Obama and and his party apparatchiks are busy trying not to waste the crisis/opportunity in North Korea. First we get the blather about the "international community."
The "international community" if it really were a community, would call in the police. I assume that they would be the"international police" but we all should know that is absurd. The last time that happened, American pilots were bombing hapless civilians in Belgrade and we aced the Chinese Embassy. So we can forget precision targeting of the Norks. There is no international community that will approve that and there are no international cops. I suppose we could form a posse of the willing, but why bother?
The question that needs to be asked is not what North Korea wants, but what does China want? The Norks have already exchanged missile technology for nuclear technology with our good friends the Pakis. I have no doubt that was not the full extent of their trading. The criminal family business of North Korea Inc. exists because the Chinese tolerate it. North Korea collapses without Chinese tolerance.
China wants a new world order, here is their chance.
____________
Diplomats have lost the plot over North Korea
Posted By: Con Coughlin at May 26, 2009 Telegraph
Am I missing something, or has a mood of complacency settled on the international diplomatic community regarding North Korea's latest nuclear test?
Despite the fact the latest nuclear device tested by the highly secretive regime in Pyongyang is said to be equivalent in size to the atom bomb the Americans dropped on Nagasaki at the end of the Second World War, the general message emanating from international diplomats is that there is no need to worry because North Korea has no intention of using the device, and that the North Koreans are too isolated to constitute a threat to the outside world.
What nonsense. Irrespective of what the North Koreans intend to do with their nuclear arsenal once they have mastered the technology, the very fact that an unstable regime like Pyongyang has access to weapons of mass destruction constitutes a major threat to world peace.
North Korea is one of the world's key proliferators. It attempted to provide Syria - another rogue regime - with nuclear technology, and works closely with Tehran to develop ballistic missile systems capable of carrying nuclear warheads.
To my mind, the more progress North Korea makes on its nuclear programme, the more afraid the world should be. So my message to the diplomatic corps is: snap out of it. There are many reasons to be worried by the latest developments in North Korea, and rather than taking the sanguine attitude that it doesn't really matter, let's see some robust action that will bring the North Koreans to their senses.
May 25, 2008: Kim Jong-Il explodes his first full-sized nuclear bomb . This day shall live in infamy.
ReplyDeleteNorth Korea helped build a secret nuclear power plant in Syria, which was destroyed by the Israeli Air Force in 2007 while the CIA was still asleep. North Korea sells nuclear and missile technology to Iran and Pakistan. Kim can easily sell his nuclear Bomb in the Middle East; today his bomb also threatens Japan, South Korea, Taiwan, and China.
Like it or not, we are being dragged into the Second Age of Nuclear Terror.--
-/
Defeating A Hilter With NukesWhat does China want? No clue here. Seems to me they could have put a stop to this madness long ago.
We have the pleasure of the affirmative action community organizer who wants to diminish our missile defense system, castrate our intelligence services, and criminalize legitimate political differences.
ReplyDeleteInstead of cutting missile defense, he should accelerate it using TARP money and let the Chinese know we will be OK, will they?
Yes, indeed. Gates announced a $1.4 billion cutback in missile defense (according to the article I posted) while we were into $8 billion for the Desert Debtor super rail from LA to Vegas, which might have been diverted to the Chicago area, according to my engineer. And I thought the federal government's primary responsibility was the defense of the country, not enabling gamblers.
ReplyDeleteThe Constituion wobbles, criminals lurk in high places, and are firmly in place in many other countries.
Defend the country from whom, bob?
ReplyDeleteThe primary risk that the NorKs pose is not to this Country, not to the US, but to those that are in proximity to it.
They are all willing to live with that risk. Each and every one of them, for a variety of reasons, from Go gamesmanship, to fear of invasion and conflict.
The US should leave Korea, to the Koreans. The South is more than capable of defending themselves and the US troops, there, are as much a provocation as they are a deterent, now.
Besides, the current Battle Plan does not have US re-inforcing South Korea with massive numbers of troops, as it alway did, prior to 2003. Not because the strategic or tactical situation changed, but because the US does not have the capacity to re-inforce the South.
We do not have the troop strength levels to fight three localized conflicts, at once. The US is, as President Obama said, "Out of money, now".
There is no call for a draft and the cut in pay for the current generation of soldiers that a return to Selective Service would entail.
France opens naval base in the Gulf
ReplyDeletePublished 26 May 2009
President Nicolas Sarkozy today opens the first French military base in the Gulf; France is eying multi-billion dollar deals for nuclear reactors and sophisticated weapons for countries in the region
Under President Nicolas Sarkozy, in power now for two years, France has been more assertive in its international military and economic strategy. The latest example comes from the Gulf, where, today, Sarkozy is on hand to open France's first military base in the Gulf Arab region. France is eying multi-billion-dollar deals to supply the United Arab Emirates with nuclear power plants and advanced military aircraft.
AFP reports that French officials said the naval base in Abu Dhabi, capital of the UAE, the world's third-largest petroleum exporter, would deepen ties to the Gulf Arab state and fortify efforts to battle piracy and defend trade. "We look at this cooperation as an important pillar of our foreign policy because it helps the stability in the Gulf region," UAE president Sheikh Khalifa bin Zayed al-Nahayan said in comments read at a maritime security conference.
The UAE plans to build a number of nuclear reactors to meet an expected need for an extra 40,000 megawatts of electricity by 2017. U.S. nuclear reactor builders GE (GE.N) and Westinghouse Electric Co, a subsidiary of Toshiba Corp (6502.T), stand to receive a big share of the expected $40 billion market if the U.S. Congress approves the deal.
Why would the UAE need reactors, they sit upon a sea of oil. They must want to develop a weapon, clandestinely.
Stop them, now!
Before an arms race ensues!!
Just like the US realized that Iran needed 20 plus nuclear reactors, before it became the Russians that were building them.
We were for a nuclear Iran, before we were against it.
But the need for nuclear power generation, in Iran and Dubai remains the same.
That "Son of Shah", what a disappointment he turned out to be.
Well, let's see, if we had no defense, we might be vulnerable to the Russians--maybe they want Alaska back, who knows, one of their politicians was threatening that for awhile--maybe the Chinese, perhaps al-qaeda and the moslems, maybe even Japan, who are technically proficient, and might have long memories too, then there's.....as it is, and was, a lot of countries have lived under our nuclear umbrella, if it hadn't been for that, who knows what alliances might have been formed.
ReplyDeleteThe more I think about it, I doubt we'd be here without our defense. Maybe the Mexicans would have marched into Phoenix.
East German Stasi Spy Killed Protester, Ohnesorg, in 1967It was called “the shot that changed the republic.”
ReplyDeleteThe killing in 1967 of an unarmed demonstrator by a police officer in West Berlin set off a left-wing protest movement and put conservative West Germany on course to evolve into the progressive country it has become today.
Now a discovery in the archives of the East German secret police, known as the Stasi, has upended Germany’s perception of its postwar history. The killer, Karl-Heinz Kurras, though working for the West Berlin police, was at the time also acting as a Stasi spy for East Germany.
It is as if the shooting deaths of four students at Kent State University by the Ohio National Guard had been committed by an undercover K.G.B. officer, though the reverberations in Germany seemed to have run deeper.
The Mexicans have marched into Phoenix, bob.
ReplyDeleteThere is no maybe about that.
The only options are not "no" defense or the status que.
We have 25,000 or so troops in South Korea. The South Koreans have a 522,000 man Army, themselves. Plus the rest of their military.
There is no need for US to hold ground in Korea, it does not defend US. The South Koreans are no longer in need of US assistance, they can fully defend themselves. After 60 years of assistance, both the threat and the solution to it have changed. The SouKs can go it alone, we'd still be just a phone call away.
Yesterdays solutions ae no longer viable, they are unsustainable, we cannot fund them.
Which Federal tax would you be willing to increase, bob, to fund our continued forward defense of Seoul, South Korea?
Which Federal subsidy to Idaho should be curtailed?
Should Social Security payments to retirees be cut 20% to fund our foreign adventures?
Or should we continue to borrow the money, from China, to defend South Korea from the Chinese proxy in the North?
The civil wars of Korea are legend, in Korea. The battle to unify that peninsula echo through time. It rarely has been, unified.
ReplyDeleteWhy should the US be involved in a thousand year old cultural and civil struggle, 'tween the factions in Korea, more so than we already have been. What is the case for a continued US presence on the ground?
Korea is an industrial exporter, Hyundais and KIAs are all over US roads. There is no further need for US soldiers to be driving Hummers, on Korean roads.
The Koreans can protect themselves, without US living there.
Obama and the 'South Park' GnomesSometimes it takes "South Park" to explain life's deeper mysteries. Like the logic of the Obama administration's policy proposals.
ReplyDeleteConsider the 1998 "Gnomes" episode -- possibly surpassing Milton Friedman's "Free to Choose" as the classic defense of capitalism -- in which the children of South Park, Colo., get a lesson in how not to run an enterprise from mysterious little men who go about stealing undergarments from the unsuspecting and collecting them in a huge underground storehouse.
What's the big idea? The gnomes explain:
"Phase One: Collect underpants.
"Phase Two: ?
"Phase Three: Profit."
Lest you think there's a step missing here, that's the whole point. ("What about Phase Two?" asks one of the kids. "Well," answers a gnome, "Phase Three is profits!") This more or less sums up Mr. Obama's speech last week on Guantanamo, in which the president explained how he intended to dispose of the remaining detainees after both houses of Congress voted overwhelmingly against bringing them to the U.S.
The president's plan can briefly be described as follows.
Phase One: Order Guantanamo closed.
Phase Two: ?
Phase Three: Close Gitmo!
That Senate vote was all show, no go, doug.
ReplyDeleteIt will not survive reconciliation, and everyone involved knows it.
That was just a piece of political theater. Just fodder for the media mill.
Anya hashimnika, 'Rat.
ReplyDeleteTupsida
"Anya hana se oh"
ReplyDeleteand
"Ee de wah"
are about the limits of my remaining Korean language skills, doug.
The South Koreans, so confident of their position that they are planning on downsizing their own military.
ReplyDeleteShortening the length of time that each conscript serves. From an average of 24 months now, to 18 months of service, in 2016.
While that decision may not be cast in concrete and is able to be changed, it does show the level of concern that they currently have about possible aggression from the North.
If the SouKs are downsizing their defensive posture, in Korea, why wouldn't we? The SouKs are more than capable of taking up the slack, if 25,000 US troops leave.
They are projecting a downsizing of their own defense needs.
Matsaji seobiseureul
ReplyDeletebatkko sipseumnida
---
(I'd like to have massage service)
"Security forces have made considerable progress in Mingora town," the military said in its daily war roundup, making reference to the largest city in the Swat Valley. "House to house search is in progress in most of the areas."
ReplyDeleteThe military said Saturday its push to clear militants from Mingora is the "most important phase" of its offensive against the Taliban. It has pledged to remove Taliban militants from areas in the North West Frontier Province -- vast swathes of the which have been controlled by militants imposing their own fundamentalist interpretation of Islamic law.
The military Wednesday afternoon said 12 "miscreants-terrorists" had been killed in various areas of Swat over the last 24 hours in exchanges of fire with security forces. It said one soldier was killed and three others were wounded.
(CNN)
Phoenix, by the numbers.Wish we had your problem on the low end, where buying is cheaper than rent.
ReplyDeleteI'd become a big time Real Estate Guy, like Sheik al-Bob!
People all over the world think the US and americans are arrogant.
ReplyDeleteThey haven't met or heard the majority of chinese yet.
China probably thinks they can control the Norks and keep them on a leash. I agree that they can. Problem lies in the other friends the Norks have who China cannot control directly - once the US relinquishes its position as numero uno to China, who do you think the Mullahs will find a better target?
And China thinks their threats are sufficient to hold the mullahs at bay. Now that, I'm not so sure of.
One of China's main concerns re North Korea, I believe, is being inundated with refugees if the regime should collapse.
ReplyDeleteAnd China thinks their threats are sufficient to hold the mullahs at bay. Now that, I'm not so sure of.
ReplyDeleteas much as japan and germany were able to keep from eachothers throats back in the day.
We boomers are unlikey to help out much in this recession/depression/repression.
ReplyDeleteWe're simply too old, likely to take up bridge.
One solution: bump boomers off early, save on medical care costs.
"The American consumer led us out of previous recessions with some semblance of gusto," Lonski says. "They're too old to do it now."--
-/
Tax Revenues Fall 34%--Boomers Go Bridge Playing
Maybe a decent exchange would be the reunification of Korean in exchange for the unification of China with Taiwan.
ReplyDeleteI'd become a big time Real Estate Guy, like Sheik al-Bob!--
ReplyDelete-/
heh, slow time, small time....
Dick Morris agrees, in part, with Ash--(Quite impressive, Potato Head)
ReplyDeleteNORTH KOREA: THE WHOLE WORLD IS WATCHING
By DICK MORRIS & EILEEN MCGANN
Published on DickMorris.com on May 27, 2009
When the Japanese military invaded Manchuria in the early 1930s, Hitler, Mussolini, and Japan's own government watch nervously to see what the League of Nations and the Western powers would do. Now it is North Korea and Iran who are watching and wondering.
If the United Nations, and the powers it represents, is as impotent as was the League in the 1930s, it will send the same signal to other would-be proliferators: that the rest of the world will sit by and do nothing. By so blatantly flouting international opinion and U.N. resolutions, North Korea has essentially said to the rest of the world: "put up or shut up."
The irony, of course, is that North Korea is probably the single state in the world most vulnerable to international sanctions. It produces no energy of its own. If China chose to bring the country to its knees, it could do so in a heartbeat. But will they?
****China is worried about triggering a flood of North Korean refugees across its borders and tends to be protective of its erstwhile ally.****
But the real pressure point on China is Japan. If the Japanese signal that they will respond to the North Korean nuclear test with a decision to change its constitution and develop nuclear weapons itself, the impact on both China and North Korea will be intense.
But the most important actor is, of course, President Barack Obama. It is really he who is being tested. If he simply settles for ineffectual sanctions or a round of international condemnation, he will be showing a weakness that virtually invites exploitation by the rest of the world. If he only pursues diplomatic negotiations without economic or military clout behind them, the other aggressors - the latter day Hitlers and Tojos - will draw their own conclusions.
And what will be the tone and the role of the new Secretary of State Hillary Clinton? Peter Rodman, former aide to Kissinger, wrote in his splendid book Presidential Command that the Department of State "...can rarely ever bring itself to admit that diplomacy is not working; in its mind, diplomacy is perpetually deserving of 'one more chance.' Sometimes this seems to degenerate into dialogue for its own sake, without regard to results or strategy or even the leverage that might make dialogue more fruitful."
If Hillary meekly goes along with an Obama policy of accommodation, she will lose forever her ability to portray herself as a national security hawk - a crucial step for any woman running for president.
In Israel, Benjamin Netanyahu will also be watching to see how Obama and Clinton react. He will want to know if there is any starch behind America's demand that Iran stop its own progress toward the bomb. If the Obama Administration folds, he will know that he must depend on his own military to act, even in the face of global anger, since the United States will be paralyzed as long as Obama is at the helm.
Just as the key question for Bush was when would he resort to diplomacy, given his reputation for war? So the real issue with Obama is when will he fight given his penchant for negotiation?
In the case of North Korea, of course, military action is off the table since it already has the bomb. But if the United States stiffens Japanese and Chinese resolve and takes the lead, there is no doubt that economic sanctions - real sanctions which include energy - would bring North Korea to its knees quickly.
The whole wide world is watching.
Military action against NorK has very little to do with their having an ability to set off a nuke in a test.
ReplyDeleteIt is those 1,100 big tubes that prevent any military option from being implemented. Just as they have for decades, now.
Nothing new or momentous occurred on 20JAN09, on the Korean pininsuela.
Dick Morris just playing to the fears of nukes, on a partisan basis, instead of the reality of the military situation. He just ignores the realities of the last 60 years.
If China doesn't want Nork refugees swarming over its borders, it could have 'gently' persuaded Kim and gang that economic liberalization with Kim as an enlightened ruling despot would be a good way to go. Similar to what China has done in the past 30 years.
ReplyDeleteBut as we all know, China didn't do that. By their inaction, they helped create this mess. Let's hope they can clean it up. It's probably out of the US and Obama's hands now, so I won't exactly blame the big zero if he seems powerless, because he is.
Nothing new or momentous occurred on 20JAN09, on the Korean pininsuela.--
ReplyDelete-/
Sure it did, they can now wipe out Seaol or Tokyo in a flash, and have proved it, with only Zero's umbrella to give them second thought.
And Kim might even be able to take out part of China, before they him out, if he's had to much to drink one night.
How can Zero pressure China to pressure Kim? Close up Chinese imports?
I think it's the fault of the Chinese too. They could have removed Kim, I'd think, put a good puppet in there.
He is the "good" puppet, bob.
ReplyDeleteYou'll be surprised by how bad it it could get. And we have no influence, there, never did.
He still has to get that bomb to Japan, which is easier said, then done.
But nothing new happened, when Obama took over. The NorKs continued their strategic policy of intimidation, and the rest of the whirled still appears intimidated.
If the SouK continue apace with the downsizing of their military, that proves that those that know NorK best, fear it least.
The US continuing to deploy its' missile defense systems in Alaska, where they can intercept any NorK launch capable of reaching America.
ReplyDeleteContinuing to deploy missile defense in the face of a real, if minor threat. While pulling back on plans to deploy in Europe, where the cost benefit analysis is quite different.
That the Japanese could have a problem with their ex-colony, Japan's problem, certainly not ours.
ReplyDeleteJapan's history of occupation, in Korea, was blatantly oppressive. They now reaping the whirlwind of their anscestors misdeeds.
National kosmic karma.
If Taiwan, Japan and the Auzzies feel the need to "arm up" we should not get in their way.
ReplyDeleteThe US should not be shouldering the security load alone. That idea being so late 20th century.
Not the way of the new millenium.
Where it takes a village.
I guess we could just charge a security fee, to the other players. That idea just never seems to gain any traction, though.
The US is trending away from a 600 ship Navy and is set to decommission another two carriers.
If there was real need for them, before, someone will have to fill the gap.
Let Charlie Chi-com come to terms with whose side he wants to be on. As time marches on.
But let's get our friends to carry some of the load, the fuckin' ingrates.
Tampa Bay housing prices down 40.6 percent from peak and still dropping
ReplyDeleteSince cresting in the summer of 2006, Tampa Bay area home prices have tumbled 40.6 percent and now approximate what they were in August 2003, according to the latest S&P/Case-Shiller home price index. Case-Shiller's housing report from March offered little encouragement that home prices were stabilizing. Tampa housing values plunged 22.4 percent from March 2008 to March 2009. From February to March, prices dipped 2.7 percent.
Tampa Bay housing prices down 40.6 percent from peak and still dropping
ReplyDeleteKarma goes back a long, long way. So far in fact it seems to get lost to time and memory, except to the Memory of All Things. A seemingly infinite regress. Which causes problems, thinking about it. The Buddha seems to have declined to comment about such things. I'm open to suggestions.
ReplyDelete40% and still dropping. Real estate karma, the Harvest of Barney Frank. Out here in these isolated areas, the decline hasn't been anything like that. Boise has been hit hard, however.
ReplyDeleteI'd rather carry the load, if it would prevent everyone else from nuking up. It gets too complex. You'd never know what alliances might crawl out from under the bed. Maybe another Asian Greater Co-Operation Prosperity Sphere.
ReplyDeleteThe burden is light, the rewards great, Rat.
Wal-Marts new SuperStore is almost completed here. The old store going up for sale. How they'll ever sell that, with that huge parking lot, I'll never know.
ReplyDeleteCan't think of anyone who might buy it. Maybe some small manufacturer of something.
New ammo plant, maybe.
A fair assessor would put the value at nearly zero, while it's unoccupied.
I know of an old pizza building in Moscow that has been for sale time out of mine. Nice building, really. Right on the main Moscow/Pullman highway. Can't rent it, can't sell it. I imagine the owners are being taxed to death, probably frantic by now.
Researchers Claim: Greenland ice could fuel severe U.S. sea level rise...
ReplyDeleteTIDE TURNING: Sarkozy Appoints Outspoken Climate-Change Skeptic...
Climate conference sex boom...
Environmentalism loses its cool: New ABC show mocks greens, carbon footprints...
Burris claims he didn't buy the Senate seat, though they evidently have him on tape offering to do so. Heh heh
ReplyDeleteWell, I didn't actually send the check.
Burris On Tape--
-/
Criminals are running the show, folks.
Well you may wish US to carry that load, bob, we cannot. We're out of money.
ReplyDeleteEvery time the costs and benefits are mentioned, you complain of higher taxes and never endorse spending cuts.
The carriers are being decommissioned. Were they ever really needed? If they were, how can they be decommissioned and not replaced?
If we cannot afford to run an 11 carrier battle group Navy, we best get some help.
Or admit the fears that drove us during the last half of the 20th century were unfounded.
Or that the real threats have disappeared, for now.
Replaced by boogie men of little capacity but lots of bravado.
Which seems to be the reality of the whirled wide situatiion.
The old store going up for sale. How they'll ever sell that, with that huge parking lot, I'll never know.
ReplyDeleteAcross the street from WalMart Super Center #1 the K-Mart chain put in a huge store to try to stick it to old Sam and company about 30 years ago or so. Trade slowly dwindled for K-Mart, as the Super Centers blossomed across the land. Finally a few years ago the store closed, much to mom's disappointment. This last trip back there were signs that a new regional VW dealership was to open there "soon".
I was back for five months, and the VW store never opened. They're probably paying the rent or mortgage now though, as well as their remodeling costs.
A good community organizer would promote an urban renewal project up in Moscow, put in a subsidized minority owned tortilla factory, or fried chicken processor. Maybe a potato chip operation. You could recruit the organizer from the Fresno area. Experience guaranteed.
There is always indoor paintball, for those obsolete 40 to 60,000 sq ft buildings.
ReplyDeleteThey dot the landscape here.
Filling up with Goodwill outlets and second hand clothiers, when they are leased.
After being vacant for years.
Dick Morris just playing to the fears of nukes, on a partisan basis, instead of the reality of the military situation. He just ignores the realities of the last 60 years.I reread the article bob posted [NewsMax servers seem swamped]. Morris' article is reasonable. Nothing I disagree with.
ReplyDeleteThat not much effective in the last 20 years, or so, has been accomplished doesn't detract from the points he made.
Obama's being tested and we know the outcomes.
Yeah, the same outcome that was obtained by every other President since Ike.
ReplyDeleteThe NorKs have continued on their course.
Lesson No.3: Nothing will deter the North Koreans from keeping and developing their nukes. Both hawks and doves should realise this.
Former CNN correspondent Mike Chinoy, representing the doves, in his book Meltdown presents the eight years of Bush as a long parade of missed opportunities when the North Koreans, who longed to give up their weapons, were insulted, rejected and frustrated by Washington.
In truth Bush alternately tried hard and soft policies with Pyongyang, but nothing worked for long. That the North Koreans used whatever Bush did as an excuse for going their own way does not mean they would have gone any other way had he acted differently.
Former Bush official John Bolton argues a kind of mirror reverse of Chinoy's position: that if only Bush had been tougher he would have forced the North Koreans to crumble. But there is no evidence for this. Bolton is so hawkish in his calls for regime change in Pyongyang that he teeters on the brink of calling for military action against at least its nuclear facilities, but sensibly he always shies at this final hurdle.
Military action against North Korea would be utter folly.
...
Part of the frustration the international community has with North Korea comes from a failure to understand its bizarre internal political culture.
Stalinist dictatorships are best considered as national equivalents of the narcissistic personality in psychology. They are completely self-obsessed. North Korea's interlocutors keep trying to devise a system of incentives and disincentives. But the North Koreans make entirely different calculations. Their paradigm is utterly foreign. This is a classic weakness of realism as an analytical tool in foreign policy. Realism holds that states act on the basis of their interests rather than their ideologies. This is wrong throughout history but especially wrong of regimes such as Kim's. Kim will act in his own interests, but his evaluation of his interests may bear no resemblance to our evaluation.
Obama is continuing the Bush policies with regards to Korea. There is little other option for the US.
... Obama's enthusiastic embrace of the PSI is a good sign. The PSI allows member nations to intercept any North Korean cargo suspected of being related to nuclear proliferation. It was widely regarded as one of Bush's most assertive and bellicose actions, routinely deplored in the Third World.
That Obama pursues it shows there is little to separate him from Bush on Korean policy.
...
Korean culture, which the North has warped with its Stalinist cult of personality, is inherently very intense. I had the pleasure of meeting the previous president of South Korea, Roh Moo-hyun. He did strike me as an unlikely guy to be president, but certainly he was a rational actor. Last week he committed suicide.
Three Lessons from Pyongyang's Test
Pyongyang Has A Strategy--Do We?
ReplyDeleteNicholas Eberstadt,
We must recognize North Korea for what it is, instead of what we want it to be.
Without rehearsing every sorry misstep in the hapless saga of West's tragic-comic effort to prevent North Korea from satisfying its nuclear ambitions, we may observe one recurrent contribution to this 20-year failure: a seemingly overpowering desire to treat North Korea as the state we would like it to be, rather than as the state it actually is.
ReplyDeleteThis diplomatic variant of condescension may at times have been engendered by high-minded motives. In practice, however, it has accounted for an almost unending series of miscalculations and blunders in our dealings with Pyongyang. Our performance against our North Korean adversaries is unlikely to improve appreciably until we do them the courtesy of taking them seriously: of understanding what they want from the world, rather than what we think they should want.
...
Ambassador Stephen Bosworth, the administration's special envoy for North Korea, was quoted in the South Korean press as stating "We ... believe strongly ... that everyone has a long-term interest--regardless of this short-term problem [i.e., the ballistic rocket launch], in getting back to the negotiations in the six-party process as expeditiously as possible."
That formulation was almost exquisitely wrong: Pyongyang's own interest is precisely in creating not just one "short-term problem," but an unending succession of them--and its "long-term interest" in the multilateral negotiation process will extend only as far as that vehicle can provide diplomatic cover for continuing North Korean proliferation.
Diplomatic interaction with Pyongyang, to be sure, can potentially serve the purposes of America and her allies--but only if such overtures fit within the context of a broader coherent strategy. When our diplomacy with Pyongyang has served as a substitute for strategy--as it did during the last several years of the George W. Bush administration--the results have been little short of disastrous.
Unless and until the Obama administration demonstrates it really has a plan for "change we can believe in" on the Korean Peninsula, look for further progress in North Korea's program of developing nuclear weapons that can reach the mainland of the United States.
I think this fellow hits the nail, on the head.
ReplyDeleteQ: Do you think North Korea poses a real threat or is it just a political game that they are playing?
A: I am a little different from some observers, because I think the threat is very small. North Korea lacks the industrial capacity to build large numbers of long-ranged missiles. They will not be able to build so many weapons as to become a strategic factor in the region. But I have to acknowledge that they do pose a threat to South Korea both through short-range missiles, and the possibility of using the nuclear weapons in the South, even though there are just a few, or artillery from the North to the South. That would be the end of the North regime if they were to attack the South, but they still have that capacity. Moreover, they may force the Japanese to reconsider their very modest defense program. The Japanese have the capacity to move to a nuclear weapon, I do not think they will, but they certainly can. Certainly, politically Japan will debate whether or not move to a nuclear weapon in the short term because of this development in North Korea. And they do feel threatened by the North Korean short-ranged missiles and nuclear weapon. But as I said, North Korea is an industrial midget and not really in a position to pose a large-scale threat to the neighborhood.
Douglas H. Paal is vice president for studies at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. He previously served as vice chairman of JPMorgan Chase International (2006–2008), and as unofficial U.S. representative to Taiwan as director of the American Institute in Taiwan (2002–2006). He was on the National Security Council staffs of Presidents Reagan and George H.W. Bush between 1986 and 1993 as director of Asian Affairs, and then as senior director and special assistant to the President.
Trouble is, here, we lack the population base to sustain such All-American activities as a subsidized minority owned tortilla factory, or fried chicken processor. Maybe a potato chip operation might work if we could get the potatoes, cheap, from old Simplot, now deceased. Indoor paintball, no way, the kids here shoot the real thing, outdoors.
ReplyDeleteAnother Goodwill outlet is our best bet, or a Deseret outlet, as the Mormon equivalent was called in Twin Falls.
I'd be happy if they turned it into a public library. It's so big, compared to what we have, that you could put all the books on chest level shelves, which would suit me just fine.
A match, gasoline, and insurance policy is the best route to success.
Wife is sure looking forward to the opening of the new one, which will have food n' stuff.
The boogie men, not what the used to be, that's fer sur
ReplyDeleteDiscontent Rises Sharply Among Russian Troops
Military Overhaul Brings Layoffs, Lost Apartments.
By eliminating thousands of officer-only units that were designed to call up draftees in wartime, and moving to a leaner, brigade-based structure, Medvedev intends to cut Russia's officer corps from 355,000 to 150,000, dismissing more than 200 generals, 15,000 colonels and 70,000 majors.
The plan has run into stiff resistance, with some top military officials resigning in protest and the Kremlin firing others. Retired generals and nationalist politicians have accused Medvedev and Prime Minister Vladimir Putin of scaling back Russia's military ambitions by essentially giving up on trying to maintain an army capable of confronting NATO.
...
One 48-year-old lieutenant colonel assigned to a garrison near the Chinese border said he was offered a certificate that would have allowed him to buy only a tiny studio apartment on the outskirts of Ussuriysk or a rural house without a sewer system or running water. When he refused to take it, he was discharged without an apartment and had to sue his commanders to get reinstated.
"I felt like they seized me by the scruff of my neck and threw me away as if I was something useless," said the colonel, a veteran of the war in Afghanistan who asked to be identified only by his first name, Viktor, because he feared reprisals. "I'm upset with everyone -- the state, the commanders -- and there are many people like me facing similar problems."
We are where we are.
ReplyDeleteWouldn't be had Condi not run the show.
Posted this @ BC also, where history seems to have stopped at the last day of the great W's reign.
---
Cheney/Bolton '04!
---
Cheney 'tried to block North Korea nuclear deal' Vice President Dick Cheney fought furiously to block efforts by Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice to strike a controversial US compromise deal with North Korea over the communist state's nuclear programme
"The exchanges between Cheney's office and Rice's people at State got very testy. But ultimately Condi had the President's ear and persuaded him that his legacy would be stronger if they reached a deal with Pyongyang," said a Pentagon adviser who was briefed on the battle.
Mr Cheney's office is believed to have played a key role in the release two months ago of documents and photographs linking North Korea to a suspected nuclear site in Syria that was bombed by Israeli jets last year.
---
Mr Cheney was so angry about the decision to remove North Korea from the terrorism blacklist and lift some sanctions that he abruptly curtailed a meeting with visiting US foreign experts when asked about it in the White House last week, according to the New York Times "I'm not going to be the one to announce this decision. You need to address your interest in this to the State Department," he reportedly said before leaving the room.
The surprise deal was condemned by both neoconservative hardliners and mainstream Republicans who argued that it left North Korea with nuclear weapons and rewarded Pyongyang's intransigence.
"Usually the word 'meltdown' applies to a nuclear reactor. In this case it applies to Bush administration diplomacy which once aimed to halt the North Korean programme and has now become an abject failure," Richard Perle, chairman of the Pentagon defence policy board in the run-up to the 2003 Iraq invasion, told the Telegraph.
Probly some of them Ruskies could find employment in Bloomberg's Revolutionary School System, 'Rat:
ReplyDelete---
Principals Younger and Freer, but Raise Doubts in the Schools http://www.nytimes.com/2009/05/26/nyregion/26principals.html?em=&pagewanted=printThey are younger than their predecessors, have less experience in the classroom and are, most often, responsible for far fewer students. But their salaries are higher and they have greater freedom over hiring and budgets, handling a host of responsibilities formerly shouldered by their supervisors.
Among the most striking transformations of New York’s public school system since Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg took charge in 2002 is that of the role of principal, once the province of middle-aged teachers promoted through the ranks, now often filled by young graduates of top colleges.
“I wanted to change the old system,” Schools Chancellor Joel I. Klein said in an interview. “New leadership is a powerful way to do that.”
One of Mr. Klein’s proudest achievements is luring promising candidates to the toughest schools by providing more autonomy in exchange for accountability through test scores and other data.
But an analysis by The New York Times of the city’s signature report-card system shows that schools run by graduates of the celebrated New York City Leadership Academy — which the mayor created and helped raise more than $80 million for — have not done as well as those led by experienced principals or new principals who came through traditional routes.
A separate Times analysis shows that since 2002, opening hundreds of new schools and raising salaries have swelled the principals’ payroll 43 percent after adjusting for inflation. The average salary among the current 1,500 school leaders tops $133,000, 10 percent higher than their 1,200 counterparts in 2002 in inflation-adjusted dollars, even as the median household income nationally has risen only marginally.
An average of 649 students are under each principal’s purview, compared with 879 six years ago; pay per pupil, then, has jumped to $205 from $138 in 2008 dollars.
Security in nuclear weapons for everyone, al-Doug!
ReplyDeleteIf all the devils in the world have nukes, and we're all devils to one another, as I find, almost finishing "Ship of Fools", then, 'all will be well'.
ReplyDeletePeople say MAD was mad, but at least there weren't many Hatters to Moniter for Madness.
ReplyDeleteGrade inflation--
ReplyDeleteMoody's affirms US AAA rating despite rising debt...
Guns, pill bottles and a nasal douche used for treating Elvis Presley’s sinuses will be up for sale in the first auction of items from the collection of George “Dr. Nick” Nichopoulos, the King of Rock ‘n’ Roll’s physician. The nasal douche, expected to sell for $1,000 to $2,000, was used by Presley before each concert to irrigate his sinuses and treat his throat
ReplyDelete---
Group of 27 spring style wire hair rollers - $1,500 to $3,000
"My guess is that we have just witnessed the dreaded breakout. The nonproliferation regime is dead. It’s death throes began when the international sheriff was pilloried for sunsucessfully searching the arsenals of notorious malefactor known to be seeking nuclear weapons and publicly shamed for it. Whatever legitimacy the sheriff might have had to preempt tyrants like Kim vanished between 2005 and 2008; and Obama helped destroy it, a circumstance which he may or may not regret. But the nonproliferation regime was already in the process of dying. "
ReplyDelete---
Poor W couldn't be expected to stand up to Condi after being abused so.
Sometimes takes me a while to get the point.
Sometimes have to invert my head to get it.
(point down)
I think the debate was more like Sugar Ray Robinson versus Jake LaMotta and you know who won that fight. David Brooks, the kind of conservative that the Palin rabble want to exit the party wrote in the Times on May 22, that Cheney's real fight was against members of the Bush administration who rejected his sadistic polices.
ReplyDeleteIt was Rice against Cheney. We know who won that fight.
Now little was made by MSNBC of Buchanan's support of a Nazi concentration guard who was deported in May. (Where are the people who condemned Minister Farrakhan when we need them?)4 Writers
Sometimes have to invert my head to get it.
ReplyDelete(point down)...
You need one o' them nasal douches.
Ahhh.
ReplyDeleteDavid Brooks.
One of Doug's favorites.
...his sadistic polices.
ReplyDeleteIs David gay, or are his panties just in a permanent twist?
Or is he just a "realist"?
Latest Brooks work is
ReplyDelete"Why Sado Mayor's Life Matters"
...I have not subjected myself to it, as yet.
A Special Hell Awaits:
ReplyDelete---
Bush v. Gore Foes Join to Fight Gay Marriage BanDavid Boies and Theodore B. Olson, opposing lawyers in the 2000 recount, have teamed up to fight Proposition 8 in California, citing equal protection and due process.
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Good old Ted.
Been in DC so long, his Rep in DC is all that matters.
If the cowards hadn't taken out Barbara, he'd have better things to do.
Brooks:
ReplyDelete"And I say this aware that I break with the conventional view of judicial temperament.
The conventional view, expressed classically by Learned Hand, is that judges should strip their judgment of personal idiosyncrasy and render detached opinions. "
---
Guess what Davie:
It's also in their f...... oath of office, moron.
Hey Trish:
ReplyDeleteYou Scotch?
BOYLE GOES BERSERK: UK singing sensation in foul-mouthed outburt with police... Developing...The Scottish singer was heard to roar: "How f***ing dare you! You can't f***ing talk to me like that."
One of two cops stationed at the hotel went up and asked: "Is there a problem?"
Susan, dubbed SuBo, roared: "Of course there's a f***ing problem."
I like the shoes. Kind of expected wook boots, but, I like those shoes. (Maybe they are the work boots)
ReplyDeletePresident Barack Obama's national security adviser says there is a growing consensus in the world that North Korea and Iran should not be allowed to acquire nuclear weapons. The comments were made in the first public appearance in his new role by retired General James Jones.
ReplyDelete...
"On issues of proliferation and issues of nuclear safety and the like, there is a growing convergence of opinion in the world. If you watch what the Russians are saying, if you watch what the Chinese are saying, if you watch what India is saying, if you watch what, obviously, most of the world is focused on, (it's) what's going on in North Korea and what's going on in Iran," he said.
And General Jones, a former commandant of the U.S. Marine Corps and later commander of all NATO forces, says how the international community addresses either potential threat will have an effect on the other, and also on security in both their regions. He said he is "excited" about the possibility of significant U.S., Russian and Chinese cooperation on this issue, and he wants to see how far it will go through a series of high-level meetings in the coming months.Iran Nukes
Ideehoe
ReplyDeleteYou're looking north, there al-Doug. Head up that way to McCall. You'll be getting into the great Idaho Batholith
ReplyDeletePluton?
ReplyDeleteWhat's a freaking Pluton?
Bob Hope's Widow's 100th Birthday!
ReplyDeleteDid they have kids?
(It's a part of our national heritage that Rat wants to auction off to the superduper rich, letting the No Tresspassing signs go up, to pay down the national debt. Thankfully, 99% of his fellow citizens disagree with him. Today, you can go up there, wander around all summer, hardly ever see a soul, unless the animals have souls)
ReplyDeleteA pluton is the offspring of a saturon and a jupiton.
ReplyDeleteHell if I know.
One of my high school mates was
ReplyDeleteBob Hope's housekeeper for a summer. (I imagine he had more than one house--this was in LA, if I remember correctly) Said he was a hell of a nice guy, and the wife too.
Palm Springs, no doubt, have to ask the wife.
ReplyDeletePalm Spring had a population of about 3,500 in '55, I think!
I think it was Palm Springs. Would have been about 1964.
ReplyDeleteI remember going through a huge volcanic area in SE Idaho on a drive to Yellowstone one time. Road winding through and up and down in this huge lava field.
ReplyDeleteCan't remember the name of the area. National Park, I think.
Seems like it may have been just to the SE of that there Atlanta lobe.
Craters of the moon?
ReplyDeleteMaybe?
I think that's it. Haven't checked yet.
ReplyDeleteDad put in Hope's AC!
ReplyDeleteSinatra, Dean Martin, Wagner, Natalie Wood, Harpo Marx's kids Alex Jimmy and Minnie, Jack Benney, Charlie Farrell, Red Skelton, daughter Val, Lucy and Dezi Jr, Phil Harris's daughter Phyllis, Johnny Mercer, William Morris's kids Steve and Chris. Eddie Fisher and Liz Taylor,
Architect William Frey, and Jonas Salk kids Steve and...
The list goes on.
Don't get al-Bob Started on the coming Yellowstone Catastrophic Eruption, Sam!
ReplyDelete"The U.S. has 28,500 troops in South Korea as a deterrent against North Korea."
ReplyDeleteHope the Norks have perfected their air defenses.
The artillery barrage of Seoul would ensure that the air response would be somewhat more intense than the American and world public have seen thus far.
Craters of the Moon
ReplyDeleteCraters of the Moon
ReplyDeleteWe could probly sell that to the Chi-Coms, al-Bob.
ReplyDeleteGive BHO enough money to Euthanise you.
Map
ReplyDeleteThat's got to be where you were, Sam. I haven't been through there, unless I was so young I can't remember. (Or, too old now :) )
ReplyDeleteI remember mom talking about it.
Let's not sell it off. Keep the national parks. I'll euthanize myself.
Yep, that's it, Bob. Thanks. You should go. Impressive. I still remember and I was pretty young at the time.
ReplyDeleteHm,
ReplyDeleteLooks like euthanise is spelled with an s or z...
Just head south of the Atlanta Lobe and make a left. Can't miss it.
ReplyDeleteBut Google says Did you mean: Euthanize but it don't go the other way.
ReplyDeleteHm
Google = America
ReplyDeleteEuthanise = British
I always knew you were a damnable Royalist, a British spy.
ReplyDeleteWho was the winning pitcher in the last game of the 1957 World Series, damn you?
Your life depends on it.
Answer!
India Today Sept 1sr week Hindi and English (Villains of Kashmir)
ReplyDeleteCan we substitute Cricket?
ReplyDeleteWhy Villains in Movies Have English Accents
ReplyDelete"I exploit the greed of all hitters. "
ReplyDelete- 1957 World Series Most Valuable Player Lew Burdette (on how he was able to start three games, win three games, and toss two shutouts)
We all got to go to the Auditorium @ School to watch this:
ReplyDeleteBill Mazeroski ends 1960 World Series with Homerun
Cheering from from atop Cathedral of Learning at the University of Pittsburgh overlooking Forbes Field.
ReplyDeleteCan we substitute Cricket?--
ReplyDelete-/
heheheh
the Sophisticated Evil Genius was born, to populate blogs, spread disinformation, confuse the people, and demoraliZe our nation.
I'll bet your haven't painted the roof of your dwelling white, to stop global warming!
Energy Czar Demands The World Paint Roofs White--
ReplyDelete-/
A Chi-com plant, if there ever was one. Chew on that. If the shoe fits, wear it.
Using this logic, wouldn't that mean that in the winter it would take MORE energy to heat your homes and offices, because it wouldn't hold in the heat from the sun's rays?
ReplyDelete*********************
--just a reasoned, calm and assuring presence. An Obamanomenon! He did it. (BeternU)
"The American Republic will endure until the day Congress discovers that it can bribe the public with the public's money."
Alexis de Tocqueville (Democracy in America) 1830's
"...the things that pass for knowledge, I can't understand..." s.dan
heh, didn't the great al-Insky say ridicule was a potent weapon?
ReplyDeleteAn Obamanomenon!
At least I wasn't an English Major.
ReplyDeleteGiant Blob Found In Nevada--And It's Not Harry Reid
ReplyDeleteNo General, you weren't an English Major.
ReplyDeleteJust wait til they run into the Giant Subterranean Bees.
ReplyDelete"The researchers' analyses suggest the newfound drip won't cause the area to sink down or pop up quickly; nor will it cause earthquakes. In fact, they say there would probably be little or no impact on people living above the drip."
ReplyDelete---
If all it did was result in the creation of the little drip Reid, that was much more than enough.
I know of an old pizza building in Moscow that has been for sale time out of mine. Nice building, really. Right on the main Moscow/Pullman highway.You have any more details? Can you get the address?
ReplyDeleteHere--
ReplyDelete-/
GoogleEarth the address--there's a McDonalds right next door. That's the busiest Highway in the whole area. Palouse Empire Mall a block away.
2008 Taxes: $7,567.60
ReplyDeleteI'm surprised those taxes are so low. They tried to tax me $5,100 for a vacant lot up the street.
I would have guessed in the $20,000 range, based on my experience.
Thanks for making me look that up.
Tomorrow I may call and find out what the current assessed value is.
I'd bet it's been for sale three years, maybe more.
They had the parking lot leased to a used car seller for a short period of time.
It's actually set up for a little drive through in the back parking lot.
Thank you bob, that's quick service.
ReplyDeleteOoooh, $495,000 and no trade fixtures. A little pricey for me. I did Google street view downtown Moscow for possible pizzeria location.
I need a place with charm and character, preferably in a busy downtown walking area.
It hasn't sold at that price. Obviously. I have no idea what they might take, but I have a feeling they are getting sick of it. Don't know who owns it.
ReplyDeleteI don't know a thing about retail sales. But that's a busy highway.
GOP's Alexander Calls For 100 New Nuclear Plants--
-/
Well, good for him, somebody has some sense. All 40 GOP Senators favor nuclear power.
Maybe Twin Falls would be the place for you. They had a nice revitalized older downtown area, maybe twice the size of ours.
ReplyDeleteWe're going back down there. I'll take a quick look around.
That Pullman road location is an example of government driving the final nail in the coffin. Taxing the real estate at almost $8k per year is ridiculus. How is a small businessman going to make a living there when he has to pay over $600 per month in real estate taxes alone!? Never mind the debt service on the $495 property or the business equipment.
ReplyDeleteSomething has got to give. The real estate bubble has burst and the market wants to restore sanity. Obama and Company are fighting it but I don't think the US Government is bigger than the market. I think we're going to bankrupt ourselves for nothing.
Prices have to come down and government has to forget about these confiscatory tax rates...it's that simple.
We elected the biggest tax and spend group in our history.
ReplyDeleteSomeone was talking about Arnold Toynbee, the historian, died about 1970 or something, on the radio last night.
His prediction was the USA would be the fastest rising and fastest falling 'empire' in history. Because of our open borders---which first came about with Kennedy/Johnson, when the quota was raised from something like 150,000 a year or so, to over a million, and the control of the border has been lost, and other factors, such as electing folks like we have elected, turning the government into sugar daddy to one group, confiscating from the other, etc.
The Republicans must make major gains in 2010.
Tea Parties coming up in about a month.
That's to say, we'd fall from within, is what I think the point was.
ReplyDeleteSan Diego County Wants To Stop Bible Study In Home, Raise Cash
ReplyDeleteMichelle Malkin reports today that Democratically connected Chrysler Dealerships stay open, others don't.
ReplyDeleteNorth Korea has tens of thousands of missiles aimed at South Korea....
ReplyDeleteHmm... Hezbollah had 10k missiles aims and FIRED at Israel...
Hezbollah killed 26 people.... (not for lack of trying) Now maybe the Skor will not be so prepared as to be lucky (israelis have bomb shelters) but in the end this aint going out with a fizzles... It's going out with a bang...
But Obama aint going to do ANYTHING.....
NOTHING....
So he pushes (throws under the bus our allies and tears up decades long mutual defense understandings and treaties) Skor and Japan to step up and defend themselves...
No matter what happens bad, not his fault, if anything good happens? it's his claim...
sadly millions ill die and be wounded all so that our Promised Messiah can wave like a god to the crowd and claim, he is the one we have been waiting for...
Lord Vader, (obama) throws Israel under the bus, poland, columbia, japan, sKor and still smiles as he now decides to double our energy taxes to transfer wealth to the world from our pockets...
Yep time to "de-grow" america down to our 4% profile... time to lose our "manifest destiny" our "american exceptionalism"... fuck John Wayne, time to embrace "buckwheat's" out look
bob, as long as folk have meetings without goals and agendas, spending a bundle, with no reason why, we're goiiin' to be in the caca, the deep caca.
ReplyDeleteI never mentioned selling a National Park, bob.
Just National Forest or BLM lands. Some military installations, as well.
The Persidio in Monterey and in San Fransisco two prime examples of Federal real estate that could be sold.
A bankrupt that will not cut expenses, increase revenue streams or sell assets. With that mentality large and in charge, little wonder we've borrowed our way to cultural dysfunction.
The local Walmart is in a leased building, 100,000 sq ft, at $16 per foot. $1.6 million per year.
Their sales, I'm told, around $850,000 per week. With the average shopper spending right around $38 per visit.
If you want to be in business, that is the kind of scale that one needs to have, in retail, for even a chance of success, today.
Tough to do it cookin' pizza, even at a buck a slice.
A 4,500 sq ft building, witn no ovens, at $450,000, is $100 per foot. About the construction costs. They're giving the land away, if you'll pay for the building.
So, with a down payment of $90,000 and another $20,000 in ovens and fixtures, our pizza kitchen has a real estate loan of $360,000 @ 7% for 15 years. Monthly nut, $3,250.
Add the taxes and you're at $4,000 per month, more or less. Add at least another $1,000 for utilities.
At this point, you've dropped well over $110,000 cash, have committed to paying $5,000 a month for the building, and have yet to sell a single pie.
Say the average pizza goes for $15, which seems about right.
That's 333 pies each month. In top line sales. But the cost of materials, for those pies, about $5 each and the cost of labor, about the same.
So it'll take a thousand pies a month, just to pay for the building. Then another thousand, to produce a profit to the owner that would justify the $30,000 in down payments and the liability of the monthly nut.
It seems that the basic pizza pie maker, would need to sell 2,000 pizzas a month, just to see dayight at the end of the tunnel. Any less and it would not be daylight, but the headlights of a Pizza Hut delivery truck that'd be comin' at ya.
Just National Forest or BLM lands--
ReplyDelete-/
Well, that's much of Idaho and most of Nevada for starters.
Your analysis of the pizza business is probably about right. The last guy I knew of who had it was a college prof--music I think--mostly retired who wanted something to do. He had the pizzas, plus other food, a salad bar, beer and, I think, wine. After that I lost track.
Good location though. But it isn't selling. I don't know if it has any debt on it. I'd be willing to bet it has. Nearly everything does. Maybe a bank will be trying to sell it one day.
The difference 'tween Hamas and lil Kim, wi"o" is the size and payloads of the delivery systems.
ReplyDeleteThey are not at all comparable, really. Except that both fly through the air.
The average Hamas rocket weighs in at less than 50 lbs, that's rocket and payload, which weighs in at about 5lbs. the NorK artillery shells throw nearly 33 kgs of HE, or about 72 lbs of explosive.
They can fire aprox. 300,000 of those, in the first hour of a conflict.
The Hamas rockets fall on empty fields, for the most part, the NorK artillery is registered on the 24 million people living within the range of their guns.
The targeted Korean population four times the entire population of Israel.
Which dwarfs, by comparison, any military threat that Hamas presents.
elijah is correct when he says that the counter strikes, against the NorK guns, would be massive and brutal. The SouK would eventuually 'win' the exchange, but at a cost of perhaps 500,000 dead civilians. Maybe even more, if the NorKs went with chemical weapons, early.
dr: The difference 'tween Hamas and lil Kim, wi"o" is the size and payloads of the delivery systems.
ReplyDeleteThey are not at all comparable, really. Except that both fly through the air.
The average Hamas rocket weighs in at less than 50 lbs, that's rocket and payload, which weighs in at about 5lbs. the NorK artillery shells throw nearly 33 kgs of HE, or about 72 lbs of explosive.
The analogy was between HEZBOLLAH and Lil Kim...
Not Hamas
Well, bob, the Federal government GAVE your family the land, and you complain of paying taxes on the capital gain, if you sell it.
ReplyDeleteWould the people of the US have been better off keeping it, or selling it to someone?
Rather than giving it away, to immigrants of all people!
Not even "Real" Americans.
Correct again, that about half or Idaho would be for sale, as would be the case in AZ.
The artifical shortages of developable land would end, and folks could build out on larger pieces, not needing to live in preplanned McMansion communities.
Disempowering and unenabling the "Planning Czar", of Moscow.
Hezbollah now has 40,000 rockets
ReplyDeleteand those are aimed at residential areas...
Israel expects to loose 600,000 people if Iran/syria/hezbollah hit israel with a 1st strike nuke..
600k Israelis would be 10% of their population and quite frankly not going to happen if Bibi has anything to say about it...
HB, too, wi"o".
ReplyDeleteThey're not using 133mm MLS rocket launchers, but firing ... short-range Katyusha rockets. ... The rocket carries an explosive payload of 17 kilograms. ...
Still not comparable, really.
Except that it makes invading Lebanon a more difficult proposition than it has been in the past, for the Israeli.
As those rockets and artillery make military action against lil Kim much more difficult.
Nukes not being needed to provide a deterence factor. "Enough' onventional arms can do the trick, too.
Some how the HB and Hamas elements have gone from firing small rockets, ineffectively, to delivering a nuke.
ReplyDeleteA big step, indeed.
But again the analogy breaks down, 40,000 @ 17kg vs 300,000 @ 33kg.
Not even worth punchin' the bottons on the calculator.
But that is not denying that HB has an effective deterent against another invasion, as does lil Kim.
This comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteWhen HB fires a rocket, it's gone, forever.
ReplyDeleteThe NorKs just put another series of rounds in the tubes, and can try firing another 300,000 rounds, in the second hour of conflict.
The scale of the NorKs capacity is really extreme. Well beyond anything that the Muslim of the Levant can bring to bear against Israel.
Some how the HB and Hamas elements have gone from firing small rockets, ineffectively, to delivering a nuke.
ReplyDeleteA big step, indeed.
But again the analogy breaks down, 40,000 @ 17kg vs 300,000 @ 33kg.
Not even worth punchin' the bottons on the calculator.
But that is not denying that HB has an effective deterent against another invasion, as does lil Kim.
You nicely leave out Syria and Iran from your calculus...
Try looking at it again... and try learning history of iran, syria, lebanon, hezbollah, hamas and their actions and statements...
they DONT NEED a missile if they can smuggle a container in..............
dr: The scale of the NorKs capacity is really extreme. Well beyond anything that the Muslim of the Levant can bring to bear against Israel.
ReplyDeleteNow i can sleep well...
40k missiles that hezbollah has, hamas has completely re-armed, syria has wmd rockets and missiles...
yet it's a walk in the park...
wow, if you read and accept what WiO writes you are led to conclude that Israel really is a victim - tiny and weak.
ReplyDeleteCohen, in the NYTimes has an interesting op/ed piece on the US and Israel. He concludes:
" Netanyahu talks a lot about the “existential threat” from Iran. The United States faces a prosaic daily threat: Many more young American men and women will die in Iraq and Afghanistan over the next several years if no Iranian breakthrough is achieved.
Obama must remind Israel of that. He should also tell Bibi that the real existential threat to Israel is not Amalek but hubris: An attack on Iran that would put the Jewish state at war with Persians as well as Arabs, undermine its core U.S. alliance, and set Tehran on a full-throttle course to a nuclear bomb with the support of some 1.2 billion Muslims."
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/05/28/opinion/28iht-edcohen.html
Kosher Cellphone
ReplyDeleteYou, wi"o" started the comparisons.
ReplyDeleteAnd did not mention Syria or Iran.
May as well throw Russian capacity in on the HB column, too.
How about the Chinese?
But, even with the Syrians factored in, the NorKs still are a greater local threat.
Per historical precedent and the terrain.
In each case though, the miscreant would be fighting a defensive war, not one of aggression.
But you do effectively make the case for why foreign, that is to say external, intervention will be required to bring peace and security to the Levant.
dr: But, even with the Syrians factored in, the NorKs still are a greater local threat
ReplyDeleteLocal threat to WHOM?
To the Israelis, Syria, Iran, Fatah, Palestinians, lebanon, hezbollah, moslem brotherhood, hamas are enough of a local threat...
how does one say Israel's local threat is not as bad as South korea's local threat?
they both suck....
and in BOTH cases... Iran, China, Russia, Syria are all involved....
Whit @ 07:28:00 AM EDT
ReplyDelete---
Amen
"and in BOTH cases... Iran, China, Russia, Syria are all involved...."
ReplyDelete---
The Good Guys.
...In you know who's alternate reality.
the solution to North Korea is simple...
ReplyDeleteAmerica should start slowing down the accepting of Chinese imports into America....
let China deal with North Korea...
or...
Let the dogs of war reign...
Japan now must return to the Imperial Japan that it once was (complete with beheadings)
I think Prez Floppy Ears seeks chaos...
"never waste a good crisis"
LinkagesLinkages
ReplyDeleteTwo parts of a single coordinated enterprise were taking shape on opposite sides of the world. The pieces of a giant puzzle were coming together with potentially lethal results as Caroline Glick explains:
North Korea is half a world away from Israel. Yet the nuclear test it conducted on Monday has the Israeli defense establishment up in arms and its Iranian nemesis smiling like the Cheshire Cat. … Less than two years ago, on September 6, 2007, the IAF destroyed a North Korean-built plutonium production facility at Kibar, Syria. The destroyed installation was a virtual clone of North Korea’s Yongbyon plutonium production facility. … the main reason it makes sense to assume that Iran and North Korea coordinated their tests is because North Korea has played a central role in Iran’s missile program.
Nuclear weapons are the heart of the dispute between Obama and Netanyahu over the way the “peace process” should go forward. According to Glick, Obama believes that the establishment of a Palestinian state constitutes the unavoidable first step in the process in which the nukes will be dealt with somewhere along the way, maybe, while Netanyahu is seeking a guarantee of national survival before signing on to Washington’s plan. The differences between the two are going to be highlighted by the IDF’s plans to launch “largest civil defense drill in the country’s history for next week”. Israel, Glick says, is alone. Ironically, like North Korea and Iran, on this subject there is nothing more the Israeli government has to say to Barack Obama.
Between North Korea’s nuclear test, Iran’s brazen bellicosity and America’s betrayal, it is clear that the government can do nothing to impact Washington’s policies toward Iran. No destruction of Jewish communities will convince Obama to act against Iran. Today Israel stands alone against the mullahs and their bomb. And this, like the US’s decision to stand down against the Axis of Evil, is not subject to change.
"No destruction of Jewish communities will convince Obama to act against Iran. Today Israel stands alone against the mullahs and their bomb. And this, like the US’s decision to stand down against the Axis of Evil, is not subject to change."
ReplyDeleteyep doug..
ReplyDeleteit's legal to murder jews once again...
but a newsflash...
i aint going quietly...
i suspect that 80% of American jews will die... Me and mine? we are preparing to be part of the 20%
Always best to count oneself and your loved ones as members of the Survivor's Club.
ReplyDelete2. Insufficiently Sensitive:
ReplyDelete"How the US and Israel wound up on opposite sides of a process to first demonize and then acquiesce in the ruin of Israel? How about by electing the most massively PC administration in the history of the US, in which the sensitive and caring Europeans and their antisemitic baggage form the role model? ."
Let's see what happens, IF, a Jewish community were to be destroyed, before passing judgement on the reaction.
ReplyDeletePre-emptive War did not pass muster, in the United States, and will not be tolerated on the whirled stage.
The fruit of GW Bush's tree of life.
The sweet taste of military success never passing our lips. While the bill for the fare delivered was exorbitant.
Leaving Israel to pick the tab. The tab for the meal that was supposed to bring safety and security to the region, according to the neo-cons.
We should have driven on to Damascus, but it was not to be. Mr Bush reading the words, but not understanding their meaning.
As he so aptly proved, responding to Mr Bremer's letter.
Saying he fully supported Mr Bremer's plans to move forward disbanning the Iraqi Army, when he had no real comprehension that he was approving the Plan, or what the consequences of implementation would be.
The consequences of those flippant decisions, both the intended and unforeseen, immense in the history of the United States.
And for Israel, too.
ReplyDeleteSo, if one wishes to bemoan the current situation, blame the neo-cons, for promoting such a poor policy, so effectively.
...but his elite education, followed by an alcoholic quest to become a Real Cowboy, left a deficit of ability to competently lead.
ReplyDelete---
4. nelson:
"Obama may or not be a fool when it comes to foreign policy, but the trap set up for Israel hasn’t been planned by him. It has probably been planned for a long time by the State Dept and other US enemies of Israel. It was, at least partly, at work already during the Bush administration."
---
Exactly when W, (no doubt with support from Laura the Librarian)
stopped listening to the adult (Darth) and Merged with tite-butt herself,
Sec of State and We are the Whirled,
Madam Ms Condi Rice.
Phd and Stanford Hottie, don'tcha know.
ReplyDeleteExspurt on Russia,
ReplyDelete...and all things,
according to The Decider.
(Great Aerobic Partner, also)
ReplyDeleteprayer equipped.
"Gawd Save Us!"
ReplyDeletewould have been appropriate.
This comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteCharles said,
ReplyDeleteAble Danger raises its head - again!Able Danger raises its head - again!
Horse Soldiers | 2009 | Doug Stanton
In his book, "Horse Soldiers," Stanton describes
(pg 27) t
he thoughts of Major General Geoffrey Lambert, US Special Forces Command, Fort Bragg on the morning of September 11, 2001.
“It had taken him about ten seconds to figure out who had masterminded the attacks, and who had carried them out.
For the past several years, he had observed a top-secret intelligence program called data mining that had identified one man, an Egyptian by the name of Mohammed Atta, as a serious terrorist with links to a Saudi named bin Laden, who was a financier of terrorist training camps for men like the Egyptian.
Months earlier, the people involved in the program had tried telling the FBI what they had discovered, but Army lawyers had discouraged the disclosure, even though the project had identified the highjackers. Lambert figured they knew everything there was to know about Osama bin Laden and his military training camps in Afghanistan, but none of the legal minds could decide if the surveillance was lawful.
Now Lambert felt sick that more effort had not been made to warn someone. (Lambert, extremely upset, later agreed with lawyers that the information not be shared with the FBI.)”
Stove piped knowledge.
ReplyDeleteHave to keep secrets, for security's sake.
So 19th century.
There are no strategic secrets, now.
Just some details that stay in the shadows.
The Able Danger data sets should have been published and distributed, to the public.
Then the whole wide whirled could have taken notice of reality and acted accordingly.
Instead it remained a secret and thousands of civilians were killed, because of security protocols.
Standard Operating Procedures.
It was amazing what WAS published, by the MSM, apart from Govt.
ReplyDelete...as I learned in our forum in Honolulu before it was shot down.
---
...Stuff like a complete description of the Pacific Airline Terror plot and it's origin, on CNN's website, but buried by most of the Media, and, (of course) the Government.
For the US military to announce that they had knowledge of a plot against the US, and the alledged plotters all of whom were foreign nationals. That the sources and methods of acquiring the knowledge made taking legal action by in the US, in legal system, impossible.
ReplyDeleteThen the FBI would have known.
So would we all, an informed public. Let the miscreants sue US for libel, if they wish.
desert rat said...
ReplyDeleteLet's see what happens, IF, a Jewish community were to be destroyed, before passing judgement on the reaction.
Look towards Gaza...
Jews were RIPPED out of their homes for peace...
and all they got?
was the world saying more....
DR: Pre-emptive War did not pass muster, in the United States, and will not be tolerated on the whirled stage.
ReplyDeleteThe whirled stage DOES it all the time...
But policy, doug, is to hide the truth and allow for the happy face.
ReplyDeleteThere is fear of boogie men, and then there are those of proven capability. We promote the boogie men and diminish the realities.
9-11-01 a perfect example.
A platoon size element, using asymetric tactics and stolen local assets conducted three successful raids upon US military and commercial infrastructure, out of four attempts. Killing 4,000 US civilians, doing billions of dollars worth of economic damage, and ultimately catching the US military on the flypaper of Middle East war.
The resulting subsequent political debate, in the US, revolves around waterboarding, missile defense and nuke enrichment in Iran.
Which have no real relationship to the 9-11-01 attacks or the perps, except that the sponsors of the commando teams were already nuclear equipped.
Then called our primary ally in the "War"
The ultimate "Anbar" style payoff, that was marketed as success.
Some times it is, wi"o", to be sure.
ReplyDeleteBut the Standard is not uniform, because US interests across the globe are not uniform.
They are situational.
The situation, in regards the Levant and Iran revolves around that primary US interest.
The free flow of oil.
So, where the US has a primary National Interest, pre-emptive war, by anyone other than US, will not be tolerated.
As evidenced by Israel stopping it's Gaza campaign, concurrently with Obama's Inauguration Day.
If anyside in the Region attempted a pre-emptive war, the US would actively repress the effort.
Conflict Resolution
Standard Operating Procedure
after listening to rat, i for one will begin praying that we have not truely become the "whore of babylon".
ReplyDeletei should add i do not believe this, that which rat speaks of.
ReplyDeleteIn Gaza, wi"o" it was the Israeli that removed those settlers.
ReplyDeleteSo what penalty should be assessed to those that ordered their removal?
That was Mr Sharon, was it not?
dr: As evidenced by Israel stopping it's Gaza campaign, concurrently with Obama's Inauguration Day.
ReplyDeleteIf anyside in the Region attempted a pre-emptive war, the US would actively repress the effort.
Conflict Resolution
Standard Operating Procedure
Your points well taken however there is just one fly in the ointment....
the bad guys..
THEY dont play by your or Potus's SOP...
THEY will change the playground where least expected...
Some interesting issues coming to bear...
Lebanon is LIKELY to be overrun by Hezbollah in their free and fair elections...
Egypt is heading for open war against the Muslim Brotherhood and Hezbollah
Turkey and Kurdistan?
Iran, well we all KNOW that issue...
The palios themselves....
Israel is being boxed into a corner, America is cutting off helicopters, arms and ammo to the Jewish state trying to force it's behavior, all the while giving Lebanon 1 billion military aid, the Palios 1.5 Billion in aid, Jordan aid, even ARABIA gets aid... (not to mention 3 billion for egypt)
War is coming, whether America thinks it can stop an Israeli strike on Iran or not...
It's coming...
and it aint pre-emptive...
that horse ran out of the barn YEARS ago...
Preemptive war is a damned good thing sometimes, depending.
ReplyDeleteMIllions would have been saved if someone had preempted that madman in Germany.
Israel was right to take out Saddam's reactor, and the Syrian one.
I was hoping W and Israel would get together and preempt Iran.
WiO is right about what we could do with China.
The local threat, to the civilians living in the impact areas.
ReplyDelete24 million or so, in SouK, tens of thousands in Israel, living in the conventional weapons impact areas threatened by the Evil Doers.
After voting for a guy that was in favor of homicide for those that survive abortions, who doesn't shrug a shoulder about millions of abortions, but thinks gay marriage is some kind of transcendental right, a guy that wants to 'ration' medical to the aged, it doesn't surprise me Ash can't see the predicament that Israel is in.
ReplyDeleteAsh and Rat, what a combo. Politics makes strange bedfellows.
And a man, Ash, who's high on women's rights, so he says, standing up mightily for the muzzie oppressors of women.
ReplyDeleteThat was then, bob, this is now.
ReplyDeleteThat window of opportunity closed, there is a new sheriff in town.
That summer of '03, the decisions made were monumental and the outcomes less than optimal.
Which seems par for the course, for Team43, in retrospect.
Mr Obama really is the representation of a huge fundamental change, in and for the United States of America.
There is no goin' back.
dr: In Gaza, wi"o" it was the Israeli that removed those settlers.
ReplyDeleteSo what penalty should be assessed to those that ordered their removal?
That was Mr Sharon, was it not?
Yes ordered by Sharon, Ordered by the USA, & the WORLD, all for the concept of land for peace...
Israel has given the sinai back (two times) all of southern lebanon, gaza all for peace..
israel has offered 1/2 of jerusalem, 97.9 % of the west bank (with land swaps to account for the connection roads/tunnels that will be needed to connect gaza with the west bank...
The concept of "land for peace" is dead...
it's not peace for peace...
There's a new sheriff in town and his name aint BHO...
It's Bibi....
Size doesnt matter...
It's location...
America DOESNT LIVE in Israel.....
America can and could cut off all aid to Israel...
Israel accept's 3 billion a year in aid for it's military, Israel spends 150 BILLION a year out of it's own pocket.........
By cornering Israel, America is forcing Israel to attack iran....
Maybe if during the last 9 years America had listened to Israel telling them about the dangers of Iran we could have done something.... but we slept...
so now our community organizer marxist leader will seek to screw the jews...
OK, go for it Prez Floopy Ears.... Go for It...
Ash said...
ReplyDeletewow, if you read and accept what WiO writes you are led to conclude that Israel really is a victim - tiny and weak.
No ASH not a victim, but someone who aint taking shit from cowards (like you)
Ash continues: Cohen, in the NYTimes has an interesting op/ed piece on the US and Israel. He concludes:
LIKE WE REALLY CARE ABOUT THAT MORON?
ASH, try a better source than Cohen from the NYT... He's a nitwit...
I wont even waste my typing on responding to that twit...
Back to Korea, lil Kim is about to pass on, with power transferring to Kim the Youngest.
ReplyDeleteIf the Army elites say yes.
Which the Chinese will endorse, as NorK breaking into a land of local warlord fiefdoms. With no unifying structure, terrible as the current system is, life on the peninsula would worsen and the threats of conflict increased.
Charlie Chi-com and the SouKs see the short term liabilities to NorK disintergration and are very afraid.
They see the nuke tests and embrace the conservative solution, maintaining the staus que.
Israel has given the sinai back (two times) all of southern lebanon, gaza all for peace..
ReplyDeleteisrael has offered 1/2 of jerusalem, 97.9 % of the west bank (with land swaps to account for the connection roads/tunnels that will be needed to connect gaza with the west bank..--
-/
That's right. How many times are they expected to do this, only to be attacked again?
And to think a little more giving and maybe some talking with Iran by Zero is going to lead to anything is a real hallucination. So the conclusion is, while Ash may hallucinate, our leadership is selling out Israel.
WiO wrote:
ReplyDelete"The concept of "land for peace" is dead..."
Think again. Watch as Bibi starts by forcing out some of the smaller settlements in the near future. The pressure is mounting. Israel won't get East Jerusalem or all that settled land in the West Bank without making some serious trades even if the Religious zealots howl.
DR: Pre-emptive War did not pass muster, in the United States, and will not be tolerated on the whirled stage.
ReplyDeleteAye.
So tempting to argue with that nonsense.
But the image of that gerbil in her cage intrudes. Spinning, spinning, spinning...
Keep trying, wi"o" until it works.
ReplyDeleteIf at first you don't succeed, try, try again.
That is why the external intervention option will become the only viable way forward.
It will be the only way to resolve the conflict. External third party intervention, acceptable to both factions. US, through Nato, which sends Turkish Peacekeepers.
To Jerusalem and Gaza
The Golan Heights and the Palistinian camps in Jordon and Lebanon. From the Litani River to Haifa.
Enforcing the Geneva Accords and the various signed agreements that have been made, across the land of the Levant.
Equally, impartially.
Without empathy.
Israel will withdraw to defensible borders...
ReplyDeleteAs her enemies hit her, Israel increase the lethality of her responses....
This game wont last for too much longer...
The squatting arab barbarians will be turned loose BACK into the arab world and the arabs will have to deal with their own...
As for Israel? watch the fireworks....
Israeli arabs that are convicted of aiding enemies will be BOOTED from citizenship and living in Israel...
WHOLE Arab towns will be DRAWN out of the state of Israel and given to the arabs to digest as they see fit...
The arab world is about to consume it'sself...
I will eat popcorn and watch.....
Cant WAIT for a a swine flu outbreak in Gaza, Iran, Syria or Egypt...
I got my popcorn...
The pagans are about to get a lesson in darwin..
Turkish peacekeepers. About the same chance as Son of Shah coming back and ruling Iran.
ReplyDeleteWell, lineman, argue that Mr Obama will allow pre-emotive military action, after posting the pirate story.
ReplyDeleteIt is one that I'd be capable of having. Using the comments you made, then.
Mr Obama will not condone pre-emptive war, especially one that endangers the US National Interests, as percieved by Mr Obama.
He would not even approve capping the pirates, to end the crisis, if your story was accurate.
If he were to wage a pre-emptive war, it'd be in the name of Conflict Resolution, not an escalation of tensions into new hostilities. Hostilities that by design would threaten the free flow of oil.
That the US, under President Obama, will impose a double standard, in the name of peace and justice. I'll argue yes, he'll employ situational ideology.
You'll argue ...
You'd argue he would not?
Those West Bank settlements, WiO, are viewed by most in the worlds as Israeli squatters - squatting illegally. Israel is a pretty small place in comparison to the rest of the world.
ReplyDeleteWell, bob, there is one major difference.
ReplyDeleteThe Turks have a million man Army, they sent 10,000 troops into Iraq. They are capable, they are NATO.
The "Son of Shah", he had GW Bush.
Obama will do nothing.... He will just be there to either claim credit or to ride the crisis to higher levels of power...
ReplyDeleteObama wants the middle east oil supply to dry up...
Then he can effect the global warming agenda by having 400 a barrel costing oil....
supply will be diminished and he will be in CHARGE...
all hail our great big floppy earred messiah...
and when jedi master Mace Windu goes to destroy Palpatine after discovering him to be the Sith will Anakin protect the Sith by disabling Mace Windu during this confrontation thereby giving the Sith the opportunity to destroy jedi master Mace Windu?
ReplyDeleteI swear, this is playing out just like star wars III.
will the US take a side when things go hot or just vote present?
Ash said...
ReplyDeleteThose West Bank settlements, WiO, are viewed by most in the worlds as Israeli squatters - squatting illegally. Israel is a pretty small place in comparison to the rest of the world.
The WORLD? is that the SAME world that sat by as 6.5 million jews were butchered?
The WORLD? is that the SAME world that sat by as POL POT had his killing fields?
The WORLD? is that the SAME world that sat by as as Sudan raped and murdered almost a million africans?
The WORLD? is that the SAME world that sat by as China harvest political prisoner's organs and still occupies Tibet?
The WORLD? is that the SAME world that sat by as Turkey swallowed Cyprus and allowed the Turks to commit Genocide on the Armenians?
The WORLD? is that the SAME world that sat by as Serbia opened up concentration camps in the heart of Europe?
The WORLD? is that the SAME world that sat by as Mugabe butchered his way thru his country into starvation
The WORLD? is that the SAME world that sat by as Lil' Kim goes nuke?
The WORLD? is that the SAME world that sat by as Georgia was invaded by Russia
The WORLD? is that the SAME world that sat by as Russia murdered how many 100's of thousands in Checnya?
The WORLD?
The are meaningless....
as is your points..... as usual
WiO, it is interesting in that post above that you placed Israel on the same side as all those evil deeds. Your point is well taken though, the world has often sat idly, at least for awhile, while gross injustices occurred. The world as has sat mostly idle as Israel has expanded through 'facts on the ground'. Will they continue to allow Israel to expand? Maybe, but the pressure is increasing. They left Gaza and they are starting in the West Bank, but slowly, very slowly.
ReplyDelete...the world has often sat idly, at least for awhile, while gross injustices occurred. The world as has sat mostly idle as Israel has expanded through 'facts on the ground'. Will they continue to allow Israel to expand? Maybe, but the pressure is increasing. They left Gaza and they are starting in the West Bank, but slowly, very slowly.
ReplyDeleteBarkeep!
Coffee for Ash. Black. No Bushmills.
ASH: The world as has sat mostly idle as Israel has expanded through 'facts on the ground'. Will they continue to allow Israel to expand? Maybe, but the pressure is increasing. They left Gaza and they are starting in the West Bank, but slowly, very slowly.
ReplyDeleteIsrael has offered to leave 96% of the west bank, including Jewish lands that Jews have lived on for over 3000 years....
Sadly the world and death cult arabs have never accepted the concept of peace...
so in the end...
Peace will not come to Israel EVER by the death cultists until every last jew is decapitated...
and then they will turn to you for your head...
The world as has sat mostly idle as Israel has expanded through 'facts on the ground'.
ReplyDeleteDam those pesky Jews.... Actually building homes in and around Jerusalem... How dare they...
lol.....
too fuckin funny....
World pressure is not building on Israel ash...
ReplyDeleteworld pressure is building on a sunni verse shia war...
cant WAIT for that to explode....
Maybe they will find some sort of agreement by trading lands of equal value for the lands they've settled. The last offer of lands were primarily arid.
ReplyDeleteMost don't seem interested in fomenting a Shia - Sunni war WiO. It may well happen though and it is threatening to flare anew in Iraq.
ReplyDeleteYep, they've been building in East Jerusalem and in many places in the West Bank religiously pursuing Eretz Israel. Not very conducive to peace however.
ReplyDelete...Well, lineman, argue that Mr Obama will allow pre-emotive military action, after posting the pirate story.
ReplyDeleteBarkeep!
Make that two black coffees.
One for rat.
'Bama and "preemptive action" in world events don't belong on the same page, let alone the same sentence.
-----------
Check Israeli performance in the arena of "preemptive action".
They've sure suffered recently and historically haven't they?
Spare them the barbs of world opinion!
Ash said...
ReplyDeleteMaybe they will find some sort of agreement by trading lands of equal value for the lands they've settled. The last offer of lands were primarily arid.
nonsense...
the swap of lands that Israel offered was to take into account the lands needed to connect gaza to the west bank...
as for the concept of arid lands in the middle east?
lol
Israel GAVE the palestinians GREEN HOUSES
DO YOU REMEMBER HOW THAT TURNED OUT?
Ash said...
ReplyDeleteYep, they've been building in East Jerusalem and in many places in the West Bank religiously pursuing Eretz Israel. Not very conducive to peace however.
Dam Jews building in the Jewish Section of Jerusalem..
conductive towards peace?
what utter nonsense comes out of your pie hole...
Eretz Israel.
If that was the case the forced removal of the bastard seed from the west bank INTO jordan would have occured.....
Eretz Israel.
If that was the case WHY are there MORE bastard seed of ishmael LIVING in Israel today than were displaced in 1948 & 1967?
WiO wrote:
ReplyDelete"If that was the case the forced removal of the bastard seed from the west bank INTO jordan would have occured....."
Well, because the Jews of Israel are better folk than you. At least they realized the genocidal nature of that task.
Those pre-emptive actions, lineman, were in the days before Obama, when even the US would engage in pre-emptive war.
ReplyDeleteThose days are gone.
An Israeli strike against Iran will not be the "end" of the story, only the beginning.
The United States has fundementally changed, and you may have missed the early signs.
It certainly feels like 2003, all over again.
The fellow I quoted earlier had an interesting point, that applies to Israel, as much as it did NorK.
This is a classic weakness of realism as an analytical tool in foreign policy. Realism holds that states act on the basis of their interests rather than their ideologies. This is wrong throughout history but especially wrong of regimes such as ...
This is where the Israeli reaction will befuddle Mr Obama, and the Israeli then declared uncooperative, or, in a word he's used before, "Nuts".
One incremental step after another.
How long can the Israeli economy, much less IDF run, with an oil embargo in place?
The strategic challenge that always troubled mat.
One incremental step after another.
ReplyDeleteThe strike on Syria's Nkor nuke facility under the waning Bush admin, and recent strikes in Sudan just don't count against the SOP. Don't rise to Samantha's level of significance, even though her pali pals were inconvenienced by the mysteries in Sudan.
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ReplyDelete