Wednesday, August 23, 2006

Forward Together

One story that went the rounds in the Philippine National Penitentiary concerned the Cockroach Men. To hear the Bat tell it, the guards were always listening for escape plans being tapped out on the walls. "If you started tapping on walls, the guards would figure out you were trying something." No one asked the Bat how he knew, though he unquestionably belonged in the Big House. But you forgot that part and listened to the story. "So these two guys were about three cells apart on the row and they had to communicate without the guards knowing. How do you figure they did it? By pacing the corridor they knew the distance and since the only other openings into the cells were small windows to the yard they eventually came up with the idea of cockroaches." The Bat was one of those guys who had tattoos up to the neckline and right down to the cuffs. Down to his socks, too, when he wore them. But with a white long-sleeved shirt on, he looked like the perfect applicant for a chauffeur's position, if you were willing to overlook the fact that he probably knifed half a dozen guys. "So the one pulled the wings off a roach and put him on the window sill, a thread tied on, leaving it with one way to crawl. The roach eventually draggled over to the other guy's cell window with the thread and it was all a matter of pulling rolled messages along a line of sewing thread by night when the lights were out. That's how they came up with the plan." The rest was done with part of a spoon, bread paste to cover the scraping and a lot of patience. I never did learn if the Roach Men got out. But the lesson, the universal lesson in every hoosegow from Billerica to Long Bay, is that if you stick to a plan long enough it usually works in the end. A con with an inch of hacksaw blade beats the bars every time.


Because the con learns. Against most expectations it's possible that MNF-Iraq is gradually getting on top sectarian violence in Baghdad. Since Operation Forward Together started on July 9 violence in Baghdad has declined 16%, according to Maj Gen William Caldwell. Bill Roggio at the Counterterrorism Blog describes the process. Tactics developed in earlier clearing operations in Tal Afar were applied to Baghdad. Problem neighborhoods were isolated and swept out, house by house. Like a con in the calaboose MNF filed away at the problem one bar at a time. 

USA Today provides a simplified breakdown of the operation. "The offensive is planned in stages and is designed to avoid an all-out attack. In the first phase, launched July 9, Iraqi security forces positioned checkpoints throughout the city. In the second phase, launched last week, Iraqi forces supported by U.S. troops began isolating and clearing parts of the city block by block. Iraqi security forces will remain to provide security once areas are cleared. When areas are stable, the government will bring economic assistance into blighted neighborhoods." This strategy is essentially what the Marines call the "3 Block War." ...

Operation Forward Together is focusing on four of the most violent neighborhoods of Baghdad: Doura, Mansour, Shula and Azamiyah. These are neighborhoods where the sectarian violence has been at its worst. Coalition forces have begun operations in Doura and Ameriya. In both cases, the neighborhoods were cordoned off, and each building was searched. "Kilometer after kilometer of barriers emplaced, building what some may call the semblance of a gated community, affording them greater security with ingress and egress routes established and manned by Iraqi security forces with coalition forces in support," as the Multinational Forces - Iraq press release describes the operation in Doura.

At Doura, attacks dropped from more than 20 a day to virtually none, according to Maj Gen Caldwell. But this happy state of affairs is likely to last only until the enemy develops a response. Since Operation Iraqi Freedom's start on March 20, 2003, the US has always been confronted with a new problem for every old one solved. As the Republican Guard and Fedayeen faded into history they were replaced by the Sunni insurgency, an amalgam of different groups. Belatedly yet eventually, the US responded; regaining control of the Syrian borders, rebuilding the Iraqi Army, recreating a government; attacking insurgent cells. But by then the threat moved on. When Abu Musab Zarqawi was killed on June 7, 2006 the main security problem had already morphed into purposefully incited sectarian violence, growing since the Golden Mosque was bombed in February that year. And Baghdad was the epicenter of the sectarian conflict, with 80% of incidents occurring there. Again MNF-Iraq responded, a little too slowly for some but in earnest; now due to actions like Operation Forward Together the threat of sectarian militias and death squads may have already peaked. Robert Burns described how British Royal Marine Lt. Gen. Robert Fry, who is deputy to General Casey, characterized the state of play.

He said there is no mass migration out of Baghdad, where the sectarian violence is worst; the central government is functioning; and the country's security forces are answerable to the government. "So what I think we have is something which is, at the very best, civil war in miniature, at the very best. But I don't think it actually even meets that definition," Fry said. Murders and other acts of violence have declined substantially in Baghdad in recent weeks, Fry added, and most other parts of the country are relatively peaceful.

Until the next problem presents itself, that is, possibly from Iran itself. No one can pretend the problems in Iraq are over and the fact that no one can confidently predict when they will ever be solved lies at the bottom of the public dissatisfaction with the war. About all the Administration can convincingly argue is the awfulness of the alternative. For Marine Lt Gen James Mattis the endpoint has become fundamentally psychological.

"It is mostly a matter of wills. Whose will is going to break first? Ours or the enemy's?" ... Mattis, who led the Marines in the invasion of Afghanistan in 2001 and led the 1st Marine Division in the invasion of Iraq and march to Baghdad in early 2003, said he was once asked by an Iraqi when he would leave that country. "I said I am never going to leave. I told him I had found a little piece of property down on the Euphrates River and I was going to have a retirement home built there. I did that because I wanted to disabuse him of any sense that he could wait me out. ... Wars like this are winnable but you have got to have a sophisticated approach and you've got to have very sturdy and spiritually sturdy Marines who can keep their balance in the face of an extremely complex fight. It's not a small issue to wave to kids after just seeing your buddies blown up, but that shows on the most pedestrian level the kind of sturdiness that is needed in what is just a morally bruising environment where the enemy hides among the people."

The fight in Iraq makes an interesting comparison to the Congo. The conflict in the Congo is one of those phenomena which defy description. Despite the presence of the UN and the EU missions,  four million people have died so far in the Congo and as many as 1,200 more are added to the toll each day. If Iraq had its roots in the Anglo-French division of the Middle East, the Congo began as Belgian King Leopold II's "Heart of Darkness" and went downhill from there. The ethnic interests of 9 African nations, the shadowy influence of foreign politics and chaos combined to create a catastrophe that cannot even be dignified as signifying anything. It isn't part of an effort to roll back Islamic fundamentalism, fascism or any other stirring cause. The Congo is simply a tragedy with no end. The Washington Post describes a childhood in Kinshasa:

Sixteen-year-old Baruti Ilanga ran away from home four years ago and now lives in the rusty brown shell of a Toyota, discarded in a cemetery-turned-garbage dump in Kinshasa. Even though there's too many mosquitoes at night and he often goes hungry, he believes he's better off than most of his countryman. "Everyone in Kinshasa is poor and hungry. At least we are happy," the boy shrugged, a half-empty bottle of pale yellow French Pastis beside him. "It is good in the street. I am free. I do what I want, when I want."

No one knows how many children and teenagers call the streets their home in Congo. Aid workers estimate between 25,000 and 40,000 children are homeless in Kinshasa alone, and tens of thousands more are said to live in the vast Central African country's other cities. Next month, the U.N. Children's Fund is holding the first census of Kinshasa's street children since the end of Congo's 1998-2002 war, which killed nearly 4 million people and destroyed the country's infrastructure.

May the census do them good. After the UN spent $450 million to supervise the first elections held since 1961 in the Congo, open fighting between the rival candidates broke out after the results were announced. Virtually the entire diplomatic corps in Kinshasa was recently pinned down in Congolese Vice President Jean-Pierre Bemba's house as it was besieged by men loyal to President Joseph Kabila. The Scotsman reported how "the seriousness of the crisis became apparent, on Monday, when almost the entire foreign diplomatic corps was trapped in Mr Bemba's house as 400 troops loyal to president Joseph Kabila fought a violent battle with 200 pro-Bemba militia members. ... In the interim, 120 German and 120 UN troops went on an aggressive patrol in the city center yesterday afternoon, in what one military source described as a 'last roll of the dice'. Their mission was to clear armed militia from the boulevard, where the fighting is concentrated, before nightfall." The EU rushed 500 more men in to supplement the 1,000 European troops already there to act as a "rapid reaction force" to backstop a 17,000 man UN Peacekeeping Force, the largest in the world, yet apparently not big enough.

One gets the sense that if another problem shows up in Iraq, the MNF will puzzle over it, and like the Cockroach Men start scraping away, a little wiser each time, until maybe they get somewhere. In the case of the Congo, the hacksaw never materializes from the UN's pocket. And even if it did, no one really knows if the barred door leads anywhere. Wikipedia notes: "The war has also raised questions about sub-Saharan Africa as a whole. The increase in democratization and the end of apartheid in South Africa raised great hope for the region in the post Cold War world. Some saw the prospect of an 'African Renaissance.' The seemingly unending violence in the Congo has dashed many of these hopes and damaged the reputations of a number of statesmen who were once seen as reformers."

The early years of the 21st century have been cruel to those who promised an end to history. Perhaps all that is finally possible is to clean up such evils as we can and make it to another day. For Baruti Ilanga another bottle of Pastis and another day to sing and dance in Kinshasa. And taking the death rate in Doura down from 20 to 0 is just fine too. As for the Bat the last news of him was long ago from a medium security prison where he did a roaring trade in amateur surgical enhancements to the inmate's peckers -- with a razor blade, plastic pellets and suturing -- with which they hoped to surprise their wives on the day of release. The dream goes ever on. The Cockroach Men knew the other side of the wall was just another place. But what the hell. What the hell.

467 Comments:

Blogger Deuce ☂ said...

What a stunning read. What the hell anyway.

8/23/2006 06:12:00 AM  
Blogger Deuce ☂ said...

I guess It comes down to some simple basics. What is my tribe? Is my tribe more important than everything else in my life? What are my beliefs? Are they more important than my tribe? What is my life? Is that more important than my beliefs?

8/23/2006 06:22:00 AM  
Blogger Teresita said...

This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.

8/23/2006 06:25:00 AM  
Blogger desert rat said...

Wonder if the US represents the guards or the prisoners, in this Iraq analogy.
Most will assume we are the guards.

But the tattooed men of Iraq, they are the US Marines.

As long as the US is reacting to the Iraqi, we'll stay behind the in learning curve. It has been a year since the success at Tal Afar.

Those lessons must have been hard for the US Military to digest and reapply elsewhere.

8/23/2006 06:30:00 AM  
Blogger Karridine said...

A testament to human ingenuity, and the spirit of freedom!

A testament to life, too, albeit a weird one...

8/23/2006 06:34:00 AM  
Blogger Teresita said...

This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.

8/23/2006 06:51:00 AM  
Blogger Genji said...

Archy and Mehitabel!

8/23/2006 07:01:00 AM  
Blogger Deuce ☂ said...

teresita said:

..."By contrast, the Iranians haven't had live-fire "training evolutions" since disengaging with Iraq in 1988, the Egyptians and Jordanians have grown fat dumb and happy with peace, and Syrian forces spent a couple of decades occupying a totally intimidated Lebanon. If the Islamists want a regional war they better think twice."

What happened to Afghanistan, Iraq and Hezbollah?

8/23/2006 07:52:00 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.

8/23/2006 08:28:00 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

teresit wrote:

If the Islamists want a regional war they better think twice.

Islam wants a global war to secure the Islamic empire and sadly they are doing pretty good.

Islamic Empire 2006

8/23/2006 08:30:00 AM  
Blogger Teresita said...

This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.

8/23/2006 08:31:00 AM  
Blogger Teresita said...

This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.

8/23/2006 08:36:00 AM  
Blogger PeterBoston said...

catorenasci

There is not enough information to make a jusgment but nothing I've seen suggests that HB is a professional fighting unit. There are no reports of counterattacks, large scale ambushes, or movements of any kind other than into lightly defended villages.

All you need to fight out of a hole is a little weapons training and a lot of motivation. Given time the HB attrition rate would have been 100%.

The Iranian army's command structure at the beginning of the Iraq war was probably a mess but even after 8 years of OJT the Iranians never accomplished even a limited combined arms maneuver. I'm not even sure they tried one. There's a pretty comprehensive USMC after action report of the Iran-Iraq war somehwere on the net. I lost the link years ago.

8/23/2006 09:05:00 AM  
Blogger Deuce ☂ said...

teresita revising history said:

"The only thing that saved Hezbollah from total annihilation was the clock running out and the US State Department stepping in, like we have done for every Arab-Israeli war. "

What nonsense.

8/23/2006 09:11:00 AM  
Blogger luc said...

Teresita said...8/23/2006 08:31:21 AM

“The only thing that saved Hezbollah from total annihilation was the clock running out and the US State Department stepping in, like we have done for every Arab-Israeli war.”

Is it possible that some of the Israeli units running out of, for example, minor supplies such as food and water, not to mention reported poor training of reserves, may have had something to do with the US State Department stepping in? Hezbollah seems to have had some of the perseverance talked about earlier. This is not to say that Israel was losing but maybe they were on the way of achieving their aims at a higher cost than anticipated. Things they are not always what they seem or what we wish they were ;)

8/23/2006 09:14:00 AM  
Blogger Teresita said...

This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.

8/23/2006 09:43:00 AM  
Blogger PeterBoston said...

catorenasci

All of what you said is true but that does not prevent making macro judgments. If the best estimation of how a national army would perform is its history of performance then the Iranian army does not appear formidable.

Why should we believe that Iran's loyalty based officer/NCO corps leading a draftee army would perform any better than other ME armies? I'm sure there are individual component units that are well led and well equipped but they are most likely the exception.

8/23/2006 09:48:00 AM  
Blogger Db2m said...

I see no problem with sending in the special ops to snipe hunt & direct fire.

And then escalate the conflict as necessary and as planned.

8/23/2006 09:50:00 AM  
Blogger Ash said...

that sounds just peachy fine db2m as long as you don't mind no oil flowing through the gulf and escalations as determined by others.

8/23/2006 09:55:00 AM  
Blogger Doug said...

Bobal, re Sisyphean Farmers:
Nonsense!
You know you just plow that furrow while waiting for a better woman.
---
Always remember:
One man's insomnia can lead to empathy for another's.

8/23/2006 10:12:00 AM  
Blogger Doug said...

CatoRenasci
re: "Air power is wonderful, but unless you're going nuclear (in which case missiles do just as nicely) it's only a part of the equation necessary for victory."
There's not a single missile in our arsenal that can carry This Payload
---
Meanwhile, highway deaths are at there highest level in decades under Bush.
---
Condi Neutralizes Iranian President with Flower Power:
Turns Abracadabra onto Enriched Geraniums.

8/23/2006 10:16:00 AM  
Blogger Teresita said...

This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.

8/23/2006 10:27:00 AM  
Blogger allen said...

bobalharb,

re: Irony and Empathy rock

"What?! No T & A?", said Lenny Bruce.

The dirge is depressing and you can't dance to it - Bandstand rating 1 and 1.

What frequently fascinates me about this site is how often people like you capture a universal concept in a single word or a simple phrase. The human mind is a miraculous marvel!

Whatever the case, both irony and empathy call for a healthy grasp of the humor and the catholic frailty of the human condition. Neither is possible within Islam.

___one god
___one prophet
___one state

Thanks for the time!

8/23/2006 10:28:00 AM  
Blogger RWE said...

The key question is: What are we really dealing with? The cockroach men have the same problem, day after day: how do they escape from prison?

But in Iraq are we meeting a sequence of threats – Saddam’s Army, Saddam’s Insurgency, a Shiite response to Saddam’s deprivations, a Sunni response to the Shiite response, Islamic Fundamentalism, Al Queda, a joint Sunni-Shiite response to the hated U.S. invader, an Iranian 5th column, the chaotic world of Mad Max, or just a bunch of Crazy People doin' what comes naturally...

Or are we meeting the same threat in different guises using different tactics?

Or all of the above?

The importance of this question is that you react at least somewhat differently to each of thsie situations - and we may have to accomplish those different reactions simulataneously

8/23/2006 10:36:00 AM  
Blogger buddy larsen said...

bobbal, I think he meant "one idiot's comment is another man's mystery".

8/23/2006 10:55:00 AM  
Blogger Annoy Mouse said...

It is ironic that such determination and patience is the very thing attributed to our enemies. But whereas hatred and cunning retribution for perceived ills can last centuries, the same can be said for the enduring fortitude necessary to build advanced civilizations. Who will out last the other in the end will come down to whether the tenders of civilization realize that no more progress can be made without a giant leap back into the fray of unmitigated warfare.

The 3 Block tactic sounds akin to the surveyor laying down points to define a region, a clearing and grading of the ground, and finally a reconstruction. It also suggests a poignantly new approach to warfare, in that it starts first with a multinational force, introduces indigenous security, then, hopefully, leaves. Forward together, successful or not, offers a way forward that is an optimistic alternative to the apocalyptic options that we have had to choose from.

“cemetery-turned-garbage dump”

This speaks too much what humanity has become in Africa. It is to be ignored because Bill Clinton did not tout it as a world responsibility and it is no embarrassment to George W. Bush, therefore couldn’t be worth the trouble. Life is cheapened by politics and until the U.N. can see beyond it the suffering will continue. What the hell.

8/23/2006 11:05:00 AM  
Blogger allen said...

rwe,

re: react

You have at once captured both the problems and the cause: reaction.

Instead of us riding the horse, the horse is carrying us.

Battlefields are shaped and so must be politics.

While now to late to impose a constitution of our liking on the whole of Iraq, Kurdistan continues to beckon as a bastion of "sanity". Why not settle in there and inexorably expand the base. This will terribly disappoint the Shi'a (already putting pressure on the Kurds for petro-rights), and the Turks and Iranians (both of whom have massed armies at the borders, waiting and lustfully hoping for some provocation).

8/23/2006 11:10:00 AM  
Blogger PeterBoston said...

rwe

I guess the felons released from Saddam's prisons would fit the last category.

Apparently a plan not publicy released which does not perfectly predict the future and have a counterstroke that precisely thwarts the enemy at every turn is not a Plan at all.

8/23/2006 11:12:00 AM  
Blogger buddy larsen said...

Tha's right, PB. "I don't know the plan, so I can safely accuse the admin of not having one." I can hear it coming around the November mountain, "Blah blah misled us into war, blah blah go it alone, blah blah Tora Bora, blah blah no plan to win the peace". Three Stooge Political critique, utterly disregarding the enemy's continually evolving way of fighting.

8/23/2006 11:25:00 AM  
Blogger Ash said...

I ran across this in the Asia Times:

"Details of Iran's 23-page written response have not been released, but they crucially are expected to confirm that Iran is not prepared to suspend uranium-enrichment activities without comprehensive security guarantees, especially from the US, in return.

The US has never been prepared to give such guarantees, and thus ends what appeared on the surface to be a genuine multilateral initiative for negotiations with Iran on the terms under which it would give up its nuclear program."

http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Middle_East/HH24Ak01.html

If I were Iran and there were no security guarantees then I sure would like a nuke to help ward off attack. What is the problem with giving them security guarantees?

8/23/2006 11:37:00 AM  
Blogger allen said...

too late

8/23/2006 11:44:00 AM  
Blogger buddy larsen said...

Dunno, Ash--haven't read the 23 page document. But, really, you don't think this country will snap at the first glimmer that they'll drop the nuke program?

8/23/2006 11:45:00 AM  
Blogger luc said...

Buddy Larsen said.. 8/23/2006 10:55:50 AM.
bobbal, I think he meant "one idiot's comment is another man's mystery".

With all the respect due to others who post here, I doubt anyone approaches the wit of Buddy Larsen’s commenmts. Keep them coming!

8/23/2006 11:46:00 AM  
Blogger Radcliffe said...

Wretchard,

I'm sure you've heard of the captured Fox journalists. Do you think in any way terrorist attacks or kidnappings of journalists, which make news orgs more relcutant to travel in certain areas of Gaza, Baghdad, Lebanon, etc. are part of a plan to push the relatively objective Western press from the battlefield? Of course they know press coverage would then be conducted at arms-length: reliance on sources, stringers (Adnan Hajj comes to mind) or propaganda organs like al Manar and so on?

Could you elaborate on how the absense of the Western press changes the media battlescape?

8/23/2006 11:47:00 AM  
Blogger Teresita said...

This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.

8/23/2006 11:51:00 AM  
Blogger Teresita said...

This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.

8/23/2006 11:57:00 AM  
Blogger buddy larsen said...

luc, thanks--I just pick on Doug because 1) he doesn't mind, and 2) he deserves it.

8/23/2006 12:00:00 PM  
Blogger Annoy Mouse said...

A man who has threatened to kill me may demand security guarantees, but I would offer him none. If he were to bear arms due to the intransigence of my position then I would see to it that he never had the opportunity to use said arms.

I think it reasonable to assume that Iran, flush with oil money and a successful succession of mullah after mullah, has thought long and hard about its stated goal of bringing “Death to America”. They have had 20 years to evolve their doctrine, to apply it to its corp and to develop it covertly in its inexhaustible foreign services. Any man willing to accept the worse will exploit the best of possibilities. I wouldn’t tread lightly with Iran, I would instead, tread most heavily.

8/23/2006 12:02:00 PM  
Blogger allen said...

The Plan

In neither war nor politics do reactionaries win, plan or no plan.

When the Kerensky government had arrested Lenin, Trotsky, and many others within the Bolshevik leadership, instead of standing them against a wall, they suffered humanitarian analysis paralysis.

When the Bolsheviks came to power, they did not reciprocate. They had a plan.

“A good plan violently executed now is better than a perfect plan executed next week.”
George S. Patton

“If everyone is thinking alike, then somebody isn't thinking.”
George S. Patton

8/23/2006 12:03:00 PM  
Blogger RWE said...

Well, Allen, you have a point there. It is always preferable to be following a nice preplanned sequence of events rather than reacting to what others do. Desert Storm taught the world the value of operating inside the enemy's decision loop. Hurricane Katrina should have taught us the value of operating inside your incompetant "friend's" decision loop.

But the actions required to do thusly in Iraq would have been condemmed as inhuman. For example - Locking up the whole of the Iraqi Army and everyone else who looked like trouble is what I would have done - but if people are going to wail over locking up a fraction of a percent of that many people in Gitmo imagine what response that would have drawn.

That situation is true with every decision point we faced. It was not simply about decisions, but about choices - and we usually tried to pick the "nice" one relative to other people's viewpoint.

Peterboston: yes, I think you are right - and that is why "all of the above" probably applies

By the way, anyone else think that Teresita looks like Xena?

8/23/2006 12:04:00 PM  
Blogger Teresita said...

This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.

8/23/2006 12:08:00 PM  
Blogger Ash said...

annoy mouse, your response is basically what that article in the Asia Times alleges; the Bush admin. is just playing at negotiating and it simply wants to go to war.

8/23/2006 12:15:00 PM  
Blogger Doug said...

Bobal, re:
" Doug--but the 'better woman' just never seems to come along--what do I do now?"

How quickly you forget:
re: #9650
"Like a really beautiful woman. Man!!
I remember sweating my ass off four times a day on the old "6602
."

8/23/2006 12:18:00 PM  
Blogger luc said...

Buddy Larsen said... 8/23/2006 12:00:05 PM
luc, thanks--I just pick on Doug because 1) he doesn't mind, and 2) he deserves it.

I am not going to answer your post as I am afraid of exceeding the two post/thread limit as some very modest and totally self-effacing posters do. Before you ask me for an example of a post from a very modest and totally self-effacing person, I will suggest the following:

“Call it wishful thinking on my part, call it a belief in cycles, or call it prescience, or call it an astute sense of which way the winds are changing.”

Now that is what I call lack of self-confidence ;)

8/23/2006 12:19:00 PM  
Blogger buddy larsen said...

teresita, whaddaya mean "again"?

habu, agreed, and furthermore even if squatting in the desert *was* all the MNF was doing, that would still be something. The presence and potential of a garrison is something in its own right.

8/23/2006 12:21:00 PM  
Blogger Doug said...

I think Osama Obama is vastly over-rated:
Will white guilt give him a pass?

8/23/2006 12:26:00 PM  
Blogger buddy larsen said...

Ash, re "the Bush admin. is just playing at negotiating" -- what in your mind is "real" negotiating?

Oh, let me guess: since whomever is against the USA is always right, then "real" negotiating must mean "USA surrenders".

Right?

8/23/2006 12:34:00 PM  
Blogger Annoy Mouse said...

I find it difficult to believe that the administration “simply wants to go to war”. On one hand they’d be pilloried for not negotiating in the international arena and on the other, they are accused of “just playing at negotiating”. You can be credited with being consistent with your ideological positions Ash. It sound like a damned if you don’t, damned if you do proposition as always. This is where ideology becomes nettlesome because there is only strife and never the possibility of a mediated outcome, just bad verses bad.

My personal thoughts on Iran are that war with Iran would be horrible and an almost certain harbinger of WWIV. My personal thoughts continued, is that with enemies of humanity like you in the world, Ash, that WWIV is as inevitable as your weather beaten rejoinders.

Until then, “walk softly and carry a big stick”.

8/23/2006 12:36:00 PM  
Blogger RWE said...

Habu 3: VERY Difficult to convey Sarcasm via this medium, which is what I am almost sure that "Xena" was intending.

The other day on another blog I said that the French bail out from the force going into Lebanon certainly would result in Kerry ceasing to complain about the Bush Admin failure to involve the French in peacekeeping efforts. One of the other guys said I was crazy. He did not get the sarcasm, either.

Any chance of getting Sonia and Teresita to do a Belmont Club calendar? Doug would buy a copy.

8/23/2006 12:40:00 PM  
Blogger Deuce ☂ said...

This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.

8/23/2006 12:41:00 PM  
Blogger Deuce ☂ said...

This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.

8/23/2006 12:44:00 PM  
Blogger Ash said...

Buddy, Annoy Mouse, I am not necessarily supporting the Asia Times position that Bush and crew want to go to war with Iran but I am curious as to what the problems with the US offering Iran security guarantees. The Asia Times article may be wrong in that security guarantees have indeed been offerred. My understanding is that they haven't been and, again, why not? Annoy mouse, your response was
"A man who has threatened to kill me may demand security guarantees, but I would offer him none. If he were to bear arms due to the intransigence of my position then I would see to it that he never had the opportunity to use said arms."

which is basically, "nope, no security guarantee, time for war".

Why not skip the war part and tell them we won't invade in return they halt nuke development (paraphrasing more detailed language).

8/23/2006 12:45:00 PM  
Blogger buddy larsen said...

Ash, what do you think "I will not allow Iran to have nuclear weapons" means?

8/23/2006 12:55:00 PM  
Blogger Deuce ☂ said...

Interesting quote from a current Guardian article:

..."The fighting in Lebanon opened sharp divisions between Syria and other Arab countries, some of which blamed Damascus for fuelling the crisis with its support for Hizbullah. Mr Assad, in turn, criticised Middle East leaders as "half men" in a speech last week, sparking an angry response in state-run media in Egypt, Jordan and Saudi Arabia.

One of the harshest criticisms of Mr Assad came in an editorial in the Egyptian paper al-Gomhuria. "Your brave army has a record in killing Lebanese," the editorial said, addressing Mr Assad."...

Now there is something to contemplate.

8/23/2006 12:55:00 PM  
Blogger Dan said...

"Why not skip the war part and tell them we won't invade in return they halt nuke development (paraphrasing more detailed language)."

If you're going to guarantee something, that means GUARANTEE. So let's say the US agrees to this arrangement. Then some members of the Iranian Revolutionary guard board an American cruise liner and shoot everybody on board in the head.

You're president. What do you do? Attack? Can't. You gave a GUARANTEE. Do you break your word or allow the atrocity to stand?

The real question should be: why should the US allow itself to be set up like that? Better to just let the Iranians worry about what we might do.

8/23/2006 12:55:00 PM  
Blogger Annoy Mouse said...

Ash, honestly, if it is as simple as that, I would be all for it. But I honestly don’t believe that the mullahs have the least fear that we’d invade them. Not with the poison pill that they’d conjure up. The argument is a straw man at best. Should we be content that though they open each parliamentary session with chants to “death to America!” that we can take solace in their heart felt assurances that they do not seek weapons of mass destruction? I lament proliferation to the point where Pakistan and India possess such terrible powers, but, that said, they have not proven to be such a destabilizing power as Iran has. And, are you to say that since the U.S., who has not used nuclear weapons for over sixty years, has these weapons, that the world would be a safer place if everyone had them? I suspect that you and Madeleine Albright would agree on such matters. The United States earned the right to nuclear weapons because we invented them in the pursuit of world peace. Can Iran say as much?

8/23/2006 12:57:00 PM  
Blogger allen said...

teresita,

No, I meant the Shi'a. Iran has much more in mind than nuclear deterrence. There is an empire to build.

8/23/2006 01:01:00 PM  
Blogger Deuce ☂ said...

This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.

8/23/2006 01:06:00 PM  
Blogger Ash said...

buddy, what is the problem with fulfilling the promise without going to war?

8/23/2006 01:09:00 PM  
Blogger buddy larsen said...

Ash, dammit, that question is in my native language but i can't figure out whut it means--

8/23/2006 01:11:00 PM  
Blogger Ash said...

I guess I could say the same about your question but I lack you wit. You asked:

Buddy Larsen said...

Ash, what do you think "I will not allow Iran to have nuclear weapons" means?

To which I reply that there a negotiated settlement, as in offering security guarantees, is a possible method of fulfilling that promise (no nukes) short of going to war.

8/23/2006 01:15:00 PM  
Blogger Annoy Mouse said...

nationalreview.com has an article by Bill Roggio.

8/23/2006 01:15:00 PM  
Blogger allen said...

Persistence

Since 1979, the Iranians have been intransigently persistent.

Can Iranian intransigence be punished from the air? Certainly

Will it prevent Iran from going nuclear? No

The Iranians may be slowed, but absent a LARGE-scale conventional war of deracination or an unconventional one of annihilation, the Iranians will persistently return to the drawing board.

Barring some impossible to ignore affront, Iran will go unmolested and will do what it has been successfully doing: consolidating power. Since the Iranians are not given to overtly irrational tactics, it is unlikely that Iran will provide the necessary pretext to war.

Immediately after the mid-term elections, the administration should consider breaking the news to the American public that Iran is or soon will be an untouchable nuclear power. The administration has to hope that Iran does not break the news before Election Day.

Mr. Burns’ statement yesterday of Iranian good conduct is probably the trend.

8/23/2006 01:17:00 PM  
Blogger Annoy Mouse said...

The issue, Ash, is what are we willing to negotiate away to the mullahs in order to guarantee that they do not pursue nuclear weapons. A sticking point, nuclear fuel cycle, it is rather ambitious for a country without a nuclear generating capacity to worry about such things, particularly with Russia offering to co-generate fuel. It is a transparent ruse playing on the ignorance of Middle Eastern pride that the Iranians need such things. It is also a vital component to nuclear weapon production and therefore something that the ambitious Iranians will not consider to drop. The mullahs have said point blank, “it is a non-negotiable right” to refine uranium. What more could diplomacy hope to achieve? I hope, for the sake of the world, that we can find allies in the cause of world peace and apply effective sanctions to cool Iran’s jets. Seems that the Chinese will then have an opportunity to violate it visa vie the Oil for Food method. It is not war mongering that “it is a non-negotiable right” to protect the earth whether you’re on the bus or not.

8/23/2006 01:28:00 PM  
Blogger Doug said...

Habu,
The American Motors Gremlin
Was an American Classic.

8/23/2006 01:29:00 PM  
Blogger buddy larsen said...

Ash, if you're talking about a REAL peace treaty, "real" in all respects, then that would be infinitely preferable to war.

But, really aren't we obfuscating here, with an endless discussion of the most obvious point?

8/23/2006 01:29:00 PM  
Blogger Doug said...

Larsen:
A question comes to mind:
Why?
Is an Ash unanswered dangerous?
Can it.

8/23/2006 01:34:00 PM  
Blogger buddy larsen said...

Jawohl, Herr Sturmbahnfeuhrer!

8/23/2006 01:43:00 PM  
Blogger Doug said...

Jawohl, Herr Studebaker!

8/23/2006 01:46:00 PM  
Blogger Deuce ☂ said...

If the Iranians think about it, they are putting themselves into a very precarious position. It is unlikely that the US will use nuclear weapons on a non-nuclear power without extreme provocation. That becomes far more likely if the US is severely provoked by a nuclear power. The targetting becomes more interesting because a pre-emptive strike against a nuclear power must be all encompassing. No hesitation can be given to any target that can possibly be hiding a nuclear repsonse. All communications, military, transportation and commerce sites become simultaneous targets. Since the Iranians are not seemingly thinking about it, why not start a campaign of information to explain to the Iranian people what may be the end of their future?

8/23/2006 01:47:00 PM  
Blogger Doug said...

Too bad they didn't have a Pinto Gastank:
That truncated trunk could belch fire like and Atlas for added effect.
I left my Ass,
In San Francisco...

8/23/2006 01:53:00 PM  
Blogger Deuce ☂ said...

Habu , i never had you figured for a Pacer X kinda guy. You really are a company man.

8/23/2006 01:54:00 PM  
Blogger allen said...

habu_3,

re: Salamis

Yes, indeed, those were the days. Thousands of floundering Muslims were harpooned, speared, stabbed, beaten with oars or whatever came to hand. None that came in reach were shown mercy. None were pulled from the water.

Is there the slightest chance that such a battle would be waged today, live and in color?

As to MAD, why would the Iranians, the Russians, or the Chinese find this wanting? MAD would hobble the optons of the US to the benefit of the usual suspects.

Habu, I am ALL for taking out Iran permanently, by whatever means necessary. But with respect, Mr. Burns is the spokesman for the administration. There will be no Salamis.

8/23/2006 01:56:00 PM  
Blogger Doug said...

Habu: Until you've seen the proof to the Poincare conjecture, you ain't seen nuthin!
---
The Poincare conjecture says that in three dimensions you cannot transform a doughnut shape into a sphere without ripping it, although any shape without a hole can be stretched or shrunk into a sphere.
---
Russian solves historic math problem, shuns prize.

8/23/2006 02:03:00 PM  
Blogger buddy larsen said...

Don't forget Lepanto--another great world-turning naval battle that ended with rampant, attacking muzzies in the drink.

Ah, yes, the Clavian Chronicles, love the postal poets!

Serious note, whazzis all about?

8/23/2006 02:05:00 PM  
Blogger Deuce ☂ said...

"As to MAD, why would the Iranians, the Russians, or the Chinese find this wanting? MAD would hobble the optons of the US to the benefit of the usual suspects.:

You cannot place the Iranians, Russians and Chinese in the same category. The Russians and Chinese know the code. They are rational competitors and potential adversaries. Iran may be rational, but that remains to be seen and they will be watched with a hair trigger.

8/23/2006 02:06:00 PM  
Blogger Doug said...

Allen:
Letter from across DeNile:
Iran will be the exception to prove the rule that threats unaddressed always come back to haunt you.
Mr. Burns told me.

8/23/2006 02:07:00 PM  
Blogger Doug said...

Buddy,
Has anyone explained why a homeland security agent got a free Luxury ride from Thailand w/Mr. Karr?

8/23/2006 02:10:00 PM  
Blogger buddy larsen said...

doug, I've been nauseated since the Grace Commission Report.

8/23/2006 02:15:00 PM  
Blogger Deuce ☂ said...

The battle of Salamis was 1000 years before there were any Muslims.

8/23/2006 02:16:00 PM  
Blogger buddy larsen said...

Okay, then, "invaders from the Orient". I had an occident of terminology.

8/23/2006 02:20:00 PM  
Blogger RWE said...

There is a parked AMC Gremlin I pass on my way to work.

It's sitting at an indoor gunnery range. I suspect its future is as a target.

On my last trip to the Bay area I rented a Chevy Metro. A 3 Cylinder model. That is, an intentionally 3 cylinder model. We had a major earthquake and then right after that the stupid aluminum ignition key for the thing broke in half. Talk about bad timing....

Anyway, 2164, how MAD applies to Iran is a topic I have been discussing with Marc Shulman over at AmericanFuture. We both bought copies of the famous Herman Kahn book to peruse it for that purpose. No conclusions yet; as you say, Herman Kahn's work assumes that the antagonists are rational actors.

8/23/2006 02:23:00 PM  
Blogger Teresita said...

This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.

8/23/2006 02:23:00 PM  
Blogger Teresita said...

This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.

8/23/2006 02:34:00 PM  
Blogger Deuce ☂ said...

The Islamic Iranian view is a parallax view. They see the American situation in Iraq as demonstrating American limits and one one of over-extension. They know that the internal American politics favor them. The recent war games in Iran showed thousands of jihadis on motorized dirt bikes in pair with the passenger armed with an AK-47. An army of one. The Iranians would interpret a conventional US air attack as a sign of weakness, an unwillingness to use nuclear weapons. They would see it as they saw Clinton firing volleys of cruise missiles plus.

The US should promise Iran that there will be no conventional air assault on Iran. The active word is conventional.

8/23/2006 02:48:00 PM  
Blogger RWE said...

Teresita:
True; our fear of the use of nukes that comes from the "crime" we perpetrated at Hiroshima and Nagasaki is a major weapon in the Iranian arsenal. When the tanker Exxon Valdez ran aground a U.S. Federal judge described it as "a crime equal to the bombing of Hiroshima."

You probably missed Wretchrad's moving description of the wholesale slaughter of civilians that the Japanese were responsible for in Manila. His aunt and her children barely escaped with her life. Just as many died there as did at Hiroshima - and without any reason - but no candleight vigils are held for them.

Of course another aspect of MAD is brinkmanship - make the other guy think you are crazy and he will give in. The Iranians are well along in that game - except that maybe for them it is not a game.

8/23/2006 02:52:00 PM  
Blogger buddy larsen said...

Keister Bunny!

8/23/2006 03:15:00 PM  
Blogger buddy larsen said...

They were Zoroastrians. Saddam used to refer to even the modern-day Iranians as "fire-eaters", a derisive term for Zoroastrians.

8/23/2006 03:23:00 PM  
Blogger allen said...

habu_3,

Sorry, I was on my way out. Of course, I was referring to Lepanto.

8/23/2006 03:28:00 PM  
Blogger Teresita said...

This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.

8/23/2006 03:31:00 PM  
Blogger allen said...

To all who have taken the time to comment on Salamis-Lepanto, see my 3:28 PM to habu_.

In haste, energized by enthusiasm for the subject of killing Persians/Muslims/neo-Persians, I erred. Sorry to all.

8/23/2006 03:36:00 PM  
Blogger allen said...

2164th; 2:06 PM

re: Iranian "hair trigger"

What have the Iranians done since 1979 that would lead you question their rational use of a nuclear deterrent?

Have you ever wondered why Hirohito and Tojo did not commit suicide?

8/23/2006 03:42:00 PM  
Blogger allen said...

teresita; 2:23 PM

re: couple .50 cal mounts

Quad-fifties are so much more entertaining - light, fury, and the wrath of G-d.

8/23/2006 03:47:00 PM  
Blogger allen said...

teresita,

re: "That happens a lot when you get revivalist nutters"

Care to elucidate?

8/23/2006 03:58:00 PM  
Blogger Doug said...

"In the Footsteps of Bin Laden,"

Peter Bergen
---
Peter Bergen says this is great, despite having to suffer throught Christiane

8/23/2006 04:19:00 PM  
Blogger Doug said...

BLOG SWEEPS WEEK HAS BEEN EXTENDED TO RUN ALL YEAR: Pamela Atlas is bikini-videoblogging from the beach.
- Reynolds

8/23/2006 04:24:00 PM  
Blogger Deuce ☂ said...

I think Iranians are good chess players. To date their rhetoric exceeds their actions. There is no significance to their actions since 1979, because they have not been a significant power since 1979. Israel, by not destroying the Iranian Proxy and the US activities in Iraq have bolstered the Iranian ascendancy. Bad decisions in Israel and Washington have helped the Iranians. The Iranians had cause to be concerned with the Taliban and Saddam Hussein. We solved that problem for them. Iran wishes to be a nuclear power because they believe the US will not attack a nuclear power. The US can afford to make a simple statement of policy that may give Iran pause.

The US could declare that it will never use nuclear weapons on a non-nuclear state.

8/23/2006 04:27:00 PM  
Blogger Annoy Mouse said...

The world went into spasms over the fallout from Chernobyl. Care to venture what the reaction there will be when one of our conventional bunker busters augures through several tons of uranium? How ya like them nukes?

So weather Shamal’s or Sirocco’s there are going to be a lot of pissed off people and for a good reason, thus sayeth Zarathustra.

Here are the countries that border Iran:
Turkey
Azerbaijan
Armenia
Turkmenistan
Afghanistan
Pakistan
Iraq
And across the gulf;
Saudi Arabia
Oman
United Arab Emirates
Qatar

And for a reference, the sand storms of the Sahara are known for causing haze in the Caribbean. The weather and atmosphere are amongst the few true global things in the world.

8/23/2006 04:29:00 PM  
Blogger desert rat said...

Osama is a focal point, but not the entire picture. Whether he and Dr Z are in Pakistan or not, aQ and Taliban bases are, without question.

If Osama and his cadre have been in Iran, under the Bush Doctrine articulated in 2002, we have another "Just Cause" to be at War with Iran.

But we are not.

Travel restrictions on President Abracadabra and the Mullahs may or may not be in the works, depending of course, on Mr Putin's soulful eyes.
Travel and Banking restrictions are proposed. The named Iranians will not be able to vist Europe or US, or use their ATM cards while not there.

8/23/2006 04:45:00 PM  
Blogger Annoy Mouse said...

Teresita,
“Fortunately precision weapons make a repeat largely unthinkable now.”

Ever since the Rodney King debacle it has been absolutely clear to me that you can’t do anything newsworthy anymore that will not broadcast at eleven. If it is particularly gruesome and incriminating, it will be played over and over. The thought of machine gunning helpless Jihadi’s, though appealing, will be over shadowed by Ash and his acolytes accusing the U.S. of the wanton murder of children.

That is why tyrannies have such a tactical advantage. No bad press, or as Stalin was won to state; “no man no problem”. Democracy will have its work cut out to survive those who take great satisfaction with the downfall of their least favorite domestic leaders. The enemy of my enemy is my friend. The enemy of those who protect me, friend or not, are my enemy.

8/23/2006 04:53:00 PM  
Blogger PeterBoston said...

I'm sure the Iranians would like to have OBL. He would be an excellent bargaining chip for some back channel shennanigans somewhere along the line. Curious it is that they had one of his jihadi sons.

8/23/2006 04:54:00 PM  
Blogger Annoy Mouse said...

Alright Rat,
The Bush doctrine is so much hooey. More bravado and machismo than doctrine. “You are either against the terrorists or you are with the terrorists” is an over-reaching concept and, frankly, I’ve never felt quite comfortable with the “pre-emption” theory being articulated, though understand that it must be applied in cases of high risk to probably ratios.

As far as the Euros caving in, well maybe. Just recently in Spain a jet emptied out until two suspicious looking Muslims were removed from the flight. It seems a flight of Europeans didn’t care as much about multicultural tolerance as they did their lives.

Hope abounds.

8/23/2006 05:01:00 PM  
Blogger desert rat said...

I think he's still in Warizistan, but that's but a guess based on his kidney problems.

He could be in Somalia or anywhere, really. Could well be dead, but for those occasional CIA authenticated audio tapes.

The virus has spread throughout Europe, regardless. The contagion was allowed respite and morphed into the next version of mayhem.
The train bombings, Mohammed cartoons and the Francofada just a taste of things to come.

8/23/2006 05:04:00 PM  
Blogger RWE said...

teresita:
The Crime would have been not using the bomb. The realistic alternative to the 509th Boimb Group attacks was not an invasion but a complete naval blockade, destructiuon of Japan's highly vulnerable and almost untouched rail network (one rail line connecting the southern end of the country with the central area, and virtually no road network for backup), and an accelerated conventional bombing campaign.

Gen Lemay not only had 1500 B-29's in the Marianas but was bringing in the 8th and 15th Air Forces from Europe. His 20th Air Force would have those 5000 B17's and B-24's in addition to the B-29's and there would be medium bombers and fighter bombers in other commands as well as the USN carrier forces.

Unlike the nuclear attacks, the blockade and comventional bombing
attacks would have been "boiling the frog slowly." They would not have provided the kind of shock required for the fanatical leadership to finally realize the necessity of surrender. When the B-29's first hit Japan the leaders reasoned that it was an enormously costly activity and even the U.S. could not keep it up. They would wait us out.

Prior to WWII Japan's experts assessed the possibility of the U.S. building nuclear weapons. Their conclusion was such a development was at least 100 years off. The nuclear attacks showed them just how far ahead of them the U.S was. It was a horrible shock. Their physicists broke down in tears when they read the air dropped letter from the Manhatten Project staff.

Without the atomic attacks the civilian deaths from bombing, and especially, starvation, would have numbered into the millions. The country would have never recovered from that.

And with that, tomorrow I have another long day of analyzing rocket trajectories - so g'night, all.

8/23/2006 05:07:00 PM  
Blogger desert rat said...

Nanking, habu, one of the blights of the modern world.

Practicing sword strikes on live targets. Beheading and delimbing human targets by the tens of thousands.

All told, 400,000 killed in four months.

8/23/2006 05:10:00 PM  
Blogger Annoy Mouse said...

Self organized cell structures are completely immune to fixation and attribution. The only certainty is that they will eventually rally around a terror outpost called a mosque. Militant Islam in the West is the exact opposite of vigilantism and the connotations of that word give you an idea how likely it will be raised to meets its opponent. Socialists and fascists are delighted that at last, we need a totalitarian government to ensure safety for the masses. Please send more money, oh, and off the record, thanks Osama, we couldn’t do it without you.

8/23/2006 05:13:00 PM  
Blogger just a marine said...

What a blog about all is that is it can be important to us.

I learn more here than in the "other alternatives"

Thanks.

Here are more thoughts presented in a USMC 5 paragraph order format because it is simple enough. And it may contribute to the discusion of values.

Situation:
1. The US is under attack by well motivated and financed Islamic extremists.
2. The western world and culture is also under attack by these same people.
3. The main motivation is religious domination by the elite leaders.
4. In the history of mankind, the Arab/Muslim model is a failure to its citizens. This is by any measurement, to include the UN. http://www.meforum.org/article/513
5. The main financing of this war is oil money.
6. Many allies see it differently, probably from their national interest point of view.

Mission:
1. Defend our US way of life.
2. Attack this very very small minority by all military, legal, financial, and political means.
3. Advance western concepts in the Arab nations community with money, information, and women’s rights.
4. Let the Arab nations write their own future ticket.
Execution:
1. Prosecute the world war on terror from the US national interest. This means preventing attacks on our homeland, and preventing US civilian casualties.
2. Attack the bases of terror. These bases are geographical and financial, primarily.
3. Know the middle east war between the Israeli’s and the surrounding arab nations is a small war, not the world war.
4. Blur the distinction between criminals, tribal leaders, quasi nation state leaders, and nation state leaders in killing those who seek our demise. National interests will almost always ignore these despots since most are about their territory and egos, and not us. This paragraph is about those who can hurt us.
5. In the best American way of making war, we are going to treat third world allies as equals, which of course they are not. They grew up their own way.

Administration:
1. Proceed as a military point of view.
2. Assume a US national approach.
3. Avoid a world/European/UN approach.
4. Assume no funding from allies.
5. Carefully try to force the State Department and the Defense Department to work together. Good luck.
Tie goes to the Defense Department based on results. If the history types (like me) want to read, get the Small Wars Manual by the USMC about 1940. It pretty well covers the friction between the State Department and the Marines, in the small wars arena over decades. Or read some of Paul Bremmer’s reviews of his work on his watch.

Communication:
1. Assume US secure communications at the local and tactical level.
2. Assume US secure communications at the Iraq to DC level.
3. Assume the other side knows anything else we are plotting and planning.

8/23/2006 05:26:00 PM  
Blogger Annoy Mouse said...

At the risk of sounding like the over protective male trying to protect the damsel in distress, are some of you guys being a little harsh on Teresita? I, for the life of me, can’t make out the dispersions that are attributed to her. Vaporizing 150k people is a misdemeanor? Perhaps not a misdeed, but killing innocents isn’t something I’d be proud of. I’d tilt my head, say it was a shame, then vow that I’d do it again if pressed. ‘sides, she holds her own.

8/23/2006 05:30:00 PM  
Blogger Db2m said...

Teresita is a Taoist Deist, according to her profile.

Teresita will be back, just like Ash.

If this remark upsets you...what, you don't care too much for Ash?

8/23/2006 05:52:00 PM  
Blogger Annoy Mouse said...

Fair enough Habu, it is just this notion I got reading the thread. If there is some running hostility then perhaps tomorrow, we at the Club can start a new day. I have been guilty of laying into Ash who, once upon a time was laughably absurd, believe it or not. I almost complimented him a few months ago for actually trying to employ logic but his subsequent rebuttals stayed my hand.

For your information I am a little older than you think and am not naïve in the manner you have ascribed. I just like to see our club get along when there is much to get along about. My read on Teresita is that she is a hawk. That aint a bad starting place.

8/23/2006 06:04:00 PM  
Blogger Teresita said...

This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.

8/23/2006 06:04:00 PM  
Blogger Db2m said...

John the Baptist baptized by immersion and proclaimed of Christ, "Behold the Lamb of God which taketh away the sin of the world."

Much like those revivalist nutter Southern Baptists, God bless 'em.

8/23/2006 06:11:00 PM  
Blogger Db2m said...

You old BC guys have been blogging too much. Teri has done gone and twitterpated the lot o' ye.

8/23/2006 06:19:00 PM  
Blogger Deuce ☂ said...

DR,
How is it going with the return of your son from Iraq? What does he say about the view from a returning GI?

8/23/2006 06:20:00 PM  
Blogger Annoy Mouse said...

Pete: Well I'll be a sonofabitch. Delmar's been saved.

Delmar: Well that's it, boys. I've been redeemed. The preacher's done warshed away all my sins and transgressions. It's the straight and narrow from here on out, and heaven everlasting's my reward.

Everett: Delmar, what are you talking about? We've got bigger fish to fry.

Delmar: The preacher says all my sins is warshed away, including that Piggly Wiggly I knocked over in Yazoo.

Everett: I thought you said you was innocent of those charges?

Delmar: Well I was lyin'. And the preacher says that that sin's been warshed away too. Neither God nor man's got nothin' on me now. C'mon in boys, the water is fine.

8/23/2006 06:27:00 PM  
Blogger allen said...

OBL

A megalomaniac, charismatic, propagandistic, international cultist has stayed away from the camera for how many years?

Mark Steyn declared him dead in 2001 - good bet, that.

8/23/2006 06:28:00 PM  
Blogger Teresita said...

This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.

8/23/2006 06:29:00 PM  
Blogger Deuce ☂ said...

Speaking of human time lines.....am I unique in despising the use of "common era"? The PC way of disposing of BC and AD.

8/23/2006 06:30:00 PM  
Blogger Deuce ☂ said...

teresita, where do you get this stuff?

" So the real reason for Truman's decision to drop the big one was to keep Japan whole, democratic, and solely an American aircraft carrier anchored permanently in East Asia."

8/23/2006 06:33:00 PM  
Blogger sam said...

Yes, bring back BC and AD. There's something to be said for nostalgia. I have my cell ring set to regular ol' telephone ring.

8/23/2006 06:38:00 PM  
Blogger sam said...

OT - New Moonship Name

8/23/2006 06:46:00 PM  
Blogger Annoy Mouse said...

Habu,
no worries. just a passing observation. the day everyone goes peace love nuts and berries here is the day I start following the Koz kids.

Bob Al Harb,
a friend of mine was once asked if he lived in California all his life, to which he replied; "not yet".

8/23/2006 06:47:00 PM  
Blogger vnjagvet said...

I love the quote from Mattis:

"I said I am never going to leave. I told him I had found a little piece of property down on the Euphrates River and I was going to have a retirement home built there. I did that because I wanted to disabuse him of any sense that he could wait me out. ..."

You can feel the defiance. It reminds me of the emotion I used to feel when my dad gave me a swat after some misbehavior and I'd yell "that didn't hurt". It was really uplifting in a perverse way.

8/23/2006 06:53:00 PM  
Blogger Red River said...

" There's a pretty comprehensive USMC after action report of the Iran-Iraq war somehwere on the net. "

Studied it for weeks when I was in.

Iran used human wave attacks backed by artillery. That was it.

Nn 1988 Iraq shifted to Combined Arms Offensives, narrow fronts, and had realistic, but repetitious training, and they caused the Iranian Army to collapse following enveloping penetrations deep into Iran. The Iranians sued for peace.

This fab Army, called the Republican Guard, later took Kuwait and got its butt handed to it in Gulf War I.

The other war at that time was the War of the Cities where Iraq and Iran lobbed missiles at each other. This was the terrifying part for both sides.

Has Iran changed?

I doubt it. They can still lob missiles. And they can do the human wave thing. But Iran has enormous vulnerabilities to a Manueverist ground invader.

In the end, Iran holds the Gulf and Saudi oil pumping stations hostage with its missiles. That is its strategic weapon.

Every Gulf and Saud leader realizes that what occured across the Lebanese-Isreali border could occur across the Gulf of Arabia.

We would have to be able to shoot down most the missiles with a good degree of certainty. This is where the SM-3 Aegis system comes into play along with PAC-3 point defenses.

We cannot act until the correlation of forces favors the US and the Gulf States. Right now, we are adding 5 more SM-3 ships to the Aegis Fleet and PAC-3 missiles are being stockpiled. I think the mods will be done by December.

One could also expect experiemetal hyper-velocity AA missiles deployed on F22 or B2 aicraft which could hit boosting rockets from 10-20 mi away. Or airborne laser aircraft.

When it starts, and once Iran realizes its missiles cannot break through the Aegis shield in the Gulf and Israel, it may then target civilian targets in Iraq and Europe.

Iran may activate sleeper cells and Quds units around the world.

This may be the last straw for much of the west and we may see a counter-response involving violent civil disobedience.

8/23/2006 06:59:00 PM  
Blogger Jamie Irons said...

Up thread a bit, during the conversation about whether John the Baptist was a Baptist (ha ha) I was reminded of the following joke, sent me by one of my boys.

I hope no one takes offense -- being Jewish, we make fun of all religions.

;-)


I was walking across a bridge one day, and I saw a man standing on the edge, about to jump off. So I ran over and said "Stop! Don't do it!" "Why shouldn't I?" he said. "Well, there's so much to live for!" "Like what?" "Well... are you religious?" He said yes. I said, "Me too! Are you Christian or Buddhist?" "Christian." "Me too! Are you Catholic or Protestant ? "Protestant." "Me too! Are you Episcopalian or Baptist?" "Baptist" "Wow! Me too! Are you Baptist Church of God or Baptist Church of the Lord?" "Baptist Church of God!" "Me too! Are you original Baptist Church of God, or are you reformed Baptist Church of God?" "Reformed Baptist Church of God!" "Me too! Are you Reformed Baptist Church of God, reformation of 1879, or Reformed Baptist Church of God, reformation of 1915?" He said, "Reformed Baptist Church of God, reformation of 1915!"

I said, "Die, heretic scum", and pushed him off.


Jamie Irons

8/23/2006 07:00:00 PM  
Blogger Teresita said...

This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.

8/23/2006 07:02:00 PM  
Blogger allen said...

Winds of change has a worthy assessment of the performance of both the IDF and Hezbollah. By extension it may address potential scenarios in both Iraq and Iran.

A Military Assessment of the Lebanon Conflict
http://windsofchange.net/

8/23/2006 07:21:00 PM  
Blogger Teresita said...

This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.

8/23/2006 07:34:00 PM  
Blogger allen said...

teresita; 7:02 PM

re: Hurray for Hollywood!

Most excellent!

Do you remember...of course you don’t? There was a cartoon program, Clutch Cargo. The only thing that moved was the mouths of the characters. Your post brought back the simplicity and hilarity of those days. Thanks, I think!

8/23/2006 07:35:00 PM  
Blogger allen said...

teresita,

re: goat diaperers

Two for two!

Rufus and I had a disgustingly troubling exchange on this very subject. I was drunk; I'm not sure of his excuse.

Yeah, "She wore an..."

8/23/2006 07:42:00 PM  
Blogger Teresita said...

This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.

8/23/2006 07:43:00 PM  
Blogger Doug said...

Turn on sound prior to clicking.
Habu's Last Ride Across the Golden Gate

8/23/2006 08:10:00 PM  
Blogger allen said...

At the Pentagon today, a Brigader fessed up that Iran was the cause of great woe to the US and to the Iraqi government. Moreover, admitted he, the Iranians had been long-term abusers. In the audience must have been those thinking, “No shit, Sherlock!”

This may seem petty, but other than a couple lady colonels, has the Pentagon no baritone spokesman? Is there no flag officer available other than a verisimilitude of the Pillsbury Dough Boy?

8/23/2006 08:38:00 PM  
Blogger Doug said...

Let's not forget Weegee

8/23/2006 08:42:00 PM  
Blogger allen said...

teresita,

re: bombing Iran

Although inelegant compared to catorenasci, the idea of bombing Iran into submission is somewhat like a bar brawl where you punch the snout of a fellow without thought to the follow through. Very impolitic, wouldn’t you say? And sadly, nothing I am seeing leads me to conclude that an Iranian campaign is any better planned than that of Iraq. The US can ill afford another such victory.

8/23/2006 08:54:00 PM  
Blogger buddy larsen said...

Allen, yeh, that was Gen Barbero.

8/23/2006 08:58:00 PM  
Blogger allen said...

buddy larsen,

re: General Barbero

Indeed, it was and, not surprisingly, he is an "elite" commander. Does anyone these days not command or serve in an elite unit? It appears they all share the same publicist; probably some E-5 with a mimeograph machine, hidden in the bowels of the beast.

8/23/2006 09:22:00 PM  
Blogger Charles said...

Teresita wrote:

In two years Bush will be out
of office and Bush Derangement
Syndrome will be in remission
across the globe. Then people
will wake up and see how their
buddies the Islamists oppress
women and gays and gay women.
Then you will see proper
action.
/////////////////////////
I think this is incorrect. There will not be a return to the status quo ante when bush leaves office.

The reason I think this the case is that liberal protestantism which has been a major pillor of the left is going into steep decline.

None other than the Council of Foreign Relations has taken note of this large sea change in this article

God's Country?
Walter Russell Mead
From Foreign Affairs, September/October 2006



Summary: Religion has always been a major force in U.S. politics, but the recent surge in the number and the power of evangelicals is recasting the country's political scene -- with dramatic implications for foreign policy. This should not be cause for panic: evangelicals are passionately devoted to justice and improving the world, and eager to reach out across sectarian lines.

The rest of the article can be found here

8/23/2006 09:26:00 PM  
Blogger Jamie Irons said...

You know, I have to say, as a person who went to college with Bush, was wildly opposed to his election in 2000, voted for him in 2004, and has come away from his years in office with a mixture of deep respect for the man, and passionate exasperation with him in other respects, I just don't get why people on both sides of the political spectrum attribute such preternatural powers to him.

The world is the world. When Bush leaves office, it will still be the world. He has done some very good things, and made some mistakes.

We are very lucky to have had him rather than Albert Gore or J. F. Kerry as president.

End of story.

Jamie Irons

8/23/2006 09:35:00 PM  
Blogger buddy larsen said...

Liberal Protestantism left me for good with the Israel divestment movement. That's not how you treat your friends when they are in a fight for life.

8/23/2006 09:37:00 PM  
Blogger Doug said...

Buddy,
did you get that Presbyterian link to the "9-11 a govt conspiracy" to Ballard?

8/23/2006 09:39:00 PM  
Blogger allen said...

charles,

Indeed, and well done!

The advice given to Prime Minister Netanyahu at an ADL meeting in the late nineties: Look to the Evangelicals, they are our friends, proselytization notwithstanding.

8/23/2006 09:41:00 PM  
Blogger Doug said...

"According to the U.S. Army Reserve, approximately 14,000 soldiers on IRR status have been called to active duty since March 2003 and about 7,300 have been deployed to Iraq.

The Marine Corps has mobilized 4,717 Marines who were classified as inactive ready reserve since Sept. 11, and 1,094 have been deployed to Iraq, according to the Marine Forces Reserve."

8/23/2006 09:41:00 PM  
Blogger Jamie Irons said...

An elegant "experiment" (be sure to look at enlarged photo) which seems, in a single image -- elegantly -- to have solved a major cosmological conundrum.

Jamie Irons

8/23/2006 09:43:00 PM  
Blogger buddy larsen said...

Yet, no longer a Presbyterian, I'm not an evangelical, either. I guess I'm a Bullmoose.

Jamie, you're right--GWB is just an ordinary fella, lucky in birthright (in a way), and extraordinarily determined to pay back the good fortune. The other two, messrs Gore & Kerry, are dishonest men, and this flaw has marinated in a lifetime of DC heat and has ultimately made them into rather vile human beings.

8/23/2006 09:46:00 PM  
Blogger Doug said...

Israel Diary: 'To Be or Not to Be'

8/23/2006 09:47:00 PM  
Blogger buddy larsen said...

No, doug--missed it. Still got it?

8/23/2006 09:49:00 PM  
Blogger Deuce ☂ said...

Interesting read Charles. I am always amazed at the genuine heartfelt level of support that Evangelicals have for Israel. This same group is mostly held in contempt by liberal Jews. Some of the contempt is discreet but mostly and often would be considerd racist if against anyone other than white Evangelical Christians. Bush won 25% of the Jewish vote, or 75% of American Jews voted against the most pro-Israeli president ever. Go figure.

8/23/2006 09:51:00 PM  
Blogger Teresita said...

This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.

8/23/2006 09:52:00 PM  
Blogger Doug said...

The Presbyterians Did What?
Hugh Hewitt 7:05 AM
The Presbyterian Church, USA has a publishing house. That house has published a nutter conspiracy book about 9/11. Now the head of the publishing house wants to distance himself and the PCUSA from the book. From the Washington Times :

8/23/2006 09:56:00 PM  
Blogger allen said...

Fair or not, Captain Bush is the skipper of the Titanic, even according to first berth Republican guests.

To change the perception, change the perception.

The President could do much worse, and has, than having John Bolton as his spokesman.

8/23/2006 09:58:00 PM  
Blogger Deuce ☂ said...

CatoRenasci and I discussed this at the end of the last post.

2164th said...
Call up of Marine Reserves.

So it goes. A few in here, including myself had an eight year military obligation. It was a combination of active and inactive and was mandatory. The system was corrupt and unfair because of educational deferments; someone who wanted to be a plumber was not as worthy as the person that wanted to be a journalist. The system always favored the rich and connected over the working class schmeds, but it served a worthy purpose and if you did not get killed or maimed, it made you a better man.

It is time to bring back the draft, with a change or two:

1. It should apply to all MALES, nineteen or over. Cut the nonsense of woman in combat outfits. They are there because the military cannot get enough volunteer males and PC. They do not belong in combat units.

2. No deferments for anything, including homosexuality.

3. Let those that do not want to serve, pay $50,000 to take a pass. Use the money for sign up bonuses for volunteers. It would be real interesting to see how many of our elite masters take the $50,000 pass.

8/23/2006 05:34:28 AM



2164th said...
Prior to the use of social security numbers your GI Army Service Number was 8 digits and had one of the following prefixes: RA (Regular Army, volunteer enlisted), US (an enlisted draftee), NG (National Guard), ER (Enlisted Reserve), O (Officer).

It was a badge of honor with some on whether you were RA or US.

8/23/2006 05:40:08 AM


CatoRenasci said...
2164th: I just can't agree with you on a draft. While it might be necessary for a full scale WWII type effort world-wide, I think we are better off with professionals. I say this as a VMI man who's firm believer in the 'citizen-soldier' concept in which those who have a stake in society do their part (or, as in my case, did years ago) both on active service for a time (or in time of need) and as reserves. But, you can't make people have the motivation necessary to be part of an effective modern miltary force. The levee en masse which manned the vast armies from the Napoleonic period through WWII and the Cold War was, I believe, an anomaly to the general historical rule that warfare is best left to those thoroughly trained for it.

While we do need another dozen divisions or so, perhaps 20 additional air wings, and another 300 ships, we don't need the 10 million men (and women) under arms we did during World War II. And, the troops we need are not masses of infantry, armor and artillery to smash the enemies masses, but rather really well-trained and savvy professionals. The other think we need, and do not have at all, is some sort of intermediate force, between police and an army - some sort of constabulary arm with a policing approach to things, culturally aware and the like, with enough teeth for light infantry warfare, and able to call upon the professional warriors when things get tough. It was that combination of constabulary and military that the Brits used in Malaya so successfully.

8/23/2006 07:56:09 AM


2164th said...
CatoRenasci,

I am not so sure you should dismiss the draft on the grounds that what we have is much more professional. There are alot of slots filled by people that are of real dubious value. Single woman with children, pregnant woman, and a lot of men that look to get further assistance in occupational training. You may have enough that want to buy their way out and end with a mostly volunteer force anyway.

8/23/2006 08:08:53 AM


CatoRenasci said...
2164th: As a classical liberal, I am philosphically strongly opposed to conscription, although I recognize the need in absolute extremis. I don't think we're there yet. After all, England fought the Napoleonic wars without conscription - though the Navy used impressment.

Having served in a force with draftees as well as volunteers (many of whom were not true volunteers, but simply getting more choice as an alternative to being drafted), and with both professional and volunteer officers (some of whom were simply taking the commission rather than be enlisted draftees), there is a huge difference in motivation and professionalism between the true volunteer and the reluctant (often damned reluctant) draftee. I would not want to have a guy who was more concerned about how short he was than anything else in the foxhole next to me, walking point for my platoon, or working in my FDC.

On some level, I suppose I'm a purist who thinks a society that cannot motivate its citizens to want to defend it - a la the Roman Republic - does not deserve to survive, but I'm faced with the practical reality that we face a divided society.

I think perhaps my approach would be to institute universal military training in the public schools - some close order drill and something like junior ROTC - which everyone would have to take - pass fail, perhaps, but a requirement just like civics or American history. Give everyone a bit of a pep talk as it were. Then have incentives to encourge and reward service - education benefits akin to the old GI Bill perhaps, but don't require service.

8/23/2006 08:37:58 AM

8/23/2006 10:00:00 PM  
Blogger Teresita said...

This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.

8/23/2006 10:03:00 PM  
Blogger allen said...

teresita,

I did not make myself clear. When you punch a guy in the nose, he may have some plans of his own for follow through.

Since the Revolution, the Iranians have acted with persistent rationality. While standing ready to be corrected, I believe they have gamed this scenario during the past twenty-seven years of American inaction.

They have been running their roaches without serious interruption from the guards of civilization.

8/23/2006 10:04:00 PM  
Blogger Doug said...

I think it's the Credibility Gap.

8/23/2006 10:05:00 PM  
Blogger Doug said...

Allen,
I think intitially they were surprised by our inaction.
Now they plan on it.

8/23/2006 10:06:00 PM  
Blogger allen said...

teresita'

re: just grunts

Thank so very much! You have captured in an instant the very soul of the Pentagon. Trust me, some day soon the chickens are coming home to roost.

8/23/2006 10:08:00 PM  
Blogger Doug said...

From Tigerhawk NSA Comments, by annonymous:
To understand the decision, you need to understand Anna Diggs TAylor.
She is the former wife of a now deceased democrat congressman(Charles C. Diggs, jr) who was convicted of bribery(technically taking kickbacks) and whose father
(Charles C. Diggs, Sr.)was also a democrat congressman who was convicted of taking bribes.
She was appointed by Jimmy Carter.
Her illustrious resume includes trying to rig affirmative action cases by cherry picking judges(she was/is chief judge).
In short, she's just another corrupt leftist democrat who is carrying the ball for her party at the expense of the country as a whole.

8/23/2006 10:13:00 PM  
Blogger buddy larsen said...

And it's no accident that ACLU brought the case where it did. The plaintiffs were recruited and trained for the case.

8/23/2006 10:20:00 PM  
Blogger Jamie Irons said...

Teresita (09:52:20 PM),

I like that very much.

Yes.

And stay (at least for a while) with the Xena avatar. Very nice, indeed.

;-)


Jamie Irons

8/23/2006 10:24:00 PM  
Blogger allen said...

This site often bowls me over with what people know and don’t know. For those who continue to subscribe to the belief that all is well, may I suggest looking at any military medical corps. Specifically, review something easy, say, the manning table of the USAF Nurse Corps.

Being a nice guy, I will save you the trouble. As this is written, that corps is 16% understaffed. The civilian average is about 8%. In 2003 the USAF Nurse Corps was 4% undermanned. If you want to lose sleep, check out the other professions. If you want to be terrified, attend a hale and farewell ceremony, either Air Force or Army.

By the way, the total census of the USAF Nurse Corps is less than the compliment of seaman (officers and enlisted) aboard the USS Ronald Reagan.

If the President has any desire to change the perception of those serving under him, change the perception.

8/23/2006 10:28:00 PM  
Blogger buddy larsen said...

At least Clinton tried to hide his Manchurian Candidacy. Mr. Kerry just runs his right in our faces and defies us to believe our own eyes.

8/23/2006 10:42:00 PM  
Blogger allen said...

At this facility, about 80% of all non-specialized patient care is directed downtown to civilian care-givers. That 80% includes both active duty and their dependents. One hundred percent of all specialty care is so directed Why?

This clinic (downgraded four years ago from a full-service hospital) can muster militarily no more than three general medicine physicians, two NPs, and two PAs (on the very best day) to service a population of 26,000. There are seven active duty nurses spread over three squadrons.

Military people vote with there feet.

8/23/2006 10:47:00 PM  
Blogger Mad Fiddler said...

Good Point about fallout pissing off Iran’s neighbors, AnnoyMouse.

However, Conventional explosives could disperse the Iranian Uranium and whatever else they’ve got – there are lots of by-products, depending on the processes they’re using.

On the other hand, there are munitions (such as Wallis Barnes’ Tall Boy from WWII) that can penetrate deeply enough that the dispersion and fallout problems of an above-ground burst could be minimized. It should be possible to develop a weapon with a hardened penetration tip that would allow it to be accelerated even more than the bombs used to disable airfields.

More to the point, Iran’s neighbors might already have plenty to be concerned about, just considering the question of how Iran is handling its nuclear reactors, and the various radioactives that are inevitably produced. In any case, Chernobyl created a vast radioactive cloud because of a STEAM explosion from uncontrolled heating of the water in the cooling system, not from a nuclear detonation.

8/23/2006 10:47:00 PM  
Blogger Doug said...

Sowell's Column
It’s not exactly the feel good piece of the summer, but he understands what’s going on:

It is hard to think of a time when a nation -- and a whole civilization -- has drifted more futilely toward a bigger catastrophe than that looming over the United States and western civilization today.

Nuclear weapons in the hands of Iran and North Korea mean that it is only a matter of time before there are nuclear weapons in the hands of international terrorist organizations.

North Korea needs money and Iran has brazenly stated its aim as the destruction of Israel -- and both its actions and its rhetoric suggest aims that extend even beyond a second Holocaust.
Send not to know for whom the bell tolls.
It tolls for thee.
-Dean Barnett

8/23/2006 10:48:00 PM  
Blogger Doug said...

Actually, Fiddler, I think the ongoing release at Chernobyl was caused by the burning carbon piles in the destroyed reactor.

8/23/2006 10:50:00 PM  
Blogger allen said...

habu_3,

re: fons et origio

With the advent of Viagra, I hear that more often from the "Boss".

On an altogether serious note, the game is afoot and Holmes is missing.

8/23/2006 10:52:00 PM  
Blogger AspergersGentleman said...

re: Habu and charbroiling

Nuking Japan tamed and chanelled those brutal tendencies into the noble Kitchen Stadium while also allowing the Japanese to build a magnificent culture, ineluctably encountered in romantic tentacles, children murdering other children and the consistently voted best mid-sized car of its class, the Camry.

8/23/2006 10:58:00 PM  
Blogger Doug said...

Why Secretary Condoleezza Rice ought to suggest to Annan in the strongest possible terms that the next time he packs his bags, it should be not to tour the Middle East...

Annan jumped that gun six years ago, by meeting in Beirut on June 20, 2000, with the same Lebanese terrorist satrap of Iran who runs Hezbollah today: Hassan Nasrallah. Against a backdrop of flowers, their handshake and grins were recorded in this (almost certainly undoctored)
Reuters photo of the occasion .
At the time, as a U.N. press release put it, “They talked of cooperation between Hizbollah and the United Nations peacekeeping mission in Southern Lebanon. The Secretary-General thanked the Sheikh for his restraint shown by Hizbollah during Israel’s withdrawal from Lebanon.”

That meeting in Beirut was the follow-on to Annan’s meeting just two days earlier, on June 18, 2000, with Iranian officials in Tehran. On that occasion, as Annan’s office reported, “Their talks focused on the emerging political, economic and social role in Lebanon for Hezbollah,” as well as “the political transition taking place in Syria, peace efforts in Afghanistan,” and so forth.

While Annan, Nasrallah, and the tyrants of Syria and Iran might have considered that round of U.N. diplomacy in 2000 a rip-roaring success, there were no victories there for the Free World. Afghanistan’s Taliban regime went on hosting al Qaeda, which was by then planning the Sept. 11 attacks on America. Syria completed its transition from the tyrannical President Hafez Assad to his despotic son Bashar Assad. Iran, of course, carried on with its totalitarian terrorist-sponsoring ways, as well as its nuclear-bomb program, and has now brought us the messianic Hezbollah-praising President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. Kofi Annan got lunch, some photo-ops, and, of course, a Nobel Prize.

Annan has no more business talking with Hezbollah than he would have visiting the Iranian exhibition of holocaust cartoons that opened Monday in Tehran .
Or should we brace for that as well?
---
All part of a brilliant master plan, no doubt.

8/23/2006 11:04:00 PM  
Blogger Doug said...

Sometimes I think this is La La Land:
James K's convinced it's a political farce, the GWB koolaid guys think he's got it all under control, (just as "Honest George" promises he's doing his best on immigration control) meanwhile, reality rolls on.
Some lies are more special than others, I guess.

8/23/2006 11:12:00 PM  
Blogger allen said...

doug,

Doug! Doug! Doug! Paaaleeese!

You've got to accentuate the positive
Eliminate the negative
Latch on to the affirmative
Don't mess with Mister In-Between

http://www.grandparent
smagazine.net/SongLyrics/
Accentuate%20The%20Positive.htm

Don't give off those negative vibes!

8/23/2006 11:14:00 PM  
Blogger Doug said...

How do we call a man who turned down funding for border control legislation he signed two weeks earlier "honest?"
...Or claimed to be doing his darndest as he ABANDONED workplace enforcement?

8/23/2006 11:15:00 PM  
Blogger Doug said...

Sorry, Allen,
I have no idea what came over me.
I'm injecting my Reality Bite Serum now.
Ahh,
Relief.
I'll have to come back for more.

8/23/2006 11:18:00 PM  
Blogger Doug said...

Allen's Link
Sincere appologies to Mister In-Between.

8/23/2006 11:22:00 PM  
Blogger allen said...

I would be willing to give 10:1 odds that the President’s approval rating would rise 10% if a battle were to occur in Iraq and the public could see the bodies of bad boys stacked like cord wood. I would give the same odds that his approval ratings would rise 15% if the bodies were stacked against a mosque.

The administration’s own polls show where the real sentiment of the public lies. The problem is not the public but the administration’s will.

8/23/2006 11:26:00 PM  
Blogger allen said...

Sorry doug, somehow I was directed to this:

http://images.search.yahoo.
com/search/images?p=Jessica+Biel

Where was I again? Oh, yeah, this is why we fight.

8/23/2006 11:34:00 PM  
Blogger Mad Fiddler said...

Jamie, I thought I heard the world’s most disturbing comedian, Emo Phillips, tell that story of the jumper on the bridge.

Of course, he might’ve borrowed it...

8/23/2006 11:35:00 PM  
Blogger ppab said...

Doug/Allen,

I've doubted Bush before, only to have a glimmer of hope restore my faith in full and then some.

Newly recaltitrant, I'd conjur up a new Bush emerging from beneath the stage, all matter of elaborate costume and metallic and ceramic bobbles ornamenting his godliness. He'd raise up his arms, wavering them in cacaphonic clamor and so deign my assumptions to the tune of his divine din. His gnoses are Babelfished into blog-distributed wisdom, and Aristides articulately proposes beautiful coping mechanisms more than welcome given the non-starter that is a demand for achievement.

Love to be wrong though. Will be happy to admit it when that comes to pass, but it seems like Americans are to the right of the GOP. Funny thing is that some see this divergence as us wising up to communism. LOL

8/23/2006 11:37:00 PM  
Blogger allen said...

Some guy in Sandistan, who cannot see that she beats the hell out of a goat, diapered or not, is in need ah killin, as we like to say in Texas.

Smith considered empathy. Eros isn't bad either.

8/23/2006 11:39:00 PM  
Blogger Mad Fiddler said...

To Teresita, the ever-surprising polymath...

Good idea for Adnan Hajj. He should be willing to send you a finder’s fee if he gets the job (re-animating new lip-synch video to make us believe OBL yet lives, and so quake in our booties.)

The “Clutch Cargo” technique has been revised and extended, and is used to great comic effect on the otherwise intellectually bankrupt and comedically challenged Conan O’Brien.

I’m pretty certain they’re using a green or blue screen setup, which is pretty standard for even local TV stations these days, but might be a little tricky in a cave in the mountains of Pakistan.

Have to bring in Bill Whittle for a consult...

8/23/2006 11:45:00 PM  
Blogger allen said...

bloodydarkpastryman,

quo licit Jovie, non licit bovie (more or less, appreciating the effect of Margarita)

"What is permitted the Gods is not permitted the cattle."

Hey, do not despair, we shall overcome. There will just be millions less of us, as those roaches go rolling along.

PC is, as you have surmised, in the eye of the blind.

8/23/2006 11:48:00 PM  
Blogger allen said...

fiddler,

re: Conan O’Brien

Is the Barbarian still shaking his mane?

Wow! It's true: you cannot underestimate the bad taste of the American public.

8/23/2006 11:51:00 PM  
Blogger Doug said...

PC = Political Cowardice
- Savage

8/23/2006 11:52:00 PM  
Blogger Doug said...

"A majority of Americans, 51 percent, believe that "militant Islamism is no less a threat in the 21st century than Nazism, fascism and communism were in the 20th century,"

Americans Are Rising To Occasion - INVESTOR'S BUSINESS DAILY
---
But poor honest George is just so far ahead of the rest of us, he'll have to tug some more with more tough, honest, talk.

8/24/2006 12:02:00 AM  
Blogger sam said...

DoD News Briefing with Brig. Gen. Barbero from the Pentagon:

GEN. BARBERO: Good afternoon, everybody. I would like to present just a short update on ongoing regional operations, and then, as was stated, I'll be happy to take your questions.

In Central Command, Operation Together Forward continues in Baghdad, and it's an Iraqi-planned and Iraqi-led operation. While it is still early, there are positive indications of the effectiveness of this operation in reducing sectarian violence.

Q General, Lolita Baldor with AP. There's been some -- obviously the announcement yesterday by the Marines. There's been critics who suggest that this indicates that there's been no real progress, that there's -- the troops are stressed, and there's no real plan for victory in Iraq. Can you address that? And can you perhaps point to some discernible progress that you believe is being made, despite the fact that the number of troops are now going back up to where they were the middle of last year?

GEN. BARBERO: Right. Well, let me talk about the Marine Corps announcement. I'm not an expert in personnel issues, and it's a Marine issue. But the Individual Ready Reserve is a tool designed to fill the gaps. And this is exactly why it exists.

Q But can you address sort of that -- when people see that and they look at the entire picture in Iraq, there are questions as to whether or not there's any discernible progress being made -- Senator McCain's comments last week that it looks like a game of Whac-A-Mole, where you just keep shifting troops around and then there's no genuine progress in there.

GEN. BARBERO: Right. Well, I think there is progress being made. Just this morning, the prime minister announced his firm belief that Iraqi forces will be able to assume responsibility in provinces this year and next year.

Q General, the Marines say they have been calling for volunteers, and this occurred after they pretty much exhausted that. Doesn't it indicate a certain strain on the force, though, three years into an ongoing conflict, that they have to do this?

GEN. BARBERO: Well, it's no secret that we're very busy. But a little historical perspective -- this tool has been used in the Korean War by the Marines and the first Gulf War -- OIF1, I think they had -- 7,500 Individual Ready Reserves were involuntarily activated, and they've used it throughout Operation Iraqi Freedom and Operation Enduring Freedom.

General Barbero

8/24/2006 12:07:00 AM  
Blogger Doug said...

Fiddler:
You mentioned Grass Valley Equipment the other day:
Was that "The Grass Valley Group" ?
Ever see the factory in Grass Valley California?
---
...little airport up in the pines w/learjets as I recall.

8/24/2006 12:11:00 AM  
Blogger Doug said...

bobal 07:02:51 PM,
Abortion is everywoman's birthright.

8/24/2006 12:15:00 AM  
Blogger allen said...

sam; 12:07 AM

re: "this year and next year"

And next year, and next year and...

You can see, however, how he won his star: "Yesir boss, I be steppin and fetchin." Or as teresita so aptly put it, "[They be] cannon fodder."

For those who thought General Barbero was the voice of America, you are so right.

8/24/2006 12:32:00 AM  
Blogger sam said...

How the Soviets Gave the Mullahs the Bomb:

Frontpage Interview’s guest today is Regnar Rasmussen, a former military interpreter and interrogation specialist trained at the Danish Armed Forces' Specialist School. For more than ten years, he worked as a translator in the Danish Central Police Department (immigration department) as well as in several criminal investigations departments.

FP: First things first, tell us a bit about your background and how you became privy to the information you possess today about our Jihadi enemy and Iran's possession of nuclear weapons.

Rasmussen: Basically I am a linguist and happen to be able to speak a number of useful languages such as Russian, Persian, Urdu/Hindi, Bengali - and of course Danish, German and English. I spent large chunks of my life in India, and with Calcutta as my base I travelled extensively all over South and South East Asia.

FP: So tell us how the Soviet Union trained some of our Islamist enemies.

Rasmussen: It became clear to me that the entrance into the Soviet system for practically all foreign students was the Lumumba University. After one or two years of language training and "political training" here they were then distributed to other educational institutions according to their capabilities and desires.

FP: Kindly expand a bit on how Iranians trained in the Soviet Union ended up working for the Iranian regime.

Rasmussen: A very interesting small number of the Iranians trained in the Soviet system either during the times of the Shah or during the years of the Islamic Revolution finally ended up working for the Mullah Regime - even though they had been communists and should have been exterminated. I have met some of these types.

Soviet Generosity

8/24/2006 12:45:00 AM  
Blogger allen said...

For those curious as to whether anything is going down, drive by your local military base. Unless it is a beehive of outgoing activity, the flowers are not in bloom.

Lest you think this has given the bad guys a heads-up, may I direct you to your local outpatient surgery, where some good Muslim doctor now is speaking to his cousin by way of one of the rivulets within the tsunami of Wal-Mart trackless cell phones. But, by gosh, be happy; don’t worry; there is a plan, and do go to bed every night comforted by the certain knowledge that Islam means “peace”.

Oh, lest I forget, get out there and buy, buy, buy.

8/24/2006 12:59:00 AM  
Blogger Mad Fiddler said...

Unfortunately, the closest I came to the factory was watching a horse show nearby. Tractor pulls by draft horses.

Exciting stuff.

8/24/2006 01:03:00 AM  
Blogger Mad Fiddler said...

"... the flowers are not in bloom..."

??????

Can this phrase be splained?

thanks

8/24/2006 01:05:00 AM  
Blogger Doug said...

By WorldNetDaily.com
August 23, 2006

The U.S. "catch-and-release" immigration policy officially has ended,
Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff said today.
Law enforcement authorities are holding nearly all non-Mexican illegal immigrants caught in the U.S. until they can be deported to their home countries, Chertoff declared.

The new "catch and detain" policy, he noted, does not apply to Mexicans, who are to be sent back immediately after being stopped by Border Patrol agents.

"Although we're not ready to declare victory – we've got a lot more work to do – it is encouraging and it is something that ought to inspire us to continue to push forward," Chertoff told reporters.

Sept 2001 --- Sept 2006
A Veritable MANHATTAN PROJECT.
(kicking and screaming in opposition to public demand)

8/24/2006 01:15:00 AM  
Blogger sam said...

Out for Justice:

SUPPORTERS OF HUMAN RIGHTS in China were heartened when, during her recent visit to Beijing, Assistant Secretary of State Ellen R. Sauerbrey urged the Chinese government to release Chen Guangcheng. Chen, a 35-year-old blind legal advocate from the eastern province of Shandong, had incurred the wrath of local officials in June 2005 when he helped villagers file an unprecedented class-action lawsuit.

The suit charged health officials with subjecting the villagers to sterilization and forced abortion in order to meet Beijing's birth-control quotas.

Out for Justice

8/24/2006 01:30:00 AM  
Blogger vbspurs said...

What a breathtaking read, Wretchard.

I don't think I've ever seen so many seamlessly threaded talking points -- the Pastis-drinking Kinshasa urchin, the good news from Iraq, the cockroach hoozgowers -- in one post.

No wonder you're my blogfather's blogfather.

Cheers,
Victoria

8/24/2006 01:40:00 AM  
Blogger Doug said...

Tra la la, Feelin Groovy:
---
Schurman-Kauflin, who runs the Violent Crimes Institute in Atlanta, participated in a ---
12-month, in-depth study of illegal immigrants who committed sex crimes and murders from January 1999 through April 2006 .
The study found approximately 240,000 illegal-immigrant sex offenders reside in the United States – while 93 sex offenders and 12 serial sexual offenders come across U.S. borders illegally every day.
---
MS-13, also known as Mara Salvatrucha, a highly organized and well-funded Central American gang, is infiltrating at least 33 states across the U.S., according to law-enforcement authorities. The gang is well-known in Los Angeles, Houston, New York and Washington, D.C., for excessive brutality. Any person suspected of cooperating with authorities is hunted down, tortured and killed. Initiation rites include kickings, beatings and gang rapes.

MS-13 relies on metropolitan areas with highly concentrated populations of illegal aliens to boost its spreading membership. Chapters require that initiates perform random acts of violence, such as participating in gang rapes, to gain acceptance, confirm law-enforcement officials.

Three MS-13 gang members were charged in the brutal rapes of two deaf girls, one 14, the other 17, in a Massachusetts park in 2002. One victim, who also suffered from cerebral palsy, was pushed out of her wheelchair before being raped repeatedly.

8/24/2006 01:45:00 AM  
Blogger Db2m said...

This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.

8/24/2006 02:31:00 AM  
Blogger Db2m said...

mdf,tranquilityzilched

8/24/2006 02:47:00 AM  
Blogger Teresita said...

This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.

8/24/2006 04:26:00 AM  
Blogger Charles said...

2164th said...

Interesting read Charles. I am always amazed at the genuine heartfelt level of support that Evangelicals have for Israel. This same group is mostly held in contempt by liberal Jews. Some of the contempt is discreet but mostly and often would be considerd racist if against anyone other than white Evangelical Christians. Bush won 25% of the Jewish vote, or 75% of American Jews voted against the most pro-Israeli president ever. Go figure.

8/23/2006 09:51:43 PM
////////////////////////
The reason for this goes back to a blood libel against conservatives perpetrated by the communists during the McCarthy period. Basically the communists accused American s on the right of planning to do under McCarthy--what Stalin would have done to Jews in the Doctor's Plot--had he lived. (Stalin was planning a big 30's style purge.)

Russian spying was verified when the KGB opened their files in the early 90's. And the NSA declassified the Venona Cables.

That Hollywood still maintains the lie can be seen by movies in recent years Like Good Night and Good Luck and A Beautiful Mind.

When communism was seen as a failure in the 1970's the Russians decided to carry out Stalin's last wish. Only they exiled the Jews abroad rather than internally to Siberia.

imho the democrats will not regain their footing until they correct the historical record.

8/24/2006 07:13:00 AM  

Post a Comment

<< Home


Powered by Blogger