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Area: WoT Operations    WoT Background    Non-WoT        Politix   
Turkey Finds Sarin Gas In Homes Of Suspected Syrian Islamists
Today's Headlines
Headline Comments [Views]
Page 4: Opinion
5 21:52 Ptah [4] 
7 19:54 KBK [2] 
2 11:18 Shipman [6] 
Page 1: WoT Operations
6 21:32 Fred [5]
6 14:46 Pappy [2]
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2 16:54 mojo []
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Page 2: WoT Background
9 21:19 junkiron [6]
4 22:36 Thing From Snowy Mountain [7]
1 05:59 American Delight [8]
6 11:23 swksvolFF [6]
2 22:58 Pappy [2]
3 20:30 Besoeker [9]
4 17:11 Procopius2k [4]
2 11:10 Shipman [6]
4 23:22 Skidmark [5]
1 13:15 Redneck Jim [3]
1 13:03 Redneck Jim []
2 15:12 Pappy [4]
6 13:12 Redneck Jim [2]
4 11:20 Jiggs Snavitch1005 []
6 21:47 Lone Ranger [3]
1 14:46 chris [4]
0 [6]
2 06:21 g(r)omgoru [2]
5 18:23 Frank G [4]
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1 10:41 devilstoenail []
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3 23:26 Skidmark [4]
0 [8]
1 10:35 Frank G [5]
Page 3: Non-WoT
1 22:45 Procopius2k [4]
17 22:16 Winky Sproing5899 [4]
9 18:13 Redneck Jim [4]
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2 10:44 Frank G [6]
1 02:26 Redneck Jim [2]
6 13:47 Procopius2k []
Page 6: Politix
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21 21:10 Rambler in Virginia [2]
Science & Technology
Cold War Firewalls against Nuclear War are breaking down
Posted by: Frozen Al || 06/01/2013 00:00 || Comments || Link || [2 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Should the US be ready for "LIMITED" NUCWAR???

IMO "India-vs-China" Scenario(s) = likely "FULL" as I don't believe India, or China BFF anti-India Pakistan, has the patience of Japan.

Again, agz the US = US-Allies in NE Asia [NEA] + East Asia in general, CHINA desires ...
> To have Japan + ROK + ASEAN abandon the US Nuke Umbrella + come over to its side.
> To keep Mama Russia out of any mil conflict, i.e. NEUTRAL AMAP ALAP.

* FYI WORLD MILITARY FORUM > CHINESE THINK-TANKS: RUSSIA MAY DEPLOY TROOPS AGZ JAPAN IN SUPPORT OF PRC-TAIWAN ALLIANCE IFF THE US MIL INTERVENES IN BEIJING-TOKYO DISPUTE.

Moving on, I still say the MSM-Net is helping the Bammer Admin set the stage for NOT MIL INTERVENING ON BEHALF OF US OVERSEAS ALLIES, as due to the ever-expanding US Debt burden e.g. "Sequestration/
Sequester.

As things stand, despite the death + overthrow of Uncle Muammar + Mubarak in Libya + Egypt, + the death of Osama at Abbottobad, the Bammer's foreign polices as per the GWOT remains mostly a FAILURE, WID THE US OSTENSIB AT HIGHER RISK OF DOMESTIC JIHADI ATTACK THAN EVER BEFORE.

E.G. TOPIX > IS WORLD WAR THREE NEXT? THE SYRIAN CONFLICT THREATENS TO DRAG IN AMERICA, RUSSIA, + EUROPE INTO A WILD INFERNO ENGULFING THE ENTIRE MIDDLE EAST.

* SAME > [Daily Star.LB] LIBYA BECOMING A "NEW MALI" AS ISLAMISTS SHIFT IN SAHARA.

RELATED SAME = PARIS FEARS EXTREMISTS REGROUPING IN SOUTH LIBYA.

Generally "weak" Central Africa deemed highly vulnerable to the Hard/Bad Boyz jihadi threat, wid Paris likely to be militarily involved in same for many years to come yet.

* SAME > TERRORISTS OUT-ADAPT THE WEST.

* SAME > "NOWHERE [in Region] IS SAFE FOR HEZBOLLAH", WARNS SYRIAN REBEL CHIEF.

Syrian Rebel Group threatens to attack Lebanon iff Hezbollah refuses to withdraw + stop supporting Assad in Syria.

* SAME > [Independent.UK] "IFF IRAQ GOES ON LIKE THIS, WE WILL HAVE CIVIL WAR + PARTITION", SAYS SENIOR POLITICIAN | ADVISOR TO IRAQI GOVERNMENT WARNS THAT COUNTRY IS HEADING TO PARTITION AFTER DEADLY MONTH.

* INDIAN DEFENCE FORUM > TEHREEK-E-TALIBAN [Pak TTP] WITHDRAWS [peace] DIALOGUE OFFER WID NEW GOVERNMENT.

* MEMRI.ORG > TALIBAN MAGAZINE "AZAN" CALLS FOR JIAHD TO TAKE BACK ANDALUS [Muslim Spain], as
well as AL-AQSA MOSQUE.

* SAME > OP-ED IN LONDON MUSLIM DAILY "AL-SHARQ AL-AWSAI ATTACKS OBAMA: "THE WEAKEST PRESIDENT IN US HISTORY".
Posted by: JosephMendiola || 06/01/2013 1:19 Comments || Top||

#2  “The problem is most of the warheads we’ve retained… are huge weapons,”

I love the smell of isotopes in the morning....

Posted by: Uncle Phester || 06/01/2013 10:04 Comments || Top||

#3  ...that's the smell of green chili in the morning. Red after noon.
Posted by: Procopius2k || 06/01/2013 10:53 Comments || Top||

#4  Let me translate for you rubes.

There's no way the US can win a nuclear exchange because our bombs are way to big to play and it wouldn't be fair.


Posted by: Shipman || 06/01/2013 11:18 Comments || Top||

#5  No nuke too big, no target too small.
Posted by: Silentbrick - Schlumberger Squishy Mud Division || 06/01/2013 14:04 Comments || Top||

#6  Sounds like they (our planners) are busy working on winning the last war, as usual. The great skew in the logic here is that the most dangerous opponent is not the one with the most capable military, but the one with the least to loose. (As in why not go for it.)
Posted by: ed in texas || 06/01/2013 16:40 Comments || Top||

#7  Right now, we still have the most to loose. O is working on that though.
Posted by: KBK || 06/01/2013 19:54 Comments || Top||


Syria-Lebanon-Iran
Servant of two masters
[Ynet] Arab journalist says Syrian war shows conflict with Israel was never a top priority for Hezbollah

Some of Hezbollah's harshest critics claim the organization has turned its weapons away from the conflict with Israel and toward a conflict with the Syrian people. The recent battles raging in the city of Qusair, they say, are a testament to this change within the Lebanese Shiite group.

However,
there is a theory which states that if ever anybody discovers exactly what the Universe is for and why it is here, it will instantly disappear and be replaced by something even more bizarre and inexplicable. There is another theory which states that this has already happened...
in my estimation, this is false interpretation of Hezbollah and its considerations. The critics have not internalized the fact that even when the organization fights Israel, it is actually fighting on behalf of the Syrian and Iranian regimes.

Without this interpretation it would be impossible to explain Hezbollah's growth in the 1980s, as the group's success was not only military in nature. In the first decade of Hezbollah's existence it succeeded in erasing its competitors -- all those forces that wanted to fight Israel while maintaining their independence from Syrian and Iranian dictations. As opposed to these groups, Hezbollah synchronized the goal and the means: It made certain that the means would always be subjected to the goals, and that the goals would never lack means.

One example of this is Israel's decision to unilaterally withdraw from south Leb in 2000. This decision did not satisfy Hezbollah. Despite the liberation of lands, the organization - along with the sponsoring regime in Damascus - chose to use the Shebaa Farms as an excuse to continue the conflict.

Obviously, the main reason for this development was Syria's fear that Israel's withdrawal would bring Leb's demand for a Syrian withdrawal closer to reality. Indeed, this eventually resulted in a series of events that led to former prime minister Rafik Hariri's detachment from the patrons in Damascus.

Hezbollah carried on its shoulders the mission of liberating the lands, and it also paid the price for it. However,
there is a theory which states that if ever anybody discovers exactly what the Universe is for and why it is here, it will instantly disappear and be replaced by something even more bizarre and inexplicable. There is another theory which states that this has already happened...
as the liberation of south Leb in 200 proved, Hezbollah did not have Leb's national interests in mind when it fought to free the lands. Actually, when then-Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak suggested the idea of a withdrawal from south Leb, Hezbollah was not pleased. Rather, it was surprised by the "unwelcome" development, and it was all the more surprised when Israel actually retreated.

These past events, and the considerations behind Hezbollah's decisions, resonate today amid the fighting in Qusair. These reverberations clarify the central contradiction in Hezbollah's outlook: A group whose existence and activity is dependent on the existence of the regimes in Iran and Syria -- not on its conflict with Israel.

This reality puts in a ridiculous light Hezbollah's claim that the conflict with Israel is its top priority. Actually, the Shiite group has never prioritized the conflict against Israel. What has been prioritized is Hezbollah's ability to market the narrative that it has prioritized the war against Israel. In doing so, Hezbollah caused many in the Arab world -- and in Leb in particular -- to believe it.

Only now, as Hezbollah fighters are assisting Assad's forces in the battles against the rebels, the organization's true nature is being revealed.

Hazem Saghieh is a senior columnist and editor at the London-based Al-Hayat daily
Posted by: trailing wife || 06/01/2013 00:00 || Comments || Link || [6 views] Top|| File under: Hezbollah

#1  An Arab accusing his Arab enemies of the worse thing he (almost wrote it) can think of---not being really hostile to Israel.
Posted by: g(r)omgoru || 06/01/2013 9:49 Comments || Top||

#2  Heh, I'm already long on ConAgra.
Posted by: Shipman || 06/01/2013 11:18 Comments || Top||


Home Front: Culture Wars
Thoughts on Woolwich
by Thoeodore Dalrymple

[CityJournal] Lee Rigby's murder tells us as much about contemporary society as it does about radical Islam.

What these cases show is that it is not Islam that makes young converts violent; it is the violence within them that causes them to convert to Islam. The religion, in its most bloodthirsty form, supplies all their psychological needs and channels their anger into a supposedly higher purpose. It gives them moral license to act upon their rage; for, like many in our society, they do not realize that anger is not self-justifying, that one is not necessarily right because one is angry, and that in any case even justified anger does not entail a license to act violently. The hacking to death of Lee Rigby on a street in Woolwich tells us as much about the society that we have created, or allowed to develop, as it does about radical Islam preached by fat, middle-aged clerics.
Posted by: trailing wife || 06/01/2013 00:00 || Comments || Link || [4 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Seems to me , that admission to Muslinism, is an automatic death sentence, any person can carry it out.

I'm A Muslim, BANG, they're dead. Hey they do it to us.
Posted by: Redneck Jim || 06/01/2013 2:19 Comments || Top||

#2 
[From the City Journal Comment Section]


'What these cases show is that it is not Islam that makes young converts violent; it is the violence within them that causes them to convert to Islam.'

Not fully true because Islam does encourage it and even justifies it if it's in the name of Islam. Just go to sources themselves in the Koran, the hadiths and Islamic history to see it clearly. If we keep on ignoring the facts then we should be prepared for more violence that is definitely going to unfold yet. This unfortunate beheading is just the beginning of what is yet to come. These guys are not stupid of unintelligent that they don’t understand the Koran and its teachings but they express it exactly like how it's supposed to be.

I would only add;
Many, if not most, Jihadists aren’t necessarily “crazy”. But they are all fanatical. There's a big difference.
Posted by: DepotGuy || 06/01/2013 10:35 Comments || Top||

#3  There is something to this. To convert to a new religion one has to be passionate about it -- otherwise why bother? The passionate new convert to Islam may well be more incited by the hadiths and passages of the Koran that demands that (s)he kill the infidels. A person who has lived his/her entire life as a Muslim, on the other hand, likely has reached an accommodation with the same texts, much the same way as a lifelong Christian doesn't take too seriously the more bloody parts of the Old Testament.

I'm not making excuses here: I don't care what religion you are, if you decide to get blood on your hands I'm going to want you put down, preferably before you hurt anyone.

But I do get the argument that the convert is passionate, and that passion leads to action. Mix in a little mental instability, some 'education' by a fat, middle-aged, evil holy man, and so on and you can have a brand new terrorist or, at least, a gullible splodydope tool.
Posted by: Steve White || 06/01/2013 13:45 Comments || Top||

#4  It is significant that these alienated rage-filled young men seek out Islam. It's the only "people of the book" religion that welcomes them with open arms. It shows that Islam is not a transformative religion, but one that celebrates the most execrable aspects of human behavior. Not only that, it teaches that this murderous conduct is pleasing to "Allah". Allah is not the Christan God, but his enemy.
Posted by: Sgt. D.T. || 06/01/2013 15:55 Comments || Top||

#5  Dalrymple is spot on: the entire Koran sets up a moral bar considerably lower than what is posed in the Sermon on the Mount. The Mosaic law was kinder to aliens in the land than the Koran is to "people of the book."

The majority of people conquered by Islam knew this and at least resisted assimilation passively. The Only people who embraced Islam willingly and enthusiastically were the MONGOLS. What sort of "recommendation" is THAT?
Posted by: Ptah || 06/01/2013 21:52 Comments || Top||



Who's in the News
22[untagged]
3Boko Haram
3al-Nusra
3Hamas
3Arab Spring
2Govt of Iran
2al-Qaeda
2Salafists
1Govt of Syria
1al-Shabaab
1Hezbollah
1TTP
1Taliban
1Commies

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Two weeks of WOT
Sat 2013-06-01
  Turkey Finds Sarin Gas In Homes Of Suspected Syrian Islamists
Fri 2013-05-31
  Michigan Woman Dies In Syria, Fighting For Rebels
Thu 2013-05-30
  Pakistan: Wali ur-Rehman killed by US drone strike
Wed 2013-05-29
  French Police Arrest Suspect in Stabbing Attack on Soldier
Tue 2013-05-28
  NGO: At least 79 Hizbullah Fighters Killed in Qusayr
Mon 2013-05-27
  Rockets hit Hezbollah Beirut heartland
Sun 2013-05-26
  Female Suicide Bomber Injures 12 in Russia's Dagestan
Sat 2013-05-25
  French soldier stabbed with Stanley knife in Paris
Fri 2013-05-24
  Two Stockholm schools attacked as Sweden riots continue
Thu 2013-05-23
  Niger suicide bombers target Areva mine and barracks
Wed 2013-05-22
  'Soldier beheaded' in 'Islamist terror attack' oustide barracks in Woolwich
Tue 2013-05-21
  Nigeria Says It Has Retaken Five Islamist Strongholds
Mon 2013-05-20
  Syria: 20 Hezbollah Fighters Killed In Qusair
Sun 2013-05-19
  Syria army 'storms' rebel town Qusair
Sat 2013-05-18
  Moroccan Jailed For Milan Synagogue Bomb Plot


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