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."

Friday, September 29, 2006

Biting Off More Than They Can Chew

"America is generally slow to awaken to danger, but once roused it is a fierce fighter. A few voices are warning our potential foes. But they are not listening. Those of us who do not want to see a convulsive death struggle play out on the world stage, who want to see the drama go from a tragedy to a farce, have our work cut out."- Thomas Lifson



Comment: So ends a thoughtful piece written by Thomas Lifson, editor and publisher of The American Thinker. His premise is that the Islamists have overplayed their hand, and at some point, they will trigger something in the American public that will be hard to stop. He bases this on the recent Islamic reaction to the Pope.

I am a relative neophyte to the blogging world, but have always been a news junky. Since the sixties, I have watched the Left set the political and social agenda. Much of what they started is being played out in the struggle between Islam and the West. It was the agenda of the Left that allowed for the thoughtless migration of Muslims into the US and Europe. It was their agenda and view on racial equality, moral relativism, multi-culturalism, civil rights and moral equivalency that allowed and encouraged Islam to set up camp in the West and not require them to adapt to their new homes and countries. Worse, this Western lack of certitude encouraged Islamists to take the position of moral superioity and religious hegemony over what they saw as Western decadence. The Islamists feel they can get away with anything, because they have. They are deadly wrong and perilously close to unleashing something in the American public that will give Islam a lesson it will not soon forget.

The Dark View of Islam and the American Street


By Thomas Lifson

139 comments:

  1. “Random user” at the BC has given an informative link to the faux civilizational accomplishments of the “Religion of Peace.”

    link

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  2. Allen, An interesting Observation. This Jumped out at me:

    ..."Arab/Islamic civilization is not a progressive force, it is a regressive force; it does not give impetus, it retards. The great civilization you describe was not an Arab/Muslim accomplishment, it was an Assyrian accomplishment that Arabs expropriated and subsequently lost when they drained, through the forced conversion of Assyrians to Islam, the source of the intellectual vitality that propelled it. What other Arab/Muslim civilization has risen since? What other Arab/Muslim successes can we cite"...

    To be honest, I can find no redeeming quality to the entire awful cult of Islam.

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  3. "The winning companies of this century will be those who prove with their actions that they can be profitable and increase social values - companies that both do well and do good.
    So much so in fact, that business leaders will no longer view doing well and doing good as separate pursuits, but as one unified pursuit.
    "
    ---
    Carly presided over failure:
    Her replacement has made Hp into the leading Computer Manufacturer.

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  4. I debated whether to do a post on this. It is probably a bit too arcane, but it is testimony about the horrible situation at the Department of Interior and how they do not collect mineral and energy royalties extracted from public lands. We are not talking about chump change either.

    POGO's Written Testimony for the House Government Reform Committee regarding the Interior Department: A Culture of Managerial Irresponsibility and Lack of Accountability?

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  5. It is hard to tell what catches interest here, but as long as we keep getting participants, we will move it forward. I do not understand how some of these sites, where they get almost no comments, do it. Friday night Happy Hour is coming up this evening, unless whit has something he prefers.

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  6. To the south of Baghdad lies Babylon. There is a stark geographical distinction between Babylonia and Assyria. To quote Saggs,

    A journey in spring from Baghdad, the capital of modern Iraq and within the Area of Ancient Babylonia, to Mosul [Nineveh], which is near several old Assyrian capitals, takes the traveller into what is manifestly a different country. In the region of Baghdad and southwards the predominant vegetation is palm trees. . .The terrain is flat to the horizon, and for most of the year its sun-parched earth is arid and dead wherever irrigation ditches do not reach. Approaching Mosul [Nineveh] the traveller finds a striking change. The flat terrrain gives way to undulating plains, in spring green with pasturage or cereal crop and gay and scented with flowers and clover. The rolling plains are cut with wadis, aflow after spring rains, with higher ranges of hills on the horizon. The traveller has reached Assyria.[Might that was Assyria, page 5]

    The Assyrian land is rich and fertile, with growing fields found in every region. Two large areas comprise the Assyrian breadbasket: the Arbel plain and the Nineveh plain. To this day these areas remain critical crop producers. This is from where Assyria derived her strength, as it could feed a large population of professionals and craftsman, which allowed it to expand and advance the art of civilization.
    http://www.aina.org/aol/peter/brief.htm

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  7. "Arab/Islamic civilization is not a progressive force, it is a regressive force; it does not give impetus, it retards. "
    (It BREEDS RETARDS)
    ---
    Armed with the word of God, and after 600 years of dormancy, the Assyrians once again set out to build an empire, not a military empire, but a religious empire founded on divine revelation and Christian brotherhood. So successful was the Assyrian missionary enterprise, by the end of the twelfth century the Assyrian Church was larger than the Greek Orthodox and Roman Catholic churches combined, and it spanned the Asian continent, from Syria to Mongolia, Korea, China, Japan and the Philippines.
    When Marco Polo visited China in the thirteenth century, he was astonished to find Assyrian priests in the Chinese royal court, and tens of thousands of Chinese Christians. The Assyrian missionaries had reached China in the sixth century. With only the bible, a cross, and a loaf of bread in hand, these messengers had walked thousands of miles along the old silk road to deliver the word of God. So successful were the missionaries, when Genghis Khan swept through Asia, he brought with him an army over half of which belonged to the Assyrian Church of the East. So successful were the missionaries, the first Mongolian system of writing used the Assyrian alphabet.

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  8. The ancient Mesopotamians basically invented Democracy, and Capitalism, but for these desciplines to survive you must have a "Robust" Financial system and Islam does not allow this with it's prohibition against "Interest." As a result, Islam will remain mired in economic stagnation. End of Story.

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  9. For Habu:
    "Watts painted a picture of the Tao that was fresh, resonant, and countercultural avant la lettre.

    By experiencing the Way or the "suchness" of things, Watts claimed, we can temporarily shed our "skin-encapsulated ego."

    This expansion of consciousness reveals the larger ecological reality of which we are always already a part.
    Such insights also deconstruct the social programming we take to be our personalities."

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  10. This article was written in the month before the September 11 attacks. Like everyone else, I am taking stock of how things have and have not changed. The pendulum has abruptly swung away from irony in an arc that is far wider than we ever imagined. In San Francisco, this shift was marked on November 4th. The event was called the Death O� Irony Funeral, Wake and Barbeque. "Irony has been proclaimed dead by those most in touch with it, journalists." the E-vite stated, "In order to bring the age of irony to an official end and welcome the generation of sincerity, we will be holding a funeral, wake, and barbeque� bring meat, booze, and something ironic which, obviously, has lost all value. The boat will be waiting to send your goods into Valhalla."

    This ironic sentiment was eerily repeated in the pages of the November, 2001, issue of Artforum. In the article "Moving Pictures", writer Adam Lehner focused on artists and galleries responding to the terror attacks. He wrote of the Postmasters Gallery exhibition of video artist Wolfgang Staehle�s 2001, a live video feed of lower Manhattan seen from the East River. Every four seconds, a new image would come through the video feed, creating a motion picture that functioned almost as a landscape painting. On September 11, the gallery staff watched the horror blossom on the live video feed. When asked about the event, Staehle stated that "certain people, Americans with a certain sensibility, regret that the possibility for irony is gone. They want to be light-hearted. I have less tolerance for frivolous things. The way I look at art has changed . . . and Magda (gallery owner) said she would rather have this piece up now and not some bubble paintings. But really, it�s too early to talk about it."

    In the article above, I called for an end to easy, flippant irony. I got way more than I asked for. The age of neo-gravity has dawned. Are you ready?
    http://www.stretcher.org/archives/e2_a/2002_06_28_e2_archive.php

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  11. Mr Newt, again:

    "... How far has Bush brought the Republican Party toward being a "governing party"?

    Not very. And it's because the most important characteristic of a governing party is that you set the agenda and you win the argument. If you can't win the argument, you can't sustain the agenda. And if you're not setting the agenda, then random chance and your opponents are setting the agenda. I have a very mixed emotion about the Bush presidency. I think the president, on almost every big decision, has been essentially right. He has really had the moral courage to rise to some huge decisions. But he has not had the drive and the understanding to force the level of change those decisions imply. So we don't today have and information campaign capable of matching up with the Danish cartoon offensive. We don't today have a clear understanding of urban warfare and policing capable of dominating Hamas or Hezbollah or the anti-Iraqi forces in Iraq. I think his big decisions are right, but I think his ability to understand how difficult and how complicated follow through is is a major limitation.

    Is Bush a big-government conservative?

    I guess. I'd ask the White House. I mean, he's certainly an expensive-government conservative."

    Newt's Interview

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  12. Don't miss the Frum Link, 'Rat:
    You and Trish will love it.

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  13. Newt's analysis is "confirmed" by this:
    Book Says Bush Ignored Urgent Warning on Iraq
    I was ready to hate the Sleazy Writer even more, but this stuff rings true.

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  14. Not the outcome I was hoping for, when I called for fermenting revolution inside Iran, doug. That is something I'd love.

    This piece explains why the Iranians are just not up to speed, yet. Maybe those ignorant Mohammedans, that have no science, as I read at BC, will not "get it".

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  15. Back to George W. Bush, has the No Child Left Behind Act furthered the cause of conservative education reform?

    The jury's out. Modern, bureaucratic, unionized education is a form of intellectual child abuse. We ought to tackle it at that level. In a lot of directions, the administration's heart is in the right place, but it doesn't think through the implications of its values. They keep trying to find a way to improve the failure as opposed to finding a way to invent the alternative.
    ---
    The Jury is no longer out on No Child:
    The Corrupt State/NEA Cabals have defined Dumbness Down to "Conform,"
    "Pass," not fail, but not educate.
    None dare call that failure.

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  16. Gone to Hell,
    in a hand basket.

    That I'm afraid is the "State of Things"

    We've proven that the US military is not omnipresent and is, really, pretty impotent.
    Ramadi and Baghdad, not secure after three years of Occupation.

    Proof of something, that's for sure.

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  17. " It's a highly complex process, in which uranium gas is injected into the linked array of centrifuges that spin at roughly the speed of sound"
    ---
    At Oak Ridge they used a different process, right?
    (gas diffusion?) if it weren't bedtime, I'd look it up.

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  18. 9:56:43 AM - Proof that when you tie the Military's hand, and put a straghtjacket of PC ROI's on the American Warrior, bad things follow.

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  19. But the Military tied itself up, with those Rules, doug. They were developed internally, according to Mr Rumsfeld. I saw him discussing it once, on TV. He said it was DoD military lawyers that made up the "Rules".

    That Lawyers are allowed such authority is, in the end, the CiC's decision. That is where the "buck" stops.

    The Military, a one point five million man force, is FUBARed. That is the real lesson, proof is in the pudding.

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  20. Just like Newt says:
    The CIC lacked the follow through to straighten that s... out.
    F

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  21. o/t -- doug @ 8:57, I sent it along to him--he'll get a kick outta that. Anybody who remembers the Whole Earth Catalogue would! Sent also to Seneca the Younger, the AmerIndian Jewish Buddhist Spook over @ Yargb/Flares.

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  22. Lawyers Rule until the next attack, submission, or submersion beneath the demographic deluge.

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  23. Well, despite the fact that the Military is the source of heroism, it is also a government agency. Pushme/Pullya.

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  24. Buddy,
    Allan Watts:
    Philosopher, ascetic, alcoholic philanderer, poet, charlatan, ...
    The Valhalla, I remember it well.

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  25. Let's start a Druid's Corner Blog!

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  26. After 28 posts at BC about the 4,000 foreign jihadists killed in Iraq, it becomes apparent that the idea that, even adding 15,000 Iraqi to the list, as rufus pointed out, we are only at a 10 to 1 kill ratio, and that the cost is around $20 million per enemy fighter killed in the Iraq fly trap.

    Now I may be "old school" but that is a pretty high bounty to be payin for Mohammedan scalps. No one else, not at BC nor FOX wants to even mention it.
    Funnier still, the Democrats let that "War Management" critique lay on the table, as they delve into race baiting.

    It's time for the beach, I think.

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  27. I think all my old psychedelic contacts are now CPAs in Houston....

    o/t but, have a laff:

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  28. 'Rat,
    Unless you see a Wing of '52's take flight, you're right.
    That was a turning point in Afghanistan when the Sand Monkeys started doin the air dance to the tune of the 52's.
    ---
    four holidays were celebrated according to the lunar and vegetative cycles. These include Imbolc (Imbolg) to denote the first signs of spring, Beltane (Beltain) to recognize the fullness of life after spring, Lughnassah to celebrate the power of the Solar deity Lugh, and Samhain to recognize the lowering of the barrier between the world of the living and that of the dead.

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  29. Wonder what each enemy scapl in WWII cost, adjusted to current Dollars. Course, it's a meaningless metric--the meaningful number being, "what would be the cost of the other options?"

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  30. Our man in Panama ( Man of La Mancha) is more of a DQ (Don Quixote) than a DR. Keep up the good fight.

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  31. Thanks for that, Bud:
    Maybe the creativity and depravity of Westerners and King Weird Al will prevail.

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  32. Don't knock DR, Elephant Man!

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  33. Check this out in the You 've got to be shitting me : see the pictures and read the captions:

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  34. Hell, I one thing fer damn sure. Ever thang I read in the NYT is gospel. Ain't no doubt about it.

    Ain't no pick'n and choosen either. If it be writt'n by the NYT you can take it to the bank.

    It ain't the enenmy in the field, it ain't the weak sisters of NATO,or the fecklessness of the UN,it's all the fault of two men.
    Bush and Rumsfeld.
    I'm sure,positive, and can't be swayed away that Gen Abizad allowed himself to be qouted on the record.
    Yep, first read ev'r morn'n is the gospel according to the NYT.
    One would believe there is a synergy at work involving a fool and an idiot, Bush and Rumsfeld.

    "Lord, what fools these mortals be!"

    PUCK --From A Midsummer Night's Dream (III, ii, 115)Wm Shakespeare

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  35. Nice to see you back on deck buddy. When are you going to answer your email and we get into that art work?

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  36. TWAT is do'in just fine..hell they're killing each other in the killing sands of Iraq, not Lower Manhattan. Now that's progress.

    And I think as opposed to WWII where only 25% of the combat troops ever fired their rifles at a target we've got a higher percentage do'in it today.

    "Analysis to Paralysis" A bloggers guide to war from the NYT. $22.95.

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  37. Possumtater knows 52's are cheaper and faster.

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  38. crap--missed it, 2164. anyhoo--i think you're in less need of illo help that any blog i've seen lately. you're putting out top-drawer pix already--intersting & intriguing. my alligator mouth overloaded my mockinbird ass, I'm afraid.

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  39. Don't miss my Gay Hitler Video in the last thread, Bud!

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  40. I watched it already--but missed tjhe Cinemax show, evidently it was yesterday. AH had i think 3 or 4 different girlfriends attempt/succeed suicide. ghastly shit, top-to-bottom.

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  41. Congress should pass a law binding the Pentagon to killing the enemy at no more that what a lunch costs at Burger King.
    The cost at tops shout be $10.00 a KIA. It's obvious if you do the math that continuing freedom and escaping dhimmitude has a finite price. I'll go $15.00 tops. If we can't get the jobs done, well let's just pack up and leave the field.
    I mean if we fight 'em here all we'll need to do is buried the dead, no need for an expensive flight home in a casket. The a little clean up with an anti-bacterial agent, wash the blood from the streets,a little spackle in the holes, and let the police fill out the paperwork. Hell we could cut TWAT costs by 80%.

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  42. habu, I've often thought that the country could wipe out crime in a penstroke, just declare it "legal".

    Like 2164's link, the Guatemalan prison run by the inmates--wot the hell, makes sense!

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  43. Hell, I'da levelled ev'r village and town to rubble from the start, including Baghdad. Down to rubble.

    Then I would have air sprayed caro syrup over those towns and villiages and let the flys do the work. They would have biodegraded the mess in a big hurry.
    Price ... priceless.

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  44. Turd world leaders would've said nasty things about you at the UN, tho, habu.

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  45. I still caint get over that torture thread.
    Torture for sher.

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  46. Karo Syrup is corn syrup. You'll have to fight Jolly Green Rufus, he wants it all in yer gas tank--

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  47. Habu,
    Don't miss the NY Times editorial on the terrible injustice involved in the detention legislation.
    We've become like them, and our Warriors will pay.

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  48. One good thing outta the public debate is, I think McCain is sunk.

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  49. $15 per Jihadi? I bet it's closer to $15 per 5.56 round.
    One shot, one kill, aye habu.

    As to the costs of WWII, the Soviets lost about 20 million lives in the war, the Germans 8 to 10 milion.
    There is no reasonable comparison, not to the total loss of life in prosecuting TWAT.

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  50. Buddy,
    It coulda reduced 60-70% of the inmate population by legalizing marajuana, taxing and controlling it, instead of feeding the narcoterrorists in South America billions of dollars.
    I wonder what the 40 year war against drugs or WAD, (if you're gonna have a TWAT you gotta have a WAD,thems the rules) has cost us? And talk about a loser.
    I know a bunch of money would have gone into our coffers instead of out of the taxpayers pockets.

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  51. That was my point--there's no reasonable comparison.

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  52. habu--you're right--the weed wars are a national self-inflicted wound, fer sher.

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  53. I'm telling you, everybody is missing This Story.

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  54. and now they're converting to 6.8mm uppers so the cost will go up.

    bombs,bodies,rubble,Cairo syrup, and the wonders of nature.

    The we move in the Woods Hole desalinization battalion to green up the desert.

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  55. Rufus,
    With a story from Ali Alnashi how could we miss it?

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  56. I had never made the comparison, buddy.
    Just commented on the cost of each Enemy KIA. $20 Million USD each.

    Now I am sure that when used as a matrix of achievement, as well as performance, the cost per Enemy KIA may not be the most telling point, but it is germain.

    Economic Performance Counts, eventually, even in war, especially "Long War".

    The strawmen of what others may or may not have done, pales in comparison to realities of what has been done.

    By not planning for the "end" we failed in the middle, even though our opening was quite "strong".

    Difference, I guess, 'tween Chess & Checkers.

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  57. Can't argue strategery, rat. I just have the impression that we're slowly picking up important support across the Muz world, with our restraint, steadfastness, and sacrifice. Whether this is right or wrong I gots no idear.

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  58. The largest Muslim country is Pakistan, the only nuclear Muslim country is Pakistan. The hot bed of aQ and Wahabbist extremism is Pakistan. The cease fire with the Mohammedans was declared, in Pakistan.

    Where is support for US and TWAT growing in the Muslim world, certainly not Pakistan.

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  59. I'll tell ya if you use my method, the next time our Secretary of State says we're gonna help you build a new nation, well, those folks would remember Cairo syrup war and shape up right quick.
    See the easiest way to get illiterate people to understand the correlation between the big silver bird and the hole in the ground is to make many holes and level buildings..hell the buildings can't stand up under a 2.5 tremor anyway. Then you start with a tabla raza.
    " Hi, I'm here from the USA and we're gonna help you"

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  60. Have you guys forgotten? Bush's alliane was getting shaky, and summer was coming. It was either move, or wait for the fall and lose the "coalition." Then, the war lasted 3 weeks; didn't leave much time for post-war planning.

    Still, compare it to WWII. They had four + years to plan, and what did FDR come up with? Give all of Eastern Europe to Stalin. That was a "Helluva Plan."

    So, we liberated 50 Million People, and our economy increased by over a Trillion Dollars a Year; We Don't have a Nuclear-Armed Saddam threatening the world's oil supply, and we've devastated Al Queda.

    I'll take it.

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  61. "No no nononono, Effendi, we will fix our ploblems, prease to go alay and reave us arone!"

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  62. Ya missed one DR, but only by
    48,090,000 or 26%+

    Largest Muslim Populations in the World
    Rank Country Muslim Population
    1 Indonesia 182,570,000
    2 Pakistan 134,480,000
    3 India 121,000,000
    4 Bangladesh 114,080,000
    5 Turkey 65,510,000
    6 Iran 62,430,000
    7 Egypt 58,630,000
    8 Nigeria 53,000,000
    9 Algeria 30,530,000
    10 Morocco 28,780,000

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  63. ahhh, that explains it, we've not yet begun to fight.

    Waiting for a new CiC, I'd guess.

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  64. The "important support" i wuz mentioning, rat, is the continuing hi-volume purchasing of treasuries/investing in USA of the increasing flow of petrodollars--despite the 1% of GDP burn-rate of TWAT. It continues to supply/demand "down" our long bond yields (and thus, among other things, our mortgage rates and costs-of-doing small business).

    That, and the propertied classes in Pakistan who keep Musharref in power.

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  65. 48 nuclear war heads, habu, have more gravitus than 48 million Indonesians.

    But you are right, I was not thinking of those "moderate" Muslims of Indonesia

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  66. the President of Kazakhstan is visiting USA. The Uzbeks are here, and democratic. That's just crazy--but true.

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  67. That's a little country north of Tehran.

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  68. caught 'tween a rock and a hard place

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  69. If you get past the negative headline, here's a pretty positive Look at Ramadi.

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  70. Meanwhile, back at the electoral battleground, I recall reading at BC how the vets of the Mohammedan Wars were going to come back and square things away, in America.

    There is a record number of veterans running for office in the 2006 mid-term elections. All except one are running as Democrats and many are veterans of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Jeff Swicord takes a look at two Democrats and one Republican candidate who are expected to have the best chances to win. ...

    ... Patrick Murphy is one of about 10 veterans who fought in the Iraq and Afghan wars running for Congress this term. Only one is running as a Republican. ..."


    Voice of America "A trusted source of news and information since 1942"

    Not quite the type house cleaning those that commented had in mind, me thinks. But then again, maybe the Vets will lose.

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  71. Istarious,

    No Oil.

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  72. Wow, istarious--you're on to something!

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  73. Halli Beri Richard Burton, if you (*wink wink*) know what i mean....

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  74. Well, rufus, the question is, will the ISF be ready for Ramadi on the 1 Mar 07 departure date, when Col MacFarland and his troops mount up and leave?

    That is the timeline to success.

    Training the Iraqi is the key, it always has been. It is a mission that has been devalued from the git go.

    The Iraqi still want US out of the Security role in Nov 07. Ties in with Mr Frum's piece and even reality. Wait 'til the Occupation negotiations start to make Headlines in late November, December.

    Hell in a handbasket.

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  75. You had a Five MIllion Strong Insurgency of Pissed Off Sunnis in Iraq; In Afghanistan most people were more or less glad to see the Taliban gone.

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  76. They are still baiting the trap, in Afghanistan, yeah, that's the ticket.

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  77. Dr,

    Well, I'm not sure how they come up with those population numbers anyway Indonesia is the worlds largest archipelago so how can they even know.
    The salient point is the sharp end of the stick you pointed out..Pakistan with 48 nuke warheads.
    I ask this one out of ignorance but how do they know they work? They don't do live launches. Are they doing computer simulations, where nothing can go wrong, go wrong, go wrong ...?
    Plus India is our friend and they would LOVE to nuke Pakistan.

    Ahimsa
    Ahimsa

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  78. Nobody, even the AQ's, really gives a shit about Afghanistan; it's a pile of rocks. Those guys are only coming over from Pakistan because if they didn't their women would put them to work around the hovel.

    Iraq is, as someone (I think it was Allen) said, "Is the most valuable Strategic piece of Real Estate in the World.

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  79. They set one off, I do believe. Underground. Perhaps not, do not feel like looking.
    They have tested the missiles, but not the two, together. But then neither have the Indians.

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  80. The insurgency is "Finished," Rat. If we left right now the Iraqis would probably muddle through; but, why take the chance?

    The Colonel's Brigade is being replaced; we're just doubling up for a couple of months. They need another ten thousand, or so, in Baghdad for awhile to finish off what's turning into a pretty danged effective program.

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  81. it's the Land Between the Rivers, da boitplace o civilize-a-shun.

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  82. It's de bubblin crude.

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  83. Well, yeah, rufus, with the establishment of a Government sanctioned 30,000 man Sunni militia. The aQ Insurgents are running out of fish to swim with.

    But like the Badr Brigades and the Mahdi Army, each of similar size, those who command the new militia do not answer to Mr Maliki, directly.

    But then again, neither does the ISF.
    A Prime Minister of a Government without an Army. Not much of a government, when foreigners command & control your Army's troops.

    That is what many of the UIA have been complaining about, their lack of control, even though they've been empowered by democratic vote.

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  84. well, de first thing ya know,

    old Bush is in a war.

    the democrats say

    "You just an oil whore"

    They said "afghani is de place you wanna be"

    But he said "hell no,
    Ich ben ein I-raq-i"

    (oil, that is...Black Gold...Texas Tea....)

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  85. Maliki Does Control a couple of divisions of the ISF; and, we will be turning over the rest as quickly as we can.

    By the way, I don't know if you all noticed, but Maliki's poll numbers are quite a bit higher than Al Sadr's among the Shia, and, of course, a lot higher among the rest of the country.

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  86. Nap time, I gotta play a super-satellite this afternoon. Try to get BabyDoll in the Big Tournament.

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  87. if she win, rufus, you can get you a big ole cadillac and a wide-brim hat and a coupla gold front teef

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  88. Two Divisions out of Ten, is what Mr Maliki has command of.
    The first, the 8th, transfered three weeks ago, on 6 Sep, the second, the 4th, was transfered on 16 Sep.

    The race is on.
    Nov 07 is the finish line.
    Bet that is codified by the occuppation renewal date of 31Dec06.

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  89. istarious,
    More of the same.
    The locals would continue to battle it out for control.
    Same as if we had left Mr Allawi in charge, back in '03, IMO.

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  90. istarious, my guess is a year or two of increasing terror violence, followed by an attempted pacification by Iran, followed by a regional war among Sunni and Shia, followed by a breakup of the old post-Ottoman national boundaries, followed by a Fat Bear (fattened on several years of $200 oil) and his Chinese pal taking commercial and political control of the eastern and southern hemispheres of Planet Earth.

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  91. But that is a strawman debate.
    All or nothing

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  92. Which if Tactics & Stratergy is not to be discussed is what the debate boils down to, strawmen.

    Which is Mr Rove's plan.

    But brings US no closer to Victory over the Mohammedans.

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  93. maybe the idea is to hold our ground and let the thing fizzle out.

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  94. "$15 per Jihadi? I bet it's closer to $15 per 5.56 round.
    One shot, one kill, aye habu.

    As to the costs of WWII, the Soviets lost about 20 million lives in the war, the Germans 8 to 10 milion.
    There is no reasonable comparison, not to the total loss of life in prosecuting TWAT."


    I don't think there really is anything THAT unusual about that money per jihadist figure. The above takes into account civilians and is also a conventional conflict.

    Even in a conventional war, it can get lopsided. For example, it took over 1000 German heavy caliber AA shells to take down 1 Allied bomber during World War II. Price of shells + price of gun crews + price of guns + price of radar control... War is just expensive.

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  95. Past experience with the Iraqi has shown the work best on a Deadline.
    Each of the Elecoral deadlines are proof. Problems that had been insummountable, were reduced to molehills.

    If we supply Mr Maliki with a deadline, affirm his Nov 07 desire as reality. The Iraqi will make the deadline. If we demur from setting a date, problem resolution will drag on.

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  96. TWAT will end when President H. Clinton tells Secretary Of State (prior to his elevation to the Cheif Justice of the Supreme Court after the current occupant of that position has a fatal "hiking" accident in Fort Marcy Park) Bill Clinton to apologize to the world for our existence.
    Then it's "Seven Days in May"........ but those things take years to take effect in Montana so I ain't worried..
    But I'm backing the G Boys in '08.

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  97. Over 300,000 under arms, istarious--we gots to call 'em 'something', don't we?

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  98. You have to admit, cutler, that $20 million per enemy KIA in Iraq is a bit steep.

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  99. dispersed among civvies, out of uniform--what is the comparison--?

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  100. In a recent speech before the Manhattan Project Club,the Under Secretary for International Diplomacy stated that she doubted that a Continuing Unified National Threat was driving TWAT.
    She went on to explain that should the two coalesce a very scary hairy situation could develop and that monthly outbursts and rages could intensify.
    She stated that only by driving a wedge between the two could the two be prevented from venting their rage.

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  101. So the Iraqi are geneticly inferior to the Syrians and Iranians. Or is it just US training and doctrine that is inferior in the Region.

    Why are the Iranian and Syrians so bad assed, while the monkeys of Iraq are commanded by US.

    Just don't see it. The ISF would end the Insurection and the sectarian violence if freed to do it, or so I've been told, by those that recently returned from the area. Army Ranger officer types that thought the level of violence required was beyond US capacity to stomach.

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  102. Buddy said.
    Over 300,000 under arms, istarious--we gots to call 'em 'something', don't we?

    Well I call it STINKY. i mean they use goat butter in their hair and they don't bathe daily ...that's stinky.

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  103. I think this group could benefit from the parallel's of the Dinka-Igbo kerfuffle with the emerging Gia sects of the previously hostile Kamba,Nguni, and Zulu with regards to the current ME with it's Kurds,Shiite, Shia mess...

    Don't you think so DR?

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  104. Don't mean nothin, habu
    don't mean nothin.

    The Mohammedan Courts took the last open seaport in Somalia the other day. I knwow that since they have no oil, and it's a sore spot in US pride, no one much cares about Somalia.

    But as in Warizistan & Darfur the Mohammedans continue to advance.

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  105. The Iraq have the T-62, about one hundred new ones, of Hungarian assembly. They also are in the process of refurbishing the 400 or so Saddam era tanks that are still in inventory.

    All will have modern targeting systems when completed.

    Their Air Force and Navy are both next to nonexistant, per US design.

    Designed Dependency, that the deal.

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  106. The first days of the Battle of the Somme.

    The first day of the battle was preceded by seven days of preliminary artillery bombardment in which the British fired over 1.7 MILLION shells.

    Battle of the Somme

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  107. Any news on the Ramadafada in Brusssls?

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  108. Brussels--as of las nite, it was a car-b-que in the muz district--no new reports on tv. Pretext: some muz JD arrested, and died in custody, or some such.

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  109. So Doug, this girl I'm hitting on last night at the bar tells me that she's "anti-military" and why would I want to do such a thing.

    International relations major, with a minor in Latin, future leader of America. And if she hadn't been good looking, I would have chewed her out. As it turned out, I probably should have!

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  110. I suppose I would have had better luck if I'd just smiled and nodded, but perhaps I'm too stupid. Everything was going fine until that. No love for future militarists of American, I suppose. It is a tough business, but someone's got to do it.

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  111. Ok, now I read they other one:
    You should have given her a licken.

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  112. Cutler never ever let politics get between you and a decent looking babe.

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  113. This is cool:
    I just woke up, and don't yet recall the "REASON" the Muzzies have to raze Belgium.
    I'd do it just to see if Kevin really would shoot me if I said I was going to rape his wife.
    (I'd be in a Muzzie outfit, of course, if I went native as an Okie he'd shoot me on sight.)

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  114. Cutler gave her a good licken:
    Said it tasted like Chicken.

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  115. doug, some days you're just tuna much.

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  116. He called me a Tuna,
    but Duke is
    the Big Kahuna.

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  117. istarious; 1:48:55 PM

    re: The Iranians and Syrians have tanks and jet fighters and radar.

    This is why, among other things, the US will have a long-term presence in Iraq.

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  118. Is the Belgium problem some kind of preventive action on their part after seeing the release of "Jesus Camp?"

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  119. Jimmy Carter yesterday called USA "one of the greatest abusers of human rights" ?

    That does it. I'm thru with Jimmy carter.

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  120. Jimmy is said to be trying to help his son's (pictured here) campaign in Nevada.

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  121. This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.

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  122. istarious; 6:15:27 PM

    re: Want to bet on that?

    I have already, my reputation.
    You do recall the boys would be home from Kosovo by Christmas? How did that work out?

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