Expired Guarantees
News sources report that Islamist fighters knew a French rescue team was coming for an intelligence agent being held prisoner in a southern Somali town. “Sources in lawless Somalia suggested the reason Saturday’s raid had failed was that the al-Qaeda-linked Shebab group holding the hostage had received advance warning.” Reports suggested that the team had been detected on arrival by civilians and further implied that civilians may have been killed by the attacking team as they approached the target area.
French Defence Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian said one French soldier had died and another had gone missing during the raid, adding that 17 guerrillas had been killed.
He said “all indications” pointed to the conclusion that the hostage, a French intelligence agent with the alias of Denis Allex, had been killed by his captors.
The Shebab denied Allex was dead, but said they would decide his fate within two days. They also claimed they had captured a wounded member of the French assault team.
The French assault team may have been outnumbered 2 to 1 by their enemies. “We were told there were about 40 of them against more than 100 heavily armed Shebab fighters,” said another Somali, who wished to remain anonymous. “Their mission was impossible and not very professional.”
But other reports suggest that the fiasco occurred when the commandos attacked the wrong house. The BBC describes a confused action. In any event, the Islamist forces declared their intention to wreak vengeance on France.
“In the end, it will be the French citizens who will inevitably taste the bitter consequences of their government’s devil-may-care attitude towards hostages,” the Islamists said in a statement obtained by Agence France-Presse (AFP).
President Obama had authorized as yet unspecified US participation in the mission. In the event the US assets did not engage in combat.
Obama sent his notice in accordance with the War Powers Resolution to House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) and Senate President Pro Tempore Pat Leahy (D-Vt.) today.
“United States forces provided limited technical support to the French forces in that operation, but took no direct part in the assault on the compound where it was believed the French citizen was being held hostage,” Obama wrote.
“United States combat aircraft briefly entered Somali airspace to support the rescue operation, if needed. These aircraft did not employ weapons during the operation. The U.S. forces that supported this operation left Somalia by approximately 8:00 p.m. Eastern Standard Time on January 11, 2013.”
This may be an indication that al-Qaeda in Mali and the sub-Saharan region aren’t going to roll over and die. It is certainly proof that simply being on the Western side of military mission does not guarantee victory. Each operation is won on its own merits. It is not guaranteed by the fact of the side that you are on.
One reason the attacks on US missions in North Africa should be thoroughly investigated is to determine why the intelligence of attacking Islamist was so good. Why did they know when Ambassador Stevens would be in the consulate? How did they know the location of the CIA safe house? Where did they get the heavy weapons — including mortars — which were used to kill two security contractors?
The attack was masked by a cloud disinformation about a “anti-Muslim video” which the administration bought or pretended to buy; a fable so effective that Susan Rice repeated it on talk show after talk show to make a fool of herself before millions. And when Mitt Romney, in a fit of common sense, had the temerity to doubt the administration’s tale during the presidential debate, Candy Crowley was there to set Romney straight.
It’s as if the administration didn’t want to know, didn’t need to know, wouldn’t let anyone know. They were invincibly secure. Secure even in their ignorance. All that mattered was the round of parties, the appointments to high office, the great fetes.
Surely it is worthwhile to ask how the Shebab knew the French were coming. One blog suggests that one the ground spies may have been doubled by the Islamists.
For such an operation, one would need to have spies on the ground to verify the presence of the hostage. The Somali government’s spy agency would be the perfect one to provide agents to assist with such an operation. Given the fact that the Shabab have been infiltrating agents into the government intelligence apparatus for the past 4 years, it is likely that they may have misled the French and led them into a trap. How else does one explain attacking a completely wrong compound that would immediately be descended upon by dozens or perhaps hundreds of Shabab fighters heavily armed and with antiaircraft technicals according to reports from the city?
The Associated Press has a report which suggests that things went very wrong for the French raiders.
It was too dark to see beyond the brief glow of flashlights, but noise was everywhere, said Ali Bulhan, who woke up when the earth started vibrating to the beat of the helicopter rotors. And the flashlights were abruptly extinguished when the French soldiers shot the Somalis who had turned them on to see what was happening in their town in the dead of night, said town elder Hussein Yasin …
Le Drian said the government decided to stage the rescue a month ago, when Allex’s location seemed to have settled down “in a spot accessible by the sea.”
Helicopters were dispatched from a French ship that had been on an enforced news blackout for weeks, according to the French newspaper Le Point. When the commandos arrived in Bulomarer late Friday, children began screaming in confusion and fighters from the Islamist al-Shabab, which has controlled the town for years, began racing along the streets, their cell phones pressed to their ears.
Yasin said the gunbattle started on the ground when the French commandos encountered an Islamist checkpoint. Al Bulhan said only a few hours could have passed between that moment and the time when the French helicopters stopped firing on homes and instead ferried the surviving French troops to safety “but it felt like an entire day.”
France is now fighting what is perhaps Europe’s opening battle to defend the Old Continent against militant Islam; for Europe is in al-Qaeda in Africa’s sights. But so far French President Hollande has been doing about as well as Jimmy Carter did against the Ayatollahs. Not good at all.
Nor have President Obama and his administration covered themselves with glory as defenders of the West; they talked incessantly about “leading from behind” when all they do is let themselves be led around by the nose. Everybody has been waiting for Kid Obama to show his vaunted moves. But all anyone’s seen so far is a guy waltzing around the ring.
It is becoming increasingly clear that the campaign slogan that “Osama bin Laden is dead and General Motors is alive” isn’t the certainty it’s made out to be. The incompetent political elites of the world are proving themselves quite capable of losing. They are manifesting a disturbing lack of quality which if continued indefinitely must mean disaster. The last time the West realized that it had mislaid some ineffable quality which constituted their superiority was in June 1940. Some may have guessed it by Warsaw but when Dunkirk rolled around it was plain to see that Something — that effortless superiority which the public presumed it could rely upon at need — was gone.
It took a catastrophe for whole peoples to realize they’d been living in a dream. To understand they were governed by mediocrities and fools. But by that time it was almost too late to swerve from the abyss. William Manchester described the crisis of the last century in words which are strangely evocative today.
But in those shabby years His Majesty’s Governments believed that there were some things the country ought not to know, and that their policy of duplicity–which at times amounted to conspiracy–would be vindicated in the end. … The appeasers had been powerful; they had controlled The Times and the BBC; they had been largely drawn from the upper classes, and their betrayal of England’s greatness would be neither forgotten nor forgiven by those who, gulled by the mystique of England’s class system, had believed as Englishmen had believed for generations that public school boys governed best. The appeasers destroyed oligarchic rule which, though levelers may protest, had long governed well. If ever men betrayed their class, these were they.
Because their possessions were great, the appeasers had much to lose … so, with their eyes open, they sought accommodation with a criminal regime, turned a blind eye to its iniquities, ignored its frequent resort to murder and torture, submitted to extortion, humiliation, and abuse until, having sold out all who had sought to stand shoulder to shoulder with Britain and keep the bridge against the new barbarism, they led England herself into the cold damp shadow of the gallows, friendless save for the demoralized republic across the Channel. Their end came when the House of Commons, in a revolt of conscience, wrenched power from them and summoned to the colors the one man who had foretold all that had passed, who had tried, year after year, alone and mocked, to prevent the war by urging the only policy which would have done the job. And now, in the desperate spring of 1940, with the reins of power at last firm in his grasp, he resolved to lead Britain and her fading empire in one last great struggle worthy of all they had been and meant, to arm the nation, not only with weapons but also with the mace of honor, creating in every English breast a soul beneath the ribs of death.
Today we are told that our biggest problems things like Global Warming, debt ceilings and assault rifles in America. Are they? The West was lucky once. It may not be so lucky again.
The Three Conjectures at Amazon Kindle for $1.99
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No Way In at Amazon Kindle $8.95, print $9.99
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Wretchard,
“…the attacks on US missions in North Africa should be thoroughly investigated is to determine why the intelligence of attacking Islamist was so good.”
Might I play devil’s advocate? Are we really sure that the attacking force at Benghazi knew the location of the CIA facility (or the 2nd CIA facility, as it seems the “consulate” was staffed by CIA)? Or did they simply observe the Ambassador as he drove in from the airport, attack the consulate, and then follow the staff as they fled to the safe house? Then, on meeting resistance, they sent the support weapons squad up a hill to engage the new target with mortar fire–and coincidentally caught the reinforcing team from Tripoli as they arrived from the airport.
Yeah, that’s a stack of coincidences. But a sharp field-grade commander in charge of a well-trained company could have taken advantage of a target of opportunity to roll up the entire CIA operation. Now, Foggy Bottom and the White House have not acted like this was all a coincidence. The lack of investigation seems to indicate that they already know who de-pantsed the Benghazi operation. But perhaps they are simply acting like a guilty man, whose mind tricks him into believing he is discovered every time somebody looks at him cross-eyed?
“It is becoming increasingly clear that the campaign slogan that “Osama bin Laden is dead and General Motors is alive” isn’t the certainty it’s made out to be.”
I think a more appropriate slogan now would be: “Osama bin Ladin is dead and so is Ambassador Stevens. For which is Obama more responsible?”
Come on guys, use your inner Mickey Rooney. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tg5o_rEuVR0 We need to put on a show, something to create a huge cargo cult. Santa Claus is coming to town, you better watch out! You better not pout!
Or you’ll get sent to bed without your fresh, all white meat McChicken sandwich!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z0Rki6bxs9g
In my business, we always have trouble explaining what we do to low information voters. If you get into the details, you get that MEGO (My Eyes Glaze Over) look. So one of my co-workers figured out that the best thing to do was to tell them we do FM, Friggin’ Magic!
Become the Wizard of the Emerald Mudhut City!
How did you like my oil well extinguishing trick, Toto??
Then go to Af-Pak and tell the Taliban it’s
Game On! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xMrN3Rh55uM
My bet is one or more Muslims are in the chain of intelligence and are leaking it. Political correctness demands that nobody take official notice of them.
Hilary Clinton could have known about the location of the Benghazi safehouse. She has a notable Muslim pal who might be the leak.
hmm it’s true that the Shebab was aware by th local population that a french commando had landed.
Selon un des témoins, les insurgés islamistes ont été prévenus par des habitants de l’atterrissage de plusieurs hélicoptères d’assaut à trois kilomètres environ de Bulomarer. “Des gens ont vu [les commandos français] débarquer dans des champs, les chababs ont été informés que des hélicoptères avaient atterri et qu’ils avaient débarqué des soldats, et ainsi [les islamistes] ont pu se préparer”. Un commandant local islamiste a confirmé avoir été prévenu de l’arrivée des soldats français, sans préciser comment.
http://www.lemonde.fr/afrique/article/2013/01/13/le-raid-en-somalie-a-ete-decide-en-decembre_1816317_3212.html#ens_id=1816036&xtor=RSS-3208
from a french military
“Mais bon, contrairement au succès relatif du Tanit et du Niger, ayons l’honnêteté de dire que nous avons, ici, un échec évident. Le dire n’empêchant pas d’être absolument solidaires des forces engagées qui ont certainement fait le maximum du possible. Quand ça veut pas, ça veut pas et la séparation entre la réussite et l’échec est souvent moins épais qu’une feuille de papier à cigarette.”
From the author’s links
“Hostages and the help needed
“The helicopters attacked a house … upon the assumption that Denis Allex was being held at that location, but owing to a fatal intelligence blunder, the rescue mission turned disastrously wrong.”
how could that be possible, if the commando had been dropped 3 kilometers ahead?
as far as the civil collateral dammages, it’s also some lying up to the teeth, even though, these people were at the Shebab service.
MC: The most probable scenario is that the trouble was a matter of
routine tactical mistakes compounding each other. Such things
are unfortunately all too common.
HOWEVER: I would say that there is a 35% to 40% chance that this was
a preplanned ambush, a successful plan to lure the French into a trap.
I base this estimate on the fact that the enemy “reaction force” was able
to concentrate on the mistaken target area instead of rushing to defend
where the hostage actually was. This could have been the result of
cell phones simply telling fighters where to go or it could have
been a pre-planned alert system being put into play.
I cannot say which. If it was in fact a trap, the proper French
response would be to do unto that area as Uncle Billy Sherman did
unto Georgia. The threatened retaliation against France itself would
be part of the plan, with the ambushed commandos provided a handy, although
false, excuse.
At any rate, I fear that whatever the proper response is, your current administration is incapable of providing it. And so is ours, damnit.
We are going to have to hunker down and dodge bullets until there is domestic
regime change in both our countries.
Gloomy, ain’t it?
Face it, the Clinton State Department is as full of anti-colonialists as the Dean Acheson State Department was full of Commies.
France is a recent colonial power. The United States is not. Most of the recent trouble in Africa has taken place in former French colonies.
What we need to do is separate our actions from those of France.
Take a lesson from the Oil for Food program and do the opposite. Start an American Freedom For Food program. Give the Somalis or Malians McChicken (or Chick-Fil-A etc.) sandwichs in exchange for FREEDOM for ordinary citizens, particularly Christians. Expect trouble initially, but watch as you win hearts & minds & stomachs. The Islamists won’t know what hit them!
McDonald’s hamburgers and Levi’s jeans brought down the Evil Soviet Empire!
Now it is time for McDonald’s, Chick-Fil-A & KFC to bring down Radical Islam.
Perhaps this is an example of overthinking.
When you kick a mound of Fire Ants the reaction is immediate.
The raid by the French has to be conceived, planned, rehearse, delegated, equipped, supplied with transport, backup and oversight,
The target is filled with armed men who have been taught since childhood to kill the infidel, and regaled since the Clinton fiasco with tales of space age infidel warbirds shot down by the humble Sons of the Prophet and the stinking corpses of the kaffirs drug through the streets.
Every kid in Somalia has been waiting all his life for his chance and the French gave it to them.
“Civilian,” I do not think that word means what you think it means.
Could we be penetrated? Let us ask the crack internal security team who gave us Major Hasan.
There are tens of thousands of completely unassimilated Somalis in America. In effect we have imported a hostile army. These are not in any way shape or form similar to the small number of long time largely Christian Arab communities that existed in America prior to 9-11. It is true though that hostility to Israel is a trait among Christian Arab communities and politicians in both the Old World and the New. People are sometimes surprised by what public figures are from that community and that they both project the “dual loyalty” canard at Jews and accommodate with the Islamist enemies of Israel.
France, being a smaller place with closer proximity to the Middle East and North Africa, is even more at risk. Failure by the elites, from both the traditional Left and Right, to properly protect the nation opens the door to radical xenophobia and extremism. That may be accompanied by a swing to economic and moral self destruction. “National socialism” was largely invented in France, see Proudhon.
Somalia should be quarantined. No fishing boats should leave their shores without being sunk. No planes should depart from their airspace. The roads should be mined. After 5 years reoccupy Mogadishu and then expand slowly. Treat hostiles as hostiles.
The analogy with June 1940 and the British/French leadership of that time is apt.
The Islamists are, in fact, winning everywhere. NATO is defeated in Afghanistan and is negotiating an organized withdrawal; the Taliban will regain control. Most of the Maghreb and Sahel are in Islamist hands. Iraq is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Iran, which is close to getting the bomb. Syria and Lebanon are torn between Sunni and Shia extremists. And Turkey is controlled by an Islamist party.
The Islamists have also established beachheads in numerous European cities, and native Europeans cannot enter the Islamist zones. Not even the police. And Sharia is the law in the zones.
In east Asia, China is slowly achieving dominance in the China Sea and soon will be able to exclude the US Navy from the region. This will not require an actual war. The carriers will simply withdraw east of the Philipines and Japan. Another Dunkirk is in the offing; there will be no ensuing D-Day.
“France is a recent colonial power. The United States is not. Most of the recent trouble in Africa has taken place in former French colonies.”
and what was doing Di Caprio in Sierra Leone?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blood_Diamond_(film)
Nigeria, sudan, Mozembique zimbadwe, Kenya, South africa… weren’t french colonie
“What we need to do is separate our actions from those of France.”
the Chinese just offered their help !
at best, you’re jocking !
7. Dave
there’s always a inherent risk when you make such raids, dunno yet if it was a ambush, we’ll learn about it soon.
If we try a retaliation expect that the “human rights” organisations will whin !
Wretchard wrote:
“Today we are told that our biggest problems things like Global Warming, debt ceilings and assault rifles in America. Are they?”
Let us not leave out the massive issue of Gay Marriage.
A cause so powerful that a sitting President of the Greatest Nation on Earth (at present) experienced a fundamental transformation.
Protesters in France: Gay marriage would hurt children
PARIS – Several hundred thousand people converged at the Eiffel Tower in Paris Sunday to protest President Francois Hollande’s bill to legalize same-sex marriage by June.
Protesters waved pink and blue flags showing a father, mother and two children. Many had taken long train and bus rides from outside Paris.
Hollande has pledged to push through a same-sex marriage law with his Socialist party’s parliamentary majority, but his opponents have dented public support and forced deputies to put off a plan to allow lesbian couples access to artificial insemination.
Same-sex marriage is recognized in 11 countries including Belgium, Portugal, the Netherlands, Spain, Sweden, Norway and South Africa. In the U.S., it is legal in nine states and in Washington, D.C.
Champ de Mars, the long park between the Eiffel Tower and the Ecole Militaire, was packed Sunday, with organizers claiming 800,000 protesters, but police more conservatively estimating 340,000 – a large turnout even in France, where protests are a way of life.
“Nobody expected this two or three months ago,” said Frigide Barjot, a flamboyant comedian leading the demonstration. At the rally, she read aloud a letter to Hollande asking him to withdraw the bill and hold a public debate on the issue.
Strongly supported by the Catholic Church, opponents of same-sex marriage have mobilized practicing Catholics, members of the extreme far-right Front National party, some Muslims, evangelicals and even a few openly gay people.
They argue that same-sex marriage would cause psychological and social harm to children, which they believe should trump the desire for equal rights for gay adults.
—
13. Marie Claude:
“whin”
Very creative!
We KNOW they will whine.
We can bet they will win.
(Then there’s that damned issue of Demographics.
Dark Times Ahead.)
#8: “France is a recent colonial power. The United States is not. Most of the recent trouble in Africa has taken place in former French colonies.”
Kind of reminds one of the trouble in Southeast Asia a while back in that regard, eh? And it probably won’t be managed any better now than it was then.
Obama quick to help out a Frenchman in distress in Somilia.
Obama asleep in bed when Ambassador Stevens and others are getting murdered.
“…. fighters from the Islamist al-Shabab, which has controlled the town for years, began racing along the streets, their cell phones pressed to their ears.”
Whythell would you not take down the cell phone system in order to limit the enemy’s communications. And at the same time jam their walkie talkies and CB radios and whatever else they have? That would be child’s play. I could probably cobble together that kind of capability with the stuff I have sitting around in my garage.
Not long ago I recall reading what a NATO official said about electronic warfare. “When the Europeans fly into an area with anti-aircraft missile systems, we try to evade the missiles. When the Americans go into an area they shut everything down. Not even cellphones work. I think we need to move toward an approach more like the Americans.”
The problem with deciding that there are no more bears in the forest is that you then go into the woods carrying nothing bigger than a .22 single shot. If you are attacked by a crow or a Blue Jay you are in pretty good shape. But of there are wolves in the forest, or mountain lions or, heaven forbid, real bears, all you do is get yourself in more trouble by using just a .22.
The Yerps are convinced the bears are all gone. The French built their own ballistic missile system, based on our Minuteman, and while it lacked the range to hit the USSR, at least it was something. Now they have pulled even those few missiles out of the ground.
And when they all put on their national costumes and go to dance on that fabled hilltop, they may well find nothing but scattered pieces of bloody cloth, look around, and wonder what those growls coming from the forest below could possibly be.
RWE (#17) wrote “Whythell would you not take down the cell phone system in order to limit the enemy’s communications” My first thought when reading the report, Major blunder by the Frenchies… Surely there was a reason they didn’t suppress the communications, inside (double?) agent may have set them up by saying he’d signal them with his but really allowing the dirt bags to have their comms open??? This really, really reads bad for French Commando abilities, maybe they all should have seen “Zero Dark Thirty” before attempting their mission, barrowed some of those fancy Yankee night goggles….
or maybe 0bama said no?, Maybe 0bama tipped off them brothers from the hood that the old white colonialist were coming???
Charleswhite #18:
I think the French should have seen “Blackhawk Down.”
Or as I put it, “Any mission not worth doing is only worth doing half-assed.” is the rule in the military.
The French had their Desert Storm in Libya, or so they would have you believe. Now they have had their “Blackhawk Down.” It was those two operations that convinced OBL that the USA was ripe to be struck; even when we won big we connived to lose in the long run, and even a minor pyrrhic victory by the opposition would force us to quit.
Word has it that while Al Queda have been all but wiped out in Afghanistan, the Taliban are on the rise. Well, duhh? The difference between the two is like that between Ford and Lincoln, or Chevrolet and GMC. And the Taliban are now being allowed to open a “branch office” outside of the country. The SS have been wiped out but the Nazi Party is still going strong, or maybe vice versa.
19. RWE:
I remember quite clearly our concern about the Taliban in the ‘Stan, esp following 9-11.
But times, and definitions of the enemy, have changed.
…quite radically.
—
Note From a Wise Man
A note appeared on a private message board. This private group includes many current and former generals, and just about anyone you see on television or in books as a national security specialist, ranging from CIA to all the top war correspondents, special operations types galore, and high-level policy makers. There is significant education value in just reading their traffic.
A few days back, retired Marine and 3-star General Mick Trainor left this note. I asked LTG (ret.) Trainor for permission to publish on my website, and he agreed.
Now for the show:
It’s Who You Know That Counts
By Mick Trainor
The TSA agent walked down the line of Christmas travelers awaiting screening at Dulles airport. He ran a swab over the palm of randomly selected individuals. I was one of them. As I hoisted my luggage onto the surveillance conveyor another agent asked me to step aside while a third agent abruptly commandeered my travel suitcase.
“Did you use hand cream this morning?”
“Yes,” I replied, “Why do you ask?”
“Because there is a trace of nitrate on your hands. That is not uncommon with some hand lotions. Nitrate is an element of explosives.”
“OK,”.I thought. “I have soft hands, but not a bomb.” Notwithstanding such logic, I was informed that I would have to have a full body search. With that two agents escorted me to a private room while other agents began to tear apart my luggage.
“Is this really necessary?” I enquired. “I’m an eighty four year old, native born American citizen who spent forty years in the Marines and fought in two wars and retired as a general.”
“Oh, you were a Marine.” said one agent. “My father-in-law is a retired Marine colonel of about your vintage. His name is Webster. Did you know him?”
“I knew a Charlie Webster, who went as ‘Chuck.’ We went through Quantico together as new lieutenants.”
“That’s him.” replied my interrogator ….. as he proceeded with the full body search.
I would be interested in knowing how internal French security forces are behaving toward their own Muslim population right about now. I wonder if there is any evidence of preemptive Islamophobia?
Marie Claude @ 12 – What was Leonardo DiCaprio doing in the film Blood Diamond? The same thing he was doing in the film Titanic, pretending to be a British citizen.
The “blood diamonds” of the title were sold through Sierra Leone, a former British colony. Great Britain is also a “recent colonial power” (e.g. Pakistan, Egypt etc.). And the United States should separate its foreign policy from Britain too, as it did to both France and Britain during the Suez Crisis.
After all it was Britain, and what is now British Petroleum, that owned the Abadan refinery that Iran’s Mossadegh nationalized, with all sorts of unintended consequences, such as the eventual rise of Ayatollah Khomeini. Ike tried to get Britain to offer a more equitable split of the revenues between the Brits and the Persians, but the British wouldn’t listen.
Most, but not all, British politicians know the words to “Amazing Grace”. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OO5y2O_hv3I
Yet some others still liked being the colonial rulers of the WOGs after WW II.
America’s national interests do not completely correspond with other nations, even our “allies”. You, in particular, ought to remember the Kasbah of Algiers in 1942, HMS Broke http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HMS_Broke_(D83) and Operation Terminal. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Terminal
You are French, remember Rick’s Cafe American in Casablanca? The French believed in “political correctness” then too.
Play it Sam, you played it for her, you can play it for me! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7vThuwa5RZU
Mini salute to the French for spending a pennies worth of blood and treasure to engage the Mohammedans on the ground in Africa. A greater shame on the French for refusing to engage Mohammedans at any meaningful level in the homeland.
Is the State still sovereign when the suburbs of every major city are self-governed by an alien culture that does not even permit entry of municipal police? The scale at which Europeans have so willingly sacrificed their humanity and their future to the culture of death is staggering.
You cannot walk by a European history book without absorbing at least a sense of how threatening and destructive Mohammedanism has been to European well-being for centuries. How do supposedly intelligent people just wipe memory from their culture without a thought or a care for the consequences? Do these people actually believe that they can manage Evil?
AQ is within Mao’s third stage of insurgency in more than one location. Mali is the latest. Syria is next.
Iran and AQ are rivals but will have no problem dividing up the middle east between them.
We are mistaken to call these groups terrorists anymore. They are way past that.
Iran is the party easiest to deal with but not much chance of that happening now.
We are losing. There is no other way to put it.
‘Ol Rudyard knew a thing or two…It was perhaps his biggest burden.
Nowadays we tend to stick to the devils we elect.
Our ruling elites are doing exactly the same thing by helping and appeasing the Muslim Brotherhood, that their predecessors did in the 1930′s and 40′s by helping and appeasing the Third Reich.
@Peter Boston,
Some of our leaders don’t worry much about managing evil – because they ARE evil.
the United States should separate its foreign policy from Britain too
Britain has its own foreign policy? I thought it just waited for orders from Washington.
You are French, remember Rick’s Cafe American in Casablanca? The French believed in “political correctness” then too.
I’m not sure what you are saying but just for the record PC is an American import. Ask the people of Setif, Algeria, how France responded to nationalist activities there following VE Day. Before American hegemony in Europe most criticism of the US was from the other side of the political spectrum.
America, Birthplace of Multiculturalism and Political Correctness
(BTW ‘Casablanca’ is only revered as an all-time classic in the Anglo world. Most Europeans, including Ingrid Bergman, saw it as just a better than average B-movie).
I’d compare Obama to Neville Chamberlain but that wouldn’t be fair…to Chamberlain.
After all, and to his credit, even Neville Chamberlain had his limit when it came to Hitler.
Jules @ 28 – I can’t even begin to read that TRIPE!
American black descendants of black Africans sold into slavery by Muslim slave traders in Africa are not free???
Tell that to the late Whitney Houston.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wupsPg5H6aE
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aSvH4s-4sCQ
Mine eyes have seen the Glory of the coming of the Lord!
It’s called “The Melting Pot”.
“It’s as if the administration didn’t want to know, didn’t need to know, wouldn’t let anyone know.”
It’s as if ? (!) Right.
Bob Smith @ #4 suggests an entirely plausible scenario, which of course doesn’t make it correct but someone tipped off the jihadists. The Obama administration couldn’t be prepared to act and offer limited assistance without prior knowledge of the coming operation. There are Muslims with access to high ups in the administration and if they knew and if some do in fact place loyalty to Islam before any other consideration, they would have motive, means and opportunity to alert the jihadists.
It of course will not be investigated, as there remains no doubt as to whose side Obama is really on.
Peter Boston (#23) wrote “How do supposedly intelligent people just wipe memory from their culture without a thought or a care for the consequences?” Well to start they believe it was “Christians” that were the problem not the “Mohammedans” (Mohammedans don’t like being called “Mohammedans” it infers they worship Mohammed and not Satan…), and in that delusional world they think there are such things as “Moderate” Mohammedans (Muslims for you Satan worshipers). “Do these people actually believe that they can manage Evil?” Why Yes, they do, by not believing in “Evil”!
6-2010
“Russia’s state arms exporter Rosoboronexport said Tuesday it had signed several contracts with the French defense firm Thales on the transfer of technology and delivery of communications equipment for Russian armored vehicles.”
{{{}}}
“Russia may only be able to export thermal imagers produced at its plant with the permission of the French authorities. The list of potential customers will exclude so-called rogue states such as Iran.”
Thales is a tier 1 defense company and are not lacking in technology that I am aware of.
The asymmetry in Somalia is that the West invites Somali’s into their neighborhoods and government and Somalia does not offer retirement benefits. When the Left hand consorts with the enemy as a humanitarian outrage against its own insolent voters and the Right hand attempts to upturn the strong man at home there are no freedom loving patriots left. Perhaps if the west was kind enough to return them to sender there would be a coalition to build on.
As a side note, a merchant marine that I knew had stepped off on to the continent and was amazed how respectful Africans were to their French charges. When he saw them open fire into a group of them he understood that the French took no quarter. This was 20 some odd years ago. Now I ‘spect that they’d take a quarter or more.
“In the end, it will be the French citizens who will inevitably taste the bitter consequences of their government’s devil-may-care attitude towards hostages,” the Islamists said..”
I find this sentence to be the most telling one regarding this situation. So the French should just accept that a French citizen is being held against his will? Well, yeah, the Muslims have a long history of using people as fund raisers. We curtailed that business once upon a time but we seem to be reluctant to do it again. You always get more of what is profitable and you get less of what costs you too much. Make it hurt, make it hurt a lot. But, no, we are too ‘civilized’ for that, until it becomes a matter of survival. Then it becomes a world war and the number of dead become 100,000 fold. Rinse, repeat.
3. MachiasPrivateer
We need to put on a show, something to create a huge cargo cult
My friend, we already have a cargo cult in the West. Governments that keep lending themselves huge sums in the hopes this will magically “stimulate” the economy, with no thought at all being given to making it easier for people to create actual wealth — literally no thought at all. To compound the “cargo cult” mentality, we are even getting serious suggestion for trillion dollar platinum coins and similar imbecilic ideas. What’s next, dummy factories made of sago palm fronds in the hope they will magically produce widgets and iPhones?
We are Papua New Guinea with Armani suits and penis sheaths, but worn over the head this time.
26. 1389AD
Our ruling elites are doing exactly the same thing by helping and appeasing the Muslim Brotherhood, that their predecessors did in the 1930′s and 40′s by helping and appeasing the Third Reich.
While that’s a good analogy, there is another one: to the Communist infiltration during the New Deal and WWII. While Joe McCarthy was a flawed man with bad tactics, his underlying premise was vindicated by the Venona Files and the opening of the Soviet Archives.
I can’t imagine the Chinese are just going to sit around and let Islamists spread far and wide across Africa. They’re present on the continent in a big way and have a lot of hard investments there. The Jihadis might be able to push France around but there going to hit the wall with the Chinese. Bet on it.
I, for one, am puzzled by the new French belligerence toward Muslims in general and specifically North Africa.
There are clues as to why this is happening, but I am curious as to the thinking going on in top levels of the French Government. This started with Sarkozy and has continued on with Hollande. There is a continuity of thought here, regardless of the party.
This may be the growing awareness of the risk to continental France itself from unchecked immigration from Northern African countries that were once part of “metropolitan” France. The immigration is, indeed, by refugees fleeing the escalating violence. Ghaddafy might just have been the canary in the coal mine. Many here thought it was “madness” to topple Ghaddafy without a plan or partisans to support, but maybe we all got our clues backward. The whole continent could go up in flames in a year.
And will they call this the “African Spring”, as country after country falls to Islamist insurrection and violence?
The tide is running, and who knows where it will crest.
How will the west be able to save Africa from the Islamists? Fuggedaboutit! Does the west still believe in anything worth fighting and dying for?
Only Africans, unwilling to submit, will fight to the bitter end. The most these people can hope for from us is material assistance, military advisors and maybe occasional air support.
What’s next, dummy factories made of sago palm fronds in the hope they will magically produce widgets and iPhones?
Why is that so difficult a leap from a culture that does not acknowledge that a human fetus is a human being? One guy had 11 kids from 9 different women hoping one would pop out as a Mercedes Benz.
#37
It would be an awfully big leap for the Chicoms to put boots on the ground outside their historical territorial sphere. The Chinese have a long history of commercial imperialism but they have never had the need to do it with guns.
I’ve recently been through a few Medieval history lecture courses on iTunes that may help explain why a modern intellectual cannot distinguish between an asshole and a tea kettle. Violence in pursuit of power, land and money was invented by 6th Century Franks but only after they became nominal Catholics. The Europeans loved violence so much that after a few hundred years of using it to accumulate power, land and money they abandoned their Continental stash to walk 2,000 miles to beat up on peaceful Mohammedans who were entirely occupied with inventing medicine and reading poetry.
Forget saving Western Civilization ’cause there ain’t nothing there no more. If the 20th Century was the bastard child of the Enlightenment then the 21st Century progeny should prove a real doozy.
Putting together several accurate comments above, and extrapolating.
1) The effort, however sugarcoated, was a failure. The strike force hit the wrong location, they may or may not have engaged and killed non-involved civilians [which is a propaganda victory for the enemy if convincingly alleged regardless of the facts], the enemy seemed prepared and responded to the strike effectively, the hostage is reported killed, and they may have left one of their own behind in enemy hands. There is a tendency in government to try to cover up results like that, to emphasize the individual heroics of those on the ground, wrapping the failure up in the flag and hoping that the subject goes away. Investigation of the facts becomes subordinate to protecting the images of the politically connected. This is a tendency in any government, not just France, and has been most thoroughly practiced in the United States. But France is the case in point, as it was their raid.
2) There is a significant possibility that the French raid to rescue the hostage was in fact a pre-planned trap that worked. That has major implications as to the nature and loyalties of the local intelligence sources used by the French to acquire targeting data. Which rationally would mean a major investigation of such. Said investigation will face headwinds due to the factors in #1 above, due to the personnel involved covering their own collective gluteal musculature, and the possibility that the sources have political/diplomatic protection. It ain’t gonna be easy.
3) There is also a significant possibility that while the ambush was not pre-planned from the inception, that raid was deliberately betrayed sufficiently before the strike allowing the enemy to prepare a response. It has been noted above that the US was briefed. The highest levels of the US government have been penetrated by the enemy, and in our culture that possibility is barred from discussion. Serious actions and investigations of Jihadist political and intel activity here are barred due to the combination of political correctness “protected class” status of Muslims in this country and their undoubted connections to our regime. The leak may have come from American government personnel.
4) Similarly, although with a slightly different set of PC filters, in France itself the demographics are such that Muslims of North African ancestry have been and are a rapidly growing portion of their population [the French government refuses to break out the percentage (one of their PC filters) but it is estimated to be on the order of 14-15% and growing rapidly. While the overall birth rate of France has risen somewhat in the last decade (http://www.indexmundi.com/france/total_fertility_rate.html) it is still and long has been below the fertility replacement rate of 2.1 children per female [ the .1 accounts for those who do not survive or do not have children]. The European descended cohort in France is both shrinking and aging. The Muslim cohort is both younger on average, and increasing due to a higher birth rate. The subset of males of military age has a huge Muslim component.
This, in a country where every public holiday is celebrated by masses of youths of carefully circumscribed descriptions from “Sensitive Urban Zones” burning thousands of cars of those not from “Sensitive Urban Zones”; with relative legal impunity. [Another of their PC filters] I have seen commentary, from French sources, of concerns about using line infantry units against these “car-b-cues” and the attendant other rioting, due to the percentage of co-religionists amongst the troops and the rioters.
Just as our military and political levels have been penetrated by the enemy’s agents; so surely has France’s military. Their political levels may or may not have. I tend to think not, because to rise in national government in France, a degree from the Ecole Nationale d’Administration is a pre-requisite; and they are not an affirmative action organization.
In any case, it is significantly possible that the information about the strike may have been leaked from enemy agents in France.
There is such a thing as bad luck. There is such a thing as incompetent planning and preparation. We have seen both ourselves in Iran. And the failed French mission may have been just because whichever Deity is turning the crank this week was in a bad mood. But the multiple indications of enemy preparation are such that the mission failed either due to security breaches or failure in planning. And both require a hard nosed investigation that will name names and kick whatever anatomy is required. The naming and kicking may not be public, but it has to be done, or this will continue happening.
Two further points.
First, the French may be in for some interesting times, based on the hostage takers’ threats. While it may be hard to tell from a normal holiday weekend, the level of civil disorder coming out of the “Sensitive Urban Zones” may get cranked up to 11.
Second, if the failure was because of penetration of Western governments by the enemy, then there will be more failures of the same type in the area. Go back to the basic rule of thumb. Once is Chance. Twice is Coincidence. Three times is deliberate Hostile Action.
Once: The security breaches that allowed the location and killing of the American Ambassador and those Americans defending him in Libya. The operational failures in the response are the fault of the National Command Authority, which is deliberately avoiding looking at the security breaches. Conclusions may or may not be drawn.
Twice: The prepared defenses the French ran into on the hostage rescue raid in Somalia.
Thrice: TBA
Subotai Bahadur
Subotai @ 41
The mis-thinking in the West is our over-reliance on technical means of intelligence, and an under-reliance on human intelligence. Thus, I think our human counter-intelligence is atrophied (and crippled by political interference).
Thinking back 8 years, how was it that Scooter Libby could be wrongly accused and prosecuted for something that Richard Armitage did? Political interference or just bad luck?
Osama bin Ladin is dead, as is Ambassador Stevens. But Salafist Islam is alive and on the offensive in Africa, which is notably absent of modern infrastructure to support modern military intervention. For the US, France, Germany, NATO or whomever to confront them on the “battlefield” will entail quite a long tail to tooth ratio. To put on man on the battlefied will entail many more to support him and keep him fed. After fighting over 10 years in backwards and landlocked Afghanistan, there may be some after action lessons to be learned from that.
…the government decided to stage the rescue a month ago,… ?? A month ago? And someone is surprised that the mission leaked?? With that much lead time the Somali market probably had t-shirts printed up. Its impossible with the number of Muslims in governments across Europe and the US these days to keep a secret that long. Their loyalties are not to any government.
Incidentally, on the trillion dollar coin thing: Jon Stewart’s take on it is delicious:
http://hotair.com/archives/2013/01/14/video-paul-krugman-versus-jon-stewart-on-the-trillion-dollar-platinum-coin/
Treasury has turned down the coin notion, FWIW
Re Job Vacancy in MI6/DGSE.
It goes like this
“so youre a muslim?’
yes.
but not an islamist?…
no.
Thats good, we like the muslims, but not the islamist muslims…
I see
We are an equal rights employer and we building an inclusive multicultural state which is why we abandoned immigration controls…it makes us look good at the UN and soothes the Colonial legacy…..and we like the ethnic food and handicrafts…..
yes of course
so youre not an islamist?….or might become one?…..
no….
ok, then here are the source codes and a list of agents and here a security pass……..
To W.
Could you please indicate from which book you got that William Manchester’s citation. Thank you.
SF
#17 RWE
““When the Europeans fly into an area with anti-aircraft missile systems, we try to evade the missiles. When the Americans go into an area they shut everything down. Not even cellphones work. I think we need to move toward an approach more like the Americans.””
hmm that would have been Obama ‘s help, we haven’t the means to do it now, our army budget decreased with the euro crisis
The Manchester quote would be from The Last Lion
for those that understand french, here is our military blog, that has the last news on the operations
http://www.opex360.com/
the Shebabs show a pic of the french killed in the raid
(not on the blog, because the jihadists might use the pic on the net)
Why anyone thinks some grand master mind or Foreign intelligence had much to do with Benghazi is by now beyond me. It really was Elitist indifference (Thank you Hillary Clinton) and the fear of the Political ramifications that lead to jihadist getting knowledge of where the Americans had their gun running operation (of very modern weapons) HQ and simply observing the in and out traffic for several weeks, add few insider “Security” guys, get and keep a small force nearby and wait for the “right place, right time” conditions to unfold for the Jihadist, which they did, the rest is 0bama, Clinton and a pre planned CIA cover up story of a illegal operation or at the least a massive Political bomb for the 0bama administration (just before election day) and everything since is just that, the continued cover-up of the cover-up that probably had by the third week even more illegal aspects to it. 0bama will most likely be Dead and enshrined before any “Benghazi was… after all”, comes out, nobody over the age of 20 is ever going to hear the truth about Benghazi, if that is America is still here.
Don Rodrigo @ 35 – I guess by “West” I meant those who would preserve what has been called “Western Civilization”. That now seems to exclude both EUnuchs in their Armani suits and BHO Jr., who seems more attuned to the Indonesia of his youth. Consider that some (e.g. Jules @ 28) accuse the USA of continuing to enslave blacks, when most people outwardly consider BHO to be the First True Black American President, Bill Clinton being the First Faux Black American President. This despite the fact he is not “down for the struggle” as he has zero Black American Slave blood. His father was a black Kenyan and his mother was a white descendant of slaveowners. His famly tree has much in common with that of the Muslims who sold black Africans into the slave trade.
Part of his anti-British attitude could be related to the fact the British and the US were the most effective agents in ending the lucrative Islamic slave trade to the New World.
My engineer’s focus is what to do about it? Most people fall apart into the Five Stages of Grief and do nothing effective. What is needed is a four part plan of action, identify the problem and its causes, work out a prototype solution to become the initial inflection point, massively implement the solution, and watch others do their level best to steal the credit when you succeed (leading from behind).
Intelligence leaks or not, usually these things go to the one who wants it most. The locals seemed to be ready to fight even though there was a possibility of facing a force far greater than theirs. I suspect they were as surprised as we are that their cell phones worked. They were fast and nimble and determined, had some luck, and won decisively.
I suspect the bengazi attackers were surprised that the heavens didn’t open up. They didn’t, they persisted and beat the us.
These folks are not as unsophisticated as they appear. They can sense better than most which way the wind is blowing. It is blowing their way.
If they are smart, and we can be sure they are simply because they survived, they will recognize that they have a decade to grow their territory. Kerry will give them afghanistan, they have carte blanche to eliminate their internal opposition, and have the opportunity to cement their gains and expand even more. They know the words that tie western diplomats in knots.
Who would have thought that a preoccupied and energy independent us would have the option of not caring? I can’t imagine a better time for a caliphate covering north africa to asia. A prone europe will submit, and I suspect these folks have figured that leaving the continental us alone will give them free rein. They will push up against china and russia, it will not be peaceful or prosperous. Only interesting.
Nothing like a war to take attention away from economic disaster, coming soon to a United States near you.
“they sought accommodation with a criminal regime, turned a blind eye to its iniquities, ignored its frequent resort to murder and torture, submitted to extortion, humiliation, and abuse ”
Yes, but Bush is gone now, so there’s hope.
But
it seems to me that that even the threatened (no one expects the) “Islamic caliphate” is a paper tigger. No national industry or educated population or resources but oil. The oil trade would be the first to suffer in a middle east war; ultimately helping the West to maximize its own energy resources. Give them a hellhole to rule and failure will ensue.
If they get to be really a problem they will be swated
No pickup with a machine gun is going to do what Hitler didn’t.
I see a bunch martyrs committing suicide by Boko.
“It seems to me that that even the threatened (no one expects the) “Islamic caliphate” is a paper tiger.”
I think you underestimate their resolve. They don’t care if they turn their countries into hell on Earth so long as Islam rules it.
In view of everything offered in this thread, why would Americans even contemplate giving up their guns. Heck our elites are happy to tell the criminal element where the Neanderthal knuckle-draggers are who have them, so the criminals can have the choice between the “haves” and the “have nots,” on any given day.
Think how sweet it would be for the elites to tell OTMs who the insolent ones are who used to have guns. What a great way to punish those still knuckle-dragging fools who were insolent enough to have them in the first place.
What a great way to euthanize those aforementioned miscreants from the gene pool. Next of course, their offspring.
I really cannot worry about either French or American military defeats in Africa. The American military currently represents more of a threat to American citizens than to our many external enemies. I would prefer to see it downsized, budgets slashed and especially the Navy shrunk. A professional military was never a good idea and it has led to a politicized officer corps.
Look at the smucks Obama has appointed SecDef and then imagine what sort of flag officers they would appoint.