As we approach the dawn of 2009, I raise a toast (champagne, of course) to the United States of America, for all our faults the greatest country in the world. Every day I'm grateful my ancestors got on those boats.
I raise a toast to Iraq, which we welcomed into the league of democracies this year.
I raise a toast to the United States Military, the main reason Iraq is now a free country and the reason we are the free-est nation that ever existed.
I raise a toast to President Bush, who for all his faults is a decent man who stood his ground when others wanted to abandon Iraq - and America - to terrorists.
I raise a toast to Fred, the Mods, and the denizens of Rantburg - the best damn community/family in the world. (It should be - it wraps around the world. :-D)
So join me, fellow Rantburgers, in raising a toast of your choice - beer, wine, champagne, martini, margarita, sparkling apple juice, or fizzy water - to the USA, to our friends and allies, to us.
Good fortune to our friends, confusion to our enemies.
L'Chaim!
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
01/01/2009 00:00 ||
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#2
Thanks for another year of the best information available on the web. Cheers. May we all find peace and prosperity in 2009. God bless you one and all!
Posted by: Mike Kozlowski ||
01/01/2009 9:02 Comments ||
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#6
I think that for those of us younger than 70, we will look back on last year and the this one as "The Bad Time". Like the "The Great Depression" was for our parents and grandparents, this will be a time that will leave an impression on us. I think we can all get through this, but I believe that few of us will get through it unscarred.
Happy New Years to you and your people. I hope you get through it with minimal damage and maximum joy.
Posted by: Formerly Dan ||
01/01/2009 9:05 Comments ||
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#7
Merry New Year to all RBers!
Posted by: Frank G ||
01/01/2009 9:50 Comments ||
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#16
Very eloquent, and very true, Barbara. I second your words, and the rest here. And may Rantburg in this year of 2009 give rudders to many more like Thor Thusorong7719, conservative or not.
Look, when I am a best-selling author and all the top-rated literary outlets are begging to review my latest book, I'll toast Fred in $20-a-bottle champagne. (Not that Crystal stuff-my daughter drank it once, and couldn't figure out the appeal, unless it was to consumers with way more money than sense.)
Ah, krep, the guardians of the literary scene will never fall for that. I do historical novels, about the western frontier, which is something they wouldn't touch with a ten-foot pole - box-Chablis it is. To Fred! (huzzah! huzzah! huzzah!)
#20
Happy New Year. Thanks to this wonderful Rantburg community, I'm so glad I found you, and to be kept so well informed.
I second Thor Thusorong7719 comment.
;)
Posted by: Jan ||
01/01/2009 22:38 Comments ||
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Corruption, alleged links to militancy and campaigns about the role in genocide of 1971 led to voters' humiliating rejection of Jamaat's religion-based politics in the parliamentary polls, say political analysts and civil society leaders. "The voters have rejected misuse of religion in politics through their ballots," political analyst Prof Imtiaz Ahmed told The Daily Star. The people didn't like distortion of religion for political gains, he added.
Human rights activist and former adviser to caretaker government Sultana Kamal said, "This result is the reflection of peoples' secular mind. They have proved again through ballots that they don't like communalism, chauvinism and fascism."
Veteran freedom fighter and former army chief Lt Gen (retd) M Harun-ur-Rashid believes the new generation rejected Jamaat when they learned for the first time about the party's role in 1971.
In a year of housing foreclosures, bank and automaker meltdowns, bailouts and layoffs, we can almost forget that we still have heroes amongst us -men who make us want to stand at attention and salute.
The leader of American troops in Iraq from Jan. 2007 to Sept. 2008 implemented a counterinsurgency strategy that significantly reduced the levels of violence in a nation on the verge of civil war. To the surprise of many, America - with Iraqi and some international help - suddenly began winning the war in Iraq. Bring out the champagne and raise a toast to the man who turned the tide.
And this too, is the most underreported story of 2008; is this liberal media bias once again?
Posted by: Frank G ||
01/01/2009 10:39 ||
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Guess what part of the government actually works - not good for the long term health of the republic.
(AKI) - Israel is using 'brute force' in its attacks in the Gaza Strip in a bid to change the balance of power in the Middle East, a Lebanese political analyst said on Tuesday. Talal Nizameddin, a political analyst at The American University of Beirut told Adnkronos International (AKI) while Israel is targeting Hamas in Gaza, it also has a broader strategy linked to the 2006 Lebanon War.
"This military operation is intended show that Israel can rely on the military option to achieve its aim, and it wants to show its enemies - and not only the Palestinians - that it can use brute force to change the balance of power in the region," Nizameddin said in a telephone interview from Beirut.
More than 360 people have been killed since Israel began intense air attacks in the Gaza Strip last weekend.
The Israeli Defense Forces said the operations in Gaza were in response to the continued firing of rockets and mortar shells on Israeli territory, and that it intended to destroy the infrastructure of the militant Hamas organisation.
Targets included Hamas training camps, headquarters, large weapons storage facilities, and missile launching pads in the Gaza Strip, it said.
Nizameddin told AKI that the operation could be part of a broader policy targeting Iran, Syria and the Lebanese Hezbollah Islamist movement, as well as Hamas. He said the Israeli action in Gaza could be a precursor to a broader military operation, which could include Lebanon.
"There could be a follow up attack on Hezbollah, or Palestinian groups in Lebanon could fire rockets at Israel, who would in turn retaliate," he said.
Nizameddin also said the latest Gaza offensive could further strengthen the Lebanese Shia cleric Hassan Nasrallah and his ally, Iran. On Monday, tens of thousands of people gathered in the south of Beirut to protest against the raids. The rally had been called by Nasrallah a day earlier.
"If Israel succeeds - and it does not look like it will succeed - but if it does succeed, it would greatly weaken Hezbollah and Iran. However, if there is a ceasefire or the war drags on or becomes more protracted, it could greatly strengthen Nasrallah and Iran in the long run," Nizameddin told AKI.
Nizameddin, lecturer and associate dean of student affairs at The American University of Beirut, pointed out that there could be more protests in the Lebanese capital, particularly as people gather for the Shia celebrations of Ashura this week.
"I do not think we have seen the largest protests yet, until after New Year's Day when we may see the closure of universities and daily protests, but it depends on how events unfold in Gaza," Nizameddin said.
Nadim Shehadi, a Middle East expert from the London think-tank Chatham House, warned there would be widespread political repercussions and Israel's action would put more pressure on Saudi Arabia, Jordan and Egypt.
"This is discrediting all the moderate forces in the region, and all the allies of the United States because of their inability to stop it and they are seen to be in alliance with this ," Shehadi told Adnkronos International (AKI) from Beirut.
"Killing people for the sake of killing people will not achieve any result. On the contrary it will create more anger and more support for the people they are trying to fight."
"When the battles die down, how will they look? What is the political cost?"
He said the United Nations, the Arab League and the European Union were looking "completely useless" and Israel's military action would boost Iran's clout in the region.
"This is weakening all of Iran's adversaries in the region, the Saudis, the Egyptians," he said.
Both Shehadi and Nizameddin were pessimistic about the prospects for peace particularly since Syria suspended Turkish-mediated peace talks with Israel.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/01/2009 00:00 ||
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#1
"Israel using 'brute force' to shift balance of power"
Works for me.
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
01/01/2009 0:55 Comments ||
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When persuasion doesn't work then it's time to try "brute force".
#4
"Killing people for the sake of killing people will not achieve any result. On the contrary it will create more anger and more support for the people they are trying to fight."
Ohkay. So Iz'rl is killing people for the sake of killing people. Not, say, killing specific people who, say, have been involved in activities trying to kill THEM, and preparing for much more of the same.
Guess I misunderstood. Figures - after all, I'm no Middle East expert from Chatham House.
#5
Do Islamofascists understand anything else? They want to dominate the Earth, one way or another, no? Starting with "Juice", i.e. Ain't it better that their gall should be eliminated, rather?
#7
"it will create more anger and more support for the people they are trying to fight."
And doing nothing, sitting there takign a beatring from faily rocket and mortar attack... that builds support for Israel?
No. It does not even make the damned slanted newspapers and TV news here in the USA.
The Press does not cover it, so there is no pressure brought to Hamas and its puppeteers in Iran.
Once again, the failure of the press to publsih ALL the news, and their imposing an ideological slant on things has caused harm to the west by presenting the flase as true, and only one side of things.
Israel is damend if they don;t strike, and damned if they do, in terms of "opinion" liek this idiot spouts.
So they make a decision on what will stop the enemy from killing innocent civilians inside israel.
And that means strikes to destroy the enemy and their capability to continue those strikes.
The Palestenians should be thankful that the Israelis are using precision weapons and specific targeting with their attacks. Were they as random and indiscriminate as the Hamas attacks, far more in Gaza would be dead. And were Hamas not putting missiles in apartment buildings and places like that, far fewer Gaza civilians would be dead.
Put the blame squarely where it deserves to be: Hamas and Iran.
#14
"Brute Force" is flying over Gaza in a dozen B-52s, each dropping 76 500Lb iron bombs, three times a day for a week. Targeted killing involving precision weapons is only "brute force" against those on the receiving end. Of course, an Arab can't understand the difference.
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
01/01/2009 20:00 Comments ||
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let the Israelis shwo some real brtue force:
Hub to hub 155' HE, followed by side-by-side D9's scraping the debris for a 2Km "dead zone" along the border wiht Israel. Push the Debris up to build a big berm at the border.
Then tell them for every rocket that hits Israel, Gaza loses a grid square to artillery to widen and deepen the zone.
#16
"Of course, an Arab can't understand the difference." - Old patriot.
No, it's an obvious fact(to the whole discerning world) that that's a clear and serious flaw in his psychological make-up. That propensity for one track mind thinking and blame projection on to others. Himself being always righteous without par!
Was it a wonder why Ishmael was likened to a donkey in Genesis?
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.
(AKI) - Israel is using 'brute force' in its attacks in the Gaza Strip in a bid to change the balance of power in the Middle East, a Lebanese political analyst said on Tuesday. Talal Nizameddin, a political analyst at The American University of Beirut told Adnkronos International (AKI) while Israel is targeting Hamas in Gaza, it also has a broader strategy linked to the 2006 Lebanon War. 
