Iraq, Germany and New Zealand
A lot is happening this weekend. First, Iraq. The Security Watchtower site has a graphic listing all the military operations undertaken in Iraq as of September 16.
- Multiple airstrikes in Qaim
- Operations in Ar Rutbah in the far West
- Operations in Haditha
- Operations in Saqlawiyah
- Operation "Flick Ticker" in Baghdad
- Operation Royalty in Taji
- Operations in Mosul
- and Tal-Afar ("Operation Restoring Rights")
What's remarkable about this is that there have been 14 US KIA up to September 16. That is one third the rate for the period last year -- in a month of offensives. The attacks on Baghdad highlighted by the press, More Iraqis Joining Zarqawi's Cause, How troops struggle in a war raging on five fronts, Bombers Maintain Intense Attack included attacks on three American convoys wounding 10 but killing none.
There are two close elections taking place in the Western world. The first of course, is in Germany, where Angela Merkel is still tipped to unseat Gerhard Schroeder. The New York Times puts it this way: The Front-Runner in Germany Runs Scared.
Mrs. Merkel, 51, is still likely to become chancellor after the vote on Sunday. But her preferred coalition, with the Free Democratic Party, has been falling just short of a majority in the most recent polls. She may have to settle for leading a so-called grand coalition of her Christian Democratic Union and Mr. Schröder's Social Democratic Party. Given the aura of political invincibility that has enveloped Mrs. Merkel since a weakened Mr. Schröder called for elections in May, that would be seen almost as a defeat.
The other is in New Zealand. According to SBS News:
The people of New Zealand have begun voting for their next government with a plethora of opinion polls in the past week indicating a cliff-hanger result. Labour Prime Minister Helen Clark is seeking a third term in office but she faces a stiff challenge from the National Party's Don Brash. ... Mr Brash, a former central bank governor, who has only been in parliament for three years, has shaken up the establishment by vowing to soften New Zealand's ban on nuclear-powered vessels in its ports, and to discard some privileges for the country's native Maori.
Update
The early results from New Zealand indicate that Labor will retain office, although it may require entering into coalitions with smaller parties. Labor kept its share of the vote, but the opposition gained nearly twenty percent from 2002. One problem facing Labor is that in order to get a majority, it needs to coalesce with the Greens, but some of the smaller parties are so antipathetic to the Greens that they will refuse to join the coalition unless they are excluded from cabinet positions. In all probability, the New Zealand Labor Party can only keep power by making contortionist deals.
It is actually possible for the conservative coalition to form a government provided it were willing to coalesce with the Maori Party. The media calls it unlikely. Yet Don Brash, head of the Nationals said in his post-electoral speech a few minutes ago that he was willing to form a coalition government with "all New Zealanders". One of the interesting subplots of election day was the light plane circling the capital threatening to crash into the Sky Tower, one of the city's highest buildings. It is said to have been forced down by a helicopter. This highlights the near-abolition of the New Zealand Air Force by Labor.
41 Comments:
NEW YORK - Kyoto Treaty RIP.
That's not the headline in any newspaper this morning emerging from the first day of the Clinton Global Initiative, but it could have been -- and should have been.
Onstage with former president Bill Clinton at a midtown Manhattan hotel ballroom, British Prime Minister Tony Blair said he was going to speak with "brutal honesty" about Kyoto and global warming, and he did. And Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice had some blunt talk, too.
- And, of course, there was Mr. Howard.
Speaking of world energy policy for the future, Rice said, "Nuclear power is going to have to be part of the mix." Imagine that -- nuclear power! That's been the Bush administration view all along, of course, but the W. folks haven't gotten very far in resuscitating the industry. Yet if Blair is starting to show realism on Kyoto, he and other leaders around the world will see that nukes have to be part of the energy solution.
The win keeps a staunch ally of President Bush in power.
Koizumi is expected to stand by his dispatch of troops to support the U.S.-led coalition in Iraq over opposition objections, and he strongly supports the continued presence of 50,000 U.S. military personnel in Japan.
http://www.mercurynews.com/mld/mercurynews/news/world/12631581.htm
KOIZUMI WIN
(from Clinton link above)
Advisory Board
Carol M. Browner
Principal
The Albright Group LLC
General Wesley Clark, USA, (Ret.)
Former Supreme Allied Commander of NATO, Vice Chairman
James Lee Witt and Associates LLC
---
Ms Browner is a complete Environutcase that was epa head during Clinton.
And Tony Blair blows them out of the water before they get started!
Looks like the moonbats lost this one. NZ Election Results
New Zealand's ban also includes aircraft or ships equipped with nuclear weapons, And since the U.S. will neither confrim nor deny the presence of nuclear wepaons onboard any particular ship or aircraft, that means NO U.S. ships or aircraft could visit New Zealand.
For years it was common practice for U.S. military aircraft needing to refuel in New Zealand to "declare an emergency" and request to land. Everyone knew full well what was going on, but looked the other way. The U.S could go about its urgent business of defending the free world and the people of NZ could walk around with their NIMBY attitudes.
It is not just the Islamic Facists that refuse to acknowledge the 21st Century.
New Zealand's socialists will always try to keep it in the dark ages, but there are powerful liberal forces at work in New Zealand. A lot of Kiwis believe in freedom.
If Germany emerges from its rickety socialist prison, it will be a needed second chance for the German people. A lot of germans have been enfeebled by the dependency on government.
East Germany was especially handicapped by decades under communism. Germans are tough underneath, and can survive socialism just as they survived fascism.
Heraclitus said...
Can one imagine Caesar allowing a province like New Zealand to dictate where he could station his legions?
6:11 AM
/////////////////
this is something I have been thinking about lately. That is what is the economic difference between of armies of the premodern world and those of today's world.
I think think that the most important and fundamental difference is that kings of the old world made their living by conquest with their armies.
Trajan's conquest of Thrace for example pulled up some enormous gold hoards. Archelogical buffs of blam's ping list on Freerepublic have been treated to a constant flow of articles about gold hoards being discovered recently in thrace that are bigger than von sclieman's haul from troy.
Trajan used the gold to fund an huge build out of the public works in rome.
Charles,
The Kiwis make some good wine, and probably good cheese too.
Give up the Gold Standard!
---
Tony Blair was shocked by the BBC's coverage of Hurricane Katrina's devastation of New Orleans, describing it as “full of hatred of America”, Rupert Murdoch, chairman and chief executive of News Corporation, revealed on Friday night.
.US / Clinton summit.
And from the Sub Zero IQ Dept.
. George Bush needs to stop talking, admit the mistakes of his all around failed administration, pull our troops out of occupied New Orleans and Iraq, and excuse his self from power .
(Our first Black White Mom?)
Celebrity anti-war protester, fresh off inking a lucrative deal with Speaker's Bureau, has demanded at the HUFFINGTON POST and MICHAEL MOORE'S website that the United States military must immediately leave 'occupied' New Orleans.
What if Tony apes the Royals and dumps Cherie for Coulter?
Doug, she wouldn't have him.
Pakistan moves towards rapprochement with Israel .
General Pervez Musharraf, Pakistan's military ruler, is due to speak at a dinner hosted by the American Jewish Congress in New York Saturday night in a move seen as another step towards an eventual rapprochement with Israel.
---
Koizumi's Landslide win :
The two-thirds majority enjoyed by the LDP-led coalition gives it the power to override any decision, barring a constitutional amendment made by the upper house. Some fear Mr Koizumi will use that power to drive through an assault on vested interests or even to accelerate the dumping of Japan’s pacifist constitution.
Erp,
She could be one leggy mole.
"Service Above Self"
Underground.
I swear this is NOT from The Onion: "But independent analysts suggest that the strategy of driving the insurgents from urban centers and trying to capture or kill as many as possible, aiming especially at leaders, may be flawed."
Yep, it's the NYT, indefatigably promoting a true winning strategy: surrender.
Unbelievably, the sentence preceding the first I cited is: "Although the solution may have been imperfect, scores of insurgents were intercepted - including a group of five men disguised as women."
Since it contains some undeniable progress in the military effort, of course the story runs on A6, unlike the Abu Ghraib story which ran on the front page for about five straight weeks. But the first few grafs and the headline lets us know there's still no hope, of course: "Baghdad Bombings Raise Anew Questions About U.S. Strategy in Iraq."
I believe the NYT, et. al. are treating the war in Iraq the same way they and the Democrats were talking about the American economy this time last year. Replace last year's "news" on the economy with this year's "news" on Iraq and you'll notice the parallels in this June 2004 article from the American Enterprise Institute.
"Nonetheless, a minor economic hysteria is currently sweeping this country. It started with the Democratic primary, when the candidates went looking for sticks with which to beat George Bush. John Edwards, Dick Gephardt, Howard Dean, John Kerry, and company noticed that the popping of the dot-com bubble in 2000, the 9/11/01 attacks, and the uncovering of the 1990s corporate accounting scandals brought a recession. They wailed loudly about employment losses, a “jobless recovery,” “outsourcing” ordeals, and “the worst economy since Herbert Hoover”—all of this obligingly echoed by the media. Hearings are being held, TV specials aired, protectionist measures proposed in Congress.
Just out of curiosity, do the facts back up the idea that we’re in an economic fix? Well, no. The U.S. unemployment rate is currently 5.7 percent. That’s lower than the average for the 1990s, or 1980s, or 1970s. As Jim Glassman points out in his spunky column on page 48,it compares to unemployment rates of 9.6 percent in France, and 10.4 percent in Germany.
America’s economy is currently growing faster than that of any other developed nation in the world. Our productivity growth is better than at any point in 20 years. Inflation, interest rates, and mortgage costs are at historic lows; real income has never been so high; home ownership stands at a record level.
When he accepted the Democratic nomination for re-election as President on August 29,1996,Bill Clinton proudly stated that “We have the lowest combined rates of unemployment, inflation, and home mortgages in 28 years.” Well guess what? Those combined rates are even lower today than when President Clinton did his crowing. So why does it feel like you’ve stumbled onto the obituary spread every time you open the business section or front page of a newspaper these days?"
http://www.taemag.com/issues/articleid.18009/article_detail.asp
Doug said...
Charles,
The Kiwis make some good wine, and probably good cheese too.
Give up the Gold Standard!
---
Doug. Kind of an interesting day for me here. I made the first post at Dulles Airport in Washington DC. This post is from Atlanta Airport. My next jump is to LA. I'll post for the next couple of days from Santa Barbara.
Here's the last two paragraphs from William Jennings Bryan's Cross of Gold speach.
////////////////////////
William Jennings Bryan, "Cross of Gold," 9 July 1896
Occasion: A speech given during the 1896 Democratic National Convention. It was Bryan's part of a convention-wide debate over monetary policy. A moderately well-known delegate before he gave the speech, Bryan went on to win the Democratic presidential nomination that year.
//////////////////
My friends, we declare that this nation is able to legislate for its own people on every question, without waiting for the aid or consent of any other nation on earth; and upon that issue we expect to carry every state in the Union. I shall not slander the inhabitants of the fair state of Massachusetts nor the inhabitants of the state of New York by saying that, when they are confronted with the proposition, they will declare that this nation is not able to attend to its own business. It is the issue of 1776 over again. Our ancestors, when but three millions in number had the courage to declare their political independence of every other nation; shall we, their descendants, when we have grown to seventy millions, declare that we are less independent than our forefathers?
No, my friends, that will never be the verdict of our people. Therefore, we care not upon what lines the battle is fought. If they say bimetallism is good, but that we cannot have it until other nations help us, we reply that, instead of having a gold standard because England has, we will restore bimetallism, and then let England have bimetallism because the United States has it. If they dare to come out in the open field and defend the gold standard as a good thing, we will fight them to the uttermost. Having behind us the producing masses of this nation and the world, supported by the commercial interests, the laboring interests and the toilers everywhere, we will answer their demand for a gold standard by saying to them: You shall not press down upon the brow of labor this crown of thorns, you shall not crucify mankind upon a cross of gold.
http://douglassarchives.org/brya_a26.htm
It seems amazing now in NZ, the country that would have trouble intercepting a Cessna 150 today, but in WWII NZ had the largest percentage of the population serving as military airmen of any nation - and lost the largest percentage of population in aircrew casulaties.
After WWI, when the demobilized forces of Great Britain were facing an uprising in Iraq, the one member of the British Commonwealth that said "No problem. Our troops are available" was New Zealand.
One wonders how you give up an incredible legacy like that.
Simply the absence of a threat does not completely explain it.
Charles: When you get to Santa Barbara go look on the north side of the airport. Nice place to eat there called the Elephant Bar. Also there was a guy there who had a Mig-15 and an F-86 he kept on the north side of the airport.
One wonders how you give up an incredible legacy like that.
Simply the absence of a threat does not completely explain it.
-similar thing happened in Canada, a nation of ten million during WWII, with a million men and women in uniform.
I suppose the most efficient explanation is white guilt and the baby boom generation. The cultural impact of Auschwitz and Hiroshima has been immense, especially since the sixties, and peoples with the moral courage to stand up to the Nazis were also people with the moral courage and silliness to question their entire cultural and imperial legacy, especially once they felt cut off from mother Britain by changes in global trade and the mother's new preference for the Euros. But perhaps at last, this self-destructive era, which was also a time of self-indulgent excess - drugs, sex, rocknroll - may be coming to an end. If New Zealand turns, it will be one of the prime indicators for that.
Tony, re C4 reply:
Now you know who that stringer was that wrote the Ny Times piece.
---
All I could picture while reading your post about the cross-dressing escapees was a Peter Seller's movie in which he is supposed to be gathering Intel, but falls in love w/one of the escaping "women."
Charles,
Have you ever seen the SB Mission?
I envy you.
Beautiful Place.
That's a great speech:
I'm always impressed by the foresight of so many folks from earlier times:
Robust optimism as compared to the MSM/left cabal.
rwe,
I suppose you saw plenty of the old Guppies at SB Airport in you days at Lompoc?
"One of the interesting subplots of election day was the light plane circling the capital threatening to crash into the Sky Tower, one of the city's highest buildings."
---
Sounds like Norman Sanders is still up to his usual tricks. He used to fly over Tamanian mines and the like.
Before that, it was flying over offshore oil platforms in Santa Barbara, and Canoe trips through the Goleta Slough, MSM camera crew in hand to prove the slough was a "navigable waterway."
Got him a cover piece/picture on Sports Illustrated as
"The New Breed of Environmentalist."
Tasmanian
"your days at lompoc"
rwe,
My neighbor used to fly a Navy Radar Craft tracking the Film Packets coming back from Agena rockets.
Forget the model: He also flew the Super Connie with Radomes.
Doug: The Guppies were long gone from Santa Barbara by the time I got to Vandenberg, or for that matter to Calif at all.
I recall seeing some 123's flying out of there; I think at least some were Forest Fire bombers. One guy there had a Sea Fury; he had been an A-1 pilot out of NKP and wanted something with a huge round engine.
The Super Connie with the radar was the EC-121. Both the USAF and the USN flew them. At Camarillo (Oxnard AFB) they are restoring one to flying condition, but not the model with the radomes.
For some of our launches we had the Navy come up from Pt Mugu with a modified P-3 that had special tracking optics. Not very useful data as it turned out, but got one Hi-Lar-Ious videotape out of that when the Titan they were tracking blew up.
By the way, Doug, the new un-lefty opposition in NZ includes with its platform rolling back the special privileges of the Maoi - the same sort of stuff they are trying to get started in Hawaii.
So a coalition with the Maoi would seem rather unlikely to say the least.
I wonder - A lady orginally from Germany told me that they were strongly encouraging people in Europe to go to Australia and New Zealand at the end of WWII, when Europe could not support its surviving population - was that where all of the appeasers ended up - or are they from a generation still exhausted by war?
Well, I just got into LA. Spent the flight talking to a woman coming in from ashville NC. She's spent the last 15 years working at a funeral parlor and living living in an apt off the beach. She plans to return to NC for good in January.
The flight from LA to santa barbara doubles the cost of the flight from dc to la so I'm taking a shuttle bus up to santa barbara and staying in the hotel mar monte (formerly the Radisson).
For those of you who do any business online there's a big gathering of affiliates for commission junction sunday monday and tuesday. seminars, meets & greets, networking and a little business. Everyone is trying to figure out how to monetize the larger part of the internet traffic which researches online and buys offline.
(There was some significant yahoo market research done on the subject this year.)
Well, I just got into LA. Spent the flight talking to a woman coming in from ashville NC. She's spent the last 15 years working at a funeral parlor and living living in an apt off the beach. She plans to return to NC for good in January.
The flight from LA to santa barbara doubles the cost of the flight from dc to la so I'm taking a shuttle bus up to santa barbara and staying in the hotel mar monte (formerly the Radisson).
For those of you who do any business online there's a big gathering of affiliates for commission junction sunday monday and tuesday. seminars, meets & greets, networking and a little business. Everyone is trying to figure out how to monetize the larger part of the internet traffic which researches online and buys offline.
(There was some significant yahoo market research done on the subject this year.)
Well, I just got into LA. Spent the flight talking to a woman coming in from ashville NC. She's spent the last 15 years working at a funeral parlor and living living in an apt off the beach. She plans to return to NC for good in January.
The flight from LA to santa barbara doubles the cost of the flight from dc to la so I'm taking a shuttle bus up to santa barbara and staying in the hotel mar monte (formerly the Radisson).
For those of you who do any business online there's a big gathering of affiliates for commission junction sunday monday and tuesday. seminars, meets & greets, networking and a little business. Everyone is trying to figure out how to monetize the larger part of the internet traffic which researches online and buys offline.
(There was some significant yahoo market research done on the subject this year.)
interesting piece on iran's preparations for war with the USA.
Andrew: I never went to any of those places but I did eat FIVE hamburgers in one sitting in that quaint McDonald's on State St.
Another not-to-miss dining experience is the McDonald's at the northern end of State St, near the road to San Marcos Pass. That is where the Egg McMuffin was first introduced to the world!
Go see the brass plaque commemerating that event!
Be sure to take a camera!
As for the NZ anti-military stance, it's much the same with our other Anglo-Saxon brother nations, Australia and Canada. That is, they got a belly full of doing the Brit's fighting for them and being used as cannon fodder.
-there's some truth in this. After both world wars, there was a nationalistic reaction to being used and wasted by stupid British, or should we say mostly English, generals. But if you asked a Canadian in the interwar period, are you a proud Briton, or British subject, the vast majority would have said yes. The idea that a Canadian was not a Briton had not yet taken hold. One could readily be, and in fact was, both. So the question is why did the Canadians, Aussies, Kiwis become more univocal in their sense of nationality, just as the "British", or should we say English, turned against the empire in 1945 by voting Churchill, their great war leader, out of office.
When push came to shove, an English soldier had always done his duty for England, not Britain. The British identity was never suited to the kinds of bonding required of soldiers or politicians. Remember it was the English who refused the Americans access to their insular national parliament. And the ideas of imperial federation that pre-WWII Canadian and other Dominion politicians often embraced always came to nought. `British' was always more something one identified with progress in commerce, industry, science and technology, religion and culture, than it was a suitable political identity.
So, as I see it, the turn away from Britain and hence militarism in defence of Queen, country, and empire, needs to be explained in terms of 1)the superior logic of national over imperial identities, a superiority that had existed throughout the era of the British empire. The nation as a god-given, originally Jewish, concept has always held the core sympathies of the Anglosphere, which is why England, Scotland, Wales, N.Ireland, still field separate teams in the World Cup (no doubt at the cost of winning soccer glory), and why Blake's Jerusalem if a favorite soccer hymn.
And 2) prior to 1945 it was possible to find a happy balance between national and British identities, but afterwards this was not so and the reasons must go deeper than the cannon fodder explanation, which was more a rationalization of a shift in global relationships whose exact nature is hard to put a finger on.
When it was clear that the US had become the dominant power in the west and the anglosphere, there was no longer possible the identity with British progress in the fields mentioned above.
It is interesting to note that the US was never as successful as the English in bringing the Anglosphere under its leadership. There are obvious reasons for this - psychologically, one is usually more loyal to mother than to the older sibling with whom one feels rivalry. And only the loony left can confuse the US - however globally powerful - for an empire, or Washington for the imperial/national London of old. Yet there remains the possibility of uniting the anglosphere to fight the good fight, etc., if one has a convincing and moral vision of a global order we should wish to build. The Cedarfords can bitch all they want about the lack of military spending in Canada. But, pray tell, what should Canadians be spending for? To ward off an invasion from the only possible threat to our territory - the US? No, we will have to go guerilla if that comes to pass. Terrorism, etc.? Yes, but the nature of this war is still less than fully articulated. Canadians can come up with some limited answer to the question of what we need a military for. But unless and until the US lays out a powerful and far-reaching vision of the kinds of militaries we need to follow the US lead in fighting 4GW, etc., there will not be the possibility of a strongly pro-American politics in countries like Canada. Insular nationalism will win out as it always tends to do. The easy disease of anti-Americanism will appeal to those so willing to believe that their resentments of the other's position are justified, as our Cedarford should know.
Charles, years ago, this was the best Cal-Mex food we found, very fresh stuff.
La Tolteca had a Tortilla Factory then, don't know about now.
Andrew can tell you if it is still a safe place to visit.
. La Tolteca .
616 E. Haley. Santa Barbara. (805) 963-0847
. Map - 616 E. Haley St.
---
The Granada Theater has quite a history. Think it's restoration is about done.
Downtown – Arlington Theater & Center for Performing Arts – El Presidio de Santa Barbara Historic Park
Santa Barbara Museum of Art, Santa Barbara Historical Museum, Santa Barbara County Courthouse, Granada Theatre, Presidio Gardens, El Paseo "the street in Spain", Historic adobes.
---
. Santa_Barbara,_California .
. Mission_Santa_Barbara .
. Court House .
---
.The Presidio of Santa Barbara is the second oldest surviving building in California; only the Mission San Juan Capistrano is older.
---
AIRPLANE .
Andrew,
Any idea why so many business properties are __For Lease__ on that street?
leaddog2,
Hewitt is pretty concerned about the Flu.
Evidently Bill Frist is up to speed, but don't hear much about it, ...yet.
China may end up killing more people with home grown viruses than with weapons.
Maybe they should start practicing 20th Century Agriculture, since this is the 21st?
"There ain't no rules around here. We're trying to accomplish something."
- Thomas Edison
rwe,
Even more interesting than the history of MacDonalds,
is the history of Little "Black" Sambo, and Sambo's restaurant chain:
ORIGINAL LOGO .
Friend of mine knew the guy's family that started this ill-fated franchise.
. Little Black Sambos and "Prejudice."
On June 17, 1957 the first of Sambo's nationwide chain of family restaurants was
. Sambos on the Beach in Santa Barbara.
As racial tensions mounted in the south, business's were being accused of prejudice in hiring practices. Sambo’s was one of them. Some of it may have been true in the South. But Steve never saw it where he went.
People in the south were offended by the name “Little Black Sambo” and claimed it showed that the chain was indeed prejudiced. Sambo’s lost its day in court and was closed down.
Steve figured that was the most stupid thing he had ever heard of. Sambo was never “Black” like Africans; he was an Indian from India, complete with a turban on his head. And the tail of Sambo helping the Lion had nothing to do with putting down black people struggling for equality. It was an Indian proverb, from India.
Steve never could understand prejudice. All of his young life his parents introduced him to every kind of nationality you could think of. He had dinners and Christmases at different people’s homes and there were the people at church and it seemed to Steve that everybody was just that, everybody; and everybody was different.
They ate different foods and some had meals at a different time of the day. His neighbors on Islay Street, where he burned down their fence, they eat their dinner at noon.
Tacos at one home, spaghetti at another and sausages at yet another and some wouldn’t eat meat on Friday. Steve figured he understood that, he wouldn’t eat peas.
Steve had met Playboy Bunnies, Private Detectives and Secret Service Police in his parent’s own kitchen, and movie stars ate at the same places he did; like Sambo’s.
Fess Parker ate at Sambo’s a lot. He would come in early in the morning and have breakfast before going out to his boat for a trip out on the water. He seemed to Steve to be a very normal and an exceptionally kind man.
He was always polite and willing to share a conversation. And he didn’t get up-set when someone would interrupt his meal and ask for an autograph. Can you imagine how annoying that could be?
Anyway, people were always just people to Steve. Each was establishing his or her terms by how they treated others when you dealt with them one-on-one. And Steve met a lot of famous people when he was growing up. Not all of them famous when he met them, but some of them produced or had a hand in many projects that later became part of our culture. Like “Jesus Christ Supper Star” and “Hair”. People were just people. Some of them very nice and some of them Steve would make a point of staying away from.
. Santa Barbara.com - Dining: The Original Sambos.
Quite a tale, even when misspelled.
The Comments here present a more complex picture of the demise of Sambos.
Post a Comment
<< Home