COLLECTIVE MADNESS
“Soft despotism is a term coined by Alexis de Tocqueville describing the state into which a country overrun by "a network of small complicated rules" might degrade. Soft despotism is different from despotism (also called 'hard despotism') in the sense that it is not obvious to the people."
Mr. Obama got himself into the position of having to make a major speech by losing focus during a press conference about three weeks ago. While trying to say that the cable news professional commentariat were getting way ahead of where he was prepared to take the country in the fight against ISIS, he inartfully said that he had "no strategy" at that point to chase them into Syria.
ReplyDelete...
A few months after Senator Obama became President Obama a memo was issued that stated the phrase "Global War on Terror" was no longer operationable and would henceforth be referred to as "Overseas Contingency Operations."
...
President Obama (and his staff) get a gentleman's C for this effort. They rushed into it to try and stem the constant stream of complaints (immigration), outrage (golf after the James Foley) and outright ridicule (the tan suit).
Strategy and Tactics
At 8:36 the question is raised, who will the US supply close air support to in Syria?
ReplyDeleteThat is really the question that must be asked.
US diplomatic efforts to consolidate support and broaden the coalition against Isis saw Secretary of State John Kerry on a mission to convince Sunni leaders in Jordan and Saudi Arabia to join the US and its allies.
ReplyDelete...
"There's been no pushback against the Islamic State and they have made breathtaking advances. We haven't seen anything like this since Hitler and the blitzkrieg in World War II," said Rep Michele Bachmann (R-Minn), who sits on the House Intelligence Committee.
...
The Office of Director of National Intelligence said the Islamic State's "ability to carry out complex, significant attacks in the West is currently limited", but added that "the United States is not immune".
Obama's Mission Impossible
ReplyDeleteThe president is about to present a strategy for destroying the Islamic State. Too bad it can't be done.
BY Shane Harris
SEPTEMBER 9, 2014
Shane.Harris
In a national television address on Wednesday, U.S. President Barack Obama will address the American people and lay out what the White House is touting as a muscular strategy for "degrading and ultimately destroying" the Islamic State, which has captured vast swaths of Iraq and publicly beheaded two American journalists. One problem: That will be literally impossible to do.
The United States has spent more than a decade trying to eliminate al Qaeda, but despite decimating the group, its fugitive leader, Ayman al-Zawahiri, remains alive and the group's offshoots operate in Mali, Yemen, Somalia, and a growing list of other countries. Israel has spent decades battling Hezbollah and Hamas, but the groups remain capable of launching large-scale combat operations like this past summer's Gaza war. Destroying an organization means eradicating it for good, as the Allied powers did to the Nazi party in Germany during World War II, said Christopher Harmer, a former U.S. Navy officer and an analyst with the Institute for the Study of War. "If you use the word 'destroy,' you're talking about a comprehensive military and political victory," Harmer said. "And if the mission is to destroy [the Islamic State], what we're doing now is wholly inadequate."
Destroying the Islamic State, by this definition, would require eradicating or neutralizing its tens of thousands of fighters, kicking them out of the territories that IS holds in Iraq, and depriving the group of its base of operations in Syria, where Obama's own military advisers have said the fight must turn in order to halt the Islamic State's advances. The fact that the group has recruited hundreds of fighters with Western passports, as well as its massive stockpile of cash and access to oil revenue, also make it particularly resilient.
The president's choice of words when he talks about fighting the Islamic State is crucial because it will shape the future of the U.S. military's intervention in Iraq, which has to date consisted of more than 150 airstrikes carried out in coordination Iraqi and Kurdish ground forces. The strikes have managed to pick off handfuls of Islamic State vehicles -- and a steady stream of press releases from U.S. Central Command documents those victories down to the number of Humvees and pickup trucks bombed by the high-tech American warplanes. But the United States hasn't said how many Islamic State fighters have been killed, and the campaign so far appears not to have made a significant dent in the organization's ability to move freely in Iraq and Syria or hold onto the major cities it now controls in both countries. As soon as the Islamic State is knocked back in one area, it pops up in another, as it has in recent days at a dam in Haditha, where U.S. planes have once again been bombing the militants. The United States began bombing on Sunday, Sept. 7, to prevent Islamic State fighters from taking control of the dam, which provides fresh water to millions of Iraqis and is the second-largest source of hydroelectric power in Iraq.
DeleteTruly destroying the Islamic State would require a major commitment of combat ground forces, but Obama has already said that they won't come from the United States. So right out of the gate, any strategy based on eliminating the group is hamstrung by the lack of a key ingredient...............
http://www.foreignpolicy.com/articles/2014/09/09/sorry_obama_but_you_cant_destroy_the_islamic_state?wp_login_redirect=0
Obama is that worst of all things.....a nitwit.
He's the cause of all this shit, and what he proposes to do is wholly inadequate.
He should have gotten up there and said it is the policy of the United States to recognize and support a Kurdish State.
That at least is doable and would be a good thing.
Even though Quirk doesn't like Kurdish videos.
The Great Orator
ReplyDeleteSeptember 11, 2014
Obama's Looking Up...
By Russ Vaughn
At least he was in his speech about dealing with Middle Eastern terrorist organizations. It was a bit disconcerting to those of us who have become accustomed to watching the usual puppet-like, swivel-necked delivery – left to right, then quickly back to left – of past major pronouncements to the nation, delivered in the full glory of this politician’s unusually adept mastery of teleprompters.
But not this time. Nope, we got the full-face, straight-on delivery, with those eyes boring straight into America’s soul. Well, except when they weren’t – as in when they were shifted upward to read his speech from some other prompting device positioned over the camera, focused on his face. Go back and look at the video, and you’ll see Obama’s eyes flicking up frequently to that electronic miracle of eloquence, that screen that displays the contrived and carefully constructed words and phrases that his administration wants to be heard by this nation and the world.
You can bet some really clever media advisor suggested to White House staff that another swivel-necked presidential delivery at such a serious moment in history might appear to Americans to be contrived and insincere. Well, then, let’s not have that; we have to project gravitas, and we need an American commander-in-chief who doesn’t have to rely on two teleprompter panels straddling the podium to project his serious determination and his focused intent to deal with world events.
Nope, we’ll just put one screen up there above the full frontal camera and let him read all his sincerity and determined intent from that screen above the camera. No more obvious swivel-necking for this transparent administration! Nope, these open and transparent liberals have come up with a way to make their exalted leader look straight into that camera as he makes his grand pronouncements...well, with maybe just a few of those frequent eye shifts upward to make sure he’s staying on script.
DeleteHey, no matter how they set it up, the guy is still reading a script, written for him by the real powers behind the throne. It’s the only way he knows how to communicate – a skillful but empty, soulless orator. When Obama announced that this would be the most transparent administration ever, he didn’t know the half of it:
Transparent, brother, these turkeys are indeed…
At least he was in his speech about dealing with Middle Eastern terrorist organizations. It was a bit disconcerting to those of us who have become accustomed to watching the usual puppet-like, swivel-necked delivery – left to right, then quickly back to left – of past major pronouncements to the nation, delivered in the full glory of this politician’s unusually adept mastery of teleprompters.
But not this time. Nope, we got the full-face, straight-on delivery, with those eyes boring straight into America’s soul. Well, except when they weren’t – as in when they were shifted upward to read his speech from some other prompting device positioned over the camera, focused on his face. Go back and look at the video, and you’ll see Obama’s eyes flicking up frequently to that electronic miracle of eloquence, that screen that displays the contrived and carefully constructed words and phrases that his administration wants to be heard by this nation and the world.
You can bet some really clever media advisor suggested to White House staff that another swivel-necked presidential delivery at such a serious moment in history might appear to Americans to be contrived and insincere. Well, then, let’s not have that; we have to project gravitas, and we need an American commander-in-chief who doesn’t have to rely on two teleprompter panels straddling the podium to project his serious determination and his focused intent to deal with world events.
Nope, we’ll just put one screen up there above the full frontal camera and let him read all his sincerity and determined intent from that screen above the camera. No more obvious swivel-necking for this transparent administration! Nope, these open and transparent liberals have come up with a way to make their exalted leader look straight into that camera as he makes his grand pronouncements...well, with maybe just a few of those frequent eye shifts upward to make sure he’s staying on script.
Hey, no matter how they set it up, the guy is still reading a script, written for him by the real powers behind the throne. It’s the only way he knows how to communicate – a skillful but empty, soulless orator. When Obama announced that this would be the most transparent administration ever, he didn’t know the half of it:
Transparent, brother, these turkeys are indeed…
Read more: http://americanthinker.com/blog/2014/09/obamas_looking_up.html#ixzz3CzwEGD6X
Follow us: @AmericanThinker on Twitter | AmericanThinker on Facebook
Sorry for the overlap.....it's the computer, not me.
DeleteBy the way, the overhead teleprompter technique was pioneered by Quirk back in his SuperSalesMan days. There is nothing new about it. He always says 'the nitwits love eye contact'.
Adding, "If you going to sell a line of shit, lock in a stare into the whites of their eyes."
DeleteISIS backwards is Sisi.
ReplyDeleteThat way we can all remember who currently runs Egypt, and who has offered free land as a permanent home for Hamas and the PA.
They won't take it, of course. They couldn't care less about it. Their real purpose is to exterminate the Jews.
DeleteYou conflate Hamas and ISIS because a manipulative shyster originated the equation to manipulate the ignorant American public, The public that confuses Australia with Austria, believes Costa Rica is an island and is totally ignorant of the very complex area that we continue to engage militarily.
DeleteHamas is much deadlier
DeleteNot to worry, the Moslem brotherhood and it's offspring hamas, are dying,
Deuce ☂Thu Sep 11, 07:20:00 AM EDT
DeleteYou conflate Hamas and ISIS because a manipulative shyster originated the equation to manipulate the ignorant American public, The public that confuses Australia with Austria, believes Costa Rica is an island and is totally ignorant of the very complex area that we continue to engage militarily.
Notice the selected usage of words...
"manipulative shyster"
be thinks you have got something on the brain and it aint love of Jews.
Hamas is a lovely, nationalistic group of folks, freedom fighters that all they want it to reclaim their stolen lands.
DeleteJerusalem.... and all of Israel.
Nothing like ISIS...
Hamas wants to re-establish Islamic control over all the land as they claim it's all an Islamic trust, once conquered by Islam, it is always part of Islam no matter what...
By that same logic ISIS operates and Spain is also a target.
Those that excuse "hamas" as different than ISIS are delusional.
I know what the word “shyster" means. It is a good word, like “schmuck". They have bee metabolized into the vulgate of the English language. I could have used both terms to describe Netanyahu, both would have been “spot on” (an Englishism creeping into the jargon). None are particular to use by Jews or about Jews.
DeleteI don’t love or hate Jews, Catholics or Christians. I don’t hate nationalities. I do hate people that think they can wrap a flag, a cross or a star around them and that packaging gives them something special over any other human being. You should know that by now.
DeleteDeuce ☂Thu Sep 11, 09:42:00 AM EDT
DeleteI know what the word “shyster" means. It is a good word, like “schmuck". They have bee metabolized into the vulgate of the English language. I could have used both terms to describe Netanyahu, both would have been “spot on” (an Englishism creeping into the jargon). None are particular to use by Jews or about Jews.
Denial...
"manipulative shyster"
Deletegive it a rest...
not meant as a slur against jews...
sure...
Deuce ☂Thu Sep 11, 09:46:00 AM EDT
DeleteI don’t love or hate Jews, Catholics or Christians. I don’t hate nationalities. I do hate people that think they can wrap a flag, a cross or a star around them and that packaging gives them something special over any other human being. You should know that by now.
by you love hamas and ring NOTHING wrong with them, ever.
Darwin time.
ReplyDeleteObama is doing this because he read the polls and repeated a political mistake that he has done on several other occasions:
ReplyDeletePresident Obama admitted in an interview airing Sunday that it was a mistake to go golfing on Martha's Vineyard immediately after condemning the beheading of American journalist James Foley last month.
He also told Meet the Press that he will go to Congress and the nation this week with a strategy to defeat the Islamic State militants, whom he accused of "savagery" in the killing of thousands of innocent people in Iraq and Syria, including two American journalists.
"There's no doubt that — after having talked to the families, where it was hard for me to hold back tears listening to the pain that they were going through, after the statement that I made, that you know, I should've anticipated the optics" in going golfing, he said. "You know, that's part of the job."
"But part of this job is also the theater of it," he said. "It's not something that always comes naturally to me. But it matters. And I’m mindful of that,” Obama said.
Two Americans were beheaded, on video. If Obama didn't do something, after that, he surely would be impeached.
ReplyDeleteHamas and Hezbollah are proxy armies, albeit aysymetrical ones at that, but they line up civilians and execute them in the same form of Islamic justice that isis does. Hamas has zero issues with murdering Jews, heck it makes them heroes
ReplyDeleteDidn’t some Israelis do that to a young American teen that was also a Palestinian and as the three murdered Israeli teens were in the wrong place at the wrong time?
ReplyDeleteThere were some Jews that murdered an Arab of Israel. they were not viewed as "heroes" by Israeli society.
DeleteThere are no squares named after them, no parades, they are in jail on murder charges.
The 3 Israelis? You mean the 2 Israelis and ONE American who kidnapped by a fully funded planned kidnapping by Hamas?
The one that executed the 3 in the bag of the skull?
Those killers are now heroes in the Hamas world and even Hamas has BRAGGED about it.
Were the murdering Jews heroes to Israelis?
ReplyDeleteNope, they are in jail as they should be
DeleteYou really don't KNOW about Israel .
DeleteThe Israeli government has, to a large extent, continued the Ottoman legal system in regard to land ownership.
DeleteThus, today the vast proportion of land within the State of Israel (roughly 93%) is owned and managed either by the Israel Lands Administration (ILA) or the JNF. This figure includes much of such extensive regions as the Negev and the Judean Wilderness (near the Dead Sea), which are sparsely populated.
Jewish settlements in the State of Israel usually are located on lands that are owned by the ILA or the JNF and that have been consigned to each settlement through long-term leases.
Less than 7% of the land in the State of Israel is privately owned.
http://elearning.la.psu.edu/jst060/lesson_2/land-ownership
Private property was the original source of freedom. It still is its main bulwark.
DeleteSounds a little like Idaho, except we don't let people live on the public lands.
DeleteI like it. Keeps people like rato from living here. And people like that are too lazy to even visit.
I like it. And so do the vast majority of folks out this way.
If Israel wanted to do things some other way, they would do things some other way.
What's it to you?
You want to sell the National Forests off to the Ted Turners of the world.
You are an idiot, and out of step with the majority of your fellow countrymen/women.
People like you would turn the National Forests in a trailer park.
Stay in Phoenix.
Da ho Bob revels in his socialism.
DeleteThe Welfare King of Idaho, cashin' in his government welfare check, then he heads off to the casino.
DeleteSupports "Socialized Healthcare" for himself, but objects if the government wants to supply it to anyone else.
DeleteUtah reaches deal with Feds - agrees to expand Medicaid.
ReplyDeleteACA Signups
Unbelievable: Corn $3.43 / bu.
ReplyDeleteBloomberg
The guys are going to start cutting the garbanzo beans this afternoon.
ReplyDeleteI'm going for a combine ride !!
Whoopppeeeeeee !
Garbanzo bean price has held up OK.
Delete32 cents here
But he said the possibility of action in Syria raises even bigger issues.
ReplyDelete"There is no chance that the government of Syria under Bashar al-Assad would want foreign forces arming rebels opposed to his government," he said.
Professor Rothwell said the US-led forces would need to meet one of three conditions to make the action legal: a United Nations Security Council resolution, a credible argument of self-defence, or an explicit invitation.
"There is no UN resolution and no self-defence argument … as a general proposition, there is nothing in international law that says states can go into other states."
Read more: http://www.smh.com.au/federal-politics/political-news/prime-minister-tony-abbott-awaits-request-from-us-on-iraq-role-20140911-10fok9.html#ixzz3D1IM2OeL
ISIS Threat a Monumental “Farce”
ReplyDeleteIn the wake of Obama’s speech on ISIS Wednesday, his former top counterterrorism adviser at the State Department, Daniel Benjamin, told The New York Times the ISIS threat is nothing less than a “farce.”
“It’s hard to imagine a better indication of the ability of elected officials and TV talking heads to spin the public into a panic, with claims that the nation is honeycombed with sleeper cells, that operatives are streaming across the border into Texas or that the group will soon be spraying Ebola virus on mass transit systems — all on the basis of no corroborated information,” said Benjamin.
The propaganda campaign by the establishment portraying ISIS as a monumental threat will result in the United States intervening in Syria and overthrowing the al-Assad government. The Foley and Sotloff videos and the resultant shift in pubic approval for violating the national sovereignty of Syria were timed to coincide with the anniversary of the September 11, 2001 attacks to gain the maximum amount of war propaganda leverage.
NBC’s chief foreign correspondent Richard Engel, who says that U.S. boots are already on the ground in Iraq.
Delete“I know there are already American boots on the ground where I am now,” Engel told MSNBC, adding, “They are troops who are staying away from reporters, they are embedded with local fighters trying to guide in air strikes, gathering intelligence — the kind of thing you would have thought the Green Berets would have done many years ago, and which are now being done by Navy SEALS and Delta Force and other Special Operations Forces.”
The timing of the Foley and Sotloff beheadings wasn't planned to coincide with anything. They occurred however close enough to 9/11 so advantage could be taken of them.
ReplyDeleteI think ISIS is way over rated.
Some here thought they were going to be marching into Saudi Arabia and overthrow the government there.
They can't even get into Baghdad.
Nevertheless, now that they are embedded it's going to take more than some bombing to rid them from SunniLand in Iraq.
DeleteI was a member of the Idaho Militia all my adult life.
DeleteI know this stuff.
37 years.
DeleteThe "Rat Doctrine" is what Mr Obama described in his speech, let's hope he has the fortitude to "Stay the Course" and not be pressured into an escalation of US participation beyond that required to provide Close Air Support to local forces.
DeleteThe "Rat Doctrine" is a loser.
DeleteThe stepped-up bombardment to “degrade and destroy” the Sunni extremist group and increased support for “partner forces on the ground” were outlined by President Barack Obama in a nationally broadcast speech Wednesday night.
DeleteAt the outset of the intensified air campaign, some in the U.S. intelligence community already are questioning whether ISIS can sustain itself. Doubters cite the increasing loss of U.S. weapons that ISIS fighters seized from retreating Iraqi army troops this spring, increasing financial challenges and the fact that its forces appear to be overextended.
http://www.nbcnews.com/storyline/isis-terror/air-campaign-against-isis-target-leaders-seized-u-s-weapons-n200861
Which doesn't mean that General Bob is for an escalation.
DeleteGeneral Bob is for the creation of a Kurdish State.
That is a winner.
Winner or Loser the desert rat called US policy.
DeleteHe set the pace, described what was going to happen, before it did.
You could have let him slip away, but da ho called him back.
So there it is the "Rat Doctrine" it's the US policy of today.
This comment has been removed by the author.
DeleteIt's called narcissistic personality disorder.
Delete.
DeleteI see he has defined it a couple posts up. He and Obama are tied at the belt. No separation between them.
.
He posted it some time back, one of you clerks that have an interest in it can go back and look.
DeleteBut ...
It had to do with the application of US close air support against the forces of ISIS.
That US air power would be used in conjunction with LOCAL forces, and would stem the ISIS advance and then turn the tables on them. As ISIS was put on a defensive footing.
This is exactly the tqctical formulation that we have been witnessing.
That desert rat, for a fella that only rarely posts, he sure hit the nail on the head.
Must say that Rufus was on the ball, too.
On time and on target.
Those fellas, they must have been there, done that.
.
DeleteThe "Rat Doctrine" is what Mr Obama described in his speech, let's hope he has the fortitude to "Stay the Course" and not be pressured into an escalation of US participation beyond that required to provide Close Air Support to local forces.
Obama: "Our objective is clear: We will degrade, and ultimately destroy, ISIL through a comprehensive and sustained counterterrorism strategy," he said.
We will see how the 'rat doctrine' does.
.
.
DeleteObama also announced another 475 American military advisers would go to Iraq, pushing the total figure to about 1,700. At the same time, he made clear the strategy differed from all-out war again in Iraq less than three years after he withdrew combat forces from the country.
No boots on the ground?
You have to assume those 1700 'advisers' are wearing flip-flops.
.
The "Iraqi" ISIL will be well on its way to extinction by New Years Day.
DeleteHow the "Rat Doctrine" plays out in Syria, anyone's guess.
DeleteThere are no "Active Partners" for US, there.
No one to support, closely, from the air. In the battle against ISIS.
Unless the US were to form a working relationship with the Syrian Army, An Army that is backing the legitimate, recognized government of Syria, that of President Assad. The US has called on Mr Assad to resign his post and to dismantle his government. Not a likely scenario.
It is possible, Quirk, that Mr Obama will abandon the "Rat Doctrine".
DeleteHe may not stay the course.
But if he has resolve, he has chosen the 'best' tactical path.
In Syria, though, the "Rat Doctrine" will place the US on opposite sides from the Israeli.
It is the Israeli who support ISIS/al-Qeada radicals, in Syria.
Israel’s Ambassador to the United States Michael Oren told the Jerusalem Post that Israel so wanted Assad out and his Iranian backers weakened, that Israel would accept al-Qaeda operatives taking power in Syria.
“We always wanted Bashar Assad to go, we always preferred the bad guys who weren’t backed by Iran to the bad guys who were backed by Iran.”
Even if the other “bad guys” were affiliated with al-Qaeda.
“We understand that they are pretty bad guys,” Oren said in the interview.
http://www.jpost.com/Syria-Crisis/Oren-Jerusalem-has-wanted-Assad-ousted-since-the-outbreak-of-the-Syrian-civil-war-326328
.
DeleteIt is possible, Quirk, that Mr Obama will abandon the "Rat Doctrine".
:o)
Stop it, rat, you're killing me.
.
What will the reaction be here if ISIS takes a page out of the playbook of their brothers in Hamas and starts hiding behind women and children.
ReplyDeleteWill the folks here be saying the USA is committing war crimes if they bomb them and there are some 'civilian casualties'?
The war crime of the Israeli Zionists is Genocide, not the occasional civilian casualty.
DeleteThe destruction and denial of the Palestinian people, as a function of Israeli & Zionist policy is well document, going back to quotes from Golda Meir.
There were no such thing as Palestinians.
Guess by that she was admitting those people were really all Israeli citizens. But she just did not realize it, at the time. Same problem that "O"rdure has with the alternative to there being a Palestine.
This is that "game" that Jack Rat plays..
DeleteChanging reality into word play.
Jack Rat doesn't have reality.
There is no such thing historically as a people called "palestinians". That's a fact.
The fact that there are MILLIONS AND MILLION of folks that call themselves "palestinians" who're arab that speak as a native tongue ARABIC that doesn't even contain a P? That is reality.
By JackRat standards simply not acknowledging a fake history is genocide.
That is also why JackRat spends so much time trying to convince us that the Israeli Jews are frauds as a people. But notice I do not call he a practicer of "genocide"… Just a blow hard windbag...
JACK Rat commits GENOCIDE...
DeleteNot at all "O"rdure,
DeleteThe international legal definition of the crime of genocide is found in Articles II and III of the 1948 Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of Genocide.
Article II describes two elements of the crime of genocide:
1) the mental element, meaning the "intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group, as such", and
2) the physical element which includes five acts described in sections a, b, c, d and e. A crime must include both elements to be called "genocide."
Jack Rat has never committed "the physical element" which is required for genocide to be committed.
The Zionists not only deny Palestine, they systematically have been killing the people, there, in Palestine.
A land that the Zionists deny exists.
But Palestine is exactly where Israel is ...
DeleteThis Government has been informed that a Jewish state has been proclaimed in Palestine, and recognition has been requested by the provisional government thereof.
The United States recognizes the provisional government as the de facto authority of the new state of Israel
Harry Truman
Approved
May 14, 1948
So, if there is no Palestine, then there is no Israel.
The two are one and the same, joined at the hip.
Semites and wannabes
https://www.facebook.com/justpogthingss/photos/a.263962927112142.1073741829.248223055352796/341119856063115/?type=1&fref=nf
ReplyDeletehttp://www.duffelblog.com/2014/09/9-11-conspiracy-theory/
ReplyDeleteThere could be a surprise lurking in Syria. Probably, not right away, but, in the not too distant future, we might see an FSA, supported by overwhelming Air Supremacy, kicking a little ISIL ass from time to time.
ReplyDeleteIt'd take quite a while to develop an "Active Partner" in Syria, one that was not Assad, not al-Qeada and capable of advancing the fight against ISIS, there in Syria. The US will attempt its standard 'decapitation' campaign against the ISIS leadership, with all of the attendant complaints that Quirk will make about it.
DeleteThe success of those type strikes, from a strategic perspective, is negligible.
Without an active partner on the ground the US can target hardware, but can't turn the tide from the air.
I'm not talking about "turn the tide," type stuff (although, to be fair, the "tide" might not be quite a strong as it's made out to be in Syria.)
DeleteBut, the FSA, and ISIL do find themselves in conflict from time to time (it was the FSA that killed the "we'll fly our flag over the White House, guy.)
At those times, a little "death from above" can make a difference.
Sand argues that the idea of Jews having a common ethnic identity is implausible because, as with Christianity and Islam, Judaism was originally a “proselytising religion”. --
ReplyDeleteWhere'd the dude get this idea?
The results of a recently published study by Israeli-American geneticist Dr Eran Elhaik at John Hopkins University have scientifically and genetically validated Sand’s research
DeleteThe idea of a “nation race” was progressively developed and reinforced over centuries among segregated Jewish communities in Europe.
With the rise of German nationalism in the 19th century, Jewish historian Heinrich Graetz “retrospectively” crafted a discrete identity for the ghettoized people – mapping their origin to an old kingdom and wandering exiles.
The exiles tales transpired from a Christian myth of “divine punishment” imposed on Jews for rejecting the new religion.
The parable is likely to have originated from the Old Testament story of Jews wandering the desert for disobeying God and worshipping a golden calf.
Christians propagated the concept of exile to lure “disobeying” Jews to the new religion, becoming their saviour from another eternal banishment.
Modern political Zionism, which otherwise rejects the Christian Bible, adopted the untested story of “Jewish exile” to establish a mythical linkage between European Jews and the Middle East.
But Jewish history tells us that the Romans did not expel the original Jews from Palestine when they crushed the Simon bar Kokhba revolt in 136 AD but instead barred them only from city of Jerusalem – and even then they were allowed to visit it during Tisha B’Av, the annual fasting day on the ninth day of the month of Av in the Hebrew calendar.
Under Christianity and during the Roman Empire a large number of native Jews converted to Christianity and, with the advent of Islam, most adopted the new religion and assimilated under the new power.
In addition to the descendants of the Canaanites, the original denizens before patriarch Abraham’s arrival from Mesopotamia, Sand concludes that today’s Muslim and Christian Palestinians are actually the true progenies of the original Jews.
Israel deliberately forgets its history
DeleteAn Israeli historian suggests the diaspora was the consequence, not of the expulsion of the Hebrews from Palestine, but of proselytising across north Africa, southern Europe and the Middle East.
by Schlomo Sand
Proselytising zeal
But if there was no exile after 70 AD, where did all the Jews who have populated the Mediterranean since antiquity come from? The smokescreen of national historiography hides an astonishing reality. From the Maccabean revolt of the mid-2nd century BC to the Bar Kokhba revolt of the 2nd century AD, Judaism was the most actively proselytising religion. The Judeo-Hellenic Hasmoneans forcibly converted the Idumeans of southern Judea and the Itureans of Galilee and incorporated them into the people of Israel. Judaism spread across the Middle East and round the Mediterranean. The 1st century AD saw the emergence in modern Kurdistan of the Jewish kingdom of Adiabene, just one of many that converted.
The writings of Flavius Josephus are not the only evidence of the proselytising zeal of the Jews. Horace, Seneca, Juvenal and Tacitus were among the Roman writers who feared it. The Mishnah and the Talmud (3) authorised conversion, even if the wise men of the Talmudic tradition expressed reservations in the face of the mounting pressure from Christianity.
Although the early 4th century triumph of Christianity did not mark the end of Jewish expansion, it relegated Jewish proselytism to the margins of the Christian cultural world. During the 5th century, in modern Yemen, a vigorous Jewish kingdom emerged in Himyar, whose descendants preserved their faith through the Islamic conquest and down to the present day. Arab chronicles tell of the existence, during the 7th century, of Judaised Berber tribes; and at the end of the century the legendary Jewish queen Dihya contested the Arab advance into northwest Africa. Jewish Berbers participated in the conquest of the Iberian peninsula and helped establish the unique symbiosis between Jews and Muslims that characterised Hispano-Arabic culture.
The most significant mass conversion occurred in the 8th century, in the massive Khazar kingdom between the Black and Caspian seas. The expansion of Judaism from the Caucasus into modern Ukraine created a multiplicity of communities, many of which retreated from the 13th century Mongol invasions into eastern Europe. There, with Jews from the Slavic lands to the south and from what is now modern Germany, they formed the basis of Yiddish culture (4).
http://mondediplo.com/2008/09/07israel
Bob,
DeleteJews have a genetic code placing their founding in the ME. Start by looking up the 1999, U. of Utah study. Working from there, you will find at least a score of reputable, peer reviewed studies supporting the same claim. Fascinating about these studies is how little admixture occurred among the Ashkenazi and other populations - <0.05% per generation since 900 CE (the earliest recognizable Ashkenazi community).
See: A TROUBLESOME INHERITANCE: Genes, Race, and Human History (2014). Nicholas Wade. Wade's notes and references are voluminous (no sticky wiki).
Wonderful photo of Obama with his Head of Horns here -
ReplyDeletehttp://newsbcpcol.stb.s-msn.com/amnews/i/8d/494cc130409d2c65756262e98cc2f9/_h353_w628_m6_otrue_lfalse.jpg
I always knew that bastard was a devil.
What is that black flag to the right?
DeleteThat does not ring a bell to this USA citizen.
Syria's Deputy Foreign Minister: We're 'Fighting the Same Enemy'
ReplyDeleteAMASCUS — Syria has “no reservations” about U.S. airstrikes against ISIS and wants to team up with Washington to tackle the militants, the country’s deputy foreign minister told NBC News.
Faisal Mekdad called Syria’s President Bashar al-Assad “a natural ally” for the U.S. in its battle against ISIS, saying in an exclusive interview that both countries are “fighting the same enemy” and should be working together — not antagonizing each other.
“When it comes to terrorism, we should forget our differences… and forget all about the past,” Mekdad said. “It takes two to tango...We are ready to talk."
He urged the U.S. administration to come forward "energetically and courageously" to join with Syria in the fight against ISIS, suggesting a broad coalition against the militants that would also include Russia, China and Iran.
http://www.nbcnews.com/storyline/isis-terror/syrias-deputy-foreign-minister-were-fighting-same-enemy-n201136
But then, we in the US have to placate our own "Fifth Columnists"
Israel’s Ambassador to the United States Michael Oren told the Jerusalem Post that Israel so wanted Assad out and his Iranian backers weakened, that Israel would accept al-Qaeda operatives taking power in Syria.
“We always wanted Bashar Assad to go, we always preferred the bad guys who weren’t backed by Iran to the bad guys who were backed by Iran.”
Even if the other “bad guys” were affiliated with al-Qaeda.
“We understand that they are pretty bad guys,” Oren said in the interview.
http://www.jpost.com/Syria-Crisis/Oren-Jerusalem-has-wanted-Assad-ousted-since-the-outbreak-of-the-Syrian-civil-war-326328
grrrrr......
ReplyDeleteRasmussen has Hagan up by 6 over Tillis in North Carolina Senate race.
.
DeleteIn Michigan, a Detroit News poll showed Peters (D) up +10 over Land (R).
RCP average has Peters up by +4.5. They are still calling it a toss-up though.
.
Right now, it seems to me that the Republicans are likely to win, Only, if they can sweep: Louisiana, Arkansas, Alaska, Georgia, Kansas, and Kentucky.
ReplyDeleteMaybe they will - Nate Silver believes it.
Shoplifter uses motorized WALMART shopping cart as getaway vehicle.............drudge
ReplyDeleteNow this is creative, and has Quirk's M.O. written all over it.
Steal the goods, more than you can hand carry too, and the motorized shopping cart as well.
Unfortunately, sure enough, I just got an e-mail from Quirk.
"Bobbo,, been falsely arrested again. Lack money. Please bail. Your best and loyal friend and devoted follower, Quirk"
The problem with shopping carts is they don't go all that fast, or far either.
Made it 2 miles before cops pounce.................drudge
Q is claiming the Wal-Mart parking lot was full, and the closest parking space was more than two miles away.........
DeleteSays there was a big sale on Sam's Choice diet sodas and the place was a mob scene...........
DeleteTed Cruz Was Booed Off Stage at a Christian Event
ReplyDeleteCruz was keynoting a gala for In Defense of Christians (IDC), an advocacy and awareness group that aims to bring the U.S.’s attention to the plight of ancient Christian communities in the Middle East, and to protect the rights of other religious minority groups in the region. This week, IDC is hosting a three-day Summit, a conference bringing together a range of Middle Eastern Christians—Orthodox, Catholic, Coptic, Syriac, Lebanese, Assyrian, to name a few—to foster a new sense of unity in the midst of a politically fraught season. Most of the panels at the summit are of a religious nature, but a handful of political leaders are slated gave remarks as well, including Senator Rob Portman (R-OH). Former Secretary of Transportation Ray LaHood was Wednesday’s gala’s master of ceremonies, but Cruz was tapped to give a keynote.
Cruz initially received applause for his opening remarks that the group was united in defense of Christians, Jews, and “people of good faith who are standing together against those who would persecute and murder those who dare to disagree with their religious teachings.”
Things turned sour within minutes. “ISIS, Al Qaeda, Hezbollah, Hamas, and their state sponsors like Syria and Iran, are all engaged in a vicious genocidal campaign to destroy religious minorities in the Middle East,” Cruz said. “Sometimes we are told not to lump these groups together, but we have to understand their so-called nuances and differences. . . . In 1948 Jews throughout the Middle East faced murder and extermination and fled to the nation of Israel. And today Christians have no better ally than the Jewish state.”
His audience at the Omni Shoreham Hotel began to boo.
Senator Cruz felt obliged to leave the building
always editing, snipping and distorting...
Deletewhat a source of bullshit you are jackrat...
Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, walked offstage at an event Wednesday evening after his remarks in support of Israel drew boos from some members of the audience.
Cruz was speaking at a dinner for In Defense of Christians (IDC), a group that aims to raise awareness of persecuted minority communities in the Middle East, particularly Christians.
According to The Daily Caller, it was Cruz's assertion that "Christians have no greater ally than Israel" which drew the first negative reaction from some in the crowd, who booed and yelled, "stop it!"
As Cruz doubled down on his point - "those who hate Israel hate America," he said - the interruptions grew.
"If you will not stand with Israel and the Jews," Cruz said. "Then I will not stand with you. Good night, and God bless." He left the stage.
As Cruz doubled down on his point - "those who hate Israel hate America," he said - the interruptions grew.
Delete"If you will not stand with Israel and the Jews," Cruz said. "Then I will not stand with you. Good night, and God bless." He left the stage.
Wrong side of history for those that HATE ISRAEL and the Jews.
Ted Cruz - on the Wrong Side of History
Delete"O"rdure is 'right', again.
Now it is clear where Ted Cruz an agent of Goldman Sachs stands ...
DeleteNot with the interests of the US, not with Christianity.
But with the banks and financiers.
It was always known to those that knew Ted Cruz, now it is becoming clear to those that did not.
... for all his Tea Party street cred, Cruz does not qualify as any of the “antis” often associated with the movement: anti-elitist, anti-establishment, anti-intellectual… He is, in many ways, the consummate insider: well heeled, well connected, and absurdly well credentialed. (Princeton, Harvard, and a Supreme Court clerkship? Come on!)
Delete...
... Heidi Cruz Nelson, age 41 and the mother of two young daughters, is precisely the sort of hard-charging woman to make feminists’ mouths water: smart, driven, credentialed (Harvard Business School, JP Morgan, Bush 2000, the Bush Treasury Department , Goldman Sachs…)
http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2013/11/01/house-of-cruz-the-making-of-ted-cruz.html
And in 2011 he also reported having between $158,000 and $495,000 invested specifically in Goldman Sachs products. In 2012, his investments are similar, although CRP has not completed a full analysis. A full list of Cruz’s investments as of 2012 can be viewed here.
Additionally, in 2011, Cruz reported having borrowed between $100,000 and $250,000 from Goldman Sachs for a margin loan. In his 2012 report, the size of that loan had increased to between $250,000 and $500,000. In 2011, Cruz’s total networth was, on average, $1.7 million.
According to a story reported in the Huffington Post, Cruz’s healthcare is provided by Goldman Sachs through his wife.
http://www.opensecrets.org/news/2013/09/ted-cruz/
jackrat?
DeleteStands with Hamas.
I stand with America and Israel.
rat's off into lululand again
DeleteThe bankers....
The financiers.....
The Jews......
Jackrat the Jealous said: And in 2011 he (Cruz) also reported having between $158,000 and $495,000 invested specifically in Goldman Sachs products.
DeleteWow, a WHOLE 1/2 million....
LOL
Jack HawkinsThu Sep 11, 04:00:00 PM EDT
DeleteNow it is clear where Ted Cruz an agent of Goldman Sachs stands ...
Not with the interests of the US, not with Christianity.
But with the banks and financiers.
If he was? He'd have to have as much as Obama has...
Barack Obama’s Net Worth Has Risen 438% Since Running for President
President Barack Obama and first lady Michelle Obama listed assets worth between $2 million and $7 million for 2013, of which $1 million to $5 million were in Treasury notes, according to financial disclosure forms released Thursday.
Not bad for a President that makes a 400 grand a year...
When an author works for Lester Crown .....
DeleteIt is almost as lucrative as working for Leslie Moonves
There’s hand-wringing and finger-pointing at Simon & Schuster over the soft performance of Hillary Clinton’s “Hard Choices,” for which she got a $14 million advance, sources said
Deletehttp://pagesix.com/2014/07/08/execs-on-notice-after-hillarys-book-sales-tank/
Russia has warned that US air strikes against militants in Syria would be a "gross violation" of international law.
ReplyDeleteA Russian foreign ministry spokesman said any such action, without the backing of the UN, would be "an act of aggression".
It comes as US Secretary of State John Kerry meets Arab leaders in Saudi Arabia to try to build a coalition against Islamic State (IS) militants.
President Obama has threatened action against IS in Syria as well as Iraq.
IS controls large parts of Syria and Iraq after a rapid military advance.
In a speech outlining his strategy, Mr Obama said any group that threatened America would "find no safe haven".
He also announced that 475 US military personnel would be sent to Iraq but said they would not have a combat role.
BBC
No fly zones and safe havens.
DeleteNothing else.
Oh except public assurances that europe and Ukraine will have oil and natural gas at market prices
I am a "neocon" and a "zionist" and I approve the above recommendation.
DeleteI do not approve of helping Iran/Assad/Hezbollah or ISIS.
I also think that the people of southern lebanon should leave at once, as Hezbollah is using south lebanon to launch attacks into Israel.
DeleteThe civilians of s lebanon should flee now to safe havens NORTH of the Litani River where they will be safe.
Heh, Russia has a lot of balls talking about International Law these days.
Delete
ReplyDeleteIBD Editorials
Yes, A Stand-Down Order Was Given In Benghazi Attack
217 Comments
Posted 09/09/2014 06:14 PM EST
Hillary Clinton testifies on Capitol Hill on Jan. 23, 2013, before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee hearing on the deadly attack on the U.S.... View Enlarged Image
Scandal: Despite the administration's claim, the CIA operatives who fought for their lives and others' from a rooftop say that a stand-down order may have cost four Americans their lives while their ignoring it saved others.
Kris Paronto, Mark Geist and John Tiegen, three CIA contractors who on the night of Sept. 11, 2012, battled with terrorists from the roof of the CIA's Benghazi annex building, would beg to differ with the Obama administration, the CIA and several congressional committees. They say there was an order to stand down that delayed their response and possibly cost the lives of Ambassador Chris Stevens and three other Americans.
In a bombshell interview with Fox News anchor Bret Baier aired last week, the three members of the annex security team, whose credibility was etched in blood on that rooftop that fateful night, say they had a team assembled and were ready to proceed to the besieged consulate within five minutes of notice of the attack. They were held back by the top CIA security officer in Benghazi, they say, an officer identified only as "Bob."
"It had probably been 15 minutes, I think, and ... I just said 'Hey, you know, we gotta — we need to get over there, we're losing the initiative,'" Tiegen told Baier in the interview. "And Bob just looks at me and said, 'Stand down, you need to wait.'"
Why "Bob" gave that order or whether he was just passing on orders from superiors was not discussed, although it is a crucial question that makes a big difference in the true narrative of that night. After 30 minutes of waiting, Tiegen and the security team headed for the consulate while asking for air support, any kind of air support, even an F-16 buzzing the compound.
Paronto said that without the delay, "Ambassador Stevens and Sean (Smith), yeah, they would still be alive, my gut is yes," adding that "I strongly believe that if we left immediately, they'd still be alive today."
Happened in Benghazi," written with Mitchell Zuckoff. After Tiegen insisted they had to leave right away, "Bob" told them to "hold up" because "we're going to let the local militia handle it." It was an incredible order, one telling Americans not to rescue Americans.
DeleteHad Stevens and Smith been successfully rescued with a half-hour delay, the entire scenario of that night would have been quite different.
Perhaps we would be recounting the successful evacuation of all involved instead of the deaths of four Americans, including Tyrone Woods and Glen Doherty, former SEALs and then CIA security contractors who died on the annex roof fighting the terrorists.
As it was, disobeying the stand-down order saved lives. The group managed to rescue the five other Americans at the consulate.
"There could have been seven dead Americans instead of the two" at the consulate, Tiegen told Breitbart News in a Monday interview.
Then there are the 20 or more Americans who were able to get out of the annex, then out of Libya, after the annex firefight.
History is full of wouldas, shouldas, couldas. It is also said that history is a lie agreed upon, such as the inflammatory video fabrication put forth by the White House team at the time — Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, U.N. Ambassador Susan Rice and President Obama.
It was a lie repeated to the parents of the dead in front of their sons' caskets as they arrived at Maryland's Andrews Air Force Base.
Tiegen, Paronto and Geist say it is a lie that there was no order to stand down. What difference does it make now? The truth always makes a difference.
Read More At Investor's Business Daily: http://news.investors.com/ibd-editorials/090914-716677-benghazi-cia-operatives-told-to-stand-down.htm#ixzz3D3MEvan4
Follow us: @IBDinvestors on Twitter | InvestorsBusinessDaily on Facebook
The stand down order came from Super O, or, perhaps, from Quirk's favorite politician, Super H.
DeletePatriots Vow to Fight on for Benghazi Answers
DeleteSeptember 11, 2014 by Matthew Vadum 11 Comments
Matthew Vadum is an award-winning investigative reporter and the author of the book, "Subversion Inc.: How Obama’s ACORN Red Shirts Are Still Terrorizing and Ripping Off American Taxpayers."
81412
Print This Post Print This Post
unnamed90Questions about the Obama administration’s decision to let helpless Americans die in the terrorist attack on the U.S. mission in Benghazi, Libya two years ago won’t go away anytime soon.
But that won’t stop former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, who desperately wants to be the next president, from trying to make the whole Benghazi episode that happened under her watch go away. So far the Clinton operation isn’t working.
Charles Woods, father of Navy SEAL Tyrone Woods, who died trying to fend off the Islamist attack, said he can’t understand why the Obama administration won’t answer even the most basic questions about what happened in Libya on Sept. 11, 2012.
“When a mission is compromised, the warriors, they know they will be extracted,” said Woods, who was also a Navy SEAL himself. “During all of the hours that this attack happened, there was no attempt made to rescue.”
The Obama administration’s refusal to launch such a rescue mission stands in stark contrast to its willingness to swap Bowe Bergdahl, a U.S. soldier who defected to the Taliban in Afghanistan, for five members of the terrorist high command. The White House and Secretary of State John Kerry justify the cynical Bergdahl transaction by loudly proclaiming that it is U.S. policy never to leave a man behind.
But to President Obama, it is standing policy to leave Americans to their doom when a rescue mission interferes with reelection plans. At the time of the attack, the Obama White House made a conscious, calculated decision to let American officials perish overseas, fully expecting the incurious pro-Obama media to ignore what really happened.
In the midst of a heated reelection campaign, Obama had claimed al-Qaeda was decimated and on the verge of annihilation. When it turned out the terrorist organization was doing just fine, he decided to scapegoat a YouTube video instead of admitting that al-Qaeda was roaring back, stronger than ever, under his watch..............
http://www.frontpagemag.com/2014/matthew-vadum/patriots-vow-to-find-benghazi-answers/
What a bunch of turds we have running the show.
DeleteA few days ago the scientists announced the unearthing of the world's largest yet found dinosaur, that they nicknamed "The Quart".
ReplyDeleteNow they have unearthed, in the Sahara, the remains of a monster swimming dinosaur.
http://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-29143096
It's heady times for dino diggers.
The CIA estimates that ISIS has 31,500 full time fighters.
ReplyDeletePop Quiz:
When was the last time the CIA was right about anything?
STUDY: Millions more at risk in Ebola outbreak...
ReplyDelete'Spreading like wildfire'...
'Devouring everything in its path'...
'Terrifying evolution' of virus....................drudge
I see a possible 'quandary', a possible 'dilemma' for rato in the future.
If the Ebola virus goes 'viral' in the USA, and the vaccine against it is the one the Jewish scientist from Israel has almost perfected, will rato 'bite the bullet' and allow his noble self to be vaccinated using it? Will he allow himself, for self preservation, to be vaccinated by a vaccine invented by one of those 'scum of the earth' as he has called them?
It might, after all, be a Mossad false flag plot op to degrade our precious bodily fluids.
Delete.
ReplyDeleteI saw an interview on CNN, Andersen Cooper interviewing James Foley's mother. The family is forming an organization in Foley's memory and its purpose will be to push for a unified approach to terrorism across the globe, this because of the different policies of countries around the world. For instance, there is the matter of paying ransom for hostages, i.e. the US doesn't but the EU does.
What I gathered from the interview:
The government people who talked to the family throughout the long ordeal were all sympathetic and kind. There message to the family was don't try to do anything on your own, don't speak to the media, let us handle this.
What I found interesting was
One, that the Foley's were warned not to try to raise money on their own to try to ransom their son or they could be prosecuted, and
Two, according to the mother, the family seemed to know more about their son's situation than the government did. The mother made a couple trips to Europe to interview hostages that had been held with her son and gathered info on where had been and was and the state of his health. She said it seemed like the FBI was using her as their information source.
Of the rescue attempt, she was grateful but thought that it came too late. She thought it should have come when they were holding Foley in Aleppo.
Nothing surprising in the interview except that it seems strange that you can get arrested for trying to raise money to help a loved one. I guess I understand the government's reasons but it still seems strange.
.
What reasons?
DeleteAlso, what law?
What constitutional law?
Seems like government bullshit to me.....
.
ReplyDeleteI thought Michigan Governor, Rick Snyder (R), pretty much a moderate in my eyes, would win reelection easily. However, polls here now have the race rated as a toss-up.
The RCP average shows Snyder with a +0.7% lead.
.
Watch the volcano erupt - see, hear, feel the sonic boom - watch the rocks fall -
ReplyDeletehttp://www.accuweather.com/en/features/trend/video_papua_new_guinea_volcano_eruption/33672914
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/09/12/hamas-rocket-attacks_n_5808760.html
ReplyDeleteHamas Admits 'Mistakes' During Gaza Battle
:-))
http://news.yahoo.com/professor-lost-job-over-gaza-tweets-rebuffed-illinois-193509744.html
ReplyDeleteProfessor who lost job over Gaza tweets rebuffed by Illinois university trustees