tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21297199.post2993566077815169730..comments2024-03-28T06:32:24.557-04:00Comments on The Elephant Bar: Christopher Hitchens, eh? It is a shame he’s gone. Deuce ☂http://www.blogger.com/profile/13472858446242700869noreply@blogger.comBlogger57125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21297199.post-2290544863041496192014-08-23T18:13:17.766-04:002014-08-23T18:13:17.766-04:00.
Don't get caught in 20th Century Thinking.
....<br /><br /><i>Don't get caught in 20th Century Thinking.</i><br /><br />Those who would say this when speaking of the current dustup in Iraq have already been caught up 20th Century thinking. Despite the grandiose pronouncements of IS, the group isn't a caliphate, hell, it isn't even a state. It's an occupying force of terrorists. There is no denying they are a large force, 15,000, that they are well organized, well led, well financed, and temporarily more well-equipped than your average band of thugs. <br /><br />Those who have followed the news from Iraq would know that though their momentum has been stalled in certain areas they continue to push aggressively in others. Likewise, if their current blitzkrieg is blunted, their leadership one assumes is smart enough to simply fall back the time-tested weapons of all terrorists, surprise raids, urban warfare, roadside bombs, suicide bombers, etc.<br /><br />The other day, General Allen was saying it would to 10,000 to 15,000 US troops on the ground to root IS out of the Sunni provinces.<br /><br />Drip, drip, drip.<br /><br />Don't get caught up in 20th Century thinking.<br /><br />Hmmm. Bush was using drones in Iraq when he was in office. Obama used drones there for his 3 years. There is also the example of Afghanistan. Drones are not a silver bullet. The technology may have changed, the weapons improved, but war is still war and there has been no quintessential change in warfare since 'Little Boy' met Hiroshima.<br /><br />Drip, drip, drip.<br /><br />We shall see the differences, and whether I am wrong, when IS is being rooted out of Mosul.<br /><br />. Quirkhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00272168240606512672noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21297199.post-47231021530641021942014-08-23T17:43:43.835-04:002014-08-23T17:43:43.835-04:00.
The auto executives and graphic artists chose t....<br /><br /><i>The auto executives and graphic artists chose to demur.<br />Referencing old wars, in jungle environments.</i><br /><br />Your an idiot rat, and once more you misrepresent. Do you have actually have the ability to read a single line of prose and understand its meaning and the context? If so, you hide it well.<br /><br />The post you mention included references to Afghanistan and Iraq (hardly jungle environments) and was brought up with respect to the idea of 'winning battles and losing wars'.<br /><br />Your reference to Afghanistan, Yemen, and Libya are perfect examples. Anyone who would argue we were winners in any of the three is suffering from the same 'politically correct' formulations you decry. Only a fool or one of the architects of those FUBARS would claim that we came out ahead in the cost/benefit analysis from any of them.<br /><br />To date in Iraq, we have seen US air strikes help break the siege of the Yazidis on the mountain. But in the end it was the Kurds from Syria that opened the road through the mountains that allowed the Yazidis to escape. When the US checked it out, there weren't enough of them left to mount a US rescue mission.<br /><br />Then we saw US aerial attacks around Erbil to 'protect the Americans' there. The first question that might occur to someone who wasn't actually politically correct would be 'wouldn't it be simpler just to evacuate the Americans there?' But then we need to remember that Erbil is the capital of Kurdistan and important to US interests especially those involving oil.<br /><br />Then we saw the US take out a dozen or so vehicles around the Mosul dam. A rescue mission that had to be done to protect Americans located in the Green Zone in Bagdad. The actual retaking of the dam was left to the Peshmerga and the Iraqi army.<br /><br />Now we hear another 300 US troops may be deployed to Iraq.<br /><br />Drip, drip, drip.<br /><br />Now, the auto executives and graphic artists might think the US raids within their limited context have done a good job in providing the time and space to halt the IS advance around Kurdistan and help knock out some pick-up trucks and mortar positions. On the other hand, the ex-military see the US attacks as a dawning of a new day in warfare<br /><br />But then some tend to set the bar quite low. What can you expect a military genius who believes the US taking out a single mortar position was the deciding factor in allowing the Kurds to retake a town.<br /><br />Well, we shall see. <br /><br />Drip, drip, drip.<br /><br />And everyone is likely to judge the end results through their own perspective.<br /><br />.<br /><br />Quirkhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00272168240606512672noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21297199.post-73638605462868766112014-08-23T17:01:45.243-04:002014-08-23T17:01:45.243-04:00Whose Planes Keep Mysteriously Bombing Middle East...Whose Planes Keep Mysteriously Bombing Middle Eastern Countries?<br />August 23, 2014 by Daniel Greenfield<br /><br />Informed speculation centers around the aliens. These fine fellows, who enjoy a fine white wine, crab legs and free thinking and living women, have concluded that President Obama, who doesn't know what he is doing, has only made matters worse all across the middle eastern region. Hence, the thinking goes, for the salvation of their admired women from the jaws of Sharia, they have decided to slowly and selectively go about the process of setting matters to right.<br /><br />It has been noted all the strikes thus far have targeted jihadis or their bases.<br /><br />A subset of creative analysts insists the raids have all the earmarks of single plane activity and suggest that the notorious and mysterious Quart Quirk (qq) has soloed back into action aboard his ultra-light, the last confirmed use of which was to penetrate Area 51 in southern Nevada.<br /><br />http://www.frontpagemag.com/2014/dgreenfield/whose-planes-keep-mysteriously-bombing-middle-eastern-countries/<br /><br />Anonymoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07877200182060537865noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21297199.post-15525721696597727512014-08-23T14:56:00.390-04:002014-08-23T14:56:00.390-04:00Don't get caught in 20th Century Thinking.Don't get caught in 20th Century Thinking.Rufus IIhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05297231055991566183noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21297199.post-2231695482433376042014-08-23T13:56:22.064-04:002014-08-23T13:56:22.064-04:00What, you don't have Ukrainian restaurants all...What, you don't have Ukrainian restaurants all over MS?<br /><br /> In my life, I have never purposefully eaten anything grown in the Ukraine (vodka does not count and would have been accidental anyhow). If the EU needs the Ukrainian "breadbasket", go for it.<br /><br />Somewhere in the world must sit some tiny sliver of land that is not of strategic importance to the US - not worth a single drop of American blood. <br /><br />As for Syria and Iraq, I donated at work (sarc). With few exceptions, I don't care whether one gaggle of crazies kills off another swarm of crazies. Really, why should I care what these folks do to each other? Frankly, I lose sleep only over the damage they may inflict on sites of historical and/or anthropological importance. <br /><br />Because of a deal inked between Israel and China, the Suez Canal will be a quant relic of a bygone era, within a decade. The Chinese are putting up much of the cash and the Israelis the land, port facilities, and engineering skills to bring online in another decade a combination high-speed commercial rail system tied into three massive Israeli port complexes. Suez may draw tourists but its original function of expediting the Indian Ocean/Western-SE Asian traffic with Europe is speeding toward structural and functional obsolescence. <br /><br />I do not lose sleep worrying about the Iranians and the bomb. When they go nuclear, the Saudis will lose sleep. When Muslims go after one another with nuclear weapons, their first priority, I'm going to Disney World. The Strait of Hormuz will continue to be the most important piece of real estate in the world, with or without the existence of tens of millions of Muslim fanatics. The US MUST control the Strait not because we derive economic benefit from it but because it is the valve whereby we can turn the lights off in Asia (China) and the EU. American boots and bases in Iraq (populated or empty) would ease control of the Strait, but we will get by. <br /><br />Israel has a number of tasks to see through within the coming decade.<br /><br />1) support Egypt’s annexation of Gaza <br />2) support Egypt in its wars with Libya and Sudan<br />3) destroy Hamas<br />4) destroy Hezbollah and permanently annex the entire Golan and Lebanese territory to the Litani River<br />5) incorporate Judea, Samaria, and all of Jerusalem, offering Israeli citizenship to most Arab occupants<br />6) continue annual double-digit growth in trade with Japan, China, and India<br />7) maintain partnership with Australia<br />8) reduce to less than 10% European trade<br />9) create federation with Hashemites and willing Jordanian Bedouins<br />10) block neo-Ottoman Turkish aspirations <br />11) become militarily self-sufficient and bring into full production 5th generation Israeli aircraft including tripling drone fleet <br />12) remain neutral in Russian policy<br />13) destabilize Syria<br /> allenhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15605114251615293411noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21297199.post-379508286949038362014-08-23T13:42:25.757-04:002014-08-23T13:42:25.757-04:00So some have said, here at the Elephant Bar.
The ...So some have said, here at the Elephant Bar.<br /><br />The auto executives and graphic artists chose to demur.<br />Referencing old wars, in jungle environments.<br /><br />Not even bothering to extol the tactical experiences garnered in Afghanistan, Yemen and Libya.<br />Selective seeing, which leads to their own 'politically correct' policy formulations.<br />Farmer Robhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04758671613961287976noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21297199.post-44827137283458061132014-08-23T13:34:42.653-04:002014-08-23T13:34:42.653-04:00{...}
...But it’s not that simple.
The modern a...<br />{...}<br /><br />...<b>But it’s not that simple. </b><br /><br />The modern air forces built by autocratic Arab monarchies are designed primarily for self-defense, not attack. For Saudi Arabia, for example, the bogeyman is Iran. Saudi Arabia has bought scores of Eurofighter Typhoons from Britain, the front line equipment of many European powers. However, the Typhoon was designed in the 1980s for Cold War combat that envisaged Top Gun style dogfights between fighters, not close air support and ground attacks. <br /><br />The Saudi Arabian Typhoons are of a later model that has been adapted to carry air-to-ground missiles for use on a battlefield, but it is not an ideal platform for that role. (After finding the limitations of Typhoons in the Libyan conflict the Europeans are only now making them more effective for precision attacks on ground forces.) The Saudi military is still essentially locked in a defensive mindset. Nonetheless it does have the region’s most sophisticated systems for managing air power, including the ability to refuel fighters in the air. They have carried out small strikes against terrorists in the Yemen, but a sustained campaign against ISIS would call for a far more public commitment and strength of will than any Saudi regime has so far exhibited.<br /><br />Other Gulf powers have the same mindset. The UAE is buying the latest Predator drones, but is far from ready to use them. Tiny Qatar is shopping for 72 advanced fighters like the Typhoon but will not have an effective air force for years<br /><br />Turkey is the closest of all countries to the conflict but is inhibited not by a lack of resources – it has a large force of U.S.-supplied F-16s and even an intelligence satellite – but by its tricky position in the region, with military links to NATO, Europe and the U.S., a delicate internal balance of secular and Islamic allegiances, and an evolving relationship with the Kurds after years of mutual hostility.<br /><br />Jordan is in an even more delicate position, and a country that ISIS would dearly like to swallow. It also has a large force of U.S.-supplied F-16s. But Jordan’s highest priority seems to be a fear of insurgency and this year it is equipping its special forces with two highly lethal gunships, based on an Airbus supplied military airplane but armed by ATK, a U.S. supplier. Gunships are fearsome but they operate at low altitudes where they are vulnerable to the kind of shoulder-fired weaponry that ISIS most certainly has. Jordan doesn’t want to get into this air war any more than Turkey.<br /><br />But if the Arab states mustered the will, they could demolish ISIS, as history has shown. Seventy years ago, on Aug. 23 1944, General Dwight D. Eisenhower, the commander of the D-Day landings, went to inspect a battlefield in northern France. His forces had finally broken out of Normandy and were pursuing the remnants of a once-mighty Nazi battle group who were in full retreat.<br /><br />The Germans were annihilated. They had no air cover and their exposed columns were like a fish in a barrel. The Allies had mastered a military equation that the Germans invented: the blitzkrieg, which combined air and land forces into one rapidly-moving killing machine. From that moment on it was obvious that any army without air cover would be fatally vulnerable – as long as there was air power to deal with it.Deuce ☂https://www.blogger.com/profile/13472858446242700869noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21297199.post-78124162388878456082014-08-23T13:34:05.698-04:002014-08-23T13:34:05.698-04:00How a Real Air War Could Demolish ISIS
DAILY BEAS...<b>How a Real Air War Could Demolish ISIS</b><br /><br />DAILY BEAST <br /><br />History has shown that air power can be a deciding factor in battles, if only the Arab states would use it against ISIS.<br />With sickening snuff videos and viral postings of mass executions, ISIS has developed the projection of terror way beyond any predecessor. It has also managed to make itself seem more militarily formidable than it actually is. Even though its capacity as a training camp and assignment center for jihadists who can be sent to blow people up in Europe, the U.S. and Asia poses an extreme new danger, this should not be confused with its threat as a land-based army.<br /><br />For sure, as ISIS created its sprawling caliphate with lightning thrusts into Iraq from its base in northeast Syria, it appeared to sweep all before it. It was well funded, well armed and well led. It rapidly incorporated military equipment and skills from disaffected units of the Iraqi army. <br /><br />But as a conventional land army it has serious weaknesses. It doesn’t have an air force and it doesn’t have (yet) sophisticated air defenses of the kind used to knock down Malaysia Flight MH17 in the Ukraine. <br /><br />All ISIS logistics and dispositions in the field are observable by drone and satellite. This is not an elusive, dispersed terrorist network hiding in caves or with a nocturnal leadership moving from safe house to safe house where strikes are very time sensitive, requiring on-the-ground intelligence. To be sure, ISIS can bury their command and control centers in urban areas and use civilians as shields, but they are also a large, massed force designed to take and hold territory and once they commit to an attack they are out in the open with their lines of communication and supply exposed. <br /><br />Even though they have use of U.S. supplied equipment captured from fleeing Iraqis, their attack formations are an improvised mixture of tanks and armored vehicles and many more pickup trucks jerry-rigged as mobile artillery.They should be extremely vulnerable to a full-scale air attack.<br /><br />But what does an effective, full-scale air attack look like? The NATO air campaign that ended the Kosovo war in 1999 deployed 1,000 aircraft and took only six weeks to achieve its objectives. But in terms of technology that was another age. There were no drones for accurate target selection and execution and air-to-ground weapons were far less effective than they are now.<br /><br />The U.S. military knows what it will take. General Martin Dempsey, chairman of the joint chiefs of staff, said, “This is an organization that has an apocalyptic end-of-days strategic vision and which will eventually have to be defeated.” A whole cadre of retired generals has been vocal in calling for a realistic assessment of what will need to be called a war rather than a piecemeal offensive. But a full-scale air attack — inherently a declaration of war — requires the kind of commitment that goes beyond anything that the president and congress seem willing to carry out.<br /><br />However, there are hundreds of combat-ready aircraft in countries bordering Iraq and Syria. In Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Qatar, the Arab regimes have been on an arms-buying spree, with most of the equipment coming from the U.S. and Europe. But they are nowhere to be seen.<br /><br />Many experts echo what Shashank Joshi, of the Royal United Services Institute in London argued in the Financial Times: “The Arab world has preferred to ride on the coat-tails of outsiders while castigating western “inaction”. It is time for the Arab world, and neighbors such as Turkey, to act. … An Arab coalition, with Turkey, should now offer direct military support to target ISIS.”<br />{...}<br /><br />Deuce ☂https://www.blogger.com/profile/13472858446242700869noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21297199.post-21153895300727267782014-08-23T12:13:53.854-04:002014-08-23T12:13:53.854-04:00I think this chart tells you about all you need to...I think this chart tells you about all you need to know about the recession:<br /><br /><a href="http://www.calculatedriskblog.com/2014/08/dot-vehicle-miles-driven-increased-09.html" rel="nofollow">DOT vehicle miles traveled</a>Rufus IIhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05297231055991566183noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21297199.post-33000741235446019852014-08-23T11:04:44.080-04:002014-08-23T11:04:44.080-04:00Portions of him. His Marxsim and Edward Said days...Portions of him. His Marxsim and Edward Said days shaped his anti-isael views which i find no reverence for.What is "Occupation"https://www.blogger.com/profile/02054075097495500689noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21297199.post-87609956450535891832014-08-23T11:01:37.591-04:002014-08-23T11:01:37.591-04:00There's an old saying in poker (usually, best ...There's an old saying in poker (usually, best kept as a thought,) <br /><br />"I'm tired of thinkin', you think awhile" - as one pushes all of his chips into the middle.Rufus IIhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05297231055991566183noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21297199.post-40030136397501627192014-08-23T10:58:33.486-04:002014-08-23T10:58:33.486-04:00Pretty weird, whatever it was.Pretty weird, whatever it was.Rufus IIhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05297231055991566183noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21297199.post-62393708564312493732014-08-23T10:51:59.128-04:002014-08-23T10:51:59.128-04:00Back to the Ukraine.
Looking at the way those Rus...Back to the Ukraine.<br /><br />Looking at the way those Russian trucks were barely packed and loaded with crap and being Russian trucks, you can come up with only two conclusions:<br /><br />1. They planned to take something else in along the way or internally transport trapped rebels and Russian troops from the area.<br /><br />2. Whoever was paid to provide the Russian government with the emergency supplied, didn’t ship what was billed.<br /><br />or any mix of the two.Deuce ☂https://www.blogger.com/profile/13472858446242700869noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21297199.post-48197064887396048082014-08-23T10:47:29.771-04:002014-08-23T10:47:29.771-04:00Iraq’s parliamentary speaker has said an investiga...<b>Iraq’s parliamentary speaker has said an investigation is under way into an attack on a mosque that killed around 70 people and threatened moves to form a new government in the country struggling to contain the advance of the extremist Islamic State (Isis).</b><br /><br />Salim al-Jabouri said on Saturday that a committee of security officials and MPs would announce its findings in two days after an investigation into the attack on Friday at a Sunni mosque in Diyala province, in eastern Iraq.<br /><br />Doctors and police officers said 20 people were also wounded when worshippers were attacked with machine guns at the Musab bin Omair mosque, which Jabouri, a Sunni, described as "carnage".<br /><br />Initial reports suggested Shia militiamen carried out the attack in revenge for the deaths of their fellow fighters, raising the threat of a further escalation of sectarian tensions. Ibrahim Aziz Ali, whose 25-year-old nephew was among those killed, told Agence France-Presse that he and other residents heard gunfire and rushed to the mosque, where they were fired on by snipers.<br /><br />Five vehicles with images of Imam Hussein, one of the most revered figures in Shia Islam, were parked at the mosque, Ali said.<br /><br />When they could finally enter, "we found a massacre," he said.<br /><br />Police officers said that angry residents exchanged fire with security forces and militiamen in the area on Friday, but reported no casualties. Iraqi premier-designate Haider al-Abadi issued a statement calling for unity and condemning the killings.<br /><br />Two major Sunni blocs, including Jabouri's, have suspended talks on forming a new Shia-led government until the investigation is concluded. But other reports have said Isis, a Sunni militant group, was responsible.<br /><br />GUARDIAN<br /><br /><br />It smells like a false flag operation to me. This part is too over-the-top:<br /><br /><i>Five vehicles with images of Imam Hussein, one of the most revered figures in Shia Islam, were parked at the mosque, Ali said.</i><br />Deuce ☂https://www.blogger.com/profile/13472858446242700869noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21297199.post-72252149989261443842014-08-23T10:44:58.605-04:002014-08-23T10:44:58.605-04:00"Zbigniew Brzezinski’s caution against arming..."Zbigniew Brzezinski’s caution against arming the rebels"<br /><br />Yup, Zbig, you never know the end result of arming rebels.........it might be 9/11.....:(<br /><br />Without Zbig, the rooskies might still be bogged down in Afshitistan, and the Twin Towers might still be standing tall.Anonymoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07877200182060537865noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21297199.post-58074792802885756342014-08-23T10:41:47.692-04:002014-08-23T10:41:47.692-04:00{...}
We are literally bombing our own weapons.
...<br />{...}<br /><br /><b>We are literally bombing our own weapons.</b><br /><br />A similar dynamic is operating in Iraq. Specifically, the U.S. is now arming the “Peshmerga” (i.e. the Kurdish soldiers).<br /><br />But the Wall Street Journal notes that there are reports that Peshmerga are fighting side-by-side with the PKK … a group designated as terrorists by the U.S.:<br /><br />A U.S. defense official couldn’t confirm whether the meeting took place and stressed in response to reports that the PKK was fighting alongside the Peshmerga that “it’s hard to tell from Washington who’s on the front line in a Kurdish-Iraqi fight.”<br /><br />The U.S. has designated the PKK a terrorist organization, and the U.S. “doesn’t do business with them,” the official added.<br /><br />By arming the Peshmerga, the U.S. is also putting weapons into the hands of the PKK.<br /><br />If we stop arming, funding and training terrorists, then maybe we won’t have to bomb them later.Deuce ☂https://www.blogger.com/profile/13472858446242700869noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21297199.post-88313998877723551652014-08-23T10:41:27.812-04:002014-08-23T10:41:27.812-04:00{...}
Arming one side of Syria’s multi-sided and ...{...}<br /><br /><i>Arming one side of Syria’s multi-sided and bloody civil war will come back to haunt us. Past decisions by the U.S. to arm insurgencies in Libya, Angola, Central America and Afghanistan helped sustain brutal conflicts in those regions for decades. In the case of Afghanistan, arming the mujahideen in the 1980s created the instability that emboldened extreme militant groups and gave rise to the Taliban, which ultimately created an environment for al Qaeda to thrive.</i><br /><br />There is no unified command or control in the Syrian opposition, as was the case of the Afghan mujahideen. And due to the United States’ long history of diplomatically isolating Syria, we know even less about the nature of Syria’s opposition. The excuse that “the enemy of my enemy is my friend” is often invoked to justify anti-Assad forces. This short-sighted excuse has gained the U.S. enemies around the world, undermining U.S. national security. The same justification was used by the Bush administration in its collaboration with the Assad regime to torture suspected militants in Syria. Arming the enemies of our enemies hasn’t made the U.S. more friends; it has made the U.S. more enemies.<br /><br />***<br /><br />Some armed opposition factions, including powerful Islamist coalitions, reject negotiation altogether. Yet these are the same groups that will likely seize control of U.S.-supplied weapons, just as they’ve already seized control of the bulk of the rebels’ weaponry.<br /><br />***<br /><br />When you lift the curtain on the armed groups with the most formidable military presence on the ground in Syria, you find the Al Nusra Front and Al Farough Brigades. Both groups are closely aligned with Al Qaeda and have directly perpetrated barbaric atrocities. The Al Nusra Front has been charged with beheadings of civilians, while a commander from the Al Farough Brigades reportedly ate the heart of a pro-Assad soldier.<br /><br />Shank’s warning was ignored, and his worst fears came to pass.<br /><br />And the U.S. is still financing the jihadis in Syria. For example, the government is pushing an additional $500 million in arms to the jihadis.<br />{...}<br />Deuce ☂https://www.blogger.com/profile/13472858446242700869noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21297199.post-24398357428310822412014-08-23T10:39:01.779-04:002014-08-23T10:39:01.779-04:00If we stop arming, funding and training terrorists...<b>If we stop arming, funding and training terrorists, then maybe we won’t have to bomb them later.</b><br /><br />U.S. Wants to Bomb ISIS In Syria … Maybe We Should (cough) First Stop ARMING THEM?<br />Posted on August 22, 2014 by WashingtonsBlog<br /><br />If We Stop Arming, Funding and Training Terrorists, then Maybe We Won’t Have to Bomb Them Later<br /><br />U.S. foreign policy is schizophrenic.<br /><br />The chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff says we need to attack the Sunni militants in Syria.<br /><br />The deputy national security adviser to President Obama says we should go after ISIS in Syria.<br /><br />Okay …<br /><br />But the U.S. and our closest allies have long supported Sunni militants.<br /><br />And the U.S. and our closest allies have been arming and training Islamic jihadists in Syria for years. And see this, this, this and this.<br /><br />You don’t have to be a rocket scientist or a fortune-teller to have known this was a bad idea.<br /><br />As Michael Shank – Adjunct Faculty and Board Member at George Mason University’s School for Conflict Analysis and Resolution, and director of foreign policy at the Friends Committee on National Legislation – warned a year ago:<br /><br />The Senate and House Intelligence committees’ about-face decision last week to arm the rebels in Syria is dangerous and disconcerting. The weapons will assuredly end up in the wrong hands and will only escalate the slaughter in Syria. Regardless of the vetting procedures in place, the sheer factionalized nature of the opposition guarantees that the arms will end up in some unsavory hands. The same militant fighters who have committed gross atrocities are among the best-positioned of the rebel groups to seize the weapons that the United States sends to Syria.<br /><br />Congress can still join with the 70 percent of Americans who oppose arming Syria rebels and heed former National Security Advisor Zbigniew Brzezinski’s caution against arming the rebels (he called the Obama administration’s decision to do so “a mess in the making“) ….<br />{...}<br /><br />If we stop arming, funding and training terrorists, then maybe we won’t have to bomb them later.Deuce ☂https://www.blogger.com/profile/13472858446242700869noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21297199.post-78374495965886810322014-08-23T10:33:22.070-04:002014-08-23T10:33:22.070-04:00and, don't tell me about it being "the br...and, don't tell me about it being "the breadbasket of wherever," or somesuch. The Russians have a huge expanse of Black Land that they don't even bother to farm.Rufus IIhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05297231055991566183noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21297199.post-86643408115304602362014-08-23T10:30:54.635-04:002014-08-23T10:30:54.635-04:00Third Thought for the Day (I'm on a roll - or,...Third Thought for the Day (I'm on a roll - or, maybe it's just gas):<br /><br />Why could we, possibly, care about the "Ukraine?"<br /><br />I mean, hell, it's hard enough trying to figure out why the Russians care about it; But Us? Gimmee a break.Rufus IIhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05297231055991566183noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21297199.post-82201271109918479602014-08-23T10:23:09.861-04:002014-08-23T10:23:09.861-04:00(it is getting close to voting time in USA, a litt...(it is getting close to voting time in USA, a little ginned up patriotism never hurts the President's party)Anonymoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07877200182060537865noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21297199.post-72086399199062574672014-08-23T10:21:26.543-04:002014-08-23T10:21:26.543-04:00:)
They are not an 'imminent' threat to t...:)<br /><br />They are not an 'imminent' threat to the life of our Republic, I agree with that.Anonymoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07877200182060537865noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21297199.post-65531352312851978132014-08-23T10:12:04.015-04:002014-08-23T10:12:04.015-04:00 What the fuck else is there?
A niece is a wide b... What the fuck else is there?<br /><br />A niece is a wide brimmed Spanish hat !<br /><br />:)Anonymoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07877200182060537865noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21297199.post-53532373039745534872014-08-23T10:10:22.040-04:002014-08-23T10:10:22.040-04:00The guy that was on camera, last week, declaring t...The guy that was on camera, last week, declaring that they would fly the flag over the White House is dead, now. Really. He is.<br /><br />If they were to become a real "problem" to us, sometime in the future, then I guess we could "declare war" on them, then.<br /><br />In the meantime? Eh. My panties seem to be resisting all waddification, at the moment.Rufus IIhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05297231055991566183noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21297199.post-11258362514592873812014-08-23T10:10:08.241-04:002014-08-23T10:10:08.241-04:00Out this way we say "God Bless Monsanto"...Out this way we say "God Bless Monsanto".Anonymoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07877200182060537865noreply@blogger.com