Back to Square One
The basic difficulty facing American policy in the Middle East today is that its mistakes are fundamental. It is predicated on an alliance with Saudi Arabia, a country ideologically hostile to the United States, in support of activities which have also proved inimical to the United States, for the ostensible goal of containing the consequences of another miscalculation — Iran — 33 forgotten years ago.
The result has been a repeat of the same mistakes; a process that has empowered the wrong people — radical Islamists — at the expense of America’s natural ideological allies in the Christians, moderate Muslims, liberals and secular, but noncommunist adherents of democracy of the region. Empowered them because they have money and cultural confidence, two things the modern Western leadership notably lacks.
But it is worse than 1979; the current alliance puts America in the back of the bus as expressed in the tagline “leading from behind.” In that slogan is described a self-imposed inferiority, a chronic submission to political enterprises that would, if closely inspected, be dubious to say the least. It is a policy based on weakness, born of a desire to spend as little as possible abroad, the better to focus on domestic welfare and permanent political majorities at home. At worst, it is a bargain which trades appeasement abroad for authoritarianism at home; it a policy of shameless opportunism masquerading as high minded leadership. And therefore they are proud of it.
But rottenness cannot not long be concealed. The State Department now spends its time apologizing for the First Amendment before a raging mob instead of defending itself. The Justice Department expends its energies hunting down cheapass video producers while American embassies — and German ones — burn. But the most obvious inversion is the spectacle of a President who avoids speaking to the head of the only fully democratic country in the region — Israel — even as the head of the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt prepares to come to the United States in triumph. Your eyes don’t lie. It really is the ‘bad guys’ the Administration has to mollify; it really is the tyrants that they have to appease because it is to those bad guys that they they have entrusted the execution of their plans.
What could go wrong? If things look perverse it is because they are perverse. Like a car with square wheels, a submarine with a screen door or a rifle with barrel curved backward toward the stock, it just doesn’t look like it’s not going to work. It’s not going to work. And now confirmation of the fact has arrived by the light of burning embassies which throw their fitful glare on the bloody handprints of those dragged to their deaths. It is snapshot of incompetence in pursuit of an imbecility.
And it cannot be undone by a successor administration any more than Reagan could undo the damage caused by Jimmy Carter. The damage is too great for a quick fix. The West will have to live with instability and hostility in a region upon which much of the world depends for energy for some time to come. No solar panels, algae, no number carbon trading certificates — no fiction peddled by those whose stock in trade is fantasy — can paper over that sad fact. The bill for folly has arrived and it will be generations paying it.
All that can be done now is to stop digging the hole any deeper.
The Green Lobby should be told what Hillary failed to say to the rioters at Cairo. Go to hell. The world will restore its energy independence whatever it takes and their quasi-religious cult can sit in a corner in the meanwhile to await a better day.
It is all our fault. Western societies need to apologize for offending the world. We do it to each other too. The French published topless photos of Kate Middleton. There are reports that outraged Brits are storming the French embassy.
The U.S. consulate in Guadalajara Mexico is a fortress, but the one in Benghazi apparently had no security whatsoever. I would be stupefied but for the fact that we are led by the stupefied and enstupidated.
Hillary’s remarks about the ambassador betrayed the fact that the foreign service is infested with people who tend to go native.
“…one would have thought it was the business of the State Department to make its own people’s hopes its own.
… Obama should remember that he is not the President of the World.“
As we learned there are a million Osama’s we must understand that there are too a million Obama’s at every level of government that consider it their job to protect the world, the environment, and homosexuals from the freedoms of the common US citizen. No god given right too great to keep them from squelching the speech and the free actions of Americans. They speak for us and act against us in every case. I challenge anyone to come up with a convincing counter theory that explains that the US government has done anything for the average American for the past two decades. It is clear they own us both figuratively, and in the case of our income, literally. We are their chattel and they forsake us while they try to placate others.
We should go back to square one and see if we cannot rediscover the reason this nation was formed in the first place. I doubt it will be to produce a nation of workers to support public labor unions and a police state to save the despicable from their own shame. A nation that is built on hatred and envy, even counter-hatred will not last.
Much better!
Prominent Members of Chicago Black Community Confirm: those closest to Obama know there is no second term coming
Posted on September 13, 2012 by Kevin DuJan // Best of Hillbuzz, Featured Content
I’m just back from a delightful trip down to a little sandwich shop on the Southside of Chicago where prominent members of the black community enjoy lunch served up with a side of political gossip. I relish the occasions I get invited to these little meetings and never know who’ll be sitting at the table with me but love the jerk chicken combo with extra “bodacious sauce”. In a corner over by a colorful mural celebrating the roaring-twenties and jazz I got an earful about the black community’s feeling about both the Obamas and their abandonment of Chicago for the sunny shores of Oahu in January.
This group of influential black Chicagoans calls themselves, informally, “The Think Squad” and has been a big help with stories and activities in the past. If you consider the Jesse Jacksons, Al Sharptons, and other “Justice Brothers” types on one side of the spectrum…the Think Squad is the polar opposite. These are good people who openly talk about how terrible the Democrat community has been for black people for the last four or five decades and how Obama and his acolytes have made a great many things worse for blacks since he took office. The Think Squad is not happy about the amnesty efforts for criminal Hispanics who broke American laws but are now able to push blacks out of work because of Obama’s intention to allow these people to become job-seekers in this dreadful economy. As one person at the table noted by waiving her hand at the scene out the window, “What the Hell has gotten any better since he became President. Where’s all that hope and change? All I see is crime and trash”.
“Listen bud, there’s no second term nothing and they know as much,” a Think Squader told me between bites of his bodacious sandwich. “All this is for show. Axelrod has already moved on but no one knows what to do and they’re kind of just limping around without a plan hoping those Romney people mess up or the media drags them across the finish line. But ain’t nobody in that top tier who thinks he’s going to win. It’s just not happening because they can’t fool people a second time”.
* No — there’s not a snowball’s chance in Hell that blacks will vote Republican this year because they will NOT vote against Obama. They will instead sit home. ”He didn’t help me, so I ain’t helping him!” is the motto this year. Count on black turnout to be at 2004 levels, not 2008 numbers the way the corrupt media is baking into all those polls that get conservatives worked up where they show Obama leading. Without blacks voting at 2008 numbers, Obama loses Ohio, Florida, North Carolina, and Virginia with no hope of making up those numbers with other groups. It’s as simple as that.
Read more http://hillbuzz.org/prominent-members-of-chicago-black-community-confirm-those-closest-to-obama-know-there-is-no-second-term-coming-42773#more-44554
This is all getting beyond my capacity to comment seriously.
It was all written when the American public voted for this unqualified boob calling himself by an Islamic name, immediately confirmed by his world-wide apology tour to Muslims, despots, and Communists, while pissing off Britain and Israel. Here at home he marginalizes and demonizes the opposition, pushes through multiple trillion-dollar programs on incredibly dishonest accounting (or none at all), takes no actions at all on the underlying socio-economic bonfires (banksters), brags about the increase in food stamps, and deflects all blame for all issues on his predecessors and what a hard, hard world it is.
Again, never think this is just one guy, Obama, and his problems.
We all know the usual suspects.
Still, I guess Obama makes a good figurehead and focal point for the mess, and it’s only fair and fitting that he be made so, in a pure Alinskyite manner. And after all he volunteered, it’s in the job description.
Lot of damn chickens coming home to roost, hope we have enough barbeque sauce.
I just have to interject a stray thought that has occurred to many others:
Have you noticed how Obama has surrounded himself with crazed women? No man in his right mind would do that on purpose. Even his fake composite girlfriends in his fauxbiography were crazed. His Mommy too.
Remember the outsized influence of Samantha Powers in the whole Libyan debacle? Powers is crazed-squared. Jarrett, Michelle, and Hildabeast, all crazed.
In an earlier post you mentioned how obama may be backing another horse, abandoning our traditional allies in the region and supporting another; iran. It is an interesting idea.
Along those lines, perhaps all of the dithering is not so much dithering but tactical delaying. It may be designed to look like dithering but it is intentional. Especially in relation to Israel, perhaps obama desires Israel to be pushed to the point that they are forced to act alone, attack Iran, and suffer the consequences alone. If he despises colonialism and Israel as much as he appears to he may desire the destruction of Israel and even see the destruction of Israel as the path to peace and stability in the region.
If Israel attacks and succeeds his problem in iran is solved – no need for messy foreign entanglements. If Israel fails, well, he never cared for Israel anyway.
While American (or North American) energy independence would greatly increase American freedom of movement in global affairs, please don’t think that it would end our problems. All that Arab oil might not be needed for import to the US, but it still represents a money power to the rest of the world.
That oil remains cheaper than what we can produce (at least foreseeably) and will still give the Saudis and others power on those other countries that are not energy independent. Japan and China and France will all still need access to that oil. Yes, the global price will be lower with US demand met internally, but the money will still flow to the Muslims and dependency will still exist.
Unresolved is the continued attempt by the US government to differentiate the moderate Muslims from the radical Islamists. Certainly the moderates can be people we can live with, so long as they don’t take their Koran too literally. Mohammidism remains at its ideological core, an aggressive, expansionist political movement wrapped around a theology.
@6. Josh: And a boob he is, but while you’re directing your fully justified ire at that appropriate target, don’t leave out the boobs who count most — those who elected a community organizer who had never held an executive position in government in his life to be the commander-in-chief of the world’s last, best hope. They’re the boobs who matter; they still have the vote — the dictatorship hasn’t arrived yet — and we’ll see if they double down on their imbecility, or instead do us the favor of staying the hell home on election day.
With all the contradictory evidence out there to the White house story line(s) one has to admit the MSM is doing a very, very good job of keeping it under wraps. Doesn’t seem to be to bad in Egypt and I believe prayer time is over now…. Maybe the worst has passed?
What size force would be needed to take (small) and to hold (large) the Persian Gulf and its surrounding oil fields? (about 50 miles inland)
Why do I want to know this, you ask? Well, for one, the islamifools have yet again demonstrated their inability to use it well, for the betterment of their respective peoples and instead use the wealth for pure evil. Secondly, it would just be nice to remind them whose who. Even Europe, Japan and China, the primary buyers, would appreciate a stable and affordable price tag ($50)
More wishful fantasy land thinking. Oh well.
ta
mh @ 12: What size force would be needed to take (small) and to hold (large) the Persian Gulf and its surrounding oil fields? (about 50 miles inland)
I dunno, but I’d ask China to contribute 1m men to start.
US policy in the ME isn’t the only place where the bad guys are rewarded and the responsible, productive types are handled with impunity.
Hell, it’s been happening domestically and with increasing severity right here in the US for the past 50 years.
And, as you say Richard, it will not be undone easily.
Josh @ 6 said:
“It was all written when the American public voted for this unqualified boob calling himself by an Islamic name, immediately confirmed by his world-wide apology tour to Muslims, despots, and Communists, while pissing off Britain and Israel. Here at home he marginalizes and demonizes the opposition, pushes through multiple trillion-dollar programs on incredibly dishonest accounting (or none at all), takes no actions at all on the underlying socio-economic bonfires (banksters), brags about the increase in food stamps, and deflects all blame for all issues on his predecessors and what a hard, hard world it is.”
All true, and the “best part”… Obama is leading Romney by 3.1% in the RCP average polls and 5% in the normally reliable Gallup poll, refer to:
http://www.realclearpolitics.com/epolls/2012/president/us/general_election_romney_vs_obama-1171.html
Obama should be getting crushed in the polls but instead he’s leading!
U.S. commanded MFO base in North Sinai under attack by Muslim terrorists, dead reported…breaking
Most of the polls are rigged and even Rasmussen’s polls doesn’t reflect the actual tenor of the public’s mood. It isn’t just blacks that won’t show up at the polls, many of the young won’t either. Barring a disastrous showing at the debate, Romney’s going to win this, but whether Palin will succeed in her unappreciated efforts at gaining Romney a majority in the Senate is what will determine how much he can legislatively accomplish.
Count on it, if Obama loses, there will be a short period of wailing and gnashing of teeth, followed by rage at the ‘idiot’ American public, followed from day one of Romney’s term of a 4 year campaign of obstruction and misinformation to discredit all efforts by Romney. All in preparation for a return to power in 2016.
We’re in the beginning of the middle of this fight, not at the end.
“It is a policy based on weakness, born of a desire to spend as little as possible abroad,….”
That’s because they know they are no damn good at it.
In the election of 1992, it was manifested as Bill Clinton’s “Focus like laser beam on the economy.” Reagan and Bush had gotten the international situation into the best condition in the history of the country. The Dems had nothing but a fake recession to use as a way to power. It did not take long for the Clinton Admin to be defending its feckless military adventurism as vital to the domestic economy, as well asserting that the USA was “the indispensible nation” internationally.
NORMALLY, it’s because the Dems are no damn good at it, but for Obama this same approach reflects a basic difference: the world is better off without the USA. Different crap, different day, same results.
“Finally, America should recover the power to act on its own initiative without clearing it first in the Magic Kingdom.”
It’s called The Bush Doctrine.
“No policy can long survive such a monumental dithering at the top.”
To modify my all time favorite George Will statement, from 1993, “I disagree that the Administration is dithering. This is what Leftist government looks like.”
Charles #5:
Very interesting! Note that is what Dick Morris is saying, also.
Enscout #14:
Well said! And for some time I have asserted that there is a fear on the Left that someone will figure out that what works in Iraq will work in the ghettos of the USA
And as for me, I’m ordering an M-1 Garand from the CMP. You can never have too much BVR firepower; unlike Sparrows, Falcons, and Phoenix, it works for arms length engagements as well.
Both President Obama and Secretary Clinton should be impeached because their gross negligence caused the Libyan Consulate Massacre in which Americans were brutally murdered. They knew the attack was coming. They betrayed the ambassador by refusing to provide enough troops and weapons to defend the consulate.
The reason ambassadors, their staff and their guards have diplomatic immunity is so that they can freely defend themselves from angry mobs and any other source of violence.
States exchange ambassador because each ambassador is a hostage for the safety of the other. The American Ambassador has been killed by Libyans. As long as the Libyan hostage lives all Americans are dishonor.
It gets worse, much worse…
“Unresolved is the continued attempt by the US government to differentiate the moderate Muslims from the radical Islamists”
That is because there is no proof of concept for ‘moderate Muslim’. It is a delusion by the left. Hard to prove a delusion.
15. Eggplant; Still a bit early for polls. Trend line is up Obama but within the margin of error. RCP has the next Senate 52-48 GOP. That is the important number.
If the obumbler wins, he won’t win much. A failed economy, galloping inflation, civil disorder, a world full of problems. He will be a lame duck facing impeachment. That is why I’m not all that concerned about him getting a second term.
POTUS mostly has influence. Congress hasn’t been all that aggressive. Dirty Harry has nailed the Senate door closed and Boner has the ‘nads of a transexual fruit fly.
That changes this coming January. Berry will have less influence then Kim whats her name, a hostile congress all of which he has to deal with as a lame duck.
Couldn’t happen to a nicer guy.
“The basic difficulty facing American policy in the Middle East today is that its mistakes are fundamental.”
Yes but the situation is changing as we speak. Not that Christians, moderate Muslims and adherents of democracy ever had that much leverage to begin with but they are no longer, (if they ever were) a sufficient basis for a rational Middle Eastern policy.
The tide and momentum in the Middle East is entirely with the radical jihadists.
IMO, the House of Saud is (ironically given its support for jihad and hostility to the West) the sole bulwark remaining against the entire regions governance going over to the jihadists. But I suspect that the Saudi’s are living on borrowed time. If S. Arabia falls to jihadists, it seems likely that Pakistan will follow.
If Iran gains nukes and restrains its fanaticism, refraining from immediately attacking Israel, nuclear proliferation will spread throughout the region. Iran will gain tremendous prestige and Turkey, Egypt and Saudi Arabia will immediately look to gain nukes as well. There will be pressure on Pakistan to provide nukes to the major Sunni nations. One way or another they will work toward gaining nukes. Iran crossing the nuclear threshold is a game changer.
In such a scenario, we most likely will face within a relatively short period, a nuclear armed middle east of radical jihadists. Iran is actively communicating to other Muslim nations that setting aside animosities between Shia and Sunni is necessary to defeat Israel and the US.
Everything depends upon whether Iran gets the bomb. If they are stopped, there may be still be alternatives to war, otherwise nuclear confrontation may be inevitable.
Once again history repeats and we are faced with a similar situation to one that Churchill spoke of, “Britain and France had to choose between war and dishonor. They chose dishonor. They will have war.” but this time, the stakes are even higher.
…it is a bargain which trades appeasement abroad for authoritarianism at home; it is a policy of shameless opportunism masquerading as high minded leadership. And therefore they are proud of it.
That sounds like Pierre Laval, who engineered the demise of France’s Third Republic and ushered in the era of Vichy.
I’m going to quote Lincoln, who was quoting from Mark’s Gospel, who was quoting Yashua.
“A house divided against itself cannot stand”.
That’s where we are, folks. There is no denying it.
As anecdotal evidence (and this dovetails with what Wretchard points out about out allies abroad): Just a few days ago I got into it verbally with a co-worker, who said that, as a conservative, I was an extremist. Now to me that was not only an oxymoron, but was just enough to garner an unsolicited response. He was in the middle of telling me how he, as an Independent, had the answer to the polarity gripping our country. He said both sides had to compromise. My reply: 1)That’s how we conservatives come to find ourselves in this position of being labelled ‘extreme’. 2) Independents were responsible for Obama’s election victory over McCain, who was the quintessential, squishy, ambivalent, reach-across-the -aisle “Independent. So they blew it there. 3) They really exposed their true colors by electing the most radical, unaccomplished Marxist rebel to ever achieve a major party nomination. So much for being a fence-riding ‘Independent’.
This will get interesting.
…stocking up on popcorn and adult beverages…among other things.
Thank you for this and other recent posts, Wretchard…
As an aside does anyone else feel the sheer outlandish comedy of a president and secretary of state of a country that has given the world penicillin, Charlie Chaplin, computers, iPhones, Fred Astaire, Muhammed Ali, Marilyn Monroe, Mark twain, fluid dynamics, the Colt 45, Abe Lincoln, Boeing jets, McDonald’s, Grand Funk Railroad, Dizzy Gillespie, Steven King, Duke Ellington, modern medicine, shuffling and apologizing over some dweeb who puts together a nutty Youtube skit before an murderous screaming mob?
Now this is worthy of Monty Python…
RWE @ 18 said:
“… I’m ordering an M-1 Garand from the CMP.”
I’d like to own a Garand because it’s a cool weapon with a proud history. People say the M-1′s recoil is too hard and hurts after firing 10 rounds. They then go on to say that the AR-15 is an all around better weapon with almost no recoil. My come back is the AR-15 has legality issues while the M-1 is immune from most of that nonsense. Also the AR-15 was designed to wound while the M-1 was designed to kill, i.e. shatter the bad guy into pieces of meat. Wounding is better if you’re waging a war and wish to tie up enemy resources. However if I’m selecting the weapon to save my own skin then maximum firepower is preferred.
Geoffrey Britain @ 22 said:
“The tide and momentum in the Middle East is entirely with the radical jihadists.”
At some point Israel must respond to the Iranian nukes either with Obama or against him. Doing so will open a Pandora’s Box. The attack against Iranian nuclear weapons represents a historical singularity. It is impossible to predict what will happen afterwards.
Michael H@12,
I remember the Rand Corp. (2001?) wrote a paper on exactly this topic; ie, seizing the Saudi fields. The military force necessary to accomplish would be far smaller than the two we launched at Iraq.
It predicted that after the seizure and advantageous repricing for allies, the smaller countries in the Gulf (absent Iran) would quickly toe the line.
“They betrayed the ambassador by refusing to provide enough troops and weapons to defend the consulate.”
Not sure that’s possible. If the animals are doped up enough, they will keep coming. You can fit more rioters around an embassy then you can fit ammo in an embassy.
IIRC, the technique taught is to shoot low(gut, pelvis) and wound the first ranks of the human wave, then shoot those climbing over the bodies. This is how the English dealt with the natives in the 19th century.
Not sure how applicable that is in the age of chain guns. At 20 to 70 shots per second, it is difficult to swarm a chain gun. Flame throwers might work. That is based on the first rank running back into the human wave burning and screaming. We would find out exactly how good that dope is.
The Marines faced human wave attacks in Korea while falling back from Chosin. IIRC, they used Machine guns to pile up the bodies while the riflemen shot the ones climbing over the piles of corpses. The attached mortars were working over the back of the wave the whole time.
Claymores would help a lot, as would mines and barbed wire. The absolutely best response is the Canadian one. Pull out ALL personal, strip the building of ALL paper, computers, etc. Let the animals do what they will with an empty abandoned building. That way when they emigrate to Detroit they will have experience.
1. EBL
who cares? The Brits don’t care to publish nacked photos of the Monaco family and relations
Besides Closer isn’t a french paper it is a globalist’s that has offices in many countries
27. geoffgo
It would be cheaper and less controversial to drill ANWR and open up the Shale OIL fields in Utah. Including the new technology for extracting and processing hydrocarbons, the USA has enough reserves to fuel the entire world for about 4,000 years. KSA has reserves of a few Billion Barrels. The USA has over 80 TRILLION.
KSA just has a price advantage. Plus the USA is more prone to use embargo as a weapon. KSA tried that and it didn’t work out so good for them. It created the drive for the new technology that reduces their power.
Once the USA starts producing enough for export, we will de-facto set a floor price for hydrocarbons. That stability will be a boon to the world’s economy.
The outermost building at every embassy should be wired with explosives. Fall back to the second, wait for it to fill and detonate. That would take the starch right out of their shorts. Also, it would be easy to claim they were the ones who blew it up so they would be blamed for the dead. I don’t fight fair, I fight to win.
29. Marie Claude: Princess Kate is too modest to be photographed topless? Then she should have worn a top. Sort of like the women who breastfeed in public but are enraged if someone looks at her exposed breast. Take it out in public, it is public domain, visually. Talk on your cell phone (especially loudly) and people may listen in. Can’t have it both ways.
Eggplant@26: “The attack against Iranian nuclear weapons represents a historical singularity.”
Will the Israelis be so backed into a corner that they will have no other option than a pre-emptive use of their own tactical nukes against Iranian targets? I can’t see how they would have the resources to conduct a protracted air campaign against Iran. It is looking more and more like an “all or nothing” situation to me.
But Iran acquiring nuclear weapons itself represents a historical singularity. Nobody really knows what happens after that.
G Britain
“Once again history repeats and we are faced with a similar situation to one that Churchill spoke of, “Britain and France had to choose between war and dishonor. They chose dishonor. They will have war.” but this time, the stakes are even higher.”
yet after that the Brits abandonned us in Dunkirk, and after the perfid attack in Mers el Kebir, the fleet opted for vichy, rather seeing the Brits as the true french’s enemis
Churchill was a hero, yes for the medias, he did his operations for getting the medias benefit, that no Russian is buying though, I wonder why he wasn’t in the little papers at Yalta when Roosevelt and Stalin had decided of the world fate without him?
32. SpeakEasy
she should have known that as a public person of that importance, she would be chased by the paparazzi. Well if she had been french, such pics wouldn’t have been edited, because there’s a law that protects private life
Not sure of which natinality were the paparazzi !
Stoicheon #28:
I would add one last step: After they flood into the gutted embassy, hit it with “snake and nape.” No 92/93 visa for you, pal….
Regarding rifles, I like my old, reliable Enfield. Almost as fast as a semi-auto, no clips needed to actually operate the weapon should they become scarce, all of about five moving parts, and probably the strongest action ever made for a combat rifle. Foolproof and reliable. And I would imagine that they are still about dirt cheap, too. Find some surplus Yugoslav .303 hunting ammo cheap somewhere and you are in business.
@8 Yankeefifth: You said, “Especially in relation to Israel, perhaps obama desires Israel to be pushed to the point that they are forced to act alone, attack Iran, and suffer the consequences alone.”
Couldn’t agree with you more. Presume Israel attacks Iran with little or no US support; Iran retaliates with help from Hamas and Hizbollah. Thousands dead in Israel; Iran’s infrastructure seriously damaged; nuclear capacity dented but not destroyed; Israel’s spare parts beginning to be used up. Two for the price of one.
The Noble Peace Prize winner steps in late, leading from behind again, smelling like a rose.
Our host says, “About all it can manage in the light of unfolding events, with the current leadership, is to make sure that Sharia does not come to the United States.” Who presumes that keeping Sharia out of the United States is the agenda at the top?
28. stoicheion
The U.S. embassy in Iraq has 104 acres. It used to be well defended when Petraeus was around. An embassy needs choppers for evacuation, UAVs for surveilance, and walls, moats and carfully planned fields of fire plus troops, armor, artillery and weapons. The Iraq and Afgan Embassies had these features. All our embassies among the hostiles should follow this model. We have air support but don’t use it today. Dealing with the middle east hostiles is very similar to dealing with the hostiles on the American frontier in the 1800s. This means a peaceful, long-lasting solution is possible.
Through out history embassies have always been responsible for their own safety. There is a book which contains the dispatches of the Venetian ambassador to the court of Henry VIII of England which describes how various embassies defended themselves from angry mobs in London during the 1500′s. (Sometimes the embassy from country A might raise a mob to attack the embassy from country B, just because ambassadors from A and B were at war with each other over precedence in Henry’s court).
Eggplant #26:
I already have vintage rifles in .223, 7.62MM X 39MM, .303, .308, and .30 carbine. A 30 ought 6 will round out the collection.
Highlander #36:
I have an Enfield No.4 Mk1* in .303 . One sweet shooting gun! I also have an Indian No.1 MK III* in .308. Total investment for both of these rifles was well under $200.
My surplus .303 ammo is Indian, I think. $40 for 450 rounds, I believe it was, way back when. You might get yourself an adapter that enables you to shoot 7.62MM X 25MM in the .303 Enfield or .32 ACP, if it is .308.
#34,
To call the retreat from Dunkirk abandonment of the French is to reveal a warped perspective.
Those Brits which you disparage, did more than their part in the freeing of the French from the Nazi yoke. Many died helping to liberate the french… your ingratitude speaks volumes about you.
By Yalta, Britain’s retreat from its former position of world leadership was undeniable. But without the British Isles as a reliable staging point for the invasion of Europe by the allies, you French would speak German today.
Ingratitude is such a loathsome state, it proves beyond dispute the unworthiness of the recipient. But justice is eventually served; your future Muslim masters wait in the wings, looking forward to the day when your dhimmitude begins.
Demography makes it your inevitable destiny.
Your descendents won’t deserve it but you so richly do, hopefully you’ll live long enough to reap the reward you’ve sown.
The current administration’s fusterclucks are breath taking on a scale that would suffocate an entire city. Who can doubt that a simple random sample from voting adult Americans over the age of 45 with a good employment record would have produced a better President than Obama?
I guess there is a real out
liarlier in the White House today. Maybe statistically it had to happen sooner or later. Since I can’t vote in U.S. elections I am exporting a suggestion for finding U.S. Presidential candidates in the future.1) The citizens in every electoral district elect five Democratic and five Republican Presidential candidates. That should produce 428? Presidential candidates for each party.
2) Each political party selects a simple random sample of five from the population of 428. These ten people (five from each Party) will run in the Primary process.
3) Give each primary candidate an equal sack of cash and let them run for their party’s nomination.
4) The candidate who wins the primary for each Party is the Party’s presidential candidate in the Presidential election. The candidate gets to choose their own Vice Presidential candidate.
Steps one to four, would result in the complete emasculation of the political classes and their clients during the Primary process. They could return to playing their clever games after the President had been elected.
America First nationalists have always known that non-intervention in the Mideast was the only viable policy. But The Lobby, the imperialists and the war profiteers kept that from happening. Michael Scheuer, a realist but no America Firster, recently said the US could plausibly be the hegemon in the Mideast, but not with Israel as chief ally.
Whoever owns the oil would have sold it at market prices if we had just stayed out and maintained a strict neutrality. Too late. Reap the whirlwind.
40.
thanks for reminding us how much we owe you, but you weren’t alone to die for France, quite a number of french men died for your retreat, and quite died under the Nazis rules for resisting, and some made quite a good job in the free french army
what is boring is your discourse of suppose honnor, while we would only get the shame
De Gaulle to churchill when the last one wanted to monetarise his help from the americans, “Libre à vous de vous déshonnorer” (you are free to dishonnor yourself)
” But without the British Isles as a reliable staging point for the invasion of Europe by the allies, you French would speak German today.”
that’s the usual refrain Britain, Britain, and french bashing
ridicule, we would speak russian, and you too probably
“Ingratitude is such a loathsome state, it proves beyond dispute the unworthiness of the recipient. But justice is eventually served; your future Muslim masters wait in the wings, looking forward to the day when your dhimmitude begins.”
Are you stoopid? your communautarism is telling Pakistanese are the most pacific people in your suburbs !
“Demography makes it your inevitable destiny.”
yet, 2,2%, can you tell the same thing ?
“Your descendents won’t deserve it but you so richly do, hopefully you’ll live long enough to reap the reward you’ve sown.”
Sympathic guy, you’re going to disappear before us, Scotland doesn’t want of your Reign anymore
If I were Romney, I would remind the voters from now til November that dependence on Mideast oil results in jihadist flags flying over burning American embassies,corpses of ambassadors being paraded through the streets, American money flowing to jihadists, and that dependence on Mideast oil is the result of environmentalist opposition to domestic energy production. Meanwhile results of “smart diplomacy” include a pipeline being built from the Oil Sands to alternate markets in the Pacific and an increasingly probable Israel-Iran war with proxies included. $10/gal gas, anyone? If Romney hammers on that argument and the powder keg blows before election day, even the MSM couldn’t protect The One from a consensus that he is dangerously incompetent and Romney is a better bet.
Geoffrey #40:
You might point out that AFTER Dunkirk (at which many French troops also were rescued in addition to British Expeditionary Force) the British deployed MORE troops to France, further to the south, to help stall the German advance there and aid in further evacuations.
“You might point out that AFTER Dunkirk (at which many French troops also were rescued in addition to British Expeditionary Force)”
yet poured poorly armed in Normandy a week after
“the British deployed MORE troops to France, further to the south, to help stall the German advance there and aid in further evacuations.”
how comes that?
“About all it can manage in the light of unfolding events, with the current leadership, is to make sure that Sharia does not come to the United States.”
Given there are 200+ million privately-held firearms in the United States, and further given that not a few owners of said firearms are afflicted with itchy trigger fingers, this isn’t going to happen.
Carter turned Iran from an ally to an active enemy.
Obama has turned Egypt from an ally to a Muslim Brotherhood run trouble spot with an out of control Sinai Penninsula.
Obama has turned Libya (Thank you France and Britain for your leadership) from an inactive and neutered enemy to a jihadist cesspool.
Obama has turned Tunisia into another Muslim Fascist country.
These guys make Truman and China look good.
I disagree with the initial premise. The big problem is not poor theory or misplaced faith, though they exist. The big problem is that those in charge do not identify with or serve above all else the interests of the United States of America.
After 9/11 2001 the desire and push to deny the reality of what happened was extraordinary. It challenged the assumptions of a generation. Much of the response to Bush and the war in Iraq was about denial.
Reality has now intruded once again.
“The big problem is that those in charge do not identify with or serve above all else the interests of the United States of America.”
I disagree with qualifications. Unquestionably, the Obama administration does not place American interests first.
The ‘big problem’ is two-fold; not correctly identifying that a 7th century ideology, wrapped within a shroud of religion is no religion of peace. That it is the theology of Islam itself, which is incompatible with classical western values. And an insight expressed by Maggie Thatcher, “Rogue states never turn out to be quite the pariahs they are deemed. They are only able to cause, or at least threaten to cause, mayhem because they enjoy the covert support – usually by means of technology transfers – of one or more major powers within the charmed circle of global ‘good guys’.”
To the technology transfers I would add the protection provided in the UN, primarily by Russia and China, to the rogue states. Both have consistently blocked any effective International sanctions against rogue nations from being implemented. Russia is the primary facilitator of the Iranian nuclear program. It is not accidental and entirely strategic.
Terrorist networks cannot be permanently emasculated as long as they receive refuge, recruits and logistical support from the rogue nations. Rogue nations cannot be neutralized as long as the ‘enabling’ nations offer protection. It’s all of a piece and only a comprehensive strategy that addresses all factors can succeed.
No problem can be successfully addressed without correctly identifying the actual problem.
@26 “I’d like to own a Garand because it’s a cool weapon with a proud history. People say the M-1′s recoil is too hard and hurts after firing 10 rounds. They then go on to say that the AR-15 is an all around better weapon with almost no recoil. My come back is the AR-15 has legality issues while the M-1 is immune from most of that nonsense. Also the AR-15 was designed to wound while the M-1 was designed to kill, i.e. shatter the bad guy into pieces of meat. Wounding is better if you’re waging a war and wish to tie up enemy resources. However if I’m selecting the weapon to save my own skin then maximum firepower is preferred.”
Might I suggest the ‘improved’ M1? The various clones of the M14 main battle rifle offer a sustained increase in firepower and its .308 caliber round has much less recoil. Besides, the ammo is cheaper, too. Even so, when inexpensive ammo (65 cents per or less) comes on the market, it usually sells out within a day, so you might consider hand loading your own ammo. Buying brass, bullets, powder and primers in bulk can offer a substantial savings over even inexpensive commercial ammo. For a few cents more per round, you can make the finest and most consistent match grade ammo available anywhere.
Better hurry, though, even reloading supplies are increasing in cost with the tremendous increase in demand now underway.
#43,
Nice try at obfuscation but the intent was clearly not to remind you of what is owed but to point out the blatant ingratitude. If you were properly cognizant of the debt owed, you would not exhibit the depth of ingratitude you unquestionably do.
To find ‘boring’ an accusation of dishonor demonstrates that the shame is justified. You make the point and haven’t the wit to realize it.
No amount of verbiage or denial can change the facts. Britain’s resistance to the Nazi’s and the facility it offered as a staging area for the allies did make a crucial and irreplaceable difference. Nice try at historical revision but it is German you would speak not Russian. Without the American lend lease program of logistical supply, Germany would have conquered Russia. Russia had no chance of beating the allies, only America had the bomb and Stalin knew it.
Stupidity is being demonstrated, look in the mirror.
It is the immigrant population that has the 2.16 birth rate. The total French birth rate is 1.74, which includes the immigrant birth rate. That birth rate is insufficient to sustain the current demography of France. You’re Muslim population will eventually become the majority.
“As of 2008, the French national institute of statistics INSEE estimated that 11.8 million foreign-born immigrants and their direct descendants (born in France) lived in France representing 19% of the country’s population.” By Sharia law, when a country’s Muslim population reaches 33%, Muslims are justified in using whatever means are necessary to impose Sharia law. Your dhimmitude is much closer than you think.
“One day, millions of men will leave the Southern Hemisphere to go to the Northern Hemisphere. And they will not go there as friends. Because they will go there to conquer it. And they will conquer it with their sons. The wombs of our women will give us victory.” Algerian leader Houari Boumedienne speaking at the UN, 1974
I’m not British. I’m an American mix, primarily of Portuguese and French ancestry. Fortunately my French ancestors left France in the 17th century via Canada before France turned into a nation of wuss’s. My online surname is a nome de plume chosen because of distant ancestral connections and my actual surname, whose entomological meaning translates as “man from Briton”.
Sympathy is earned by behavior worthy of that gift.
“Nice try at obfuscation but the intent was clearly not to remind you of what is owed but to point out the blatant ingratitude. If you were properly cognizant of the debt owed, you would not exhibit the depth of ingratitude you unquestionably do.”
Are you intending to remind us that we owe you something for decades and or centuries to go?
If you hadn’t that Chamberlain, with his appeasing policies towards the Nazis, if your country hadn’t authorised the Nazis to rearm in 1935, (cuz you know Great Britain was suffering of the lack of commands in its shipyards), if your country hadn’t decreed to evacuate Rheinland in 1929 (cuz you know the Germans were such good guis now), if you hadn’ insisted that the war reparations should be lowered and paid with fake fiat money… Hitler wouldn’t have had a chance to make what he did
“The majority of historians, such as the Canadian historian Margaret MacMillan in her 2001 book Peacemakers: The Paris Peace Conference of 1919 and Its Attempt to End War, have since disagreed with this assertion. The French economist Étienne Mantoux in his 1946 book The Carthaginian Peace, or the Economic Consequences of Mr. Keynes established that Germany could have paid all of the reparations had they wanted to, and that the problem was not the Germans were unable to pay, but rather that they were unwilling to pay.[8] The American historian Sally Marks commented that Keynes had fallen in love with Carl Melchior, a member of the German delegation, and that views on reparations “…were shaped by his passion for Carl Melchior, the German financier and reparations expert whom he met during negotiations at Spa shortly after the armistice”.
n opposition to Keynes, Mantoux held that justice demanded that Germany should pay for the whole damage caused by the war, and he set out to prove that many of Keynes’ forecasts were not verified by subsequent events. For example, Keynes believed European output in iron would decrease, but by 1929 iron output in Europe was up 10% from the 1913 figure. Keynes predicted that German iron and steel output would decrease, but by 1927 steel output increased by 30% and iron output increased by 38% from 1913 (within the pre-war borders). Keynes also argued that German coal mining efficiency would decrease but labour efficiency by 1929 had increased on the 1913 figure by 30%. Keynes contended that Germany would be unable to export coal immediately after the Treaty but German net coal exports were 15 million tons within a year and by 1926 the tonnage exported reached 35 million. He also put forward the claim that German national savings in the years after the Treaty would be less than 2 billion marks; however, in 1925 the German national savings figure was estimated at 6.4 billion marks and in 1927, 7.6 billion marks. Keynes also believed that Germany would be unable to pay the more than 2 billion marks in reparations for the next 30 years, but Mantoux contends that German rearmament spending was seven times as much as that figure in each year between 1933 and 1939
War Reparations Wikipedia
Britain wasn’t a France allie as soon as the armistice was signed
“Le soir même de l’armistice, Winston Churchill dînait avec son premier ministre. La conversation roula uniquement sur la meilleure manière de venir en aide à l’Allemagne. Plus tard, ayant quitté le pouvoir, Clemenceau revit Lloyd George à la Chambre des communes. « J’ai à vous dire, lui lança-t-il, que dès le lendemain de l’armistice, je vous ai trouvé l’ennemi de la France. » Réponse de Lloyd George : « Eh bien, n’est-ce pas notre politique traditionnelle ? ”
“The evening of the armistice, Winston Churchill dined with his Prime Minister. The conversation turned solely on the best way to help Germany. Later, having left office, Clemenceau saw Lloyd George in the House of Commons. “I have to tell you, that immediately after the armistice, I have found you the enemy of France. “Answer to Lloyd George:” Well, isn’t it our traditional policy?”
“To find ‘boring’ an accusation of dishonor demonstrates that the shame is justified. You make the point and haven’t the wit to realize it.”
days after days there’s still a arrogant Anglo-Saxon that wants to use this Godwin argument wherever I surf on western english speaking blogs
oh the defeat of Dunkirk wasn’t advertized as a defeat by your brave people, but as a Vicory, and still churchill surfed on this fake victory for writing the legend of the great warriors
See, some Brit soldiers had another story of the big Shame that they hide
“Adrian Hamilton: ‘A great escape? Dunkirk was actually a humiliation for British forces’ ”
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/this-britain/adrian-hamilton-a-great-escape-dunkirk-was-actually-a-humiliation-for-british-forces-1978769.html
“Britain’s resistance to the Nazi’s and the facility it offered as a staging area for the allies did make a crucial and irreplaceable difference”
Hadn’t Britain being a island, you would have tasted the panzer divisions too
” Without the American lend lease program of logistical supply, Germany would have conquered Russia. Russia had no chance of beating the allies, only America had the bomb and Stalin knew it.”
Glad that you finally give the credit to the US, and don’t forget that they also subsidied the British troops and the french Resistance.
Stalin wouldn’t have stopped to Berlin if he thought he had the opportunity
“It is the immigrant population that has the 2.16 birth rate. The total French birth rate is 1.74, which includes the immigrant birth rate. That birth rate is insufficient to sustain the current demography of France. You’re Muslim population will eventually become the majority.”
No, it’s the French national, the immigrants represent 5% of it (5 millions muslims whose half can’t procreate, and when they do they don’t have more kids than the French), and your 1,75 is dating, from the year 2008 we overpassed
Thank you for the Muslim population, but as far as know from Britain, you aren’t in better sheets
-http://www.pewforum.org/uploadedFiles/Topics/Religious_Affiliation/Muslim/FutureGlobalMuslimPopulation-WebPDF-Feb10.pdf
from page 123
“As of 2008, the French national institute of statistics INSEE estimated that 11.8 million foreign-born immigrants and their direct descendants (born in France) lived in France representing 19% of the country’s population.”
ESTIMATED, but in reality today it represents 7,5% of our population
Boumediene didn’t know that the young algerian girls know all about contraception now
so you aren’t a Brit, and though your blog is advertizing news from Britain
“Sympathy is earned by behavior worthy of that gift.”
your moral, you know what I think of it, keep it your your ignorant neighbours
Sto@30,
Of course. I was simply responding to a previous question.
@ 26 Eggplant
I’d like to own a Garand because it’s a cool weapon with a proud history. People say the M-1′s recoil is too hard and hurts after firing 10 rounds. They then go on to say that the AR-15 is an all around better weapon with almost no recoil. My come back is the AR-15 has legality issues while the M-1 is immune from most of that nonsense. Also the AR-15 was designed to wound while the M-1 was designed to kill, i.e. shatter the bad guy into pieces of meat. Wounding is better if you’re waging a war and wish to tie up enemy resources. However if I’m selecting the weapon to save my own skin then maximum firepower is preferred.
If you’re in a situation where you’re shooting a M-1 Garand because your life is legitimately in danger, I don’t think you’re going to mind the recoil. I doubt you’ll notice it. The AR system has the benefit of being able to carry far more ammo for the same weight, but that only really matters if you’re humping a ruck for significant distance. In most SHTF situations, you’re going to be hunkered (and hopefully bunkered) so the concern would be having enough supplies to hold out until the Cav arrives or Society regains the upper hand. If you’re an adult male a M-1 (properly maintained, sighted in and familiarized) is a perfectly acceptable choice. So is an AR under the same circumstances. Unfortunately most Americans think that carrying an AR festooned with all types of “tacticool” crap makes them equivalent to “the Terror of Helmand Province”. They err in thinking that their credit card is the pathway to capability, rather than focusing on their own personal competence turning whatever is at hand into capability. In virtually any civilian/militia situation I don’t think it matters a damn whether you’re carrying a major caliber bolt-action or a semi-automatic battle rifle. You’re not The Army without the supply chain and organizational structure. You’re one guy trying to keep his family safe until it Blows Over. If you’re fortunate enough to have planned ahead and have some friends helping all the better, but the old adage “amateurs talk tactics and professionals talk logistics” is absolutely true. If you don’t have enough food/water/medicine/ammo on hand for at least a week (and many would say a month) you’re not serious. Let’s hope we don’t all end up on that learning curve.
lescoulee @ 56 said:
“If you’re in a situation where you’re shooting a M-1 Garand because your life is legitimately in danger, I don’t think you’re going to mind the recoil.”
This is certainly true but the weapon does me no good if I am not practiced in its use. I normally do target practice with a .22 rifle and shoot about 50 rounds in one session. My accuracy degrades significantly if I have not practiced in over two months. Obviously a .22 has no significant recoil so my shoulder isn’t hurting after the practice session. However I’d be in serious pain if I did that practice session with a .30-06 and my wallet would be significantly lighter. The obvious response is that one is much more likely to survive carrying an M-1 Garand than a .22 Anschutz bolt action target rifle. Maybe the AR-15 is the correct compromise between those two extremes? I’ve heard that a rational solution is to own an AR-15 with two receivers, i.e. one for the .223 cartridge and another for .22 rimfire. However the AR-15 has legality issues in California. This leads me back to the M-1 Garand, i.e. keep a seldom used Garand for defense but practice with an iron sight Anschutz. I currently consider this problem “too hard”.
Also, I have over two weeks worth of supplies for my family and I, i.e. water in several 5 gallon bottles, MREs and camping gear. I live in earthquake country (San Francisco bay area). Anyone living in earthquake country who does not have two weeks worth of emergency supplies has rocks in his head and deserves to starve to death.
lescoulee -
Hey, if he/she is just now considering what to put in the gun safe they are already behind the learning curve.
If they want .223 get a Ruger Ranch Rifle (Mini-14) in SSTL for slightly less than a AR.
Mausers are cheap – get one in 8mm and you have lots of bang.
@ 57 Eggplant
You know your shooting tendencies better than I, but the fundamentals are the same regardless of cartridge. A 22 and a Centerfire is a good idea. The legality situation is best solved by MOVING.
@ 58 R Daneel
There are a lot of people out there fitting that description, unfortunately. Ranch Rifles are cheaper, but they have far less aftermarket support and magazines are not cheap. Mosins/Mausers/Enfields are excellent value for someone who takes the time to learn them, but the only really cheap surplus ammo these days is 7.62×54 so that leans to the Mosin. If that was all I had I wouldn’t feel undergunned.
Hillary got it backwards. The State Dept’s job is to get others to adopt, or at least align with, OUR hopes. If Stevens did what she said, he was a lousy diplomat… but until proven otherwise, I will assume he was OK, and she is a lousy SecState.