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."

Monday, December 18, 2006

Iran, Iraq, Israel and Islam



Frederick W. Kagan and others have released their outline, Choosing Victory - A Plan for Success in Iraq. In his executive summary of the 55 page document he writes:
Victory is still an option in Iraq. America, a country of 300 million people with a GDP of $12 trillion, and more than one million soldiers and marines can regain control of Iraq, a state the size of California with a population of 25 million and a GDP under $100 billion.

Victory in Iraq is vital to America’s security. Defeat will lead to regional conflict, humanitarian catastrophe, and increased global terrorism.

Iraq has reached a critical point. The strategy of relying on a political process to eliminate the insurgency has failed. Rising sectarian violence threatens to break America’s will to fight. This violence will destroy the Iraqi government, armed forces, and people if it is not rapidly controlled.

While the Kagan-led effort is needed and welcome, unfortunately, like the Baker- Hamilton Iraq Study Group report, it is incomplete and ignores the underlying pathologies afflicting the world of Islam as well as the Iranian nuclear threat.

The Irrational Hatred of Zionist Israel.

Taught by the Koran to hate Jews, devout fundamentalist Muslims throughout the umma share an irrational, religious hatred of Zionist Israel. Since before 1947, despots and potentates throughout the Islamic world have allowed or encouraged the Imams to fan the flames without regard to the self-immolating characteristics of hatred. On September, 11, 2001, Osama bin Laden set in motion the series of events which will soon change Islam and the way its devotees view the Koran and day by day, as Iran works fervently to obtain a nuclear weapon, time runs out for an intervention to cure the fundamentalist insanity propelling Islam to destruction.

While the EU3 and the I.A.E.A. have been spending words and empty threats, the President of Iran, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has been buying time so that the Iranians could continue feverishly working on their nuclear program. Like Hamas in Gaza, and Hesbollah in Lebanon, Ahmadinejad has made no secret of his hatred or his intentions. His fiery rhetoric has been calculated to excite the insane expectations of the umma as he sets the stage for Armageddon.

  • "Anybody who recognizes Israel will burn in the fire of the Islamic nation's fury."

  • "Remove Israel before it is too late and save yourself from the fury of regional nations."

  • "The skirmishes in the occupied land are part of a war of destiny. The outcome of hundreds of years of war will be defined in Palestinian land. As the Imam said, Israel must be wiped off the map."

  • "If the West does not support Israel, this regime will be toppled. As it has lost its raison d' tre, Israel will be annihilated."

  • "Israel is a tyrannical regime that will one day will be destroyed."

  • "Israel is a rotten, dried tree that will be annihilated in one storm."

  • "They have invented a myth that Jews were massacred and place this above God, religions and the prophets."

  • "We ask the West to remove what they created sixty years ago and if they do not listen to our recommendations, then the Palestinian nation and other nations will eventually do this for them."

  • "The real Holocaust is what is happening in Palestine where the Zionists avail themselves of the fairy tale of Holocaust as blackmail and justification for killing children and women and making innocent people homeless."

  • "The West claims that more than six million Jews were killed in World War II and to compensate for that they established and support Israel. If it is true that the Jews were killed in Europe, why should Israel be established in the East, in Palestine?"

  • "If you have burned the Jews, why don't you give a piece of Europe, the United States, Canada or Alaska to Israel. Our question is, if you have committed this huge crime, why should the innocent nation of Palestine pay for this crime?"
  • Complying with Koranic instruction, he has sent letters to to Angela Merkel and George Bush asking the West to submit to Allah and he has warned them of the consequences if they do not.
    "We increasingly see that people around the world are flocking towards a main focal point - that is the Almighty God. My question for you is, 'Do you not want to join them?"
    He has also shown his fellow Muslims that he is a “reasonable man” but it is the Jews and that have conspired and plotted and destroyed.
    Could [9/11] be planned and executed without coordination with intelligence and security services - or their extensive infiltration? Of course this is just an educated guess. Why have the various aspects of the attacks been kept secret? Why are we not told who botched their responsibilities? And, why aren't those responsible and the guilty parties identified and put on trial?
    Ahmadinejad knows that these messages resonate throughout the Islamic world which, with its prayers and deeds has been working to destroy Israel and defeat the United States. Even the less devout or secular leaders of the Arab world, ambivalent toward the United States have been detached or delighted to watch as the United States led coalition of "infidel occupiers" struggle in Iraq and Afghanistan.



    Apparently, Kagan and company think that Ahmadinejad is a lying blowhard and Iran is more than two years away from first developing their nuclear arsenal. Otherwise, why would they waste their time with this plan for victory?


    It is unreasonable to expect victory in Iraq with the insanity in Iran and throughout the Islamic world.


    48 comments:

    1. Follow the links from Westhawk to TCS where a "plan" is proposed.

      Robert Haddick, the author, was a U.S. Marine Corps infantry company commander and staff officer. He was also the global research director for a large private investment firm and is now a private investor. His blog is Westhawk.

      Anyway, he lays out a "plan" which makes as uch, if not more sense than most.
      @ Westhawk

      ReplyDelete
    2. "If you have burned the Jews, why don't you give a piece of Europe, the United States, Canada or Alaska to Israel. Our question is, if you have committed this huge crime, why should the innocent nation of Palestine pay for this crime?"

      Answer: Because the Pallies joined the 1948-49 Pan-Arab drive to push the new Jewish state into the sea, and they lost. To the victors goes the spoils. It's not a new concept, it goes back to when the first one-celled organisms laid claim to the same piece of food.

      ReplyDelete
    3. Great link desert rat

      ReplyDelete
    4. It is unreasonable to expect victory in Iraq with the insanity in Iran and throughout the Islamic world.

      Poor understanding of war,sacrifice, and US power.

      ReplyDelete
    5. Crusades to resume again tommorrow in Africa:
      Bush: "That would be unacceptable.

      Tuesday:
      I misspoke, bad cowboy came out for a minute which is what is REALLY unacceptable.
      I meant to say that resuming the Crusades is less than ideal.
      "

      ReplyDelete
    6. It's a "Long War"

      Pesky Persians.

      The question of the Election...
      Which President has been "set back" to a greater degree by electoral rebuke in an "off year", high turnout election, Mr Bush or Abracadbra?

      ReplyDelete
    7. whit 05:58, doubled and re-doubled. good one.

      ReplyDelete
    8. From the Washington Post:
      Al-Qaeda, long hovering in the shadows, has established itself as a presence in the Somali capital, say U.S. officials, who see a growing risk that Somalia will become a new haven for terrorists to launch attacks beyond its borders.
      Meanwhile, a major war -- promoted and greeted approvingly by Osama bin Laden -- looms between Somalia and Ethiopia, threatening a regional conflagration likely to draw more foreign extremists into the Horn of Africa.

      From The Times of London:
      So, what does the U.S. do? Throw everything behind Ethiopia's invading army or allow an al Qaeda ally to consolidate a hold on a country that will become the new Afghanistan?

      The Standard of Kenya leaves little doubt about the choice ahead:

      Beneath the veneer lies the grim prospect that Al Qaeda, Osama Bin Laden’s merchants of death, could have opened shop in Somalia. "This is a new chapter and part of the terror group’s plan to wage war against the West,’’ says the Somali President. That draws the magnitude of the war if it breaks out; the ordinary Islamist gunman sees more than Ethiopian presence.

      Hugh Hewitt

      ReplyDelete
    9. Read that months ago, doug.
      Somalia is Somalia, you know.

      Like Afghanistan, they have no oil, and they're blacks to boot.
      Then throw in a dash of Blackhawk Down Syndrome.

      Somalia is, like Sudan, a place for unfettered agents of action.

      ReplyDelete
    10. But what about Palm Oil Plantations?

      ReplyDelete
    11. More campaign promises under the Bus:
      ---
      George W. Bush has deferred by six months the process of moving the US embassy in Israel from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem, the White House said.(AFP/File/Tal Cohen) More here

      In a memorandum for US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, dated Friday, Bush said the decision was "necessary to protect the national security interests of the United States."

      It's very Condi.

      Congress enacted legislation in 1995 calling for the United States to move its embassy to Jerusalem, but the president can postpone the move every six months due to national security interests. The waiver has been used every six months since the law was passed. And Bush campaigned on it in 2000.

      Atlas Shrugged

      ReplyDelete
    12. Whit,

      re: JAG

      "Colonel" Murphy is not just any lawyer; he is within the top 10 in the Air Force. Before being "fired" (not incarcerated, mind you) he commanded the big show, The Air Force Legal Operations Agency.

      "Colonel" Murphy was given "large sums of money" with which to negotiate deals with Iraqi tribal leaders et al. Those Iraqi alliances are not working out very well. What responsibility, if any does "Colonel" Murphy play in the reality of Iraq, today?

      "Colonel" Murphy headed up the sole Air Force JAG training academy. What influence, if any, had his tenure on the products of that school? What influence, if any, has his interpretation of military law had on the conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan?

      "Colonel" Murphy twice was assigned as counsel to the Air Force at the White House. What influence, if any, did he have on targeting policy and procedures in Afghanistan and Iraq? What influence, if any, had his findings of law on the policies formulated by the White House?

      "Colonel" Murphy's dark secret made him a natural target of foreign espionage agencies. What influence, if any, did such agencies have on the "Colonel"?

      "Colonel" Murphy was never found out by the Air Force, the Secret Service, the FBI, the Department of Homeland Security etc. Rather, it is beginning to look like a disgruntled significant other may have been his undoing, as were his predecessors at the AFJAG.

      Given all the above, do you really have confidence in the ability of "law enforcement" to handle not only "Colonel" Murphy but all the other as yet undiscovered "Colonels" Murphy?

      The blogosphere has brought to slaughter many sacred cows. It is my hope that eventually the blogosphere will catch on to how great a danger the existence of this man and his enablers pose to the United States. With sufficient pressure, a somnolent Congress might see fit to investigate how a 23 year scofflaw went undetected by all the very expensive, responsible agencies of the Federal government. Until that time, none of us should rest comfortably. But, since the criminal negligence of 9/11, I don't in any case.

      ReplyDelete
    13. Whit,
      I've come to expect respect, praise, sometimes Medals of Freedom, and etc for the enemy within and it's useful idiots.
      ...and that conservatives should learn to appreciate the view from under the Bus.

      New Tone, Compassion, and all that.

      Sure has emboldened enemies here and abroad, but don't tell that to those who never hold you know who responsible for ANYTHING.

      POTUS/CIC as victim.
      Very Postmodern.

      ReplyDelete
    14. It is unreasonable to expect victory in Iraq with the insanity in Iran and throughout the Islamic world

      unreasonable to expect victory

      Churchill after Dunkirk
      "it's unreasonable to expect victory." NOT
      Leaders think of winning, not about the unreasonablness of victory being achieved.
      Your statement,bravoed by 2164 is a losers psychology.

      ReplyDelete
    15. Whit,

      re: Christian chaplains

      It is a disgrace. Under the watch of which administration have we reached the point where Christians must pretend not to be Christians? And you don't know the half of it.

      For whatever it is worth, Jewish chaplains and Jews generally get no breaks from the DoD. Orthodox chaplains, like evangelical Christian chaplains have a hard row to how.

      Only one religion gets the benefit of dietary specialities. Only one religion gets to behave pretty much as it chooses. Care to guess which one?

      ReplyDelete
    16. "What responsibility, if any does "Colonel" Murphy play in the reality of Iraq, today?"
      ---
      You are a sick man, Allen!
      A Medal of Freedom for Mr Murphy!
      A Mineta of sorts in the Military.

      ReplyDelete
    17. Allen:
      ROP is good for you and me.

      ReplyDelete
    18. "the existence of this man and his enablers pose to the United States."
      ---
      Allen,
      The most disturbing thing in the Clarice Feldman piece on the FBI that I linked in the last thread was the great number of enablers around the various perps.
      Said enablers and sometimes the perps themselves booted UP not out.

      ReplyDelete
    19. Under the watch of which administration have we reached the point where Christians must pretend not to be Christians? And you don't know the half of it.
      ---
      Amen.
      Weakness is provocative.
      Aid and Comfort to the enemy, worse yet.

      ReplyDelete
    20. anon said:
      "unreasonablness of victory being achieved.
      Your statement,bravoed by 2164 is a losers psychology."

      There is a difference in individuals who are theorists and those that are practitioners. Theorists get to speculate about what they would have done or should have done. They never really quite got to doing it for one good reason or another. Had they actually did the things they thought they could or should of they would have the benefit of experience. Experience brings temper to steel and caution to temper. It gives one the benefit to judge and act with knowledge not dream with wishful thinking.

      ReplyDelete
    21. The essence of being tough is not imbedded in talking tough. Being tough is a burden and a duty. Talking tough costs the price of a six pack.

      ReplyDelete
    22. Given the career path of "Colonel" Murphy (sponsored by some as yet anonymous general officer), he would have received a star within two years, and the position of Top JAG within five.

      For 23 years, each day this guy showed for work was a day of fraud and perjury. Every document he touched, originated, critiqued, and/or approved is tainted. Every person either prosecuted or defended by him or his subordinates is entitled to full review.

      For 23 years, each day this guy "served" was a criminal offense, because each day he knowingly impersonated a commissioned officer of the United States. Every subordinate, whose career was rated to any degree whatsoever by this imposter, is entitled to full review.

      No injury to the people of the United States!? Good G-d!

      Of course, the apathy to the misdeeds of the "Colonel" is understandable; he is the face of modern American leadership. Nothing to see, folks; move along.

      ReplyDelete
    23. It's a losers statement.

      Find for me a great leader who is known to have made a statement such as "unreasonable to expect victory".

      Nobody follows those people, they easily get pushed aside as a leader takes over and says."We are going to win this"
      You're only exposing your weakness.

      So go to Iraq and pick out a dogface and tell him to his face how unreasonable it is to expect victory. My guess is you get treated to a knuckle sandwich.

      ReplyDelete
    24. As long as Iraq is considered to be a "Local Conflict" and not a Regional War, victory in Iraq will be elusive.
      As it is becoming in Afghanistan. The French have already announced that their troops are quitting the field, there.
      Iran & Syria are still key players in a Regional solution, in Lebanon & Iraq.

      ReplyDelete
    25. Simple unalloyed truth is you made a losers statement. Mincing from victory,yielding on bended knee.
      You are a loser. You're not even a follower. You're a stay behind and hide person.
      You're already a dhimmi Whit.

      ReplyDelete
    26. The Reporter, June 2005

      “The Commandant’s Corner” by Colonel Michael D. Murphy - see Law of Armed Conflict (LOAC) training.



      Not only is she an attorney, she is also an airhead
      “A person who does not have the proper credentials at any particular time may still be able to provide competent legal advice,” she said. “If a credentials issue arises there is no presumption that the legal advice provided by that person was incompetent. Actions taken as a result of that advice are not automatically void.”
      ___Air Force JAG spokesperson, Lt. Col. Lisa Turner

      Hey, Lt. Col. Turner, here’s a thought, since the JAG is superfluous, disband, Sweetheart.

      They actually pay these people. (And promote them, too.) She has a pretty face, though.

      ReplyDelete
    27. Not only is she an attorney, she is also an airhead
      “A person who does not have the proper credentials at any particular time may still be able to provide competent legal advice,” she said. “If a credentials issue arises there is no presumption that the legal advice provided by that person was incompetent. Actions taken as a result of that advice are not automatically void.”
      ___Air Force JAG spokesperson, Lt. Col. Lisa Turner

      Hey, Lt. Col. Turner, here’s a thought, since the JAG is superfluous, disband, Sweetheart.

      They actually pay these people. (And promote them, too.) She has a pretty face, though.

      ReplyDelete
    28. re: “Colonel” Michael D. Murphy

      “In between those tours, he was the legal adviser to the reconstruction effort in Iraq, an Air Force spokesman said.”

      While trite, let me repeat that:

      “In between those tours [counsel to the White House] he was THE LEGAL adviser to the RECONSTRUCTION effort in IRAQ…”

      Nothing to see here, just move along, folks

      For those worried souls, “Colonel” Murphy is not in jail, as would be some E-3 for impersonating an officer; no, he is on leave.

      ReplyDelete
    29. "“If a credentials issue arises there is no presumption that the legal advice provided by that person was incompetent. Actions taken as a result of that advice are not automatically void.”"
      ___Air Force JAG spokesperson, Lt. Col. Lisa Turner

      Cool!
      I always wanted to try my hand at Brain Surgery.
      Good to know credentials don't matter.
      Nor does citizenship, for that matter.

      ReplyDelete
    30. It's kind of a twist on the Ratherism:

      "The Document was fake, but accurate."
      ---

      "Your legal representation was competent, but not credentialed."

      ReplyDelete
    31. Maybe Air Force JAG spokesperson, Lt. Col. Lisa Turner looked into Murphy's eyes and saw the soul of a great lawyer.

      ReplyDelete
    32. Doug said, "I always wanted to try my hand at Brain Surgery. Good to know credentials don't matter. Nor does citizenship, for that matter."

      Nurse Teresita hands Dr. Doug the ice cream scoop.

      ReplyDelete
    33. Doug said, "I always wanted to try my hand at Brain Surgery. Good to know credentials don't matter. Nor does citizenship, for that matter."

      Nurse Teresita hands Dr. Doug the ice cream scoop.

      ReplyDelete
    34. doug,

      I always wanted to get the feel of gynecology. Think Lt. Col. Lisa Turner would mind my starting with her?

      ReplyDelete
    35. doug,

      “Lt. Col. Lisa Turner, chief of the Policy and Projects Implementation Division for The Judge Advocate General of the Air Force.” CPPIDJAGAF.

      I am way out my league, here.

      Sorry, sorry…her call signal, Lisa “Lawless” Turner

      Mike “the Morph” Murphy

      Stop me!

      ReplyDelete
    36. doug,

      Try saying "JAGAF" three times, fast.

      ReplyDelete
    37. Look what I missed!

      "Two Scoops?"

      (I'll save the hands on gynecology exercise for later.)

      ReplyDelete
    38. Maybe Nurse T will sacrifice and handle the gyno for the nite.

      ReplyDelete
    39. "dhimmi whit"
      That has a ring to it.
      Where have I heard that before?

      Probly mom yelling at me.

      How many dhimmi whits does it take to change a dimbulb?

      ReplyDelete
    40. Allen:
      Given the current state of affairs,
      he should have just declared that he was licensed in a State of Denial.

      ReplyDelete
    41. Can't remember where this comes from, but it makes my point about the disconnect between what GWB says he stands for and the actions he takes.
      He liked to say he was "results oriented," as in no child left behind incorporating tests and standards, etc.
      Big govt programs OK as long as they are "held accountable." etc.
      ---
      Few of the original promoters of the war have grown as disenchanted as Adelman. The chief of Reagan's arms control agency, Adelman has been close to Cheney and Rumsfeld for decades and even worked for Rumsfeld at one point.

      Adelman said he became unhappy about the conduct of the war soon after his ebullient night at Cheney's residence in 2003.

      The breaking point, he said, was Bush's decision to award Medals of Freedom to occupation chief L. Paul Bremer, Gen. Tommy R. Franks and then-CIA Director George J. Tenet.

      "The three individuals who got the highest civilian medals the president can give were responsible for a lot of the debacle that was Iraq,"
      Adelman said.

      All told, he said, the Bush national security team has proved to be "the most incompetent" of the past half-century.
      But, he added, "Obviously, the president is ultimately responsible."

      Adelman said he remained silent for so long out of loyalty.
      "I didn't want to bad-mouth the administration," he said.

      In private, though, he spoke out, resulting in a furious confrontation with Rumsfeld, who summoned him to the Pentagon in September and demanded his resignation from the defense board. "It seemed like nobody was getting it," Adelman said.
      "It seemed like everything was locked in. It seemed like everything was stuck." He agrees he bears blame as well. "I think that's fair. When you advocate a policy that turns bad, you do have some responsibility."

      Most troubling, he said, are his shattered ideals: "The whole philosophy of using American strength for good in the world, for a foreign policy that is really value-based instead of balanced-power-based, I don't think is disproven by Iraq. But it's certainly discredited."
      ---
      Adelman may have been right or wrong about any number of things but I agree that a lot of things that have been discredited were not all disproven, since it's not a true test when the implementation is FUBAR.
      ...and now he has given the Medal of Freedom to NORMIE MINETA!
      ---
      That may be results based, but somewhere along the line the definition of success for many things has been morphed beyond recognition.
      But saying or wishing it was so does not make it so.
      State of Denial.

      ReplyDelete
    42. Maybe you could help Bush see the light by getting a job in his economy.

      ReplyDelete
    43. The Aussies!
      Peter W, commenting at Chester's on "The Great War:"
      `The Great War'. It is written from the Australian perspective by an ex-journalist named Les Carlyon who also wrote the much acclaimed `Gallipoli'.

      In a diversionary attack at Fromelle we lost over 5000 men in an hour or so from two brigades attacking across open ground with enfilading machine guns on both flanks.

      At Pozieres the Australian 1st, 2nd and 4th Divisions suffered the loss of more than 23,000 men in five weeks.

      In total from a volunteer force of 331,000 who served in Europe and the Middle East WW1 cost Australia over 60,000 killed in action with more than 166,000 battle casualties of which an additional 62,000 died during or on their return to Australia as a result of their injuries.

      Australia’s population at the time was 5 million.

      ReplyDelete
    44. Doug,
      what happened to your blog?

      ReplyDelete