Speaking Truth to Power
Saddam's old pal George Galloway makes a surprise appearance on Cuban TV and hugs Fidel live on stage.
Few knew that Mr Galloway was in Cuba until, in the middle of a live television discussion programme, he emerged to offer his impassioned support for Fidel Castro. The Cuban president, in his customary military fatigues, looked on approvingly as the British MP said Mr Castro was a symbol of dignity. "The Cubans are the only people in the entire world who have a leader who can say that he doesn't possess one dollar to his name," said Mr Galloway. ... The MP said he too had been slandered as a thief, when unproved claims were made that he had profited from the Iraq oil-for-food programme.
This was after the Member of Parliament from the Respect Party called it morally justifiable to murder Tony Blair in an interview with GQ.
The Respect MP George Galloway has said it would be morally justified for a suicide bomber to murder Tony Blair. In an interview with GQ magazine, the reporter asked him: "Would the assassination of, say, Tony Blair by a suicide bomber - if there were no other casualties - be justified as revenge for the war on Iraq?" Mr Galloway replied: "Yes, it would be morally justified. I am not calling for it - but if it happened it would be of a wholly different moral order to the events of 7/7. It would be entirely logical and explicable. And morally equivalent to ordering the deaths of thousands of innocent people in Iraq - as Blair did."
Galloway would know all about ethics, moral justification and similar subjects. We should listen to him. In related news, Cindy Sheehan brings her message to Australia.
Last night in Sydney was windy, rainy and cold, but an anti-war event featuring Cindy Sheehan and Dr Salam Ismael made one forget the wintry conditions outside ... Around 500 people gathered to hear two impassioned speakers discuss the monumentally disastrous Iraq invasion and occupation and offer a way forward. ... “Coalition” defeat has been achieved. The next step is finding a prosperous Iraqi future without Western interference.
Commentary
It's all true, isn't it?
posted by wretchardthecat at 5/25/2006 08:47:00 PM
431 Comments:
Heaven forbid that Iraq, or any other Third World country, should have "Western influence."
George Galloway, a sewer of a man with a silver tongue has long past overstayed his welcome and possession of the desired 98.6 factor. An ambient temperature and biological adjustment is well past due.
Galloway: OK to bomb PM:
Plans to protect Mr Blair marked “restricted” and “confidential” were found by a guest at Manchester’s Midland Hotel. The PM is expected to stay at the Midland during the Labour conference in September.
The file detailed possible attempts using suicide bombers, car bombs, mortars or rockets. Security checkpoints were also listed. It was handed to police, who are investigating.
It is thought the plans were left lying around by one of the hotel staff after talks on security with police officers.
Galloway
Wretchard,
A "Word-Wide-Tour" of lefty/commie/nihilists?
The world tour is a bit much, but how better to enlist allies? As publicity is all, in this odd world we live in. Or, is it a last, violent dying gasp? No, probably hope over reason..
Self determination is itself a Western ideal (as one of my Kennedy School professors impressed upon me) so I feel fine typing the following:
"How dare Cindy Sheehan impose her Western ideals on the rest of the world."
Why Isn't Socialism Dead?
Socialism is a substitute for faith.
"The whole point of the myth of the socialist revolution is not that human societies will be transformed in the distant future, but that the individuals who dedicate their lives to this myth will be transformed into comrades and revolutionaries in the present. In short, revolution is not a means to achieve socialism; rather, the myth of socialism is a useful illusion that turns ordinary men into comrades and revolutionaries united in a common struggle--a band of brothers, so to speak."
Harris says free-market capitalism needs a "transformative myth of its own" to fight the myth of revolutionary socialism. But don't we have that? I thought that's what entrepreneurial heroes were all about. Bill Gates and the Google (nasdaq: GOOG - news - people ) boys are still heroes to millions of Chinese and Indians, if not to the French or Bolivians. That's why, though I share Harris' concern about socialism's odd new vitality, I think capitalism will win the battle for men's minds.
Rich Karlgaard on Why Socialism Won't Die
'Lost City' isn't the big Cuban epic it wants to be:
Before the premiere of his new movie at September's Telluride Film Festival, Andy Garcia brought an enormous cast of actors on stage. It was clear that Garcia wanted us to understand the level of commitment and pride that had gone into making Lost City, a movie that looks back on the time when Cuba was undergoing immense upheaval.
The film clearly is anti-Castro, as was Infante, but The Lost City looks at history through a narrow lens, the plight of the affluent Felloves. And when the movie does expand, it's in bizarre ways: Garcia makes room for some weird bits of casting that seem to bounce into the movie like errant beach balls from someone else's day at the beach.
Dustin Hoffman shows up as gangster Meyer Lansky, and Bill Murray portrays an expatriate American whose only function seems to be to deliver mordant one-liners. He's doing stand-up in the middle of history.
Lost City
Veterans Affairs Worker Often Took Data Home
---
---
" He's doing stand-up in the middle of history."
Now if only I knew something about history.
Iraq activist slams Howard:
Ms Sheehan was joined by Democrats senator Natasha Stott Despoja at the rally, which was organised by the activist group Civil Rights Defence and featured protesters in prison garb behind chicken wire.
Senator Stott Despoja called for the Guantanamo Bay prison to be shut down and for Mr Hicks' immediate repatriation.
"Guantanamo Bay is a violation of human rights law, it's in contravention of international humanitarian law, it still has a military commission process that is deeply flawed and is an abuse of human rights," she said.
"Our government has sought to not only abandon but desert David Hicks now that he has sought UK citizenship."
Sheehan
Andrew Young, ordained minister, businessman, human rights activist, 3-term Congressional Representative, Mayor of Atlanta, and James Earl Carter’s Ambassador to the United Nations, has been widely quoted describing the Ayutollah Khomeini, beloved leader of the Iranian Islamic Revolution, as “some kind of saint.”
Thanks Mr. Ambassador, for helping us make sense of the world. Without your wisdom, we should have been very confused about the leader of a government that has executed many tens of thousands of fornicators, adulterers, homosexuals, Baha’i, dissidents, and insufficiently modest women. Lacking the insight of your wisdom, we might never have grasped the redemptive power of industrial cranes seving as convenient gibbets for hanging the corpses of the executed ones, “pour encourager l’autres.”
So if an annointed pillar of American Society such as Mr. Young can describe the butcher Khomeini as a saint, and go on to have the Board of Regents of Georgia State University name their new School of Policy Studies after him, it seems silly to flinch at a little thing like George Galloway snogging Fidel.
This claim that Fidel doesn't own a penny "to his name," is, of course, risible. Any Cuban exile can point to vast assets outside of Cuba that are not in the name of the government of Cuba but controlled by somebody inside of Cuba. The working assumption is that person is Fidel. If it isn't, then he is not the successful dictator the world understands him to be.
Perhaps Pat Robertson should have called for the assassination of George Galloway.
I second 2164 at 9:34.
"The Cubans are the only people in the entire world who have a leader who can say that he doesn't possess one dollar to his name," said Mr Galloway.
Well Duh! Euros, baby, euros. That plus bullion.
I understand you are having the devil of a time with global warming in Australia right now. Just throw another shrimp on the barbie and crank up the furnace.
How many of the 500 for Cindy Sheehan were of the jihadi variety?
This claim that Fidel doesn't own a penny "to his name," is, of course, risible.
To be Clintonesque about it, it depends on the definition of "own". Yes, he probably doesn't have a piece of paper saying he "owns" the residences he lives in
Looking at it another way, he doesn't need any pieces of paper.
Is there any object in Cuba that he could not control if he wanted to?
Is there any man in Cuba who's life he could not take away if he chose to?
Is there any girl in Cuba who he could not force into his bed if he wanted her?
In one sense, he owns nothing. In another sense, he owns Cuba and everyone on it.
NEW YORK (Reuters) - Cuban President Fidel Castro was furious when Forbes magazine estimated his fortune at $550 million last year. This year, the magazine upped its estimate of the communist leader's wealth to a cool $900 million.
Castro, who says his net worth is nil, is likely the beneficiary of up to $900 million, based on his control of state-owned companies, the U.S. financial magazine said in its annual tally of "Kings, Queens & Dictators" fortunes on Thursday. ..."
Speaking of speaking truth to power, in Syria it is not allowed.
Two interesting and related stories about the "crack down" in Syria.
I'm not sure "crack down" is the correct term for flogging people, but that is the Ba'athist way, aye.
Chicago Tribue "Opposition in Syria sees `a wall of fear'"
and
Christian Science Monitor "The biggest wave of arrests since 2001 hits advocates of better ties with Lebanon."
On to Damascus, coulda, shoulda, never did, never will, now.
And in the USA Today we have an example of Power speaking to truth.
To the dismay, I think, of many here that advocated the "behind the tent" option for detained Terrorists.
"... "To a Marine, honor is more than just honesty; it means having uncompromising personal integrity and being accountable for all actions," Hagee said. He urged all Marines to have the moral courage to "do the 'right thing' in the face of danger or pressure from other Marines."
He referred to "recent serious allegations about actions of Marines in combat," but he did not specifically cite the two cases — one from last November and the other in April — of alleged killings of civilians.
In Wednesday's announcement of the latest criminal investigation, Marine officials said a preliminary probe had found enough information to recommend a full investigation by the Naval Criminal Investigation Service.
The Marine Corps provided no details about the alleged killing, including either the gender or age of the victim. It said "several service members" from the 3rd Battalion, 5th Marine Regiment, based in the Fallujah area about 40 miles west of Baghdad, were suspected of involvement. They were "removed from operations" and sent back to the U.S. pending the results of the criminal investigation, it said. ..."
If some "old" Gunny took Mr Mohammed out back and "capped 'im", that Gunny's goin' to prison. That is part of the "new" realities of Combat Arms.
The US Military, all Lawyered up and ready to roll.
Wikipedia is increasingly becoming the internet standard and first (often only) stop for knowledge. And even more importantly, thousands if not hundred of thousand of students all over the globe are daily turning to Wikipedia for help in writing their school reports – which will help form the young people of future generations.
Don’t forget to help make it a place of more sane political bend than the often ridiculous biased old media.
For instance:
George Galloway
Cindy Sheehan
Oh, the speaker in the quote,
Gen. Michael W. Hagee, the Marine Corps commandant,
to reinforce Marine Corps values and standards
Marines cannot write RoE to suit the local situation, not in Iraq or Afghanistan, no those RoE are written in Washington and must be followed to the letter, in Theater.
People such as Sheehan and Galloway thrive on publicity. There are only two possible treatments that are appropriate for them ridicule or totally ignoring them to vent their venom on empty air. The latter seems preferable but I can't think it will ever happen given the media bias that exists. Even Fox News falls into their pit, gives them air time just like the rest of the media do, Fox tries to present a "balanced" view. They don't care, the exposure is all they want.
It's all true, isn't it?
Only if the Multiverse has sprung a leak and the Galloway and Sheehan making the statements are really their somewhat different counterparts from an alternate universe where it is true.
Everything in our universe — including you and me, every atom and every galaxy — has counterparts in these other universes. Some counterparts are in the same places as they are in our universe, while others are in different places. Some have different shapes, or are arranged in different ways; some are so different that they are not worth calling counterparts.
I think that the anti-war crowd is sensing the beginning of the end of the American presence in Iraq. They are simply trying to declare a victory of their 'forces' over the 'illegitimate' war that the evil Bush administration forced on the world. You know, the logical conclusion of the Vietnam template.
Papa Bear beat me to it--if you 'own' the whole island, you don't really need any 'money'. Yup, Stoutfellow, it's like Galloway and Sheehan have slipped through a membrane from an alternative universe, like a ufo maybe. Hopefully the membrane has only sprung a slight leak and it's temporary. I hope to live to see the day of a cuba libre, and not just drink one occasionally.
wretchard,
Is it the fact that Galloway thinks it is legitimate that Blair be a target for the enemy that you object to, or the method of attack, suicide bomber, that is the problem?
DR,
To further raise your blood pressure:
"Iraq supports Iran's right to pursue nuclear research, its new foreign minister said today, taking a position at odds with that of the Bush administration."
Iraqi Minister Backs Iran on Nuclear Research
Or, for some of you others, is this just another example of the evil left leaning MSM undermining the glorius war effort?
If it turns out, as Mr Murtha has said, Marines fired on an unarmed crowd of spectators or took Mr Mohammed out and executed him, those "panties on the head" photos will be as nothing.
US "Death Squads" operating in Iraq.
Mr Bush said, just yesterday, that those Abu Grahib actions & photos were the "low point" of the war, to date.
If these charges of noncombatant deaths prove true, or a detainee was killed/ executed after captured, Mr Bush and US ain't seen nothin', yet.
Dave H said...
"People such as Sheehan and Galloway thrive on publicity. There are only two possible treatments that are appropriate for them ridicule or totally ignoring them to vent their venom on empty air. The latter seems preferable but I can't think it will ever happen given the media bias that exists."
Dave H has got it right. Sheehan, Galloway, Ken Livingston (the Mayor of London) and many of the Hollywood LLL are simply publicity whores. They'll do anything to attract the attention of the MSM. Galloway in particular has painted himself in a corner through marketing himself as the "Über Traitor". Galloway is obligatated to preach ever more outrageous forms of treason simply to maintain the MSM's interest. Too bad he's a member of Parliament.
Whores of this sort should be ignored.
DR,
It could be portrayed a little worse then firing on "unarmed group of spectators"
"Evidence indicates that the civilians were killed during a sustained sweep by a small group of marines that lasted three to five hours and included shootings of five men standing near a taxi at a checkpoint, and killings inside at least two homes that included women and children, officials said.
That evidence, described by Congressional, Pentagon and military officials briefed on the inquiry, suggested to one Congressional official that the killings were "methodical in nature.""
Military to Report Marines Killed Iraqi Civilians
ash,
I'm resigned to the reality of Iraq, meditation & white wine helps with the blood pressure.
Just another instance of the position of those now "large & in charge", in Iraq, letting US know the score.
Our "Allies" in the War on Terror.
ash,
If that reporting proves accurate, then it will be portrayed as Mai Lai redux.
Though the scale of civilian deaths is less. It will not matter in the least.
Panties & dogs multiplied by a thousand fold.
It'll be "US Death Squads"
8:36 AM
The low point:
Panties or Fallujah I?
My Vote is Fallujah I.
Rune, thanks for the links to Wikipedia articles. I skimmed the one on Galloway, and found it has a good deal of stuff that treats the allegations of lies, sexual misconduct paid for with funds from the Charity organization he looted — I mean, "headed" — for several years, lots of quotes establishing his vitriolic contempt for British, American, & Western values, support for the Soviet Union, etc.
Of course, the underlying problem is that it's a sprawling article, many pages of press, implying by its size a significance far beyond that of the dung-beetle he is.
Because Wikipedia is open to contributions from anyone, and allows feedback from readers, it at least has the potential for demonstrating to young researchers that information is always suspect, and should be subjected to scrutiny and tests. It can be argued that scholarly "peer-reviewed" journals and encyclopedias cannot guarantee the objectivity of all articles. Wikipedia seems to lie somewhere on the spectrum between Encyclopedia Britannica and the Tabloids, with the advantage of built-in feedback options.
It should be useful for anyone concerned about Wikipedia's increasing usage by students, to devote some energy to drafting & submitting articles, comments, or editorial reviews of items directly to Wikipedia.
My Kin:
Dung Beetle in Kilts.
Again, doug, you disagree with Mr Bush's assessment of reality.
Perceptions, doug, they are the real key to understanding.
Time for a reality adjustment again, I guess.
Update to Astronomical time scale.
How about a new slogan?
"REally Long War"
Rush Declares Senate Bill
"Devoid of Common Sense"
Sounds good to me.
How does it feel living in "1984"? Amazing how accurately Orwell portrayed our future.
Foreign Policy Determined by MSM.
Senate Bill Written By (open borders) Lawyers.
Result:
Big Government.
Illegal earned income tax credits!
A real squad of Marines, either charged or convicted of the type things that MacBeth character spoke of.
Art & Reality
Truth & Fiction
The lines will blur under the onslaught of negative noise.
Ms Sheehan and Mr Galloway claiming "absolution" by the Realities of War.
Combat troops tasked as policemen,
always has been an error.
As Mr Rumsfeld said "long" ago, we have the wrong skill sets in Iraq.
The Marine's "skill sets" have not been changed, nor has the Mission.
There you go again, trying to criminalize the enemy and illegals.
Insurgents paid prevailing wage under "Bacon Bacon Act."
Retirement and Survivor benefits also, of course.
Insurgent Rights Groups Form.
John Samford
I don't see you yet on this post but harkening back to the CIA post and my query re: have you ever,etc...
Good service Sir. Thanks for the response. I agree with your assessment that one can't do the job alone. Since the 1947 National Security Act the wholed thing has been bolloixed.
I would say that during my years and in my experience at that time the CIA was the big dog, but it did take a team. We enlisted help from everywhere.
Good to have you on our side with another propective. Thx
"A CIA of ONE"
Assassination squads? Had it been a dump of bombs from 10,000 feet there would be no problem.
We, at this writing have no facts at all.
I'm always amused at the MSM "polling" of high profile trials regarding the verdict. Was it just or unjust. Crap. I'm confident 99% of the people offering an opinion never heard one second of testimony and yet they are eager to offer their opinion on a verdict. That is absurd.
Same applies here. It is not unheard of for children to kill armed Marines or blow up their favorite watering holes. It's a war zone folks.
"Assassination squads? Had it been a dump of bombs from 10,000 feet there would be no problem."
---
Selective Enforcement.
---
---
Citizens Busted for Identity Theft get jailtime and lifetime censure.
Undocumented Immigrants get SS payments and Survivor Benefits!
---
Both Dems and Repubs that voted against Senate Bill are ALL up for re-election.
Hmmm
No, habu, it is not a War Zone.
It is a Police Zone.
It is Warrants and Writs.
Catch and Release
Come to that realization and it makes much more sense.
The place is not secure and we cannot secure it under present Doctrine & Tactics.
We may soon be prosecuting those two different Marine squads that tried. Wake up and smell the blood.
They'll be all over the Corps's
"Culture of Violence"
So Mr al-Sadr and the SCIRI can control the Iraqi Army we built?
REally Long, cont.
We read scholarly articles about the arcane Tribal Customs of the residents of Warizistan.
In WWII, there would have been a
Rush to Produce Bin Laden to avoid further mass death in the neighborhood.
Sounds like standard human behavior to this old
Missourri-Okie-Ohio descendent.
"They'll be all over the orps's
"Culture of Violence""
---
The Marines, which alone weathered the Clinton PC Revolution Intact,
will succumb to Trial Lawyers.
Marines Under Assault.
No cover provided by POTUS
Desert Rat,
If that reporting proves accurate, then it will be portrayed as Mai Lai redux.
While Ash is busy messing her panties over the prospect of invoking the Mai Lai chapter of the Vietnam Template, one of her soul mates is already publishing it.
The 1968 massacre in Mai Lai provoked an outcry, whereas the 2004 razing of Fallujah provoked Alzheimer's. The military does what it wants and lies if it's caught. Thanks partly to Congressman John Murtha, a former marine colonel and a Vietnam veteran, details keep emerging of the November massacre of Iraqis in the western town of Haditha. Pentagon officials have now confirmed that 24 civilians, rather than the previous estimate of 15, died in their homes in their night clothes, when a troop of Marines ran amok. Shot at point blank were seven women and three children.
Interestingly, this guy is an Aussie named Richard Neville whom we might properly view as a sort of Bizarro Wretchard.
Richard Neville has been a practicing futurist since 1963, when he launched the countercultural magazine, Oz, which widened the boundaries of free speech on two continents. He has written several books, including Playpower (71), the bio of a global serial killer (79), his sixties memoir, Hippie Hippie Shake (95) and his latest handbook of social change, Footprints of the Future. A social commentator and a professional futurist with a sharp tongue, Richard is based in Australia, where he continues to “stir the possum”.
Hmmm. A futurist who can't even find his way out of the 1960s.
It's truly unfortunuate if a few Marines invoked the current version of Breaker Morant's 'Rule 303'. And yes, Murtha, Sheehan et al will milk it for all it's worth politically.
Did POTUS inspire the
"Culture of Violence"
with
"Bring it on!" ?
He is now contrite about that.
INSENSITIVE talk misunderstood by some of our (former) enemies.
Good to know he's
"GROWING in office."
Like they do at SCOTUS.
"a troop of Marines ran amok"
Maybe someone slipped them a preview edition of the
Senate Immigration Bill?
Murtha DID say they were "under stress."
It is the obvious play, stoutfellow.
One that is and will be hard to debunk, if charges are filed. Even if they are not, "Cover Up" will be the Chant.
Politically a Trial will be required, one for each event, at least.
Perhaps for each Marine involved, I have no idea, but the drums for a prosecution to "clear the air" will be beating loudly.
Soon Mr Maliki will have to speak on the subject, not in support of the Marines, I'd wager.
Dear Doug,
Correct usage is NOT "Warizistan"
It is "PoliceActionistan"
All of these moonbats are pathetic and their demands and solutions are just silly.
Unfortunately they are only slightly more pathetic/silly than most of our current crop of elected congress-critters.
It's starting to get difficult to tell the loyal opposition from the party in charge.
I know I'm not the only one getting tired of moonbats on the left and ersatz 'conservatives' on the right.
Oh for the old days...when Galloway long ago would have been challenged on the field of honor, and Cindy would have been quietly put away, from grief, by her family.
The Platoon leader should have consulted with Mr. Maliki prior to the mission.
Like Fox and the (proposed) Fence.
"Fox Given Contract for Construction of Henhouse"
Fiddler Performed in Rome.
DR,
I, as well as you, realize the Warrants and Writs,now sovernign-nation-we'll-make-our-own-laws bovine scat. We also understand the RoE written in Washington. Hell, LBJ use to talk directly to pilots seated in their jets, ready to catapult with his directives in their ears.."Now don't strafe the French blue Citroen if the left turn signal is on...this is LBJ you hear me boy?" "Aye" sir (notice the significance of the one "aye")
Well down at eye level it's different. I spent part of my Marine reserve time training with a S/F reserve outfit in Gainesville. One thing I learned from them, many of whom had been to Viet Nam was while on a mission,NEVER take prisioners...
RoE's will get you killed real quick. Thus the fog of battle.fhqud
Doug said...
"a troop of Marines ran amok"
Maybe someone slipped them a preview edition of the
Senate Immigration Bill?
10:24 AM
Tks I needed a good laugh
For ID Purposes Only
2164th,
Wish I could say "My Pleasure,"
but you are welcome, anyhow.
Doug,
Thanks for the ID ... obviously the one that escaped LBJ's keen eye for "targetting"
"This is LBJ again son. Whatever you do don't hit Haiphong Harbor or the docks or the wearhouses. They're full of ordinance that will kill our boys by the hectare. And geez watch our for any parked aircraft like MIG-21's and 17's, we want sky parity"
Why any self respecting general didn't resign and challenge LBJ is a tribute to the "perfumed princes"
Power continues to erode in South America, few speak to it, at all.
"... So why is Chavez's "alternative" to hemisphere-wide free trade the only plan visible in South America?
I recently took up these matters with a number of Brazilians in Sao Paulo. The best observation I came across was made by Rubens Barbosa, a former Brazilian ambassador to the U.S.: "Chavez's nationalist populism means his actions are at the roots of the current process of disintegration. ... The logic of South American integration was always, from Brazil's point of view, the Brazil-Buenos Aires axis. Today, we see the Venezuela-Buenos Aires axis consolidating itself. The last 20 years of diplomacy have been affected." ... "
Can Lula Stop Chavez? by Alvaro Vargas Llosa, a Senior Fellow and director of The Center on Global Prosperity at the Independent Institute. He is the author of Liberty for Latin America.
Another "Long" War that is swinging to our enemies.
Mr Chavez is not afraid of decisive action. Ecuador nationalized Occidental Petro's holdings, valued at $1 Billion USD.
Bolivia nationalized Brazil's $2 Billion USD infrastructure investments in Bolivia.
But the petrochemicals and the cash continue to flow, it is a sellers market.
Thomas Sowell, speaking Truth to Power
"... Most of the first generation of immigrants may want nothing more than a chance to work and will be happy to be here instead of in Mexico. But second generations born in this country compare their situation not with the situation in Mexico but with what other Americans around them have.
There are plenty of people, both inside and outside the immigrant community, who will fan their sense of grievance and exploit their resentments. This is not peculiar to people from Mexico. Europe has already experienced this.
Both the facts of the past and the dangers of the future are being ignored in the rush to give immediate benefits to illegal aliens, washed down with much talk about border control but no requirement that the border actually be controlled before these benefits go into effect.
The political strategy of this package deal legislation is to give immediate and irrevocable special benefits to some and make pious promises about the future to get all this past the others. ..."
The Senate gets "tough" and the tough will get going.
“Coalition” defeat has been achieved.
I suppose by the lights of the anti-Imperialist left that is true. We established no empire, stole not a single barrel of oil.
It is easy to see why they consider GWB such a miserable failure.
I drove one of those, once, doug.
Dashboard shifter, push/pull, if my recollections are accurate. Kinda scary, more so than a "bug" or a Hyundai, I thought at the time.
If they could just make it run on sunlight, it'd be a reasonable exchange. But then the others could run on sunlight, too.
Speaking Truth to Power
ROTFLMHO
You are all hypocrites, War Criminals and Traitors to the United States of America. And your day will come…soon.
remember the rules
do not feed the animals
Do you have a financial relationship with Visa, Mastercard, The United States Treasury Department, the Internal Revenue Service or the Pentagon? If so, you are complicit in Treason against the People and Government of the United States of America.
"The military does what it wants and lies if it's caught."
If this were anywhere NEAR true, the Long War would be a helluva shorter.
The farther from the truth it is, the longer that war gets.
On the one hand, most are unaware of just how much the LLW allows. On the other hand, they are unaware of the extent to which we do not, cannot, do that which is permitted under our damn law.
In a matter of months, the administration traded a theater of war for a theater of bloody f'in nonsense. The military bought it.
And Joe's gotta pay.
11:56 AM Don't forget 'le champignon' (Mushroom) Accelerator Button.
"And Joe's gotta pay."
---
But the Elites feel their pain.
Just listen this weekend, you'll see.
The tyranny doctrine
"From Tripoli to Beijing, President Bush has abandoned his bold pledge to support democracy."
By Danielle Pletka and Michael Rubin, they are, respectively, vice president for defense and foreign policy and resident scholar at the American Enterprise Institute.
May 26, 2006
Dr Zaius,
Allah, the Beneficent,the Big Dog,the Biggest Kahuna will rain goat dung on you.
Mohammad the Mad, the really really Mad will hit you with his shoe on your bald spot. Your manhood will shrivel.
I notice, as does Allah the Beneficent that the last two letters of your name are US..you are a spy.
"... The many foreign dissidents and reformers who took Bush at his word are the first to pay the price for Washington's lack of backbone. They were told that if they took risks for freedom, the U.S. would stand with them. Letting them down will make it all the more difficult to find democratic allies. Brave individuals are the real building blocks for transitions to democracy. Without them, as we have learned in Iraq, there are few alternatives to the tyranny that threatens us all.
Reference US actions in Iraq 1991 and how that came to bite US on the ass, with the ascendency of Mr al-Sadr and the SCIRI in 2005 & '06.
Dr. Zaius,
I just talked to Mohammad & Allah.
They both still have American Express so they're thinking of giving you a time out in Arkansas.
""The Cubans are the only people in the entire world who have a leader who can say that he doesn't possess one dollar to his name," said Mr Galloway."
This is absolutely true,Castro had it all invested in Oil for Food Vouchers.
Ok,
This is a serious forum for discussion of important issues of the day. Enough of the Wee Wee's.
Like Doug said. Don't feed the animals.
Cindy must have got her knickers in a wadi.
"Michael Rubin"
---
Gosh, I used to quote him for being there and bringing us the good news when he got back.
Maybe the MSM got to him?
Back to my Hieroglyphics, Habu, 'Rat demos how to make PHONEY LINKS!
Who killed the Bush doctrine?
Here's Rubin tho, as of a year ago.
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
Of course it's buried but the BBC has an interesting (somewhat) report on Galloway's latest. He denies advocating the assasination and says it would be "counterproductive because it would just generate a new wave of anti-Muslim, anti-Arab sentiment whipped up by the press.
"It would lead to new draconian anti-terror laws, and would probably strengthen the resolve of the British and American services in Iraq rather than weaken it. So yes, I would inform the authorities."
What he really dreams of though is "to see "mass murderer" Mr Blair jailed for life for war crimes rather than killed."
This is what the rabid left is foaming for. The readers comments at the end of the BBC article are very interesting also.
Tyranny Doctrine
By Danielle Pletka and Michael Rubin
Maybe he saw the "truth", doug.
or the "light"
The Bush administration also fumbled Lebanon. On March 8, 2005, Bush spoke at the National Defense University. "Today I have a message for the people of Lebanon," he said.
"Lebanon's future will be in your hands. The American people are on your side." Perhaps many Americans were, but not the State Department.
When Condoleezza Rice visited Lebanon on July 22, she met not only with the new Prime Minister Fuad Siniora, but also with pro-Syrian President Emile Lahoud, the man whose quest for an extra-constitutional third term began the cascade that led to the assassination of former Prime Minister Rafiq Hariri and sparked the Cedar Revolution. Syrian television, Hezbollah's Al-Manar channel, and the Arabic-language satellite station Al-Jazeera all broadcast her handshake with the symbol of tyranny.
The Lebanese were not alone in their betrayal. Egyptians were aghast when, on September 11, new U.S. Ambassador Frank Ricciardone appeared on Egyptian television and declared, "Let me just reiterate the congratulations of the United States of America to Egypt for this great accomplishment. As you know, President Bush has telephoned President Mubarak ... to congratulate him and Egypt on the accomplishments of this past election."
Makes one wonder what will be on future bin Laden Videos, as examples of how we react.
To think I used to put the blame all on Colin Powell!
---
"Embrace of autocracy has become the rule rather than the exception in U.S. foreign policy. At the request of the Palestinian Authority, the State Department banned Issam Abu Issa, a Palestinian anti-corruption activist slated to testify in the House of Representatives."
Ledeen must have loved this one:
---
"Bush declared during his 2005 State of the Union Address, "To the Iranian people, I say tonight, as you stand for your own liberty, America stands with you."
But Rice appointed an ExxonMobil advisor who advised against aiding dissidents to cover the State Department's Iran policy planning portfolio.
Against the backdrop of Bush's indifference, Turkish democracy has taken a step backward"
A few comments on the charges against Marines in Haditha. It appears, if true, to have been the work of a small group and the bullets are said to have come from only two rifles.
Now a certain percentage of any organization has criminal tendencies (even among Congressmen) and the military has its share. Whether its a sniper shooting at fellow soldiers at PT, or a Sergeant who rolls grenades into a tent bivouac in Kuwait, the military has crime. If the bullets came from two rifles it's not policy, it crime.
The point may be made that it took too long to bring the suspects to book. But if charges are being filed, that is also refutation of killings as policy.
As regards Galloway he misses the point. Tony Blair's policies are the policies of the British government and the British people. They elected him and have kept on electing him. If George Galloway's views were those of the British people, he would be PM and Tony Blair would be on Big Brother. Therefore to say it is morally justified to assassinate Tony Blair is a perfectly fascist statement, made in the best traditions of an ideology which knows exactly what assassination means.
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Mr Maliki said "three or four days" 'til he could appoint an Interior and Defense Minister.
We will be able to judge his ability to predict and stick to schedules.
Maybe we will still be there in '08.
But why would we want to be?
Which faction are we fightng, now
or then?
This article from the Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs seconds the notion that the fly paper of Iraq has lost it's adhesive.
That, as witnessed in Europe, terrorists that have recieved their OJT are heading home.
"... The convergence of the "global jihad," conducted by organizations such as al-Qaeda, with the concept of "local jihad," that was the niche of homegrown militants such as Hamas, is something of a homecoming for the traditional presence of Palestinians within the ranks of Islamic extremists fighting far beyond their borders. Palestinians now have the opportunity to serve their own cause - the convenience of being a "good" global jihadist and a "good" Palestinian nationalist both at once.
Zarqawi has vowed to cut off the head of King Abdullah II. The Iraq phase has taught many Palestinians and Jordanians fighting skills, who may have returned to Jordan. Today, these experienced elements pose the most direct threat to Jordan's security. ..."
And that the aQ threat is mobilizing around Israel.
wretchard,
An additional problem associated with the Marines in Haditha is that the chain of command may have covered up the 'crimes'.
In the propagand wars, dear host wretchard, it will not be the single incident, but the "Pattern" created by the second, April event.
While intellectually correct, as to prosecution and convictions denying these criminal acts as Policy, the damage will make Abu Grahib pantie raids pale in comparison.
By the "Pattern" of reported abuse, over a six month period Nov. '05 - Apr '06, the Corps will be brought to the Bar.
Make no mistake.
The Corps can see it coming, that is why the commandant is acting, preemptively.
Just like the LAPD.
When the military becomes policemen, there are repurcussions to violence.
Whether that violence is justified or not.
Ash,
In your world what color is the sky?
In your world here's how things came down.
The President ordered the murders by the Marines. He is now in full damage control. That's why he named a Marine as Chairman of the Joint Chiefs.
Mother Jones has all the inside stuff. NSA intercepts ordering the killings and cover ups, etc,etc. It is on all the stations in Madison, WI, and Sausalito,CA.
Bush is on par with Hermann Goering and Ernst Rohn.
We're all proud of you for being the voice of reason and ferreting out the true nature of this wicked nation.
a Marine Commandant Gen. Michael Hagee's warning to his troops this week: "We use lethal force only when justified, proportional and, most importantly, lawful."
"...Hagee met with top lawmakers from those panels this week to bring them up to date on the investigation.
"I can say that there are established facts that incidents of a very serious nature did take place," Sen. John Warner, chairman of the Senate panel, said Thursday. He would not provide details or confirm reports that about 24 civilians were killed. He told reporters he had "no basis to believe" the military engaged in a cover-up. ..."
All from "USA Today".
Seems of all the national papers, LA Times is the most "over the top", so far.
Ash,
Are you by chance from Claxton, Georgia?
habu,
it isn't me making this up:
"Officials briefed on preliminary results of the inquiry said the civilians killed at Haditha, a lawless, insurgent-plagued city deep in Sunni-dominated Anbar Province, did not die from a makeshift bomb, as the military first reported, or in cross-fire between marines and attackers, as was later announced. A separate inquiry has begun to find whether the events were deliberately covered up."
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/us/AP-Marines-Iraq-Investigations.html
no, habu, I'm not from Geogia.
ash,
In Seantor Warner's thinking the Military is General Hagee and General Casey, the Commanders and Staff.
Rest assured they would not be "covering up".
But there could have been, at the Unit level, Marines involved in false reporting of the incident. The Senator would not, I think, consider that a "Cover up", but an extension of the original crime, IMHO.
Whether that spin could be maintained in a hostile press enviorment remains to be seen.
Ash,
So let me understand. Your citation is from the same paper that had Walter J Duranty covering Stalin's mystery tour....right?
"a Sergeant who rolls grenades into a tent bivouac in Kuwait, the military has crime"
---
Similar to Malvo, I consider that part of the WOT, rather than crime.
Ash,
I personally won't believe it, as will millions of others, until Oliver Stone makes the definitive,unvarnished, fact filled movie version.
Then certitude will fill the land and you can display your rainbow flag and once again proudly wear you Che t shirt.
habu,
This Haditha incident has been percolating through various media from MSM to blogs and Iraqis hollaring about it. Video on al Jazeera and different 'stories' from the US military. Now the chorus is grown so loud and even the high command seems to be laying criminal charges in the matter and, according to that report, there is an inquiry into a possible coverup. DR mention other press stories alluding to coverup. We shall see what evolves but much damage is already done.
As a lay person observing this incident and others one really has to wonder what hasn't come to light. One also wonders how we really badly we must be doing in Iraqi eyes trying to win their hearts and minds over to supporting our benign presence on their oil soaked lands. Have you read many soldiers blogs Habu? I've come across a couple, one which has since been pulled down, that really seem to capture the fear and anger experienced by some soldiers in Iraq. They don't seem to call the people of Iraq Iraqis but rather Haji. Do you think that would be a pleasant friendly nicname or maybe it might convey some...animosity?
Check out this guys blog and think what impression he leaves on the Iraqis he encounters:
"Not even a minute into town we got involved in a traffic jam. Being motionless is a death trap; if you take contact and can’t move on the battlefield you just shoot back and hope that your gunners don’t get hit. It’s like being the boxer who gets trapped in the corner of the ring. As my driver slowed to a crawl and layed on the horn I yelled in Arabic and motioned for cars to get out of the way. Many just sat there.
“Alright, fuck this,” I thought as I grabbed my shotgun. I yelled “Shotgun blast!” to the guys below me in the truck, thumbed the safety off and pointed it in the air, holding it with my right hand looking like a Texas cowboy on his horse firing his six-shooter into the air.
BOOM!
The Hajis standing in the open scattered like cockroaches and ran into buildings. People in cars did their best to get out of our way, many pulling off the street and onto sidewalks. Still, some remained.
I yelled at my driver, “Fuck this shit, they’re not moving! Just ram them!”
My driver pushed a hole through the traffic jam. Cars crunched against each other, glass and metal grinding together sounding like nails on a chalkboard. We punched through and my driver slammed the gas pedal to the floor. I looked behind me every two or three seconds and seeing that our convoy made it through the traffic jam, hollered at my TC. “We’re all through, we’re good! Go, go, go!”
We continued to go through town as fast as possible. From time to time I checked behind me to make sure all the trucks were there. My adrenaline was flowing and my eyes darted in every direction, scanning every rooftop and window, the traffic in front of us, and the Hajis on the side of the road. We eventually took a wrong turn but we just rolled with the punches and made our own way; taking the time to stop and turn around is suicide.
I can only imagine what it’s like for an Iraqi to look in his rearview mirror and see a ginormous tan Humvee coming toward him, horn blaring while the gunner screams and flails his arms. I’m sure they’ve learned to constantly look in their rearview mirror. Despite this, the same incident occurred twice more; it sounds bad, but I was essentially terrorizing the population by firing my twelve gauge into the air. Say what you want, but for the most part it worked damn well."
funwithhandgrenades
When I leaving the Army, the "Culture of Violence" and co-ed training were both coming to the forefront.
One first considered a "problem" the latter, an "advance".
Have not won a War since.
The Marines were able to hold off the feminization of the Corps, for another 20 years, but now, mass murder will finally give the Lawyers their go.
"Culture of Violence", never forget when they said that was a negatory thing to develop in a Combat Arms Unit.
Ash (it isn't me making this up:
2:52) quote
So you're admitting it's being made up.
I shudder to think now about Yeager and his mates
"Culture of Aces"
Not only lives were lost, but also perfectly good aircraft!
castironcapshooter
Would enjoy reading comments on "Just War Theory" vs America's Self Defense ...article by Yaron Brooke and Alex Epstein.
http://www.theobjectivestandard.com/issues/2006-spring/just-war-theory.asp
ash,
To the US Troops, they're targets in a War Zone, you do not stop.
As a driver, I would not have waited for instructions to ram the vehicles ahead to clear a path. That is convoy security 101.
That is a War Zone.
You are expecting Police sirens and traffic cops to clear the path, that doesn't happen.
Yes, it is scary and the Hajis are afraid, just as are the Joes.
All Iraqis are Hajis,
all Panamanians are Julios and
all Americans are Joes.
Respectfully or not.
habu, I have no idea if it is made up or not. The military obviously has a vested interest in not having these kinds of things becoming public knowledge but I also think that there are a lot of good people in the military who would cover up such a crime. I would guess it probably occured as DR described it, a fudging of facts at a unit level with a command structure believing the boys story unless forced by other circumstances to view it more critically.
castiron,
"And we felt fear, from the newfound realization that such evil could rain on any of us. But above all, we felt the desire for overwhelming retaliation against whomever was responsible for these atrocities, directly or indirectly, so that no one would dare launch or support such an attack on America ever again."
---
That idea has been thoroughly rejected in favor of the
REally Long War Doctrine.
Ash,
How innocent of you. Cite a soldier's blog from Iraq. But of course it's genuine.
This will be covered in the Oliver Stone movie. Fragging ,murderous Marines and soldiers killing innocent civilians by the score..all for oil.
You are so naive. Hold on tight the turnip truck's about to make another left turn. Don't fall off.
I understand DR, that it is a war zone and as such it makes it impossible to win hearts and minds of the locals. It also seems more understandable to me, when reading a blog like funwithhandgrenades, how soldiers can get so desensitized and pumped with fear and adrenaline that killing a few hajis, even innocent civis, isn't a bad day. Take a read of that guys blog and watch for how keen (and conflicted) he is to get his first confirmed kill.
I agree with you, the marines are not a suitable tool for a police action.
habu, and this blog is really a cia front. how stylish is your tinfoil hat.
maybe funwithhandgrenades is a fake, but it sure doesn't read like it. Take a look at the comments and what his mom says.
“Islam is peace.”
Islamic terrorists, they claim, have “hijacked a great religion.”
America’s intellectual failure to identify the nature of the enemy is a major cause of its defeatism—but this failure, and its responsibility for our policies, only goes so far.
For example, none of our politicians identify our enemy as “Islamic Totalitarianism”; however, they all know and admit that Iran and Syria are active sponsors of terrorism, that Iran is developing missiles and a nuclear weapon, that Saudi Arabia turns out legions of wannabe terrorists, and many other facts pointing to the conclusion that if we are to be safe, these states must be stopped.
Shortly after 9/11, President Bush demonstrated some understanding of the role of state support of terrorism when he declared: “From this day forward, any nation that continues to harbor or support terrorism will be regarded by the United States as a hostile regime.”
ooops,
above i wrote:
"but I also think that there are a lot of good people in the military who would cover up such a crime."
I meant to write "who WOULDN"T cover up such a crime".
A police action is not a suitable tool for the WOT.
Ash,
I will say this ...you are effective with the Socratic method of inquiry.
I am more from the school of Antisthenes.
"Hold on tight the turnip truck's about to make another left turn. Don't fall off"
???
It's the RIGHT turns to look out for:
He's always leaning hard into the other ones.
3:44 PM
For Ash, I like Antihistamines.
Anti Allergenic.
except, doug, those that are not.
Everyone knows the Enemy.
But do not have to say his name.
Just like "God"
We do not have to strike the Enemy in his homeland, 'cause he is "everywhere", like "God".
And whom does this Enemy claim to represent, why "God", of course.
Just ask Mr al-Sadr.
3:50 PM
I'm easily confused.
Except when reading about folks like Truman.
Malvo "Crime" Scene Evidence
Malkin has the complete Crime Scene Report.
In Los Angeles, Fox Claims to be more Conservative than Bush:
No Deficit.
Beltway Boys clue Jed Babbin in on what we the public (as opposed to talk radio troublemakers) really want wrt undocumented immigration:
The Kennedy-McCain Bush Plan!
"The Cubans are the only people in the entire world who have a leader who can say that he doesn't possess one dollar to his name,"
Al Capone also said he didnt have a dollar to his name
If only he had been undocumented, he would have only had to pay taxes on 3 of 5 years.
The Marine commandant planned to read to officers and enlisted personnel a statement reminding them: "We must regulate force and violence, we only damage property that must be damaged, and we protect the noncombatants we find on the battlefield."
Hagee last week briefed key congressional leaders on the upcoming report. One of those, Rep. John P. Murtha (D-Pa.), a retired Marine colonel, said later that Marines "killed innocent civilians in cold blood."
Rep. Duncan Hunter (R-El Cajon), chairman of the House Armed Services Committee, held a news conference last Friday to plead with reporters, politicians and the public not to judge U.S. troops by the action "of one squad, in one city, on one morning."
The Marines have had more than 700 personnel killed in Iraq.
Ah, but what will Mr Hunter say about the April killing, in Fallujah?
Another squad, in another city, on another day?
The makings of a drama ...
ash
It is not impossible to win the "Hearts & Minds".
It is just not easy and requires skill sets that young Marines are not accomplished in.
It requires a smaller footprint with a greater committment. Less troop rotations, longer deployments, more language skills. Greater integration with the Iraqi Forces.
It would require filling the State & Justice billets in Baghdad, with competent people, there for the long term.
It's not going to happen.
Ash,
My tin foil hat is the definitive in style and millinary artistry.
One part of it has the face of Cliff Clavin, another the profile of (I think) the Elephant Man.
Were the German civilians in Dresden "murdered" in cold blood?
Were the fire bombings of Japan designed to kill civilians in cold blood?
Buried Poll: Floridians Support Offshore Drilling
White House compares illegal immigration to 'traffic ticket'...
We had a really good "hearts and minds" operation in Vietnam.
The Phoenix program.
Handed out candy to the little children in return for pointing out who was who in the village.
Then a dialog would ensue with that person and we had an opportunity to initiate an "intervention" program that changed their hearts and minds.
The problem with comparisons to WWII, habu, is found in General Hagee's comment/ order
"...we protect the noncombatants we find on the battlefield. ..."
Which was not the case in Japan, during WWII, at all. There it was, without a doubt in General LeMay's military mind, the "Plan" to burn Tokyo and it's noncombatant inhabitants to the ground.
Maybe the Coyotes will finally get the message and drive more carefully?
LeMay was wrong, not only for the lives lost, but unnecessary property damage.
We now know,
That's a know know.
The Marine commandant planned to read to officers and enlisted personnel a statement reminding them: "We must regulate force and violence, we only damage property that must be damaged.
And he was not redeploying the European air wing to the Pacific to put on Air Shows.
He promised there would be no need for an invasion, even without nuclear weaponry. His plan was to burn the Country down, city by city, town by town, he'd have done, too.
Reminder to my inner warrior:
"Kill people and break SOME things."
Forklift Records to be held for 45 days by Ted Olsen to preserve sactity of House Parking Garage.
Did it miss a scheduled Lube Job or not?
THAT is the question.
By the time we engaged North Vietnam, we could hardly bomb the rice paddy irrigation systems without internal complaint of excessive force & violence upon Civilians, there in the North.
Could have limited their food supply, you know. Could have made life hard on 'em.
In the Afghanistan Campaign, we bombed 'em with food stuffs, first.
Times & Standards change.
"Sanctity"
As in DC Politicos Closeness to God.
In 1931 the League of Nations and its International Institute of Intellectual Co-operation at Paris asked Albert Einstein to choose a person to write a series of letters to that would be published.
Einstein could choose anyone and any topic. Who did he choose? Another scientist? Mathematician?
No..he chose Sigmund Freud. The topic ...Is there a way of delivering mankind from the menace of war?
In it Freud admits that it is necessary to destroy the enemies populations "will" to wage war.
Both Dresden and Japan aided in that cause and were totally justified.
http://www.idst.vt.edu/modernworld/d/Einstein.html
These letters make facsinating reading between two giants.
"In the Afghanistan Campaign, we bombed 'em with food stuffs, first."
---
That was just the lure for the children.
Then we disguised cluster grenades to look like foodstuffs.
Interesting and agreeable, habu.
Goes to the core of the problem.
There is a concerted campaign to drain the US's "Will" to conduct the Mohammedan Wars. Seems to be going reasonably well for them, so far.
Where is the US campaign to drain, destroy or subjugate the Enemie's "Will"?
I do not see it.
I look, hopefully, each morning for news of the Sea Change, I continue my quest, better read and informed than ever before.
But less than impressed with the success of our efforts.
Islam will experience a Reformation under the Assault of our Sensitivity.
You just wait.
By your reasoning then, habu, Coventry and the Blitz were justifiable, for the same reason.
To break the English's will to fight on.
Or the attacks on the Twin Towers, justified because Osama thought he'd "break" our "Will" to occupy Arabia by bringing the fight to US shores?.
That sounds more like Mr Galloway's example of Mr Blair or Mr Bush being a "legitimate" target, one that if killed would drain Allied "will to win". Any and all targets, on both sides are "open season" if the justification is to destroy their "Will"
Tell em those are RAISIN just waiting for the Reformation
Hitler = Churchill
or as we said in the Vietnam era:
Samo Samo.
DR,
The socialist left in this country since Korea has tried everything in their power to destroy our will to protect our interests.
We've flogged that theme numerous times. In my mind our tremendous success at capitalism and our physical isolation from other cultures has allowed them to perpetrate a fraud on the citizenry. That we are EVIL.
They give no credit to our good work, trillions in foreign aid, and humanitarian works. We are EVIL because of our success.
A summation of their position is that wealth causes poverty and since we are wealthy we are the cause of others poverty.
All Marxists BS.
BTW in Thomas Sowells book on Marxism he states that no one really understands Marxism, and he's an expert on Marx.
Crime and Punishment of the Taxpayer
"One of the more popular claims by illegal immigration proponents is that those who enter the U.S. by breaking the law are invariably "hard-working" and "law-abiding" once they get here.
That argument, however, has one major flaw. According to Justice Department statistics and the analysis of immigration experts, the "law-abiding" claim often isn't true.
Some estimates show illegals now make up half of California's prison population, creating a massive criminal subculture that strains state budgets and creates a nightmare for local police forces."
Poverty causes wealth:
We FEED on poor people.
As long as they are law abiding and hard working non documented residents.
Americans are too lazy to work, but fat, thanks to them.
DR
In the case of Coventry and the blitz,yes it was to destroy the English will.
The twin towers was a continuation of a thousand years of Islamic war against non believers, and yes, they give no quarter. That is obvious.
As for heads of state being targets. Isn't that always the "crown jewel" if you can pull it off? I would have much preferred to have Saddam assassinated than what we have now.Ditto for Chavez,Castro,Kim Sung Doodle.
We are far too humane now in the anticeptic way we do battle and our foes interpret that as weakness, which encourages them to attack our populations will.
Excellent link Habu, thanks..
Freud to Einstein - "Our logic is at fault if we ignore the fact that right is founded on brute force and even today needs violence to maintain it."
But wrong is founded on brute force, as well. In fact it is often stronger than "right"
Strength or the Will to use it.
Will and decisive action will win the day
Freud to Einstein - "and even today the uncivilized races and the backward classes of all nations are multiplying more rapidly than the cultured elements."
danmyers,
And to think that he wrote that in the early 1930's. A brilliant man. The Complete Works of Sigmund Freud are equally fascinating and although most psychiatrists today are Jungians I personally do not think it detracts from Freud on bit.
Enjoy, I know your mind will force you to follow it further and the rewards are great. Best regards.
DR,
I agree that strength AND will are needed. That is why I find the left so pernicious. Their dissimulation saps an unknowing populations will by using the BIG LIE.
It is interesting that the Qu'ran emplores Muslims to cheat and lie if it will overcome the non believers. Sounds just like the left in this country which is why they are so sympathetic to an implacable enemy. They are not just exercising free speech, they are exercising sedition.
What I don't understand about the left--feminine left--in the free world is why aren't they out there protesting the sexism, violence, and oppression of women in the Muslim world. In the western world they have gained all the freedoms there are really--heck they own more than half the property--yet hardly a peep. If we were trying to put them back from their rights we'd hear about it big time. Seems like it might be a gracious act to throw at least one protest against STONING GIRLS TO DEDATH.
DEATH
Dyslexic stneod ot edaht.
Perhaps the President figures he might need the vote of Representative William J. Jefferson, Democrat of Louisiana, in his quest to give away the country, thus ordering the evidence sealed for 45 days?
Latest proposal:
Gas needed for border crossings will be capped at $3/gal to ensure an orderly flow even if there is a severe energy crisis.
Fun with hand grenades sounds slightly dramatized, but it has the ring of truth. That's the way we would have done it. We had a problem in Viet Nam with little kids trying to drop hand grenades in our fuel tanks when we had to slow down at the wrong place (a bridge consisting of two planks on the outskirts of a village, for instance.)
Sounds like a couple of guys "snapped" and killed some people. It happens. It's always been that combat troops were judged by Line Officers if they were court martialed for serious battlefield offenses. It was always a given that the Judge should be someone who has been through the Fear, Frustration, and Stress as the ones they were Judging. It was never accepted that rear echelon officers could have the necessary empathy that fairness required.
Let's hope that hasn't changed.
Useful Idiots such as Lenin could NEVER have imagined...and SO proud of their idiocy.
"It's always been that combat troops were judged by Line Officers if they were court martialed for serious battlefield offenses. It was always a given that the Judge should be someone who has been through the Fear, Frustration, and Stress as the ones they were Judging. It was never accepted that rear echelon officers could have the necessary empathy that fairness required."
WHAT!??!!
Do you know anything about the organization of courts martial under the UCMJ? Do you have any idea how small the USMC actually is? "rear echelon officers" has no currency because anyone "rear" is thousands of miles away for the court...unless they bring them back to Quantico for court-martial, where the officer density is nearly inverted when compared to the FMF. Then, and perhaps in any case, the troops should exercise their right to enlisted representation on the court, which means that over 1/3 must be troops of equal or higher rank; the officers then lose control because a guilty verdict requires 2/3 or greater vote and the enlisted have more than 1/3, which is to say, veto power.
I'll take weird Islamic things for $1000, Alex.
What to do, what to do...
"Might the ayatollahs get nuclear weapons but not use them? President Bush and other Western leaders should begin alerting their publics, to the possibility that this could be worse than if they did use them. For if the ayatollahs launched a surprise nuclear attack, on anyone, the West would respond robustly. At that point it would cost a few million lives, mostly Iranian; or at most, a few tens of millions.
But if Iran can continue to exploit American diplomatic weaknesses, by keeping the confrontation in the diplomatic arena, the ayatollahs can raise the stakes much higher. They could, in an easily foreseeable future, use nuclear blackmail in combination with an oil embargo -- and with the cooperation, subtle or overt, of Russia, China, a post-Saudi Arabia, perhaps a client Iraq, and Hugo Chavez’s Venezuela.
Such a challenge could bring about the sort of “new world order”, compared to which a few million casualties might seem a lucky break. It would create an order in which North America, Western Europe, and Japan, were deprived of the use of high technology, by the loss of the fuel to move goods around; and likewise deprived of the food supplies that require oil at every stage of production and distribution. All the cards of power would be suddenly transferred from the bourgeois democracies to the planet’s most ruthless dictatorships." -David Warren
The Marines involved in the April incident have already been brought back to the States, I'd imagine the November incident perps have as well.
They will be tried Stateside, as the Abu Gtahib guards were.
"In the days and weeks after 9/11 --
as becomes obvious looking back over so many public statements at that time, from people who have since lost their nerve -- we had a clearer understanding of what we were confronting.
And this because we had just looked it in the face.
We could, for an interval, see the result of waiting for such problems as Islamist terrorism to blow over."
---
But the refrain now from Washington is to remove all emotion, clear the mind for State Dept Speak Words from the EggHead that now Heads State.
GWB "errored" with his Cowboy Talk, he was wrong, his critics were right he now confesses, after all, because hey, people sometimes get the wrong idea when they hear that kind of tough talk.
12:09 AM Ah yes, Abu Gharib, the lowest point:
The Voluntary Humiliation and Dhimmitude was exquisite.
We are such an Evil People.
Open the borders, level the field.
Play fair.
"As usual, I make no apologies for trying to comprehend things at the broadest level of generality, and in the simplest terms.
Some writers pursue the subtle; I am usually looking for the plain. I believe a general failure to grasp the obvious permits much false subtlety.
To my mind, people who do not grasp there is a war on, and that it is a war that will determine how our children will live, and their children’s children, lack an elementary purchase on reality."
Some questions
- David Warren
'If unrestrained by Virtue and the Big Stick, men become wolves to men.' - The Art of Winning - Big Stick alone won't do it as the Big Stick is men becoming wolves to men. Virtue alone won't do it as virtue alone is powerless among wolves. Virtue and the Big Stick is the ticket.
12:12 AM
So it turned out the lady of the house was right all along.
Laura must be proud.
LINK
...about the President’s predilection for early nights, about trips to Chippendales with Lynne Cheney and Condi Rice, and about milking horses—the kind of humor that the likes of Jenna Bush might find hilarious, if that stuff weren’t so icky coming from one’s mom.
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Now if the roles had been reversed, and it was W that told jokes like that in public, he'd be sleeping on the porch.
Anyways, the idea of that happening is simply too preposterous to contemplate.
Be good, George.
Abu Gharib Boot Camp
Clearly the anthem “I am woman, hear me roar” no longer resonates, having taken a backseat to the less stirring
“I am woman, see me lap dance; I am woman, see me puke.”
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Bobby Knight teaches Golf Video on Home page.
First Place Winner:
1) Catholic University Women's Lacrosse Team Initiation 2006
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Striking Fear in the Heart of Islam.
John Tabin on why Hastert has no case in defending the search of Congressman Jefferson's (Democrat-Louisiana) office.
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Jefferson's Staff had told investigators that needed docs were in the office!
Speaker Hastert, doug, understands both truth and power
"... The fracas turned into a near-open revolt yesterday among House Republicans -- normally the White House's staunchest backers -- who were infuriated by a news report that Speaker Dennis Hastert himself was a subject of the federal corruption probe.
Even though the Justice Department denied the report, Mr. Hastert, in a Chicago radio interview yesterday, accused Justice of leaking the report to try to silence his criticism of the Jefferson raid. "This is one of the leaks that come out to try to, you know, intimidate people," Mr. Hastert said. "We're just not going to be intimidated on it."
From the WSJ
So much for Immigration compromise, if the White House is trying to "smear" or "intimidate" the Speaker with leaks of false information to the MSM.
Puts Mr Hastert and Ms Plame in the same League, aye.
Wonder if Mr Cheney was in the "loop" this time, as well.
Maybe it was just Mr Rove, or Mr Gonzalez's call. Couldm't be that the President himself had 'em smear Mr Hastert, could it?
Oh, it may just have been "Clintonista" agents at Justice.
Or has Justice devolved into just another "out of control" Executive Agency, like the CIA or FEMA?
Would that be better, or worse for Mr Bush's image of competentcy in governng, than authorizing the "leak"?
It ain't Cheney pulling the strings on immigration, nor imploring Bush to apologize for remarks deemed unacceptable to the standards of the MSM, nor allowing the Taliban to rebuild possibly beyond 9-11 strength in Warizistan, nor...
Anyway:
You left out Hastert being pissed about his old friend Goss's treatment.
If the result is they gather the spine to tell Rove to shove it on immigration, I say unapologetically:
Bring it on!
Tony Snow used that weird line we heard here on this forum a while back wrt immigration:
"Nobody cared about it 6 months ago, and now it's this big (temporary) deal."
...it'll blow over when they get back on the Turnip Truck.
Limbaugh said that for the last 3 years when he traveled to California, he heard nothing but immigration.
That, plus Professor Hazlit finally caused him to see the light that it is really more about increasing the power of the welfare state and global wages than it is about Mexicans, jobs Americans won't do, etc etc.
Far be it from Superior Bubble Boy Bush and his genius sidekick to actually get input from THE PEOPLE!
(or give a crap about their family's welfare and security)
We've all gotten speeding tickets before, so what the hey?
Right?
The "culture of violence", doug, it had even enter the White House, for a while.
It's okay now, though.
No more tough talk or provocative statements.
Wouldn't want anyone to think there was a War on, or something.
'Cause, it's more obvious than ever, there is not.
From empowering Mr al-Sadr, Dawa and SCIRI in Iraq to Hamas's ascendency and subsequent US subsidy in Palistine, all the way to the Mullah's cascading successes in Iran and aQ/ Taliban's growing strength in Warizistan, there is more than ample evidence of
"Peace in our time"
NY Times has an article about Gonzalez threatening to resign if he was prevented from doing the job he is required by law to do.
Don't forget Khada Emile Lahoud in Lebanon, and the non converted convert in Libya.
Michael Rubin hasn't.
...and Egypt.
Samo Samo at State, if not worse, AND it's post 9-11:
Just like the border, which Snow assures us will take a couple of years to secure now that we double dare promise we're serious this time.
Serious about securing, that is.
Har har.
With reports of two "out of control" Marine squads within just six months, why the Corps must be suffering from the "culture of violence" as well.
Those miscreants that pulled the triggers, as well as their enablers and supporters, will have done more damage to the Corps, in Iraq and beyond, than all the IEDs or command detonated mines CDMs fired in Iraq. CDMs are what IEDs really are. It's spun as "improvised" in an attempt to "discredit" the enemy. Their stuff is "homemade" while ours come from factories, made to order.
The Military is filled with the wrong skill sets to be Policemen and Reconstructionists.
Mr Rumsfeld told US that tale, two years ago. Never tried to modify the Force, they say this is a "one of" operation.
Trish sighs in relief.
At David Warrens, I learned Bush deems it unacceptable to hand the Iran Problem over to his successor.
We'll see about that, won't we, God Willing.
"Their stuff is "homemade" while ours come from factories, made to order"
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Part of the overwhelming superiority we have that allows us to put in place any old ROE's Laura, er President Bush wants to have.
The truth is, doug, we could have handed the Government of Iraq to the DAWA & SCIRI after 180 days.
By not "rigging the deck" to install a secular group we wasted everything spent after Nov. '03.
As far as the battle with Islamic extremism is concerned.
We held the Civil War to a low level insurgency since that time, but that will, in the end, be for naught.
The fly paper theory worked for the first year or so, but the adhesive has dried out, and now those flies, they are headed home.
I guess some of the IED's are a bit hokey:
Ingraham talked to a Captain that lost an arm, eye, backside and rectum to it:
He said he saw the "sparkler" and called out, prior to trying to open the door with his non-existent hand.
The sparkler being a detonating cord of some sort. (dynamite fuse?)
Nice to know what's going to happen in the immediate future, so, a toast to IED's vs CDM's.
6:40 AM I guess the Warisistan Training grounds attrack some of the more promising flies.
Maybe some future Dem Pres will waste a bunch of Cruise Missiles on them?
If he brings the same level of focus and mangerial success to an Iranian adventure as he has delivered to US on other issues, over the last six years, the adventure will go poorly.
A half hearted effort that will do more harm than good.
Like the results in Palistine, or the insecurity of Route Irish in Baghdad, today.
GWB, noble aims with piss poor performance.
Traffic ticket, who are they trying to kid?
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