Tuesday, August 08, 2006

The Sling and the Stone

Mark Steyn observed on a radio interview that what distinguished modern terrorism from the classic nationalist liberation struggles of the post-colonial period was not means but ends. Whereas the old liberation struggles sought to establish states in order to create their own society, radical Islamism takes over states to make them platforms for undertakings which transcends statehood. Radical Islam's ambitions are nothing so small as a state. They are after bigger game: a global caliphate or something like it. Osama Bin Laden was not interested in Afghanistan, nor Arafat in Palestine, nor was Nasrallah overly concerned about Lebanon -- these puny states were uninteresting except as launching pads for larger ambitions. Nor should we think they are overreaching. Matthew Stannard at the San Francisco Chronicle quotes a number of reputable military analysts who think that Hezbollah has just shown that terrorism can not only take on decrepit, failing states but even a powerful and modern one like Israel.

"I think it's something new, in that a non-state organization has undertaken a major, sustained, broad-scale, and so far, the successful military offensive against a state," said William Lind, director of the Center for Cultural Conservatism at the Free Congress Foundation, a Washington, D.C., think tank. "What changes here ... is that non-state forces are able to challenge states militarily -- and win."


These analysts do not mean to suggest that Hezbollah is tactically defeating the IDF, but defeating it strategically. It is gaining its political goals. And one of the most powerful weapons in the non-state arsenal are the cultural institutions of the states themselves: their mass media and international organizations of states like the United Nations.

"Military tactics are the art and science of winning battles," said Thomas Hammes, a retired Marine colonel and author of "The Sling and the Stone: On War in the 21st Century." "Military strategy is the art and science of winning wars," he said. In Vietnam, for example, U.S. troops can claim they never suffered a tactical defeat. Yet the North Vietnamese can rightly claim a strategic victory, because they achieved their political goals of unifying the entire country under their control, said Kalev Sepp, a counterinsurgency specialist at the Naval Postgraduate School in Monterey. ...

"The Israelis are currently winning militarily, tactically. But the strategic dimension is more significant," Gavrilis said. ... Hezbollah, on the other hand, appears to be far more focused on increasing its political power in Lebanon and its prestige in the Arab world, and perhaps of diverting attention from the political woes of its patrons, Syria and Iran, the analysts said. ... "Civilians have died in the battlefield before ... but the way that it's publicized changes the outcomes of conflict," Gavrilis said. "That is new."

The message coming through that global network speaks directly to the Arab public, the source of Hezbollah's political strength -- that it can take on the mightier Israeli army and keep the fight going, the analysts said. "Political will is a central component of any combat. Pictures influence political will," Hammes said. It is a lesson, he said, the United States learned in the Vietnam War and Israel in the first Palestinian intifada, or uprising, with its photos of boys throwing rocks taking fire from well-armed soldiers. "I really question why Israel didn't understand that in the first stages of the (Lebanon) war."

It's interesting to compare the political impact of the international reportage of civilian casualties in Lebanon with the nullity caused by similar events in Darfur. The Strategy Page reports that villages, refugee camps, and humanitarian organizations have been attacked and relief supplies plundered yet in such a pervasive and creeping way that news organizations have largely missed it.

Lack of security is preventing medical and food aid from reaching refugee camps in Sudan's western Darfur region. In the last two weeks, one aid group had ambulances attacked and one medical compound robbed. This group has been operating 17 clinics throughout Darfur but expects to close some of them. Because of the attacks on convoys and robberies on the roads, mobile clinics no longer travel to villages in Darfur. Over the last month several NGOs have reported an increase in incidents. Many of the NGOs are the first to learn of attacks on villages from survivors who manage to make it to the NGOs' medical facilities. That's why news of attacks literally "moves on foot" -- and the journalists and government sources pick up the reports from refugees and doctors, often days (or weeks) after an attack. The UN wants a force of at least 24,000 troops in Darfur, but the government continues to resist.

Modern terrorism is able to exploit not only the spotlights but the shadows of the Western media. And it is largely invulnerable to armies. Not that a UN force of 24,000 or 240,000 would make any difference to Darfur. If the San Francisco Chronicle's thesis has any validity then modern terrorist organizations like Hezbollah, al-Qaeda, Fatah or Hamas are resistant to the armies of nations in very fundamental ways. And to the clownish parody of a modern army which any UN force represents terrorism will be most resistant of all. With that background, its interesting to examine the latest proposals for a ceasefire in Lebanon. The AP reports:

The Lebanese prime minister rejected a U.N. cease-fire plan backed by President Bush, demanding on Monday that Israel immediately pull out from southern Lebanon even before a peacekeeping force arrives to act as a buffer between Hezbollah and the Jewish state. Prime Minister Fuad Saniora's stand, delivered in a tearful speech to Arab foreign ministers, came on a day in which 49 Lebanese were killed — one of the deadliest days for Lebanese in nearly four weeks of fighting. His Cabinet, which includes two Hezbollah ministers, voted unanimously to send 15,000 troops to stand between Israel and Hezbollah should a cease-fire take hold and Israeli forces withdraw south of the border. The move was an attempt to show that Lebanon has the will and ability to assert control over its south, which is run by Hezbollah, the powerful Shiite Muslim militia backed by Syria and Iran.

This single paragraph contains examples of all the contradictions which modern diplomacy and political science is unsuccessfully struggling to extricate itself from. A non-state (Hezbollah) at war with a foreign state (Israel) has voted to deploy the forces of a nominal state (Lebanon) to police itself, while taking orders from two foreign states (Syria and Iran) for the purpose of preventing more civilian casualties in a conflict it began until the forces of international states can interpose themselves between the forces of a foreign state (Israel) they have sworn to destroy and themselves (Hezbollah) under terms which in any case they have no intentions of respecting.  To international diplomats that makes sense. In contrast, when "in Texas, Bush said any cease-fire must prevent Hezbollah from strengthening its grip in southern Lebanon, asserting 'it's time to address root causes of problems,'" his remarks are dismissed as the ignorant ramblings of an unsophisticated simpleton. But maybe it is really the diplomats who are lost, prisoners of their own paradigm, unable to make the mental shift necessary to defeat non-state enemies except of a very limited and friendless kind. David Byrne describes some of these friendless non-states in his article American Madrassas.

Saw a screening of a documentary called Jesus Camp. It focuses on a woman preacher (Becky Fischer) who indoctrinates children in a summer camp in North Dakota. Right wing political agendas and slogans are mixed with born again rituals that end with most of the kids in tears. Tears of release and joy, they would claim — the children are not physically abused. The kids are around 9 or 10 years old, recruited from various churches, and are pliant willing receptacles. They are instructed that evolution is being forced upon us by evil Godless secular humanists, that abortion must be stopped at all costs, that we must form an “army” to defeat the Godless influences, that we must band together to insure that the right judges and politicians get into the courts and office and that global warming is a lie. (This last one is a puzzle — how did accepting the evidence for climate change and global warming become anti-Jesus? Did someone simply conflate all corporate agendas with Jesus and God and these folks accept that? Would Jesus drive an SUV? Is every conclusion responsible scientists make now suspect?) Awareness of the rest of the world is curtailed — one can only view or read that which agrees with the agenda.

Byrne's horror at Jesus Camp perfectly illustrated what Mark Steyn called the single greatest weakness of Western culture: its ability to draw a moral equivalence between anything and everything; between a terrorist camp with explosives and machineguns and a summer camp in North Dakota. It is really an inability to see anything in due proportion.  Kofi Annan's assertion of "disproportionate response" by Israel against Hezbollah really makes no sense in world where an equivalence operator can be inserted between any two operands of whatever value. And the consequence of the fallen calculus of international relations is the tactical and strategic equivalence between a democratic state and terrorist non-state; the parity between barbarism and civilization.

296 Comments:

Blogger Joe Florida said...

"Byrne's horror at Jesus Camp perfectly illustrated what Mark Steyn called the single greatest weakness of Western culture: its ability to draw a moral equivalence between anything and everything..."

I think it's simpler then that. Anything that is anti-west, to the media, is good (even if it's evil). Until the left sees the west hoisted on its own petard the west will be the bad guys no matter how few civs. are killed.

8/08/2006 05:10:00 AM  
Blogger Joe Florida said...

then=than

8/08/2006 05:11:00 AM  
Blogger PeterBoston said...

The Hezbollah model only works for so long as the state actor agrees to play by the non-state actor's rules of the game.

Hezbollah is a Syrian/Iranian infantry division. Treat it as such and go after its command & control and logistics in Syria and the game is over.

8/08/2006 05:28:00 AM  
Blogger goesh said...

Yeah, they can take on powerful states as long as the powerful states wring their hands over dead civilians in the enemy camp. It's really that simple, because powerful nation states refuse to acknowledge the threat of islamofacism. I would be most encouraged if I were an islamofacist to see the hand-wringing over detainees being threatened with dogs and not a word said about me blowing up civilians in markets. I would be even more encouraged over the fact that my boys could burn thousands of cars in France while the citizens whose cars are being burned remain passive on the sidelines crying for the police. In fact, I would be confident that I could destabalize such a nation in short order by giving my boys RPGs and suicide vests and AK-47s. I would feel confident that my ideology is stronger than the touted freedoms of the West who were afraid to publish cartoons of my prophet. Lastly, I would sleep well at night knowing that the flow of cheap Chinese goods can be disrupted if Iran is attacked over its nuclear development, and once my side has nukes, you motherf****** are mine. Ain't life grand? The writing is on the wall - man, it is plastered all over the wall - they are coming for us, our kids and our way of life.

8/08/2006 05:30:00 AM  
Blogger wretchardthecat said...

This article by an aid worker is a classic of its kind. It begins by expressing horror that aid workers in Sri Lanka were recently killed despite wearing t-shirts identifying them as relief workers. It goes on to describe Taliban attacks on relief convoys in Afghanistan, exacerbated no doubt by the fact that Christians were in the country "illegally" trying to convert Muslims, or that US vehicles occasioned fire. It even describes the danger created by exposing faked pictures because it blurs "the distinction between comment and factual reporting".

The author is no doubt sincere and his attitude is the pitch perfect example of modern enlightenment, such as it is.

8/08/2006 05:38:00 AM  
Blogger RWE said...

The Lebanese PM later admitted that his numbers had been a bit off – only ONE Lebanese had died in the attack that brought him to tears.

The often-used example of Vietnam being a strategic victory ignores the fact that it was no such thing. After that victory was achieved, the Viet Cong were all but wiped out and could only watch helplessly as their comrades from the North too over their country. And even those from the North soon began to realize that they had inherited a devastated country and been handed an ideology that was the most destructive the world has ever seen.

By the early 1990’s Vietnamese intellectuals had come to sense which way the wind was blowing and were suggesting that Cam Ron Bay would sure make a nice port – for the US Navy - again.

By the late 1990’s the streets of Saigon were filled with youth studying English and the products of Microsoft.

At the end of WWII the mighty Japanese fortress of Rabaul stood unconquered – and no one gave a rat’s rump – Tokyo stood in ruins with American flags flying overhead.

8/08/2006 05:43:00 AM  
Blogger JM said...

One quibble though - isn't saying that Hezbollah is a non-state organization somewhat disingenuous? They are provided for both militarily and economically by Iran, so much so that one has to consider them an extension of Iran, not a non-state actor per se (like Al Qaeda). As they stand up to Israel, I see an extension of the Iranian Army successfully prosecuting a guerrilla war.

We've got to recognize that no organization can stand up to a powerful state military like Israel's without substantial state support. This is why we can and should continue to hold states responsible for the actions of affiliated non-states - even though conventional wisdom says precisely the opposite. States, both good and bad, are still critically important.

8/08/2006 05:49:00 AM  
Blogger Deuce ☂ said...

Peter Boston stated:

"Hezbollah is a Syrian/Iranian infantry division. Treat it as such and go after its command & control and logistics in Syria and the game is over."

This declaration fails to see what the struggle is about. The correct assertion is that if the division is destroyed the division's game is over. Hezbollah is appealing to a great many Islamists in a way that AQ never did. They are making Israel look inept, brutal and to the Islamic model and idea Hezbollah looks heroic. Islamism resides in the entire Muslim world in varying degrees but in mind numbing numbers. Communism once did as well. To think you can bomb away the idea is absurd beyond comprehension. If the US had followed that strategy during the Cold War, we would have had to bomb, Italy, France, parts of England, Germany as well as the multitude of other more obvious countries. It is a teen-age computer game fantasy.

Communism was a global caliphate. It was defeated because sensible tough people recognized that it was a corrupt idea that lead into a maze of dead ends. Intelligence services infiltrated communist cells and the US formed diplomatic and global alliances that recognized and pursued the common goal of destroying Communism. When it needed to be confronted with military power, the West did so. Some of the best allies were those trapped in Communist Nations and in the end, there was triumph.

The US never allowed the Communists to control so many strategic assets as is now the case with oil. It is an amazing disgrace that five years after 911, an administration sat by and allowed a crucial petroleum pipeline, on US soil, to be closed down because of rust. It is a metaphor for the inept and incompetent handling of the winnable war against Islam. This war will be won, but not with the mediocre farm team encamped in DC.

8/08/2006 06:03:00 AM  
Blogger Doug said...

What Goesh said!
JD Hayworth, hosting Ingraham show, is saying the same thing.
http://www2.krla870.com/listen/

8/08/2006 06:17:00 AM  
Blogger PeterBoston said...

2164

The Islamists control the oil because of the geographic happenstance that put it under their feet. Do you really believe that Iran and KAS would turn over their pink slips to the oil fields to a different administration?

The Bush administration is responsible for rust in pipelines in Alaska?

You may want to consider that the 100+ Soviet divisions and 10,000 nuclear warheads had a role in keeping the Cold War cold, or, as you may say, a war of ideas and not bombs.

You may also notice that there are still large numbers of communinists running around the planet but very few Nazis or Japanese militarists. One could suggest that inflicting a total military defeat on the social, political and economic systems that ensconced those ideologies had a causal effect, but that would be absurd beyond comprehension.

8/08/2006 06:26:00 AM  
Blogger What is "Occupation" said...

The battle is joined...

Hamas and Hezbollah have fired the shots...

Israel using "meek" probing slowly moves the battle north. Hezbollah and Hamas start the rockets.

cut a few weeks later.. pundits are claiming hezbollah wins since it's not destroyed, israel has surrounded 5 major areas of hezbollah strongholds, resupply is drastically cut, while israel keeps grinding down the static lines of hezbollah, not rushing in as the pundits want.

the ace card of hezbollah has been seen. they have fired 3050 rockets and killed a total of 50 israelis.

Syria has moved it's tanks into a static line of defense

It's taken 4 weeks for the impodent arab league to meet for tea and cake.

israel now is hitting tyre (forget the commando raids, although wonderful)

August 22nd is coming, Iran is getting nervous

"Ceasefire" nonsense is being talked about however israel just warned citizens of s leb that all vehicles are now targets.

All egress from s leb is cut across the litani

who has won or loss?

Iran cannot threaten the west with hezbollah anymore, Hezbollah are shooting thier wad as fast as they can and so far have shown NOT to be a STRATEGIC threat.

meanwhile, 170k refugess (30k syrian & 25k iranian) have flooded into syria.

No more cash to send home from the business rape of lebanon

430k shia of the south are living in sunni apts in northern beirut and points north..

it's getting interesting..

how long would 500 syrian tanks sitting a static position last against israel? hmmmm

8/08/2006 06:28:00 AM  
Blogger Deuce ☂ said...

Lone Star,

Bush was not responsible for a hurricane. he may not have been resposnible for the dikes, but someone was. Was some Communist hack responsible for the construction or monitoring of Chernobyl? If the US was not dependent on oil, there would be no massive infusion of cash into the Islamic world as there is today. it is a very weak link in American security. If you think it not worthy of asking why such an important piece of infrastructure be allowed to crumble, would it trouble you if the wings on an American Airline plane fell off because no one paid attention to a maintenance schedule?

8/08/2006 06:31:00 AM  
Blogger j willie said...

Re: Wretchard's post

Same song, second verse - in Israel. See Carolyn Glick's column today - here's an excerpt:

Second, they pretend that the Palestinian jihad against Israel is unrelated to the Lebanese jihad against Israel and that, as a result, their plan to transfer control over Judea and Samaria to the Palestinians remains sound. To this end they continue to support Palestinian Authority leader Mahmoud Abbas even as he openly praises Hizbullah and his own security forces participate in terrorist attacks against Israelis. Moreover, they ignore the fact that Hizbullah terrorist-in-chief Hassan Nasrallah is the most popular figure in Palestinian society.

Finally, by preventing the ground offensive that all those IDF reserve divisions were called up to execute, they continue to pretend that the control of territory is unnecessary for national defense. After all, what is an air-based strategy other than a way to convince the public that wars can be won without land?

The column closes with these thoughts:

THERE IS a palpable sense in Israel that we are on the edge of a revolutionary moment. Our national leadership in the government, the IDF and the media has utterly failed us.

As we stand poised on the edge of an even larger war, the main question that hangs in the balance is what lessons the Israeli people will take from the current fiasco. Will we continue to believe their fictions, or will we find a way to abandon them and move on with leaders who understand that territory is vital, that the jihad is real, that Israel has a right to defensible borders, and that Israel is not to blame for our enemies' hatred?

8/08/2006 06:34:00 AM  
Blogger Deuce ☂ said...

....One could suggest that inflicting a total military defeat on the social, political and economic systems that ensconced those ideologies had a causal effect, but that would be absurd beyond comprehension...

I am not sure what you mean here, expand if you will.

8/08/2006 06:36:00 AM  
Blogger PeterBoston said...

I am not sure what you mean here

That would be obvious from the tenor of your posts.

8/08/2006 06:48:00 AM  
Blogger RattlerGator said...

If you are willing to be patient, and unconcerned about being tagged as a hack or simpleton for agreeing with the "stay the course" mentality, it's pretty easy to see that everything in the Central Command's area of operations (Horn of Africa over to the Central Asia "Stans" including Pakistan) is happening at a time and place of our choosing. Including this conflict.

It appears to me the "invisible" strategy is to let this current Israel - Hezbollah thing play out (all in all, the Hezzies are doing minimal damage), let them think they've "won" a standoff. Why? Because Hezbollah is unknowingly providing a beautiful service for us. The "Axis of Evil" connections are being made more and more plain.

Is it the considered opinion of those on this blog that John Bolton is just doing a dance at the United Nations, taking orders from D.C. and saying "yes, sir" or "yes, ma'am"? Or, as someone ignorantly stated the other day, that Condoleezza is a moron? Or is Bolton working his end of the strategy?

This entire event is further defining the limitations of the United Nations, is it not? As well as defining the limitations of nation-states, is it not? And, thank God, it’s also making plain some of the limitations of the IDF too, is it not? They are a great fighting force, but they aren't Superman -- and their people need to know that.

We're playing a modified game of offense in America and Israel because that's all we can politically play right now. It's a Latin American football (soccer) styled offense rather than a North American football styled offense. No big attack, endless probing -- then counterattack.

The beauty of this modified game of offense, though, is that we are making them show their hands before they would have liked to do so. Not only are they banking on our impatience, they are further banking on the old rules carrying the day. But their propaganda is having less and less effect. We've previously demonstrated the ineptitude of the Taliban in Afghanistan (What proof! What proof! I can still hear that punk bitch Minister Omar shouting), and the bluster of Saddam in Iraq (his end is no doubt near). And although those who secretly hoped for American failure are still pimping for civil war, the Iraqi government is about to start dropping a hammer and enforcing discipline in an Arab kind of way. The absurdity of bitching about Abu Ghraib is about to be made quite clear. And now, finally, we start to zero in on the head of the snake. Not Iran, but Ahmadinejad and the Mullahs.

Keep on probing, boys. Shoot. Move. Communicate. Advance.

These Iranians think they're being so very smart but it's not Iraq that's going to be under threat of partitioning, it's Iran.

The end game is to allow the true center of Shiism (Najaf, Iraq) to regain its central status and to dethrone the mad mullahs of Iran. Only then can the various strains of Islam come to some modern accommodation with one another and the death cults marginalized.

At least, that's the way this hack sees it.

8/08/2006 06:50:00 AM  
Blogger RWE said...

2164:
The New Orleans Levee Commission was responsible for maintenance of the dikes there - and according to reports from even those who lived there, the commission did just about everything but that. I still don't understand why that commmission needed to spend millions on a airplane. Helicopters for inspection and repair, maybe, but a corporate-travel style airplane?

The AK pipeline is owned by a private company, not the Federal Govt. The same is true of the hypothetical airliner - and although the FAA requires that certain inspections be performed and that any required maintenance be performed in a specified manner, it is not responsible for actually doing the maintenance.

In contrast Chernoybal was a Soviet state run facility, staffed by idiots, as any such Socialist top-down controlled facility will inevitably be. Not the same thing as the pipeline and the airliner at all.

My 25 plus years of military service convinced me that under any given set of circumstances the Federal Govt must be presumed to be incompetant. So, its power and responsibilies must be limited to those few areas where only it can do the job, national defense, for instance.

Now, I am willing to be that the company that owned the pipeline was so constrained by Federal and probably state govt requirements - not scaring the cariboe, or something - that they were hampered in doing proper inspections and maintenance. But if so, that once again argues for less government involvement, not more.

8/08/2006 06:57:00 AM  
Blogger Jamie Irons said...

When I was a kid, Protestant churches in my town regularly sang hymns like "Onward, Christian Soldiers!" and "A Mighty Fortress Is Our God."

None of us felt especiallly threatened by these hymns; there was a realization that the content was largely "metaphorical," and that the Christians were unlikely to emerge from their services armed to the teeth, ready to mow down the few scattered Jews and the much larger number of Sunday golfers.

But I would be interested to know if these hymns are still considered acceptable, or if their content has become too politically incorrect, too threatening to other groups.

I guess if one wants to pose a real test of moral equivalence, one could ask oneself which feels, on a gut level, more like a real threat to the peace:

(1) the rantings of an anti-Semitic "imam" in Dearborn.

(2) the singing of "Onward, Christian Soldiers" by even the most "fundamentalist" and evangelical of Christian congregations.


Jamie Irons

8/08/2006 07:51:00 AM  
Blogger Meme chose said...

The core of postmodernism - anything is 'disproportionate' if the postmodernists don't like it, and 'morally equivalent' if they do. It turns the entire planet into a moral free fire zone!

It's the ultimate liberation movement; an automatic authorization for outrage against whatever you want, at any moment.

8/08/2006 07:52:00 AM  
Blogger Pierre said...

Sorry but the idea that Hezballah is a non state actor is laughable. I don't care how many initials a person has after their name, anyone stating such nonsense as fact should be laughed out of the room. Iran and Syria are states without whom Hezballah would merely be a bunch of Islamic thugs. Taking care of Hezballah is as easy as taking down Syria and Iran.

This absurd notion that we are facing something new under the sun is starting to annoy me. What we are really facing is the cowardice of our national leadership to deal with the problems.

8/08/2006 08:03:00 AM  
Blogger desert rat said...

Well, well, well.

The consensus seems that now, six years after the attack on the USS Cole, the Administration has a chance to shape the propaganda battlefield.

Why people may now begin to "see" the Enemy, now that HB is engaged with Israel. They will see that Mr Maliki is united with Mr al-Sadr, whose Mahdi Army sends fighters to Lebanon.

All of whom are funded by the Iranians. Wow!

8/08/2006 08:14:00 AM  
Blogger Jamie Irons said...

That indoctrination camp sounds sickening.

I must admit, it's a little depressing that one so stalwart in his opposition to fanaticism of the Muslim variety should reveal themselves to be something of a hypocrite by defending the brainwashing of kids when it's done by adherents to another religion.


In my misspent youth I knew a million kids who were sent to these "indoctrination camps."


In those days we called them "Sunday schools," or, if they occurred during summer vacation, "Church Camps."

Scared the hell out of a lot of us.

As to this statement:

I must admit, it's a little depressing that one so stalwart in his opposition to fanaticism of the Muslim variety should reveal themselves to be something of a hypocrite by defending the brainwashing of kids when it's done by adherents to another religion.


I'm not sure who is being referred to?


Jamie Irons

8/08/2006 08:21:00 AM  
Blogger Deuce ☂ said...

Total US crude oil imports averaged 10.247 million barrels per day in May, which is an increase of 0.415 million barrels per day from April 2006. It is estimated that the shortfall created by the US pipeline shut down will add $10 per barrel. That will add one hundred dollars daily to the US bill for imported oil. Why that is hardly worthy of note. An additional trade deficit of $30 billion. What could possibly be of significance to that? But it gets worse. All oil exported regardless of the source participates in the windfall. Now who receives that money? Another insignificant morsel of information.

It looks like 70 % of the pipeline needs to be replaced.

Let us hear what the President has said about energy matters.

WASHINGTON, DC, April 28, 2005 (ENS) - Amid increasing concern that high gasoline and energy prices are harming the U.S. economy, President George W. Bush on Wednesday proposed a series of new initiatives to boost domestic energy production, including measures to expedite construction of new nuclear power plants and oil refineries.

Bush said the proposals will help curb the nation’s growing dependence on foreign oil, but acknowledged he can do little to provide consumers immediate relief from rising gas prices.

"If I could, I would," Bush said in a speech at the Small Business Administration's National Small Business Conference.



(President George W. Bush was addressing delegates at the National Small Business Conference in Washington.

Bush said the nation’s "fundamental problem" is that the supply of energy is not growing fast enough to meet the growing demand, in particular given the soaring increases in consumption abroad.
"This problem did not develop overnight, and it's not going to be fixed overnight," he said. "But it's now time to fix it."

8/08/2006 08:30:00 AM  
Blogger Deuce ☂ said...

That will add one hundred million dollars daily to the US bill for imported oil. I do not want to confuse mr boston.

8/08/2006 08:33:00 AM  
Blogger PeterBoston said...

Kurtz paints a gloomy picture because he is reflecting the frustration of an absence of will.

Israel is the case study for Western woes because it has been the Islamist's experimental battlefield since the early 70s when the PLO was created to fight a new kind of war. This story is even more compelling when you consider that Arafat's PLO is the progeny of the Muslim Brotherhood, the ideological parents that also birthed Al Qaeda, Islamic Jihad and who knows how many others.

Since PLO days Israel has played tit-for-tat with the Islamists and has never made an attempt to kill the beast even when presented with the opportunity in Beirut in 1982. Who among those who watched the PLO sail off to Tunis under a flag of truce believed that the continued existence of the likes of Arafat would benefit humanity?

35 years of Islamist depravity still draws no greater than a brief Israeli incursion into the belly of the beast. I suppose that the Israeli strategy has been that it can endure the pin pricks of a Long War, and that perhaps in 100 years something resembling a civil society could emerge from the stinkhole. That's their call. Perhaps 4,000 years of Judaic tradition permits no other result.

Israeli citizens live in bunkers because proportionality is more important to Israel's political leadership than killing the enemy. Would Kurtz be so gloomy if in the first days of the war the IDF had mobilized, encircled so much of HB as it could, and killed off every living thing that could carry rifle, ammo or water? Naziforallah would be on Manar TV extolling the virtue of martyrdom but we wouldn't be hearing much of victory. And if the Lebanese were worth a damn they'd be talking about life after HB not with them.

Why is the bright line so visible here and so blurry in the Capitals that matter?

8/08/2006 08:41:00 AM  
Blogger Deuce ☂ said...

A view from one capital(DW)

Israel's President Ehud Olmert said in an interview with the Süddeutsche Zeitung daily that he has "absolutely no problem with German soldiers in southern Lebanon….At the moment, no other nation is as friendly to Israel as Germany. If Germany can contribute to the security of the Israeli people, this would be a rewarding task…"

Olmert's expectation of German involvement rests on the tight but history-laden relationship the two countries have developed since World War II.


Germany's Defense Minister Franz Josef Jung (CDU) has said he considers German participation in an international peacekeeping force a possibility, while Chancellor Angela Merkel and Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier (SPD) are more cautious.
Kosovo is still a painful memory for the EU
"We don't necessarily dismiss involvement, but we are hesitant," said Merkel, as reported by Germany news agency dpa.

Within Germany's political parties, opinions are split. Some see Germany's history as an obligation to participate, other see precisely that as a reason to stay out of it, wrote DW-WORLD.DE's Peter Philip.

History is not the only factor in Germany's hesitancy. Its army, the Bundeswehr, has current obligations in other crisis areas, such as DR Congo and Afghanistan, and it could become increasingly difficult to convince the German population of the need to take part in the Israel-Lebanon crisis as well.

8/08/2006 08:51:00 AM  
Blogger desert rat said...

Well who is channeling whom, or more likely, just who scans the BC.

"... While all these are trends, none seem to be going our way. ..."

Patrick Buchanan
"Condi's 'New Middle East'"

8/08/2006 08:57:00 AM  
Blogger PeterBoston said...

DR

When you can write an article from a particular author just from the headline you aren't going to learn much.

Pat Buchanan is as predictable as Summer rain, or maybe even the dourness eminating from a certain location Arizona.

8/08/2006 09:08:00 AM  
Blogger desert rat said...

Well, PB, things are going so well, as you noted at 8:41am

Syria and Iran ignored in the UN negotiations and "war".

Denial or de Nile?

8/08/2006 09:14:00 AM  
Blogger Tarnsman said...

What is lost in all this hand wringing is that Israel, and the United States, are fighting with only a fraction of their true power. The Israelis fielded an army of 450,000 in the Yon Kippur War when their nation’s very survival was on the line. Today with a large manpower pool and with more lethal weapons only 18,000 are battling Hezbollah in Lebanon. In WWII the United States fielded military forces numbering 3 million including thousands upon thousands of aircraft and a thousand plus warships. Today with a greater manpower pool, as well as industrial and economic might, there are only 150,000+ US troops in the Middle East theatre. Also forgotten is the military forces that the other nations of the West once fielded. Given a serious enough threat and those forces could (will) take the field once again. Anyone who believes the West is breaking a serious sweat is deluding themselves. All this talk of a terrorist group taking on a state is nonsense. Granted the political will is not there yet for either the US or Israel to fully project their power, but in the case of Israel that maybe changing. What is apparent is that Hezbollah and its allies have bought this notion of the West as impotent and have seriously miscalculated. All they have done is stir the hornet’s nest. What remains to be seen is whether or not the hornets will swarm out and exact their retribution.

8/08/2006 09:21:00 AM  
Blogger Dewage said...

All this obsequy to the standard model of the Westphalean State vs. Terrorism is over-stated. It is much easier to view the Middle East in 2006 as Europe in 1939. Instead of Hitler sending covert Ops teams in Polish uniforms to blow up the radio station and threaten the Auslanders, Iran is using Hisbollah to precipitate an attack against Muslim interests by the Infidels. If Hisbollah = Iran, then Iran invaded Israel and captured two soldiers. Why not say it that way?

8/08/2006 09:23:00 AM  
Blogger PeterBoston said...

DR

You don't need a no-hit shutout to win a baseball game.

8/08/2006 09:39:00 AM  
Blogger PeterBoston said...

I nominate Cedarford as Gaza City Homicide Detective. There's a whole lot of killing going on and barely a Joo in sight. Somebody's got to set the record straight before Reuter's catches on.

8/08/2006 09:57:00 AM  
Blogger buddy larsen said...

C4, the long posts are hard to read--why don't you simplify, and just number a master list of your paragraphs?

Whenever the news headlines merit, you could simply post, for example, say, "#3, #17, #147"

Then we could click back to the 2003 archives and read 'em.

8/08/2006 10:23:00 AM  
Blogger Mad Fiddler said...

Blind doctrinaire ideology is the Great Satan that has the power, if unopposed, to bring ruin to the West.

In Germany, the Green Party has managed to capture about ten percent of the representatives in Bundesrat. The German public (of which the Green party is only the most environmentally radical) has for years refused to allow the construction of any new Nuclear power generating facility. (Sound familiar?) As a consequence, Germany does not generate enough electricity to supply its domestic needs.

France, Germany’s neighbor, generates approximately 80 percent of its electrical output by Nuclear power, and has excess electrical power to sell.

So the German deficit is made up by the purchase of French surplus, and the German public which so self-righteously eschews Nuclear Power on German soil is perfectly happy to power its toothbrushes, televisions, massage lounge chairs, lava lamps, and hybrid Volkswagens, with Nuclear-generated French electrons.

What a perfect portrait of the idiocy of modern ideologues.

“Where’s the harm?” you might ask... Well, the harm is in the self-deception, repeated a thousand times daily, that allows a person to deny reality. It is repeated endlessly, mostly without particular consequences.

But situations arise in which the consequences will not be avoidable, where the denial of reality will result in death.

The ideologues are precisely the same people who have prevented the United States from developing its own energy resources, when doing so would severely limit the leverage the mad mullahs have over the West.

The ideologues are precisely the same people who have crippled public education, creating three generations of highschool graduates that cannot consistently reason their way out of an open toilet stall.

The ideologues are precisely the same people who screechingly insist that placing women’s panties on a prisoner is equivalent to dropping a human into an industrial shredding machine.

The ideologues are precisely the same people who insist we must guarantee to non-citizens and foreign terrorists constitutional protections that they DENY to actual documented U.S. citizens.

Interesting how many of 'em end up as journalists...

8/08/2006 10:25:00 AM  
Blogger buddy larsen said...

northput21 zooms in on the core problem. We the people got no attention span. That's a problem with a built-in solution--we just have to wait for it to steamroller us.

8/08/2006 10:28:00 AM  
Blogger Mad Fiddler said...

Someone will have to organize an army of editors and compile an annotated encyclopedia of Belmont Club and its Comments.

8/08/2006 10:32:00 AM  
Blogger Fabio said...

I have a name for trying to blame Bush for the failure of a private-owned facility: Bush Derangement Syndrome.

I'll wait to read the reports of the accident in some engineering journal to get the facts straight, thank you very much.

8/08/2006 10:37:00 AM  
Blogger Mad Fiddler said...

"Windfall Profits Tax" are one of the doctrinaire ideological items...

8/08/2006 10:58:00 AM  
Blogger vbwyrde said...

Sonspot said...

"I think it's simpler then that. Anything that is anti-west, to the media, is good (even if it's evil). Until the left sees the west hoisted on its own petard the west will be the bad guys no matter how few civs. are killed."

At this point I think the appropriate phrase then would be "the Suicide Media".

8/08/2006 11:03:00 AM  
Blogger Col. B. Bunny said...

It obscures an important point merely to refer to "non-state forces [that] are able to challenge states militarily."

The vital concept upon which to focus is:

"non-state forces that are supported by states."

Hezbollah wouldn't be able to do 1/1000th of what it's doing now without the support of Iran, directly and through its Syrian intermediary.

And . . . with the income from its criminal activites in North and South America, although the income from these activities is merely the lagniappe to what Iran provides.

Ergo, the problem is Iran and this focus on "non-state forces" is an unhelpful distraction from the main point. The world is infected by fleas but the silly Westerners just can't bring themselves to do something about the dog right there in the living room.

If elephants harbored fleas, the image would be perfect.

8/08/2006 11:09:00 AM  
Blogger Jamie Irons said...

Buddy,

[Referring to C4's posts you wrote]:

Whenever the news headlines merit, you could simply post, for example, say, "#3, #17, #147"...


I would also appreciate an annotated and indexed key to passages which call our attention to the evils of Jews or (virtually the same thing) "Neocons."


Jamie Irons

8/08/2006 11:22:00 AM  
Blogger ambisinistral said...

It strikes me those inspectors might be looking for a little more than rust on the pipes, if'n you get my drift.

I'm one of the people of the opinion that what is going on is a thrust and parry of the lead up to the 22nd of August. I think you can probably couple the Taliban offensive, Sadr making noises in Iraq, and the Israeli/Hezb war all as moves made by Iran to elicit a response. Those are their efforts to shape the battle field for their big reveal.

When looking at Iran's situation, I think Panzer divisions and Chamberlain's umbrella isn't the best WWII analogy. I think Iran faces much the same strategic challenge and goals as the Japanese did. The Japanese needed to force Westerners out of the Pacific long enough for them to seize Asia's resources and secure them under the Co-Prosperity sphere.

I would think Iran is trying to apply maximum pressure on the US to force the "soft" Americans out of the Middle East. Had Israel followed the script they would be a month into a full mobilization and tangled up with the population of Lebanon had they moved north.

There is a lot of strange behavior from our side these last few weeks. Thrust and parry for whatever it is planned on the 22nd in my opinion (test firing a NORK nuclear weapon followed by sabre-rattling, splodey-dopes and the like would be my guess -- try to stampede us into giving them their Co-Prosperity sphere).

8/08/2006 11:31:00 AM  
Blogger buddy larsen said...

C4, claiming that calling your stuff "the usual stuff" is also part of the usual stuff, and deserves a number in the rotation.

Jamie, you'll probably have to redact on your own, but it'll be easier once we have the master list numbered.

8/08/2006 11:33:00 AM  
Blogger PeterBoston said...

"Arrogant zionist." I can live with that. Thanks C4. You are the constant reminder to always watch for the dogpiles.

8/08/2006 11:52:00 AM  
Blogger buddy larsen said...

Another Saudi cleric calls Hez "party of Satan".

Right in the middle of the Arab League meeting at the UN.

8/08/2006 12:13:00 PM  
Blogger John Aristides said...

As seems clear, terrorism is a deviation that is, for the present, being amplified by certain system components already in existence (Media, Political Correctness, Moralism, Post-Modernism, etc.). The negative feedback that would normally take care of this problem is being delayed or halted altogether by the above components, so terrorism as a deviation experiences positive feedback.

This deviating anomaly is currently in its fluctuation-increased-dissipation stage, which means entropy in the system is currently on the rise. But other components in the system are reacting, too. The race is to the threshold.

Which will be reached first, the higher-complexity threshold, or the system-collapse threshold? I think any serious person would put great confidence in the former. The terrorists operate amidst chaos, thriving in regions of instability and uncertainty. The forces of organization, who can marshal an immense amount of information and power, will surely destroy them.

The Positive-Feedback loop of organizational disaggregation and power atomization stems from the Army of Davids syndrome. The system is changing, and complexity is increasing. In this new system-state, new opportunities are appearing and are being exploited by these various system components -- most notably terrorists. But the forces of organized stability are also expoiting these new realities, as Bobbitt recognizes in his theory of the market-state.

In the end, terrorism will only succeed in bringing about evolved stability mechanisms to match the evolved degrees of freedom inherent in this new environment.

For an explanation of the above, go here.

8/08/2006 12:15:00 PM  
Blogger allen said...

rwe; 06:57 AM

re: Federal Govt must be presumed to be incompetant.

Amen!


pierre legrand; 08:03 AM

re: This absurd notion that we are facing something new under the sun is starting to annoy me.

Amen!

"'The only thing new is the history you don't know." - Harry S Truman

8/08/2006 12:30:00 PM  
Blogger allen said...

buddy larsen; 10:23 PM

Come on, buddy, you're making it way to complicated for C4 and BC readers.

He needs say only: "Da Joos did it."

Or, more simply, yet: "Buchanan."

And, buddy, do you really mind lengthy posts or, like me, do you insist that they have something to say. Gibbons's "Decline and Fall..." is extremely lengthy, but what an adventure. Ditto the "Wealth of Nations".

8/08/2006 12:50:00 PM  
Blogger allen said...

the mad fiddler; 10:25 AM

Very well done!

Oh, you might have mentioned that diplomats also suffer the disability of consructive logic deficit.

You do know that most authorities deny the possibility of constructive logic below the age of fourteen? That's something too frightening to think about.

8/08/2006 12:57:00 PM  
Blogger allen said...

col. b. bunny,

re: elephant with fleas

The picture you conjure is priceless. Thanks!

8/08/2006 01:00:00 PM  
Blogger PeterBoston said...

Aristedes

Your thought experiment makes good sense. I suspect that the amount of crude we get from Iran is less than that from the BP pipeline.

8/08/2006 01:01:00 PM  
Blogger allen said...

If as many BC commentators (not P-tators) theorize, war with Iran is imminent, rationing of petroleum and petroleum based products might become a reality.

Could the pipeline closure be an incremental step in this direction?

Will market driven forces be used to soften the blow of rationing; thereby, ameliorating the chaos always attendant to rationing by fiat?

Color me curious.

8/08/2006 01:15:00 PM  
Blogger John Aristides said...

Peterboston,

You are right:

The vast majority of Persian Gulf oil imported by the United States came from Saudi Arabia (71%), with significant amounts also coming from Iraq (19%), Kuwait (9%), and small amounts (less than 1% total) from Qatar and the United Arab Emirates. Iraqi oil exports to the United States rose slightly in 2003, to 481,000 bbl/d, compared to 442,000 bbl/d in in 2002. Saudi exports rose from 1.55 million bbl/d in 2002 to 1.77 million bbl/d in 2003. Overall, the Persian Gulf accounted for about 22% of U.S. net oil imports, and 12% of U.S. oil demand, in 2003.

Notice who's not on that list (Iran). And notice who is (Iraq). You can thank George for the latter.

And you can see where our perspective differs from that of Europe:

Western Europe (defined as European countries belonging to the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development -- OECD) averaged 2.6 million bbl/d of oil imports from the Persian Gulf during 2003, an increase of about 0.2 million bbl/d from the same period in 2002. The largest share of Persian Gulf oil exports to Western Europe came from Saudi Arabia (52%), with significant amounts also coming from Iran (33%), Iraq (7%), and Kuwait (6%).

And Japan takes 17% of its Persian Gulf oil in Iranian barrels.

Therefore, Opening the Strategic Reserve can also be thought of as a palliative to calm the nerves of our allies as we approach the redline. By doing this, we counteract Iran's subtractive influence on the strategic calculations of our closest allies.

8/08/2006 01:15:00 PM  
Blogger John Aristides said...

Allen, that's exactly what occured to me. Using historical data, the government's willingness to tap into the Strategic Reserve was set at a much higher standard of pressure than the what can be accounted for in the BP turnoff.

Also, the Fed has announced an end to its string of rate hikes. Economic doctrine calls for a strategy of amplified "super-inertia" in response to a sharp increase in uncertainty.

Coincidence?

8/08/2006 01:24:00 PM  
Blogger Annoy Mouse said...

Radical Islam has an ideological backbone similar to communism that appeals to the disaffected and can win over mass populations like Ho Chi Min, Mao Tse-Tung, and Vladimir Lenin did.

Civilian casualties have occurred in past wars but for committing acts of sedition, militant pacifists dared not over play their cards. Now two-bit losers like Cindy Sheehan are media stars.

The Kabuki Theater of the Arab street is enough to enflame militant America haters in Germany and endears them to such fascist propaganda as goose-stepping parades over American flags. It boils down to genocide has gotten a bad rap but those who have the guts to wield it will rule the world. Kill all the Jews in the Middle East and wait a decade, then kill all the Jews in Europe, and wait another decade and kill the rest of the Jews in America. Meanwhile American Jews will be trying to impeach Bush and kill the rest of the infidels by dragging them to court and executing them in the media.

In the end a lot of killing is going to go on and we as individuals need to decide what side of the ledger we would like to be on. Ideological pacifists enslaved to a murderous cult, or warriors, bloodied by a zeal for peace and freedom. When WWIV hits, do we pull together or do we have to pull apart Cindy Sheehan and all her militant pacifists?

I have had it with the MSM pro-fascist propaganda machine. The control system has gone open-loop and we are now spiraling to certain disaster. The Germans hate us existentially. The French are not our friends. Britain is embarrassed by us. Why do we look for Europe’s approval for anything? Global Caliphate, global trade, or thermonuclear war. Take your pick.

8/08/2006 01:32:00 PM  
Blogger allen said...

Aristides; 1:24 PM

Your link and commentary have rendered a great service to the readers here. Thank you very much!

re: conincidence?

That is a luxury we can ill afford. But as you know, perception has become reality.

8/08/2006 01:40:00 PM  
Blogger phil g said...

So Pat Buchanan is now talking about 'root causes'. He is now adopting the vocabulary of the left, it seems some of his politics are going left as well. That man is an enigma...a bitter, angry enigma. Pat's emotional state and ever growing delusional rants are beginning to resemble another psychological basket case...Al 'I wus robbed' Gore.

8/08/2006 01:41:00 PM  
Blogger John Aristides said...

You know, I never knew what to make of all the conspiracy theories about the shutdown of M3 reporting:

Q.7 [Bernanke's Written Responses to the Committee on Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs]. It is my understanding the Federal Reserve has decided to halt disclosure to the public of its M3 findings and report. The findings of the M3 report provide pertinent information to the public--from economists to investors and to industries which all use M3 report findings for economic forecasting, investing, and business decisions. You have advocated a “more open” Federal Reserve under your command. Will you work to reverse this policy and commit to keeping the M3 report and its findings available and open to the public? What is the rationale and reasoning by the Federal Reserve to keep the M3’s information from the public?

A.7. My understanding is that the Federal Reserve decided to discontinue publication of the monetary aggregate M3 because the costs of collecting and processing the underlying data were judged to exceed the benefits. The Federal Reserve will not withhold the M3 data from the public; rather, it will no longer collect and assemble that information. The Federal Reserve will continue to collect data for and publish the monetary aggregates M1 and M2 and their components.


Robert McHugh, whoever he is, thinks this has strategic implications:

The reason the Fed will stop publishing weekly M3 totals, says financial analyst Robert McHugh Jr., is "so that the Plunge Protection Team can hide its market manipulative equity-buying activities."

The PPT is poised to buy stocks and do it secretly, McHugh says, "to stop the higher-than-normal probability that the market could crash."


Others have said similar things, though a cursory search couldn't locate their exact statements.

Maybe there's something there in all this information, and maybe they're all false positives. But there is a certain maximum of points after which a clear pattern sets in.

8/08/2006 01:48:00 PM  
Blogger phil g said...

Buddy,
Great suggestion for C4 posts although I haven't noticed enough unique points to account for 147 per your example. Seems there's more like 10 that are recycled. There's the Joooo, one and the Neocon/Bushies one, there's the tax cuts for the rich, oh and the Chinese monster economy that is going to doom us...did I miss anything?

8/08/2006 01:49:00 PM  
Blogger buddy larsen said...

Annoy Mouse is right.

As Wretchard has in the past pointed out, the American Left is the world's biggest problem.

It keeps everyone on the globe standing on one leg, waiting to see which in which direction it wants to zoom off, it creates new and empowers old enemies and then causes them to miscalculate, by loose selfishness it starts wars it will not fight, and it makes people hate us for the simple reason that it makes us hateful.

It makes us hateful by being inconstant, and by demoralizing the defenders of western culture.

It effects this demoralization in many ways, but most lethally by the fact that, as it is itself a great part of (modern) western culture, western culture is to that extent less worth defending.

8/08/2006 01:50:00 PM  
Blogger phil g said...

Oh there's a new one from C4:
'Beloved Maximum War Leader Bush'.

Very clever...mind if I use it?

8/08/2006 01:53:00 PM  
Blogger John Aristides said...

Rufus: 1) There's a lot of moving parts here, 2)rational economic modeling isn't one of them.

You might certainly be right about number 2, that we aren't actually doing rational economic modeling. But that casts doubt on your point one. If both 1 and 2 were true, the current Administration would be acting against doctrine and sense, either through incompetence or timidity. If we are gearing up for war (point 1), then we should be optimizing the core components of American power to absorb the shock. National Security and Economic Security are intimately tied. If we are truly ignoring the latter while getting ready for war, we are doing so at our peril.

8/08/2006 02:04:00 PM  
Blogger buddy larsen said...

Phil g--no, "dear leader" goes waaay back. That's how you tell an ideologue--events never alter the thinking. Ever.

We could be hitting on 100% policy perfection, or 0% policy disaster, and the paragraphs would always be the same.

Economic boom, or depression, 20% interest rates or 5%, 5% unemployment or 50%, a deficit 2% or 20%, ahhh, it's all the same, y'see.

And the crowning achievement is reaching up, up, up, into the rarified altitude of Jihadi intellectualism: "Da JEWS is messin up my MIND!"

8/08/2006 02:10:00 PM  
Blogger Charles said...

[Holding the Holy Hand Grenade of Antioch]
King Arthur: How does it... um... how does it work?
Sir Lancelot: I know not, my liege.
King Arthur: Consult the Book of Armaments.
Brother Maynard: Armaments, chapter two, verses nine through twenty-one.
Cleric: [reading] And Saint Attila raised the hand grenade up on high, saying, "O Lord, bless this thy hand grenade, that with it thou mayst blow thine enemies to tiny bits, in thy mercy." And the Lord did grin. And the people did feast upon the lambs and sloths, and carp and anchovies, and orangutans and breakfast cereals, and fruit-bats and large chu...
Brother Maynard: Skip a bit, Brother...
Cleric: And the Lord spake, saying, "First shalt thou take out the Holy Pin. Then shalt thou count to three, no more, no less. Three shall be the number thou shalt count, and the number of the counting shall be three. Four shalt thou not count, neither count thou two, excepting that thou then proceed to three. Five is right out. Once the number three, being the third number, be reached, then lobbest thou thy Holy Hand Grenade of Antioch towards thy foe, who, being naughty in my sight, shall snuff it.
Brother Maynard: Amen.
All: Amen.
King Arthur: Right. One... two... five.
Galahad: Three, sir.
King Arthur: Three.
http://imdb.com/title/tt0071853/quotes

8/08/2006 02:30:00 PM  
Blogger Doug said...

Thanks, Charles.
---
Colonel Sandurz: Sir, do you think we're being too literal?

Dark Helmet: No you fool, we're following orders.
We were told to comb the desert so we're combing it.

Dark Helmet: Before you die there is something you should know about us, Lone Star.
Lone Starr: What?
Dark Helmet: I am your father's brother's nephew's cousin's former roommate.
Lone Starr: What's that make us?
Dark Helmet: Absolutely nothing! Which is what you are about to become.
Yogurt: And may the schwartz be with you!

8/08/2006 02:49:00 PM  
Blogger Jamie Irons said...

Barbarrossa:

...Iran borders the entire western edge of the gulf...


I think you mean the whole eastern edge of the Persian Gulf...


Jamie Irons

8/08/2006 02:50:00 PM  
Blogger allen said...

phil g,

re: Buchanan

Did I read you correctly: "Buchanan is an enema"?

That's downright Freudian.

Sorry, yes, now I see; I had a spot on my bifocals.

8/08/2006 02:53:00 PM  
Blogger Charles said...

Sir Bedevere: There are ways of telling whether she is a witch.
Peasant 1: Are there? Oh well, tell us.
Sir Bedevere: Tell me. What do you do with witches?
Peasant 1: Burn them.
Sir Bedevere: And what do you burn, apart from witches?
Peasant 1: More witches.
Peasant 2: Wood.
Sir Bedevere: Good. Now, why do witches burn?
Peasant 3: ...because they're made of... wood?
Sir Bedevere: Good. So how do you tell whether she is made of wood?
Peasant 1: Build a bridge out of her.
Sir Bedevere: But can you not also build bridges out of stone?
Peasant 1: Oh yeah.
Sir Bedevere: Does wood sink in water?
Peasant 1: No, no, it floats!... It floats! Throw her into the pond!
Sir Bedevere: No, no. What else floats in water?
Peasant 1: Bread.
Peasant 2: Apples.
Peasant 3: Very small rocks.
Peasant 1: Cider.
Peasant 2: Gravy.
Peasant 3: Cherries.
Peasant 1: Mud.
Peasant 2: Churches.
Peasant 3: Lead! Lead!
King Arthur: A Duck.
Sir Bedevere: ...Exactly. So, logically...
Peasant 1: If she weighed the same as a duck... she's made of wood.
Sir Bedevere: And therefore...
Peasant 2: ...A witch!
http://imdb.com/title/tt0071853/quotes

8/08/2006 03:02:00 PM  
Blogger allen said...

Cedarford is proven correct, according to yoni!!!

“A majority of 54% of PA Arabs think that Israel controls the US.”

While I know Cedarford would never countenance it: “[A] majority of Palestinians (55%) agree that Hamas should not change its position regarding the elimination of the state of Israel.”

The PA has now entered the mainstream of EU thinking. Yeah, they are definitely ready for a state.

Meanwhile back at the ranch, the “ex-Stalinist” Israeli Cabinet Minister Natan Sharansky (Did I get that label right C4? Oh, I’m still waiting for the names of the ex-Stalinist Jewish propagandists you claim. What, cat got your tongue?) is not so sure about that.
Furthermore, he shares my high regard for those ace fixers at the Department of State.

http://www.newsmax.com/
archives/articles/2006/8/
7/100904.shtml?s=im

Adding insult to injury, that neo-con, Jew loving Rich Lowry is not pleased with the administration, either.

http://article.nationalreview.
com/?q=OTExNmE3OTJhOGEwNz
IxMzIzZj
VhZmE1MzNlODY1YmI=

Echoing Sharansky, Haaretz would please like to see Mr. Olmert win the war. The impression given is that, if Olmert has no use for the Army, he might give to someone who does.

http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/
spages/747478.html

8/08/2006 04:12:00 PM  
Blogger just a marine said...

The War of the Worlds

In my life it came.

On the wings of friction…between nation state ideas and tribal ideas. It came.

Ideas worth dieing for came.

Moral equivalence amplified in my mind and experience.

I have been attacked.

I am expected to become a convert to Islam, and accept the new theocratic dictators.

I will fight them with my will, body, and family.

I cannot believe this is happening to me and my family.

I was naïve about our world's future in the 21st century.

But I will do my duty, as I see it.

8/08/2006 04:17:00 PM  
Blogger SarahWeddington said...

Allen,

Herr Cedarford isn't worth wasting time on.

It appears Olmert is still wasting time.

There has to be some explanation for why he's sat on his hands for a month with 3-5K operating at any one time.

80K could have pushed HB to Beirut and severely damaged them and dealt a huge blow to Iran and Syria.

There has to be some explanation for why Syria has gone unscathed.

There has to be some explanation for why the IDF is using 2-3% of its forces.

I don't know what it is but who knows what's going on behind the scenes.

8/08/2006 04:24:00 PM  
Blogger allen said...

sarahweddington; 4:24 PM

I am having the darnedest time wrapping my head around a grand strategy for victory that purposefully puts 1/5 of a population into bomb shelters for a month or more, while placing the remaining population at growing peril; that these events are occurring while a military such as that if the IDF sits barely used is mind boggling.

From the slight rumblings of discontent coming out of the Israeli media over the past few days, to Sharansky’s blatant swipe at Olmert today, the discontent is growing obviously.

8/08/2006 04:38:00 PM  
Blogger buddy larsen said...

My impression was they'd hit a large number of the incoming scuds. Quite a few hits are on videotape. And using an 8 bit cpu, too.

8/08/2006 04:50:00 PM  
Blogger allen said...

Reuters does it again. Is anyone listening?

Bombing of Funeral: False Reporting by Reuters
http://www.israelnn.com/
news.php3?id=109521

Ben Stein may have some answers, unfit for those with high blood pressure.

A Few More Little Facts
http://www.spectator.org/
dsp_article.asp?art_id=10192

8/08/2006 05:00:00 PM  
Blogger allen said...

While it remains to be seen whether yoni is on target with his report of Olmert’s paralysis being caused by the fear of Tel Aviv being attacked, he is right-on with the report of Olmert’s desire to evacuate Kiryat Shmona in the face of ongoing Hezbollah attacks.

Run away! Run away! Run away!

___Fear in Olmerts Office
___Government to Evacuate Kiryat Shmona Residents
http://www.yonitheblogger.com/

8/08/2006 05:09:00 PM  
Blogger Reocon said...

The F World
Getting to the heart of the matter.

By Rich Lowry


If there is one bedrock conviction underlying President Bush’s foreign policy, it is that freedom is the desire of every human heart. Bush repeats the phrase at every opportunity, and it is the premise of his push for democracy in the Middle East and elsewhere: Given a free choice, it is assumed, people will choose freedom and the political system best suited to foster it.

Bush’s emphasis on the inherent hunger for freedom is powerful. It clothes his foreign policy in an undeniable idealism. It puts his liberal opponents in a tight spot, because it is awkward for them to object to the kind of sweeping universalism they have always embraced. It might be simplistic, but that is often an advantage in political communication.

The problem with Bush’s freedom rhetoric is that it appears to not be true. Hezbollah and Hamas, and the populations that support them, desire the destruction of Israel above all, and are willing to endure warfare and dysfunctional societies to bring it about. The Sunni insurgents in Iraq want power more than anything else, and are willing to kill and maim to gain it. The Shia militias, in turn, desire revenge against the Sunni.

All around the chaotic and violent Middle East, human hearts are yearning for many things, but freedom isn’t high on the list.

http://article.nationalreview.com/print/?q=OTExNmE3OTJhOGEwNzIxMzIzZjVhZmE1MzNlODY1YmI=

8/08/2006 05:10:00 PM  
Blogger buddy larsen said...

Today at the UN, when the Israeli ambassador began to speak, the Iranian and the Syrian ambassadors walked out of the room.

8/08/2006 05:28:00 PM  
Blogger buddy larsen said...

"Personally, I hope very much that we can work this out without war. I, also, doubt very much that we can."

Jeez, rufus, it was just a little blog misunderstanding.

8/08/2006 06:07:00 PM  
Blogger ambisinistral said...

Why would Iran close the straights? That would trigger a war.

They don't want a face to face war with the US. They want to force us out of the ME and intimidate Europe, so they can polish off Israel and consolidate their position for the push to regain Spain and the Balkans.

They'll do proxy stuff and try to keep their finger prints off of any terror attacks.

8/08/2006 06:13:00 PM  
Blogger buddy larsen said...

I think you're right. Iran will break up everything we try to do in Iraq, for as long as the mullahs are in power. Mullahs can't afford to have democracies in the neighborhood.

8/08/2006 06:45:00 PM  
Blogger desert rat said...

rufus,
Been saying that for a while now.
Mr Sistani, al-Sadr and Maliki are with each other, more than any are with US.

If the ISF commanders believe in the Turkish model, there is some hope for Security and Stability in Iraq, but Democracy will have to die there, first.

Hard to tell, from here, where the ISF's loyalties lie.

8/08/2006 06:45:00 PM  
Blogger Db2m said...

2164th said...

"Bush was not responsible for a hurricane. he may not have been resposnible for the dikes, but someone was...If the US was not dependent on oil, there would be no massive infusion of cash into the Islamic world as there is today. it is a very weak link in American security. If you think it not worthy of asking why such an important piece of infrastructure be allowed to crumble, would it trouble you if the wings on an American Airline plane fell off because no one paid attention to a maintenance schedule?"

*********

2164th,

The government did its part, by statute. I don't know the full details, but it would appear the folks running the pipeline weren't taking OSHA 1910-119 (Mechanical Integrity) too seriously, if they are talking about a shutdown of months. The places I have worked at have, especially in the last 10 years or so, observed the provisions rigorously and expensively.

Do you mean, if we weren't dependent on "oil", or if we weren't dependent on "foreign oil"? Why shouldn't we be dependent on our own oil, or our own corn or our own soybeans, or our own coal or whatever?

One of the main reasons we went to war to liberate Kuwait was oil. That is, for the protection of "the free flow of oil at market prices." Sounds like a great reason to go to war to me, especially since the whole cotton-pickin' world is dependent on oil. Sounds like a good reason to nationalize sworn-enemy oil fields, unless, of course, one is big on "moral equivalence" nonsense.

BTW, I didn't check back, but did you ever back down on that bit about Israel in Lebanon being Janet Reno at Waco?

If you did back down, I guess my question is rude. But if you didn't back down, then I'm sure you don't mind, sticking, as it were, to your guns. I therefore offer my apology, or non-apology, for posing the question, whichever is more appropriate. :-)

8/08/2006 06:56:00 PM  
Blogger buddy larsen said...

Congress voted for drilling ANWAR, eleven years ago. Bill Clinton vetoed it. It would by now be producing, conservatively, about 10% of what we import. Since the veto, the congress has never voted it in again.

8/08/2006 07:07:00 PM  
Blogger ambisinistral said...

Lone Star,

I think Iran has no desire to go to war with us at the moment. They're not stupid. If nothing else I'm sure they are painfully aware they couldn't take out Saddam's Army and we whacked it in a matter of weeks.

They've been calibrating their provoacations just short of a causus belli. They know we're not going to roll across their borders because of IEDs, anymore than they're going to roll across the borders over the destabalizing efforts we're no doubt aiming their way.

I think they've been doing a bit of a proxy echelon attack. First, the Taliban's Summer Offensive, which is fizzling on them. Secondly the Hezb'Allah war on Israel (which I don't think is going at all according to their script), and soon Sadr confronting us.

I believe, like Japan tried to insulate itself with the Co-Prosperity sphere, that Iran's strategic aim in these events is to push the US out of the Middle East so they can seize control of the area's resources and damage our economy in the process. Then they can handle Israel and cower Europe in the process.

I don't think the plan is going to work any more than the Co-Prosperity Sphere did, but I suspect they've talked themselves into believing they can pull it off. I also think much of the strangeness we've seen lately -- the UN going for a month without coming near calling for a cease fire, France threatening nuclear response to terrorist attacks, Israel not storming up to the Bekka Valley, the pipe line closure, etc. -- are counter moves to an Iranian proxy campaign stretching over the course of the summer.

'Course, there is also a good chance I don't know what the heck I'm talking about, but I've never let that stop me before. ;-)

8/08/2006 07:39:00 PM  
Blogger buddy larsen said...

rufus--who knows what might've gone on with KSA, but the conventional wisdom has always been that he merely caved to a fierce campaign by the Green lobby--under the "preserve our natural beauty" cover.

I've always thought the "green" in 'green lobby' really stands for "an issue that brings in the green stuff".

8/08/2006 07:48:00 PM  
Blogger buddy larsen said...

The mullahs are gamblers--the '79 Embassy takeover, the Marine barracks, those were things that could've gotten them into a world of sh*t. But they did 'em anyway.

8/08/2006 07:52:00 PM  
Blogger Arthur Dent said...

ambisinistral 7:39 PM

Ambis. Iran is certainly stupid.

Stupid is what stupid does. The most logical answer for the mess in Lebanon is that the islamnuts did not expect such a huge response.

That POV is irrelevant as we now know Hezbo inc. has been planning for war for at least six years.

Iran believes that Allah is about to choose sides in the current battle against the racist arrogant zionist pig dogs. Iran might be half right about the choosing sides part....

8/08/2006 08:07:00 PM  
Blogger Free West said...

Si vis pacem, para bellum.

Hezbolla ragheads deserve to be slaughtered.

Iranian mullah-dogs and pet-cockroach Ahmadinejad: you're next for slaughter.

Death to Iran!

8/08/2006 08:15:00 PM  
Blogger Arthur Dent said...

Buddy 7:52

You remind me of a story.

1000 gamblers were selected to bet on a ball game.

Half were told the Red Sox would win the next game, half were told the Yankees would win.
The Sox won.

Next Day the 500 winners were divided into two groups (the losers moved on). Half were told the Red Sox would win half were told the Yankees would win.
The Yankees won. 250 people who have just 'won' twice.

This continued until only two people were left. Both were always winners, neither ever lost because of the nature of the scam.

At this point in the story the scam artist is supposed to ask for a lot of money from the two 'winners' in exchange for the 'next winner'. The scam artist then leaves with the cash.

To make a short story long, Hamas and Hezbullah have been very unlikely winners the past 20 years.

Who is scamming who?

8/08/2006 08:18:00 PM  
Blogger allen said...

rufus,

Yoni reported earlier of troubles between the IDF and the Olmert government. This report at YNet strongly suggests that a tidal wave may be forming below the surface of public scrutiny.

There has been a purge, clearly. The generals involved have their constituencies. This may get nasty for the Olmert government.

IDF officials: Maj. Gen. Adam must quit post after war
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3288461,00.html

8/08/2006 08:27:00 PM  
Blogger Utopia Parkway said...

There was a lot of depressing news at the start of the year related to Peak Oil and predictions that the stock market would take a nose dive. After a while that seemed to pass.

Now there is a lot of depressing news and opinions again:

The Central Moral issue of our Time

Neither hawks nor doves have any viable near-term solutions

Absent a clear Hezbollah defeat, a satisfactory diplomatic result is hard to imagine.

Does Iran have something in store for Aug. 22?

It's all Olmert's fault. He should be kicking ass and taking names. Hard to tell how this will all turn out.

8/08/2006 08:36:00 PM  
Blogger Free West said...

Per Wretchard's thought-provoking post "...greatest weakness of Western culture: its ability to draw a moral equivalence between anything and everything..."
Yes, this may be true, but don't forget the power of hate. The Western culture has been building hatred toward the Islamic theofascists. Slowly but surely the hatred is building and the West will find another Alexander to lay waste to their lands, people and religion.

8/08/2006 08:39:00 PM  
Blogger allen said...

This whole business of a confrontation date (22 August) inexplicably brought to mind the defeat of the Roman Emperor Valerian by the Parthians (Persian precursors) at Edessa (Urfa) in modern Iraq. The battle there took place in summer but little else is known, other than Valerian and his legions vanished into legend.

Urfa is near Harran, the ancestoral home of the Patriarch Abraham. Edessa also plays large in ancient Christian history.

The mind wanders.

8/08/2006 08:39:00 PM  
Blogger John Aristides said...

Bernard Lewis is backing up the August 22nd storyline.

Why would such an eminent scholar put his name on the line to highlight a seemingly improbable speculation?

The answer to that question is frightening.

I must say, I'm more anxious than I've been in a while.

Man all too easily grows lax and mellow,
He soon elects repose at any price;
And so I like to pair him with a fellow,
To play the deuce, to stir, and to entice.


The lesson we learned from Hitler was "Do not Appease." I fear that the lesson of Ahmadinejad will be equally traumatic:

"Do not Ignore."

8/08/2006 08:43:00 PM  
Blogger Free West said...

August 22

Good to know that more people are taking notice of August 22.

What's special about August 22 ???

Note that it is a New Moon...
And - curiouser and curiouser- the mullah's pet-cockroach Ahmenidejad seems to be promising a surprise of some kind.

Lighting up the sky


Iran and Apocalypse

8/08/2006 08:58:00 PM  
Blogger buddy larsen said...

The missing Russian suitcase bombs come to mind. Russia's already covered itself--they "got lost during the breakup".

8/08/2006 09:00:00 PM  
Blogger buddy larsen said...

No, I saw a headline about goat genitals, too. Thought it was a joke.

Need some shivery? Go to For Freedom's second link ("Iran and Apocalypse") and read the comment of Dr. Charles R. Close, D.C., former USMC, VNVet.

8/08/2006 09:25:00 PM  
Blogger allen said...

rufus,

It is presumed that General Adam is being “reassigned” from the Northern Command for excessive timidity. Consider. What if his reassignment, instead, reflects an aggressiveness that can no longer be controlled by the Olmert government? In the instance, Patton and MacArthur come to mind immediately.

As sure as G-d made little green apples, given the expected level of rancor, we will discover the facts, probably sooner than later.

8/08/2006 09:34:00 PM  
Blogger exhelodrvr1 said...

Trangbang,
Is that what they mean by "bleating heart liberals"?

8/08/2006 09:47:00 PM  
Blogger allen said...

Guys, please!

Yesterday, a perfectly good thread broke down over Ms. Hilton’s nether parts.

Today, this thread is threatened by goats’ behinds.

(And, yes, I realize that I may be guilty of making a distinction without a difference.)

The world is looking to us, gentlemen. And, I may say gentlemen, without fear of contradiction, because no woman would tread where shepherds fear to go.

Flea bitten elephants, hircus thongs…Where will it end, for goodness sake?

She wore an itsy bitsy teenie weenie yellow polka-dot bikini…NO!!! I’m being driven mad, I tell you.

8/08/2006 09:53:00 PM  
Blogger 3Case said...

"What changes here ... is that non-state forces are able to challenge states militarily -- and win."

That Lind guy's not very bright. HB is about as non-state as HUD...or the State Department.


Saw Juan Williams on Special Report tonight...nattering along on how we've got to get Israel to stop and withdraw from South Lebanon immediately or we'll sacrifice what good will we have there and in the greater Arab world...he's not very bright either.

8/08/2006 10:10:00 PM  
Blogger Triton'sPolarTiger said...

Having followed developments related to Iran for quite a while, it seems to me that war speculation has ramped up considerably in the last few weeks.

So, how to deal with Iranian belligerence?

I made the following suggestion back in January of this year - please pardon the length:

The question of how to handle Iranian Nukes was discussed in the following Belmont Club thread over a year ago:

http://belmontclub.blogspot.com/2004/12/iraqi-elections-five-days-and-age-ago.html

While reading the comments section at the above link, I remembered something I heard about or read about a few years earlier.

If you elect to visit the link, key in Control+F and select the word "spears" for your search. That'll take you directly to some comments that were made regarding a concept called "Brilliant Spears."

It was originally proposed as a possible solution to North Korea's nuclear weapons program, but I believe has application to the current situation with Iran.

Following is an excerpt from that Belmont thread.

>>>>>>

Originally posted on Dec 19, 2004:

Based on his performance so far, I think we'll eventually see Chief Two Stones take some action on Iranian nukes... what I'm wondering is in what form such a thing will appear?

Maybe 3 or 4 years ago I read an article detailing a way to deal with NK nukes, without actually using explosive munitions that could easily be traced back to Uncle Sam. It involved kinetic energy weapons known as "brilliant spears." The basic idea was to make a number of solid metal rods of sufficient diameter and length so as to achieve extreme terminal velocity upon falling from, say, 50,000 or more feet. Combined with GPS guidance packages, these weapons could be dropped from a single high-flying craft, essentially undetectable from the ground.

Arriving at target at Mach something-or-another, the rods would punch holes right through the containment building, pressure vessel(s), etc, (as well as achieve a nice bit of ground penetration to take care of the buried facilities) without being heard on approach. Sonic booms would immediately follow impact, nearly coincident with systems' pressure loss and a spike in radiation levels at various internal monitoring stations, leaving the impression that some sort of accident was underway.

The NK's might have screamed, but without any explosive residue to examine and containment building radiation levels too high to allow for any forensics for years... By the time anything fingering the US finally came out, perhaps NK would be under new management, and the whole issue'd no longer matter.

Relative to Iran, we'd probably get blamed anyway, but without any hard evidence to support the claim, we could conceivably wave off world criticism with the back of our hand... while leaving Iran and others just "KNOWING!" we did it, but utterly unable to figure out how.

The sleepless nights in Tehran would be worth it... and you might get that long-awaited Iranian student uprising we've been hoping to see.

I wish I'd have kept that article - last time I looked, I found nothing on Google...

>>>>>>

There are further comments down the thread, but I'll leave it to interested parties to go there for the rest rather than make my post into an epistle by copying all the original posts here.

Continuing...

Picture the following:

1. Assuming a few successful tests in the Nevada desert, every B-2 except one would be flown out of its Missouri base to a staging area where each would get a full load of Brilliant Spears.

2. Mission start should be asap, preferably at night.

3. A few hours later that next morning, a previously-advertised air show would begin on-base. Media coverage would be locally extensive and hopefully national.

4. The operational B-2 held back from the mission (a mission now only a few hours old) would delight the crowd with a number of fly-overs. Once that's done, it would land and be positioned in the same area where the public can view (from a distance) the remaining B-2's... except that this row of B-2's would be nothing more than plywood decoys.

5. Meanwhile, as pictures and video of the air show (complete with footage showing all the 'fake' B-2's accounted for) make CNN, it would be picked up in many locations around the globe. The message? No B-2's bombing Iran today... except...

6. Half a world away, under cover of darkness, the B-2's would dump hundreds of Brilliant Spears into Iran's nuclear facilities.

7. We would wake the next morning to the news that some kind of event in Iran has befallen many (if not most, or all) of its nuclear facilities.

8. Eyewitness accounts would provide nothing useful since they would not have heard any subsonic bombs whistling down upon them, nor would they have seen or heard any aircraft. Radar would, of course, show nothing.

9. Fingers would of course point at us - that just had to be a B-2 strike, eh, Muhammad? But, but, but... the B-2's were on base for the airshow all day - heck, one even flew around overhead for a few minutes just to delight the crowd.

The big question the following morning in the Iranian government would be "What happened last night, and how did the Americans do it?"

Many months later, as the young people of Iran finally wrest control of their country from the mad mullahs, we could (I suspect) be on the receiving end of much good will on their part, seeing as they just KNOW we destroyed the government's nuclear program... while not destroying the country's infrastructure and killing large numbers of innocents... i.e. their friends, families, pets, homes, etc.

If Iraq isn't a MidEast tipping point for islamic radicals, then pulling off this sort of thing in Iran WITHOUT involving Israel most certainly would be.

Do it once - it'd change the entire calculus of the region. They'd all know we did something... but there'd be just about no way to ever prove it.

Psychologically, it'd be the equivalent of waking up to find all the furniture in your house (except for the bed in which you just awoke) bolted to the ceiling... and all the doors and windows locked tight as they were when you turned in... it's hard to imagine that the emergency cabinet meeting that followed such an event would begin with the customary "Death to America!" chants.

......Oh, and make sure it happens on August 22nd.

8/08/2006 10:14:00 PM  
Blogger 3Case said...

"These analysts do not mean to suggest that Hezbollah is tactically defeating the IDF, but defeating it strategically."

That is to say, defeating it in the arena of the vanities of the pols, diplos and mainstream media....

8/08/2006 10:15:00 PM  
Blogger allen said...

cedarford,

You must know by now that that neo-con groupie Senator Joe Lieberman lost his primary and is no longer a Democrat. Woe is me; the Jews have lost a vote!

How exactly did the Elders pull that off? From my vantage point, Lieberman’s defeat would be self-defeating, given our plan for global conquest.

I nearly said "Pinky" there. The "Brain" reels.

With baited breath, I await the opportunity to hang, transfixed, on your every word. Not to be pestiferous, but I’m anxious to have that list you claim of ex-Stalinist Jewish propagandists. Please!

8/08/2006 10:22:00 PM  
Blogger allen said...

Sorry, cedarford

"bated" not baited

Some free association must have been happening.

8/08/2006 10:45:00 PM  
Blogger allen said...

rufus,

At the risk of being labeled a social bigot, why exactly do we take seriously a culture obsessed with the molestation of livestock? We do have the Richard Simmons Show, but nothing remotely comparable to Ahmed’s “Fifty Ways to Beat Your Lover.”

And all this time I never dreamed that Mohammed's best girl, Fatima, could have been a goat. Western education is so lacking.

Do you ever have the feeling that these air breathers are freak’n aliens? And I don’t mean from another planet or solar system. I’m thinking galacticly.

Will someone remind me again, why we hesitate to send these ___ to a just reward?

8/08/2006 11:01:00 PM  
Blogger allen said...

It has started to hit the fan.

New Israeli General in Charge of Lebanon
http://www.breitbart.com/
news/2006/08/08/D8JCIBJ80.html

The Syrians remain untouched.

8/08/2006 11:25:00 PM  
Blogger John Hawkins said...

Anyone here ever read Strauss and Howe? Their theories on a Great Cycle to American history? Briefly, the gist is that occasionally, a society emerges that has the right balance of stability and dynamism to settle into a Saeculum – a four-generation cycle that repeats itself. Nothing mystical, just that the type of society you grow up in influences your attitude towards society, which influences the type of society you build when it’s your turn to pull the levels. Anglo-America (starting in England before the reformation and repeating predictably, though transferred across the ocean, for six full cycles), is such a society.

The cycle is Boom-Awakening-Unraveling-Crisis-Booom-Awakening-Unraveling-Crisis-Boom, etc. The end of the last cycle was the end of WWII. The preceeding Unraveling, the teens and twenties, saw WWI, while the Crisis saw the Depression and WWII. A key element of the theory is that external events are no where near as important as is societies reaction to them. WWI saw an expansionist Germany touch off a war with the rest of Europe. The US dithered, then finally sent troops, shared in the negotiated victory, and finally squandered the peace, beset by doubts and distracted by pipe dreams. A generation later, an expansionist Germany touched off another war. This time, the US bombed its enemies into dust; incinerated their cities; demanded and received unconditional surrender; hanged the surviving enemy leaders and reshaped their cultures to suit American needs. This pattern is repeated. During an unraveling, it’s half-measures and surrender to self doubts. A generation later, less forgiving leaders, backed by the populace, say enough is enough and wage brutal, total, war. Against themselves, others, both, whoever is the source of the problem. LeMay’s firebombings. Sherman’s March To the Sea. Songs with lines like “I have read a fiery gospel writ in burnished rows of steel” and giant billboards saying “Kill the Bastards” in three-foot high letters along the road from Bataan.

The unraveling, with all of its fears, frustrations and setbacks, is painful. But it serves a purpose. It hardens society, and exhausts reserves of patience. It prepares easy-going people who built a society based on tolerance and second chances to be hard-asses with anyone who crosses them. It prepares them for the coming Crisis.

Each phase is about 25 years long. American entered an Unraveling phase sometime between 1981 and 1983. Math tells me the tenor of things is going to change in the next two years. No one's going to worry about Jesus Camps or profiling.

8/09/2006 12:34:00 AM  
Blogger Mad Fiddler said...

In a post on the blog “regimechangeiran.blogspot.com” a reference was made to Hassan Abbassi, identified as President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s “chief strategic guru.” He is supposed to have asserted that he’s identified 29 “sensitive sites” in the United States, which evidently means approximately that they are targets for attack that could be crucial to the U.S.

Ahmadinejad has coyly offered to “submit an answer” on the 22nd of August to the West’s demand that Iran come clean with its Nuclear program. In that context it might be an interesting exercise to speculate on which sites the Iranians think would be worth targeting.

August 22nd has been described as corresponding to Rajab 27 of the Islamic calendar. The sites I’ve checked explain that date is the anniversary of “Lailat Al Israa” — the ascent of the Prophet Mohammet to Heaven from the Al Aqsa mosque, which mosque we are told has come to be regarded as symbolic of Jerusalem. So the statements attributed to Ahmadinejad suggest he plans a spectacular response.

As more I think of it, so less it seems like a good idea to discuss Iran’s tactics in a public forum. Let the bastards do their own brainstorming.

This much though seems obvious, and maybe needs *our* attention and study. (a) I assume various responsible parties in our government are gaming this. I’m not going to include the list of potential targets that seem likely to me, but it’s closer to a hundred. (b) Inasmuch as Iran does not have reliable bombers or ICBMs (although it has purchased modern high-speed conventional attack submarines from Italy, and some surplus subs from Russia) it seems most likely Iran would be looking at shipborne systems.

8/09/2006 01:32:00 AM  
Blogger Doug said...

Democracy-Whiskey-Sexy
Starling has a new blog named to appeal to certain BC Members.
Has a funny piece about Uncle Hugo the A-rab:
---
But who in the audience in his recent speech in Qatar could actually have believed Chavez when he is reported to have said :
"I want to congratulate the people of Qatar, and its leader, my friend and brother, Prince Hamad. From this pulpit, I send my brotherly congratulations to the entire Arab people.
I'm celebrating my birthday in the heart of the Arab homeland, on Arab land. What a happy coincidence! My heart beats along with millions of Arab hearts.
I could have been an Arab. I have crossed deserts, I have ridden camels, and I have sung along with the Bedouin. I have learned in those years to love and respect the Arab people."

---
Well I've lived in the Middle East a year and on one point Hugo and I can agree: there is much to love and respect about the Arab people. But as best I can tell, all of those desert-crossing camel rides notwithstanding, Chavez embodies not one iota of it.

8/09/2006 04:03:00 AM  
Blogger Doug said...

Endgame Conservatives
By Jed Babbin
We understand that Islamic terrorism cannot threaten us significantly without the support of nations.
We are impatient with Mr. Bush's neo-Wilsonianism because it allows the enemy and its apologists to control the pace and direction of the war.
We are unwilling to allow the prosecution of this war against the terrorist nations to be delayed for however long it takes for Iraqis to sort themselves out.
It is impossible for them to do so while neighboring nations -- Syria, Iran, and Saudi Arabia -- actively interfere.
Endgame conservatives don't want to be caught in the web of failed nostrums of Vietnam. We won't wait for Islam to be reformed or to win the hearts and minds of the mullahs in Tehran.
We don't consider Islam unreformable; but we understand that it is unreformable by non-Muslims. And we understand that the only way to spur Muslims to accomplish that reformation is to break the hold radical Islam has over a growing number of nations.

What we want to do is prosecute this war decisively to its conclusion, which Mr. Bush isn't doing.
Mr. Bush's democratization strategy, naive and Wilsonian, has put us in the posture of strategic defense.
His original formulation -- that nations are either with us or against us -- has been whittled away to a confrontation-cum-engagement strategy that enables Iran to offer cooperation in Iraq while buying time to build nuclear weapons

8/09/2006 04:15:00 AM  
Blogger Deuce ☂ said...

Doug 8/09/2006 04:15:16 AM

Here Here

8/09/2006 04:49:00 AM  
Blogger Triton'sPolarTiger said...

steel&fire&stone:

" "Brilliant spears" may be nice, but I'd prefer a proven military solution, with predictable results. Secondly, "stealth" and "deniability" is the last thing we want."

We do not disagree on these points. "Spears" is offered as an option to counter those who say it can't be done, for any of a variety of reasons, i.e. we're tied down in Iraq, etc.

I'd prefer to see us prosecute the war with vigor, in plain sight of our enemies. Problem is, a noisy segment of our society is presently making it politically very difficult to do so.

I am concerned that we will eventually pay a terrible price before victory because of it. I posted the following a few days ago:

"Nice to see the old reliables still here - Doug, Buddy, et al.

Sorry I only lurk these days, but maybe this big @ss post will make up for it.


Habu_3 said...
the 5% and the 95% Muslim/Arab/Islamist/Persian/Korean are causing 100% of me to want to do a Curtis Lemay/Atilla the Hun number on their civilizations.

I don't give a shit about trying to understand what motivates an Arab kid to play with a dung bettle I just want them gone, vanished, taken up by the mothership or jump into the well with the 12th mahdi. They've been shoven crap at the world for centuries. We have to beat them on the battlefield every century but now the "bomb" and A.Q. Khan are all over the place and one day they're gonna ignite one of them all over us..lets just kill 90% of 'em next week..then we start the cleanup and be done by Christmas.


Habu, I'm on my way to your position. I'm beginning to think the same about the Left. I emailed the following to Pat Santy after her recent blog post "The Answer Is No" :

//////////////
Dear Dr Santy,

I spent 8am on 9.11.2001 in bed, laid up with a pinched nerve that made my right arm feel like my face after dental work.

My wife woke me by telephone sometime past 8, telling me to turn on the television. I hardly moved for the next several hours, unable to tear myself away from the unspeakable evil we all saw that day.

Our little neighborhood in xxxxxxx, XX, was directly affected by what happened. (Name), a recently remarried father of a Brady Bunch minus one, was somewhere above the 100th floor in the North Tower. He died when the building finally came down.

Today, almost five years after 9/11, I am coming to the conclusion that the Left (internal and abroad) has become nearly as dangerous as modern Islam, so much so that your piece "The Answer Is No" could have very well been written about it.

It's hard for me to believe that the Left has become so infected with BSD that they'd actually put the country at risk, but what other conclusion can one reach? Having watched the Plame affair, the NYT exposure of sensitive anti-terrorist tools, etc, it is apparent that the Left has decided that the reaquisition of power is so important that if it takes hobbling the war effort to the point that we get hit again in order to discredit Bush/Republicans, then so be it. (Scoop Jackson would spontaneously combust if he knew what his political heirs are doing.)

Today, from my perspective, that makes them traitorous bastards. Once we get hit again (and I am increasingly concerned about the possibility), then again from my perspective, this would make them accomplices to mass murder. I have little doubt that in the privacy of their foul hearts, they believe the loss of thousands more Americans is worth it if it pries the reins of power from George Bush.

I doubt that they've considered what sort of world they might inherit after a 2nd successful mass casualty event... though frankly, I don't think they care one way or another. In my opinion, this makes them even more repugnant. "Give us the reins of power," they say, "and we, enlightened as we are, will put a peaceful end to this mess."

So, they resist the war effort at every turn, perhaps to the point that those trying to fight the war become so hamstrung that it opens the door for a terrorist WMD attack.

Consider a hypothetical -

It's February 2007 - a heavily loaded container ship moves slowly up the Hudson.

At 12:10 pm, with nearby streets full of people heading out for lunch, a fission device hidden in one of the containers detonates.

The blast wave kills anyone outdoors within a half mile radius. The immediate death toll would run into the tens of thousands at minimum.

The associated EM pulse would render all unshielded electronics useless for miles around, effectively cutting off Manhattan and its surroundings from the outside world.

The days that follow would be gradually filled with images of unsurpassed horror as survivors begin to make contact with family, friends, etc.

Considering all the businesses that headquarter in NY (stock market, for example), it's not hard to imagine the entire country grinding to a halt.... if for no other reason than a significant loss of confidence in the ultimate stability of the nation. "Why," a trucker might reason, "should I continue to deliver the goods I carry if they (and I) might be vaporized in a second WMD attack? I should go home and stock the storm cellar with drinking water."

The President, regardless of political affiliation, will not be afforded the option of failing to respond in kind. Failure to hit back swiftly, and in overwhelming fashion, would only further erode citizens' confidence in national stability, while at the same time it would so inflame the population that the President would be forced to step down, or quite possibly (for the first time in history) be removed by a citizen coup.

The gloves would have to come off.

The only viable response to a nuke on the Hudson would be multiple nuclear strikes at targets of great importance to Islam... starting, for example, with an obliterating strike against Qom and against Medina... and possibly an arab capital. And yes, innocents would die... by the thousands. But it's the only "language" islamists understand.

The immediate result in the US would be a significant stabilization of the populace ("Now THAT'S what I'm talking about!" The President is taking it to'em!!!!! Maybe we'll come out of this ok after all!").

This should be followed up with a prime time television address, stating the following non-negotiables (in response to islamic terrorism):

1. If, from this moment until the end of time, a nuclear device (or some other WMD) is detonated in an American city, America's response will be to wipe three Arab/Islamic cities from the face of the earth, starting with Mecca, and including an as-yet untouched Arab/Persian capital.

2. Every islamic state, including Pakistan, will either declare their possession of nuclear weapons (or technology), or declare that they have none. Those that have will IMMEDIATELY dismantle everything pertaining to it, right down to the last hex nut. We will be coming to your doorstep to collect every last piece - have it ready before we arrive. If......... if a state declares it has no nuclear weapons/technology, and is later found to have lied, this will trigger the nuclear destruction of that state's capital city. This cycle will repeat itself until everything nuclear is accounted for.

3. Every islamic terrorist organization will immediately and completely disarm. Then, they shall disband, never to reconstitute. Leaders will be handed over to US military custody. Failure to comply will result in additional strikes against the country/countries that provide terrorist organizations safe harbor. Additionally, you will be invaded, deposed, and if not killed outright, brought safely to a war crimes trial as expeditiously as possible.

Will something like this happen? It's possible, I suppose.

This scenario could one day unfold before our eyes if we fail to crush this enemy NOW... but the Left opposes decisive action at every turn.

Yes, some innocents (on both sides) would be killed if we bit the bullet and performed a 21st century General Sherman across the arab world. However, I believe the number of innocents such an action would cost pales in comparison to the vastly larger number that would die if the above nuclear scenario actually plays out.

The Left, in its rabid commitment to ruining everything in which George Bush is involved, may very well open the window of opportunity for a nuke on the Hudson... and instead of suffering losses of 5 to 10k overseas to go with the 3,000 lost on 9/11, we might lose 100k in Manhattan alone... along with how many thousands upon thousands of muslim children who have nowhere to flee as a MIRV pops open high over Medina....

This is the risk the Left takes in its efforts to regain power... and it clearly demonstrates its lack of fitness for it.

What empty, soul-less, evil bastards. What incredible contempt for human life. What incredible contempt for Americans. What incredible contempt for America.

Is the Left compatible with freedom and democracy?

THE ANSWER IS NO.
////////////////

As scenarios go, this seemed over the top to me, even as I wrote it... but no doubt I'd have felt similarly to the suggestion that someone would fly airliners into the towers.

We will eventually win this war... but because of the failure of our government to pull together and do what needs to be done, we won't start kicking some serious @ss until a 2nd mass casualty event is delivered to our backyard. Many more will die on both sides as a result of the dithering of our leadership.

In the aftermath, someone will say "It didn't have to be this way..." "

8/09/2006 04:50:00 AM  
Blogger Deuce ☂ said...

In 1876, another George was scheduled to lead part of the anti-Lakota expedition, along with Generals John Gibbon and George Crook.
The original United States plan for defeating the Lakota called for the three forces under the command of Crook, Gibbon, and Custer to trap the bulk of the Lakota and Cheyenne population between them and crush them. Custer, however, advanced much more quickly than he had been ordered to do, and neared what he thought was a large Indian village on the morning of June 25, 1876. Custer's rapid advance had put him far ahead of Gibbon's slower-moving infantry brigades, and unbeknownst to him, Crazy Horse and his band at Rosebud Creek had turned General Crook’s forces back.

On the verge of what seemed to him a certain and glorious victory for both the United States and himself, Custer ordered an immediate attack on the Indian village. Contemptuous of Indian military prowess, he split his forces into three parts to ensure that fewer Indians would escape. The attack was one the greatest fiascos of the United States Army, as thousands of Lakota, Cheyenne and Arapaho warriors forced Custer's unit back onto a long, dusty ridge parallel to the Little Bighorn, surrounded them, and killed all 210 of them.

Now, I do not know what went on in the minds of the troopers that went down with Custer. Poor leadership, arrogance, bad decisions and foolhardiness in a leader usually get recognized. Many people recognize the dangers out there in injun-jahadi country. They recognize the danger and the need for action, but a lot of people have a real bad feeling that the George leading the charge this time is no George Patton or George Washington but more like a fool named George Custer.

8/09/2006 05:36:00 AM  
Blogger buddy larsen said...

This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.

8/09/2006 06:09:00 AM  
Blogger desert rat said...

Well, Mac Boot has finally arrived at the Desert Rat solution to Iraq, about 18 months late.
No idea if there is enough time to implement a revised strategy, now, before a complete melt down occurs in Iraq.
Radical Ideas for Iraq The current strategy isn't working. We either need more troops or a lot fewer

8/09/2006 06:23:00 AM  
Blogger desert rat said...

"... But there's another course short of withdrawal: reducing U.S. forces from today's level of 130,000 to under 50,000 and changing their focus from conducting combat operations to assisting Iraqi forces. The money saved from downsizing the U.S. presence could be used to better train and equip more Iraqi units. A smaller U.S. commitment also would be more sustainable over the long term. This is the option favored within the U.S. Special Forces community, in which the dominant view is that most American soldiers in Iraq, with their scant knowledge of the local language and customs, are more of a hindrance than a help to the counterinsurgency effort. ..."

8/09/2006 06:25:00 AM  
Blogger desert rat said...

Or this
"... New state institutions were being built, but at the same time, since those state institutions were weak, other militias that did not exist came about. And some existed under Saddam, they were opposed to Saddam. So the Muqtada case is not unique, and therefore a comprehensive plan for the decommissioning and demobilization and the reintegration of all of these militias are needed for the stability and success of Iraq. ..."

The IDF is moving north to the river. We'll see how HB stands up now. With the Arabs torpedoing the Cease fire, this is their prefered solution. A chance to kill Israeli, no matter the cost to HB or Lebanon.

8/09/2006 06:45:00 AM  
Blogger desert rat said...

That quote, is from ZALMAY KHALILZAD, U.S. Ambassador to Iraq:
quoted at Ambassador Khalilzad Outlines New Security Plan for Iraq
As sectarian clashes continue, U.S. Ambassador to Iraq Zalmay Khalilzad discusses plans to heighten security and make other changes in hopes of reducing violence by late September.

8/09/2006 06:48:00 AM  
Blogger Charles said...

Memorable Quotes from
Monty Python and the Holy Grail (1975)
The Dead Collector: Bring out yer dead.
[a man puts a body on the cart]
Large Man with Dead Body: Here's one.
The Dead Collector: That'll be ninepence.
The Dead Body That Claims It Isn't: I'm not dead.
The Dead Collector: What?
Large Man with Dead Body: Nothing. There's your ninepence.
The Dead Body That Claims It Isn't: I'm not dead.
The Dead Collector: 'Ere, he says he's not dead.
Large Man with Dead Body: Yes he is.
The Dead Body That Claims It Isn't: I'm not.
The Dead Collector: He isn't.
Large Man with Dead Body: Well, he will be soon, he's very ill.
The Dead Body That Claims It Isn't: I'm getting better.
Large Man with Dead Body: No you're not, you'll be stone dead in a moment.
The Dead Collector: Well, I can't take him like that. It's against regulations.
The Dead Body That Claims It Isn't: I don't want to go on the cart.
Large Man with Dead Body: Oh, don't be such a baby.
The Dead Collector: I can't take him.
The Dead Body That Claims It Isn't: I feel fine.
Large Man with Dead Body: Oh, do me a favor.
The Dead Collector: I can't.
Large Man with Dead Body: Well, can you hang around for a couple of minutes? He won't be long.
The Dead Collector: I promised I'd be at the Robinsons'. They've lost nine today.
Large Man with Dead Body: Well, when's your next round?
The Dead Collector: Thursday.
The Dead Body That Claims It Isn't: I think I'll go for a walk.
Large Man with Dead Body: You're not fooling anyone, you know. Isn't there anything you could do?
The Dead Body That Claims It Isn't: I feel happy. I feel happy.
[the Dead Collector glances up and down the street furtively, then silences the Body with his a whack of his club]
Large Man with Dead Body: Ah, thank you very much.
The Dead Collector: Not at all. See you on Thursday.
Large Man with Dead Body: Right.
http://imdb.com/title/tt0071853/quotes

8/09/2006 06:48:00 AM  
Blogger Deuce ☂ said...

Interesting article Joe Buzz. History is full of bizarre twists. Very few human groups have a congruence of ideas, and that can start with a married couple. There are some that believe the Belmont Club should be in lock step with certain ideas and principals. Anyone who has spent any time in a military barracks knows that there are very few universal agreements. The same in church congregations, bars, Victor Alert Areas, or cathouses.

No one wants a nuclear Iran. Other than the obvious very few wanted a nuclear Russia, China, France, Korea or Pakistan. Whether we can or will stop Iran from being a nuclear power remains to be seen. I have a theory that is counter-intuitive. Iran achieving possession of nuclear weapons may be the catalyst for enough rational Iranians to get rid of the Mullatocracy. The same often happens on a smaller scale in corporations where growth and change causes the stockholders to get rid of the founding entrepreneur. We shall see.

8/09/2006 07:31:00 AM  
Blogger PeterBoston said...

Iraq was never just about Iraq. Go back to basics. Pull out a map of the ME and you will not find a more strategically important piece of geography. Important to deny its use to Iran as: (1) a revenue source, (2) a passageway into the Levant (3) a staging area for a move into KSA. On the plus side Iraq is an unsinkable aircraft carrier astride Iran, and its location allows us to move anything we want into the Mediterranean with land routes to Iran coming through Turkey or Syria. Yes, Syria. If we need that land route there will not be s Syrian army around to oppose it.

Much has been made of the defensibility of the Iranian coastline but Iraq makes it a seaside Maginot line. China can ship Iran every 802 they have but they'll never be fired.

The ideal outcome in Iraq is a democratic government with a competent army closely allied to US interests. Maybe that will happen in this go round and maybe it won't, but let us not lose sight that Iraqi democracy is a secondary objective.

When Iran and Syria are neutered the democracy project can be bumped up the list.

8/09/2006 07:45:00 AM  
Blogger desert rat said...

All true to a degree, PB.
But if the initial attacks upon Iran are not decisive, almost immediately, the silkworms will fly. Whether they are successful against tanker insurance rates remains to be seen.

What you say about Syria is accurate, has been for the past three years.
When the President had majority public support for the War, three years ago, the US could have continued to Damascus.
That we did not was a strategic decision that has had consequence.
Most not positive to the War effort.

8/09/2006 07:58:00 AM  
Blogger John Aristides said...

Hawk,

I've read that too. I found the idea very intriguing, but I thought the explanation too slippery.

The archetypal analysis is too limited, for instance. They identify four generational archetypes that, as you wrote, repeat in sequence. Each is a response mechanism to the one before, and, after this plays out over several cycles, we get this topological pattern in Anglo history called the Four Turnings.

The problem with talking about cycles is that it ignores any sense of direction, in both America the organism, and in the ecosystem in which she lives. Both America and her environment evolve; they are, in fact, evolving. A series of four cycles doesn't explain how this mutual evolution occurs, nor does it explain why there are only four turnings instead of, say, five or six. Also, why are some of the ekpyroses (or saecular crises) instigated from without (World War II), while others come from within (Civil War), while others are both within and without (Great Depression). They do a good job investigating all these events, but their categorizations are fuzzy, and I didn't think they analyzed the underlying structure nearly as rigorously as they could have.

Futhermore, they don't really go into the influence of institutional memory on the archetypal plasticity of each generation. They don't really question why generational values lie latent until a triggering event.

Anyway, I'm very interested in this subject because it is what I'm working on. I've found their data to be helpful, and even their questionable conclusions are useful springboards. Glad someone else out there is reading them.

[The rest is pure exposition]

There is a more scientific way to approach this subject matter. For instance, the pattern frequencies that Strauss and Howe observe could be the scalar "nesting" of positive and negative feedback loops in the complex internal and external environments of America.

This has several implications. Close to homeostasis, a particular matrix of components, itself a matrix of P and N feedback, will predominate the evolution of the system. Outside a certain threshold, however, other components will kick in, and the response mechanisms of the society will change. Katrina dramatically changed New Orleans, so the National Guard was activated. Before 9/11, nobody thought much about killing a vast amount of Muslims. Both the National Guard and our Willingess to Kill were latent potentialities in the system, already existing before the triggering events, but they were only activated after the information in the system crossed a certain threshold.

The corruption of New Orleans was also already in existence before Katrina hit. Whereas the National Guard was a limiting agent on the the event's destructive potential, this corruption acted as an amplifier. It added to the system's entropy, and delayed or blocked the system's regulatory response.

Like the corruption of New Orleans, the intellectual decadence of the West existed before the rise of Radical Islam. This decadence, like the above corruption did in New Orleans, acts as an amplifier on Islamism's destructive potential by delaying or blocking the system's natural regulatory responses. In simile, our cultural response to 9/11 was like turning on a firehose only to have the whole thing fall apart five minutes later due to decay (and we can thank Bush for even having a five minute burst).

The positive feedback given to the terrorist threat by our decadence is currently nesting in the 'now', but sooner or later a threshold will be crossed and the response matrix of the West will "move on." When that happens, potential will turn kinetic, and energy in the system will dissipate in the form of war. "Onto the Breach" is a tough way back to equilibrium, but it too is a response mechanism built into the system.

One must pay attention to how we got here in the first place, why we are so successful, and what has made us so fit. The answer is, of course, multi-dimensional. In fact, our multi-dimensionality, and the relationships between our plasticities and our hardnesses, is something our enemies never figure out. Until it's too late.

8/09/2006 08:28:00 AM  
Blogger Deuce ☂ said...

This must be some psyops thing to mess up the Hez mind.


Massage message to northern soldiers

Together with her fellow massage students from Tel Aviv area, Michelle went up north to relieve the exhausted soldiers
Michelle Novack


http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3288530,00.html

8/09/2006 08:30:00 AM  
Blogger PeterBoston said...

One element of Iraq that has not been much discussed, if at all, is that the option of 500,000 US troops in IAF was never really on the table. And it's for the same reason that the US is irrevocably committed to a soft glove, Iraqi home-grown democracy project regardless of the pain. In a word the reason is China.

The Arabs and Persians may own the land but the oil is a strategic resource of every industrialized country on earth. Much as Japan was coerced into war by our denial of access to Indonesian oil so to would China, and any number of other countries, be compelled to take extreme measures to protect their national interests if it appeared that the USA were positioning itself as the sole arbiter of Gulf oil access.

No amount of back-channel assurances would neutralize the effect of moving more US divisions to the ME short of some gigantic provocation. We must anticipate that a build-up would evoke a Chinese response in Asia or elsewhere. I think they would have to. They have too much at stake.

This situation enormously complicates how we can deal with Iran and probably rules out a massive invasion even if we had the troop strength to do it. As a practical matter it probably limits our immediate options to keeping our hole cards hidden. I suppose that can work because with Bush at least the Iranians would never know for sure whether or not we were bluffing.

8/09/2006 08:46:00 AM  
Blogger Doug said...

$750 Billion divided by 20 million equals $37,000 per man woman and child!
Should have just taken out Saddam, paid them, and declared them a first world country!

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

It seems far simpler and cheaper to get the US off imported oil.

8/09/2006 09:14:00 AM  
Blogger Doug said...

Over our dead bodies!

8/09/2006 09:19:00 AM  
Blogger Doug said...

Foreward.... Ho!

8/09/2006 09:20:00 AM  
Blogger John Aristides said...

Peterboston,

That's right. If you're interested, here's a RAND document on that very issue.

8/09/2006 09:21:00 AM  
Blogger desert rat said...

If Mr Bush is bluffing?

The Iranians KNOW he is. They have been unresponsive to the entreaties offered by the EU+1. They are not backing off in Lebanon, that much seems clear.

Will Mr Bush attack Iran preemptively, over the nuclear issue? If he does not, the Mullahs will "arm up". If Mr Bush elects a "limited strike" scenatio the Region will explode, as could Latin America, with strikes against the oil infrastructure, world wide.

The Mullahs betting that Mr Bush will not instigate the massive strikes required to destroy the Mullahs hold on Iran.

The 22 August date moves ever closer, the mystical quality of the Iranian thinking a fog of war?

8/09/2006 10:15:00 AM  
Blogger Deuce ☂ said...

We import 10,000,000 barrels per day. That comes with a price today of seven hundred million dollars. On oil alone we have a seven hundred million dollar daily trade deficit. That is 255 billion dollar annual trade deficit because of imported oil. Add to that the military expendetures to protect and support imported oil. That money kept in the US would create 2,000,000 jobs, assuming $125,000 per job. There can be no greater internal rate of return on investment for US security. It has been five years since 911 and we arer further from that goal than we were then.

8/09/2006 10:15:00 AM  
Blogger John Aristides said...

Tigerhawk links to this editorial by John Batchelor and does some good analysis.

Both are worth reading.

8/09/2006 10:16:00 AM  
Blogger allen said...

aristides,

The quest upon which you have embarked would benefit from the acknowledgement at the outset that H. sapiens is an evolved life-form, behaving like all other life-forms within a milieu having a finite number of variables. There is no shortage of evidence suggesting this is the case or that fact of cycles and periodicity is the rule. In short, the human response to conflict may be a cardinal defining attribute of being human; we would cease to be human outside the observed parameters.

Recently, while doing some editing, I came across an article summarizing the work of an early twentieth century Russian mathematician. Being driven by curiosity, he spent years developing an algorithm of warfare. When time was introduced into his equations, he found disturbingly predictable periodicity. Succinctly, human beings (for cause undetermined) are driven to war on a routine basis. Moreover, the compulsion is unmitigated by any of the typically cited civilizing factors such as political structure or economic development.

I must apologize for the sad lack of specifics. At the time, I put the matter into memory, planning at some later date to give it the attention deserved. However, like Albrecht Durer, I too am a tragic figure trapped by time, which in this case has marched on, finding me wanting.

Do keep up the good work. It may yet make better men of us all.

8/09/2006 10:16:00 AM  
Blogger Deuce ☂ said...

To put the figure into perspective:

Forecast US 2006 Value-added to the U.S. economy by the agricultural sector via the production of goods and services is 109 billion dollars. That is not export but the entire agriculture sector. We spend 2.3 times as much for imported oil as the total value output of US farm and agricultural output. No problem?

8/09/2006 10:31:00 AM  
Blogger allen said...

aristides,

re: Rand

Thanks! I really needed this.

What are you looking for anyway? Informed opinion. That's no fun.

8/09/2006 10:40:00 AM  
Blogger allen said...

rufus,

Apropos last evening's (morning's) examination of agricultural themes, you will not believe what just came in from Iran:

Iranian Doctors Say They Cloned a Sheep
http://www.breitbart.com/
news/2006/08/09/D8JD00C80.html

With or without modest undergarments is unreported.

8/09/2006 10:59:00 AM  
Blogger PeterBoston said...

Re the Tigerhawk article...

Anybody who thinks the country is paralyzed by dissent was very obviously not around in the late 60s.

At one time the 82nd Airborne Division was locked and loaded at Washington National Airport waiting for orders to roll into DC. The rules of engagement were not about making arrests.

Other than some reelection complaints from the pols, today's so called dissent wouldn't mean a gnat's hair.

8/09/2006 11:08:00 AM  
Blogger Utopia Parkway said...

Does this guy Bernard Lewis know anything about Arabs?

I'm sure he knows more about Arabs than you, or anyone else here.

You might want to read this article he wrote from 1990 The Roots of Muslim Rage.

8/09/2006 11:18:00 AM  
Blogger John Aristides said...

The quest upon which you have embarked would benefit from the acknowledgement at the outset that H. sapiens is an evolved life-form, behaving like all other life-forms within a milieu having a finite number of variables.

That is exactly right. When it comes time to collate these various insights and disciplines (and it's looking like it's going to be many, many disciplines), evolution--and all its implications--will be the foundational concept on which everything else depends.

I am doing this in a kind of unorthodox manner. I'm posting my notes and ideas to my blog in real-time, and will continue to do so until 1) I hit a conceptual wall, or 2) finish. Best case scenario would see a type of Wiki-theory, following the hive-mind pattern of Wikipedia, except in this case sythesizing what Hume called "The Science of Man" into one uber-discipline.

For instance, I was not aware of Andrei Nikolaevich Kolmogorov, but thanks to you, now I am.

Of course, worst case scenario would see me trying to cover the massive amount of information by myself, and doing so inadequately. But it's interesting and fun nonetheless, so I don't mind.

What am I looking for? Well, Nietzsche thought that rationalism absolutely and necessarily ended in nihilism and the death of God. If values and morality evolve, there can be no absolute standards. Without absolute standards, everything is subjective, dependent on perspective and Fichte's oppositional "I". The more people that believe in this unbelief, the more there will be moral anarchy. It's interesting that Nietzsche's worst case scenario actually anticipated the emotive, irrational, fetishized moralism of our present-day secularists (for instance: ask one of them why, if there is no God, torture is "wrong" -- you will get a range of different answers that, if you keep pushing, dissolve under contradictions).

To fill this vacuum, he wanted Man to become his own God. To Nietzsche, the death of God disconnected Man from the heavens and left him wallowing in the muck with the beasts. In this he saw the loss of everything Noble, nobility being the only justification for Man's existence. The only fix to this was for Man himself to become God, by making way for the Superman, the Hero. But that is still deeply nihilistic, and Nietzsche knew it.

But what if rationalism goes through nihilism and irrationalism and back out again? Well, that's what I'm looking into. If there is some absolute standard that is empirically derived and rationally supported, then it seem to me it changes everything.

In Hume's terms, it would be taking "is" and deriving a "meta-ought", which he thought was practicably impossible. If there is a definition of "good" or "health" or whatever that is independent from the specifics of human existence, but a definition that has strong implications and applicability for us, that would be nice.

8/09/2006 11:25:00 AM  
Blogger PeterBoston said...

Habu

Impuissant? Were you talkin' to DR?

8/09/2006 11:30:00 AM  
Blogger buddy larsen said...

I'll betcha Teddy Roosevelt would've agreed with this, in today's WSJ, on the democracy project.

8/09/2006 12:07:00 PM  
Blogger buddy larsen said...

Wretchard is being quoted by John Derbyshire @ The Corner.

8/09/2006 12:16:00 PM  
Blogger Charles said...

Samples of College Fight Songs

This is reputed to be from Harvard originally a Tom Lehrer Spoof--the lyrics have been used recently at Harvard atletic events.

Fight fiercely, Harvard,
fight, fight, fight!
Demonstrate to them our skill.
Albeit they possess the might,
Nonetheless we have the will.
How we shall celebrate our victory,
We shall invite the whole team up for tea
(How jolly!)
Hurl that spheroid down the field, and
Fight, fight, fight!

Fight fiercely, Harvard,
fight, fight, fight!
Impress them with our prowess, do!
Oh, fellows, do not let the crimson down,
Be of stout heart and true.
Come on, chaps, fight for Harvard's glorious name,
Won't it be peachy if we win the game?
(Oh, goody!)
Let's try not to injure them, but
Fight, fight, fight!
And do fight fiercely!
Fight, fight, fight!

This is the Texas A&M Fight Song

The Aggie War Hymn

Hullabaloo, Caneck! Caneck!
Hullabaloo, Caneck! Caneck!

First Verse

All hail to dear old Texas A&M,
Rally around Maroon and White,
Good luck to the dear old Texas Aggies,
They are the boys who show the fight.
That good old Aggie spirit thrills us.
And makes us yell and yell and yell; --
So let's fight for dear old Texas A&M,
We're goin' to beat you all to --
Chig-gar-roo-gar-rem!
Chig-gar-roo-gar-rem!
Rough! Tough!
Real stuff! Texas A&M!

Second Verse

Good-bye to Texas University.
So long to the Orange and White.
Good luck to the dear old Texas Aggies,
They are the boys who show
the real old fight.
The eyes of Texas are upon you.
That is the song they sing so well,
So, good-bye to Texas University,
We're goin' to beat you all to --
Chig-gar-roo-gar-rem!
Chig-gar-roo-gar-rem!
Rough! Tough!
Real stuff! Texas A&M!

Saw Varsity's Horns Off (normally follows War Hymn)

Saw Varsity's Horns Off!
Saw Varsity's Horns Off!
Saw Varsity's Horns Off!
Short!

Varsity's Horns are Sawed Off!
Varsity's Horns are Sawed Off!
Varsity's Horns are Sawed Off!
Short!

The Notre Dame Victory March

Rally sons of Notre Dame, Sing her glory, and sound her fame Raise her Gold and Blue, And cheer with voices true, Rah! Rah! For Notre Dame.

We will fight in every game Strong of heart and true to her name. We will ne'er forget her And we'll cheer her ever, Loyal to Notre Dame.

Chorus:

Cheer, cheer for Old Notre Dame Wake up the echoes cheering her name, Send the volley cheer on high, Shake down the thunder from the sky, What though the odds be great or small Old Notre Dame will win over all, While her loyal sons are marching Onward to Victory.

Virginia Military Academy

"VMI Spirit"

Oh, Clear the way, VMI is out today,
We're here to win this game;
Our team will bring us fame,
In Alma Mater's name.
For though the odds be against us we'll not care.
You'll see us fight the same,
Always the same old Spirit,
And we'll triumph once again;
And though defeat seems certain, it's the same with VMI.
Our battle cry is Never Never Die.

Chorus:
For when our line starts to weaken, our backs fail to gain,
Our ends are so crippled, to win seems in vain;
The Corps roots the loudest, we'll yet win the day,
The team it will rally and fight -- fight -- fight! RAY
! We'll gain through the line and we'll circle the end,
Old Red White and Yellow will triumph again;
The Keydets will fight 'em and never say die,
That's the Spirit of VMI.

8/09/2006 12:19:00 PM  
Blogger desert rat said...

Agreed with which part, buddy?

The author provides false choices of either & or. When neither choice offered for consideration were/ are the only choices available.

It would be better if a vibrant democratic culture existed in nations before elections were held, but how can such a culture be created in repressive societies? Civic institutions tend not to flourish in a society where, on a daily basis, jackboots stomp on human faces.

Well in Iraq today, the jackbooots are marching, they have been for the entire length of the Occupation. That they are not US jackboots matters little. The death toll in the march to anarchy continues to mount.

A civil socity has to be established before a democracy, in the Western tradition can be formed. Elections matter little if the results are inconsequental to power.
In Iraq the US retains control of the Government's power, if it does not hand off the Authority and Responsibility the Iraqi Government will fail, by our Ambassador's latest timeline, in September.

8/09/2006 12:23:00 PM  
Blogger buddy larsen said...

Fail to what, though? What's at the bottom of the abyss? No rhetorical question, real question.

8/09/2006 12:26:00 PM  
Blogger desert rat said...

This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.

8/09/2006 12:34:00 PM  
Blogger desert rat said...

Fail to control the country, fail to represent the people, fail to command the ISF

Fail as a Government.

Many of the Iraqi blame US, our Security Policies, for the anarchy. They blame the RoE and tactics we demand from their troops.

We hand off, but do not.
We secure the country, but never do.

Perhaps Ramadi has turned the corner. It is being razed slowly, block by block. Threatswatch has an piece

8/09/2006 12:36:00 PM  
Blogger buddy larsen said...

Aristides, for your project, here's Herman Kahn, the systems analyst who said go for the win, in nuclear war.

8/09/2006 12:37:00 PM  
Blogger buddy larsen said...

Ramadi, on the Euphrates ratline back to Damascus.

8/09/2006 12:46:00 PM  
Blogger desert rat said...

Damascus, Syria. Santuary for Iraqi Baathist reactionaries that are engaged in the Civil War in Iraq.

8/09/2006 12:53:00 PM  
Blogger buddy larsen said...

Shep Smith is reporting that the IDF armored columns all over the area have just now fired up and started rolling forward.

8/09/2006 12:59:00 PM  
Blogger Doug said...

'Rat: Bob Parsons explains why he's not taking his cash cow to market.
GoDaddy pulls its IPO filing! Why I decided to pull it.
Read article...
Interesting accounting, Buddy, expenses and cash up front, profits dribble in over years: Thus Venture vultures don't see a profit, but the IRS of course does not see it that way!

8/09/2006 01:02:00 PM  
Blogger buddy larsen said...

Bad environment for high-multiple tech IPOs lately, for sure. The CEOs hate like the dickens to close down off the IPO open. Sour mood--war, slowing economy, war.

8/09/2006 01:11:00 PM  
Blogger Doug said...

Just stay away from them Jumping Sturgeon, P-Tater.
Jumping sturgeon whacks jet-skier
---
Tuesday, August 08, 2006
Blogger will be down for maintenance tomorrow for 45 minutes starting at 4pm (Pacific Time).

8/09/2006 01:14:00 PM  
Blogger buddy larsen said...

hope somebody reports that to the Sturgeon General.

8/09/2006 01:19:00 PM  
Blogger Doug said...

Makes me homesick for Jocelyn Elders:
She was always talking about whackin sumpin.

8/09/2006 01:21:00 PM  
Blogger John Aristides said...

Thanks, Buddy.

8/09/2006 01:31:00 PM  
Blogger Doug said...

Wal-Mart May Start Pumping Ethanol, Retail Giant Owns And Operates ...
Corn country is holding its breath as Wal-Mart – which owns and operates 383 gas stations in the US – considers making ethanol available to its customers.

8/09/2006 01:32:00 PM  
Blogger Charles said...

imho the israelis should have put 1000 soldiers. somewhere north of the litani or in the bekka valley...somewhere anyhow where the hiz would have to come after them.

all the israelis would do would be to hold their position. and then let the israeli air force pound the hiz when hiz came out in the open to fight.

8/09/2006 01:34:00 PM  
Blogger 3Case said...

"What changes here ... is that non-state forces are able to challenge states militarily -- and win."

That may be the most ignorant statement the man makes. Over at the Webster's site the word "challenge" in this context is defined:

"5 a: to confront or defy boldly: DARE.... b: to call out to duel or combat c: to invite into competition...."

There's no "challenging" going on. Coward assassins (literally; check Webster's) running in and out of darkness (that's a metaphor) using children, the elderly and the sick. Somebody explain how that fits "challenge". We know the reason for their cowardice...they are weak and would be slaughtered faster than veal calves.

8/09/2006 01:36:00 PM  
Blogger 3Case said...

trangbang68: I'm lovin' the Country Joe-riffed poetry.

8/09/2006 01:43:00 PM  
Blogger allen said...

aristides,

Your mention of Hume recalled 9-11 and a thought from the amiable Scot.

“Freedom naturally begets public spirit…and this public spirit…must encrease, when the public is almost in continual alarm, and men are obliged, every moment, to expose themselves to the greatest dangers for its defence. A continual succession of wars makes every citizen a soldier…”

Mr. Hume could never have foreseen the Boomer Age – Dante, maybe, but Hume never.

8/09/2006 01:43:00 PM  
Blogger buddy larsen said...

dem sharks, dey takes a wade-in-sea attitude--

8/09/2006 01:45:00 PM  
Blogger Doug said...

P-Tater,
You should market a Possum Teddy to get those cousins all 'roused up just like Roosevelt did.
Like 3 cases says:
Up against a roughrider, them cowards would be veal for the slaughter.
Veal is tender, 'tater, and goes great with potatoes.

8/09/2006 01:46:00 PM  
Blogger Doug said...

Sharks, dey love it when dem fools takes a wade-in-the-sea.

8/09/2006 01:48:00 PM  
Blogger Doug said...

If ideas could win wars, we got a one man WMD w/dat Aristides feller.

8/09/2006 01:52:00 PM  
Blogger Doug said...

The United States, an Israeli ally and chief supplier of the Jewish state's weapons, warned both sides Wednesday against enlarging the conflict.

"The escalation is something that we do not want to see," White House spokesman Tony Snow said.
---
In addition to what Trish posted above Snow also added:
---
"But also, you have to have a resolution that addresses the root cause of Hezbollah, has a practical solution to making sure that the Lebanese government will be able to have military and political control of the south."

8/09/2006 02:00:00 PM  
Blogger Doug said...

Tater's being diplopossum w/dat "might."
Sad fact is, we know many haven't, and some more won't.
Bless Them.

8/09/2006 02:04:00 PM  
Blogger Doug said...

Twelvers Alert:
Hezbollah leader Sheik Hassan Nasrallah on Wednesday warned all Israeli Arabs to leave the port city of Haifa:

"I have a special message to the Arabs of Haifa, to your martyrs and to your wounded. I call you to leave this city. I hope you do this. ... Please leave so we don't shed your blood, which is our blood."
yonitheblogger.com

8/09/2006 02:09:00 PM  
Blogger Doug said...

Golani fighters joined by snipers hailing from states that fought in Chechnya, Afghanistan

They were active in the past in operational activity in the Gaza division, but at a certain point finished their service in the division once the impression was created that they were "trigger happy."

Good hunting Sasha, a very good friend of mine has been called. He was a spetsnaz sniper in Afghanistan. I could almost start to feel sorry for the Hizballlah terrorist. I am of course joking, again good hunting to all the lads.

8/09/2006 02:19:00 PM  
Blogger desert rat said...

Yep, that'll make all the difference, cookies.
Sweetness and light.

Aristide's still workin' on translating that White Whale tale to arabic. Get that done after his writing of human evolution and it's retrograde effects on the develpopment of translated works of great Anglosphere writers.

The connection 'tween Iraq and Lebanon is terrorism, according to Leon Panetta. They are just unconnected local events.
None of the "crisises" are connected. So there you go.

That is how the US sees it, the Supremes, Senator Warner, MS Hillery and Rice. Even Mr Bush, or so he says about the Religon of Peace.
The root cause of the problem is either Israel or Islam.
Time to decide.

8/09/2006 02:25:00 PM  
Blogger buddy larsen said...

If we can choose, then it ain't the root.

8/09/2006 02:32:00 PM  
Blogger buddy larsen said...

The problem is Low Rents of Arabia.

8/09/2006 02:35:00 PM  
Blogger buddy larsen said...

Whatever happened to the Iraq Oil Trust idea?

8/09/2006 02:36:00 PM  
Blogger Doug said...


Naval Special Warfare (NSW) Foundation

8/09/2006 02:37:00 PM  
Blogger desert rat said...

The Iraqi got to vote and the majority decided against it, buddy.

8/09/2006 02:38:00 PM  
Blogger Doug said...

Ahab's Dick?

8/09/2006 02:38:00 PM  
Blogger Doug said...

Lauer went to Arabia.

8/09/2006 02:40:00 PM  
Blogger buddy larsen said...

Lauer Rants of Arabia

8/09/2006 02:43:00 PM  
Blogger desert rat said...

The Israeli find Iranians amongst the dead on the battlefield.
Wonder how they tell, uniforms or ID cards?

Yep, possum, cookies are going to make the difference. Iran sends silkworms and men, possum wants US to sends cookies. Don't you know that US troopers got the "Green Bean" and Crispy Creme, there at the front.
Send 'em some tough beef jerky, not candy and sweets.

Wonder how many Iranians are there in Lebanon or Iraq.
Why is there not an insurrection in Iran?

8/09/2006 02:49:00 PM  
Blogger John Aristides said...

You're right, D'Rat.

It's time to fold.

8/09/2006 02:49:00 PM  
Blogger desert rat said...

I didn't think that the Iranian hand was that good, aristide.

But maybe you're right.

8/09/2006 02:52:00 PM  
Blogger Doug said...

'Rat-Interactive Map here shows Religious Areas of So Lebanon.

8/09/2006 02:55:00 PM  
Blogger John Aristides said...

Of course, I feel comfortable saying that I was wrong to place so much confidence in the diplomatic prowess of the Bush Administration (it is comment three-hundred and something). I thought the smart move was to damage Hezbollah, halt, focus on Iran, and then, if Hezbollah get's rowdy again, destroy them. But now that it looks like this thing is going to escalate to regional war, so it's time to eliminate some fronts.

8/09/2006 02:55:00 PM  
Blogger buddy larsen said...

(ht instapundit)
Why the world hates the Jews

Okay, fine, world, be jealous--but howz about a thanks for fighting the freaking Hez?

8/09/2006 02:56:00 PM  
Blogger Doug said...

It's dem Damn Shiites dug in down there killin IDF:
I thought they were our buddies in Iraq???

8/09/2006 02:57:00 PM  
Blogger Doug said...

Adickdisease
No offense Aris ;-)

8/09/2006 03:06:00 PM  
Blogger buddy larsen said...

OLD? old? I'll tell ya old, it takes me ALL night to do what I used to do all NIGHT.

8/09/2006 03:06:00 PM  
Blogger desert rat said...

Sent the boy, possum, they had him for four years, spent his tour in Fallujah, got his fade away jumper down, pat.

He "really" needed that personal DVD player, not the body armor I was goin' to send him. But what the heck, he was just a Marine.

Told him to join the Army if he really wanted to fight. But the Marine recruiters told him what he wanted to hear. Anyway, come noon on the 16th he'll be headin' West.

If the lady on FOX is giving the straight skinny, the IDF will bypass the HB in place, as they rush to the river. Then try to starve 'em out.

Be something to watch.

8/09/2006 03:10:00 PM  
Blogger Doug said...

Nothin like a Stale Mate when she starts escalatin hostilities.

8/09/2006 03:11:00 PM  
Blogger Doug said...

But, but THAT means them poor shiite allies will be trapped, 'Rat.

8/09/2006 03:13:00 PM  
Blogger desert rat said...

Someone is goin' to be trapped.

Six years ago the Israeli thought it was them that was trapped, in Lebanon, tell me, what's changed, except that the HB is better now than it was then.

8/09/2006 03:16:00 PM  
Blogger Jamie Irons said...

Buddy,

MM ("Why The World Hates The Jews") was a classmate of mine in college, and in my circle of friends.

Jamie Irons

8/09/2006 03:20:00 PM  
Blogger buddy larsen said...

Israeli politics have changed--and that's a BIG difference.

8/09/2006 03:20:00 PM  
Blogger Deuce ☂ said...

six and a wakeup DR. Heres wishing him God Speed.

8/09/2006 03:20:00 PM  
Blogger desert rat said...

Mr Olmert and his team are the saviors of the West?

Perhaps, if the Israeli can destroy HB and the Iranians and the Iraqi Mahdi Army troopers all in Lebanon, today.

But the IDF was not aggressive enough six years ago? The Israeli killed the HB leader, as they left Lebanon last time.
In retrospect a targeting error.
That bit of killing elevated a real competent fellow.

Hes he's lost a son fighting Israel, what similar sacrifice has Mr Olmert made?
The level of committment is different, the Will and Intensity of the combatant commanders are not proportionate.

If 200 or more Syrian tanks were dead today, the stalemate would not be.

8/09/2006 03:29:00 PM  
Blogger desert rat said...

Put your airs on, habu
All the Marines and all the Army, couldn't put Iraq together again.

That is a more telling smell.

Performance does count, eventually.

8/09/2006 03:40:00 PM  

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