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, March 16, 2007

China gets out the shopping list to recycle excess dollars.


China will soon go on a shopping spree. It will not be buying much of what people produce other than natural resources. My bet is energy, timber and minerals. Maybe Ford or some other depressed name brand companies. It will be spending primarily dollars and buying for future needs rather than current consumption. At a minimum that will be somewhat inflationary. It will also depress the dollar to some degree.

Should the Chinese buy equities, that could be good for the market. At any rate, it has not been done on this scale since the Arabs recycled dollars in the seventies.

What are the implications of this to the US and other countries? Many will benefit from the increase in commerce. Who will be hurt?


China sets out investment scheme BBC

China has confirmed plans to create an investment company to get better returns on its foreign currency reserves worth $1 trillion.
The country's huge trade surplus has helped build up the world's largest currency reserves, which until now were invested mainly in US Treasury bonds.

Premier Wen Jiabao did not reveal when the fund would be set up or how it would manage the money.

But he insisted the move would not have a negative impact on the US dollar.

Acknowledging that China still lacked experience in making overseas investments overseas, Mr Wen said the body would be independent of government ministries and commissions.

"It will follow the relevant rules or regulations and make proper use of the foreign exchange reserves with proper oversight and with the goal of preserving and increasing the value of the foreign exchange reserves," he said.

Stability warning


The comments came at the end of the annual session of China's parliament, the National People's Congress.

It saw delegates approve a bill unifying tax rates at 25% - ending preferential treatment for foreign-funded firms.

Mr Wen also warned of continued imbalances in the country's economy, saying that its economic development was "not stable, balanced harmonious and sustainable".

"Investment growth is too high, credit growth is too fast, liquidity is excessive and trade and international payments are not balanced," he said.

"All these problems facing us need to be urgently addressed and will need our continued efforts to solve them."

The size of China's currency reserves means that the fund could wield huge influence in global markets.

There have been concerns that redirecting Chinese investment from US bonds to other assets could drive up long-term interest rates in America, which in turn could hurt US companies, home buyers and borrowers.

How China's $1 trillion currency reserves are handled has been a hot topic in China recently, with some arguing that some of the money should be spent on fighting poverty, while others call for strategic investments in natural resources or foreign companies.


117 comments:

  1. There should be plenty of money-handling experts at the ready, what with the downsizing of the subprime business.

    Now we just gotta get the Chicoms to go for
    "Stated Credentials"
    "Stated Character,"
    and etc.

    ReplyDelete
  2. ...or we could follow the lead of Mexico and issue a Macarenna Card or Whatever.
    Should be no prob with the Chinamen and Women.

    ReplyDelete
  3. If "Chinaman" is PC Incorrect,
    Would "Chinaperson"
    be A-OK?

    ReplyDelete
  4. China Approves Property Law, Strengthening Its Middle Class

    Supporters view the measure as building a more secure legal foundation for entrepreneurs and urban home and car owners.
    ---
    As well as approving the property law, the legislature revised a corporate tax, ending an advantage foreign investors enjoyed over local companies for more than two decades.

    Mr. Wen and Mr. Hu have so far steered relatively small amounts of government revenue into the country’s rudimentary social welfare system. And they continue to invest heavily in infrastructure and industrial expansion, helping the economy expand even faster than in the 1990s.

    Those measures, along with the property law, suggest that they will not casually abandon the pro-growth policies that have made China a leading economic power.

    ReplyDelete
  5. A New Face of Jihad Vows Attacks on U.S.
    By SOUAD MEKHENNET and MICHAEL MOSS
    An Islamic militant has formed a new organization in Lebanon, becoming the new face of Al Qaeda.
    Video: Inside Fatah al Islam
    Confession May Aid Other Qaeda Defendants
    Go to Complete Coverage »

    ReplyDelete
  6. Funny how similar thoughts circulate,
    Just yesterday, we were sittin' around my brothers garage, talkin' about this very subject. How the Chinese, unlike the Japs, were buying, instead of building Brands.
    Our discussion was brought on by the Chinese buying the MG Rover motor car brand.
    The NYTimes reports:
    "...Nanjing Automobile Group, which plans to resurrect the fabled MG marque in a tricontinental demonstration of how truly global the automotive industry has become.

    Nanjing, which purchased the assets of the bankrupt MG Rover Group last year, aims to be the first Chinese carmaker to open a factory in the United States. The company has scheduled a news conference for Wednesday in Oklahoma to announce plans to build a newly designed MG TF Coupe there, starting in 2008. It said the coupe would compete with cars like the Mazda Miata, which sells for $20,000 to $25,000.

    It also will assemble a convertible TF Roadster version at MG’s now-shuttered factory in Longbridge, England, and three sedan models in China. American and European operations for MG Motors will be based in Oklahoma City, 90 miles north of the new factory in Ardmore, Okla.

    MG’s rebirth under Nanjing, which said it had $2 billion in financing for the endeavor, comes as several Chinese companies are setting their sights on the United States, the world’s largest car market.


    Wouldn't be surpised if before to much longer AMC, Hudson or Studebaker are not Chinese owned and operated. Let alone Chysler or Ford.

    ReplyDelete
  7. When the Japanese recycled their excess, they bought Real Estate.
    Hotels, the Rockerfeller Center and the like. The Japanese thought they understood real estate, they took a lickin'.

    The Chinese, I do not think they will travel that path. Brand names and manufacturing capacity, I think, will interest them.

    They are heavily investing outside China, in Latin America they are quite busy.

    If peace prevails the 21st will be the Chinese century to gain world dominance, they've already achieved some international parity and it's only '07'.

    ReplyDelete
  8. With the new Politics of DC we'll see just how well Mr Bush and his Team can fight "tooth & nail".
    So far they are fighting like a weak sister, even the WSJ can read the signs:

    '... What it failed to consider was the new political landscape. A White House and Justice Department on their game, scanning the Schumer-Feinstein battlefield ahead, would have sent Mr. McNulty to the Hill with a very different script. The deputy AG would have laid out the president's absolute right to hire and fire, and pleasantly noted that while the eight attorneys were all fine people, the chief was making a change. He would also have declined to serve up any gory specifics of the administration's personnel decisions. If details had later leaked, the administration would have at least staked out a principled position, and an honest one at that.

    Instead, Mr. McNulty's "performance" line inspired the fired prosecutors to defend themselves, namely by dishing up nefarious reasons for their pink slips. Congressional Democrats were able to spin those accusations further after emails blew a hole through Mr. McNulty's testimony. Instead of standing on principle, the administration found itself defending against allegations it had canned attorneys to stop politically sensitive investigations, or to reward cronies with jobs. Mr. Gonzales also had to admit "incomplete information" had been relayed to Congress. That alone was enough to inspire Mr. Schumer and House Judiciary Committee pit bull John Conyers to demand the testimony of top officials, and to guarantee many more weeks--if not months--of a drubbing.


    Oh what a tangled web we weave,
    when first we practice to decieve.

    ReplyDelete
  9. Desert Rat: If peace prevails the 21st will be the Chinese century to gain world dominance, they've already achieved some international parity and it's only '07'.

    China, responsible for only 6 percent of world trade, has actually lost manufacturing jobs in the past ten years.

    ...China's share in the worldwide manufacturing value-added is below 9 percent, less than half that of Japan or the United States), less than one-fifth of its labor force is employed in manufacturing, mining, and construction combined.....

    ReplyDelete
  10. There is more to dominance then trade dollars, Ms T.
    Fear and intimidation rank high.

    As for measuring a country's economic health by measuring manufacturing jobs, if that is the Standard the US is a basket case.
    Forbes tells that tale:
    Manufacturing's share of total U.S. employment has been falling for at least half a century--a trend that is typical not only of developed economies but also of many developing ones. In the 1990s, manufacturing employment was fairly stable. From 2000 to 2003, however, payroll employment in manufacturing fell by 16.2%--the largest decline since the end of World War II and a steeper drop than the declines experienced by other sectors.

    While the job losses were concentrated among producers of capital goods and apparel, every major manufacturing sector saw payrolls fall. The bursting of the high-tech bubble resulted in the loss of a half-million jobs in computer and electronics production. Other large declines occurred in machinery, fabricated-metal products and textiles.


    So manufacturing, measured by employment figures, is no accurate gauge of economic strength.

    That tale is amplified here:
    Over the past decade, U.S. manufacturing jobs have declined by more than 11 percent, Miklovic noted. But at the same time, Japan’s manufacturing employment base has dropped by 16 percent, while the number of manufacturing jobs in countries including Brazil have declined by some 20 percent, he pointed out. “And one of the largest losers of manufacturing jobs has been China,” Miklovic added. “We like to pick on China and say that all of these jobs are going to China, but they’re losing jobs in manufacturing as well.”

    The reason for the job losses? Miklovic summed it up in one word: automation. Through automation, he said, “we are really doing a good job of improving the productivity of people.”

    Productivity gains spawned by factory automation are driving a worldwide decline in manufacturing jobs, even in developing nations

    The Chinese are building new automated factories, not sweat shops. That image is passe', I'm afraid. The Chinese are on the US path to automated productitivy gains, but building new plants, from scratch. Not weighed down by legacy costs, like US industies.

    "... General Motors predicts that China will account for 18 percent of the world's growth in new car sales from 2002 through 2012; the United States will be responsible for 11 percent, and India 9 percent.

    Official Chinese statistics had shown a decline in coal production and consumption in the late 1990's, even as the economy was growing 8 percent a year. But many Western and Chinese researchers have become suspicious of that drop over the last several years.

    They point out that the decline assumed that local governments had followed Beijing's instructions to close 47,000 small, unsafe mines producing low-grade coal and many heavily polluting small power plants. Yet researchers who visited mines and power plants found that they often remained open, with the output not being reported to Beijing because local administrators feared an outcry if they shut down important employers.
    ...
    Growth in Chinese coal consumption should slow somewhat in the next four years. Completion of the Three Gorges dam and five nuclear power plants will provide considerable additional electricity for China's national grid by 2007, although posing different environmental risks from coal. But Larry Metzroth, a coal and electricity specialist at the International Energy Agency, warned that with no further large hydroelectric or nuclear power projects planned in China, coal consumption "is going to pick up again after 2007."

    Beijing's official New China News Agency recently predicted that China's capacity to generate electricity from coal would be almost three times as high in 2020 as it was in 2000.

    If China can continue to sustain 8 percent annual economic growth, then the next big growth area in greenhouse gas emissions is likely to be cars. China is already the world's fastest-growing car market, with sales up 73 percent this year.


    The road ahead, for the Chinese, may be bumpy, but the trail is there and those Chinese are an industrious peoples.

    ReplyDelete
  11. The Heritage Foundation says:
    Since 1970, GDP growth has averaged 3.16 percent per year, after inflation. During President Bush’s first year in office in 2001, the economy slipped into and pulled out of a recession and yet overall output managed to grow slightly. Since 2001, real output has grown at an average annual rate of 3.47 percent. This rapid expansion has been concentrated in the five quarters following the 2003 Bush tax cuts. Since the third quarter of 2003, growth has averaged 4.62 percent.

    So let's compare growth rates,
    3.16% for US vs 8% for China.

    We know that the 3.16% is sustainable, while that 8% may not be.
    But folks love to straight line project, into the future. If we do project the current trends China is moving forward, faster.

    They also move into foreign locales which the US once thought vitally important, but have since abandoned, like the Panama Canal and the Venezuelan oil fields.

    ReplyDelete
  12. No, trish, this is what I do to relax, getting away from real worries.

    ReplyDelete
  13. Mike Brown, late of FEMA, he was a real worry. Cost us a small fortune.

    Never happier in all my days than to see a scum bag type of a fellow brought down.

    Was another sign that Mr Bush was not a "good" manager, his selection of Mike Brown to do anything at all.

    ReplyDelete
  14. At the present rate of growth, experts believe Danny Jr. will grow to be 12’ tall by age 15!

    Danny Sr, at 5'8", has his doubts, although he admits they are anecdotal.

    ReplyDelete
  15. You are oh so correct, allen.
    Seems he only made it to 7'6"

    Yao Ming (Chinese: 姚明; pinyin: Yáo Míng) (born September 12, 1980, in Shanghai, China) is a Chinese professional basketball player and one of the premier centers in the National Basketball Association. ...
    At 7'6" (2.29 m)[1][2], he plays center for the Houston Rockets in the NBA. He was selected by Houston as the 1st overall pick of the 2002 NBA Draft and signed with them on October 21, 2002.


    At 17 years he was only 7'3", eating a productive US diet added another 4 inches.

    Anologies abound.

    ReplyDelete
  16. DR,

    1:1,300,000,000

    Yes, I see a trend developing here. Soon, Chinese giants will hold court.

    ReplyDelete
  17. ___Chinese innovation

    * chopsticks 17th C. BC
    * kite 4th C. BC
    * blast furnace 4th C. BC
    * papermaking 2nd C. BC
    * compass 3rd C. AD
    * paper money 7th C. AD
    * gunpowder 8th C. AD
    * movable type 11th C. AD

    So, what have the Chinese done for us lately?

    Buying the innovations of others will get expensive, even for the thrifty Chinese.

    ReplyDelete
  18. The way the Chinese keep exporting and we keep importing, allen, they may.

    In 1907 the US was not a "major" power, Teddy Roosevelt was trying to change that. The US was expansionist and proud of it. Unlike today where it is China that is expanding and the US that is defending, while falling back from previous positions of dominance around the world.

    The historical perspective is interesting.
    The 20th Century well known as America's.

    But look at where the US was, in 1907:
    The US bank panic of 1907 caused widespread, severe economic depression in Mexico through 1909. Many scholars feel the panic and unemployment the bank panic engendered helped cause the 1910 Mexican Revolution. The bank panic temporarily collapsed the US credit structure, but deprived Mexico of its principal sources of foreign capital and a reduced export economy. Mexican president Porfirio Diaz was overthrown largely by victims of economic misfortune.

    Historians have long recognized that the U.S. bank panic of 1907 was the stimulus for the Federal Reserve Act of 1913 that was designed to regulate the nation's money and supply and credit by buying and selling government bonds and issuing Federal Reserve Notes. By paralyzing the nation's financial network and precipitating an acute depression, the panic demonstrated the frailty of the nation's financial system.
    ...
    The dislocation of domestic exchange and the suspension of loans triggered an economic downturn in every sector of the economy. Numerous economic indicators illustrate the acute nature of the depression. Most revealing is the amount of liabilities that accrued from business failings. In 1906 aggregate business failures totaled $119,395,225. In the next two years liabilities grew to $197,395,225 in 1907 and $220,787,939 in 1908. The majority of liabilities were in manufacturing. Production levels declined radically as well. The Miron and Romer Index of industrial production reveals that production levels dropped from 93 percent in October 1907 to 71 percent in December, remained below 80 percent until July 1908, and did not exceed 90 percent until the following November. The decline in production also affected foreign trade as 1908 imports and exports fell by 22 percent and 9 percent respectively. Unemployment levels increased from 2.8 percent in 1907 to 8 percent in 1908.

    highbeam

    So a shakey US economic system, premodern so to speak, set up a Regional depression and revolution in the Americas.

    Still the US was able to claim the Century, become a powerhouse, despite these regional economic dislocations.

    UPI was founded in 1907, to serve evening newspapers across the US. It started with 400 dailies and 60 Sunday editions. The evening newspaper is a dead horse, today.
    How things change, straight line projections would not have predicted that, aye?

    ReplyDelete
  19. Let’s look to the Chinese trend lines since the 19th Century.
    From the Opium War to the Boxer Rebellion of 1901 and beyond the Western powers dominated the Chinese. Then the Japanese had their turn. China not gaining real sovereignty until Mao took charge in the late 40’s.
    By the early 1950’s the Chinese were able to reach a military stalemate (a type of parity) with the West, in Korea. A great leap forward, for them.

    From that time the Chinese have made steady if uneven progress towards a better future for themselves. Today these two items are in the news:
    1. BEIJING (Associated Press) -- China's legislators on Friday passed a law providing the most sweeping protection for private businesses and property since the nation's move toward a more capitalist-style economy beginning in the late 1970s.
    The law offers the same protection for private and public property, a recognition of the private sector's rise since the start of economic reforms. The private sector, including foreign investment, has grown to account for 65 percent of gross national product and up to 70 percent of tax revenues.
    The measure was strongly opposed by a small but highly influential group of scholars and retired communist officials, who called it a threat to the state's guiding role and a vehicle for unrestrained privatization that will feed a growing income gap between rich and poor.
    "The law basically ignores the constitution's upholding of socialist public property as sacred and not to be violated," said Gong Xiantian, a Peking University professor.
    Such opposition and the communist leadership's ambivalence about reducing the primacy of state property caused the law to be kicked around for 14 years before a final version was submitted this year. It passed in a vote of 2,799 delegates in favor with 52 opposed and 37 abstaining on the final day of the annual two-week session of the National People's Congress.


    2. BEIJING (Associated Press) -- The world should not fear China's military rise, premier Wen Jiabao said Friday, as he vowed to improve relations with regional rival Japan while repeating attacks on old foes Taiwan and the Dalai Lama.
    In a two-hour news conference at the end of China's two-week legislative session, Wen said the nation is opposed to the militarization of outer space despite a recent test of an anti-satellite weapon that prompted international criticism.
    Wen said the January test that destroyed a defunct Chinese weather satellite was not targeted at any other nation and did not violate any international treaties.
    "China always advocates for the peaceful utilization of outer space and we are always opposed to an arms race in outer space," Wen said, adding Beijing was repeating its calls for an international convention banning weapons in outer space.
    "China's position on the peaceful utilization of outer space remains unchanged," he said.
    Wen also said China's military budget, which was boosted by 17.8 percent this year, was smaller than other developed countries on both an aggregate and per capita basis.
    He said a planned trip to Japan next month will be an "ice-thawing" journey furthering improving relations between the neighbors and sometimes adversaries.


    Future so bright, they gotta wear shades.

    ReplyDelete
  20. DR,

    There is no mention of that little matter of the Communist made Great Famine during the Great Leap, wherein upwards of 40,000,000 Chinese starved to death.

    The blind wear shades cosmetically.

    ReplyDelete
  21. Oh please. The Chinese having peaceful designs on space? I'm chinese(though not of chinese nationality), and even I know that's bullshit.

    Like Rat said, China is on the up and up. Their emphasis on private property laws bodes well for future liberalization of their government.

    Slaves, they are certainly not. When do slaves ever get to leave their assigned areas permanently? Don't take my word for it, ask the myriad of chinese who've immigrated overseas for better lives. When ever did slaves get to do that?

    As for their progress in science and technology, I rather suspect they(and the Indians) will be generating a lot of advanced research very soon, given the number of advanced degrees they're pushing. In addition, their relative lack of concern for Christian values probably means they won't be hamstrung by ethical concerns in genetic research: another big plus.

    Finally, I'd like to note that their idea of an investment company is probably based on Singapore's own GIC. GIC only operates about 100 billion dollars. Pretty nifty for a nation of a measly 3 million.
    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Government_of_Singapore_Investment_Corporation

    ReplyDelete
  22. That was covered by:
    "steady but uneven progress"
    allen.

    I do not think that famine is one of their challenges, this year.

    We, in the US, have been spared such Government assisted disasters. The Chinese do not seem on the verge of repeating it, though. Seems they may have learned some lessons, since then.

    The indicator, for me, is the number of ATV and go-cart dealers we have now, all pushing Chinese product, there must be close to ten within 5 miles of the house, here in town.

    $2,000 for a two seat mini rail dunebuggy. They're everywhere and you couldn't build one yourself in the garage and spend less.

    ReplyDelete
  23. Apart from questions of merit, the Chinese economy is now on parity with the United States and the EU in emission tonnage under Kyoto. The Chinese argue that gross comparisons are unfair, given that per capita emissions are still much lower than those of the West. And herein is a problem: Can China (and India, for that matter) sustain the long term rates of growth necessary to satisfy per capita consumption under the rule-set that most flow from Kyoto? Moreover, can a hybridized Communist system do so, when the purging of “non-essential capitas" is no longer an option? Furthermore, will geographic and natural resource constraints pose an impediment to growth necessarily overcome by militancy?

    For what it may be worth George Soros and Jim Rogers are unconcerned, and have ordered their sunglasses from Elton John’s supplier.

    Top investor sees U.S. property crash


    DR,

    Trying to affix blame for any one of Mexico's periodic bouts dysfunctionality is impossible. If it’s not one thing it’s something else. Would that Mexico would enter the Union. The prints of millions of little feet headed north is a plebiscite of sorts.

    ReplyDelete
  24. The wobbly guy: As for their progress in science and technology, I rather suspect they(and the Indians) will be generating a lot of advanced research very soon, given the number of advanced degrees they're pushing.

    According to the Washington Post, about half of what China calls "engineers" would be called "technicians" at best in the U.S., with the equivalent of a vocational certificate or an associate degree.

    ...the McKinsey study of nine occupations, including engineering, concluded that "fewer than 10 percent of Chinese job candidates, on average, would be suitable for work [in a multinational company] in the nine occupations we studied."...

    ReplyDelete
  25. DR,

    re: steady but uneven

    Breathtakingly euphemistic!

    “James, do not set a plate for Mr. Hussein. Seems the poor chap had a nasty fall and will not be down for dinner.”

    I was unaware that we were discussing the events in China this year, you having introduced history.

    ReplyDelete
  26. That highbeam piece that referenced the '07 bank panic tied the two together, it was the easiest to find piece about '07.
    Whether entirely accurate as to the effect on Mexico, seems reasonable, but could be just a coincidence.

    ReplyDelete
  27. I was merely trying to compare the development of national power, drawing comparisons from one country's growth to a world power to the possibility of another taking a similar course.

    The US being in a worse position in 1907 than the Chinese may be in, now, in 2007. That was the point I was trying to make.

    ReplyDelete
  28. This comment has been removed by the author.

    ReplyDelete
  29. the wobbly guy,

    re: slaves

    We Americans have lots of penitentiaries; however, we have forgotten the value of constructive penance. Personally, I find nothing unconstitutional about working for one's keep. Admittedly, I am in the minority.

    To be fair, though, my present state of residence, Georgia, does road cleaning with convict labor. I guess that makes us users of the roadways exploiters of slave-labor. My sleep is undisturbed.

    ReplyDelete
  30. For at least a year, the housing industry has been undergoing regional corrections. Ben Stein has been beating this drum for much longer than that. Without doubt, a general correction is in the offing, during which catastrophe will be the lot of many institutions, investors, and individual homeowners. The days of the instant millionaire are coming to a halt.

    When the dust settles, the United States still retain the best housing stock in the world.

    ReplyDelete
  31. rufus,

    re: Patton on Imus

    I laughed my ass off!

    ReplyDelete
  32. rufus,

    Gateway Pundit has up another thread on another missing Iranian general. You linked to a similar story yesterday, as I recall.

    Here’s my problem: when did the United States last misplace a general?

    US May Be Holding Missing Al Quds Officer

    ReplyDelete
  33. "Such opposition and the communist leadership's ambivalence about reducing the primacy of state property caused the law to be kicked around for 14 years before a final version was submitted this year. It passed in a vote of 2,799 delegates in favor with 52 opposed and 37 abstaining on the final day of the annual two-week session of the National People's Congress."
    ---
    How they did it:
    (Would that Mr (numb)Skull knew how to play politics or fight wars.)
    ---
    Mr. Wen’s two-hour address to the nation on the opening day of the annual two-week legislative session last week did not mention property rights.

    The measure could not pass the legislature, which acts under the party’s authority, without the active support of the top leadership. Yet the conspicuous silence of Mr. Hu and Mr. Wen appears to be a form of tribute to the influence of current and former officials and leading scholars who argue that China’s economic policies have fueled corruption and enriched the elite at the expense of the poor and the environment.

    “My own view is that the leftist voices that have emerged are not going to disappear because we have a property law,” said Zhu Xueqin, a historian and government expert who supports the law. “On the contrary, they are stronger now than they have been in some time.”

    The leadership did not so much overcome opposition to the property law as forbid it. Unlike in 2005, when leaders invited broad discussion about property rights, the latest drafts of the law were not widely circulated. Several left-leaning scholars, who favor preserving some elements of China’s eroded socialist system, said they had come under pressure from their universities to stay silent.

    When one financial magazine, Caijing, defied the Propaganda Department’s ban on reporting on the matter and published a cover story last week, it was ordered to halt distribution and reprint the issue without the offending article, people associated with the magazine said.

    While the law’s final wording — and the nature of any compromises necessary to build a consensus to pass it — remain unclear, many mainstream scholars and business people have welcomed it.

    Several said they also approved of the way Mr. Hu and Mr. Wen had handled the opposition.

    “I think the low-key approach was the best way to get this law passed,” said Mao Shoulong, a public policy expert at People’s University in Beijing. “The point is to enact a new law, not to pick a fight.”
    China Approves Property Law

    ReplyDelete
  34. NEWC News

    Could have made 73% in ONE Day if you had the balls!
    (Common Stock)

    Price 2.34 Change + 0.99

    Volume 34,344,894
    % Change 73.33%

    Intraday High 3.07
    52 Week High 51.97

    Intraday Low 1.50
    52 Week Low 0.65

    ReplyDelete
  35. "One unravels - take up another."
    ---
    Amen to that:
    Always divining a silver lining or likely secret master plan at work.

    ReplyDelete
  36. Think how much we would ENJOY Gloom and Doom if there was no substance to it:
    We could make fun of 'Rat secure in the knowledge that the World we give our children still sustains freedom.

    ReplyDelete
  37. oops, the 73% was the volume, I guess.
    Still could have made a bundle "investing" in Subprime.

    ReplyDelete
  38. "So if the lack of thousands of refugees, in October '04 was a success for US, it stands to reason that 1.8 million of them represent US failures in '07."
    ---
    What if I say the end of History occured in '05?

    ReplyDelete
  39. Well, trish, did the narrative change in 27 months?

    Did the Goals of the US in Iraq change?

    I've been listening, but Mr Bush says the job, the Goal, remains the same.

    So when did US success become failure and the failures, success?

    I must have missed the wink or maybe the nod.

    Notice that the others abandoned the discussion after that?

    Did they honestly think people do not have memories of what was said and done, in '03 & '04 by the Administration?

    An ever changing narrative, how can we spin it, today.
    So Clintonian

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  40. The End of Reality occured some time ago at the club.
    I still maintain it was (aside from Fallujah) when sacrificing Marines was defended as justifiable in order to preserve an explosive-filled mosque.

    ReplyDelete
  41. The new narrative would be that the US supports sectarian cleansing in Iraq, if those refugees now represent success.

    I hear, still, that this is not the case. I still hear that the trumpets of victory sound when even a single family or ten, move back to a previously cleansed neighborhood in Baghdad, Iraq.

    So which is it that constitutes success?
    The happy dayers are grabbing at straws, seems to me.

    ReplyDelete
  42. Westhawk presented it for what it was when he aired it a few months ago.

    The Happy Day Clubbers prefer something other than
    What it Is.

    What is
    Is not What is.

    ReplyDelete
  43. re: Thousands of refugees would have vastly complicated the battlefield and led to suffering on a tremendous scale. Coalition actions prevented that from happening, he said.

    What am I missing?

    Was the battlefield situation complicated by refugees? No

    Was there tremendous suffering caused by 1.8 million refugees [immediately] fleeing Iraq in 2003? No

    When he spoke, Mr. Rumsfeld was correct. What he could not predict (nor anyone else) was the self-destructive nature of the Sunni, who ruthlessly committed sectarian suicide.

    When 1.8 million people move over the course of 4+ years, is the problem one of refugees or one of uncontrolled immigration?

    Indeed, technically, how is 1.8 million Iraqis immigrating over 4+ years any worse than 1.8 Mexican illegals entering the US over the same period.

    ReplyDelete
  44. Fri Mar 16, 06:44:00 PM EDT
    So do I!

    Must've been a rhapsodic account.
    Plain English would sound pretty silly.

    ReplyDelete
  45. "Indeed, technically, how is 1.8 million Iraqis immigrating over 4+ years any worse than 1.8 Mexican illegals entering the US over the same period. "
    ---
    For the Iraqis, numbering 20 million or so to our 300 million or so?

    ...or to an innoncent US family murdered by an illegal previously stopped and released?

    ReplyDelete
  46. To spin the refugees as a "good thing", when it is anything but, according to US spokesmen.

    Of course then there is always the deception meme. Ignore the bad news, it's only make believe.

    If you do not like what Mr Bush or Ms Rice say, it's deception, unless of course you are a leftist, then noticing the difference 'tween spin and reality, why then it's a Syndrome, a mental malfunction.

    Bush lied, people died,
    but it's all good.

    To hear that from the "right", that's over the top, really.

    I think Mr Bush and Company tell the truth, as they believe it to be.

    ReplyDelete
  47. BUT IF YOU CAN'T GO TO LA LA LAND,
    MAYBE YOU'LL BE LUCKY AND LA LA LAND
    WILL COME TO YOU!

    -Country Joe

    SANTA BARBARA — Residents and tourists here were stunned Thursday in the wake of a daylight gang brawl that left a 15-year-old boy stabbed to death, a 14-year-old charged with his murder and downtown's main commercial strip shut down for more than eight hours.

    ReplyDelete
  48. Ahh, allen, read the Rumsfeld, closely.
    He spoke of avoiding human suffering on a massive scale, as a success. That is what the UN and host governments are reporting, now. Mass human suffering, which many feel those Sunni Iraqi are werll deserving of, which they may be.
    The US Government does not hold that position, however.

    Percentages, allen, regarding the numbers.
    1.8 million Mexicans out of a gross population of 107,449,525(CIA), not much more than 1%, is not the same as 1.8 million out of 25,000,000. 6.2%. Hard to find reconciliation when the reconcilers are running for their lives.

    One group, the Mexicans, are economic refugees, the Iraqi are running for their lives from the War.

    In both cases it is a crisis of management.

    ReplyDelete
  49. But DENIAL is SO Comforting, Rat:

    "Strolling into Saks on Thursday afternoon, Barbara Anderson, a recently retired program manager at UC Santa Barbara, said that, even a day later, the killing seemed incongruous.

    "This is a safe town," she said. "When I read about this, my heart just broke
    "

    From Saks to a Sack of Human Remains.

    ReplyDelete
  50. An "Unintended Consequence" of Lazy-Ass NEA Featherbedders and absent parents working the illegal underground.

    ReplyDelete
  51. Failure on the US border
    failure on the Syrian border
    Two failures make a "success"?

    Like three lefts make a right.
    Is that where you are now?

    What is really humorous, in perspective, the US says 20 or 30 Insurgents cross from Syria each month into Iraq. They say it is Syria's job to stop them.

    At the same time 10,000 monthly, on average, over the four years of the War, have gone from Iraq into Syria.

    Is it not the US's job to stop them, utilizing the same US logic?

    ReplyDelete
  52. Response to this:
    "Santa Barbara students had been let out of school early Wednesday for a "minimum day" to give teachers and administrators time to attend training sessions, said J. Brian Sarvis, superintendent of the city's schools. "

    ReplyDelete
  53. It is the logic used on the US's southern frontier. The migrants crossing into the US are Mexico's responsibility to stop, they say in DC.

    Can't have it both ways.
    The US is responsible for 1,000,000 refugees in Syria and around 800,000 in Jordan.

    By it's own twisted logic, that I've never understood, anyway.

    ReplyDelete
  54. There are 17.5 million people in Syria(CIA) not 300 million, like in the US.
    So the impact on the host is not nearly the same.
    aQ's "Master Plan" is to destabilize apostate governments in the region. Syria is as apostate as they get, from an aQ perspective.
    Over 5% of Syria's expanded population are now easily radicalized Sunni foreigners. With no nationalistic ties to Assad or Syria, at all.
    Assad lives on a powder keg, without them. Remember Hama?

    If the Mohammedans manage to displace the Assads, does the US have to take action against the new Syrian Islamic Government?

    ReplyDelete
  55. Desert Rat: What is really humorous, in perspective, the US says 20 or 30 Insurgents cross from Syria each month into Iraq. They say it is Syria's job to stop them. At the same time 10,000 monthly, on average, over the four years of the War, have gone from Iraq into Syria. Is it not the US's job to stop them, utilizing the same US logic?

    Yes, and Mexico better do something about the 30,000-60,000 people who cross the border into America every month. Never mind that the open borders crowd in the Bush Administration are pushing the NAFTA superhighway.

    ReplyDelete
  56. They are doing something, Ms T.
    The Mexian Government gives them maps detailing the best infiltration routes.

    It's all good.

    ReplyDelete
  57. Play nice, children!
    Family Values don't stop at the Rio Grande!

    ReplyDelete
  58. "If it's that important to you, I expect YOU to take care of it. I expect you to stop bellyaching and bitching and get 'er done. Because we're not gonna do it for you.
    You're not waiting for us."

    Right?

    I think the you all should heed Trish's advice, grab your rifle and go to the Mexican or Syrian border. Get er done.

    Alternatively, you could open a cheese store...you all have plenty of whine to serve with it.

    ReplyDelete
  59. Hear no evil, see no evil, speak no evil.
    That will make it all better right, Elijah?

    The New "Right Wing" non-free speech coalition.

    Then there's the PC Police.

    The Mohammedans...
    etc

    ReplyDelete
  60. I listened to the very same people complain VOCIFEROUSLY about the Dems, even those just running for office, now they say complaining is out of bounds.

    New Realities.

    ReplyDelete
  61. One of the most vigorous Bush Cheerleaders did not know until I informed him that Bush did less workplace enforcement than Clinton.

    I felt the Duty to Educate him.
    (he still thinks illegals are just fine, since it's a way of life in Texas, and W is President, after all.)

    ReplyDelete
  62. No vigilante, I.
    No, I am a law abiding US citizen.

    If I disagree with the majority's rule I will not take up arms against them, I'll vote my believes. If I lose, we lose.

    Puedo habla espanol, basta bien.

    If that is the course the US chooses, despite the warnings, then away we go. The revolution, in the US, occurs at the ballot box, not the bullet box.

    But you, elijah, will vote for the status que, support the GOP and regularize the illegals, or no?

    ReplyDelete
  63. "I was speaking to fair Israel, that far outpost of freedom in the Middle East."

    - Funny...your writing was addressed to... elijah

    Am I deceiving?
    Thu Feb 22, 01:08:00 AM EST

    "Hear no evil, see no evil, speak no evil. That will make it all better right, Elijah?"

    Not my words...if so, show me where I have written that. Your point is understood.

    "Then there's the PC Police. The Mohammedans...etc"

    "But you, elijah, will vote for the status que, support the GOP and regularize the illegals, or no?"

    A good example recently in the news is Rosie...think she votes Dem or Repub?

    Do you believe that the issues that worry us (terrorism and immigration) would be better addressed if history had given us Kerry and Edwards?

    Probaly not much difference on immigration, fighting terrorism...well how far are the left wingers from Marxist/Islamic ideology (see Rosie again for example)

    ReplyDelete
  64. DR,

    "Now" is not "then".

    Again, no refugee crisis was created from 2003 - Oct 2004, the period in question. Hence, refugees did not interfere with military operations. Therefore, in the period of 2003 - Oct 2004, Mr. Rumsfeld was correct on both counts and could rightly claim success under the metrics he chose.

    It is possible, I suppose, to prove or disprove anything if material variables are eliminated, particularly over time, with the aide of selective hindsight. But, the earth is not flat. When the Sunni, in alliance with al-Qaida, chose to commit suicide en masse, the fault for the subsequent, eventual sectarian rout (refugee problem, if you please) was exclusively their own. It signifies nothing as to American success or failure in March 2007.

    On December 15, 1944 the Allied command could rightly claim success. On December 16, 1944, Germany launched a suicidal counteroffensive. Are we prepared to say that Eisenhower was incompetent; that FDR lied; that the European campaign was a failure? I think not; because, we recognize that when chess is played against an opponent, that opponent has options over which we can never exert complete control. To suggest otherwise is at least demagogic, if not megalomaniac.

    “U.N. officials say they are witnessing the exodus they had expected 22 months ago, when the United States and its allies invaded, and the Syrian government and international aid agencies say they are seeing the first worrisome social effects of the migration.” (There is a sentence in that, I think. And there is no official statement from the government of Syria)
    3 Feb 05

    ***
    “But Syria's doors remain open, and the new arrivals have transformed some Damascus neighborhoods to such an extent that Iraqi-accented Arabic is all that's heard.”

    “President Bashar Assad's government is reluctant to detail the costs. "There is indeed a burden, but Syria doesn't complain to anyone and is not asking anyone for help," Vice President Farouk al-Sharaa told reporters in Damascus in January.”

    “Still, most Iraqis in Syria say they have no serious complaints about their life in exile, and have made a home away from home.”

    “The Iraqis pose no security threat, ‘but there are social ills like theft and prostitution,’ said Elias Murad, editor-in-chief of the Al-Baath, official newspaper of Syria's ruling Baath Party.”

    The Iraqis pose no security threat, "but there are social ills like theft and prostitution," said Elias Murad, editor-in-chief of the Al-Baath, official newspaper of Syria's ruling Baath Party.

    ReplyDelete
  65. Kerry or Bush?

    Mr Kerry said the War on Terror would become a ciminal matter, a police chase.

    Under Mr Bush the War on Terror HAS become a criminal matter, a police chase.

    Six of one, half dozen of the other.
    The same Generals would be in charge.
    The same RoEs, same outcomes, except with Mr Kerry we may have gotten to where we are now, sooner.

    Basra would still be Basra, Warizistan would still be an aQ sanctuary.

    I would not have been decieved.
    I would not be as pissed off.

    ReplyDelete
  66. More on that Iraqi refugee problem and Syria’s sorrow:
    “Syria does not require entry visas from Arabs, but those who wish to stay longer than six months must leave the country and return.”

    “In early November [2006], the U.N. said 1.8 million Iraqis were living in other Arab countries. The figure included those living outside Iraq before the 2003 invasion and did not say how many had fled since then.”

    ReplyDelete
  67. I agree, allen, that Mr Rumsfeld was correct in his assessment in October of '04.
    I disagree that the US's lack of performance in providing civilian security is not the US's responsibility.
    So does General P, that is the core of his new Program.
    How to turn "Slow Failure" into success, provide security to the civilian population from the terrorists, stop the sectarian cleansing and the violence.

    Or do you no longer support General P's Plan, the one that calls for reconciliation and getting along. Can't have both cleansing and reconciliation at the same time.

    That the Syrians decieve when speaking is well known. That they become trust worthy spokesmen for you to quote, now that's a switch, aye?

    ReplyDelete
  68. "In Syria, Iraqis can receive free health care and schooling. Still, many Iraqis complain they feel unwelcome. For example, landlords increase rent regularly and threaten to evict those who cannot pay."
    Ibid

    ReplyDelete
  69. Elijah,
    I think had Algore been President on 9-11, the border would probably now be more secure than it is, and MILLIONS fewer illegals would have joined (and murdered and raped, and pillaged) us.

    ReplyDelete
  70. This from Voice of America
    07 July 2004

    In the past year, close to one-hundred-thousand Iraqi refugees have returned home. They are among the estimated one-million Iraqis who fled their country since the overthrow of the monarchy in 1958 by a military coup, and the emergence of Saddam Hussein in the 1970s.


    So by the end of 2004 at the most, 900,000 external refugees were still outside of Iraq, some for as much as 50 years.

    Since then the number has at least doubled, so 900,000 current exiles are the responsibility of the US and it's policies and lack of providing civilian security in Iraq.

    ReplyDelete
  71. “DAMASCUS, Syria: Syria on Sunday dismissed Iraqi accusations that it was taking measures against Iraqi refugees while welcoming Sunni figures wanted by the Baghdad government.

    […]

    Syria, with a population of 18 million, is the refuge of choice for those fleeing violence in Iraq primarily because of its relaxed entry regulations for Arabs, the relatively low cost of living and availability of schools and health care. The Damascus office of the United Nations refugee.”
    4 Feb 07

    Oh, I’m still trying to find that elusive link to the official complaint of the Syrian government, naming as a problem the influx of Iraqi “refugees”.

    ReplyDelete
  72. trish,

    re: Jesus H. Christ

    And that has what to do with the United States?

    Apparently, neither you nor the Sunni have seriously considered the possibility of knocking off the crap.

    ReplyDelete
  73. DR,

    re: I disagree that the US's lack of performance in providing civilian security is not the US's responsibility.

    And, where did I make such a claim?

    ReplyDelete
  74. DR,

    re: quotes

    I am quoting the quoters. I'll stop when you do.

    ReplyDelete
  75. allen.
    Fri Mar 16, 08:31:00 PM EDT
    When the Sunni, in alliance with al-Qaida, chose to commit suicide en masse, the fault for the subsequent, eventual sectarian rout (refugee problem, if you please) was exclusively their own. It signifies nothing as to American success or failure in March 2007.

    ReplyDelete
  76. "Islamism in Syria"

    Ibrahim Hamidi has the best articles on the spread of Islamism in Syria. See these articles from the January 4 issue of al-Hayat

    4/01/2006 London-based paper argues Syria moving towards "Islamism"
    Syrian society is moving increasingly towards Islamism, Ibrahim Hamidi has argued in an article published by London-based Arabic paper Al-Hayat. He said that there had been doubts about reported

    Simply put, the experiences of these two men in the past two decades are a specimen of the transformation in the ranks of a generation whose government made ardent efforts to turn society into a modern civil society. The efforts failed and brought about contrary results.

    Source: Al-Hayat website, London, in Arabic 4 Jan 06
    posted by Joshua Landis @ 1/25/2006 07:46:00 AM

    ReplyDelete
  77. The good General P, he disagrees.
    It was the lack of a good tactical policy that allowed aQ to operate in the Sunni areas.

    That Captain the wrote the "stick figure" presentation, Bob W linked to a couple of months ago, said as nuch as well.

    We never held the ground, never provided the civilians with security from the aQ.
    Never utilized local civilian authorities in our cause.
    Mr Bremmer vetoed that course, according to the dead Captains' presentation. We have only now, a month or so, changed that course of action.

    ReplyDelete
  78. Why would China need to purchase an aircraft carrier? Where would a Chinese carrier group project power? Is this just a case of "fun money" ill spent?

    ReplyDelete
  79. DR,

    The United States is not responsible for the choices of others (in the instance, the Sunni of Iraq) whether 1991, 2003, or 2007.


    trish,

    Surrender and/or treaty are options the Sunni have been willing to ignore. When others respond to their provocations, as is so often the case these days, they whine. That is crap.

    ReplyDelete
  80. "Where would a Chinese carrier group project power?"

    Got to disagree with you on this one.

    see

    How We Would Fight China

    http://www.theatlantic.com/doc/
    200506/kaplan

    A most interesting read

    ReplyDelete
  81. South China Sea, the Straits of Malacca, the Adaman Sea,the Bay of Bengal, the Indian Ocean, the Gulf of Oman.
    All locales where the Chinese feel they have a strategic and logistical need to project power.

    ReplyDelete
  82. http://www.theatlantic.com/doc/
    200506/kaplan

    The topic is China and excess dollars -

    ...For some time now no navy or air force has posed a threat to the United States. Our only competition has been armies, whether conventional forces or guerrilla insurgencies. This will soon change. The Chinese navy is poised to push out into the Pacific—and when it does, it will very quickly encounter a U.S. Navy and Air Force unwilling to budge from the coastal shelf of the Asian mainland. It's not hard to imagine the result: a replay of the decades-long Cold War, with a center of gravity not in the heart of Europe but, rather, among Pacific atolls that were last in the news when the Marines stormed them in World War II. In the coming decades China will play an asymmetric back-and-forth game with us in the Pacific, taking advantage not only of its vast coastline but also of its rear base—stretching far back into Central Asia—from which it may eventually be able to lob missiles accurately at moving ships in the Pacific.

    ReplyDelete
  83. allen, the purple fingers did not vote for aQ. They voted for a Government that we supplied, that then failed them.
    Read your Bushisms, please.
    You're sounding more and more the victim of BDS.

    ReplyDelete
  84. Here, allen, is the Some soldiers get it PDF of the Captains' presentation.

    He blames the troubles in Anbar squarely on Mr Bremmer and the CPA, they wrote the rules that the Army could not work with the local Sheiks. Those rules governed US actions for four years, leading to "Slow Failure", per Mr Bush.

    The US failed the people of Anbar with bad tactical policies, after they had voted for liberation.
    "Mr Bush's Democracy" as one Iraqi wrote at one of rufus's links from a day or two ago.

    ReplyDelete
  85. DR,

    re: BDS

    That's strange, isn't it? When I find fault with Mr. Bush I'm deranged. When I attack the Sunni, I am equally deranged. Oh well, such is life.

    How soon we forget, DR. The Sunni boycotted the elections in large measure. Those who did vote were hesitant about waving purple fingers, for fear of loosing turbaned heads. As a block, the Sunni preferred fighting to switching. In short, the Sunni disenfranchised themselves.

    So, what is your point? If it is that the Shi'a and Kurds who invested in the system should be rewarded with the fruits of peace, hey, I'm with you.


    trish,

    I understood the first time: the less wealthy Sunni are often unemployed in Syria, Jordan, Egypt, etc.

    Possibly beating those swords and spears into plowshares and pruning hooks would be a good first step to gainful employment back home.

    ReplyDelete
  86. elijah,

    re: Got to disagree with you on this one.

    I asked a question.

    ReplyDelete
  87. rufus,

    re: Post-Normal BS

    Wretchard has had two threads up in as many days. As you might expect, the usual longwinded posts follow. As you might expect, Larsen is good.

    ReplyDelete
  88. Only in the first Election, allen, when the civilians were deathly afraid.
    In the second and expecially the third they stepped up to the ballots.

    The point is we failed in our responsibilities as Occupiers, we did not provide Security adequate to the task of securing the people from terrorist violence.

    You blame the victims, the civilian Iraqi, I blame the police, US, for not cracking down HARD on the criminals.

    Read the PDF, the dead Captain agreed with me. He was there.

    ReplyDelete
  89. trish,

    re: none can be employed, period!

    You are incorrect. But even if you were correct, what is your point?

    ReplyDelete
  90. The Captain could not even identify the terrorists amongst the Iraqi, then was prohibited from working with those who could, and that was last summer, three and a half years in.

    That certainly was not the fault of the Sheiks, that we did not utilize them or their services to secure their own people.

    Even last summer, when some of the tribes in Anbar finally offered to help, we would not arm them so they could fight the terrorist tribes. The Syrians and Iranians had no hesitation in arming their proxies.
    Who appeared to be serious, then, if not the radicals. We certainly did not.

    ReplyDelete
  91. DR,

    re: dead captain

    G-d rest his soul.

    I simply have no way of determining through discovery whether he agreed with you or not. Even if he did, why should it follow that my opinion be fettered?

    ReplyDelete
  92. trish,

    re: show me

    I did. Read the links. As a clue, find those parts dealing with wealthy Iraqis.

    While we are doing show and tell, you didn't answer my last question.
    "And that has what to do with the United States?" - Fri Mar 16, 08:57:00 PM EDT

    ReplyDelete
  93. Inspiring! Another contemporary American profile in courage:

    McCain regrets use of term 'tar baby'

    And men such as this dare aspire to the presidency. There are chuckles all round in a madrassa somewhere in Pakistan. What is the Arabic equivalent of “pussy”?

    ReplyDelete
  94. trish,

    That's about par for the course.

    ReplyDelete
  95. Employed Iraqis speak:
    “Another militant group said it would kill a German woman and her son being held hostage in Iraq unless Berlin began withdrawing its soldiers from Afghanistan within 10 days.”
    German Soldiers Contest Tornado Mission in Afghanistan

    ReplyDelete
  96. Allen: McCain regrets use of term 'tar baby' And men such as this dare aspire to the presidency.

    Only conservatives are held to account for saying the TB word:

    Mitt Romney: "The best thing for me to do politically is stay away from the Big Dig - just get as far away from that tar baby as I possibly can."

    (Leading black figures within the Republican and Democratic parties expressed dismay at what they perceived to be Romney's lack of sensitivity. Romney later apologized for the remarks through his staff.)

    John Kerry: "Everybody on my staff, everybody I knew thought I was crazy, and said, 'Don't do this...' ...They said it's a no-win tar baby."

    (No outcry, no apology)

    ReplyDelete
  97. teresita,

    re: tar baby

    "Edwardses" aren't they?
    '-)

    I do hope Ms. Malkin doesn't see this. She will either go orgasmic or potty her flowered undies.

    One day I shall be punished for this. (I hope!)

    ReplyDelete
  98. What this has to do with Iraq (or China) I leave to the imaginations of others.

    Mutants From The Sewer

    ReplyDelete
  99. Ms T,
    Did you see the last Southpark featuring the Niggerguy?

    ReplyDelete
  100. Fjordman (AT lgf)
    OT. A couple of essays by Spengler:
    [Link: www.atimes.com...]
    It is instructive to contrast Russia's policy in Chechnya with America's catastrophic policy in Iraq, Palestine and Lebanon. Force, duplicity and bargains with the devil are the hallmarks of Russian strategy.

    Free elections have brought Hamas to power in the Palestinian territories, entrenched Hezbollah in Lebanon, and set in motion a civil war in Iraq.

    By contrast, Putin has pacified the most stubborn Muslim population in the world, namely Chechnya, by means that horrified the world.

    The United States offers democracy to the Muslim world, and is universally hated; Putin destroys an entire Muslim country, and is welcomed as a friend.

    The question begs itself: who better understands the Islamic world, Vladimir Putin or George W Bush?
    Safe in their own continent, with a Muslim population of no more than 2 million to 3 million, composed to a great extent of educated immigrants, the Americans are incapable of understanding what Russia now faces. Yet Russia is a natural ally of the United States for the remainder of the 21st century, perhaps the only natural ally the US will have. Europe does not have the stomach to resist its gradual assimilation in the Islamic world. But Russia will resist, and it will do so ruthlessly. America's cookie-cutter approach to nation-building has been a disaster; Washington stands to learn a great deal from the tragic history of the Russian Empire.

    ReplyDelete
  101. At Belmont:
    Tony said...
    In the other main theater, the French have deployed 3 F2 Rafales to Dushanbe to support NATO ops in Afghanistan, and even more surprisingly, 3 more F2 standards on the DeGaulle, France's carrier which is coming up off Afghanistan for sea-launched ops for the same task.

    The F2's went through a crash-upgrade to carry the laser-guided Paveway bombs, and are working out the kinks with their 30-mm. cannon for "strafing runs to assist ground forces, particularly special operations units, because those are often in such close contact with Taliban forces that the use of bombs is deemed dangerous." !!!

    Did he say French fighters ... strafing ... in Afghanistan?

    The Allied effort is heating up everywhere the Islamists show up to fight.

    ReplyDelete
  102. This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.

    ReplyDelete
  103. doug,

    Speaking of WTF, what is going on at Belmont? From where I am, the site is taking comments on a single thread. Everything else has been lost to some electronic purgatory.

    ReplyDelete
  104. OregonGuy said...
    Wretchard,

    You're so stuck on Pre-Normal. You're not looking at the Up-Side.

    On April 14th, not 15 miles from here, will be a Global Warming Action! And I'm gonna go!
    I'm gonna be hitting on all the Middle-Aged Hippie Chicks (sic) driving Escalades and Lexuses.
    It's two hours on the beach, and then time for Mai Tais.
    And I'm willing to Step It Up!

    ReplyDelete
  105. Allen,
    Yeah, the index page was like that.
    I snuck in by working my way back on the previous articles list on a linked page.
    IOW the index page was truncated, but the thread linked there had a full previous articles list.

    ReplyDelete
  106. Those that have visited there long enough have learned to expect weirdnesses like that there from time to time.
    In the old days I would bring it to his attention and often it would get fixed.
    Then came fame and fortune, and I quit trying to get his attention.

    ReplyDelete
  107. Sounds like one of our threads at Roggio's with Bill playing Elijah.
    I see complaining about something as filling in the History accurately.
    (to the extent that the complaint is valid)
    If negatives are left out so as to not be accused of bitching or whining, what kind of history is that?
    ---
    ---
    "the people that actually do it know there is no way around the fact that building an effective fighting force is a difficult and time consuming process."

    These so called people in the know didn't believe Iraq really needed an Army until late 2004.

    The plan by Bremer and the Pentagon was to build a small National Guard for Iraq instead of an Army, because he didn't believe Iraq needed one.

    We lost nearly two years because these so called people in the know were blind to something that was totally obvious to anyone who read the news and had an IQ over 100 and that was that Iraq needed a real Army to return order to the country.

    Posted by ECH | March 15, 2007 6:29 PM

    Posted on March 15, 2007 18:29

    Bill Roggio:
    Tone it down, ECH. Complaining about what did and did not happen in 2003 won't change the situation on the ground today. Show me a mistake free war and I'll show you a miracle.

    We effectively began building the IA in the spring/summer of 2004. We're less than 3 years into building the Iraqi Army. As DJ and CJR have stated repeatedly, building an army - an effective one - is a process, and not an event. It's still being built and developed.

    The ERUs for Diyala will come - wait for the 'Diyala Salvation Council' or whatever it decides to call itself, forms. The ERUs in Anbar are the arm of the Anbar Salvation Council... Why do you think I've been comparing the two provinces?

    Posted by Bill Roggio | March 15, 2007 6:36 PM

    Posted on March 15, 2007 18:36

    ECH:
    Sorry to get emotional Bill, I just read that five more US troops were killed in Baghdad today in one attack and added to that several other deaths from elsewhere.

    Back in 2003 and 2004 I was yelling that the Pentagon start building a real Iraqi Army. Everytime I see large numbers of Iraqi or US deaths I can't help but think that that if we just did a few tiny things differently the vast majority of Americans wouldn't think the war is lost and lots of good people Iraqi and American wouldn't be dying.

    ReplyDelete
  108. Sadr has now spoken out against the U.S. and Iraqi government push into the slums of Baghdad's Sadr City. During Friday prayers, one of Sadr's clerics read a statement urging the people of Sadr City to oppose the U.S. presence inside the neighborhood. "I trust that you have taken them as your enemies, for the enemies of God are your enemies, inevitably... unity against your enemy and shout
    'No, No, America! No, No Israel!, No, No Satan!'"
    Continue reading "Signs in Sadr City" »

    ReplyDelete
  109. DON'T MISS ALLEN'S FORBIDDEN HOLLYWOOD LINK!

    ReplyDelete