Sic Semper Tyrannis

Dragon returns

"The demonstration flight began on May 22 with the Dragon's launch from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida, atop a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket. The mission reached its climax last Friday when astronauts used the space station's robotic arm to pull the Dragon in to its docking port on the the station's Harmony module. On the following day, when station crew members entered the Dragon for the first time, NASA astronaut Don Pettit gushed over its new-car smell.

Over the days that followed, the station's crew unloaded a half-ton of food, equipment, experiments and other supplies — then loaded it back up with about 1,600 pounds (660 kilograms) of non-essential Earth-bound shipments. Today, astronauts reversed the process they went through last week. The robotic arm pulled the Dragon out from its port and positioned it for release at 5:49 a.m. ET. SpaceX's craft then executed a series of engine burns to take itself out of the station's neighborhood and descend from orbit.

The final engine burn slowed the Dragon's orbital velocity by 100 meters per second (224 mph) — enough to drop it into a fiery descent through the atmosphere. The craft's bottom is coated with a layer of protective material called PICA-X, which SpaceX's engineers say is resilient enough to weather a return to Earth from Mars. At its peak, the heat shield had to endure temperatures in excess of 3,000 degrees Fahrenheit (1,650 degrees Celsius)."  MSNBC

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Given his previous remark about firing people who want to do things on the moon, I presume that President Romney would kill this.  Yes or no?  pl

http://cosmiclog.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2012/05/31/11983318-spacexs-dragon-splashes-down-ending-historic-space-mission?lite

Missing a Strategic Opportunity on Iran by Dr. Christopher Bolan

The broad outline for a negotiated deal over Iran’s nuclear program that would satisfy essential U.S. and Iranian national interests is fairly clear.  Iran would agree to limit its nuclear enrichment activities (to levels between 3-5 % seems to be a consensus figure) while allowing for rigorous international inspections designed to minimize prospects for the diversion of civilian nuclear materials and technologies to military programs.  In return for these Iranian concessions, U.S. and other international officials would agree to meaningfully ease and eventually lift (assuming continued Iranian cooperation) economic and financial sanctions.    

However, as rumors circulated earlier this week about the potential for a successful negotiated deal along these lines, two primary obstacles have re-emerged.  One of the main obstacles on the international stage is Israel.  Unsurprisingly, Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu has adopted an exceptionally tough position regarding international negotiations with Iran over its nuclear program insisting that Iran “stop all enrichment, ship all its nuclear material outside the country, and dismantle its nuclear installation at Qom.”  Of course, each of these conditions would be a deal-breaker from the standpoint of Iranian officials.  After all, the Non-Proliferation Treaty (to which Tehran, unlike Israel, is a signatory) guarantees states the right to develop civilian nuclear programs which presumably include the ability to produce nuclear fuel. Israel, as a sovereign state, is free to pursue and advocate policies as it sees fit.  President Obama, however, is sworn to defend the interests of the American people and should be solely focused on taking those actions that advance American national interests.  No other country should divert the President from that single focus.

New TA Post - 5/30/2012

A great musical memorial.  pl

http://turcopolier.typepad.com/the_athenaeum/2012/05/doc-watson-1923-2012.html

Syria signals the West

The media and (?) generated hysteria over the Sunni rebellion against the Syrian government has taken a new turn with the withdrawal of foreign ambassadors from Damascus  and the expulsion of Syrian ambassadors across the world.  Syria's response is to expel the Dutch charge d'affaires from their capital. 

The Arab World is prone to signalling in international affairs.  This expulsion is a signal that Syria is unimpressed by the "pressure" being exerted against her.

As Zbig said today on "Morning Joe" The Syrian uprising is largely a propaganda phantasm occurring spottily across the country.  The Saudis, the Turks and the neocons want Assad overthrown for particular reasons of their own and to that end are manipulating the "imaging" involving Syria in the pursuit of regime change.

The Syrian military has largely held together, the government seems unmoved by external pressure and Russia is not yielding to pressure designed to eleicit condemnation of the Syrian government.  Are the Russians providing  military materiel to Syria?  I doubt it.  The country is saturated with weapons and ammunition.  Is Iran continuing to supply Syria?  Certainly.  Why would they not?  pl

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/3036789/ns/msnbc_tv-morning_joe/#47612964

http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/05/30/us-syria-crisis-netherlands-idUSBRE84T0I720120530

IMO, McCain wants war in Syria and Iran

I listened to McCain on FNS this Sunday.  He is obsessed with la gloire et le grandeur of the US.  He speaks of American leadership as if he is expressing a "sacred truth." 

Well, we don't the money to spare.  The country does not want war in Syria and Iran.  McCain seems to want these wars in order to show the world who is boss.  Maybe boxing is not a good thing in the curriculum of USNA.

In Syria, it remains true that the array of opposition groups includes a lot of people who are inherently anti- Western and anti-US.

The information we receive concerning events in Syria comes from the rebels or through newsmen sympathetic to the rebels and who are informed by the rebels.  There is no independent confirmation at all.  None.

People died in Hula.  The event there reminds me of Sabra and Shatila.  IMO this massacre was a sectarian genocide perpetrated by Alawi militias.

If that is true should we arm and train the rebels and provide them air support?  And what of the Turks?  What of them?

We may be forced into war against Iran.  The Iranians seem to be trying to "outplay" us.  This is a foolish thing to do.  Many have made the same mistake in the past.  Syria is not like that.  We are being pushed by propaganda towards intervention in Syria.   pl 

http://www.cnn.com/2012/05/28/world/meast/syria-diplomacy-deadlock/?hpt=wo_c1

"Targets," by Basilisk

New Story from Basilisk on TA.  pl

http://turcopolier.typepad.com/the_athenaeum/2012/05/targets.html#more

 

Whitey- W. Patrick Lang

“You killed him.  You killed him, you heartless bastard!”

One of Whitey’s friends to his “murderer.” 

"We had a lot of fun together.  Illustrative of the “family life” of the detachment is the story of “Whitey the Rat.”  In the detachment headquarters house in Song Be, there was a large room which served as a lounge.  There was a bar in one end, and behind the bar an ancient refrigerator to keep beer cold.  A television set sat on the bar.  AFNVN TV came in clear with the TV antenna seated atop the team’s 100 foot radio mast.  Comfortable chairs, arranged in a semicircle faced the bar.  Along one wall next to the bar was a day bed the men had “scrounged” somewhere.  An electrical “knife” switch was placed on the wall that enabled the TV audience to kill the generator, and the lights, when firing started outside the house.  In the evenings, in my capacity as “Laird of the Manor,” I would take my ease upon this couch while they all watched television.  Dress in black “VC” pajamas and the sandals made by the enemy from airplane tires was required on the theory that if it became necessary to fight their way out of the town, then they would seem less obvious in the dark.  Rifles, pistols, hand grenades and other weaponry occupied every corner of the room. 

The house was inhabited by a tribe of rats, large, healthy, well fed, furry brown rats.  For some time the detachment experimented with methods of killing off these unwanted neighbors, but after a while it had become clear that this was a pointless and counterproductive effort for a number of reasons: 1-The house was in the Vietnamese town which was over run with rats.  The more you killed, the more their relatives moved in.  2-Dead rats smell bad.  3-There was a neighbor cat who was a friend of the house.  The men were afraid of poisoning the cat.  4-The rats were so well fed that they did not seem interested in the team’s possessions and they did not bite.  Based on this analysis, the troops decided at a “family meeting” that they wanted to leave the rats alone.  That was all right with me.  I had no wish to participate in unnecessary killing. 

Because of this decision, the team developed personal relations with a number of these rats.  Among them was “Whitey.”  This robust specimen of masculine rathood must have weighed at least two pounds. He had one white foreleg, and so the name.  The rest of him was an attractive medium brown.  He seemed to take particular pride in his magnificent white whiskers.  Over some months he learned that he was accepted, indeed he seemed to believe that he was part of the household.  He would walk around at night on the ceiling beams in my bedroom, peering down from time to time to see what was going on. 

 

Why a dead heat?

"Even Democratic pollster Peter Hart, one half of the bipartisan team that puts together the monthly Wall Street Journal-NBC News poll, now puts Mr. Obama’s chances of re-election “at no better than 50-50.”

According to the average of eight national polls released in the two weeks until May 23, and compiled by Real Clear Politics, Mr. Obama has a marginal 1.8 percentage point lead over Mr. Romney.

The presidential race is effectively a dead heat.

The turnaround in Mr. Romney’s fortunes has stunned even his Republican allies, leading to a Wednesday headline in Politico, the U.S. capital’s political newspaper, reading: “GOP discovers that Mitt Romney could win.”

Of course, the national polls are of secondary importance, since the election will be decided in fewer than 10 swing states, as each candidate aims to accumulate the required 270 electoral college votes required to claim the Oval Office."  Globe and Mail

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Last week someone rebuked me for quoting Foxnews.  How about a newspaper in Canadia? "Terre de mes aieux..."  Well, some of them were from there.

Given the persona of Romney and the inherent advantage of incumbency, IMO BHO should be well ahead nationally.

He is not.  Why?

Factors against Obama:

-  A lot of people are secret racists and would never vote for him.

- A lot of people don't like his "European Socialist Policies." Most of those do not know what that means, but, no matter.

- Public confidence in the national economy is a "lagging indicator" in the public mind and the economy is only dimly understood by tens of millions of people who nevertheless are enfranchised.

- His left of center administration tends instinctively to take positions that irritate many in the US in the belief that non-"progressives" are not worth listening to.

       * Gay marriage is one of those.

       * An embroiled court room battle with the Catholic Church is another.

- There is deep suspicion that the tendency to embrace "progress" will be unfettered in a second term.

- Some Jews and other Zionists think him not friendly enough to Israel and they are doiong all they can to beat him.

Factors for Obama:

- Romney himself who seems to be completely incapable of identifying with non-rich people.

- Romney's polytheistic religion.

- Bain, the "vulture capital company."

- Romney's entourage of neocon foreign policy advisers.

- Women. Blacks and Hispanics are going to "stick with" Obama.

Think of a few more.  pl

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/world/worldview/new-polls-suggest-us-election-race-in-dead-heat/article2442441/

Iraq, a memoir. Tyler

                  Tal Afar was nothing like Mosul.  We had been moved up from Mosul after our battalion commander, in a bid to get to ‘where the fighting was’, handed over our sectors to the Iraqi Police and Army and declared ‘Mission Accomplished’.  He was bucking for a chance to go to Ramadi, where the marines were limited to moving around at night and the fighting was thick and furious.  I reckoned that the ploy was transparent (I found out years after the fact that the CG in charge of Northern Iraq didn’t think much of our Colonel) in its attempt to get some serious war ink on his record and in all likelihood a lot of us killed.   The 172^nd Stryker Brigade was not what I would call the most ‘elite’ of organizations.  I had come from the 1/501^st PIR, and served a tour of duty on the eastern border of Afghanistan, so I had a frame of reference that many of the ‘captains’ who had promoted from second lieutenant to captain were lacking.  Mainly that there was no need to go looking for fights in a hostile country, because sooner or later they find you. 

Memorial Day 2012 - Foresman

While not officially Memorial Day my wife and I attended a funeral today in Arlington Cemetery; the funeral was near the Amphitheater and the Tomb of the Unknown, after the funeral my wife and I took a few minutes to walk up the hill to the Amphitheater.  Sir Moses Ezekiel VMI Class of 1866 designed the Amphitheater.  He is buried near by in Section 16 of Arlington, as he was a veteran of the Civil War having fought with Battalion of Cadets at the Battle of New Market on May 15, 1865.  Having never visited his burial site which is at the base of the Confederate Monument I thought it was appropriate.

In Virginia Confederate Memorial Day is celebrated on the same day as the national holiday.  According to Wikipedia, Memorial Day began as a celebration of those who had died during the Civil War.  Over time it has come to be a celebration of those who died in all wars.

It was fitting we visited Sir Moses Ezekiel grave.  Not only did he design the Amphitheater, but he also sculpted the Confederate War Memorial, and of course Virginia Morning Her Dead on the grounds of his Alma Mater the Virginia Military Institute.

"Islam is the Answer?"

OK.  Amre Moussa lost.  Well, that is some consolation.  I fear for the probable run-off result.  It seems that Shafiq was not a big enough political figure in the last Mubarak government to attract the enmity of the secular faction.  He is their standard bearer.  This is a great irony.

My bet will be on the MB candidate and that will set up the situation that Omar Suleiman discussed with the interviewer in my last piece on Egypt.

There is no constitution.  The last constitution is no longer a factor.  The question arises of the legitimacy and authority of a new president.  This is a typical "Egyptian fire drill."

The generals will be in a good position to contest the authority of a president they do not want.

pl

http://english.ahram.org.eg/NewsContent/36/122/42755/Presidential-elections-/Presidential-elections-news/Live-updates-Mursi,-Shafiq-top-race;-Sabbahi-claim.aspx

Mother Teresa and BHO - Cardinal Wuerl

"The mandate’s definition of a religious organization contradicts decades of precedent and practice. Republicans and Democrats alike have long agreed that the First Amendment’s guarantee of religious liberty includes not only what goes on within the four walls of a church but also the religiously motivated acts of service that fulfill the mission of that church’s faith. Only now, with this mandate’s demands, has the federal government said that we must leave our conscience behind when we step into the public square.

If the mandate’s religious exemption is left unchanged, it would allow an employee of the federal government to determine what is, or is not, a religious ministry. The Archdiocese of Washington is this area’s largest nongovernmental provider of social services. Catholic schools in the archdiocese teach and nurture 28,000 children. Catholic hospitals provide millions of dollars’ worth of uncompensated care every year to our city’s poor and vulnerable. As the Catholic maxim states, “We serve others not because they are Catholic, but because we are Catholic.” Yet it is possible that not one of these organizations would fit the mandate’s definition. Does anyone really think that the work of Mother Teresa wasn’t religious?"  Cardinal Wuerl

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We have been too quiet here for the last few days.  This will stir things up.  Wuerl is saying here what I said in laying out the Church's position as to the purpose and therefore the identity of religiously centered institutions connected to the Catholic ministry to mankind..  He says that the Church's people do these things because they are done in God's name and therefore these institutions are essentially religious.

Some of our correspondents here are Catholics who insist that  they, not the hierarchs like Wuerl are "the Church," and that their collective will and identity trumps.Matthew: 16:18.

IMO that sets the stage for a schism (split).  Well,, when you get that settled let me know so I can choose which church I prefer.  pl

http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/protecting-our-catholic-conscience-in-the-public-square/2012/05/23/gJQAj05XkU_story.html

There Be Dragons - Jonathan Goff

At 3:44am this past Tuesday, a rocket blasted off from Cape Caneveral, Florida on a historic mission to demonstrate the ability of a commercially developed and operated transportation system to safely deliver cargo to the International Space Station. This flight is only the third flight of the Falcon 9 rocket, developed by Elon Musk’s startup Space Exploration Technologies (SpaceX), and the second flight of their Dragon capsule, so the tension in the atmosphere at SpaceX was understandable. The first launch attempt, last Saturday morning, was scrubbed due to a leaky check valve in the central engine’s turbopump, which was fortunately caught by the Falcon 9’s flight computer, enabling a safe abort of the engines with only half a second to spare before the planned liftoff.  SpaceX was able to diagnose and repair the problem over the weekend, and was ready to go again at the next launch window, on Tuesday morning. Fortunately, the Falcon 9 delivered a flawless performance, lifting the Dragon capsule safely to orbit a little over nine minutes after liftoff. I had literally been keeping my fingers and toes crossed for the whole flight while watching things from home (my past experience in rocket testing has made me somewhat superstitious). I choked up at the reaction of the SpaceX team when the Dragon’s solar panels finally deployed. If you need some inspiration, and haven’t seen the flight footage, I’d strongly suggest watching the unedited SpaceX broadcast (launch starts at ~44:40 mark).

While those initial thrilling moments were an excellent start to a historic mission which is the culmination of nearly six years of hard work at SpaceX and NASA, the most historic portion of this mission is about to begin tomorrow morning. Over the past two days since the launch, the Dragon capsule has been slowly catching up with the space station, while performing several tests to demonstrate to NASA the capsule’s ability to safely operate near the station. Earlier this morning, the Dragon performed a maneuver that allowed it to pass only 2.5km below the station, where the picture at the beginning of this post was taken by an astronaut on board the ISS (Don Pettit, the one who will be operating the robot arm for tomorrow’s “berthing” operation). This final test verified the ability of ISS crewmembers to send commands to the Dragon, and to test the inter-vehicle communication system. With the completion of today’s tests, SpaceX has actually fulfilled all the requirements they had originally planned for their second Dragon flight. However, over the past year, SpaceX has worked with NASA to gain permission to combine the second Dragon flight with the third and final Commercial Orbital Transportation Services (COTS) demonstration flight, where the Dragon capsule will ultimately berth with the station (using its robotic arm, controlled by astronauts on-board), cargo will be unloaded from inside the Dragon capsule, and a small amount of non-critical cargo will be loaded back into Dragon for the return flight. It is this final set of operations, which will start in the early morning hours tomorrow (around 7:30am on the east coast) and end with the hatch to the ISS being opened early Saturday morning, which will be the truly historic part of this mission—marking the beginning of service of the world’s first commercial space cargo delivery vehicle, completing SpaceX’s part in the COTS development program, and marking SpaceX’s transition into operational service as part of the Commercial Resupply Services program which it won flight contracts from at the end of 2008.

 

"This tale shall the good man tell his son."

http://turcopolier.typepad.com/the_athenaeum/

My sister, Maureen, has re-posted her Memorial Day piece from 2009.

China Warns Australia to Choose "Godfather" - China or U.S. - Oilprice

"It is rare in diplomatic circles for governments to speak bluntly, particularly in the Orient, where manners are highly prized.

The exceptions to this rule are retired military officers, who are often able to voice sentiments too impolitic for other channels.

One of the more startling pronouncements in this vein occurred last week when Song Xiaojun, a former senior officer of the People's Liberation Army, warned that Australia cannot juggle its relationships with the United States and China indefinitely and "Australia has to find a godfather sooner or later. Australia always has to depend on somebody else, whether it is to be the 'son' of the US or 'son' of China. (It) depends on who is more powerful, and based on the strategic environment." Noting the rising importance of China as an export market Song added that Australia depended on exporting iron ore to China "to feed itself," but "Frankly, it has not done well politically.""  Oilprice

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Australians?  What say you?  pl

http://oilprice.com/Energy/Energy-General/China-Warns-Australia-to-Choose-Godfather-China-or-US.html

STFU - by TTG

Hillary Clinton just boasted about using black propaganda against jihadist web forums at a conference with Admiral McRaven at USSOCOM headquarters. Kind of defeats the purpose of using black propaganda. This news is now posted on sites all around the world. No doubt it's already on the jihadist sites as well. 

http://www.csmonitor.com/USA/Latest-News-Wires/2012/0523/Clinton-says-US-has-hacked-al-Qaeda-websites-in-Yemen

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UPDATE

There is now a lot more information available about Hilary's announcement. It's a significantly different story from what Kimberly Dozier from AP described in her article. This wasn't black propaganda or hacking. It was the work of the Center for Strategic Counterterrorism Communications, a group composed of military and civilian specialists that uses the web and social media to track and undermine Al Qaeda's efforts to recruit new members. They openly bought ad space on the jihadist forum and inserted ads challenging jihadist propaganda.

Bravo! The IC, DOD and DOS working together and working smartly. This is what smart power is all about. And it's a hell of a lot cheaper in blood and treasure than a shooting war. Hillary was right to crow about this. More info at these links at newsfeedresearcher and lawfareblog.

TTG

Advocacy and Analysis

I will try once again to state the difference between analysis and advocacy.  My post explaining what the Catholic Church in the US is doing is analysis not advocacy.  Analysis is an explanation of what is occurring.  Advocacy is an arrempt to persuade.  pl

The NATO summit was a flop

"Zardari's refusal to reopen the supply routes left a diplomatic blot on a summit that NATO sought to cast as the beginning of the end of the conflict in Afghanistan. The Chicago gathering did produce a formal agreement by the alliance to hand over lead responsibility for security to Afghan forces by mid-2013, and pull out nearly all U.S. and other NATO troops by the end of 2014 even if the Taliban-led insurgency remains undiminished.

U.S. officials insist ample fuel and other supplies are being delivered via much longer and more expensive land routes in Russia and other nations north of Afghanistan. But the Pentagon says reopening the land route in Pakistan will be essential to hauling vast stores of military equipment and vehicles out of Afghanistan during the withdrawal."  LA Times

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I guess BHO does not really accept the idea that Afghanistan and Pakistan are sovereign entities that are not obliged to do his bidding.

WH spokesmen are now citing the great "success" in Iraq as "proof" of how well things are going to end in Afghanistan.

We have yielded effective operational control to the Afghans.  A formal transfer of opcon can wait until after November.

The Pakistanis are still blockading our supplies and are demading large bribes before they will be willing to open the spigot.

The former Soviet states are getting rich by "solving" this problem temporarily.

General Allen, the WH's man is leaving for EUCOM command soon.  I hope the skiing is still good at Garmisch.

Ambassador Crocker has announced hat he is returning to retirement this summer.

Looks like the little furry critters are leaving.  pl

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fg-nato-afghanistan-20120522,0,2278946.story

Obama is losing the Catholic vote

"A recent survey by the Pew Research Center shows that, despite the administration’s self-portrayal as the champion of “women’s issues” amidst a supposed Republican “war on women,” the president’s reelection advantage among women has declined in recent months as well as with another key demographic -- Catholics.

Obama was ahead among Catholics by 9 points in early March, and is now trailing by 5 points.

The Pew survey finds that, among Catholic voters with an opinion, 47% would today vote for President Obama, and 52% for former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney.

That same margin, were it to hold on Election Day, would mark a swing of 18 million voters away from Obama."  Foxnews

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I wrote a while back that the collective response of the Catholic Church to the insurance mandate issues would come when the collective that is the Church came to a consensus.

Here you have the response.  There are"outliers" not adhering to this position but they know that in the end they will either accept this position or leave the Church.  Groups of rebellious religious do not run the Church.

 

Was Megrahi really guilty?

"Much of the evidence was later challenged. It emerged that Mr. Gauci had repeatedly failed to identify Mr. Megrahi before the trial and had selected him only after seeing his photograph in a magazine and being shown the same photo in court. The date of the clothing sale was also in doubt.

Investigators said Mr. Bollier, whom even the court called “untruthful and unreliable,” had changed his story repeatedly after taking money from Libya, and might have gone to Tripoli just before the attack to fit a timer and bomb into the cassette recorder. The implication that he was a conspirator was never pursued.

In 2007, Mr. Lumpert admitted that he had lied at the trial, stolen a timer and given it to a Lockerbie investigator. Moreover, the fragment he identified was never tested for residue of explosives, although it was the only evidence of possible Libyan involvement.

The court’s inference that the bomb had been transferred from the Frankfurt feeder flight was also cast into doubt when a Heathrow security guard revealed that Pan Am’s baggage area had been broken into 17 hours before the bombing, a circumstance never explored."  NY Times

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I have always thought that Megrahi was a convenient scapegoat.  Before the "Counter-Terrorism Task Force" at CIA (or whatever it was called then) fastened on him and his later aquitted colleague as the culprits, the CTTF had floundered for a long time, unable to "sort out" the crime.  Careers had been damaged and a new director of the center was brought in to "crack the case."  Miraculously, this man (a turk at his job) discovered the truth hidden in the midden heap of faulty evidence.

Libya denied the crime until the Saudis persuaded Qathafi that he could come in from the cold with regard to the United States by confessing to the deed and offering up culprits who could bear the burden of guilt.

Qathafi found that easy enough to do and threw in his non-existent nuclear weapons program as a sweetener.  The warehoues full of equipment that the Libyans had no idea what to with were an easy sacrifice.  The Bush Administration and its CT "experts" lapped this up as proof of their genius and knowledge of how to handle the Arabs.

Who really did it?  Probably some combination of Iran and the more extreme Palestinian groups would be my guess.  pl

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/05/21/world/africa/abdel-basset-ali-al-megrahi-lockerbie-bomber-dies-at-60.html?pagewanted=1&ref=obituaries

Ft. Hood Welcomes Vietnam Vets home

I wrote this next thing as part of an autobiographical work.  It seems apt now.  The time was 1969.  pl

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"In May I turned over command of the team and went to the coast to spend a week at battalion headquarters writing reports and being debriefed.  While at Battalion, I went to dinner one night at a brand new Chinese restaurant located as a concession on the big U.S. Army post at Long Binh.  There were four MI people at my table and nearby several junior officers from the 101^st Airborne Division were eating at another table.  Among them was a young captain wearing the faded, worn uniform in which he had come in from the field.  He had the haggard, sunburned look that came with living in the outdoors.  He had the look that in the French Army is called “Le Christ descendu de la croix.”  During the meal, the restaurant door opened and in came MG Melvin Zais, the 101st’s CG and his aide.  A week or so before, the 101^st had repeatedly assaulted a hill in the central highlands, the hill which came to be known as “Hamburger Hill.”  They assaulted it nine or ten times from the bottom up instead of landing on the top and fighting their way down.  This did not make a lot of sense given the number of helicopters in the division.  Rumor had it that Zais had ordered the attack to be made in this way to demonstrate to the American command and to the NVA that the 101^st was still as fine a fighting organization as it had been when he had served in it in World War II.  It had been a difficult fight.  A lot of men died.  They took the hill.  The young-old captain put down his chopsticks and placed his sun cracked hands on the edge of the table to watch General Zais.  Zais ignored him, although the aide whispered something to the general about him.  Tension grew in the restaurant.  The captain’s friends talked to him.  One of them put his hand on the man’s forearm.  The young man struggled to his feet despite the restraining hands that tried to drag him back into his seat.  “Blackjack!” he roared across the restaurant, shaking his fist as he did so.  (Blackjack was Zais’ radio call sign.)  “Blackjack!” he went on.  “Damn you!  You killed my company!  Damn you!  Are you happy now?  Are you happy? You killed my company..”  Zais never looked at him.  He stood up and walked out the door trailing his aide.  The captain sat down, put his elbows on the table, and covered his eyes with his hands."  pl

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Every once in a while I hear some fool say how much better "the force" is now.  You are welcome America.  You are welcome.  pl

http://www.kwtx.com/ourtown/home/headlines/Fort_Hood_Vietnam_Veterans_Welcomed_Home_Monday_152107835.html

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

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

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

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hill_937

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

Look at the numbers.  pl 

 

More on the Glass-Steagall Act by Hank Foresman

Carter Glass was a conservative, in the Burkean and Madisonian sense; Henry Steagall was a southern rural Democrat; and like many from the South his politics was populists in that he wished to protect the common man from the power of corporations, banks, and railroads.  Together they help enact one of the most important Banking laws of the 20^th Century the Glass-Steagall Act.  While there were a number of provisions in the Glass-Steagall Act its most important functions were, as stated in Wikipedia:

The Banking Act of 1933 (Pub.L. 73-66, 48 Stat. 162, enacted June 16, 1933) was a law that established the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) in the United States and imposed banking reforms, several of which were intended to control speculation.  Specifically It was intended to erect a barrier between the activities of commercial banks and investment banks.

Carter Glass born in 1860, his early years were shaped by the cycles of boom and bust in reconstruction South.  Booms and bust cycles that tore families’ asunder, booms and bust that left scars on countless communities across the South, to include his hometown, Lynchburg Virginia.  As a result of his own experience and his observations Glass believe there was a proper role for government in controlling the excess of capitalism. 

Oh, Jerusalem!

"The status of Jerusalem is among the most explosive issues in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, defying resolution throughout two decades of on-again, off-again peace talks. Today, the Arab and Jewish sections of the city are worlds apart.

Job discrimination against Arab Jerusalemites is common and investments in infrastructure and education in east Jerusalem are far below the levels plowed into the western sector. The discrimination has stifled economic development, fueled chronic joblessness and stoked poverty.

"We often use slogans in regard to Jerusalem and refrain from looking at the reality of Jerusalem. The result is that the discrepancy is something that many people have trouble adjusting to and accepting," Olmert told Israel TV."  Foxnews/AP

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Ehud Olmert was Deputy Mayor of occupied Jerusalem under that great and good man, Teddy Kollek.  At the time he looked like a genuine hard a-s on this subject and would glower at Kollek in meetings when the subject of the rights of the Arab citizens of the city came up.

When he became PM, he evidently had his "road to Damascus" moment (irony alert), and began to make offers to the Palestinians of some sort of shared sovereignty as a road to peace.  The Palestinians, never wishing to miss an opportunity to miss an opportunity grandly rebuffed him with the "not enough" slogan.

The old, walled city of Jerusalem lies at the heart of any chance of a settlement not built on Arab and Israeili skulls.  The Christian and Muslim quarters of the Old City plus other parts of East Jerusalem, like Shiekh Jarrah, the Mount of Olives south of Mount Scopus and Abu Dis are indispensible parts of any partition that the Palestinians might accept.

A shared administration of such necessities as electricity, water, trash disposal, sewage and policing is possible.  There have been existing plans for schemes of government based on such ideas for many years.

!n 1973 I heard Admiral Moorer, then CJCS lecture on peace for the Holy Land.  When he finished, I asked him how he would deal with Jerusalem in a settlement.  He fell silent and then said that this could be settled "at a later time."  Is this the time?  pl

Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/world/2012/05/20/former-israeli-pm-jerusalem-must-be-partitioned/#ixzz1vQgkL56M

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

 

House votes for US domestic propaganda.

"An amendment that would legalize the use of propaganda on American audiences is being inserted into the latest defense authorization bill, BuzzFeed has learned.

The amendment would “strike the current ban on domestic dissemination” of propaganda material produced by the State Department and the Pentagon, according to the summary of the law at the House Rules Committee's official website.

The tweak to the bill would essentially neutralize two previous acts—the Smith-Mundt Act of 1948 and Foreign Relations Authorization Act in 1987—that had been passed to protect U.S. audiences from our own government’s misinformation campaigns.

The bi-partisan amendment is sponsored by Rep. Mac Thornberry from Texas and Rep. Adam Smith from Washington State."  Buzzwire

-----------------------------------------

George Orwell would feel justified by this.  In "1984" he saw clearly that a situation of foreign and domestic threat could be used as an excuse to cut the guts out of democracy and impose oligarchic rule by those who choose to believe themselves the shepherds and the rest of us the sheep.

This amendment, if passed into law by the Senate of the United States, would enable the "information operations" crowd in the armed forces and CIA to fabricate themes and "facts" for the purpose of controlling the collective "mind" of the citizens if the US.  They are now fobidden by law from that effort.

We are now subjected to the "private" delusions and propaganda of the supposedly independent media outlets.  How much worse will it be when the government itself regulates what we are told in the interest of consolidating opposition and hatred for the "enemy."  pl

http://www.buzzfeed.com/mhastings/congressmen-seek-to-lift-propaganda-ban

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nineteen_Eighty-Four

 

The FBI file on the Weizmann Institute

"In October of 1992 personnel at the Yuma Proving Ground, which tests nearly every significant ground combat weapons system, detected a University of Buffalo computer system user had penetrated their military computer network via New Mexico State University. The senior majoring in Chemical Engineering hacked the UB system to obtain high-level privileges using access codes stolen graduate students. Soon after the BU hack "computers from the Weizmann Institute for Science accessed computers from NM SU to penetrate computers at YPG." FBI investigators suspected the BU student, arrested by Amherst Town police on October 8, 1992, passed the secret access codes to Weizmann. FBI counterespionage officials uncovered Weizmann's clandestine nuclear development role and US funding network, but closed the investigation."  Irmep

http://www.irmep.org/ILA/weizmann/

 

HARPER: JP MORGAN CHASE SCANDAL IGNITES SUPPORT FOR GLASS STEAGALL

The shocking admission on May 11 by JP Morgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon that the bank had suffered a $2 billion loss on a bad derivatives bet at their London office has served as a painful reminder that nothing has really been done, since the financial meltdown of 2008, to fundamentally change the gambling mania with "other people's money" on Wall Street.  In just one week since the original Dimon admission, the price tag on the London derivatives blowout by JPMC has more than doubled.  As of today, the bank is acknowledging $4 billion in losses, and the figure is expected to reach $20 billion by the time the complex highly leveraged bets are unraveled.
 
The JPMC revalations are particularly embarrassing to President Obama, who has publicly praised Dimon as one of the most competent bankers on Wall Street, and who had him at the top of his list of candidates to replace Tim Geithner as his Treasury Secretary, should he win reelection.  Sources close to the White House have told me that the President and the First Lady maintain their personal bank accounts with Chase.  At least the President puts his money where his mouth is.

Gun Rights Forum

Paul Deavereaux (no relation to Claude) sent me this comment which I woiuld like to make the starting point for a discussion on Firearms ownership rights.  He lives in California.  pl

-------------------------------------------

"Well, in brief, some kind of laws that won't take my guns away from me :-)  

As I posted, I currently own three firearms -- a riot shotgun and two antique but nicely maintained .22 rifles -- no handguns at all. Speaking for myself, with my level of training and no official need to carry a handgun any longer, any protection offered by handguns is way offset by the danger to myself and my family. So I got rid of my handguns. And feel good about it. Safer. Which is the point.  

As for controls, I think long guns and handguns should be legal but need to be treated a little differently in terms of oversight.  

Gun ownership/purchase should be permitted only to those individuals who have completed a proper, certified and rigorous course in their use and their legal liabilities and responsibilities (service in the military does not exempt one from completing the civilian course).  There should be individual courses for handguns and long guns. The courses can be administered by gov't agencies or by duly licensed private individuals and groups (NRA etc). Cost for the course should be fixed at a reasonable figure so as to not be prohibitive (used as a 'gateway' to restrict gun ownership to only the affluent).

"...a giant leap, for commercial space," Reuters

"An Obama administration plan to cut the cost of spaceflight services faces a key test on Saturday when a privately owned rocket lifts off for a practice run to the International Space Station."  Reuters

--------------------------------

Man's future in space ultimately depends on the commercialization of the costs and profits of flight.  There are some things that government must lead in and the governments are doing that in deep space exploration development and continuing subsidization of attempts to make space, a business for those who have the vision to see the possibilities.

The SpaceX  Falcon 9 and Dragon equipment will be tested severely tomorrow.  Much depends on the outcome.  pl

http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/05/18/us-usa-spaceship-idUSBRE84H0LM20120518

"UN nuclear agency chief to visit Tehran" Fox News

"IAEA chief Yukiya Amano's visit could signal an agreement has been reached that would allow his organization to resume a probe of suspicions that Iran may have worked on developing nuclear weapons, according to the Associated Press."  Fox News

---------------------------------------------

It would be wise for the Iranians to reach such an agreement and confound the likes of Natanyahu.  The world and particularly the United States waits for an opportunity to judge that Iran follows the guidance of Ayatollahs Khomeini and Khamenei in adopting a policy that abjures nuclear weapons as inherently ungodly.  pl

Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/world/2012/05/18/un-nuclear-agency-chief-to-visit-tehran/#ixzz1vEdqWLEP

 

Ratko Mladic war crimes trial plunged into confusion

"The Hague war crimes tribunal, already under fire for its slow pace in dealing with Balkan war crimes cases, was thrown into confusion on Thursday by the revelation that lawyers prosecuting the Bosnian Serb commander Ratko Mladic had failed to turn over hundreds of thousands of pages of evidence to the defence.

The Dutch judge, Alphons Orie, said the mistake would lead to a delay in the trial, which lawyers were already predicting would last four years or more.

"The chamber is still in the process of gathering information of the scope and full impact of this error," Orie said."  The Guardian

----------------------------------

This does not surprise me at all.  In several years of participating as an expert witness in criminal trials in federal and state courts as well  as "habeas corpus" hearings in federal courts I have seen prosecutors do this over and over again.  

It seems that the temptation to cheat the process and try a defendant on evidence he has not seen before the courtroom confrontation is overwhelming.  An additional "technique" used by prosecutors is to declare that some evidence is so sensitive that the defense team and the defendant cannot be shown it.  This is now prevalent in Americans national security cases.  In one pending case, the Justice Department attempted to have witnesses testify without identification and in disguise.  This case is still before a circuit court of appeals.  pl

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2012/may/17/ratko-mladic-war-crimes-trial-chaos

Dempsey, A New Marshall ?

"Army Gen. Martin Dempsey, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said it’s more important to discuss missions and capabilities than to bicker over how big the military should be.

“We’re not ordering coffee at Starbucks. This isn’t a matter of getting a tall, grande or venti. It’s what will be different that will most matter,” Dempsey told an audience of about 550 military officers, civilians and defense contractors at a joint war-fighting conference."  hamptonroads.com

---------------------------------

This man seems to have it all.  He is well educated in a broad understanding of the word.  He has a great reputation as a combat soldier and he is unwilling to allow bigoted nonsense abut the Middle East to be taught in service schools.

The president was wise to send this man to "beard" Bibi in his den.   In the best tradition of George Marshall this man stops wars in addition to fighting them.  pl

http://hamptonroads.com/2012/05/joint-chiefs-chairman-urges-military-innovation

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

 

Zimmerman Case Medical Evidence

In the hope that conversation can be civil, I am re-opening discussion of this case because of  evidence delivered in "discovery" to the defense team by the prosecution.

To wit:

The Zimmerman family physician wrote a report that says that Zimmerman had two black eyes, a broken nose and an injury to the back of his head the day after the killing.  IMO the defense will offer the doctor as an expert witness.  If he is accepted by the court he will be sworn to deliver his evidence about GZ's injuries

Also in "discovery is the medical examiner's report on the condition of TM's body.  He reports the bullet wound and skinned knuckles consistent with a fight.

Also IMO, the court will send the case to trial and depending on the jury make up GZ may well be acquitted

In that event the federal government will charge GZ with violating TM's civil rights and will attempt to apply the Hate Crimes law to the trial.  The Justixe Department is likely to lose in that trial, but they will try anyway.

I will close comments again if ugliness emerges here or to wait for further developments.  pl

http://www.latimes.com/news/nation/nationnow/la-na-nn-injuries-martin-zimmerman-20120516,0,7794169.story

http://www.foxnews.com/us/2012/05/16/autopsy-results-reportedly-indicate-trayvon-martin-suffered-injuries-to/

 

 

General Allen to head EUCOM

"Marine Corps Gen. John Allen, the top commander in Afghanistan, is expected to leave his post early next year and take over the U.S. European Command, officials said.

Allen has spent much of his tumultuous year in Afghanistan helping to negotiate a long-term security agreement with the Afghan government and overseeing the initial drawdown of U.S. forces from the country."  Washpost

----------------------------

General Allen is a personal friend of BHO.  He has had the job of beginning the "shutdown" of the US/NATO intervention in Afghanistan.  He is accomplishing that goal.  Afghanistan is useless as a "strategic" partner of the US.   The country remains what it has been since its creation by Britain and Russia as a buffer state between their empires.  It was and continues to be more of a geographical expression than anything else.  The importation of the falsely labelled COIN "success" from Iraq to  Afghanistan as technique proved to be a theoretically clever think tank generated flop.  A COIN campaign in Afghanistan was always going to be too long, too expensive and too bloody.  BHO belatedly sees that he was "rolled" by Petraeus et al in the great Afghanistan debates several years back.  Allen will leave so that he is not "stained" by the increasing obviousness of failure.

The next commander at the "roof of the world" will have the job of continuing to kill hard core terrorists jihadis while gradually distancing the US from whatever government there is.

Rodriguez was one of the group of West Pointers who "conspired" to get rid of McKiernan and replace him as apostles of COIN.  I doubt that Rodriguez will be the next "victim"  to sit in McKiernan's chair.  IMO the next commander in Afghanistan will be a CT flag officer like one of the US Navy SEAL derived admirals.  Either that will happen or some two or three star Army general will be the choice.

BTW, the president/commander in chief recently put his arm around his friend Allen in public after a meeting at the WH.  That should never happen.   In 1942, FDR once called Marshall, "George" when they were alone in the Oval Office.  Marshall asked him not to do that again.  He said that such intimacy was inappropriate to the command relationship.  He was correct.  pl

http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/gen-allen-to-leave-afghanistan-post/2012/05/14/gIQAR6DpPU_story.html

A new story from Basilisk in Athenaeum

An old-timey story without spies, saboteurs, or modernity..

http://turcopolier.typepad.com/the_athenaeum/2012/05/bloody-bucket-basilisk.html

Basilisk

Identity and Strategy: Modern Zionism as a Strategic(ally Designed) Culture

Adam L. Silverman, PhD*

A good chunk of my work is looking at identity and how it drives behavior.  Originally it was how individuals learned behavior from their primary identity groups that promoted political violence, low intensity conflict, and terrorism.  This meant working back and forth from the group level to the individual.  Since going to work for the Army I have been more and more focusing on the group to societal level.  Recently I read Rick Perlstein's piece at Rolling Stone dealing with what he is describing as a crisis of Zionism.  Perlstein's article is a response to Peter Beinart's recent book entitled The Crisis of Zionism (for an interesting interview with Beinart about his book click on through to this one done by Scott Horton over at Harpers).  The most interesting take away for me is Perlstein's recounting a discovery of Beinart's about a deliberate strategy by right-leaning Jewish American leaders to try to transform Jewish American identity away from liberalism (which has always been one fo the predominant strains within American Judaism, largely because of Judaism understanding of and call to social justice) and towards an embattled tribalism that centered on a victimization identity based around the Holocaust and then expanded out to other historical examples (both real and mythical - for instance the Masada Myth).  This in turn created a refocusing of Jewish American identity centered around identification with the safety of the State of Israel.  While Israel's importance to Jewish Americans had not been in dispute since its founding, what Perlstein is describing is the creation of the identity component of a strategic culture: 

   

The Ikhwan return in Syria

"After three decades of persecution that virtually eradicated its presence, the Syrian Muslim Brotherhood has resurrected itself to become the dominant group in the fragmented opposition movement pursuing a 14-month uprising against President Bashar al-Assad.

Exiled Brotherhood members and their supporters hold the biggest number of seats in the Syrian National Council, the main opposition umbrella group. They control its relief committee, which distributes aid and money to Syrians participating in the revolt. The Brotherhood is also moving on its own to send funding and weapons to the rebels, who continued to skirmish Saturday with Syrian troops despite a month-old U.N.-brokered cease-fire."  Washpost

----------------------------

I told you so, repeatedly.  The revolt in syria is a Sunni Islamist revolt intended to bring to power a sharia law dominated government run by "friends" of the Wahhabi government of Saudi Arabia.  Kunuri wrote that the Islam of the Saudis has little in common with the Hanafi dominated Islam of Turkey.  Yes!  Yes! Yes!.

The "bleeding heart" liberals of the West and the half baked liberals of the Middle East are creating monstrous governments that will devour whatever movement towards the 21st Century and better, more prosperous lives the peoples of the region had achieved.  pl

http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/syrias-muslim-brotherhood-is-gaining-influence-over-anti-assad-revolt/2012/05/12/gIQAtIoJLU_story.html

Where is the NRA in this case?

"A Florida woman who fired warning shots against her allegedly abusive husband has been sentenced to 20 years in prison.

Marissa Alexander of Jacksonville had said the state's "Stand Your Ground" law should apply to her because she was defending herself against her allegedly abusive husband when she fired warning shots inside her home in August 2010. She told police it was to escape a brutal beating by her husband, against whom she had already taken out a protective order."  CNN

------------------------

I am a life member of the NRA.  Shooting is my favorite pastime.  The National Rifle Association embraces the right of Americans to keep and bear arms and to defend themselves as appropriate.

This woman did not shoot her husband.  She fired "warning shots" into the wall or ceiling to dissuade a man against whom she had a court order forbidding him to enter her home.

Apparently she left the room to go get the gun with which to warn him and that was the basis for a conviction for "attempted murder?"

This makes no sense at all.  NRA, where are you?  pl

http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-201_162-57433184/fla-mom-gets-20-years-for-firing-warning-shots/

"A Meeting of Devils" By Basilisk

Strange things took place at the end of the Cold War. It was all the war many of us had ever known. This is a fiction story, but the millieu is real enough. 

Some of our leaders were the "rough men" from previous conflicts and they often questioned,  just as we did, whether the incessant meetings with former foes were real or fantasy.  This is an extract from a novel called "The Goodbye Kiss." Some here have read parts of it before. Perhaps someday you may read it all.

My thanks to our host for sharing many memories of the time and for being a good writing partner.

A Meeting of Devils

          For me, it was scutwork.

 

The end of the Cold War, at least my part of it, came with bewildering rapidity. It shouldn’t have been that way, I admit. Our jobs in West Berlin clearly involved understanding what was going on “Drüben.” It was German for “over there,” and that’s we called the East. Of course in Berlin it wasn’t just east in direction it was all around us.

Since the occupation zones were set up at the end of the war we had been smack in the middle of five Soviet armies. It was the new kind of normal. Politicians on the Potomac wailed and gnashed teeth about the dreaded “Fulda Gap,” and the threat of marauding Soviet Armor, but sitting literally inside the Group Soviet Forces, Germany we didn’t think about it all that much. We carried on spying as normal.

When Gorbachev came we began to hear unthinkable things. “Common European Home,” “Perestroiks,” even Maggie Thatcher opined that Mikhail Sergeevich Gorbachev was one with whom we could do business. When Ronald Reagan said “Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall,” he ruined our business.

Terrorism in Syria

"...the security forces killed the would-be bomber, who had 1,200kg (2,640lb) of explosives in the car.  On Thursday, 55 people died in the two Damascus blasts near a military intelligence building.  Syrian officials say "foreign-backed terrorists" carried out the twin suicide car-bomb attacks."  BBC

-------------------------------

The Obama administration, pre-occupied with its re-alection and the need to sooth its financial backers, continues to support the neocon policy position that  all anti-establishment revolution is good in the Arab and Islamic worlds.

The simple truth that there are not and will not be governments in the ME made up of "good guys" seems beyond the reach of "scholars" at AEI and WINEP as well as members of the Foreign Service.

What we have in Syria is revolutionary civil war waged by the forces of salafist Sunni Islam against the forces of the Alawis, the Druze and the Christians.  In this civil war the Sunni salafists are backed by Saudi Arabia, Turkey, the US, US media and I suppose Israel in some underhanded way.  Iran backs the Assad government, and Iraq is edging its way closer toward the position of the Mullocracy in Teheran.

The war has not been going well for the Sunni insurgents.  Assad and company are not willing to surrender to the UN or anyone else since they know that they will be put down like the proverbial dogs if they do.

Logically, the Sunni salafists have now resorted to the kind of large scale terror that has characterized the last ten years in the greater ME.

Let us call terror, terror.  pl

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-18034160

Health Bulletin

Someone told a firend recently that he feared I had suffered a stroke.  That is not correct.  I have Bell's Palsy.  This is not a stroke.  pl

The Conservation of Enemies - by Basilisk

This is worth a look . The title of the Wired.com article is an eye-catcher: 

U.S. Military Taught Officers: Use ‘Hiroshima’ Tactics for ‘Total War’ on Islam

I'm happy to say the subject matter is being dealt with by order of CJCS General Dempsey. It is dismaying how much of a cottage industry this demonization of Islam has become in the skewed post-9/11 world. 

I don't doubt that some of the purveyors of these screeds actually believe what they are saying, but I am equally sure that there are many who simply see opportunities to find a new universal enemy to replace the late-lamented Soviet Union.

It is sad that there is such a vacuum in our understanding that we could allow such people to have access to important institutions of military pedagogy. 

If we are going to teach our staff officers anything, I hope we can teach them to turn a critical eye to such anti-intellectual crap. Declaring war on 1.4 Billion muslims seems to me to violate the principle of conservation of enemies.   Basilisk

Gay Marriage and Politics

I am libertarian by instinct if not by party.  I don't care who you have sex with and then call it "marriage."  I am about as neutral on this "issue" as one can be.

Nevertheless, I find the homogeneous unity of the coastal elites and the media on this to be ludicrous.  The assumption appears to be that only their attitudes matter and that if they keep rejoicing and condescending eventually the unwashed masses in "fly-over" America will follow their "lead."

Today, the media generally, and gay journalists in particular are busy interviewing gay politicians and are absorbed in telling each other that President Obama's epiphany on gay marriage will not be a factor in deciding the November election.

It seems to mean nothing to them that so many states have "recently" passed legislation and constitutional amendments to their basic law that ban gay marriage and  civil partnership contracts.  Most of these laws also make void gay marriages contracted in other states.  Do the advocates of gay marriage imagine that these laws and amendments have been enacted against the will of the voters?

Gay marriage advocates are already asking what BHO can do to force compliance with their hearts desires in "marriage rights."  Well, the federal government cannot do very much about these state laws.  BHO and the Gay Democrats know that a federal constitutional amendment would not be ratified by enough states.  Individual states could be sued by a gay friendly Washington.  That would set off a massive struggle similar to that over Arizona's immigration law.  The federal government could harass the state governments with "strings" attached to federal money, money that, at least in part, originated in the states,  That is about all the "feds" could do.

This is going to be a close election in November.  Gay marriage rights have been defeated almost everywhere when the voters have a chance to speak in the privacy of the voting booth.

You can be sure that Romney is not going to change his position on gay marriage.  pl

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_U.S._state_constitutional_amendments_banning_same-sex_unions_by_type

The "Double Agent" and the Yemen

-  The "Double Agent."  Evidently there was something "special" about the intelligence trail that caused the intercept of a bomb headed to the States from Yemen.  The media are full of the story that a penetrant reached the heart of the operation and caused its failure.  I am suspicious, 1-As he is described he would simply have been our agent or the Saudis', not a double agent.  A double is someone who  is "in play" for both sides.  This man is described as being solely ours.  But, the media are simpletons, so, what can one expect...  2- If this was actually a "leak" of the identity of an active penetrant, then great damage has been done to the US.  Peter King has called for an investigation.  If this story of the "leak" is true then he is correct in doing this. 3- On the other hand, perhaps some other element of intelligence work was the key to the success, and the story of the penetrant is "cover" to protect that source.  King may be playing along with that.  4- Another possibility is that the "leak' is intended to inspire distrust among the jihadis.

We will never know the answer to this conundrum and we should not.

HARPER: BIBI BLINKS by Harper

 

The surprise announcement overnight that Prime Minister Netanyahu reached a coalition agreement with the centrist Kadima Party, thus averting unpredictable Knesset elections in early September, must be understood in the context of the still-looming threat of a military confrontation with Iran.  In the weeks leading up to the deal, Netanyahu had come under merciless attack from all corners of the Israeli military/intelligence establishment.  He was accused by former Shin Bet head Yuval Diskin of being a "messianic" fanatic who could not be trusted to decide on issues of war and peace.  His own IDF Chief of Staff, General Benny Gantz, gave an interview to Haaretz in which he endorsed the U.S. intelligence community's assessment that Iran was not pursuing a nuclear bomb at the present time, and that Iranian leaders were "rational" and would abandon a nuclear weapon in order to avert military attack.  General Gantz did not seek prior authorization from either Bibi or Defense Minister Barak before granting the interview. 
 
Netanyahu knew that it was only a matter of time before the Israeli security institutions would move to dump him--regardless of his strong approval rating with the Israeli electorate.  Bibi chose wisely to accept a grand coalition with Kadima, thus assuring that he is likely to remain in office through to October 2013, when Knesset elections are mandated.  In return for keeping his job--without elections--Bibi has agreed that Israel will not launch a unilateral military attack on Iran for the time being.  The Netanyahu-led coalition government and the Shaul Mofaz-led Kadima share an understanding that Iran can never be allowed to obtain a nuclear weapon.  They agree that prevention is the only acceptable policy.  No containment of a nuclear-armed Iran is acceptable.  For the time being, this is also the policy of the Obama Administration in Washington.  It will be the job of incoming Deputy Prime Minister Mofaz to guarantee that there is no change in the US policy.  For the time being, barring a breakdown of the coalition agreement, Israel will not launch unilateral military strikes on Iran.  This will satisfy a deal struck between Bibi and Obama in Washington in March.  Until today's coalition agreement between Likud and Kadima, no one in Israel or the United States had any confidence that Netanyahu and Barak would keep their word and wait until after the November elections in the United States.  Any military action against Iran will be postponed--at least until after the P5+1 talks have fully run their course.  At this moment, there is a reasonable chance that Iran will accept a viable agreement sometime during the next several round of talks.  War--at least a war triggered by Israel attacking Iran--can still be averted altogether.

Jon Stewart on the Eurolection circus

Watch the show first.

http://www.thedailyshow.com/

I don't know what I can add to that, so I won't.  pl

 

Stolen Uranium

http://www.irmep.org/ila/numec/

pl

"The Pilgrimage" by Basilisk

Download The Pilgrimage

"Billy's" was great.  Old timey diner food in a building the owners have probably owned for 50 years.  Billy's picture was on the wall over the soda fountain.  Nice looking lady.  pl

 

Out of Town. 7 May 2012

Out of town today.  Play amongst yourselves.  pl

Open Thread - 5 May 2012

pl 

"What Israeli and Other Western Officials Really Think About Iran" JFP

"Listening to many politicians and pundits in the US and Israel, you may be led to believe that there is a consensus around the ideas that Iran is irrational, that it poses an existential threat to Israel, that it's currently trying to acquire a nuclear weapon, and that a military strike can help buy time to prevent such an outcome. But what many former and current top Israeli and other Western security officials are saying is precisely the opposite. We've collected some quotes to show you what these officials really think.

1. Iran's leadership is rational.
2. Iran does not pose an existential threat to Israel.
3. Iran has not made the decision to acquire a nuclear weapon.
4. Attacking Iran would make Iran more likely to acquire a nuclear weapon, not less so.
5. Attacking Iran would ignite a regional conflict.
6. Attacking Iran would not be in US or Israeli national interests.
7. There is time to pursue non-military options.
8. The West needs to talk to Iran.

---------------------

See the rest at link below/

http://www.justforeignpolicy.org/node/1205#1