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."

Saturday, December 27, 2014

The degree of malicious idiocy displayed by the Israelis is often, as in this case, difficult to fathom

"The action is indeed malicious, but hardly idiotic. It is part of a long-standing Israeli program to make life in the West Bank as well as Gaza so horrible that the Palestinians will flee.

Israeli Occupation military demolishes dairy factory in Hebron, Palestinian West Bank

HEBRON (Ma’an) — Israeli forces on Thursday destroyed a dairy factory in the Hebron village of al-Burj, the owner told Ma’an.
Yasser Muhammad Salim Masharqa said that Israeli forces and civil administration officers escorted two bulldozers to the village and demolised the steel structure, which measures 2000 square meters.
Cements rooms measuring 400 square meters were also destroyed.
The factory is located near the separation wall in the southwest of the Hebron district.
309992_345x230
The owner was not allowed to remove machinery from the factory before the demolition.
Israel has demolished at least 359 Palestinian structures in the West Bank so far in 2014, according to the Israeli Committee Against House Demolitions.

132 comments:

  1. Replies
    1. Israel has demolished at least 359 Palestinian structures in the West Bank so far in 2014, according to the Israeli Committee Against House Demolitions.

      Wow Israel now being cursed for "structure demolitions" LOL


      Merry Christmas

      Delete
  2. Third priest is killed in southern Mexico during a series of abductions and attacks against Roman Catholic clerics

    Rev. Gregorio Lopez Gorostieta was found dead of a gunshot would to the head in Guerrero state, Mexico
    He is the third Catholic priest to be killed in this region this year
    The motive for his killing is not clear

    By Associated Press

    Published: 14:55 EST, 26 December 2014 | Updated: 15:41 EST, 26 December 2014

    A priest has been found dead of a gunshot wound to the head in Mexico's southern Guerrero state, his diocese said Friday.

    Rev. Gregorio Lopez Gorostieta's death marks the latest in a series of abductions, attacks and highway robberies against Roman Catholic clerics in the state which is dominated by drug cartels.

    He is the third Catholic priest to have been killed in the region this year, and the first to die since the federal government launched a special, stepped-up security operation in the area following the disappearance of 43 teachers' college students three months ago.
    +3

    Rev. Gregorio Lopez Gorostieta (pictured) was found dead of a gunshot would to the head

    The motive in Lopez Gorostieta's killing remains unclear; Bishop Maximino Martinez said a group had been seen lurking around the seminary where the priest taught on the outskirts of Ciudad Altamirano, Guerrero, on Sunday and Monday.

    Lopez Gorostieta was apparently kidnapped by the gang early Monday; his truck was found abandoned two days later.

    'This is another priest added to those who have died for their love of Christ,' Bishop Martinez said.

    'Enough already of so much pain, of so many murders. Enough already of so much crime. Enough extortions.'

    That was an apparent reference to the 'protection payments' that the local drug gang, the Knights Templar, demand from business owners in Ciudad Altamirano.............

    Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2887766/Kidnapped-priest-Mexico-dead.html#ixzz3N5clgTqJ
    Follow us: @MailOnline on Twitter | DailyMail on Facebook

    The count of dead and missing Priests is up to around 10 in the last couple years.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. And not a Muslim in the house

      Delete
  3. December 27, 2014
    American Achiever of 2014 -- Sarah Palin
    By M. Joseph Sheppard

    It would be the height of churlishness for even the most inveterate leftist to deny the import of someone who made Time magazine's "100 Most Influential People list, and then the Smithsonian Institution's "100 Most Significant Americans Of All Time" list. Both affirmations were earned by former Alaska governor and vice-presidential candidate Sarah Palin.

    To then accept Governor Palin as "American Achiever of the Year 2014" would be for most, if not all on the left (and to be fair, many in the GOP) no doubt a bridge too far. However, such partisanship should not stand the way of a general acknowledgement of what was a remarkable year for Palin.

    Palin achieved what such luminaries as President Obama did not, a place in the Smithsonian's prestigious "Most Significant" List. After being written off by many in the media, and especially the left, as "irrelevant and, predicted by MSNBC's Krystal Ball as "not going to have an effect on the (2014) mid-terms" Palin's record of success of her endorsed candidates was nothing short of phenomenal.

    Governor Palin endorsed 22 candidates for various offices during the midterms finals including senators, governors, lt. governors, congressmen, and attorney's general. Of those so endorsed an incredible 20 were elected -- contrasted with, for example, Hillary Clinton's record of 8 wins out 24 endorsed candidates.

    Beyond the success of her endorsed candidates lies a much deeper reason for Palin being seen as "Achiever of the Year" -- the fact that Palin endorsed in their respective primaries who then went on to win the general election battles. As in the past with, among others, senators Ted Cruz, Kelly Ayotte, and Deb Fischer, and Governor Nikki Haley, who owe their elections in their primary campaigns to Palin's endorsement at a critical juncture, so too could new senators Ben Sasse and Joni Ernst, and new Alaska governor Bill Walker (and remarkably, his Democrat Lt. Governor Byron Mallott) be considered to owe all or a substantial part of their nominations to Palin's endorsement.

    For all her detractor’s cries of "irrelevance" and "she's just a reality show entertainer" (those two being among the nicer epithets), Palin goes on, election cycle after election cycle, populating Congress with her endorsed candidates in a cost-effective manner, and in such numbers that the likes of Karl Rove with his 1% success rate can surely only view with hidden admiration if not downright envy.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. In what is perhaps the most interesting aspect of Palin’s year of achievement involves the march of history lifting her to new heights. In instance after instance where Palin was ridiculed for a straightforward statement e.g. "death panels" or the true history of Paul Revere, her most strident critics have agreed, in whole or part, with her views, but 2014 saw the most impressive of this historical revisionism.

      After Russian President Putin invaded the Ukraine and annexed the Crimea, video surfaced of Governor Palin's 2008 speech where she predicted exactly that occurrence should then presidential candidate Barack Obama be elected. Palin sounded a deserved note of triumphalism in March:

      "Yes, I could see this one from Alaska," Palin posted on Facebook, saying she said "told-ya-so" in the case of her "accurate prediction being derided as 'an extremely far-fetched scenario' by the 'high-brow' Foreign Policy magazine.

      "Here’s what this 'stupid' 'insipid woman' predicted back in 2008," Palin said. "After the Russian Army invaded the nation of Georgia, Senator Obama's reaction was one of indecision and moral equivalence, the kind of response that would only encourage Russia's Putin to invade Ukraine next."

      Palin's post has been shared by more than 16,000 Facebook users and "liked" by more than 70,000."

      In 2014, Governor Palin is deservedly the "Achiever of The Year".

      Read more: http://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2014/12/american_achiever_of_2014__sarah_palin.html#ixzz3N5e4ONz7
      Follow us: @AmericanThinker on Twitter | AmericanThinker on Facebook

      ...........

      I wish she'd run for President. She'd have my vote and donation.

      If she should run I'd demote my "Ben Carson for President" to "Ben Carson for Vice-President".

      Palin/Carson - Dream Ticket !

      Delete
    2. The Quitter and the Never Been Elected.

      A couple of political neophytes that Robert "Draft Dodger" Peterson has become attached to.
      At least Ben Carson has never lied to his constituents, he's never had any constituents.

      Unlike Mrs Palin who lied to the people of Alaska, failing to fulfill her obligation to them.
      A Quitter of the Highest Order, Mrs Sarah Palin

      Delete
    3. Interesting ramble that means nothing to the thread, again.

      Mrs Palin? Ben Carlson?

      Jack, go take your meds. again.

      Delete
    4. Robert "Draft Dodger" Peterson's newest political flames.

      The 'Quitter' and the 'Never Been'.

      Find his choices in Saviors to be comically entertaining.

      Delete
    5. Jack "I have killed but never caught" Hawkins comments again.

      It's amazing to watch someone who has personally admitted to crimes against the people of Central America (by being member of a hit squad and training others to murder) making comments as if he has clean hands..

      The readers of Jack "I am a murderer" Hawkins must be informed of his personal sorted past.

      Delete
  4. For the record, the dairy factory in question is/was owned by the Islamic Charitable Society and Israel accuses the Islamic Charitable Society of having ties to Hamas.


    Islamic Charitable Society
    From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

    The Islamic Charitable Society is a non-profit charitable organisation located in Hebron in the West Bank. The charity was founded in 1962 to take care of orphans and expanded through years. It is now responsible for two orphanages, three schools for boys and girls, dairy, sewing workshop, two bakeries, a large mall and a 30-apartment building.[1]

    According to a 2006 episode of the BBC's series, the Islamic Charitable Society has received funding from Interpal and is associated with Hamas.[2] Citing the Charity Commission for England and Wales and a draft report from the U.S. Treasury's Asset Freezing Working Group, it was alleged on that the Islamic Charitable Society has "a well-documented supporting role within the Hamas infrastructure" and that it had "funded and administered educational programmes that appear tantamount to incitement and indoctrination in support of violent Hamas activity."[2]

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. England, Wales, and the US Treasury Department seem to agree with the Israelis.

      I'm sure that it was a simple oversight that Juan Cole did not mention this aspect of the affair.

      Delete
    2. All three agree that the PKK, the Kurds, are terrorists, too.
      Just like the Haganah.

      Delete
    3. Jack HawkinsSat Dec 27, 08:47:00 AM EST
      All three agree that the PKK, the Kurds, are terrorists, too.
      Just like the Haganah

      You mean JUST LIKE you?

      After all you are the self confessed killer of civilians in Central America.


      But the "Haganah" doesn't matter to this issue, nor George Washington and his terroristic action, or the Boston tea party..

      the Islamic Charitable Society is the issue, can you stick to an issue?

      or are you incapable?

      Delete
    4. I for one am glad Israel is taking out the terror infrastructure in their own back yard.

      America travels 6000 miles to do the same.

      Delete
    5. On Nov. 25, 1940, a boat carrying Jewish refugees from Nazi Europe, the “Patra,” exploded and sank off the coast of Palestine killing 252 people.
      The Zionist “Haganah” claimed the passengers committed suicide to protest British refusal to let them land. Years later, it admitted that rather than let the passengers go to Mauritius, it blew up the vessel for its propaganda value.
      “Sometimes it is necessary to sacrifice the few in order to save the many,” Moshe Sharett, a former Israeli Prime Minister said at memorial service in 1958.


      http://beforeitsnews.com/strange/2013/03/zionists-led-jews-to-annihilation-in-ww2-2447940.html

      Delete
    6. For an Israeli to see a terrorist, they only need look in a mirror.

      Delete
    7. "I don't understand your optimism," Ben-Gurion declared.
      "Why should the Arabs make peace?
      If I were an Arab leader I would never make terms with Israel.

      That is natural: we have taken their country."

      Delete
    8. Once again, off topic and not germane to the thread.

      Your pals, Hamas, are true terrorists.

      To attempt to conflate other issues?

      Your stock and trade.

      That is why you are worm tongue.

      Delete
    9. But you raise a point.

      You live in AZ.

      You have taken the indigenous people's land. You are a terrorist by your own definition.

      Should we applaud when the natives plant an IED under you?

      Delete
    10. The topic ...

      Israeli terrorism in Palestine.

      That is the topic of the thread.
      Robert "Draft Dodger" Peterson tried to divert the stream, to Sarah "The Quitter" Palin and some delusional fantasy he has about her electability to a national office...

      Comically diversionary, but that's all.

      Delete
    11. Israeli terrorism in Palestine.


      No the topic is the destruction of Hamas's terror infrastructure.

      Learn to read

      Delete
    12. The degree of malicious idiocy displayed by the Israelis is often, as in this case, difficult to fathom
      "The action is indeed malicious, but hardly idiotic. It is part of a long-standing Israeli program to make life in the West Bank as well as Gaza so horrible that the Palestinians will flee.”


      Terrorism utilized, by the Israeli, to force the civilian population to flee.
      That is the topic of the thread, "O"rdure.

      No amount of revisionism will change that.

      Delete
    13. ... part of a long-standing Israeli program ...

      One which is illustrated by the Zionists murdering 252 Jewish refugees, in 1940.

      Human life is of little value to Zionists ...
      They will murder innocents, for the propaganda value they garnered by the deaths.

      Proven by their actions in Palestine.

      Delete
    14. but Jack, you told us that the Zionists murdered scores of palestinians per month in the 21st century!!!!

      How is it possible that 252 matter?

      Better question, why have they not killed you yet?

      Delete
  5. Terrorism utilized, by the Israeli, to force the civilian population to flee.
    That is the topic of the thread, "O"rdure.



    Today, in Israel there are 1.2 MILLION arab citizens, and in the disputed lands of the west bank and gaza?

    MILLION and MILLION more arabs..

    apparently no arabs have fled the middle east.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. But on a lighter note?

      Assad, America's ally in Syria had a christmas present of barrel bombs for his arab citizens!

      more barrel bombs.

      So far, Assad of Syria has set free (as refugees fleeing) 11 MILLION arabs.. and as a side bonus, murdered over 260 thousand too!

      Well blow me over...

      11 MILLION sent a packing...

      260 thousand DEAD

      How many is that per month in the 21st century Jack?

      Delete
    2. Basic division beyond your capacity, "O"rdure?

      Delete
    3. Hardly, but we all KNOW what an obsession you have telling us how many per month have been killed...

      Go for it sparkie.

      Delete
    4. No curiosity on my part, "Ordure.
      No need to know.

      {;-)

      Delete
    5. Really Jack, you make the accusations that the arabs have fled because of the Zionists and yet the reality is far different than your pronouncements.

      1.2 million arabs live inside israel, 5 times the number that existed in 1948 from the entire region from the river to the sea and if you look at the west bank and gaza?

      MILLIONS and MILLIONS MORE exist.

      Never fled from the zionists...

      you lie.
      all the time.

      Delete
    6. SodaStream equity values are continuing to crater.
      Closing under $21, today.

      Since "O"rdure assures us that the fundamentals of SodaStream are sound. Its business plan, foolproof.
      Even with the losses of over 28% since "O"rdure made his 'buy' reccommendation, he stands his ground.

      Ignoring the greater truth, if he is correct.
      The truth that SodaStream's loss of almost 70% of its market value, since it was targeted by the Boycott, Divest and Sanction Movement, is indicative of the success of the Boycott, Divest and Sanction Movement.

      Or admit that the SodaStream "Your home soda factory" market was just a fad ...
      That today SodaStream is invested in ... "Water made exciting"

      {;-)

      Delete
    7. Sodastream is doing fine for it's owners...

      42 million a year in net profit.

      speculators be damed.
      42 MILLION in net profit!

      steady as soda..

      Delete
    8. Ignoring the greater truth, if he is correct.
      The truth that SodaStream's loss of almost 70% of its market value, since it was targeted by the Boycott, Divest and Sanction Movement, is indicative of the success of the Boycott, Divest and Sanction Movement.


      BDS?

      LOL

      Try again Jack, speculation aint investment.

      42 MILLION a year in net profit, year after year for a company 6 years old...

      Delete
    9. I guess you could also say that oil has lost 50% of it's cost too..

      But I would not say that oil is over either...

      It's fun to watch a horse shit specialist talk business...

      Delete
  6. (Reuters) - The United States and its allies carried out 12 air strikes against Islamic State militants in Iraq and Syria on Saturday, the Combined Joint Task Force said.

    Six strikes near the Syrian town of Kobani on the Turkish border destroyed Islamic State buildings, fighting positions and vehicles, a task force statement said.

    In Iraq, targets including buildings, vehicles and an Islamic State refinery were hit in six strikes near Al Asad, Mosul, Falluja, Al Qaim and Baiji ...

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. BUILDINGS?

      America is demolishing moslem BUILDINGS, oh the crime!

      America Occupation military demolishes building is Iraq!

      Delete
    2. No "Occupation", not by the US in Iraq.

      The Iraqi government not permitting US combat ground troops into the country.
      The Iraqi government running the air operations, per that Republican Senator from Kansas.

      Your accusations fall flat, Israeli.

      Delete
  7. (Reuters) - Syria said on Saturday it is willing to participate in "preliminary consultations" in Moscow aimed at restarting peace talks next year to end its civil war.

    But members of the Western-backed Syrian opposition dismissed the Russian plan on Saturday, saying there was "no initiative."

    Syrian state television quoted a source at the foreign ministry saying "Syria is ready to participate in preliminary consultations in Moscow in order to meet the aspirations of Syrians to find a way out of crisis."

    Moscow, an ally of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, has pushed to restart talks that collapsed in Geneva in February.

    Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said this month that he wanted Syrian opposition groups to agree among themselves on a common approach before setting up direct talks with the Damascus government.

    But Lavrov did not specify which opposition groups should take part. Some opposition groups are tolerated by Damascus but shunned by the opposition in exile.

    Hadi al-Bahra, head of the Turkey-based opposition National Coalition, met with Arab League Chief Nabil Elaraby in Cairo on Saturday and told a news conference that “there is no initiative as rumoured”.

    “Russia does not have a clear initiative, and what is called for by Russia is just a meeting and dialogue in Moscow, with no specific paper or initiative,” he was quoted by Egyptian state news agency MENA as saying.

    Russia has long backed Assad, including with arms supplies for Syria, but he has become a more important ally for Moscow since the 2011 Arab Spring protests toppled several autocrats in the Middle East, some of whom had close ties with Moscow.

    ReplyDelete
  8. By the way I wasn't trying to subvert the thread by mentioning the Divine Sarah. Just got carried away with my need to share my admiration for that wonderful woman.

    Besides, once you've read one Juan Cole article on Israel you've pretty much read them all. With Juan it soon gets to be yawn time.

    Just like with Jack "War Criminal, Dead Beat Dad, Professional Liar, Self Admitted Moron, Coward, and Self Admitted Professional Asshole" Hawkins.

    Hey, Seattle plays tomorrow !

    There's something to look forward to.....

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Why, Robert "Draft Dodger" Peterson, you are back on the 'Opiate of the Dumb Ass Class'?

      As long as the "Draft Dodger" has his circus, bread and a little vino, he is a happy camper.
      Any mental stress, he takes his monthly welfare stipend and heads to the casino.

      Delete
    2. Well, see there Jack "War Criminal, Dead Beat Dad, Professional Liar, Self Admitted Moron, Coward, and Self Admitted Professional Asshole" Hawkins, I was just a po' workin' man, don't have no cattle ranches, printing businesses and the Portfolio of Stock and Bonds like you 1% folk.

      BWABWABWABWAHAHAHAHAHA !!!

      You live in your mother's basement and aren't fit to wash Sarah Palin's windshield, if you should ever get a job and work at a gas station.


      BWABWABWABWABWAHAHAHAHAHAHSHSSSSSSSSSSSSSSHIT :):):)

      ROFLMAO

      Hardeharhar.......rat - O - Zero and his non existent Portfolio, rat the international financier.....(A financier, rat -O - Loser, is a person who makes their living from investments, typically involving large sums of money and usually involving private equity and venture capital, if you have read somewhere what those are)



      Delete
  9. The Fever seems to be "Breaking" with some of the Daesh. 40 Surrendered, yesterday. Maybe, that "fighting to the death" is looking a little less attractive as death becomes more, and more, inevitable.

    40 resign from the ranks of "Dead Men Walking.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Great news!

      Interesting stories linked to that site, Rufus.

      Delete
    2. millions and millions still exist around the planet

      Delete
  10. ISIL’s brutal zeal foretells the certainty of its demise

    Rashmee Roshan Lall

    December 24, 2014 Updated: December 24, 2014 06:05 PM

    Related

    UN must protect minorities, urges UAE human rights activist
    Father pleads with ISIL to free Jordanian pilot
    ISIL sex slavery pushes Yazidi women to suicide
    US soldiers engage ISIL in first Iraq combat since 2011

    Revolutions always destroy themselves, unless they settle into moderation and reform. This may be the best way to read the first-person account of the brutal rhythms of life in ISIL’s revolutionary so-called “Islamic state” by German author, former politician and judge Juergen Todenhoefer, who may be the first western non-believer to go in to – and come out of – territory controlled by the extremist group.

    Mr Todenhoefer spent 10 days with ISIL, a perilous adventure for a visibly European man with no claims to have seen the light and converted to Islam. But it came about after seven months of Skype calls, which he initiated through a German jihadist. Carrying a permit from the “office of the caliphate” (some might call it Abu Bakr Al Baghdadi’s typing pool), which was meant to guarantee his safety and that of his son, Mr Todenhoefer entered ISIL’s world through Turkey. He spent half a day in Raqaa in Syria and six days in Mosul in Iraq, initially in the very hotel occupied by journalist James Foley, the first American to be beheaded by ISIL. Foley’s murder in August was filmed and posted by ISIL on social media to worldwide revulsion, followed by regular horror show episodes that comprised footage of the decapitation of five Westerners, two Lebanese army men and 18 Syrian soldiers and Kurds.

    But the perpetrators of these crimes guaranteed Mr Todenhoefer safe passage. Unsurprisingly, as he has since told the world’s media from the safety of his home in Munich, he was worried that they might change their mind.

    They didn’t and he has lived to tell the tale of the fanatical, self-righteous and violent campaign that ISIL imagines as a revolution. It is a dystopian story with frightening markers that foretell its demise.............

    http://www.thenational.ae/opinion/comment/isils-brutal-zeal-foretells-the-certainty-of-its-demise


    One hopes the writer of this article is correct, but unfortunately he goes wrong in the very first sentence.

    No one knows how this is all going to turn out and the end result is a long ways away.

    ReplyDelete
  11. Here’s How Islamic State Could Shoot Down Allied Warplanes


    Optical missile-guidance and improvised weapons could help militants defend against air attacks

    https://medium.com/war-is-boring/heres-how-islamic-state-could-shoot-down-allied-warplanes-7c90f2aa955

    Without some better weapons and some real expertise, they look to be continually vulnerable from the air.

    ReplyDelete

  12. After rapid advances, Isis may have staying power

    Islamic State is a grave threat to the stability of the Middle East and beyond – and military defeat alone will not be the end


    Ian Black, Middle East editor
    The Guardian, Friday 26 December 2014 14.24 EST

    Isis flags Isis flags in Raqqa, Syria, in June. Photograph: Reuters

    If 2014 can be described as the year of the Islamic State, it is a fair bet that the jihadi group Barack Obama has pledged to “degrade and ultimately destroy” will continue to dominate headlines from the Middle East in 2015. John Kerry, the US secretary of state, has made clear he sees the fight against it as a long haul that will require more than air strikes to succeed. Still, how long is anyone’s guess.

    Kerry’s claim that attacks by the US-led coalition have halted Isis’s advances is partly morale-boosting PR. Yet six months since it shocked the world by raising its black flags over the Iraqi city of Mosul, Isis has failed to reach Baghdad or to take Kobani on the Syrian-Turkish border in the face of fierce Kurdish resistance. In Iraq it faces a tacit alliance of the US, its western allies and Iran. Jordan, Saudi Arabia and three other Gulf states are doing their bit to target it in Syria.

    Overall, the picture is mixed. Isis rules a 400-mile strip from Aleppo in Syria to Falluja in Iraq. It runs social services and infrastructure, advertising for contractors and engineers to supply electricity and maintain dams. Its much-vaunted financial clout has looked less impressive since the loss of oilfields that were a significant revenue source. It has little ability to deal with shortages and unemployment.

    Isis continues to use social media to broadcast the attractions of a revived caliphate which transcends what it calls the artificial borders of states ruled by Arab agents and apostates allied to crusaders and colonialists. But its brutality – beheadings, crucifixions and mass executions in accordance with its “management of savagery” doctrine – has made it powerful enemies. As Middle East scholar Fawaz Gerges says, it is little more than a “nihilistic killing machine”.

    Still, Isis is made up of different elements that may give it staying power – Ba’athist-era army officers and Iraqi tribes, as well as al-Qaida veterans and wannabe jihadis from across the world. In a landscape strewn with the failed hopes of the Arab spring, it is admired by Sunnis who are angered by sectarian oppression in Iraq and Syria and who fear Iran and Shia allies such as Hezbollah. Extremists in Yemen, Libya and Egypt have sworn allegiance to its self-proclaimed caliph, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, who calls himself a “leader for Muslims everywhere” and has taken over Osama bin Laden’s mantle.

    Its largest foreign Arab contingents are from Saudi Arabia, Jordan and Tunisia, nations that are all alarmed by its appeal. Intelligence-sharing and crackdowns – on radical preachers, financing and recruitment – look likely to be more effective than air strikes.

    Obama’s regional “partner nations” are nervous about doing too much too openly. “Of course we know Isis are bad,” said a Jordanian intellectual, “but we really don’t want to be on the same side as the Americans.” The Arab mukhabarat (security service) state is having a field day.

    Past investments and current oil interests mean the US has been prioritising Iraq over Syria. The dysfunctional Iraqi army, humiliated last summer, is improving but for now matters less than Shia militias that work with the Iranians. Isis has been making inroads in Iraq’s western, heavily Sunni Anbar province. Elsewhere it is being pushed back. That is important, argues the British academic Toby Dodge: “Nevertheless, the long-term stabilisation of Iraq will require the resolution of the political problems that created the space in which the group has thrived”...................

    http://www.theguardian.com/theguardian/2014/dec/26/isis-advances-staying-power-middle-east

    ReplyDelete
  13. Wanted Islamic extremist leader surrenders in Somalia

    NAIROBI, Kenya (AP) — A Somali intelligence official says a leader with the Islamic extremist group al-Shabab, who has a $3 million bounty on his head, surrendered in Somalia.

    The intelligence officer, who insisted on anonymity because he is not authorized to speak to the press, said Saturday Zakariya Ismail Ahmed Hersi surrendered to Somali police in the Gedo region.

    The officer said Hersi may have surrendered because he fell out with those loyal to Ahmed Godane, al-Shabab's top leader who was killed in a U.S. airstrike earlier this year.

    Hersi was one of eight top al-Shabab officials whom the Obama administration offered a total $33 million in rewards for information leading to their capture in 2012. Despite suffering major losses such as losing major cities, al-Shabab remains a threat in Somalia and Kenya.

    ReplyDelete
  14. Jack HawkinsSat Dec 27, 11:34:00 AM EST
    No "Occupation", not by the US in Iraq.

    The Iraqi government not permitting US combat ground troops into the country.
    The Iraqi government running the air operations, per that Republican Senator from Kansas.

    Your accusations fall flat, Israeli.


    I thought you said I was in Cleveland in a failed chocolate business called Chocolate Emporium?

    Which is it Jack?

    ReplyDelete
  15. The brain trust at Harvard has bottled up a political dispute, reversing the dining hall's decision to cut ties with an Israeli soda company based on one-sided input from pro-Palestinian student groups.

    The decision last week by university President Drew Faust and Provost Alan Garber came quickly after they discovered that Harvard University Dining Services had decided to stop buying SodaStream products due to the company's presence in the West Bank. The company, which makes flavoring and carbonating machines, has defended its factories in the territory, saying it has created jobs for hundreds of Palestinians. In a statement, Garber said the Ivy League school's contracting policies are not to be dictated by partisan student groups.

    “Harvard University’s procurement decisions should not and will not be driven by individuals’ views of highly contested matters of political controversy,” Garber said in a statement sent to Boston Magazine. “If this policy is not currently known or understood in some parts of the University, that will be rectified now.”


    bds FAIL

    ReplyDelete
  16. BDS Fail: Wesleyan University Restocks Sabra Hummus
    Students for Justice in Palestine declare false victory only to be embarrassed.

    The Wesleyan University chapter of Students for Justice in Palestine thought that they'd won. When Sabra hummus disappeared off of the shelves in one of the dining halls on campus the anti-Semitic hate group and the media figured that it was because of SJP's promotion of the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement against Israel.

    WTNH.Com, a local news station, was quick to declare victory for the anti-Israel forces on campus, asserting that the hummus was "banned from Wesleyan" and speculating that move would cost Sabra roughly $25,000 per year.

    School media also joined in. Wrote Wesleying:

    If you haven’t noticed (though you probably have), Weshop has started carrying a new brand of hummus. Over the course of a few weeks, Sabra hummus has been phased out and replaced by Cedar’s. Additionally, all other Sabra products have been taken off the shelves in Pi and Usdan Café. This change was implemented under the direction of the Dining Committee, which is led by WSA members and Bon Appetit staff.

    The decision to switch hummus brands comes after a long campaign by members of Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) and other students to remove Sabra products from the dining locations on campus, because of Sabra’s involvement in the Israel/Palestine conflict.This campaign was initiated over the course of multiple semesters. “Two years ago, we were researching and educating ourselves on the Boycott/Divestment/Sanctions movement, which began in Palestine in 2005,” says JJ Mitchell ’15. The movement seeks to take a stand against financial support for Israel and its actions against Palestine. “Sabra’s parent company, Strauss Group, provides direct monetary aid to certain military brigades, specifically the Golani Brigade, that are known for their particularly violent approaches,” says Mitchell. These Israeli Defense Forces that have received material support from Strauss Group have been pinpointed as violating the human rights of Palestinians.

    Not so fast. The university dining service quickly clarified that the move had absolutely nothing to do with boycotting Israel, was made in the interest of sustainability, and that Sabra would be returning to the shelves:

    As many people on and off campus are aware, Wesleyan recently switched from stocking Sabra hummus to a local brand, Cedar’s. Though we made this change in the interest of sustainability and reducing our carbon footprint, it unfortunately has been misinterpreted in the media and elsewhere as a political statement in support of the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement against Israel. In order to clarify our continued political neutrality, and to give students a choice, we will be stocking both Sabra and Cedar’s hummus, starting in January.

    Yet another BDS fail.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Then SodaStream is just a very poorly run company?

      Delete
    2. One that was not "Undervalued" at $29 per share?

      Delete
    3. Jack, you are the horse shit scooper of the blog

      But from where I sit?

      the entire stock market is nothing but a ponzi scheme.

      the company, Sodastream, less than a decade old, is producing 42 million a year (some years higher some lower) in net profit.

      The true OWNERS of the company are smiling.

      Delete

  17. A recent report by Tel Aviv University says Saudi Arabia is the last hope and defense line for Israel and has described the Saudis as Tel Aviv’s last chance to protect its political interests in the Arab world.
    The report said that most of Israel’s allies in the region have collapsed and cannot play a significant role in the Arab world.

    It added that Saudi Arabia is the only country that stands against the Islamic Republic of Iran and thus it is Tel Aviv’s last line of defense against Tehran.

    The report noted that the Al Saud family is very important to Israel because Saudi Arabia is very actively working in countries such as Yemen, Egypt, Iraq, and Lebanon to reduce Iran’s influence in those countries.

    Last March, a senior Egyptian cleric accused Saudi Arabia and Qatar of meddling in the internal affairs of other Muslim nations, calling the two states “Israel’s servants.”

    Sheikh Mohammad Alaedin Madhi said the two countries were implementing an Israeli-US plan in Syria.

    He also criticized the Saudi-owned television network Al-Arabiya and the Qatar-owned broadcaster Al-Jazeera for “serving Israeli interests.”

    Moreover, in emails leaked by WikiLeaks and obtained by the Beirut-based newspaper Al-Akhbar, it was revealed that Saudi Arabia had reached out to the Mossad, which assisted the kingdom with, as Al-Akhbar reports, “intelligence collection and advice on Iran.”

    According to a source quoted in the emails, “Several enterprising Mossad officers, both past and present, are making a bundle selling the Saudis everything from security equipment (to) intelligence and consultation.”http://saudiinfocus.com/en/archive/a-tel-aviv-university-report-says-saudi-arabia-is-israels-last-hope

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I guess Anonymous never heard about Egypt?

      I love this line...

      "It added that Saudi Arabia is the only country that stands against the Islamic Republic of Iran and thus it is Tel Aviv’s last line of defense against Tehran"

      Only country? LOL

      And it's Jerusalem, not Tel Aviv...

      LOL

      Last March, a senior Egyptian cleric accused Saudi Arabia and Qatar of meddling in the internal affairs of other Muslim nations, calling the two states “Israel’s servants.”

      Is this the same egyptian cleric that is now wanted for siding with the moslem brotherhood

      LOVE meaningless drivel...

      Delete
  18. "The action is indeed malicious, but hardly idiotic. It is part of a long-standing Israeli program to make life in the West Bank as well as Gaza so horrible that the Palestinians will flee.”

    Maybe Israel should adopt the Palestinian method of trying to drive Israelis from Israel and the middle east?

    Firebomb children, throw rocks from overpasses onto the windshields of palestinians, set up IED's to blow up passing palestinians, use snipe rifles to blow the brains out of babies?

    all palestinian tricks of the trade...

    Oh, but bulldozing and building with no lives? that's horrible...

    LOL

    Merry Christmas

    ReplyDelete
  19. Such is the state of the bulldozin chosin. Set up an apartheid state and expect the displaced to push back any way that they can.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. By your standards the Jews are more displaced than any "palestinians"

      What no sympathy for them?

      But your idea that Israel is an apartheid state is ludicrous. It defames those that actually lived through real apartheid.

      But you don't care.

      The West Bank, as you call it, is in a battle for it's survival, but not with Israel, but with hamas verses Fatah.

      If israel withdrew tomorrow? Hamas would slaughter thousands of palestinians as it did in Gaza when it over thru the PA 8 years ago.

      Israel destroyed a Hamas building.

      Hamas murders civilians ( or tries to) every day of every week for decades.

      On this you are silent or you justify it...

      You stand with the most vile terrorists on the planet...

      I stand with Israel.

      Delete
  20. Deuce ☂Sat Dec 27, 03:32:00 PM EST
    Such is the state of the bulldozin chosin.

    Ah, your jew hatred seeps into your every post...

    look in the mirror at the devil you are turning into...

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Nonsense, you are incapable of seeing the truth in front of you. Your ability to see the difference between right and wrong is gone if it has anything to do with Israel. You are not alone, hardly unique in having sold out to situational ethics. If Arabs or Christians, Muslims or Catholics were doing to Jews today in Palestine what Jews are doing to Palestinians day in and day out, we would have tribunals in the Hague and New York City.

      You have been thoroughly corrupted and have sunk into moral bankruptcy and your lifeline has been and continues to be others are worse. Live with it.

      Delete
    2. "You are not alone, hardly unique in having sold out to situational ethics."

      Bwabwabwabwahahahahaha

      What NONSENSE

      Thinking is hard. That why moral absolutism is so attractive.

      Ask Quirk.

      But drinking is easy.

      Delete
  21. The campaigns always use the word “hate”.

    ReplyDelete
  22. In the city of Mosul itself it seems as though ISIS is at a loss. Members of ISIS are still on the city’s streets but most of the foreign fighters appear to have gone. The ones left on the streets tend to be younger, local fighters some of whom don’t even seem to be 25 yet.

    Some of the fighters on the streets admit that they’ve been forced to withdraw from Sinjar but only very quietly.

    “For the first time you can sense the feelings of fear and frustration in ISIS’s fighters,” one Mosul doctor, who had been seeing ISIS casualties come in, told NIQASH; he had to remain anonymous for security reasons. “As the number of dead and wounded from among their ranks increases, they look more and more like they’ve lost confidence in their leadership.”

    After the defeat of ISIS in Sinjar, most other locals have been left wondering who might rule the city in the near future. Some say they . . . . . . .

    Dead Men Walking

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Rollin' 'em back ...

      The US Military would like to drag it out, the Iraqi not so much.

      Delete
    2. Al Baghdadi getting his ass shot off was, also. :)

      Delete
    3. If the "Foreign Fighters" are slipping out of Dodge, this deal will be over even quicker than I thought.

      Delete
    4. Though, again, I hope you're right.

      Delete
    5. Search results

      Isis has enough weapons to carry on fighting for two ye...
      www.theguardian.com › World › Islamic State (Isis)
      Isis has enough weapons to carry on ... Syria and Iraq for up to two years. The size and breadth of the Isis arsenal provides ... to take up consideration ...
      ISIS Has Enough Weapons for Up to Two Years | The...
      dissenter.firedoglake.com/2014/11/20/isis-has-enough... Cached
      ISIS Has Enough Weapons for Up to Two Years: By: Peter Van Buren Thursday November 20, 2014 7:44 am: ... How do you know how long the weapons will last.
      Isis Has Enough Weapons To Last Up To Two Years - Video Results
      ISIS has enough weapons to wage war up to two years4:35
      ISIS has enough weapons to wage war up to two years
      youtube.com
      Report: ISIS has enough weapons to wage war up to two years4:34
      Report: ISIS has enough weapons to wage war up to two years
      video.foxnews.com
      Is ISIS here to stay?1:26
      Is ISIS here to stay?
      news.yahoo.com
      Is ISIS here to stay?1:27
      Is ISIS here to stay?
      cbsnews.com
      More Isis Has Enough Weapons To Last Up To Two Years videos
      UN Report: ISIS Has Enough Weapons, Ammunition to Keep...
      www.christianpost.com › world
      Nov 19, 2014 · ... ISIS Has Enough Weapons, ... organization has stored up enough small arms, weapons and ammunition to ... levels for six months to two years ...
      Report: ISIS has enough weapons to wage war up to two...
      video.foxnews.com/v/3899895694001/report-isis-has-enough... Cached
      Report: ISIS has enough weapons to wage war up to two years. Nov. 19, 2014 - 4:34 - Stockpiles include state-of-the-art US weapons. Reaction from PJ Crowley, ...
      ISIS has Enough Weapons for Up to Two Years | Ghosts of...
      wemeantwell.com/blog/2014/11/20/isis-has-enough-weapons... Cached
      ISIS has Enough Weapons for Up to Two Years. November 20, 2014. Tags: ISIS, ... ammunition and vehicles to wage its war in Syria and Iraq for up to two years.


      Until about November 2016.

      Which means the Republicans will have to deal with the problem.

      By that time, Afghanistan will have collapsed, too.

      Delete
    6. Robert "Draft dodger" Peterson, it is you who are not making connections to reality.
      This entire escapade in Iraq stands in evidence to your faulty mental capacity.

      The Kurds are Sunni Muslims, and they are the leading 'Clit Clippers' in Iraq.
      Yet you demand US soldiers go and spill their blood to defend them from other Muslims of similar cultural mores.

      You have such a fixation about ISIS that you told us that Derna, Libya had been grafted, geographically, to Syria.
      When nothing of the sort had happened.

      Your ignorance is translucent, Robert "Draft Dodger" Peterson.
      You must take pride in its display.

      Delete
    7. Isis has enough weapons to carry on fighting for two years, UN warns

      Arsenal is sufficient enough to threaten region ‘even without territory’
      Much of Isis’s weapon stocks were stolen from US-backed Iraqi military
      Report recommends sanctions including seizing Isis oil tanker trucks
      Foreign jihadis flocking to Iraq and Syria on ‘unprecedented scale’

      ISIS rebel militant soldiers on the frontline
      Islamic State (Isis) rebel militant soldiers. According to a UN Security Council report, Isis currently has enough weapons to continue fighting in the middle east for another two years. Photograph: Medyan Dairieh/ZUMA Press/Corbis

      Spencer Ackerman in New York

      Tuesday 18 November 2014 16.04 EST

      A new report prepared for the United Nations Security Council warns that the militant group known as the Islamic State (Isis) possesses sufficient reserves of small arms, ammunition and vehicles to wage its war for Syria and Iraq for up to two years.

      The size and breadth of the Isis arsenal provides the group with durable mobility, range and a limited defense against low-flying aircraft. Even if the US-led bombing campaign continues to destroy the group’s vehicles and heavier weapons, the UN report states, it “cannot mitigate the effect of the significant volume of light weapons” Isis possesses.

      Those weapons “are sufficient to allow [Isis] to continue fighting at current levels for six months to two years”, the UN report finds, making Isis not only the world’s best-funded terrorist group but among its best armed.

      Isis, along with its former rival turned occasional tactical ally the Nusra Front, are sufficiently armed to threaten the region “even without territory”, the report concludes.

      The report, months in the making, recommends the UN implement new steps to cut off Isis’s access to money and guns.

      The Isis arsenal, according to the UN assessment, includes T-55 and T-72 tanks; US-manufactured Humvees; machine guns; short-range anti-aircraft artillery, including shoulder-mounted rockets captured from Iraqi and Syrian military stocks; and “extensive supplies of ammunition”. One member state, not named in the report, contends that Isis maintains a motor pool of 250 captured vehicles.

      Delete
    8. Much of the Isis weapons stocks, particularly “state of the art” weaponry stolen from the US-backed Iraqi military, was “unused” before Isis seized it, the report finds. But some of the relatively complex weapons “may be too much of a challenge” for Isis to effectively wield or maintain.

      Earlier this year, speculation focussed on Isis’s potential ability to produce chemical weapons after it seized Iraqi facilities that had contributed to Saddam Hussein’s illicit weapons programs, but the UN report casts doubt on the likelihood that Isis possesses the “capability to fully exploit material it might have seized”. Nor does the UN report believe that Isis can manufacture its own chemical or other weapons of mass destruction.

      But at least one anonymous member state has provided information about “chemicals and poison-coated metal balls” placed inside Isis’s homemade bombs to maximize damage. In October, Kurdish forces defending the Syrian town of Kobani from Isis reported cases of skin blistering, burning eyes and difficulty breathing after the detonation of an Isis bomb.

      The UN Security Council is expected to take up consideration of the report on Wednesday.

      The report recommends the UN adopt new waves of sanctions designed to disrupt the well-financed Isis’s economic health. Significant among them is a call for states bordering Isis-controlled territory to “promptly seize all oil tanker trucks and their loads” coming in or going out.

      While the report warns that Isis has alternate revenue sources, and does not predict that truck seizures can eliminate Isis’s oil smuggling money, it holds out hope that raising the costs to smuggling networks and trucking companies will deter them from bringing Isis oil to market.

      To combat Isis’s ability to resupply its weapons stocks and launder money, the report recommends the UN mandate that no aircraft originating from Isis-held territory can land on airstrips in member states, and to prohibit flights into Isis-held territory. Exemptions would be made for humanitarian relief planes.

      The report comes on the heels of an October report to the Security Council assessing that 15,000 fighters from 80 countries have flooded into Syria and Iraq to fight alongside Isis and other militant groups.

      While still months off, the US has indicated it will intensify its fight against Isis, primarily in Iraq. After doubling the US troop commitment there, defense officials have said the US will bolster 12 Iraqi and Kurdish brigades, and may even join in the Iraqi fighting for key terrain, such as the borderlands between Syria and Iraq or the city of Mosul.

      http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/nov/18/un-report-isis-enough-weapons-carry-on-fighting-two-years

      Delete
    9. Robert "Draft Dodger" Peterson is pulling agitprop from mid November, and pumping it like it was 'news'.

      Delete
  23. Perhaps Israel should adopt the Palestinian method and just launch rockets into Palestinian areas week after week, year after year?

    Deuce just doesn't appear to be able to grasp the major theme of the play:

    Moslems have been attacking everyone they come in contact with for 1400 YEARS.

    It's why, for instance, Saudi Arabia is Moslem, and the Med Sea southern basin too. There used to be Jews there long ago.

    What 'situational ethics' has to do with this 'situation' from an Israeli point of view is beyond me. Rather a survival imperative would seem to be the real issue.

    The Moslems seem to be the champion moral absolutists....well, immoral absolutists.

    They are commanded TO KILL OR OPPRESS EVERYONE ELSE till the whole earth, even Mississippi, even Philly, is Moslem.

    Allah orders them to do this.

    Deuce doesn't get it.

    This is absolutism.







    ...........

    $2.15/gal around here today.

    Is a two buck/gal possible by New Year's Day?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. What I am trying to say is that in a jungle like the mideast the survival imperative of Israel trumps ethics, situational or absolute. It is trans-moral, so to speak.

      If Arabs were Hindus, however, the argument would have never arisen.

      The Moslems are the direct cause of all this endless suffering.

      In the perspective of 1400 years, it's kind of like a time out to have them slaughtering each other every so often.......

      Delete
  24. The debate about what happened at Masada is conducted with such energy and venom in Israel because it symbolises two views of the country and its present policies. These are as relevant in 2014 as when Josephus wrote 2,000 years ago.

    One is that Israel is a besieged fortress whose defenders must fight to the end against an implacable enemy. The other, upheld by Professor Ben-Yehuda, is that today, as in the past, the refusal to compromise of such extremists as the Sicarii at Masada and the leaders of the doomed revolt against Rome bring only death and destruction to the Jewish people.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Irrelevant.

      Israel is now nuclear armed.

      Masada is so yesterday.

      If Israel goes down this time, all the neighbors do too.

      Delete
    2. Would that not be cause for celebration, all around?

      Delete
    3. Then the lessons of Masada are vital now, not irrelevant at all.

      Delete
    4. Hi Jack. Why are you going anon?

      Delete
  25. I know I can't wait for a third of the world's oil supply to go radioactive.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I don't see how you can nuke Phoenix and Tucson but propose to live on in Casa Grande, as if nothing had happened, afterwards.

      The oil in the ground will be fine, Rufus.

      Delete
    2. Yeah, but those workers are working on the highly radioactive sand above it. :)

      Delete
    3. Over a month ago, Centcom mentioned that they had destroyed "Scores" of isis Tanks.

      Delete
  26. Turkey has 'world's freest press', Erdogan claims

    An anonymous source said that Erdogan followed up with, "Don't laugh or I kill you." Obviously, the Mossad mind control implants are waning.

    ReplyDelete
  27. Palestinians held after firebomb injured Israeli girl: Shin Bet

    The vehicle caught fire and the girl was gravely injured. She was still being treated in hospital late on Saturday, Israeli media reported.

    The 11 year-old girl received 3rd degree burns over 70% of her body. It is safe to assume that she will spend most of the next year in hospital. As a benefit, she will undergo at least 50 surgeries over the next decade -- if she lives.

    ReplyDelete
  28. Deuce ☂Sat Dec 27, 06:27:00 PM EST
    Nonsense, you are incapable of seeing the truth in front of you. Your ability to see the difference between right and wrong is gone if it has anything to do with Israel. You are not alone, hardly unique in having sold out to situational ethics. If Arabs or Christians, Muslims or Catholics were doing to Jews today in Palestine what Jews are doing to Palestinians day in and day out, we would have tribunals in the Hague and New York City.

    You have been thoroughly corrupted and have sunk into moral bankruptcy and your lifeline has been and continues to be others are worse. Live with it.


    Bullshit.


    Israel has a right to be it's own nation, to which you call a colony, an apartheid nation.

    You see the struggle for palestinains to be free to murder Jews as a right, as a legal enterprise and object when Israelis fight back.

    How deranged are you?

    Sorry deuce, we will not allow your friends to murder our children at will.

    heck, even your nonsense about Israel / Jews being the reason for arab violence at America is sick

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. If Arabs or Christians, Muslims or Catholics were doing to Jews today in Palestine what Jews are doing to Palestinians day in and day out, we would have tribunals in the Hague and New York City.

      Yeah right...

      Complete and utter nonsense.

      Funny thing is?

      what the arabs did to the jews for CENTURIES was never prosecuted.

      Notice your lack of comment about the 850,000 jewish refugees sent into the newly recreated state of Israel from 1948-1967 by the arab world?

      what no comment about that?

      more jews lost more homes and BUSINESSES that they had lived on for 1000 years longer than the Arabs were even in the middle east and yet you are silent.

      You ignore the 1.2 million arab citizens of Israel.

      You never condemn palestinian murder of americans, babies, children.

      You sir are a supporter of evil.

      Delete
    2. Why isn't Egypt being hauled before a Hague tribunal?

      Delete
    3. The Germans knew where Eichmann was hiding by 1953, at latest. The US knew as well. No effort was made to haul the greatest instrument of mass-murder before any court.

      Give me a break!

      Delete
  29. Egyptian columnist to be tried for ‘insulting Islam’

    Egypt's prosecutor has referred a female writer to trial for allegedly insulting Islam by criticising the slaughter of animals during a major religious festival, a judicial official said on Saturday.

    ReplyDelete
  30. another example of zio-nazis at work

    IDF saves Palestinian baby after he suffers heart attack

    Palestinian baby’s life was saved after he collapsed at a Jordanian border crossing and was evacuated by IDF helicopter to a Jerusalem hospital.

    The six-month-old infant was believed to have suffered a heart attack on Saturday morning while traveling with his family from their home in the West Bank to receive medial treatment in the Hashemite Kingdom, according to a Ynet report.

    Infant medevaced from Allenby Bridge crossing by army helicopter to Jerusalem hospital, remains in stable condition

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Got any stories of Palestinians saving Israeli kids?

      I got plenty of stories of Israelis helping arabs all the time.

      Dont post them as you cannot see Israeli/Jews and anything but evil nazis.

      Delete
    2. The Jews have been the victims of the Zionists.
      The Zionists murdering 252 Jewish refugees from Europe.

      Zionists murder civilians, Jewish refugees in a False Flag operation

      On Nov. 25, 1940, a boat carrying Jewish refugees from Nazi Europe,
      exploded and sank off the coast of Palestine killing 252 people.

      The Zionist “Haganah” claimed the passengers committed suicide to protest British refusal to let them land.
      Years later, it admitted that rather than let the passengers go to Mauritius, it blew up the vessel for its propaganda value.

      “Sometimes it is necessary to sacrifice the few in order to save the many,”
      Moshe Sharett, a former Israeli Prime Minister said at memorial service in 1958.


      http://beforeitsnews.com/strange/2013/03/zionists-led-jews-to-annihilation-in-ww2-2447940.html

      Delete
  31. SUPPORTERS URGE ISIS TO IMPALE OR SKIN CAPTURED PILOT ALIVE

    ...Militants asked supporters on social media how to kill the innocent pilot and received numerous responses.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Well there you go.

      How much more open and understanding can a movement be?

      Taking suggestions from the readers on social media.......

      Can anyone call this anything but fair?

      :(

      Delete
  32. Christian priest: Thanks to Israel, I can have a Merry Christmas

    December 25, 2014 9:17 am By Robert Spencer 54 Comments

    A message of truth going out to a world drowning in lies. “Thanks to Israel, I Can Have a Merry Christmas,” by Father Gabriel Nadaf (translated by Avi Woolf), Mida.org, December 24, 2014:

    Right now, while Christians the world over are celebrating Christmas, entire communities of the followers of Christ cannot rejoice. The Middle East and parts of Africa continue to drown in rivers of blood, with various minorities being targeted by radical Islamic organizations such as ISIS, Hamas, Jabhat al-Nusra, Boko Haram, al-Qaeda, Hezbollah and others.

    The Christians there are stuck in the middle of a maelstrom of genocide and ethnic cleansing occurring on a daily basis through horrific acts of rape, crucifixion, theft, expulsion, destruction, burning of churches, forced conversions, abduction of nuns and the murder of priests, children, women and the elderly. Sometimes the murderers slaughter whole families, sometimes they murder some in front of the rest and then let the others live with the nightmare. People who can flee to the west, and those who can’t leave or who wih to remain must live with the danger.

    The Middle East is effectively being cleansed of Christians. In the beginning of the 20th century, Christians constituted some 20% of the population in the region. Today, it’s 4% and falling. 77% of Iraq’s Christians have fled since 2000, in addition to the thousands who were murdered or forcibly expelled. 450,000 Christians have fled Syria since the civil war began in 2011, for fear they would share the same fate.

    Bethlehem, the birthplace of Christ, had a clear Christian majority. Since 1995, when Israel handed the city to the Palestinian Authority, Christians have been leaving in droves. Today, Christians are only 15% of the population, some say it’s even less. Elsewhere in Palestinian-run areas, Christians are also leaving, and in Hamas-run Gaza, the situation is even worse.

    Middle Eastern Christians are not just targets for abuse and murder, but are also regularly treated as second class citizens and coping with racism and religious, economic and social discrimination. All because they adhere to Christianity, which espouses peace and goodwill to all mankind.

    This bears repeating again and again: Christians in Arab countries live on the margins, without rights, with their property stolen, their honor trampled, their children sacrificed and the slaughter ongoing.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. A safe haven in Israel

      Within this chaos, only one island of sanity can be found where the Christians are not persecuted, where they enjoy freedom of religion and ritual, freedom of expression, and where they can live in peace without fear of genocide. That island is the State of Israel. The state in which I and my Christian brothers were born allows Christians complete freedom. Jews and Christians live in Israel in peace and as good neighbors. This is not just because Jesus was born in Jewish Bethlehem and was born a Jew, but because Christians and Jews share a common heritage and a shared hope for a peaceful coexistence.

      Israeli Christians are an inseparable part of the population’s fabric, and as its citizens they may elect and be elected to its parliament and local municipalities, rights they use regularly. As a demographic group, they are the most educated community in Israel, are integrated in the legal system as lawyers and judges, serve as officers in the police and the IDF, and occupy various positions in government offices and institutions. You can find many of them as students and faculty in universities, in the health system, on sports teams, in culture, and throughout the private sector. The churches, monasteries, and Christian sites are preserved and run by the various churches entirely freely.

      Middle Eastern Christians were always taught that the Arab nation is as one, made up of Muslims and Christians: “We are brothers with a common enemy – the State of Israel,” so they told us. But in recent years, Christians have woken up from the lie which accompanied them for decades, encountering instead a reality of discrimination, persecution and death. This reality has brought Christians in the State of Israel to search for our true identity and return to our authentic roots, before the Arabs and Islam came to the region.

      We, the Christians of the State of Israel and the Middle East, are not Arabs, but Arameans in our heart and soul. Jesus Christ spoke Aramaic, one can find Aramaic Holy Books in Middle Eastern churches and before the Muslims invaded, most of the Middle Eastern Christians spoke Aramaic.

      This year, the State of Israel recognized the Aramean nation in the population registrar, and is in fact the first state in modern history to recognize this nation, thus allowing Christians to return to their historic identity which was blurred in the Middle East with a nation not their own over the centuries. Unfortunately, the world is not aware of this fact and does not thank the State of Israel which protects Christians and allows them a life of freedom. To the contrary, many in the international community have chosen through ignorance, anti-semitism and incorrect information to criticize Israel with the clear intent of harming and weakening it.

      Delete
    2. And the world is silent

      A few months ago, I held a number of meetings with senior officials from the European Parliament and at the European Commission in Brussels. When I told them about the freedom of Christians in Israel, I was shocked to learn that some of them knew nothing about this, and some even admitted that this was the first time that they had received such information on Christians in Israel. The reason for this is that the information that does reach the European Commission on a regular basis is partial and distorted, portraying Israel as a persecutor of Christians.

      To me, this is a double crime. Those who choose to lie and distort information passed on to the media, the political establishment or the authorities while hiding the truth and with the sole purpose of hurting the State of Israel for political motives, thus gives aid to extreme elements which strive to destroy the Jews, Christians, Druze, Yezidis and other minorities. Through this illegitimate method, the international community contributes to the worsening of the already difficult humanitarian situation in the Middle East and also bears the responsibility for the situation which forces Christians from their homes. It is time that the world woke up, looked reality in the eye and understood the evil which strives to destroy the Jewish and democratic State of Israel.

      The world is trying to weaken Israel and make it easy prey for terrorism. By doing so, they pass a death sentence on Christians in the Middle East and the Holy Land, where Jesus Christ our Lord was born. NGOs and pseudo-Christian organizations, which have not yet freed themselves of the old anti-semitism, who are not familiar with the history of the Holy Land and who disgrace Christianity, act in Israel and the Palestinian Authority and receive millions of Euros from EU countries and institutions.

      These organizations adopt a clear anti-Israel policy, sometimes under the cover of “social” and “human rights” activity but with the clear political aim of harming the State of Israel. The results of this activity both directly and indirectly harm the rights of Israeli Christians, who wish to integrate into Israeli society, and harming the delicate fabric of relationships between communities in the State.

      Just a few days ago, the Association for Civil Rights in Israel (ACRI) published a report on human rights in Israel in 2014. The report is slanted, manipulative and dangerous. This report, which contains chapters on “Arab minority rights”, “Freedom of Expression” and “Harming of Freedom of Expression During Protective Edge” completely ignores the issue of Christians striving for full integration and which represent true coexistence. The report does not refer once to the Arab incitement, persecution and violence, the attempts to silence us, the intolerance and attempts to harm our freedom of religion and ritual. These have been a regular occurrence over the past two years, including explicit calls for my murder and the murder of my friends from the Israeli Christians Recruitment Forum.

      Delete
    3. The only mention of Christians in this manipulative report is the investigation of a citizen, who as part of an ongoing campaign of incitement published a picture of Recruitment Forum members on his facebook page along with a veiled threat. This is tagged by the report authors as an example of “policing” the internet and harming free speech. This report, which completely ignores our situation, exposes the bias of the ACRI towards anything which doesn’t fit their political agenda. It is a good example of how EU-funded organizations actually harm the rights of Jews and non-Jews in the State of Israel.

      The international community must understand that if the Reaper’s scythe reaches the Land of Israel, then no Christians will remain in the birthplace of Christianity. There will no longer be a living basis for the Faith of Christ. Only by standing alongside Israel and understanding that ensuring its Jewish identity will ensure its democratic regime will ensure the continuing flowering of the Christian community here, which looks fated to be the last remnant of Christianity in the Middle East.

      Father Gabriel Nadaf is the spiritual father of the Aramean Christian community and the Israeli Christians Recruitment Forum.

      http://www.jihadwatch.org/2014/12/christian-priest-thanks-to-israel-i-can-have-a-merry-christmas

      Delete
    4. Thank you, Israel.



      The Moslems are killing Christians at the rate of about one each five minutes according to an article I posted the other day.

      I believe it. I read Jihad Watch.

      Delete
    5. In the face of this ongoing daily slaughter of the innocents, we are concerned here with the deconstruction of a 'dairy' in the West Bank which is really a false front business for Hamas.

      Delete
  33. 18 Murders in Sinaloa-Bloodiest Christmas in Six Years-

    Culiacán, Sinaloa-A total of 18 intentional homicides, five vehicle thefts, four people dead in traffic accidents, and three robberies at business premises was the balance left post Christmas in Sinaloa. At least eight of the murders are related to each other, and according to the preliminary investigations were related to rivalries between organized crime groups.

    Gerardo Vargas Landeros, Secretary General of Government described these events as "painful facts" and recognized that the reported killings were due to "criminal rivalries"

    Aside from those facts, he said that in "general terms, Sinaloa is OK".

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. If the gangs would just kill one another and leave the Priests and everyone else alone it would be an improvement. Then, "in general terms" Sinaloa would be OK.

      Delete
    2. Lucio - Borderland BeatSat Dec 27, 11:25:00 PM EST

      CONFIRMED: The DEA Struck A Deal With Mexico's Most Notorious Drug Cartel

      Read more: http://www.businessinsider.com/the-us-government-and-the-sinaloa-cartel-2014-1

      Delete
  34. December 25, 2014
    Rearranging the Subcontinent
    By Robert Kaplan

    The division of the Indian subcontinent between two major states, India and Pakistan (as well as a minor one, Bangladesh), may not be history's last word in political geography there.....

    ....This raises the question of the viability of Pakistan itself and, by association, the continued existence of the current hard-and-fast borders of India, especially given that Bangladesh as well is, in relative terms, a weak and artificially conceived state in almost never-ending turmoil.

    Pakistan is not necessarily artificial, of course. As Stratfor has written, Pakistan is the demographic and national embodiment of all the Muslim invasions that have passed down into India through much of history. It is artificial only to the extent that this vast Muslim demography, rather than configuring with a state, extends all the way from Anatolia to central India, and thus the specific borders of Pakistan only work to the extent that Pakistan is reasonably well governed, with responsive bureaucratic institutions, and possesses a civil society that reaches into the tribal hinterlands. But that is demonstrably not the case....

    .....India, of course, would not like any of this. Top officials of responsible states - which India certainly is - prefer the status quo and quiescent borders, not their opposite. But India might at some point in the 21st century have no choice but to confront Pakistan's partial dissolution, and that would irrevocably change India.

    Because geopolitics values not the ceremonial statements of leaders but the reality of control on the ground, the Indian subcontinent will continue to fascinate. It is important to note here Henry Kissinger's view on India in his latest book, World Order: "India will be a fulcrum of twenty-first-century order: an indispensable element, based on its geography, resources, and tradition of sophisticated leadership, in the strategic and ideological evolution of the regions and the concepts of order at whose intersection it stands"....

    http://www.realclearworld.com/articles/2014/12/25/rearranging_the_subcontinent_110877.html

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. If Mr Kissinger is a viable source, well then, Mr Kissinger is a viable source.

      Henry Kissinger: ''In 10 years Israel will cease to exist''

      http://www.kavkazcenter.com/eng/content/2012/10/30/16913.shtml

      Delete
    2. Guess we'll know in a few years, huh, bumpkin.

      Delete
    3. You, bumpkin, certainly seem to think Henry a 'viable source'.

      You've put that quote up probably a hundred times or more.

      You, Shit Bird, are much like a parrot, saying the same things over and over and over and over......you are easily entertained.

      Delete
    4. “Never ruin an apology with an excuse.”

      Delete
  35. >>>The Talmud records a tradition that all especially righteous men die on the day of their conception<<<

    ;)


    Your Daily Bread
    No, Christmas didn’t take the place of a pagan holiday

    Jeremy Lott, Rare Contributor
    Posted on December 23, 2014 1:23 pm

    SHARE THIS STORY - OK, I will.

    In the endless back-and-forth about the true meaning of Christmas or the War on Christmas or whatever we’re calling it this year, one of the most persistent and pernicious myths is the idea that Christians stole the holiday from the pagans.

    Chastising conservative Christians in the Sacramento Bee, former talk show host Bruce Maiman cited the “fact” that “Christmas occurs on a pagan feast day, Saturnalia,” and alleges that “the earliest Christians deliberately moved the birth of Jesus to December 25, making it easier to sell Christianity to the Romans.”

    The only problem with this criticism is that it doesn’t make one lick of historical sense.

    Saturnalia was celebrated not on December 25 but on December 17 through 23. December 25 was during the throbbing “Oh please kill me” dry-out period between Saturnalia and New Year’s. It was thus a horrible time for sermons or celebrations – and Christmas was always a mix of both.

    If you want to understand the calendaring of Christmas, look not to Rome but to Bethlehem – or, more broadly, to Judaism. The Talmud records a tradition that all especially righteous men die on the day of their conception. This figured greatly in how the church father Hippolytus figured Christ’s birth.

    The accepted day of Jesus death was March 25 and so, writes religion know-it-all Michael Voll in Cracked, “Jesus’s conception must have also taken place on March 25th. Then basic biology tells us that nine months after conception comes the birth: December 25th.”

    As for the very minor pagan festival of Sol Invictus, which people sometimes throw out when you shoot Saturnalia down, Cracked concedes that it did take place on December 25, but there’s an embarrassing rub. Turns out it “wasn’t created in until A.D. 274 (well after Hippolytus did his hump-math) by the Roman Emperor Aurelian.”

    According to Voll, this late date for the smallish festival in fact raises the “good possibility that Sol Invictus was created to provide a pagan alternative to the Christian celebration, rather than the other way around. So hey, there you go, Christians: Go find that hippie neighbor and give him a nice, long lecture about stealing your dang holiday.”

    Or perhaps, in the spirit of the day, you could just say “Merry Christmas” – and forward him this article.

    Read more at http://rare.us/story/no-christmas-didnt-take-the-place-of-a-pagan-holiday/#LIWxp8E5jye20lTa.99


    I have no opinion on this theory but found it humorous.

    ReplyDelete
  36. The jihadists launched a major offensive in mid-September to try to capture Kobane, and at one point controlled more than half of the town, known in Arabic as Ain al-Arab.

    But supported by U.S.-led air strikes and reinforced by Kurds from Iraq, “Kurdish forces now control more than 60 percent of the city,” said Rami Abdel Rahman, director of the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.

    “ISIS has even left areas that the Kurds did not enter for fear of mines,” he added.

    A Kurdish activist from Kobane, Mustefa Ebdi, said that Kurdish militia defending the town had advanced eastwards on the frontline during the past week.

    ISIS has withdrawn from the seized Kurdish militia headquarters in the north of the city, as well as from southern and central districts, according to activists.

    “The Kurdish advance is due largely to the air strikes by the coalition,” said Ebdi.

    ReplyDelete
  37. In Kobane, Islamic State takes a pounding, but holds on
    Despite losing hundreds of fighters to US airstrikes and confronting Iraqi Kurdish fighters, the Islamic State has resisted eviction from Kobane, and its foes fear the fight will drag on.

    Christian Science Monitor
    By Dominique Soguel December 22, 2014 9:21 PM






    US-led coalition airstrikes in Iraq have allowed the Iraqi Army, Kurdish peshmerga fighters, and their allies to reclaim territory lost to an Islamic State (IS) spring and summer offensive.
    Related Stories

    U.S.-led coalition damages Islamic State, but fight is long: Kerry Reuters
    Development Watch : Icon Las Olas Construction to Begin Again (Really This Time) Curbed Miami
    It Broke One Weekend...: Keeping Nantucket Powered; Modernist in Truro; & More! Curbed Cape Cod
    New group of Iraqi peshmergas enters Syrian Kurdish town Reuters
    Iraq airstrikes kill 17 in areas held by Islamic State Reuters

    But in the Syrian city of Kobane, where Syrian Kurds and their allies have been fighting IS forces with dogged determination since September with the support of airstrikes, the gains have been especially slow. Despite losing fighters by the hundreds, the IS has proved difficult to stamp out, maintaining a solid foothold in the frontier town.

    IS has also kept a grip on 381 villages in the wider district, villages the jihadi group seized with alarming speed in September, sparking an exodus of 200,000 people to Turkey. That offensive pushed the coalition to reconsider its strategy against IS in Syria and drew in reinforcements from Iraqi Kurdistan.

    Recommended: How much do you know about the Islamic State?

    Kobane’s field commanders estimate that at least a third of the city remains contested or under the control of militants, figures that illustrate the challenges of close quarter combat.

    “There are clashes in the east and the south,” says Kobane district chief Anwar Muslim. “IS forces are attacking us especially hard from the eastern front, but most of Kobane is under the control of the People’s Protection Units (YPG). We are coordinating with the Americans and informing them on IS positions.

    “There is street fighting so it is very difficult to take new areas of the city,” says Mr. Muslim.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. AIRSTRIKES COME QUICKLY

      In Kobane, the frontlines remain fluid – with clashes concentrating around Souk Al-Hal in the east and Mount Mish Tanour to the south. IS holds the high ground and a strategic radio tower in the west. “Sometimes our positions are so close that we can hear each other,” says Mohammed Abu Hassan, a fighter recovering from a gunshot wound.

      “They yell: we are coming to kill you, infidels! They’ve brainwashed them and convinced them we are not Muslims. If their men are wounded or killed, they don’t fall back. If things get really bad, they are prepared to blow themselves up. IS fighters are convinced they will go to paradise and be rewarded with virgins,” he adds.

      While the airstrikes have not succeeded in evicting IS from Kobane, they did stop the IS offensive in its tracks when it was threatening to overrun the city. They also imposed heavy losses in the militants’ ranks. Retired Gen. John Allen, the coalition’s coordinator, declared on Nov. 20 that IS had “impaled itself” on Kobane, losing more than 600 fighters. In December, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, put IS fatalities at 905.

      Many fighters marvel at the speed and accuracy of the strikes, claiming that calls for help – channeled through a military operations room in Kobane – are answered within 15 minutes if there is a plane already in the air and no more than 45 minutes if one needs to be deployed.

      CLAIMS OF AMERICANS ON THE GROUND

      Some say that there are two American officials deployed in Kobane to help coordinate the ground-air effort, a claim that could not be independently verified. The IS fighters have taken such a trashing that they use the lulls between airstrikes to evacuate their wounded. “They don’t even show their noses when the drones are overhead,” said a fighter on a break in Suruc.

      Besides boosting morale, air cover has allowed Kurdish forces to stage attacks in areas outside their control. Guerrillas are striking IS in villages 25 miles from Kobane, according to Muslim. Meanwhile, Iraq’s peshmerga – now on their second rotation with 137 men – have helped bolster defenses within the city.

      “Every day we fight, but there has been a lot of progress since we arrived,” says Maj. Izzedin Temo, an officer in the peshmerga forces who came to Kobane with a three-month mandate at the end of October. “God willing we will have two celebrations soon – New Year and victory in Kobane.”

      The YPG, and its sister force of female combatants, the YPJ, are the main striking force in Kobane, bringing together thousands of men and women trained in guerrilla warfare. Their leadership coordinates the movements of the peshmerga, the only fighters with heavy weapons, and allied forces of the Free Syrian Army.

      Those who have fought IS before, worry the battle in Kobane will drag out.

      Delete
    2. SUPPLY LINES BROKEN

      “Before the air strikes, IS held similar positions to now but in greater force,” says Faris al-Qayyem of the Raqqa Revolutionaries Brigade, which fights alongside the Kurds in Kobane. “If we killed 100 fighters in one day they were immediately replaced, just like ants. Now their supply lines are broken, their convoys destroyed.”

      “The battle of Kobane will take a long time, but we will be victorious,” he predicts.

      Commanders say the strategic priority is to control Kobane and to protect the civilians who stayed behind. Roughly 80 families decided to brave winter in a war zone rather than seek shelter in neighboring Turkey. In the Turkish town of Suruc, just a short walk across the border, Kurdish volunteers work round the clock to send food and medicine boxes.

      “When it comes to medical supplies, we have nothing,” said a volunteer in the city.

      A suicide attack at the end of November destroyed the last standing hospital in Kobane. The explosion rocked the border crossing linking the town to Turkey. Kurdish officials and Syrian Arabs who took part in the subsequent clashes say IS forces crossed into Turkey to stage that attack, an assertion that Ankara vehemently denied.

      http://news.yahoo.com/kobane-islamic-state-takes-pounding-holds-022145741.html;_ylt=AwrTcdV8oJ9U6vwAA7cPxQt.

      Delete
    3. The airstrikes themselves are probably destroying a good portion of the town.


      >>>>We'll have to destroy the town in order to save it<<<<

      Those old enough will understand this slightly altered reference.

      Delete
    4. Here are some pictures -

      http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/worldviews/wp/2014/10/20/photos-the-battle-for-kobane-revealed-by-u-n-satellite-imagery/



      https://images.search.yahoo.com/yhs/search;_ylt=AwrTccRQpJ9UnKIAtTYPxQt.;_ylu=X3oDMTBsOXB2YTRjBHNlYwNzYwRjb2xvA2dxMQR2dGlkAw--?_adv_prop=image&fr=yhs-mozilla-001&va=Kobane&hspart=mozilla&hsimp=yhs-001

      Delete
    5. May the gods bless those Kurdish women.

      Delete
    6. It doesn't look that big of a place.

      Delete
  38. .

    Speaking of air support, something we have been doing well for a good long times, well...

    Newest U.S. Stealth Fighter ‘10 Years Behind’ Older Jets

    America’s $400 billion, top-of-the-line aircraft can’t see the battlefield all that well. Which means it’s actually worse than its predecessors at fighting today’s wars.

    When the Pentagon’s nearly $400 billion F-35 Joint Strike Fighter finally enters service next year after nearly two decades in development, it won’t be able to support troops on the ground the way older planes can today. Its sensors won’t be able to see the battlefield as well; and what video the F-35 does capture, it won’t be able to transmit to infantrymen in real time.

    Versions of the new single-engine stealth fighter are set to replace almost every type of fighter in the U.S. Air Force, Navy and Marine Corps inventory—including aircraft specifically designed to support ground troops like the A-10 Warthog. That will leave troops in a lurch when the F-35 eventually becomes the only game in town.

    “The F-35 will, in my opinion, be 10 years behind legacy fighters when it achieves [initial operational capability],” said one Air Force official affiliated with the F-35 program. “When the F-35 achieves [initial operational capability], it will not have the weapons or sensor capability, with respect to the CAS [close air support] mission set, that legacy multi-role fighters had by the mid-2000s.”

    The problem stems from the fact that the technology found on one of the stealth fighter’s primary air-to-ground sensors—its nose-mounted Electro-Optical Targeting System (EOTS)—is more than a decade old and hopelessly obsolete. The EOTS, which is similar in concept to a large high-resolution infrared and television camera, is used to visually identify and monitor ground targets. The system can also mark targets for laser-guided bombs.

    “EOTS is a big step backwards. The technology is 10-plus years old, hasn’t been able to take advantage of all the pod upgrades in the meantime, and there were some performance tradeoffs to accommodate space and stealth,” said another Air Force official familiar with the F-35 program. “I think it’s one area where the guys are going to be disappointed in the avionics.”

    Ironically, older jets currently in service with the Air Force, Navy and Marine Corps can carry the latest generation of sensor pods, which are far more advanced than the EOTS sensor ...


    http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2014/12/26/newest-u-s-stealth-fighter-10-years-behind-older-jets.html

    .

    ReplyDelete
  39. .

    One Air Force official said that with enough time and more money, the EOTS could be fixed. “Because in five years when the USAF [US Air Force] comes to Lockheed Martin and says we absolutely need an upgraded EOTS with an infrared pointer and [video down-link], Lockheed Martin says... OK no sweat, that’ll be $5 million per jet,” the Air Force official said. “Thus lies the problem in the U.S. military industrial complex. They purposefully build products that require mass amounts of money to ‘upgrade’ when in fact, they could have planned ahead and built an easily upgradable ship / aircraft / radio / weapon system.”

    One of the JSF officials agreed that the EOTS does not speak well for the Pentagon’s ability to buy new weapons. “EOTS is a poster child for one of the ills of the acquisition process,” the official said. “Because all of the subsystems depend on each other, requirements aren’t allowed to change after the design is ‘finalized.’ It’s not a big deal, unless it takes 20 years to field the jet… then it’s a problem.”


    http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2014/12/26/newest-u-s-stealth-fighter-10-years-behind-older-jets.html

    .

    ReplyDelete
  40. The very voice of O'bozo alters reality -

    Obama: Afghanistan “not going to be a source of terrorist attacks again”

    December 27, 2014 7:44 am By Robert Spencer 45 Comments

    President Obama Delivers Statement On Immigration Reform In The Rose GardenHow can he say this after sending Guantanamo detainees back to Afghanistan, and while the Taliban continue to operate with relative impunity? He can say it because he is Obama: he knows that no matter what he says, the mainstream media will cover for him.

    “Obama: Afghanistan ‘Not Going to Be a Source of Terrorist Attacks Again,’” by Joel Gehrke, National Review, December 26, 2014:

    President Obama promised that Afghanistan is “not going to be a source of terrorist attacks again” during a Christmas meeting with service members, an echo of the pledge he made regarding Iraq before U.S. troops withdrew and the Islamic State took over major cities in the country….

    Here are Obama’s remarks, as transcribed in the pool report:

    Because of the extraordinary service of the men and women in the Armed Forces, Afghanistan has a chance to rebuild its own country. We are safer. It’s not going to be a source of terrorist attacks again. And we still have some very difficult missions around the world, including in Iraq. We still have folks in Afghanistan helping the Afghan security forces. We have people helping to deal with Ebola in Africa and obviously we have folks stationed all around the world. But the world is better, it’s safer, it’s more peaceful, It’s more prosperous and our homeland is protected because of you and the sacrifices each and every day. So on a day when we celebrate the Prince of Peace and many of us count or blessings one of the greatest blessings we have is the extraordinary dedication and sacrifices you all make. We could not be more thankful. I know I speak for everyone in the entire country when I say, we salute you.

    http://www.jihadwatch.org/2014/12/obama-afghanistan-not-going-to-be-a-source-of-terrorist-attacks-again?utm_source=Jihad+Watch+Daily+Digest&utm_campaign=c44dcdbc86-RSS_EMAIL_CAMPAIGN&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_ffcbf57bbb-c44dcdbc86-123542181

    ReplyDelete
  41. “I think the Islamic State is a lot more dangerous than Western leaders realize,” Todenhoefer’s interview with CNN concluded. He’s probably right.

    Are we underestimating ISIS?
    posted at 9:31 am on December 26, 2014 by Noah Rothman

    Following the news that Islamic State fighters had successfully downed a Jordanian warplane and captured its pilot, U.S. Central Command claimed that there was no evidence that ISIS was responsible for shooting that aircraft out of the sky. In a statement, CENTCOM offered glowing praise for America’s freshly demoralized regional ally and offered no alternative theory for why that aircraft was lost. Take that as you will.

    For all the talk of ISIS’s military prowess, or lack thereof as the case above may be, there has until recently been a dearth of substantive discussion about the state of affairs in the areas occupied by ISIS. The dangerous campaign being waged by coalition forces on the fringes of the so-called Islamic State has only just begun, and it is already claiming American and coalition assets and lives. Eventually, that campaign will need to press on into the state’s interior.

    But “eventually” seems farther and farther off as the weeks go by. A disheartening dispatch via David Ignatius leaves a reader with the impression that the campaign to dislodge ISIS from the territory it controls in Iraq and Syria has been a secondary consideration for Western leaders.

    “Watching events unfold in Iraq this year has been like viewing a slow-motion train wreck,” Ignatius opened his column in The Washington Post. “Iraqi tribal leaders have been warning since spring about the rise of the terrorist Islamic State and pleading for American help. But after months of slaughter, the United States is only now beginning to build an effective tribal-assistance program.”

    His column noted the critical role the coalition hopes its skittish Arab allies will play in Iraq:

    A step toward needed Jordanian-Iraqi cooperation came this week, as Iraqi Defense Minister Khaled al-Obeidi announced that Jordan would train and arm Sunni tribal units. This unusual Amman-Baghdad project followed a visit by Abadi to the United Arab Emirates, which pledged support for arming and training Anbar’s sheiks. The Kuwaitis have also pledged weapons and ammunition for this Sunni “national guard.”

    The plight of the Albu Nimr and other tribes is suggested by e-mails sent over the past few months as the Islamic State terrorized Anbar.

    “Today, we have a small window of opportunity to recruit fighters from Sunni tribes because they are mad about losing their livelihoods and their relatives have been killed,” wrote one Albu Nimr leader in a Nov. 18 e-mail, after the Hit massacre, to a retired Marine major who had served in Anbar.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. This situation brought to mind recent comments from Juergen Todenhoefer, a journalist who recently toured areas under Islamic State control. In an interview following his return from ISIS-controlled areas, the intrepid reporter wondered if Western leaders were not seriously underestimating the danger posed by ISIS’s brutish militants.

      In an interview with CNN, Todenhoefer told familiar tales of the horrors of child soldiers, systematic beheadings, and foreign fighters with an unshakable loyalty to ISIS’s cause for whom the word “zealotry” seems an insufficient description. He also told, however, of the status of the “state” aspects of the Islamic State. Perhaps Todenhoefer’s most terrifying revelation was his claim that a sense of routine is beginning to take hold amongst the remaining residents of the cities flying an ISIS banner.

      But how is that possible, we ask ourselves? How can a people endure the daily horrors of life under ISIS, not to mention the minor irritation and inconveniences, and remain docile?

      It is difficult to read a thorough and illuminating report via The Post’s Liz Sly on ISIS’s deteriorating ability to function as a municipal service provider without noting subtle elements of Western chauvinism.

      Services are collapsing, prices are soaring, and medicines are scarce in towns and cities across the “caliphate” proclaimed in Iraq and Syria by the Islamic State, residents say, belying the group’s boasts that it is delivering a model form of governance for Muslims.

      Slick Islamic State videos depicting functioning government offices and the distribution of aid do not match the reality of growing deprivation and disorganized, erratic leadership, the residents say. A trumpeted Islamic State currency has not materialized, nor have the passports the group promised. Schools barely function, doctors are few, and disease is on the rise.

      In the Iraqi city of Mosul, the water has become undrinkable because supplies of chlorine have dried up, said a journalist living there, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to protect his safety. Hepatitis is spreading, and flour is becoming scarce, he said. “Life in the city is nearly dead, and it is as though we are living in a giant prison,” he said.

      In the Syrian city of Raqqa, the group’s self-styled capital, water and electricity are available for no more than three or four hours a day, garbage piles up uncollected, and the city’s poor scavenge for scraps on streets crowded with sellers hawking anything they can find, residents say.

      So, the Islamic State is terrible at being a state. That’s a condition that will cause its residents great discomfort, but do not expect an insurrection among the region’s terrified inhabitants. Those who remain in the Iraqi city of Mosul watched 130,000 of their Christian neighbors evicted and their property repossessed. Other religious minorities were enslaved or slaughtered before the eyes of the city’s residents. All the potable water distribution issues in the world will not prompt a people to rise if their masters are brutal enough.

      Dismissing the prowess of a ragtag militia in minting currency and providing residents with passports also justifies an outlook which maintains that the Islamic State is unequal to the task of war with the world’s civilized powers. It is, therefore, unnecessary to treat ISIS as a worthy combatant.

      While the West congratulates itself on its superiority over ISIS on both a military and a civic level, it is worth asking if we are comforting ourselves in a notion that will ultimately inhibit the West from engaging in a comprehensive effort to destroy this cancerous and false state. “I think the Islamic State is a lot more dangerous than Western leaders realize,” Todenhoefer’s interview with CNN concluded. He’s probably right.

      http://hotair.com/archives/2014/12/26/are-we-underestimating-isis/
      .......

      Yes, we are underestimating ISIS.

      Delete