Galloway Versus Hitchens
The debate between George Galloway and Christopher Hitchens will not change policy, but if nothing else it demonstrates how far the modern Left has strayed from its roots. Contrasting the perorations of the two debaters is instructive. I've paraphrased their words because I don't have the transcript available, and am guided only by my memory. But it may give you the flavor of the exchange.
Hitchens: How can you speak of President Talabani occupying Iraq? He was born there, though he had to move a few times, because the villages he lived in were destroyed by George Galloway's pal, Saddam Hussein. The Patriotic Union of Kurdistan, which Talibani represents, is the recognized contact party of the Left in Kurdistan. They and the Communist Party of Iraq -- which is participating in the current government -- are fighting for their lives against the most vicious and medieval theocracy on the face of planet. Let those of you who imagine yourselves members of the Left -- as I gather from the zoo noises in evidence -- after examining the scars you have endured in your twilight underground struggle against Dick Cheney ask yourselves: who have I betrayed?
Galloway: No matter how many flyswats you have, no matter how much flypaper you employ, if you live beside a swamp it is no defense against the monsters that will come from it. There were no Al Qaeda in Iraq before George Bush brought them there. They are there because your country and my country brought them there. Not a single dictator in the Arab world could exist without the support of America. If I cannot appeal to your heart, let me speak to your mind. You will continue to endure 9/11s; you will continue to know fear until you give the Muslim countries their due. Until you stop Zionist and racist oppression, you will have no peace.
For a moment I imagined that Hitchens was alone in the room with the Left -- and from the temporary quiet perhaps he was partly successful -- asking, 'where is your pride?', 'where is your shame?'. Galloway took the lower road. He appealed to fear, cunningly raising the prospect of ruin, should his listeners fail to see things his way, unwittingly insulting his audience even as he pandered to them. They traded more than one insult. Galloway called Hitchens a drunk. Hitchens responded that if he had found home in a bottle, Galloway was still traveling from one dictator to the next, looking for a kennel he could call his own. Perhaps Hitchen's most telling insult, all the more effective because it was delivered slowly and a straight face, was recounting how George Galloway traveled to Damascus to endorse the men who helped fund the death of Casey Sheehan and then asking what manner of man would then travel to America to solicit the political support of the dead man's mother.
A lot of conservatives were cheering for Hitchens because he is on "our side". But that is coincidental. Hitchens, as will be evident to anyone who heard him address members of the audience as 'comrades' and invoke socialist solidarity is still a man of the Left who has merely remained true to the internal logic of his convictions. It puts him on the side of those fighting for republican forms against absolutist theocracies; and if that is the same camp as George Bush's then so be it. In that context, the contrast between Hitchens and Galloway is less of belief than of integrity: Hitchens opposes Al Qaeda because of his Leftist beliefs; Galloway supports Al Qaeda in despite of them; and to the traditional socialist this can only be explained by the inducement of cash. That was Hitchen's wider and subliminal reproach to the audience: what manner of men would pay to hear to George Galloway? Call yourselves anything, but don't call yourselves 'progressives'.
139 Comments:
The Fear Grows in Damascus .
Analysts believe that Assad canceled his New York trip for two reasons: U.S. officials couldn't guarantee his entourage immunity from arrest if Mehlis and the Lebanese government issued a warrant, and, more important, he feared the risk of turmoil in Damascus if he were to leave now.
What an invigorating spectacle, to watch as the rule of law squeezes the arrogant men who treated Lebanon as their private fief. Some of them are in jail; others are trying to cut deals; still others are said to have defected to other countries. Credit goes to Lebanon's new government, which was tough and united in making the surprise arrests, at dawn on Aug. 30, of the security chiefs. Rumors are spinning in Beirut and Damascus about which members of the Assad regime are ratting out their friends. A Paris-based newsletter, Intelligence Online, wrote that a Syrian intelligence colonel had defected to France with information about the Slovakian-made explosives that allegedly killed Hariri.
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Being an Ignatius piece, GWB and the US Military get no credit.
As expected.
Now if we could just get them to finger Galloway!
We could share a celebratory drink w/Hitch!
doug,
Re the Ignatius piece. If you listed out all the things that have happened in the four years since 9/11 it would be an astoundingly long ennumeration. Afghanistan, AQ Khan, Iraq, Libya, UN, Indonesia, Indian alliance, fall of the EU, reelection of Howard, Bush, Blair, Araft, Gaza and Lebanon. You could extend the list much further if you wish.
Yet despite that, there's a sense that President Bush has lost his sense of urgency and mission; that he is acting too PC. There's some truth to that, but part of the reason I suspect, is that the War on Terror has grown so broad and acquired such a momentum that it can no longer be steered by direct action.
But that does not mean it can be left to drift. The quiet surrounding the White House can either mean it has brought the wheel amidships or it is thinking through the next move. I don't know which it is.
Listening to the debate, it was very obvious that Hitchens has not abandoned his socialist ideology. But it was so enchanting to actually hear reasoned words coming from the mouth of a Leftist; it was exhilarating to hear someone of the Left who still has a MIND and is willing to think with it, rather than to mouth mindless slogans and oppose everything that Bush does as a knee-jerk reflex. If I had to debate Hitchens on communism, then I would gladly throw his own words (used to describe how the Left has betrayed its "ideals" in the last several decades) back at him, and suggest how we could surely agree that the millions of senseless deaths and the profound human misery that occurred under regimes that subscribed to his ideology.... I might even think I could convince him. This is what it would be like to have someone in opposition you could actually respect.
While I didn't see the debate, I expect it like any other display of the left, a play on emotions and their respective hot-buttons, rather than the application of cold reason and hard logic in a very mean and cruel, un-Utopian world.
Wretchard, Doug,
If you haven't done so already, you must watch Bush's speech to the UN delivered yesterday. Watch it as from a distance and feel the enormity of American power; listen to the words and hear something great and unknown. You can watch it on Cspan.org if you missed it.
It is something that must be watched. Watch his eyes, read his body language. The leader of the free world threw down the gauntlet yesterday, to allies and enemies alike, and by doing so he has exposed his agenda. He is still moving forward, and the UN will be his vehicle. Last chance, it seems, for that austere body to substantially affect the foreign policy of the new United States imperium.
I would very much like to have a seating chart of the assembly. Bush seemed to punctuate his strongest statements with his eyes, and I would love to know who it was that drew them.
Thank you for this thoughtful commentary. What I like about this (besides the back-handing of Galloway which he has clearly earned) is that Wretchard takes Hitchens on his own terms--without knee-jerk cheerleading that is blind to the reality of Hitchens position. This is not only smart, but mature. I know that from my own experience it is very difficult to recognize and accept another person's honest perspective, and it is hard to overcome the temptation to misconstrue and let things (& people) be where they are.
Let us deal with Galloway and Hitchens with their own words.
Galloway:
"Yes, I did support the Soviet Union, and I think the disappearance of the Soviet Union is the biggest catastrophe of my life."
Hitchens:
"I once tried to calculate how long the post-Cold War liberal utopia had actually lasted. Whether you chose to date its inception from thr fall of the Berlin Wall in November of 1989 or the death of Ceausescu in late December of the same year, or the release of Nelson Madela from prison or the referendum defeat suffered by Augusto Pinochet, it was an epoch that in retrospect was over before it began. By the middle of 1990 Saddam Hussein had abolished Kuwait and Milosevic was attempting to erase the identifty and existance of Bosnia."
One pines for the lost Workers Paradise that never existed. The other realizes that the period where we could "study war no more" was a matter of a few months at best...
Within the democratic framework, it is not the differing positions that is of import, but the acknowledgement of the Victors victory, in elections.
In Iraq it is not whether or not the Constitution is ratified in the first go, or the fifth, the importance to the future is Sunni participation in the process.
While I have not often agreed with Mr Hitchens stance in the past, I have always enjoyed his work. In regards to Iraq and the Mohammedan Mahdi Millenium Wars, I think he sees that "Progress" cannot be achieved by siding with the Mohammedans.
It is humourous to think that Bush and Blair are the definition of "Progressives" in the 21st century. Bringing greater liberty to 50 million people, allowing them a voice in their own destinies, is neither a regressive nor conservative approach, but such Progress, in such a short period of time, as to be Revolutionary.
The labels are reversing and that, more than anything else, annoys the thinking Left
Heraclitus,
Though I'm sure Mr. Hitchens' mind doesn't work that way one should recall his admiration for Leon Trotsky, who Stalin persecuted and ultimately murdered. Anyone who admires Trotsky would recoil at the sight of Stalin impersonator.
In fairness, Saddam is much better looking human being than Stalin, who was short and had a physically deformed arm, artfully concealed by selective photography. He also had an overpowering halitosis, for he feared dentists so much that he let his teeth rot. Yet as Piers Brendon points out in The Dark Valley, the premier line of Socialist perfume produced in 1930s Moscow was something called "Stalin's Breath". The history of the Left is full of ironies like that. From that perspective, people like George Galloway are not only unremarkable, but inevitable.
If any of your liberal friends think Hitchens is a born-again conservative, recommend they read The Trial of Henry Kissinger
Of course, I also enjoyed No One Left to Lie to: The Triangulations of William Jefferson Clinton .
Wretchard is correct, Hitchens demonstrates intellectual integrity. Remember back when "liberal" meant "A political theory founded on the natural goodness of humans and the autonomy of the individual and favoring civil and political liberties, government by law with the consent of the governed, and protection from arbitrary authority"?
Desert Rat: VDH put this all in perspective. He reminds us that the creation of the U.S.A. was based on extremely liberal, downright radical concepts.
In contrast, the economic and political approaches that we think of today as "the Left" are in fact totally reactionary and a retreat from the original American concepts based on human worth and dignity, an attempt to return to the days of kings, queens and serfs.
American Conservatism = the Real Radical Liberalism.
This is why Chris Hitchens is soooo important to our effort.
Seeing Hitchen's remarks about other events (e.g. on the death of Pope John Paul II) have made it quite clear what he is about. He is a leftist that sees the Islamic Utopian threat exactly for what it is.
While I hope those on the left come around to a more right leaning world view on all sorts of affairs (economics, social policy etc) I have a bottom line and that is they should see radical Islamic utopianists exactly for what they are. That is what drives me soooo nuts about nutters such as CodePink and them protesting the war against the Taliban and criticizing the West as a male dominated woman oppressing society all at once.
Hitchen's comment to Galloway about Galloway looking for doghouse next to some Arabic tyrant is a good one and more substantive than what one may suppose.
I don't think Galloway is even so highly-principaled as to be a money grubber. I think it is plain old fashioned hate for America. I would bet, if it was decide to reinstall Saddam Hussein as the Iraqi head of the Iraqi state, Galloway would then become Talabani's loudest supporter.
After reading "The Terrorist Network", it struck me how much we can blame communism and its fellow travelers for the age of terrorism. Terrorism in its first instance is an attack on liberal democracy; it is dangerous because it turns our strengths against us and makes the virtuous society untenable. The communist revolutionaries of the 70's knew that democracies were highly impotent against terrorism. People want safety more than liberties, and governments that could not supply the former would end by taking away the latter. Once the society is militarized and oppressed, the patient communist can find the fodder he needs to feed the beast of revolution. Start by stealing from the rich to feed the poor, and eventually the wind and the people are at your back. With such justification is tyranny and fascism embraced over democracy; this is the reason far-Leftists cheer dictatorship and abuse. Abuse and oppression are necessary preconditions of revolution, and revolution is what they fight for. If democracy is two steps away from the Worker's Paradise, tyranny is but one.
Thus, the Tupamaros could celebrate their accomplishment of fascism, though it was much different than what they desired, because their biggest enemy had been discredited and defeated. They had pushed society down the slippery slope to communism, and the end would justify the means.
Galloway makes common cause with fascism, but he is not for it. Both Osama and Galloway believe the same thing. To rebuild, you must first tear down. To create, you must destroy.
The War on Terrorism is a final insult added to communism's injurious defeat. Instead of devolving our liberties at home, America took it upon herself to change the world. The revolutionary narrative was incomplete; nobody ever thought what might happen if America pushed back. The price of that omission is now being shouldered by our erstwhile enemy Osama, and his unfortunate allies the Baathists and the Taliban. As an Emperor once said, he has paid the price for his lack of vision.
The power and influence of America has now reached every state on this planet, by necessity and by right. Something great and unprecedented is underfoot, a unique story our enemies did not predict and cannot believe. America has become an Empire of the Mind, and she is pressing her advantage. In her vanguard are the real true believers.
You might say the revolutionaries are dreamers, but they are not the only ones. Not by a long shot.
RWE,
American Conservatism = the Real Radical Liberalism.
Amen!
I have been "jacking-up" (in a gentle fashion) those around me who refer to leftists as liberals.
"The Terror Network", I mean.
Rocco DiPippo has good article over at FrontPage Magazine, Traitors in the Cradle of Liberty that gives a good picture of Galloway, his admirers and his purpose for coming again to the US. It sounds as if he's basically here as an agitator for the anti-war, anti-Bush crowd. I hate to make an ad hominem attack, but what a scumbag.
Desert Rat
Within the democratic framework, it is not the differing positions that is of import, but the acknowledgement of the Victors victory, in elections.
I agree Rat. The Democrats should quit harping about the 2000 Presidential election being stolen by Bush in Forida and the stealing of the 2004 election by him in Ohio.
Oops. Here's a good link for the DiPippo article.
Wretchard:
The contrast in messages you highlight is important on another level. Hitchens makes a call to principle, while Galloway offers a depressingly familiar defeatist rationale by warning of further violence.
That is, don't provoke them, or they'll kill more of us than they already intend to. A great recipe for those comfortable living on their knees.
As for the charge that we're somehow responsible for the Arab world's failure, this is another 'Goldilocks' critique -- wherein we are either 'not sufficiently engaged with' or 'propping up' this or that unsavory regime. Galloway's crowd would be first to decry any interference by the West in the sovereign affairs of these nations (e.g.: Iraq)
Aristide
With regard Osama, do not doubt for a moment that he is a man of vision. He has achieved his envisioned goal, a Crusader Invasion of a Mohammedan country, twice.
He is safely bivouacked in the mountains of Central Asia. Protected by our Ally in the WoT and the original backer of the Taliban, Pakistan.
In the Battle of Iraq he has bled US for almost three years, now. Costing US at least a thousand lives and billions of dollars.
Cost to Osama and aQ have been minimal, at best. A few thousand dead martyrs and some millions of siphoned oil income dinars.
The Mohammedans continued and growing success in Africa is cause for optimism in his camp, not despair. In Iraq he will continue to portray US and ISF military force as a paper tiger, unable to protect the civilians of the country from his minions.
The civilian casualties in Iraq, London, Madrid, KSA, Morocco, Bali and New York serve to show that the US lacks the ability to defend our Allies or ourselves from his reach and retribution.
Osama is on track to his Caliphate.
So far he has been on time, on target.
We are the ones operating from behind the curve.
aristides:
You 7:25 comment is, perhaps, your best ever.
'Rat,
Osama is a man of limited vision. He got exactly what he asked for, but somehow it is not what he asked for.
You've got to hand it to Hitchens, at least he's not afraid of debate, like wretchard, and the majority of people who post here.
iotm:
Fear of debate or unwillingness to waste time with repetitious jousting?
I fall into the latter category. So, if you don't mind, I'll not be rising to the '(de)bait'.
That's a great point about leftism I've thought all along but rarely said for reasons of personal preservation:
Iraq is a liberal war. The war against Islamofascism is a liberal war. True liberals support it.
When it broke out, liberals were given the choice of remaining true to their principles or maintaining their sense of superiority to George Bush.
For most, the choice was so easy they didn't even realize they'd made a choice. Because most liberals today don't have principles, they have poses.
Sadly, what Dissent Magazine used to call "the liberal who cannot be taught" has come to dominate the left side of the political divide.
A videotape of the Hitchens v. Galloway debate will be broadcast on C-SPAN2 on Saturday, September 17 at 9:00 p.m.
Nathan, my proof that god doesn't exist applies to invisible unicorns as well. Had you bothered to read my essay you'd know that.
ignatius:
How is Iraq a war against "islamofascism"? Saddam Hussein through his repressive manner of dictatorship kept the wraps on all those "islamofascists" and had Iraq as a very secular country. The US invasion undid all that and now you've got the country divided down ethnic and religious lines which plays to the religious nuts. If the invasion of Iraq truly was part of a "war on islamofascism" then it must be judged as a horrible failure. I don't know where you'd come up with that idea in the first place.
Bush's justification was WMD and connection to Al Qa'ida. Those lies fell through and he came to this getting rid of evil dictatorships and bringing freedom and democracy bullshit. Those have fallen through so now it's about fighting terrorism, which wasn't a problem in Iraq before the invasion.
And you know what's fucking hilarious? All you lot are so worried about Islam, yet you're a bunch of religious lunatics defying reason and devoutly worshipping god. Could you be any more Islamic? Not only that but you want religion to be used as the basis of repressing civil liberties, such as gay rights. Islamic leaders who complain about the "secular" US threatening their values are naive and unworldly. They've already won, the US already has sharia law enshrined, just with a different name and tradition, it's still the same crap.
I honestly don't know how you people sleep at night being so utterly wrong all the time. But the worst part about it is that you're arrogant, and actually think you're right, but when challenged, you fucking cower like the pussies you are, and it's nothing but insults. Should someone like me who can cut through your bullshit quite readily get fed up with your closed-minded power worship and throw a few cutting factual comments back at you, it's the end of the goddamn world and you cry to your mothers about the great offense I've caused you.
The term islamofascism that you use is interesting. You are the prototypical fascists. You cling to a foolish national identity because your own lives have been rendered pointless and meaningless because of the alienation of consumer capitalism. You cheer on the blending of corporate and empirical interests, as Mussolini said this was the purest form of fascism. You are utterly offended by dissent, to the point of wishing to effectively control it through a puppet media and through vile character assasinations on the personal level. You are misanthropic to the core, you believe americans are some kind of superior master race. Fascism, my dull minded southern friends, is typified not by a few terrorists responding to Empire, but by those who endorse and support a xenophobic Empire and cheer on the deaths of anyone who is not part of your master race.
You are surprised when terrorists strike out against the US and it's lapdogs, yet if anyone effected by US foreign policy were to read the comments and articles of this blog, whether they live in Syria or Haiti, the notion of innocent civilians would disappear, and terrorism would not be a desperate striking out of violence, but a reactionary take down of vile everyday people who are filled with hate and contempt for their fellow humans.
Lucky for you, most Americans aren't as brainwashed and desperate for some kind of identity, something bigger than themselves to identify with, that they will actively support the goals of Empire when it means slaughtering members of their own kind. Without people like me giving the views of real people who aren't slack jawed yokels willing to open up wide and swallow any amount of shit that the authorities will drop into your mouth, the American people might be hated as much as the horrible oligarchy that runs the country. I've personally stopped more terrorism against the US by talking to people around the world and shattering the myths of american society.
It's fitting that you survive solely by contradiction, since that's another one of the hallmarks of fascism, the utter abandonment of logic in favour of emotional and faith based pleas to the absurd.
Yes Belmont Club, you are the true fascists of the 21st century.
IOTM:
First test of whether a blogger is fascist:
1) If you insult the blog on which you comment and your comment stays up, it isn't fascist. As you say, control of communication is the ideal of fascism.
Additionally, you might explain how those of us who haven't seen the inside of a church regularly in a while fit your "Fundamentalist American" profile.
Finally, you may want to consider the pot/kettle nature of this comment:
"I honestly don't know how you people sleep at night being so utterly wrong all the time. But the worst part about it is that you're arrogant, and actually think you're right"
Uhm, aren't you displaying the attitude you're attacking? It's funny, but kind of weakens your argument. You might read up on irony, it's a strong rhetorical tool when used intentionally. Accidentally applied, however, it eviscerates you.
iotm, though I do not agree with your statements, thank you for representing your point of view. A one-sided argument is quite boring and teaches nothing, so thank you again for the parry.
iotm, you are a legend in your own mind. Now run along and stop trolling for your blog that has no readership other than the spam programs.
I'm all for debate and intellectual parry, but IOTM is the not the one to carry that burden. Stopping terrorism on one hand, an evil Empire on the other, he seems to have his plate filled at the moment. For IOTM these are heady days, full of glorious contribution, I am sure. I worry his sacrifices may not leave much time to carry the water of dissent here at Belmont Club.
After all, he is only human, except when he's role-playing.
Fernand,
B-2? That is SO 2003!
Vandenberg Launches Minuteman III
This is an interesting little nugget: "... the 20th Air Force’s Airborne Launch Control System executed the launch aboard a U.S. Navy E-6B Mercury aircraft."
(Regarding Galloway's statement that there were no al-Qaeda in Iraq before the 2003 Iraq War.) His statement has some nagging discrepancies, such as Zarqawi's network and Abu Nidal, but that's beside the point. The flood of Iraq with al-Qaeda fighters, whether anticipated or not, is in fact a positive, because the short-term solution for terrorism is military action that will either kill or disrupt the terrorists. The more insurgents that flow into Iraq from Syria, Iran, etc., the more crowded the shooting gallery gets, and the more get taken down. Every al-Qaeda member engaged in combat in Iraq is too busy to mount strikes elsewhere and, given their casualty ratio, will never live to do so. Meanwhile, in accordance with the long-term solution to terrorism, which is to eliminate the political atmosphere that fosters it, Iraq is slowly developing into a country where the people have their own say. It's almost like a magic trick, where one hand distracts the eye from the movements of the other, which then produces the result you tried your best to see through, but knew was coming anyway.
dan from cos
yeah those Christ followers in Darfur are just kickin' Mohammedan ass.
"...those darn pesky Christians just keep racking up the numbers..." yeah, of being victims of rape, relocated by force and murdered, that is.
In Somalia the Mohameddans are in control. Not the Christians.
While it may well be true that there are more and more Christians being converted, more and more Mohameddans are armed and ready for ethnic cleansing to commence.
Disregard what you will, as you wish, as the Christians turn their other cheek, the Mohameddans will be doing their best to take their heads.
A short visit to Darfur would set you right, but then I'm sure that where ever cos is, it is a long way away, from there.
When Stalin is reputed to ask about the Pope's "Divisions", it is always taken as a sign that Stalin did not understand the Pope and the Church would outlast him.
Which it did.
It seems a shame, though, that at least 20 million people had to die, of unnatural causes, before the Soviet Union did.
Now a new threat emerges to the West, another newer religion... Mohammedism, the Imams and Mohameddans are derided and ridiculed for THEIR lack of Divisions.
As dan from cos and others bury their heads in the sand, secure in the knowledge that the Mohameddans would never kill entire peoples, would never commence a genocide, even though they already have.
Welcome to the Munich Syndrome, dan from cos.
Clark
the numbers and profiles of the out country terrorists that were captured/ killed in the Tel Afar combat last week does not confirm or conform to your theory. The majority of those combatants were not Mohammed Atta's, no the reports are that they were young and inexperianced, trainees, so to speak.
The aQ terrorists migrating to Iraq are not the same ones that are part of the "International Threat" profle. Those fellows are already in Europe or here.
It is time to come to grips with Osama where ever he is, who ever is protecting him.
Porter Goss knows where he is, it is well passed time to get him.
In the book, 1776, by David McCullough, his promotes the idea that if Washington had been killed or captured in New York, the Revolution and the Insurgency would have gone with him. That the Revolution lived in the person of Washington.
The Mahdi Wars are personified, on the Mohameddan side, by Osama. I do not believe that "another" would step into his shoes. They may well try, but Osama has been wearing them a long time, and the Legend is Large. Those shoes would be hard to fill
As would have Washington's.
Ever wonder where the 50,000 men that were reported to have gone through the aQ/ Taliban training centers in Afghanistan went?
Did 50,000 men really train in those camps?
Are they waiting, at home, for the "Word"?
Why are they all not flooding to Iraq, turning the tide with their numbers?
Have they all been killed, or captured?
Inquiring minds.
They could be at "home". If you think that Osama and his boys believe in, and work their plan. Their REAL push comes in '06 & '07.
We bleed in Iraq 'til then.
If there really were 50,000 trained combatants processed through those Afghan camps, their disposition is VERY important.
We know of at least a dozen or so US citizens that went through the Afghan "Course".
How many got there and back,
under the radar?
the more things change, dave h, the more they stay the same.
Bill Roggio comments on the situation in Samarra and Rhamadi.
The Iraqis are coming!
The Iraqis are coming!
He closes with this
"...The involvement of the Iraqi Army crucial to this effort as it shows the fence-sitters that government has the capacity to apply their own force, and the political will to use it. ..."
The Iraqi National Army has always been our end game gambit, it is to bad it took so long to mobilize it.
Well I saw a unicorn, once.
Either that or a real skinny rhino.
Invisibility, now that is right out of HG Wells. I take it on faith that he never told a lie, or streched the truth. Really he was a forecaster of things to come, like J. Verne or that Nostradamus fellow.
So yes, there could be invisible unicorns, I have just have not seen one, yet.
Just like most of the other gods that mankind has worshipped through the ages, known to be, but yet unseen.
trish
I'd say that, ready or not, the ISF will be "large and in charge" by May or June '06
The US elections in November '06 and the exasperation of the Public with the lack of seen military progress will spur our withdrawal.
We will spin the December '05 Iraqi election as Victory for US, which it will have been.
Logistical support, trucks etc, will have to transferred from US stocks to Iraqi control.
A status of forces will be worked out, hopefully with US withdrawing to the desert, leaving Iraq and it's cities to it's own devices.
The REAL thought is what if Osama's published plan and timeline is accurate. As we are attempting to withdraw, from Iraq, those 50,000 trained Jihadists are unleashed in their "Home" countries. Iraq, KSA, Jordon, Turkey and Egypt in Arabia. Indonesia and the Philippines in the Pacific and across Europe. 2006 is to be the Year of the Mahdi, according to them. They will not strike here, in the US, until after the European Campaign is underway. We are targeted for late '07 & '08, in time to impact US Presidental elections.
desert rat,
The scenario of Al Qaeda shifting its scene of attacks to Europe and the US is an interesting one. It is contingent on two things: first the ability to deploy and maintain contact with those 50,000 jihadis; the ability to launch operations in their home countries.
Two observations. The more time passes between the Afghan days and the present, the more tenous their hold on those men becomes. They age, get fat, start businesses, get married. Second, they need to exercise those networks today and I don't see any sign of that. Consider London. The men they used in the bombings were dopes recruited from the local fish n' chips.
I don't deny that they'll try to carry out their timetable. I just wonder if they'll be able to.
trish
it's been linked to a couple of times in the past, right here.
rick ballard or buddy larson, not sure which, posted it once.
Their warning order is pretty much in the public domain.
W
That is the challenge with all sleeper agents, atrophy.
And yes, in London the aQ had the advantage of in country insurgents, born in place, that were much more than "useful idiots". The got active particpents, riding their bow wave, that have never recieved instruction or funding from the "Source". Now that is a force multiplier.
The numbers of "active" agents required for a Worldwide campaign is limited , 9-11 needed all of 20, Madrid about the same.
If only 500 of the 50,000 are really available and ready, well, cry havoc!
trish
Bill roggio has the schedule of Mohammedan events listed at this site
7 phases
Rat,
If Osama has people in place to do a major worldwide strike, he will just be inviting major, worldwide retribution on his religion, at least his version of Islam.
Africa, where dan from cos assures me Christian conversions will stem the Mohammedan tide.
Except it seems in Darfur.
Back on 2 Aug W posted comments made by "...General Jack Keane, the former vice chief of the Army has apparently ... he has said at a luncheon yesterday that U.S. forces had either captured or killed some 50,000 insurgents so far this year. ..."
Figure that half of those are going thru the catch and release cycle that LTC Kurilla's assailant survived. It still means that 25,000 KIA are not slowing the Insurgents down. The low number of out country fighters in detention means the Iraqi Insurgency is substantially home grown.
exhelo
Why would he believe that?
After Madrid?
There was no retribution, in fact, capitulation.
After London...none
After 9-11 he achieved his goals of tying down the US in a long and costly conflict.
Where are we going to retaliate? Warzistan. That is certainly a target rich enviorment, if ever there was one.
Destroy Mecca? Bomb the Rock?
Not likely.
Clean out the Mohammedan ghettos of Europe? Possible, but unlikely.
Osama is a long way from London, Paris and Rome.
If we know where Osama is, and Goss says we do, there is no excuse for inaction.
The Goal is to isolate the US from it's traditional allies, while at the same time crippling our economy with the Oil weapon.
He has described oil as their "Nuke".
In '06 & '07 we may see just how good oil production infrastructure and pipeline security is or is not in Panama, Mexico, Iraq, Jordan, Turkey & KSA.
Remember the intermediate Goal is to topple the Governments of Turkey, Jordan, Egypt and KSA. If Assad tumbles in Syria, see doug's first post link, then Syria jumps to the head of the line. Both for Osama and Saddam's Baathists looking for a new home.
Al-Qaeda's operatives now dominate the ideologues:
Ajai Sahni, an Indian scholar, wrote in March 2004 that "the Islamist terrorist agenda is more inflexible than most of us imagine, and its ends are defined, not in terms of the transient political parameters of the discourse of international relations, but by a perspective rooted in religious absolutisms that will endure long after the reverberations of the crises of transition in Afghanistan or in Iraq have come to an end."
Meanwhile the crises in Afghanistan and Iraq are far from ending, and could be prolonged. The operatives do not possess the same endurance as the ideologues, but their strategy currently dominates the ideology.
http://www.dailystar.com.lb/article.asp?edition_id=10&categ_id=5&article_id=18528
'Rat,
Has anyone ever hazarded a guess as to how many Iraqis went through the camps?
...don't think I've ever heard mention of it.
7/7 bomber's video blames Blair policy:
The deputy chief editor of al-Jazeera, Ayman Gaballah, said the Qatar based channel received the tape yesterday by means it would not discuss. The tape was 15 minutes long and contained several clips of fighting in Iraq and the Palestinian territories.
Scotland Yard said it would study the tape
http://nation.ittefaq.com/artman/publish/article_21731.shtml
I do not know of any numbers of those released through the Iraqi justice system.
We released 1,000 in a day, during the Constitution negotiations.
In the Baghdad practice runs by the ISF, many people were swept up and detained, how many of those have been released, only they could know.
The 82nd deployed some men, less than 1,000, I recall, as Guards for increased detention capacity.
That would put our current detention capacity at, a guesstimate, of 25,000 - 30,000. Up from the 18,000 we were housing in May.
Or Iraqis through the Afghan training camps?
That question is way beyond my pay grade or extrapulation capacity.
I lose: It was the second.
Mr Goss may know the answer to that, doug, but I have not seen any data to figure a way to even guess.
I am not sure that 50,000 really were trained at those camps.
Assuming they were, where did they go?
Warzistan, are they assimulated into the 300,000 armed natives there?
Doug,
You've got it backwards. How many afhans went through the iraqi training camps?
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/gunning/interviews/khodada.html
Maybe they'll just assimilate wherever they can find someone like Galloway to vote for:
He will become the hero of jihadi co-option.
Here they could vote for the woman in Washington state that so appreciated Osama.
And that Georgia gal that hates this racist country so much.
Sam,
Not the first time.
Welcome to civil war:
Undeclared civil war in Iraq has been raging for months. Now it's "official": using the customary audio clip on a website, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi - who may or may not be a cipher, but is certainly the leader of Monotheism and Holy War, or al-Qaeda in the Land of the Two Rivers - has declared "all-out war" on Iraqi Shi'ites.
Yet one more heavily hyped Pentagon/Baghdad production yielded no box office results - for obvious reasons. The Salafi jihadis, reportedly a couple of hundred, who were holed up in Tal Afar easily melted away, like the fish in Mao Zedong's pool of resistance.
"Zarqawi" - cipher or not cipher, performing or not performing miracles with just one leg and a US$25 million bounty on his head - has caused tremendous havoc since pledging allegiance to al-Qaeda in October 2004 , when his network adopted its current denomination, al-Qaeda in the Land of the Two Rivers (Tanzim al-Qaeda fi Bilad al-Rafidayn) and Osama bin Laden recognized him as the jihadi-in-chief in Iraq in a December 2004 audiotape.
http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Middle_East/GI16Ak03.html
Afghans Through Iraqi Traing Camps
sam,
It will be a civil war when the Kurds and Shi'ites start setting off bombs among civilians in Ramadi, or opening fire on the Sunni towns with the artillery which they possess. One could call it a civil war when they start mortaring Sunni pilgrims in Samarra or operating a closed city full of slaughterhouses and distributing the video on Al Jazeera. So far only the "militants" have done that; and the media think it is inspiring.
The US experienced a Civil War at first hand in the 1860s. Mannassas, Gettysburg, Cold Harbor. Whole cities were beseiged. Sherman marched from Atlanta to the Sea.
More recently there was a Civil War in Spain. People ate rats. Sometimes they ate people. Whole towns like Guernica were smashed. Thousands of priests were executed, nuns were raped. More thousands were executed summarily.
I think we will know a civil war when we see it.
sam
If 20,000+ Sunni Insurgent KIA does not count towards Civil War against the Iraqi National Government what does?
Are they at war with US or the new Government?
I tend to think they are at war with the newly elected Government and will be if we are there, or not.
Like the Earps at the OK Corral, you can tell there's a fight coming. The protagonists have told the town it's coming, then it does.
The Ratification Election count down is at 30 days, same timeline as proposed Samarra and Rhamadi cleansing, re: billroggio.com
Odd that what seems so repugnant in Wretchard's description of signs of civil war is so accepted and even admired in the fearless freedom fighting insurgies.
Whoda thought fighting (against) freedom would become a heroic quest?
Who will be riding the "Strong Horse" in Iraq, on 16 October.
doug
Not that drunken sod, my favorite Trotskyite, Chris Hitchens.
'Rat,
Wouldn't a healthy Civil War require more than a 20k commitment?
Wretchard, Rat,
I agree there is no civil war. Just interesting what some people think 'though like this guy from Hong Kong so I throw it up on the board.
Healthy?
The participation levels in the Elections are key. If the Sunnis can shut down the new Constitution, setting up another round of prelim. elections in December, good for them, we win.
If they cannot stop the Ratification, but participate in December, good, we win.
If the Sunni vote as a block and lose in October and boycott December we'll have an indication that there are few political options left.
Never thought about a Mobile Darkroom in the midst of the Civil War!
More Iraqis Joining Zarqawi's Cause:
"They're going to be extremely disappointed when they fail, and they're going to believe this is the result of fraud and being cheated out of what they deserve," one of the U.S. officials said. "There's going to be some real ratcheting up of Sunni disaffection with the process."
The trial of Hussein, scheduled to begin next month, is also likely to add to a sense of victimization among Sunnis, analysts say.
http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fg-zarqawi16sep16,0,6289555.story?coll=la-home-headlines
Before I looked at the link. I thought it would be a lap top.
Wrong Civil War.
I can't help but watch debates like this and think something is wrong underneath the surface when people cheer someone like Galloway.
Total US Population 31 million - 1860.
US CENSUS .
.Casualties In The Civil War .
At least 618,000 Americans died in the Civil War, and some experts say the toll reached 700,000. The number that is most often quoted is 620,000. At any rate, these casualties exceed the nation's loss in all its other wars, from the Revolution through Vietnam.
The Union armies had from 2,500,000 to 2,750,000 men...
The current US Civil War involves lap dances.
I would say anything beyond a slap on the wrist would qualify Saddam for Sainthood in the Anals of Victimology.
I Expected More From Bush, Cheney
By Ed Koch:
Some will say, “Koch, you are criticizing those you have told us to vote for.” Yes, that is true in this case. It harkens back to one of my rules when I was mayor. I said, “Government is not for my friends,” going on to explain that to be in my government, if you were a friend of mine, you had to be far better than other applicants for the job. I expected then and continue to expect now more from my friends.
I still admire, respect and support Colin Powell, President Bush, Dick Cheney and Don Rumsfeld for the positive, even great, contributions they have made to the U.S., particularly their courage in taking on international terrorism. But that should not and will not stop me from being critical when their actions or inactions merit a public rebuke. If that be disloyalty, so be it.
http://realclearpolitics.com/Commentary/com-9_16_05_EK.html
Here's a real pro-American Perspective:
Didn't realize we waged total war on Fallujah:
. Iraq Again: The Human Cost of the Assault on FallujahBy: Bahu VirupakshaPosted: Friday, December 03, 2004 on Discussion on History and PoliticsMessage Board: Politics
The American and their collabirating forces the British have declared Fallujah "Liberated". Dutifully the Western Media has reported this with all the usual claptrap of showing extreme "restraint" in the face of grave provocation from the "terrorists". I am sure decent law abiding citizens everywhere will be shocked to learn that in the two weeks of fighting that preceded the so called liberation, almost all the buildings in Fallujah have been destroyed. There is not a single mosque still standing in the city. This achievement of the Anglo_American forces is entirely due to the wanton and masssive use of air power on an undefended city. In fact, in toltal disregard to the norms of warfare, the USA and its collaboratinf forces used the dreaded Cluster bombs and bunker destroying bombs in specifically civillian targets. Even their hand picked "Prime Minister" Allawi, who claims to have given the "go ahead" signal for the assault has spoken of the unacceptable levels of civillian casualities. As usual, on international organization is being allowed to see the extent of Anglo American depradations in Fallujah.Credible reports from non Arab news sources state the children and women were not allowed to leave Fullajah once the fighting began. It is now estimated that nearly 15,000 people were destroyed in the battle for Fallujah and the streets are littered with dead and decaying corposes, hurting the sentiments of Arabs a great deal: Islam enjoins respectful burrial of the dead before decomposition of the body sets in.
. IRAQ,KATRINA AND THE POLITICS OF DENIAL .
WHY BUSH HAS FAILED HIS PEOPLE.
Ever wonder where the 50,000 men that were reported to have gone through the aQ/ Taliban training centers in Afghanistan went?
Did 50,000 men really train in those camps?
Are they waiting, at home, for the "Word"?
Why are they all not flooding to Iraq, turning the tide with their numbers?
Have they all been killed, or captured?
Inquiring minds.
The number I heard was actually much larger, maybe twice that, but I can't remember for sure. In fact, however, a good portion of these men are already occupied, fighting in remote places such as the Phillipines, Kashmir, Chechnya, etc. Afghanistan was jihadi boot camp.
Today, doug, the Union Army has a strength of 1,500,000 Active & Reserve.
Comparative loses in Iraq, to US Civil War Union losses of 22%
Total Force would = 330,000 KIA
Deployed OIF Force would = 30,360 KIA
Actual Losses = under 2,100, to date = .0014% of Total Force or .015% of incountry deployed force.
find the Cost of Freedom
buried in the ground
cutler
They could well have processed 100,000. I do not know the accurate number. If it is the higher number, the next question is how many are in their Force, Worldwide?
What is the real size, strength and probable disposition of the Mohammedan Mahdi Army.
Pre-election chaos erupts:
About 40 gunmen attacked a police post in the mountainous Char-Chilo district of Uruzgan province late Wednesday, provincial Gov. Jan Mohammed Khan said. Police killed three of the attackers and arrested one after a two-hour gun battle, he said. The others escaped.
There were no casualties among 20 police manning the checkpoint, Khan said.
Khan also blamed the Taliban for the killings of seven men whose bodies were found in the province Tuesday along with their voter ID cards.
http://www.coloradodaily.com/articles/2005/09/15/news/beyond_boulder/news2.txt
I must say that George Galloway looked like an idiot!
George Galloway picked the biggest megaphone in the world and so did his advisory. George Galloway assumed it was the '60s - but it was not. He sounded very rabid and stupid. Most people came away with the idea that George Galloway was Snake Oil Salesman - nothing more. Anybody who has been in the Western USA knows a Snake Oil Salesman when they see one (Los Angeles was a bad place for him to speak).
The rest of Mr. Galloway's analysis from other posters is on target.
Galloway is an aging bowel movement.
"Short with overpowering Halitosis."
hmm,
How tall is R. Redford?
The premier line of Socialist perfume produced in 21st Century Malibu will be "Redford's Revenge."
"If 20,000+ Sunni Insurgent KIA does not count towards Civil War against the Iraqi National Government what does?"
Fair enough, but by that definition Iraq would have been in Civil War during the 1980s and 1990s, when Saddam killed at least that many Shi'ites and Kurds, maybe more. I think Human Rights Watch or some such put the figure at 500K killed by Saddam.
The difference between Saddam and the current Iraqi government is that the transitional government, at least until this point, hasn't embarked on genocide or flooding out the Sunnis. The civilian targeting has been all on the insurgent side. Many of the 20K KIA have been combatants. The "Civil War" Zarqawi is praying for is the kind of mindless mutual extermination that transcends logic. I'm not saying getting there is impossible, but I don't think we're there yet.
An Overview of U.S.-Israel Diplomacy: The Disengagement Deal on Paper:
On the eve of the unilateral Gaza withdrawal, Ariel Sharon explained his action to the Israeli newspaper Yediot Aharonot: “I`ve reached a deal with the Americans. I prefer a deal with the Americans to a deal with the Arabs.”
Sharon`s disengagement plan arose from several convictions: (1) unless Israel produced an alternative, the world would impose the Geneva Accord; (2) the Geneva Accord did not provide Israel defensible borders (and contained a “right of return,” purportedy limited, that would in practice de-legitimize Israel), and (3) Palestinian observance of such an agreement would be – to put it mildly – uncertain.
I. The First Promise
the United States remains committed to my vision and to its implementation as described in the roadmap. The United States will do its utmost to prevent any attempt by anyone to impose any other plan.
II. The Second Promise
there will be no security for Israelis or Palestinians until they and all states, in the region and beyond, join together to fight terrorism and dismantle terrorist organizations. The United States reiterates its steadfast commitment to Israel`s security.
III. The Third Promise
Israel will retain its right to defend itself against terrorism, including to take actions against terrorist organizations. The United States will lead efforts, working together with Jordan, Egypt, and others in the international community, to build the capacity and will of Palestinian institutions to fight terrorism.
The Roadmap envisions a settlement negotiated between the parties based on [UN Resolutions] 242, 338, and 1397, that ends the occupation that began in 1967, and includes an agreed, just, fair, and realistic solution to the refugee issue.
Sharon`s deal was thus to exchange disengagement for the following American promises: (1) no political discussions with the Palestinians before they dismantle terrorist organizations and infrastructure; (2) no return to indefensible Auschwitz borders, but only to borders Israel can defend without reliance on Palestinian promises or third-party guarantees; and (3) American led efforts to insure Gaza does not threaten Israel.
http://realclearpolitics.com/Commentary/com-9_15_05_RR.html
Trish, 10:12 AM
You seem immerse yourself almost exclusively in literature critical to our policies.
(any particular reason WHY?)
I have come to the point where I don't try to rebut it all of point by point, because it becomes and exercise similar to "debating" MOTI, ie a pointless waste of time.
But I won't restrain myself from tossing in a few things that somehow get completely left out in the piece you quote:
Saudi Arabia, Iran, Iraq, Pakistan, Israel, Syria, Philippines, Indonesia, India, Lebanon, Libya, and etc. to include also wretchard's first comment on this thread.
Seems sufficient reason for our efforts, which being human endeavors, are forever flawed, but not always foolish.
ie
There's something more to it than mere Neocon madness.
Far as I can tell at least.
Were we energy independent, the calculus would be different, but something beyond homeland defense would still be called for.
...and the idea that Iraq is responsible for our deficiencies here at home is ludicrous at best.
Too bad husker is not still commenting to give some up close examples of "Super Wealthy Rich" folks doing their duty and donating the family farm to DC for diveying up first to the DC crowd and friends, then the leavings for the welfare set and etc.
C4,
Was GWB just jogging around Crawford one day when he came up with this crazy War on Terror Idea?
Pakistan's economy turns the corner:
When Musharraf seized power in October 1999, Pakistan's external debt - a staggering $38 billion - to Gross Domestic Product (GDP) ratio was over 60 percent, today it has come down to 37 percent, said Nadeem Naqvi, CEO of AKD securities, one of the brokerage houses.
"No doubt 9/11 has been the most critical factor in the restructuring of high-cost debts and a renewed inflow of new resources from donor countries, the World Bank and the ADB (for infrastructure projects), replacing the expansive with soft loans," said Naqvi.
One indicator of the renewed trust in the business environment is registration of 410 new public and private companies in IT, Telecom, and the Energy sector with the Securities and Exchange Commission of Pakistan (SECP) in August alone.
http://www.newkerala.com/newsdaily.php?action=fullnews&id=23031
What we call Islam is a mirror in which we see ourselves:
Sitting in the capital of the Islamic Republic of Iran, with a metal arrow on the ceiling of my hotel room pointing to Mecca and the television showing a female news presenter in full hijab, I feel impelled to write about our troubles with Islam.
1 The fundamental problem is not just Islam but religion itself, which is superstition, false consciousness, the abrogation of reason.
2 The fundamental problem is not religion itself, but the particular religion of Islam. Islam, unlike western Christianity, does not allow the separation of church and state, religion and politics.
3 The problem is not Islam but Islamism. One of the world's great religions has been misrepresented by fanatics such as Osama bin Laden.
4 The nub of the problem is not religion, Islam or even Islamism, but a specific history of the Arabs. Among 22 members of the Arab League, none is a home-grown democracy.
5 We, not they, are the root of the problem. From the Crusades to Iraq, western imperialism, colonialism, Christian and post-Christian ideological hegemonism have themselves created this antipathy to western liberal democracy.
6 Whatever your view of the relative merits of the west and Islam, the most acute tension comes at the edges where they meet. It arises, in particular, from the direct, personal encounter of young, first- or second-generation Muslim immigrants with western, and especially European, secular modernity.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/comment/story/0,3604,1570236,00.html
Verc,
Thanks,
Somebody finally makes some sense out of all this craziness.
You, and Sam, of course!
Onward Neocon Soldiers!
C4,
You're calling for Civil Defense:
That would be going backwards in time.
Plus it might not represent a sufficient commitment (In Dollars) to "Homeland Defense".
---
I'll leave foreign policy to other word warriors.
Sensing and Son .
-Hewitt
Steve’s grandfather, Col. (ret.) George D. Stephens, USA, is a World War II veteran who made eight combat amphibious assaults in the Pacific. Since those days he’s always had great respect for US Marines.
---
Lt. Col. Kuhn kindly dropped by our little family group after his short talk to the troops. Several families came to see their Marine off and I am pretty sure that the battalion commander spoke to every one. We had a good conversation for quite awhile. I told him what I had told my son the night before, that I was deeply envious of my son and his fellow Marines. Some people reach the end of their lives still wondering whether they ever made a positive difference in their country or the world. Marines don’t have that problem, and neither, of course, do soldiers, sailors, airmen or Coast Guardsmen.
My son and his fellows are producers of freedom, not mere consumers of it. And those who only consumed freedom will one night lie in their beds and think themselves accursed that they didn’t serve with them
wretchard
The current Iraqi President, Jalal Talabani, has claimed that there had been a Civil War in Iraq prior to US intervention.
Read it here on your site a day or so ago.
aristides quotes him as saying
"... In the new Iraq, there will be no victors, and no vanquished...
Thank you, America, for your dignity and courage. We fought together to end a civil war. There was a civil war, a civil war of Saddam Hussein against the people of Iraq. ..."
I would tend to agree with him. The body count during his term of office WAS indicitive of Civil War, even by those gruesome standards you describe from the past.
By Jalal Talabani's standard the US is already engaged in Iraq's Civil War. Has been from day one.
The lack of understanding on the part of the Public's is indicitive of the poor strategic communications by the Bush/ Blair administrations.
dan, there are many, many people in the US, about 60% now a days, that do not understand. They are ALL not truely stupid or psychotic solipsists.
They are people that NEED leadership and communication.
People that need and want understandable Goals and ways of attaining them.
A country like US cannot be led with winks and nods.
Much as some would like it to be, the US is not a Frat House and cannot, successfully, be run like one.
If the only Goal of the Global War on Terror is, as the President says, to make my Grandchildren safe, then we are fighting this War, today, on the WRONG Front.
6,000 unarmed invaders enter the US daily and Osama runs free.
The CIA Director, Porter Goss says he knows where Osama is.
Why is he still on the loose?
Why is he not besieged, by US?
How did a few hundred out country terrorist trainees in Tel Afar and the Euphrates River Valley become the focus of the GWoT.?
Even a few thousand, in all of Iraq, are not worth the BILLIONs we'll have to spend chasing them.
We are playing right out of Osama's book and into his hands.
Why not Osama, we know where he is.
In a WSJ article
WSJ w/ President Talabani
he says a number of interesting things.
"... Mr. Talabani also singled out another of Iraq's leaders, the oft-criticized Ahmed Chalabi. "Among civilians, Dr. Chalabi especially has been active in preventing war between Sunnis and Shiites," he said. ..."
"...but the Sunnis are divided into small, often tribal groups: "Saddam didn't permit any kind of Sunni leadership to emerge." Right now, he said, the Sunnis need assurance that the government can protect them, as in the current joint U.S.-Iraqi offensive against the insurgents in Tal Afar.
Up to now, he said, the anti-insurgent offensives in the Sunni Triangle essentially have amounted to a policy of "liberate and leave." This time with Tal Afar, they intend to stay: "We must keep some forces there or arm local people to defend their freedom." ..."
The article goes on to say
"...He acknowledged that Iraq's transition poses a challenge in the region:
"All Arab states are afraid of a democracy. A democratic Iraq with different nationalities--Kurds, Arabs Turkomen, Shiites, Sunnis--will inspire all the Middle East. The Sunnis of Saudi Arabia, the Kurds of Iran, Syria, Turkey--when they see this, it will inspire all of them. For that reason none in the Middle East is helpful in having a democratic Iraq." When he is asked to discuss Syria and the current terror inside Iraq, he declines to stay on the record. ..."
sam said...
6 Whatever your view of the relative merits of the west and Islam, the most acute tension comes at the edges where they meet. It arises, in particular, from the direct, personal encounter of young, first- or second-generation Muslim immigrants with western, and especially European, secular modernity.
////////////////
the problem with this analysis is that there is instability on all of Islam's boundaries without exception. Consider China India Indoniesia, Phillipines Thailand, Etheopia, Somalia, Uganda, Sudan, Nigeria, Chad and all the states in central asia. There's just no place in the world where the Moslem coexist peacefully with their neighbors and it doesn't matter whether they are top dog, middle dog or underdog.
Trish: your 5.13 post is the most offensive I've seen from you. Just because you read causality backwards does not mean others may not point it out (and should be subjected to puerile insults for doing so).
From previous thread:
trackersmurf said...
By the way, I don't know if you guys saw the Col McMasters statements to Stars and Stripes...
U.S. troops find chemical weapon in Tal Afar stronghold
U.S. commander derides enemy’s ‘unscrupulous’ actions
By Jeff Schogol, Stars and Stripes
Pacific edition, Thursday, September 15, 2005
ARLINGTON, Va. — While taking down the insurgent stronghold of Tal Afar, U.S. troops discovered a crude chemical weapon, the commander of the 3rd Armored Cavalry Regiment said Tuesday.
The troops had just entered a building when their ears and throats started to burn, said Army Col. H.R. McMaster in a briefing to reporters.
U.S. forces determined insurgents had rigged the chemicals to explosives, McMaster said, though he did not identify the type of chemical.
“We evacuated the civilians from the area and we demolished that building without a hazard to the people,” McMaster said.
He said several families were living near the building, suggesting insurgents intended to detonate the chemical weapon to harm them and blame it on coalition forces, he said.
http://www.estripes.com/article.asp?section=104&article=31588
Also the good Colonel is the one who kicked off the 73 Easting engagement back in Desert Storm back when he commanded Eagle Troop 2/2ACR....
It's fitting he's handling this now...
Flattered, but not Flattened.
Galloway is a vicious anti-semite whose speaking style rivals Hitler. Some irony.
I was told that the Senate have the goods on his involvement in the oil-for-food scam and are just waiting for the right time to use the info. Hope it is soon but they are a bit busy just now.
<---Insert Juan Cole Quote Here.--->
So Norm Coleman the Jew, won't let Galloway off Scot Free?
(Does a Celebratory Porn Porn Dance in his Kilt.)
I am waiting for Mr Galloway, M.P., to say that Saddam "also built the motorways [autobahnen] that the Americans have now destroyed or rendered unsafe to travel."
Mark
Ottawa
Sometimes even Scots Get the Jews.
Easily Flattered, (even by himself) enjoys Scotch Costard.
I have already given one imperative on this thread, so I might as well give another. Read Imperial Grunts by Robert Kaplan.
"The effort in Iraq, with its large-scale mobilization of troops and immense concentration of risk, could not be indicative of how the U.S. would act in the future. It was in Colombia where I was introduced to the tactics that the U.S. would employ to manage an unruly world."
A managerial Empire for a nation of MBA's. This highlights the folly of analyzing Iraq, and Vietnam for that matter, too broadly. As Kaplan says, the world is Injun Country, and our small bands of adventurous men are trying to mid-wife civilization and decency across the entire globe. I commented earlier that it is in the vanguard of the American imperium where you can find real true believers. Read this book and you will see the truth of that statement, and be proud.
Another point Kaplan makes is more worrisome. Colombian FARC and ELN are being supported by Chavez, and he has trained these terrorists to sabotage the Colombian oil pipe-line so the U.S. will be more dependent, and therefore more beholden, to Venezuelan oil. Chavez is also handing out Venezuelan ID cards to men from Yemen, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, etc.
Chavez is Castro's protege, and it must be remembered that Castro, in 1967, began the era of international terrorism with a grand meeting of Leftist radicals in Havana, and afterwards became a type of centrale for terrorist leaders and funds. The agenda of the 1967 meeting was to destabilize democracies everywhere, thereby setting the stage for communist revolution. From this meeting of the terrorist minds sprang Europe's terror decade of the '70's which spilled over into the Middle East.
It is no secret that there is a common cause between the radical left and the radical right, what Claire Sterling referred to as Red and Black terrorism respectively. What is Chavez up to that we, as amateur analysts, cannot see? I'm afraid Chavez is planning to annex the choke-point of the American economy and thereby gain disproportionate influence and power, while retaining plausible deniability for the attacks. The tactic of blowing up Colombia's oil pipe-line could easily be transported to the Middle East, or Mexico, or even Canada, our number one supplier, leaving Chavez the arbiter of the price and supply of American oil, which would increase his influence immensely. A Castro with oil is a scary proposition, but an oil-rich Castro in control of U.S. supply, who wields terrorism freely and unapologetically, and unlike the real Castro young and still virile, is a serious national security threat, ripe for the Chinese to massage to their advantage.
I do hope we are not being blinded by the concentrated risk of Iraq. If we are to get out of this century still the leader of the free world, it is going to take the eternal vigilance of Americans, both military and civilian, to remain the former and preserve the latter.
All that Chavez can do is to increase the cost of oil. He cannot stop the nations of the free world from obtaining oil. Understand that increasing the cost of oil will only bring alternative sources of energy online earlier. Chavez can only achieve an earlier date of bankruptcy for his country by attempting to choke off the oil supply of North America.
Trish,
To be more specific:
'Rat has his criticisms, but he seems to back his arguments with reliable sources.
Folks that use Mr. and Mrs. Plame for sources and Jaun Cole don't qualify, imo.
Hewitt says
FEEMA BOUGHT 300,000 TRAILERS!
Take that C4, the brilliance and efficiencies of Stalinist Bureaucracies.
...that's how the Bannana Republic of Hawaii saves money in the monolithic Dept of "Education."
Then they let them go to H... while gobbling up 30c/kwh diesel fired e l e t r i c i t y.
Keepin Kids Cool.
Pay your FEE, MA.
"Banana" "electricity"
Aristedes,
And the American Left/MSM/Dems have so polarized things against the military/Bush, that obvious threats lack public support.
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
Stones Cry Out Calls Hugh: He wrote the plan!
He wrote the plan, but still does not know how much a trailer costs:
They told him cost is no object.
(Of course not: It's YOUR Money!)
---
"During the summer of 2004, FEMA ran a disaster simulation exercise in which a fictional hurricane named Pam hit the New Orleans area. The purpose of the Pam simulation was to help FEMA and local authorities in hurricane-prone areas to prepare for future disasters."
http://usgovinfo.about.com/od/defenseandsecurity/a/femapam.htm
Thank you Commander Cole.
Hugh's plan is simply give 100k voucher, or whatever trailers would cost (installed) to 300k families.
Yoni says Al Queda is setting up office in Gaza, cost of AK-47's and ammo has gone down 60%, says he predicted Hamasistan months ago.
Mitt Romney for President!
...calling for Mosques to be wiretapped.
---
Lawyers want Able Danger probe to be Private.
Doug,
Be careful shouting "Politics of Denial!"
Nearly ALL of America, now, is based on scoffing and denial, despite such denial being named specifically as "damnable heresy" in the Christian Holy Book! (IIPeter 2:1)
And Christians all across America have been taught by their clergy to "scoff and deny our lord who redeems us" has returned.
To be a Christian, today, requires (of necessity) the denial of the return of 'the righteousness that is Christ'; denial of Jesus' ability to KNOW that His words would point to 1844; denial of Jesus' purity of intent in choosing words which would, 3 times out of 3, come to fruition in 1844! (Matt 24:14, Luke 21:24, Matt 24:15)
And on top of THAT denial, massive chicanery is foisted on the people!
d'Rat: The CIA Director, Porter Goss says he knows where Osama is.
Why is he still on the loose?
Why is he not besieged, by US?
If they learned where he is, they can also learn who he is in contact with. The longer they observe, the more the network of contacts becomes visible.
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cedearford those that think as you do must live a miserable life. Do you look for the boogyman in everything you see?
PS. Speaking of high energy costs, it would be those that think as you do that would protest the loudest if Bush was proposing expanded drilling in Alaska or new nuke plant construction...sad
Trish,
What specifically is the concern in Afghanistan?
(easy to see in Iraq, not so easy for me, at least in Afghanistan.)
C4, In Calif. last week's power outage in LA interrupted refinery operations, so they expect gasoline shortage!
...living on the ragged edge!
Denial, Indeed, Carridine!
But in Afghanistan wouldn't it just be against the enemy? (Taliban AQ)
ie No civil war concerns?
I would hope they would have free reign with the Taliban, but what do I know in this day of PC Rules Everywhere.
Put Time and Newsweek under command of Potus.
To ABC's Surprise, Katrina Victims Praise Bush and Blame Nagin.
. NEWSBUSTERS.org .
- Limbaugh
Voice of Katrina Victim
Quoth Willyshake:
"Wretchard takes Hitchens on his own terms--without knee-jerk cheerleading that is blind to the reality of Hitchens position. This is not only smart, but mature."
I agree. It is also honest, a trait I value.
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