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."

Thursday, September 11, 2014

How long will it take the American Public to realize Obama has been bought and paid for and we are being duped into war in Syria. The insanity continues:


OBAMA’S WAR:





Thursday 11 September 2014
Robert Fisk on Isis campaign: Bingo! Here’s another force of evil to be ‘vanquished’

One can see how difficult these lessons in Middle East history must be for the average American


Resurrection, reinvention and linguistics. Barack Obama did the lot. And now he’s taking America to war in Syria as well as Iraq. Oh yes, and he’s going to defeat Isis, its “barbarism”, “genocide”, its “warped ideology” – until the bad guys are “vanquished from the earth”. What happened to George W Bush?
But let’s go through this with a linguistic comb. First, Obama is going to resurrect the Sunni “Awakening Council” militias – a creature invented by a certain General David Petraeus – who were paid to fight al-Qaeda by the Americans during the US occupation of Iraq, but who then got blasted by al-Qaeda and betrayed by the Shia-dominated Iraqi government. Obama has even invented a new name for these militias: he called them “National Guard Units” who will “help Sunni communities secure their own freedom from Isil”. National Guard indeed!
Then there’s the reinvention of the “moderate” Syrian opposition which was once called the Free Syrian Army – a force of deserters corrupted and betrayed by both the West and its Islamic allies – and which no longer exists. This ghost army is now going to be called the “Syrian National Coalition” and be trained – of all places – in Saudi Arabia, whose citizens have given zillions of dollars to al-Qaeda in Iraq, Isis, Isil, IS (you decide on the acronym), Jabhat al-Nusra and sundry other bad guys whom Obama now wants to “vanquish from the earth”.
And then the linguistics. Obama “will not hesitate to take action against Isil in Syria”. But that means that he is going to “vanquish” the enemies of the Syrian President, Bashar al-Assad, whom Obama was also going to “vanquish” last year – until he got cold feet and decided to leave him alone. So if the enemy of my enemy is my friend – as the Arabs supposedly tell each other – Assad can regard Washington as his new ally.
But no. For then came the dodgy little explanations: America “cannot rely on an Assad regime that terrorises its people”, a regime that “will never regain the legitimacy it has lost”. But the US has never been asked to “rely” on Assad – it’s Assad who relies for support on Russia. And Assad’s legitimacy is accepted by China, Iran – with whom the Americans are having cosy nuclear talks – and Russia, whose armies clearly do not “hesitate to take action”  in Ukraine.

All in all, then, a pretty state of affairs. And part of the problem is America’s non-existent institutional – or national – semantic memory. Obama tells us that America “will hunt down terrorists who threaten our country”. But I recall Vice- President George Bush telling his people after the US Marine bombing in Beirut in 1983 that “we are not going to let a bunch of insidious terrorist cowards shake the foreign policy of the United States”. Then the American military fled Beirut. Three years later, President Ronald Reagan said of Muammar Gaddafi of Libya (“the mad dog of the Middle East”) that “he can run – but he can’t hide”. But Gaddafi did hide – and was then kissed by Tony Blair after being forgiven for all his “terrorism” – only to be murdered by his enemies when he became a “terrorist” all over again.


One can see, of course, how difficult these lessons in Middle East history must be for the average American. All these forces of evil being vanquished over and over again, and then – bingo – there’s another force of evil to vanquish. So Obama produces words that are easy to swallow. “genocide”, “barbarism”, “cancer”.
Only occasionally is there a non-sequitur which Americans must ignore. There was, for example, Obama’s rather odd reference to “radical groups” which “exploit grievances for their own gain”. And what would these “grievances” be, I wonder? The illegal 2003 invasion of Iraq and its concomitant bloodbath? Our continued occupation of Afghanistan? The pulverisation of Gaza by America’s greatest ally?
Obama mercifully left that ally’s name unspoken, although it has a very big stake in America’s newly expanded war in the Middle East – after all, it shares a common border with Syria. But Saudi Arabia, Qatar and all the other Croesus leaders of the Arab Sunni Gulf might not like their people to be reminded that their latest alliance with Washington – training all those non-existent “moderate” chaps, for instance  – is going to help Israel.
The clunking irony is that the “Islamic State’s” men do butcher, throat-slit and ethnically cleanse their enemies. Their claptrap “state” and their sadism have turned them into a weird combination of Mickey Mouse and Genghis Khan. Nor, weirdly, has the IS really tried to exploit the anonymous “grievances” to which Obama referred. So totally introverted is their “ideology” (the quotation marks are obligatory) that they uttered not a word of sympathy for the Palestinians of Gaza during their latest bloodletting. But grievances there are. They do exist. Will there be a Kurdistan? Will there ever be a Palestine?
Not a word did Obama utter on these infinitely graver matters. I’m afraid it’s the same old US policy: confronting the greatest crisis in the Middle East since the last greatest crisis in the Middle East. And we can depend on the Americans for that. 



53 comments:

  1. This is really hard to comprehend. Who does Obama think we will be backing in Syria? The amateurs and citizen soldiers in Syria are dead. The normal middle class has largely fled. We will be making more of a problem than we did in Iraq. Didn’t we try this in Viet Nam, Yugoslavia, Afghanistan, Iraq, Egypt and Libya and all ended in spectacular failure or at a minimum made things no better. This is inexplicable.

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    1. This is totally a cluster fuck.

      Helping Assad/Hezbollah/Iran defeat ISIS is stupid.

      Helping ISIS defeat Assad/Hezbollah/Iran

      If you want to help the people? Create no fly zones and safe havens. PERIOD

      Then offer a stable, market price for oil and and natural gas for Europe and the Ukraine.

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  2. International Community Should Help Syria Find Political Solution to Crisis: UN

    BEIRUT, September 11 (RIA Novosti) – The global community and the United Nations have to help the Syria to find a political solution to its crisis, UN special envoy to Syria Staffan de Mistura said Thursday, according to SANA news agency.

    De Mistura made the statement following talks with Syrian President Bashar Assad. Later in the day, the UN envoy is expected to discuss the prospects of further negotiations on a peaceful settlement of the Syrian crisis with leaders of the Syrian opposition, according to As-Safir newspaper.

    On Wednesday, Staffan de Mistura met with Syrian Foreign Minister Walid Muallem. The sides affirmed that the priority right now is to combat terrorism, particularly groups such as the Islamic State (IS) and Jabhat al-Nusra. Muallem stressed that the sources that sustain such terrorist organizations should be restricted. It is necessary to pressure the countries financing, arming and training terrorists, the Syrian Foreign Minister said, according to SANA. Both sides also noted the importance of local reconciliations in Syria as they facilitate efforts to end the crisis in the country.

    The UN special envoy to Syria said that he is ready to do anything that could end the suffering in Syria.

    The armed conflict has been ongoing in Syria since March 2011 and has claimed lives of almost 200,000 people, according to the UN. Government troops are confronted by militias belonging to different armed groups. The most active are IS militants, who led an assault on the northern and western regions of Iraq in early June, and announced the creation of an "Islamic caliphate" in Iraq and Syria on June 29.

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    1. 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

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  3. Does Washington have some homo-erotic fascination with the Saudis?

    WASHINGTON, September 11-The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia has agreed to host the train-and-equipment programs of the Syria’s "moderate opposition," the US official told journalists.

    "We now have the commitment from the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia to be a full partner in this effort - the train-and-equip program, to host that program," the official said, adding that the specific site on which the trainings will take place is currently being discussed.
    On Wednesday, the White House said, that ahead of his speech on US strategy on defeating the Islamic State, President Barack Obama called Saudi Arabia’s King Abdullah and the two leaders "agreed that a stronger Syrian opposition is essential to confronting extremists like [Islamic State] as well as the [Syria's President Bashar] Assad regime."

    The Islamic State, also known as the Islamic State of Iraq and Greater Syria (ISIS) or the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL), is a Sunni jihadist group that has been fighting against the Syrian government since 2012. In June 2014, the group extended its attacks to northern and western Iraq, declaring a caliphate on the territories under its control later that month.

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    1. .

      The fox guarding the chicken coup.

      .

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    2. .

      '...coop...' not coup.

      Freudian slip or possibly wishful thinking..

      .

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    3. I thought it was brilliant. I almost considered deleting your correction, to save you from yourself!

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    4. I’ll save the delete button for when The Miller and his niece Alisoun arrives.

      Delete
  4. An open letter on Syria to Western narcissists

    On the eve of what seem to be ineluctable strikes on Syria, I’ve been struggling with what my position on Syria should be. Before I get to that though, I should say that while I’m not Syrian, I too have some skin in the game, as it were. On our way to donate blood for a friend’s mother’s surgery last month, my wife got a call from a friend telling us to avoid the neighborhood of Bir al-Abed in Beirut’s southern suburbs, since there had just been a large explosion there. At Bahman Hospital, my wife and baby daughter and I saw ambulances speeding toward us carrying those who had just been wounded. And a few days after I’d left for southern Turkey to conduct interviews with Syrians who had fled the war in their homes, I found out that a car bomb had just gone off a few blocks from my mother in law’s home in the “Hezbollah stronghold” of Rweiss. It kills me that my daughter has heard the sound of a car bomb before her first birthday.

    Extended family from Yarmouk, the Palestinian camp outside Damascus, have been displaced and are forced to seek refuge yet again in Lebanon, a country that doesn’t want them. And even now, we’re making plans for what might happen if the impending strikes on Syria fuel an escalation in Lebanon, where living in the southern suburbs can get you killed if there’s a war with Israel. And yet all of this pales in comparison to what my Syrian friends continue to go through on a daily basis.

    All that to say that the current conflict in Syria isn’t just of academic interest to me; it’s personal as well. This is partially why I have so little patience for some of the rhetoric I’ve been seeing from Western leftist circles, where this conflict seems like nothing more than a rhetorical bludgeon for scoring ideological points. This has been illustrated by the passing around of an article by Robert Fisk, who asks, “Does Obama know he’s fighting on al-Qa’ida’s side?” This lazy and facile opinion piece assures us that if the US attacks Syria, then “the United States will be on the same side as al-Qa’ida.” It is the flip side of the rhetoric that was so evident in the run-up to war in Iraq that equated any opposition to an idiotic war with support for Saddam Hussein. Well, guess what? There are lots of perfectly fine opinions that might put you on the same side as al-Qa’ida. Just to name one: if you’re against drone strikes in Yemen, Pakistan and Somalia, as I am, then you’re also “on the same side as al-Qa’ida” according to this logic.

    {...}

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    1. {...}

      This is the caricature of knee-jerk leftism, where everything is always and everywhere about the United States. The narcissism of such a position boggles the mind. In such an ideological stance it’s not enough to be critical of Washington’s actions and motivations, as well we should be, it is necessary to parrot the talking points of Washington’s enemies. (The same phenomenon can be seen in certain Islamophobic and right-wing circles.) In this narrative, the militarization of the uprising in Syria was an American plan, not a foreseeable reaction to a brutally violent crackdown on a predominately peaceful opposition movement by the security forces of the Ba’ath regime. This conflict is, so the argument goes, a creation of Washington, and perhaps Riyadh, and the opposition is made up of only of blood-thirsty sectarian Islamists who are generally seen as but tools of malicious statecraft. Such a narrative, of course, denies the agency of Syrians, seeing them as so many lifeless puppets waiting for a tug from the imperialist American hand.

      This is why discussions of Syria in such quarters tend not to be discussions of Syria. They’re actually discussions of “American capitalism” or “American imperialism” – take your pick. So let me be clear: if your opinion of Syria is actually an opinion about the United States, I have no interest in hearing it, and it’s probably safe to say that most Syrians (or at least all of the ones I know) who are faced with the business end of the regime’s ordinance don’t either. I can’t think of a single Syrian who’s willing to get killed so you can flaunt your anti-imperialist street cred from the comfort of your local coffee shop.

      Lest I be accused of shilling for American intervention here, let me set a few things straight. In addition to endangering my family’s lives, the proposed “punitive strikes” that are all but inevitable probably won’t make anything better on the ground, and may make things worse, which is why I’m against them. My opinion on American intervention in general and in this conflict in particular (about which more in a subsequent post) is that the US is not to be trusted to act in anything but what it sees as its interests, and often a woefully short-sighted understanding of those interests to boot. So no, Washington does not really care about those children killed last week in a chemical attack, just as it didn’t care about the Iranians or Kurds killed in previous ones. Consequently, my feeling is that a vicious, and viciously short-sighted, realpolitik in Washington would probably like nothing better than to let its enemies fight indefinitely in Syria, burning the country to the ground as they do so.

      But please, don’t let the conflict in Syria be about opposing America. Let it be about Syria, and what might actually help Syrians – you know, the actually existing people who are dying by the tens of thousands in this brutal war. But if you can’t do that, then do me a favor, and please shut up.

      Sean Lee

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    2. Qifa Nabki
      NEWS AND COMMENTARY FROM THE LEVANT
      http://qifanabki.com/2013/08/31/syria-the-political-solution/

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    3. Qifa Nabki [ˈki-fə ˈneb-kē] is a blog about Lebanese politics, history, and culture, written by Elias Muhanna, the Manning Assistant Professor of Comparative Literature at Brown University.

      In addition to his academic scholarship, Muhanna is a frequent contributor to such publications as The New York Times, The Nation, Foreign Policy, and The Guardian, where he writes on political and cultural issues in the contemporary Middle East. Become a fan on Facebook to meet other readers, follow Elias on Twitter, and subscribe to the RSS feed here.

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  5. Gotta keep the oil flowing, buddy; gotta keep the oil a'flowin'.

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  6. Good ole Fisk.

    Ditto!

    where did that article come from?

    I applaud you, Deuce, for posting it and, hopefully, giving it serious consideration.

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    1. The Independent, a newspaper I start reading on my 90 minutes commute on the London Central Line from South Woodford to Ruislip in 1965 while on a three month training mission with the RAF on some new and fascinating equipment developed by some very clever English Engineers and scientist from the Marconi factory in Chelmsford England.

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    2. My other newspapers of choice at the time were, The Observer, The Guardian, The Telegraph, The Herald Tribune from Paris and the Stars and Stripes.

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  7. ISIL has established relationships with the Islamic Front, Jabhat al-Nusra, and Al-Qaeda.

    ISIL has received financial support, weapons and other assets from groups in Saudia Arabia’s intelligence services and armed forces.

    ISIL is selling and Turkey is buying oil from ISIL.

    ISIL fights against the Assad regime, Hezbullah, and Iran, all enemies of Israel.

    Go figure why we want to get deeply involved with this.

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    1. Isil want to liberate Israel from the Jews.

      GO Figure.

      it aint a checkers game.

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    2. ISIS has good relations with the leadership of Hamas.

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  8. I don't think anyone is listening to what Obama is really saying. If you listen closely, to him, and the WH spokesmen, they are pretty much down-playing the actual "action" in Syria. They're saying things like "Years," "into the Next administration," "take some time," etc.

    Here's what I think they'll do. In Iraq, they're going to get after it just as fast as the Iraqis (and, Peshmerga, when they can get them) can ramp up.

    Sometime in the next month, or so, I expect to hear that the border crossings are being retaken, and shut down.

    And, starting up around that time (maybe a little sooner, maybe a little later,) we'll start to hear of a few airstrikes in Syria (maybe even, in most cases, tied to a specific individual, cell, or whatnot.)

    I'm looking for a "Major Headline" (maybe Mosul, or Fallujah being retaken, for instance) around the first of November. :)

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  9. All out of a John le Carré novel.

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    1. But, ISIS is a "Thing." And, Obama Is going to have to deal with this particular "thing." And, he is not going to be able, necessarily, to deal with it in exactly the way that he would like.

      Those beheadings took care of that.

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    2. It didn’t affect his golf game and slice, unless you are referring to the polls but the beheadings have been trumped by the knockout punch of a good looking gal by a Baltimore Raven. Move along.

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  10. .

    I have been critical of all the big carriers, Microsoft, Google, At&T, etc. for cooperating with the government's Prism surveillance program; but one company, Yahoo, fought it as far as they could and continues to fight it today. The FISA court has released a redacted copy of court documents on a case filed by Yahoo in 2008. The documents show that the government threatened the companies with fines of up to $250,000 per day unless they complied with the government requests.

    Now that is what I call intimidation, $91 million a year.

    Yahoo took their case to the FISA court and lost and then lost again on appeal. They are still fighting to get the full transcript released. Not sure what their recourse is after that. Don't know if they will be able to get it to the Supreme Court.

    .

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  11. Where is that solar flare expected to hit?

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  12. For Once, the EU Surprises Putin
    24 SEP 11, 2014 4:55 PM EDT
    By The Editors of Bloomberg

    For the first time since Russia annexed Crimea six months ago, the European Union has surprised President Vladimir Putin instead of the other way around. Despite a cease-fire in eastern Ukraine, and despite Russia's apparent withdrawal of troops from the region, the EU decided this morning to impose new sanctions on Russia, starting tomorrow.

    As perverse as it may sound, the sanctions make sense -- and the U.S. intends follow suit. Yet the odd timing highlights the extraordinary slowness of the decision-making process in the EU, a committee of 28 democracies all but incapable of responding to anything effectively, especially a nimble autocrat from Russia. This EU tardiness isn't just ineffectual, it's dangerous.

    Financial War

    The purpose of the new measures, promised weeks ago, was to deter Putin from escalating his military campaign in eastern Ukraine. Then Putin escalated his military campaign in eastern Ukraine, sending Russian troops over the border. Before the EU could get the sanctions in place, Putin engineered a cease-fire. If only to show that they were something more than marionettes in Putin's puppet theater, EU leaders thought they had to follow through on their sanctions anyway.

    Putin may have himself to blame for tipping the EU's internal debate against him. By reducing natural gas deliveries to Poland and Slovakia this week, Russia made it clear that it still plans to escalate its effort to turn Ukraine into a failed state.

    Russia's state gas company OAO Gazprom has cited maintenance work as the cause of the stoppages. That's hard to believe. Poland and Slovakia happen to be the two countries that are reversing pipeline flows to pump natural gas from the EU into Ukraine, which Russia cut off from supply in June. The goal was to ensure that Poland doesn’t have enough gas to sell to Ukraine -- which is exactly what happened. Slovakia has been warned.

    The turning of the spigot is an early sign of a winter energy war to come. If Ukraine gets gas from neither Russia nor the EU, it will have to let its people freeze or siphon off supplies that go through Ukraine to Gazprom's other clients in Europe. Either result would serve Russia's political purposes. So the EU's determination to show it will not -- this time at least -- be reduced to irrelevance is laudable. But is it wise?

    Throughout this conflict, Putin has demonstrated that he has more leverage, and is more willing to use it, than either the EU or the U.S. He hardly needs the pretext of these sanctions to break the cease-fire, which remains a real possibility. Still, by being so slow to respond to Putin's aggression, the EU has needlessly raised the risk that he will again interfere in Ukraine. That realization should jolt the bloc into a quicker and more effective way of making and carrying out big foreign policy decisions.

    In the meantime, the EU is right to hold firm. The sanctions are designed not to affect daily events in Ukraine so much as to make clear to Putin the long-term cost of using force to reassemble Russia's former empire.

    The new measures, which are expected to make it harder for Russia's big banks and state-owned oil and defense companies to raise capital, should stay in place until Putin has carried out all of the essential elements of the cease-fire. That means pulling out all Russian troops and equipment, and agreeing to send a force of international peacekeepers, of sufficient size and strength to disarm militias and seal the border, to eastern Ukraine. Only then can talks begin for a genuine political settlement.

    To contact the senior editor responsible for Bloomberg View’s editorials: David Shipley at davidshipley@bloomberg.net

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  13. Putin is slipping or has already slipped into madness.

    RUSSIAN President Vladimir Putin has promised his military commanders a new array of weapons — from intercontinental nuclear missiles to aircraft and submarines — to counter what he calls ‘growing Western aggression’.
    Mr Putin’s statement came as the military successfully tested a new intercontinental ballistic missile launched from a nuclear submarine yesterday.

    Putin accused the West of using the crisis in Ukraine to reinvigorate NATO, warning that Moscow will ponder a response to the alliance’s decision to create a rapid-reaction “spearhead” force to protect Eastern Europe.

    BLAME GAME: Russia blames Ukraine for MH17 crash

    His comments came as Russia’s relations with the West have plunged to their lowest point since the Cold War due to Russia’s role in the crisis in Ukraine. They appear to show that the Russian leader is determined to pursue a tough course in the face of more Western sanctions.

    Addressing a Kremlin meeting on weapons modernisation, Putin ominously warned the West against getting “hysterical” about Moscow’s rearming efforts, in view of US missile defence plans and other decisions he said have challenged Russia’s security.
    “We have warned many times that we would have to take corresponding countermeasures to ensure our security,” Putin said, adding that he would now take personal charge of the government commission overseeing military industries.
    He said Russia’s weapons modernization program for 2016-2025 should focus on building a new array of offensive weapons to provide a “guaranteed nuclear deterrent;” rearming strategic and long-range aviation; creating an aerospace defense system and developing high-precision conventional weapons....more at :

    http://www.news.com.au/world/russian-president-vladimir-putin-promises-new-weapons-will-outstrip-western-defence-technology/story-fndir2ev-1227055102574

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  14. Watch the volcano erupt - see, hear, feel the sonic boom - watch the rocks fall -

    http://www.accuweather.com/en/features/trend/video_papua_new_guinea_volcano_eruption/33672914

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  15. We should all have vanish buttons around here.

    In the spirit of fairness.....

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  16. As to the Syrian Rebels that the US is now overtly supporting:


    Speaking with Anderson Cooper on Monday, the spokesman for Steven Sotloff's family said that the journalist, who was beheaded by Islamic State fighters last week, was believed to have been sold to the group by Syrian rebels for as much as $50,000.

    In the interview, a very outspoken Barak Barfi cited "sources on the ground" for the new revelations about Sotloff's kidnapping.

    We believe that these so-called moderate rebels that people want our administration to support, one of them sold him probably for something between $25,000 and $50,000 to ISIS, and that was the reason he was captured."
    He added that it was believed that Sotloff had been lured to a fake checkpoint after he crossed the border into Syria where ISIS captured him.

    The interview took a combative turn as Barfi also blasted the Obama administration for "inaccurate statements" about the nature of Sotloff's disappearance, referencing the ordeals of both Sotloff and James Foley, who was beheaded last month by ISIS.

    We know that the intelligence community and the White House are enmeshed in a larger game of bureaucratic infighting and Jim and Steve are pawns in this game and that’s not fair and if there continues to be leaks the Sotloff family will have to speak out to set the record straight.”

    As his critics continue to hammer him on foreign policy, President Obama's approval rating has dropped to new lows, a development that dovetails with a surge of approval for American airstrikes against ISIS, which the president has both endorsed and executed.

    After its execution of two American journalists, support for air strikes against ISIS in Iraq has swelled from 45 percent in June to 71 percent now. Support for arming their Kurdish opponents is up by 13 points, to 58 percent, in just the past month.



    This article was originally published at http://www.thewire.com/global/2014/09/steven-sotloff-was-reportedly-sold-to-isil-for-several-thousand-dollars/379847/

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  17. Hinduism has with deep insight seen that Fear is an essential mark of the animal, and of man in so far as he is an animal )Pashu). The Shakti unites himself with this joyous and liberating Mother, saying Sa'ham --"She I am." As he realizes this he is the fearless Hero, or Vira. For he who sees Duality, he alone fears. To see duality means not merely to see Otherness, but to see that other as alien not-self. The fearless win all worldly enterprises, and fearlessness is also the mark of the illuminate Knower. Such an one is also in his degree independent of all outward power, and Mritjunjaya, of Master of Death. Such an one is not troubled for himself by the thought of Death. In the apt words of the French author (L'Ame Paienne, 83) he no more fears than do the leaves of the trees, yellowing to their fall in the mists of autumn. An imperishable instinct tells him that if he, like the leaves, is about to fall he is also the tree on which they will come out again, as also the Earth in which both grow, and yet again (as the Shakti would say) he is also, in his Body of Bliss, the Essence which as the Mother-Power sustains them all. As that Essence is imperishable, so in its deepest sense its form as Nature. For whatever exists can never altogether cease to be. Either man's consciousness expands into that Lordliness which sees all as itself, or he and all lower beings are withdrawn into the Womb of Power, in which they are conserved to reappear in that Sphurana or Blossoming which is the Springtide of some new World.

    Shakti and Shakta


    Forgotten Books
    Sir John Woodroffe
    Page 304
    ..................................

    Deuce knows nothing of all this, and a great sadness overcomes me.

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  18. Not a word about Moses, Jesus, or Mohammad in it.

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  19. What my Niece has quoted there is, Ladies and Gentlemen, the monomyth in its Hindu form.

    She remarked to me once, "Uncle Garbanzo, I like the West, it energy, the rights of women, the education and job opportunities for women, other things too. But it seems to me the West doesn't teach its children to ever grow up. It seems to teach them to remain children all their lives. I don't understand this."

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    1. She once said, of many Western women, "Many of them are simply silly shits."

      :)

      She often, unexpectedly, comes out with a great expletive or two.

      I've heard, and read, her use worse, too.

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    2. She also once expressed amazement that so many in the West seem to celebrate the coming of that lovely season Spring with a remembrance of a Crucifixion.

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    3. The Christians should have had Jesus being born in the Spring, Crucified on the darkest day of the year, and resurrected as the Light begins to wax once again.

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    4. Jesus's story is just the retelling of the Horus myth

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    5. No it is not.

      There are similarities.

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  20. A mentioned just yesterday ...
    Da ho Bob quotes his own fictional characters as factual sources.

    The entertainment value, it is not priceless ... but it is comical.

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    1. Desert Rat shows us all his nasty personality once again.

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  21. Obama, in the media, has gone from halos to horns. Remember all those pictures of SuperO with halos?

    See SuperO from halos to horns here -

    http://americanthinker.com/blog/2014/09/obamas_omen_from_halos_to_horns.html

    This is known as 'a fall from grace'.

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    1. "Grace" is an outlook with which desert rat has no familiarity.

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    2. desert rat is a figment of the writer's imaginationFri Sep 12, 02:40:00 AM EDT

      Stories happen in the mind of a reader, not among symbols printed on a page.”
      ― Brandon Mull

      Someone has gotten into Anonymous' mind, and has created a story, there.

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    3. A hundred years before the advent of Hitler, the German-Jewish poet, Heinrich Heine, had declared:
      "Wherever books are burned, human beings are destined to be burned too."

      On the night of May 10, 1933, an event unseen in Europe since the Middle Ages occurred as German students from universities once regarded as among the finest in the world, gathered in Berlin to burn books with "unGerman" ideas.
      …. http://www.historyplace.com/worldwar2/triumph/tr-bookburn.htm

      May 20, 2008 - Orthodox Jews burn hundreds of New Testaments in latest act of violence against Christian missionaries in Israel. ... The Maariv newspaper reported Tuesday that hundreds of students took part in the book-burning. . . .
      israel book burning

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    4. Desert Rat has said he is a professional asshole, one of the few true things he has said.

      Delete
  22. September 11, 2014

    IRS chief: 'Whenever we can, we follow the law'

    By Thomas Lifson

    IRS commissioner John Koskinen probably meant to provide reassurance, but did no such thing yesterday in testimony yesterday. Via The Hill (hat tip: Gateway Pundit)

    “Whenever we can, we follow the law,” IRS Commissioner John Koskinen told the House Ways and Means subcommittee on health on Wednesday.



    The response was appropriate:


    Rep. Kevin Brady (R-Texas), who leads the subcommittee, immediately expressed his concern with the remarks.

    “I encourage you to follow the law in all instances,” Brady said.



    This statement by the man in charge of getting to the bottom of one of the IRS’s former senior officials pleading the Fifth Amendment qualified as a genuine gaffe – telling the truth when evasion would be expected. The law, to Koskinen, evidently is a suggestion, not an ironclad requirement. That would explain a lot, including the destruction of evidence in Lois Lerner’s hard drive, Blackberry, and the revelation that five other IRS officials also have mysteriously also had their emails deleted. I can well understand how someone would feel they “can’t” follow the law when doing so would lead to jail.

    This admission comes in a broader and frightening context. As Carol Brown writes:


    There is a coordinated movement by progressives to silence dissenting voices. As Harry Reid continues to push legislation to alter the First Amendment that would have a chilling effect on political speech, the IRS continues its assault against conservatives. Most recently, Breitbart was informed that they (and their employees) will be audited.

    Whenever I can, I put aside money to pay my taxes. But I doubt that the IRS would accept such practice as justification for underpayment.



    AS Carol says, “This is what we’ve come to: Tyrannical rulers are encouraged to do the right thing.”


    Read more: http://americanthinker.com/blog/2014/09/irs_chief_whenever_we_can_we_follow_the_law.html#ixzz3D4zumxPm
    Follow us: @AmericanThinker on Twitter | AmericanThinker on Facebook

    ReplyDelete

  23. Obama authorizes military strikes against ISIS leadership

    President Obama has authorized the Pentagon to target and kill leaders of the Islamic State militant group, with the organization’s head Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi being at the top of the administration’s list.

    U.S. military officials confirmed to Fox News Thursday that Obama had approved the strikes against individual targets for the first time. The authorization was first reported by the Washington Post.

    Obama had previously not permitted the military to target individuals from the terrorist organization, also known as ISIS or ISIL, even if intelligence showed where they were located.

    White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest said in a press briefing Thursday that the president is “actively engaged” in selecting possible Islamic State targets that are “available.”

    “The president has gotten guidance about targets that are available and would be critical to denying ISIL a safe-haven both in Iraq and in Syria,” Earnest said.

    Earnest said the administration has identified the targets through ramped up "intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance assets” in the region.

    http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2014/09/11/obama-authorizes-military-strikes-against-isis-leadership/?cmpid=edpick&google_editors_picks=true

    ReplyDelete
  24. Haaretz -
    Hollande and Iraqi officials are expected to discuss possible French airstrikes on Islamic State targets.

    No visits are scheduled with the Kurds.
    The French are dealing with the government of Iraq, not pretenders or insurgent rebels backed by international terrorists.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. The French are Turds.

      They sold machetes to the Rawandans.

      Delete
  25. National Police GazetteFri Sep 12, 02:59:00 AM EDT


    "Of all the women of the Cleopatra type, since the days of the Egyptian queen herself, the universe has produced none more remarkable than Bella Starr, the Bandit Queen …
    She was more amorous than Anthony's mistress, more relentless than Pharaoh's daughter, and braver than Joan of Arc …."

    - National Police Gazette.

    ReplyDelete