« June 2006 | Main | August 2006 »

The Honorable Edward Koch Explains it All For You.

Are you one of those people who can't quite understand this whole " war on terror" thing? Are you the type who just can't bear to hear another "neocon" rant about the so called "necessity of war"? Do you own way too many cats, drive a volvo but wish you had a prius? Are you one of the three remaining listeners to Air America? Do you think Dennis Kucinich is really smart, and if there was any sort of real democracy in America, he would be president instead of you-know-who?

Are you repulsed at all these "nasty people" on the right who make such a fetish of fighting the "so called enemy"?

Then sit down and take a seat, pour yourself a drink and read a little essay from the former mayor of New York. Not Guliani, But The Right Honorable Edward Koch - Democrat.

Snip...

"The enemies of the Western world in this war of civilizations are the Islamic fanatics. Those fanatics number hundreds of millions. They truly believe they have the right to kill all infidels. Sometimes, the fanatic warns us in his own words. Adolf Hitler wrote Mein Kampf (My Struggle) in 1925 in which he told the world of his plans. A recent leader of al-Qaeda, the late Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, spoke openly of his beliefs, “Killing the infidels is our religion, slaughtering them is our religion, until they convert to Islam or pay us tribute.”

"Take them at their word. Hitler meant what he said. So do the Islamic fanatics. Unlike the Western world, where we love life, the Islamic fanatics love death, what they refer to as martyrdom, killing the infidel—Christians, Jews, Hindus, Muslims of different sects—and being rewarded with 72 virgins and a prominent place in heaven."

"They believe that we Westerners do not have the inner strength to withstand them."

end snip...

Read the whole thing.

See, there IS one Democrat I could vote for. Too bad hes not running, but if he was, I'm sure the New York Times would be against him.

Posted @ July 31, 2006 11:13 PM | Current Affairs | Comments (2)

I'm just warning you in advance

If this really does proves to be the end of Fidel Castro and he actually does die this time, I will be celebrating his demise for a solid week.

One.Solid.Week.

How can I take such joy in Castros death? Because everytime another tyrant dies, an angel gets their wings...

Posted @ July 31, 2006 10:26 PM | Current Affairs | Comments (2)

Neo-neocon: Women and children first: the propaganda of compassion, at Qana and elsewhere

A fantasically well thought out piece by the great Neo-Neocon that says what I thought I was trying to say, but failed miserably to do.

Snip.

Hezbollah knows that there's nothing like dead women and children to turn public opinion against those doing the killing. And there's nothing like the Western news to fail to adequately provide and evaluate the all-important context for that killing.

Hezbollah could not--and would not--operate this way if it didn't rely on both the compassion of the West and its news cycle. Without these things, Hezbollah's actions would be suicidal. But with these things, Hezbollah's actions are effective.

Go read the whole thing.

Neo-Neocon. Smarter, better, faster than I could ever hope to be.

Posted @ July 31, 2006 05:02 PM | Current Affairs | Comments (0)

Ben Stein: How To Lose To Terrorists

Dear Mr. Stein.

Thank you for showing me that Im not the only one who sees this sort of thing.

Snip...

* Because the Hezbollah -- as has been well reported -- launches missiles at purely civilian targets in Israel as a matter of course, and no one in Europe or in the American left says "boo" about it. It's considered the Hezbollah's "right" to kill Israelis and when they do, they boast about it and promise to do more;

* Because it's been also well documented that the Hezbollah hides behind civilian targets and adjacent to civilian dwellings in Lebanon to fire its rockets at Israel, and when Israel fires back and mistakenly hits a home with civilians, the world of "intellectuals" and "thinkers" blames Israel and calls Israel bloodthirsty;

* Because when the Israelis kill civilians, they apologize, but when the terrorists kill civilians, they brag -- and the beautiful people scream at Eretz Israel and excuse the terrorists;

End Snip.

Read the whole thing.

P.S. We're not losing. Were still here, and every day we are, is a victory in itself.

Posted @ July 31, 2006 02:38 PM | Current Affairs | Comments (0)

With Suspension of Aerial Attacks, IDF Possibly Moving To More Ground Ops

Published on June 30th By Vital Perspective, with a supporting link to Stratfor. Now that the suspension is hereby suspended,let's see what happens.

Posted @ July 31, 2006 01:58 PM | Current Affairs | Comments (2)

Disproportionate Outrage

Magen David Adom is reporting that for July 30th, they treated 69 people who have been victims of Katushya rocket attacks as part of the 120 missiles that were fired into Israel in the last 24 hours.

That's 69 Civilians, Men, Women and Children, who were targeted by Hezbollah.

I'm waiting for the world to erupt in outrage over the senseless attacks on Israeli civilians.

I have a feeling it will be a long wait.

Posted @ July 30, 2006 11:48 PM | Current Affairs | Comments (0)

Hezbollah tactics in Seattle?

From Komotv.com

Quote:
"The man suspected in a fatal shooting rampage hid behind a potted plant in a Jewish charity's foyer and forced his way through a security door by holding a gun to a 13-year-old girl's head, the police chief said Saturday."

Using little girls, as shields. Ah, it's the famous Muslim warrior code is in evidence again. Salahdeen should be spinning in his grave.

This seems to me to be the micro version of what Hezbollah is doing to Lebanon on a macro scale. I should be shocked and surprised to see this sort of horror, but the really sad thing is, I'm not.

UPDATE: More details on the Seattle shooting, and more technicolor examples of anti-semitc hate in the "progressive" city of Seattle can be found here.

Posted @ July 30, 2006 10:10 AM | Current Affairs | Comments (1)

Escalation in the hezbollah media war

Arab commentators are now saying that it wasnt just children in the building that was bombed in Qana, but that they were handicapped children.

Oh, of course. I'm also sure they were handicapped children of lesbian double amputee mothers who were suffering from Adult Attention Deficit Disorder as well.

You would think that Hezbollah would care more for their children than to allow them to be exposed to harm by housing their dangerous and unstable missiles in a day care center.

UPDATE: Apparently further explanation is necessary, because some people don’t understand what it was that is I was trying to say, and have taken offense.

Do I think that the death of children is funny? Nope.

Do I think that double amputee lesbians who have kids that go on to die in explosions are funny? Nope.

I didn’t write it to be funny, I wrote it to illustrate a point about what the “Hezbollah spokesman” was saying in regards to the relative value of human life, set to a hierarchical standard of victimhood. (Hezbollah spokesman? There’s a job that’s right up there with Satan’s proctologist…).

So to better illustrate my point, let’s step out of the case at hand and use a hypothetical case to help diffuse the raw emotions of what is being discussed.

Let’s say a man is struck by a truck and killed, while crossing a large inner city intersection.

If I were an average everyday person, I would just say;

“ A man was killed by a truck”.

However, if I were another certain type of person, let’s say a professional writer, I would go through great pains to establish the level of the tragedy by ascribing value to the person beyond that of being just “a man”. For example, Lets say the man in the accident was also a writer! “A man” dying from a traffic accident may be considered unfortunate for this person, but if he were also a writer? Well, that would be a tragedy! In this person’s worldview, humans are not all at the same level; some people are better than other people.

So this person would take pains to tell to us:

“A writer was killed by a truck”.

To this person, it’s not just that “a man” who died, but it was “a writer” who died.

It’s not just an accident that has occurred, it’s a tragedy! A writer! Don’t you understand!

This type of person is implying by their choice in language that “just a man” would somehow be less of a loss than “a writer”. This type of person says one is worth more than the other.

You can almost imagine an alternate case where this sort of person would say;

“ A man was killed by a truck. Luckily, he wasn’t a writer”.

And now we can go back to the case of the choice of language by the “Hezbollah spokesman”.

It isn’t enough that children were killed, but that they were “handicapped” children. Implying (by my skeptical logic) that “normal” children would be less of a tragedy than that presented by the image of handicapped children being killed. For me in my little world, kids are kids; you don’t need to segregate them into categories, unless…

And here’s were I get myself into trouble because having a sister who is also handicapped, I think I know something of the logistics of handicapped children.

In a nutshell, they are hard to get around. You tell me you’ve got a building in war zone with 60 handicapped children, I’m looking for 120 adults in very close proximity to help keep them together, and I don’t think I need to point out that 60 kids in close proximity with solid rocket fuel and explosive warheads is a really bad idea, but apparently not because Hezbollah thinks its just “a-ok”. When someone takes a situation like this and slips in a little fact like “ and all 60 of them were handicapped too!” I find myself a being a bit of a skeptic on the situation, I find myself asking “all of them were handicapped? or just some of them”? If its only some of them, then how many? And why mention it at all?

However, lets entertain the thought, (radical though it may seem to some people who are always more than willing to assign heroic status to decidedly unheroic people, like Hezbollah and virtually every other terrorist organization) that the “Hezbollah Spokesman” was just “guilding the lilly” as it were, in regards to the story of the bombing.

Why? Isn’t the death of 60 children enough of a tragedy to gather my emotions and put forth my sympathy? Well, apparently to some people, its not. This man decided that he had to assign more value as victims to these children to make me feel sorry for them as if I wouldn’t feel sorry for them if they were ”just children”. Who could not feel sorry for handicapped children? What kind of uncaring snot would not care for the lives of handicapped children? Even the “hated Zionist enemy” would feel sorry for handicapped children, wouldn’t they?

You can almost see the page of the Hezbollah Media Manual:

Snip…

Page 5:

All Children are Handicapped Children.
Alternate: Be sure to mention the following optional situations to generate sympathy:

A) Victims were attending a birthday party
B) Victims were attending an innocent family gathering and celebration.
C) Victims were attending a wedding.

UNDER NO CIRCUMSTANCES MENTION THE KAYTUSHYA ROCKETS STORED IN THE BASEMENT OF BUILDING

End Snip…

So suddenly, it wasn’t just children in the story, but “handicapped children”, and the story just moved on from there. But for me, it was a big indication that someone didn’t feel the story was genuine enough, that it had to be “punched up a bit”. At that point my bullshit indicator went right off the scale.

You don’t have to “punch up the truth”, unless of course you wish to make the tragedy more than it really is and by doing that it then becomes “propaganda”. And that ladies and gentleman, is what I find revolting. Double amputee lesbians who’s children die in missile attacks have my complete and total sympathy. Craven rat bastards who wish to move the deaths of children into a totem for the “righteousness for their cause”, a cause that involves the killing of other people’s children as a regular, desired and accepted course of the day, can kiss my bubble gum pink ass!

You’d like another good example of this sort of rationalization of death you say? Well let’s try this on for size because it seems relevant to the case at hand.

A week ago, Hezbollah launched katushya missiles at Nazareth and they killed two children. Do you know what the Hezbollah leadership called the kids who were killed?

“Martyrs”

You see, the children were Arab Muslim children living inside Israel. The leader of Hezbollah apologized to the families for killing their children.

To me, children are children. But to some people, it’s more important that children belong to the right class of victimhood before sympathy can be emoted. Kill Jews in Nazareth? then hand out candy in celebration! Kill Muslims instead? say I’m sorry, loft the kids into “martyr” status and try again tomorrow.

Clear enough? Ok then, I thought so.

Posted @ July 30, 2006 09:54 AM | Current Affairs | Comments (10)

Israeli Air Attacks Kill Civilians

Hezbollah fighters manning anti-aircraft unit. Notice the lack of uniforms. When you read headlines that rebuke Israel for killing civilians, remember this photo.

From the Herald Sun.

UPDATE: An alternate headline for this would be " Hezbollah Human Shield Air Defense System fails to stop Israeli Air Raids"

UPDATE II: Hezbollah things nothing of hiding behind women and children using them as unwilling hostages and human sheilds. They also think nothing of "militarizing" their children for use as props parades to show the strength of their movement.

Witness:

Children dressed as Hizbollah guerrillas march at a parade to celebrate 'Jerusalem Day' in Beirut on Friday. — Reuters

This is fron a recent victory parade in Beirut for Hezbollah. This isnt the Hezbollah version of Baby Gap, These kids carried placards saying "Death To Israel" and carried mock guns and grenades. To you and me, Children are innocents. To Hezbollah, they are only tools to further their goals.

UPDATE III: On July 28th, Hezbollah attacked an Israeli Hospital with Rockets. Funny, I dont remember the UN being "up in arms" over that atrocity. I dont remember Israelis rioting in the streets of Tel Aviv over that, do you?

Posted @ July 30, 2006 07:29 AM | Current Affairs | Comments (0)

Hezbollah Gameplan

1. Launch missiles into Israel. Kill civilians. World press remains silent.
2. Israel detects missile launch, performs reconnisance.
3. Israel drops leaflets telling civilians to leave the area of missile launch.
4. Hezbollah fills building where launch took place with women and children.
5. Israel attacks site of missile launch.
6. Women and children killed.
7. World press condems shocking attack by Israel.

Now, remind me. Who started the war?

Posted @ July 30, 2006 06:55 AM | Current Affairs | Comments (1)

You can't make this stuff up

ah yes, the "Jedi master of the idiotarian left" is at it again, only this time Robert "my name is now a verb" Fisk, has turned his 'poison pen' towards Israel.

Robert Fisk: Is Israel Losing Its War In Lebanon?

Quote: "Chillingly, Israel's prosecution of these attacks bears an increasing resemblance to the systematic destruction of the Warsaw Ghetto by Nazis in World War II".

I get it now! Its all so clear to me. Israel uses precision weapons, warns targets a day in advance of attacks to vacate the area, uses uniformed troops exclusively, and follows the Geneva convention on the protection of rights of captured soldiers. Buries the dead of its enemies with respect according to their religious traditions.

It should also be stated that Israel has been know to show favor toward followers of the Jewish religion. Its a fact, I looked it up.

On the other hand, Hezbollah wears no uniforms, uses weapons with no guidance systems against civilian populations fired from within elementary schools and mosques for the expressed desired purpose of killing or maiming civilians, uses civlians as shields and hostages, denies captured uniformed soldiers access to Geneva accord protection under the Red Cross or Crescent, routinely butchers and kills civilian and military members of other countries for sport, describes its own losses as "Martyrs", routinely kills members of any religious minority outside of their own sect, even those within their own religion, again, just for sport.

It should also be stated that Hezbollah has been known to be decidedly hostile to members of the Jewish religion, including the denial of the european jewish holocaust while praying daily to their God for the destruction of Israel and the Jews.

Yes!, Thanks to Robert Fisk, its all prefectly clear to me now! Israel is exactly like the Nazis in Warsaw. I dont know why it took me so long to see such an obvious connection.

(Chillingly? Who talks like that? )

Posted @ July 29, 2006 10:17 PM | Current Affairs | Comments (0)

Things are not quite as they appear to be

Israeli soldier (later Major General Yossi Ben Hanan) cools off in the Suez Canal in the Six Day War. Note captured AK-47 rifle. Israeli soldiers often traded their unreliable carbines and short-range Uzis for AK-47s taken from captured or killed Arab soldiers.

Look, I’m just a common every day schlub. I don’t pretend to be a master expert in military strategy. My only military experience is about 4 years as a Civil Air Patrol Cadet in my teenage years during the 70’s and that doesn’t count for anything. I don’t pretend for one second to be able to read minds. But I do know my history, I do know how to play a mean game of chess, and I can read a topographic map pretty damn good.

I’ve been watching the war from afar. I haven’t been able to comment daily as I’ve been really busy with real revenue generating work instead of blogging. But I have come to one conclusion based on what I’ve seen and what we’ve heard.

It’s all crap.

It’s not the usual bias that I’m complaining about. It's not the usual “reporting news the way they want things to be” as news instead of commentary that is going on.

It’s that I don’t think what is happening – or what is being reported as happening is necessarily what is happening.

Relax for a just second loyal readers, I’m not the "black helicopter" type, that’s not what I’m saying.

Here’s what I’m talking about. When you see news coming from Israel, its censored. That’s a good thing. I support that, its saving lives. When you see news from Beirut, its also censored. It’s also mostly propaganda. It’s a fact. I think were all over the age of 5 here, so I don’t think anyone who reads this blog is going to slap themselves in the head and shout “ Oh say it isn’t so!”

But knowing this simple set of facts, knowing that both sides want to put the best shine on their version of the story at all times, then ask yourself this;

“Why is it that stories coming from Israel this week are so damn pessimistic”?

Israel has press organizations, agents and other people to spin the story. They can put the proper pressure to ensure on the media to ensure that the story is told as close to the way they want it told. Yet, the stories coming from Israel seem to me to be bleak and nasty and full of fear and dissention, almost to the exception of any sort of good news.

Today, my "spider senses" started to twitch when I watched a news story told from a hospital from Israeli troops who had just returned from inside Lebanon. They were talking about the Hezbollah troops like they were 20 feet tall, each of which had 6 popeye sized arms with a .50 caliber machine gun and a full belt of ammo in each oversized hand.

I thought to myself for just a second, this doesn’t feel right. First, the only info that gets out is the info they want out, so why would Israeli government officials be so interested in letting this message get out? These are Israeli troops. These are not European conscripts. These guys know what defeat means. It means they will be feeding their families to the ovens of Hezbollah and the Iranians. They will fight to the death because failure means the end of everything. There is no line of retreat for Israelis. To Israelis there is no honor in losing, just death.

Israelis don’t talk like this in battle…so why are they and more importantly, why are we seeing it?

Shouldn’t the message being sent by the Israelis be “ We’re jubilant, we’re winning, we’re happy joyful fighters protecting our homeland, kicking the crap out of the Arabs again”? We’ve always seen that before haven’t we? even when they faced attacks by big armies from all three sides at once, they were cheery and happy in the face of battle. Defeatism and doubt are not things that you hear from the Israeli army.

Why send or allow to be sent, the exact opposite of that message?

One possibility is that things really are bad. Ok, I can accept that. But are they? Work with me for a second. Let’s ask ourselves the question again in a slightly different way;

“Why would any government be interested in sending a message of their own weakness at the beginning of a shooting war”?

Well, you do it because you want the enemy to commit. You want the enemy to be in the best place for you to deal with them, not in a place where they can defend or they can retreat from.

Many of the key important battles of history have been fought with this basic strategy in mind. You have a line of troops. You skirmish with your enemy for a while and then your lines begin to fall apart in the middle. Your troops in the center of your line begin to retreat. In the heat of battle, your opponent believes that the lines have broken and pours his troops into the now widening gap with the hope of splitting your forces in two.

Your opponent has now committed himself.

The only problem is, the gap in the lines didn’t open because your opponent was beating your troops, the gap opened because your troops maintained the discipline to follow orders.

Your troops in the center fell back because they were ordered to.

What your opponent failed to see was that on each of the “horns of the bull” were reinforcements, horse calvary, heavy shock troops, and more men than he had counted on, hidden on the hills just behind the battlefield. What was once a gap in your line has suddenly turned into a complete envelopment of his troops. Now the troops who he thought were in retreat have stopped, turned and have started killing his army with a vengeance.

There is no way out.

Your opponent made the fatal mistake of seeing only what he wanted to see. He wanted to believe that your army was only as big as what he could see on the battlefield and the gap was exactly what he wanted to see and just the right time. It wasn’t the cleverness of enemy that fooled him; he fooled himself into seeing just what his enemy wanted him to see.

From the moment your enemy committed himself to a reality that didn’t really exist, the battle was over.

216BC: Battle of Cannae - The destruction of a Roman Army by a much smaller force under Carthaginian General Hannibal.

Cannae, Marathon, half a dozen battles from Alexander the Great, even Sitting Bull at the Little Big Horn have used some version of this strategy to destroy an enemy.

The key word here is “destroy”, because I think that’s exactly what Israel is up to. They don’t want to tit-for-tat Hezbollah and its proxy Iran, they wish to destroy it.

In 1982, Israel went into Lebanon but in the way they went about it, they ended up just pushing the enemy north. They paid for that strategy with a long occupation of Southern Lebanon and out of that, the creation of Hezbollah. The enemy was bruised, but it was not destroyed. Once again, the enemy had been allowed to retreat from the battlefield. In the Arab world, this is considered a victory. In the Arab world, what we would consider an outright defeat is considered an honor.

I’m not saying I understand it myself, I’m just saying that our values and theirs don’t line up, so try to look at events of the day through their lens when you interpret what they are doing and why they are doing it. To them, survival alone means they won. Real defeats rarely happen, because when the going gets tough, they just pretend to be civilians and melt into the background and pretend that they were all “saved by Allah”. It would be like fighting the Nazis at the Battle of the Bulge, only to have them strip off their uniforms and pretend to be Belgian farmers if they were captured.

I said to myself at the beginning of this action that I would give anything to see a real battlefield defeat, but that it was much more likely that someone would step in at the 11th hour and get a ‘ceasefire” that would once again hand the terrorists a victory and leave the Israelis hollow for their efforts.

But that was 12 days ago, and frankly things certainly appear to have changed. For the first time in my life, Arabs that kill Israelis are not being given the cover of “peace missions” and “cease fire” calls for “dialog” for their actions. Arab terrorists have started a war, and they have for once – gotten exactly that in return. And I have to say as revolting as war is, I find this fact to be downright refreshing. Finally, starting a war has consequences beyond who sits on what side of the negotiation table. Finally starting a war might mean that you will lose! What a concept! (It certainly takes all the fun out of it, doesn’t it? – which is precisely why I think the President is following that idea. Terrorism isn’t any fun if it doesn’t get you what you want, but instead costs you everything you have. The first step towards ending terrorism is to stop making it pay as a strategy for engaging the enemy. )

Oh, and all this noise about "international support for peacekeeping". Uh,huh. Yeah right you betcha. International peacekeeping brigades populated by the ghostly Family Circus Character known as "Not Me".

The trick for the Israelis it seems, is keeping Hezbollah in the right frame of mind. Keep them thinking that they might just beat the Israelis this time. Keep them right up next to the border.

Oh what heroes we will be for fighting the Zionists.
Come a little closer now...
Oh how we will be praised in the capitals of Islam
Come on…
We’ve got them on the run Ali, we only need to push them a little bit harder
Come on sucker, just a little bit more…

Then SNAP! The Israeli trap is slammed shut like the worlds biggest rat trap.

The Israelis have been preparing the battlefield since the very beginning of this action. Don’t for a second start kidding yourself into thinking that they are following some slapdash half assed “ war by a little bit” strategy because they haven’t. Their actions have been taken with the greatest deliberation.

They know exactly what they are doing.

In my opinion, they are going for ‘all the marbles’ this time. Israel cannot and will not accept an enemy on its border that can and will fire missiles into its population. This time they are explosives, what happens when they are chemical and biological weapons?

An enemy that has pledged to commit genocide against them is not someone who any Israeli, or any Jew of any sort is going to negotiate anything with.

If you have been lead into thinking that this is going to be “lost by Israel”, I think you need to pick up a history book and talk to someone, anyone, who is from Israel. If you think that this action is going to lead to some sort of “talk” with Hezbollah or Iran or Syria, well then you’re high and I wouldn’t recommend taking any sort of urine tests any time soon because you won't pass.

It’s my opinion that Israel is in the process of preparing Southern Lebanon for the annihilation of Hezbollah and by that I mean, Iran. Remember what I said last week, Hezbollah is to Iran what the Nazi “Hermann Goering Division” was to the Wehrmacht, it’s a division of fighting troops, that’s all, no more no less. Its not a political party, its not a fraternal insurance organization. They are shock troops for Iran, no more, no less. Hitler and Mussolini had wall sized propaganda posters of themselves overlooking the town squares and the wide support of the populace too. It didn’t stop them from being genocidal monsters. The fact that there are Arabs who admire Hezbollah shouldn’t color anyone’s impression of who they are, what they stand for, and what they intend to do if given the chance.

In my opinion what Israel wants at this point in the war is an overconfident enemy committed to a course of action. They want as many of Hezbollah south of Sidon as is possible, and they want them to bring as much of their resources as they can lay their hands on with them.

Just picture General Custer riding down on the camp at the Little Big Horn saying;

“Come on boys we’ve caught them napping”.

Only this time, The Israelis are the Sioux, and Sheik Hassan Nasrallah is General Custer.

My belief is that the Israelis will strike heavy from the Golan going north at breakneck speed with the largest movement of armor since the 6 Day War. Just prior to that, the Bekaa will be hammered into utter oblivion by the air. I think what we’ve seen so far is small “test” shots to determine targeting information for the area.

Just short of the Bekaa valley, the Israelis will pivot and rapidly move west towards Sidon. They will cut every bridge, every road, every goat path between the south and Sidon. They will let Sidon sit north of their lines. Once the perimeter is complete, once the reach the Mediterranean, where they will be re-supplied by their Navy who will already have established a beachhead for re-supply, they will release troops from the south who will move quickly up the coastline to cut off any remaining retreat into Tyre.

Tyre will be a disaster, but it will also be Hezbollahs grave, just as Beirut was the grave of the PLO.

At this point – I estimate roughly 4 days after the start of the Armored column from the Golan, the end is inevitable. Hezbollah and the world Arab press will scream like banshees at the humanitarian disaster that will be Southern Lebanon, but what they really mean is once again an Arab army is being defeated wholesale by the hated Zionists.

Once the Israeli tanks move north in large numbers, we will know that the end for Hezbollah is only 7 to 14 days away. I think Israel will be near Bekaa before most people figure out what’s going on and by then it will be too late to do anything about it.

There will be no “cease fire” this time. There will be no retreat to save the honor of the Arabs this time. Those that think that Israel is going to lose, or that Israel looks weak or any of you other “armchair generals” who think that Israel is a spent force and isn’t quite as good as the Armies of the 1960’s and the 1970’s, I must now remind you of something that many people seem to have forgotten about the Israelis.

You see, the other side in this war has promised genocide for Israel. Israelis have historically had but one thing to say to anyone who ever says such a thing;

“Never again”...

In war, things are never quite as they appear to be. Pay close attention, but remember that everything you see happening is not necessarily what is going on.

UPDATE: A Good Question! – “What about Syria?”

In one of the most interesting and underreported events of this war is the apparently complete lack of reports of any movements of Syrian army or air force units. Early in the war, Israel flew directly over President Assads house.

Ok, let me repeat that in case you weren’t paying attention.

An Air Force from a neighboring nation with a long history of fighting your nation flew over your capital and the home of the leader of your country.

Your air defense systems were unable to detect their presence or stop them once they were detected. They came in, did what they wanted, and left the area unopposed.

This despite your investing in lots and lots of these:

SA-2 Site just outside of Damascus (Photo appears courtesy Google Earth)

What conclusion can we draw from this little display of airpower by the Israeli Air Force?

The Israeli Air Force has already established, not “air superiority”, but “air dominance”. It’s my belief that the Syrians dare not move any of their key military assets into anything that could be considered a threat to Israel. No tanks, no aircraft, artillery or troops movements that could possibly be “misinterpreted” or they will be smashed to bits in a matter of hours.

Now, given these conditions, let’s say you’re President Assad and you wake up one day to hear that the Israelis have a massive column of armor speeding up to the Bekaa. At the same time you find out that the Bekaa Valley is under a huge air assault and you are not able to communicate with any of your assets in the area.

At that moment the phone rings, and it’s the Israeli ambassador sitting in the office of the Syrian Ambassador. He informs you that the Israeli Army is moving towards the Bekaa and once they reach it, they will stop and begin to move to the coast of Lebanon. However, if Syria moves its troops or does anything at all to transform the battlefield, Israel is also prepared to move on to Damascus.

So, do you sit tight, essentially cut the Hezbollah and the Iranians loose? Or invite Israel to invade your capital city?

My guess is you will sit tight. Iran will scream, but there’s almost nothing that they can do about it. That occasional glint of aluminum that you see out of the corner of your eye at high altitude above your Capital is a reminder that the Israelis can go where they please and do what they please.

Now, when you see headlines of “Arab nations line up in support of Hezbollah” start asking yourself “ and where are the troops, supplies and ammunition from these friends of Hezbollah”?

Egypt has an Army, a great big one. It shares a border with Israel. Have they moved any assets? Nope. Called up reserves? Nope. How about Jordan? No movement that I can see. How about Turkey? Nope. Nothing going on there. Saudi Arabia? Big Air Force – could come in handy against Israel. Not so much as a “Notice To Airmen” regarding military operations in the Hejaz.

Everyone just loves the self sacrificing Hezbollah, but when the bill comes to the table, everyone is in the bathroom. Oh sure, the members of the Arab league wave their arms around like a lawn sprinklers in support of their poor picked on Arab brothers, but no one has moved a tank, ship, aircraft or organized army unit in support of poor little Hezbollah.

In fact, I was never so sure that Hezbollah was doomed than when everyone suddenly unified behind them in support, yet, no one moved a single military asset to support Hezbollah...

I think that speaks volumes.

UPDATE II: Comments are off. Apparently some people feel that pessimism is the sign of sophisticated thinking and any sign of optimism is a sign of mental disease. Apparently my saying that the "Israelis will win" is considered just too controversial for some people. I've said it before and i'll say it again. This is not a message board, its a blog. It's not your blog, it's my blog. It is not a public utility. You dont like what I write, then dont read it. It's a big blog world, I'm sure you will find another blog that fufills your fantasy of israel losing somewhere else, you wont find it here.

Posted @ July 28, 2006 11:38 PM | Current Affairs | Comments (31)

A Fletcher Comes Home

Apparently there is another Fletcher Class Destroyer coming home.

The old man would've really dug this.

Posted @ July 25, 2006 01:09 PM | Current Affairs | Comments (0)

A Call for Podcast: The World At War

During the 1970's Thames Television produced one of the best documentaries of the World War II era. Narrated by Laurence Olivier, it explains in detail, the how, why, who and when of what happened in World War II. The best thing about the show is the documentary uses many of the people who were actually in the actions described in the episodes. For example, when they talk about Operation Market Garden, they have General Horrocks their to explain it to you.

A Man whos been there - Camera on face - Words from the man whos been there and the look in his eyes when he remembers. It was just as simple as that, with guiding narration from Olivier himself.

This documentary explains the utter horror that was faced by that generation in the clearest yet deeply emotional terms I've ever seen. It was produced in the 1970's and yet it hasnt aged, or become hokey. In my opinion, there has never been a better job done with the material.

This documentary is just staggering in its presentation of "The World at War" and how it changed all of our lives.

If you havent seen it, run - do not walk to the nearest bookstore to get a copy, or put it in your netflix queue. I guarantee you will not be disappointed. I do not recommend you watch it with kids under 15, but I do recommend it as "required viewing" for every kid over 15.

The other day I found myself watching an episode of this show and thinking that it might be time for a "World At War" Podcast, updated for "our war". A New documentary done in the same fashion, describing in the same sort of detail how all of this all came about. Downloadable episodes of 20 minutes in length that cover how the war on terror started, the major actions so far, interviews with the major players. The Thames' "World at War" provides the perfect template for what the podcast could be.

I think there is a serious risk in today's world of forgetting just how this all came about. It might be time for a budding historian or journalist to start to document what this all was about before we all forget.

Posted @ July 24, 2006 01:27 PM | Current Affairs | Comments (0)

If Kerry was The President...

If John Kerry was the President

"We'd all be singing showtunes!"

If John Kerry was the President

"This would be an ice cream truck, and we would each have a dollar"

If John Kerry was the President

"This would be an Onion Headline Parody, instead of the real thing"

If John Kerry was the President

"These vests would carry twinkies instead of explosives"

Sorry Mr. Kerry, It's just a shame all this democracy stuff had to get in the way of such pretty picture.

Posted @ July 24, 2006 10:02 AM | Current Affairs | Comments (0)

NATO in Lebanon?

From Reuters:

"The United States is open to a NATO-led force keeping the peace on Lebanon's southern border with Israel, although using U.S. forces has not been discussed, a senior Bush administration official said on Sunday.

Israeli Defense Minister Amir Peretz said his country could accept a NATO peacekeeping force in southern Lebanon to ensure Hizbollah is removed from the border. Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert had earlier said calls for an international force were premature.

"It's a new idea, we'll certainly take it seriously," John Bolton, the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, said in a taped interview with CNN's "Late Edition."

"We have been looking carefully at a multinational force perhaps authorized by the Security Council, but not a U.N.-helmeted force," he said.

It's not quite "Israel joins NATO..." but its getting closer.

Posted @ July 23, 2006 02:08 PM | Current Affairs | Comments (4)

North Korea condemns Enterprise’s port call in South

From Navy Times, the North Koreans React to the arrival of the Enterprise"

"The army and people of the north will strongly react to the dangerous moves of the U.S. and its allies for a war of aggression against it with its deterrent for self-defense,” the country’s Committee for the Peaceful Reunification of the Fatherland said in a statement."

The North Korean Navy could not be reached for comment.

Posted @ July 21, 2006 10:09 AM | Current Affairs | Comments (1)

Enterprise: "Ready on Arrival"

The USS Enterprise, a U.S. Atlantic Fleet aircraft carrier, steamed into the Asia-Pacific region for the first time in 17 years earlier this month. The Norfolk based Enterprise last traveled to Pacific waters in 1989. The last US Carrier to visit a South Korean port was the aircraft carrier Kitty Hawk, which pulled into Pusan in March 2004.

For recent US carrier activity - Please see the Valiant Shield Exercise.

USS Enterprise left the Persian Gulf on June 6th to become part of the US Navy 7th Fleet. The ships motto is "Ready on Arrival".( Boy, there sure is alot of carriers in the Pacific all of a sudden...)

Posted @ July 20, 2006 09:21 PM | Current Affairs | Comments (0)

Have you hugged your Hummer Today?

From Reason.org

Quote:

"What's particularly interesting is that individual consumers are defying all expectations and turning their backs on hybrids at a time when gas prices are soaring. (The average U.S. retail price of gas spiked to a record high of $3.01 last September following hurricane Katrina, and just last week it hit its second highest price ever at nearly $3.00.) Nor is the reason all that mysterious. Spinella's customer satisfaction surveys show that 62 percent of hybrid owners are dissatisfied with the fuel-economy performance of their cars given what they have paid for them.

This means that when gas prices go up, these people don't rush out to buy more hybrids. "They buy a Chevy Aveo," says Spinella. "It delivers the same fuel economy as a Prius, but at half the price."

snip...

But despite all these drawbacks, hybrids are at least better for the environment than say….. a Hummer, right? Nope.

Spinella spent two years on the most comprehensive study to date – dubbed "Dust to Dust" -- collecting data on the energy necessary to plan, build, sell, drive and dispose of a car from the initial conception to scrappage. He even included in the study such minutia as plant-to-dealer fuel costs of each vehicle, employee driving distances, and electricity usage per pound of material. All this data was then boiled down to an "energy cost per mile" figure for each car.

Comparing this data, the study concludes that overall hybrids cost more in terms of overall energy consumed than comparable non-hybrid vehicles. But even more surprising, smaller hybrids' energy costs are greater than many large, non-hybrid SUVs.

My reaction? Bwhahahahahah! So go read the whole thing...

Posted @ July 20, 2006 11:38 AM | Current Affairs | Comments (3)

Proportional Response

US Marine Corp Barracks (Beirut) October 23, 1983.

In the last few days the call we’ve seen the rise of a new phenomenon in the world press. Israel is not being criticized for its need to attack Hezbollah, but rather that it needs to take a “proportional response” to the attacks.

Let me just say this about that. Oh, and if your kids read this blog or if you are sensitive to language of the nautical culture in which I was raised, please move your browser ahead past the next paragraph.

I'm afraid it’s going to get a little salty.

Ok, kids out of the room? Fine. So here goes.

Of all the chickensh*t moronic crap ideas that the left has ever shoveled out of its half mad henhouse of illogical nonsense and somnambulic concepts that make up most of what serves as the core of what is known as “leftists idealism” I have never – EVER – heard anything so damn head-up-your-a** dumb in all my life.

And I know from chickenshit moronic crap. Ive seen it shoveled by the very best in the business. And I’ve lived through Carter, Dukakis, Gore, Kerry and Dean, but this is just beyond the pale.

Ok, the kids can come back in now.

Proportional response? PROPORTIONAL RESPONSE?

Do you have any idea who it is we are talking about here? Hezbollah. HEZBOLLAH. This is not the ‘Jaycees of Lebanon’ you wet-noodle dope smoking freaks. These are murdering bloodthrirsty and I do mean BLOODTHIRSTY thugs. You notice al-Qaeda hasn’t spoke a word in support of these corpse loving, coprophagic freaks? That’s because they are too far out even for good old Osama himself. Even that freak has standards and these guys aren’t on even their mailing lists for his annual holiday Ramadan Cards.

Compared to Hassan Nasrallah, Osama is like Barney Fife.

You do not set terms of moral authority with these animals to those of us in the West who love life and human diversity. You do not talk to their “Press attaché” like they were just some local political party.

Are you out of your mind CNN? What next? Are we going to see CNN meet with the “Charles Manson press attaché” so they can take us through the Sharon Tate murder site so the “press attaché” can tell us it was really just a poorly interpreted piece of performance art that was interrupted by the mean old police, and that the phrase “kill the pigs” is just a result of years of police brutality.

Oh if only the mean old police would learn to love the murdering hippies there would be 'peace on earth' now wouldn’t there?

Proportional Response? Hezbollah is firing missiles into civilian populace across an internationally recognized and maintained border. Hezbollah is killing people in a sovereign UN nation, not that anyone cares. Hezbollah is capturing uniformed soldiers of an organized Army, and violating the Geneva Convention, again not that anyone cares.

And who is it who is calling for a “Cease Fire’? That’s right the same animals who’ve started the war, the same ones who are calling for the destruction of Israel out of one side of their mouths are saying “ oh please don’t hurt us” out of the other. “Oh the poor little things, how could Israel just pop up all of a sudden and attack those nice little misunderstood people” seems to be what the press undercurrent is in their coverage of this little event.

Maybe, just maybe people should consider that Israel is fully aware of who these animals are and just what they want to do.

Yet somehow, Israel is always supposed to be the ‘adult in the room’. Somehow the teensy weensy little old political parties who just want what’s right for their families are always just like poorly misunderstood kids who soaped a few car windows or tied a tin can to the cat’s tail. Precocious little scamps, they just have bingo games at the mosque on Fridays, they are beloved by the people, they only want to negotiate with Israel for the return of what is rightfully theirs, right?

I do not know what it is, but there is some collective loss of memory on just who Hezbollah is. Hezbollah is Iran. Iran is Hezbollah. Hezbollah is to Iran what the Nazi “Das Reich’ Division was to the Wehrmact. Get this through your heads CNN, Helen Thomas, Patrick J. Buchanan - Israel DOES NOT BORDER IRAN! IRAN HAS HAD NO CLAIM ON WHAT IS TODAY ISRAEL, SINCE CYRUS THE GREAT!

Hezbollah had to INVADE another country just to be able to fight with Israel! They now control the lower half of that country. That country, is the poor people of Lebanon who had managed to live in peace with the Israeli neighbors, until they were chewed into paste by their lovely Arab brothers who turned it into a charnel house instead of what was once the “Paris of the Mediterranean’.

And when you and your goat humping, three fingered leaders go screaming at the camera and get all hot and bothered by “occupation” why don’t any of you talk about the occupation of Lebanon by Syria and Hezbollah?

Oh yeah, “inconvenient fact”. Sorry about that. I didn’t mean to point out that you were the very worst sort of propagandistic genocidal maniacs.

Wait! that’s not true, that’s EXACTLY what I wanted to do.

Instead of chastising Israel, we should be sending them more arms! We should provide them satellite photos of Syrian tanks, overlaid with graphics that say; “ hit me” on top of each one.

We should thank the Israelis. Not because the Israelis are fighting their enemy, but because Hezbollah – Iran – is and has always been our enemy too!

Hezbollah has killed, and continues to kill Americans. Hezbollah makes no bones about calling us their enemy. Yet, despite all they have done, we continue to look the other way.

So get this through your head;

Hezbollah is like Al-Qaeda, only Hezbollah has a sponsor. It has Iran, it has Syria. Hezbollah is what Al-Qaeda would be if we would have stayed out of Afghanistan. Hezbollah is what Al-Queda would be in Iraq if we had stayed out of there too. Hezbollah is the very definition of State sponsored terrorism. Given the chance, Hezbollah what every terror group hopes to be. Free to move at will, given cover by the local population, who they promptly use as human shields, free to extort the host government for cover from the intrusive international government law enforcement.

Imagine Charles Manson and his gang, The Baader-meinhof gang, The IRA, the Weather Underground, the KKK, the Nazi Party and the “Peoples Temple” all being gathered together. Now, feed them a solid diet of meth and put them in an isolated desert camp for 30 years.

That’s Hezbollah.

Now, some jackass decides to give them a warehouse of Katushya missiles and tells them that all their problems will be solved when you and your neighborhood are removed from the earth.

When this starts to happen, are you going to act “Proportionally” in response? As in, just sit around and do nothing while these animals fire rockets loaded with large caliber buckshot into your kid’s playground? Your grocery store? Your home?

They dont want to negotiate - they want you dead. Theres no peace treaty, theres no trade route to give them, no "common ground" unless its your grave. Thats all they want. You and your family - dead.

The only possible sane act for a decent person to take, the only act that any person interested in justice and peace could consider is to do whatever it takes to end this threat to life and civilization.

Missiles are not forms of protest, they are weapons of war. No more – no less.

Before I conclude this particular screed, I wish to leave behind a sort of ‘Devils Resume’ for Hezbollah for those of you who don’t remember who these animals are. These people are our enemies, not because we choose them to be, but because they have already been killing us for some time. Just to put us all in the proper frame of mind when we hear the worlds “Hezbollah”, I think its time to review their actions towards, not Israelis, but Americans.

This is what Hezbollah has done to us. I can assure you, what they have done to the Israelis is far, far worse. I’ve gathered this information from Wikipedia, and various news sources. These sources go into much more detail on each of these subjects. I’ve simply compiled the list on this post to make it easier to follow for the subject at hand.

Terry Anderson

On March 16, 1985, Anderson had just finished a tennis game when he was abducted from the street in Beirut, placed in the trunk of a car and taken to a secret location where he was imprisoned. For the next six years and nine months he was held captive, being moved periodically to new sites. His captors were Hezbollah.

He filed suit against the Iranian government for his captivity, and in 2002 was awarded a multimillion dollar settlement from frozen Iranian assets since it was the finding of the court that Hezbollah was an entity of the Iranian Government.

Thomas Sutherland

He was the second-longest held captive after Terry Anderson. By the time of his release on November 18, 1991 at the same time as Terry Waite, he had been held hostage for 2354 days. His memories of the experience have been published through his book entitled ‘At Your Own Risk’ which was co-authored by his wife Jean. He claims to have attempted suicide a number of times and to have spent a substantial amount of time in solitary confinement.

In June 2001, the Sutherland family won a $353 million verdict in a lawsuit against the government of Iran.

Father Lawrence Jenco

Was taken hostage in Beirut by Hezbollah in January 1985, while serving as director of Catholic Relief Services there. He was held for 564 days before being released and allowed to return to the United States.

He was held for 564 days before being released and allowed to return to the United States.

He spent much of his time chained and blindfolded, and was allowed to use the toilet only once a day. Fr. Jenco suffered serious eye infections and other health problems as a result of his captivity. In changing from one hiding place to another, he was bound with tape and placed in stifling hiding places in trucks, lest he be found by soldiers or police inspecting a vehicle. He also suffered beatings by the guards.

After his death, federal judge Royce C. Lamberth awarded the estate and family of Rev. Lawrence Jenco $314.6 million in damages from Iran for the 18 months he was held hostage in Lebanon in the mid-1980s. The ruling includes $14.6 million in compensatory damages to Jenco and his six siblings or their estates and $300 million in punitive damages. Jenco "was treated little better than a caged animal" said Lamberth in his ruling, which laid the blame upon the Iranian government. The Iranian government defaulted on the lawsuit, declining to answer any of the allegations.

Robert Stethem

Petty Officer Robert Stethem (November 17, 1961 – June 15, 1985) was a United States Navy diver and Steelworker Second Class. He was killed after the commercial airliner he was aboard, TWA Flight 847, was hijacked. In the Navy, he was assigned to the Navy Underwater Construction Team No. 1 at Naval Station Norfolk in Virginia. He was returning from an assignment in Nea Makri, Greece aboard TWA Flight 847 when it was hijacked by members of the Lebanese political and terror organization Hizbullah. They demanded the release of 435 Lebanese and Palestinian prisoners held by Israel.

When their demands were not met, Stethem was singled out. The hijackers learned he was a member of the U.S. military. They beat him with a chair leg. Then they shot him and dumped his body on the tarmac at the Beirut airport.

Mohammed Ali Hamadi of Hezbollah was convicted in 1989 in Germany for the beating and shooting of Robert Stethem. On December 20, 2005 Hamadi was released and allowed to return to his native Lebanon on the following day. The German government has denied there was any link between Hamadi's release and the freeing of Suzanne Osthoff, a German archaeologist, the week after his release.

William Richard "Rich" Higgins (January 15, 1945 – July 6, 1990) was a United States Marine Corps colonel.

On February 17, 1988, Higgins was captured and held hostage by Hezbollah while he was serving on a United Nations peacekeeping mission in Lebanon. He was killed on or before July 6, 1990.

William Francis Buckley (May 30, 1928 – June 3, 1985) was a U.S. Army officer and intelligence agency operative. He was kidnapped by the Islamist group Hezbollah on March 16, 1984, while serving as CIA station chief in Beirut, Lebanon, and was subject to torture and interrogation at the hands of his captors for 444 days; the man overseeing his torture was Imad Mugniyah, a former leader of Hezbollah. Buckley was eventually smuggled to Tehran via Damascus aboard an Iranian plane. He died in captivity in Beirut after illness and torture.

One of his tormentors during his time with Hezbollah was Aziz al-Abub who was a Hezbollah psychiatrist and mind control expert. Aziz was a graduate of the Soviet Union's People's Friendship University. Aziz al-Abub used drugs and physical torture on hostage William Buckley over his captivity.

US Marine Barracks Beirut

On October 23, 1983, around 6:20 am, a yellow Mercedes-Benz delivery truck drove to Beirut International Airport, where the 1st Battalion 8th Marines, under the U.S. 2nd Marine Division of the United States Marines, had set up its local headquarters. The truck turned onto an access road leading to the Marines' compound and circled a parking lot. The driver then accelerated and crashed through a barbed wire fence around the parking lot, passed between two sentry posts, crashed through a gate and barreled into the lobby of the Marine headquarters. The Marine sentries at the gate had loaded pistols but were not able to stop the driver even though they shot at him. According to one Marine, the driver was smiling as he sped past him.

The suicide bomber detonated his explosives, which were equivalent to 12,000 pounds (about 5,400kg) of TNT. The force of the explosion collapsed the four-story cinder-block building into rubble, crushing many inside. The death toll was 241 American servicemen: 220 Marines, 18 Navy personnel and 3 Army soldiers. Sixty Americans were injured.

In May 2003, US District Court Judge Royce C. Lamberth declared that the Islamic Republic of Iran was responsible for the 1983 attack, on the grounds that Iran had originally founded Hezbollah and financed the group throughout the years

French Parachute Barracks Beirut

About 20 seconds later from the attack on the US Marine Barracks, an identical attack occurred against the barracks of the French Third Company of the Sixth French Parachute Infantry Regiment. Another suicide bomber drove his truck down a ramp into the building's underground parking garage and detonated his bomb, leveling the headquarters. In the attack on the French barracks, 58 paratroopers were killed and 15 injured

Proportional response? Based on these items and many many more just like them, we are way behind our quota in the removal of Hezbollah and its Iranian zookeepers. Proportional to me means weve got a lot of work to do in killing Hezbollah. Thats not what people mean when the say "proportional" but thats what I take away from it.

You can do what you want, but for me, I stand with Isreal.

Posted @ July 19, 2006 08:45 PM | Current Affairs | Comments (4)

What the US State Department should say in response

Iran's Hizbollah says ready to attack US, Israel says Reuters.

The United States should respond - today - with the following public statement.

" The United States will interpret any threat or attack by Hizbollah on the United States or its interests as a direct attack on the United States by the Government of Iran".

When even Reuters understands that Hizbollah is "Iran's pet", whats the benefit of contining the "Kabuki dance" of pretending they are not what they are?

Let's wait and see what really happens...

Posted @ July 18, 2006 02:16 PM | Current Affairs | Comments (3)

The Defeat of Iran in Lebanon

For the second straight week Iranian troops have failed to secure a breakout in the Southern Lebanon Theater in its war against Israel. The Iranian armed forces inability to secure air supremacy in the Southern Lebanon sector of the war has doomed thousands of its ground troops to a certain death at the hands of the superior Israeli forces who are operating virtually unimpeded from their bases in Israel. Israeli forces have now either destroyed or secured all the key re-supply locations into Lebanon from sea and land, leaving Iranian troops operating in Southern Lebanon without hope of rescue. Israeli Artillery units operating on the border continue to use counter-battery strategies against the launch of the highly inaccurate and ineffective World War II Russian Katushya rockets. While Iran has fired a high number of missiles, they have produced almost no results, while Israel has pounded the Iranian armed forces daily, removing nearly 55% of Iranian ground forces without the use of Israeli ground troops.

Iranian troops, who have previously used the local Lebanese population as human shields have found this strategy less than effective since the start of the war due to the local Lebanese population evacuating the area for territories to the north that are out of the control of Iran. While Iran continues to use civilian hospitals and homes as cover for its missile batteries, this strategy has not deterred the Israelis from attacking and destroying a large number of the these sites. It appears that Iran committed a strategic mistake by not bringing any form of Anti-Aircraft systems with its troops into Southern Lebanon.

As Israel has continued to call up its reserves and stage the vast supplies necessary for preparation of a new ground initiative in Lebanon which will be used to separate the Iranian troops from their safe havens in Syria, neither Iran or Syria have been able to offer any strategic force or method to stop what is certain to be a solid defeat of the Iranian initiatives in Southern Lebanon.

It appears that once again the Arab world is about to suffer from another humiliating military defeat at the hands of the Israelis. Incompetence in Iranian military and civilian leadership and its armed force made incapable of dealing with the modern battlefield tactics when placed against the competent and determined forces of Israel appear to have dashed the dreams of the Iranian government in its long standing desire to confront and destroy Israel.

Since the start of the Iranian adventure in Lebanon, Arab and Muslim governments around the world have worked to distance themselves from the latest Persian attempt to unify the Muslim world behind the banner of war against Israel. In one shocking example of a lack of Arab Muslim unity, Al-queda spokesman have refused to to support the aims of the Iranians. Since the start of the Iranian adventure, Al-queda spokesman have remained strangely silent in the Arab press. This latest Iranian effort at Muslim unity appears to have backfired badly as no government in the region has agreed to support or give sympathy for the Iranian adventure. No government has agreed to supply troops or supplies to Iran, Lebanon or Syria in what can only be called a clear rebuke to the Iranian initiative. One unintended effect of this war is that stock markets throughout the Persian Gulf region have fallen drastically, causing no end of bad will in the governments that sit just across the waterway from Iran.

Once again the spectral headline images of defeated Arab troops throwing off their uniforms and melting in with the local populace looms large in the minds of Muslims around the world.

Unlike the wars of the 1960’s and the 1970’s, it does not appear that there will be any “Cease Fire” to save Arab honor from disaster. In this war, the United States and the United Nations seem prepared to take the actions necessary to ensure the defeat of Iran and Syria by Israel in Southern Lebanon.

Posted @ July 18, 2006 10:17 AM | Current Affairs | Comments (1)

Australia Deploys Weapon of Mass Destruction

The cruel and evil Aussie bastards have deployed the most venal, evil and crippling Weapon of Mass Distruction known to mankind.

Have they no honor?

The horror, the horror....

How long until this horrible weapon falls into the hands of al-queda?

How long until Kim il-Jong is throwing this weapon across the DMZ into South Korea, sending waves of humanity running and shreiking in panic?

Its time to have another Geneva convention. This weapon must be brought under control.

Posted @ July 17, 2006 10:29 AM | Current Affairs | Comments (3)

Its all about the logistics

This explains the Baalbek airstrike from just a few hours ago.

IF we see any serious action in the area of Marjayoun, we will know that our theories of an incursion are underway.

Posted @ July 16, 2006 08:45 PM | Comments (0)

OpFor: Prepping the Battlespace

I completely concur with this assessment by Opfor.

In warfare, most of the time you try to create a situation where the enemy can leave the battlefield. Its easier to fight people who are on the run than if they are in entrenched defended location. In this case however it appears the Israelis are creating the conditions to keep Hezbollah right where they are at. I think this is for two purposes. First, if you remember the last time the Israelis went into Lebanon, they rolled up the PLO pretty quick, but then the world stepped in and gave the PLO exile elsewhere. I dont think the Israelis are going to let this happen again. With the current actions by Israel, even if you wanted to give exile to Hezbollah, there would be no way to make it happen. I think that is a large part of their intent.Second, I think the Israelis, unlike the rest of the Arab world, realize that the cold war is over and the worry of the middle eastern brushfire starting a bigger war between the US and the Soviet Union is no longer a throttling factor. Fundametally, Iran and Hezbollah have made a serious error by saying that this is a war, because for the first time in a very long time, the Israelis can give them one, and they are doing just that. Unlike our Armed Forces, the Israelis arent looking for peace, they are looking for victory.

I think we are within 72 hours of an outright lightning speed invasion of southern Lebanon. Watch for heavy airstrikes in the Bekka valley in the 12 hours prior and for word of more Israeli reserves being called up. I think that the Iranian anti-shipping cruise missiles have put a serious crimp in the plan, but I suspect they will also be dealt with shortly.

I do not rule out attacks on Syrian airfields in the next two days. Israel must remove any hope of resupply from Iran and the only way to do that now is by air from Syria.

My only prediction at this time is that no matter how bad this gets, Israel will still be here when its over but I have my doubts about Syria and Hezbollah. Iran has moved its pawn out into the field and I think the Israelis are about to chop it off.

This time, there will be no face saving "Cease fire" to save the Arabs from defeat. This is going to get alot worse before it gets better.

Posted @ July 16, 2006 06:32 PM | Current Affairs | Comments (1)

Thank you for delaying my flight

I've just returned from the second of what will be eleven trips this summer as I complete this years "Meatgrider" project.

Theres a show called "Airline" which gives a real life view of what its like on the ground for people working for or flying on Southwest Airlines. One of the most common things you see on the show are passengers in the process of screaming at the Southwest staff for some problem in scheduling, 98% of which are caused by the passenger themselves. Since I travel a great deal, and I often travel on Southwest, people often ask me what I think about that strategy. My feeling is that it doesnt help to yell at the staff. It really doesnt, it may make you feel better but it really doesnt change anything. Stomp your feet, get angry, yell and scream all you want, not much is going to change as a result. It may actually make things worse.

On this trip I got to witness this revolting human behavior first hand. I was scheduled for a connecting flight through Denver, when just as we were boarding the aircraft, the flight crew stopped the boarding process and said they had a problem that required a "safety check". Well I know what that means, it means that in the pre-flight inspection check of the aircraft by the flight crew, one of the flight crew found something that could possibly be a problem. I'm ok with that, I'd much rather have a problem found on the ground than a problem found in mid air. If you find a problem on the ground, its usually fixable. If you find it in mid air, the NTSB will usually notify your survivors of what the problem was that caused you to depart this mortal coil.

So there we stood waiting to board for all of about 20 minutes when it started. The "it" being the moans, groans wingeing and whining. This didnt end for almost 12 hours. I was standing next to a lady who was carrying a dog on the flight. You know the type of dog I'm talking about, a little yappy white haired dog that fits in carry on bag. and you know what they say about dogs and their owners and how they start too look alike, well its true! She starts carrying on about how shes going to miss her connection and that simple thought starts to carry through the crowd like a virus. At the 20 minute mark the cell phones begin to open and conversations start about how "this crappy airline" has brought western civilization to an end. Mind you, the airline, the crew and the desk agents have performed, in my opinion, perfectly. The flight crew has recognized a potentially deadly problem with the aircraft and have called in the mechanincs to look at it. The desk agents have told us exactly what is going on, and they've begun the process of putting people on other flights on other airlines. The desk agents didnt break the plane, the desk agents havent lied. So far, all that has happened is that weve been delayed for 20 minutes.

But at the 20 minute delay point, people are starting to scream at the staff. and when I say "scream" I mean just that. Papers are flying, accusations are being made, people are banging on the windows, all that unpleasant mob mentality stuff. I'm completly embarrased by the displays of emotion over what is a simple and easily addressed problem. I feel sorry for the guy who is going to miss his wedding rehearsal, but I think missing a wedding reheasal is a minor inconvience compared to having youre fiance have to plan your funeral because you died in a plane crash.

Sometimes I think people forget that air travel is a miracle. It may seem like it sometimes, but it is not the cross town bus.

So what am I doing while all this is going on? Well I'm waiting quietly and staying out of the way. I'm not changing my flight, I'm not screaming at the staff. It's not because I'm not going to miss my flight - I will. Its not becuase I dont care - I do. It's because it doesnt help - It doesnt help me, and it doesnt help the staff or the flight crew. The problem will sort itself out. If its cancelled, I will be rescheduled. I have the 800 phone line to United and I know how to use a phone. I know the options in and out of my little regional airport. I know that United is not going to fly a Lear Jet just to get me where I want to go. There are 100,000 people flying United today. I'm just one of those people.

But here's the real reason I am taking a position of peaceful zen like quietness. I want a flight crew who takes the time and effort to look at information and make clear headed decisions about whether we should fly or not. I do not want to help create conditions where the flight crew or the company feel pressure to fly when they probably shouldnt be.

It's not engine failure or bad aircaft designs that kill passengers and flight crews on aircraft but "Gotta-get-there-itis". This easily preventable disease is still the biggest killer of flight crews and passengers in the world, and its the passengers and the pressures they put on flight crews to "get there" that serve as one of the root causes to this horrible disease.

In my case, the flight crew of this particular United flight noticed a small hydraulic leak on the verticle stablizer. No big deal you say? Well commercial jets dont fly so hot without working hydraulic systems. (Remember this?)

They could have ignored it, its just a small spot of fluid, they could've come from anywhere (C'mon man, we gotta get going, dont worry about that little thing...You can almost hear the thoughts run through the flight officers head cant you...). The fact is, they chose not to and I want to encourage that sort of thing. It makes me, as a frequent flyer feel much better knowing that the standard for pre flight aircraft inspection is "safety" not a whole host of passenger " I missed my connection" concerns or people calling from the home office telling the pilot to look the other way because the passengers are screaming to get the plane off the ground and "granny fatpants" is going to miss her Square Dance at the local Temperance Hall on Saturday.

I'd much rather be inconvenienced by a delay, than dead from a bad decision. For me what matters is safety above all. The emphasis for scheduling is up to me. If I'm flying on a tight schedule and the schedule doesnt work, its ok, most of the schedule is out of my control. If its within my control to change my schedule by flying with fewer stopovers or with bigger layover windows, or heaven forbid - early, I do it. If I dont have those options, well I take the chance that a simple delay could blow the whole trip. It does happen, but its not the worst thing in the world. This is the worst thing in the world. I missed this flight because I was stuck in a meeting that went long. One of my coworkers managed to catch it. He was interested in getting home for his kids first Halloween.

He didnt make it.

Under no circumstances do I want the airline to take risks with a flight just to keep me happy. Get me where I want to go in good health, thats all I ask. The schedule I'm trying to keep and my place in it is entirely up to me.

This flight was delayed for 8 hours. The aircraft was taken out of service and replaced by another 757. We arrived at Denver, not at 3:30 in the afternoon, but at 11:30 at night.

United put us up in a hotel in Denver. The hotel planned ahead for arrival since room service would be closed by the time we arrived and they prepared box lunches for us to eat. The shuttle bus picked us up the next morning and I was delayed from my original mission for all of 4 hours, since I arrived at work in Austin at a little after noon rather than at 8:30 in the morning. In the end it was no big deal.

But for some people, the miracle of modern commercial flight is not enough. Through this entire flight, the waiting for the flight to leave, the customer service desk in Denver, the ride from the airport to the hotel, and the shuttle bus back to the airport the next morning, I was stuck with the biggest bunch of whining crybabies I've ever seen. Though the entire experience, people where whailing and whining and carring on like this was the evacuation of Saigon and we were on the last helicopter off the roof.

While we were in line at the customer service desk in Denver waiting to be issued our hotel tickets, several people from my flight were screaming at the staff, since they were certain that the airline wasnt going to help them with a hotel.

They screamed at the shuttle bus driver in Denver because he was waiting for other passengers on the flight.

They screamed at the hotel desk because room service was over at 11:00 and it was 11:30.

They screamed again at the shuttle bus driver the next morning when we were stopped in traffic for all of 2 minutes. ( oh the horror, the horror...)

No matter how much the United staff tried to convince these people that they would get a hotel and that they were being taken care of, they could not be assuaged. They were angry and they wanted their pound of flesh. Me? I got in line, said a polite hello to the agent, announced my flight number. I promptly got my hotel ticket and a set of instructions for how to get on the shuttle bus, said a thank you to the staff in return and went merilly on my way. I was in and out in a flash, while there were atleast 30 people from my flight still screaming that what I had just accomplised could not have occured.

I slept like a baby at the hotel, knowing that had a man who I didnt know, a complete professional, who while inspecting the aircraft before the flight looked at a small spot of hydraulic fluid on the tarmac and them looked up to see it dripping down from the rear fuselage. He then called the mechanics, who removed an inspection plate on the stabilizer. What they found was a hydraulic actuator for the aircraft rudder that had sheared off completely from the hydraulic line, the break caused the fluid to fill the internal spaces of the stablizer. A small spot of which had fallen to the ground with a splat. In doing so, it managed to catch the attention of the anonymous flight crew, who could have looked the other way, but didn't.

Yet my fellow passengers chose instead to stand and argue insisting all the time that the airline was not helping them and that they had in fact stranded them mercilessly to the indiginty of sleeping at the airport. Yet, no such thing was true or even close to it. They had a hotel, the airline was paying for it, and that all had been prearrainged for their impromptu overnight stay. The hotel had also taken the extraordinary step of preparing meals in advance of our arrival. Yet it didnt matter to these people. Once you go to "angry mode", theres nothing an airline or anyone else can do to bring you back into the fold.

In my mind, the airline had perfomed very well. A problem occured, and they dealt with it honestly and with professionalism. The same could not be said of the passengers.

In my mind I can see that there are 300 familes of passengers and about 7 flight crew families who are not planning funerals this weekend. The fact that the alternative to this disaster was a small unplanned overnight stop in Denver, just doesnt measure up as something to complain about.

So I say "Thank You" to United Airlines for delaying my flight. I'm alive today because of the professionalism of your flight crews and your airline and I want to thank you for the work you and your crews and staff do on a daily basis.

I appreciate your professionalism.

UPDATE: One of my coworkers just reminded me that when we are onsite on difficult projects, we always ask each other "whos the Patroni"? Whats a "Patroni" you ask? Well, in the movie "Airport", George Kennedy plays a character named "Joe Patroni". Joe Patroni is the "go to" guy for the whole airport and airline who makes airplanes stand up and bark and basically doesnt give a damn about anything or anyone except the job at hand. Every project has a "Patroni" and since today is also Boeings Birthday, and the post is about someone who "pulled a Patroni" I figure its worth giving him a graphic at the top of the post.

Happy Birthday Boeing! And thanks for all the hard work all you "Patronis" do out there.

Posted @ July 16, 2006 10:05 AM | Current Affairs | Comments (24)

What if...

What if - Israel was allowed to join NATO?

If Arab countries had to decide that attacking Israel meant also attacking Europe and the US (NATO Charter says attack one and you attack all - hence European participation in Afghanistan and not Iraq), would they welcome the chance to fight all of us at once or would it actually cause them to think twice?

NATO for all its faults held back the Soviet Union by serving as a deterrent.

Might this same deterrent effect also work for Israel and the middle east?

Turks and Israelis on the same side? Is that possible? France and Germany is on the same side, Greeks and Turks, so why not...

Posted @ July 14, 2006 10:42 AM | Comments (5)

Nothing from me?

So, we sit on the edge of an outright real life war in the middle east and no word from yours truly?

Well, as I said before - Im not blogging much right now, I'm working. I'm all over the place as of late and will be for the next few weeks, so the Israeli-Syria-Iran War will just have to wait.

But here's a few quick thoughts:

1. Imagine how this would all be playing out if we hadnt taken the time to go into Iraq. Imagine having Saddam in this process. Imagine Syria in greater control of Lebanon. Imagine SCUDS coming in from the western Iraqi Desert to Jerusalem. Sounds like a hoot doesnt it.

2. This is Iran in action in the world with small simple solid fuel missiles. Now imagine the said same Iran with an atomic bomb.

3. Michael Totten was right when he wrote this post in April.

4. If Hezbollah is allowed to fire missiles into a sovereign state with impunity, what nation is free from this threat from any agrieved party?

5. Firing missiles over a border to kill civilians is no different than flying a bomber over borders to do the same. It is not an act of protest, it is an act of war. Feel free to respond accordingly.

6. Hiding behind intermediaries changes nothing. You allow mischief in your borders, you are as bad as the mischief makers. Fail to secure your borders and someone is likely to secure them for you.

7. Kalishnikovs and Katyushas. Gee, those are Russian words arent they? I dont know the Russian word for "Murdering Death Merchant" but I wish someone would look it up and then shout it at Mr. Putin.

8. If Mexico had crashed jets into the World Trade Center, can anyone guess what our response would have been? Do you think France would have cautioned us and asked for our "restriant"? Ok, Imagine that Belgium decided to get even with France and started firing WWII vintage V-1 'buzz bombs' into Paris. "Surrendering cheese eating monkey" jokes aside, how long would it take for France to send in "the legion" to fix a little annoying cartographic anomoly previously known as the "Belgium"?

9. You know what I like about this? Try and figure exactly what the official Hezbollahs position is here for a second. That they have the right to fire weapons into a soverign nation without fear of reprisal? They asked for that with a straight face? We should just look the other way while they slaughter people right? Fire missiles at will Ali, youre an agrieved party, you have a right to fire missiles at people...

10. The missiles prove that the wall works.

Ok, go enjoy wall-to-wall coverage of the Israeli "Hammer and Anvil" doing its thing to good old Damascus steel. Right I'm off to find out if I can sue Valerie Plame and Ambassador "Munchausen" for wasting my time. I think I've got atleast as good a case as they do.

Posted @ July 13, 2006 08:13 PM | Current Events | Comments (4)

Castros Buys Farm?

El Commandante taking "The Big Sleep"?
Is El Jefe on The Night Train to "The Big Adios"?
Is Fidelito taking a little "Dirt Nap"?
Is El Grande Borracho being "Planted in a wooden Overcoat"?

The Great Babalu is picking up "that certain noise". Apparently its been reported in Venezuela as fact...

Stay Tuned...

If its true ( and man I sure as hell hope so!) - I'll have a bad hangover scheduled for Saturday, so I'll need to start drinking heavily now.

oh please, oh please, oh please I really hope this is true. and lets hope the end was painful too...

Why do I think this time it might be so? Because back in June his Doctor decided to tell the world " Fidel will live to 140!". I thought at the time that it was a pretty wierd thing to say, unless he was about to kick the bucket.

Posted @ July 11, 2006 05:48 PM | Current Affairs | Comments (0)

The 12th Memorial Day of Deceased Kim Il Sung… Kim Jong Il, Why Did He Disappear?

Well this is one confusing hash of paranoia and cultural miscommunication:

"On the 8th, (North) Korean Central Broadcasting did not report any news about Kim Jong Il’s visit to Gumsusan Memorial Palace to cherish the memory of deceased Kim Il Sung. It is very exceptional because after the death of Kim Il Sung, on every midnight 8 July, North Korea broadcasting media had reported Kim Jong Il’s visit to the Palace."

Read the whole thing. Draw your own conclusions...

Posted @ July 11, 2006 01:23 PM | Current Affairs | Comments (2)

Bumper Sticker Wars

I was out this weekend on the coast, and as we all know the closer you get to the coast, the closer you get to the world of “Blue culture”. Visiting “Blue culture” cities is to me like visiting another country. They speak in their own language, they have their own way of doing things.

I noted a few interesting bumper stickers in the parking lots I passed through.

What if everyone voted?

Well, I suspect what would happen is that you would lose by an even larger margin than you already are. Apparently, the point to this one is that they would have won if only more people cared enough to get out to vote for the leftist side.

What is it about the left that makes them wish to insult their own side as an attempt to get more people to take their side? If I call you a lazy fool, does that make you want to say “ wow, this guy is smart?” What is it about the left that requires that they live in the illusion that everyone is on their side, yet they are confronted daily with evidence that everyone is not on their side?

They love democracy, right up to the point where the people tell them to take a hike. Then of course, everyone is a moron, or worse a dupe of the corporate world.

I read the bumper sticker and immediately thought of Robert Kennedy Jr. I watched Charlie Rose this weekend, he had an interview with Robert Kennedy Jr. I want to highly emphasize JUNIOR here, because the man and the crowd he travels in have made this weird sort of “cargo cult” out of his sainted father and his likeness, even to the point that older guys like Charlie Rose love to say “Robert Kennedy” and then conveniently forget to say “…junior…” as if it would result in the old man himself reanimating on the spot.

Robert Kennedy JUNIOR is like Frank Sinatra JUNIOR. I don’t care how drunk you are or what time of the morning it is in Vegas and I dont care whos name is on the Marquee, it’s not “the old man” up on stage and no amount of makeup or bright lights is going to change that fact. He may look like RFK and he may sound like RFK, but unlike his sainted old man, Robert Kennedy JUNIOR is so devoid of charisma he sucks whatever charisma there is out of the air like a Shaper Image Ionic Breeze sucks pollen and dust mites out of the air.

But I digress...

Anyway, On Charlies show, RFK Jr. was going on and on and on and nearly breaking out in tears over the fact that there was no ‘fairness doctrine” on the radio airwaves and as a result people weren’t hearing all about how the fact that illegal immigrants were here because we all decided to not join unions. It was pathetic. It was do devoid of leadership and ideas that it just reeked of failure.

"People would vote for us if they werent so stupid and if they didnt listen to that damn Rush Limbaugh..."

Oh, Naturally.

As far as I could tell from RFK JUNIOR, illegal immigrants and lack of union membership were caused by Rush Limbaugh and Roger Ailes and with just a little bit of government oversight provided by you-know-who, we could all return to the golden age of Democratic one party rule, where we would all work for the AFL-CIO, get shift differential down at the Ford plant and drive a big four door De Soto while we socked it to the "fat cats on Wall Street".

Well, that would get more people out to vote, but I don’t think it would go the way that my bumper sticker person would really want it to go.

What if everyone voted?

Ah, sleep - perchance to dream...

Bush Lied. People Died.

I love this one. I love the simplicity. There’s something about a rhyme that attracts the small minded and petty. My guess is that too many leftists smoked pot while reading Dr. Seuss books and the effect of that is that they think that any rhyme is subversive, intelligent and powerful. This little ditty is supposed to be like garlic to a vampire, it’s supposed to make me curl up in a ball and cry. It actually makes me laugh, every time I see it.

Lets take a look at each part of the “littlest subversive sentence in the world”

Bush Lied.

Gee, I thought the case made by “moveon.org” in the 90’s was that “everyone lies”? Oh wait, it was “ everyone lies – about sex”. Yeah that’s right. So it seems the argument being made here is “Bush lied - about Weapons of Mass Destruction”, or another way of putting it is “ Saddam never had any weapons of any sort except for the ones we sold him and Rumsfeld personally signed for when he met with Saddam, oh and that Nuclear reactor that the Israelis bombed? That was just a big Disneyland style prop, no way that could have ever been a nuclear reactor, even though the French in the person on Jacques Chirac himself sold it to Saddam. And what about those half a million Iranians and Kurds that were killed with Chemical and biological weapons? Well, since they were just brown people being killed by other brown people, who really cares about them anyway? Oh, and Saddams cousin? “Chemical Ali”? Apparently, he’s just a big fan of Aerosmith, Why assume it has something to do with being a genocidal manic who enjoyed shelling Kurdish villages full of women and children with Mustard gas? And what about all those shells that were actually found? Pay no attention to those things because they have the wrong serial numbers".

Get this through your heads, you hippies. Saddam used every weapon he had at his disposal, and he saved the very best weapons for use against Iraqi civilian populations. The war in Iraq was not the equivalent of a major pot bust that goes terribly wrong and instead of arresting the neighborhood drug dealer it results in the SWAT team breaking down the door to old granny Whitebread house and breaking her extensive Franklin mint plate collection.

What Saddam had or didn’t have at the time was of almost no consequence. What was of consequence was his track record. Now, given that he’d invaded every single one of his neighbors and bought every weapon of mass destruction that could be purchased on the open market and as the Kurds will surely testify; used them to kill civilians in mass numbers, thereby qualifying as “Weapons of Mass Destruction – and Used them”, can we not dispense with the idiocy of “there were no Weapons of Mass Destruction”? Because as long as Saddam was alive, and had easy access to cash, and a wanton desire to kill as many people as he could to maintain his power, it was just a matter of time. How long should we have waited? Until he had a bomb? or until he fired it at Jerusalem?

President Bush did not invade Iraq to capture a warehouse of atomic bombs. He decided only that it was necessary to hold the UN accountable in its resolutions against Iraq and thus, an invasion and occupation and conversion to Democracy was necessary. Those of you who said that “Bush should’ve finished the job in 92!”. Guess what boys and girls, you got your wish! Those of you who are saying that its impossible to change an Arab country into a modern democracy should look to the Kuwaitis who are now an Arab Democracy, with women in power. Yet it was the worlds “progressives” and John Kerry specifically who voted against stopping Saddam in Kuwait. Invade a UN member state? No consequence! Had we taken their council in 1992 what would the middle east look like today? What would the world look like today? Peaceful? Hardly.

Well that’s the “compassionate left” for you, always willing to let the little brown people of the world die just to make a political point now and then about the futility of life.

Now that we’ve had fun with the first part, lets tear into the second part:

People Died.

Did people die because President Bush took action, or because the worlds left chose to take the path of inaction instead? Are people dying in Darfur because we are killing them or because of worldwide indifference? Did people die in Uganda, Cambodia, Zimbabwe because we in the west killed them with military action or because we in the west choose to look the other way?

Or did we kill them with something else?

Did people die in Iraq or Afghanistan or because we killed them, or because other people let them die? Or worse, are there still people who wish them to keep on dying, just so long as we don’t have anything to do with it one way or the other?

If you were to put a set of 5 gallon drums of kerosene in your garage and take the tops off, is it the aimless smoker who wandered by who actually set the house on fire or is it someone else? Who is really to blame?

What the people of the left refuse to recognize is how their ‘dissent” has made the war go on longer and be more bloody than it needed to be. What the left refuses to recognize is how their direct actions have killed millions, not with weapons, but with indifference or worse, outright support of al-queda and its goals.

We could have stopped Saddam in 1998 or Osama, or Zawahiri. We chose not to. Democrats voted for “Regime Change in Iraq”, but then chose to do nothing deliver it. Europeans voted for human rights, and then traded for Oil with Saddam.

And people died, and kept on dying, long before Bush ever decided to even be Govenor of Texas.

What happened in the 1990’s was not peace, but war deferred. War deferred is war intensified. We can thank the left and its romantic notions of “the peace dividend” for the world we face today.

Yes, “People Died”.

And the left helped create the world that killed them. In Darfur, Zimbabwe, Uganda, Cambodia, Congo, Iraq, Syria, Palestine the left has created the conditions that have lead to war, to genocide, to the destruction of civilians and civilization.

The left makes a fetish out of every rebel, believing them to be legitimate against the crushing oppression of western civilization. The left will sanctify the monsters, hoping that one of them will finally “get even” against the hated and terribly unjust world we live in. So what if millions of innocent people are caught up in the tank treads of another tyrant like Hugh Chavez, Fidel Castro or Kim il Jong in the process?

It’s the cause the matters, right? So what if a few people get hurt along the way.

Bush lied? Maybe.
People Died? Yeah. And you helped kill them, hippie.

Iraq is Arabic for Vietnam

And I suppose Afghanistan is Pushtun for Korea.

Vietnam – The Bad War, The proof of the imperialistic designs of the west on the little people of the world, and proof that the west cannot win any war, anywhere. Proof at last of the futility of life. El Salvador – Vietnam. Nicaragua – Vietnam. Grenada- Vietnam. Panama- Vietnam. Bosnia, uh, no. Run by a Democrat, must be ok. Kuwait – Vietnam. Anytime anyone lifts a rifle, its Vietnam. The spooky scary war that makes homeless wretches out of all men. If you look hard enough, World War II was Vietnam.

You see, we cant win, “Charlie” proved that to us.

There’s a sickening laugh that accompanies this bumpers sticker that sounds like “tee hee, lookie here what I see, isn’t this funny”?

Well its not. Here’s what I see when I think of Vietnam. 50,000 Americans killed, a nation brought to the brink of civil war. That’s our side. What’s on the other side? 7 million killed after we abandoned them, concentration camps and the removal of human and civil rights for an entire nation. The nations of Cambodia and Laos were turned into a genocidal graveyard, all while the world turned its back. Not because we fought, but because we stopped fighting.

Because we made a commitment to protect people and then walked out on it when they needed us the most. It isn’t fighting in Vietnam that haunts us in our nightmares, its that we ran away and abandoned the people who lived there and the shame of that act that haunts us all.

Say what you want about what we did or didn’t do in Vietnam, but when Pol Pot was converting 8 million people to fertilizer in Cambodia, no one raised a finger, no one said a word. The left and its all so important UN stood by and sanctioned Pol Pot and we said nothing.

The left looks at “Vietnam” the way Al Bundy looked at the high school football championships. It was a moment of glory to be revisited in times of nostalgia. For most of the left, Vietnam was something to protest against a way to define “us and them”, but for many people, Vietnamese people, it was where the “west lied, and people died” it was where we abandoned them to the tyranny of Communism.

Vietnam was a moment of shame, brought on by a culture of defeatism and nihilistic anti-heroes that abandoned all that we in the west have lived to believe in for over 2000 years.

“Protesting Vietnam” in a democracy safe here at home was not heroic. It doesn’t take heroism to live in the protection of a constitution and laws and a culture that believes in dissent. It takes heroism to fight an enemy who is determined not just to kill you but to destroy your family and wipe out any measure of your existence. This is what the South Vietnamese faced. This is what we left them to do. This is where we failed them.

This is our shame. The shame was in making a commitment and not keeping it.

Yet the left is hopeful that the same will be true of Iraq, actually hoping and wishing and praying that Iraq comes to the same fate as Vietnam as if it was a good thing, ignoring all of the history of what actually happened after we left them to fight alone with our damnable inaction. Vietnam should be a warning to the left of the consequences of failure, but instead they are attracted to the hope that Iraq might turn out to be Vietnam.

By Iraq turning into a “new Vietnam” their worldview holds water; they feel relevant and worthwhile and to the left, that’s all that really matters. So what if 7 million more people die in the process? It’s all about how you feel and your self worth that matters the most to the left.

So what if a few people get hurt in the process?

Should we leave Afghanistan to the Taliban? Should we leave Iraq to the Sunni Baathists? Would “the war” be over if we did, or would it get worse? And if “the war” were to get worse as a result of these actions, then who would be have to blame?

Ask yourself this; “When have the romantic leftist notions of peace and a pacifistic world ever resulted in anything but death and mayhem for civilians around the world, and why does anyone anywhere give them any more credence than that given to Hindu snake charmers?”

Gore/Liberman – Overlayed with a “John Kerry for President” sticker.

On a Volvo, naturally. What I found interesting is that the Lieberman part of the Gore sticker was overlayed with the Kerry sticker, so it actually said “ Gore Kerry for President ”. Accidental placement? Oh, I don’t think so. What I also found interesting is how John Edwards and his contribution to the Democratic side denote neither a feeling of nostalgia or a rebuke as Lieberman now suffers.

John Edwards – “The man who never was”.

Posted @ July 09, 2006 02:39 PM | Current Affairs | Comments (11)

Alternate Universe Editorial - NY Times September 12th 2001.

( What the NY Times would have said had the Bush Administration actually stopped the 9/11 attacks before they happened...)

EDITORIAL
Federal Law Enforcement Abuse of Foreign Students
Published: September 12th, 2001

This week saw an series of unprecedented arrests and detainment of students studying in the United States in what the Federal government is calling a "crackdown on terrorism”. Around the county, 18 Students, most of which are of Arab extraction, have been charged with being a part of what the White House is calling an “al-queda terror cell”. At this point the White House has offered only a tissue of information regarding the identities of these students and have so far not provided any details behind what motivated the arrests. The wanton disregard for the rights of foreign students and possibly even the rights of American citizens marks the low point in the John Ashcroft Justice Department in its administration of the law within the United States. Attorney General John Ashcroft has said that charges against the 18 men will be withheld from the public until it can be determined if all the members of the cell have been detained. This action has been called clearly illegal by the ACLU and by several Democrat members of the Senate and there is a move underway in the 9th Circuit Court to see that this is overturned. The ACLU and other civil libertarians have promised to make the case of the abuse of Mr. Atta and his fellow colleagues a central point to their fund raising this season. While Attorney General Ashcroft has said very little about the case in public by hiding behind the “ongoing investigation” dodge that has become standard procedure in Washington, the New York Times has learned that the case involves the improbable use of commercial airliners to crash into buildings in key cities throughout the United States. It is unclear how 18 students of modest means would manage to procure airliners, and a background review of these students reveal that none of them have had any training in flying aircraft. We at the New York Times have reviewed these charges with several security organizations and each one has told this paper that the idea of using commercial airlines to crash into buildings is, at best a fantasy, and could not possibly be carried off even by the best of Americas commando teams, much less a group of college students. In our opinion, these charges are false and are based only on the anti-Arab racial hatred that serves as the core culture to many of those in the new Bush Administration.

The abuse of foreign students under the trumped up charges of “terrorism” show that the Bush administration is working to shore up his base with the very worst sort of jingoism and blind patriotism as part of a ham handed attempt to improve their badly sagging poll numbers. If it were not for the abuse of civil rights of foreign students like Mohammded Atta, this would be simply another sad political attempt to fool the American public.

We call upon Congress and the courts to stop this abuse of executive power before the rights of all citizens is completely eroded by an out of control Attorney General and the newly selected President.

Posted @ July 07, 2006 04:33 PM | Current Affairs | Comments (1)

Your guessing record leaves a little to be desired

June 22nd - South Korea Says Missile Test Not Imminent.

July 4th - North Korea Launches Missiles.

July 8th - Second Long Range Missile Launch Not Imminent.

So based on their track record of prognistication, I'm guessing we have 12 days.

Posted @ July 07, 2006 02:49 PM | Current Events | Comments (1)

10 questions about North Korea

1. Under what circumstances would the UN Security council sanction “strong action" against a state that has belligerently attacked another UN member state? The flip side of this is when has a "strong statement" ever changed anything?

2. For those who say that now that North Korea has acted outside all legal and international standards of law by firing weapons at the civilian population of the west, that the US should now talk diplomatically to North Korea, I ask only this - What exactly would you tell all the other countries of the world who, rather than resort to extortion and other "acts of war" as part of their diplomatic missions, have instead followed the rules and behaved in what is recognized as a civilized manner? What would you tell them to convince them that they are not “suckers”? What do you tell our allies? What do you tell future generations when they ask how the worlds diplomatic systems completely broke down in the early part of this century because this country allowed itself to be held open to extortion, and that the method of extortion rather than that of elemental cooperation became the norm of behavior between nations?

3. Why is the left now fully invested in a policy of “go it alone” cowboy unilateralism in response to North Korean warlike belligerency?

4. As it is with all things involving engineering, accidents happen. Let’s say that one of the inevitable engineering accidents is a North Korean TD-2 Missile that falls on an elementary school on Japan or Guam. Given the nature of the inflammatory language used by the North Koreans, would this act fall into the category of an “act of war”? If not, why not?

5. If you launch one missile and it doesn’t work, no one is surprised. Two and they don’t work, again not surprised. But launch seven and they all fail? Either you have to believe that they have the worst QA in all of Asia, or perhaps, just perhaps we should entertain the idea that we are actually shooting them down. So why wouldn’t we say anything about shooting them down? Because if we say to the world that we are shooting them down, they can play the aggrieved victim that’s been victimized by the big bully imperialist United States. If they just “fall down and go boom”, well that brings doubt on the whole missile program and everyone who works in it, thus causing even more damage than our interceptors appear to have done.

6. Let’s say we go all Albright/Feinstein and sit down for ‘one on one’ talks with the North Koreans. What should our ambassador say to the North Koreans? Well, how about this “Hey jackass, stop firing missiles at us, or were going to start firing back and well see who runs out of missiles first” Just what exactly do you have to talk about when the other side has decided to get your attention by firing at you? What would Albright have said after Ft. Sumter? “Mr. Lincolns failed policies that lead to this disaster in diplomacy. Here’s an opportunity for Mr. Lincoln to talk to the aggrieved President Davis over the issues that are so heartily felt in the south.” Or Pearl Harbor? Or the Alamo?

7. Where does this go from here? Let’s say they keep launching and we keep shooting them down and that gets the North Koreans nowhere in their big extortion scheme. What next? What’s to stop the North Koreans from having an “industrial accident” that leaves nuclear fallout radiation streaming out, to be caught on the winds and deposited in the US and Japan?

8. Whatever happened to “fear of US military retribution”? That has worked pretty well as a deterrent in the past so why did we allow that to be taken it off the table? We used to think nothing of bombing people for being insolent and rude. I’m not saying we should do it in this case, I’m just asking why it is that before we start, it’s already off the table.

9. Let’s say Hugo Chavez goes to North Korea and buys TD-2 missiles. How is that different from Fidel having Soviet Missiles and would our response not be just a severe?

10. What does North Korea value above all other things and how can we keep it from them?

Posted @ July 07, 2006 02:24 PM | Current Affairs | Comments (1)

Nice Try Kim

To: Mr. Kim Il Sung
From: US Ambassador to South Korea
Subject: Thank you for the 4th of July Gift

Dear Mr. Kim,

On behalf of the People of the United States, I wish to thank you and your country for your contribution to the celebration that is underway today in our country and around the world. Your fireworks display brought a great deal of joy to the members of Americas Navy and Air forces.

As our way of saying thank you, we would like to offer our own display of thanks for the People of North Korea by pointing out that On July 6th, 7th and 8th, The International Space Station and the United States Space Shuttle Discovery will be visible from your country. It should make quite a view from the ground. I know I speak for the crew of Discovery when I say that they certainly do most enjoy the unfettered and unobstructed view of your country from their vantage point.

Please enjoy the show.

Yours truly,

J. Allen Werthiemer Esq.
United States Ambassador to South Korea.

P.S. US Navy Seal Team 9 will be picking up the pieces of your "rockets" off the floor of the Sea of Japan for evaulation later today. Please let us know if you would like the debris shipped back to your labratories after we have finished looking at them. We understand you have some difficulty in rasing a Navy of your own and we are willing to help you out in any way we can in this matter. America has a large and capable Navy. Coincidentally, many of our ships are right off your shores at this time.

P.P.S. The United States also has a large holiday in September called "Labor Day". If you could try for another "fireworks display" on that holiday, we would appeaciate whatever you could manage to bring to brighten our day.

P.P.P.S. The Ambassador from Japan sends his love. Apparently his grandfather spent a great deal of time in Korea, and he is looking forward to visiting it in the near