Edited for brevity.
In an age of multimillion-dollar high-tech weapons systems, sometimes it's the simplest ideas that can save lives. Which is why a New Jersey mother is organizing a drive to send cans of Silly String to Iraq. American troops use the stuff to detect trip wires around bombs, as Marcelle Shriver learned from her son, a soldier in Iraq.
Before entering a building, troops squirt the plastic goo, which can shoot strands about 10 to 12 feet, across the room. If it falls to the ground, no trip wires. If it hangs in the air, they know they have a problem. The wires are otherwise nearly invisible.
Now, 1,000 cans of the neon-colored plastic goop are packed into Shriver's one-car garage in this town outside Philadelphia, ready to be shipped to the Middle East thanks to two churches and a pilot who heard about the drive. The maker of the Silly String brand, Just for Kicks Inc. of Watertown, N.Y., has contacted the Shrivers about donating some.
Marcelle Shriver said that since the string comes in an aerosol can, it is considered a hazardous material, meaning the Postal Service will not ship it by air. But a private pilot who heard about her campaign has agreed to fly the cans to Kuwait - most likely in January - where they will then be taken to Iraq.
Posted by: Dar ||
12/06/2006 17:27 ||
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#1
Brilliant!
Posted by: Mark E. ||
12/06/2006 17:47 Comments ||
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#2
As usual, the solution is right there, but pinheads stand in the way.
#5
Indeed, grom. Soldiers improvising creative solutions is neat to hear about, but SOP. What floors me is that creative solutions are required in the first place due to the enemy's Geneva violations and war crimes -- as is the case here -- and that aspect goes completely unremarked upon by the press.
As if it's the white man's burden, so to speak, to just take barbaric, perfidious, illegal tactics in stride. And, find a way around their own government's st00pid regulations in the process. Argh.
Anyway, I don't see why this couldn't be scaled up. Perhaps the ISG will recommend Silly-Stringing the whole friggin joint. Tie em all up good and tight, then tell em we'll be back after all the task forces, investigations, committee hearings, studies, reviews, and blue ribbon panels figure out what to do. Heh.
(SomaliNet) The local administration in Baidoa city, southwest of Somalia has on Tuesday officially announced an order banning small passenger cars notably the kinds of Mark II from Mogadishu capital, a city controlled by the Islamic Courts Union.
The order will get into effect on Wednesday when all Mark II cars would be banned to enter Baidoa in precaution steps to tighten the security days after a car bomb explosion at one of the main entrances to the city, killing at least 10 people and injuring dozens more.
The ban, initially issued yesterday was delayed for technical reasons.
The local officials in Baidoa said this measure was part of stepping up security in the region and to prevent more explosions. "The ban would affect only Mark II sorts but other big Lorries and mini buses would go normally and go under firm searches before entering Baidoa," local official said.
The drivers of Mark II passenger cars already complained about the latest ban describing it as unwanted and obstacle to their livelihood. "This ban is a real problem to our life, because I am driver of Mark II who drives between Mogadishu and Baidoa, I cover the need of my family with this job so if it stops I do not know what to do," Aden Mohamed Ali, a driver who works on the road between Baidoa and Mogadishu told Somalinet.
Mr. Mohamed said that the number of Mark II cars to Baido, which was 14 cars has reduced to 7 cars due to the reports on the car that exploded outside Baidoa was Mark II.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/06/2006 00:00 ||
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No more small passengers, eh? Just toss those midgets to the Islamonuts.
(SomaliNet) Two commanders of a rebel group active in the northeast of Central African Republic (CAR) were killed during French-backed army operations to restore government control of the region, officials said Tuesday.
CAR's defence ministry statement read on state radio by presidential press spokesman Barthelemy Feidoka said the rebels, General Damane Zakaria and Capt. Diego Albator Yao, were killed in fighting with government troops. However, there was no independent confirmation of the deaths of the two UFDR commanders. There was no answer from Yao's satellite phone on Tuesday.
French military advisers and French Mirage fighters have since late November been assisting the government army in an offensive to regain control of the northeast Vakaga prefecture where UFDR fighters had seized a string of towns since Oct. 30.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/06/2006 00:00 ||
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Another key al-Qaeda man thought responsible for activities in Turkey has been captured in Hatay in southeastern Turkey. Named Malek Charahili, he is thought to have succeeded the Syrian al-Qaeda militant Luai Sakka, who was captured on the verge of a suicide attack against Israeli cruise ships in Turkey. Sakka was sent to an F type prison in Kandira, sentenced to life imprisonment. "F-type" as in "You're f**ked"?
A Tunisian national, Charahili has been living in Hatay for three years masquerading as an artisan. He reportedly helped with the transfer of insurgents to Iraq. The operation in Hatay was coordinated by the national security department, the National Intelligence Service, and the Hatay Security Directorate. Intelligence teams had been following Charahili for almost six months. The police tapped his phone calls and discovered his links at home and abroad. After a police investigation, special teams from the Hatay Security Directorate realized simultaneous raids on three different addresses. Bomb-making materials were found in Charahilis house.
via Drudge. Standard European treachery at the link (hudna for Israel instead of peace, etc), but additional info:
Meanwhile, sources close to the PA government claimed that Hamas representatives recently held talks with officials from the US Democratic Party at an undisclosed location.
#1
Not surprising at all, if true. Here's another example. I can't vouch for the veracity of CNS or Mitrokhin or Romerstein, but this one wouldn't surprise me either.
#7
The Democrats chose several elections ago, Grunter. They went with the population group that better fit with their real goals and aspirations. The key is that more and more Jews are figuring it out, too, and voting with their feet.
#8
"Sooner or later the Democrats will have to choose between the Jewish vote and the Muslim vote."
They already have.
Anymore the only kind of politics the Democrats know how to play is what I call the Politics of Parasitism: pick a cohesive, readily identifiable group of people predisposed to feeling sorry for themselves, and figure out how to buy their votes by handing out free shit to them-- either $$$$ or special group priviledges, or both. Then figure out who's going to serve as wallet in this vote-buying scheme (usually you and me), and concoct some superficially-plausible but bullshit rationale for grabbing a chunk of their hard-earned paychecks. Then set the MSM loose on the task of pimping for the former group, while demonizing the latter.
And then sit back and wait for the votes to come rollin' in.
With Islam and the Democrats, you have a marriage made in Hell: the world's foremost whiney self-pitiers locked in a slimy embrace with the world's foremost sympathy-pimps.
Beautiful. Simply beautiful.
Posted by: Dave D. ||
12/06/2006 21:25 Comments ||
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#10
The Dems havent abandoned the Jewishvote nor has thee Jewishvote abandoned the Dems. In the past election the Jewish vote ranged up to 85% Dem.
Even Keith Ellison was supported by 65% of the Jewishvote. This was partly because Ellison had made a number of apparently antiTerrorism statements and the Jewish leaders in the District didn't notice (or pretended not to notice) the caveats, the ambiguities, etc.
#12
The link in the leader does not work. Here is another article dealing with the same news item.
"Sooner or later the Democrats will have to choose between the Jewish vote and the Muslim vote."
They already have.
You beat me to it, David D.
In their febrile haste to regain political ascendancy, the democrats have disregarded every single notion of protecting America's interests or its people. The almighty vote will be sought at any cost, even that of national security.
Any democrat-Muslim alliance represents the height of political malfeasance. The majority of democratic causes are pure anathema to Islam. Unseating vigorous supporters of the Global War on Terrorism is the sole objective of democratic voting Muslims and they would just as soon be chopping off the hands and heads of all other democrat followers at the soonest possible moment.
If the democrats are found to be consorting with Palestinian terrorists, or any other terrorists for that matter, they should be brought up on charges of treason. There are limits and this goes so far beyond all acceptable conduct that legal action must await any such betrayal.
The source told Maannews the Democrats expressed an understanding with the Hamas principal of not recognizing Israel and applauded Hamas' willingness to accept a long-term cease-fire with the Jewish state in exchange for an Israeli withdrawal to what is known as the pre-1967 borders meaning an evacuation of the Gaza Strip, West Bank and eastern sections of Jerusalem.
IF, this is true, it is an outright betrayal of American interests. It also gives undue validation to a known terrorist group and there should be criminal charges arising from it.
"Of course Americans should vote Democrat," Jihad Jaara, a senior member of the Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigades terror group and the infamous leader of the 2002 siege of Bethlehem's Church of the Nativity, told WND last month.
"This is why American Muslims will support the Democrats, because there is an atmosphere in America that encourages those who want to withdraw from Iraq. It is time that the American people support those who want to take them out of this Iraqi mud," said Jaara, speaking to WND from exile in Ireland, where he was sent as part of an internationally brokered deal that ended the church siege.
Jaara was the chief in Bethlehem of the Brigades, the declared "military wing" of Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas' Fatah party.
Never forget, Jaara is the turd who desecrated the Church of the Nativity. I'm surprised he has managed to survive in Ireland. Someone needs to leak his true identity.
This is a blatantly transparent marriage of convenience. If the democrats are idiotic enough not to figure this out, then there needs to be some sort of legal action taken. Again, this is treason.
#13
It is blatantly obvious that Hamas, Hezbo and AQ share the same public affairs agency. The agency simply changes the letter head, the text is analogous
Posted by: Captain America ||
12/06/2006 23:14 Comments ||
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#14
mhw, the claim that 85% of Jews voted Democrat in the November election was based on faulty sampling -- I posted a lovely analysis of the data
here a week later. From the article:
one specific result within the exit poll data: namely how Jewish voters within the national sample, had voted in the races for the U.S. House of Representatives. That sub-sample of just over 200 people who self-identified as Jewish voters (about 2% of the total survey sample), reported that they had voted 87% for Democrats 12% for Republicans.
The same day the national voter survey data was made available, the RJC released a survey of a much larger sample of Jews conducted by Arthur J. Finkelstein & Associates in three states and Congressional districts with close races this past week. The RJC survey suggested that the 2006 Jewish voting pattern closely resembled that in 2004: 26% support for Republicans in the House races, and 27% in the Senate contest (there were also Senate races in Pennsylvania and Florida this year). The Finkelstein survey of 1,000 Jewish voters interviewed both older and younger voters, and members of the different Jewish branches in America reform, conservative, and orthodox. Age and the branch of Judaism, both seemed to matter a lot in the 2004 survey results, and they did again this year: the more often a Jew attended synagogue, the more likely he or she was to vote Republican. Similarly, younger Jews, and in particular younger Jewish males, were much more likely to vote Republican. Orthodox Jews were more than twice as likely to vote Republican as Reform Jews.
The authors are an analyst and a statistics professor, and they really tear into the details of the statistics -- a fascinating read, I thought. "Lies, damned lies and statistics" indeed.
I was aware of the sampling problems (not even close to as well read as you on the subject) that why I said "up to 85%" (and I could have said it better)
Hundreds of wanted-terrorist posters are being distributed during the holiday season to U.S. airports by the U.S. State Department Bureau of Diplomatic Security in partnership with the U.S. Department of Homeland Security.
"Merry Christmas, Mahmoud!"
The poster, "The Faces of Global Terrorism," identifies 26 known terrorist suspects with reward offers of up to 25 million dollars as part of the Rewards For Justice (RFJ) program. Well-known images of al-Qaeda leaders Osama bin Laden and Ayman al-Zawahiri are joined on the poster by the most recent addition to the RFJ program, American-born terrorist suspect Adam Gadahn. More than 500 posters are on their way to major airports in New York City, Houston, Kansas City, Newark, Sacramento and Washington, D.C. Smaller airports across the United States also requesting posters, the State Department announcement said. "Increasing an airline traveler's awareness of wanted terrorists is part of the U.S. government's mission in fighting the war on terror," the announcent said. "These posters will increase this awareness for both travelers and airport workers".
#3
Screw the posters and the color coded threat levels, Homeland Security needs to hand out GWOT bad guy decks of cards to every air traveler within and from America.
Federal prosecutors on Monday said a Pakistani living in New York wired money and tried to send foot soldiers to a Sikh militant organisation aimed at violently forcing Indias government into letting the group form its own state.
Khalid Awan knew the $25,000 that two Sikh businessmen gave him to transfer to a Khalistan Commando Force leader in 2001 was for bad things and that innocent people would die, federal prosecutor Lawrence Ferazani said. Ferazani spoke in Brooklyn federal court during opening arguments of Awans trial on counts of providing material support or resources to terrorists, conspiracy to provide material support or resources to terrorists and money laundering to promote terrorism.
If convicted on all counts, Awan faces a maximum of 55 years in prison. Awan was detained shortly after the September 11, 2001, attacks as a material witness. While in prison, Ferazani said Awan recruited fellow inmate Harjit Singh to join the Khalistan Commando Force by introducing him to leader Paramjit Singh Panjwar through phone calls from the prison.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/06/2006 00:00 ||
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How very dated... Khalistani terrorism when the Indian PM is a Sikh, the Vice President is a Sikh, the chief of the Indian Army is a Sikh, twenty percent of the military high command (Maj Gen and above) are Sikh and the most powerful bureaucrat - the planning commission chairman, is a Sikh..
Posted by: john ||
12/06/2006 16:05 Comments ||
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An Intelligence Bureau official was arrested with explosives near the Chief Ministers Secretariat on Tuesday, with Chief Minister Akram Durrani appearing to suggest that he was the target of a bomb plot cooked up by the IB.
Durrani told a press conference that Muhammad Tufail, the IB employee, was arrested by policemen at around 11am outside his Peshawar office while trying to plant a bomb in a dustbin.
We are considering whether the IB is directly responsible for it or if it is the outcome of the grudges the federal government has against the NWFP, he said, and recalled that his house in Bannu had been attacked in the past.
He said after Tufail was arrested he was taken to Eastern police station along with the bomb. When the case was registered and Tufail was apprehended, Zafarullah, the IB joint director in Peshawar, rushed to the police station and took away Tufail and the bomb with him, he said.
The chief minister then ordered the police to raid the IB office, but Tufail and Zafrullah were not there. He said he would not spare the IB officials involved in this case.
Durrani demanded that Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz order an inquiry into this case and hand over the IB officials involved in the plan to the NWFP government. The IB is directly answerable to the prime minister. The IB is a federal institution but it now becomes our enemy, he said.
He said he had discussed the incident with Governor Jan Ali Orakzai and the NWFP government was trying to resolve the case, but the federal government is creating problems.
He announced Rs 50,000 prize money for the policemen who arrested Tufail.
He said he and other NWFP MPAs would protest outside Prime Ministers House if the federal government did not give the province its share of hydro-electricity profits.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/06/2006 00:00 ||
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NWFP Chief Minister Akram Durrani has totally blown out of proportion the arrest of an IB employee with explosives near the CMs Secretariat and is trying to create an issue against Islamabad, a senior government official told Daily Times on Tuesday. The official said the arrest was a misunderstanding. In April, the IB tipped off the authorities in Khyber Agency about a dynamite shipment, which was seized and a sample sent to the civilian intelligence agency office, he said. The (accused) employee was cleaning tables and he found the sample of dynamite. He thought it was a sweet since it was wrapped in a packet and took a bite out of it but it tasted wrong, the official said. The employee left the IB regional office, a few dozen metres from the CMs Secretariat, and threw what he thought was a rotten sweet into a nearby dustbin when police officials arrested him for carrying explosives, he said. A senior police official said that orders from Durrani to raid the IB office and lodge a case against the top IB official for kidnapping the accused and stealing the evidence were difficult to carry out. It was literally like the provincial government attacking the federal government and the problem for the Frontier police was that the IB chief in Peshawar is himself a senior police official.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/06/2006 00:00 ||
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So...did the explosive have a bite out of it? Any batteries, wires, blasting caps, timers, that sort of thing attached? Does the reporter journalist have an IQ above room temperature? Enquiring minds want to know!
#2
Waki Pakis, lunch is in the oven, don't try to eat or light the jelly in the red wrapper.
What kind of guy would be cleaning the tables and take a bite out of the scraps ? Waki Pakis.
Teams of 20 to 30 will train units in bid to calm violence
BAGHDAD: American commanders in Iraq already are shifting thousands of combat troops into advisory positions with Iraqi Army and police units, especially in the capital, in their latest attempt to bring sectarian violence under control.
Changes in troop assignments over just the past three weeks included moving about 1,000 American soldiers in Baghdad from traditional combat roles to serve as trainers and advisers to Iraqi units, senior American officers said in interviews here. Commanders say they believe a major influx of American advisers can add spine and muscle to Iraqi units that will help them to move into the lead in improving security.
The troops have been reassigned by commanders, who have not sought additional combat troops to replace them. While the troops have not been through the special program for trainers set up by the military, they are working in their areas of expertise, commanders said.
#3
Sucks the Big One, don't it? I'm pretty much burned out on Iraq, now. Still a month to go before the assholes actually take power and they're already warming up the Peace with Honor Big Skedaddle thingy. Been there, seen that.
#4
While I am also tired of the Iraq news, and want the Dems to get on with solving the world's problems (the price of gas has risen 15% here since the election; I want some Pelosi scalp!)- this article is really just more of the same gloom and doom.
"Help them move into the lead" - many are already in the lead, and those of us who read here know that there are examples of courage and heroics in the Iraqi Army that somehow leak past the MSM filters.
"And no replacement troops are being asked for" means either 'don't try and sneak in more troops later under the guise of more trainers', or 'the rest of the troops are being left unprotected', or both.
"As you stand up the teams, you stand down the combat units." Where have I heard that before?
"The teams will watch more for abuses" - meaning they have not been watching enough, and if we had just left Saddam in power, the abuses (if any) would've been less visible (better).
"Risk to trainers became evident..." Duh. Risks to newsmen? Risks to innocents? War zone? 72 raisins? Get a clue.
"Resulting in more civilian casualties..." is the cloud over the silver lining of less American involvement. Durn war. So little upside. Just that there is lotsa fodder for hungry press folks.
"Red lines, if crossed..." means the MSM will still be able to critize the Americans for what the Iraqi Army does bad. "Have they crossed the 'Red Line' yet?"
It's still a long war to "unfunding" the war, and the opposition does not have a mechanized army, in the guise of 'insurgents' (a la North Vietnam) to march in after the Americans withdraw.
So cheer up! Send the ACLU a Christmas card!
Posted by: Bobby ||
12/06/2006 6:26 Comments ||
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#5
Yeah, you're right. Just feeling kinda low, trading Rummy for Gates, Bolton leaving, etc - not the best week of the year. I just had this flashback feeling thingy... If it wasn't for the fact that Pelosi is terminally retarded, lol. HTF did she ever get to be the Dhimmi House Leader, anyway? Her technique that good? Ah well, I'm sure everything will be purdy peachy, real soon, now. Heh.
#6
No Pelosi isn't permanently 'retartded' - Lets not allow her to use that excuse. She isn't retarded and knows exactly what she is doing and shold be held fully responsible for her actions. Her problem is that she is more interested in advancing her agenda that of her 'friends' and achieving power at any price then she is in supporting and governing the United States.
She and her ilk are willing to trade Iraqi lives and our freedom for her personal power.
And the opposition does have a army to roll and start the bloodbath (see Vietnam/Cambodia) after we 'redeploy'. Lets not forget that the opposition is Iran who is seeking desperately to become a 'regional power' and obtain a stranglehold on oil exports (along with Chavez). If they can get that then they can practically dictate terms of our surrender.
Pelosi and her friends know all this - they are not retarded - you don't get where they are by being so. They, like europe, think they can get good surrender terms which will allow them to stay in power.
#7
To actually consider the article, I think it is a good thing, that is, placing larger numbers of Americans with Iraqis at all levels of their military.
The reason being is that we really want to change their military *culture* to one of professionalism. We have to break them of hundreds of years of Arabic bad habits of all sorts, and get them to want to do things the proper military way--and only the proper military way.
Their biggest damn problem is that there is nothing in their culture to compel them to stay in uniform, stay on post, and do their duty even when they would rather be at home with their family. No sense to total commitment to their uniform and their unit.
By placing Americans with them, it provides an example, and evaluation, and it checks over their shoulder to insure that they are not infiltrators or misusing their authority. Most importantly, it gives the unit time to get its act together, while giving it objective performance analysis. Their commander can no longer lie about unit performance.
Before negative comparisons with Vietnam are made, remember that after the US pulled out, and left the ARVN with no support whatsoever against an enemy with unlimited support from Russia, the training we had given the ARVN was good enough for them to hold out for TWO YEARS.
And that training was only a small percentage of what we have given the Iraqis. And the Iraqis are not fighting a conventional foreign army in numbers--even if foreigners are supporting their insurgents.
So when we pull out, we want the Iraqi military to be the backbone of their nation, hopefully much like Turkey's military. And, if necessary, able to take charge of the government if things go to hell.
#8
Its one half the program. They've missed using the program used in Korea for KATUSAs [Korean Augmentees to the United States Army]. Koreans with a little bit of English were placed one or two per squad or section. They provided some linguistic support. It came in valuable a number of times during my tour. They, however, got to live among Americans and say first hand that the old bane of corruption and abuse of authority was not accepted as normal. This was not only important in the direct and immediate military sense, it paid off for those who completed their time and went back into government and business afterward. In Korea theres a KATUSA oboy network. Business, were talking names like Samsung, Goldstar, etc wanted those who had done their tours for those reasons among others.
#10
Good trainers are rarer than the politicos think. Poor training may be worse than no training.
At this point in time, people also need to recall that Iraq and its government are running things. If there are problems with Iraqi units, they bear a great deal of the responsibility. One of the things we should be trying to teah the Iraqis is personal responsibility. The answer to poor unit operation may very well be making the Iraqis responsible. Daddy can't do everything.
#12
#10 - Chuck: It's hard to instill personal responsibility when Allan says that everything that happens is HIS will. You're fighting 1400 years of conditioning. Most NCOs and just about ALL officers higher in rank than Lieutenant have been through at least one situation where they've been in a training role, and know how to act.
Vietnam turned into a disaster because Congress withheld funds to supply the Vietnamese army with guns, ammunition, and supplies, including aircraft fuel. The Vietnamese weren't so much defeated as simply ran out of the ability to fight. There's so much crap lying around in Iraq the Iraqi army could probably scrounge enough to fight for five or ten years. Much, if not most, of the Iraqi army are learning, and performing quite well. They've pretty much mastered fire discipline, which is a heavy indicator of how far they've come. They're developing coordinated operations, and their NCOs are becoming more effective at small unit actions. The senior officers are still a problem, but I see them being phased out over the next five to ten years as junior officers progress up the ladder.
What's going on here, I think, is that Abazaid knows that Congress may pull the rug out from under his command at any time, and wants to accomplish as much as possible in the shortest amount of time possible. He understands that if we pull out, the Iraqi army will bear the entire brunt of defending the nation against both Al-Qaida and Iran. He wants to give them as much of a chance as possible.
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
12/06/2006 12:38 Comments ||
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#13
"We're going to double, triple, quadruple the size of the transition teams," Pittard said on a recent visit to the main training base for the Iraqi Army, in a windswept area called Kirkush near the Iranian border.
Was that the sound of the Mad Mullahs' sphincters tightening I hear? Mehopes that a LOT of our "trainers" at this base are SpecOps taking a "peek" over the border there.
And, in general, I'm with OP's opinion I think Abizaid sees the "writing on the wall" and wants to make the best of a bad situation when the Donks start defunding the war effort. The parallels to Vietnam are uncanny and it makes me want to spit p!ss in Pelosi's Bran Flakes if she allows this to happen again. Live by 2 quotes:
(1) "Those who don't learn from history are doomed to repeat it."
(2) "All it takes for evil to triumph, is for good men to do nothing."
I'm not giving up on our Congress yet (remember, most of the Donk Freshmen are fairly conservative or at least, moderate). Pelosi's basically 0-for-2 in her nominating far-left politicos to head positions, so maybe we and/or the Iraqis can weather the storm the next 2 years and win this thing, once and for all.
Posted by: BA ||
12/06/2006 14:16 Comments ||
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#14
Just like Vietnam... in reverse. Boggle.
I was thinking the exact same thing, .com.
What is left is for the vocal minority of us to demonstrate in the streets against the de-escalation of the war.
#15
What was interesting is that at the confirmation/coronation ceremony over in the Senate the entire group was trying one-up each other on how fast they could condemn/surrender in Iraq. This whole Iraq Study Group is nothing but a boondoggle. We are already training Iraqi units to take over security, so the whole premise of the ISG is restating what we are already doing in Iraq. The press makes it sound like the Military was simply bumbling around until viola the ISG explains they need to establish security in Iraq for democracy to grow. WELL DUH! What did they think we were doing prior to this?
#16
The press's reaction to the ISG's report is an indication of the level of BDS in the media : all the ISG's report has done is formalize through a comittee of politicians what the military has been doing for the past 3 years in Iraq. We have been training and leading Iraqi units in the fight against terrorists in Iraq from the beginning. Now, it is the stated policy of the US to do that; cut-and-run is too damaging politically for the Dems to try it right now. So THEY will claim that they "forced a change on the Bush Administration", and use that for their election commercials in '08.
And the idea that having the Iraqis doing the biggest part of the fighting and dying in the Iraqi Campaign is somehow losing is beyond me. We want them to run their damn country, and defend it against enemies foreign and domestic. The US military is not the world's greatest nanny and cleanup service, the Iraqis will have to take their lumps and run things on their own at a certain point. What we need to do is make sure that enough of the ex-Soviet hardware leftover from Saddam's period is rehabed so that the Iraqi Army can be a mechanized force, before 2008. Because in 2008, the Dems will be ready to do a cut-and-run on the Iraqis - due to the Dems' internal dynamics in their primaries.
BTW, why would anyone want to listen to James Baker? Like I heard on the radio today, when an Iraqi citizen was aksed about James Baker and the ISG, he replied, "Who's James Baker?"
#18
I heard a great line by Lindsey Graham I think: If you have a neighborhood that is plagued by crime you dont pull the police out to fix it. Why in Gods name is this logic missing from anyone on the left?
#19
CS, you're leaving out a major part of the puzzle. The lefties HATE AMERICA and don't want us to be seen as doing anything good anywhere. For us to help the Iraqis beat their internal enemies and become a stable country would a)demolish their Vietnam-era mindset (which would drive them nuts), and b) show that the US could use military force to do good in the world. They CAN'T allow that way of thinking to have any credence whatsoever. Hence the MSM's constant barrage of negative news from Iraq since the day of the invasion. Mick's right. CW-II grows closer every day.
Posted by: mac ||
12/06/2006 17:07 Comments ||
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#20
Well the French did tell you so
Posted by: de Gaulle ||
12/06/2006 17:20 Comments ||
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#21
Oh my god I missed the major thrust of the Iraki Surrender Gaggle. We need to let Syria and Iran help run the internal affairs of Iraq. Going back to my crime theme of earlier, this is akin to asking the Crypts or Bloods how we should police up a neighborhood that they dont want any police presence. Or maybe I am just not looking at this through the prism of my intellectual superiors in D.C.?
Baker is a lawyer-politician who is a former White House Chief of Staff, Treasury Secretary, Secretary of State and various other things. He is a trusted friend of the Bush family and has been called up before in times of political need. He ran Bush Seniors presidential campaigns and was President George W Bushs man in Florida during the recount in 2000.
Baker is now a senior partner in the law firm of Baker Botts, which is deeply involved in the fight for the oil and gas of the Caspian Sea and is senior counselor to the powerful investment firm the Carlyle Group. On the morning of September 11th, 2001, Baker was reportedly at a Carlyle investor conference with members of the bin Laden family in the Ritz Carlton in Washington D.C. And his law firm Baker Botts is defending the Saudi government in a lawsuit filed by the families of the victims of the 9/11 attacks.
Google "james baker" "law firm" "saudi arabia"
for more.
Gunmen attacked a vehicle on Tuesday that was carrying employees of a government agency that cares for Shi'ite mosques in Iraq, killing 13 of them and wounding eight, the organization said.
The gunmen, traveling in one car, carried out the attack by intercepting the Shi'ite Endowment minibus in northern Baghdad on Tuesday morning as it was carrying the employees to work in the capital, said Salah Abdel-Razaq, an Endowment spokesman. Three other people on the vehicle apparently escaped injury, he said.
A similar attack occurred late last month in southern Iraq against the Sunni Endowment, the government agency that cares for Sunni-Arab mosques in Iraq.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/06/2006 00:00 ||
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Tit-for-tat.
Posted by: Bobby ||
12/06/2006 6:27 Comments ||
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The IDF briefly entered Ramallah on a raid Tuesday afternoon, despite a decision to scale back operations in the area to bolster a shaky cease-fire, witnesses said. The soldiers surrounded a building. The army said the brief raid was a routine operation and no one was arrested.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/06/2006 00:00 ||
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At least 19 people have been killed in fresh violence in Sri Lanka as peace broker Norway cancelled a meeting with Tamil Tiger rebels, defence officials said Tuesday.
Two soldiers and 15 guerrillas were killed in a confrontation in the eastern district of Batticaloa on Monday while 19 troopers were also wounded, the defence ministry said. Two Muslim civilians were shot dead in the northern town of Vavuniya on Monday evening, officials said.
The reports of fresh fighting came as a top Norwegian envoy Jon Hanssen-Bauer cancelled a scheduled meeting Tuesday with the political leadership of the Tigers in the rebel-held town of Kilinochchi.
Hanssen-Bauer put off the meet after Colombo asked him not to go ahead until the government here reviewed its relations with the Tigers following Fridays suicide bomb attack against defence secretary Gotabaya Rajapakse.
The pro-rebel Tamilnet website said the Sri Lankan government had scuttled the peace initiative by asking Oslo to suspend its contacts with the rebels.
The government is also considering reactivating the tough Prevention of Terrorism Act after the suicide bombing attempt against Rajapakse, the younger brother of President Mahinda Rajapakse. There has not yet been any official comment from the LTTE, although last week Tiger supremo Velupillai Prabhakaran wrote off four years of peace talks by saying the Oslo-brokered truce was defunct.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/06/2006 00:00 ||
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A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
(SomaliNet) The local administration in Baidoa city, southwest of Somalia has on Tuesday officially announced an order banning small passenger cars notably the kinds of Mark II from Mogadishu capital, a city controlled by the Islamic Courts Union. 
(SomaliNet) Two commanders of a rebel group active in the northeast of Central African Republic (CAR) were killed during French-backed army operations to restore government control of the region, officials said Tuesday. 
Another key al-Qaeda man thought responsible for activities in Turkey has been captured in Hatay in southeastern Turkey. Named 
Hundreds of wanted-terrorist posters are being distributed during the holiday season to U.S. airports by the U.S. State Department Bureau of Diplomatic Security in partnership with the U.S. Department of Homeland Security.
Federal prosecutors on Monday said a Pakistani living in New York wired money and tried to send foot soldiers to a Sikh militant organisation aimed at violently forcing Indias government into letting the group form its own state. 
An Intelligence Bureau official was arrested with explosives near the Chief Ministers Secretariat on Tuesday, with Chief Minister Akram Durrani appearing to suggest that he was the target of a bomb plot cooked up by the IB.
Teams of 20 to 30 will train units in bid to calm violence
Sucks the Big One, don't it? I'm pretty much burned out on Iraq, now. Still a month to go before the assholes actually take power and they're already warming up the Peace with Honor Big Skedaddle thingy. Been there, seen that. 
