Sic Semper Tyrannis

Out of Town

 I will be out of town testifying in  a trial from 31 august to 5 September.  I will try to participate here during that period as time allows.  pl 

"Beck challenges Obama's religious beliefs after rally in D.C." Washpost

 "During an interview on "Fox News Sunday," which was filmed after Saturday's rally, Beck claimed that Obama "is a guy who understands the world through liberation theology, which is oppressor-and-victim."

"People aren't recognizing his version of Christianity," Beck added.

Beck's attacks represent a continuing attempt to characterize Obama as a radical, an approach that has prompted anxiety among some Republicans, who worry that Beck's rhetoric could backfire. The White House has all but ignored his accusations, but some Democrats have pointed to the Fox News host to portray Republicans as extreme and out of touch.

Beck made the remarks in answer to a question about his previous accusation that Obama was a "racist" who has "a deep-seated hatred for white people." He contended that that statement "was not accurate" and that he had "miscast" Obama's religious beliefs as racism."  Washpost

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We haven't had a religious war here (SST) yet. "Now's the time and now's the hour."  Beck says that Obama is a false Christian because he is saturated in "liberation theology" which he says is really Marxism in Christian clothing.  Well, maybe that is so, or maybe not.

In the same interview, he does say that a lot of Christians do not consider him (Beck) to be a Christian because he is a Mormon. Christianity is generally understood to be a religion that is monotheistic within the context of a belief in the trinity of persons in the one God.  (I know that this kind of discussion is meaningless to atheists)  The Mormon religion is not monotheistic.  Nor is it trinitarian.  For me, a necessary corollary of that theology is that the Latter Day Saints Church is Christian only by its own definition of Christianity.  

One can fairly ask, who is Glen Beck to question Obama's religious identity as a Christian?  Moreover, Romney, if nominated is probably not electable in a national election because of the reaction of many "orthodox" Christians to the LDS Church.  Is that fair?  No.  Is it true?  Probably so.  pl

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/08/29/AR2010082903405.html

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christianity

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Church_of_Jesus_Christ_of_Latter-day_Saints

"Top Karzai aide says U.S. must alter its strategy" Washpost

 ""I said, 'General Petraeus, winning the hearts and minds of the Afghans is not the job of a soldier. That's the job of an Afghan,' " Daudzai said.

Daudzai described Karzai as "concerned" and committed to changing the U.S. approach to the war.

"He's putting those conditions there, that if we do not review, then we will be on the path toward losing," he said. "We need to review our strategy, our code of conduct, so that Afghans believe that this is a sovereign state and President Karzai is the ultimate decision maker in this country. . . . We are in the last stage, the last chance of winning this war. So we cannot afford to spend a lot of time on accusations and counter-accusations."

Daudzai's statements come in the wake of media reports that many of Karzai's aides have long been secretly paid by the CIA. That revelation has raised questions about the duplicity of the U.S. strategy in Afghanistan, where U.S. officials are pushing Karzai to crack down on corruption among his aides, some of whom may be collecting regular salaries from the CIA.

The Karzai administration pushed back strongly last week against growing U.S. pressure. On Monday, presidential spokesman Waheed Omer said that corruption in connection with international contracts for Afghan companies was a bigger problem than any wrongdoing within the government."  Washpost

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As I have been saying, US contractor companies are contributing to the "corruption" situation in Afghanistan.  They are enabling theft of public money,  money borrowed, money taxed from the American people.

Nevertheless, that is not the main message in what the Afghans are trying to tell us.  

COIN is a disaster  That is the message.  A foreign army, no matter how benevolent in intention, can not fundamentally change the character of a foreign people unless that army intends to stay in the homeland of that people for a very long time.  We are talking about generations, not a decade.  We are talking about hundreds of billions of dollars.  we are talking about a willingness to bleed there indefinitely and a willingness to make the objects of our benevolent intentions bleed as well.

"That is the job of an Afghan," Daudzai said.  He could not be more correct.

Obama/Petraeus are going down and COIN is taking them down.  pl 

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/08/28/AR2010082803420.html

"Insurgents Attack NATO Base" -

 "Insurgents, some wearing United States Army uniforms, attacked a major NATO base in eastern Afghanistanon Saturday and a nearby camp where seven CIA employees were killed last year in a suicide bombing.

Twenty-one insurgents were killed — including 4 who were wearing suicide vests, NATO officials said — and 5 others were captured in the coordinated attacks on the sprawling Forward Operating Base Salerno in Khost Province and nearby Camp Chapman. Three more insurgents, including a commander, were killed in an airstrike as they fled the area, NATO said.

There were no coalition casualties, but two Afghan soldiers were killed and three wounded, according to the country’s Defense Ministry. Four United States troops were wounded, NATO officials said.

Also Saturday, three more American service members were killed -- two in a bombing in the south and the third in fighting in eastern Afghanistan, the United States command said.

The raids on Salerno and Chapman appear part of an insurgent strategy to step up attacks in widely scattered parts of the country as the United States focuses its resources on the battle around the Taliban’s southern birthplace, Kandahar."  NY Times

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These fellows are interesting.  0400, US uniforms on some of them in order to get close enough to have a chance to get into the compound, some actually got into FOB Salerno.

At the same time they are attacking in widely separated places because the US has concentrated its available force in Marja and Kandahar.

A thinking enemy capable of true "strategery."  Well, well.  pl 

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/08/29/world/asia/29khost.html

What?

 "Following an uproar over a policy it said was designed 30 years ago to achieve racial equality, a school district in a Mississippi town on Friday scrapped a system of student elections where race determined whether a candidate could run for some class positions, including president.

The rules sparked an outcry after Brandy Springer, a mother of four mixed-race children in Nettleton, Miss., complained that her 12-year-old daughter couldn't run for class reporter because she wasn't the right race. Read the original memo."  MSNBC

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It really hurts me to agree with Thaddeus Stevens Matthews, but this is incredible stupidity.   I like Mississippi, always have and was trying to move to The Coast when Katrina intervened, but how could this school board have let this remain policy?  That county owes the woman from Florida a debt of gratitude for pointing out this foolishness.  pl 

http://today.msnbc.msn.com/id/38880820/ns/us_news-life/

PS.  Someone should tell Matthews that "Lookout Mountain" and "Stone Mountain' are different places.  pl 

Sharpsburg or Antietam (take your pick)

 I went to the battlefield yesterday with a friend.  I have been there many times.  It is about two hours from my house.  It was a beautiful, not too warm day.  The national park was being heavily visited, a good thing.  We went there to remember the ground, the topography itself.  It is a remarkable piece of ground, chosen with a 19th Century Engineer's eye.

In the Autumn of 1862 Robert Edward Lee was seeking a decisive engagement with a big Union army.  He wanted a victory somewhere in the North, a victory that would shake the capitals of Europe and perhaps bring on European mediation of the quarrel.  The North had not yet abolished slavery as an institution and so the struggle could more easily be seen as a sectional struggle than would later be the case.  Lee had wanted to fight his battle near Harrisburg, Pennsylvania or perhaps near Baltimore, Maryland, but circumstances made that impossible and he decided to fight a defensive battle on the ground just north of the Potomac River and south of Antietam Creek. There, the ground rises from the creek in a series of small ridges that seem almost to be stairs, each twenty or thirty feet high. What needs to be known is that the advancing Union infantry could not see over each successive little ridge.

Michael Rubin, the next US consul in Najaf?

 "As both an American official in 2004 -- when I served as a political adviser in the coalition provisional government-- and an American visitor in 2010, I was welcomed in the Shrine of Imam Ali, Najaf's holiest. In January, I visited one grand ayatollah and the offices of two others. Each said he welcomed dialogue with Americans. Indeed, Adnan Zurfi, the elected governor of Najaf, spent his exile years in Dearborn, Mich.

Nevertheless, Shiites remain uncertain about American intentions. During a February 1991 campaign stop, President George H.W. Bush famously called on "the Iraqi people to take matters into their own hands and force Saddam Hussein, the dictator, to step aside." The Shiites listened and rose up, but Bush had second thoughts and remained aloof as Hussein's tanks and helicopter gunships crushed the revolt. Thousands of Shiites were cast into mass graves. Perception means more than reality. In every Shiite seminary, clergy and students asked specifically why they should ever again trust the United States after the 1991 abandonment. They accuse the White House, the State Department and the Defense Department of persistent bias."  Michael Rubin

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Rubin is among the most persistent believers in the glories of the coming re-birth of the Middle East.  He sees this re-birth as the aftermath of the invasion and occupation of Iraq which he and his neocon brethren did so much to bring about.  His faith in the benefits to be realized in social revolution is admirable even if mistaken.

Since he is so well connected in Najaf, he should be appointed the first US consul in the city.  Those who share his political faith should also be appointed to help him there in this mission.

As a gesture of trust and good will I suggest that the consulate in Najaf should be guarded by locally recruited Iraqis.  His ayatollah friend can help with the recruitment and vetting of local staff.  pl 

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/08/26/AR2010082605573.html?sub=AR

Harper on Iranian Developments

  Based on discussions with several senior intelligence officials in Washington, it appears that the majority consensus among U.S. national security policymakers, regarding the Iran situation, can be summarized as follows.   
 
1.  Iran is still well-over a year away from any substantial progress towards weaponization.  There are serious glitches in the Iran program and there is effective and coordinated sabotage and disruption involving the United States, Russia, Germany and others.  There is no imminent deadline for military action, and the Israelis perfectly well know this, too.
 
2.  The U.S. is resolved to prevent Iran from obtaining a nuclear weapon.  So, while there is time for diplomacy, there is a deadline, and the military option is truly on the table.  Just not during 2010.  Revisit the question after March 2011.
 
3.  Unlike the Bush Administration, the policy of the national security team under Obama is NOT to attempt regime change.  Let the volatile internal dynamics play out, with only very clandestine support for opposition reform factions.  The view is that any factional realignment further postpones the Iranian nuclear weaponization program.

Come Back Jane!

One of the regulars here asked me to appeal to "Jane" to come back.  He misses you.  pl 

AZC, AIPAC and the Media - Stephen Lendman

 "In the old days, journalists were bought off to ignore them. They now do it willingly and reflexively, knowing the consequences otherwise, the Israeli Lobby's power to remove unfriendly voices - from Congress, academia and the media.

Demanded is that Israel be portrayed as peaceful, never aggressive, surrounded, beleaguered, and victimized, acting solely in self-defense. In contrast, Palestinians are called militant terrorist threats to Israeli security, its propaganda machine relentless in pounding that message, the Senate's investigation failing to expose and halt it.

As a result, it's more virulent and pervasive than ever, what no congressional committee will touch, what no major media report will reveal. Israel's power in America suppresses everything unfavorable, willing fourth estate stooges going along, or else." 

I would welcome the opportunity to include more of Mr. Lendman's writings on SST.  pl  

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The successful AIPAC refusal to register under FARA is a national disgrace.  It is symptomatic of the degree to which the agitprop efforts of the Zionists have conquered the information world in the United States.  And then, there are other elements in the AIPAC empire; BENS, JINSA, AEI, WINEP, etc.  Should they not also be registered?  Holder sues Arizona, but walks away from obvious Israeli interference in US internal affairs.  pl 

http://www.opednews.com/articles/The-Israeli-Lobby-Declass-by-Stephen-Lendman-100826-568.html