Apparently 'chutzpah' is not an exclusively Jewish concept

Bad, bad Schalit family, making Islamic terrorists keep their son Gilad in captivity. Why don't they love their child?

The Popular Resistance Committees blames captive IDF Cpl. Gilad Schalit's family for keeping him in jail, PRC spokesman Abu Mujad said Sunday.

According to Abu Mujad, Schalit's parents have not put enough pressure on the diplomatic echelon in Jerusalem to secure their son's release, Army Radio reported.

Abu Mujad appealed to the Schalit family, saying, "You are neglecting your duty to your son, and your government has left him in the field - not freed him."

Nevertheless, Abu Mujad expressed optimism that Israel would "soften" its stance.

I guess this just proves how heartless Jews are -- they won't even lift a finger to save their own children (if by 'lifting a finger' one means 'making one's government release a thousand murdering terrorists').

Somehow I doubt CAIR cares about this case

So a convert to Islam decided she wasn't entirely down with the multiple wives thing....

Myra Morton, 47, turned herself in Thursday to face murder and related charges in the death of Jereleigh Morton, 47, who was shot in his bed early Sunday morning in his million-dollar home outside Philadelphia.



The killing happened just hours before Jereleigh Morton was to travel to Africa to try to conceive a baby with his second wife, prosecutors said.

Myra Morton had reluctantly agreed to the second marriage and even traveled to Morocco to sanction it under Islamic law, authorities have said. She told police that an intruder had come into the bedroom and shot her husband, but police found no signs of a break-in.

I am betting that CAIR doesn't lift a finger to help this woman. I mean, defending the civil rights of Muslims is allegedly CAIR's thing, but I bet they draw the line at a disobedient Muslim wife who doesn't respect her husband's right to multiple spouses.

Watch the Iranian missiles fly off to kill US troops in Iraq

What more do you need to declare war on a country?

Dramatic video produced by Iraqi insurgents and captured in a raid earlier this week by U.S. troops clearly shows a battery of sophisticated Iranian-made rocket launchers firing on American positions east of Baghdad, Pentagon officials said Wednesday.



The video, captured during a raid on Monday by the 3rd Squadron, 1st Cavalry Regiment in northeast Nahrawan, shows insurgents setting up and carrying out an attack on Sunday, as well as an attack on July 11 that killed one soldier and wounded 15 others, officials said. The raid last month appeared to involve 34 launchers firing 107 mm Iranian-made rockets.

It would be nice to reduce Iran's stockpiles of military materiel to dust.

Criminals or combatants?

From James Taranto's Best of the Web on OpinionJournal.com, a scathing analysis of a stupid op-ed by Wesley Clark and Kal Raustiala of the Burkle Center.

Here is their argument:

Since 9/11 the Bush administration has sought to categorize members of Al Qaeda and other jihadists as "unlawful combatants" rather than treat them as criminals. . . .

Treating terrorists as combatants is a mistake for two reasons. First, it dignifies criminality by according terrorist killers the status of soldiers. . . .

Critics have rightly pointed out that traditional categories of combatant and civilian are muddled in a struggle against terrorists. In a traditional war, combatants and civilians are relatively easy to distinguish. The 9/11 hijackers, by contrast, dressed in ordinary clothes and hid their weapons. They acted not as citizens of Saudi Arabia, an ally of America, but as members of Al Qaeda, a shadowy transnational network. And their prime targets were innocent civilians.

By treating such terrorists as combatants, however, we accord them a mark of respect and dignify their acts. And we undercut our own efforts against them in the process. Al Qaeda represents no state, nor does it carry out any of a state's responsibilities for the welfare of its citizens. Labeling its members as combatants elevates its cause and gives Al Qaeda an undeserved status. . . .

The more appropriate designation for terrorists is not "unlawful combatant" but the one long used by the United States: criminal.

This is so vapid, it does not even rise to the level of sophistry. The authors argue that the U.S. should "designate" terrorists as "criminals" rather than "unlawful combatants" for purely rhetorical reasons: because calling someone a "criminal" implies less "respect" and does not "dignify" him.

Clark and Raustiala assert, “Al Qaeda represents no state, nor does it carry out any of a state's responsibilities for the welfare of its citizens.” This is false: from Al Qaeda’s point of view, they are the official government of the Caliphate-to-be, a state that currently exists in exile from its claimed national territory of the area between al-Andalus, occupied by the Spanish, to those Sultanates currently occupied by the Philippines. It is akin to the Free French and Free Dutch of World War II, claiming to represent the legitimate national governments of their occupied lands. They have declared war as a state on the nations of the West and on the occupation governments of Muslim lands (e.g., the House of Saud), but they refuse to abide by the internationally-agreed conventions and laws of warfare.

Taranto continues:

The criminal justice system is fundamentally punitive, not preventive. The purpose of declaring someone a combatant is to keep him off the battlefield, thereby weakening the enemy's ability to attack in the future. The justice system can do nothing about a ‘crime’ that has not yet been [committed].

His latter two sentences are spot on, but I take issue with the sentiment of the first. In my view, the criminal justice system uses punitive measures as preventive deterrents. The operation of the criminal justice system is based on the fact that most members of a civilized society are willing to stay within the limits of the law and need only the occasional reminder that transgressors face punishment to be deterred from wrongdoing.

In warfare, the combatants are by definition unconcerned with the societal norms of the people they are attacking. However, lawful warfare draws a line at targeting civilians and torturing or summarily executing captives. Combatants on one side may be deterred from violating the laws of war, attacking certain classes of targets, or using certain types of weapons for fear of retaliation in kind.

Fanatical terrorists do not recognize any such limits in their conduct of warfare. As a consequence, punitive measures drawn from the criminal justice system’s model of deterrence are useless in that context. Even retaliation in kind is ineffective against terrorist combatants who do not fear consequences in the temporal world because they are supremely confident of rewards in the next world. Thus the only means to prevent their evil acts are to detain them or to kill them.

Clark and Raustiala can't even get their argument straight, however. In a segment not quoted by Taranto:

The federal court held that while the government can arrest and convict civilians, under current law the military cannot seize and detain Mr. Marri. Nor would it necessarily be constitutional to do so, even if Congress expressly authorized the military detention of civilians. At the core of the court’s reasoning is the belief that civilians and combatants are distinct. Had Ali al-Marri fought for an enemy nation, military detention would clearly be proper. But because he is accused of being a member of Al Qaeda, and is a citizen of a friendly nation, he should not be treated as a warrior.

Cases like this illustrate that in the years since 9/11, the Bush administration’s approach to terrorism has created more problems than it has solved. We need to recognize that terrorists, while dangerous, are more like modern-day pirates than warriors. They ought to be pursued, tried and convicted in the courts. At the extreme, yes, military force may be required. But the terrorists themselves are not “combatants.” They are merely criminals, albeit criminals of an especially heinous type, and that label suggests the appropriate venue for dealing with the threats they pose.

Which is it, gentlemen? Are al-Qaeda terrorists civilian criminals, against whom it is improper to deploy military forces? Or are they soldiers of a non-territorial nation in exile, and therefore just targets of military action? The Clark-Raustiala position would seem to make NATO's operations in Afghanistan illegal, given that neither al-Qaeda nor the Taliban are legally-constituted armies. We should send the FBI and Interpol to round them up, not NATO troops in APCs and aircraft.

And we will close with this gem of wanton stupidity from Clark & Raustiala:

Labeling terrorists as combatants also leads to this paradox: while the deliberate killing of civilians is never permitted in war, it is legal to target a military installation or asset. Thus the attack by Al Qaeda on the destroyer Cole in Yemen in 2000 would be allowed, as well as attacks on command and control centers like the Pentagon.

"Allowed"? Well, yes, in that those attacks would be deemed to be within the legitimate scope of military targeting. However, this overlooks two important details. First, even though al-Qaeda did issue a formal declaration of war against Western governments (even though it wasn't taken seriously by those Western governments), this doesn't make their attacks on the USS Cole or the Pentagon "allowable" from the perspective of the United States: the U.S. Armed Forces would have been well within their rights to kill all of the attackers before the attacks succeeded. And the reason that the sailors on the USS Cole and the U.S. forces in and around the Pentagon did not in fact repel those attacks brings up the second point: al-Qaeda does not conduct its warfare according to international conventions and the laws of war. Its soldiers do not wear distinguishing uniforms, they do not recognize the rights of civilians not to be targeted, they do not accord captives the rights of prisoners of war. Perhaps the best way to describe them is that they are more than ordinary criminals, they are war criminals.

Russia edging over the brink in Georgia

From smaller things have great wars arisen.

Georgia has appealed for urgent international support against Kremlin "aggression" after Russian fighter jets reportedly attacked a village close to the capital Tbilisi.

The missile strike, responsibility for which was quickly denied by Moscow, dramatically worsened already tense relations between the ex-Soviet neighbours.


Farmers examine what is claimed to be a motor from the missile

The Georgian foreign ministry summoned Russia’s ambassador to Tbilisi and handed him a formal protest note that condemned the attack as "undisguised aggression and a gross violation of the country’s sovereignty."

Vano Merabishvili, Georgia’s interior minister, told The Daily Telegraph that two Sukhoi attack aircraft entered Georgian airspace from Russia at 7.30 pm on Monday night and fired at least one air-to-surface missile at the village of Tsitelubani, 40 miles west of Tbilisi.

The missile left a 16-foot crater in a field but failed to detonate. Sappers later defused the missile, fragments of which bore Cyrillic markings.

"We now have incontrovertible evidence that these aircraft travelled more than 80 km into Georgian airspace and fired a 1,000-kg precision guided, Russian-made missile," said Georgia’s foreign minister, Gela Bezhuashvili. The Georgian government later led Western diplomats on a tour of the site.

Officials also handed over evidence in the form of photographs and radar data to experts at the Organisation for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE).

Georgia has complained of repeated violations of its airspace and claimed in March that Russian helicopter gunships opened fire on the country’s remote Kodori Gorge, close to the Moscow-backed breakaway region of Abkhazia.

A United Nations investigation ruled, however, that there was insufficient evidence to blame Russia conclusively. With the latest attack considered a greater provocation because of its proximity to the capital, Georgia is keen to ensure that there are no such doubts this time.

"We believe the muted international response after the Kodori incident acted as a green light for Russian adventurism," Mr Bezhuashvili said. "We now appeal to the international community to stand up for its principles and condemn this aggressive behaviour against us."

Why would the Russians want this conflict? According to an analysis in The Daily Telegraph of London, there are two possible reasons: Russian nationalist politics and the corruption of local Russian military officers.

There is no doubt how serious is the rift between the two countries since Mikhail Saakashvili, the westernizing president, was swept to power in the Rose Revolution of 2003.

Russia has deeply resented its loss of influence in the country of Stalin's birth and is determined to halt Mr Saakashvili's ambitions for Nato and EU membership.

Moscow showed its displeasure by banning exports of Georgian wine and mineral water, vital sectors of an economy still heavily dependent on Russia.

Tensions erupted last September after Georgia expelled four Russian officers it accused of espionage. The Kremlin's excessive reaction raised eyebrows around the world. Moscow withdrew its diplomats from Tbilisi, severed trade, transport and postal links and deported thousands of Georgians living in Russia.

With a fierce anti-Georgian campaign being waged in the Russian press, some commentators suggested that a group of Kremlin hardliners were intent on provoking a military confrontation to provide an excuse to change the constitution and allow Vladimir Putin to stay in power.

The president is due to step down next March after completing his second term.

Alexei Malashenko, an expert on the Caucasus at the Moscow Carnegie Centre, said it was possible that this faction had ordered the firing of a dummy missile in a bid to fuel the crisis.

But he and other analysts said it was more likely that the missile attack could have been carried out by local Russian army units without the knowledge of the Kremlin.

The location of the air strike was close to South Ossetia, another Moscow backed breakaway region. Georgia and Russia have been at loggerheads over the tiny region — which is about the size of Suffolk — for years.

Tbilisi has accused Moscow of arming the rebels and firefights between separatists and Georgian soldiers have increased since 2004.

There have been signs, however, that Russia is finally willing to negotiate a settlement. Moscow has opposed the West's backing for independence of Kosovo, arguing that Serbia's territorial integrity should be inviolable and has threatened to veto a UN resolution that backs Pristina's position.

As a result, the Kremlin has had to temper its support for Georgia's breakaway regions or risk being accused of hypocrisy. But for Russian military units stationed in South Ossetia as peacekeepers and their commanders across the border in southern Russia, a peace accord would be highly undesirable.

As it has descended into lawlessness, South Ossetia has become a haven for smugglers and counterfeiters. According to western diplomats, a significant proportion of the fake dollar bills in circulation on America's east coast were manufactured here.

According to analysts, those profiting the most are Russian officers — many of whom hold posts in the South Ossetian administration.

If Georgia had already realized its goal of becoming a NATO member, this attack could have obligated the rest of NATO to meet its joint defense obligations. The Russians -- whether their motives are national or local -- are playing a most dangerous game.

A child's garden of explosives

The only glimmer of light in this horrific story is that the Palestinians aren't trying to present this as an IDF attack on civilians.

GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip - A large explosion in northern Gaza on Tuesday killed an 8-year-old boy and his 6-year-old sister and injured five other children, Palestinian health officials said.

Witnesses said a group of children stumbled upon a homemade rocket or a mortar shell and began playing with it. The device exploded, injuring all seven children, two of whom died later of their wounds.

Moaiya Hassanain, a Palestinian health official, said the explosion occurred in the village of Beit Lahiya, in the northern Gaza Strip, and the wounded were evacuated to hospital.

If the Palestinian rejectionists continue to teach their youngest children to adore armaments and killing, there is scant hope for the future of the Palestinian people.

Starbucks may have stretched a bit too far

Here's an example of happy-happy touchy-feely do-goodism in my e-mail in-box. (Link here.) Perhaps a tad too far for a company that exists to import a luxury good from the farthest reaches from the globe to provide neo-yuppies with opportunities for self-indulgence.

Maybe Starbucks should take a leaf from Elizabeth Edwards’s position on tangerines and declare that their stores will no longer sell coffee that isn’t grown within a 50-mile radius of the selling store location.

Gosh, I hope nobody was hurt

Somebody's toys seem to have gotten broken.

Breaking news: 4 explosions at PFLP-GC base in Lebanon's Bekaa
Friday, 3 August, 2007 @ 9:33 AM

Beirut - 4 huge explosions rocked the Qussaya base of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine - General Command , in the eastern Bekaa valley east of Beirut.

The explosions shook the whole region.

PFLP-GC is based in Syria but has bases in Lebanon. Its chief Ahmad Jibril served in the Syrian army

The Qussaya base of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine - General Command is about 2 kilometers from the Syrian borders.

There are no details available yet on causes of the explosions , damages or casualties. Ya Libnan will provide updates as we obtain more details.

Let's keep our fingers crossed that everything turns out all right in this incident. (I'm not sure the PFLP-GC would agree with what I think "all right" would be, though.)

UPDATE: Ron Dellums goes for the surge

Apparently Mayor Dellums isn't willing to declare defeat and redeploy out of Oakland. Instead, he has adopted a surge strategy.

(08-03) 09:00 PDT OAKLAND -- Police, SWAT teams and bomb units from throughout Alameda County detained more than a dozen suspects after raids at Your Black Muslim Bakery on San Pablo Avenue and three related locations this morning, police said.

The people are being held in connection with murder, kidnapping, assault and robbery investigations, Assistant Police Chief Howard Jordan said. San Pablo Avenue was cordoned off for several blocks near the bakery at 5832 San Pablo Ave.

Police said the North Oakland raids are part of an ongoing probe of businesses related to prominent Black Muslim leader Yusef Bey, who died in October 2003. They served search and arrest warrants on officials associated with the bakery, according to a news release from Oakland police.

It was not immediately clear whether the raids are directly connected to the Thursday slaying of Oakland Post editor Chauncey Bailey, who was investigating the bakery and its related businesses.

KTVU Channel 2 reported that Yusef Bey IV was among those detained, and that police also found a stash of shotguns, other weapons and ammunition.

Hey, Harry Reid! Maybe you can learn something from this episode: a liberal (make that Progressive) politician can still understand the need for victory over terrorists.

It's a civil war -- we can't win, so let's just pull out

This from today in Oakland, California:

OAKLAND, Calif. (AP) -- The outspoken new editor of the Oakland Post was shot to death Thursday near a downtown courthouse in what police suspect was a deliberate hit.

Chauncey Bailey, 57, was killed around 7:30 a.m., Oakland Police spokesman Roland Holmgren said. Witnesses told police a man wearing a mask shot Bailey multiple times and then fled.

Police had no motive for the killing but said it did not appear to be random. Holmgren said investigators would look into any possible connections with Bailey's work.

The terror elements in Oakland have graduated to silencing the free press, and Oakland Mayor Ron Dellums, the former Congressman who took over for Jerry Brown when the ex-governor was elected California's Attorney General, is at a loss for what to do.

Oakland Mayor Ron Dellums said Bailey will be missed.

"It is a tragedy when any person loses his or her life by an act of violence. The crime and violence on Oakland streets presents me with the most painful and difficult challenge I've ever faced," Dellums said in a statement.

Come on, Mr. Mayor, if you were still in Congress, you'd know exactly what to do: declare defeat and call for a redeployment to, say, Montclair (the affluent hill neighborhood of Oakland). Or perhaps Oaklanders could seek asylum in Piedmont, the upscale bedroom community (though a separate city, it is completely encricled by Oakland proper).

Maybe Mayor Gavin Newsom in San Francisco should consider the same strategy. Gang warfare in his city is spilling over from the slums and housing projects into the heart of the downtown shopping district.

Street fire: San Francisco's drug wars rose to a dramatic new level with a gangland-style slaying in broad daylight that was within earshot of the Powell Street cable car turnaround, one of the city's biggest tourist magnets.

Police said the shooting might have been a battle in a turf war between San Francisco and East Bay gangs for control of the Tenderloin. If so, it played out before an audience unaccustomed to such sights -- about a dozen diners at Puccini & Pinetti, a fashionable restaurant at Ellis and Cyril Magnin streets, who dove for cover when the occupant of one car began shooting at another car with a semiautomatic rifle at 4:40 p.m. Monday.

When it was over, two people in the target car had been wounded. One of them, 20-year-old Charles Rollins of Contra Costa County, later died. The shooter's car drove off and got away.

Bad as it was, it could have been worse. Three bullets hit the restaurant, including one that smashed a window right where two patrons had been drinking just moments before.

It was the second shooting of the afternoon in the tourist-laden area. Two hours earlier, a man was shot in the foot at Turk and Mason streets and made it to Fifth and Market before collapsing.

Police don't believe the two shootings were related, but that doesn't make anyone feel much better.

U.S. out of California! Support our local police -- send them home!

Gosh, it's too bad Terry Schiavo isn't around for this

Isn't this exactly what the loved ones of patients in comas and persistent vegetative states mean when they say they'll never give up hope?

A man who spent six years unable to talk, eat or walk as a result of severe brain damage has made a remarkable recovery thanks to a revolutionary implant of electrodes deep in his brain.


How the procedure works: Click to enlarge

The 38-year-old had been written off by one doctor as a vegetable but he is now able to talk, laugh, drink, chew and carry out simple tasks such as brushing his teeth.

The man had been left in a “minimally conscious state” after being beaten up and robbed. He was unable to speak audibly and could only communicate by a nod, or tiny eye or finger movements.

He was also unable to chew or swallow, and had to be fed through a tube. His eyes mostly remained shut.

But after two electrodes delivered pulses of electricity to arouse his brain, he can now use words and gestures, respond reliably to requests, eat normally, drink from a cup, and carry out simple tasks such as brushing his hair, though his muscles have wasted and contracted so it is uncertain he will ever walk again.

The American patient’s family has requested that he not be identified, but speaking today his mother said: “I prayed for a miracle The most important part is that he can say 'Mummy and pop, I love you'. God bless those wonderful doctors. I still cry every time I see my son, but it is tears of joy.”

It's just too bad that Terry Schiavo's parents didn't have the opportunity to give their daughter this chance at a partial recovery. One might have thought that her husband, too, would have wanted to wait for a medical breakthrough of this type. Guess not.

"We just heard screams of pain and the sounds of beatings. Then the screams stopped."

An Israeli soldier told Israel's Channel 10 that he witnessed Egyptian troops killing four Sudanese attempting to reach asylum in Israel from the Sinai.

According to the soldier, female IDF troops operating night vision devices identified several refugees approaching the border in an attempt to infiltrate Israel and alerted other soldiers who arrived after a few minutes in an army jeep.

However, Egyptian troops who also discovered the refugees, fired upon them, immediately killing two and wounding a third. A fourth refugee ran towards the fence and an IDF soldier stretched out his hands, trying to help him cross.

At that point, the soldier recalled, two Egyptian soldiers arrived and started pulling at the refugee's legs.

"It was literally like we were playing 'tug of war' with this man," the soldier said. The soldier eventually loosened his grip on the man, fearing the Egyptians would shoot him.

"They were aiming loaded weapons straight at us, I was afraid they were going to shoot us," he said.

The Egyptians then carried the man several meters away from the border fence, and proceeded to beat him and another wounded refugee to death with stones and clubs.

"What happened there yesterday was a lynch. These are not men, they're animals. They killed him without even using firearms," the soldier said. "We just heard screams of pain and the sounds of beatings. Then the screams stopped."

The IDF apparently has this incident on videotape. It will probably never allow it to be seen for fear of creating embarrassment for Egypt.

But there is something horribly, hideously wrong when Egyptian troops, who for so long have let smugglers move weapons and explosives into Gaza with relative impunity, go out of their way to kill four unarmed persons -- Muslim persons, at that -- seeking asylum. Perhaps they hope that other Sudanese will hear of this incident and decide not to try to cross Egypt to reach the safety of Israel.

Isn't the Islamic world supposed to be one ummah, where all Muslims are brothers?

The Gang Who Couldn't Spy Straight, Part 2

The Hamas takeover of Gaza left the Central Intelligence Agency caught with its tender parts in a trap, according to a Wall Street Journal article.

When the Islamist group Hamas conquered the Gaza Strip in June it seized an intelligence-and-military infrastructure created with U.S. help by the security chiefs of the Palestinian territory's former ruler.

According to current and former Israeli intelligence officials, former U.S. intelligence personnel and Palestinian officials, Hamas has increased its inventory of arms since the takeover of Gaza and picked up technical expertise -- such as espionage techniques -- that could assist the group in its fight against Israel or Washington's Palestinian allies, the Fatah movement founded by Yasser Arafat.

Hamas leaders say they acquired thousands of paper files, computer records, videos, photographs and audio recordings containing valuable and potentially embarrassing intelligence information gathered by Fatah. For more than a decade, Fatah operated a vast intelligence network in Gaza established under the tutelage of the Central Intelligence Agency.

Hamas leaders are expected as early as tomorrow to go public with some of the documents and the secrets they hold.

Or, as the Journal article sums it up:

• The Find: Palestinian group Hamas seized rival Fatah's intelligence-and-military infrastructure, which was built with U.S. help.

• What's at Stake: Secrets, expertise and technology are now in the hands of a group the U.S. calls a terrorist organization.

• The Damage: Though the ultimate impact is difficult to determine, Hamas leaders say they will make some details public and share others with Arab governments.

I suspect that the CIA spends more time gathering blackmail evidence against U.S. politicians to protect against being held to account than it does gathering actual intelligence about America's enemies to protect our nation. I could be wrong about this....

What dictionary do they use in Washington, DC?

Because 'recuse' must mean something different there than it does everywhere else.

You all remember Rep. Allan Mollohan (D - WV), right? He’s the Democrat currently under investigation by the FBI who Nancy “Most Ethical Congress Ever” Pelosi and her pals put in charge of the Justice Department (and thus the FBI’s) budget? When the controversy over putting a man the FBI is investigating in charge of the FBI’s budget first hit, Mollohan promised to recuse himself from any FBI funding bills.

Well so much for that promise:

Despite having recused himself from matters relating to the FBI — which is reportedly investigating his finances — Rep. Alan Mollohan (D-W.Va.) on Wednesday voted against an amendment that would have increased the bureau’s budget by $6 million.

Honestly, it’s like they don’t even care any more. They promise one thing, do another. They openly flaunt our laws and line their pockets with our tax dollars using the power we gave them with our votes, and then they act like it isn’t happening. Like we’re all so stupid that we don’t know it’s going on.

[Tip of the hat to Say Anything.]

Even the AP's bias can't spoil this victory

The lead paragraph of this story demonstrates the AP's institutional bias toward painting Iraq as a disaster, while the remainder of the story belies the negativity of the lead.

BAGHDAD (AP) -- Tens of thousands of Iraqis from the Shiite south to the Kurdish-dominated north poured into the usually treacherous streets Sunday to celebrate a rare moment of joy and unity when the national team won Asia's most prestigious soccer tournament.

The revelers spanning the country's sectarian and ethnic divisions danced, sang and waved flags and posters of the team after Iraq beat three-time champion Saudi Arabia 1-0 to take the Asian Cup.

Chants of "Long live Iraq" and "Baghdad is victorious" rang out across the country as Iraqis basked in national pride. Some of the revelers - mostly men - took their shirts off to display the red, white and black colors of the Iraqi flag painted on their chests.

Reporters of the state Iraqiya television wrapped themselves with the national flag as they interviewed people celebrating in the streets. Some joined in the chanting.

Within seconds of the final whistle, celebratory gunfire echoed across Baghdad and elsewhere despite a government ban and the threat of arrest by authorities.

At least four people were killed and scores wounded by the gunfire. But as night fell on the country, there were no reports of bombings such as those that killed at least 50 and wounded dozens in Baghdad during celebrations of Iraq's semifinal win over South Korea on Wednesday.

Authorities said they foiled a potential car bomber in southwestern Baghdad after he refused to stop at a checkpoint and appeared headed toward a crowd of revelers. Iraqi authorities had banned vehicles in and around the capital from shortly before the game began until early Monday to prevent a repeat of last week's violence.

"The victory of our Iraqi soccer team is a wonderful gift to Iraqis who have been suffering from the killing, car bombs, abductions and other violent acts," said Falah Ibrahim, a 44-year-old resident of Baghdad's predominantly Shiite Sadr City district.

If the sectarian and tribal divisions were as deep as the writer says, there would have been no celebrations for a team composed of individuals drawn from all areas and sects of Iraq. But there were celebrations, big celebrations everywhere.

And they celebrated in the streets. And no one was able to repeat the horrors of the suicide bombings that followed the Iraqi team's semi-finals victory. And that means that the streets of Iraq, as dangerous as they may be, are not "no man's land" in which death is the most likely outcome of a walk or an errand.

The goal of al-Qaida, of the Sadrist militia, of Iran, of the dead-enders loyal to Saddam's memory, is the same: to tear Iraq apart so that its pieces can be used as weapons. The Iraqi national soccer team has struck a mighty blow for Iraq's freedom.