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Majid al-Majid pegs out in custody
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Page 6: Politix
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-Land of the Free
Lt. Col Robert Bateman attacks the NRA
Another antigun article written for the fever swamp at Esquire. A lot of ad hominem trolling from the left, not a lot of facts, just like Bateman's article.

Way back in 2007, I personally invited Wayne LaPierre, the director of the National Rifle Association, to live in Baghdad. I had been there, less than 24 months earlier, and I thought LaPierre might appreciate the opportunity to live in a society which lived up to his standards. Surprisingly, he never took this offer up, nor did he ever visit the troops in Iraq, or Afghanistan for that matter, which is, well, normal for him. He likes his guns, but he is really not cool with being surrounded by them, like he would have been, had he ever visited our troops in Baghdad, or Helmand, or Kabul...or basically anywhere.
He was preparing the battleground for fools like Bateman who want to trade on their military service for personal and political gain. I appreciate your service to the country but your ugly views to destroy a fundamental constitutional right cancels out my appreciation.
In Iraq, every single household (with a male that is) may have one assault rifle. This seems to be Mr. Wayne LaPierre's ideal. And interestingly, we have a country (a couple, actually) where his vision exists. Iraq and Afghanistan.
The comparison of Iraq or Afghanistan is fatuous, but does reveal the utter contempt Lt. Col Bateman had for the fundamental mission of US armed forces, and that is to allow people to make their own way wit as little oppression from the offices of government and its armed wing as possible. That is also known as freedom. Not only did Bateman miss that point, his sycophantic followers at Esquire missed it as well.
Somewhat curiously, for Mr. LaPierre anyway, this social experiment is not really working out the way that Mr. LaPierre contends that it must, that a "well armed" society is a more polite one. Gun deaths are off the scale in both countries and all forms of violence exceed anything we see in countries with fewer guns. So how is that working out Mr. LaPierre? You would appear to prefer to turn us into a nation like Iraq. Myself, I consider your position to be prostitution for the purpose of profit. But more on that later.
The first resort of the fascist: "Concern" for public safety using statistics, as though those numbers and the metrics thereof should be the only consideration when it comes to basic rights. It also shows more than a tiny tinge of racism against people of color for whom the US military spent a considerable amount of blood and treasure to make free, racial hatred which is a hallmark of leftist politics from Bateman's corner of the world.
Contrast that, if you would, Mr. LaPierre, with the Indian state of Uttar Pradesh. Hell, the whole country, if you like. They have a rate of 0.30/100K dead from weapons. The rate in America is 10.3 per 100K. Are the people of India so much more advanced than us Mr. LaPierre? Do you really think Americans are that much more ignorant than the Indians?
Apparently, you do, Bateman.
I understand that during the time of the nation's need you had other pressing needs that kept you from serving in Vietnam, but surely, despite your lack of travel, you might have learned at least a little about the rest of the world? Yes....ah, OK. No.
Apparently, we have to be more concerned about domestic enemies, the ones pressing for gun confiscation, as Bateman did last month.
I get it Mr. LaPierre, you are a political operative for a single-issue topic and you probably never heard of Uttar Pradesh, despite the fact that it is a proud, and honorable, state in the country of India. Were it independent, it would be about 1/3 of the size of the US, and the sixth largest country (by population) on the planet. More than 30M Muslims live there, more than in all of Iraq. And the violence there is horrific...more than 100 died there in Muslim/Hindi attacks. Oh, wait, 100 people...that's less than a single day in America.

But, if you think that the Shia/Sunni split caused this violence there, you would be wrong.

Oh heck, who am I kidding? You probably do not even know what a Shia Muslim is, let alone what a Sunni Muslim is, besides what you have been told by your minders. (Who are now, no doubt, desperately using Google to figure that out.)

Mr. LaPierre, perhaps you need to return to the nation of your forefathers from 40 or 50 years ago, and leave America to others more vested in the security of the nation.
That number not to include Lot. Col. Robert Bateman.
Posted by: badanov || 01/04/2014 00:00 || Comments || Link || [1 views] Top|| File under:

#1  There is a reason Robert Bateman only made Lt. Colonel.

Posted by: George Alowishus Hatrack III || 01/04/2014 1:19 Comments || Top||

#2  There are enough straw men in that piece to fill a football stadium.
Posted by: 11A5S || 01/04/2014 8:55 Comments || Top||

#3 

Kurtz Bateman: "We must kill them. We must incinerate them. Pig after pig... cow after cow... village after village... army after army..."
Posted by: Besoeker || 01/04/2014 10:52 Comments || Top||

#4  "In Iraq, every single household (with a male that is (Oh noes! Male privilege!)) may have one assault rifle."

Ya' mean an AR-15 "assault rifle?" Or something else, like a true automatic weapon, which is illegal to own by private U.S. citizens and, to my knowledge, uncontested as such by Mr. LaPierre?

O-5 Bateman was either seriously distracted during weapons orientation or is a lib tool with an axe to grind.

Wake me up when the Mormons begin bombing Lutheran churches...
Posted by: Uncle Phester || 01/04/2014 11:45 Comments || Top||

#5  Every household in Switzerland is also required to have a firearm and it is a rather peaceful place. Perhaps it is due to a society based on Judeo Christian values rather than those of a 7th century pedofile. Just a thought.
Posted by: warthogswife || 01/04/2014 12:19 Comments || Top||

#6  I give the writing a solid 16 year's old in the "best not take my boyfriend" category.

So...two years after he spent time in Iraq, as a nobody he sent a letter. That puts him Iraq in 2005, the time of the Anbar Awakening?

Tell me more of the muslim/hindi fighting in the USA...or is that just poor writing.

If his Handlers looked it up and told Mr. LaPierre, as so hipsterly put, then...Mr. LaPierre would know about them, right?

Let's see..nation of our forefathers...2014-50 = 1964. WTF Army, LTC? Was the US not poised to go to war with Asian Communists, who just disarmed the population and promptly murdered VIPs? Or do you mean 2014-40 = 1974, where Asian Communists were poised to grab the guns of South Vietnamese and murder the VIPs?

Or does he mean, the nation of our forefathers as they were understood back in the 60's and 70's, as opposed to what the little Batemans of today think about them? If he gave orders like he writes, sounds like the kind of a-hole who would order something vague, and either gobble the praise or dish the blame before your boots back. "More than 100 died there!!!" Missing a time period, you dolt.

AWH3's video hits it, this guy shouldn't be in charge of installing batteries. Thats the little AAA ones.
Posted by: swksvolFF || 01/04/2014 16:37 Comments || Top||


Africa North
Wolf not even in sheep’s clothing
The Muslim Brotherhood’s avowed goal since the creation of the movement in 1928 has been to impose Shari’a, Islamic law, first on Egypt, then, the rest of the world, turning it into a Muslim- ruled caliphate.

Eighty years later, the fall of Hosni Mubarak paved the way for the dream to come true; the Brotherhood won both parliamentary and presidential elections and formed the government of Egypt. Barely a year after the election, president Mohamed Morsi was arrested and the government toppled by the people, aided and abetted by the army.

The Brotherhood refused to accept their defeat and launched a series of violent protests with their Salafi allies, followed by terror operations that have already caused the death of 350 members of the police and military forces. The interim regime first banned their activities and when that did not help, declared the Brotherhood a terrorist organization.

Interestingly, the West – and the Western press – put their own spin on what they saw as a military coup against the legitimate government of a movement they persist in calling “moderate” or “pragmatic,” insisting that the Brotherhood acted in nonviolent ways.
Posted by: g(r)omgoru || 01/04/2014 01:40 || Comments || Link || [2 views] Top|| File under:

#1  And the positive side is its Moslems doing it to EACH OTHER.

Can't be enough of this. No Americans there and they are slicing and bombing each other every day. Heartwarming.

But then...they ARE Moslems.
Posted by: Spereting Tingle4064 || 01/04/2014 7:25 Comments || Top||

#2  "The Frog and The Scorpion", come to mind.

Hey, it's my nature.
Posted by: Redneck Jim || 01/04/2014 11:38 Comments || Top||

#3  resetting cookie
Posted by: Barbara || 01/04/2014 20:21 Comments || Top||


Bangladesh
Dateline Dhaka: Towards a banana republic?
[DAWN]
Posted by: Fred || 01/04/2014 00:00 || Comments || Link || [4 views] Top|| File under:

#1  As per DEFENCE.pk/FORUMS, Blogger expects the ISLAMIC[Islamist?] REPUBLIC OF BANGLADESH to be formally declared in 2014.

Iff Fox News + CNBC News Analyses on Bangla is to be believed, he may be right.
Posted by: JosephMendiola || 01/04/2014 0:35 Comments || Top||

#2  We ate our bagel and poached egg in 1971 while the Moslems in Bangladesh murdered 3 million civilian Hindus in just 8 months. About 30,000 a day on the average. Allah being merciful and beneficent and all that good stuff. The war is still not over apparently.
The population is quite dense, about 79,000 people per square inch and better than half are wearing sweat rags and riding bicycles while chewing betel and spitting on the sidewalks.

India had to go in and set the Hindus free in 1971. The pak army had to take their 93,000 soldiers and go home leaving the country to the local Bahini. Pellegra, Diarrhea, Dysentery , starvation, fish heads and garbage are Bangladesh's major exports.
Don't you wish you lived in a Moslem country and had Moslem Values? But then back then Nixon was selling $400 million worth of guns to the Moslems to kill the Hindus. He wanted the Moslems in pakistan ( who were out "friends") to help him diplomatically so he could go sit down and talk to Mao tse tung at the time who was having a real problem breathing and had to have a pretty little nubile interpreter named Song shu twat sit on his lap. Kissinger had something similar. Nixon gave the Peace sign and Gordon Liddy watched the door.
Posted by: Spereting Tingle4064 || 01/04/2014 7:44 Comments || Top||

#3  While John Dean ate the Avocado Meatloaf and Alice said, WTF Meatloaf again? Then it was off to the races.
Posted by: Shipman || 01/04/2014 17:12 Comments || Top||

#4  Dysentery , starvation, fish heads and garbage are Bangladesh's major exports.

And jute.
Posted by: SteveS || 01/04/2014 20:42 Comments || Top||

#5  And clothing.

I'm sure Angleton9 Spereting Tingle4064 knew that. It's that he gets so enamored with his 'voice' sometimes.
Posted by: Pappy || 01/04/2014 20:57 Comments || Top||

#6  Oh.
Posted by: Thing From Snowy Mountain || 01/04/2014 21:54 Comments || Top||

#7  #2 the Moslems in Bangladesh murdered 3 million civilian Hindus in just 8 months

Crazy. Didn't anyone tell 'em what 3 million Hindus would bring on the Indian market?

The population is quite dense

If they didn't all sleep in baskets they'd spill over the borders every night.
Posted by: Zenobia Floger6220 || 01/04/2014 23:21 Comments || Top||


China-Japan-Koreas
Is World War Three about to start... by accident?
Kewl fotos at the link
The photo of the Senkaku Islands finally gives me a sense of what they're arguing over, which isn't much...
Posted by: Uncle Phester || 01/04/2014 00:00 || Comments || Link || [1 views] Top|| File under:

#1  I'm still waiting to see what kind of PERMANENT pro-peace compromise or agreement POTUS Bammer, SecState Jaawhn, + Caroline will come up to prevent China-Japan war.

Again, there is no sign that China is willing to give up, delay, andor amend its "post-US" agenda.

OTOH there's We're-supposed-to-be-the-World's-first-Islamic-Superpower-not-Iran Pakistan ...

* BHARAT RAKSHAK > ALTAF THREATENS SEPARATE PROVINCE [ + ultimately a separate sovereign Country] FOR URDU-SPEAKING SINDHIS.

FYI Regional SIKHS are demanding more Political-Legal Rights, or in altern their own separate country.
Posted by: JosephMendiola || 01/04/2014 0:47 Comments || Top||

#2  Speaking of Pudgy ...

* WORLD MILITARY FORUM > "CHOSUN ILBO" KOREAN MEDIAS: NORTH KOREAN LEADCER KIM JONG-UN MAY HAVE A HEALTH PROBLEM AS HE BREATHES ONCE EVERY FOUR SECONDS.

versus

* SAME > "SANKEI SHIMBUN" MEDIA: JAPAN AIR SELF-DEFENSE FORCES [JASDF]SETTING UP A AIR TACTICAL STUDY GROUP TO RESEARCH AND IMPROVE POSSIBLE DEFENSE METHODS IN CASE OF LR AIR, MISSLE ATTACK FROM NORTH KOREA.
Posted by: JosephMendiola || 01/04/2014 1:00 Comments || Top||

#3  it ain't the islands... It's the anchor that you can draw a large circle around of territorial water... under which might be a hell of a lot of oil and gas.

Posted by: 3dc || 01/04/2014 6:45 Comments || Top||

#4  A war would require a C-in-C with - shall we say - Churchillian resolve. So I ain't worried.
Posted by: Bobby || 01/04/2014 9:52 Comments || Top||

#5 
It's not China or Japan I'm concerned about.
Posted by: Besoeker || 01/04/2014 10:01 Comments || Top||

#6  You mean, all this time... you've been a duck?
Posted by: Thing From Snowy Mountain || 01/04/2014 10:13 Comments || Top||

#7  China is a tough, assertive, immature nation in a hurry; the United States is seen in Beijing as a weakly led, declining military power that is vulnerable to pressure

Kinda says it all. IOW: weakness invites aggression. Obummer squanders our money on corporate bailouts, crony capitalism, a fool's errand in Afghanistan and healthcare for derelicts while the Chinese build up their military and threaten their neighbors.


Posted by: Abu Uluque || 01/04/2014 11:43 Comments || Top||

#8  immature nation

Hah?
Posted by: g(r)omgoru || 01/04/2014 13:19 Comments || Top||

#9  Grom,

Well....one could make the argument that China wasn't a truly unified nation until Mao took over. You had some combinations of provinces that were stronger and more unified than others but even under the Emperors, control could be a dodgy thing the farther you got from the Forbidden City. National control at the level China needs wasn't possible until the advent of modern communications technologies.

Mike
Posted by: Mike Kozlowski || 01/04/2014 14:17 Comments || Top||

#10  National control at the level China needs wasn't possible until the advent of modern communications technologies......

...and Nixon/Kissinger
Posted by: Besoeker || 01/04/2014 14:24 Comments || Top||

#11  Mao wanted to erase China's past, and they still have posters of him everywhere.
Posted by: Thing From Snowy Mountain || 01/04/2014 14:40 Comments || Top||

#12  If a swan can trumpet, can't a duck type?

and #3
Posted by: swksvolFF || 01/04/2014 15:52 Comments || Top||

#13  Watch it happen over failure to re-pay the rescue of the greendork cruiselines.
Posted by: swksvolFF || 01/04/2014 16:51 Comments || Top||

#14  World War III started when the Marine barracks in Beirut were bombed. You figure out the opposition...Iran, Syria, Pakistan, China, North Korea...we've been fighting WW III for almost 30 years already.
Posted by: Bill Clinton || 01/04/2014 19:05 Comments || Top||

#15  ...ah, storm a sovereign embassy usually was considered the initiation of hostiles and inviting military consequences (see Peking, 1900).
Posted by: Procopius2k || 01/04/2014 19:35 Comments || Top||


India-Pakistan
War of words among parties over Musharraf
[DAWN] A war of words broke out between the Pakistain Peoples Party and Pakistain Moslem League-Nawaz on the one hand and Muttahida Qaumi Movement
...English: United National Movement, generally known as MQM, is the 3rd largest political party and the largest secular political party in Pakistain with particular strength in Sindh. From 1992 to 1999, the MQM was the target of the Pak Army's Operation Cleanup leaving thousands of urdu speaking civilians dead...
on the other on the issue of the purported heart ailment of former president General Pervez Perv Musharraf
... former dictator of Pakistain, who was less dictatorial and corrupt than any Pak civilian government to date ...
on Thursday. Leaders of the PPP and PML-N issued statements against Gen Musharraf while MQM came up in support of the former president who reportedly suffered a heart attack while he was on way to a special court.

Soon after the former dictator was admitted to the Armed Forces Institute of Cardiology (AFIC) in Rawalpindi, Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari posted a rather sarcastic note on his twitter account which read: "I can't believe this coward ever wore the uniform of our brave and courageous armed forces." He further said: "All medical excuses must be verified by an independent board of doctors. I have an ouchy is no excuses (sic) to skip your treason case." Bilawal said the proceedings of the special court showed that the defence team intended to fight the court, not the case.

In response to Mr Bilawal's remarks, MQM leader Muhammad Anwar said the statement of PPP leader was disappointing and shocking for every Pak.

It is pertinent to mention here that MQM's self-exiled chief Altaf Hussain was the first politician of the country who gave his remarks on Musharraf's 'heart attack' and urged people to pray for his (Musharraf's) good health.

Mr Anwar said: "Those who are calling Musharraf a coward should know that Bilawal's father and former president Asif Ali Zardari, in order to avoid his personal appearance in Swiss Court, had submitted a medical certificate claiming that he was mentally unfit and thus could not attend the court proceedings."

The advisers of Bilawal should advise him that before maligning others, he should look into the role of his family members in politics, the MQM leader added.

Defence Minister Khawaja Asif in a statement said that the government had not made any decision to send Musharraf abroad for medial treatment. "If he is medically unfit his lawyer should submit a medical certificate before the court," the minister said.

He, however, said the government would accept any decision of the court, if made, regarding Musharraf.

The PML-N's information secretary Mushahidullah said he was not certain about medical condition of Musharraf but the fact was that he had already tried to avoid the courts. "Musharraf's retribution has started," he added.

He said PML-N chief and Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif
... served two non-consecutive terms as prime minister, heads the Pakistain Moslem League (Nawaz). Noted for his spectacular corruption, the 1998 Pak nuclear test, border war with India, and for being tossed by General Musharraf...
had faced imprisonment and was also tortured but Mr Musharraf was horrified without having any pressure.
Posted by: Fred || 01/04/2014 00:00 || Comments || Link || [7 views] Top|| File under: Govt of Pakistan



Who's in the News
33[untagged]
9Arab Spring
6Abdullah Azzam Brigades
2Govt of Pakistan
2al-Nusra
2Islamic State of Iraq & the Levant
2Jamaat-e-Islami
1Govt of Iran
1al-Qaeda
1Govt of Syria
1Hamas
1Seleka
1Thai Insurgency
1Palestinian Authority
1Salafists
1Ansar al-Sharia
1al-Qaeda in Arabia

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Two weeks of WOT
Sat 2014-01-04
  Majid al-Majid pegs out in custody
Fri 2014-01-03
  Qaeda militants control parts of Iraq
Thu 2014-01-02
  Syria misses United Nations deadline
Wed 2014-01-01
  Leb Army Arrests Abdullah Azzam Brigades Chief
Tue 2013-12-31
  Shamsher Mobin and 250 others arrested
Mon 2013-12-30
  Reports: Second Blast In Russian City Kills 10 On Trolleybus
Sun 2013-12-29
  Breaking: Terrorist bombing Russian train statiion kills 18.
Sat 2013-12-28
  10 Dead In Army Shelling Of Funeral Tent In South Yemen
Fri 2013-12-27
  Egypt Orders 18 Brotherhood Members Held on Terror Charges
Thu 2013-12-26
  French Tanks Deploy at Bangui Airport amid Heavy Gunfire
Wed 2013-12-25
  70 killed as troops, Boko Haram clashes in Nigeria
Tue 2013-12-24
  Turbans attack Iraq TV channel HQ
Mon 2013-12-23
  New Air Strikes on Aleppo Kill Dozens, Schoolchildren among 8 Dead in Homs
Sun 2013-12-22
  Alabama men convicted on terrorism charges get 15-year prison terms
Sat 2013-12-21
  N. Waziristan clashes: Troops pound militant hideouts, 40 killed


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