Tuesday, February 28, 2006

Celebrate Diversity!


Rejoice with your fellow monotheists and join in with International "High 5 a Muslim Day!" Celebrate Diversity! Celebrate Love!
NB: Dr. Rusty Shackleford's post is so good and is so packed with yummy stuff, not only should you go there, you should read the tender vittals I have stolen wholesale below.
Today is the International High-Five a Muslim Day. The video explaining this is below, but feel free to use the banner on the right to participate. Who am I to not follow the example of my personal Lord and Savior in offering the up-high to my Muslim brothers?

Because there has to be a way to say, "Hey, Muslims, we're totally down with you. It's nothing personal, we really think you're cool. It's just the whole 'behead the infidels' and 'stone the adulterers' thing we're not down with." And a nod just isn't enough and a hug is, well, just too much.

According to Zembla:

Deeming it offensive, Network 10 chose to censor the sketch rather than air it during the regular broacast of The Ronnie Johns Half Hour.
Censor the video? Like Flea, I find nothing sacreligious about it. I guess after the Muhammed cartoon row, some in Australia have decided to show how "fair" they are by censoring this video depicting Jesus. Because we all know those Christians react to offensive material exactly like Muslims, right?

It turns out that Ronnie Johns, who made the video, was issued a fatwa (fatwa via Aussia Miasma). A real live freakin fatwa for his depiction of Jesus. But the fatwa is that the video is good. See how that works? Show Muhammed: death. Show Jesus: thumbs up!

Watch the video below by clicking the little play arrow thingy on the pic below, or go here or here.


Just as a reminder to those who are not regulars, I am a little to the left of my snake-handling Brothers, and I do not find this offensive, I am not going to burn anything or anyone. Actually, looking at it again....is it kind of a Christian message...(Mrs. Salamander wacks me on the back of the head, rolls her eyes and states, "Tasteless.") I'll give her that.

The wrong template - DESERT STORM & FOX

I crumpled up Charles D. Ferguson's article "Lessons of Desert FOX" last week and threw it away. I figured that I really didn't want to plow a field others already covered, but I kept running into examples of people just plain getting it wrong.

First DESERT STORM. VodkaPundit puts it quite well:
Quite unintentionally, the way we "ended" the Gulf War demonstrated to the world that the status quo in the Middle East, no matter how illiberal, was just dandy with us. Insane dictator? Not our problem. Oil-soaked sheiks lost their homes? We'll co-sign the mortgage with blood. All this in a region full of lopsided applecarts, all waiting for a good push.

To be fair, seeking UN approval probably wasn't such a bad thing. But out choice of allies was akin to George Washington getting a lapdance from Mao Tse-Tung. I mean, really – was it wise to demonstrate solidarity with Syria, Egypt, and Saudi Arabia? Was "we're standing shoulder-to-shoulder with your oppressors!" the right message to send to the people of the Middle East? Liberals and conservatives alike marveled at GHW Bush's Rolodex, and his ability to call in favors from despots near and far. Fifteen years later, we're still paying for his long distance bill.

Having left Saddam in power, we were also forced to leave troops behind in Saudi Arabia. For that reason, Osama bin Laden declared war on us for Despoiling the Holy Places, or Loitering on the Sacred Loam, or something. That one sure came back to bite us on the ass. In all fairness though, Osama is a clever fellow and undoubtedly would have eventually found some reason to smite us. That new Gillette Fusion, for example, is allowing millions of dhimmi to keep their faces infidel-smooth, and in record time. Nevertheless, our decisions back then handed Osama a loaded gun. In retrospect, it's no surprise he fired it at us.
I cut me teeth in DS as an Ensign. To call it a great victory is to be a bit too focused on the Operational or Tactical. Like I stated in the comments section;
There is a reason that we had to invade in 2003 - we had the wrong Political and Strategic Military Endstate for Gulf War I. The critical lesson, one that many freely talk about now (though has been true for thousands of years), is that for a totalitarian government, you do not defeat them by destroying their military or taking back land - a dictator only defines power by where he is sitting, if his head is still attached to his body, and if he is still has power. Until you take one of those three things away - you have not defeated him.
That is where we went wrong for Gulf War I. Point Final.

DESERT FOX next. In many cases, an extended live fire exercise. Thing is, some otherwise smart folks are simply learning the wrong lessons as they look for options for Iran. Mr. Ferguson puts it well;
Militarily, Desert Fox appeared to be a smashing success. It hit 85 percent of its targets and 74 percent of all strikes were highly effective, according to Pentagon analysts.

Strategically, the military campaign was a blunder and sowed the seeds of the March 2003 invasion of Iraq. Unintentionally, the 1998 attack splintered the coalition that President George H. W. Bush painstakingly assembled in 1990 during the lead-up to the 1991 Gulf War. Neither Clinton nor his successor President George W. Bush was able to reunite this large group of nations dedicated to stopping Hussein from getting weapons of mass destruction.
Sad to say, but over at The Officers' Club, John Noonan has 180deg lockoff.
The United States, striking from carriers in the Persian Gulf, bomber bases in Guam, and air bases in Turkey (long-time adversaries of the Iranians) should initiate a 3-4 day air campaign similiar to Operation Desert Fox against Saddam in 1998. The objective would be two-fold: knock the Iranian nuclear capabilities back to the stone age, and sting their military to the point where the Ayatollahs understand that their own bomb "just ain't worth the effort."

Here's why this solution makes sense. Operation Desert Fox was launched with little world opposition, sans the usual suspects (Syria and their ilk), as it was a response to Saddam's refusal to play ball with the UN over weapons of mass destruction. This latest spat between Iran and the UN is quite similiar, as there is global opposition to Iranian nukes. Thus a DF style mini air-campaign would accomplish US objectives without making our often weak-kneed European allies too queasy.
First of all, the TLAM pic is bogus. The first DF TLAM shots were at night. I know, I saw them up close. But lets get to the substance. Iran is not Iraq. Iran has mitigated the ability to have their nuke program knocked out from the air. Like DF, we could make some great video out of it - and we might get lucky and not lose anyone (I wouldn't be on it though) -- but you will only make the problem worse. Everyone needs to face the facts that the only way you will destroy Iran's nuke program is to have some guy with US flag on his shoulder, putting C4 around a door to get access to it. Oh, make that a few hundred guys doing that....supported by a few hundred thousand. If we are not willing to do that - then it is back to the future. My nukes trump your nukes. Pick you choice. A feelgood DF is not a solution.

Funny, I don't feel that evil

Funny thing is, she kind of looks like an old girlfriend...
You Are 70% Evil

You are very evil. And you're too evil to care.
Those who love you probably also fear you. A lot.
I had a very interesting youth. If they said "In the last 10 years..." maybe I would do better. Maybe.

Monday, February 27, 2006

Brokeback MIDN

I think I know who is behind this. Yes, I used that word. Some people just can't get over the Army-Navy Game.

Broke Back MIDN





Hat tip SyNOMYN.

Good news from a disbanded board

I don't know the specific details, but here is the executive summary.
Navy officials have disbanded the fiscal 2007 line commander selection board due to potential misconduct at Navy Personnel Command in Millington, Tenn.

The call was made Feb. 21 by Vice Adm. John Harvey, the Navy’s chief of personnel, after he had received word that “inappropriate correspondence” had been received by members of the selection board.

“My recommendation to suspend [the board] was because of the possibility of compromise — not because I had determined conclusively that a compromise had actually occurred,” Harvey said. “It’s so important to the Navy as a whole that this process be absolutely above reproach in the fullest meaning of those words with absolutely no hint of irregularity.”

Rear Adm. David Gove, NPC’s commander, is leading an inverstigation into the matter.

Harvey was not able to describe the nature of the correspondence, but did say the “senior officer” who crafted the unapproved material has been relieved, pending the outcome of the investigation.

The problem was uncovered early in the day Feb. 21 when the correspondence was discovered “in the board spaces,” Harvey said.

The board’s president immediately suspended the panel and Harvey was notified.
I don't have a spy on the inside (though I am taking applications) on what the "correspondence" was...but all I can say is BRAVO ZULU to VADM Harvey (who I don't know from Adam's Off Ox).

There is a history of undue influence of "senior officers" in boards. Though I have heard rumors of such cases, the one I have direct knowledge of (just a few years ago), a personal list was run around by a O8 with an agenda....and he got away with it. The reason? This O8 had already survived two IGs and the Old Bulls that were in a position to make a call didn't. They knew this guy had the protection to survive. The bad thing is, those officers that were selected by the board that were on RADM XXXXX's "list" will always be tainted by association. Though they really didn't need the "push," we won't really know, will we?

Though some would say the disbanding is bad news. I don't. That is like saying the police arresting a drunk driver is bad news. No, that means the system is being protected.

Chap and Bubblehead have commented as well.
On a related note, more good news via the NAVADMIN 224/05:
RATUZYUW RUEWMFU9906 2511837-UUUU--RHMFIUU.
ZNR UUUUU ZUI RUENAAA9906 2511837
R 081837Z SEP 05 PSN 291720K21
FM CNO WASHINGTON DC
TO NAVADMIN
ZEN/NAVADMIN @ AL NAVADMIN(UC)
BT
UNCLAS
SUBJ: ELIMINATION OF THE OFFICER PHOTOGRAPH FROM THE OFFICIAL
MILITARY
PASS TO OFFICE CODES:
FM CNO WASHINGTON DC//N1NT//
TO NAVADMIN
UNCLAS //N01070//
NAVADMIN 224/05
MSGID/GENADMIN/CNO WASHINGTON DC/N1NT/SEP//
SUBJ/ELIMINATION OF THE OFFICER PHOTOGRAPH FROM THE OFFICIAL MILITARY
/PERSONNEL FILE//
GENTEXT/REMARKS/1. MILPERSMAN ARTICLE 1070-180 HAS ELIMINATED THE
REQUIREMENT TO MAINTAIN AN OFFICER PHOTOGRAPH IN THE OFFICER
MILITARY PERSONNEL FILE. BUPERSINST 1070.27A AND OPNAVINST 5290.1A
WILL ALSO BE REVISED TO REFLECT THE POLICY CHANGE.
2. AFTER CAREFUL REVIEW, IT HAS BEEN DETERMINED THAT THE
REQUIREMENT TO MAINTAIN AN OFFICIAL PHOTOGRAPH IN THE OFFICER
OFFICER MILITARY PERSONNEL FILE IS NO LONGER NECESSARY, AS ADHERENCE
TO PHYSICAL STANDARDS IS COMMENTED UPON FITNESS REPORTS AND
TECHNOLOGY PERMITS RAPID TRANSMISSION OF OFFICER PHOTOGRAPHS WHEN
NEEDED. IN ADDITION, ELIMINATION OF THE REQUIREMENT TO MAINTAIN A
PHOTOGRAPH IN THE OFFICIAL SERVICE RECORD WILL HELP STREAMLINE AND
MODERNIZE RECORD MANAGEMENT. REQUIREMENTS FOR PHOTOGRAPHS OF
SPECIFIC PROGRAMS WILL BE HANDLED ON A CASE-BY-CASE BASIS.
3. POC: COMNAVPERSCOM (PERS-312E) AT (901) 874-3496/3407/DSN 882.
4. RELEASED BY VADM G. L. HOEWING, N1NT//
BT
#9906
Now, if we can get rid of ref's to names....

Wendy Wasserstein's cautionary tale

Yes, Phibian Salamander is going to talk about the death of one of the best feminist/post-feminist, BabyBoomer playright. No, I didn't have a stroke - and no I didn't take my medication.
Ms. Wasserstein's best-known plays, "The Heidi Chronicles" (a Pulitzer Prize and Tony Award winner), "The Sisters Rosensweig" (a Tony nominee) and "An American Daughter" all played on Broadway and around the U.S. ... (she gained) considerable popularity (as a) writing comic yet pointed plays and essays about the nagging choices and disappointments that many Baby Boom women encountered on the path to "having it all,"...
She came from a great first generation success story.
Ms. Wasserstein was born in Brooklyn on Oct. 18, 1950, the youngest of five siblings. Her father was a textile manufacturer, her mother an amateur dancer. In addition to her daughter, Ms. Wasserstein is survived by her mother, Lola Wasserstein; her brothers, Abner and Bruce, the chairman of the investment banking giant Lazard and the owner of New York magazine; and her sister Georgette Levis of Vermont. The family moved to Manhattan when Ms. Wasserstein was 12. After earning her undergraduate degree from Mount Holyoke College in 1971, she studied creative writing at City College with Joseph Heller and Israel Horovitz. Her first play, "Any Woman Can't," found its way to Playwrights Horizons, then a small Off Broadway company, and was produced in 1973, shortly before she began to study playwriting in earnest at the Yale University School of Drama. ("My parents only let me go to drama school because it was Yale," she said in an interview for the magazine Bomb. "They thought I'd marry a lawyer.")
She had other plans though.
Her career took off in 1977 with "Uncommon Women and Others," begun while she was earning her 1976 master's degree at the Yale School of Drama. It assessed the glowing yet uncertain hopes of a group of friends during and after college at Mount Holyoke, the elite women's school where Wasserstein, the youngest of four children in a wealthy, high-achieving New York family, earned her bachelor's degree in 1971.

"When we're 25, we're going to be pretty … incredible," says Rita, one of the play's brainy and attractive collegiate clique. "All right, I'll give us an extra five years for emotional and career development. When we're 30, we're going to be pretty … amazing." By play's end, six years after graduation, the former dorm mates have gotten an inkling that the path to fulfilling careers and relationships may not be quite so easy, and the timetable for an incredible life has been pushed back to 40 or 45.
She fought hard for what she believed to be true.
"The women's movement, the movement that said, 'Your voice is worthwhile,' is the only reason I feel like a person," Wasserstein told People magazine in 1990. "But what still needs to change is that women shouldn't beat themselves up for their choices — for being a mother or a single mother, or being a playwright, or being beautiful or not being beautiful. It's important that there isn't one … slot."
But reality, is reality, and it started to be reflected no only in The Heidi Chronicles, but in other of her works.
"Isn't It Romantic," an off-Broadway hit in 1983, grew out of her parents' pushy desire to see her married to a good, solid, Jewish doctor or lawyer. Instead, Wasserstein remained single all her life, writing comic essays about her romantic setbacks and jokingly referring to a series of close, long-term male friends as her "husbands."
Time is a funny thing. It doesn't wait for anyone - and no one is special. What you won't find easily on a quick search for information about Wendy, is that in the end, (unlike the character in Heidi who adopts, "..she longed to love a child of her own." said the LATimes in a now unavailable obit. She underwent several in-vitro fertilization treatments (unmarried) and finally gave birth at 48 to a daughter.
Wendy Wasserstein, who won a Pulitzer Prize, a Tony Award and considerable popularity writing comic yet pointed plays and essays about the nagging choices and disappointments that many Baby Boom women encountered on the path to "having it all," died Monday. She was 55.

Wasserstein died at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in New York City, according to Andre Bishop, artistic director of the Lincoln Center Theater. The cause of death was lymphoma.
Cancer too her. 55-48=7. She left a daughter and orphan. There is a finite window to have a child, to have a career, to try to have a marriage, to try to have a life. We don't pick our time - we never have more than we need. A very talented women, and 55 is young today. A loss for all; a tragedy for friends, family, and a very sad 7 year old girl. Carpe Diem.

Sunday, February 26, 2006

Saturday, February 25, 2006

Iraq SITREP

I'm not there right now. What I do know is that the further you get from there, the more filtered your information is - and a lot of reports from Iraq depend on where that person is. Kind of like the old "Blind man describing an elephant."

What I do, besides trolling the MSM sites - is go to two very reliable primary sources in Iraq. I recommend that you check in every day or so until the Samarra bombing aftermath runs its course with IraqTheModel and HealingIraq. Even here, you will get two slightly different perspectives. Like Papa Salamander told me on his knee long ago,
"Son, don't believe everything you read - no one has the whole picture; and a lot of people just plain lie or are as dumb as a bag of hammers."
If Iraq can push through this and still make progress, then perhaps Bill Buckley will change his mind, or is just wrong like ProteinWisdom says. Bill's take has set me back....but even if the Old General is packing up his kit, it doesn't mean the rest of the Army is heading back to Paris.
UPDATE: Cool, and even better - The Mudville Gazette. Bravo Zulo.

Pro-Denmark gaggle POSTEX

As you follow the links below, think about how civilized these guys/gals are compared to these guys (no-gals). Just a note.



Powerline got me started this AM. Glenn Reynolds has a complete set of links here, as does Michelle Malkin here. Funniest report here, best video here.

Here is Christopher Hitchen's off-the-cuff speech.

I think it is safe to say this had the highest average IQ of any gathering in DC for quite awhile...

Friday, February 24, 2006

Hollywood America-hating: Chapter Whatever

A Muslim country makes a movie where the Americans are the bad buys doing all the things the KosKids think Americans do. Yawn. If you are a premium subscriber, good stuff on it from the NYT, but this from the BBC will fit the bill; as will this goodie from TimesWatch which quotes goodies from the NYT article:
Sebnem Arsu reports from Istanbul on a smash hit anti-American movie, “Valley of the Wolves -- Iraq,” under the headline, “If You Want a Film to Fly, Make Americans the Heavies.” That too-cute headline hides the production’s anti-American and anti-Semitic propaganda.

“The crowd cheered, clapped and whistled as the Turkish agent plunged the knife into the chest of the enemy commander. ‘Valley of the Wolves -- Iraq,’ which opened last week in movie theaters in Turkey, Austria and Germany, is a Rambo-like action story involving Turkish gunmen who seek revenge against a tyrannical occupying army.

In this version, however, at $10 million the most expensive movie ever made in Turkey, the enemy is no oppressive third-world dictatorship. The commander's name is Sam -- as in uncle -- and the opposing forces are the Americans, who are being punished for offenses against Turkish as well as Iraqi pride and honor.”
...
“Other scenes show ruthless marines killing Iraqis and soldiers mistreating inmates at Abu Ghraib prison, as well as an American Jewish surgeon, played by Gary Busey, who takes what look like kidneys from inmates during surgery to New York, London and Israel -- all, according to the screenwriter, Bahadir Ozdener, inspired by real events.”

Deep into the story, Arsu mentions in passing that “Hitler’s ‘Mein Kampf’ was a best seller last year” in Turkey, but doesn’t follow up.
Oh, the actor who plays the commander, Billy Zane. Here is what his character does.
..is a sociopath, dilling people without a second's thought an claiming that he is doing God's will.
Was Billy tricked?
..(Zane) said he was not bothered by the movie's anti-American tone, adding that the horrors of war should be exposed. "I acted in this movie becuase I am pacifist," he said in a televised interview. "I'm against all kinds of war."
No further comment needed.

Throughout Europe, Americans have been warned to avoid certain theaters. There are travel warnings about Turkey.(BTW, make sure and click both names of the films for video).

Asshats. Gary, Billy. To the Wall of Shame.

Daniel Schorr – NEOCON

The Bush administration will need something tougher than promoting democracy in Iran if the regime is to be contained
Yep, I’m in a mood. Funny stuff next week…maybe.

I am so sick of Daniel Schorr and his pompous, know-it-all Monday-morning-Quarterbacking arrogance. That Establishment, Northeastern Liberal voice of his does little more than make me lose my religion.

What do you want, Dan? Define your terms, you hedging hack. Invasion? What? Any action so you can snipe at every mistake made doing a job you have little clue about? What do you want?

Are you ready for American deaths on an order of magnitude greater than Iraq? Will you give the benefit of the doubt to your countrymen who will have to kill Iranian teenage cannon fodder by the thousands to tens of thousands? Will you accept the collateral damage that will have chunks of Iranian women and children flecked over the T.V.? Are you? Because even if everything is done just right, that is what will happen. That is war. That is what it is. Breaking things and killing people.

Going after Islamist Persia (yes, I called it that) is not like going after a fractured, weakened, and broken Iraq. I would bet my life that Secretary Rice is taking the right/best path right now. Wait, I already have.

If you have a better plan, let’s hear it. Your garbage of a write up isn’t even clear reporting or educated punditry. It was written, is seems, just as intellectual self-fluffery.

Lead, follow, or get the hell out of the way you pompous ass. Read it all folks, you will probably feel the same way. If not, same to you. Harumph.

America Shrugged

We have all heard the phrases, “It is lonely at the top.” “The solitude of Command.” “Players only love you when they’re playing.” Everyone accepts the fact that, deep down, they resent the starting Quarterback and the Homecoming Queen…..bla…bla…bla.

With few exceptions of the British, Poles, Australians, Japanese, and other smaller – but just as valuable allies – like the Danes and El Salvadorans; America has suffered a thousand pinpricks from “friendly” allies on the sidelines – ankle biting, bitter-boy wannabees both at home and abroad all too anxious to point out every imperfection to avoid thinking about their own. Not all U.S. actions are perfect – no nation ever is. Not every operation is perfect from the start – never is. Like Teddy Roosevelt said,
“It is not the critic who counts, not the man who points out how the strong man stumbled, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena; whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs and comes short again and again; who knows the great enthusiasms, the great devotions, and spends himself in a worthy cause; who, at the best, knows in the end the triumph of high achievement; and who, at worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who know neither victory nor defeat.”
But, our actions are based, whether you like it or believe it or not, on a nation fighting for its core cultural and national survival born out of The Enlightenment.

Contrary to popular belief, and this is a warning to my European friends, I don’t think that most of the world understands that America’s majority from Left to Right has never been comfortable with its post-WWII global responsibilities, and it would be just happy to stay at home and be left in peace. The last 100 years have not given us much choice, as the world shrinks with technology, and the ever present forces of darkness, with a history from Mongolia to Saudi Arabia, continue to press the free and the weak; and the free and strong wait too late to do anything about it.

Since 2003 we have heard from foreign and domestic a call for greater “international” flavour to our operations. Bring in our “allies.” Being well occupied elsewhere, and in the finest American tradition of self-doubt, “Maybe they are right…” combined with the wonderful Southern tradition of “Son, if you think you are so smart, you do it!”, we have let the Europeans take the lead on Iran’s nukes. That has gone swimmingly. We have also let Europe and its proxy the African Union take Darfur. Well, let’s just say; “Never Again” already happened.

So where do we find ourselves? The Economist, NYT/IHT, and now arguably the leader of the responsible/sane Euro-Left, Joschka Fischer, is calling for “more American hegemony.” Sure, they use different words, but by their own Cold War and post-Cold War lexicon, that is what it is. Why, lets just quote ‘ole Joschka;
"It would be really helpful if the United States could join," he said of the talks Britain, France and Germany held with Iran while the United States maintained its diplomatic boycott of Tehran.

"We have an important opportunity to solve this if we work together," Fischer said at the Center for Strategic and International Studies. "Europe is not strong enough."
You aren't strong enough because you have made the decision to buy votes instead of a military. Can we please have another adult on the playground? No, not you Commie China; sit back down. America will soon tire of borrowing money from the world to protect it. We can’t/won’t do it forever. We can’t/won’t do everything – especially when the people asking for help will 6-months later spit it in our face for doing their dirty work.

Harumph.

Thursday, February 23, 2006

How Civilizations Fall

I'm not sure about this....but Jonah's reader has a point.
The downfall of civilization can be traced directly to the practice of putting televisions in taverns. Men stopped talking to one another. Then they went home and started talking to their wives to whom they hadn’t talked in centuries. This led immediately to wholesale divorce, which in turn led to women in the workplace and juvenile delinquency. Other ills too numerous and horrible to mention followed until men stopped wearing ties so they wouldn’t hang themselves.

Punitive Expeditions – Back to the future?

"After Iraq," one officer in the Pentagon told me, "we hope not to be invading a big country for a long time, so we'll be reduced to low-profile raiding, which the military has a very long and venerable tradition of, from the 19th and early 20th centuries."
From a military point of view, very doable Robert Kaplan; but will a 21st century politician let us raid a prison or military base in Yemen – kill a lot of people – break a lot of things – and then leave? Think about it.
The long war, if smartly executed, can prevent a big war.
If you are willing now and then to fight a medium war – which is what Iraq is.
Never again should we be in the situation that we were in on the Afghanistan-Pakistan border, where there were no intelligence assets on 9/11 because we had closed all our networks the decade before, following the Soviet withdrawal from Afghanistan.
That was worldwide. Intentionally done by the Clinton Administration who refused to see the world as it is and hated anything that had to do with a real, and nasty by need, CIA.
The struggle against Al Qaeda and its offshoots will go on for many years after a troop drawdown in Iraq, and in this worldwide struggle the civilian piece associated with the State Department will be a vital, unconventional asset.
If you have the right people in Foggy Bottom - and running it.
The long war envisaged by the Quadrennial Defense Review is not a sinister vision but a reflection of reality. Even in the Pacific, where the American military must be prepared for conflicts in Korea and Taiwan, the Chinese are more likely to seek dominance through a growing web of trade and military alliances with longtime allies like Thailand and the Philippines, as well as through terrorist splinter groups in Southeast Asia and its archipelagos, stretching all the way to Oceania.

The defense review's emphasis on Special Forces is correct; so is its admission that technology is not always the answer.
One of the best statements on the subject I have read. On this earlier points though; I agree to a point. Sometimes you have to do what you have to do. But you have to be serious and you are going to piss people off. I still don’t think we had a cho8ice but to take down Iraq. The real lesson of Iraq goes back to my ENS/LTJG war: if you are going to war, go to war. Finish it. Desert Storm was a balk. A dictator only thinks he has lost if he is out o power and/or dead. Sometime you can do that without an army. But we took that option away 30 years ago.

Football. Academies. Sexual Assault. - Stir

What is it with the Sea Service academies now days? First from the Navy team;
Lamar Owens, quarterback of Navy's 2005 football squad, has been charged with raping a female midshipmen last month in her dormitory room, the academy announced Wednesday,
And then our quasi-civilian friends at the Coast Guard Academy,
A senior class cadet at the U.S. Coast Guard Academy has been charged with sexually assaulting six female cadets in the campus barracks.

Webster M. Smith of Houston, a member of the academy's football team, was separated from the rest of student population after the first complaint was filed with administrators Dec. 4, the academy said.
Come on people! This is just stupid....however....in my college days, we had a great redshirt QB sent to jail for rape. After awhile, the real cocky they think everyone wants to sleep with them - because they pretty much have the run of the show. A lot of women do want to sleep with them. They aren't used to being told no.

But....this isn't Phibian's Land Grant University. These are Midshipmen who think that they can get away with doing this to a shipmate. A symptom that our academies are becoming too non-military. Trying too hard to be like the civilian institutions. I not going to get into the "women" issue. This is a symptom of something else.

For example, in a letter sent out from the USNA to one of my spies on MIDN Owens, why say this:
Last Friday night, we celebrated a great football season at our annual football banquet. Actually, our third great winning season: 4-0 versus Army, 3-0 versus Air Force, three Commander-in-Chief trophies, three bowl games (including a 51-30 win over Colorado State last December in the San Diego). By any measure, the Navy football program has performed beyond expectations on the athletic field.
What! Priorities, people. Why in Sam Hill did this paragraph make the chop? As a matter of fact, the whole letter is FODish drivel, but I'll save you the head-ache and keep it to myself. Glad I am not the N1 on that staff. Nuff said on that, if you know what I mean.

Sorry I have to bring up the below. I really am; but I am not going to ignore the obvious, or self-censor.

Another thing in the background of both stories. I only mention this because race is always an issue at the Academy. No picture of MIDN Smith that I can find, and you can find MIDN Owens at the link above (hint: they ain't of Scotch-Irish bloodlines) - but here is some from Smith's CV,
According to the 2001 school yearbook, Smith was a player on the Strake Jesuit football team; a member of the Black Student Union, a member of the Chorus, and a member of the Fellowship of Christian Athletes.

Smith also worked on the Strake Jesuit newspaper and yearbook staffs. He played basketball during his freshman and sophomore years and he was a member of the track and field team during his junior and senior years.

The Black Student Union at Strake is a service organization that coordinates the annual February celebration of Black History Month at Strake and nearby St. Agnes Academy.
The wrong person gets hold of these two guys, and all sorts of nasty politics could start bubbling up. If I was the JAG in the academy in either place, I would be breaking out the similar cases by race for the last decade and how they were resolved to help my boss defend the attack that will be coming ....but.... that is usually already done. Depending on what the numbers are like, I can smell a Congressional. Oh, the anti-PC Schadenfreude must be wonderful. Maybe we will get lucky this time and not have to wade through the mud. Hope.

I'm not smiling though. Over half the Congressionals I have seen up close have to do with someone in a pinch throwing the race card. It isn't pretty, it isn't fair - but it is reality. I don't think race means beans here. But, in many of the "race" issues we have seen, it didn't matter there - except when someone decided they wanted to make it one. Ungh. I can't stand racism pimps.

Throw in "special" treatment for athletes in what should be institutions making officers - and you have a nice "60 Minutes" story. Academies - Race - Sex(ual assault) - special treatment. All the usual suspects are there.

Oh, I forgot one of my rules. If you are going to bitch, you have to offer a solution. My solution? Remilitarize the Academies. If you have to ask, educate yourself. Step one. No Commissioned Officers allowed on golf carts unless they have chit from the doc. Just a start.

DC Friday - Rally for Denmark

Of all the times NOT to have a meeting in Crystal City.....
Thank you all who've written. Please be outside the Embassy of Denmark, 3200 Whitehaven Street (off Massachusetts Avenue) between noon and 1 p.m. this Friday, Feb. 24. Quietness and calm are the necessities, plus cheerful conversation. Danish flags are good, or posters reading "Stand By Denmark" and any variation on this theme (such as "Buy Carlsberg/ Havarti/ Lego") The response has been astonishing and I know that the Danes are appreciative. But they are an embassy and thus do not of course endorse or comment on any demonstration. Let us hope, however, to set a precedent for other cities and countries. Please pass on this message to friends and colleagues.
If you are going to be near D.C. tomorrow - you have a date.

Hitch gets major kudos for this. To bad it took a Brit to do the American thing.

Bravo Zulu, you old Trotskyite, you!

NB: Beer, cheese and children's toys not included.

Wednesday, February 22, 2006

Ikea supports female subjugation

You can't make this stuff up. Do they have to walk 3 feet behind their managers too?
When IKEA first approached TheHijabShop.com, their excited team was impressed that an internationally-acclaimed company like IKEA was making so much effort to accommodate Muslims in its workforce. (…) The IKEA branding was added by using a navy blue coloured cloth, with a thin yellow line bordering the top of the cap and the edge of the bottom part of the hijab, finishing it off with the IKEA logo embroidered on the back.

Well, they are an European company. I know what Scott thinks. Anne, Bookie, Ninme, head on over to The HijabShop and get yours....

Hat tip ILYS.

Korb “Plan” – DOA

OK folks, let’s first define our terms. Korb’s “Plan” is a political directive/document, not a military plan as people are talking about.

Dust off your Junior War College books and we will start out back-of-a-cocktail-napkin review of Military Planning (I’m doing off the top of my head, so don’t nickel and dime me to death War College Schoolmarms). First, at the top, you have the political leadership that decided it wants to do something. They then go to their Strategic Level Military Commanders, who develop the broad “M” part of D.I.M.E. (Diplomatic, Information, Military, Economic) guidelines of how to achieve the Political End-state.

The Strategic Commander (like SACEUR on the NATO side of the house) then tells his Operational Commander, in very broad terms, what militarily he wants tone to accomplish his Mission and End-state within certain Constraints, Restraints, Limitations, and Goals.

This Operational Commander (4-Star level) then will develop the “Who” will do; “What” action; located “Where” in the world; inside the temporal “When” inside his Strategically bounded Operational Mission and End-state.

The Operational Commander will then task his Tactical Commander (Component Commander, ie Air, Land, Maritime. etc) to figure out the “How” it is going to be done inside the Operational Commander’s chose Courses of Action. Rinse, repeat.

Now that I have lost 90% of you, let’s get to the bucket of political FOD being trolled around the beltway like a Tomics lure. Once again, this isn’t a “Plan” this is a political concept. If I hear one more person call this a “Plan” I am going to have a Dean.
After months of trying unsuccessfully to develop a common message on the war in Iraq, Democratic Party leaders are beginning to coalesce around a broad plan to begin a quick withdrawal of US troops and install them elsewhere in the region, where they could respond to emergencies in Iraq and help fight terrorism in other countries.
Concepts are nice in 9-pages. I have a concept to invade Canada in order to keep all the Newfie women to myself that is about 9 pages long. I don’t micromanage how the flower of Newfoundland is to be brought to my shack on the Redneck Riviera – it is just my concept that I want them. John will outline the plan, Bubblehead will develop it, and Skippy will execute. Nice concept.
Howard Dean, Democratic National Committee chairman, has endorsed Korb's paper and begun mentioning it in meetings with local Democratic groups.

The party remains divided on some points, including how much detail to include in a party-produced document, fearful of giving too much fodder for attacks by Republicans.
…or military professionals will tear it to shreds. Show. It. To. Me.
''We're not going to cut and run -- that's just Republican propaganda," Dean said in a speech Feb. 10 in Boston. ''But we are going to redeploy our troops so they don't have targets on their backs, and they're not breaking down doors and putting themselves in the line of fire all the time. . . .
OK, we'll call it, “cut and hide.”
''It's important to note that it's not withdrawal -- it's redeployment,"
BAAAWAHAAHAH. “She isn’t ugly; she has a cute personality." Call it “Spring Break” if you want, but it doesn’t change what it is. Withdrawal, retreat, extraction – quitting. Pick a grab of goo.
The idea of a phased deployment of troops out of Iraq
Dunkirk was a “phased deployment of troops” out of France.
Under Korb's outline, all reservists and National Guard members would come home this year. Most of the other troops would be redeployed to other key areas -- Afghanistan, Southeast Asia, and the Horn of Africa -- with large, quick-strike forces placed in Kuwait, where they could respond to crises in neighboring Iraq.
I’ll translate for you. “Wait for things to get worse and then fight for the same ground twice – or run away further.”
Korb said in an interview that setting dates for troop withdrawal would send a message to the Iraqi people that the United States does not intend to set up permanent military bases in Iraq.
No, it sends the message, “Hunker down Haji, and keep your powder dry. Uncle Sam will be out of here and out of your hair soon enough. Oh, and remember what OBL said about America and Somalia – he was right.”

Remembering the indispensable man


My apologies to PowerLine, but I am lifting their post wholesale. It is just that good.
Today is the anniversary of the birth of George Washington. Of all the great men of the revolutionary era to whom we owe our freedom, Washington's greatness was the rarest, the most necessary, and, at this remove in time, the hardest to understand.

Take, for example, Washington's contribution to the Constitutional Convention of 1787. Washington's mere presence lent the undertaking and its handiwork the legitimacy that resulted in success. The convention's first order of business was the election of a presiding officer. Washington was of course the delegates' unanimous choice.

Presiding over the convention during that fateful summer, Washington said virtually nothing. In his wonderful book on Washington, Richard Brookhiser notes: "The esteem in which Washinton was held affected his fellow delegates first of all...Washington did not wield the power he possessed by speaking. Apart from his lecture on secrecy, Washington did not address the Convention between the first day and the last."

The esteem in which he was held by his fellow citizens was similarly crucial to the implementation of the Constitution during his presidency. In 1790 Rhode Island became the thirteenth state to ratify the Constitution and complete the Union. To mark the occasion, President Washington made a ceremonial visit to Newport when Congress recessed in August. Newport welcomed Washington with open arms. In Newport on August 18, according to James Thomas Flexner, Washington "completely fatigued the company" by briskly walking, fortified by the wine and punch served in four different houses along his route, from nine in the morning until one in the afternoon.

In anticipation of Washington's visit to Newport, the members of America's oldest Jewish congregation prepared a letter welcoming Washington for presentation to him at a public event on the morning of August 18. The letter was authorized by the congregation's board and signed by its president, Moses Seixas. It is Washington's magnificent letter responding to Seixas's that is known as a testament to religious freedom and that has become famous as one of the classic statements of religious toleration in America.

The congregation's letter to Washington is not so well known. Ironically, however, the most famous line in Washington's letter is an echo of the congregation's letter to Washington. By far the most striking feature of the congregation's letter is its expression of sheer gratitude both to Washington himself and to America for the religious freedom it afforded. Here is the congregation's letter:

Permit the children of the stock of Abraham to approach you with the most cordial affection and esteem for your person and merits ~~ and to join with our fellow citizens in welcoming you to NewPort.

With pleasure we reflect on those days ~~ those days of difficulty, and danger, when the God of Israel, who delivered David from the peril of the sword, ~~ shielded Your head in the day of battle: ~~ and we rejoice to think, that the same Spirit, who rested in the Bosom of the greatly beloved Daniel enabling him to preside over the Provinces of the Babylonish Empire, rests and ever will rest, upon you, enabling you to discharge the arduous duties of Chief Magistrate in these States.

Deprived as we heretofore have been of the invaluable rights of free Citizens, we now with a deep sense of gratitude to the Almighty disposer of all events behold a Government, erected by the Majesty of the People ~~ a Government, which to bigotry gives no sanction, to persecution no assistance ~~ but generously affording to all Liberty of conscience, and immunities of Citizenship: ~~

deeming every one, of whatever Nation, tongue, or language equal parts of the great governmental Machine: ~~ This so ample and extensive Federal Union whose basis is Philanthropy, Mutual confidence and Public Virtue, we cannot but acknowledge to be the work of the Great God, who ruleth in the Armies of Heaven, and among the Inhabitants of the Earth, doing whatever seemeth him good.

For all these Blessings of civil and religious liberty which we enjoy under an equal benign administration, we desire to send up our thanks to the Ancient of Days, the great preserver of Men ~~beseeching him, that the Angel who conducted our forefathers through the wilderness into the promised Land, may graciously conduct you through all the difficulties and dangers of this mortal life: ~~ And, when, like Joshua full of days and full of honour, you are gathered to your Fathers, may you be admitted into the Heavenly Paradise to partake of the water of life, and the tree of immortality.

Done and Signed by order of the Hebrew Congregation in NewPort, Rhode Island August 17th 1790.
Moses Seixas, Warden

Today, as we fight the contemporary adherents of "the Babylonish empire," let us send up our thanks to the Ancient of Days for this indispensable man.

Back to Brokeback

OK, I am revising and extending my remarks. Don Surber about made me pee in my pants. Go to his blog to see them all. "All what?", you ask. Brokeback Spoofs, that is what.

If you only have time for two, I recommend Brokeback Goodfellas, and Star Wars: The Empire Brokeback.

I do so love the internet. It is FABULOUS!

Tuesday, February 21, 2006

Addicted to being offended

As some of you know, a couple of weeks ago I started DrawMohammedWeek. It was never intended to be a fulltime blog, and I only did it so I could be naughtier than here, and could put up more on something I started blogging about back in the fall - without boring the good folks who come here on a regular basis.

CDRSalamander and another blog (where none of you have found me or visit...snobs..and where I am my "outside the phone booth" real self and has nothing to do with anything you read about here), take up most of my time on the computer that Mrs. Salamander gives me - so DMW is going into
War Reserve status (Type 1000).

Before I leave it in preservation (honestly, I thought it was going to be a one time funny), I want to share something interesting. I already ID'd my favorite reader, but I also found it interesting who was actively looking to be offended. I took a snapshot from StatCounter of my last 100 viewers today. Nothing special or unique about the sample. I just picked it. 42% of those 100 came from majority Muslim countries. Turkey (always in the top-2 during the last couple of weeks), Egypt, Syria, Indonesia, Iran, UAE, and Pakistan. Oh, you name it; on any given day they have been there. Look at the map at the bottom for the distro in a larger grouping.

So, toodles to DHM...for now, I am sure the fellows Reginald is talking about will force me to bring it back. Until then, everyone join in the cheering. In summary. Some people protesteth too much.

Israel to NATO?

Interesting write-up in the WaPo from Ronald Asmus on an interesting option for a festering problem. Before we dig in, let's review.

Iran is going to get a nuke. Face it. So, what are you options?
  1. Bomb Iran: Sounds nice and you can sing it to the tune "Barbara Anne," but at best it will be a short-term, feel-OK solution to a larger problem. See Operation DESERT FOX.
  2. Sanctions: We really shouldn't even have to talk about that. When a bully has you by the balls with one hand and hugging your girlfriend with the other - telling him to, "Stop, or I won't be your friend any more.." isn't going to work.
  3. Full war and invasion: like Shrek says, "You and what Army?" 'Nuff said.
  4. Dust of the patient and proven, dare I say, Containment?
Don't dismiss it; worked in fits-and-starts with the Soviets. But let's get to the article.
The choice of how to respond to Iran's growing threat to the West in general and Israel in particular is not an easy one. One option is to try to stop Iran's nuclear program via an air and missile strike -- but such a step is unlikely to work militarily and could have disastrous consequences. The other is to shift to a longer-term strategy of containment while working for peaceful regime change. While that might work over time, it is unlikely to stop Iran from going nuclear in the short term if it is determined to do so. While working to prevent Iran from going nuclear, the West must think now about what to do if we fail.
Hope for the best, plan for the worst. In many ways, Europe is an easier target for blackmail and attack. Weakness attracts strength.
One important element has been missing from the debate: NATO. What can the alliance do to help address the growing likelihood that Iran will acquire nuclear weapons? Let us not forget that it is European capitals that would be within striking distance of Iranian nuclear arms. NATO would have to return to its classic mission of defending Europe by deterring a nuclear threat.
But the Israel in NATO thing: it won't make things easier.
But the country most threatened by a future Iranian nuclear capability is, of course, Israel. It would be a mistake to dismiss Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's rantings about Israel as mere posturing or a bluff. One lesson from Sept. 11 is that we should not limit our strategic imagination or underestimate our enemies in the Middle East. When someone says he wants to wipe you off the map, he might just might mean it. If, then, the West decides that a military strike to deny Iran the nuclear option is too risky and instead opts for a policy of deterrence and long-term peaceful regime change, it must also take steps to ensure Israel's protection for that interim period.
Yea, but do you think NATO, with all its different personalities, is willing to take the chance to risk, say, Strasbourg and energy supplies for Tel Aviv?
The United States already has a de facto security commitment to Israel. Any future U.S. president would go to the defense of that country if its existence were threatened by a nuclear-armed Iran. And in spite of the anti-Israeli and anti-Semitic voices that one can hear in Europe, there is little doubt that European leaders such as Tony Blair, Angela Merkel and even Jacques Chirac would also stand tall and defend Israel against an Iranian threat. Given this situation, basic deterrence theory tells us that it is more credible and effective if those commitments are clear and unambiguous.

The best way to provide Israel with that additional security is to upgrade its relationship with the collective defense arm of the West: NATO.
I would like to see the reaction through Eurabia as the flag of Israel is raised next to those of Belgium, Bulgaria, Czech, Canada, Denmark, Estonia, Spain, United States, France, Greece, Germany, Hungary, Iceland, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, Turkey, and the United Kingdom. You thought CartoonChaos was bad.

Nice chess game we have here. What this plan may do, and is not covered by the article, is play right into the Islamist's playbook. With Israel in NATO they will have prima facia evidence of the "Zionist-Crusader Alliance." Though Israel and Turkey have surprisingly good relations, this would put a lot of strain on Turkey - already trending towards the Islamists.

Yes, fun times. Fun times.

The Anbar Campaign - One year river war


Simply the best Executive Summary of the long march to victory from NOV04 to DEC05 in Iraq.

Required viewing of Bill Roggio's Flash presentation. Of note, watch the "search and destroy" vs "clear and hold." Speaks for itself.

Hat tip CounterColumn. Photo via FireandIce.

Monday, February 20, 2006

The future limps across the finish line

Chap comes up with a pic that takes me back, bittersweet, to a guy I was in NROTC with. He selected CH-53s on the West Coast, I think it was, because the gouge was that they were going to be the first to get the Osprey.

That was 1989. He left active duty a decade ago, and I think he is with a reserve unit in Norfolk. Not sure.

Anyway; the Osprey is great and I am glad it is reaching the fleet...but, oh the cost. Financial and professional....and in some ways personal.

Just remember, ask the hard questions at PowerPoint briefings. Just because a Flag Officer says something, that doesn't mean it is true. There are good people who do bad things to try to be part of something great. 'Nuff said.
UPDATE: If you understand what I am hinting at, then you have required reading over at FarEastCynic. Skippy, well, does a great job putting a dot on a few foreheads. Very accurate and honest observations. As usual, there are even pretty women to look at.

Blogging is dead. Go back to the 6pm news.

There has been a bit of wishful thinking out there in LeftyLand; hoping that blogs, like all other voices besides theirs, would just go away. Nosomuch.

Well, it's time for me to pack it in -- blogs are finished, caput, history.

How do I know this? Why, I've been reading what the media has said about it this month. They're doomed economically -- Slate's Daniel Gross says, "as businesses, blogs may have peaked. There are troubling signs—akin to the 1999 warnings about the Internet bubble—that suggest blogs have just hit their top."

Gross is just following up on a New York cover story by Clive Thompson, in which it turns out that it's difficult to eke out a living from blogging:

Like only a 100# head Economists can, Daniel Drezner takes the idea apart (read the links).
All of these articles do a decent job of puncturing the "blog triumphalist balloon" -- it's just that a lot of bloggers have been stomping on that balloon for years now. The key question to ask about blogs is the counterfactual -- do any of these writers truly believe that the information ecosystem would be more democratic, more entrepreneurial, or more culturally interesting if blogs did not exist?

In this way, these stories are correct in asserting that blogs are a synecdoche for the Internet as a whole -- they don't quite live up to the hype, but then again, the hype is so damn impressive that even if they live up to some of it, we should be impressed.

Hey, mainstream media types, I'll cut you a deal -- I will never say that the blogosphere is a harbinger of egalitarian democracy if you acknowledge that blogs, flawed though they may be, nudge the information ecosystem in many constructive ways.
Though in the end, there are some truths.
1) Not a lot of people will make a living off of blogging;

2) Power laws create an unequal structure in the blogosphere that gives power to those at the top of the pyramid -- the linkers rather than the thinkers, as it were;

3) Blogs will become co-opted by the mainstream media.

4) There are inherent constraints on the influence of blogs.
Read the whole thing. I do have one question. Money? Who, honestly, started this to make money? Am I missing something? Oh, money.

Quote quiz

OK, who said this?
"..."The (resistance) is continuing with strength, ... despite all the barbarity, the repressive steps taken by the American Army and its agents, to the extent that there is no longer any mentionable difference between this criminality and the criminality of Saddam." ... "The reality shows that the war against America and its allies has not been limited to Iraq as he (Bush) claims. Iraq has become a point of attraction and restorer of (terrorists) energies,"
Could it be:
  1. Rep. Murtha.
  2. Sen. Durbin.
  3. Michael Moore.
  4. John Dean.
No, you silly goose. Bin Laden did. Hard to tell sometimes whose talking points are whose.

Islamic Republic of Britain

Andrew Stuttaford is all over the nasty backwash from multi-culti.....or cultural suicide in the UK.
For the past two weeks, Patrick Sookhdeo has been canvassing the opinions of Muslim clerics in Britain on the row over the cartoons featuring images of Mohammed that were first published in Denmark and then reprinted in several other European countries.

"They think they have won the debate," he says with a sigh. "They believe that the British Government has capitulated to them, because it feared the consequences if it did not.

"The cartoons, you see, have not been published in this country, and the Government has been very critical of those countries in which they were published. To many of the Islamic clerics, that's a clear victory.

"It's confirmation of what they believe to be a familiar pattern: if spokesmen for British Muslims threaten what they call 'adverse consequences' - violence to the rest of us - then the British Government will cave in. I think it is a very dangerous precedent."

Dr Sookhdeo adds that he believes that "in a decade, you will see parts of English cities which are controlled by Muslim clerics and which follow, not the common law, but aspects of Muslim sharia law.
Add this to the new subject's feelings about women.
A Muslim pop singer has been forced to hire bodyguards to protect her during a visit to Britain next month after she received a string of death threats from religious extremists.

US-based Deeyah is due in London next month to promote a new single and video, released tomorrow. But the track "What Will It Be?" has already outraged hardline Islamists here as it promotes women's rights.
...
That has attracted vitriol from some quarters. The 28-year-old singer claims that in the past she has been spat upon in the street and told that her family would be in danger if she did not tone down her work. The situation is now so bad that Deeyah feels she cannot visit Britain without protection. "I can no longer walk around without specially assigned bodyguards," she told The Independent on Sunday. "I would be lying if I said abuse from religious fanatics didn't upset or scare me."
You see, the British Muslims came to the UK to be British, you see.
Four in 10 British Muslims want Sharia law introduced in parts of the UK, a poll of 500 Muslims revealed last night. One in five also expressed sympathy with the "feelings and motives" of the 7 July suicide bombers.
...
Sharia should be introduced in "predominantly Muslim" areas of Britain, according to 40 per cent of those polled; 41 per cent opposed the move.
Well, at least we know the institutions in the UK are still British...right?
Throughout the BBC's section on Islam you will see Peace be upon Him or (pbuh) after the name Muhammad.

Muslims say Peace be upon Him after every mention of Muhammad's name, as a mark of respect. Muslims do the same when they write the Prophet's name, adding pbuh.
Man oh Manischewitz; sounds like the wheels coming off the wagon, doesn't it?

Sunday, February 19, 2006

Saturday, February 18, 2006

Taking a hard look at yourself

Mansoor Ijaz says what only a Muslim can say. I have always liked his work, as he speaks as an American who happens to be a Muslim...and he is blunt.
  • The first truth is that most Muslim ideologues are hypocrites.
  • The second truth — one that the West needs to come to grips with — is that there is no such human persona as a "moderate Muslim."
Read the whole thing for the meaty details, but here is where he hits it out of the park.
In fact, the most glaring truth is that Islam's mobsters fear the West has it right: that we have perfected the very system Islam's holy scriptures urged them to learn and practice. And having failed in their mission to lead their masses, they seek any excuse to demonize those of us in the West and to try to bring us down. They know they are losing the ideological struggle for hearts and minds, for life in all its different dimensions, and so they prepare themselves, and us, for Armageddon by starting fires everywhere in a display of Islamic unity intended to galvanize the masses they cannot feed, clothe, educate or house.

This is not Islam. And the faster its truest believers stand up and demonstrate its values and principles by actions, not words, the sooner a great religion will return to its rightful role as guide for nearly a quarter of humanity.
Hat tip The Corner.

VDH calls for an European spring

With all the doom and gloom and visions of Eurabia, some see hope out there.Victor Davis Hanson calls it about as close as you can if you are a glass half full type. When VDH speaks, better listen.
...by letting the Europeans take the lead with the Iranian negotiations, and keeping nearly silent about the cartoon hysteria, the United States essentially has told the Europeans, “Here is the sort of restrained sober and judicious global diplomacy that you so welcome.”

Because of slated troop withdrawals from European bases, and a new American weariness with the old anti-Americanism, some Europeans are beginning to recoil at the idea that they might well be on their own—and in a war against fanatical enemies that they have appeased and without rational friends that they have estranged.

In response, we may see less of the anti-American rhetoric and a return to the Cold War slogans of a “strong Atlantic Alliance” and “an essential Nato,” as nuclear jihadists replace the fear of 300 Soviet divisions.

So now Europe is being thrust right into the middle of the so-called war against Islamic fascism. Once threatened, it will either react with a newly acquired Churchillian maturity to protect its civilization, or cave, in hopes that even more Chamberlain-type appeasement will satisfy the Islamists.

It should be a fascinating spring ahead.

Friday, February 17, 2006

Keeping an Eye on the Long Game: Part XII


Argghhh!!! points the way to a place worth Blogrolling. China Defense Blog is on point, and should sober you up to the Long Game while you are looking at Islam.

Communist Chinese soldiers in blue helmets.....in our back yard. (note the new gun)

"Peacekeeping" in Africa.


Need a reason to drink this weekend?

Mark Steyn is at it again.
What country today has half of its population under the age of 15? Italy has 14 per cent, the UK 18 per cent, Australia 20 per cent - and Saudi Arabia has 39 per cent, Pakistan 40 per cent and Yemen 47 per cent. Little Yemen, like little Britain 200 years ago, will send its surplus youth around the world - one way or another.
...

Seventeen European nations are now at what demographers call "lowest-low" fertility - 1.3 births per woman, the point at which you're so far down the death spiral you can't pull out.

In theory, those countries will find their population halving every 40 years or so. In practice, it will be quicker than that, as the savvier youngsters figure there's no point sticking around a country that's turned into one big undertaker's waiting room: not every pimply burger flipper is going to want to work himself into the ground to pay for new shuffleboard courts at the old folks' home.
...

Europe is bicultural: a fading elderly population yielding to a young surging Islam. ...
The remorseless transformation of Eutopia into Eurabia is already prompting the Dutch to abandon their country in record numbers, for Canada and New Zealand.
...

In the '70s and '80, Muslims had children - those self-detonating Islamists in London and Gaza and Bali are a literal baby boom - while westerners took all those silly books about overpopulation seriously. A people that won't multiply can't go forth or go anywhere. Those who do will shape the world we live in.

Thursday, February 16, 2006

Best. Cartoon. Commentary. Ever.

Via Zipperfish, click below for the best, clearest, and funny commentary on the CartoonCapers I have heard. (NB: If you don't like potty-mouth - don't ckick).


Hat tip Jawa.

The Nordic crack-up

This is all happening a lot faster than I saw it a few months ago, or last year and more......

Denmark was the straw I guess. In political speak, the Danish PM just told the Swedes to "sit down and shut up you Socialist Dhimmi.." Cool.
SPIEGEL: Then why did your Swedish colleague Goran Persson criticize you and say he would have never underestimated such a situation?

Fogh Rasmussen: First, he is not in my situation. Second, I would never get involved in any domestic issue in Sweden. And third, I am especially honored to be attacked by the Swedish Social Democrats -- it is a sign that our policies are the correct on
es.
And to top it off, via LGF, Norway and Sweden are, under Socialist governments all, surrendering to violent Islam.

On February 10, in Oslo, came a dramatic capitulation that seemed a classic case of sharia in action. For days, Velbjorn Selbekk, editor of the tiny Christian periodical Magazinet – the first publication to reprint the now-famous Muhammed cartoons from the Danish newspaper Jyllands-Posten – had firmly resisted pressure by Muslim extremists (who made death threats) and by the Norwegian establishment (which urged him to give in). But then, on that morning – the day before a planned mass demonstration against the cartoons – Norway’s Minister of Labor and Social Inclusion, Bjarne Hakon Hanssen, hastily called a press conference at a major government office building in Oslo.

There, to the astonishment of his supporters, Selbekk issued an abject apology for reprinting the cartoons. At his side, accepting his act of contrition on behalf of 46 Muslim organizations and asking that all threats now be withdrawn, was Mohammed Hamdan, head of Norway’s Islamic Council. In attendance were members of the Norwegian cabinet and the largest assemblage of imams in Norway’s history. It was a picture right out of a sharia courtroom: the dhimmi prostrating himself before the Muslim leader, and the leader pardoning him – and, for good measure, declaring Selbekk to be henceforth under his protection, as if it were he, Hamdan, and not the Norwegian police, that held in his hands the security of citizens in Norway.

Selbekk, in his prepared remarks, leaned heavily on the usual soothing multicultural language, including the word “understanding.” It was clear that Selbekk had indeed come to an understanding: he understood that if he didn’t relent, he risked physical harm. He also spoke of “respect” – a word that in this context must surely have been understood by the imams to refer not to a volitional regard for a social equal but to the obligatory deference of a repentant infidel. As for Handam, he noted that “Selbekk has children the same age as my own. I want my children and his children to grow up together, live together in peace, and be friends.”Selbekk’s family, too, had been under threa. This was rather chilling, given that Selbekk’s family, too, had been under threat.

Yes, we live in those kind of times. Multi-culti as cool is dead....now it is just deadly.

Though not Nordic, they are cold, poorly sun this time of year, and damp so they almost count; the Dutch are swinging at the Socialists appeasers at the EU. Solana to be exact
Jozias van Aartsen, the leader of the Dutch Liberal Party (VVD) which is the coalition partner of Prime Minister Jan Peter Balkenende’s Christian-Democrat Party (CDA) in the Dutch government, is angry with Javier Solana. Mr van Aartsen demands that the Dutch Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs both reprimand Mr Solana. The latter, a Spanish Socialist who is the EU Foreign Policy Coordinator, recently signed a common statement with UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan and Ekmeleddin Ihsanoglu, the Secretary-General of the Organisation of the Islamic Conference (OIC). The EU-UN-OIC statement said: “We understand the deep hurt and widespread indignation felt in the Muslim world. The freedom of the press, which entails responsibility and discretion, should respect the beliefs and tenets of all religions.”
...
Meanwhile, Mr Solana continues his appeasement visit to the Middle East. On Wednesday he met Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak in Cairo. The EU Foreign Policy Coordinator told the press that they discussed measures to ensure that “religious symbols can be protected.” He said: “Such steps could materialise through various mechanisms, maybe inside the new human rights commission created in the UN.”

Like always in European history, once a crisis takes hold; people start taking sides or wavering.

Let's start the board line up here. Blue (as in EU blue), Green (Islamic Green silly Dhimmi), Yellow (wants to joing Blue, but is too busy peeing in his pants), White (staying out of the fight, but trading with everyone), Pink (not that much of a Muslim problem at home - hope this all goes away), Brown (too poor and full of almost-peasants to care about rich Western Europeans giving away their birthright), Purple (can't stand Blue, but if they had an Islam problem they would kill it - Old School), Black (should be with Blue, but would rather wait for everyone to bleed each other and profit from the remainder). As always, sides are subject to change at a moments notice.

Blue: Denmark, The Netherlands, Germany (starting from Yellow - a light Blue).
Green: Norway, Sweden, Spain, Bosnia, Albania.
Yellow: France, Belgium, UK (almost Green last year...drifting Blue), Italy (kisses Blue, but drifts), Austria.
White: Canada, USA, Switzerland, Czech, Slovak.
Pink: Finland, Latvia, Lithuania, Estonia, Poland, Hungary.
Brown: Portugal, Greece, Bulgaria, Romania, Ukraine, Moldova.
Purple: Macadonia, Serbia, Croatia, Slovenia.
Black: Belorussia, Russia.

Anyway, that is my first cut. Thoughts?