#1
One of the false assumptions is that your enemy is going to have an easy time of it along with little or no domestic ramifications.
I received orders to move against Colonel Thomas Harris, who was said to be encamped at the town of Florida, some twenty-five miles south of were we then were Harris had been encamped in a creek bottom for the sake of being near water. The hills on either side of the creek extended to a considerable height, possibly more than a hundred feet. As we approached the brow of the hill from which was expected we could see Harris camp, and possibly find his men ready formed to meet us, my heart kept getting higher and higher until it felt to me as though it was in my throat. I would have given anything then to have been back in Illinois, but I had not the moral courage to halt and consider what to do; I kept right on. When we reached a point from which the valley below was in full view I halted. The place where Harris had been encamped a few days before was still there and the marks of recent encampment were plainly visible, but the troops were gone. My heart resumed its place. It occurred to me at once that Harris had been as much afraid of me as I had been of him. This was a view of the question I had never taken before; but it was one I never forgot afterwards. From that event to the close of the war, I never experienced trepidation upon confronting an enemy, though I always felt more or less anxiety. I never forgot that he had as much reason to fear my forces as I had his. I never forgot that lesson. Personal Memoirs of U.S. Grant
The power of the party is the first and last consideration of those in Beijing. They may play the nationalistic cards and talk the talk of restoring the glory of the Heavenly Kingdom, but they are rational enough to make sure they do nothing to endanger that prime directive.
#2
But not enough to make sure they don't make a mistake. They are much like Germany in 1910. The future does not look better than the present. The period of their maximum advantage may be drawing to a close sooner than we think.
#3
And as a consequence, the Eurocentric world dissolved and never recovered. IIRC there was a Russian economist who argued that the European 'Great Powers' couldn't afford a war because it would economically destroy them. He was ignored, but his remarks were validated. Same holds for the powers big powers today. No power will recover to its former self of the day prior to open hostilities for a long time if ever.
#5
I skimmed the article. I can easily believe that war with China would suck, but the author of this piece believes in the whole Chinese Los Angeles Missile Launch Thing... that was really a contrail from a commercial airliner....
#6
China's kind of putting the cart before the horse. Get your own house in order first. Maybe having a toilet in every house, or a nationwide immunization program would be more realistic than World Domination for now.
The time of ever expanding resources is over, the great empires of the world are slowly diminishing, China may have missed the boat.
Posted by: Sum Dum Guy ||
06/04/2013 11:58 Comments ||
Top||
Barry Rubin at PJM explains how, among other things, Champ has been canoodling with Mohamed Majid, president of the Islamic Society of North America, and with jihadist Muslims around the world in the name of 'outreach.'
Posted by: Steve White ||
06/04/2013 09:01 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[0 views]
Top|| File under:
[Dawn] THE past few weeks have been incredibly bloody for Iraq, as fears resurface of a return to the sectarian carnage that was unleashed in 2006. The UN says over 1,000 people have been killed in the country in May while April (over 700 deaths) was not much better. Iraqis -- both Shia and Sunni -- have died on a near daily basis as hard boyz have bombed mosques, markets and neighbourhoods, with civilians targeted along with security forces. The violence has sectarian overtones as many minority Sunnis feel Nouri al-Maliki ... Prime Minister of Iraq and the secretary-general of the Islamic Dawa Party.... 's Shia-led government has been ruling with a heavy hand. Al Qaeda and other bad boy groups have stepped in to exploit communal differences; sectarian passions were already running high due to the civil war in neighbouring Syria.
Contemporary Iraq's situation is the legacy of America's experiment in regime change. After the US invaded in 2003, various types of krazed killer outfits sprang up as the Iraqi state collapsed with the fall of Saddam Hussein. Al Qaeda's Iraqi affiliate has emerged as probably the deadliest of them all, while there is also a working relationship between the bad boy group's Iraqi and Syrian wings. What is more, a confessional, Leb-like system with power divided between the dominant religious and ethnic players has failed to work in Iraq. This shows that even the most well-intentioned system imposed from the outside will not function for long. All efforts must be made to prevent Iraq's disintegration. A failed state will only add to Iraqis' miseries, and give more space to jihadi elements. The Iraqi government should concentrate on two areas; it needs to make increased efforts to reconcile with all of the country's religious and ethnic communities so that the democratic process can continue. Secondly, it must take firm action against Al Qaeda and other faceless myrmidons who seek to use Iraqi soil to destabilise the region. A divided, ethnically and religiously fractured Iraq is an unwelcome prospect and if not contained, the country's internal sectarian unrest can flow beyond its borders.
Posted by: Fred ||
06/04/2013 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[6 views]
Top|| File under: al-Qaeda in Iraq
#4
I love how a columnist in Pakistan gives advice to Iraq that, "... it needs to make increased efforts to reconcile with all of the country's religious and ethnic communities..."
Posted by: lord garth ||
06/04/2013 11:20 Comments ||
Top||
#5
Hey, it's on them. They wish to remain "stuck on stupid", their choice. No longer our concern. Stay the fok out of it, and events in Syria as well.
#6
All efforts must be made to prevent Iraq's disintegration
To me this comes under the heading of unwarranted assumption. I think that the ME as a whole might be better off if all these tribes with flags could devolve to just plain tribes.
For a while, I've been wondering if it's parental malpractice to put your kids in public schools. More and more, it's gone beyond wondering. For example, last week the Washington Post reported a nasty case of abusive behavior by school officials in Calvert County, Maryland: A five-year-old who brought a cowboy-style cap pistol on a school bus -- orange-tipped, and something that no one could possibly mistake for a real gun -- was interrogated for two hours (an interrogation that was so long, or so stressful, that he wet his pants) and then suspended for 10 days. Who treats a five-year-old that way?
The Post reports: "The case comes at a time of heightened sensitivity about guns in schools across the country. Locally, children in first and second grade have been disciplined for pointing their fingers like guns and for chewing a Pop-Tart-like pastry into the shape of a gun. In Pennsylvania, a 5-year-old was suspended for talking about shooting a Hello Kitty bubble gun that blows soap bubbles."
Meanwhile, in Massachusetts, another kindergartner was punished for bringing a tiny Lego gun -- the illustration in the Boston Herald places it next to a quarter coin -- with detention, and forced to write a letter of apology to the school bus driver. For bringing a tiny piece of plastic.
What's up with this? It's not based on any concern with safety. Lego guns, cap guns, bubble guns, nibbled Pop Tarts, and fingers are no threat to safety. And the wild overreaction in these cases says there's more going on here than simple school discipline. As I said, who treats a 5-year-old this way? It smacks of fanaticism.
In fact, it seems like a kind of quasi-religious fanaticism. I think it's about the administrative class -- which runs the schools with as little input from parents as possible -- doing its best to exterminate the very idea of guns. It's some sort of wacky moral-purity crusade. If a few toddlers have to suffer along the way, that's tough. You can't make an omelet without breaking a few eggs.
But that raises two questions. First, what business do public schools have in trying to extirpate "impure" thoughts? Aren't we supposed to celebrate diversity? And, second, why should public schools decide that a longtime staple of American childhood, the toy gun, is suddenly evil?
When Horace Mann first campaigned to introduce compulsory public schooling, the model he chose was based on the schools in Prussia. Some of his critics objected: The Prussian system, they said, was based on the presumption that the government was smarter than the people. In America, presumption was precisely the reverse. Mann won out, but the result raises some questions about who's smarter.
The people running these schools are providing considerable evidence that they are not especially bright. Or, at any rate, that they have little respect for American culture. And the way they back down when these cases comes to light indicates that they know they're out of step with the public.
Which raises the question: Why are we giving them so much money? If public schools are places where kids can be persecuted for being kids -- especially if, gasp, they're boys acting like boys -- what's their claim on our support?
Increasingly, parents are exiting public schools for private schools, charter schools, online schools or homeschooling. (Hey, the guy who sold Tumblr to Yahoo for a billion dollars was homeschooled.) This steady stream of stories involving what can only be called institutional child abuse can only speed that trend along. And once large numbers of parents are no longer sending their kids to public schools, how long will the tax money keep coming?
That's the question I'd be asking myself, if I were running public schools. The people who actually are running them, however, seem to be oblivious. Fanatics usually are.
#1
Talking to adults about problems in public schools is tough. They all went to public school, and they turned out just fine. The missing data point is that these are not the public schools you went to. These schools more closely resemble something out of Orwell -- a braindead, morally bankrupt and incompetant version of Orwell's future.
You are right. There is also the problem that parents, if they care at all, are only familiar with the schools in their immediate area. I would guess that most schools are no where near this type of fanaticism.............yet.
My wife, a teacher, is very much on board with the 'burg view of things, BUT, she is very sensitive on this type of issue as a gross over-generalization as she thinks it unfairly casts aspersions on herself and her friends in the schools.
#4
School boards are usually ineffectual offices used by wannabe pols-personalities putting their first toe into the water rather than seeking true responsibility which implies the possibility of failure. Rubber stamps for 'professional' school administrators.
Of the three major scandals currently engulfing the presidency -- the IRS targeting of conservative groups, the Obama administration's response to the Benghazi terrorist attack, and the Justice Department's seizure of phone records belonging to Associated Press journalists, the IRS issue is making the biggest impact with voters. According to Quinnipiac, 66 percent of Americans disapprove of the way in which the IRS is handling its job, and 76 percent support the appointment of a special prosecutor to investigate the IRS scandal. The Benghazi issue is also doing considerable damage to the Obama administration's image, with 46 percent believing "the Obama administration deliberately misled the American people about the events surrounding the death of the American Ambassador to Libya." Voters are generally less familiar with the AP story.
The Quinnipiac poll suggests trouble ahead for next year's Congressional mid-term elections, where the Republicans will be seeking to consolidate and expand their control of the House of Representatives, and possibly retake the Senate. Significantly, among Independent voters, who are likely to decide many of the crucial House and Senate races in November 2014, 57 percent disapprove of Barack Obama's job performance, and 56 percent do not believe that the president is "honest and trustworthy." By a 45 percent to 35 percent margin, Independents believe that Republicans in Congress are doing a better job than President Obama on handling the economy, the number one issue for the American electorate. Among all voters, Barack Obama and Congressional Republicans are tied at 43 percent. Overall, 68 percent of Americans are "somewhat dissatisfied" or "very dissatisfied" with the direction the United States is taking, hardly a vote of confidence in Mr. Obama's leadership. Expect even worse figures for the White House in the coming weeks, as the pressure intensifies on a scandal-hit presidency.
Does anyone get the impression that a really VAST number of Americans are deeply Stupid? That they can't judge a man's character early on...? that what Obama ACTUALLY was as a man was OBVIOUS from the very beginning? But they got a "thrill up their leg" and voted for him TWICE?
You people DESERVE Obama. And all this comes as a big SURPRISE to you?( how could this have happened?)
Look at yourselves. Now go take a bath and change your underwear..
And you are worried about Biden? HOW did a man like Biden get that high in the food chain to begin with? Perhaps you have a system that produces men like Biden? No? Greedy, weak, lazy, selfish, stupid, and cowardly. Let's blame it on someone else.
And Romney was the best we could do? Or John Edwards and Kerry? American values...what IS that smell?
Its their fault and not ours? The entire DC edifice is somebody else's fault? America....the land of Hollywood and Walmart. Let's put on a uniform and fight for Old Glory.
Got your shovel?
#4
Sums up my feelings, most of the country are drooling mongoloid idiots that know more about Honey Boo-Boo and the latest Cheeze Puffs promotion than they do about economics or politics.
Anyone that cannot see this for what it is....I cannot help them.
I have gone into damage control mode, we buy food, a very few clothes and other than that pay down what is left of our debt. I have found that I have very little use for consumer goods or popular things these days. My 30's have left me with a whole house full of sh*t that I don't even want.
I see two Americas now, one that takes, growing ever louder in their demands and one that produces, quietly suffering under the yoke of onerous regulations and taxes.
Republicans and Democrats are the same to me, they want the same things in the end. Only their methods of achieving this end differ.
#8
The link NS posted nails it Jim. Purely a communist Tactic, Technique, and Procedure (TTP). It has been since the beginning. Militants like Val Jarrett, FLOTUS, and the socialist Jewish cabal under Axelrod are calling the shots. The rule of law means nothing. Radical jihadists, labor unions, immigrants, and the entitlement crowd are simply enablers, foot soldiers. I'm more convinced of it now than ever.
#9
Absolutely. Leftie militants reject God and divine perfection, so instead they seek to establish an earthly, man-made utopia. Oddly, they accept original sin - that humans are flawed, wicked creatures. Thus, the goal of any utopian order establishing perfection on earth is to eliminate those flawed, wicked impulses. Those who resist the power of the state are denying their own sinful nature, and may be - must be - crushed with particular brutality.
The concept of a secular utopia started with that nitwit Rousseau. So at least we can always blame the French (apologies to JFM).
#10
Looks like an alleged "fouth scandal" involving the Bammer + Admin may be just about to break ...
To wit,
* VARIOUS > [e.g. Russia Today] OBAMA TOP APPOINTEES USED SECRET GOVERNMENT EMAIL ACCOUNTS - AP.
There are also side allegations as per HIDDEN PERSONAL ANTI-IRS/TAX OVERSEAS BANK ACCOUNTS wid lots of $$$ in 'em, i.e. "Who's watching, taxing the IRS [Top BigWigs]" + Other in the Fed???
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.
Nouri al-Maliki
