The depressing part about the road building efforts is that the roads all travel through "hostile Indian" and poppy country. We believe that by building roads, we can promote prosperity and some sort of national pride and identity for Afghanistan. The bad guys simply have to foil our efforts until we tire of the enterprise. Anyone care to bet on the outcome?
It appears that we are nation building in an area that aspires to be another Columbia and yet is light years away from such sophistication. We can nation build for a lifetime and still not acheive what Columbia used to be. There are two major problems to overcome. Radical Islam and opium.
No good will come from the poppy production, only addiction, misery, and death. When the roads to market are built, how will we be able to compete with the high profit poppies? These are intractable, long term problems which this world is ill-prepared and unwilling to address. Afterall, how does a secular world combat such evil? By raising a white, libertarian flag and declaring victory? I don't think so. And why is this evil resurgent even as the west is increasingly post-modern and secular? Maybe it's because the evil practitioners are driven and comforted by a faith and religious fervor lacking in the west. They're on jihad and we've lost our moral compass. They have one simple aim which is to see Islam reign supreme. They have no moral compunction about how they achieve their goal. We, on the other hand are so encumbered by moral equivalence that our society can no longer distinguish between good and evil as we navigate the backroads of humanity.
So, yes, let's get those roads built so that those poppies can get to market more efficiently. Let's stay with the Middle eastern roadmap as we throw more money down the Palestinian rat hole in the hope that our money will overcome their hate. Let us stop at the borders to safe-haven Waziristan. Let's continue down the asphalt highways with our good friends, the Saudis. Ignore the IED's placed by the internationalist hyenas who sabotage us at every turn. Let's build that superhighway from Mexico.
We've lost our moral compass but if we stay with our current map eventually we'll get to Rome.
---
ReplyDelete---
Interesting Yon based thread at BC:
I decided to unload with this:
---
"Northeast of Baghdad, innocent civilians are being asked to leave Baquba. "
---
Do that effectively, and the stage would be set for a Bill Clinton Style Zero US Casualties Air War, which I think most of us would welcome back at this point.
Far better than Catch, Detain, and Release.
I for one am sick of the cavalier attitude toward the welfare of our troops in order to preserve our kinder, gentler, politically correct and compassionate Reputation in DC.
Just as Compassionate George has overseen the Murder and Mayhem resulting in 40,000 innocent civilian deaths here at home since 9-11 at the hands of his beloved illegals, as he prattles and sermonizes on.
Worse yet, some here still believe this BS!
In response to Triumphalist Cheerleading comment by Boghie, Ricpic Wrote:
ReplyDelete---
"America and the West are huge...Our culture is unconquered."
How powerful will the West be when Europe is
Eurabia'd?
At present rates of Islamic procreation and immigration that's about two generations away.
Then America will stand alone. And the pressures to "compromise" will increase and become insistent.
After all, reasonable people will say, you don't need freedom to live.
Not really.
And so we will submit.
Somewhere, in between lies the truth?
ReplyDeleteHard to tell sometimes, after reading 5 years worth of Moronic Bush Cheerleading.
Be a swell,
Salute the Shell!
It has clothes, I swear!
"Backing the insurgents into a corner may mean that the Stryker units that are edging their way into the city — the Fifth Battalion, 20th Infantry Regiment and the Third Battalion, 21st Infantry Regiment — are in for much tougher fighting ahead.
ReplyDeleteAn indication of what may be in store for those units came Tuesday when a Bradley fighting vehicle was upended by a large, buried bomb, which killed an American crew member. The insurgents have fortified their position by burying many such bombs and laying wires that can be triggered from safe houses. What made the loss of the Bradley particularly worrisome is that the explosion occurred in a heavily trafficked area that American forces had considered successfully cleared. "
---
Well, by all means sacrifice our finest, along with their equipment, to spare C4's noble purple fingered folks at all costs!
...they're only our sons and our treasure.
My mentality is probably as dark as the Muslims. After 911, I saw no Islamic remorse. I saw Palestinian hags dancing for joy in the streets. I saw a foolish GWB defiling the White House with a ramadan party, and calling Islam a religion of peace.
ReplyDeleteWishful thinking about Islam will not change overwhelming evidence that it is a fatally flawed and toxic cult. We recognized that communism and nazisim could not be mollified. We wore communism down and destroyed the nazis. Islam should be banned in the US.
An historic oportunity was missed at Tora Bora to use tactical nuclear weapons to destroy bin Laden and AQ. The iconic power of the two towers falling would have been balanced and trumped by the rising mushroom clouds.
We should have put Islam on notice that it was finished in the US, and would have demonstrated to the world that the consequences for the toleration and sympathy for jihad against America was destruction and death. We did not have the courage. We hestited and faltered.
Tora Bora, cleansed of al Qaeda, by American nuclear weapons would have been a singular demonstration of resolve and the violence America was prepared to serve in response to on an attack in the the name of Allah. It should have been followed up with the closing of mosques and disbanding all Islamic networks in the US. We did not have the guts to do it. We allow ourselves to be twisted and bound by our own legalistic straight jacket that appeared in our society after 1964. It will choke us and kill us if we let it.
"An historic oportunity was missed at Tora Bora to use tactical nuclear weapons to destroy bin Laden and AQ. The iconic power of the two towers falling would have been balanced and trumped by the rising mushroom clouds.
ReplyDelete"
---
Over and over, such opportunities are wasted, as those too smart by half, or too corrupted in their Elitism, choose sacrifice BY US!
How very liberal of them to bestow their compassion on someone else's Dime!
A Pox!
R said...
ReplyDeleteWho would have thought that to maintain some semblance of civil order in Iraq, one would have to rule with an iron fist! Who woulda thunk it? Enter Saddam Hussein, stage right.
When Omar Sharif rode up to Peter O'Toole in Lawrence of Arabia at the watering hole, millions of women shuddered with deep internal desire for his image as a man.
When ABC news interviewed Ayatollah Kohemini in France plotting his return to Iran, millions of Americans sensed that here was a man filled with total hatred.
R continues:
ReplyDelete" Do we really need to make this looming battle so easy for our opponents?
Could there be a much deeper hunger at play here?
Some people think of themselves as being so smart that they are in fact really stupid!
Are we witnessing a new class of citizen whom we should label as the "stupid smart" people?
Watch what enters stage left. It is sure to surprise most.
"
---
I am puzzled by that last, about the left.
Any Help would be appreciated.
"It should have been followed up with the closing of mosques and disbanding all Islamic networks in the US. We did not have the guts to do it."
ReplyDelete---
I disagree with what follows about the legalistic straightjacket, 1964, etc:
---
I think just about anybody BUT Bush would have secured our borders after 9-11.
BEFORE 9-11, Algore came up with a great computer based Airlines Security plan.
After proper greasing, massaging, and payoffs, the Airlines, Saudis, and assorted Muslim Humanitarian agents got what THEY wanted instead, and we got 9-11.
"I think just about anybody BUT Bush would have secured our borders after 9-11."
ReplyDeleteAND come down hard on the Mosques so well documented in NINETEEN NINETY THREE
By Steve Emerson.
Instead,
Elitist Chimpboy Chants ROP,
and sermonizes about the family values of welfare sluts and child molesters from south of the border.
Ain't life grand!
Joel C. Rosenberg
ReplyDeleteAt the beginning of his first novel, The Last Jihad, he puts the reader inside the cockpit of a hijacked jet, coming in on a kamikaze attack against the President of the United States.
This leads to a war with Saddam Hussein over weapons of mass destruction.
The book was written in 2001 before the September 11th attacks (a revised edition takes the event into account) and the war with Iraq, but it was published in 2002.
When published, The Last Jihad spent 11 weeks on the New York Times best-seller list, reaching as high as number seven. It raced up the USA Today and Publisher's Weekly best-seller lists, hit number four on the Wall Street Journal list and hit number one on Amazon.com.
Is DR Gog or Magog?
ReplyDelete---
1. Hashemite Kingdom Theory: The Islamic Nations will come against Israel either by an Iraqi-led, Jordanian led, or Turkish led coalition. The enemy from the north refers to the areas of Syria, Turkey, and Iraq. These Islamic nations make up the lands occupied by Magog, Gomer, Togarmah, Meshech and Tubal.
2. Caucus Theory: Gog and Magog are the Arab nations in an alliance with the Muslim republics of the former Soviet Union. This theory leaves out most of Russia, and includes only the southern part.
3. All Europe theory: Gog and Magog are the sons of Japeth thus the originators of the European races. Gog and Magog therefore indicates all of Europe. This is not a widely held theory and I could find little support for it.
4. Russian Theory: The Hebrew word 'rosh' in verse 3 is identified with Russia, 'Tubal' with Tiblisi or Tobolsk and 'Meshech' with Moscow, therefore Gog and Magog refers to Russia. This is one of the most commonly held views and is based on a different interpretation of the Hebrew word Rosh (used as a noun rather than adjective), similarities in the pronunciation of words, and the Greek translation of Rosh referring to a tribe of people found in what is now Russia.
5. Indo-European Theory: Gog and Magog include the nations descending from Japheth: Russia, the Caucasus(Turkey), Iraq, and the Islamic republics of Central Asia. The coalition is an alliance of Arab nations, Muslim republics, Georgia, southern Russia and the Black sea area.
Lab 'Rat used to talk a lot about the Hashemites.
ReplyDeleteThen he fell silent.
I still pray nothing untoward befell his son in Iraq.
A Cost of Kinder and Gentler NonWarfare:
ReplyDeleteAlthough the U.S. military has killed numerous leaders and members of al-Qaeda in Iraq, it has had limited success in its efforts to crush the group, largely because it is a guerrilla force that studies U.S. and Iraqi tactics, learns from its mistakes and quickly adjusts to new strategies, according to analysts.
The Battle of Baqubah II
ReplyDelete- Roggio
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ReplyDeleteBack to the Rat Line campaign, sounds to me, just a different AO.
ReplyDeleteWonder where elijah went, said he wanted a discussion, then left the Bar. Ah well, hope he learned something, as he said was his desire.
Many miles before we sleep. Many minds of mush to mold.
Or is it minds of mold to mush?
In any case ...
For six plus years, almost seven now, the Government of the US has warned US, an attack is imminent.
When ABC shows US another video of terrorists assembled in the open, the cemetary ceremony redux, US spokesmen say there is no intelligence data to back up the aQ claims of suicide bombers dispatched.
Worry not.
There are no dots to connect. That, my brothers, is Slam Dunk, if ever there was one.
Shop on!
BAGHDAD — Four insurgents have been killed and 62 detained at the start of Operation Marne Torch’s fourth day in southeast Baghdad.
ReplyDelete...
BAGHDAD – In an attempt to rescue severely injured Iraqi police forces, Iraqi Security Forces battled extremists,killed more than three, and detained 45 in An-Nasiriyah, Southern Iraq ,June 18 and 19.
...
In another incident, Soldiers from Alpha Troop, 5th Squadron, 73rd Cavalry Regiment observed and engaged armed individuals emplacing an IED near Zaganiyah village, along the Diyala river valley.
The gunmen returned fire but the Soldiers, using direct and indirect fires, killed both of the armed IED emplacers...
Three day running total
41 KIA,
178 detaineed.
But it's early yet, we'll get todays final count later.
We'll get to Four Score, yet.
Gotta run for now, have a wonderful day, a better tomorrow.
ReplyDeleteSay the Curse and Shop On!
General: "Never a Mission" to Defeat Iraq's Insurgents
ReplyDeleteBy Noah Shachtman EmailJune 18, 2007 | 2:54:45 PMCategories: Strategery
If these clips from former Gen. Jack Keane are any indication, tomorrow night's edition of Frontline -- on the Iraq war's "endgame" -- could be a blockbuster.
"We never even considered an insurgency as a reasonable option. We took down the regime, and we thought what we had to do then was occupy then country, stabilize it, and in the matter of a few months we could reduce the force," says Keane, the former Army Vice Chief of Staff and intellectual co-author of the current troop "surge."
And while the President may have been "us[ing] terms like 'win,' 'we're going to defeat the insurgents,' 'victory,'" Keane adds, "we never had that as a mission in Iraq."
*******************************
Upon returning from a DOD/State-requested, two-week, all-access tour of Iraq in 2005, Anthony Cordesman was asked by a reporter, "Are we winning against the insurgency?" His response, which somehow never made it into the media, was that anyone who talked about tipping points or beating the insurgency either didn't know what he was talking about or was a liar, because that wasn't the mission. But even outside the WH and Pentagon; even outside CENTCOM HQ and the Green Zone, ground commanders down to brigade level were using precisely the language of winning against, of beating, of breaking the back of the insurgency. Clearly, THEY thought it was the mission, and while their assessment of the big picture was often badly mistaken and unjustifiably optimistic, their grasp of the objective was not. Who was pulling who's leg?
Keane says that in 2004, the intelligence community had determined that the Sunni insurgents thought they were winning, and that the Sunni insurgents were right. But not until shortly before the NOV 06 elections did pained acknowledgment of the situation come from the WH, and by then it was too late.
"Nobody really knows what will work," says Keane. I'll buy that.
But the extent of deceit and self-deceit only demonstrates that it is a thoroughly rotten, wholeheartedly corrupt affair, one that will not be salvaged in the present effort.
Doug re Gog and Magog:
ReplyDeleteEzekiel's precience wasn't really so good. For instance, he wrote about Tyre (Ezekiel 26:14) "I will make you a bare rock, and you will become a place to spread fishnets. You will never be rebuilt, for I the LORD have spoken, declares the Sovereign LORD."
Today, Tyre, Lebanon has about 117,000 people. The moral of the lesson is: don't try to guess the future, it is subject to change at any moment.
Trish quoted:
ReplyDelete"Upon returning from a DOD/State-requested, two-week, all-access tour of Iraq in 2005, Anthony Cordesman was asked by a reporter, "Are we winning against the insurgency?" His response, which somehow never made it into the media, was that anyone who talked about tipping points or beating the insurgency either didn't know what he was talking about or was a liar, because that wasn't the mission"
What was the mission if not to rout the last of the few dead-enders?
Doug: To frustrate such plans, the Americans intend to take fingerprints and other biometric data from every resident who seems to be a potential fighter after they and Iraqi forces have gained control of the western side of the city.
ReplyDeleteRussia at Grozny, 1999:
In a surprising and threatening move, the federal forces relied heavily on fuel air explosives and tactical missiles (SCUD and SS-21 Scarab). These systems suppressed the Chechens both physically and psychologically and these assets were used to attack fighters hiding in basements. Such fire strikes were designed for maximum psychological pressure-to demonstrate the hopelessness of further resistance against a foe that could strike with impunity and that was invulnerable to countermeasures. The TOS-1 (a multiple rocket launcher with thermobaric warheads mounted on a T-72 tank chassis) played a particularly prominent role in the assault.
I'd almost forgotten, ash. The storied "dead enders."
ReplyDeleteOnly the Defeatists (Worse Than Terrorists!) would have said otherwise.
Having wandered into our own cul-de-sac, the phrase has disappeared.
ReplyDeletethermobaric warheads
ReplyDeleteI've made mention of this on several occasions, but the tactic never got any play because it doesn't fit the grand strategy of a new trillion dollar defense procurement program. Trish will defend her Taqqiyya Generals, because just like Trish, their only real concern is to keep the welfare checks coming.
But that wasn't a quote.
ReplyDeleteEverything below the asterisk is mine.
You write well Trish.
ReplyDeleteWhat was Cordsman's view of the mission at the time?
Fighting and defeating the insurgency certainly seems to be job #1 right now and the tipping point appears far beyond the horizon. It seems the current tactic is to rule with an iron fist.
The current tactic is the exact opposite.
ReplyDeleteIsn't anything really new about Keane's comments.
ReplyDeleteIt's in Cobra II, for example, that the Defense Department and military expected to be out in a few months...leading to the complete lack of long-term planning.
Well, out in force, i.e. down to a couple dozen thousand.
ReplyDeleteCutler, I was referring specifically to this tactic:
ReplyDelete"To frustrate such plans, the Americans intend to take fingerprints and other biometric data from every resident who seems to be a potential fighter after they and Iraqi forces have gained control of the western side of the city. The Americans will also test for the presence of explosive material on suspects’ hands."
U.S. Seeks to Block Exits for Iraq Insurgents
These types of approach coupled with the abandonment of reconstruction suggests "iron fist"
It is SO Easy. Make Biodiesel from the Poppies. Next.
ReplyDeleteTo be a bit cynical, whit, all roads lead to Rome, do they not?
ReplyDeleteAt least metaphoricly.
It wasn't the "done in a few months" part that struck me, cutler. Home in time for turkey and medals I know.
ReplyDeleteIt was the part about the mission, which led me to recall Cordesman's own comment of a couple of years ago - and the parallel universes thus indicated.
"What was Cordsman's view of the mission at the time?"
ReplyDeleteContainment.
rat, to follow up on your comment yesterday about the fence costing up to a million a mile the total coming then to 2 billion being chump change.
ReplyDeleteI thought a double fence with a patrolling road was more the conception. Israel seems to be spending about 3.7 million a mile for their 'fence'. Once built you have operating costs as well. Creating the armed fortress would not be cheap but, yes, in comparison to the daily Iraq tab it is relatively small. Mind you all this spending is borrowed dimes so the pain hasn't been felt much yet.
According to the Christian Science Monitor, down in the 31 United States of Mexico things are moving forward.
ReplyDeleteA new president launches reform and a domestic war to rid Mexico of influences that make many flee.
The Senate takes up "comprehensive" immigration reform again this week. But the meat's still missing in this burrito. As Mexico's ambassador to Washington warns, even the "rosiest, peachiest" reform in the US won't end the flow of poor migrants. Reform must also take place in Mexico.
And begun it has.
For the past seven months, Mexico has been at war with itself, literally. A new president, Felipe Calderón, has dispatched 24,000 troops into battle with the most corrosive influence in Mexico's economy: powerful drug cartels.
These violent syndicates, which mainly transport drugs into the US, have exploded in the past decade. They've escalated crime and political corruption, hindering creation of well-paying jobs for would-be migrants. At election time, they provide cash for many campaigns.
This domestic war, which resembles the Iraq war in tactics and killing rates, was Mr. Calderón's opening gambit for wholesale reform. It is widely popular but faces an uncertain future. The cartels are fighting back with gruesome murders. And the Army, one of the few respected institutions in Mexico, is not good at policing, a task it must do to root out local drug networks. Some of its elite soldiers have joined the cartels.
Still, the war gives Calderón enough public support to conduct a quiet and pragmatic battle with the ruling opposition in the legislature. In March, he was able to win reform of state pensions. This week, he will propose tax hikes to reduce the government's risky reliance on oil-export revenues. And he was helped this month by a Supreme Court ruling that struck a blow at the broadcasting giant Televisa, one of many monopolies controlled by powerful, vested interests.
Opening up these key parts of the economy – telecommunications, oil, cement, and electricity – to fair competition under the law would be Calderón's greatest legacy. It would build on two other major reforms: the opening of Mexico's markets since the mid-1990s through NAFTA and the establishment of real democracy with the end of one-party rule in 2000.
Any reforms would do little to stem migration, however, unless they reach the poorest regions in the south, such as Chiapas and Michoacán. These areas are the main source of migrants to the US, and a better economy there would help keep valuable workers in Mexico. Among his reforms, Calderón has offered help to young entrepreneurs and launched job-training programs.
How can the US help? For one, effective border enforcement would keep more Mexicans in Mexico where they can contribute to the economy. The US can also better crack down on the flow of arms to Mexico's cartels and the flow of drugs into the US.
Mexico doesn't require a mini-Marshall plan from the US, as some suggest – the kind that Colombia has received to fight off its drug cartels. That $5 billion project entailed the use of American troops to help the war against Colombian rebels. Mexico hardly needs GIs on its soil. And as one of the world's 15 largest economies and an oil exporter, it doesn't need money – just reform.
The US Congress should see its immigration reform in the larger picture of Mexico's needs. The ultimate solution truly lies south of the border.
Consumerization, amigos.
Free flow of currency.
Pressure release.
We should admit to the realities, then begin the debate.
We are not stopping suicide bombers, ash.
ReplyDeleteThe border fence would not have to be as dynamic as the Israeli.
Even if it does require that, at $4 million per mile, it's still just $8 Billion.
Not that much in the scheme of things.
The Army can easily patrol the frontier of the United States, if manpower costs becomes an issue.
Iraq veterans are already trained to arrest, not shoot. Expand their police roles in combating the asymentric invasion of the southern frontier.
Gain control of the flow. Instead of a flood across the land, put it in canals & lakes, behind levees & dikes.
Sell 100,000 Residency permits at $100,000 a piece.
ReplyDelete$10 Billion dollars, fund the whole project.
Annually, to cover operating expenses.
That Blue passport is really more valuable than a Panamanian one, or a Costa Rican @ the same $100,000 price tag.
Skilled people who have the cash, businessmen, doctors, lwayers, first class minds, folks that accumulated or inherited wealth.
Assets to the nation, in more ways than one.
Isn't there a legal problem with deploying the US military at home?
ReplyDeleteYou aren't suggesting we withdraw troops from Iraq and deploy them at home are you? Iraq, the Middle East, and the whole world will come crumbling down if we perform such a rash act would it not?
100k a pop?? Only drug cartel members can afford that.
ReplyDeleteThe Law can be changed, ash, if required.
ReplyDeleteUnlike the Ten Commandments, US Laws and Policies are not carved in stone.
Border Security against invasion is a historically military task.
War has changed, as have the tactics used to subvert the Republic, or fulfill its' revolutionary dreams.
The Declaration is truly revolutionary in concept and execution. Not limited by geography, an expanding vision of freedom and liberty for all men.
Quite a dream, quite a revolution in thought and deed. Where have the revolutionaries gone?
Those who risked all, for equality.
To restore the Union, fulfilling a part of the dream.
One brick upon another, in pursuit of the rights of man. Across the Americas, then the World.
What better vision?
But not to be announced. For not all are for an expanded vision of freedom, equality and Union.
An averaging to the moderate middle of economic equivalency between the northern 60 States in the US and Canada with the 31 United Mexican States.
Oh no, ash.
ReplyDeleteStock brokers from Hong Kong
Shipping magnates from Dubai
Princes from Saudi Arabia after the revolt
Dutch property managers.
The list is long, of those both willing and amble to pay for citizenship. Make no mistake.
Many from Venezuela, lawyers, car dealers, oil company or television executives.
Your stereotyped thinking is showing, your ignorance to international values, in an attempt, I hope to have made a joke.
People from Argentina and Brazil, land barons and just plain folk, could ante up that stake.
To play in the biggest and best game in the world?
Who are you trying to kid?
This comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteHere you go, ash, click on through and then flip it towards the back of the book, you'll see that while stuff is not super pricey, in Panama, $100,000 for a US passport would not be unreasonable to ask by comparison.
ReplyDeleteBased upon housing costs and the visa programs expense. click the button on through
ya, a joke sort of. Canada has had a 'buy your way in' program for quite awhile now. There are other routes as well but investing about 500k US will do the trick. Note you don't buy access you invest to receive access.
ReplyDeleteIndeed, but those laws could be changed.
ReplyDeleteIf we need to fund that fence and its' up keep.
Any number of possible ways forward, but the status que will stay in place for the balance of the Bush term. Be my guess,
more of the same
Say the Curse!
ya, the status quo will remain it seems. What would the farmers and others employers of low cost labor do to their prices if they had to pay their workers enough to pay off that 100k? Would we need to prevent the importation of cheaper products to keep their businesses alive?
ReplyDeleteYou may find that required.
ReplyDeleteA North American Economic Zone of preference.
Brown cloud tax the Chinese and Indians, both products and services, until the air above their countries clears.
Many options on the table, if only minds would open to the possibilities.
Take it on faith.
The soulless "multiNationals" would relocate to the Mexican States, capturing lowest cost North American labor, but easy access to the market of the 60 northern States.
ReplyDeleteSupermarkets Italiani:
ReplyDeleteNelson A. Rockefeller's International Basic Economy Corporation and the Introduction of Supermarkets to Italy
by Emanuela Scarpellini
Researcher in Contemporary History University of Milan, Italy
When I started my research on the arrival of mass marketing and mass distribution in Italy, my aim was to explain the origin of a peculiar phenomenon. Thousands of small shopkeepers were still the only traders in the 1950s, while supermarkets and department stores were already common in Europe and the United States. These small shops were usually run on a family basis, and they did not sell processed food or frozen products. Hence, there was a kind of "displacement" between the level of development enjoyed by the production industry and the backwardness of the retail trade world. The first supermarket in Italy finally opened in Milan in 1957, starting a rapid diffusion of the new sales systems. The International Basic Economy Corporation (IBEC), an American corporation based in New York and owned by Nelson A. Rockefeller, created that supermarket. Until my visit to the Rockefeller Archive Center (RAC), I had been able to gather little information on the story or about the company's motivations and final results. Newspapers and local archives were not particularly helpful. The documents I found at the Archive Center were fundamental to understanding what really happened at that time and to gaining a better insight into the beginnings of the mass market in Italy
Italy of the 1950s, similar in many respects to the Mexican economy post PRI.
Freedom is on the march, led by the best warrior the battles of North American consumerism has produced:
ReplyDeleteFront line soldiers in the culture wars.
Mexico Fact Sheet
June 2007
Wal-Mart Supercenters 120
SAM'S CLUB 78
Bodega 226
Mi Bodega 43
Superama 62
Suburbia 66
VIPS Restaurants 315
Mi Bodega Express 2
Associates 140,000
History
In 1991, Wal-Mart entered into a joint venture with Cifra with the opening of a Sam’s Club in Mexico City, the first country in the International division. In 1997, Wal-Mart acquired a majority position in Cifra and in February 2000 the name changed to Wal-Mart de Mexico, S.A. de C.V. (WALMEX).
Sales
In 2005, Wal-Mart de Mexico reported net sales of $164.3 billion pesos (US$15.4 billion), a 13.7% increase over the previous year. Comparable stores sales registered an increase of 5.8%.
Expansion Plans
In 2006, Wal-Mart de Mexico will open 120 units with an expected investment of US$1.1 billion ($11.9 billion pesos). The estimated growth in installed capacity will be 14%.
Awards & Recognition
For three consecutive years, Wal-Mart Mexico received an award on Gender Equity from the National Women’s Institute for the company’s principles, values of equity and numerous programs that support recruitment and career development of women.
During the last six years, the Mexican Center for Philantropy granted Wal-Mart Mexico the honor of being a Socially Responsible Company, an award given to companies who honor their commitments with customers, employees, society, the environment, and investors.
Wal-Mart Mexico has been recognized by several magazines. Expansion magazine ranked Walmex first among the top 100 Most Important Multinational Companies. The magazine ranked Walmex as first in the retail sector and private employer rankings among the top 500 Most Important Multinational Companies. Expansion also named three Walmex executives among the top 50 most powerful business women in Mexico. Mundo Ejecutivo recognized Walmex for the company’s corporate social responsibility and America Economia named Walmex the leading retailer and 8th most important company in Latin America.
Community Involvement
In 2005, Wal-Mart de México Foundation raised and contributed more than US$ 12.3 million to 138 non-profit organizations in Mexico.
Costa Rica Fact Sheet
ReplyDeleteJune 2007
Pali 105
Max X Menos 23
Maxi Bodegas 8
Hiper Más 4
Associates 7,900
Wal-Mart Central America
In September 2005, Wal-Mart acquired a 33 1/3 percent interest in CARHCO from the Dutch retailer Royal Ahold NV. In March 2006, Wal-Mart increased its interest to 51% and the name CARHCO was changed to Wal-Mart Central America. Wal-Mart Central America is the region’s largest retailer, with 394 supermarkets and 23,000 associates in Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras, Nicaragua and Costa Rica.
Apart from Ahold, CARHCO consisted of three operating companies: La Fragua, founded in Guatemala in 1928 by Carlos Paiz Ayala; CSU, founded in Costa Rica in 1960 by Enrique Uribe Pages; and Corporación de CompañÃas Agroindustriales (CCA), a supplier of meat and seafood, fruit, grain, vegetables and bakery products.
Canada Fact Sheet
ReplyDeleteJune 2007
Wal-Mart Stores 277
Wal-Mart Supercenters 7
SAM'S CLUB 6
Associates 70,000
History
Headquartered in Mississauga, Ontario, Wal-Mart Canada was established in 1994 with the acquisition of the Woolco Canada chain of 122 stores.
Expansion Plans
Typically, Canada opens 15 to 20 new stores each year.
Awards & Recognition
For the fourth time in five years Wal-Mart Canada was listed one of Canada's best employers -- ranking 7th of large companies -- in the annual Hewitt Associates survey of the country's 50 Best Employers. Wal-Mart Canada is by far the largest employer to make this year's list.
You mean, like, a carbon tax? On America as well?
ReplyDeleteWal Marts foot print across the Americas
ReplyDeleteArgentina
Brazil
Canada
Costa Rica
El Salvador
Guatemala
Honduras
Mexico
Nicaragua
No, duties paid to US, based on visable from space brown clouds, for admission to the North American markets.
ReplyDeleteIf the States wish to assess their industries, well that is what politics is all about.
But no, I'd foresee import duties, based on equal pollution standards.
Starting in the visible, from space, spectrum.
World Business Briefing | The Americas: Mexico: Approval For Wal-Mart Bank
ReplyDeletePublished: November 23, 2006
Wal-Mart de México, the discount retailer, said it had received final approval from Mexico's finance ministry to open a Mexican bank. The retailer said that Julio Gómez MartÃnez, former chief executive of the Bank One Corporation in Mexico, would head the independent unit, known as Banco Wal-Mart de México Adelante. The bank will begin operating during the second half of 2007, the company said.