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."

Thursday, September 18, 2014

“the CIA regards the effort as doomed to failure”...”CIA thinks that it is impossible to train and equip a force of pro-Western Syrian nationals that can fight and defeat Assad, al-Nusra and ISIS, regardless of whatever air support that force may receive”





...”The CIA also believes that its previous assignment to accomplish this was basically a fool’s errand, and they are well aware of the fact that many of the arms that they provided ended up in the wrong hands,” the congressman said, echoing intelligence sources.


What could possibly go wrong?

-----
No Worries, McCain has already vetted them:

HUFFINGTON POST

CIA Privately Skeptical About New Syria Strategy, Sources Say

Posted: Updated: 

WASHINGTON -- At a recent closed-door congressional briefing on the administration's new strategy to combat the Islamic State, a top CIA official left little doubt among those in the room about the agency's attitude toward the project.The official's muted approach to the briefing dovetails with what senior intelligence community officials tell The Huffington Post is deep behind-the-scenes skepticism, ranging from ambivalence to outright opposition, from within the CIA to the administration's proposal to task the Department of Defense with arming the so-called moderate Syrian rebels.
The opposition derives from a number of factors. First, the CIA has already been covertly equipping Syrian rebels at the instruction of the White House, but has come to find the fighters increasingly disorganized and radicalized as the conflict goes on, with U.S.-supplied arms winding up in the hands of more radical fighters.
Meanwhile, some turf issues are at play. While officials in the CIA are skeptical of the broader strategy to arm and train the rebels, they are also wary of a plan that would give the Pentagon a responsibility that has so far rested with their agency.
One Democratic member of Congress said that the CIA has made it clear that it doubts the possibility that the administration's strategy could succeed.
"I have heard it expressed, outside of classified contexts, that what you heard from your intelligence sources is correct, because the CIA regards the effort as doomed to failure," the congressman said in an email. "Specifically (again without referring to classified information), the CIA thinks that it is impossible to train and equip a force of pro-Western Syrian nationals that can fight and defeat Assad, al-Nusra and ISIS, regardless of whatever air support that force may receive."
He added that, as the CIA sees it, the ramped-up backing of rebels is an expansion of a strategy that is already not working. "The CIA also believes that its previous assignment to accomplish this was basically a fool’s errand, and they are well aware of the fact that many of the arms that they provided ended up in the wrong hands," the congressman said, echoing intelligence sources.
CIA spokesman Ryan Trapani disputed the validity and accuracy of those assertions.
The CIA has been training the Free Syrian Army out of covert bases in Jordan, The Washington Post reported last year. The operation is something of an open secret. As Congress debated whether to launch airstrikes against Assad last year, staffers with the House Foreign Affairs Committee asked the House Intelligence Committee whether the agency was working rebels on the ground. "They said, 'We can't tell you that,'" said a Hill aide.
But the White House is now asking Congress to authorize the Defense Department to take over and expand the training operation under what's referred to as Title 10 authority.
“That would be a DOD operation as opposed to a CIA operation, and so when you’re talking about arming the Free Syrian Army … we’d be able to be more public about it,” Sen. Kelly Ayotte (R-N.H.) told The New York Post last week.
Ben Rhodes, the White House deputy national security adviser, made a similar argument.
"What the Title 10 authority allows you to do is ... to be public about what you're doing, which is, frankly, I think, a healthy way to do it in the first place," he told HuffPost. "So giving this kind of authority to the Pentagon allows you to describe your policy and describe who you're working with and have robust oversight of it, so that's one thing it allows."
"We have been working with the Syrian opposition now for a couple of years, providing them assistance -- non-lethal at first, but them we provide them with some military assistance," Rhodes said. "So we know them better today than we did a year, two years ago. There are people who have been vetted, you know, who we have relationships with, who we deliver assistance to, so we're not starting from scratch."
Bringing in the Pentagon, Rhodes said, "does allow you to scale up your training and equipment, so if you have this kind of program that the military can participate in, you can just do things on a bigger scale."
HuffPost interjected: "Than the CIA."
"Your words, but yeah," he said, nodding. "It allows for us to structure this with the regional partners in a more systematized way, so that essentially you have the training program, with Sunni Arab partners doing a lot of the training."
“CIA supports and is working with the Defense Department and all our U.S. Government partners in the fight against ISIL," Trapani, the CIA spokesman, told HuffPost.
Since President Barack Obama announced scaled-up plans for arming and training Syrian rebels, an idea he himself criticized as recently as last month, military and administration officials have been briefing lawmakers on the specifics. Some have been persuaded by plans to ramp up the Defense Department's role. "It was instructive," Rep. Adam Schiff (D-Calif), a member of the House Intelligence Committee, told HuffPost last week. "General Dempsey did a good job laying out the military dimension."
Other lawmakers have not been won over. And on Tuesday, Washington Post columnist David Ignatius, who is known to have close source relationships with top intelligence officials, proposed giving the CIA command over the training program,rather than the Pentagon.
One idea that has received less public debate but is being pushed by some in the CIA would be to covertly ally with Syrian President Bashar Assad against the Islamic State -- in an enemy of my enemy pact -- rather than lean on the rebel groups.
Rhodes adamantly dismissed the idea in the interview. But according to some reports, Assad is expecting the U.S. to come around. "The regime recognizes that the Western opening will be in secret, and via security channels and not diplomacy. The political-diplomatic opening needs longer," Salem Zahran, a Lebanese journalist with close ties to the Syrian government, told Reuters in August. "But the regime believes that the whole world will come to coordinate with it under the slogan 'fighting terrorism'."
Some covert cooperation is already underway, according to a recent report by Haaretz. "Western diplomatic sources admitted Monday morning that despite the sweeping denials and the United States’ declared opposition there is intelligence cooperation between Damascus and Washington," the Israeli paper reported. "According [to] a report in the Syrian newspaper Al-Watan Monday, the cooperation is conducted through an unnamed third party and is not direct."
Secretary of State John Kerry also kicked off speculation about cooperation between the U.S. and Assad with a rather conflicted denial that such coordination was happening. "No, we're not going to coordinate with Syria," Kerry said on CBS's Face The Nation. "We will certainly want to deconflict to make certain that they're not about to do something that they might regret even more seriously. But we're not going to coordinate."
Reporters subsequently failed to elicit a definition of "deconflict" from a State Department spokeswoman, but it is a military term that refers to competing forces monitoring each other's movements so as to avoid coming into contact.
Making a deal with Assad would give the U.S. more leverage in nuclear talks with Assad's allies in Iran, and could also play into negotiations over a resolution of the Ukraine crisis. Assad is a client of Russia, which intelligence analysts say may be willing to make concessions in Ukraine in exchange for preserving Assad in power.
The House is expected to vote Wednesday on the plan to have the Pentagon arm the rebels.

60 comments:

  1. IF you are in the US military, head for Canada.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Don’t be stupid and get get injured or killed for this fool’s errand commanded by the ignorant and unscrupulous US Conga Line, all ready to leave Washington for three weeks after signing a bill that will do you or your country no good.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Obama providing America with another "teaching" moment.

      Bend over and take it....

      Delete
  3. The struggle against Isis in Syria lies in tatters after the leaders of one of the biggest rebel groups were wiped out by a suspected suicide bomb.

    The blast devastated a meeting of Ahrar al-Sham’s senior staff on Wednesday, killing at least 50 people, including the group’s highly influential commander, Hassan Aboud. The news came as John Kerry arrived in Baghdad on Wednesday to discuss the United States’ desire to build a military, political and financial coalition of nations to defeat Isis, which calls itself Islamic State, with the newly appointed Iraqi government in the capital.

    Ahrar al-Sham has been the largest and strongest Islamist group fighting Isis – despite sharing similar salafist views – and has shown more moderate colours in recent months, causing particular distress to the rebels.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. The arab world has to collectively shit of get off the pot.

      But they will not.

      The Iranians/Shiites are to strong.

      So the Sunnis will allow asymmetrical warfare to continue regardless of the civilian deaths.

      Only when Iran get's it's blowback and has to turn inward and out of Iraq, Lebanon, Gaza and Syria will there be a turning point.

      When and if that will happen?

      If Iran completes it's drive to get it's nuclear bomb program?

      Forgetaboutit....

      As we speak, the current administration is opening up the pathway for Iran to become the hegemonic power of the islamic middle east.

      This is JUST getting started as to being ugly....

      In the end?

      at least 40 million arabs will be truly homeless and in real refugee camps. And not the kind that the Palestinians are lucky enough to have. There will be no Iranian/Syrian/Hezbollah food, fuel and medicine aid trucks trucking in goodies for the displaced civilians.... No the Syrians, Iranians and Hezbollah will starve to death their enemies.

      Delete
    2. ISIS/Isil/IS is the symptom.

      It is the blowback of Shia conquest.

      Now if we FIGHT ISIS? We are assisting the Iranians in conquest (and Russia) of the arab world.

      Long have the Persians wanted to control their heathen Islamic opponents. (shits verses the suns)

      Delete
    3. Israel’s Ambassador to the United States Michael Oren told the Jerusalem Post that Israel so wanted Assad out and his Iranian backers weakened, that Israel would accept al-Qaeda operatives taking power in Syria.

      “We always wanted Bashar Assad to go, we always preferred the bad guys who weren’t backed by Iran to the bad guys who were backed by Iran.”

      Even if the other “bad guys” were affiliated with al-Qaeda.
      “We understand that they are pretty bad guys,” Oren said in the interview.


      http://www.jpost.com/Syria-Crisis/Oren-Jerusalem-has-wanted-Assad-ousted-since-the-outbreak-of-the-Syrian-civil-war-326328


      Israel - Founded by Terrorists and Sustained by Terrorism and now ... Allied with Islamic Terrorists


      In broad daylight, a Saudi-Israeli alliance

      Delete
  4. The meeting was taking place in an underground bunker known as “Base Zero”, in the town of Ram Hamdan, close to Idlib in north-western Syria. The bunker also housed a munitions store, raising both the possibility of a carefully planned operation or even a tragic accident.

    The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said the blast killed 28 of Ahrar al-Sham’s commanders. Witnesses report seeing plumes of smoke, followed by chaos as the site was closed to allow for the retrieval of bodies.

    Hassan Aboud has died in a suspected suicide bombing Hassan Aboud has died in a suspected suicide bombing (BBC)
    According to sources within the Free Syrian Army (FSA), the Syrian Opposition’s Ministry of Defence is treating the bombing as an attack on the revolution. Former leader of Aleppo City Military Revolutionary Council, Colonel Abdul Jabbar Akaidi, condemned the attack, particularly given Ahrar al-Sham’s recent turn towards the more moderate FSA.

    “I’m shocked. I’m very sad for the martyrs of Ahrar al-Sham. They were trying to change from Salafi ideology to a more moderate form,” he told The Independent. “They announced that they want to work with the FSA and announced a fierce war against Isis. Their death is a big loss for the revolution and the war against the Islamic State.”

    According to sources in Idlib, a bomb went off inside the meeting itself, which ignited flammable toxic gases, causing many to suffocate.

    Abu Baraa, a rebel figure from a group allied with Ahrar al-Sham, said a doctor who examined the bodies reported that they bore little visible sign of injury.

    Conspiracy theories are already rife, but Isis and the Assad regime are the most obvious culprits. Isis jihadis were jubilant on Twitter at the news, although no group has claimed responsibility.
    {...}

    ReplyDelete


  5. {...}

    It would not be the first time Isis has been accused of assassinating a leader of Ahrar Al-Sham. In January another senior leader was killed in a suicide attack. Abu Khaled al-Soury had fought alongside al-Qaeda founder Osama bin Laden and was close to its current chief, Ayman al-Zawahri. Isis denied involvement in the January attack.

    The timing is particularly hurtful, as the group was entering talks with more moderate elements of the rebel fighters, despite its extreme history, which has seen it linked closely with al-Qaeda. Aron Lund, a contributing analyst for The Carnegie Endowment for International Peace and close follower of Ahrar al-Sham, said: “The gutting of Ahrar al-Sham’s leadership will have major ripple effects in the opposition.”

    He added: “[The group was] a bridge between the hardcore salafists and more moderate groups and had a religious legitimacy that other groups don’t have. [It] played a very important role in shaping the insurgency and really mattered in the US decision to arm the rebels.”



    In the early hours of this morning, US President Barack Obama was due to make a statement on America’s involvement in the fight against Isis in Iraq and Syria. He was expected to outline a broad expansion of the US military role in combating extremists, including a call for arming Syrian opposition forces and potentially launching airstrikes in both countries.

    France said on Wednesday it would take part in military air action against Isis militants in Iraq if necessary, but said any action it takes against the group in Syria would take another form.

    “The situation in Syria is different,” Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius said in a speech in Paris. “We must act in both cases, but not with the same modalities.”

    Ahrar al-Sham, meanwhile, has already named its new leader as Abu Jaber Maskani (aka Sheikh Al-Hashami), a former FSA commander who has extensive experience in fighting Isis, having done so around the tribal area of Maskana.

    President Obama speaks on the phone with King Abdallah Abd al Aziz of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia at the White House President Obama speaks on the phone with King Abdallah Abd al Aziz of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia at the White House (Getty)
    In a video released on YouTube, the group’s new leader eulogised the dead. “Jihadi men of our nation... do not let the crisis shake you or the calamity divide you,” Abu Jaber said. “Rise, let us die for what they have died for.”

    The big question remains as to where the approximately 20,000-strong group will lay its allegiance or if it will unite behind its new leadership. Many fear a portion of the fighters will join the ranks of Isis or Jabhat Al-Nusra, with whom they share a similar ideology, even if their leaders were attempting to come in line with moderate and western-backed factions.

    For Colonel Abdul Jabbar Akaidi, the latest attack marks a new stage of the revolution, with leaders being picked off one-by-one.

    “It definitely feels like we have entered the stage of eliminating the Syrian Revolutionary leaders through a very specific strategy of assassination,” he said.

    INDEPENDENT

    http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/middle-east/fight-against-isis-dealt-savage-blow-as-rebel-group-leader-among-50-killed-9724997.html

    ReplyDelete
  6. No, Rufus, I am not a racialist. I just put up facts that are not disputed by scientists. What is disputed is why?

    Had you bothered to look at the data you would have immediately been struck by several apparent anomalies. First, on average, Jewish women are slightly smarter than Jewish men. Second, on average Jewish men are slightly less intelligent than Northern European males. Finally, Sephardic Jews follow the standard distribution curve.

    As to you personally, I am certain that I am superior to you in every way, but that has nothing to do with ethnicity or your choice of abode.

    Since this blog is your life, your challenge to Deuce was stupid.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Maybe, allen, what you are saying is true of the Ashkenazi subset, but 'Jew' is not a racial category.

      The Invention of the Jewish People
      is a book written by Shlomo Sand, an Israeli professor of history at the University of Tel Aviv.

      The author wasn’t probing a belief system but Zionist fabrications of a spurious common lineage for people of the Jewish faith.

      Sand argues that the idea of Jews having a common ethnic identity is implausible because, as with Christianity and Islam, Judaism was originally a “proselytising religion”.

      The notion of Judaism as a “race”, rather than a religion of various races, is without foundation.

      The recent study by John Hopkins geneticist Dr Elhaik confirms...
      that the common genome structure of the European Jew gravitated towards an origin in old Khazaria.

      “The majority of Jews do not have Middle Eastern genetic component,” he told Israeli newspaper Haaretz.

      Founded on a mélange of myths and manufactured historical tales,
      Israel has failed the archaeological test of time and is now exposed by DNA science.

      Today’s genetics prove unequivocally that in 1948 “the children of the original Jews” were replaced by converts ...
      With no roots in the Middle East.

      http://www.redressonline.com/2013/02/the-myth-of-the-jewish-people/


      Delete
    2. The notion of Judaism as a “race”, rather than a religion of various races, is without foundation.

      The results of a recently published study by Israeli-American geneticist Dr Eran Elhaik at John Hopkins University have scientifically and genetically validated Sand’s research

      The idea of a “nation race” was progressively developed and reinforced over centuries among segregated Jewish communities in Europe.

      With the rise of German nationalism in the 19th century, Jewish historian Heinrich Graetz “retrospectively” crafted a discrete identity for the ghettoized people –  mapping their origin to an old kingdom and wandering exiles.
      The exiles tales transpired from a Christian myth of “divine punishment” imposed on Jews for rejecting the new religion.

      The parable is likely to have originated from the Old Testament story of Jews wandering the desert for disobeying God and worshipping a golden calf.

      Christians propagated the concept of exile to lure “disobeying” Jews to the new religion, becoming their saviour from another eternal banishment.

      Modern political Zionism, which otherwise rejects the Christian Bible, adopted the untested story of “Jewish exile” to establish a mythical linkage between European Jews and the Middle East.

      But Jewish history tells us that the Romans did not expel the original Jews from Palestine when they crushed the Simon bar Kokhba revolt in 136 AD but instead barred them only from city of Jerusalem – and even then they were allowed to visit it during Tisha B’Av, the annual fasting day on the ninth day of the month of Av in the Hebrew calendar.

      Under Christianity and during the Roman Empire a large number of native Jews converted to Christianity and, with the advent of Islam, most adopted the new religion and assimilated under the new power.

      In addition to the descendants of the Canaanites, the original denizens before patriarch Abraham’s arrival from Mesopotamia, Sand concludes that today’s Muslim and Christian Palestinians are actually the true progenies of the original Jews.


      Delete
  7. Of course it's not going to work. We have been at this for nearly 13 years and what has been accomplished? Lots of kids have been killed and maimed and a fortune squandered. You cannot defeat an enemy you will not name. Saudi Arabia sounds as good to me, today, as it did on 9/11/01.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. To me the solution is to look at the root.

      Islam and easy access to billions in cash - from oil.

      Dry up the cash? Make arab/russia/opec/persian oil worthless? It takes a huge bite out of crime. :)

      Dry up the easy money, then those nations will not have the billions to squander on "kill the Jews" projects, this also includes "kill the great satan" "kill the west"

      Think of a world where qatar had to earn a living?

      No Hamas.

      Islamic revolutionary movements are funded by oil.

      Delete
    2. The 'root' cause of the current challenge is past European exploitation of Arab assets.

      Delete

    3. Europeans placing proxies on the thrones of every country in the Middle East, that is the "Root" of the current challenge

      Delete
  8. http://theweek.com/article/index/268239/the-obama-administrations-non-stop-incoherence-on-isis
    The Obama administration's nonstop incoherence on ISIS

    ReplyDelete
  9. .

    In defense of Obama.

    Obama would prefer to forget about the ME and play golf but he is being whipsawed into action by political pressure, a certain amount of guilt, and the ever present imperative to do 'something'.

    As to the political pressure, those who thought the neocons were dead or had changed or been shamed into silence are mistaken. Don't blame the military which merely tries to accomplish the impossible goals set by their political leaders given the limited tools they are allowed to employ. Blame the MIC who refuse to let a good crises go to waste. And I blame the American people whose opinion can shift by 20 percentage points on the basis of a single, especially ghastly snuff video.

    The guilt any president would feel is legitimate when looking at Iraq and what we have wrought there. Likewise, it is hard to ignore the humanitarian crises that got us into this little tussle. However, once in, the drip, drip, drip of mission creep was inevitable.

    As for having to do something, the US is 'the' world leader at the moment. The pressure on the president to do 'something' even when there are few if any good options must be tremendous regardless as to how much you would rather just be out golfing enjoying the perks of the job.

    .

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

    ReplyDelete
  11. Yes, allen, you are so "superior" to me that you have spent years on this blog trying to convince others that you are what I am (and, you are not.)

    Better luck with your next hand.

    You racial superiority guys are a hoot. So desirous of being "superior," for some reason, or the other, that you have to continually tear down others to try to make it so - or, at least, to try to make it appear so.

    The double-banger, of course, is to claim "Racial Superiority," AND "Religious Supremacy." That covers All the squares. Of course, it also makes your sanity highly suspect in a few quarters - a certain section of Mississippi, being one of them.

    ReplyDelete
  12. I doubt that Barack Obama "feels much guilt" for Bush's actions.

    As for "strategery," the Middle Eastern oil is still vitally important, and will be even more so in the future: So, yeah, it can't be ignored.

    Options, and tactics? He is, actually, employing one that will work. Most of the "movers and shakers," in congress, and on K Street don't like it, but it is effective. The Pentagon doesn't like it. The CIA hates it. The Radical Republicans are going out of their minds. The Sissy Ultra-lib Dems are beside themselves. The Russians are pissed, and the Iranian Mullahs can't denounce the whole thing strongly enough.

    And, ISIS are getting killed - systematically, and inexorably.

    As for preferring golf - Who wouldn't?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. .

      Oil is fungible.

      A pissed off and frustrated Sadaam may set a few oil rigs on fire in someone else's country as he is being forced to exit, but most people will sell it for the revenue. IS is currently selling oil at bargain basement prices for revenue to fund its operations. The Islamists in Libya are selling it for the same reasons.

      .

      Delete
    2. Colonel Q was selling Libyan oil for the same reason, it is the same reason the Saudi sell their oil, Quirk.
      The Iranians and British, too.

      Your insights are so ... well ...
      shall we say ... insightful.

      Delete
    3. .

      Rufus implied the US must be in Iraq because of oil. I suggested the risk implied by that statement might be overstated. The fact that you were unable to discern the relationship between the two posts is...well...expected.

      .

      Delete
  13. Why not play golf when everything is going according to "Plan".

    The Administration just does not 'crow' well.
    Oh, and it is 'secret', too.

    Israel's Ambassador to the US, Mr Oren laid it out for US, a year ago.
    ISRAEL PREFERS al-QAEDA


    Israel’s Ambassador to the United States Michael Oren told the Jerusalem Post that Israel so wanted Assad out and his Iranian backers weakened, that Israel would accept al-Qaeda operatives taking power in Syria.

    “We always wanted Bashar Assad to go, we always preferred the bad guys who weren’t backed by Iran to the bad guys who were backed by Iran.”

    Even if the other “bad guys” were affiliated with al-Qaeda.
    “We understand that they are pretty bad guys,” Oren said in the interview.


    http://www.jpost.com/Syria-Crisis/Oren-Jerusalem-has-wanted-Assad-ousted-since-the-outbreak-of-the-Syrian-civil-war-326328




    ReplyDelete
  14. VIDEO- Iranian president Hassan Rouhani condemns Islamic State (Isis), which he says concerns ‘all mankind’. Rouhani tells NBC that recent beheadings carried out by the group are a matter of shame and sorrow. Iran’s foreign minister Javad Zarif accuses the international community of 'creating a Frankenstein['s monster] that came to haunt its creators'

    http://www.theguardian.com/world/video/2014/sep/18/isis-frankenstein-monster-west-iran-video

    ReplyDelete
  15. Some call 'em Shysters, and they get mad.
    Some call 'em Superior, and then they preen.
    So does that mean they are Superior Shysters?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. .

      The assumed syllogism doesn't doesn't come close to making sense much less logic.

      .

      Delete
    2. Nothing about claims of racial superiority makes sense of is logical.
      You are catching on, finally.

      Delete
    3. .

      Oh, I am fully aware that his particular Anon hasn't the ability to form even the most rudimentary logical argument. He couches his bigotry in nonsense verse and then says he has a 'plan'.

      There is really nothing there with the exception of the pleasure one can take in pointing it out.

      .

      Delete
  16. Here's how you defeat ISIS. And, all the rest of the ME crazies.

    E85 for $1.85

    Mason City, Iowa

    Coming soon to a Walmart near you?

    ReplyDelete
  17. Americans have no idea where their oil comes from, in one chart

    The United States biggest source of oil, by far, is America. The two North American neighbors provide 39 percent of US oil imports. That goes up to 50 percent if you add in Venezuela. The Middle East, meanwhile, provides a lot less: Saudi Arabia and Iraq provide just 22 percent of US oil imports.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. This comment has been removed by the author.

      Delete
    2. In 2013, the United States consumed a total of 6.89 billion barrels of petroleum products, an average of 18.89 million barrels per day.1 This total includes about 0.32 billion barrels of biofuels.
      http://www.eia.gov/tools/faqs/faq.cfm?id=33&t=6

      22% of 19 million is ... 4.18 million, not an Easy Peasy amount to replace.
      The US would need to increase bio-fuel production from 320 million barrels, annually, by about 500% to eliminate the need to import Middle Eastern oil.

      Not an impossible hill to climb.

      Delete
  18. It's amazing the time and energy that JackShit aka the rat aka Farmer Rob aka anon aka Jamal Kanj puts into posting the same exact nonsense, multiple times per thread…

    Signing in and signing out. posting crap from a word document, over and over again.

    This is his life.

    LOL

    Child. Boy.


    If—
    BY RUDYARD KIPLING
    (‘Brother Square-Toes’—Rewards and Fairies)

    If you can keep your head when all about you
    Are losing theirs and blaming it on you,
    If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you,
    But make allowance for their doubting too;
    If you can wait and not be tired by waiting,
    Or being lied about, don’t deal in lies,
    Or being hated, don’t give way to hating,
    And yet don’t look too good, nor talk too wise:

    If you can dream—and not make dreams your master;
    If you can think—and not make thoughts your aim;
    If you can meet with Triumph and Disaster
    And treat those two impostors just the same;
    If you can bear to hear the truth you’ve spoken
    Twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools,
    Or watch the things you gave your life to, broken,
    And stoop and build ’em up with worn-out tools:

    If you can make one heap of all your winnings
    And risk it on one turn of pitch-and-toss,
    And lose, and start again at your beginnings
    And never breathe a word about your loss;
    If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew
    To serve your turn long after they are gone,
    And so hold on when there is nothing in you
    Except the Will which says to them: ‘Hold on!’

    If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue,
    Or walk with Kings—nor lose the common touch,
    If neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you,
    If all men count with you, but none too much;
    If you can fill the unforgiving minute
    With sixty seconds’ worth of distance run,
    Yours is the Earth and everything that’s in it,
    And—which is more—you’ll be a Man, my son!


    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Poor "O"rdure, spends all his time chasing after "The Rat".
      It is his life.

      Then he quotes Rudyard, who, "O"rdure has claimed was a anti-Semite.

      Such is his life.

      Delete
    2. As to reposting the same pertinent information, time and again ...
      That is done because it is so pertinent, and the facts have not changed.
      allen and "O"rdure keep posting the same lies, reworded, time and again.
      There is no reason to change the rebuttals.

      As long as Israel prefers al-Qeada, they prefer al-Qeada.
      "O"rdure cannot find a single quote that would lead us to think that Israel's policy has changed, since September 2013.

      He dislikes reality, our little "O"rdure.

      Delete
    3. The Israeli Zionists go for "Long Range" planning, they do not operate in 90 day segments, looking for immediate results.
      Which is why their "Yinon Plan" is so pertinent, it has taken them a full thirty years to get it in gear, but there you have it.
      Persistence is often referred to as a virtue, except when the "'virtuous" want to hide the truth, because the underlying program is not virtuous, at all.

      Delete
    4. wiggle wiggle wiggle, like a puppet you respond…

      your time is worthless, as you are.

      Delete
    5. Time ...
      "O"rdure has lots on his hands, chasing "The Rat", who "O"rdure can never catch ...
      Try as he might.

      Delete
    6. Because it is "O"rdure who keeps falling into the traps.

      {;-)

      Delete
    7. "O"rdure is playing the role of the "Coyote", chasing after the "Roadrunner".
      Much like Farmer Fudd chased after Bugs, the bunny.

      It is more entertaining watching "O"rdure though, it is like Looney Tunes but in real time.

      Delete
    8. So you are a cartoon watcher.

      Explains a lot.

      Delete
  19. .

    House passes Obama's plan to arm Syrian rebels, 273 to 156.

    The vote was tied as an amendment to a funding bill needed to prevent another government shutdown. It was supported by leaders of both parties but obviously there was significant resistance.

    .

    ReplyDelete
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    1. .

      There are those who as yet haven't fully embraced the current strategy as laid out by the administration, and the following is unlikely to buck them up.

      The Senate will probably vote on the bill tomorrow and during questioning John Kerry was asked what happens if US reliance on Iraqi government forces and unnamed rebels in Syria fails to defeat ISIS.

      Kerry offered this alternative,

      “I am not going to get into hypotheticals but you are assuming that Iran and Syria aren’t going to take on Isis. If we are failing miserably, who knows what decisions they might make?”

      Way to buck up the troops, John. A real barn burner.

      .

      Delete
    2. .

      And if that is not enough to buck you up,

      JOHN KERRY: We've been following that very, very closely and our folks who have been involved in this in all levels and they're in the classified session for various reasons, but what we have been doing is providing various kinds of of support to them, non-lethal, as I think you know, and we're vetting people very, very carefully and our folks who do that, because this is something we really watch very carefully, the president has been very concerned about this question of downstream and impact, and with the exception that there are a couple of instances of overrun of a warehouse in Aleppo and another instance, but by and large we found the vetting to be pretty effective. Our guys have been doing it for about 20 years now for better or worse and they've gotten pretty good at it it.


      Yes, there are only two sentences there but the first was 117 words long. Pretty good, John.

      .

      .

      Delete
    3. As long as the troops are Iraqis ...
      Doubt if many of them read John Kerry quotes.

      Delete
    4. Unless, they've been captured, and are undergoing Torture. :) :) :)

      Delete
    5. But, only if the electricity to the genitals, and waterboarding fails, I hear. :) :) :)

      Delete
  20. From the "that's not bad news; that's Good news" file:

    1/2 of the Iraqi Army can't fight - Means, Half of the Iraqi Army Can Fight.

    And, that's way more than our strategy needs. :)

    ReplyDelete
  21. The Obama administration on Thursday finally revealed how many people paid for Obamacare on the national and state health insurance exchanges: 7.3 million.

    Since President Barack Obama announced in April that sign-ups on the Obamacare exchange marketplaces had surpassed 8 million, skeptics have demanded to know what portion of health insurance enrollees had actually paid for their coverage. At a hearing of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services Administrator Marilyn Tavenner offered a partial answer at last.

    "As of Aug. 15 this year, we have 7.3 million Americans enrolled in health insurance marketplace coverage and these are individuals who paid their premiums. We are encouraged by the number of consumers who paid their premiums and continue to enroll in the marketplace coverage every day through special enrollment periods," Tavenner said.

    ReplyDelete
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    1. But the 7.3 million enrollment figure doesn't tell the whole story. The Department of Health and Human Services can't provide the total enrollment tally, including paid and unpaid, since April because the computer system that would process those records isn't fully operational, a department official said. A manual evaluation would be required to find that number, the official said.

      Compared to the enrollment total of 8 million detailed in a May report about the sign-up period that began last October, the retention rate for private Obamacare coverage would be more than 90 percent.

      However, because people have been allowed to buy health insurance on the exchanges since then under special circumstances, such as marriage or the birth of a child, the count of people who were enrolled at any given time this year likely rose higher than 8 million.

      Nevertheless, the confirmed 7.3 million paid sign-ups appears to repudiate the predictions of doomsayers that huge numbers of Obamacare enrollees would . . . . .

      Yes, they is payin'

      Delete
  22. Ah, Republicans; you never learn.

    Early voting starts in less than two weeks, and the Georgia Secretary of State's office is apparently sitting on over 51,000 voter registration forms.

    What?

    At a hearing in front of the Georgia Elections Board, the Secretary of State’s office revealed their reasoning for their voter fraud-claiming media deluge last week. It was 25 voter registration applications out of 85,000 submitted that were giving it pause. These applications had already been flagged by Stacey Abrams’s group, The New Georgia Project, but they were required to submit them anyway. Also revealed in this meeting was that 51,000 of the 85,000 hadn’t been processed even though most were submitted months ago.
    http://www.peachpundit.com/...

    51,000 > 25

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    1. Speaking at the state Capitol ahead of the 3 p.m. special meeting of the Georgia Election Board, the leaders stood before 13 plastic bins filled with copies of applications they said have not been processed despite being turned in, in some cases, months ago.
      “You don’t have to wear a hood or be a member of the Ku Klux Klan to be engaged in voter suppression,” said the Rev. Raphael Warnock, the pastor of the historic Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta. “Mr. Secretary of State, stop this dog and pony show, all these accusations and fear campaigning, and do the job you were [elected] to do.”
      Though it should surprise no one if Kemp enjoys the occasional laser light show over at Stone Mountain, watching large carvings of Southern Generals reanimated to the tune of Dixie. Yes, that happens here in GA at the exact place where the KKK was revived following Reconstruction. From his own mouth:
      Democrats are working hard...registering all these minority voters that are out there and others that are sitting on the sidelines, if they can do that, they can win these elections in November.

      Delete
    2. Ah-hah! So the problem in his eyes is "all these" new minority voters. Got it.


      [investigator] Harvey outlined 25 cases of what he called “confirmed” forgery in 13 counties, plus another 26 “suspicious” cases yet to be investigated. That’s out of an estimated 85,000 registration forms collected so far by the New Georgia Project.
      As election board member David Worley [the sole Democrat] asked Harvey, “Have you done the math on that?”

      [snip]

      NGP leadership has said it is cooperating fully with attempts to find the identity of any canvasser who tried to game the system, and in his comments Harvery confirmed that cooperation. In fact, the Election Board and NGP have jointly agreed to extend the deadline for documentation sought by investigators by another week.

      That’s a very different picture from that being painted by some just a few days ago.

      Source: AJC blog. "Major ‘vote fraud scandal’ goes ‘poof!’, just as predicted"

      Desperation

      Delete
  23. .

    Just saw an interview with Rep. Barbara Lee. I don't know what her general policy views or voting record are but on one issue she has been spot on. She was the only person in Congress that voted against the 2001 Authorization to use Force Against Terrorists Resolution citing her reasons as; the resolution was a blank check with no time limit to it that granted pretty much limitless powers to the presidency and which was not encumbered by any checks and balances, a perfect vehicle for promoting endless war and unintended consequences. It has been used 30 times since it was passed. Ms. Lee seems to have been the only member of Congress that wasn't driven hysterical by the 9/11 events.

    She also voted no on the 2002 Iraq Resolution.

    Her view on the $500 million authorization passed by the House and pending in the Senate is that it is not the type of legislation that should be bundled as an amendment to a finance bill that is needed to keep the government running. When you are talking about sending US servicemen into harms way, the matter is too important and should be debated on its own.

    Her view on the current 'non-time-bound extended counterinsurgency operation' or 'war', depending on which administration official you are talking to, with IS in Iraq is that the entire strategy, scope, costs, and alternatives should be fully debated in Congress before authorizing funds, preferably now but if that is impossible then when the time limits set by the War Powers Act have been reached. We have seen this same thing and its inevitable mission creep play out before.

    On this issue, Ms. Lee appears to be one smart cookie.

    .

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  24. WASHINGTON - A U.S. air strike near Mosul on Thursday killed 40 Islamic State militants near a terrorist training camp, according to a senior Defense Department official.

    A B-1 bomber was involved in the attack, said the official who was not authorized to discuss the details of the operation publicly. Mosul is Iraq's second-largest city and fell to militants in June.

    The air strike is part of the widened campaign against the militant group that President Obama ordered last week. The first round of the new attacks began Monday, and Thursday's was the most deadly against the group, which is also known as ISIL or ISIS. It is apparently the second time the B-1 bomber has been involved in the 176 air strikes that began in August to protect U.S. personnel in Iraq, critical infrastructure such as dams and to prevent . . . . . .

    Lesse, 40 X 72 . . . . that's a lot of virgins gettin' busy, t'day

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. .

      Mosul can't be Iraq's second largest city. Rufus put up the numbers.

      :o(

      .

      Delete
  25. The good Lord opens a door in Iowa, and takes away Kansas. :)

    Democrat allowed to get out of the way in Kansas.

    See ya

    ReplyDelete