“Soft despotism is a term coined by Alexis de Tocqueville describing the state into which a country overrun by "a network of small complicated rules" might degrade. Soft despotism is different from despotism (also called 'hard despotism') in the sense that it is not obvious to the people."
Saturday, September 16, 2006
Stating the Obvious?
On Fox News Weekend Live, Charles Krauthammer states:
"We're either going to let the Iranians have a nuclear weapon or we going to have to attack them."
The public doesn't want to hear it but....is it inevitable?
Ahmadinejad, who is currently in Havana, Cuba, to attend the 14th summit of the Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) developing nations, met with Omani Foreign Minister Youssef bin Alawi bin Abdullah on the sidelines of the summit.
"Islam is the only way to save human beings. It should be introduced to the world in an appropriate way so that no one can distort it," he said. --- 'The Violence Will Go On' George Galloway, a British MP has spoken out in support of Lebanon, saying he believes Hizbullah is justified in attacking Israel. The Respect MP also lambasted media coverage of the war and said the UN resolution means nothing. Watch at Sky News. Watch at Sky News
Doug, That poor fellow in the picture is already paying the price. Jeez he's got a damn arm growing out of the top of his head..probably has a prehensile tail too!!
Unless we can effect an internal regime change within the next six months, which is highly unlikely we'll bomb them and it will be nuclear...small tidy nukes since there are so many targets. In the past, say a year or two ago I would say,"and the world will go berserk" but today that would simply be redundant. At some point to slow the train of Islamist philosophy we must show unalloyed overwhelming power...something that the guy in the picture can totally understand
But that point, dear habu, will not be reached soon. Mr Bush will not go into history as starting a Nuclear War. Especially a one sided nuclear war, in response to a nuclear attack, he'd respond in kind.
Dear Mr Dr. I respectfully disagree. Bush is gonna do what he has to and we all know our options are now down to nuclear weapons ..who ya gonna send,and what are you gonna deliver that will do the job. He's got to make those sites "hot" He also doesn't want to go down in history as the President that allowed a fanatic to get his hands on the bomb.
Then Pakistan is the real problem, habu, not Iran.
If he does bomb the Iranians, it'll be to limited and not nearly enough, regardless, he will not go nuclear. No more so than Ike, JFK, LBJ or Mr Nixon did when presented with "workable" nuclear option.
Whit, You know that means nothing. They're trying to buy time with rope a dope. What we can't afford to let develop aside from the bomb itself is a joint Russian-Chinese-Iranian simulated war games to begin that could last forever. You get ten thousand Russian and ten thousand Chinese in Iran and the we can't do anything
IKE JFK LBJ NIXON were all working in a totally different world. It was bi-polar and a lot less complex.Now we have surrogates with a passion to die and no desire to use diplomacy. It ain't the same world at all.
It is a different world, habu, but not a different Leadership. Mr Bush has not been keeping ahead of the curve. You assume that he will suddenly dash to the head of the pack. He will, as others have said of our Iraqi policy, "muddle on to success" But he will not "Change Course" 180 degrees and hit the afterburners. Not without REAL provocation, an in kind strike.
well, we will see won't we. we've discussed this ad nauseum and know each others positions. lunacy does seem to be the worlds watch word, be it islamic, US,or Chinese. but if you also think we'll just wait for them to develop the bomb and provide it to some terrorist group, well, like i said lunacy is the watch word of the day
Well, if that were enough, for this President, why did we stop, in '03? When he had the USpeople and the BIG MO on his side. He and US were rollin'... and we stopped!
What has changed, in the Leadership of the Military since '03?
The Strategic situation has not recently changed, Iran did not "Change Course" in the past 3 years. They are moving, full steam ahead. The Syrians have not modified their position on HB or Iraqi Baathists. They provide Sanctuary to both. We object, politely.
unfortunately i think W feels a bit messianic about this terror world and is fearful his predessor won't do the "right" thing...
what's changed.. the world,everyday..Spain,England,the Dutch,Bali our realization that fanatics who want to die are our enemy and that they will not be stpped unless we do it. you see any other countries out there willing to lead this fight?
No, habu, I don't see any other Leaders of the fight, but I do not see US leading it either, in the direction you believe best. I understand advocating for preemptive low yiekd nuclear strikes, but Mr Bush will not take that trail. More than half his Nation's people do not even see the fight for what it is. Islam is the Religion of Peace, Mr Bush has told me so.
well, that's why he gets the big money..somebody has to make a tough call ever now and then...
DR, i don't lay awake at night praying for a nuclear exchange or even a preemptive strike. I just see the gas tank is on empty, we've got this looney in Iran whose PROMISED to nuke Israel and the only deterrent we have left is nuclear .... maybe we have some other magic i don't know about but we're not gonna invade so what's left? if your laying out three options for the president today what are they?
Love Mexican food. we have it all the time.. I didn't realise MAc was an Engineer .. from what I've read about him and heard about him from our parents generation he was quite a man ...he was fairly magnanamous in victory over Japan.
I looked at Bridles and Bits online..you've got a great site there .. in fact I know I'lll be watch'in it more. I'm even thinking about getting a subscription. Everybody in my family rides or did ride .. ran across a picture of my Dad last night I'd never seen before ..Ft. Riley, KS mounted up. 1939
At Ft Hood, with the 1st Cav in '79, I got on the Horse Platoon, for a few months, a pretty sham duty keepin' a dozen horses and riding in each Friday Retreat Ceremony.
The "real" Cavalry, but not much like life on the frontier.
Harry's a hit at Guantanamo - NEWS.com.au - Recreational activities on offer are said to include basketball, volleyball, football, table tennis and board games, and high-top trainers are provided.
Departing detainees are given a Koran, a denim jacket, a white T-shirt, a pair of blue jeans, high-tops, a gym bag of toiletries, and a pillow and blanket for the flight home.
More money is spent on meals for detainees than on those for the US troops stationed there, the list claimed.
GUANTANAMO BAY, CUBAThe Pentagon seemed to be hoping to disarm its critics by showing them how well it cares for captured terrorists. The trip was more alarming than disarming. I spent several hours with Rear Adm. Harry B. Harris Jr., who heads the joint task force that houses and interrogates the detainees. (The military isn't allowed to call them "prisoners.")
Harris, a distinguished Navy veteran who was born in Japan and educated at Annapolis and Harvard, is a serious man trying to do a politically impossible job. I spoke with him at length, and with a dozen other officers and guards, and visited three different detention blocks. The high-minded critics who complain about torture are wrong. We are far too soft on these guys - and, as a result, aren't getting the valuable intelligence we need to save American lives.
The politically correct regulations are unbelievable. Detainees are entitled to a full eight hours sleep and can't be woken up for interrogations. They enjoy three meals and five prayers per day, without interruption. They are entitled to a minimum of two hours of outdoor recreation per day.
Interrogations are limited to four hours, usually running two - and (of course) are interrupted for prayers. One interrogator actually bakes cookies for detainees, while another serves them Subway or McDonald's sandwiches. Both are available on base. (Filet o' Fish is an al Qaeda favorite.) Interrogations are not video or audio taped, perhaps to preserve detainee privacy. Adm. Harris admitted to me that a multi-cell al Qaeda network has developed in the camp. Other cells pass messages from leaders in one camp to followers in others. How? Detainees use the envelopes sent to them by their attorneys to pass messages. (Some 1,000 lawyers represent 440 prisoners, all on a pro bono basis, with more than 18,500 letters in and out of Gitmo in the past year.) Guards are not allowed to look inside these envelopes because of "attorney-client privilege" - even if they know the document inside is an Arabic-language note written by a prisoner to another prisoner and not a letter to or from a lawyer.That's right: Accidentally or not, American lawyers are helping al Qaeda prisoners continue to plot. There is little doubt what this note-passing and weapons-making is used for. The military recorded 3,232 incidents of detainee misconduct from July 2005 to August 2006 - an average of more than eight incidents per day. Some are nonviolent, but the tally includes coordinated attacks involving everything from throwing bodily fluids on guards (432 times) to 90 stabbings with homemade knives. One detainee slashed a doctor who was trying to save his life; the doctors wear body armor to treat their patients. The kinder we are to terrorists, the harsher we are to their potential victims. What if a detainee confesses a weakness (like fear of the dark) to a doctor that might be useful to interrogators, I asked the doctor in charge, would he share that information with them? "My job is not to make interrogations more efficient," he said firmly. He cited doctor-patient privacy. (He also asked that his name not be printed, citing the potential for al Qaeda retaliation.) America has never faced an enemy who has so ruthlessly broken all of the rules of war - yet never has an enemy been treated so well. Some 20 current detainees have direct personal knowledge of the 9/11 attacks and nearly everyone of the current 440 say they would honored to attack America again. Let's take them at their word.
One vote in the "bomb'em catagory"
ReplyDeleteregularly on an irregular schedule
ReplyDeleteThis comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
ReplyDeleteThis comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
ReplyDeleteThis comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
ReplyDeleteLook Closely at this Unshaven, Unwashed, Undeveloped, Immature Madman
ReplyDeleteMultiply by Millions, and tell me it's not a problem.
(Tufus will advocate unlimited free scholarships, free Illegal Mexican Sharia Fry Cooks/toilet cleaners for the lads.)
Ahmadinejad, who is currently in Havana, Cuba, to attend the 14th summit of the Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) developing nations, met with
Omani Foreign Minister Youssef bin Alawi bin Abdullah on the sidelines of the summit.
"Islam is the only way to save human beings. It should be introduced to the world in an appropriate way so that no one can distort it," he said.
---
'The Violence Will Go On'
George Galloway, a British MP has spoken out in support of Lebanon, saying he believes Hizbullah is justified in attacking Israel.
The Respect MP also lambasted media coverage of the war and said the UN resolution means nothing.
Watch at Sky News.
Watch at Sky News
That the Iranians will obtain a weapon?
ReplyDeleteYep, it is inevitable. As it was in India, Pakistan and Israel.
South Africa even had it's own.
Unless of course the US uses nuclear weapons to prevent the devlopment of nuclear weapons.
Do not see that happening, though, it would noy be considered "prudent".
Doug,
ReplyDeleteThat poor fellow in the picture is already paying the price. Jeez he's got a damn arm growing out of the top of his head..probably has a prehensile tail too!!
Where's the love?
Unless we can effect an internal regime change within the next six months, which is highly unlikely we'll bomb them and it will be nuclear...small tidy nukes since there are so many targets.
ReplyDeleteIn the past, say a year or two ago I would say,"and the world will go berserk" but today that would simply be redundant.
At some point to slow the train of Islamist philosophy we must show unalloyed overwhelming power...something that the guy in the picture can totally understand
But that point, dear habu, will not be reached soon. Mr Bush will not go into history as starting a Nuclear War.
ReplyDeleteEspecially a one sided nuclear war, in response to a nuclear attack, he'd respond in kind.
It is the "real" Master Plan, if there is one.
Dear Mr Dr.
ReplyDeleteI respectfully disagree. Bush is gonna do what he has to and we all know our options are now down to nuclear weapons ..who ya gonna send,and what are you gonna deliver that will do the job. He's got to make those sites "hot"
He also doesn't want to go down in history as the President that allowed a fanatic to get his hands on the bomb.
caveat..if he dosen't Israel will..Amamj is too much deeply committed to their annilation.
ReplyDeleteThen Pakistan is the real problem, habu, not Iran.
ReplyDeleteIf he does bomb the Iranians, it'll be to limited and not nearly enough, regardless, he will not go nuclear.
No more so than Ike, JFK, LBJ or Mr Nixon did when presented with "workable" nuclear option.
Whit,
ReplyDeleteYou know that means nothing. They're trying to buy time with rope a dope.
What we can't afford to let develop aside from the bomb itself is a joint Russian-Chinese-Iranian simulated war games to begin that could last forever. You get ten thousand Russian and ten thousand Chinese in Iran and the we can't do anything
IKE JFK LBJ NIXON were all working in a totally different world. It was bi-polar and a lot less complex.Now we have surrogates with a passion to die and no desire to use diplomacy.
ReplyDeleteIt ain't the same world at all.
Pakistan will be addressed with gusto by our friends the Indians
ReplyDeleteStalemated in the UN and on the ground. All while Mr Bush battles with his own bloc's Senators about defining torture.
ReplyDeleteThe idea that the Chinese will stand by, while we threaten their life line of oil is lunacy.
Look to the link to re: oil prices and popularity, those graphs track in Peking, as well.
And we been Wimpified.
ReplyDeleteThe Chimp and his Wimps.
Habu and Tufus, delerious and don't even know it.
ReplyDelete(If they made Aristides length posts, at least they wouldn't be wrong so often!)
It is a different world, habu, but not a different Leadership.
ReplyDeleteMr Bush has not been keeping ahead of the curve. You assume that he will suddenly dash to the head of the pack.
He will, as others have said of our Iraqi policy,
"muddle on to success"
But he will not "Change Course" 180 degrees and hit the afterburners.
Not without REAL provocation, an in kind strike.
well, we will see won't we. we've discussed this ad nauseum and know each others positions.
ReplyDeletelunacy does seem to be the worlds watch word, be it islamic, US,or Chinese. but if you also think we'll just wait for them to develop the bomb and provide it to some terrorist group, well, like i said lunacy is the watch word of the day
i'm not sure what your threshold of "real" provocation is but if 9-11 didn't do it i guess not much will
ReplyDelete'Rat 3:32:54 PM,
ReplyDeleteThey should hire the BC Posters as Domestic Propaganda Agents:
Beneath every Train Wreck, a Master Plan leading to Nirvana.
Well, if that were enough, for this President, why did we stop, in '03?
ReplyDeleteWhen he had the USpeople and the BIG MO on his side. He and US were rollin'... and we stopped!
What has changed, in the Leadership of the Military since '03?
The Strategic situation has not recently changed, Iran did not "Change Course" in the past 3 years. They are moving, full steam ahead.
ReplyDeleteThe Syrians have not modified their position on HB or Iraqi Baathists. They provide Sanctuary to both. We object, politely.
unfortunately i think W feels a bit messianic about this terror world and is fearful his predessor won't do the "right" thing...
ReplyDeletewhat's changed.. the world,everyday..Spain,England,the Dutch,Bali
our realization that fanatics who want to die are our enemy and that they will not be stpped unless we do it.
you see any other countries out there willing to lead this fight?
No, habu, I don't see any other Leaders of the fight, but I do not see US leading it either, in the direction you believe best.
ReplyDeleteI understand advocating for preemptive low yiekd nuclear strikes, but Mr Bush will not take that trail.
More than half his Nation's people do not even see the fight for what it is. Islam is the Religion of Peace, Mr Bush has told me so.
well, that's why he gets the big money..somebody has to make a tough call ever now and then...
ReplyDeleteDR, i don't lay awake at night praying for a nuclear exchange or even a preemptive strike. I just see the gas tank is on empty, we've got this looney in Iran whose PROMISED to nuke Israel and the only deterrent we have left is nuclear .... maybe we have some other magic i don't know about but we're not gonna invade so what's left?
if your laying out three options for the president today what are they?
The Iranians try to hit Israel, whether the strike is successful, or not, we destroy the Iranians.
ReplyDeleteIn retaliation, it's still a MAD world.
Robert E Lee was an Engineer in the Army. Considered very valiant as a young soldier in the Mexican War.
ReplyDeleteYou Engineers are bright men, and brave.
What's on the grill tonight?
I'm watching my alma mater Florida play Tenn at 8pm..i don't watch much TV but I enjoy a good football game
Macarthur was an Engineer, also.
ReplyDeleteWe're havin' taco salad in a few hours. Fresh veggies and ground beef, good salsa
No Spinach, popeye's takin' the hit. aye.
Love Mexican food. we have it all the time..
ReplyDeleteI didn't realise MAc was an Engineer .. from what I've read about him and heard about him from our parents generation he was quite a man ...he was fairly magnanamous in victory over Japan.
yeah skip the E-Coli
ReplyDeleteThey don't call me "Doug" for nuthin.
ReplyDeleteI looked at Bridles and Bits online..you've got a great site there .. in fact I know I'lll be watch'in it more. I'm even thinking about getting a subscription. Everybody in my family rides or did ride .. ran across a picture of my Dad last night I'd never seen before ..Ft. Riley, KS mounted up. 1939
ReplyDeletehabu on errand.
ReplyDeleteAt Ft Hood, with the 1st Cav in '79, I got on the Horse Platoon, for a few months, a pretty sham duty keepin' a dozen horses and riding in each Friday Retreat Ceremony.
ReplyDeleteThe "real" Cavalry, but not much like life on the frontier.
News results for guantanamo benefits
ReplyDeleteHarry's a hit at Guantanamo
- NEWS.com.au -
Recreational activities on offer are said to include basketball, volleyball, football, table tennis and board games, and high-top trainers are provided.
Departing detainees are given a Koran, a denim jacket, a white T-shirt, a pair of blue jeans, high-tops, a gym bag of toiletries, and a pillow and blanket for the flight home.
More money is spent on meals for detainees than on those for the US troops stationed there, the list claimed.
--------
Richard Miniter: A Deadly Kindness
GUANTANAMO BAY, CUBAThe Pentagon seemed to be hoping to disarm its critics by showing them how well it cares for captured terrorists. The trip was more alarming than disarming. I spent several hours with Rear Adm. Harry B. Harris Jr., who heads the joint task force that houses and interrogates the detainees. (The military isn't allowed to call them "prisoners.")
Harris, a distinguished Navy veteran who was born in Japan and educated at Annapolis and Harvard, is a serious man trying to do a politically impossible job. I spoke with him at length, and with a dozen other officers and guards, and visited three different detention blocks.
The high-minded critics who complain about torture are wrong. We are far too soft on these guys - and, as a result, aren't getting the valuable intelligence we need to save American lives.
The politically correct regulations are unbelievable. Detainees are entitled to a full eight hours sleep and can't be woken up for interrogations. They enjoy three meals and five prayers per day, without interruption. They are entitled to a minimum of two hours of outdoor recreation per day.
Interrogations are limited to four hours, usually running two - and (of course) are interrupted for prayers.
One interrogator actually bakes cookies for detainees, while another serves them Subway or McDonald's sandwiches. Both are available on base. (Filet o' Fish is an al Qaeda favorite.)
Interrogations are not video or audio taped, perhaps to preserve detainee privacy.
Adm. Harris admitted to me that a multi-cell al Qaeda network has developed in the camp.
Other cells pass messages from leaders in one camp to followers in others.
How? Detainees use the envelopes sent to them by their attorneys to pass messages. (Some 1,000 lawyers represent 440 prisoners, all on a pro bono basis, with more than 18,500 letters in and out of Gitmo in the past year.) Guards are not allowed to look inside these envelopes because of "attorney-client privilege" - even if they know the document inside is an Arabic-language note written by a prisoner to another prisoner and not a letter to or from a lawyer.That's right:
Accidentally or not, American lawyers are helping al Qaeda prisoners continue to plot.
There is little doubt what this note-passing and weapons-making is used for. The military recorded 3,232 incidents of detainee misconduct from July 2005 to August 2006 - an average of more than eight incidents per day. Some are nonviolent, but the tally includes coordinated attacks involving everything from throwing bodily fluids on guards (432 times) to 90 stabbings with homemade knives.
One detainee slashed a doctor who was trying to save his life; the doctors wear body armor to treat their patients.
The kinder we are to terrorists, the harsher we are to their potential victims.
What if a detainee confesses a weakness (like fear of the dark) to a doctor that might be useful to interrogators, I asked the doctor in charge, would he share that information with them? "My job is not to make interrogations more efficient," he said firmly. He cited doctor-patient privacy. (He also asked that his name not be printed, citing the potential for al Qaeda retaliation.)
America has never faced an enemy who has so ruthlessly broken all of the rules of war - yet never has an enemy been treated so well. Some 20 current detainees have direct personal knowledge of the 9/11 attacks and nearly everyone of the current 440 say they would honored to attack America again. Let's take them at their word.