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The first good news in 24 hours

From Drudge:

The Pentagon late Tuesday ordered five Navy ships and eight maritime rescue teams to the Gulf Coast to bolster relief operations as worsening conditions overwhelmed the initial response.

The NEW YORK TIMES plans to report later tonight: One Navy amphibious assault ship, the Bataan, with six Sea Stallion and Sea Hawk helicopters that could be used for search and rescue missions.

The ships will carry food, fuel, medical and construction supplies, as well as hovercraft that can be used for evacuation and search-and-rescue missions.

The Navy was also considering sending the hospital ship Comfort.

Remember this when Jane Fonda begins her anti-America tour telling us all one more time what a shame it is to defend this country.

Remember this when Air America decries recruiters in high schools.

Remember this when Elenor Clift calls our men and women in the service “mercenaries”.

Remember this when any lefty tries to tell you that military service is not a higher calling.

Remember that while our Navy sails in defense of freedom, most of the worlds Navies sat at home rusting in port. The French haven’t come to help Louisiana, The Russians cant come and the Chinese dare not come and the UN doesn’t have a Navy.

But thank God we do.

Remember – that when the Navy came to help - Indonesians in December, Americans in August, that the “progressive” left just sat and complained that: ”America was stingy” and "Bush caused Global Warming".

You decide which of the two has fed more people in need,

Our Navy or George Soros.
Our Navy or Bono
Our Navy or the UN
Our Navy or the ‘Peace Corps’

Thank God for the United States Navy.

Despite what "Mother Sheehan" has told you, Louisiana is worth saving. Mississippi is worth saving. Alabama is worth saving.

This country is worth saving.

Do not let despair drive you to defeat, do not let the quitters win.

Posted @ August 30, 2005 08:43 PM | Current Affairs | Comments (5)

US pollution partly to blame for Katrina: German minister

From Todays Expatica:

BERLIN - Germany's environment minister hinted Tuesday that Americans were to blame for Hurricane Katrina due to the U.S. refusal to cut greenhouse gases which many experts say cause global warming.

"The increasing frequency of these natural events can only be explained through global warming which is caused by people," said Trittin who is member of the Greens in a ZDF TV interview.

Over the history of the United States our answer to the needs of the people of other countries as they face natural and man made disasters is “how can we help”.

The European answer is a shrug, the words "you deserve it" and a giggle.

And that my friends, is what makes us who we are and who they are.

Yeah, I’m pissed but I’m at work, and we all know what happened the last time those two things got together, don’t we...

Now get to the blood center, Donate to the American Red Cross and start organizing to help your countrymen.

Posted @ August 30, 2005 11:10 AM | Current Affairs | Comments (9)

"Axis Sally" = "Axis Cindy"?

Mugshot of Mildred Elizabeth Sisk from the US Bureau of Prisons.

Mildred Elizabeth Sisk was a female radio personality during World War II. She was also known as "Axis Sally".

This woman helped spread enemy propaganda with the goal of negatively affecting the morale of the American People and its Military forces.

This woman gave aid and comfort during wartime to a political and military force that opposed the western world and killed thousands of Americans and millions of religious and ethnic minorities.

This woman spent time in prison for her acts.

She is the very definition of a "pariah" as well she should be.

Cut to the present day.

This woman is being used as a tool of propaganda by forces aligned against the United States to help destroy the morale of the American People and its Military forces.

This woman is giving aid and comfort during wartime to a political and military force that wants to see the United States lose the war.

This woman does not fault the monsters the actually killed her son and feels that this country is not worth dying for.

This woman has been invited as an honored guest to most news broadcasts and given standing ovations on Bill Mahers show.

Question: If ‘Axis Sally’ were alive today, would she be invited on Larry King, Hardball and Bill Maher and given a standing ovation?

Think I'm being too harsh?

Let's look at this:

From the AP:

A nice, well composed picture of a grieving mother at graveside, from our friends at the AP.

Let's try the same shot, only lets pull back a bit:

Someone want to tell me exactly what the difference is between Mrs. Sisk and Mrs. Sheehan? Mrs. Sisk didnt lose a child in the war, but if she had, would that have made her propaganda brodcast legitimate in the minds of the left?

Anyone else want to tell me that the press is neutral? Yeah, that's Al "Tawana Brawley" Sharpton as if you didnt know.

Posted @ August 29, 2005 12:38 PM | Sheehan Chronicles | Comments (3)

Louisiana 1927

Well, this is it.

The Category 5 Hurricaine Katrina has generated a tidal surge of 25 feet, and the levees that surround the city only go to 18 feet. During the next 12 hours, the city of New Orleans will likely be destroyed and rendered unusable for several months.

For those of us 1600 miles away, theres not much to do now, except pray. I havent been this sad since 9/11.

From Randy Newman( Louisiana 1927):

What has happened down here is the wind have changed
Clouds roll in from the north and it started to rain
Rained real hard and rained for a real long time
Six feet of water in the streets of evangeline

The river rose all day
The river rose all night
Some people got lost in the flood
Some people got away alright

The river have busted through cleard down to plaquemines
Six feet of water in the streets of evangelne

Chorus

Louisiana, louisiana
They're tyrin' to wash us away
They're tryin' to wash us away

Louisiana, louisiana
They're tryin' to wash us away
They're tryin' to wash us away

Good luck to you all. We'll be with you on the other side.

Those of you that havent made your way to the American Red Cross to donate, do so now. I've already done so and so should you. If you know someone in New Orleans, help them in any way you can.

You did the same for the people of New York.

(Update: More information on the great 1927 flood and the political ramifications can be found here.

Posted @ August 28, 2005 06:25 PM | Current Affairs | Comments (1)

The Patriot Act At Work

Here’s two recent events that have occurred in the Sacramento area that has my antenna going back and forth.

First, lets go back to the “Ice Cream Man” Terror Cell in Lodi. Apparently, there was a “mole”, or a government agent or informant at work in the mosque since 2002. Gosh, imagine that!

Snip
“The man, who called himself Nasim Khan, was a government mole, they believe, an informer whose surreptitious tape recordings of one of the suspects are at the heart of the federal probe.”
...
“In his three years in Lodi, Khan -- who spoke fluent Pashto, Urdu and English -- forged deep ties in the Muslim community. He once lived in one of two apartments that overlook Lodi's mosque, helped set up a Web site for a Muslim school”
...
"Little is known about Khan's background, his connection to the government or how he became involved with Muslims in Lodi. Efforts by The Chronicle to reach him have been unsuccessful. An Oregon woman who shared a post office box with him said she did not know him, describing him as a friend of a friend who needed a place to receive mail. She declined to comment further."
(Note: Oregon? Shared PO Box?. hmmmm )
...

“Moreover, his actions provide a look at one of the ways the government has been searching out Islamic extremists since Sept. 11, 2001. Some experts say such surveillance is critical to the war on terror, while critics say it violates people's freedom to practice their religion.”
(Note: wait for it...)
...

"Hamid Hayat, who like his father is a U.S. citizen, was arrested June 5 after returning on May 29 from a long trip to Pakistan. According to an FBI affidavit, Hamid and Umer Hayat first denied to federal agents that Hamid Hayat had attended an al Qaeda-sponsored training camp in Pakistan but later admitted it.
...

According to the affidavit, Hamid Hayat told agents he attended the camp for six months in 2003 and 2004, was trained how to "kill Americans" and chose to return to the United States to carry out an attack. Federal authorities have said they have no evidence of a specific plot."

(Note: Now, In light of that fact, you can see how asinine the previous text about violating peoples “freedom to practice their religion”. It’s a good thing were fighting Radical Islam and not Cannibals or the leftists would find themselves justifying the eating of human flesh as just another "faith tradition". )

...

"An FBI informant named Khalid Ibrahim Mostafa was a key witness in an investigation of seven Portland residents accused in 2002 of conspiring to join the Taliban in Afghanistan and fight against U.S. troops after the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001. All but one pleaded guilty, and the seventh was killed by Pakistani troops in 2003, authorities said. "

(Note: Now the Oregon Connection becomes clearer!)
...

"Mostafa, an Egyptian-born mechanic, became an informant to avoid being charged in an unrelated case, according to the Oregonian. The newspaper reported that Mostafa presented himself as a fanatical Taliban supporter to targets of the Portland probe. In an interview with the newspaper, Mostafa said he did his patriotic duty."

"When an informant goes in and talks about jihad, and that you will be at the hand of Muhammad, and rattles sabers and builds up the religious fervor, to me that's a form of entrapment -- but legally it's not," John Ransom, a Portland attorney who represented one of the defendants who pleaded guilty in that case, told The Chronicle".

(Note: Portland and Sacramento are probably the bluest of the “blue “ when it comes to leftist ideas and voting patterns, but Im sure there’s no connection between this and the Lodi Cell and Portland Cells. I respect Mr. Mostafa for doing his duty. Funny how all the press is on a woman in Texas helping the very people that Mr. Mostafa did his duty to stop. )

Now, lets look at this:

From KXTV( A Local Sacramento TV Station):

"FBI SWAT teams swept into two Sacramento neighborhoods and a Rancho Cordova apartment complex Thursday morning and arrested two ex-convicts on weapons charges in what one suspect's wife said was a terrorism investigation.

The FBI says the Sacramento men, Richard James Pulley, Jr., 32, and Alan Richard Ferger, 29, were arrested without incident. Three firearms were seized at Pulley's residence. It's illegal for felons to possess firearms.

Pulley's wife said agents raided their home on 53rd Avenue at 7 a.m. They seized the guns, a computer and several boxes of items, she said. They took her and her 1-year-old daughter out of the house and began questioning the woman about terrorism.

"There's no terrorism," said Pulley's wife, Sofiyyah Mateen. "I was telling them that, and they were trying to switch my words around. And they're asking about cells, terrorist cells, and what attack they're planning. There's no attack."

FBI SWAT teams worked over a couple of former Inmates of Folsom State Prison

...

At first I thought, “Richard James Pulley, Jr, Alan Richard Ferger”. Probably just a couple of meth heads with “born to lose” tattoos on their arms, and then I thought - “Sofiyyah”, that’s an interesting name for the wife of a crackhead ex-felon to have. Sure enough at the very end of the story, something very interesting gets revealed:

“Mateen said she believes her husband and his friend were targeted because they are Muslim. Pulley goes by the name Khaliq Abdul Assalam. Ferger is also Muslim and goes by the name Amin Khaleel. "I think it's because we're Muslim," Mateen said. "They're just harassing us."”

So lets do a little “data shifting” and pattern recognition to see if the story becomes a little clearer:

Khaliq Abdul Assalam – age 32
Amin Khaleel – age 29

Recently incarcerated in Folsom Prison, just 10 miles from their current domicile of Rancho Cordova and just 10 miles from the State Capital and just 30 miles from Lodi.

Think of the California Prison System as the biggest terror training camp in the western hemisphere, and you wont be half wrong.

They seized the guns, a computer and several boxes of items from Khaliq Abdul Assalam. The wife was continually questioned about terrorism, not the meth trade, not passing bad checks, not half a dozen other things that ex-felons get involved with, they go right for the “Big T”. I notice that computers are gathered at each location, including a relatives house which was also raided. Thats some seatch warrant you boys got there...

Ferger( Read as Khaliq Abdul Assalam) is charged with being a felon in possession of a firearm. In state court documents, an undercover officer alleges Ferger (Khaliq Abdul Assalam) sold him a semi-automatic handgun and "bragged he could get weapons all the time."

( Note: An undercover officer – assigned to watch Khaliq Abdul Assalam closely enough to get him to sell him a weapon. It looks to me like someones got your number Khaliq. )

( Oh, and I just had to laugh when Sofiyyah Mateen explains that the guns are really hers. Sure they are honey, sure they are..)

So, the Hard Work continues. For those that say we "arent any safer", I have to say its not because nothing is happening and the government isnt doing anything, its because such a high percentage of our own population seems to want to give aid and comfort to the very people who want to kill us.

Lead, Follow or get the hell out of the way....

Posted @ August 28, 2005 12:23 PM | Current Affairs | Comments (3)

De Oppresso Liber

The five Sullivan Brothers. Killed during service to their country abord the U.S.S Juneau, 12 November 1942.

“I know we speak for thousands of them (Gold Star Mothers) when we want to know what is the noble cause our children died for. What is the noble cause they are still fighting for and dying for every day?"

Mrs. Cindy Sheehan – Crawford Press Conference August 25th, 2005.

There’s an old lawyers saying that says, “Never ask a question in court unless you already know the answer”. Cindy Sheehan is not really asking to be told what the “noble cause” is that her son fought and died for. However, the question from Mrs. Sheehan is a good one, but it’s a question for which she and her supporters do not really want an answer because to get one is to find out just how bankrupt her side has become. The question she asks is a two-part question, first; “Is there such a thing as a “noble cause”? The second part is “did my son die in an action that can be clearly seen as noble”?

So let’s deal with them one at a time:

Is there a “noble cause” worth dying for?

Will a mother who finds her children at risk do anything necessary to save them including risk her own life if that is what is required to save her children? Sure, it happens all the time. But why? Why should someone give up their life for children? Even when it’s not your child who is in danger, people will do dangerous things to alleviate the threat to the child. Sometimes people will die as a result of what they do in saving others, such as people going into a burning building to rescue a child from the fire. While we all feel sad when a death occurs in the rescue attempt, we all agree that it’s “worth while” and yes, even “noble” to have died trying to save the life of others, particularly when its children or people who cannot take care of themselves.

Is the preservation of life a “noble cause”. Of course it is. Do people die in the process of trying to preserve life? Of course they do. Its regrettable when it happens, but not as regrettable than when people die of neglect.

The lesson is that many people in our civilization ind “selflessness” to be an attribute of what we call “noble” and selfishness to be an attribute of the opposite or “ignoble”. We look on those who give of themselves with awe and those who give their lives for others as the people we revere the most. Not because they died, but because they were selfless in their giving. People who volunteer to give up their life for a few years, take an oath and yes sometimes die, are people for whom our society holds the highest admiration.

Unfortunately, there are people in our society who do not agree that “selfless-ness” is the basis for the most noble of human acts. For these people, “selfish-ness” is the highest motivation. Christopher Hitchens refers to people that fall into this category as “Narcissistic Pessimists”; they find no nobility in life, except in their protest against it.

On one hand, part of civilization says that selflessness is noble, while another part says the selfishness is most noble act. If I were a moral relativist, I would simply let the question lay here and ponder which was more true, but since I believe that there is good and bad, black and white, right and wrong, I know that selfishness is not equal to selflessness and thus I believe that selflessness is the more noble of the two acts.

In the second part of her question, Mrs. Sheehan is asking for the answer to:

“Did my son die in an action that can be clearly seen as noble”?

What if Casey had chosen a different profession, one that Mrs. Sheehan and her supporters might see as “more noble” than the lowly and oppressive life of a soldier?

What if he became a fireman instead of a soldier? If so, she should know that her son might have died while putting out a fire that was caused by an arsonist, a simple criminal trying to defraud an insurance company. How awful it would be for her to lose her son because of the act of someone else’s greed, for all that she had done in the selfless act as a mother only to have it all to go up in a cloud of graft and corruption.

What if he had become a member of the police force instead of a soldier? Oh come now, we all know what becomes of policemen, how could “The good mother Cindy Sheehan” agree that her son should be a policeman? How could she send her little baby into the ranks of the oppressive brutality that is any a part of any police force? We know of the corrupt brutality and racism that is a part of the sordid history of the police force, that’s no place for the likes of the boy who once hugged her and called her “mommy”. Not our Casey, not our little boy…

Did the firemen and policemen of New York City, who died rescuing people from the World Trade Center Massacre, die in a noble cause? Was it noble for those men to go to work one day and die in the performance of their duties? It certainly would have been ignoble to stay home while your friends needed your help on that day. To look the other way while others need the help you are trained to give is the most ignoble of all selfish acts.

If Casey had died on September 11th as a New York City fireman or a policeman, would Mrs. Sheehan have blamed Mayor Guliani for his death? Would she say that men like Atta were justified in their massacre of civilians in Manhattan because of what Israel has done in regards to Palestine? Would she cry out against the fire department and other firemen saying that her son had been lied to as to the real risks of the job of a fireman?

The men of the NYPD and the NYFD had to know on that day that it was a lost cause, that there was nothing they could do to stop the destruction. Yet, they went and did their duty anyway. They went to serve; they went to protect. To me, that was the very definition of selflessness, they saw their duty and did it, ignoring the consequences that would surely come for some of their number. On that day, death came with the job but no one turned away when it called, and as a result, many lives were saved. If you remember as I do the original estimates of deaths at the World Trade Center were in the range 20 to 30,000. It was because of the selfless and noble acts of the Fire and the Police Department of New York that many more were not killed.

Yet, the selfish, the “narcissistic pessimists” could have easily found a way to say that their sons and daughters should not serve in the NYPD or NYPD because of the corruption, the sexism any one of a hundred excuses to insure that they weren’t in a position of having to do their duty in the service to others.

Yet, it is because men and women of the NYPD and NYFD ignored this asinine emotional sentiment that on that day where duty called many more people survived that would have, had people like Mrs. Sheehan been the ones driving the culture of this country.

Is service in the United States Military on the same noble level as that of a city Policemen and Firemen? I believe it is. Service in the US military is service to a republic, a democracy of citizens who stand equal before the law and enjoy the fruits of its liberty, an anomaly in the history of mankind. It is a volunteer force; it is a force that is headed by a civilian, who is appointed by an elected member of the government and approved for office by elected Senators of the Legislative branch of government. It is a force that is overseen by the laws of the country. It is not an organization of nepotism; it is not an organization of political power. It is an organization dedicated to service to the nation, a nation with a unique place in the history of mankind.

People in the United States Military have put their lives at risk in Tsunami relief, for which there was no territorial prerogative, no empire to protect, and the local populations were in many ways hostile to the United States. Members of the United States Military died bringing food and supplies to the people of Berlin and Somalia. Were these not noble causes? Members of the US Military died liberating the Philippines from Spain, then the Japanese, only to turn over the assets to the local population. All of Western Germany and Japan have lived under the protection of the United States Military to the point that neither country has much understanding an longer of what a military is used for, and yet, not a dime of German or Japanese tax money from it citizens has ever come to the United States. Would the same have been true if the situation was reversed?

Our nation routinely hands over its captured lands and assets to the local population after the war is over. Nations that have faced their utter destruction by the United States Military in war, often find themselves the recipients of the largess of its people after the war. While we all sit and discuss the construction of the Iraqi constitution, there is a lack of respect for the understanding that it was the men and women of the United States military that has made this miracle in Mesopotamia a reality. Where there was once a murderous dictatorship growing in influence there are now men and women constructing a democracy out of citizens all because of the work and sacrifice of the United States and the noble acts of its men and women in uniform.

Our nation stands in history as an anomaly. It is a Republic and a democracy with no history of a king or royal family, no history of feudal classes. It is a country that routinely turns the highest executive office over to rank amateurs, it’s a country that distrusts political power and has as fundamental part of its government the concept of “checks and balances” which serve to make governance of the country more difficult, not less.

This nations bloodiest war was not fought in pursuit of empire but fought on its own soil as a civil war over the definition of the boundaries of human rights and liberties. A war that had the odd effect of making the country stronger rather than weaker as most civil wars do. Many times over the history of our nation it has been threatened from outside and within, but the citizens of the nation have always stood by to support it in times of need, despite the sacrifices to themselves.

It’s the first military force in history to engage legal staff prior to any military action to ensure that the rules of engagement meet strict legal interpretation. Members of the US Military undergo hours of review of the legal boundaries of their powers.

The United States Military and its actions in warfare have redefined the rules of engagement for military action around the world. The United States is the only country in the history of mankind to spend billions of dollars making its weapons less destructive. The United States has in its inventory, weapons that are precision guided by satellites and billions of dollars of infrastructure and are capable of hitting targets with an accuracy of just a few feet. And the explosive warhead?; not exotic high explosives but just a 1000 lbs of simple concrete! This allows a pilot of an aircraft to hit an enemy tank sitting in an alleyway and not destroy the buildings with civilians on either side. Most of the world’s military forces would simply destroy the entire block, while only we are unique in having the power to choose not to.

For those who cry the most about the loss of American life in Iraq there is a lack of understanding that our losses to Our side could be far less if we chose to use more aircraft and stand off weapons. The “battle of Falluja” might have been fought at 10,000 ft and not a single American would have been killed as a result. Most Armies in the world would not have made the choice in how that battle was fought in the same way that we did and only the United States would have been expected to not deploy their strongest weapons in the battle and yet be criticized as “warmongering” for it.

It is noble to fight for democracy. It is noble to free the oppressed. And this is what our Military forces do; precisely because it is this act of liberation that most protects the country. “De Oppresso Liber” – “To free the oppressed”, the motto of the US Army Green Beret. In my mind, it is every bit as much a motto for the nation as “E Pluribus Unum:”

There is another question that Cindy Sheehan and her supporters dare not ask and that is “Should we in the western world, who live in comfort of the liberties that others have secured for us by their blood and toil, remain neutral in the battle between oppression and liberty for the rest of the world?”

In my mind, those that back Cindy Sheehan and her protests against her son and his comrades are people that are dealing with a great dilemma, one that they have been wrestling with since 1989, when the modern left officially came to an end with Tiananmen Square and the fall of the Berlin Wall. To me it seems that the leftists are not mad that “Bush was wrong about Iraq” its that they are scared to death that he may have been right, and as a result they will be judged again by history to have been negligent in their duty to civilization, just as they were in the war against Communism.

What they are angry about is that if the middle east finds liberation, democracy, dignity and human rights at the hands of President Bush, then that makes them the enablers of dictators and genocidal maniacs. They had eight years of a friendly president in office at the end of the “Cold War” where they thought they could quickly change the world with the “peace dividend”. What they got instead was the continuation of the policy of enforced negligence to the idea of human liberty and democracy. There are those on the left who really don’t believe in democracy, who say its all a lie, that “freedom is just another word for nuthin’ left to lose”. One of our former presidents, a nobel peace prize winner is routinely a supporter of dictators and thugs who routinely kill thousands of their people in the suppression of their rights. Of course, none of those who say “democracy is a lie” are from countries where the price for speaking your mind in public is death.

What President Bush is doing is putting an end to the idea that we can look the other way while others are slaughtered wholesale by their governments, so long as we get our cheap oil all the while excusing this act as “respect for their sovereignty”. He’s got a great deal of momentum too, We’ve had wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, but we’ve also had peaceful turnarounds in places like Lebanon and Libya. The wind of Democracy has picked up in the middle east and the effect has been to leave the country at less risk than it was while we followed the policy of neglect which Cindy Sheehan wishes to return to. A time when genocide and urban warfare went unnoticed by the left so long as Americans were not involved.

The “narcissistic pessimists” that populate “the left” are now in a real fix. Where once they had a large portfolio of ideas on which to propose to all of us on how the world should run, they now find themselves with no new ideas and the old ones having been completely discredited. All they can do now is oppose and rise up in protest in hope that it will take our eyes off the crushing failure that the left has become. My father once described people such as this as those who;“ Can’t lead and wont follow” and in the mind of my father, this was amongst the worst things for anyone to be called.

What the left has chosen to do in the war against terrorism is not noble but ignoble. The left has decided that democracy is not worth fighting for, much less dying for, all the while protesting at the top of their lungs those who are bringing freedom and liberty to those who were once oppressed. They are doing this, not in the streets of Damascus or Cairo where there is no freedom and the governments are the very type of dictatorships they accuse President Bush of being, but in sunny Texas, where their rights are assured and the cameras are on 24 hours a day. The left has decided to join forces not with those who are bringing more rights to women or minorities but with the people who oppress the people who ferment democracy. The left has decided all this talk about liberation must be stopped and in particular the cultural idea of the “liberator” must also be stopped. Once again, they cant win on the battlefield, so they are attempting to change the culture.

This is why Mrs. Sheehan comes dangerously close to referring to her son and the men who fought with him as “babykillers” while logically bending over backwards to excuse the acts of people who really do kill babies as “freedom fighters”.

The left is not fighting for you, they are not fighting for the thousands of people who they say “oppose the war” they are fighting to remain relevant in the world of ideas, yet they have no ideas of their own on which to stand. They say; “war is not the answer” while not saying what the answer is, or even pointing out what the question is. They say; “wage peace” as if it was just that simple and had never been tried. But they never say it in a place where their freedom to speak was not purchased by the blood of a member of the United States military. Because of the sacrifices of the men and women of the US Military, Its easy to talk peace in downtown Seattle but if you decide you want to talk peace in Pyongyang or Tehran, be sure to take a Marine and a few of his friends.

We live in an interesting time. We stand within a generation of living in a world where not just the lilly-white privileged people of the western world but all mankind can be free of oppression and live in some form of democracy. There are those who are working to see that day soon come into being, and there are those working to see that it never comes. Don’t let the left and Cindy Sheehan fool you, they couldn’t give a damn if the rest of the world is enslaved or not. Remember – they don’t believe in freedom and democracy in the first place. And that is the most ignoble thing for a citizen of the United States who lives under the protection of all the rights and privileges it gives to ever believe.

Posted @ August 27, 2005 01:50 PM | Sheehan Chronicles | Comments (5)

On the Scene: Michael Yon

Quote:

"Kiowas are small, carrying just two people; they fly so low the two flying soldiers are practically infantrymen. The pilot swooped low and the "co-pilot" aimed his rifle at the Opel, firing three shots and blowing out the back window. The Kiowa swooped and banked hard in front of the car, firing three more shots through the front hood, the universal sign for "stop."

From Michael Yon - Gates of Fire.

If that doesnt make you want to read the best reporting from a war zone since Ernie Pyle, I dont know what will do it.

Please visit Michael Yon. If for no other reason than to wash the flat skunklike taste of the MSM's "Cindy Sheehan in crawford cryin her eyes out" wall-to-wall, "live channel 7 team coverage" out of your mouth.

You'll be glad you did.

Posted @ August 25, 2005 12:40 PM | Current Affairs | Comments (2)

Well, while you are in the neighborhood...

Quote:

"U.S. intelligence agencies are closely watching the joint Russian-Chinese military exercises that will include anti-submarine warfare drills and an amphibious and airborne assault training.
"With the exception of soldiers, other people are not allowed to enter the area; they are only allowed to go out," the newspaper stated.

Russian and Chinese military officials have said the exercises are not aimed at any nation."

These exercises are taking place on the “Shandong Peninsula”. Where’s that you ask?

Lets take a look:

Yeah, that’s North Korea. The funny little Peninsula sticking out of the coast of China to the east of North Korea across the Yellow Sea, That’s the Shandong Peninsula.

Why do I care? Well, I’m always interested in the movements of mass conscript armies just from an economics standpoint, particularly when they are Chinese and Russian. From just an economics standpoint it’s a big hit to a countries economy to do a war game of this size, particularly when the Chinese have to hire out to the Russians for Sealift as part of the exercise. I also note that as of late, the Chinese have been trying to get their hands on as much oil as they can find and paying whatever price necessary to get it, yet Chinese civilians are complaining about “shortage”, which makes me ask “ ok, who’s got the oil?”. Can you say “Chinese Strategic Reserve”? Sure, I knew you could. So that explains where the oil has gone, its almost as if they were preparing for something that takes lots and lots of oil.

Now, I think this is just another bare faced Communist Chinese threat against Taiwan, but let's take a step back for a second and look at it again.

The Chinese and Russians are now engaged in a massive Amphibious "war game" in the Yellow sea, just across the water from North Korea. It’s significant not just for “Who” but “Where”. These are war games that, for some reason don’t include observers from South Korea, Taiwan, Japan or the United States – or North Korea.

One of the reasons why you hold war games is to demonstrate to your potential enemies your capabilities. You invite them to be observers so they can see what’s going on. You also do it so there wont be any “misunderstandings”, and some low level officer mistakes a test missile firing as the real thing and before you know it, World War III gets started, and that would be bad. You also know full well that the “observers” are reporting everthing they see, which makes the other side spend months and months doing “analysis” while your diplomats do more work to see that a war doesn’t have to be fought at all ( See: Sun Tzu – Rules of War). None of that is happening in these “games” even for close Chinese Allies, like say, the North Koreans…

Now, The article I referenced says that large numbers of civilian populations on the Shandong Peninsula are being displaced.

To which I ask;

Why?

If it’s just a “war game”, what’s the “big whoop” over civilian populations? I’m sure security is an issue, but its Communist China for crying out loud, its only one step removed from a prison camp as it is.

Unless….

Unless this isn’t a “War game”, but the preparation for staging for a lightning invasion of North Korea.

Not by us, but by the Communist Chinese and the Russians, who both share a border and an unfortunate history with the Hermit Kingdom.

There are only three routes out of North Korea into China. The Chinese have spent the last 4 years building elaborate fences to control those three exits. The very last thing the Chinese want is millions of famine suffering refugees streaming into China, and the same goes for Russia.

And the very last thing either of these countries wants is one more place where the United States has allies sharing a border with their country. One way or another, North Korea is going to fall, its just a question of will it be a “controlled fall” or a total catastrophe. If nothing is done, catastrophe is assured, therefore, something must be done, but the question is “by whom”. China has a great interest in seeing that it’s a “controlled fall”, and so does Russia, and they both have an interest in seeing that we stay out of it. We don’t think about it much, but our actions in Afghanistan and the rest of the –Stans has significantly irritated the Russians and the Chinese, because their once distant provinces are now being used for staging of US Military assets. This gets the people in charge of the Russian and Chinese military assets quite upset. Remember how upset we got when Grenada just built a runway that was long enough to host MIGs? It’s like that, only worse.

I’m not saying I know anything that you don’t. I’m just saying, keep an eye on these guys this could get interesting. When people say they are moving civilian populations for “war games” I think East Anglia and “Operation Fortitude”. I think the placement of this particular “war game” is very interesting.

Remember, If they wanted to simulate a Taiwan invasion then why not invade Hainan Island as a ‘war game” rather than a peninsula in the Yellow Sea that just happens to have the same tidal patterns of the Korean Peninsula?

Remember – Geography is history.
(Inchon. I’m thinking Inchon here…)

Update: And what are these exercises called?
Operation Crouching Chinese Tiger, Hidden Russkie? Nah.
Operation Rustbucket and Vodka Tumbler? Nah.
Operation Recapture National Pride? Nah.
Openation "Is that A Kalishnakov in your pocket or are you just glad to see me comrade"? Nah.
Operation Communist Nostalgia Tour? Nah....

Its "Peace Mission 2005"

George Orwell - Call your office!

UPDATE II: I wasnt aware that the US and South Korea are also doing a "war game" at the same time.

Seems like this is 'war game' season for everyone in or around Korea, except for North Korea, who has decided instead to host Ted Turner in a "peace mission". The poor bastards, I almost feel sorry for them.

Posted @ August 23, 2005 01:13 PM | Current Affairs | Comments (9)

Japan to Go Supersonic: I think I've seen this show before

I saw this today:

TOKYO (AP)—Japan's space agency plans to launch an arrow-shaped airplane at twice the speed of sound high over the Australian outback as early as next month in a crucial test of the country's push to develop a supersonic successor to the retired Concorde.

The test follows a three-year hiatus since the first experimental flight of the unmanned aircraft, dubbed the next-generation supersonic transport, prematurely separated from its booster rocket and crashed into the desert.

Of course, the first thing I thought is " Hey, I think I've seen that before". And I did, sometime in 1976 at a museum. This is the North American X-10 Navajo. The Navajo probably did more for the space program and the Navy than any other experimental aircraft in the inventory.

Its nice to see a good idea used again. Unfortunately Mr. Rutan has just shown that the best way to go supersonic is not through the air, but over it.

Posted @ August 23, 2005 11:54 AM | Current Affairs | Comments (3)

Next up on "Thats Incredible!"

Pat Robertson says "You know, I don't know about this doctrine of assassination, but if he thinks we're trying to assassinate him, I think that we really ought to go ahead and do it..."

The "Him" that Pat says "needs to be taken out" is our hemispheres very newest Banana Dictator, Hugo " El Borracho" Chavez. Sure, on a certain metaphsysical "16th beer and jaegermister chaser of the night on an empty stomach" level I agree, but It's Pat Robertson saying it, not me, and as far as I can tell Pats not the "drink to excess and say stupid things" type of guy.

I think I ruined my keyboard and monitor with a good old fashioned Danny Thomas "spit take" when I read the headline. Hearing Pat Robertson say "Let's take him out" is like reading that Mr. Rogers called someones wife a "toothless two dollar skank".

It's just not something you expect to hear.

Posted @ August 22, 2005 09:23 PM | Comments (3)

For all you do, this buds for you...

Lt. Smash has just found out his contract has come to an end ahead of schedule. You can help him find another by going here or sending someone there who can help a "felllow IT" guy find a new gig. If you are looking for a project manager (four years civilian plus seven years military experience) with very strong communications( Blogged from a war zone what does THAT tell you!), and leadership skills, the Lt. Smash is your man.

You can also help "buy the man a beer" by going here.

Posted @ August 22, 2005 06:03 PM | Current Affairs | Comments (0)

The Very Best of Varifrank: 2004-2005

Submitted as part of the "Varifrank Blogiversary":

Again, I want to thank all of you for the encouragement I have received over the past year. Writing does not come easy to me,I've had a lot to overcome to get this far, and to have received praise from as many people has I have comes as the greatest gift I could ever receive.

For those of you that have just started visiting the site, I have compiled this list of essays that were the best received in terms of emails and linkage from other sites.

If you feel that I've missed one of your favorites, or if you feel that one of these should not be on the list, let me know in the comments section.

Again, thanks to you all.

Our war for Liberty and Survival

Essays on the subject of war, past and present and the challenges we must accept if we are to survive.

Whos Winning.
An essay that helps the reader understand how to listen to the opposition.

Guantanamo in Perspective.
For a short time this summer the left attempted to turn Guantanamo into the shame of the country. It backfired badly. When news that the inmates had translated copies of Harry Potter to read, and that it was quite popular, it ended the debate.

The case for torture.
A small reminder of the stakes in the war, and how decency for an individual may mean death for millions.

Dignity.
What’s at stake in Taiwan and why the Chinese want it so badly.

Contrails.
A reminder of one of the things I missed on September 12th 2001 and what people around the world miss all too frequently and how we are all inspired by the same simple sight in the sky.

Today the boogeyman died.
Free Elections in Iraq? Just saying those words makes me smile.

My Friend Masooma.
I think about this woman all the time. I feel shame at her loss and how little my country has done to ensure her freedom until recently.

Blood Red Fury.
The story of Iraq that the leftists will never discuss unless to say its our fault.

Reflections on History

History does not teach us how the future will go, but we can learn from those who came before us to see what might happen. Each of us stands on the actions of the people of our past, we own them all a great deal for the world we have today.

For Junior.
My father once told me that the one thing I had to remember about World War II was that no one knew how it would all turn out until it was over. This is my attempt to put the look on some men’s faces at key dates of the year into perspective.

And now a word from General McAuliffe.
Where one of my heroes returns from the great beyond to smack some sense into the White House press corp.

1989 – A Pivot of history.
This is a year that they should write books about in bulk, but there is precious little about the year where everything changed and hardly anyone noticed that it had fundamentally changed.

What would you say?
General Mattis said something that the leftist press found offensive. I reminded a few people that historically he's in very good company. The man still has my support.

The Camera Never Lies.
The next time someone throws this picture in your face to show you the true evil of America in Vietnam you can at least know the rest of the story.

Earn This.
We all have duties in this Democracy. Now shut up and vote.

The Left: A Force that stands against the people

The left and the media are a constant source of wonderment to me. Here are a few essays that discuss the ideas and ideals of leftists and their main political arm, the Western Media in the context of our times.

Babykiller Redux.
Dick Durbin thought it was ok to link our troops to the Nazis. Well, that was a mistake now wasnt it.

I’ve got your desecration right here pal.
A real hero shows us what desecration really means, and it doesn’t mean a book getting flushed down the toilet.

Jungle Drums.
Why does the press want to lose so badly? Who side are they on?

Nostalgia is a mental disease.
Ladies and Gentleman – It's Gary Trudeau!
Once upon a time many people in the left were poor college kids struggling against “the man”. Now they are multi millionaires living the high life. Unfortunately they still think they are the oppressed college student instead of the ones doing the oppression.

Compare and contrast.
What does and does not constitute unflattering stories about Islam.

The LA Times is not your friend.
Do you think 'Media Abuse' is new phenomenon? HA! Boy, have I got a story for you.

The Grand Unified Theory of Vietnam.
Why is a war fought over 30 years ago such a fetish with the left? el Salvador is Vietnam, Nicaragua is Vietnam, Granada is Vietnam, Panama is Vietnam, Lebanon is Vietnam Iraq is Vietnam (both times!). It just never stops.

Iraq: It’s not for us.
Iraq is not about us. This essay is to remind us who it really is for, and why they should care.

The Secret Weapon.
I ponder the deep mystery of why George W. Bush can be hated by so many people yet receive more votes than any elected president in history.

Signal To Noise.
Why do leftists insist on visiting my site and trying to convince me that I’m wrong?

I’m questioning their patriotism.
How the people on the left reminds me of Star Trek Conventioneers.

Farewell, John Kerry!
Ah, the post that generated 900 emails, 850 promising to kick my ass, 3 that wanted to kill me and 40 that were people genuinely laughing with me at a man with utterly no chance of winning anything outside the state of Massachusetts. My first “insta-lanche”.

How some see the world.
Just in case you thought for a second that the left was on our side.

Blogging: How I found my voice.

I learned how to blog by reading and commenting on other peoples blogs. I watched blogs for about a year before I started my own. I owe them all a great debt of thanks.

A bloggers tale.
How I got started as a blogger and some of the people that influenced me on the road to writing my own blog.

Ready for your close up?
Norma Desmond or Maureen Dowd? How can you tell the difference exactly where do you draw the line?

Changing the world, one cable modem at a time.
Tired of paying $3.00 a gallon for gas? Then stay home! This essay is not just “how to do it” but “how I did it”.

The World rotates under your feet, and you don’t even know it.
Another essay on how the internet has already changed things for us, and we don’t even realize it.

What does a blogger look like?
This picture says it all to me. I did notice that the man in the picture is able to speak without getting trackback spam or getting death threats, but I suppose its because there are no leftists in his town.

Discourse.
How to disagree without being disagreeable and why its such a rare commodity these days.

Travelers Tales. How I came to be who I am today.

These were the hardest to write, but they were also the most therapeutic. When I started blogging, it never occurred to me to write these stories, but I’m glad I did.

Road Warrior.
The loss of a friend and the emotions that came from deleting his last voicemail.

Robert the Counter.
How a kid with cerebral palsy taught me how much my life was worth.

Lance is finished.
Sometimes, you just have to stop and fight, no matter the odds because sometimes walking away just costs too much.

Today I was unprofessional.
Sure, people say stupid things all the time. They just shouldnt say it in front of me when I’m tired.

Leaving Roseton.
The recognition of the loss that comes with moving and my attempt to forgive my parents for making the move.

The Way You Look Tonight.
I found a picture of my mother in law standing in front of the World Trade Center, and that wasnt the only thing in the picture that moved me to tears.

A reader asks about my stance on “utopia”.
Utopia is the most destructive idea the human race ever invented. I explain why.

A week in Hooverville.
I grew up in the Carter years. I’m very sensitive to the phrase “worst economy in 60 years”. Kid, I’ve seen double digit inflation, NO gas, 18% mortgage rates and 9% unemployed. Don’t tell me that this is a bad economy.

Posted @ August 20, 2005 03:31 AM | Category 2 | Comments (4)

Oh, dont get me started on "Gulag" again

Finally!, Babalu reveals the one market where Communists can out do the Capitalists, creating Prisons! Under the evil Battista regime, 11 prisons, now under the 46 year forced incarceration of Cubans in Castros military dictatorship there are 300.

Think about it, in the 1950s Cuba was per capita a richer more wealthy country than Spain, today its a waiting room for the worlds largest prison system. Oooohhhh, that "new socialist paradise", I can't get enough of that. ( Authors note: And while we are at it, just what kind of syphillitic, crackpot, child killing, woman butchering, dog kicking socialist blames their socialist countrys fate on the fact that the evil American Capitalists wont do business with them? I thought that was the whole communist idea in two words - No business! I thought it was all that "American Influence" that caused all the problems anyway, at least thats what the bastard has been saying all these years. If he was half the "El Jefe" he thinks he is, he would enforce an embargo on American goods, instead of begging to have the Americans drop their Embargo.

God how I hate that man, and shame on us for letting him go on so long. Anyone who decides its time to start another "Rough Riders" Brigade, sign me up. If Iraqis and Afghanis are free then why the hell arent Cubans! Can't you just dig the sight of Fidel being dragged out of a spider hole by the 101st Airborne? The only difference between Saddam and Fidel is Fidel had a 10 year head start. )

Oh, and yeah, we do have one prison on Cuba, whoopdie-freaking-doo... I of course would prefer to have out Al Queada prisoners held in Pt. Barrow Alaska rather than sunny Cuba, but thats the difference between me and the military, I'm just downright mean... Now heres something for you to think about - the average Al Queada terrorist being held in Guantanamo has more access to rights and priveleges than the average Cuban looking at the camp through the wire from the outside. Go wrap your head around that one.

From the indispensible Babalu - who in turn links to "The Real Cuba"

Posted @ August 19, 2005 05:17 PM | Current Affairs | Comments (0)

A Blog "Must Read": Neo-Neocon

Neo-neocon channeling Rene Magritte.

I've been reading neo-neocon for some time now, and I want to highly recommend her site for your review. I find her to be one of the most insightful writers on the internet on a subject that I myself am struggling to grapple with. She does it well, she is precise, crisp and exacting in her analysis. I cant say enough good about what she has going on, so if you are looking for a well written blog then make your way to Neo-neocon

Heres a bit from her profile:

"I'm a woman in my fifties, lifelong Democrat mugged by reality on 9/11. Born in New York, living in New England, surrounded by liberals on all sides, I've found myself leaving the fold and becoming that dread thing: a neocon. My friends and family are becoming sick of what they see as my inexplicable conversion, so I've started this blog to give vent to my frustration."

If that doesnt make you want to take a look, I dont know what will.

Posted @ August 19, 2005 04:56 PM | Current Affairs | Comments (2)

Quickie II: My African American Cousin

I have a cousin who is serving in Afghanistan. I asked him once for a good comparison of what "things are really like in Afghanistan".

He said; " Well, there are places where you are safe and places where you are not welcome but on the whole, Id probably say that Kabul is safer than Johannesburg".

Why Johannesburg? He's from South Africa. Hence, hes my "African American" cousin. When you think of Johannesburg, you dont think of some place thats more dangerous than bagdhad. Is it bigotry when people assume that the arab world is more dangerous than the western world? yeah, it probably is.

Here's a related story I picked up on today.

Quote:

"The murder rate in South Africa, at about 43 murders per 100 000 people, is roughly the same as the death rate from terror attacks on civilians in Iraq.

So despite the government's claims that crime is 'stabilising', South Africans are still living in what amounts to a state of civil war between criminals and law-abiding residents."

So said South African Democratic Alliance leader Tony Leon

Jo-berg = Bagdhad? The Boer homeland is the same as the old Islamic caliphate? oh, say it isnt so...

On a somewhat related note, I have friends working in Namibia, Nigeria and Caracas that are all too frequently shot at while flying helicopters and require armed escort and pay protection money while in the cities, because to do otherwise is to invite a crime.

Posted @ August 18, 2005 10:13 AM | Current Affairs | Comments (0)

Thanks Steve

This is my 1st. Anniversary as a blogger.

A year ago, I was a frequent commenter at Vodkapundit, so much so that Stephen Green eventually said to me “go get your own blog”; and much to my own surprise, I did. First, I tested myself with a little blogspot site. I wasn’t sure I could write anything of interest for any length of time, so I didn’t want to put too much into it.

But last year was a great year to start as a blogger, because last year we had John F. Kerry. John Kerry was to bloggers what Margaret Dumont was to the Marx Brothers, a constant source of new material who had no visible personality of his own on which to steal the limelight. He really did make it easy, he was Al Gore with an “Omega House” pedigree. At the height of the Hollywood Studio system, you could not have had a better character of an Ivy League east coast elitist snot nose patrician than John Kerry. Ah, those were the days…

At one point I found myself reading Kerry’s book on “what to do about terrorists”, I was so appalled by what I read that I gave a chapter by chapter breakdown of the man and what he said, as a service to those who may actually try to read it themselves. To paraphrase Mark Twain, Kerry’s book was like “chloroform in print”. I think I may have saved thousands of lives by that one act of kindness alone.

Then after watching Kerry in some godawful speech, I decided the man had no chance to win and was the worst candidate of all time, so I said “Farewell John Kerry” and said as much on my fancy new blog-thing and then went to bed.

I woke up to over 300 emails, 297 insisting that I was “tool for the Bush Administration” and that they would have the last laugh when ‘chimpy mcbushhitler’ went down in defeat in November. I had experienced my first insta-lanche. I learned a lot about not posting anything unless it’s fully edited and spellchecked and by lunch I had an additional 300 emails as the insta-lanche became lots and lots of little “lanches”. I could not believe that a simple Friday night rant could fly around the world like that. It was a lesson I would never forget. I also knew nothing about the protocols for feeding trolls. I engaged in debate with people who, to say the least, disagreed with my assessment. What a fool I was. I discovered that when someone calls you a name, it’s not an invitation to change their minds. One email train went on for days; the final one said “ Please don’t respond to this, you are starting to convincing me that I’m wrong”. I think I laughed so hard I wet my pants when I read that line, but I respected their wishes and didn’t write back.

I also was merciful and did not email the hundreds of clever folks who said I would wake up after the election and see George W. Bush defeated and tell them “nyah, nyah, nyah”. I just let it go. They knew and I knew and that was enough. It wasn’t necessary to rub it in. I now had four years to do it every day.

After I was convinced that it was fun enough to go ahead and continue doing, I talked to Sekimori and upgraded from blogspot to moveable type, a decision I have never regretted.

The election came and the election went. And then every blogger in the western world was stuck with the dilemma “ what to blog about next”. That answer came over the week between Christmas and new years; when a Tsunami in Asia killed hundreds of thousands of people. For some people, it was a chance to put politics aside and get to the business of saving lives but for others, it was just one more chance to take a poke at America and George W. Bush. Their mistake was to do it while I was tired and while I was in earshot.

My mistake was to do it at work.

It was my first experience with first person blogging. Names and places were changed, but yes, dear Snopes readers, it really happened, it happened to me, and despite my temporary anger, I still know and even like several of the folks who were there when it happened. You will be happy to know that at least one of them has had a change of heart.

I find myself writing something serious about three times a week. I find myself compiling information for links about one day a week. The time I once spent watching the 3,000th rerun of Gilligans Island is now spent writing my own blog or reading some of the best things I have ever read in my life on of other peoples blogs. I’ve learned to be a better writer, I’ve learned to think more about what I want to say and how I want to say it. On the whole, I think I’ve improved and I think I’ve developed a discipline for this thing called writing.

Blogging, and the discipline it has helped me develop towards my writing has changed my life. Blogging is cheaper and more effective than group therapy and you get to develop a marketable skill, it’s the ultimate win-win.

And I thank you all for giving me the courage to continue to struggle with dyslexia and a lifetime of self doubt to finally start to write what I’ve wanted to say for so long.

So what next?

Well, For starters, the blog stays. The 2005-2006 blogging season in underway. I’ve been in contact with Roger L. Simon and his band of Pajamateers, so the site will have some commercial aspects to it very soon, which will help justify my 'little hobby' in the eyes of the Mrs.Varifrank. David St. Lawrence has also convinced me that its time to go to print, and I’ve got a couple of things that will get published soon. David is another example of a guy saying what Stephen Green said a year ago “ Go get your own blog”.

So what’s stopping you? Go get your own blog. You’ll be surprised what you have to say.

Posted @ August 15, 2005 09:18 PM | Current Affairs | Comments (12)

A Quickie: How long is this delay anyway?

In 1700 BC, King Hammurabi wrote one of the fundamental texts in western culture. His laws, known as the "Code of Hammurabi" written not to decree his law, but what he felt were his Gods laws, a significant switch in the minds of Kings of the era who considered themselves to be God. Hammurabis Code was also written in stone, so that they could not be changed on a whim, again serving as a precedent in the ancient world. These two fundamental ideas mark the beginning of the changes in legal standards the form our ideas of law today.

The Code of Hammurabi serves as an fundamental influence to the Jewish Torah and thus to the Christian Bible, and thus to the English Magna Carta, and thus eventually to the United States Constitution.

The United States now finds itself 3700 years later in the very place the Code of Hammurabi was written helping the people of Iraq bring the offspring of the ideas expressed in the 'Code of Hammurabi' back to its mother, a land that has been scorched by tyranny for nearly that entire time.

So, when you've been waiting for 3700 years for the next upgrade in civilization, what's another week to wait for a Constitution written by its own citizens to limit the powers of government rather than a dictator to enslave its people?

3698 years - no progress towards freedom, constant tyranny, enslavement and horror for the average citizen living in what was once Mesopotamia. Yet, 2 years from liberation, on the edge of an unprecendented increase in the rights of the people of the region and a set of written and legally enshrined rights, and all anyone can talk about is the 7 day delay.

Posted @ August 15, 2005 06:51 PM | Current Affairs | Comments (2)

Freedom, Tolerance and Justice

Before this man stands the table where his country will formerly sign the articles of surrender. This act has never occurred in the history of his nation and was unthinkable just a few years before when the empire of Japan stretched from the border of Russia to Wake Island in the pacific.

Framed behind the surrender table is a US flag flown by Commodore Matthew C. Perry's flagship when she entered Tokyo Bay in 1853, which signaled the end of Japans self emposed attempt to maintain life as it was in feudal Japan. In the nearly hundred years since that time Japan had progressed from a feudal state to an industrial nation, only to be turned into a heap of rubble by the forces of the United States and the Allied nations.

This man is Toshikazu Kase and he represents the Japanese Foreign Ministry during the signing ceremony, but he also represents a person who witnessed history first hand from the most crucial 100 year period in his nations history. Kase was born in 1903, the year before the start of the Russo-Japanese war, which established Japan as a major military power, a war that the peace treaty was later negotiated by President Teddy Roosevelt; resulting in his being awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1906. Roosevelt’s role in the treaty, while lauded by the European powers was seen as “interfering” by the Japanese.

His life spans the transformation of Japan from a feudal state to its imperial expansion its crushing defeat and the miracle of its recovery from the war into one of the largest economies in the world. Toshikazu Kase, later became Japan's first ambassador to the United Nations

What would it have been like to be this man at this point in history? Remember, this act, this simple act is something that was unimaginable to the Japanese people. Japan has suffered not just from military defeat after defeat from the Battle of Midway in 1942 to this point, but it has also suffered the first two atomic attacks in history, as well as nonstop 24-hour bombardment from General Curtis LeMays incendiary attacks. The incendiary attacks were so devastating that bombing had to be halted in July as the Air Force had simply run out targets of sufficient size to bomb. People use the euphemism about “bombing them into the stone age”, but Curtis LeMay actually did it.

As this ceremony gets underway, American troops have already began the their occupation of Japan, the first occupation of Japan by foreign invaders. American bombers, who only 60 days before were turning Japan into a wasteland, are now employed dropping food and supplies that are badly needed by the civilian populace.

Yet, with all that, the Japanese, even the men in the surrender ceremony believed that the Americans had it just as bad; that is until they stepped aboard the USS Missouri.

One Japanese observer was quoted as saying “ We did not realize how badly we had been beaten until we could smell the butter on their breath on the deck of the Missouri...”

Imagine what that must have been like. All that came before, all that happened, not knowing what’s about to happen. From the tip of Sakhalin to Okinawa, this mans country and his nation has been turned to rubble in four short years.

Yet,when Ambassador Kase was asked about his reaction he said, “Here is the victor announcing the verdict to prostrate the enemy. He can impose a humiliating penalty if he so desires. Yet he pleads only for freedom, tolerance and justice ... I was thrilled beyond words."

Freedom, Tolerance and Justice.

Find me another Armed force in the history of mankind who would say such a thing as a victor over the vanquished. When they ask you “what the hell are we fighting for?”; Ambassador Kase just gave you the answer.

Every time that I see this picture I am reminded of the look on the face of the man in the top hat and I wonder what his eyes must’ve seen that day. He stands there, looking at MacArthur, Wainright, Nimitz, Halsey, Commodore Perry’s flag, practically every serving flag officer in the US Navy and half a dozen lowly Missouri crewmembers hanging their feet over the edge of a turret and a set of papers that effectively turn his country over to the will and whim of the “foreign invaders”. He has no idea what the next 24 hours will bring much less the next 24 years. He leaves the deck of the Missouri to an uncertain future under the massive drone of 1,000 US military aircraft darkening the skies. Surrounding the USS Missouri in Tokyo bay are ships his nation sank in 1941, now refloated and refitted, serving in the honors of defeating the country that sent them to the bottom of Pearl Harbor. I just can’t imagine what that was like.

His life spanned the most interesting and tumultuous 100 years of the global human species. He lived to see one of the most destructive wars in human history, a war in which 52 million people would perish outright. He lived until last year, on May 21st 2004, at age 101 he died of a heart attack.

Ambassador Kase was a man and like all men, he had his faults. He was a bit too willing to excuse the actions of his nation during the war, at one time saying it had been worth it to blunt European interference into Asian affairs and refusing to apologize for Japanese atrocities during the war. However,he was also a stalwart supporter of America during the rest of his life as a direct result of his reaction to Macarthurs words that day on the deck of the Missouri.

There were those who felt strongly at the time that the Japanese should never again join the family of nations. There were those who believed the Japanese could never overcome their atrocities and actions during the war. However, 30 years later, Japan was an industrial power and had one of the highest standards of living in the world, and yet, it had no army.

Well, no army of its own anyway. It now had the protection of the United States of America and it simply didn’t need one of its own any longer. Japan proved for the first time that nations could enjoy the benefits of industrial power without the need for empire. Japan enjoyed the military protection of the United States, even while Japanese industries were displacing the economic power of the United States.

When Macarthur said those words to an audience that included Ambassador Kaze, he said them while General Wainwright, his successor in the Philippines stood directly behind him. Wainwright had surrendered to the Japanese and as a result his men had endured the Bataan Death March. They had been used as slave labor throughout the Japanese empire. General Wainwright was expedited from his prison camp in Manchuria to be a part of the surrender ceremony. During his time under captivity, he was tortured, staved and abused by his captors.

Yet, from this victor to the vanquished come the words “Freedom, Tolerance and Justice”.

It does make a difference on how things turn out. Just try to imagine if Japan had won. Toshikazu Kase did, and he was grateful it turned out the way it did.

Posted @ August 14, 2005 11:58 PM | Current Affairs | Comments (4)

Agitators

Once upon a time there was a country and a people beset by war. Thousands of people died in the war, civilians and soldiers. In the end, the country was occupied by a foreign power. The defeated army fled the invading army from the battlefield with their weapons in hand and ran into the country to mingle with the civilian population. One of the defeated generals began to form a group to fight back as an insurgency against the occupying power. This group took the form of a secret society, one that had the direct support of part of the population.

This group began to terrorize the countryside, harassing, threatening and killing members of the populace that supported the occupying army and its new rules which flew in the face of cultural values that the people of the defeated country had lived with for years.

Eventually, the occupying army “pulled out” The secret society thrived, and many more people died. For years afterward, it was simply unsafe for certain people to walk in certain parts of town. Public killings and bombings of public places were common and almost never persecuted, as the secret society had infiltrated its members into the police force and into the judiciary.

So were talking about Iraq again, right? Oh no dear reader, this is you and me I’m talking about. This is Mississippi and the rest of the Confederate States of America. Confederate General Nathan Bedford Forrest didn’t like the fact that his country had been defeated, and he and his band of “dead enders” created an organization called the “Ku Klux Klan”. They terrorized the newly emancipated black population and anyone who supported them. For 100 years, black men were lynched with disturbing regularity in the south. General Forrest wrapped himself in the flag and perverted the bible and sold his secret society as a way for the men who had been defeated to maintain their honor and sacred heritage.

He used that platform of hate to justify terror against a civilian population to take revenge for his defeat at the hands of a superior army on the battlefield.

For 100 years after the end of the Civil War, the Klan was tolerated in southern society. That is, until a social movement began to empower the African American population with voting rights. This infuriated the Klan. When the “freedom riders” or “outside agitators” began to come into the south to register voters, the Klan took action and intimidated and killed people who volunteered to help bring dignity to the lives of people who were oppressed.

Now, what kind of person would look at the Klan and say they were justified because of the illegal occupation of their country by the foreign troops? What kind of person would say that the African Americans who were killed by the Klan didn’t deserve our protection? What kind of person would look at men like James Chaney, Andrew Goodman, and Michael Schwerner and say that they are the very reason that the Klan exists? And that if we wanted the Klan to go away, we had better leave the south and not antagonize them? What kind of person would say that church bombings were in retaliation for our lack of respect for the culture of the south?

What kind of person would turn their back on black people in the south?

It’s the same kind of person that thinks the insurgents are justified in killing American troops and Iraqi Civilians.

It’s the same kind of person who sneers at the idea of Iraqi Democracy since they “know” that not only is 'democracy a sham', the Arabs don’t really want it and besides, "who are we to impose it them'?

What kind of person would turn their back on black people in the south? It’s The same kind who turns their back on the Iraqi people and their struggle to be free.

Nathan Bedford Forest wasn’t justified in starting the Klan, and Zawahiri and Bin Laden aren’t justified in starting Al-queda, and to support their ideology by justifying it in those terms is to take steps to get measured for your very own white sheet and pointy dunce cap.

You don’t think so? When you hear a leftist talk about the war in Iraq replace the term “Iraqi” with “darkie” in their rhetoric and see if you recognize the sound of bigotry in those “oh so thoughtful, considerate and caring” people of the left. In my ears and eyes the people posting on Democratic Underground don’t sound a whole lot different from George Wallace and his pack of thugs in the 1960’s.

When you see men dressed like this:

Try to remember that the only difference between these guys and other men that dress like this

Is that the former cant manage to get enough starch in their sheets to make a proper peak in their dunce caps. In every way that can be measured, both these groups are the same, with the same goals. Notice that both groups hide their faces in shame. In poker, they call that a “tell”.

The Klan didn’t go away because of sanctions and peace treaties. It went away under force of arms and consistent work by the FBI and law enforcement that made it a priority to bring the terror to an end. It went away because the people who once looked the other way and helped enable the daily bigotry of their lives began to stop supporting the ideas that lead to the deaths of thousands of innocent people. It became socially unacceptable to be a bigot the day that television broadcast pictures of people being hit with fire hoses and set upon by dogs by the police. The ugliness of bigotry was brought into the living rooms and for the first time and people were repulsed by the inhumanity of it. When that happened, the Klan began to find itself out of favor. 40 years later the Klan is no longer a threat to the lives of most people and in most parts of the country, black people participate in government and daily life at a level unheard of for the people of the 1960s, and we are all better for it.

Brave men and women died in the process of bringing civil rights to the people of the south. If “all men are created equal” then the concept of civil rights cannot stop at our border. Our world is too small to look the other way when other people are being slaughtered in the streets.

Liberals once looked at the Klan and knew it as a true enemy of mankind. I wonder how different the world would be if the force of western liberalism was to understand that the Klan has simply moved its headquarters to the middle east. I wonder how much faster the war would be over and how many fewer people who have to die if the left were to understand that there is only one world where the rights of minorities, homosexuals, jews, catholics, agnostics and women are assured and protected by law. Heres a clue to my leftist friends, its not the world in which the insurgents win against the "Imperialist Americans". You may not like it here lefties, but were the only game you got, you might as well try to make it work instead of helping the very people who want to kill you just for sport.

One day the people of Iraq will look back on their struggle to be free and they will take an accounting of those who helped and those who stood blocking the schoolhouse door. They day will come when the left hangs its head in shame for its empowering of the modern day Klan.

(Update: Cindy Sheehan can now count on Klan member David Duke for support. Thanks for illustrating my point perfectly Dave! )

Yeah, I know what you mean, I feel like I need a shower after I visit his site....

Posted @ August 13, 2005 12:19 AM | Current Affairs | Comments (5)

The Call

Cindy Sheehan, mother of deceased Army Specialist Casey Sheehan said this at President Bushs Crawford Texas Ranch:

“We need to get our troops out of Iraq. The only reason Bush wants to stay there is because his buddies are getting rich and feasting off the blood of our children”

and

I have to wonder for the rest of my life if the gun which took Casey’s life was sold to Saddam by the US or by Britain.

I could do a whole essay just on those two little nuggets, but I wont.

I know. "This woman lost her son, and none of us can imagine what that’s like".

Well Im sorry but I can. I watched my parents in anguish over the loss of their daughter, who at age 17, took the family car to work one day and never came home. My parents were nearly comatose with guilt. My father wandered for years in a cloud of "if onlys"; "if only he had changed the tires, the car might not have flipped..." and so on. My mother felt that she shouldn’t have let my sister get the job that she was driving to, a drive that one day lead to her death. The list goes on and on of "what might have been" in the minds of a parent who’s lost a child.

For 6 months after the day my sister died, my mother and father would get up in the morning and try to go about their lives, only to stop at some point and go into state that was as near to a trance as anything I’ve ever seen. Usually it was at the breakfast table, where they would start to begin a conversation, only to pause to form the question, and find themselves still paused two hours later in mid sentence. After the first few times it happened I took it upon myself to remind them that they had work to do, that there were things that they still had to attend to. The first few times I interrupted their "trance", they were angry at the interruption, but after awhile, they understood and while the little interrupts came more often, they were less intense.

There is no grief like the grief of a parent losing a child. At the age of 22, I watched grief, guilt and the horror of the loss of my sister damn near kill both my parents. My life went on hold for the next 8 months, as I had to help them remeber to eat, wash their clothes and go about the normal operations of life, they were that far gone with grief. Every day was another day; you just tried to make it to the end of the day and shoot for the next. It was the hardest thing I ever did in my life and I pray to God it never happens to me with my kids.

The truth is, you don’t really get over someone when they die, you just get through it, and everyone has their own way of getting through it.

My mom got through it by eventually starting a crusade against the road that my sister drove on, insisting that it had contributed to the death of her daughter. She sued the state and county promising the use the proceeds to fund a swimming pool at our high school, a sport my sister had loved. It was ludicrous, and it was a bit embarrassing, but it didn’t matter. It was good to see mom with fire in her eyes instead of the dark haunted soul she had become for a few bleak months.

Nothing came of it, but it gave her something to do for the next year. It gave her a way to feel that my sister’s life had not been in vain, that others would benefit from her death. By the time the suit had been dismissed, my mother had learned how to live in the world again and today, she hardly remembers the intensity of her temporary mania.

So when I look at Cindy Sheehan, I do so out of total sympathy. I’ve seen my own mother racked with guilt at decisions that she thinks she made in error, but were innocent and had nothing to do with what caused my sisters death. I’ve seen my mother beg God to go back and make the world as it was, a world that could never be again. I’ve seen my mother cry from sunrise to sunset and do it all over again the next day. I’ve seen my mother deal with the horror of not being able to do a damn thing to bring back the life she gave birth to.

There is no loss like the loss of a child, and no matter how old we are, we are always someone’s child.

But Cindy Sheehan, for all the sympathy I have for her, is also wrong and Cindy Sheehan is also a liar. What’s worse, Cindy Sheehan is taking action to ensure that more American soldiers are killed by foolishly aligning herself with the insurgents, which will empower them and ensure that more innocent Iraqis are killed and more American troops are killed. She is feeding the very forces of hate and terror that killed her son.

Cindy Sheehan has also said her son did not want to go to Iraq. She is wrong, and she knows it. Here is a bit of information you wont here on CNN about Casey Sheehan ( from Lee Kaplan – FrontPage Magazine):

“While one might dismiss some of Sheehan’s hyperbole due to grief over her son’s death, a little research about Casey Sheehan revealed that contrary to being tricked by military recruiters, Casey Sheehan had re-enlisted in the U.S. Army voluntarily when he was 24-years-old, after serving his first hitch successfully. Casey Sheehan was in fact a hero who received a Bronze Star. He was attached as a mechanic to the artillery division of the 1st U.S. Cavalry in Iraq. When a convoy of soldiers from Casey’s unit was attacked in Sadr City by insurgents, Casey volunteered to join a rapid rescue force to get them out. His commanding sergeant told him he did not have to go into combat, because he was a mechanic and not an infantryman. Casey was quoted telling his officer, “I go where my chief goes.” He was tragically killed during the rescue attempt. The source for this story?

Cindy Sheehan herself.

I also visited an army recruiting office on my way home and asked about Casey being promised a job as a chaplain’s assistant only to be thrust into harm’s way. The recruiter explained to me that on re-enlistment, the Army’s B.E.A.R. program (Bonus Extension and Retaining) guarantees everything in writing. If Casey was a mechanic during his first hitch, that was the only thing he would have been guaranteed per his re-enlistment contract. Further research showed that a chaplain’s assistant is a combat infantry position, whereas Casey was deployed in a non-combat job as a mechanic. Casey Sheehan sought combat duty for his country and should be honored for it, not used as a symbol of how evil the United States is.”

Casey Sheehan wasn’t a kid. He was a man. Casey Sheehan wasn’t in high school; he was 24 years old, on his second voluntary hitch with the service. He wasn’t tricked, he wasn’t bamboozled, he wasn’t a victim of predatory recruiters. He chose to be there.

He was a Volunteer.
He was a Patriot.
He was a Hero.
He was a Man.

and yeah, he was also someones baby boy.

Cindy Sheehan has said in retort that none of us can know what it is like to lose a child. As I’ve illustrated, I agree. But Cindy Sheehan isn’t the first woman to lose a child in this war. Here’s another woman who has also lost her child in Iraq.

(Kurdish woman and child,killed in mustard gas attack in Haditha Iraq - 1994)

This woman also lost her child to warfare. She also died protecting her child. She knows what it was like to lose a child. As the cloud of mustard gas covered her and her baby and she began to accept her fate, I wonder if she called out for help, only to be unheard by the likes of Cindy Sheehan and her supporters.

This woman lost her life because no one like Casey was willing or able to defend her. The people that are fronting Cindy Sheehan never protested the loss of this child or the mother. Casey Sheehan went to Iraq to stop this from happening. Casey Sheehan died trying to make the world a better place. Casey Sheehan and his fellow soldiers have directly stopped the genocide that Saddam was perpetrating, a genocide that went unnoticed by Cindy Sheehan or her supporters, a genocide that is now over, because men like Casey Sheehan put their lives on the line to stop to it.

Casey Sheehan put his life on the line to make the world a better place. Casey Sheehan indirectly contributed to the lives of many Iraqis who once condemned to death at the hands of Saddam. In doing so, Casey has made the world a safer place for all of us. The defense of freedom, the defense of democracy is nothing to be ashamed of. We are not in Iraq for oil, and to say so cheapens the life of men like Casey and the anonymous Kurdish woman in the picture.

I do not know where we get men like Casey Sheehan, but it is the men of his type that allow all of us to go on living in the soft comfort of our daily lives. It is the likes of Casey that allow his mother the right of protest. While Cindy Sheehan makes street theater in front of the Presidents home, She does so in the comfort of rights afforded all to few Islamic women. The day when a Saudi woman can enjoy the same right of protest in Jiddah to excoriate the leader of her country will be a great day indeed, and it’s a day that Casey was indirectly fighting for and one that his mother Cindy is directly fighting against.

And that’s what Casey was fighting for Mrs. Sheehan, the rights of women everywhere to be as free as you are. Remember Mrs. Sheehan; he died for you and the rights you are now abusing - he did not die for oil.

Go ahead and grieve Mrs. Sheehan. Get mad, get angry, stomp your feet, call names, spit, cry and fall to the ground in front the Presidents house only do it all over again the next day. You wont be the first, and God help us, you won’t be the last, but go ahead, it’s your right, its a right that Casey and the other men who fight for freedom gave to you.

One day, you’ll be all out of grief and all you will have is the memory of the little boy you once held in your arms, who’s name you dragged through the mud of politics in your misguided need to get even with a man who you hardly know, who it turns out is just somebody elses little boy who ended up as the President one day.

Update: On November 13, 1942, the following 5 brothers were all killed in the sinking of the USS Juneau during the Battle of Guadalcanal:

George Thomas Sullivan, 27, Gunner's Mate Second Class
Francis "Frank" Henry Sullivan, 25, Coxswain
Joseph "Red" Eugene Sullivan, 23, Seaman Second Class
Madison "Matt" Abel Sullivan, 22, Seaman Second Class
Albert "Al" Leo Sullivan, 19, Seaman Second Class

Question: Just exactly how hard do you think their mother, Mrs. Alleta Sullivan, would slap Mrs. Sheehan for her actions? Read more about the sacrifice of another American Mother here

Posted @ August 11, 2005 06:46 PM | Sheehan Chronicles | Comments (18)

Nobody knows Nuthin…

The specter of Iran engaging in the creation of atomic power has had my attention for some time. To me, Iran has always been the real target of the war on terror. Forget about Afghanistan, Iraq or Saudi Arabia, Iran is the ‘home of the whopper’ when it comes to bile spitting anti-US, anti-Israel, anti-western governments and organizations. Iran is where it all started, for us anyway; you could make an argument that it all started with the Muslim Brotherhood in the 1920’s but for the US, it all started in Iran.

Back in the later 1970’s, Iran’s government collapsed when the President, Jimmy Carter first dropped his support over the Shahs due to his “violation of human rights”, totally ignoring what the replacement organization would end up doing. Then after the government of the Shah fell, Jimmy Carter allowed the Shah to come to the United States for cancer treatment. That all sounds fine, except that the people who took over Iran, the Proto-Taliban wanted the Shah given to them. President Jimmy said no, and the next thing you know they took over our Embassy, along with 444 of our citizens.

Our President then decided to talk, and talk and talk and talk. Every day, our country was humiliated. All over the world, our embassies became targets. It was a crappy time to be an American, just a few years before Vietnam had fallen, we had gone through a humiliating embargo at the hands of the Saudis because we supported Israel in 1972, and to wind up the 1970s, we sat on our hands while our territory was invaded in Iran.

Once the thugs that formed the governing power of Iran learned to enjoy humiliating a superpower, they never looked back. Overthrowing the Shah was just an appetizer, why not go all the way and overthrow the great Satan – the United States of America

So, for me, it’s always been about Iran. On September 12,2001 I was thinking, “ How do we get to Iran?” I wasn’t thinking Afghanistan, Iraq or anyone else, for me it was all about what was the most direct route to Tehran. It seemed to me that we could take over every other Islamic country in the world but if we didn’t touch Iran, we would not have done a thing to bring an end to Islamic fascism. It would be like trying to end Nazism without invading Germany.

Frankly I was shocked at our success in Afghanistan. If you had asked me in 2001 that we could even hope to have any success in Afghanistan, I would have thought it crazy. Afghanistan ate every army that ever went there; British, Greek, Russian, it didn’t matter they were all turned to wallpaper paste. So for me, our success in Afghanistan was a sign that things were not what they appeared. I had connections to Afghanistan; one of my coworkers was from Afghanistan. She was no fan of the soviets, but when you talked about the Taliban, her eyes would bug out of her head. “You have no idea what they are like” She used to tell me. She could never tell me anything about them without covering her mouth and running away to catch her breath from crying. She was right, I really didn’t have any idea, but I knew from her reaction, these guys were not clowns, they were serious, deadly serious.

So Afghanistan went much fast than I had anticipated. I expected that we would lose 5 to 9,000 troops in Afghanistan, and it never crossed my mind that we would establish voting rights, a government and a constitution in that country.

After Afghanistan, I wasn’t sure where we would go next. Of course, I kept saying, “ok, now lets go to Tehran”. The President didn’t see it that way. He saw the “low hanging fruit” of Iraq, a country that we had a lot of troops tied up enforcing the conditions of the cease-fire. Iraq seemed tough, Saddam knew we were coming, he wasn’t sure when, but he knew we were coming. I expected our invasion would cost us 5,000 troops and the occupation would take over 300,000, and it would include mass evacuation and lots and lots of refugees would flee the country.

It didn’t happen. We invaded a country roughly the size and population and terrain of California with 150,000 troops, the invasion lasted 7 days, and we lost 100 troops and there were no refugees or mass casualties. To this day, I don’t have a good reason for this except to say once again, the people who run the military know their business and I don’t know anything.

Now we find ourselves with two countries that share Iran’s border, Iraq and Afghanistan. Our navy patrols the Straits of Hormuz, checks all the shipping in and out of Iran on the ocean and by all the land routes as well. Iran is completely surrounded by US troops and Navy. I don’t know for sure, but we have to be doing over flight reconnaissance.

It’s in this environment that Iran decides that now is the best time to “go nuclear”. Why? Why bring all that heat down on you from the UN. Why take the risk of embargo from Germany, France, and the UK, not to mention the US.

And this is where the speculation kicks in.

What if…

We only know what we’ve been told as to the deployment of troops to Iraq. We only know what the Navy tells us about its deployment. We really don’t know how many troops are in Iraq or Afghanistan. They have no reason to lie, or do they?

What if the situation in Iraq is not what it seems? What if our deployment of troops in Iraq is very light on the day to day occupation duties, and it turns out that a large number of troops are ready for action elsewhere? What if they’ve already been withdrawn from Iraq and kept elsewhere for a mission that hasn’t started yet. What if the reason Rumsfeld has always been so reticent to increase the number of troops in Iraq is that he knows they are needed elsewhere, like Iran for example.

What if one of the factors in the sudden loss of jet fuel on the market is the US Military is putting as much as it can into strategic reserves.

I think the Iranian government knows its racing against time. The only way the leaders of Iran can put off their date with a hangman is to develop an atomic bomb right away. I also think we cant allow that to happen. So what do we do?

Well….

Everyone is of the opinion that we can’t invade –because we are tied down in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Everyone is of the opinion that after the failure to find WMD’s, we wouldn’t dare invade anywhere else again.

Everyone is of the opinion that Iran has too difficult terrain to invade.

So, what if everyone is wrong?

What if we aren’t really tied down in Iraq and Afghanistan? What if, now that Iran has violated its own word on nuclear development, the EU goes to the security council and a vote is given to ‘take action”. If the terrain of Afghanistan could be overcome so quickly, why couldn’t the terrain of Iran? What if the reason why fuel supplies are so low isn’t just because of China, but because of preparations for a big invasion?

What if the whole reason for invading Iraq was for preparation for Iran?

Remember, once upon a time, everyone “knew” that we would invade Europe at the Calais, and everyone - myself included - knew we couldn’t win in Afghanistan.

Remember, All military action is based on deception, and surprise is usually what carries the day.

I think we should be prepared to be surprised.

Posted @ August 11, 2005 01:27 AM | Current Affairs | Comments (6)

What you are not

You are not a pacifist if you espouse the destruction of the United States.

You are not a ‘peace activist’ if you support the PLO.

You are not a ‘human rights activist’ if you support Castro.

You are not a democrat unless you support the spread of democracy.

You are not a patriot unless you believe in your country.

You are not a liberal if you support isolationism.

You are not moderate if you allow people to be enslaved.

You are not helping poor people by giving money to African dictators.

You are not an artist because you put a crucifix in glass of urine.

You are not smart because you subscribe to the New York Times

You are not a better person because you have a certain zip code.

You are not showing respect for other cultures by disrespecting your own.

You are not a target of terror because of your country’s policies.

You are not poor because someone else has money.

You are not rich because you are a better person.

You are not cultured because you watch PBS.

You are not free because you march in a protest.

Posted @ August 11, 2005 12:16 AM | Current Affairs | Comments (2)

I'm Back!

Where have I been?

I didn't mention before I left that I was going on vacation.
I'm back now, catching up on some work related issues and Ill be back to essay writing later this evening.

As someone who loves summer, I have to say that this has been the worst summer in my life. First, with the death of my dad in May and later with nearly 6 weeks of non-stop lung infection and subsequent hospitalization, I ended up missing most of it. But its good to be alive.

What did I miss?

Well, the shuttle made it back.
Thank God! Now fly it to a museum and get on with building something that doesnt kill people every 50 flights.

Karl Rove still has a job.
zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

The Rolling Stones wrote an "anti-bush" song.
Oh, you remember 'the rolling stones' from the "2001 walking fossils of rock" tour? Apparently they used to make popular music for the kids in the 1960s.

Keith, Mick, hey- love ya guys, but I notice that over your entire 40 year year span of music you never managed to make an anti-pol pot song, an anti-nixon song, an anti-reagan song, an anti-carter song, an anti-saddam song, an anti-milosevich song, an anti-mao song, an anti-breshnev song, an anti-mulroney song, an anti-thatcher song, an anti-major song, an anti-de gaulle song, an anti-honecker song, an anti-gorbachev song, an anti-blair song, an anti-castro song, an anti-clinton song,an anti-kerry song, an anti-hitler song, an anti-mussolini song, an anti-churchill song, an anti-heath song, an anti-franco song. After all that time, after all that history, after all the monsters both real and imagined in your lifetime, its only Emperor Bush that has inspired your drug addled minds to write a lyric opposing him and his regime.

What was that lyric you guys sang in "mothers little helper"? What a drag it is getting old? Yeah, thats the one.

Bush nominated a conservative to the Supreme Court.
No kidding, really? who wouldve thought such a thing possible?

Like I said, I'll be back this evening. Oh, by the way the entry in the 'Hitchhikers Guide' for Nevada,Utah and Idaho should read "Mostly Empty". I know, I drove on one road for 4 hours and only passed one other car. And that was while I was going 70 miles an hour!

Posted @ August 10, 2005 08:55 AM | Current Affairs | Comments (2)