 PM to 5:00 PM

5:30 PM to 8:30 PM

For information contact or 785-354-1744 x403

To volunteer CLICK HERE (United Way of Topeka)

**Meals and Childcare provided for the duration of the build**

This project is being managed by Leathers & Associates, much like the community playground build in Rossville, Kansas

View and print the event flyer.

Important Information for Volunteers

Read, print and sign the Volunteer Waiver Form

Read the Frequently Asked questions

Read the Volunteer Guidelines and Rules

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A Mermaid Has No TEARS Wed, 27 Jul 2016 16:01:01 +0000 the rest]]>

CoverArticle-MermaidThe pain and suffering that we see in the lives of the poor, the homeless and the hungry throughout our community, our nation and world compels many to take action and become the hands and feet of Jesus. In a compassionate effort to restore hope to those who suffer, the United States of America, without argument, has been and continues to be a beacon of hope unequaled in the history of the world. This display of compassion is exemplified daily through the lives of the citizens throughout our own community.

For three decades as Executive Director of the Topeka Rescue Mission, I have watched with amazement this demonstration of loving generosity. Men, women and children are continually giving sacrificially, bringing the light of hope to those who suffer in so many ways. However, there is a darkness that exists in our nation today and even in our own community. It is with this that we believe the time has come to remove the veil of secrecy and a shame that brings unparalleled destruction to the lives of those who are known as victims of human trafficking. These victims are predominantly women and young girls who have been made to think that their worth is nothing more than that of a beast found in a forgotten stockyard. Their minds and bodies are destroyed for the economic advancement of perverted, devilish, slave-owning criminals and the morally disenfranchised customers who see these victims as nothing more than a commodity to be used and discarded when they determine they are no longer useful for their perverted purposes.

Last year alone the Topeka Rescue Mission Ministries division, now called Restore Hope, reached out in love, rescue and restoration to 45 victims of human trafficking who were residing in our own city. So far this year we have assisted nearly 50 individuals. Unfortunately, we are confident this is just the beginning of what lies ahead.

According to statistics given by the Kansas Attorney General’s office, there were 44 identified cases of human trafficking in 2012 in the state of Kansas. In 2015, three short years later, there were over 400.

The brokenness that we find in these who have been subjected to various forms of sexual slavery is unparalleled from many other forms of human suffering. Last year, one young woman was rescued from homelessness in our streets, but was in a near catatonic state of being. As her story began to unfold, we began to recognize the trauma she had endured from years of sexual abuse. The dehumanization of her existence drove her to mentally check out from the suffering this life had presented to her after years of repetitive sexual abuse and convincing that her existence on this earth and her “true” value could only be measured in terms of the number of men that she was able to please and the cash she was able to acquire for her handlers. The unbearable shame and worthlessness that she experienced was more than she could bear. She had no happiness, no peace, no future, no hope and now, like the mermaid, no tears because her life was engulfed in a complete ocean of hopelessness. However, through the love, patience and determination of Mission staff, mental health services and special volunteers – all who believe that there is still hope and refused to give up – this precious soul began to hear and believe that she is loved by God and that she has a purpose vastly different than what she had been led to believe. She, like others we encounter, began to see hope restored.

At the Topeka Rescue Mission, in spite of the enormity of suffering and injustice that we see every day, we still believe in miracles. However, after three decades in this ministry, I still find myself crying out to God and all too often in desperation asking Him, “God, why don’t You do something?” Time and again, that still small voice of gentleness speaks back to me and says, “I am doing something, that’s why I have sent you. Now go and do, be My hands, be My feet, be My voice.” While I do not pretend to be an adequate representative of such an assignment, I realize I am not alone. He has surrounded me with an army of compassionate soldiers equipped by His love. His Spirit compels us to stand in the gap on behalf of those so wounded. I am more than grateful for these amazing servants who are responding to the call and also to our local law enforcement agencies, our District Attorney, United States Federal Marshal, FBI, Valeo Behavioral Healthcare, and our other wonderful social services that are partnering with us in this battle.

traffickingIs human trafficking a new phenomenon? No. Trafficking has happened since the earliest recorded civilizations. However, today a vast anti-human trafficking movement has awakened communities around the world, including here at home, to understand the signs and symptoms and develop specialized resources to help vulnerable victims gain freedom, healing and hope.

Awareness is imperative. Identification is key. Collaborative resources are a must as we strive to understand the vulnerabilities leading to this type of manipulation. Half the battle is in resolving that we can indeed play a part in restoring hope to individuals at risk or entrapped by human trafficking.

Please consider joining us in this battle. Learn the signs of trafficking, be willing to report. Pray if you do, give if you can. Consider lending your life to God and say, “Yes. I’ll be Your hands, Your feet, Your voice and Your tears on behalf of those who have no tears, and therefore suffer so much more.”

Thanks for standing with us. Together we can and will make a difference.

Barry Feaker
Executive Director, Topeka Rescue Mission Ministries

To report potential human trafficking call the TRM Ministries Homeless and Human Trafficking Tips Line 785-230-8237. For emergencies dial 911.

]]> 0 Children’s Palace Update and Invitation Wed, 27 Jul 2016 15:46:22 +0000 the rest]]>

Childrens Palace Playground BuildWe are thrilled with the momentum that is building as we near the finish line for Children’s Palace construction! Our last major project is to build playgrounds for the children we will serve … AND WE INVITE YOU TO HELP!

Construction will take place September 6-10th. This week-long build is really a way for us to invite the community to invest in the lives of the children we will serve through their donation of time. And everyone has something to contribute! We do have a need for skilled volunteers with construction experience but we also have many other needs. Because this will be a family-friendly event, we also need volunteers who are able to help with children’s activities, childcare, preparation and donation of meals, painting and other miscellaneous tasks. The need is great – a total of approximately 100 volunteers are needed per day – but we believe this will be a fun way for our community to come together for a great cause!

To get involved, call 785-354-1744-x393. For general inquiries about the Palace, community build or to schedule a tour, please call 785-354-1744-x325 or

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Needs List – August 2016 Wed, 27 Jul 2016 15:40:17 +0000 the rest]]>

view printable copy of needs list

Food Items:

Gallon Cans of Vegetables & Fruits / Coffee / Gallon Cans of Chili Beans/ Bottled Water / Sack Lunch Items (i.e. Pudding cups, fruit cups, granola bars, etc.)

Supply Items:

Infant Formula / Purex Crystals / Arm & Hammer Washing Soda / 20 Mule Team Borax / Fels Neptha Laundry Soap / Tall Kitchen & 30 gallon Trash Bags / Storage bags – quart & gallon / Sheet sets: (Full, Queen & King sizes) / Bath Towels / Diapers – All Sizes / Baby Wipes / Pull Ups – Sizes 3T, 4T and 5T / Deodorant (Men’s)/ All Purpose Cleaner / Disinfecting Wipes / Dish Soap

New Children’s School Clothing – Sizes 4T thru Adult Boys and Girls / Men’s Pants & Jeans – All sizes (Especially 30 – 40) / Men’s & Women’s Shoes – All Sizes / Plus Size Clothing – Men & Women / Men’s Briefs – Size 32-34 / Women’s Briefs– Sizes 5-7  / Children’s Clothing & Shoes – 2T & Up

Furniture & Appliances  (in good condition)

Furniture – i.e. couches, recliners, loveseats, dressers, tables, mattresses, etc.
Large & small appliances – i.e. washers, dryers, ranges, refrigerators & microwaves, Box Fans

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Back to School Wed, 27 Jul 2016 15:30:56 +0000 the rest]]>

backpacksIt’s time to prepare for back to school and that means the annual Topeka Rescue Mission Back to School Distribution. Backpacks, colored pencils, pencil boxes, composition books are just a few of the items children will need this year. The average cost to purchase the school supplies needed for just one child is about $100. For a family already struggling to make ends meet financially, this is a big hurdle. The parents are very grateful for the help they receive as it relieves the extra pressure they are feeling to prepare for getting the children ready to return to school. The Mission partnered with Topeka North Outreach (TNO) in 2015 to help just over 700 children with backpacks and school supplies. It was a big success and we enjoyed working alongside TNO serving those in need.

On August 9th, we will provide backpacks and school supplies for the children in the Dare to Dream Mentoring and Dare to Grow programs at Hi-Crest NET. On August 10th, we will provide a new outfit & shoes, backpack and school supplies for the children residing at the Hope Center.

Again this year we will be partnering with TNO to provide backpacks and school supplies to others in need from the community. This school supplies distribution will take place August 13th from 9am-12pm at the Oakland NET Center (1001 NE Michigan Ave). School supply packs will be put together August 11th & 12th at the Oakland NET Center. Volunteers are needed for all 3 days and can sign up by calling Volunteer Services at (785) 354-1744 ext. 393.

At right is the list of school supplies needed. We ask that all supplies be donated by August 8th and be brought to the Distribution Center (401 NW Norris). Please consider volunteering or donating supplies to help put a smile on a child’s face by knowing they will head to school better prepared to take on the new school year.

If you or someone you know needs help with supplies you can sign up at the TRM Distribution Center (401 NW Norris) before August 8th on Monday through Friday, 9am- 3pm, or online at Pre-registration is required for the August 13th event.

School Supplies Needed

  •  New Clothing: Sizes 5 Toddler – Adult 2XL for Boys, Girls, Men & Women
  •  Backpacks
  •  Spiral Notebooks 70 pgs.(College Rule)
  • Notebook Filler Paper(Wide and College)
  • Plain Pocket Folders (without brads)
  • Pencil Boxes
  • Pencil Pouch
  • Pencils (#2)
  • Pen (Black or Blue)
  • Big Pink Eraser
  • 3 Ring Binder (1 or 1&1/2 inch)  NO ZIPPERS
  • Composition Notebooks
  • Colored Pencils (12 ct. pkg.)
  •  Colored Markers (10 ct. pkg.)
  • Pointed & Blunt Scissors
  • Hi-Lighters (yellow)
  • Dry Erase Markers (Black)
  • Kleenex (Large Box)
  • Antibacterial Wipes
  • Hand Sanitizer

Please bring all donations to the Topeka Rescue Mission Distribution Center, 401 NW Norris, between the hours of 8am-3pm Monday-Friday & 8am-12pm on Saturday.  Questions? Contact the Distribution Center at (785) 357-4285.

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The FEAR of FREEDOM: The BONDAGE of PREDICTIBILITY Wed, 29 Jun 2016 14:37:10 +0000 the rest]]>

coverstoryEach night the children long-awaited the return of their father coming home from his intense and laborious day at work. The family would gather around the small fire in their one room house and listen to stories that had been passed down for 430 years. Stories of a deliverer who would one day set them free from the bondage of slavery that held them captive for more than four centuries in the land of Egypt. One day they would no longer live in poverty and misery. One day they would regain control of their destiny. One day they would be free! Could it really be true? The Israelites had been subjected to horrific and inhumane treatment for centuries. Multiple generations later all the children could understand was that it had always been that way so how could it ever change?

So often we encounter individuals who have been bound to the captivity of poverty, addiction, mental and physical challenges. As far as they can tell, this is all they have known or ever will. The discouragement in their hearts is a commonality with others around them that find themselves homeless at the Mission or in broken neighborhoods across our community and nation.

Generation after generation of Israelites prayed for a deliverer who would come to their rescue, conquer their enemies and set them free from the hardships in the land of Egypt. However, when that day finally came, the people were skeptical and afraid of the change that was about to occur. The fear of the unknown and the comfort and confidence of predictability created a fear of freedom and a new craving for the bondage they had so longed to escape. Even after ten miraculous interventions and a physical escape from the bonds of slavery, the children of Israel were faced with yet another obstacle called the Red Sea. They quickly spiraled into fear and asked the question of Moses, “Why did you make us leave Egypt? Did you bring us into this desert to die? We really did not want to leave Egypt [slavery]!” (Exodus 14:10-18).

Often times we find ourselves wanting to skip the entrapments of sinful thoughts and actions. We cry out to God in desperation for deliverance and, just like the children of Israel, we want freedom on our terms but fear the steps of faith required to see the fullness of our deliverance.

Would the Israelites have felt any better if Moses would have allocated trillions of dollars in aid to them over the next four decades? Would they have felt more comfortable knowing that the land before them would be full of hope and promise? Apparently not. The thought of a land flowing with milk and honey was not enough to change their minds and convert their hearts towards faith and gratitude. Surely their desire for this great hope of a better life was what kept them from total despair. But now the fear of the unknown and the challenge of moving from the predictability of their bondage was just too overwhelming.

The basic necessities of life are essential. However, 50-plus years after the declaration of the war on poverty in our country, evidence has proved that substance alone does not change the heart or the mind. The rescue mission movement is over 100 years old. How often we have wished throughout this last century that we could cure the ills of homelessness and poverty by simply providing shelter, meals, and maybe even a job. We have found all too often that while these elements are essential, when people are successfully delivered and return to the community, frequently they return broken again and feeling more hopeless than before. There’s something deeper that we all crave in addition to the required sustenance of our existence. That is the assurance that someone with an understanding and a depth of love beyond our comprehension is walking with us in spite of the circumstances that we face.

As leader, Moses was faced with an incredible dilemma. Would he lean upon his own understanding with the multitudes before him pressing in on every side with complaints, fears and accusation; or would he focus his attention on those deeper understandings that God had placed in his heart and demonstrated throughout his life? How distant God seemed to the Israelites even though they had seen His mighty hand throughout the land of Egypt bringing deliverance time after time. Moses was in charge of this gritty ministry, one that required a deeper level of self-examination in spite of what he could see with his eyes and his emotions.

I remember a time when I had first entered into ministry with great excitement and promise. Certainly I was on a fast path to experiencing the wonderful joys of serving God. But instead I found myself discouraged, broke and wanting to go back to what I remembered as a familiar place with plenty on the table, gas in the tank and the home of my own. My former employer offered me a substantial raise if I would return and, about the time I was ready to throw in the towel, my Bible professor equated quitting to the Israelites returning to Egypt and becoming slaves once again. While I was far from being a slave in the traditional sense, I would have been captive to a different way of thinking and what I understood God called me to do. I was faced with a dilemma that Moses and many others are faced with. I could continue the venture into the unknown with Him through faith and obedience or lean on the perceived safety of predictability. Thankfully, I chose faith.

Our job in rescue ministry is to not only help the homeless, poor, hungry and broken find a meal for today and a bed for tonight, but a realization that someone cares for them more than their wildest imagination. That someone loves them immensely and has a plan for them of freedom from the bondage of poverty, brokenness and predictability.

The Israelites would eventually escape from the bondage of Egypt and from those who desired to destroy them. They would cross the Red Sea safely on dry ground. While the journey ahead of them was not straight and smooth, as a people they would finally realize this someone who they could trust did in fact lead them into the promised land of freedom, one flowing with milk and honey.

We believe that the same God who delivered the Israelites can also deliver everyone who comes through our doors, and everyone who reads the words on this page. The slavery might seem inevitable, the temptations fierce and the bondage eternal, but we believe in the same truth that has been recorded over and over again in history – nothing is impossible for God. That means that nothing you face today is impossible to overcome. No bondage is too great. This is a month of freedom and a day of victory. Not only for those who receive the support of the Mission, but for each one of us.

Thank you for standing with us as we shelter, feed, clothe, equip and love the broken in front of us. Thank you for praying that, in spite of the fear of being set free and the bondage of predictability, all will see that Jesus truly saves and that He will safely lead them out of their bondage and into the freedom He desires for them to enjoy. Through your support, you play a role in breaking the chains that have held many captive for generations. May that same freedom be yours today and always.

Barry Feaker
Executive Director

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INTRODUCING: OAKLAND NET CENTER Wed, 29 Jun 2016 14:36:29 +0000 the rest]]>

oakland1Three years ago, the Mission developed NET Reach, a ministry division which aids in efforts to empower and transform communities while preventing homelessness. Our first initiative began in the Highland Crest community of Topeka and has since grown to include a number of programs for children and adults through Hi-Crest NET.

The Oakland Christian Church recently donated their building to the Mission for ministry usage. Through prayer, we have sensed the Lord desiring this building to be used for what is now known as the Oakland NET Center. A number of ministries will be housed at Oakland NET including our Doxazo Missions Training Institute, Restore Hope, staff training and worship center. Other community ministries will also be incorporated to come alongside other Oakland churches to reach those in need.

A formal dedication ceremony took place on May 22nd to commemorate this special gift and celebrate what the Lord is doing within our community. It is with heartfelt appreciation that we say thank you to the Oakland Christian Church and to the Oakland community for welcoming us with such love and open arms!oakland2

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In Darkness a Light Still Shines….for Kids – Sneak Peek Wed, 29 Jun 2016 14:30:28 +0000 the rest]]>

Copies of “In Darkness, a Light Still Shines … for Kids!” are available for purchase at the Mission’s Thrift Store (1312 N Kansas Avenue), LifeWay Christian Bookstore (Topeka), Barnes and Noble (Topeka), Straight Water (1023 SW Gage), and  Proceeds support the Topeka Rescue Mission Children’s Palace.

CHAPTER FOUR: “The Beginnings of Rescue”

But as Scripture says: “No eye has seen, no ear has heard, and no mind has imaginedthe things that God has prepared for those who love Him.” 1 Corinthians 2:9 (GW)

Jerry was a big bully. The worst of the worst! He would steal things, hurt people, and make poor decisions. For a long time, he got away with it too. Finally, the police scooped him up and took him to jail. Jerry was mad. He was very unhappy and got meaner and meaner as each day went by.kidsbook1

Jerry walked past a room in the jail one day and saw a group of men. In the very front talking to everyone was an old friend he had made. This particular friend was no longer in prison and Jerry hadn’t seen him for a while. Out of curiosity, he walked in to see what he was talking about. What he heard surprised him. His friend was talking about – Jesus!

The friend shared about how he had once been really mean too – that was why he spent time in jail. But then he met Jesus and everything changed. The anger he felt in his heart began to go away and instead of being mean to everyone, he wanted to be nice! The bad choices he made in his past were not so tempting anymore either. Now he was making good choices and was really happy!

Jerry was surprised. He had never heard anyone tell such a story before. “I wonder if Jesus could do the same thing for me?” he wondered. He decided to ask Jesus to come live in his heart and very quickly his life began to change. Instead of being mad all of the time, a new joy began filling his heart. He was happy and began making new friends that prayed with him and taught him all about God and the Bible. They loved him very much, and he loved them.

After some time passed, Jerry didn’t have to be in jail anymore. He was excited about having a new life and wanted to do something big to help people. He knew there were other people who also had trouble making good choices and he wanted to help them find Jesus and be happy too. He started making plans about how he would do that but then something terrible happened – Jerry made a really poor choice.

Thankfully, his friends still loved him, forgave him and helped him get back on track. Things started going well for Jerry until something awful happened again – another poor choice!

What was Jerry going to do? A whole bunch of times Jerry ended up making poor choices, but his friends were always there to help him get back on track so he could do a good job and keep working on his plan to help others. His friends constantly reminded him how much God loved him and finally Jerry really understood. He quit making poor choices and, with God’s help, was able to do something really amazing. Jerry McAuley created the very first rescue mission for people who were homeless and needed help. If it wasn’t for Jerry, the Topeka Rescue Mission might not be here today!

kidsbook2To Jesus, even the biggest of bullies need a chance to be loved (Matthew 5:44). When the people around Jerry reached out to him, he went from being a big-meanie-who-always-made-poor-choices to being a huge-helper-who-always-did-his-best-to-do-the-right-thing! In the end, he became one of the nicest people anyone could ever meet.

If you have trouble making good choices sometimes, don’t keep making the same poor choices over and over – but don’t get totally mad at yourself when you mess up either. Instead, ask Jesus to live in your heart and help you to do a good job every day. He will! And, just like Jerry’s friends, He will always forgive you and help you get back on track when you mess up (1 John 1:9).

An older person who you trust can also help you make good decisions, but only if you are honest with them. Don’t be afraid to ask. And always be willing to love and help others when they are in need too.

]]> 0 CHILDREN’S PALACE: Update and Invitation Wed, 29 Jun 2016 14:20:28 +0000 the rest]]>

chilrenspalaceThough opening day has not yet been confirmed, we are closer than ever to opening the doors of the Palace! The overall vision of the Children’s Palace is to provide a safe, educational atmosphere for children under the age of six to receive care and love while residing at the Topeka Rescue Mission. We believe that helping children become ready for kindergarten, develop secure attachment, receive the transforming love of God and recognize their self-worth at an early age will later assist in breaking the generational cycle of homelessness within their families. We are currently looking for missionaries to serve Jesus by working with children at the Palace. If you are a missionary with a passion for Jesus and a desire to see children and families become who God has created them to be, please contact us! We are in the process of conducting interviews for these positions and our hope is to have all missionary positions (full time and part time) identified by the end of the month.

Tours of the facility also continue to take place. Seeing the Palace firsthand and learning about all of the ministry that will take place inside helps people to understand how the Palace is much more than just a daycare for homeless children. We believe it will be a place of life and transformation for children, families and generations to come. Come see why!

To serve within the Palace ministry, take a tour, or for general information, please contact 785-354-1744-x325 or Thanks for your help in bringing this vision to pass! If you’d like to make a donation to aid with efforts, you can do so securely online at, by mail (checks payable to TRM and marked “Children’s Palace”) or by calling 785-354-1744-x316.

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The Scariest and Best Job I’ve Ever Had Thu, 26 May 2016 17:18:44 +0000 the rest]]>

Elizabeth Barry Rebecca

Barry with daughters Elizabeth and Rebecca 1982

A number of years ago I received a visit from a radio reporter covering national news stories. One of her final questions was, “What is the most difficult part of your job that you face every day?” I paused and had to think about that for a little bit before answering … I am on call 24-hours a day/seven days a week and daily responsible for potential life and death issues of people who have nowhere to go, oftentimes confronted with individuals strung out on drugs, highly intoxicated, mentally ill, or extremely angry with weapons that could harm me or someone else. Even though I’m faced with these battles and on the frontlines of the “war on poverty” each and every day, that’s not the hardest part of my job. I shared that, in all honesty, the most difficult and scariest job I face each and every day is attempting to be a good dad … but it’s the job I love the most!

At that time in my life, my two small children, Rebecca and Elizabeth, were five and nine years old. I had read books on how to parent, gone to seminars and listened and learned as much as I could. But I realized that being a dad is a very personal and day-by-day process of success and failures in this journey of life. IBarry and Family 1992 remember telling the reporter, “I fear, as much as I love these two little precious girls, that I’m not going to do a very good job. And that is the hardest thing that I face every day.” The journalist paused and, as tears welled up in her eyes, she reached over and turned off the tape recorder. With tears flowing she began to tell me that she knew exactly what I meant. She said that she was a mom who was attempting to raise a little baby boy. She said that she loved him so much, but felt so guilty when dropping him off at daycare every day. “Every time I hold him,” she said, “I wonder if I am doing this right or if I will fail him.” We spent the next hour discussing life, God and parenting. At the end of that interview I felt like I had a new friend around the commonality of this most incredible, sometimes frightening, opportunity we have of being a parent. I never had another interview with that reporter, but we did run into each other periodically throughout the years. She later became a press secretary for an elected official and, from what I can tell, she did a great job of being a mom.

Today, in spite of any of my successes or failures as a dad, I have two amazing daughters and we have an outstanding relationship. I’m so grateful I can say that we are truly friends!

Barry Rebecca and JakeMany dads that come through the doors of the Topeka Rescue Mission experience a common challenge of feeling like they have failed. Due to their actions, unwise decisions or from events and circumstances that were beyond their control, many have been separated from their children and feel hopeless and depressed as a result. Often times I will receive calls or letters from children, now adults, looking for their dad in attempt to try to let them know that they miss them and would love to offer forgiveness for the hurts and mistakes that were made years before. It’s difficult for some of these dads to feel worthy of their children’s forgiveness. At other times, it’s the children that have experienced such hurt that they cannot bring themselves to embrace the dad who failed them. These situations are some of the most difficult for both dads and their children, as well as Mission workers who attempt to navigate a potential reconciliation.

One of the things that I learned from my young children many times over, was their great capacity to forgive and overlook my mistakes. Sometimes all it took was for me to humble myself and apologize, admitting that I blew it and would try better next time. How often they extended grace to me when I did not feel I deserved it.

Whether it’s the children at the Mission who find themselves homeless or children who have most of their needs met, there is always a built in desire to have a relationship with a dad.

Fatherhood has taken a serious hit in this country. According to the National Center for Fathering, “More than 20 million children live in a home without the physical presence of a father. Millions more have dads who are physically present, but emotionally absent. If it were classified as a disease, fatherlessness would be an epidemic worthy of attention as a national emergency.” More often than not, we see homeless and impoverished children throughout the ministry struggling through life without an effective dad present in their lives. Yet how they all hunger for someone to call “daddy.”

Maybe you know someone who is struggling to be a dad; they could even be in your own household. Maybe you have been hurt by your dad. Perhaps you have not seen him for a very long time or you may never have even met him at all. Regardless of your situation, there is still a Dad who loves you very much. This everlasting Father says, “I will never leave you, nor forsake you” (Deuteronomy 31:6). He wants you to know that you are more than precious in His sight and there’s no mistake you could ever make that He will not forgive.

Maybe you are a dad who feels like you are blowing it every day or you’re thinking about giving up. Don’tBarry and Elizabeth do it – your life makes a difference and your kids need you more than you can imagine! If you are feeling hopeless and feel like you are a failure at being a dad, know this: God wants to forgive you no matter how much you have blown it … and your children probably do too. God can help you be the best dad that you can be for your children, whether they are little today or all grown up. Whether you think you blew it earlier this morning or many years ago, it’s never too late to ask your heavenly Dad for forgiveness and the courage to turn to your children and ask them for their forgiveness too.

This Father’s Day, we can celebrate that there are many wonderful dads throughout our country; but we should also come to the realization that there are some dads who need some help and encouragement. Throughout this month, please pray with me for our nation’s dads. For those who have made mistakes, that God would heal their brokenness and that there might be a miracle of reconciliation between dads and their children. And also for all of our younger dads who may be scared to death about this most wonderful job that they could ever have, being a dad! Please also pray for our children, whether they are little or already grown and considering becoming a dad themselves. It just might be the scariest job we’ll ever have … but I guarantee, it’s also the best!

Thank YOU and may God bless you and our dads!

Barry Feaker,
TRM Executive Director

How You Can Help

Want to help children and parents to become all they’re called to be? Please consider these opportunities:

1. Pray for dads and families in our community and nation.

2. Become a mentor with the Dare 2 Dream program at the Topeka Rescue Mission shelters or at NET Reach.

3. Financially support and/or volunteer with this summer’s programs at Hi-Crest NET
(details included below).

4. Consider giving to the operation fund for the new Children’s Palace for 124 infants, toddlers and preschoolers.

5. Consider volunteering in one of the more than 1,500 volunteer slots needed at Topeka Rescue Mission Ministries every month.

6. Consider volunteering at some of the other wonderful ministries and organizations throughout our community who are on the frontlines of helping children who need dads, as well as dads and families.

7. Consider giving financially to support the many ministries of the Topeka Rescue Mission Ministries.
All operations are supported entirely by donations by people like YOU!

To get involved with volunteering, please visit our website and sign up online ( or call 785-354-1744-x393. To make a donation, you may do so securely online, by mail or by calling 354-1744-x316. For general inquiries, please email us at

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Ian H. Eagle Court of Honor

November 29, 2012 by
Filed under Court of Honor

You are cordially invited to the

Eagle Court of Honor

The Achievements of

 Ian H.

To be held on

Saturday, December 22nd, 2012 at 9:00 am

at Parker Fieldhouse
18700 East Plaza Drive Parker, CO 80138

Pancake Breakfast will follow.

Please RSVP to The Hendrick Family
by December 18th, 2012

Comments are closed.

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text:
Some 10 million miles were taken beating up on the 2015 Ford F-150 in the name of durability testing, and naturally the company is eager to show off how much abuse their new truck can take. Ford fan or not, this is fun to watch.

Here are the ten tests the new truck underwent that Ford reckons are the "toughest," or at least most entertaining.

Seven-Channel Input

Ford spends five straight days rattling the F-150 like a noisemaker at Carnival and gathers the data. The test is designed to maximize force in the seven directions science says are most likely to cause frame damage in real-world driving.

Silver Creek

Trucks are driven over what's basically the crappiest road in (your town here!) Speed is held at a steady 20 MPH while the vehicle bounds in and out of giant potholes.

Power Hop Hill

An off-road track in Michigan designed to replicate the Hualapai Mountains in northwest Arizona.

Drum Drop

A 55-gallon drum is tossed into the truck's bed, at an angle of maximum idiocy so the rim hits the bed to potentially do more damage.

Corrosion Bath

Salt washes and high humidity torture was administered to see how the F-150 would fare against rust. The body was hosed down an "acid spray" to simulate a decade of degradation.

Davis Dam

The truck's run up the thirteen mile climb to the top of Union Pass in Arizona with a maxed out trailer load. Unfortunately this test has nothing to do with the legendary John Davis.

Stone Peck Alley

A long road with lots of gravel.

Engine Thermal Shock

A high-powered temperature control device is hooked up to the truck's engine bay, running it back and fourth between -20 and 260ºF every twenty seconds for about 400 hours. That actually sounds pretty gnarly.

Rock And Stop

Aggressive starts and back-and-fourth rocking you might use to get yourself out of the snow.

Twist Ditch

Axles are hooked up to malevolent robot arms that simulate brutal suspension flex.


text:
Wendy + Josh {Maternity}

Words just escape me. I know what I want to say but I just can't get them out because these two. I heart them. Two of the nicest people you will ever meet. And they're having a baby. (they actually have had said baby, I am just really behind on blogging sessions) Wendy + JoshWendy + Josh Wendy + Josh Wendy + Josh Wendy + Josh Wendy + Josh Wendy + Josh Wendy + Josh Wendy + Josh Wendy + Josh Wendy + Josh Wendy + Josh Wendy + Josh Wendy + Josh Wendy + Josh

I knew when I scheduled a shoot with a three-year-old I would need to bring the big guns. I have a three-year-old and if I want photos of him I probably resemble a National Geographic photographer stalking my subject in the Serengeti.

Now I may not be familiar with raising girls, but from keen observation I deducted that confetti and cupcakes should go over well. I mean, who doesn't like cupcakes?

I first hit up the dollar store and scored two big bags on confetti and ribbon. I didn't use the ribbon and I only used one big bag. They were BIG BAGS of confetti. It was a major score.

Little girls like ribbon and confetti, right? ;) I'm entering unchartered territory.

I contacted one of my past clients who makes cupcakes and cakes as a hobby and asked if she could make me half a dozen cupcakes.

Then I got super specific and asked for one pink, one purple and one white...and a white one with a pink A and a white one with a purple A. But the A had to be girly and not a stick-figure primary type A. And not hot pink, just a girly pink but certainly not pastel pink. And can you make one a lady-bug too? And can you have them ready in 4 days from today because I didn't plan ahead like I thought I would?

And she said "no problem."

I picked them up a couple of hours before our shoot and they were absolutely exactly what I imagined.
These particular cupcakes were vanilla with almond frosting. I gifted them to my clients and rumor has it they were delicious.
Cupcakes by Krissie

Cupcakes by Krissie

Cupcakes by Krissie

Cupcakes by Krissie

Cupcakes by Krissie

Cupcakes by Krissie

 I recommend if you are in the Carlsbad area and in need of a cake or cupcakes for a special occasion, give Krissie a call. (I'm not going to lie, I did get a bit of frosting on my finger while I was taking these photos and it was heavenly. I'm still thinking about it.) Everything she makes is absolutely all hand-made and one of a kind. Now I'm off to figure out some obscure holiday to justify ordering more cupcakes.

(I honestly thought this posted waaaaay back and now just saw it in my drafts folder! Doh! I'm a baaaaaaad blogger)

What do you get when you mix cupcakes, confetti, tutu's and a three-year-old who refers to herself in the third person? Adorableness. Yup.

Did I mention that she brought "the fierce"?

My youngest son is completely smitten with Aaliyah. He has signed his little three-year-old heart to her. She does command quite the fan club. Even the geese couldn't resist the adorableness.

This is by far my favorite photo from the session.

Aaliyah absolutely refused to look at me. Nevertheless we got some pretty nice shots of her and we finished our day with a lady bug cupcake made just for her.

Oh, Hey

What do you know? I can still log in and type. Phew...I think I was allergic to blogging for a few months there. It's embarrassing how long it's been since I've blogged anything. But I've caught the bug again and whoa, I have a lot to share with you...
So I'll leave you with a teaser or two.
Then in another six months, I might let you see the rest of them. ;-)
(Or you can always check out my  Facebook or Flickr or Instagram (username: Trysha_ or...or...or...)

And I could make these smaller...but why?

Carlsbad Family Session K&J 8.6 067 Anika Matt K&J Wedding M & D Cupcakes by Krissie A

What's In The Box?

Oh yeah...I posted a teaser oh about a zillion months ago about a box I found in my parents barn attic.

Going through boxes in my parents attic was a hodge-podge of jobs past. There were Anchor Blue boxes, paper boxes pilfered from an old office job and Outback Steakhouse boxes. Yup, that good old dark bushwhacker bread comes in some pretty sturdy boxes. {My favorite job joke; the salads at Outback are layered with lettuce, dressing and then the toppings....so when we brought the salad out to the table and people asked "Where's the dressing?" we would reply "Down Under." hahahahaha! Get it? Outback? Down Under? It makes me LOL every single time.}

After 10 years, I hadn't really thought of any of the boxes other than cringing every Christmas when my mom would have to get in the barn and move them around. Oh yeah...those boxes. The ones I should move from her place to mine. What are in half of those boxes anyway?? Old yearbooks, books, college textbooks...meh. Stuff. Junk. Nothing I missed.

Trigonometry homework from 1998? What am I ever going to do with that???

I went to college...once. A long time ago.

Junior year of high school
What color is that lipstick? My junior year of high school. 1997-1998

Except this box. I knew this box was up there. I knew which Outback Steakhouse box it was and where I had put it. I had asked my mom repeatedly about This. Specific. Box. Instead I kept getting boxes with crap in them. Utter crap. {Hello 1994 Pearl Jam concert tickets. I didn't even like Pearl Jam.} Every time we moved, which is A LOT, and my parents helped I asked her to bring me the box. So finally on this last move from Las Cruces to Carlsbad {which actually required two moves, one from our house to her house and then to Carlsbad. Let me just say that moving your stuff twice in just as many months stinks.Why on Earth is our couch sooooooo heavy?!} I got my butt up that ladder and pulled out alllllllll my old boxes.

I am a true child of 90s music. Original No Doubt, Everclear, Green Day. That Madonna tape is a fluke. I plead the fifth on that one. Unfortunately so many of the cases didn't have the discs. I had them in my car and when that car was stolen, so were all my cd's. RIP Beastie Boys collection. I hope who ever stole my car looked at my cd's and thought "she has good taste." But probably not since it was found 4 days later with over 1,000 miles and Mexico plates on it.

My husband and I had a good time going through all the music and reminiscing. He's 5 years older than me, so he would say something like "That Green Day cd came out when I was a senior in high school" and I'd say "I bought it in the seventh grade."
I Love the 90's

So there you have it, the contents of the mystery box I posted about back in September that you have certainly forgotten about but I never did.


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text:
Martin Kramer, Fiamma Nirenstein and Jonathan Spyer

I responded:

h/t: Dennis Mitzner

R.I.P Barry Rubin

BarryRubinLosAngeles009-1Barry Rubin was one of a few thinkers who could intuitively connect the dots of a variety of political and social events both in the West and in the Middle East and arrive at an insightful and fascinating theory. But theorizing aside, more often than not, he was right. Rubin’s vast knowledge of the Middle East coupled with razor-sharp incisiveness was a potent combination,  unmatched by most of his contemporaries.

His blog, the RubinReport was a handbook for those interested in understanding the Middle East in a larger political and sociological context – a context often ignored by mainstream pundits. Indeed, Rubin had the ability to foresee events before they would take place, whether Turkish PM Erdogan’s hostility towards Israel or the success of Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt, before Morsi’s eventual ousting.

I had the opportunity to meet with Barry a few times for coffee. Barry was serious man with an obvious eccentric side and a sense of humor. He seemed to enjoy my reading of the peculiar predicament of modern day education and especially young American Jews with whom I studied at the time. I mentioned that it was impossible to engage in a serious debate with American Jews of the more progressive persuasion because their fear of argument and love of consent forced them to act as if they were all running for president. To this Rubin responded with a rather loud laughter and a nod indicating agreement.

I remember that he once referred to himself as an Israeli realist. This obviously meant an arduous and unabashed wish for Israel to succeed and defeat those who wanted it destroyed. A lover of Israel and Judaism, Rubin wanted Israel to survive. He also loved the truth, and whether his writings, TV performances or private conversations, with Barry, truth always prevailed.

I sat with him several times in one of the many cafes by Habima in Tel Aviv (The national theater of Israel). Having had the opportunity to exchange ideas with one of the most insightful thinkers of our time was something I will never forget. A two hour caffeine-laden conversation with Barry was a hoot. After one such Friday afternoon he invited me over to give me a copy of his book on Syria.

As we arrived to his two-floor apartment, Barry noticed that one of the family’s cats was missing as someone had left the porch door open. What followed was a frantic half hour search for the missing cat.

While we were crawling under parked cars in search of the cat, I thought to myself that the day had been one of the most intellectually fulfilling afternoons of my life. After spending an afternoon discussing topics such as the dangers of Obama’s foreign policy or Israel’s lack of one, the cat searching seemed banal. But of course it wasn’t. It was an indication of Barry’s intense dedication to things he held dear, whether a cat or the future of the Jewish people.

barry rubin

 1950 – 2014

Rest in peace dear friend.

barry rubin

Middle East expert and analyst, Barry Rubin, was a decent and kind man who had the gift of cutting through the dross of an argument and shine a light with facts and truth, and do so without offending an opponent. He was also a man who should have been given a wider platform for his ideas and points of view. There are many, including myself, who mourn this great man’s passing, and if the media was not as corrupt as it is, the number of those mourning right now would be increased exponentially.

Here is Barry’s last blog entry, from January 21, 2014

Why the Arab/Muslim World Is Trapped

While we see few occasions of consciousness–and certainly few publicly expressed–from Arab and Muslim intellectuals of what is really going on, they still do take place. For example, in a December 30, 2013, interview that aired on CBC TV, Egyptian novelist Youssef Ziedan said:

“We should reconsider our notions regarding the Jewish question. We are not even aware how much this affects us. [Antisemitism] has become a common trade, benefiting all our politicians. Any politician who wants to gain popularity curses Israel, but when he comes to power, he has no problem with Israel.

That’s stupidity. That’s stupidity which is connected to the ignorance of the people. We should reconsider this. Nobody looks out for our interests. We should be aware of this.”

In other words, Ziedan shows keen consciousness of political movements and how leaders manipulate them.

Basically, the Zionism question is manipulative. The interviewer asked Zeidan, “What did you mean when you talked about ‘Jewish issues’?”

Ziedan replies, “Anything that has to do with the Jewish question: the hadiths adopted from Jewish and Christian traditions, our shared history, the so-called Middle East problem, which I do not consider to be a problem at all.

The Nasserists have been oppressing the people for 60 years under the pretext of the Middle East problem… Wars were fought, and people were killed.

Where does the problem lie? The Jews settled in Palestine and declared their state in 1947. Why did the Jews do that? After all, they had lived in Arab countries. They say that this land was promised to them. They say it appears in the Old Testament, which the Christians also believe in.”

The interviewer responds, “There was also Balfour.”

Ziedan then continues, “Forget about Balfour and his declaration for a moment. We were indoctrinated at school: ‘What do you think about the Balfour Declaration?’ According to the system of ready-made answers, we were expected to respond: ‘He gave what he did not own to those who did not deserve it.’ That’s it. There could be no other answer.”

There are, however, three powerful forces that block this admission.

1. The way this society works, one of dictatorship

2. The repression

3. The way the leadership works

Leaders, systems, rule of the masses, and demagoguery.

Here is a perfect example of this.

A cadre of hardened Leftist ideologues, an uninterested media….. and lots and lots of money.

indoctrination 101

The problem with today’s class of leaders in politics, in academia and in the media, is that the radicals of the 60’s and 70’s have heavily infiltrated these once valued institutions, and funded by big money.

Whether the funding is by leftist billionaires or Gulf state sharia/jihad supporting sheiks, the end result is the same, the subversion of traditional US institutions of higher learning with highly concentrated propaganda, with the aim of turning the republic against itself.

NOTE: It’s the main reason why people in the U.S. are seeing Leftists abashedly marching in the streets with signs calling for Communism/socialism, many of whom maintain personal contact with government officials in high public, and the media failing to report on it.

How to Turn a Campus Into an Indoctrination Center

September 27th, 2013 – 11:22 am

If you want to understand how the far left controls campuses, consider this story.

barry-rubin2There is no university more supportive of the Arab nationalist (historically), Islamist, and anti-Israel line in the United States than Georgetown’s programs on Middle East studies. Every conference it holds on the Middle East is ridiculously one-sided. The university has received millions of dollars in funds from Arab states, and it houses the most important center in the United States that has advocated support for a pro-Islamist policy.

One day in 1975, not long before he died, the great Professor Carroll Quigley walked up to me when I was sitting in the Georgetown University library. Everyone was in awe of this brilliant lecturer (remind me to write him a tribute explaining why he was so great). I thought he might have remembered me from my extended explanation of why I was late for class one day because I had rescued a sparrow and taken it to a veterinarian (true).  I vividly recall that detail, because I couldn’t think otherwise why he would want to talk to such a lowly person.

“May I sit down?” he asked.

“Of course!” I said, stopping myself from adding that it was an honor. Without any small talk, he launched into a subject that clearly weighed on his conscience. “There are many who don’t like your people.”

What was he talking about? I thought, is he talking about Jews?

He explained that he had just come from a meeting where it was made clear that the university had a problem. They were getting Arab money, but on the secret condition that it was for teaching about the Middle East but none of it could be used to teach about Israel. How was this problem to be solved?

Simple. They would call the institution to be created the Center for Contemporary Arab Studies. It was explicitly expressed that this was how the problem would be dealt with.  Quigley was disgusted. Ever since then, I have referred to that institution as the Center for Contemporary Arab Money.

More here.

Again, my only disagreement with Barry is the referencing of the word ‘Islamism’, which I deem a western concocted construct meant to distance Islam in general from the mayhem and intolerance of Islam 101.

That said, he’s spot on with his analysis of the region, who’s is fighting who and for what reasons, who are the victims and what the West should do in light of a very bleak forecast for the next several decades.

NOTE: Please do note that Israel’s relations vis-a-vis the Palestinian Arabs has absolutely no bearing whatsoever on the Sunni-Shiite bloodfest raging around the world and the rise of Islamic fundamentalism.

Yes, that is the fruit of the “Arab Spring.” Not as the Western sorcerer’s apprentices’ expected love, peace, and democracy but the rise of Islamism and the Sunni-Shia war.

koran koran koran koran

Arab World War Two: Sunni versus Shia

This is not merely coincidental violence. True, the currently self-flagellating West used to have scenes like this but no more. Today, the West is an island of tolerance despite the orgy within it of self-blame and criticism. Meanwhile, other places daily show orgies of violence but neither self-criticism.

Let’s take one little example from the daily situation of places from daily life in that vast expanse between Nigeria and Indonesia that coincides with Muslim-majority countries. Yet Muslims are also the main victim from the violence, due to the horror of radical Islamism and whipped-up-into-a-frenzy fanaticism which characterizes Arab World War Two.

In early June, Salafists stirred up hatred at the purported threat from a tiny minority of 30 Shia Muslims living in the village of Zawiyat Abu Muslim near Cairo. Shias are a microscopic portion of Egypt’s population, far less than one percent. Until recently one was barely aware they existed at all. But then until recently the same was true of that 1 percent minority of real Shia Muslims in Syria (along the Lebanese border, the Alawites are about as Shia Muslim as the Catholic pope is Mormon)  which has done so much to prompt the Hizballah offensive in the Syrian civil war.

More here.

I still disagree with my friend Barry (a man of great integrity and knowledge) on this point, I maintain that the term ‘Islamism’ is a highly flawed construct, something invented by the West to present an Islam of ‘many shades’, when in fact there is only one Islam, and a host of others who choose to sideline some or much of Islamic texts for a host of many reasons.  Rubin is dead on right here, ”the West’s inability to grasp that it’s dealing with a region which has a different history and culture”.

Unlike Madonna, the Middle East Is No ‘Material Girl’

barry-rubin2In my article “How to Understand Islamism: Read What Its Leaders Actually Say,” I wrote about Sunni Islamist leader Yusuf al-Qaradawi:

[He] does not talk about the need for urbanization, the equality of women, modern education, and greater freedom as the solution. Indeed, his view is totally contrary to a leftist or liberal or nationalist Muslim who would stress the need to borrow any ideas and methods other than purely technological ones, from the West in order to gain equality and even superiority. Think of how Asia has succeeded — Japan, South Korea, Singapore, and now even China — through eagerness to blend borrowings, adaptation, and its own historic culture. No, for al-Qaradawi the issue [of why the Muslim world hasn’t done better] is completely one of the abandonment of Islam.

A reader pointed out that in the West, it is assumed to be obvious that Arabs understand material advancement is necessary for progress and power. For example, Tom Friedman talked about the UN Arab Human Development Report written by Arab liberals. In other words: the Arabic-speaking world is shaped by the failure of leaders to understand that Western pundits know far more about their society than they do.

Understanding that Friedman doesn’t understand the Middle East — though he has persuaded a big audience otherwise — is the beginning of wisdom on the region.

Friedman insists:

Read the U.N.’s 2002 Arab Human Development Report about what deficits of freedom, women’s empowerment and knowledge did to Arab peoples over the last 50 years. Egypt, Tunisia, Libya, Yemen and Syria are not falling apart today because their leaders were toppled. Their leaders were toppled because for too many years they failed too many of their people. Half the women in Egypt still can’t read. That’s what the stability of the last 50 years bought.

But this is not the real issue. As happened in the USSR, Nazi Germany, and elsewhere in history, the real problem is radical ideology in command of both the leaders and the masses. As a result, the masses of the Middle East don’t care about deficits, but mainly about conformity, hatred of the “other,” killing, revenge, and — to borrow a term — what is politically correct, not factually correct. As for the rulers, they know how devastating in terms of stability the kinds of policies naive Westerners support would be.

Remember, the West saw the fall of communism as the blooming of democracy, whereas the Middle Eastern leaders saw it as the wilting of empires. The West remembers the passing of the Soviet bloc as the fall of the Berlin Wall. The Middle East leaders saw it as the fall of their counterparts, and the placing of Romania’s dictatorial Ceausescus in front of a firing squad. Now, 20 years later, Mubarak is in prison and Qadhafi is dead, murdered.

More here.

Tyranny is tyranny.

Looking at the Islamic fundamentalist AKP’s takeover of Turkey, I conclude that any hope for a modern Middle East to be nothing more than wishful thinking. With Islam, it could only be that way.

NOTE: The Soviets played on the ignorance of many concerning ”democratic rule”, so to the Muslims as well, it’s called process over substance.

Rubin on tunisia 31.5.2013

Note that his claiming the opposition seeks to seize power by force authorizes “regime defenders” to attack them by force. In fact, Marzouki threatened that opposition members who were trying to overthrow the government would be hung. He has threatened anyone criticizing Qatar — al-Nahda’s financier — with prison.

Unlike other Arab countries, however, the moderate democratic opposition is well-organized and has not been intimidated. Not yet, anyway.

On March 31, 2013, Marzouki’s own party — the National Council of the Congress for the Republic — appointed the president’s chief of staff Imed Daimi as secretary-general. He was soon forced to resign, however, when it was pointed out that it was strange to have a “center-left” and “secular” party led by a man with a long record of having been an Islamist militant. He was also a featured speaker for the Turkish Islamist front group, Union of Good, which has connections with terrorist groups.

Whatever Daimi’s current views, the idea that the president’s party and one of the governing coalition’s two “liberal” members would have been headed by an Islamist fellow traveler stirred up strong objections.

Like the Communists historically, Islamist groups have been adept at creating front groups, fellow travelers, and massive disinformation campaigns (see the creation of the “Islamophobia” theme in the West).

Meanwhile, the main Salafist group in Tunisia — Ansar al-Sharia, which has periodically engaged in low-level violence – has now threatened to launch a war of terrorism against the ruling party, which it says is only pretending to be Islamist.

More here.

Only a nuance of difference in tyranny.

Not real braking news, we all know its process over substance, but Barry offers insight on the different players in the shell game of Iranian politics They’re all Khameniacs as far as I’m concerned.

Iran Revolutionary Guard

It’s Official: Iran’s Presidential Election is A Sham

By Barry Rubin

The names have now been announced of who will be allowed to run for president of Iran by the regime in the June 14 elections. Six of eight are supporters of the current ruling faction; the rest are two weaker candidates of the other two factions. he outgoing president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s tumultuous time in office has left many dissatisfied especially since he has mismanaged the economy and made Iran’s international situation worse by his provocative behavior.

With less than a month to go before the elections–the campaign is only three weeks long to make things harder for the opposition–it is now clear who the candidates are and all those disagreeing with the dominant faction have been vetoed by the six-member Council of Guardian. This council is controlled by the country’s real ruler, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. But the complex maneuvers leading up to the election have given him a huge political headache.

The core of the problem is that there are three factions. Khamenei doesn’t want two of the factions– the super-hardliners and the reformists—to win but only the third group, his hardliners.

The super-hardline faction’s candidate was Esfandiar Rahim Mashaei, Ahmadinejad’s son-in-law and man widely seen as a puppet for him. Khamenei hates Mashaei and Mashaei was disqualified.

More here.

All of the valid points raised by Barry need to considered and factored into any future policy making by the State Department and future incoming administrations. The current one occupying the WH is beyond help, nor would they seek it.

benghazi whistleblowers present their experiences on what happened. 8.5.2013

Why the Benghazi Issue is Overwhelmingly Important

For a long and detailed radio interview in which I analyze just about everything in the current Middle East go here.

By Barry Rubin

barry-rubin2There is something terribly and tragically and importantly symbolic about the Benghazi attack that may be lost in the tidal wave of details about what happened on September 11, 2012, in an incident where four American officials were murdered in a terrorist attack. This point stands at the heart of everything that has happened in American society and intellectual life during the last decade.

And that point is this:

America was attacked once again on that September 11, attacked by al-Qaida in an attempt to destroy the United States—as ridiculous as that goal might seem. Yet the U.S. government blamed the attack on America itself.

Other reasons can be adduced for the official position that what happened that day was due to a video insulting Islam rather than to a terrorist attack, but this is the factor of overwhelming importance. It transformed the situation in the following ways:

–Muslims were the victims of American misbehavior, a point emerging from the administration’s wider worldview of U.S. aggression and Third World suffering, as in the lectures of all those left-wing anti-American academics and the sermons of Jeremiah Wright.

–“Hate speech” and racism (as “Islamophobia” is often reconfigured) was the cause of troubles.

–While freedom of speech and such liberties should be defended they must be limited in some ways to prevent further trouble.

–America’s proper posture should be one of apology, as in the advertisements that Secretary of State Hilary Clinton made for the Pakistani and other media.

–The misblaming, to coin a word, on the video showed terrorist groups that not only can they attack Americans but they can do so without fear of punishment or even of blame! As the House of Representatives’ hearings show, the misattribution of responsibility also delayed the FBI’s investigation, perhaps conclusively so.

More here.

The fake media is desperately trying to fold the recent terrorist bombings in Boston into the narrative of ”America is always to blame first”, while obfuscating the real motives behind the attack. Perhaps to a much lesser degree America is indeed responsible, the Leftist half that is, for its insistence on eviscerating the country’s institutions while it heaps scorn and vitriol upon its more than tolerant civil society.

The American people are an inclusive lot, and short on revenge. There were no mobs with pitchforks and clubs searching the streets for Muslims in the wake of the Boston terror attacks, yet they have to listen to their own public officials talk down to them about ”possible outbreaks of racism and intolerance” resulting in the wake of their society having been attacked.

Since such bombastic statements have no basis in reality, but there has to be something else behind them. The victims are made out to be the villains while the actual perpetrators are over analyzed by Leftist ideologues in search of reasons in order to blame America, then publicized 24/7 with ”rape victim had it coming” headlines. This is but a part of an overall concerted effort in the  systematic breakdown of the civil society by some really sick people.

NOTE: This is an excellent article.

For many years they have made it clear that they seek a total Islamic (in their interpretation) state. It is the precise equivalent of describing Chinese Communists more than sixty years ago, as they approached victory in their country’s civil war, as “agrarian reformers.”

The Truths About Terrorism Whose Names They Dare Not Speak

By Barry Rubin

barry-rubin2The current conventional wisdom about terrorism, Islamism, and the Middle East is being bent, but not broken, by two events. On one hand, there is the Boston bombing; on the other hand, developments in Syria and to a lesser extent Egypt. What’s happening?

In the Middle East, the misbehavior of Islamist movements is becoming more apparent. In Egypt, there is the repression of the Muslim Brotherhood regime, which may actually intend to create a non-democratic Sharia state! Parallel behavior in the Gaza Strip, Lebanon, Tunisia, and Turkey is under-reported but occasionally surfaces.

The most important single story at the moment, though, is Syria. Basically, the Obama Administration has woken up and recognized what was easily apparent two years ago: They are helping to put radical, anti-American Islamists into power! They are helping to provide them with advanced weapons which might be used for activities other than what is intended!

When the government wakes up it nudges the media to get up also. What is quite startling is the extent to which the mass media is responsive to government policy, at least this government’s policy. I want to explain this carefully in order to be fair.

Take this article in the New York Times, which can be summarized as saying that Islamist rebels’ gains in Syria create a dilemma for the United States.  Now this is an article about U.S. policy so naturally it describes how that policy is changing.

Yet at the same time, one wants to ask: Why haven’t the policy consequences of this situation been described continuously in the past? If a big truck is headed straight at you on the highway, might not the media sitting in the front passenger seat shout out a warning? Does it have to wait for the driver to notice and then it can say something?

And even so the diffidence is astonishing. It is good that the newspaper notices that the rebels are largely comprised of, “Political Islamists inspired by the Muslim Brotherhood and others who want an Islamic-influenced legal code.” But why even now one can say “Islamic-influenced?”

Read the rest here at Barry’s.

That’s the mental straitjacket we’ve put ourselves into.

Someone has to come up with a Latin word for ”fear of being called a racist”. That’s the world we now live in, evil is allowed to flourish because we’re afraid to call it by name lest we be labeled as ”Islamofauxbe, racist or bigot. The case is constantly made that we can’t name a racial, ethnic or religious group as containing some dangerous elements, for in doing so we smear the group as a whole.

If that’s the case, then for an example, radical white supremacists (Ayran Brothers, KKK), radical black supremacists (Black Panthers, Nation of Islam) shouldn’t be mentioned either, for fear of stigmatizing those racial groups. All this tip toeing through the tulips comes at a cost, if you can’t name your enemy, you’ve just increased the likelihood of their eventual success.

NOTE: Read the entire piece by Lowenthal Marcus, she quotes Barry Rubin extensively.

lori lowenthal marcus is fear of blaqming islam greater than fear of terrorism 26.4.2013

Rubin was talking about the reluctance to name Islam – Rubin calls this the “mysterious motivation,” and he refuses to be cowed into playing that avoidance game.

Rubin wrote a very important article about this after he watched the mainstream media and western politicos twist themselves into pretzels in an effort to avoid the obvious. Rubin explains that the West seems to believe that if we admit radical ideological Islam threatens Western society, that will have radical implications for our worldview.

As a result, Rubin points out, most current policy makers and opinion shapers prefer to avoid any policy that considering Islam as the motive for terrorism would necessitate.  The fear of short term pain is indulged at the expense of preventing the real danger that will follow.  And we are being lied to – “albeit for virtuous reasons” – by the politicians and the mainstream press.

What is the fear that is so great “doing nothing has become better than doing anything”? The fear is that speaking the truth: that the Tsarnaev brothers acted in accordance with their (or at least the older brother’s) understanding of what Islam requires,  will lead to disaster.  It will cause widespread hatred of Muslims to be unleashed, the specter of Islamophobia to spread, racism will again become rampant, and all the things that a hoped-for post-racist America tried to put behind it will again spread throughout the land.

But the failure to take Islam into consideration might be the very reason why, despite the warning the U.S. was given by Russia that Tamerlan Tsarnaev was “a radical Muslim and a strong believer” the U.S. nonetheless watched Tsarnaev leave the country for Russia and allowed the case file on him to expire during the time Tsarnaev was in a heavily radicalized Muslim territory of Russia.

In a telephone interview from his home in Tel Aviv, The Jewish Pressspoke with Rubin, the director of the Global Research in International Affairs (GLORIA) Center and editor of the Middle East Review of International Affairs (MERIA) Journal.  Rubin is the author of more than a dozen books on topics including terrorism, Syria, Turkey, Iran, Iraq, Egypt, the PLO, Israel, the Middle East and Islam, which have been published by the most esteemed publishing houses including the Oxford, Yale and Harvard University presses.

First Rubin lists off and explains the many ways the Tsarnaev brothers’ “mysterious motive” to maim and murder Americans has been and continues to be aggressively obfuscated. The list includes fingers pointed at a troubled youth; the Chechen code of honor; immigrants’ malaise; and unemployment.  Read his article, it is well worth seeing how he lays it out.

More here.

This piece however is by Barry Rubin, who nails it shut as far as I’m concerned.

boston bomber truly reprents jihad

Barry Rubin: Then there will a frantic search for the “blame ourselves” theme. If the issue wasn’t such a tragic one, this would be humorous. Could America have acted more kindly toward these two brothers? Don’t underestimate how well this theme will play with those citizens who drink other flavors of Kool-Aid. In this pursuit no idiocy is unthinkable. Canadian Liberal Party leader Justin Trudeau, who is trying to be an Obama clone, explained:
“There is no question that this happened because of someone who feels completely excluded, someone who feels completely at war…with society.” The solution, then, is not to “marginalize people even further who already feel like they are enemies of society rather than people who have hope for the future.”
In other words, doing anything is more dangerous than doing nothing. To combat radical Islam is to hurt people’s feelings and that will produce more terrorism.

The “Mysterious Motive” Cover-Up on the Boston Attack Begins

By Barry Rubin

barry-rubin2Now that the two (main at least) terrorists from the Boston Marathon attack have been killed or captured we enter a new phase, the phase in which the dominant Politically Correct (but Factually Incorrect) forces try to explain away the attack.

Can this be done? Will they really try? Well, yes. True, as one of my correspondents remarked it is much easier to obfuscate far distant Benghazi than the total shutdown and horror in the middle of a major American city. Yet the spin-masters are already at work.

The first step must be, in part, a stalling technique but it sets the pattern for what is to come.  As, in the words of a Reuters story, the “Boston Marathon bombing investigation turns to motive,” the motive must be obfuscated.

The Reuters piece is a good start. The article spends seven paragraphs discussing the parents claim that the two brothers were framed. This suggests that the mass media and politicians will not shrink from suggesting—perhaps I should say, gives fair hearing—to bizarre conspiracy theories and doubts. People shouldn’t believe these completely, is the theme, but you just can’t be too sure that two young Muslims would have any reason to harm Americans.

Indeed, there are now witnesses who heard the two terrorists’ mother claiming that September 11 was a U.S. plot to make people hate Muslims. That’s where playing with that kind of fire leads.

In the article, the word “Islam” is not mentioned, except to say that they once lived in one predominantly Muslim country and another place they lived, Dagestan, is “a southern Russian province that lies at the heart of a violent Islamist insurgency.” Here, we have another technique, minimize Islam as a factor and turn it into background noise.

There is a major disconnect in the minds of many politicians (fed to them by academia and parroted by the legacy/fake media), about the actual reality in the M.E. They hold totally unrealistic views on what can be achieved there, so here’s some startling reminders by Rubin, that hopefully challenges some deeply held convictions.

This is the real Middle East. Not the imagined place of Obama and Kerry, the UN and EU, the classrooms of the West or the columns of the mass media.  These are all things that I’ve personally witnessed or known the person who did.  Unless one understands this reality one understands nothing.

Snapshots: Personal Experiences of the Real Middle East

By Barry Rubin

barry-rubin2These are all personal observations, selected from a much longer personal list:

–The Palestinian Christian man is desperate. Can I help him get out of the country? He’s scared of the Islamists. Can I help him  get his son to university in America? The situation is intolerable. Something is worked out with a little help from me.

–The Druze woman is desperate. She has  a boyfriend her family doesn’t approve of. With help from some Israelis she is smuggled to a safe place.

–The letter from the Syrian Christian tells of his desperation to get out of the country before the Islamists take over.

–The Egyptian Christian has obtained an apartment abroad and is getting out of the country to America .

–The Syrian Kurdish refugee is stuck in southern Turkey. No Western country will consider offering political asylum because for policy reasons they want the refugees to go back to Syria after it is “liberated,” albeit the liberation will be done by radical, repressive Islamists. He is desperately desiring to live in what he calls a “free, secular society.”

–The Turkish liberals write about how they are afraid to speak out in public, of continual arrests, of media outlets being blackmailed by the government. To curry favor with the Islamists a well-known, ambitious Turkish academic launches a failed take over bid of an academic journal edited by an Israeli professor.

More here at Barry’s.

After inviting hundreds of thousands of anti-semites into the country, they now wonder about their anti-semitism problem. Extrapolate the phenomenon from around Europe and you begin to see the magnitude of the problem.

Here’s the bottom line: Given the fact that this hatred is endemic among Dutch Muslims; and given the fact that their proportion and influence in the country is increasing; and given the fact that there are literally no countervailing forces, is this viewpoint going to increase or decrease? Obviously, the former.

If Holland is Becoming Antisemitic Where Else is it Safe?

By Barry Rubin

barry-rubin2A few years ago in Amsterdam I was shown the most popular manual published in the Netherlands, in Dutch, on how to raise one’s children as proper Muslims. The book included virulently anti-Semitic passages, based on Muslim holy texts. After the Jewish community objected, the authorities forced the publisher to put white tape over the offending passages. The tape could easily be peeled off by purchases so that these words could be read.

Or consider what has just happened. A Turkish-Dutch researcher publicized systematic anti-Semitism among other Muslims in the Netherlands, including a dramatic video that showed teenage boys calling for genocide and praising Hitler.

What happened? The researcher, Mehmet Sahin, had to go into hiding after being accused by others of being a Jew and a Zionist.

The growing anti-Semitism in Western Europe is like that. The European Union, governments, and the media paste a white tape over the problem to conceal it or pretend to do something about it. But when one peels back the tape the hatred is revealed as growing and being passed onto the next generation.

While one doesn’t want to exaggerate rising anti-Semitism in Europe – mostly from Muslim immigrants and their children but facilitated and even reflected by the increasingly intellectually hegemonic Left – the growth of anti-Jewish hatred is enormous. Some people view this as fear-mongering, pointing to other developments that show the glass to be half full. Indeed, the hostility of European governments toward Israel has often been exaggerated. The situation is actually better than it was 20 or 30 years ago.

Read it all at Barry’s blog Rubin Reports.

My point would be, that it’s never good to have a president to not like you from ideological reasons, and if he could change the reality on the ground, would really prove just how much he doesn’t like you. This is a wake up call for Israel, that such a person can achieve high office, and radically effect the party he leads, so much so, that their pro-Israel support hangs around 38%.

-What’s significant is not whether or not Obama loves Israel but that he sees support as being in U.S. interests. Reality forced him to move from a policy of distancing himself from Israel to one of embracing Israel.

obama genius

He Loves Me; He Loves Me Not: The Meaning of Obama’s Visit

By Barry Rubin

[…] During 2009, however, I was faced with an important question: Should I be flat-out honest as to what I thought regarding Obama’s policies or would that jeopardize the bilateral relationship. Would supporters of Obama react against Israel because of criticism of their beloved chief executive?

I decided to speak up, partly because the dangers were so great and also since the whole point of criticism is to persuade someone to change course. By 2011 it was already becoming clear that U.S.-Israel relations as such were not the problem, U.S. Middle East policy was.

Let me summarize in this way:

–Arab behavior was the main force showing Obama that he was wrong. That parallels what happened during the Cold War when anti-American actions by radical Arab regimes and their alliance with the USSR persuaded previously unfriendly U.S. policymakers that they benefited from an alignment with Israel.

–The fact that the American people recognized the rightness of Israel’s narrative could not be ignored by leaders, especially if bashing Israel brought no strategic advantage..

–What’s significant is not whether or not Obama loves Israel but that he sees support as being in U.S. interests. Reality forced him to move from a policy of distancing himself from Israel to one of embracing Israel.

–But Obama must learn now about the dangers of Islamism or his administration will continue to be a net minus for Israel. It would be better if Obama learned to love the Arabs, Iranians, and Turks fighting for moderation and real democracy in their countries, not the totalitarians in those places.

–By truly protecting U.S. interests, Obama would do more for Israel than by making any number of friendly speeches.

Read it all here.

Obama is the poster child of epic fail.

When you look into his domestic agenda, they’re just as miserable as his crash and burn foreign policies.

Why President Obama’s Concept of the Middle East Will Fail: Just Listen to It

By Barry Rubin

barry-rubin2To put it plainly, the press briefing supposed to indicate how President Barack Obama’s thinks about Israel on the eve of his trip here, is a combination of fantasy and insult. It may well that the Obama Administration did not mean this to be taken seriously, that the statements were made for show, to persuade the Arabic-speaking world that the United States is striving for peace and using its influence to change Israeli policy even as it does nothing of the sort.

Yet the first two premises on which this argument is based can be described as believing that what the Arab public really wants is progress toward peace with Israel and that the United States sees the ball as being in Israel’s–not the Arabs–court. The other is a strange hint that Washington has suddenly realized what Israel has understood since the beginning–that the “Arab Spring” isn’t going well. Now it feels the need to explain to Israeli leaders what they have long known, and give bad advice on what to do about it.

To show how mainstream Israelis who follow these issues closely see these themes, let’s quote how the Ynet reporter who covered the briefing–the respected and nonpartisan Yitzhak Benhorin–summarized what Deputy National Security Advisor Ben Rhodes said. Here’s his lead:

“U.S. President Barack Obama will not be bringing a peace plan to Israel, but he will try to convince Prime Minister Benjamin and the Israeli public that after the Arab Spring, Israel cannot depend on autocrats holding everything together in the region..”

Here’s a president arriving at a moment when Israelis think the region is falling apart, with old autocrats being replaced by new ones and a more hostile environment, and the message is: You shouldn’t be complacent that everything is great?

Where does this come from? It is the American conception that the “Arab Spring” is a great thing, that old autocrats are falling and will be replaced by more democratic and moderate regimes. That is American; not Israeli thinking.

If that theme is based on fantasy, the second theme is insulting. Here is the second paragraph of Benhorin’s analysis:

“The U.S. believes that Israel must show it is serious about its peace efforts. It must convince the general Arab public, if nothing more than to maintain Israel’s peace treaty with Egypt.”

These are Benhorin’s words, not Rhodes’ exact formulations. But I think Benhorin reads the message properly.

Let’s begin by discussing the idea that Israel must persuade the Arab public:

–The question should be posed as this: When will the Arab public, or Arab governments, show Israel they are serious about peace? In 2009 when Obama sought such assurances and demonstrations he was turned down flat. We know it and he should know it.

–How long a list do you want of the times Israel has shown the Arab public that it wants peace seriously?

–Do you think the Arab public cares or is going to be persuaded by any such behavior?

–Hundreds of Israelis died in the 1993-2000 period in the effort to show the Arab public Israel was serious about peace.

The idea that Israel needs to persuade its neighbors to accept its existence is a line we have heard almost daily since the 1980s or even 1970s. Yet curiously the Arab street pays no attention to the scores of such Israeli gestures and the West soon forgets each one. And indeed Obama has forgotten those that took place during his first term, for example the nine-month-long settlement construction freeze, just as before that the Oslo agreement, Israeli withdrawal from the Gaza Strip, the 2000 Camp David offer (including the offer to redivide Jerusalem!) and many more. [See Footnote, below]

More here.

Head em up, move em out!

Hollywood's Greatest Year: The Best Picture Nominees of 1939

How Old Movies Show What New Movies Say are Lies

March 1st, 2013 – 10:12 am

barry-rubin2Many young people nowadays are indoctrinated to believe that American culture has always been dominated by conservative, racist, and other nasty  influences. Understanding this complex history has not been balanced by this new indoctrination and distortion. It’s merely been made biased in the opposite direction far more systematically than it ever was before. Racism against African-Americans and many other things in American history are undeniable–and shouldn’t be.

Consequently there was plenty of room for improvement. But that same history also shows there is no need for endless self-flagellation. I’ve often noticed this but it came to my attention again in rewatching the film that brought a certain man to stardom. So what better way to learn about the true and dominant themes than that classical Western directed by John Ford, “Stagecoach” (1939) [For full script see here.]

Let’s examine the politics of the film. As a traditional Western, it shows the Americans—not whites, Americans—as good guys in a battle with the Apaches. Aside from this, though, are the following plot points:

–The stagecoach driver is married to a Mexican-American woman. No negative aspersions are cast at all. This is totally accepted. Incidentally, all three of John Wayne’s wives were “Hispanics.”

–The heroes of the film are an outlaw, whose motives for killing a man are portrayed sympathetically, and a prostitute.

—-One theme that runs through the film is how the “respectable” people are mean to the prostitute and that’s a terrible thing.

–Although the women are treated by the male characters as delicate, etc., their behavior shows them to be courageous, clear-headed, and as tough as circumstances require.

–The main villains are a banker and an ex-Confederate officer who has turned gambler, shot men in the back, and is a social snob.

More here.

Thanks Barry for linking to the TT.

hands up

Islamists to West: Put Up Your Hands and Hand Over Your Property!

By Barry Rubin

barry-rubin2Here’s the perfect parable for understanding not just the contemporary Middle East but the wider world today.

Two unarmed Finnish soldiers assigned to the United Nations Truce Supervision Organization (UNTSO) were observing along the Israel-Syria border from the Syrian side.  Armed men stopped their car. While the two Finns didn’t speak Arabic they were quickly made to understand that the men wanted their UN vehicle and their other possessions.

Similar things have happened to Belgian and Italian soldiers in the UNIFIL force in southern Lebanon.

 In short, the supposed representatives of the world’s community were being mugged and they could do nothing about it, or at least nothing but to give in.

A Finnish officer explained that the men weren’t in fear of their lives; the gunmen just wanted their property.

Now let me make it clear that I’m not criticizing the two soldiers. What are you going to do when you are unarmed and terrorists with guns hold you up? Yet this little story struck me as incredibly symbolic on several levels.

The world is constantly held up by terrorists and nowadays it tends to give in, if not to the specific operations to the narrative being imposed on it. We do see rescue operations sometimes—as in the Algerian army’s disastrous “rescue” in which all the technicians being held hostage at a gas field were killed—and sometimes we don’t, as in Benghazi while the U.S. government stood by as men it had sent into a dangerous situation were murdered.

More here.

Remember, Muslim fundamentalists are just acting upon the very fundamentals of Islam.

The U.S. has been on ill fated trajectory in regards to confronting Islam for a very long time, especially since GWBush decided upon nation building in Iraq and calling Islam a ”religion of peace”. Everyone who reads this blog knows full well I refuse the misleading label of ”Islamism/Islamists”, but I have deep respect for Barry Rubin and his work, and so I turn a blind eye to his usage of the term. We have an agreed, but reasoned, difference of opinions on the subject.

The current administration in the White House is hell bent on giving a veneer of respectability to the various Islamic fundamentalist parties in the Middle East and Maghreb, with the vain hope of moderating them in due course. As we have seen with the Hamas, it’s a fools errand, and history will in fact repeat itself in every single Muslim state headed by any of their fellow fundamentalists.

In other words, put your enemies in power and they are no longer your enemies. Moreover, once Islamists get into power they will get entangled in party politics, paving roads, running schools, and doing all the other things that governments do. They will lose their radicalism and certainly stop using violence.

Why the CIA Director is Wrong: Rethinking al-Qaida

By Barry Rubin

barry-rubin2It’s time, a dozen years after September 11 and following Islamist coups in the Gaza Strip; Islamist electoral revolutions in Egypt, Tunisia, Lebanon, and Turkey; and a probable Islamist victory during the next year in Syria–to rethink completely our view of al-Qaida.

First, al-Qaida wasn’t involved in any of these events and several more big developments we could list. Second, al-Qaida hasn’t disappeared, contrary to the Obama Administration’s claims. And third, the American homeland is now demonstrably well-protected from terrorist attacks so consequently while success on this front remains important it need not be the top U.S. strategic priority.

So let me propose a new way of looking at things:

Aside from being a problem of counter-terrorism—that is, of law enforcement—al-Qaida is no longer important. It certainly isn’t strategically important nor is it important for the biggest and most essential U.S. national interests. That doesn’t mean al-Qaida should be ignored yet combating it is relatively manageable.

This alternative view is especially significant at a moment when the new CIA director is the father—and the president, secretary of state, and secretary of defense the avid fans—of a theory that places al-Qaida at the center of the world stage.

Basically their theory goes like this:

Al-Qaida is terribly evil and a threat to America. It must be fought. But all Islamism—except for al-Qaida—can be moderated and won over by a sympathetic U.S. policy. The Islamists are the best people to handle and defeat al-Qaida and by giving the people what they want–Islam running the society–their desire to commit terrorism or attack America will subside. After all, if the United States shows itself to be Islamism’s best friend, why should Islamists be angry at it? This strategy began with Obama’s Cairo speech which was a profoundly pro-Islamist statement, and that’s why he invited Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood leaders to sit in the front row.

In other words: put your enemies in power, and they are no longer your enemies. Moreover, once Islamists get into power they will get entangled in party politics, paving roads, running schools, and doing all the other things that governments do. They will lose their radicalism and certainly stop using violence.

There’s a lot to say against this theory.

It either hasn’t worked historically on other radical ideologies — Nazism, Fascism, Communism — or at least only after a very long time in power (including millions of victims) often mixed in with military debacles. It can be said to have worked with radical Arab nationalism, but only after 50 years and multiple military defeats. This was also the precise theory that underpinned the 1990′s Oslo peace process and assumptions about Yasir Arafat settling down to become a great and practical statesman. And that didn’t work either.

Moreover, it ignores the fundamental extremism, anti-Americanism, anti-Semitism, anti-Christian, and anti-women tenets of Islamist philosophy, which are rooted in reasonable (but not the only possible) interpretations of Islam. And it also leaves out the power gained once radicals take over institutions. Sure, they’ll be running the schools, but that doesn’t mean they will become entangled in planning curricula so much as to persuade people they should grow up to be radical Islamists and jihad warriors.

More here.