Sunday, July 03, 2005

Missing Recon Team 2

A member of the missing recon team has been found by US forces. According to the Washington Post:

U.S. forces rescued a member of a U.S. special operations reconnaissance team in the rugged mountains of northeastern Afghanistan Sunday, five days after the team went missing amid hostile fire, according to a U.S. defense official. The official said that the search continues for three other members of the team still missing in Konar province near the border with Pakistan. All four men are Navy SEALS, he said. ...

The Navy SEAL rescued in Konar was recovered by forces that have been involved in a massive hunt since officials lost contact with the team Tuesday. Shortly afterward a special operations helicopter sent to assist them crashed near its intended landing site, killing all 16 service members on board. Military officials say they believe the helicopter was shot down with a rocket-propelled grenade. But little more was known about the search effort. Defense officials were reluctant to provide details because due to concerns about compromising the ongoing operation.

The ability of the SEAL to evade for five days in an area more than 7,000 feet high is testimony to his training, willpower, skill and courage. It also suggests that the recon team was not wholly surrounded, that it was able to run, in the hours when it called for extraction. The problem with a four man team, as opposed to a larger unit, is that when a single member is wounded or otherwise incapacitated, there aren't enough men to carry him along. He will have to be left to his fate or defended in situ. But even if all we are that stage unwounded, one or more men might stay behind to delay the pursuit while the others set up another delaying position further up the trail, so that the rearguard could leapfrog backward, one behind the other. There are indications the pursuit took place in the hours shortly after sunset. Bloomberg reported on June 28th.

U.S. planes and helicopters were searching the area in the darkness, Moore said before midnight Kabul time. Gage and Moore had no details on how many troops were on board, the time of the crash or whether it was caused by enemy fire. An emergency beacon went off after the crash, guiding emergency personnel to the vicinity, CNN reported. 

A pursuit by night in broken terrain may have separated the team in the uproar of battle. It is also creates the real possibility that the Taliban pursuit didn't find the rest of the recon team especially if they were being pasted by aerial gunfire. Still, it is certainly possible in those conditions that the Taliban actually captured a US soldier. However, the statements from the Taliban actually suggest that they don't have any prisoner at all. The Associated Press reports:

A purported Taliban spokesman, Mullah Latif Hakimi, said Friday that militants had captured one of the men and said he was a "high-ranking American" caught in the same area where the helicopter went down. He reiterated the claim Saturday in a telephone call with the Associated Press. "The soldier is being held in Kunar. Taliban leaders will decide what to do with him," Hakimi said. "He is being kept in a home. His health is all right."

The bodies of  all sixteen of the men aboard the MH-47 have been recovered. So he can have no prisoners from the quick reaction force. The recon team itself would be unlikely to have a "high ranking" naval officer (they were SEALs) along.  If there were a prisoner, Hakimi is probably in only tenuous contact with the group holding him. And they are unlikely to have told him 'we are holding him in a house in Kunar. His health is good'. Therefore there is practically no useful information in Hakimi's statements to the Associated Press.

283 Comments:

Blogger Baron Bodissey said...

It's unfortunate that this whole operation had to be publicly exposed. I wish that I (and the rest of the genreal public) still knew nothing about it; then it might have some chance of success.

My prayers go with those poor guys still stuck out there on that mountain.

7/03/2005 05:19:00 PM  
Blogger Doug said...

U.S. military spokesman Col. James Yonts said the helicopter was fired on as it was approaching a landing zone while rushing reinforcements to a battle in an area known to harbor "terrorist organizations." It flew on, but crashed about a little over a mile away at dusk, he said.

"The aircraft was taking indirect fire and direct fire from elements on the ground," he said.

Coalition and Afghan troops "quickly moved into position around the crash to block any enemy movement toward or away from the site," a U.S. military statement said. Yonts said fighting was continuing Wednesday.
---
This was from a Thurs report, so may be obsolete.
At least the bad guys won't be sticking their heads up much in the area right now.
Prayers indeed.

7/03/2005 05:23:00 PM  
Blogger Doug said...

Here's that report dated Thursday .

7/03/2005 05:26:00 PM  
Blogger 49erDweet said...

So we actually may not "know" as much about this shadow operation as we think we already know, which should encourage the baron and I - and most others, I suspect.

Summertime - such as it is - in the remote and rugged mountains of Afghanistan. Ours prayers are with these valiant warriors.

7/03/2005 06:06:00 PM  
Blogger Jack said...

So, the enemy knew about our rescue attempt even before we had completed it. Effectively we whetted the press' appetite for information at the expense of the rescue operations. Leaked, or freely given?

7/03/2005 06:16:00 PM  
Blogger Peter said...

It could easily have been a mission to pinpoint a high ranking Taleban or AlQ type, it could just as easily been a mission to locate a staging area for a whole slew of fighters. What it was doesn't really matter, now.
What matters is that the Muj seem to be putting their forces into that area and so are we.
Think Gettysburg, a place of no particular importance where an important fight happened just because that's where Bobby Lee and Meade met.
Finding the remaining three SEALs is part of the mission now, the other part is killing those Gomers. Nice of them to gather in one place.

7/03/2005 07:06:00 PM  
Blogger Doug said...

Any links to details of them bringing in more muj's?

7/03/2005 07:43:00 PM  
Blogger buddy larsen said...

O/T but isn't a wonderful thought what these soldiers up there fighting AQ on the roof of the world, are gonna do to the minds of their professors when they hit the campus soon?

7/03/2005 07:51:00 PM  
Blogger Doug said...

This cnn link has video of area (10,000ft) announcer says "military able to prevent enemy getting into or out of the area."
Very steep, still quite a bit of snow.
. Bodies recovered from Afghan crash site .
(We're right, you're wrong mika, but thanks: I didn't know you can get video from cnn for free - didn't used to be that way, and I didn't want to pay Eason Jordan.)
...reporter isn't even a giggly dumb blonde.

7/03/2005 08:01:00 PM  
Blogger Doug said...

They'll just say they suffered brain damage from oxygen deprivation.
If there's any justice, they should be running the damned college.
Smarter and infinitely wiser than existing.

7/03/2005 08:03:00 PM  
Blogger Doug said...

Hewitt had a military guest on that said they have learned a lot about our tactics.
Mentioned ways they have to communicate, cellphones, internet, and more, and that they are (barely) human, so they learn.
Still think Military ought to spend some RD dollars on having outsiders like Rutan try to come up with solutions, but big orgs rarely do things like that.

7/03/2005 08:36:00 PM  
Blogger Doug said...

fred,
You forget what "they" (esp British Press as I recall) said these supermen in turbans could do prior to our special forces taking down the Taliban in a few weeks.
There would be no way it would not be planeloads of bodybags, and etc.
(In fact, remember when they would show the flag draped caskets in the 130's OVER AND OVER AND etc?)
...I miss a properly defeatist tone in your post, fred, and I am sorely disappointed.
---
I "feel" like there are some ways, due to the assymetry of the forces, that they get more mileage out of learning some pretty basic tricks than would otherwise be the case.
But, as hugh's guest said, it's the way it's always been in war: We learn faster and better.

7/03/2005 09:07:00 PM  
Blogger Doug said...

...and Rutan is a very quick study:
Should have started yesterday.

7/03/2005 09:08:00 PM  
Blogger Doug said...

My guess on those Chinooks, C4, is they have every offensive and defensive cabability known, since those models are ONLY flown by special forces.

7/03/2005 09:10:00 PM  
Blogger Doug said...

Seems like that should have been directed at me, but what do I know?
I do know my respect for special forces has grown since the begining of work in Afghanistan.
...and I agree the press is seeminly about as hostile as they could be.
(but they always surprise)

7/03/2005 09:34:00 PM  
Blogger NahnCee said...

I doubt that Americans could infiltrate or pass for Japanese in WW2, either, and we seem to have been able to win that one rather handily any way.

There has never, in the history of the world, been a country nor a group of people better than America at learning and improvising.

"Necessity is the mother of invention" was *NOT* thought up to be applied towards a bunch of virgin-starved throw-back jihadists. No, they prefer memorable slogans such as, "the mother of all wars" ... which they then proceed to lose with equally memorable speed.

7/03/2005 11:39:00 PM  
Blogger sam said...

Latest from the Australian:

US aircraft blasted militant positions in eastern Afghanistan today as US forces searched for a sixth day for soldiers missing since just before a helicopter coming to their aid was shot down, police said.

In the east, US aircraft bombarded militant positions on a mountain between the Nangalam and Shorai areas of Kunar, the province where a small team of US soldiers has been missing since Tuesday, a senior Afghan police officer said.

http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/common/
story_page/0,5744,15815013%255E31477,00.html

7/03/2005 11:44:00 PM  
Blogger wretchardthecat said...

At this point the "rescue" efforts, while valid as a rationale in its own right, are probably partially a cover story for continuing whatever mission the recon team was originally deployed for.

The efforts of the Australian SAS in operation Anaconda have a superficial resemblance to what may have happened in Konar. Phantoms of the Mountains The Australian SAS apparently specialize in spending extended periods behind enemy lines.

7/03/2005 11:52:00 PM  
Blogger James Kielland said...

This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.

7/04/2005 01:21:00 AM  
Blogger James Kielland said...

About a year ago, when I followed the talk at Stratfor a little more closely, they'd made numerous references to what they thought was the "endgame" of the GWOT: Pakistan. Or more precisely, liquidating Al Qaeda's command and control locations in Pakistan. Implicit in Stratfor's discussion was that OBL was in Pakistan. It was felt such a move would have to wait until after the US elections (Nov. 04) and then after the spring thaw in Afghanistan/Pakistan.

I've lately not been following news stories nearly as closely as I should, but it seems as if the pick-up of activity in Afghanistan is AQ/Taliban's way of attempting to seize the initiative before the US starts this process. I'm curious if any Belmonters have any thougts on the connection between this latest action and the apparent sudden ignition of activity around Afghanistan.

There's something vaguely odd to me about how all of this has been reported, something I'm unable to put my finger on. I find myself wondering just what kind of response the US is hoping to provoke with the information it has been leaking to the press.

7/04/2005 01:26:00 AM  
Blogger Doug said...

Great post james, and your reference to not keeping up made me wonder what Uncle Hugo had in store for all of us:
"Mr Chavez's gift horse
published: Monday | July 4, 2005
AFTER THREE brief ministerial meetings over the past year, several Caribbean countries, including Jamaica, have agreed with Venezuela to create PetroCaribe, a regional energy agency that intends to offer guaranteed access and prices for petroleum.

For countries like Jamaica, facing an oil import bill of over $1 billion per year, and rising rapidly with continuing increases in global crude prices, such an offer is not to be quickly dismissed.

However, Mr Patterson and his colleague leaders who have hastily signed the PetroCaribe agreement should be asking some questions. These include a fundamental one about President Chavez's plans for the new agency. By the president's own admission, PetroCaribe is a small part of a wider plan to create PetroAmerica - a holding company for all state-owned energy producers in Latin America and the Caribbean.

PetroCaribe and PetroAmerica are central to Mr. Chavez's plan for the Bolivarian Alternative Trade Pact that the Venezuelan leader sees as the counter to the proposed Free Trade Area of the Americas, which he considers to be a tool of the United States to control the Americas. The Bolivarian Alternative is a weapon in his ideological war with Washington."
. Jamaica Gleaner .
We suggest that while PetroCaribe may not be without merit, our hasty leaders should consider whether agreement for PetroCaribe, which implies support for the Bolivarian Alternative, means that Mr. Patterson and his colleagues agree with Mr. Chavez that the Free Trade Area of the Americas is dead?
Sometimes it is wise to look a gift horse in the mouth.

7/04/2005 04:07:00 AM  
Blogger Doug said...

james,
You should be our southern correspondent to keep us up to date w/happenings down there.
Wretchard had a couple of posts on Venezuela a few months back.

7/04/2005 04:09:00 AM  
Blogger Doug said...

Boy, that's one ugly link, Kim.
I've always thought we've been too sanguine about Pakistan.

7/04/2005 04:19:00 AM  
Blogger Doug said...

"Still, since 9/11, Pakistan has apprehended and killed over 1,000 foreign activists of al-Qaeda and the Taliban from various parts of the world. Fleeing from Afghanistan they had sought shelter in Pakistan among the largest single largest refugee population anywhere in the world."

"Pakistani intelligence sources told DEBKAfile’s sources that, even after the Afghan refugees are gone, North Waziristan will be a tough proposition because it has provided al Qaeda and the Taliban with a stronger base than did South Waziristan. This base is supported by a large number of seminaries established there and around 70 percent of the local population."

7/04/2005 04:40:00 AM  
Blogger goesh said...

They got into Pakistan and had to get out through taliban controled areas on the frontier

7/04/2005 04:45:00 AM  
Blogger Doug said...

July 4, 2005, 12:33 AM (GMT+02:00)
Putin in surprise call for world cooperation to help US in Iraq

Russian president Vladimir Putin urged the world community to pool efforts with the US to promote stability in Iraq.
Past disputes should not prevent future cooperation, said Putin while hosting German chancellor Gerhard Schroeder and French president Jacques Chirac at Svetlogorsk outside Kaliningrad Sunday, July 3, a get-together of three leaders who opposed the 2003 Iraq war.

DEBKAfile’s political sources explain Putin’s surprise volte face.
He is influenced by the solid progress made in the Amman conciliation talks with Sunni guerrilla leaders brokered by former Iraqi prime minister Iyad Allawi, first revealed by DEBKAfile.
The Russian leader is throwing his support behind the US because he sees a real chance of a breakthrough.
The kidnap of the Egyptian envoy in Baghdad July 3 is further indication of progress.
Egypt is a lead player in the inter-Arab umbrella granted the peace effort. The abductors aim for sabotage by holding the diplomat to political ransom. He will be harmed unless Cairo desists from its support for the Amman initiative.

7/04/2005 04:50:00 AM  
Blogger Doug said...

re: Goesh,
Seems like question is, who was included in "they"?

7/04/2005 05:19:00 AM  
Blogger Doug said...

Mark's Fourth,
"Finally, speaking of birthdays, on Tuesday night, the Hi-Tone's weekly insane '80s-night/beer bust/co-ed sauna celebrates Jason 'DJ Witnesse' Sims's B-day. Memphis Feel-Harmonic in effect. ($5 beer bust available starting at 10)."
Ah, to be young again:
The Feel-Harmonics!

7/04/2005 05:27:00 AM  
Blogger Doug said...

FPOF [Jonah Goldberg]
Happy Birthday to the last, best, hope for mankind.

7/04/2005 05:33:00 AM  
Blogger buddy larsen said...

Fox just reported a second recon soldier has been recovered, no details, just the blurb.

7/04/2005 05:59:00 AM  
Blogger Unknown said...

We're right, you're wrong mika, but thanks

Not so fast, Doug. That was file video footage you were watching on CNN. Watch it again. There's no snow on those mountains now. ;)

7/04/2005 06:02:00 AM  
Blogger Unknown said...

Here's another image:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/south_asia/4647715.stm

7/04/2005 06:39:00 AM  
Blogger Tony said...

This mission and battle should be the patriotic lead on the 4th of July. Godspeed to our troops.

Since it's not the lead, it's good to see some in the media addressing our military's greatest weakness: American morale as affected by the media.

WASHINGTON — A contingent of conservatives talk radio hosts is headed to Iraq this month on a mission to report "the truth" about the war: American troops are winning, despite headlines to the contrary.

"The reason why we are doing it is we are sick and tired of seeing and hearing headlines by the mainstream media about our defeat in Iraq," Melanie Morgan, a talk radio host (search) for KSFO Radio in San Francisco and co-chair of Move America Forward, said.

Morgan said the media is "imposing a Vietnam template on this war."

"This is not Vietnam," she said. "War is war, and it's dangerous, and the killing is taking place all of the time. At the same time, where there is danger, there is success and there is a mainstream media that is determined to shut out that success."

7/04/2005 06:50:00 AM  
Blogger buddy larsen said...

A lot of anti-American profs are going to have someone in the class that really upsets their apple cart.

7/04/2005 09:20:00 AM  
Blogger Tony said...

Nice post, Heather.

And Buddy, forget the college classrooms, let's hope as many of this war's veterans show up in Congress as did veterans of Vietnam. Kerry and McCain aren't the only ones, by a long shot.

And today's vets will have the advantage of having been allowed to win their war.

7/04/2005 09:43:00 AM  
Blogger Doug said...

Heather said,
Well, we know that the American elites have contempt for the heartland that produces these soldiers.
Black soldiers in WWII came back w/justified contempt for the wrongs remaining in our society.
Some folks saw the truth in their complaints, and supported the cause(s).
Vietnam vets came back, with similar insights, and were spit upon.
They, (we) and the country suffered.
The moral leaders of our country now will return to at least half of the blogosphere's and most of talk radio's support.
The country, and we will benefit!
Happy Birthday America!

7/04/2005 09:45:00 AM  
Blogger Doug said...

Tony,
You might check out the erudite exchange between Buddy and another enlighted poster at the bottom of the last thread.

7/04/2005 09:46:00 AM  
Blogger Doug said...

Since there's some humorous noise by yours truly, check out Buddy's link.
I listened to Melanie Morgan 40 years ago!

7/04/2005 09:51:00 AM  
Blogger Doug said...

Tony, sir.

7/04/2005 09:52:00 AM  
Blogger Doug said...

Peter,
You often enlighten us about that side of the pond.
In Vietnam, contrary to popular conception, many were highly educated officers also.
They were just all treated the same.
Like dirt.
I still wonder if some I knew are alive or dead.

7/04/2005 09:55:00 AM  
Blogger Doug said...

Highly educated folks subject to the Draft that chose to become officers.

7/04/2005 09:56:00 AM  
Blogger Doug said...

...and all the OTHER highly educated officers that I knew less about.

7/04/2005 09:57:00 AM  
Blogger Doug said...

The college classrooms produced today's senators.
Now it is K-12, college, and post grad.
...against us, and the returning hero/leaders of the future.

7/04/2005 10:04:00 AM  
Blogger RWE said...

Latest word I heard is that they still are receiving the rest of the team's radio beacons and that the beacons are moving. I would assume, or at least hope, for such ops they do not use the standard 243MHZ whoop-whoop ELT beacons and use something a little more covert, on a different frequncy. The 243 MHZ ones have been around for over 30 years and are as common as dirt - I have 4 or 5 of them around here myself. And after Desert Storm they came up with a emergency radio with built in GPS which is capable of relaying the GPS information digitally. Of course, now you can buy an FRS radio with that capability for about $50 or so.
Anyway, keep going you SEAL guys out there!
This is gonna make a great movie someday.

7/04/2005 10:37:00 AM  
Blogger NahnCee said...

Good post, Heather. The contempt will be mutual, though, in that the "elites" felt contempt for the "stupid electorate" for daring to re-elect Bush in the face of their overt command to vote for Kerry. Somehow I think an Iraqi vet's contempt for -- oh, say, Ward Churchill will be more telling. It'll be interesting to see how they react to the recycled "baby killer" epithets that you just *know* are coming.

RE: Putin calling for the world's help in Iraq. The fact that it was some sort of advanced Russian missle-thingy that just shot down an American helicopter and killed 16 American soldiers in Afghanistan has absolutely nothing to do with Mr. Putin's sudden avid desire to be a helpful world player. I'm sure.

RE: 2nd American soldier who may or may not be being rescued -- Taliban issued a statement yesterday saying he had been captured and was in a private home and his health was OK. Afghan mayor-type issues a statement this morning saying that he is wounded, and is sheltering in a private home, while Afghan and American troops are trying to get to him to rescue him. The thought occurs to wonder just *who* does this private home belong to?!? And does every singe person in that part of the world know the directions on how to get there?

7/04/2005 10:41:00 AM  
Blogger RWE said...

And Heather: What will happen when those guys come back home?
Same thing as it always does.
Same as it is now.
They will keep everything here going.
Quietly.

7/04/2005 10:41:00 AM  
Blogger Tony said...

Doug, sir. I ain't no sir, sir. Especially compared to the guys who are the subject of W's posts.

Back in the day, Cold War and all, you could travel around the world freely. Even overland, if you wanted to. The "However" clause in the old '77 passport only includes four countries: Cuba, Cambodia, North Korea and Vietnam. All the rest were fair game, get on the bus, boat or train and go where you wanna go.

To get a sense of what our troops are doing to change the world, check out the list today:
Current Travel Warnings, US Dept of State

7/04/2005 11:03:00 AM  
Blogger Tony said...

This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.

7/04/2005 11:15:00 AM  
Blogger Doug said...

"They will keep everything here going.
Quietly.
"
---
Things haven't been going very well at all K-12-post graduate for quite some time.
We are ready for the revolution!
(except for Ward and Co.)

7/04/2005 11:16:00 AM  
Blogger Doug said...

...and 90% of the Senators.

7/04/2005 11:17:00 AM  
Blogger Tony said...

Nahncee,

You mention possible advanced SAM as what shot down our chopper? This is the first I've heard of that, is that confirmed?

If so, I vote enough of this high-touch warfare. As soon as the teams get cover, it's time to run the B's over, dropping long sticks of Mk-82's. Just like the good old days at Tora Bora.

The B's don't have a problem flying at mountain altitudes.

It is time to show how the "Paper Tiger" attacks, again?

7/04/2005 11:17:00 AM  
Blogger Doug said...

Tony,
Check out Peter's "gimlet" link in previous thread.

7/04/2005 11:19:00 AM  
Blogger Doug said...

...and do try to keep up w/your belmont posters, sir.

7/04/2005 11:20:00 AM  
Blogger Doug said...

The disconnect between reality and the illusions of academia Congress, the Judiciary, and the left in general, perpetrated on society approach levels that seem almost as black and white as those perceived by black vets returning after WWII. (and Korea)

7/04/2005 11:26:00 AM  
Blogger Doug said...

ATTACK ON AMERICA .
Perfect timing, Tony.
Your B-Sticks comments
Reminded me of something that damn near takes me back to where we once all were, and where we all belong, for the duration.
MSM be damned!

7/04/2005 11:36:00 AM  
Blogger Doug said...

"Finally, a last word to those amongst us who would use this terrible and atrocious act to limit our civil rights, to limit our freedoms, to punish all Americans in the name of "added security". NO! Do not even think of going there. The anger of the American patriot is aroused. All Americans who cherish liberty and are willing to stand in any way to defend it and to maintain it are patriots. Such activities to infringe on liberty will be seen for the attempts to further the socialistic and Marxist agendas that they are. They will not be tolerated.

The answer clearly is to visit a horrible, lasting and just punishment and retribution on those who did this act and those who harbored or abetted them so they will NEVER consider doing this again ... and thereby preserve our liberties as our founders intended and is our unalienable right."

Jeff Head
Idaho, USA

7/04/2005 11:40:00 AM  
Blogger Doug said...

Dragons Fury Series,
"It is a story of cultures and competing political systems where the Chinese and other belligerent nations develop surprising advances that they employ against the West.
It is about suppositions, arrogance, and the fact that neither side is going to do what the other side expects, no matter how good the plan.
It is a story of faith and the ultimate triumph of good over evil in the face of horrific obstacles and setbacks. From leaders in high offices of power, to soldiers and sailors from the involved nations, to housewives and their children, down to kids on the street, it is also the story of people - common and not so common - caught up in the titanic struggle.

The novel addresses key issues about current political and military practice, including how "Homeland Security" can be successfully employed, or how it could be abused.
It sees the United States of America savaged by manipulating, committed and ruthless foreign leaders. That savaging ultimately produces the will and fortitude of another "greatest generation" in America."

7/04/2005 11:50:00 AM  
Blogger Doug said...

Tony,
I'll be you'll find Jeff's resume interesting!
. Jeff Head Resume

7/04/2005 12:02:00 PM  
Blogger Doug said...

"bet"

7/04/2005 12:02:00 PM  
Blogger Kevin said...

Heather mostly gets it right. America’s upper classes, both by taking tax cuts – money out of the hands of our military – and limiting their involvement in the GWoT to occasional cheerleading charades, are the real problem here. The question is: can America defeat the terrorists while burdened by such a huge leisure class of do-nothings, living opulent lives in gated McMansions, while leaching the economic life blood out of our nation? Has history ever seen such a parasitical class of avaricious narcissists leading such a powerful nation? The lower classes have always done more than their fair share in any militaristic society; but it would have been unthinkable in Sparta, for instance, for only the helots to serve while the Spartans sat back and sipped White Zinfandel. How is it that our present-day aristocrats manage to demand the ultimate sacrifice from the less-fortunate but react violently when faced with the suggestion that perhaps they too should fight to preserve our liberties?

Where Heather gets it wrong is in implying that our elites are anything but overwhelmingly Republican. Just look at the results of the 2004 election broken down by income bracket. Bush won the over $100,000 income bracket by 58% to 41%. This is his base, as he puts it “the haves and have yachts." Kerry won the under $50,000 income bracket 55% t0 44%. This is the social bracket from which the overwhelming majority of enlisted soldiers come.

Now, of course, no social class is monolithic. There are rich liberals and poor conservatives. Some wealthy conservatives do consider service (Buddy’s daughter for example). But by any standard, the lower, and probably the middle classes are more than pulling their weight in the Global War on Terror. The wealthy, Republican elites, by dodging military service while demanding ever-deeper tax cuts, are, in contrast, bleeding our nation white. God help them if we lose this war. While undoubtedly they will follow the way of their upper class brethren in Nazi-occupied Europe and collaborate with the enemy; the right wing media noise machine led by Rupert Murdoch, Clear Channel, Rush Limbaugh, Trinity Broadcasting Network, Sinclair Broadcasting, CNN and GE’s public relations department – aka NBC, will not be able to produce enough propaganda covering-fire to keep the masses from extracting the debt these elite cowards owe our nation - in blood.

7/04/2005 12:10:00 PM  
Blogger remoteman said...

Kevin, if you think that everyone who makes more than $100K is a "have yacht" type, then you really should get out more. And if you think that raising marginal tax rates is a positive thing for the economy, you should study the economic data of the past 3 years a bit more. Where both parties in Congress and the President are failing the American people is by spending too much on non-essential, bloated programs - see the pharma bill, the highway bill, the farm bill, price supports for the steel industry, etc, etc. If Congress were so concerned about how the military is funded, they would cut these programs and re-direct funds to the DoD. Oh, and look at the receipts taken in by the government over the last three years...they are going up and fast.

7/04/2005 01:00:00 PM  
Blogger Doug said...

Kevin, you are a twit.

7/04/2005 01:41:00 PM  
Blogger Doug said...

"Heather mostly gets it right."
---
As if HE knows!
...Vision of the (self) Annointed,
Indeed!

7/04/2005 01:43:00 PM  
Blogger Doug said...

remoteman said,
"you really should get out more."
---
Sorry, remote, no such luck:
To him "out" means Brussels,
...and occasional sojourns to Sweden.

7/04/2005 01:46:00 PM  
Blogger Doug said...

So, Jeff Head reminds us of where we need to be, and Kevin reminds us of where some of us are.

7/04/2005 01:50:00 PM  
Blogger NahnCee said...

I wonder what the Aussies are up to, while everyone's focused on rescuing SEALs.

7/04/2005 01:58:00 PM  
Blogger buddy larsen said...

Yeah, Kevin, you're living in some sort of cartoon dream-land. You ought to study your propositions a bit more.

Tax cuts can only go to the people who them. It's impossible to cut from zero.

The bottom third of those who file, pay no income tax at all, the top 1% of taxpayers pay one-third of all income tax rcpts. One percent of the population, see if you can figure out what percent of the armed forces come from that 1% of taxpayers. Oh, they're almost all way too old? Imagine that. High thee to the statistics stacks, and report back.

Here's a nice, general table.

Why do you lefties spend all your time rotating thru memes-of-the-month trying to find traction somewhere someway somehow to beat up your own country with?

7/04/2005 02:02:00 PM  
Blogger buddy larsen said...

Tax cuts can only go to the people who PAY them.

7/04/2005 02:05:00 PM  
Blogger Doug said...

"Why do you lefties..."
---
Classes, Bud.
It's all about classes.
Didn't you watch Groucho Marx?
...it's the magic word.

7/04/2005 02:09:00 PM  
Blogger Doug said...

And, as you say:
Gotta find SOMETHING
for some old time self-flagellation in exile.
I'll let you speculate why.
...but I'll bet you don't spend your time.

7/04/2005 02:12:00 PM  
Blogger buddy larsen said...

When it comes to quantifying tax cuts, or armed-service representation, you Dems refuse to admit of the existence of the concept of "percentages", don't you? All is static.

Say you have $1000 tax rcpt from 100 people. Say the whole $1000 was paid by 50 of those people. say you pay back a $100 tax-cut out of the $1000. Who does the cut go to? The people who paid in the $1000, right? How can the other 50 get a cut? A cut from what? Really, Kevin!

7/04/2005 02:22:00 PM  
Blogger buddy larsen said...

And the 50 who have then paid the $900, STILL have to listen to Kevin, "Ba-aa-aa, I been fleeced!"

7/04/2005 02:28:00 PM  
Blogger buddy larsen said...

The 20th century was a massive global experiment to see which of two systems works. Yours kills in millions and impoverishes the material and the spiritual, Kevin. The other may not provide such equal-misery results, but EVERYBODY is 100% better off. All but the drug-addled bottom rung have plenty to eat, roofs over their head--more and more owned by them--and cars, Kevin--CARS. Your system, your brother rats you to the gulag if you're unlucky, if you're lucky, there's only a few other families sharing your cold-water flat and you finally get a washing machine by the time you're 50. What the f**K, are you NUTS or somethin'?

7/04/2005 02:38:00 PM  
Blogger buddy larsen said...

Sorry for the rant...but, jeez.

7/04/2005 02:40:00 PM  
Blogger Rick Ballard said...

Buddy,

You can't deny the fact that the productive vote overwhelmingly Republican. What Kevin can't quite grasp is that the productive are a growing component of the electorate - especially since a Rep legislature rammed welfare reform down Bubba's throat.

Toss in the positive home ownership trends (per your cite the other day) and an "ownership" society comes ever nearer to realization. It's very odd, but as soon as a person owns property that increases in value they begin to look skeptically at the institutions that have the power to diminish the value of said property.

And if there is one thing that Dems are great at, it's the diminishment of the value of owned property.

So, between the loss of the potential majority that went down the sink in the abortion clinics and the potential majority stolen by being offered actual ownership, Kevin is in for a very, very long wait.

7/04/2005 02:45:00 PM  
Blogger Jamie Irons said...

Rick and Buddy

The blogosphere reminds me a little of looking around my neighborhood for friends when I was a kid.

If I go over to Roger's and you're not there, I can always check Richard's (well, now it's Wretchard's), and chances are you'll turn up there...

;-)

Jamie Irons

7/04/2005 02:51:00 PM  
Blogger buddy larsen said...

Especially given that those 20 yr-olds in uniform are anything but the fantasized buttons waiting to be pushed.

7/04/2005 02:51:00 PM  
Blogger buddy larsen said...

"Hey, guys, if we can only find the right verbal formula, we can STILL have a USSR!"

7/04/2005 02:53:00 PM  
Blogger buddy larsen said...

That's me alright, runnin' down rabbits for the cookpot so I can get the kids thru college!

7/04/2005 02:56:00 PM  
Blogger truepeers said...

Re Buddy's question re lefty traction....

And then it suddenly dawned, his whole life had been a lie, all the oh so correct resentments that he had studiously and expensively learned from Big Momma and Cool Bro were delusional. He saw, in a moment, that he could not become a free man in a free country if all he did was hate the freedom of those whom BM and CB taught were the patriarchal predators peddling all the lies of conventional wisdom. "My god", he said to himself, "what are you doing, thinking like a Republican?"...

And then he picked up the July 4, 2005 NYT, and saw their editorial comment on Independence Day - the "founding fathers" had learned their arts from the Iroquois. "Hah, he laughed at himself, recovering from his delusion of delusion, this is some pretty wicked ride I'm on, man... But boy, if I can just knock down Belmont Club, shut them buggers up for a while, heh, I'll know I have mojo and the world will be my oyster."

A totem pole arose from his depths.
It seemed almost true at that moment - from Manhattan the island stolen from the natives to Kevinville, built from the sweat of the world's oppressed - that America was indeed the product of a pagan soul.

Happy Indepedence Day, my American friends! What's on the BBQ?

And my thanks to all who serve!

7/04/2005 02:57:00 PM  
Blogger Rick Ballard said...

Jamie,

I haven't really been commenting here very often, although I read regularly. I just responded to the blink of Soroson's eye that Kevin's post represented. Every once and awhile the Wormtongues all slither out together and do a group sneer and snarl. It must have something to do with a perturbation in the cosmic Farce that only Wormtongues can sense.

7/04/2005 03:04:00 PM  
Blogger buddy larsen said...

LOL, Truepeers--good friction--I mean fiction, there....;-) (but, is it fiction?)

Jamie, that is funny, isn't it--the two sites are so cross-fartilized.

7/04/2005 03:07:00 PM  
Blogger Doug said...

"- the "founding fathers" had learned their arts from the Iroquois."
---
I thought it was the Iranian Mullahs?

7/04/2005 03:15:00 PM  
Blogger buddy larsen said...

FA, what was esp wicked about those Spartan killers, it's thought that--tho it was a stste tradition--it wasn't legal or acknowledged publicly by the Establishment. A wink-wink thing--a friggin' secret police. So much for those who think fascist governments just seem to "accidentaly" develop secret police. Tain't no special circumstance, nor a reaction to bad ole capitalism's threat--it's simply a natural part of that system.

7/04/2005 03:16:00 PM  
Blogger Doug said...

Oh, hadn't read bud's post, that's right, that's where they learned their farts.

7/04/2005 03:17:00 PM  
Blogger Doug said...

Kevin doesn't think the Mullahs HAVE a secret police.
He thinks it's, get this:
A DEMOCRACY!!!
Caint tell a mullahcracy from a democracy!
Lordy Be!

7/04/2005 03:20:00 PM  
Blogger Doug said...

I meant to say, of course:
Praise be to Allah.

7/04/2005 03:22:00 PM  
Blogger Doug said...

Allah Akbar, Allah Akbar, Allah Akbar!

7/04/2005 03:22:00 PM  
Blogger buddy larsen said...

Truepeers, wonder if that NYT reporter realizes that the Iroquois allied with the British, during the Revolutionary War. Strongly, too, to the point that Washington had to send rather large armies against the "Six Tribes", who were burning down whole towns in the then northwest/great lakes area (western NY I believe--if i remember right--i was very young then).

7/04/2005 03:23:00 PM  
Blogger Jamie Irons said...

Rick

Soroson's

Heh.

Buddy

cross-fartilized

Indeed.


I think I'm reading too many blogs...

;-)


Jamie Irons

7/04/2005 03:23:00 PM  
Blogger Rick Ballard said...

Doug,

Twenty eight years ago the Peanut argued that Iranian secret police were so antithetical to freedom that the Shah needed to leave. At least he didn't certify this last Iranian election. At least, I don't think he did.

7/04/2005 03:25:00 PM  
Blogger truepeers said...

Mullahcracy, democracy, just playing with words. it sure looks pretty democratic to me, all of em bending down together five times a day, all equally prostrate in obedience to Allah.

7/04/2005 03:28:00 PM  
Blogger Doug said...

Somehow that never struck me before....
hmmmm.

7/04/2005 03:30:00 PM  
Blogger Tony said...

Ahhh, jeez, we really mustn't devolve into a bicker-wilderness.

Doug - the Gimlet reference lacks only the Wretchardian "warning: speculation" label.

That reference says such weapons could make their way into so-and-so's hands. If such weapons have miraclously made their way into such hands in these mountain redoubts, it's time to re-visit - You're with us or agin us.

So far, no such confirmation. Considering the possibilities: 1. advanced SAM >>>OR<<< 2. very limited landing sites that are likely covered by conventional weapons. VERY FEW LANDING SITES are more likely in this terrain.

7/04/2005 03:36:00 PM  
Blogger buddy larsen said...

The thought I can't help but have, re the 5Xdaily, is that there must be some societal function--and all I can come up with is, disorganized and volatile thought-patterns that require continual calming re-sets. But shame on me for such a thought. However--that's not a racial or religious insult per-se, the need for the re-sets are in fact more likely cultural--and they can critique our culture so i 'spose we can theirs. And, when i was say 17-20, I could've used 5 re-sets a day, easy.

7/04/2005 03:37:00 PM  
Blogger Doug said...

Please remove that before Mika sees it, tony.

7/04/2005 03:38:00 PM  
Blogger Doug said...

He was planing a camping trip to the area for the fall.

7/04/2005 03:38:00 PM  
Blogger Doug said...

...before the fall.

7/04/2005 03:38:00 PM  
Blogger Doug said...

I don't like you making reference to those volatile fart patterns, bud.

7/04/2005 03:40:00 PM  
Blogger truepeers said...

Buddy, I have a portrait of Joseph Brandt on my study wall, a real Canadian hero. The Iroquois, of course, were on the "American" side when you were still "British" and fighting the French. Brandt was a Freemason, as were some of the founding fathers, and I would not be surprised if these stories about the fathers learning constitutional arts from the Iroquois - they are continually being recycled, I wonder if especially so up here in anti-American Canada - are not derived from an earlier time when North American Freemasons were part of the cultural mainstream and keen to speculate in their voluminous writings on the affinities, genealogies, and analogies among various forms of symbolism, in their attempts to bring all of human history under one highly ornamented, and psychologically individualistic, roof.

7/04/2005 03:42:00 PM  
Blogger Doug said...

I thought Kevin was French.

7/04/2005 03:44:00 PM  
Blogger buddy larsen said...

Interrupt, the last two recon didn't make it.

7/04/2005 03:46:00 PM  
Blogger truepeers said...

I'm sure I still need at least five resets a day. It's just a question of how you get them. Alone in prayer, together in prayer, in front of the tv, etc., etc. Equality vs. freedom, the fundamental struggle, and both sides claim democracy.

7/04/2005 03:51:00 PM  
Blogger Doug said...

July 4, 2005
. George W's Quagmire
.

7/04/2005 03:52:00 PM  
Blogger Doug said...

"Is a free, democratic America really worth such a price?" demanded playwright LeMoore. "I certainly don't think so. The world shouldn't look to America for leadership. They should look instead to courageous nations truly endowed with greatness. Like France."

7/04/2005 03:55:00 PM  
Blogger buddy larsen said...

Things are rough these days with France, but that French fleet at Yorktown was worth an eternal salute.

7/04/2005 04:05:00 PM  
Blogger truepeers said...

Let's hope for a day when all Americans can understand the meaning of their sacrifice. I'm still haunted by the memory of sitting in the airport bar in Chicago on the 50th anniversary of D-day, watching the tv coverage from France, and listening to the guy next to me, a Vietnam vet, explain the pain he felt when those WWII vets were remembered, yet again, by world leaders - great guys don't get me wrong, he says, but why did they have to be the last heros?

7/04/2005 04:10:00 PM  
Blogger Jack said...

Exactly what I have thought for a long time: it has always interested me that there was a rash of lynchings of American Blacks in the 1920s, after WWI - and I know that there were lots of African American men served in the US armed forces during that war. And subsequent to WWII, a lot of energy appears in the civil rights movement... it seems that experience as soldiers makes people "uppity."
-
A simpler solution is that when Southern World War I veterans returned, they found that the 'subhuman' blacks had 'taken' their jobs.

7/04/2005 04:13:00 PM  
Blogger buddy larsen said...

Lots of Afghanis in motion.

7/04/2005 04:13:00 PM  
Blogger Doug said...

ffe,
Do you think there's much truth to the Debka link above wrt Pakistan kicking them out?

7/04/2005 04:15:00 PM  
Blogger Doug said...

Ask, and someone will have answered.

7/04/2005 04:19:00 PM  
Blogger buddy larsen said...

hammer-and-anvil, or, not likely (distances and size of mountains elude rational thought)?

7/04/2005 04:27:00 PM  
Blogger buddy larsen said...

The base of a 17k mountain covering, like, the area of one of our smaller states.

7/04/2005 04:30:00 PM  
Blogger al fin said...

Exit poll data does not count, Kevin. That makes your posting quite deceptive, to put it kindly. It is amazing to many of us up here that you democrats down there cannot simply accept that you lost. Losers have to face their loss and make adjustments. Anything else is quite insane.

7/04/2005 04:42:00 PM  
Blogger Doug said...

How do we know the Times isn't lying?
I've heard rumors it was many times more than that.

7/04/2005 04:57:00 PM  
Blogger Doug said...

An unnamed source said it was one of those illegal nuclear bunker busters that Bushitler developed in violation of the arms limitation treaty.

7/04/2005 05:01:00 PM  
Blogger Doug said...

"Mr Wafa told reporters that Afghan security forces who had reached Chechal had reported back that 17 civilians, including women and children, had been killed in the bombing."
---
I can personally vouch for Mr Wafa's credibility.
---
Time for Wretchard to repost that wedding party massacre.
...just like the Indians.

7/04/2005 05:06:00 PM  
Blogger desert rat said...

Even when they lose the AZ Diamondbacks score some points, so goes the Taliban.
As long as our guys are alive they will be swinging, sometimes for the fences, sometimes for base hits. One thing is certain, they will score some points.
It is time for some fireworks.

Happy fourth of July.

7/04/2005 05:06:00 PM  
Blogger Doug said...

"The US military expressed regret for the recent deaths but placed blame on people that it called “terrorists” "

7/04/2005 05:22:00 PM  
Blogger desert rat said...

C-130 rollin' down the strip
Airborne daddy goin' take a little trip

or as ole Toby Kieth says
We're goin' light up your world like the Fouth of July

7/04/2005 05:34:00 PM  
Blogger desert rat said...

doug.
And all this time I thought Bush was just a wanna be fighter jock, now you tell me he is a Nuclear Engineer. I thought that was Carter's gig. I'm still learning something new every day.

7/04/2005 05:39:00 PM  
Blogger buddy larsen said...

Stacked echelons of C-130s, build 50 more.

7/04/2005 05:40:00 PM  
Blogger desert rat said...

Puff the Magic Dragon has been replaced.
Spectre is much more than James Bond's nemisis.
Look out below.
...Duck and Cover...

7/04/2005 05:45:00 PM  
Blogger RWE said...

By the way, Peter U.K. have y'all considered celebrating the 4th of July? After all, we ultimately freed y'all too, and just about everyone else on that side of the big pond.

7/04/2005 06:15:00 PM  
Blogger buddy larsen said...

Yeh, Specter has some sort of self-correcting fire improvement on the gatlings...something real bad for the targets.

7/04/2005 06:18:00 PM  
Blogger buddy larsen said...

Actually, the Brits stood alone for a loooong time. Spring '40 to Summer '41. Disappearing Atlantic convoys and the Luftwaffe over London.

7/04/2005 06:23:00 PM  
Blogger Doug said...

Couldn't we be very nuanced and poor?

7/04/2005 06:25:00 PM  
Blogger Doug said...

Back to Haiti.

7/04/2005 06:26:00 PM  
Blogger buddy larsen said...

Nuance is great stuff, you're never ever wrong, and you cannot tell a lie.

7/04/2005 06:27:00 PM  
Blogger buddy larsen said...

This morning, in the President's July 4 speech in West Virginia, he recommended dropping in on
WWW.americasupportsyou.mil

7/04/2005 06:28:00 PM  
Blogger Doug said...

You're right, Kevin does sound quite nuanced sometimes.
Very impressive to others similarly nuanced.

7/04/2005 06:30:00 PM  
Blogger Doug said...

"Lately, though, his hatred's been getting the better of him, and he sounds like that playwright LeMoore."

7/04/2005 06:34:00 PM  
Blogger Doug said...

"French Playright"

7/04/2005 06:35:00 PM  
Blogger Doug said...

Do they know how?

7/04/2005 06:37:00 PM  
Blogger Doug said...

This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.

7/04/2005 06:37:00 PM  
Blogger Doug said...

Bend over and play right!

7/04/2005 06:39:00 PM  
Blogger desert rat said...

no doug, the French do not play right.
Just ask the Haitians.
Baby Doc is still chillin' in Paris, isn't he?

7/04/2005 06:41:00 PM  
Blogger Doug said...

Don't start em on that list of French Guests, 'Rat.

7/04/2005 06:42:00 PM  
Blogger Doug said...

Wonder how the bereaved is doing?

7/04/2005 06:43:00 PM  
Blogger Doug said...

The Widow.

7/04/2005 06:43:00 PM  
Blogger Doug said...

Maybe we can get Mika to send flowers.

7/04/2005 06:44:00 PM  
Blogger desert rat said...

Again doug, that is the Islamists that bend over FIVE time a day.
They have learned essence of knees on the ground, butt in the air.
Good practice for their fruit basket in Paradise.
They'll just love those grapes

7/04/2005 06:44:00 PM  
Blogger Doug said...

Had you ever thought how DEMOCRATIC they are though?
I learn something here every day also.

7/04/2005 06:46:00 PM  
Blogger Doug said...

Thanks, Truepeers.

7/04/2005 06:46:00 PM  
Blogger Doug said...

Takes him back to his roots:
The Boots and that Hog Big Buick.
...probably lost his voice by now.

7/04/2005 06:51:00 PM  
Blogger Doug said...

As Mr. Rogers said:
We're growing everyday.

7/04/2005 06:52:00 PM  
Blogger buddy larsen said...

I saw some rock n' roll newsvideo from Edinburgh just now. Woooweee...wonder if any of them realize what the poor think of globalization ("food, finally!")?

7/04/2005 06:58:00 PM  
Blogger Doug said...

If anyone wants to take the time to find it, there's a great quote by some great celebrity that Live Ate was the greatest thing in human history.

7/04/2005 07:00:00 PM  
Blogger Doug said...

It does Grate.

7/04/2005 07:01:00 PM  
Blogger buddy larsen said...

I meant the G8 protesters. Live8 I haven't kept up with too closely on the politics, but it seems to be thankfully lite on the old leftism. Even GWB is getting a fair shake, not to mention Blair.

7/04/2005 07:09:00 PM  
Blogger Doug said...

This is how Jeff finished up back in 2001:

"We will bury our dead, mend up our wounded, soothe and comfort the broken hearted, beseech our God ... and then we will come amongst you as a Lion amongst sheep. As our current President has now said, "Today we pray, tomorrow we fight."

Remember this; Teddy Roosevelt sent the US Marines to foreign shores over JUST ONE INNOCENT AMERICAN HELD AGAINST THEIR WILL. You have awakened this sleeping, soft speaking giant at your mortal peril. As you are about to find, although it may take us a moment to grab a firm hold of them, we have not lost track of our big sticks and we are VERY proficient in their use. AND we can and will make more of them ... many more ... and they will be brought down upon your head.

We will soon use them to see you on your way ... not to paradise and Allah ... but to the hell you so richly deserve!

Sincerely,
Jeff Head
Idaho, USA

7/04/2005 07:10:00 PM  
Blogger buddy larsen said...

Thank goodness the celebs don't seem to be tawdry on a good cause, this time. Waking up?

7/04/2005 07:11:00 PM  
Blogger Doug said...

I sure liked that CBS opinion piece on W's Quagmire, but I'm not holding my breath.

7/04/2005 07:13:00 PM  
Blogger Doug said...

But, doubt if either of us can say it as well as Jeff did.
The immediacy of the moment.
Now so many light years away from the Left that the image never will get back to them.

7/04/2005 07:18:00 PM  
Blogger buddy larsen said...

TMaybe they'll lighten up on the war, to establish some goodwill during the one-week of memory they think we all have, so they can go full-Kennedy-coathanger on SCOTUS, from an even-handed position.

7/04/2005 07:21:00 PM  
Blogger Doug said...

I think 'Rat was right about those fireworks, at least for me.
Only so much of Kevin and his allies I want to take in one day.

I'll see if I can find a good link to the Rocket Hawaii watched last night, and call it a day.

(but don't hold me to it)
ya know how that goes.

7/04/2005 07:24:00 PM  
Blogger buddy larsen said...

yeh me too--later.

7/04/2005 07:26:00 PM  
Blogger desert rat said...

Do you mean I shouldn't mention the State Dinner for Mugabe?
I don't think he even brought a doggie bag back with him to Zimbabwe/ Rhodesia.
To much trouble, making sure his poor and homeless get fed

7/04/2005 07:31:00 PM  
Blogger Red River said...

I need a hig-pass filter tonight.

7/04/2005 07:39:00 PM  
Blogger ex-democrat said...

doug - re Live 8: "the greatest thing that's ever been organized in the history of the world."
http://www.nydailynews.com/news/gossip/story/324873p-277681c.html.
buddy - can't say i agree about it being "lite on the old leftism," i'm afraid.

7/04/2005 07:41:00 PM  
Blogger Doug said...

Here we met a comet for the first time:
. "DEEP IMPACT" .
(10,000 watched on TV on Oahu)
Kid's got his name in for a job w/the AF working on the data that comes down from the telescopes on the hill.
...clearances don't take too long when you're 20!

---

And,

A Hero lost at Guadalcanal, but not forgotten:

Saturday, July 2, 2005

"This is a big honor for me and my family. God bless my dad. God bless America. I love you, my dad. I love America."

Genowefa Augustynski
Daughter of Pvt. John Jedrzejek,
killed in World War II and given
a military burial yesterday
. A hero’s burial

7/04/2005 07:46:00 PM  
Blogger James Kielland said...

This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.

7/04/2005 09:49:00 PM  
Blogger James Kielland said...

The bodies of two SEALs recovered:

http://www.nytimes.com/2005/07/05/international/asia/05afghan.html

7/04/2005 09:49:00 PM  
Blogger Doug said...

Mouse Labeled Homophobic.

7/04/2005 10:14:00 PM  
Blogger Doug said...

This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.

7/04/2005 10:17:00 PM  
Blogger sam said...

Front row seat on the probe. Fasten your seatbelt!

http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/deepimpact/
multimedia/070405-its-approach-x4.html

7/04/2005 10:18:00 PM  
Blogger sam said...

If you look real close you can see Michael Jackson waving.

7/04/2005 10:21:00 PM  
Blogger Doug said...

Bye bye.

7/04/2005 10:30:00 PM  
Blogger Doug said...

http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/deepimpact/multimedia/070405-its-approach-x4.html

7/04/2005 10:33:00 PM  
Blogger Doug said...

Fun to drag the slider by hand and see comet, also.
Next come pictures of comet AFTER impact.
Most amazing.
...and impressive.
Go Team America!

7/04/2005 10:36:00 PM  
Blogger Doug said...

Cat, "clearly contradictory" as well as racist.
Cat and Mouse indeed!

7/04/2005 10:39:00 PM  
Blogger sam said...

Looks like it's just you and me Doug at the moment. Here's an article written by Dave Frum. Bush's former speechwriter:

http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/commentary/la-op-bushspeech3jul03,0,3902684.story?coll=la-news-comment-opinions

7/04/2005 11:06:00 PM  
Blogger Doug said...

Sorry, Sam, I left before you posted.
I'll say Happy Birthday for both of us.

7/05/2005 02:21:00 AM  
Blogger Doug said...

No, 'Rat, I was thinking of Sooey Arafat.
Poor woman, living w/o that Gem of a Guy.
And his kids!

7/05/2005 02:24:00 AM  
Blogger Doug said...

That's why I was thinking we might get Mika to send roses, the advantage being lower shipping.
...and to show his gratitude for all the years the brave freedom fighter next door brought security to the area.

7/05/2005 02:32:00 AM  
Blogger RWE said...

Peter UK: Oh ther eis no doubt that America was built on the foundations of personal freedom established in England. Compare the history of the English colonies with the Spanish, Portugese and French ones and that says it all. But I was not talking about WWI and WWII and so forth. I was think about how the USA brought a new form of govt into being, one that thereafter got very popular in Europe, well, except in France for quite a while and in Germany and Russia for even longer. No disrespect intended for the people who are rightfully our forefathers, but it would appear that what those rough colonials started over here really took root over there. That is worth celebrating. Anyway, happy 4th!

7/05/2005 05:45:00 AM  
Blogger desert rat said...

Off of Afghanistan and on Iraq it turns out that even retired Generals agree with me. How smart he seems to be, at least to me.

"...All of that would be possible if we had a coherent national strategy about the end state. Too many Americans, including several elected officials, are preoccupied with an exit strategy. You cannot think about an exit strategy until you have determined what you want success to be and how you will accomplish it...."

Retired U.S. Army Lt. Gen. Jay Garner is the former director of the Office of Reconstruction and Humanitarian Assistance for Post-War Iraq. He was replaced by L. Paul Bremer. He wrote this commentary for the Orlando Sentinel.
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/opinion/2002357448_garner05.html

7/05/2005 06:47:00 AM  
Blogger Doug said...

"share Iraq's oil and gas revenue directly with the Iraqi people and the provinces that a federal system will create."
---
That was also my idea 3 years ago.
What was the "reason" General Jay was kicked out?

7/05/2005 07:14:00 AM  
Blogger Doug said...

The Pentagon's most senior planners are challenging the longstanding strategy that requires the armed forces to be prepared to fight two major wars at a time

7/05/2005 07:28:00 AM  
Blogger buddy larsen said...

Sure, what's the problem?

7/05/2005 07:36:00 AM  
Blogger buddy larsen said...

(ht instapundit) There's gonna be BIG trouble over this!

7/05/2005 07:41:00 AM  
Blogger buddy larsen said...

Kevin, Truepeers, wrt the discussion above, and TP's surmise that Kevin was working off a NYT article, I just happened to bump, just now, into this (from the National Center for Policy Analysis):

"The New York Times, in its multipart series, "Class Matters," claims that class is so powerful, it has come to play a greater, not lesser role in American life. Interestingly, the Times itself provides the strongest evidence against this conclusion, says Bruce Bartlett, a senior fellow with the National Center for Policy Analysis.

Consider the poll data it compiled for its series. In 1983, people were asked, "Do you think it's still possible to start out poor in this country, work hard and become rich?"

At the time, only 57 percent of respondents agreed with this proposition, while 38 percent disagreed.
By the 1990s, the percentage of positive responses had risen to 70.
As of March 2005, 80 percent said it was possible for anyone to become rich in America, while only 19 percent said it was not.
The Times poll also provides a useful perspective on intergenerational mobility. In one question, people were asked: Compared to your parents when they were the age you are now, do you think your own standard of living now is much better, somewhat better, about the same, somewhat worse, or much worse than theirs was?"

In 1994, the first time the question was asked, 31 percent answered "much better," 32 percent "somewhat better," 21 percent "about the same," 11 percent "somewhat worse," and 3 percent "much worse."
In 2005, the corresponding figures were 39 percent, 27 percent, 20 percent, 9 percent and 4 percent.
In other questions, people were asked to compare their social class today with the one in which they grew up. Across the board, they responded the same way, reporting that they lived in a higher social class today, says Bartlett."


Kevin, your own source disgrees with itself. I know, the target is just SO juicy, it's hard to accept that it doesn't exist.
(I'll delete this over-long post later)

7/05/2005 09:09:00 AM  
Blogger desert rat said...

well doug it seems like alot of folks read our musings here at Belmont.
Your link to the NYTimes story just validates what we have been saying for months now. The entire force needs to be realigned to the CURRENT and foreseeable threats.

About time the Brass saw the light.

7/05/2005 09:11:00 AM  
Blogger desert rat said...

From an unnamed Senior Defense Offical

",,, After years of saying American forces were sufficient for a two-war strategy, "we've come to the realization that we're not," said another Defense Department official involved in the deliberations, who was granted anonymity because he could not otherwise discuss the talks, which are classified. "It's coming to grips with reality." ..."

7/05/2005 09:14:00 AM  
Blogger buddy larsen said...

Rat, hasn't Rummy all along been going this way? With his emphasis on lean & mean & mobile? What could that be but "One-and-a-half" but, really ready!" ?

7/05/2005 09:21:00 AM  
Blogger desert rat said...

I think that General Jay was dumped because he was part of the DoD. Powell wanted State to reconstruct Iraq and so Bremmer got the seat.
I think that the lack of speed in intergrating both the Shia and Hurds into the Security Forces can be laid at Bremmers feet.
He choose Sunnis to head the Provisional Government, just set the program back a year. Well not set back, not begun.

7/05/2005 09:26:00 AM  
Blogger buddy larsen said...

Anyhoo, o/t again (sorry) but here's a great aggregator for trend-watchers.

7/05/2005 09:28:00 AM  
Blogger desert rat said...

I have been rooting for Rummy the whole time. Close the unneeded bases, get the Military out of paper shuffling staff jobs and get to the business at hand.

Lean mean fighting machine

Watched Nick and Jessica in Germany, last night, boy does the Air Force ever have a nice band. They can really rock.
Perhaps that is one of the reasons we are so streched, with only 13% of the Force deployed. To many trambone players, not enough shooters.
It is well past time to get serious.
My sympathy to the families of the two SEALs that bought the farm in Afghanistan. They were shooters.

7/05/2005 09:36:00 AM  
Blogger exhelodrvr1 said...

I'm not sure where the author got the info, but that strategy went away about 10 years ago. In the mid-90's they changed from being able to handle two major conflicts simultaneously, to one major conflict and another incident that would require fewer, but still significant, forces.

7/05/2005 09:37:00 AM  
Blogger RWE said...

Oh, we could still handle two major conflicts simultaneously with the current force structure.
It is just that for at least one of them we would have to go nuclear on Day One. Or preferably, on Day Minus One.
It's not just having to fight, it is having to fight in a manner that is acceptable - including acceptable to the people that we are fighting - which is kinda ridiculous, at best.
In the area of "reality" we have to face the fact that we must fight in way that satisfies the European Elites, the U.N.ocracy, the American Elites, CNN, the most popular latest rock star, etc. And after you get through all that, the empire building in the military itself, which does tend to react to an actual shooting war rather better than those other groups.

7/05/2005 09:53:00 AM  
Blogger buddy larsen said...

The single most worrisome thing to me is PRC vs USN close-in. It's just a black-hole of no-info. Tho, I guess it has to be that way.

7/05/2005 09:56:00 AM  
Blogger buddy larsen said...

Tho, free of the restrictions rwe mentions, we have a breather until someone else starts laying blue water fleet aircraft-carrier keels.

7/05/2005 10:00:00 AM  
Blogger desert rat said...

I would not disagree with that assessment ex-helo, it is just that, as you've stated before, we cannot save the people of Dafur, or Liberia or Zimbabwe or ... because we don't have the troop strength. We are so streeeeched.
I could understand not going to those places for policy or political reasons. But to not go because we do not have capacity, considering the money we spend on the military, is absurd.
Time to restructure the Force.

7/05/2005 10:08:00 AM  
Blogger buddy larsen said...

o/t, sorry, but, Kevin:

7/05/2005 11:37:00 AM  
Blogger Doug said...

This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.

7/05/2005 12:15:00 PM  
Blogger Doug said...

They neglected to Hurd the Shia?
They Should have bit the bridle and saddled up!
I suppose there's a shortage of Shia Dogs also?

7/05/2005 12:15:00 PM  
Blogger desert rat said...

I get so excited, I do not always spell check. But that one would have gotten thru any way.
An editor, that's what I need.

No doug the Shia are not dogs, that is what Saddam thought of them. How else could he have had so many of them 'put down'.

7/05/2005 12:29:00 PM  
Blogger Doug said...

Legalistic war at home and abroad:
A couple of years ago I called the cops after hearing about some jerk and his wife teaching his kids to steal fruit, and refused to leave (!) when my wife asked him to.
(she said they could take some for their use, ...they proceeded to load up their pickup!)
The cop started giving me a long list of legal reasons why he couldn't do anything.
Finally, I looked him in the face, and asked:
Are you a lawyer?
...he was embarrassed and agreed to go these people's places of work and advise them of my complaint, which MAY have embarrassed these managerial types A LITTLE.
...but not sure if cop did it because I pressed him, or because son worked for his boss, the chief at the time.
I'm sure they have to take sensitivity courses, legal classes, multicultural awareness training, and etc.
...and, like the military, they are supposed to ask questions and only shoot later if already fired upon.

7/05/2005 12:37:00 PM  
Blogger Doug said...

sorry,
(I just had to get that free plug in for Bit and Bridle for the 'Rat.)
...and I don't even get thanks!

7/05/2005 12:39:00 PM  
Blogger desert rat said...

I would bet, that if we could run the numbers, only 13% of the Force in Iraq are there to fight. The rest would be the Supply and Support Tail. A micro of the macro.

If this is how we are fighting, as described in Juan Cole's essay, it means we have won.
Time to come home.

7/05/2005 12:40:00 PM  

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