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."

Sunday, November 09, 2014

Did the US double-cross the Russians? Former Gorbachev advisor Anatoly Chernyaev swears that he personally witnessed a pledge from Washington to the Soviet leader not to enlarge NATO

Hear it from someone who was there: Bill Bradley discusses Russian and American politics and what he considers a "fundamental blunder:" the expansion of NATO. 

This is an excerpt from a Carnegie Council talk on January 23, 2008. - Clinton did it:


Here is How The Bush Administration Handled it Seven Years Ago:


EASTERN EUROPE

Gorbachev to defend Putin in Berlin

Mikhail Gorbachev says he will defend current Russian President Vladimir Putin while at a 25th anniversary ceremony of the fall of the Berlin Wall. Gorbachev claims Washington is to blame for the Ukraine crisis.
Mikhail Gorbachev is now 83-years old
Former Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev said he will defend Russia’s policy in Ukraine and President Vladimir Putin when he meets with top German officials this week, for the festivities marking the 25th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall.

“I am absolutely convinced that Putin protects Russia's interests better than anyone else," Gorbachev said.

The last leader of the USSR is set to meet German Chancellor Angela Merkel and President Joachim Gauck during the ceremony, which comes at a time of bitter confrontation between Russia and the West.

The communist who changed history

Gorbachev also said that the current Ukraine crisis provided an “ xcuse" for the United States to pick on Russia.

"Russia agreed to new relations, [and] created new cooperation structures. And everything would be great but not everyone in the United States liked it," he said in an interview with the Interfax news agency on Thursday. "They have different plans, they need a different situation, one that would allow them to meddle everywhere. Whether it will be good or bad, they don’t care," Gorbachev said, referring to Washington.

The 83-year-old is widely praised for his decision not to use force to stop the wave of changes in Eastern Europe during the final years of the Cold War. He is also credited for the reforms of glasnost (openness) and perestroika (restructuring) after coming to power in 1985, and allowing the Wall to fall in 1989, thus effectively ending the Cold War. He has often criticized Vladimir Putin for his authoritarian style of government.

Deal or no deal?

A quarter century after the fall of the Iron Curtain, many former Soviet officials say they feel betrayed by the West. Several politicians from that era have told the AFP news agency that the reunification of Germany was allowed only under the condition that NATO would not expand to the east, into an area traditionally considered a Russian sphere of influence.

Former Gorbachev advisor Anatoly Chernyaev swears that he personally witnessed a pledge from Washington to the Soviet leader not to enlarge NATO.
“With my own ears, I heard Secretary of State James Baker promise Gorbachev on February 9, 1990 in the Kremlin's Catherine the Great hall that NATO would not extend 'even an inch' to the east if we accepted the entry of a unified Germany into the alliance," he said.
/
Western leaders from the same period have rejected claims that such a deal with the Kremlin ever existed.
dj/glb (AFP, dpa)

DW RECOMMENDS

84 comments:

  1. To put it into perspective, how did the US react when the Russians introduced missiles into the Americas?

    Furthermore, ask yourself, what have been the result of the past twenty five years of US foreign policy? Pick your country:

    Afghanistan
    Libya
    Kosovo
    Iraq
    Syria
    Egypt

    You get the idea.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Please listen to the clip from Bill Bradley before you comment.

    ReplyDelete
  3. We were attacked from Afghanistan.

    Look on the bright side -

    Each and all, they all came running to NATO when they got the chance. You know the countries.

    What is the West to do, turn them away, because of some putative whispered promise by someone to somebody somewhere sometime?

    France had more to do with Libya than we. Kosovo? Blame Monika Lewinski. Syria? It blew apart, what can one say.

    Obama tried to intervene in Egypt by backing the MB, of all people. Thankfully the Egyptian military put an end to that.

    There is nothing wrong with some intelligent intervention, but we ain't got it with Obozo.

    We ought to be intervening to help the Kurds. It would be in our interest to do so.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.

      Delete
  4. Q and Rufus on the previous thread commented about Obama introducing additional US troops into Iraq three days after the elections. The US political establishment is simply appalling.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Again, Obama caused this pickle by taking the troops out way too soon in the first place.

      Now to square the pickle, he's putting troops back in.......he doesn't know what the hell he is doing, never did and never will.

      Support the Kurds and leave it at that.

      Delete
    2. Support the Kurds and leave it at that.

      The Us is supporting the Kurds, which means it is supporting Iran and Syria,
      Hezbollah, and the "Clit Clipping Kurds" are all rolled into one package

      Delete
    3. And of course Saddam invaded a member state of the United Nations, starting the ball rolling.

      Delete
  5. The West had a moral, ethical duty to accept those wishing to join NATO to do that.

    It's a better world for it, particularly if you live in those countries.

    A little ability to fill one's lungs with some free air for once.

    They can always leave, if they wish.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.

      Delete
  6. If there is a "new cold war" it's entirely because Pooty is an asshole of the first order.

    He put Pussy Riot in prison.

    Only a true ass hole would do such a thing.

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

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. This comment is an example as to why one should always read the article before mouthing off. Therefore I am taking my comment down.

      Delete
    2. Deleted comment was about California agriculture and pesticides, had nothing to do with the foreign policy world.

      Delete
  8. President Incompetent:

    The 1/3 of the people that voted don't count, I'm gonna listen to the 2/3rds of the country that didn't vote.......



    This is in real:

    har de har har country !

    ReplyDelete
  9. November 9, 2014
    Newsflash: Prime Minister Obama Resigns!
    By Arnold Cusmariu

    The scientific method, Karl Popper told us, is conjecture-refutation. We come up with a hypothesis we believe explains what is going on, figure out a way to put it to a test, and see what reality has to say about it. If the facts prove consistent with the hypothesis, we breathe a sigh of relief and maybe write it all up for publication, including in the narrative as many relevant details as possible so other scientists can verify if hypothesis testing and data interpretation, among other things, were done correctly.

    It’s a different story if the facts prove inconsistent with the hypothesis. If we’re lucky, minor adjustments may be enough to allow another experimental try. But if refutation is conclusive, the hypothesis needs to be junked altogether. The honest thing to do at that point is to admit defeat and go away to mull things over. Denying reality is something science abhors. Falsifying test results will get you booted out of the profession -- unless you’re in the global warming business or work for the UN.

    Unfortunately, politics isn’t science and politicians don’t behave like scientists, even in a system where accountability has meaning in the sense that it’s possible to get rid of bad leaders by voting them out of office -- the political equivalent of scientific refutation. Rather, politicians often behave more like the shop owner in the famous Monty Python “Dead Parrot” sketch played brilliantly by Michael Palin. The facts, clearly on the side of the customer played just as brilliantly by John Cleese, matter not at all to the owner, who tries his hardest not to admit that the parrot is dead. Eventually he does admit it but only after the customer screams at him at the top of his voice.

    What happened Tuesday night, when voters handed congressional control to the GOP, was the equivalent of Americans screaming at the Obama Administration that the country is headed in the wrong direction. This outcome was not that much of a surprise, actually, except to the delusional commentariat on the left, given Obama’s plummeting approval ratings and polls showing Americans to be deeply dissatisfied with his handling of, well, just about everything -- foreign as well as domestic. In scientific terms, mid-term results amounted to a decisive refutation of Obama’s policies and, by implication, rejection of Obama himself as president.

    Is that how Obama saw election results?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Apparently not, according to Peter Baker in the New York Times. A White House aide reportedly said Tuesday night that the president “doesn’t feel repudiated.” Huh? As Baker points out, Obama made it clear before the election -- to the chagrin of Democrats -- he realized that “even if he was not on the ballot, his policies were.” It doesn’t take a genius to put together all the facts I’ve noted and conclude that Tuesday night proved beyond doubt precisely what the president denied happened. Denial, not an option in science, evidently is an option in politics.

      Well, it’s not an option in all political systems. The following democracies, either allies of or friendly toward the United States, are under a system of parliamentary democracy that allows what is called a “motion of no confidence”: Australia, Canada, Germany, India, Japan, Spain, and the United Kingdom. Though there are differences in how such a motion is implemented, when and under what circumstances, the general idea is the same: a person holding a given office, such as a prime minister, is declared no longer fit to hold that position. Once the motion passes, the individual is expected to resign. We’re talking about a parliamentary democracy here not some banana republic where a power-hungry tinhorn goes way beyond the shenanigans of the “Parrot Sketch,” declares martial law, and dissolves parliament. A crazy stunt like that in a parliamentary democracy would land the ousted prime minister in jail.

      Now, imagine that the United States (counterfactually) was a parliamentary democracy and that Americans Tuesday night handed power in both Houses of Congress to the opposition party, the GOP. Republican leaders meet Wednesday morning to decide what to do about Prime Minister Obama, whose policies they and American voters believe correctly have been a disaster for the country. A vote of no confidence is taken. With Republican majorities in the House and the Senate, the motion passes easily. The following day, Prime Minister Obama and his cabinet all resign.

      The point I’m trying to make, if it’s not already obvious, is that a parliamentary democracy system is much closer to the conjecture-refutation method that defines science. Such a system regards the electoral process as similar to testing a hypothesis. As such, it is more sensitive to the will of the people and can react more quickly to replace a bad government leader of his cabinet. A “lame duck government” is all but eliminated. Coalition governments encourage power sharing and discourage partisanship. If we could have dumped Jimmy Carter in time, maybe Iran wouldn’t be building a nuclear weapon today and financing terrorism around the world.

      But that’s not the system we have -- why not is a story for another time. Despite Tuesday night being a referendum on President Obama and his policies, he is legally entitled to finish his term in office with all the powers and prerogatives he had Tuesday morning. Until the next president is sworn in, the White House remains his official residence -- and the golf course his unofficial one. Maybe he’ll spend even more time practicing his swing.

      Peter Baker writes that Obama “will try to use the lame-duck session of the departing Democratic Senate to push through as many nominations as possible.” Whatever that means, outgoing Senate Majority Leader Reid will do his best to oblige. But in light of Tuesday’s rout it remains to be seen whether his party colleagues will go along as easily as they have in the past or even vote to keep him on as minority leader in the next Senate.

      Read more: http://americanthinker.com/articles/2014/11/newsflash_prime_minister_obama_resigns.html#ixzz3IZT35LpD
      Follow us: @AmericanThinker on Twitter | AmericanThinker on Facebook

      Delete
    2. There are excellent counter arguments, however.

      Anybody here, except Q and I, old enough to remember the revolving door governments of Italy, for instance?

      Pure chaos.

      "The human race is ungovernable"

      from Sayings of Bobbo

      Delete
  10. Except in Israel - Christians are disappearing in the Middle East

    November 9, 2014
    Christians Are Disappearing in the Middle East
    By Michael Curtis

    On August 22, 1939, Adolf Hitler, explaining his decision to invade Poland, asked, “Who after all speaks today of the annihilation of the Armenians?"

    On the centennial of the massacre of the Armenians by the Ottoman Empire, it is pertinent to ask, sixty-five years later, if the world is sufficiently aware of the persecutions of Christians, discrimination against them, the lack of respect shown for freedom of religion, and indeed the possible end of Christianity in the Arab and Muslim countries of the Middle East.

    Certainly the World Council of Churches, Churches for Middle Peace, Archbishop Desmond Tutu, and leaders of mainstream Protestant churches, all preoccupied with alleged violations of human rights by the State of Israel, seem to be unaware of, or pay little attention to, the fate of the mosaic of Christian communities in those Arab and Muslim countries. It is baffling that these organizations are so unconcerned with the ethnic cleansing, being carried out by Islamists, of Christians.

    These organizations and the Western mainstream mass media ignore the fact that the Christian communities in Middle East countries, except in Israel, have been declining rapidly, partly because of low birth rates and emigration, but largely because of discrimination and persecution by Muslims. They disregard the current dilemma that 15 million Christians in the Middle East are facing 300 million Muslims and the growing threat of Islamist extremists.

    The problem is not new. Christians have long suffered discrimination, violence, persecution, and deportation in all Middle Eastern countries, and this continues today in all countries of the area except Israel. There are countless examples of that persecution. On October 31, 2010, after hostages were taken, a massacre occurred in the Syriac Catholic Cathedral in Baghdad, with 58 killed and 75 wounded. The bombing of the Coptic (Christian) Church in Alexandria, Egypt killed 21 and injured 79 worshipers.

    The plight today of Christians in Syria and Iraq – in the Mosul area, Orthodox or Catholic, Assyrians or Chaldeans – is a reminder and a warning of what happened exactly a century ago.

    The present persecution recalls the sad story of massacres and what can rightfully be called genocide, even before the term was coined, of Armenians, Assyrians, and Pontic and Anatolian Greeks, committed by the Muslims of the Ottoman Empire. Starting in the 1890s and continuing through World War I, Assyrians were killed or relocated in upper Mesopotamia, now southeast Turkey and northwest Iran. In the massacres of what is known, in the English language, as Sayfo or Seyfo, a number of between 300,000 and 750,000 Assyrians were killed, according to different estimates. Most of the victims belonged to the Assyrian Church (Nestorian) of the East, the denomination once powerful in the 9th century. From the 14th century they were persecuted and forced into mountainous areas and the Hakkari province in the Turkey Kurdish area in Iraq, and western Azerbaijan.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. The story of the genocide of Armenians is well-known, albeit still denied by Turkey. Starting in April 1915, they were massacred in 1915-1916 in the areas of Hakkari, Kurdistan, and Azerbaijan. There is general agreement that between 1 million and 1.5 million lost their lives. Able-bodied men were killed or conscripted to forced labor. Women and children were deported on death marches to the Syrian desert. Concentration camps were set up. Women were violated by Turkish troops.

      The fate of the Yazidis, an ethnically Kurdish group that practices an unusual mixed form of religion, is a warning. They number 700,000, mostly in northern Iraq but some in Turkey and the Caucasus. They became victims of the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria in August 2014. More than 40,000 were forced to flee to the mountains, said to be the final resting place of Noah’s ark. At least 70,000 Yazidis have fled the country.

      The Christian mosaic today is composed of a number of parts. The Coptic Church has 5 million adherents in Egypt, and 250,000 Catholics. The Christian Maronites account for 4 million, of whom half a million are in Lebanon. The Greek Orthodox in a number of countries amount to 2 million. The Armenians, in Armenia and in former countries of the Soviet Union, number 6 million. The Syrian Orthodox and Catholic Churches have 350,000 followers. The Assyrian Church of the East has 300,000 faithful, and there are 500,000 Chaldeans (Assyrian-Chaldeans). Both of these groups speak Aramaic.

      The Chaldeans are members of the autonomous Eastern Catholic Church and recognize the authority of the Pope. The best-known Chaldean was Tariq Aziz, former deputy prime minister of Iraq under Saddam Hussein.

      Christians in all the Middle East countries have suffered. After the war in Iraq in 2003, the number of Assyrian Christians fell from 1.4 million to 300,000. They were caught in the struggle between Sunnis and Shiites, and fled or were displaced. The 2011 revolution in Egypt led to riots between Christian Copts (10 percent) of the population and Muslims. In Lebanon, rule by the Christian Maronites, now reduced to 20 percent of the population, has ended, and hostilities still continue between the Hezb'allah Shia groups and the remains of the Phalange party. Christians have been rapidly been emigrating from Lebanon.

      Most serious of all has been the brutality of the Islamic State. The evidence from the city of Mosul, the major city in northern Iraq, is appalling. After capturing the city, IS engaged in mass murders, imposed strict sharia law, looted and burned churches, and forced women to wear the veil. The shrine in Mosul of Jonah, said to be the burial site of the prophet swallowed by a whale, was destroyed by IS on July 24, 2014. Christians in Mosul once numbered 130,000; now fewer than 2,000 are left. Those few may be forced to convert, accept inferior status, or be killed.

      It is sad that not only is Islamist extremism a physical threat to Christians, but it is leading to the end of cultural pluralism and religious tolerance. It is a reaction against the process of modernization that Christians have endorsed to a greater degree than have Muslims.

      The mainstream Christian churches of the West seem unwilling to help alleviate the plight of Christians in the Middle East. It was heartening that resolutions in 2010 in both the U.S. Senate and House of Representatives called on the Obama administration to help end the persecution of Christians and ethnic minorities in Iraq. The time is long overdue for this to be done for the Christians in all of the Middle East.

      Read more: http://americanthinker.com/articles/2014/11/christians_are_disappearing_in_the_middle_east.html#ixzz3IZV2tzUh
      Follow us: @AmericanThinker on Twitter | AmericanThinker on Facebook

      Delete
    2. Roboposter is up and at 'em.

      Here he is:

      ack HawkinsFri Jul 18, 12:36:00 AM EDT

      I mean, you are an Israeli, and here is nothing worse than that.

      In all the world, the Arabs of Israel are the scum.

      Now if you were a European, well thatd be different, but Israelis are all Arabs, Semites.
      Scum of the Earth

      ;-)

      Have a nightmare tonight and a shitty tomorrow,
      QuirkFri Jul 18, 01:13:00 AM EDT

      .

      And the voice of the rat is heard in the land.

      And the world once again cringes.

      .
      Bob OreilleFri Jul 18, 02:35:00 AM EDT

      "I mean, you are an Israeli, and there is nothing worse than that."

      There we go. That's a keeper. I am going to store that one.

      Jack "Hamasass PsychoRat of the Desert" Hawkins puts it in one concise line.


      His whole outlook. Simple, ignorant, unbelievably irrational.

      No wonder most people can't stand him.

      Delete
    3. There are certain little buttons one can push, and, yup, sure as goodmorning up comes a robopost by rato that we've all read dozens of times.

      So, might as well return the favor.

      Delete
    4. BobSun Jun 22, 01:42:00 PM EDT

      When did I ever say I was a scholar??

      I don't recall saying that.

      I have a college degree in English Lit. from U of Washington.

      To avoid being drafted
      in part. ...

      Delete
  11. Arizona's Immigrant Smuggling Law Struck Down

    A federal judge in Phoenix, Az., struck down a state law against smuggling immigrants into the United States. This was the latest state-enacted rule against illegal immigration in Arizona that has been thumbed down in court

    ReplyDelete

  12. U.S.-led airstrikes target gathering of ISIS leaders in Iraq

    Local residents report that Islamic State's local leader in the western Iraqi province of Anbar and his deputy were killed.


    http://www.haaretz.com/news/middle-east/1.625339

    ReplyDelete
  13. Mikhail Gorbachev, whose “perestroika” and “glasnost” reforms helped pave the way for the fall of the Berlin Wall 25 years ago, warned the world was on the “brink of a new Cold War”, German news agency DPA reported.

    “The world is on the brink of a new Cold War. Some are even saying that it has already begun,” the 83-year-old said, amid tensions between the West and Russia over Ukraine.

    He complained of a “breakdown of trust” in recent months, adding: “Let us remember that there can be no security in Europe without German-Russian partnership.”

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. We already read that, Jack.

      Delete
    2. If you have an important point to make, don't try to be subtle or clever.
      Use a pile driver. Hit the point once.

      Then come back and hit it again.

      Then hit it a third time - a tremendous whack.

      Delete

  14. Bibi proclaims Israel irrelevant
    Netanyahu: Israel won't accept deal that leaves Iran a nuclear threshold state

    http://www.haaretz.com/news/middle-east/1.625457

    ReplyDelete
  15. Syrian government helicopters and warplanes carried out a series of airstrikes overnight on a northern town controlled by the Islamic State group, killing at least 21 people ...

    The air raids struck the town of al-Bab in Aleppo province late Saturday and lasted through early Sunday morning.

    ReplyDelete
  16. BAGHDAD (Reuters) - Iraqi military forces reached the center of the northern city of Baiji on Sunday to try to break an Islamic State siege of the country's biggest refinery nearby, according to an army colonel and a witness.

    ReplyDelete
  17. Iran, U.S., EU hold nuclear talks in Oman, 2 weeks to deadline

    By Warren Strobel

    MUSCAT, Nov 9 (Reuters) - With only two weeks to a deadline for a breakthrough deal, senior envoys of Iran, the United States and European Union met in Oman on Sunday to try to advance efforts to defuse a standoff over Tehran's nuclear programme.



    http://www.dailymail.co.uk/wires/reuters/article-2827211/Kerry-Zarif-Ashton-start-nuclear-talks-Oman-witness.html

    ReplyDelete
  18. Wow.

    Cotton absolutely clobbered Pryor, he of the famous name -

    Arkansas Pryor 39.5 Cotton 56.5 (100%) GOP Pickup

    ReplyDelete
  19. And Ernst/Braley wasn't even close -

    Iowa Braley 43.7 Ernst 52.2 (100%) GOP Pickup

    What in hell was I worried about?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. You are afraid of fear itself, Robert "Draft Dodger" Peterson.
      Because there is nothing to fear, but fear itself.

      Delete
  20. And then there was that Democratic Stronghold of West Virginia -

    West Virginia Tennant 34.5 Capito 62.1 (100%) GOP Pickup

    Wow, just WOW

    ReplyDelete
  21. Want Montana?

    Want South Dakota?

    I'm not going to be that mean to poor Rufus.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. (It is after all a Sunday - and Rufus needs his day of rest)

      Delete
  22. BBC News -

    Protests in Mexico after claims of Guerrero student deaths

    Hundreds of protesters in the Mexican state of Guerrero have attacked government buildings in the capital, Chilpancingo, burning cars.

    ReplyDelete
  23. Charlie Le Duff in the news - visited this breaking story earlier but this has some good pics and video of Le Duff -

    Justice: Squatter Arrested During News Investigation
    "I am blessed."
    11.8.2014
    New

    A squatter was arrested and thrown out of a home she was illegally occupying during a news investigation after police were shown the deed was in another person's name.

    Reporter Charlie LeDuff set out to confront the squatter, who was shamelessly living in Sarah Hamilton-Gilmer's property and refusing to leave. LeDuff was suited up in a bathrobe and intent on being allowed to squat with the squatter.

    With permission from the actual homeowner, LeDuff was given the keys and the deed and headed over to occupy the home. He was met on the porch by the squatter, known as Lynn Arthur Williams, Jr. Despite the name Arthur, William claims she's all woman.

    Williams was on probation at the time for felony assault with a deadly weapon. LeDuff made sure police were on site during the investigation.

    On the porch, Williams seemed keen on letting the reporter inside the house after being shown the deed. That is until LeDuff said, "Let me in my house." Williams responded, "Let you in your house? This is Lynn Williams's house."

    Williams, who makes a living receiving Social Security benefits for a disability she refused to disclose, says she has "put a lot of work" into and "spent a lot of money" on the house and doesn't feel bad about claiming the property as her own. She defends herself, saying that there are plenty of other squatters in the neighborhood.

    LeDuff also points out that Williams has been stealing electricity from a neighbor's home thanks to illegal wiring. She responded:

    I am blessed.

    As the police arrive and see that Williams has no right to occupy the home, the investigation unexpectedly turns into an arrest and eviction.

    Watch justice happen below via The Americans with Charlie LeDuff:



    http://www.truthrevolt.org/news/justice-squatter-arrested-during-news-investigation


    Sad story, when the upshot is

    "Blessed are the squatters, they shall finally have a cot and three hot meals a day"

    ReplyDelete
  24. well said,check this out... http://jump.gooffers.net/aff_c?offer_id=6295&aff_id=19064

    ReplyDelete
  25. Obama Inc. Rejects Joint Chiefs of Staff Defense of Israel


    The Chairman of the Joint Chiefs defended Israel’s actions during its campaign against Hamas terrorism and even said that the military was learning from Israel’s attempts to prevent civilian casualties.

    “I actually do think that Israel went to extraordinary lengths to limit collateral damage and civilian casualties. In fact, about 3 months ago we sent, we asked [IDF Chief of Staff] Benny [Gantz] if we could send a lessons learned team – one of the things we do better than anybody I think is learn – and we sent a team of senior officers and non-commissioned officers over to work with the IDF to get the lessons from that particular operation in Gaza.”

    “To include the measures they took to prevent civilian casualties and what they did with tunneling, because Hamas had become very nearly a subterranean society. And so, that caused the IDF some significant challenges. But they did some extraordinary things to try to limit civilian casualties to include calling out, making it known that they were going to destroy a particular structure. Even developed some techniques, they call it roof knocking, to have something knock on the roof, they would display leaflets to warn citizens and population to move away from where these tunnels.”

    “But look in this kind of conflict, where you are held to a standard that your enemy is not held to, you’re going to be criticized for civilian casualties. So I think if Benny were sitting here right now he would say to you we did everything we could and now we’ve learned from that mission and we think there are some other things we could do in the future and we will do those.”

    “The IDF is not interested in creating civilian casualties they’re interested in stopping the shooting of rockets and missiles, out of the Gaza Strip and in to Israel, and its an incredibly difficult environment, and I can say to you with confidence that I think that … they acted responsible.”

    State Department spokeswoman Psaki however countered that the administration still hates Israel................

    http://www.frontpagemag.com/2014/dgreenfield/obama-inc-rejects-joint-chiefs-of-staff-defense-of-israel/

    Thus endeth my formal list of early Sunday Morning readings......

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. >>>> Hamas had become very nearly a subterranean society <<<<

      Mentally, psychologically a totally subterranean society, that much is for certain.

      Delete
    2. “It is time to honestly admit that Israeli society is ill – and it is our duty to treat this disease,”
      Rivlin told the Israel Academy of Sciences and Humanities on Sunday at a conference titled
      “From Xenophobia to Accepting the Other.”

      “The tension between Jews and Arabs within the State of Israel has risen to record heights, and the relationship between all parties has reached a new low,”
      he said.
      “We have all witnessed the shocking sequence of incidents and violence taking place by both sides.
      The epidemic of violence is not limited to one sector or another, it permeates every area and doesn’t skip any arena.
      There is violence in soccer stadiums as well as in the academia.
      There is violence in the social media and in everyday discourse, in hospitals and in schools.”



      “I’m not asking if they’ve forgotten how to be Jews, but if they’ve forgotten how to be decent human beings. Have they forgotten how to converse?”
      - Reuven Rivlin, President of Israel

      Delete
  26. 17 shot: Oaxaca Mayor orders citizens fired upon, he is now a fugitive

    On orders from Carlos Vásquez Rebollar, the mayor of San Baltazar Chichicapan, Oaxaca, three men who are cousins of the PRI Municipal President, shot people from the community, leaving 17 people
    injured, including women and children.

    The mayor is a fugitive.

    ReplyDelete
  27. Obama Inc ....

    That would be General Dynamics ...
    NYSE: GD - 7NOV2014 @ 4:03 PM ET the stock price = $140.14
    back on 6MAR2009, just six weeks after Barack Inc. took control ... the stock price was $36.49

    That's a 384% increase.

    Performance counts

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Through thick and thin ...
      Obama Inc. made sure the GD battle tank fabrication facility, in Cairo, Egypt, did not stop production of the M1 Abrams.

      Delete
    2. When the contract is complete, the Egyptian Army will have 1,400 M1A1 Abrams main battle tanks


      Delete
  28. Iraq investigating whether Islamic State leader al-Baghdadi killed in US air strikes
    Reports that Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi killed in US air strike on Islamic State convoy near Mosul investigated

    http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/islamic-state/11219217/Iraq-investigating-whether-Islamic-State-leader-al-Baghdadi-killed-in-US-air-strikes.html

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. US Central Command, which oversees American forces in the Middle East, on Saturday said that coalition aircraft conducted a "series of air strikes" against "a gathering of (Isil) leaders near Mosul".

      "We cannot confirm if (Isil) leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi was among those present," said Centcom spokesman Patrick Ryder.

      The US-led strikes late on Friday were a further sign of "the pressure we continue to place on the Isil terrorist network," he said, using another acronym for the Islamic State group.

      The aim was to squeeze the group and ensure it had "increasingly limited freedom to manoeuvre, communicate and command".

      "I can't absolutely confirm that Baghdadi has been killed," General Nicholas Houghton, the chief of staff of the British armed forces, told BBC television on Sunday. "Probably it will take some days to have absolute confirmation."

      Delete
  29. Iraq troops 'seize Baiji oil refinery town centre' from IS
    http://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-29974426

    Iraqi government forces have seized large areas of the town of Baiji - home to Iraq's biggest oil refinery - from Islamic State fighters, officials say.

    They said the troops controlled some 50% of the town, about 200km (130 miles) north of the capital Baghdad.

    IS-led militants took Baiji in June, in one of their earliest victories, but did not capture the refinery.

    ReplyDelete
  30. Staff writer | Al Arabiya News
    Saturday, 8 November 2014

    The leader of the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS), Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, was “critically wounded” when a U.S.-led air strike targeted the western Iraqi border town of al-Qaim, tribal sources told Al Arabiya News Channel on Saturday.

    Read also: Can ISIS maintain the ‘Caliphate’ without Baghdadi?

    U.S. Central Command confirmed in a statement that U.S.-led air strikes targeted ISIS leaders near their northern Iraqi hub of Mosul late Friday, without confirming whether Baghdadi was killed, AFP reported.

    “This strike demonstrates the pressure we continue to place on the ISIL [ISIS] terrorist network and the group's increasingly limited freedom to maneuver, communicate and command," U.S. Central Command said.

    Anbar province MP Mohammad al-Karbuli told Al Arabiya News Channel that coalition aircraft had targeted a gathering of ISIS leaders in al-Qaim that led to the killing of tens of people and wounded many more.

    Karbuli said chaos ensued the air raid with ISIS members scrambling to transport their wounded to al-Qaim hospital which was overwhelmed with the number of patients.

    Reuters news agency quoted two witnesses as saying an air strike targeted a house where senior ISIS officers were meeting, near al-Qaim.

    The witnesses said ISIS fighters had cleared a hospital so that their wounded could be treated. ISIS fighters used loudspeakers to urge residents to donate blood, the witnesses said.

    The agency also quoted residents as saying there were unconfirmed reports that ISIS’ local leader in the western Iraqi province of Anbar and his deputy were killed.


    (With Agencies)

    Last Update: Sunday, 9 November 2014 KSA 13:22 - GMT 10:22

    ReplyDelete
  31. 10 Toyotas - 50 dead headcutters.

    Hmm, where have I heard That ratio, before?

    :)

    ReplyDelete
  32. In October 1966, Defense Secretary Robert McNamara initiated Project 100,000 which further lowered military standards for 100,000 additional draftees per year.

    McNamara claimed this program would provide valuable training, skills and opportunity to America’s poor - a promise that was never carried out. (He did this with a straight face)

    Many black men who had previously been ineligible could now be drafted, along with many poor and racially intolerant white men from the southern states.] The number of US military personnel in Vietnam jumped from 23,300 in 1965 to 465,600 by the end of 1967. Between October 1966 and June 1969, 246,000 soldiers were recruited through Project 100,000, of which 41% were black, while blacks only made up about 11% of the population of the US.

    Of the 27 million draft-age men between 1964 and 1973, 40% were drafted into military service, and only 10% were actually sent to Vietnam. This group was made up almost entirely of either work-class or rural youth. College students who did not avoid the draft were generally sent to non-combat and service roles or made officers, while high school drop-outs and the working class were sent into combat roles. Blacks often made up a disproportionate 25% or more of combat units, while constituting only 12% of the military

    ReplyDelete
  33. The Stars and Stripes, the US military news paper distributed overseas, published the names, ages and addresses of the weekly KIA. When it first started, the numbers were in the teens. By 1967 it was not unusual to have over five hundred names published. I don’t think that they knew how to turn it off and continued publishing.

    There were a lot of never-saw-their-twenty-first-birthdays and were clearly heavily weighted from rural areas in the South and large Eastern cities.

    ReplyDelete
  34. Isis leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi has reportedly been “critically wounded” in a US-led air strike on a gathering of leaders of the Islamic terror group in the western Iraqi border town of al-Qaim.

    Tribal sources told Iraqi news channel Al Arabiya that after the air raid Isis members scrambled to transport their wounded to al-Qaim hospital which was overwhelmed with the injured.

    Reuters news agency quoted two witnesses as saying the air strike targeted a house where senior Isis officers were meeting. Witnesses said Isis fighters had cleared a hospital of patients so the wounded could be treated and used loudspeakers to order residents to donate blood.

    U.S. Central Command confirmed in a statement that U.S-led air strikes targeted leaders of the terrorist group near their northern Iraqi hub of Mosul late Friday, but did not confirm whether Baghdadi was killed

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Here's the problem: Al Qaim is way, far away from Mosul. The U.S. airstrikes were on a convoy in the Mosul area.

      I'm thinking that maybe the Brits hit Al Qaim, and, possibly, Al Baghdadi.

      Delete
    2. Or, maybe he's smoking big, fat cigars, drinking fine brandy, and banging Yazidi chicks in his Villa in Aleppo. :)

      It doesn't matter. He's a dead man walking, whatever the case.

      Delete
    3. There is a power struggle within ISIS -- about par for the course within Muslim "organizations". If he is not dead, he soon will be. Because these fellows cannot get along, the IDF has been given targeting information for years by rivals for leadership. This explains how the IDF has been able to pick out a particular motorcycle or automobile among thousands, at a time and place certain, and make the kill.

      Although this may appear to be good news, it will have little impact in the long run. Since the operating model of ISIS et al is the sowing of bloody chaos, finding new leadership has a low threshold. Of note is what happened to the Western strategists who brought ISIS to near victory? For two months, the Western touch has been missing, leaving ISIS to blunder, blindly, like Frankenstein in a china shop.

      Delete
    4. .

      I tend to disagree, Allen.

      Somewhere above, the rat put this up.

      Local residents report that Islamic State's local leader in the western Iraqi province of Anbar and his deputy were killed.

      Initially, I put up the following

      Then, local residents reported that the 'new' Islamic State local leader mounted up his Toyota and took his troops to raid a nearby village.

      I pulled it down when I saw the post about Baghdadi. Early on, when asked by someone here what I would do in Iraq, one of the things I mentioned was find and take out Baghdadi. IMO, IS has waged a campaign that while bloody and disgusting has also been effective and, dare I say, sophisticated. They are self-funded, have conquered and now control large amounts of territory, and by using coercion and social media have grown from a force of 10,000 to what some in the military say now amounts to over 30,000. Baghdadi has, either by himself or through those he has recruited, been the chief architect of their vision and organizing factor in bringing about that success.

      The fact that they would change tactics when confronted by US air power was predictable and predicted here. And given the activity over the last two months it is hard to say they have been on the defensive rather than that they have just picking and choosing where they decide to hit (no pun intended).

      Admittedly, IS isn't going to go away but the loss of Baghdadi would be a major blow, both operationally and optically in terms of their reputation and their recruiting efforts.

      .

      Delete
  35. Nearly everyone agrees now that Vietnam was a big mistake.
    Started by the democrats, and ended by the democrats.

    AuH2O, if elected, probably would have had it over in much shorter order, but we will never know.

    The main use of Vietnam these days, if discourse around here is any indication, is to drum up some reason to personally attack someone else.

    I say that's not worth it either.



    ReplyDelete
  36. http://www.jpost.com/Israel-News/Lawyers-demand-probe-into-Olmerts-allegations-Barak-took-millions-in-bribe-money-381231
    NGO: Probe Olmert allegations that Barak took millions in bribes

    ReplyDelete
  37. On the bright side, there is a wonderful run of salmon going on in the Snake, Clearwater, Salmon.......thanks in no small part to the efforts of the Nez Perce Tribe......

    (Wonderful in post-dam sense only)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. So good, in fact, that the last time I was down to the Clearwater Casino, I noticed a program where one could buy some 'tribal fishing rights" to get into the action, for a fee.

      Legal, probably, especially at Tribal Court Level, but it left a bad taste in my mouth.

      Their sacred tribal fishing rights now for sale for fee at the Casino?

      These are not the Nez Perce of old, wonderful people though they are still.

      My friend "Umatilla Jack" has gone fishing too, and I'm certain he's caught something already.

      Delete
  38. This comment has been removed by the author.

    ReplyDelete
  39. Hatch urges Senate not to rush approval of AG Lynch...

    Represented Clintons in Whitewater.................drudge

    ;)

    The roots are tangled, the roots are deep, but when was that ever a stop to any hopes I keep?

    ReplyDelete
  40. http://dailycaller.com/2014/11/07/veterans-affairs-keeps-buying-bogus-and-counterfeit-medical-equipment/
    Veterans Affairs Keeps Buying Bogus And Counterfeit Medical Equipment

    ReplyDelete
  41. http://discoverymagazineus.com/elite/report.html
    Leonardo DiCaprio Reveals The Real Life 'Limitless Pill' That Doubled His IQ In Minutes

    A doubling would put his current IQ at about 98. He really is an average guy, more or less.

    ReplyDelete
  42. http://www.thedailybeast.com/cheats/2014/11/09/khamenei-tweets-plan-to-end-israel.html
    Khamenei Tweets Plan to End Israel

    ReplyDelete
  43. Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei tweeted out a plan for wiping Israel off the map on Sunday. Through answering nine questions, the Ayatollah tweeted from his official account how to destroy the “fake Zionist regime.” He proposed a referendum to install a completely new government that will decide whether "Jewish immigrants who have been persuaded into emigration to Palestine" are allowed to remain in Israel or will be made to “return to their home countries.” The revealed details of his plan do not appear to involve a violent massacre of Jews.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. .

      Not the first time. Past Iranian 'threats' against Israel amounted to denouncing the peace process where the emphasis was on a 'two-state' solution. Iran has always favored a one state solution in Israel always assuming that eventually the Palestinians would become the majority there.

      .

      Delete
  44. Meanwhile the Missouri National Guard is drawing up contingency plans concerning containing the inevitable rioting, burning, etc by the lumpenproletariate upon release of the Grand Jury proceedings exonerating the Police Officer in the Ferguson Affair.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Hopefully, for efficiency's sake, they have had some professional interaction with the Israelis........

      Fewer dead, less property damage, etc.......

      Delete
    2. American Thinker Blog
      Ferguson authorities brace for violence as grand jury readies decision November 9, 2014 The rioters are prepping too. More

      Delete
  45. Meanwhile meanwhile, the Seattle Sea Hawks will be on the air shortly.

    ReplyDelete
  46. A dozen ISIS fighters killed after chefs infiltrate camp and POISON terrorists' lunch

    Nov 08, 2014 11:53
    By Chris Gee

    Syrian free Army infiltrators posed as cooks and slipped poison into the meals of fighters


    Poisoned at lunch: Cook killed ISIS fighters by mixing poison in their meals

    Revolutionaries posing as cooks infiltrated an ISIS camp and poisoned meals in a bid to kill as many fighters as they could.

    Sources in the Syrian Free Army said a dozen Islamic State militants perished after eating a contaminated lunch at the Fath El-Sahel camp, where 1,200 are based.

    The rebels who hatched the plot were a group of defected Syrian soldiers who are fighting to overthrow President Bashar al-Assad.

    The Times of Iraq reported that witnesses said around a dozen were killed and 15 transferred to nearby field hospitals.

    The 'cooks' immediately fled, along with their families, with the help of fellow revolutionaries.

    See ISIS fighters bartering for young women at 'slave girl market' in the shocking video below.

    http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/world-news/dozen-isis-fighters-killed-after-4590573

    The way to stop a man's heart is through his stomach, or something.

    ReplyDelete
  47. ISIS will probably counter by using Yazdi women as food tasters......

    ReplyDelete
  48. Benjamin Netanyahu on Sunday warned the six world powers, including the US, against caving to Iranian demands to pursue its nuclear program, just so that it can meet a November 24th deadline to conclude a deal with Tehran.

    “The international community faces a clear choice,” Netanyahu said. “It can cave to Iranian demands in an agreement that would be dangerous for Israel and the world.”

    “Or it can stand firm and insist that Iran dismantle its capacity to produce nuclear weapons,” he said.

    Israel won’t support any agreement that allows Iran to be a threshold nuclear state, Netanyahu said.

    He spoke as Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif met with US Secretary of State John Kerry, European Union envoy Catherine Ashton and Oman's Foreign Minister Yusuf Bin Alawi Bin Abdullah in Oman to advance efforts to end a standoff over Tehran's nuclear program, according to Oman TV.

    The discussions, aimed at curbing Iran’s sensitive uranium enrichment work in return for a gradual lifting of sanctions, are taking place just two weeks before a self-imposed Nov. 24 deadline for reaching a comprehensive deal.

    Iranian official media also reported the start of the Muscat talks.

    The West suspects Iran has covertly sought to develop the means to build nuclear weapons.

    Israel has stated those concerns outright. “The reports that we continue to get from the International Atomic Energy Agency shows that Iran continues to lie and deceive the world with respect to its pursuit of nuclear weapons,” Netanyahu said on Sunday.

    Iran is ruled by a regime that calls for Israel’s destruction and denies human rights to its citizens.

    “We must do everything to make sure that such a regime is not armed with nuclear weapons,” Netanyahu said.

    ReplyDelete
  49. One question.

    If Iran is willing to give up a nuclear deterrence, what does Israel, armed to the teeth with nuclear weapons, do in exchange that will ensure Iranian security? Israelis quitting assassinations is not going to cut it.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Israel has shown by its restraint all these decades that it is to be trusted with nuclear weapons.

      It does not announce a world without Iran.

      Israel does not have a suicidal ethos to bring in Paradise through a world conflagration.

      Israel is a sane country.

      Iran under the mullahs is not.

      Delete
    2. It is the major political part of Islam to dominate the entire earth, let us not forget.

      Delete