Counting the Cats in Zinjibar
News reports suggest that forces associated with al-Qaeda have taken over, at least temporarily, a major city in Yemen. The LA Times says Zinjibar, “the capital of Abyan province in the south had been overrun by the country’s Al Qaeda affiliate”. The civil strife in Yemen has diverted most of that country’s military energy to sectarian purposes, leaving any rebels who care to attack a free hand.
It was impossible to know for sure if the group in Zinjibar was in Al Qaeda’s grasp. Myriad separatist groups exist in the south, including rival jihadist militant organizations such as the Aden-Abyan Islamic Army, as well as clans resentful of Sana. The country experienced a civil war between north and south in 1994. …
Troops loyal to the president have withdrawn from swaths of the country in recent months to concentrate on holding Sana, the capital. Last week alone, the elite Republican Guard — headed by Saleh’s son Ahmed — battled supporters of powerful tribal leaders in Sana and surrendered a base just outside of the city on Friday before airstrikes were called for.
The Yemeni Observer said government forces are now shelling Zinjibar and it may be retaken by the government. However Reuters says that the US and Saudi Arabia are afraid that al-Qaeda related groups might take advantage of the chaos to make gains. “Fears are growing that Yemen-based al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) will exploit such instability, analysts said. The United States and Saudi Arabia, both targets of attacks by AQAP, are worried that growing chaos is emboldening the group.” The New York Times reports that Saudi Arabia is doing its utmost to roll back the Arab Spring.
Saudi Arabia is flexing its financial and diplomatic might across the Middle East in a wide-ranging bid to contain the tide of change, shield other monarchies from popular discontent and avert the overthrow of any more leaders struggling to calm turbulent nations.
From Egypt, where the Saudis dispensed $4 billion in aid last week to shore up the ruling military council, to Yemen, where it is trying to ease out the president, to the kingdoms of Jordan and Morocco, which it has invited to join a union of Persian Gulf monarchies, Saudi Arabia is scrambling to forestall more radical change and block Iran’s influence.
Meanwhile Teheran is doing its utmost to make points. A cleric in Iran claimed the Ayatollahs have played a pivotal role in the Islamic awakening throughout the region and that Iran and the West were battling for the leadership of the movement. He was addressing visiting Turkish university professors. “Ayatollah Khamenei also stressed that recent developments in the region have surprised the US, European and Zionists, and warned that the arrogant powers have conspired plots to gain control over these developments. As regards the outcomes of the recent Islamic awakening in the region, Ayatollah Khamenei assured that “this movement will eventually serve the interests of the people of the region in future”. Doubtless Khamenei also wants the Spring to also serve Iran’s interests.
These developments may shed light on President Obama’s peculiar diplomatic behavior. Lee Smith was probably right to say that despite the outward bluster Washington regarded the Arab Spring a serious challenge. The President may have embarked upon the strategy of trying to lead, rather than fight it. It was a response from weakness rather than strength. This would explain its willingness to throw Mubarak overboard, press Saudi Arabia for “reforms” and to throw Israel’s borders into the negotiating pot all in an effort to gain street cred in the region.
In other words the President is fighting a rearguard action and shown a willingness to throw whatever it can into the path of the oncoming avalanche in order to slow it down temporarily. What he has been willing to concede speaks volumes about the seriousness of the situation. But sacrificial strategies only work when they set up a counter-attack or are anchored on a final stop line. Without a counterattack strategy repeated concessions only lead to defeat. So where is the administration’s final stop line?
That remains to be publicly defined. Doubtless Washington knows what it is, one would hope. But Saudi Arabia and Israel, perhaps sensing the drift, have left the Washington line and are setting up their own final protective fires. For the Kingdom, the lines are drawn around the GCC. For Israel, they are drawn around the parking lot because in comparative terms, that’s as big as its boundaries are. But for Washington the final game plan is still unclear.
It is not worth the while to go round the world to count the cats in Zanzibar. … If you would learn to speak all tongues and conform to the customs of all nations, if you would travel farther than all travellers, be naturalized in all climes, and cause the Sphinx to dash her head against a stone, even obey the precept of the old philosopher, and Explore thyself.
– Walden Pond
What Teheran and Riyadh want is clearer than what Washington desires.
“No Way In” print edition at Amazon
Wouldn’t you love to know what kinds of communications might be quietly going on now between the Israelis and the Saudis?
Someone ask Andrew Exum what to do. He always has an opinion.
The Edward Luttwak of his generation.
The pursuit of Democracy in the middle East is like a dog chasing a car. If the dog were ever to catch the car he wouldn’t know what to do with it.
For the Palestinians, peace process with Israel is dead:
== ==
This would explain its willingness to throw Mubarak overboard, press Saudi Arabia for “reforms” and to throw Israel’s borders into the negotiating pot all in an effort to gain street cred in the region.
== ==
Is there an example of a western country gaining “street cred” in a middle-eastern country, to the solid benefit of that western country? If not, then what sort of strategy is that?
Interesting thing is all the other creaking timbers in liberalism’s House of Unsustainability — real unemployment at Great Depression levels; unsupportable debt in the West; food difficulties facing much of the Middle East; Europeans blindly bombing an Arab country; chaos in Venezuela & Mexico; Chinese colonialism in Africa, and the Mother of All Bubbles back home; who knows what Russia is up to?
The playing cards are about to be reshuffled — big time. Obama, the EU, the UN — all irrelevant. But history tells us that, once the bloodletting & destruction has run its course, the human race will resume its upwards climb. That is something for future generations to look forward to.
These developments may shed light on President Obama’s peculiar diplomatic behavior….
In other words the President is fighting a rearguard action and shown a willingness to throw whatever it can into the path of the oncoming avalanche in order to slow it down temporarily…. Without a counterattack strategy repeated concessions only lead to defeat. So where is the administration’s final stop line?
That remains to be publicly defined. Doubtless Washington knows what it is, one would hope. But….
All this is a bit more complex than it has to be. And it deeply offends Occam’s Razor. Moreover, it is self-contradictory. (Is it parody?)
More likely (and most simply): The administration and the bright light that is leading it don’t have a clue. So yes, they are improvising—mightily—and those bromides are spouting fast and furious. But it only knows one thing: that in spite of the fact that the Arab world is going supernova, a Palestinian state must be achieved.
But for the Palestinians, a Palestinian state is not an end but a means—a way to weaken and ultimately destroy the Zionist Entity. More precisely, the arduous strategic posturing and pretense that it wants a Palestinian state is the means to this glorious goal. “Frustrated” by not getting the state they “want,” they will always be able to justify resorting to violence Always. And the next week may well demonstrate that violence is never off the table in their efforts to topple the Zionist edifice. Whatever works (or doesn’t). Back to the future, indeed.
But it is not only the Arab world that is self destructing. Morally and economically (do the two mirror one another?), Europe is trying desperately to extricate itself from the inevitable. And the US is in serious financial difficulties.
Who will collapse first? Who will be inundated? Who will be swept up in the flames? Who will bring whom down?
Iran? Iran’s gleeful description about the west and Israel being surprised by the Arab “Spring” merely masks its own panic at the Sunni blowback against its main ally, its fear of the possibility of losing that ally (and others, perhaps) and the possibility that the tinder box at home could be set off by the smallest spark.
And for the community organizer in chief it’s all hope and change: after all, new growth can only begin with destruction. Bring it on!
Let’s count the middle eastern cats – Algeria, Morocco, Tunisia, Libya, Syria, Egypt, Israel, Jordan, Yemen, Bahrain, United Arab Emirates, Turkey, Iran, Iraq, Lebanon, Palestinian Territories, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia – 20 of them (unless I have missed some).
Now, what does the US want to gain from these 20 different countries?
Does it want one same thing from all 20?
Does it want one different thing – 20 things in total – from each country. ?
Does the U.S. know what it wants to gain from these 20 different countries? – Apparently not.
What do these 20 different countries want to gain from America?
Do they all want the same thing?
Do they all want their own unique thing from America?
Do the 20 different countries know what they want to gain from the U.S.? – Yes, they seem to.
Does the U.S. know what these countries want from it? – Apparently not.
Do the 20 countries know what the U.S. wants to gain from them? – They don’t seem to care and are determined not to give the U.S. anything they don’t want to.
It appears that the U.S. doesn’t know what it wants to gain from these 20 countries; and doesn’t know what they want to gain from the it. By contrast, these 20 countries appear to know what they want to gain from the U.S. and are determined not to give up anything they don’t want to.
If these appearances are even close to being correct, then why would we expect the U.S. to gain much of anything from dithering about in the Middle East? Of course there may be some brilliant secret mistress plan dreamed up by the three Twisted Sisters that will save the day. I guess we’ll have to wait and see.
.
The word “Zanjibar” sounds exotic, like something out of A Thousand and One Arabian Nights. I wish I had the talent of Colerdige to do something with that word beyond the following, very bad doggerel:
“In Zanjibar,” said Al-Khay-Dhah,
“We a stately training camp decreed,
For Oaf the POTUS doth recede,
Fearing kinetic action, gory deeds,
Down near that trackless sandy sea.”
Zanjibar sound like another place were our soldiers will end up fighting door-to-door, in yet another interminable war, with R.O.E. that require them to have both hands tied behind their backs.
Wouldn’t it be a good thing for AQ to take over cities, Makes an inviting target
for carpet bombing, kind of the Iraq strategy of drawing the rats out to the cheese to snap the trap.
Despite my misspellings in #9, I think everyone gets the drift.
Apparently The West wasn’t expecting the “Arab Spring” and they don’t seem to be able to see the “Western Spring” that is coming. The 2010 Elections are just a fluke and the Tea Party is just an AstroTurf organization that will not last according to the ruling leftists. I suspect a number of leaders in the Arab countries have a better idea of what is happening in the West than the current group that goes through the motions of leading it. The Muslims may suffer from physical inbreeding but the left in the US seems to have a form of intellectual incest going for it.
The Big O is making another big foreign policy mistake here. Hopefully this won’t mean goodbye to the Reset and what it has bought for the U.S. (Russia pumping oil flat out, secure supply lines for Afghanistan through Russia, and rich Russians continuing to invest into the U.S. despite all the economic certainty).
Obama to appoint Samantha Power type McFaul to U.S. Moscow top job:
http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20110529/pl_nm/us_usa_russia_ambassador
They did manage to get the Russkies to agree to Gaddafi’s ouster. But that wasn’t too hard, Lukoil has gas stations in New Jersey and they were the biggest Russian oil investor in the country and want to stay on the right side of whomever runs the pumps. Even if the Libya war, which is a total farce, was REALLY launched to keep the Libyans trading oil in fiat rather than the Brother Leader demanding bulleon and upsetting the whole globalist apple cart.
Obama is the enemy of America. His actions make perfect sense viewed through that prism.
Enjoy!
This is Bad! Can the run up to World War be any clear or could our chance at fighting this with victory as a goal be slipping further and further from our grasp! I am doubtful this will be a traditional “two” side fight, looks like at least a three some, the problem is the usual American Allies are third rate Military and will be deeply involved in their own internal suppression of the enemies to come, mean while our military will be worn to a nub before the fight ever begins, another more dangerous side to this is if open war isn’t declared we (America) will be the biggest loser in the end, open war would solidify America while the simmering “police” action mentality only servers our enemies who have played that tune like professionals and our elitist have followed like the rats to the pied piper! The darker it is getting as we slip deeper and deeper into the abyss…
From a book review in the WSJ:
“Acheson, called in for advice on the Berlin question, attempted to take the president’s diplomatic education in hand. Kennedy explained that he needed tutors because he “had spent so much time . . . knowing people who could help him become president that he knew very few . . . who could help him be president.”
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704816604576335594159928256.html
Obama still has his campaign people in his inner circle. He has no strategy. He has faculty lounge chatter.
Oh Lord, we need your grace again.
I am finishing Lee Smith’s Strong Horse, which I have scarcely had time to read, what with one thing and another. But I was particularly struck by his observation that technology is the effect and not the cause of social values. It is man’s attitude to truth and freedom which lets him create or keeps him from creating technology. Smith was describing the fundamental problem with the Arab world’s search for progress. Its own values stood in its way and it could never choose to sacrifice its ‘honor’ to save itself.
It occurred to me at once that this was now also true of the West. For far too many now, ideology has become more important than the truth. They would rather catastrophe overtake them then admit they were wrong. On the day the wave of reality smashes over them they will curse reality.
Western welfare society is as much a monument to illusion as Arab countries are to some vision of Islam. There is now no balm in Gilead. Lee described the liberals of the early 20th century, how they trusted that the light of West would some day suffuse, even through colonialism, a society which let its children die in ignorance and its women languish in prisons of their own imagination. It would free them in spite of themselves.
Unfortunately no one is freed “in spite of himself”. Whether we like it or not, the only things that we retain are the things we choose for ourselves. And so those Arab liberals were thrown out of reckoning. How could they have known that this very West — the West they so admired — would go mad, kill itself en masse in the trenches and not much later, stuff the Jews and all the lesser races of Europe into the gas chambers in pursuit of what they thought was perfection? What did Nietzsche say? Stare at the abyss and it stares back?
Well here in the first decades of the 21st century we are about to undergo our first test of global sanity, handicapped not by our knowledge, but our unwillingness to know. It says much that the voters chose Barack Obama to lead them through this dark shadow, mostly in the hope that he would tell them it was not there. I do not hold out much hope for Arab culture, nor, if it has learned nothing from the 20th century, for much of the West either.
First, if I see a media outlet use the term “elite” (name the foreign military unit) any more I’m going to gnaw off my ears and gouge my eyes out!
Second, I do believe Iran has passed into the do or die stage of regime survival.
Third, it is positively eerie to watch all this happen.
Reason will be replaced by Revelation. Instead of Rational Law, objective truths perceptible to any who will undergo the necessary intellectual discipline, Knowledge will degenerate into a riot of subjective visions . . . Whole cosmogonies will be created out of some forgotten personal resentment, complete epics written in private languages, the daubs of schoolchildren ranked above the greatest masterpieces. Idealism will be replaced by Materialism. Life after death will be an eternal dinner party where all the guests are 20 years old . . . Justice will be replaced by Pity as the cardinal human virtue, and all fear of retribution will vanish . . . The New Aristocracy will consist exclusively of hermits, bums, and permanent invalids. The Rough Diamond, the Consumptive Whore, the bandit who is good to his mother, the epileptic girl who has a way with animals will be the heroes and heroines of the New Age, when the general, the statesman, and the philosopher have become the butt of every farce and satire.
Herod musing about the implications of Christ=s coming, in W. H. Auden’s For the Time Being.
We make men without chests and expect of them virtue and enterprise. We laugh at honor and are shocked to find traitors in our midst. We castrate and bid the geldings to be fruitful.
C. S. Lewis
‘Bradford is very inbred’: Muslim outrage as professor warns first-cousin marriages increase risk of birth defects
The offspring of first-cousins are 10 times more likely to suffer birth defects than the general population. In the UK, Paks marry first-cousins at an average rate of 55%. However, in some places that rate rises to 75%. As is ever the case, the Muslims are outraged by the facts – “inbreeding” is such a dirty word.
An alternate hypothesis.
Pakistan, Israel, Egypt, Yemen etc extort vast amounts of American taxpayers money by spreading hysteria–AQ is coming–the sky is falling, etc, etc.
It is just like the Global Warming Scam–follow the money.
It is a scam to extort American money by ME rug dealers and Russian settlers/ colonists in the Holy Land.
General Petraeus pointed this out in his own diplomatic way.
He said that there are around 200 AQ left in AfPak and that a far greater problem for America is Israels intransigence
—and the fact that we are seen as supporting that intransigence–
Gen Petraeus put that insight on the Congressional record.
http://mideast.foreignpolicy.com/posts/2010/03/14/the_petraeus_briefing_biden_s_embarrassment_is_not_the_whole_story
As Petraeus migrates to his new job as head of the CIA he will act on his insights.
” There are important and powerful lobbies in America:
the NRA, the American Medical Association, the lawyers — and the Israeli lobby.
But no lobby is as important, or as powerful, as the U.S. military.
While commentators and pundits might reflect that Joe Biden’s trip to Israel has forever shifted America’s relationship with its erstwhile ally in the region, the real break came in January, when David Petraeus sent a briefing team to the Pentagon with a stark warning:
America’s relationship with Israel is important, but not as important as the lives of America’s soldiers.
Maybe Israel gets the message now.”
Lebanon is trivial to American interest, Hamas does not threaten America nor does Syria or HZB.
Our interests are in
1/ The free market and supply for oil
2/ The harvesting of our massive domestic oil shale reserves in Texas and other states
3/ Developing our huge resources in Alaska
4/ Resolving our main national security threat–our national debt
5/ Preparing for the economic and military threat from China.
There are lots of screaming chickens in MENA who want OUR money–enough is enough
–we need to put American fundamental interests first.
Yemen is in KSA backyard and they know how to deal with it.
KSA is buying $ 60 billion + of American defense products–that means a lot of wealth and jobs for American families–great news
No more handouts to Pakistan, Israel, Egypt.
This is the correct post location
An alternate hypothesis.
Pakistan, Israel, Egypt, Yemen etc extort vast amounts of American taxpayers money by spreading hysteria–AQ is coming–the sky is falling, etc, etc.
It is just like the Global Warming Scam–follow the money.
It is a scam to extort American money by ME rug dealers and Russian settlers/ colonists in the Holy Land.
General Petraeus pointed this out in his own diplomatic way.
He said that there are around 200 AQ left in AfPak and that a far greater problem for America is Israels intransigence
—and the fact that we are seen as supporting that intransigence–
Gen Petraeus put that insight on the Congressional record.
http://mideast.foreignpolicy.com/posts/2010/03/14/the_petraeus_briefing_biden_s_embarrassment_is_not_the_whole_story
As Petraeus migrates to his new job as head of the CIA he will act on his insights.
” There are important and powerful lobbies in America:
the NRA, the American Medical Association, the lawyers — and the Israeli lobby.
But no lobby is as important, or as powerful, as the U.S. military.
While commentators and pundits might reflect that Joe Biden’s trip to Israel has forever shifted America’s relationship with its erstwhile ally in the region, the real break came in January, when David Petraeus sent a briefing team to the Pentagon with a stark warning:
America’s relationship with Israel is important, but not as important as the lives of America’s soldiers.
Maybe Israel gets the message now.”
Lebanon is trivial to American interest, Hamas does not threaten America nor does Syria or HZB.
Our interests are in
1/ The free market and supply for oil
2/ The harvesting of our massive domestic oil shale reserves in Texas and other states
3/ Developing our huge resources in Alaska
4/ Resolving our main national security threat–our national debt
5/ Preparing for the economic and military threat from China.
There are lots of screaming chickens in MENA who want OUR money–enough is enough
–we need to put American fundamental interests first.
Yemen is in KSA backyard and they know how to deal with it.
KSA is buying $ 60 billion + of American defense products–that means a lot of wealth and jobs for American families–great news
No more handouts to Pakistan, Israel, Egypt.
Victor, you are the Ross Perot of Belmont Club in your power-pointedness.
“No more handouts to Pakistan, Israel, Egypt.” A good place to start, but why didn’t I see you on TV with other Ron Paul supporters?
After fumbling through the clouds looking for silver linings I remembered that War is the traditional solution for unemployment.
I doubt the the Obomination will pick the right war but who knows. We might get lucky. Even a blind hog finds an ACORN every now and then.
Excuse me…Kinetic conflict resolution. It’s hard for us old dog to learn new tricks.
“But sacrificial strategies only work when they set up a counter-attack or are anchored on a final stop line. Without a counterattack strategy repeated concessions only lead to defeat. So where is the administration’s final stop line?” – Wretchard”
Easy. “Final stop line” is US reelection 2012. Nothing else matters.
The USA hasn’t had a lawful budget in 2 years, Obama blew off the Congressional war powers act, he controls government via dozens extra-constitutional “Tzars” – Obama is in with all the chips to win in 2012. Win, or he knows that anything that he cares about will probably be undone by the GOP “barbarian” that toss him and his party to the side of the road. That ain’t gonna happen, and if it means tossing 6 million Jews over the side and cutting deals with Iran, Syria, Egypt and Pakistan, he’ll do that in a heartbeat.
Just as long as the blood doesn’t flow before 2012.
The 2012 election will be determined by the state of the American economy and mainly jobs, debt and interest rates.
Israelis, Pakistanis etc want our money and will create all kinds of propaganda and hasbara to try and get it–through a false accusation of guilt or fear mongering –it is all toxic nonsense
We are now focused upon our American national interests and our allies in NATO and ECHELON which define our national security through 2060.
Egypt and Israel are not members–the train has left the station–it is what it is
No more handouts to Pakistan, Israel or Egypt
Now while we are in this window where the Republicans control the House investigations and subpoena powers they should be much more aggressive about turning over rocks and shiny daylight on what the Democrats and their friends have been up to. Restraint will pay no dividends.
So where is the administration’s final stop line?
Call me a simple soul, but when I fling Occam’s razor at that, I get Dear Leader’s re-election dreams and the feeling that whatever he does is a series of reactions to the accelerating chaos and not part of a grand diplomatic and economic strategy. He wants to look good until the next campaign speech in the next city, and he’ll do whatever/whomever he needs to throw under the bus to get there. Nothing else matters in his selfish, blinkered view.
When Obama was elected it told me that America was so divided and deluded politically that we should all run for the hills. I have yet to be convinced that things there (and around the world) are going anywhere but downhill. The mid-term swing back to the conservative side was good, but the conservative side might not yet be ready to carpe diem in the coming election year. Finding a worthy candidate remains the challenge, unless things get so bad between now and then that anyone will suffice for an increasing number of “anyone but Obama” voters.
I’m with Victor on this.
I think there is a plan. Borrowing from ‘Change Management’ practice, when an organisation is broken, sometimes it is better to destabilise it and then put it back the way you want to. Or to use another analogy, when tectonic plates collide, better to have a seies of small earthquakes than a mighty pent-up Japan-style quake.
In MENA, the situation was as un-analyseable as it was broken.
The most likely outcome is that, now destabilised, the various forces will beat each other into a pulp, and THEN we can rebuild the place in our own image (as an aside, I detect that the West is regaining its backbone where it counts – in the Islamic ghettos of Europe).
You don’t have to be correct at the start of a process, just at the end.
ADE
17. Wretchard:
I agree that technological progress is more abundant in “free” societies but while not the “source” of change it does have an affect on the rate of change and also leads to reactions when the “leadership” reacts to technological change in positive or negative ways. The classic example is the effect that the printing press and subsequent development of publishing had on the start of Luther’s Reformation.
Currently we see the governing class desperately trying to gain control and regulate the Internet as their feet of clay are revealed on it and the old tech media that they have the majority of control loses money and influence. I”m seeing more “techies” growing disenchanted with the Obama administration over this.
In the Islamic countries imported technology is causing the governing classes to spend money and time on trying to control it. The very act of trying to control it is causing blowback.
Consider how fast information spreads and the greater extent to which it spreads. The news on the raid on the Pakistan Naval base spread quickly. Now:
http://www.strategypage.com/htmw/htiw/articles/20110530.aspx
It is notoriously difficult to get the Dijin back into the bottle.
Allen (#21) said “The offspring of first-cousins are 10 times more likely to suffer birth defects than the general population.” OK let’s do the math, Average Muslim family 6 to 8 kids, average Euro family 1 to 2, at 10% percent the defect thing is working for the Muslim not against, they will use the Handicap (Physical/Mental) as readymade Homicide bombers (if they make it to their teens or further), the severely Handicap babies are also a win/win for the Western Muslim, who do you think pays for the “Ghetto” babies that are premies or have a severe birth defect, if that “severely” handicap baby makes it home their death rate is much higher than a non-Muslim severely handicap baby… It’s even more of a win/win for Islam as they drain that great Satan monies on their (Muslim) defective children, the up side is the Muslim man can have many a warm body to sleep with and if that cousin ain’t performing he can Honor Murder them and get a new one… this life style is a win/win/win for the half ignorant Muslim man, why do you think the vast majority of Muslims are uneducated? The third world man needs, wants and desires are not even close to what a 21st Century society wants.
“Victor” does speak some truth but then again everybody ”Hypes” what they want to get the necessary reaction from those they seek. Victor has a big problem with Israel, I would say it borders on Jew hate. Victor also has a Isolationist view, a rather big part of most of his comments and I for one am for pulling the log(s) from my eye first before seek to pull the splinters from others but we (America) cannot become Isolationist or our future will be very short and end rather violently, the oceans are no longer the great barrier they once afforded this country, the world has gotten small.
32. toadold:
Martin Luther was part of the first full generation of young people to grow up with the printing press as a taken-for-granted part of their lives. Much like kids born in the last decade or so, will grow up with the internet as a part of their lives. A bit of trivia to go with your observation. Luther’s 95 Theses were the first document of historical record to “go viral.” To quote from Wikipedia, regarding Luther’s 95 Theses :
“It wasn’t until January 1518 that friends of Luther translated the 95 Theses from Latin into German, printed, and widely copied, making the controversy one of the first in history to be aided by the printing press. Within two weeks, copies of the theses had spread throughout Germany; within two months throughout Europe. Luther’s writings circulated widely, reaching France, England, and Italy as early as 1519.”
On this day I would like to mention my uncle, R. E. Clement of Norman OK, who dropped out of college at age 20 and joined the Army the Saturday after Pearl Harbor. He became a B-17 mechanic and crew chief in one of the first squadrons in England and told me of the great loss of life and airships in those early years (ie, before fighter escort).
And also the late MajGen C. H. Schmid, USMC, who was my regimental commander as a colonel. Even at my advanced age today I still remember him as one of the most impressive men I’ve known–a true leader.
“but we (America) cannot become Isolationist or our future will be very short and end rather violently, the oceans are no longer the great barrier they once afforded this country, the world has gotten small.”
Sorry Charles but the world is the same size it has been for the last 4.5 billion years, give or take.
What has changed is the time it takes to communicate or travel around that world. NOT the same thing at all.
Oceans haven’t been barriers since the 16th century. They can be thought of as speed bumps or highways depending on who controls them. If Nazi Germany could have gotten at Britain, we would be having this discussion in German. Like wise if the U-Boats could have cut the flow of men and material from America to Europe.
As far as America NEEDING foreign trade, I’m not so sure. Trade has been good for America, with the benefits generally outweighing the drawbacks. Conventional wisdom claims the USA needs foreign trade.
I think certain groups NEED foreign trade but the whole issue needs to be examined in the light of technology. Trade has been mostly a drain on the American economy the last several decades. When you consider the military cost of keeping trade routes open and the overall state of national resources, Trade can be seen as welfare for certain members of the establishment.
Reducing the US Military to the Navy, Star Wars and a robust Civil Air Defence would allow America to tell the rest of the world to perform aerodynamic intercourse with an oscillating toroid pastry. That might be a good thing or it might be a bad thing. I know the coterie making billions off the defence budget think the current system is just fine.
The Palestinians seem unaware that declaring independence and a Third Intifada against Israel, places them in a different position than the first two intifada. As an independent state the intifada becomes an act of war against another independent state, not just some internal matter within Israeli territory. Quite simply the Israelis can go to war and using every weapon at their command, wipe the Palestinians off the face of the earth. Independence makes the Palestinians liable for their actions in a way they weren’t before. A missile fired from Gaza which is supposedly under the erstaz government of the Palestinian authority, is different from firing a missile from Gaza, which is the territory of a real, live, Palestinian state. No holding back, worrying about “Collateral Damage”, the gloves are totally off. Indeed, the Israelis would be stupid not to take the opportunity to drive the Palestinians out of Gaza and the West Bank, as the Germans were driven out of Eastern Europe after WW2.
stoicheion (#37)”Sorry Charles but the world is the same size it has been for the last 4.5 billion years” Boy did my comment go over your head…Then again you go on to explain what my comment meant (of course your downplaying the significance of it)! Then you go and think the only reason one needs “Outside” interaction is “Trade” dude your lost in many sphere’s of thinking, Let’s just pounder on other area, like us (America) against the world… about 420 mil Americans (and a percentage of American haters in there) that leaves 6.xx Billon who over time will follow the footsteps of the strongest leader (nation) and they will turn their attention to that .4 percent that ain’t tow’n the line… Now I did make all that real simple cause there just ain’t space to get into all the detail, hope you can grasp a little bit of what’s said. Oh oceans ain’t much of a “Speed Bump” to an ICBM! The oceans started shrinking in the early twentieth century when (think after WWI) when going from there to here still took half a day at best (Flight) and a couple days average otherwise… Now Troops can be at your front door in hours no longer days or weeks. Like Victor you need to pull your head out of the sand.
…which is why they will thank everyone for supporting and endorsing a Palestinian state, but won’t declare one.
(That is, not until they’re absolutely sure that the Zionist edifice is teetering on the brink.)
Following the UNs gift and encouragement, the Palestinians will continue to demand the Palestinian return to pre-May 1967 Israel. To do this they must be able to wage as much of an asymmetrical warfare as they possibly can, to keep on chipping away at (and blasting) the Zionist Entity yet avoid any responsibility, while ensuring that any Israeli attempt to defend itself would be met with the contempt and hysteria that has been hitherto shown.
Declaring a Palestinian state would merely get in the way, for the reasons described above.
Keeping in mind that the demand for a state—not the acceptance of a state—is both the strategy and tactic to be exploited to the fullest. It always has been, and will be for the forseeable future.
File under: “The genius of Yassir Arafat”
s/37, ”small world”; may be a ref to not what Fortress America can do alone but what the world can do without USA. For example, our shale oil may stick at 3:1 ratio of work to motion, while a foreign military-industrial complex in control of Mideast/Africa will fuel itself at a 1:3 ratio. Much bigger military for same gold, in time. And we have a sh*tload of coastline, the north american continent does. And transport infrastructure, too –both commercial advantages which an enemy could use too, if he could do a Normandy on us somewhere in the years ahead.
Many here refer to a sort of crazyiness or insanity that seems to’ve overtaken the west, and is weakening it steadily. Wonder if it’s something as simple as regulations? A couple hundred new pages of rules coming out of govt DAILY, says John Stossel, all of them open to many different degrees and kinds of interpretations –by representatives of the govt, not you or I.
Instapundit has this up:
MARK STEYN: Cowed By Udderly Insane Regulations.
The hyper-regulatory state is unrepublican. It strikes at one of the most basic pillars of free society: equality before the law. When you replace “law” with “regulation,” equality before it is one of the first casualties. In such a world, there is no law, only a hierarchy of privilege more suited to a sultan’s court than a self-governing republic. If you don’t want to be subject to “tooth-level surveillance,” you better know who to call in Washington. Teamsters Local 522 did, and the United Federation of Teachers, and the Chicago Plastering Institute. And as a result they’ve all been “granted” ObamaCare “waivers.” Rule, Obama! Obama, waive the rules! If only for his cronies. Americans are being transferred remorselessly from the rule of law to rule by an unaccountable bureaucracy of micro-regulatory preferences, subsidies, entitlements and incentives that determine which of the multiple categories of Unequal-Before-The-Law Second-Class (or Third-Class, or Fourth-Class) Citizenship you happen to fall into.
Read the whole thing.
***
Anyhoo, wretchard and others are dead right, all over the place westernersd are acting and thinking stoopid and nertz. There MUST be an explanation –could be the work of Satan, or could be the work of the regulators. Of course it is both, one is underlying and the other is proximate, but, common sense should point to a line of counter attack somewhere. Wisht i had me some o thet common sense, boy would i would i ever use it on they ass.
PS, those rules don’t just make us crazy by occupying our minds with what ‘they’ could do to ‘me’ –but also what ‘I’ could do to ‘them’ –as in thinking “why, i oughtta sue their ass!” 15 times a day, instead of, “what a gift it is to live in so much life-enhancing technology!” 300 million people in 50 states, 300 million little head-wars going full-tilt boogie 24/7. Thank you, police state!
OT: Symantec anti-virus is reporting a Blackhole Tool Kit from this site.
39. CharlesWhite; neither sand nor clouds. I never worry about what some nutter 8,000 Km’s away is doing. The NUtters don’t HAVE ICBM’s! They have a few obsolete ( Think WW2 german) TBM’s, which are basically sitting ducks for Star Wars type systems. As far As the 6 billion odd folks, they have to get here. Walking on water is their best option. Do you know how many ships it would take to transport enough Kalashnikov toatin nutter’s to America to invade us? Know how many ships their are in the world? As a clue, Number A is larger then number B. Stop hyperventilating and look at the numbers. Officially 320 million American, give or take a wetback or three. Armed to the teeth Americans. Send a 50 million man army and we will chew it up and spit out the ucky parts.
It is the 21st century, military power is measured in technology NOT numbers. Numbers only matter when all else is equal. The Duck of death is still hanging on. That is because both sides are low tech goat herders. The Attack Helios are coming. AH’s are about as high tech as it gets. Almost the Apex of the battlefield food chain, Pyramid of death. The Duck has two weeks at most after the Apache’s get there. The Tiger is pretty tough too.
No, America invaded is fiction. A ruse by the MIC to make people fear enough to shell out cash top make it go away.
So long as America has F-22′s, B-2′s, Nimitz class carriers and Los Angles class fast attack boats and the men to crew them while our enemies don’t, we are invincible.
MY only fear is that living 1,000 + miles from the Sea, those a$$holes in S. Carolina will shoot them all before they get here.
stoi, it’s only that that ”so long as” in your next-to-last para is a ref to the future, which the present is currently making increasingly ‘blue sky’.
http://www.symantec.com/connect/blogs/blackhole-theory
Peterike/43 –now what?
stoicheion (#44) Your reliance on a “Technological” advantage is wrong! With all the “technology” we got and the OBL raid went wrong and it was a very small action and then your limited thinking that “We” will have an edge is very flawed also, China graduates close to ten times the number of Engineers, Scientist you name it they are producing four, five, six times as many and everyday there is the new revelation of “Advanced” American technology ether being willfully sold by our elitist class to being stolen via espionage… And your thinking we gonna spit chew enemies out, Hah! we can’t get “Duke of Death” or foretell the current change that this article discusses! You’re right your head isn’t in the sand it is in the clouds!!!
“Duke of Death” Sorry thats suppose to be “Duck of Death”
buddy: Peterike/43 –now what?
Well Pajamas tech people need to get on it and clean it up.
Second, all of us on the receiving end better make darn sure we’ve got updated antivirus software on our computers. Symantec stopped whatever it was trying to do to me. If you don’t have AV software, you might already be infected.
If you have trouble affording antivirus software, you can get it free from AVG.
http://free.avg.com/us-en/homepage
Or you can use the Microsoft Safety Scanner.
http://www.microsoft.com/security/scanner/en-us/default.aspx
I would recommend running the Microsoft Scanner ASAP if you don’t have other protection installed.
And please please please ALWAYS keep up with the latest Microsoft updates. Or go get a Mac.
Some more cats to count.
* U.S. deaths in Afghanistan pass 1,500. There is no mention of a “grim milestone” in the media.
* Western boots apparently on the ground in Libya, Drudge reports. The man who would end all wars has ended none, helped start a third.
* AP reports drug shortages at hospitals are rising.
* Goldman Sachs predicts $5 a gallon gas on the way.
* A sudden wave of crime hits Myrtle Beach. At the same time, a “Black Bike Week” was occurring. The media can find no relationship between these two events.
* POTUS hit the links for the 70th golf round of his Residency.
Peterike, thanks for the info –still wondering what the virus does to the victim –key-logging maybe?
re your Myrtle Beach mention, search [ Charlotte ] in the news tab –it too had some riots over the weekend. Other things i’ve noticed, Charlotte has been dropped into at least one major Obama speech lately, perplexing some. Bank of America, known as ”the democrat’s bank” by some for its close hug with the party as well as its central role as the innovator leading the sector into the subprime disaster setting up the financial crash, recently moved its frisco hq to Charlotte (the ‘New World Order’ lobby paintings getting it listed among the Vigilant Citizen Sinister Sites), and the DNC has picked the city for next year’s nominating convention. Since Charlotte is in a right-to-work state (a factoid which has drawn newsmaking ire from unions complaining the DNC should not hold the convention there for that reason), one wonders if the Party is launching a long-discussed effort toward overturning the ‘right-to-work’ law in a picked target state, hoping for the domino effect, with the inexplicable (say the Charlotte cops) riots this weekend being an opening ”nice streets you got here, be a shame if something happened to ‘em…” play.
Yeah, i know … sounds completely insane. Oughtta have my head examined.
[Re-posting just this once, as a certain commenter seems to have decided to truly embrace the spam.]
According to a certain commenter, the US needs to “put American fundamental interests first”, which involves, inter alia,
(i) cutting Israel loose
(ii) preparing for the economic and military threat from China.
Which leads me to wonder, what would I do if I were a Chinese agent? True, my country has made impressive gains, both on its own and through widespread industrial espionage, but how do we progress from here?
Well, I could notice that there is a certain country in the Middle East with a majority Jewish population. This country is a proven technological powerhouse (including military technology), but due to its small size, it needs angel investors. This role is currently played by a certain North-American superpower, but can you imagine what a coup it would be if I could drive a wedge between the two? That would mean that this small country would find it extremely difficult to turn down an offer of cooperation with China. They would get to continue surviving, and China, in return for a modest fraction of its foreign currency exchanges, would immediately gain first-tier technological and military capabilities. Victor-y!
PS @ #51, …and just as a textbook case (yes, but a textbook case of what ?) would have it,
http://www.bing.com/search?q=friends+soros+wachovia+bank&form=IE8SRC&src=IE-SearchBox
Wachovia, of course, also based in Charlotte, and an old-line WASP bank originally specializing in quiet commerce such as military folks savings accounts for a hundred years along the central-south east coast. Key personnel error, an ex-goldman sachs CEO who drovbe the lethal purchase of Golden West. He was fired for it, but so what? Soros and crew had already picked off the low-hangs at cents on the dollar, after which the corpse was shoveled to Wells Fargo, where it still operates as Wachovia, but in no wise any competition for Charlotte’s new world HQ of gigantic govt-protected TBTF Bank of America.
The ”new” Wachovia is for a fact very generous with grants and donations to youth corps groups,
http://www.bing.com/search?q=wachovia+americorps+grants&go=&form=QBRE&qs=n&sk=
…so maybe their grants officers can speak to their opposite numbers in the city youth industry and get them to cool down those rioters, whoever they are –probably bikers from Alabama maybe.
the top of Drudge at the moment:
***
UPDATE: MIAMI ‘WAR ZONE’ DURING URBAN WEEKEND…
‘I was scared for my life’…
Poet ‘Da Real One’ Gunned Down In Front Of Miami Poetry Cafe…
Violent crime explodes in Myrtle during Black Bike Week; 8-hour hell…
Rib Fest At Rochester beach turns rowdy…
Riot On Long Island…
Urban Melee In Charlotte…
Chaos causes DNC concern for convention…
Unruly urban crowd shuts down Nashville water park…
Emanuel shuts down packed Chicago beach; ‘heat-related illnesses’…
TEEN GANGS UNLEASHED ON BOSTON BEACH
Congress Mulls Cuts to Food Stamps Program Amid Record Number of Recipients…
Up 39% Since Obama Took Office…
Obama cracks down on civil rights abuses by big-city police departments…
Number of federal-owned limousines has soared under Obama…
***
(1968 summer: “We All Live in a Yellow Submarine”)
(2011 summer: “We All Ride in a Stolen Coup de Ville”)
(“We All Live in a Yellow Coup de Ville, a Yellow Coup de Ville,
i oughtta credit the ‘yellow submarine’ joke –stole it from Tony Powell, the comedian who lampoons the Dem’s Jesse Jacksonian charlatons from his “Angry Black Guy” perch on the Imus in the Morning show on Fox Biz Channel. It was funny –and needful –tho he’ll catch flack, in the Lenny Bruce tradition –