Sic Semper Tyrannis

Open thread - 30 June 2011

 
Having returned last evening from the "wars" at one of the Washington area consultant companies, I lack the spirit or energy to find something to post on amuse each other for today.  pl

"Valhalla Rising" a Review by Alan Farrell

 
Valhalla Rising. Directed by Nicholas Winding Renf (who cites his middle name to distinguish from Nicholas Rodham Renf or Sarah Jessica Renf, the other Danish directors). Starring Maarten Steeveensoon, Goordoon Broown, Maads Mikkeellsseen (the evil Le Chiffre—variously pronounced and French for “Indic-cum-Arabic concept of the zero,” perhaps referring to the humor coefficient of that film… or the joy content of this one—from the latest Casino Royale and whose otherwise squinty eye has transmummified into a welded-shut eye…He’s called “One-Eye, but there may actually be one in there, just inaccessible).

"Thor" a Review by Alan Farrell

 
Thor. Directed by Kenneth Braanaaugh. Staarring Naataalie Portmaan (getting raather overexposed these daays aafter Blaack Swaan aand No Strings Aattaached aand yet still underexposed on aaccount of shows no skin in this flick and furthermore, there’s none at all unless you count Thor’s… which I for one do not. Note: When you choose the Norwegiaan paantheon, don’t be looking for skin but raather fur and armor up to here… be aadvised: evidently nobody heaard of baar saark); Chris Hemsworth (could be the next Hugh Jaackmaan); Aanthony Hopkins (mercifully swaaddled in fur up to here… aa blessing aafter his baare-butt shot in Beowulf); Stellaaaan Skaaaarsgaaaard (onliest aauthentic squaareheaad in the bunch, bless him, aand the perenniaal troubled science guy: Deep Blue Seaa, Good Will Hunting).

A response to Sydney - National Journal Blog

 
Will President Obama's Afghanistan Strategy Prove Effective? - National Security Experts.  pl

Will President Obama's Afghanistan Strategy Prove Effective? - National Security Experts

 
Will President Obama's Afghanistan Strategy Prove Effective? - National Security Experts.

"It don't matter. It don't mean nothin."

 
"Nunez swallowed his beer, let out a stream of profanity before landing on a sentence that he repeats a lot these days. “It’s worthless, and it’s never going to end.”"  Washpost

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The title of this post is something that survivors of the Vietnam War remember well.  The immortal riflemen of that war were often heard to mutter this as they passed in their weary ranks.  It expressed well the nihilism of the "blooded" combat soldier.

PFC Nunez is a lot like a soldier of those long gone days, weeks, months, years, etc.  He joined the US Army to know what war was.  Now he knows.  He has "seen the elephant."  He can go home now, if he can manage the trip.

War scars more than the body.  Doors are opened that can never be closed.  Paths are walked that can never be forgotten.  How trite such statements are, but... 

It is remarkable that discharged combat veterans cause so little trouble in civilian society among people for whom they have little remaining sense of kinship.  Whatever damage they do is usually limited to destructive things they do to themselves.

Armies are necessary because humans are not angels and cannot be trusted to behave well.  War is, and will be.

Policy?  Obama's policy?  Bush's policy?  PFC Nunez has learned well the irrelevance of policy to those who must live with the results of any leader's war policy.  For people like Nunez, policy, any policy is a sick joke no matter how well intentioned it may be.  pl

http://www.washingtonpost.com/national/national-security/obamas-afghanistan-plan-gets-mixed-reviews-from-grunts-at-fort-campbell/2011/06/25/AGZyaWmH_story.html?hpid=z1

 

Ignatius on the Hidden Cost of CT

 
"What worries me, thinking about the future that Obama outlined in Afghanistan, is U.S. reliance on the harshest weapons in our arsenal — the killing machine that is America’s counterterrorism force."  Ignatius

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COIN (military led nation building in someone else's country) has been described on "Sic Semper Tyrannis" by Dr. Michael Brenner as being favored by two main American groups, "the deludeders, and the deluded."  I would describe David Ignatius over the last years as having been among the deluded.  I mean no disrespect in writing that.  I have known him for a long time and hold him in high regard, but in regard to COIN he appears to me to have accepted in the past the argument of NEOCOIN theorists that COIN is the humane form of war, the progressive form of war, a form of war that is benevolent in its intentions and largely in its methods, and a form of war that will be effective.

That has been delusion.  COIN is far too expensive, takes too long and is premised on the false idea that alien populations are "hiding" their universal human characteristics behind outmoded customs and folkways that can relatively easily be changed to ways consistent with our own and acceptable to us.  This is not a new delusion.  We tried COIN in the age of Kennedyesque romanticism in the 20th Century.  We tried it in many places.  It never worked very well.  Now we have tried reborn NEOCOINism in Afghanistan (not Iraq) and it does not work in that desolate country either. 

Has Obama decided against NEOCOINism as the "theme song" of his efforts against Islamic terrorists?  Yes, apparently he has.  For the deluders, the time has come to look for other "fields" in which to work.  Perhaps "global warming" might provide alternative careers.

Krauthammer on the War Powers Act

 
"First, formalize the recent tradition of resolutions (Gulf, Afghanistan, Iraq) authorizing the initiation of war, recognizing them as the functional equivalent of a declaration of war.

Second, establish special procedures for operations requiring immediacy and surprise, for example, notification of the House speaker, Senate majority leader and their opposition counterparts, in secret if necessary.

Third, in such cases, require retroactive authorization by the full Congress within an agreed period — but without any further congressional involvement (contra the War Powers Resolution). The Constitution’s original grant of power to Congress was for a one-time authorization, with no further congressional constraint on executive war-making except, of course, through the power of the purse."  Krauthammer

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I believe Krauthammer is right in this opinion.  The WPA was the fevered outcome of the kind of public war weariness that now afflicts the Republic.  A rationalization of the constitutional powers of the president as commander in chief is badly needed to avoid the kind of farse that we periodically endure in crises.  pl

http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/who-takes-us-to-war/2011/06/23/AGwFS4hH_story.html

How much does Michelle's trip cost?

 

Yes, I know. AIDS awareness, physical fitness for children, emphasis on education, does anyone really believe that this trip to Africa is other than a family vacation at taxpayer's expense?

A cetain indulgence in such matters is not a bad thing, but if i recall correctly she went off to Europe on a similar vacation a while back.

How much does an "expedition" like this cost?

    - Airplane useage for several aircraft to include aircrew and food aboard.

    - Fuel and maintenance

    - Advance party (salaries, per diem, housing)

    - Her entourage (personal staff, secret service security, housing for the whole party)

The US is strapped for cash.  A lot of people are out of work.

The Obamas are rich. 

Maybe we should be talking about reimbursement to the US Government for such trips.  pl

 

 

http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5jv7byoDgcj-yaA6o7-Sr2KwLfDUQ?docId=facaf7c99868492da02dd819555eba70

Flash! Obama declares COIN dead - Again.

 
“Over the last decade, we have spent $1 trillion on war, at a time of rising debt and hard economic times,” he said in a 13-minute address that sounded at times like a campaign speech. “America, it is time to focus on nation-building here at home.” Barack Obama

http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/obama-to-order-home-10000-troops-from-afghanistan-officials-say/2011/06/22/AGUuRCgH_story.html

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"the reason why I don’t think we can win with a counterinsurgency strategy, is in fact because I think that, three or four years down the pike, if we apply that strategy, all you good people, and your fellow citizens across the country are going to look at this, going to say, are the Taliban, or whatever it is we’re calling the Taliban, are they really our enemies, in the sense that al-Qaeda was? Is this really what we want to do? And when that happens, I suspect that what’s going to happen is you’re going to tell your members of Congress that you’ve had enough of this, and then they will vote the end of the war as they did in Vietnam."  W. Patrick Lang at the IQ2 debate on Afghanistan policy, 6 October, 2009.

"...time to focus on nation-building here at home.”

With those words, President Obama turned America's back on the failed NEOCOIN dreams of the last decade.  As I said in New York City eighteen months ago, COIN is too hard, too expensive and takes too long to be a fruitful method of warfare unless the counterinsurgents either own the land and people fought for or hope to do so.