On their first Gulf War sortie
our soldiers killed for me
the highjacker of an A-3
On their second Gulf War sortie
our soldiers killed for me
two Taliban
and the highjacker of an A-3
On their third Gulf War sortie
our soldiers killed for me
three French spies
two Taliban
and the highjacker of an A-3
On their fourth Gulf War sortie
our soldiers killed for me
four Ansar Kurds
three French spies
two Taliban
and the highjacker of an A-3
On their fifth Gulf War sortie
our soldiers killed for me
five 'splodeydopes!
four Ansar Kurds
three French spies
two Taliban
and the highjacker of an A-3
--------------- and so forth ---------------
On their twelfth Gulf War sortie
our soldiers killed for me
twelve Hamas hoodlums
eleven Fatah footpads
ten Lions of Islam
nine carswarms dancing
eight imams plotting
seven Shias seething
six Sunnis sniping
five 'splodeydopes!
four Ansar Kurds
three French spies
two Taliban
and the highjacker of an A-3
---------------
The very warmest holiday wishes to everyone at Rantburg. May you all have a merry Christmas and a prosperous New Year.
Apparently in reprisal for what has been projected as firing of rockets by unidentified elements at a helicopter carrying Maj. Gen. Shujaat Zamir Dar, the Inspector-General of the Frontier Corps, and at a public meeting addressed by President Pervez Musharraf at Kohlu during his visit to Balochistan last week, the Pakistan Army has launched since December 18, 2005, a military-cum-para-military operation in the Kohlu area of Balochistan, which is the stronghold of the Marri tribe.
2.The reprisal attacks have involved the use of at least three Brigades-strength of the Army and the Frontier Corps and about eight helicopters .At a time when the Pakistan Army has been complaining to the UN and the international community about the shortage of helicopters for quake relief in Pakistan-Occupied Kashmir (POK) and the North-West Frontier Province (NWFP), it has diverted eight of its own helicopters, which were being used for quake relief in the POK, to Balochistan for being armed and used as helicopter gunships. In addition to the use of helicopters, there have been at least two air strikes on suspected strongholds of the Marri tribe.
3. While details of the casualties suffered by the Marris are not yet available, reports from reliable sources in Quetta say that at least 60 members of the Marri tribe have been killed.
4. The members of the Marri, Mengal and Bugti tribes have been in the forefront of the revived indepedence struggle, which has been going on in Balochistan for nearly two years now. The first War of Independence of the Balochs launched immediately after the liberation of Bangladesh in 1971, was ruthlessly crushed by the late Zulfiquar Ali Bhutto, then in power, with the help of the Pakistan Army and the Air Force. The first War of Independence was fought largely by the Marri tribe led by Khair Bux Marri and the Mengal tribe led by Ataullah Khan Mengal. The Bugti tribe, led by Akbar Khan Bugti, did not join the first War of Independence.
5. Taking advantage of the lack of unity among the various tribes, the Pakistani Army and Air Force managed to crush the post-1971 uprising after killing hundreds of Baloch youth through air strikes. The survivors led by Khair Bux Marri and Ataullah Khan Mengal crossed over into Afghanistan and took shelter there. They returned to Pakistan after the overthrow of President Najibullah and the capture of power by the Afghan Mujahideen in April, 1992. The returnees gave up their uprising and returned to the national mainstream.
6.The civilian Governments headed by Benazir Bhutto and Nawaz Sharif made overtures to the Baloch nationalists and managed to persuade them to give up resort to violence, despite continuing differences between Islamabad and the Baloch nationalists over questions such as genuine political autonomy for Balochistan, larger allocation of central tax revenue and development funds for Balochistan and payment of inadequate royalty for the gas found in Balochistan and taken to Punjab to sustain its economy.
7. The return of the Army to power under the dictatorship of President-General Pervez Musharraf on October 12, 1999, led to a gradual deterioration of the situation in the province. Amongst the reasons for this were: the traditional grievances of the Balochs over the lack of political autonomy, inadequate royalty payment for gas and lack of economic development; the construction of the Gwadar port by the Army with Chinese assistance without the involvement of the Baloch people and their Government in Quetta in the decision-making relating to the port; the award of all major contracts relating to the construction of the port to companies based in Karachi and Lahore ; and the re-settlement of a large number of ex-servicemen from Punjab and other parts of Pakistan in the Gwadar and the surrounding areas on the Mekran coast in order to assure the security of the new port. The fact that Pakistan's nuclear-testing site was located at Chagai in Balochistan also aggravated the grievances due to fears of long-term environmental and health damage.
8. This led to an organisation calling itself the Balochistan Liberation Army (BLA) launching a second War of Independence. For the last two years, the province has been in a state of increasing ferment due to the revived independence struggle. The BLA has been successfully indulging in tactics such as attacks on gas pipelines, electricity transmission lines, posts of the Pakistan Army and the Frontier Corps etc.
9, In response to the growing instability in the province, Musharraf decided to create more cantonments in the province. This aggravated the feelings of anger of the Baloch nationalists, who saw this as the prelude to a determined military attempt to suppress them.
10. Whereas the first Baloch War of Independence was triggered off largely by political grievances, the second War of Independence has been triggered off by a mix of political, economic and social grievances. Since the construction of the Gwadar port with Chinese assistance has been one of the important causes of the current uprising, part of the Baloch anger is also turned against the Chinese, who are perceived as collaborating with the Pakistan Army in its attempts to subjugate the Balochs.
11. There were some incidents of violence such as explosions directed against the Chinese engineers and other personnel working in the Gwadar project. While there is reason to believe that these incidents were the work of the Uighur nationalists fighting for the independence of Xinjiang, the Pakistan Army projected them as due to the activities of the BLA. The Army allowed the Chinese intelligence to post its officers in Gwadar to ensure the security of its nationals. It also allowed the Chinese intelligence to open a monitoring station at Gwadar to collect technical intelligence about the movements and activities of the Uighur and Baloch naionalists. The TECHINT thus collected by the Chinese is shared with Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI).This has added to the anger of the nationalists against the Chinese, but they have not so far specifically targeted the Chinese.
12. The political situation in the province has been further complicated by the re-settlement of a large number of Taliban leaders and fighters and the leaders and members of Gulbuddin Heckmatyar's Hizbe Islami in the Pashtun majority areas of Balochistan and in Quetta by the ISI. The Taliban and the Hizbe Islami remnants operating from the Pashtun majority areas of Balochistan have been mainly active against the American and Afghan troops in Afghan territory. They do not pose any threat to the Pakistani Army.
13. For the last one year, the Pakistan Army has strengthened its military and para-military deployment in the province. In March last, it initially started a military operation in the Bugti area, where the gas production fields, which supply gas to the Punjab, are located. The operation ended in a stalemate resulting in what was described as a gentlemen's agreement between Nawab Akbar Khan Bugti, the leader of the tribe, and the Army to maintain peace and vacate each other's trenches.
14. Fearing that the launching of a full-scale military operation in Balochistan might result in an East Pakistan-like situation in the province, a group of pro-Musharraf political leaders headed by Chaudhry Shujjaat Hussain of the ruling Pakistan Muslim League (Qaide Azam) set up a parliamentary committee to enter into a dialogue with Bugti and reach a political compromise. This did not lead to any satisfactory compromise. While those negotiating on behalf of this committee were prepared to recommend to Musharraf to increase the royalty payments for the gas and to pay compensation to the Bugti tribe for the damages suffered by it in the military operation; they were not prepared to concede the demands relating to the Gwadar port.
15. Unlike during the first War of Independence when the lack of tribal unity enabled the Army to prevail, this time it has been confronted by a united front put up by all the three tribes. But the Army feels each tribe has joined the front for its own reasons----the Bugti tribe because of its interest in getting more royalty for the gas and the Marri and the Mengal tribes because of their feelings for independence and their resentment over the Gwadar port. The leaders of the three tribes do not seem to have worked out so far a common programme of action and a consensus on what they desire for Balochistan---greater autonomy or total independence.
16. In the meanwhile, a group of Baloch youths, who believe that their objective should not be anything short of independence, has constituted the BLA and taken up the fight in its hands. The Pakistan Army has launched a campaign to eradicate these youth fighting for independence. It is calculating that if it does so, the tribal elders would be more amenable to reason and reach a political compromise and give up their demands relating to Gwadar.
17. If the Baloch elders and youth are not alert to the machinations of Musharraf and fall into the Army trap to prevail over them once again through a policy of divide and rule, they will be repeating their historic blunder of the 1970s. They should draw inspiration from the Bangladesh struggle for independence and unite not only among themselves, but also with the Sindhi nationalists, the Shias of Gilgit and Baltistan and the people of the POK, who had seen how the Pakistan Army treated them as an expendable commodity after the recent quake in order to achieve their common objectives. Their strength will be in their unity. Disunity will be fatal.
18. The second Baloch War of Independence poses a moral dilemma for India. The Balochs had stood by Mahatma Gandhi and the Congress Party during the independence struggle against the British. They had opposed the partition of India and the creation of Pakistan. If India had to be partitioned, they would have preferred an independent Balochistan. The Balochs were the closest to Gandhi's heart.
19. Due to reasons of realpolitik, we let them down during their first War of Independence. The same realpolitik would dictate painful inaction by us now too. But that does not mean we should hesitate to draw the attention of the international community to the ruthless massacre of the Baloch nationalists by the Pakistan army. We owe our moral support to them. The struggle for an independent Balochistan is part of the unfinished agenda of the Partition.
(The writer is Additional Secretary (retd), Cabinet Secretariat, Govt. of India, and, presently, Director, Institute for Topical Studies, Chennai. E-mail: itschen36@gmail.com)
Posted by: john ||
12/26/2005 00:00 ||
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#1
Lets hope India shows some smarts and funnels weapons etc... to the Balochis.
It's become clear from the active shuttle-like movement of the rival parties and mediators that the intensity of the political crisis began to subside compared to how things looked like a week ago.
In spite of the violence that disturbed Baghdad this morning, the rival parties resumed their meetings and talks with some politicians playing the role of mediators; the most prominent of whom is President Talabani and even in the two main competing camps we're hearing moderate voices emerge to propose solutions like the Virtue Party from the UIA and al-Mutlaq from Maram.
There's another dispute taking place within the UIA itself about who gets to be the new PM. The Sadrists are objecting to the SCIRIâs nomination of Aadil Abdulmahdi. The Sadrists want Jafari to keep his position because he promised them 7 seats in the cabinet including deputy PM. The Sadrists organized at least two demonstrations in Kadhimiya and Sadr city and appeared carrying pictures of Jafari and demanding that he keeps his position.
However, the SCIRI seems determined to go on with nominating Abdulmahdi who the Sunni are relatively more ready to tolerate.
Perhaps one of the most significant meetings that took place yesterday was that of al-Mutlaq with Abdulaziz al-Hakeem; none of the men made clear public statements but al-Mutlaq said later that âeveryone is planning to form a national unity governmentâ and he revealed a suggestion to hold new elections within six months under Arab and international monitoring and he said that âwe have proposed this to the UIA and the suggestion also includes disbanding the militias and forbidding the use of religious symbols and mosques for electoral campaigningâŠâ but he didnât say what the response of the UIA was.
On the other hand, al-Hakeem is expected to head to Kurdistan today to have a meeting with Talabani and Barzani to discuss the shape of the government and the developments of the election results talks. Khalilzad will probably be there too to attend the meeting.
A leading figure from the Accord Front told al-Sabah on condition of anonymity that the Front is asking for ten seats to be reallocated from the UIA to them in return for pulling back the Frontâs objections to the results, al-Sabahâs report mention that Talabani is pushing in this direction too.
Meanwhile the Front is also looking forward to getting a good share in the compensatory seats; the results of which were expected to be announced yesterday but the announcement was delayed by the election commission for fear that they could aggravate the crisis if the results didnât appeal to either party.
Nadeem al-Jabiri, head of the Virtue Party is trying to approximate the points of view of the major parties involved and heâs trying to convince Allawiâs list to join the government and announced that heâll be running for PM as a solution in the middle between the two extremities of the conflict.
Noori al-Rawi, minister of culture and another looser in the elections is also trying to moderate negotiations between the UIA and Maram and in this regard he had separate meetings with Abd Mutlaq al-Juboori (vice president), tariq al-Hashimi and Hussein al-Shahristani to hear from each of them and approximate their points of view.
It also seems that meetings fever has spread to Amman/Jordan; these days there are talk going on there between members of the Accord Front, Iraqi list of Allawi, the Kurdish alliance and the UIA, a report from al-Mada paper said that American diplomacy will be represented in those meetings. The same reports said that itâs been suggested that top government posts should be distributed so that Talabani keeps the presidency, SCIRIâs Abdulmahdi gets the PM post while Tariq al-Hashimi of the Islamic Party gets the chairmanship of the parliament and Allawi gets to manage the security file.
This goes along well with what Mrs.Intisar Allawi from the Iraqi list said; she revealed that they are looking forward to be in charge of the security file in addition to getting a deputy PM or vice president post and one of the ministries of oil, monetary or trade.
Observers think that the foreign ministry will remain in Kurdish hands but Barham Salih is most likely to replace Hoshyar Zibari.
It is believed that who-gets-the-interior-and-defense-ministries is a key point in solving the dispute and the suggestion present now is that the men who should handle these tow ministries must be non-partisan or from a party that has no militias.
Al-Yosha from the UIA pointed out another contested file; that is the Iraqi media network. The Accord Front want to assume control over the media network with its two main branches (al-Sabah paper and al-Iraqia TV) but the UIA are not ready to surrender the network to anyone.
Of course calm and reasonable negotiations are not all we hear; there are also tense statements coming occasionally from here and there; Baha al-Aaraji-a Sadrist-said they "want the government to be formed according to election results and not by accordance and appeasement" adding that "if the Iraqi list is to be part of the government, their share must reflect the number of seats they the won in the election and if they make any exaggerated demands, we will refuse including them in the formationâŠ"
On the other hand, Ayham al-Samaraâi-former electricity minister and member of Maram-said that number of political bodies lining under Maram has reached 50 parties and lists and pointed out that all the 50 âhave agreed on a plan to keep the pressure in the form of peaceful opposition but if no reasonable solution is reached, civil disobedience will be our next step...â.
In general, it looks like most parties want to assume peaceful ways in pursuing what they want but not everyone; the five carbombs that exploded in Baghdad today suggest that there's someone out there who intends to escalate the crisis.
#1
Sigh. You need a program to follow all of this, especially the more subtle aspects.
Haggling, lol, Arab bread 'n butter.
The notion of putting Jaafari back in as PM should be a non-starter, since he was amazingly ineffective, but perhaps this is much like the reconstruction days in the South: You don't want effective politicians...
The "suggestion" of holding elections again in 6 months, heh, anybody see a similarity to the Arab penchant for endless conferences and meetings, so nothing ever actually gets done, nothing is ever actually finished? Reminds me of some companies I've contracted for...
I suggested, just once of course, lol, that one particular oil company should change their company slogan to "Zero Deliverables" - a play upon the "Zero Defects" signs I had seen at all of the military installations as a kid. It was not taken in the spirit in which I had offered it, lol.
#2
Remember that the organization of the US, in its constitution, was designed to prevent laws from being passed.
What will be critical in Iraq will in fact be based on how long and how much the government can stay out of the way, allowing private enterprise to rebuild their economy before the bureaucrats and apparatchiks can slam on the brakes.
Sad to say, the US missed a rare opportunity to get rid of the Iraqi code Napoleon legal system inherited from the French, and replace it with our far superior Common Law system. This means that someday, Iraq will have to face up to the same chronic problems of Europe: the stifling of initiative and a bloated elistist bureaucracy.
However, in the meantime, hopefully their government will impress upon all their legitimacy and efficiency in maintaining their national defense and their internal security. If these two substantial tasks are met, then their future as a nation is all but assured.
#3
Moose, do you know of an instance where civil law has been successfully replaced by common law? Quebec?
This is a decision that the people themselves should make, not the victor unless it wants to sign up for a 4 generation colonization, minimum, with lot's of resistance, i.e. bloodshed, in my opinion.
Civil law leads to long periods of ineffective corrupt governance with brief interruptions of men on white horses, as opposed to the common law alternative of long periods of ineffective corrupt governance with brief interruptions of crises so severe effective leaders have a chance to emerge.
#5
Nimble Spemble: the best example is Italy, though it is an odd case.
It had used Civil Law for an extended period, until a peculiar situation happened: Perry Mason re-runs on television. The Italian judicial system was brought to a halt because the average Italian knew more about Common Law criminal proceedings than Civil Law. Eventually it was decided that they should adopt Common Law for this reason.
It was standing room only in the largest courtroom at Milan's Palace of Justice. About five minutes after the trial began, a defense lawyer rose and said, 'Mi oppongo, Signor Presidente' -- 'Your honor, I object.' At those words, everyone in the court, including the judge, broke into a thunderous round of applause. It might be a moment no one in that courtroom will forget.
It was also the first time that interruption, considered routine in American procedures, had been heard in an Italian court.
The trial last month in Milan was make-believe of the best kind: the rehearsal for a legal revolution to take place on, and forever after, Oct. 24. On that date Italy's antiquated criminal code will be changed and court procedures replaced by processes modeled on Anglo-American law. Everyone in the courtroom that morning was either a judge or a lawyer, assigned as a member of the audience or reciting a role cast from a script based on a real trial (involving a stolen fur coat).
The change is already being hailed as an American import. Even though U.S. legal procedures are the legitimate offspring of English law, Italy's new procedures are being referred to as 'bringing in Perry Mason' -- the lawyer invented by the late novelist Erle Stanley Gardner. "Italian Law Is Moving Into 'Perry Mason' Era," Los Angeles Times, 5/28/89.
#6
Unhappy to see the extent of Iraq's dominant political spectrum reach from Ahmadinejad all the way to Rafsajani, with the occasional ineffective Khatami thrown in for show.
The election results were a clear fraud designed to bring all of Iran's agents in charge. America should denounce them and insist they be repeated, with the threat of its troops' immediate departure.
The Iranian stooges are still dependent on the US military forces to save them from a Sunni/secular revolution.
Thanks. That definitely goes in the learn something new every day category. But procedure is not law. Nonethe less, it will be interesting to see how long it takes for the introduction of the assumptions and principals behind adversary procedure in criminal proceedings finds its way into the law itself.
#8
Giving up on elections since France trashed your "constitution," Aris? I'm sure there was some fraud, but that doesn't make the whole election fraudulent anymore than Chicago machine politics makes U.S. federal elections fraudulent.
Horse trading is a good thing -- a necessary thing. It's compromise. It's how good government works. As for these individuals making their announcements, we have plenty of that going on in Washington. Kennedy and Kerry and Pelosi don't get to the White House by making their announcements. Don't sweat it.
#9
Giving up on elections since France trashed your "constitution," Aris?
Nice fucking insult there, Darrell. Reminds me to not even attempt civility in what is to follow. Ofcourse from my point of view it's you who've given up on elections and democracy, when you are prepared to declare *every* pretend-election legimitate, even if there's a few hundred thousand voters added illigimately, even if there are reports of people voting 10 times apiece in Sadr City.
I'm sure there was some fraud, but that doesn't make the whole election fraudulent anymore than Chicago machine politics makes U.S. federal elections fraudulent.
How *nice* of you to admit to "I'm sure there was some fraud." How *safe* an analogy you are making.
Your "I'm sures" have nothing of knowledge backing them up. But I'm part of the reality-based community and when I declare these elections fraudulent I'm basing it on things like this.
Will you try to mention whereever you are basing the idea that "you are sure some fraud took place" but that it wasn't significant?
Or will you try to insinuate yet again that I'm being undemocratic, when I've repeatedly shown myself the most interested in democracy than you all?
Or is the conservative definition of democracy so fluid that you can extend it to cover even these sham elections?
#11
As I imagined, you won't support your claims of the elections being legitimate, even though I supported my own claims with a link providing detailing information. You'll merely insult instead.
Posted by: Frank G ||
12/26/2005 13:55 Comments ||
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#13
Joe 2008
Posted by: XXXMAS PAST ||
12/26/2005 14:07 Comments ||
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#14
The worst insults have the pretense of civility behind them, Frank.
But your shallow and ultimately fake and hypocritical respectability (remember back when you were laughing along over calling me a "cunt" or a "goatfucker"?) is to object to my usage of the word "fucking", but to not object to an insinuation that it's some sort of leftover spite from the French referendum that has supposedly turned me against democracy.
#15
Aris is unhappy for some reason. I worry. He's our best troll by far. Grad school is still an option, put off reality for another 3 years and hope things change.
Posted by: Leon Clavin ||
12/26/2005 14:11 Comments ||
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#16
I already postponed reality for three years, spending it acquiring a Master's diploma, Leon, but thanks anyway.
And I'm not a troll. When I argue in favour or against something, I argue because of the issue's importance, not to disrupt for disruption's sake, unlike other people here who've already pretty much admitted to it.
#17
I still worry that you're extra unhappy today. Is a Ph.D an option?
Posted by: Leon Clavin ||
12/26/2005 14:24 Comments ||
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#18
No, Leon, the four-and-a-half months that remains of my army service is all the putting-off-real-life I intend to do anymore, and only because I can't help it. I wouldn't go for a Ph. D. if you paid me.
IF YOU WANT to meet the future political leaders of the United States, go to Iraq. I am not referring to the generals, or even the colonels. I mean the junior officers and enlistees in their 20s and 30s. In the decades ahead, they will represent something uncommon in U.S. military history: war veterans with practical experience in democratic governance, learned under the most challenging of conditions.
For several weeks, I observed these young officers working behind the scenes to organize the election in Mosul, Iraq's second-largest city. They arranged for the sniffer dogs at the polling stations and security for the ballots right up to the moment Iraqi officials counted them. They arranged the outer ring of U.S. military security, with inner ones of Iraqi soldiers and police at each polling station, even as they were careful to give the Iraqis credit for what they, in fact, were doing. The massive logistical exercise of holding an election in a city of 2.1 million people was further complicated by the fact that the location of many polling stations changed at the last minute to prevent terrorist attacks.
Throughout Iraq, young Army and Marine captains have become veritable mayors of micro-regions, meeting with local sheiks, setting up waste-removal programs to employ young men, dealing with complaints about cuts in electricity and so on. They have learned to arbitrate tribal politics, to speak articulately and to sit through endless speeches without losing patience.
I watched Lt. John Turner of Indianapolis get up on his knees from a carpet while sipping tea with a former neighborhood mukhtar and plead softly: "Sir, I am willing to die for a country that is not my own. So will you resume your position as mukhtar? Brave men must stand forward. Iraq's wealth is not oil but its civilization. Trust me by the projects I bring, not by my words."
Turner, a D student in high school, got straightened out as an enlisted man in the Coast Guard before earning a degree from Purdue and becoming an Army officer. He is one of what Col. Michael Shields, commander of the 172nd Stryker Brigade Combat Team in Mosul, calls his "young soldier-statesmen."
Regardless of whether you support or oppose the U.S. engagement in Iraq, you should be aware that that country has had a startling effect on a new generation of soldiers often from troubled backgrounds, whose infantry training has provided no framework for building democracy from scratch.
At a Thanksgiving evangelical service, one NCO told the young crowd to cheers: "The Pilgrims during the first winter in the New World suffered a 54% casualty rate from disease and cold. That's a casualty rate that would render any of our units combat ineffective. But did the Pilgrims sail back to England? Did they give up? No. This country isn't a quitter. It doesn't withdraw."
Not withdrawing means bringing stability and liberal values to a society in which people have been trained to be subjects, not citizens. Young commanders in Iraq are experiencing in the bluntest terms the intractable cultural and political realities of a world that the U.S. seeks to remake in its own image, even as their own life struggles â as well as their religious faith, which is generally deeper than that of secular elites â make them not only refuse to give up but to feel betrayed by those who would.
To label them conservative is to miss the point. Having ground-truthed the difficulty of implanting democracy in a place with no experience of it, Iraq has stripped them of any ideology they might have had. At the same time, they have become emotionally involved with building Iraqi democracy. They have developed a distrust of an American media that have not, in their eyes, recorded advances they feel they have made in reducing the level of combat or getting a nascent electoral system started. In a vast country of 23 million people, they rarely see the car bombings that kill a few dozen every day and are reported on the news at home. But they daily see the progress in front of their eyes.
What these officers represent is the frontier ethos of applied wisdom, the combination of pragmatism and idealism that allowed for 19th century westward expansion, the clearing of land and the building of towns. Military men, with their impatience with ideas that cannot be field tested, are a vibrant illustration of this ethos, especially as so many of them have grown up in rural America (and many I spoke to came from family farms). Now their deep engagement in civilian development matters â in nation building â has extended the meaning of the continental frontier overseas.
They are not imperialists, if by that we mean that they would support unilaterally invading a country again with a large number of troops. But they are absolutely committed to U.S. success in Iraq, no matter the cost to themselves. And as they trickle out of the service in coming years and rise to prominence in civilian life, the ability of the home front in these difficult days not to pity them, but to sustain them in their mission, could have enormous consequences for the future of American politics.
Posted by: Steve White ||
12/26/2005 00:00 ||
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#1
Pity them? Hell, more like be button-busting proud of them! Maybe some of them will be Democrats and able to turn that sad sack of a party around into a viable alternative that patriotic and intelligent Americans could reasonably consider voting for. (Yes, I know that's asking for a near-miracle.) I expect that these young men and women will make a difference and I'd bet that it will be a good one.
Posted by: mac ||
12/26/2005 7:20 Comments ||
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#2
I foresee great things in
America's future.If we can avoid the
Murtha Syndrome!
#4
when they come back, and speak out against the MSM/Donk agenda of lies....they'll drive a stake through the credibility of our enemies, foreign AND domestic
Posted by: Frank G ||
12/26/2005 11:14 Comments ||
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#5
Yes, Yes. Vote people in who Really have an appreciaton for Democracy. These guys are awesome to say the least. So, there is your ticket.
Give them a meal card that they deserve and let us clean up that stinking hill where the capitol sits.
That'd be the CSM's and Majors. The one's who survived Nixon, Ford and Carter, new math, no fault divorce, parents on drugs and grunge. Some how I suspect they're better survivors and workers than they get credit for, mainly cause they looked so...grungy. And they're the ones who will really get screwed in the Social Security solution.
But these youngsters in Iraq who are making your buttons bust will do the job there and in the next combat theater and will "win the war on terror" to return home to endless accolades that are now starting and to raise another generation of boomers just as the last "greatest" generation did. And so life goes on.
#8
Frank-
Your comment is an interesting one in that you may have put your finger on the real agenda of the LLL/MSM elites in this fight: They KNOW what these hundreds of thousands of men and women will do when they return to civilian life. A bloc of citizen voters that size cannot and will not be ignored - and the only option the LLL/MSM has is to force a defeat through public opinion in order to disgrace these heroes before they get back.
Look at it another way - millions of Americans served in Vietnam across more than a decade. If the war there had even remotely resembled a success, what would our nation look like today? Hint: the LLL/MSM as we know it today wouldn't exist.
Mike
Posted by: Mike Kozlowski ||
12/26/2005 11:56 Comments ||
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#9
maybe so, Mike, but it's a litle late for the Jenjis(sic) Khan and Babykiller labels to work. The military of today has much to be proud of despite the occasional bad apples who get all the MMS limelight
Posted by: Frank G ||
12/26/2005 12:00 Comments ||
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#10
No one serems to have mentioned it, but the Iraq conflict has seen a large number of USAR and NG units serving - and bleeding - alongside the active components. I would expect to see the returning leaders of these units start to exert influence in their home constituencies. I hope that this process has already begun - but I cannot say that I've seen even a whisper of political activism by any returning USAR/NG leaders.
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.
