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The states are restive. If enacted into law this nullification attempt would be struck down by the federal courts. If pressed to SCOTUS level the result might be interesting. pl
http://www.dcourier.com/main.asp?SectionID=1&SubSectionID=1&ArticleID=108430
America "loved" Iraq. Therefore Iraq must have "loved" America. No? They threw us out? How could that be? The "bloody" ungrateful wogs!" America really "loves" Afghanistan! These "wogs" will love us and treasure our love.
How absurd. How truly absurd in both cases. The Iraqis showed us the door. The Afghans (the Pushtuns, Tajiks, Hazara, Turkmen, etc.) will do the same in a bit.
We are a nuisance. We insist that they should behave as the "strawmen" of our collective dream should behave.
The "hospital story below is representative of the impossibility of making a "silk purse out of a sow's ear" in places like Afghanistan (unless you want to rule the place for a hundred years). The US built this magnificent facility for the Afghan military of our dreams. We paid for it, supplied it, trained staff, advised the hospital. In the end the Afghans running the hospital are acting like Afghans. They are charging military wounded and sick for treatment and food and letting them rot in their filthy beds. Why? From the Afghan point of view, why not? These patients are rarely kin or tribal brothers. This is a chance to make money! Once again - Afghanistan is not a nation-state. It is merely a state.
These American generals covered this up for political reasons? Courts-martial all around should be the response. Question: what is the difference betwee a present day US Army general and a Walmart manager or a Wall Street type? Answer: ten or twelve rows of medal ribbons for meaningless awards. People ask what Jesus would do in particular situations. I ask what "Cump" Sherman would do? pl
http://www.newsday.com/news/nation/afghanistan-declared-a-major-us-non-nato-ally-1.3824784
"Treason against the United States, shall consist only in levying War against them, or in adhering to their Enemies, giving them Aid and Comfort. No Person shall be convicted of Treason unless on the Testimony of two Witnesses to the same overt Act, or on Confession in open Court...." Articel III, Section 3 of the US Constitution.
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I have received repeated requests to have an ongoing open thread on traitors to the United States. The crime of treason is defined as above in the constitution. It is clear from this that one must be a US citizen to be covered by this paragraph in the constitution.
Don't bother to try to cite the Confederates as "traitors.' We have dealt with that endlessly elsewhere. Briefly, the US Government never tried any of them for treason and treated the seceded states as a belligerent power throughout the war. After the war, the seceded states were re-admitted to the Union one by one, Therefore... IMO the Confederates were not US citizens. pl
"Former CIA director James Woolsey called for the release of Jonathan Pollard in a letter to the editor, printed in The Wall Street Journal on Thursday, hinting that Pollard’s being Jewish may be a reason he is still behind bars.
“For those hung up for some reason on the fact that he’s an American Jew, pretend he’s a Greek- or Korean- or Filipino-American and free him,” Woolsey wrote." JPOST
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So far as I know Pollard is no longer an American citizen having abjured the US in favor of Israeli citizenship.
Woolsey was a disastrously bad director of CIA. He was quite happy to preside over the destruction of the clandestine service of that organization. He has been a founding member of the ziocon cabal since it was conceived in Senator Scoop Jackson;'s offices. He was among the enthiusasts in the George W. Bush entourage who plotted to get the US to invade Iraq.
Which string is AIPAC pulling this time? pl
"On June 27, 2012, the FBI partially declassified and released seven additional pages [.pdf] from a 1985–2002 investigation into how a network of front companies connected to the Israeli Ministry of Defense illegally smuggled nuclear triggers out of the U.S.* The newly released FBI files detail how Richard Kelly Smyth — who was convicted of running a U.S. front company — met with Benjamin Netanyahu in Israel during the smuggling operation. At that time, Netanyahu worked at the Israeli node of the smuggling network, Heli Trading Company. Netanyahu, who currently serves as Israel’s prime minister, recently issued a gag order that the smuggling network’s unindicted ringleader refrain from discussing“Project Pinto.”" Grant Smith
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Today the Israel Lobby Archive releases an FBI
counterespionage debriefing obtained under a Mandatory Declassification Review
appeal. FBI special agents debriefed
Richard Kelly Smyth in 2002 after INTERPOL detained him in Spain. Smyth fled the U.S. after being indicted for
illegally shipping 800 nuclear triggers to Israel. In the secret debriefing report, Smyth
details how he was brought into a multi-front-company nuclear smuggling network
and his key contact at the Israeli node: Benjamin Netanyahu.
File: http://www.IRmep.org/ila/krytons/06272012_milco_mdr.pdf
**********************************************Analysis********************************
Netanyahu Worked Inside Nuclear Smuggling Ring
Counterespionage debriefing reveals how Israel targeted U.S.
by Grant F. Smith
http://original.antiwar.com/smith-grant/2012/07/03/netanyahu-worked-inside-nuclear-smuggling-ring/
...FBI agents interviewed Smyth on April 16-17, 2002, at
the U.S. attorney's office in Los Angeles. The secret interview report details
how during a trip to Israel Smyth was "spotted" by Milchan, who
claimed he worked as an exclusive purchasing agent for the Ministry of Defense.
Smyth was introduced around to high military officials including then-general
Ariel Sharon. Smyth was also put in contact with Benjamin Netanyahu, who worked
at Heli Trading Company. According to the FBI report, "Smyth and [Netanyahu]
would meet in restaurants in Tel Aviv and in [Netanyahu's] home and/or
business. It was not uncommon for [Netanyahu] to ask Smyth for unclassified
material...
...Milchan pulled Smyth into his glamorous, star-studded
movie circuit. "While in the United States [Smyth] met with [Milchan]
numerous times in Los Angeles... Milchan and Smyth would have dinner frequently
and would visit one another's house often...it was quite common for [Milchan]
to invite [Smyth] to various Hollywood parties and introduce [Smyth] to
celebrities."
During the 2002 Smyth counterintelligence debriefing, the
FBI learned that the Ministry of Defense ordered and paid Heli Trading for
krytrons. Heli in turn sourced them from MILCO in a clandestine operation
codenamed Project Pinto. The report reveals how MILCO illegally shipped
prohibited articles under general Commerce Department export licenses rather
than smuggling them out via Israeli diplomatic pouches. The last time Smyth saw
Milchan was in 1985. The Ministry of Defense issued a burn notice on Smyth
after discussions with U.S. officials about the krytron smuggling. According to
the FBI report, "Shortly thereafter, [Smyth] fled the United
States..."
"... a female soldier in combat zones is more likely to be raped by a fellow soldier
than killed by enemy fire. The Defense Department estimated that 19,000 cases of
sexual assault occurred last year, 3,200 of which were reported or investigated
by the armed services. It’s hard to watch the film and not wonder why — despite
years of Pentagon studies, congressional hearings, stern talk of “zero
tolerance” and task-force recommendations — there hasn’t been more progress." Washpost editorial
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Hard to understand, eh? Well. lemmee try to 'splain it to you all. (Soldier dialect). The great majority of men desire women. I realize that this is not true for some Washpost editorial writers. Nevertheless, as is said in that font of wisdon "When Harry met Sally," men pretty much want women. Really platonic male-female friendship is largely an illusion at least on the male side. As Harry said, "You pretty much want to nail them all."
This is true in the military as well as in the general population. The real question is what the male will do about opportunities he might have. In the military you have youngish, fit, fairly basic men placed in authority in training situations over young impressionable women. The resultant exploitation of the often acquiescent women is frequently a result. Why would the woman acquiesce? In training, enlisted women are homesick, afraid, exhausted and confused. A drill instructor who appears to be a possible protector has a tremendous psychological advantage in dealing with such women. Once the woman graduates from training, she naturally does not want to make such an experience public.
Rape in the military is a different but closely related matter. Our present wars cause soldiers to exist for long periods of time under inhuman conditions. The puritan spirit of the age, is reflected in close policing of; smoking, drinking and certainly addictive drugs. Such things occur but the penalties for getting caught are severe. Local women are out of the question unless one wishes to come home in a box in several pieces. It was not always this way. In my biggest war, the one in SE Asia, women would stand by the side of the road to loudly announce their availability. Life in today's wars is a form of enforced and unwilling monasticism. "Forward Operating Bases," (FOBS) are inhabited by hordes of male and female "fobbits," busily pumping iron, eating a lot of rich food, and surfing the internet. The Post finds rape surprising under these circumstances? The French Army used to have "Mobile Field Bordellos" staffed by girls from North Africa striving for La Gloire Francaise while earning a future dowry for back home. In combat, as at Dien Bien Phu, the girls worked as nurses aides in the hospitals. But, that was the French. We would never do anything as immoral and human as that.
How to deal with all this?
This is a disciplinary matter. Rape is the equivalent of a felony under UCMJ. The use of positions of authority to sexually exploit women in the military is also a major crime. The military must enforce the law. The decision to require a colonel or Navy captain to resolve such matters is a good one. Officers at that rank are usually two or three levels of command distant from the offense. This will make senior officers more likely to believe that the "stain" of this disgrace will not extend to them.
It is a terrible idea to think of injecting civilians into the military chain of command. This would be a step on the road to some sort of dual command situation. the communists had such systems in which a political officer (commissar) exercised "joint command" with actual commanders. This was done to ensure political correctness. Commissars counter-signed orders before they were effective.
Is that what we want? I think not. pl
"The first trucks carrying NATO supplies crossed from Pakistan to Afghanistan at the Chaman border crossing on Thursday, after a seven-month blockade of the ground routes (NYT, AP, CNN, AFP, Reuters, BBC). Pakistani Foreign Minister Hina Rabbani Khar agreed to reopen the supply lines after Secretary of State Hillary Clinton called her on Tuesday, and said she was "sorry for the losses suffered by the Pakistani military"" Foreign Policy
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I suppose the reason we did not make this meaningless statement long ago was that Jack Keane was advising generals Mattis and Allen as to the appropriate response. His attitude toward Pakisttan was made clear in the post just below. Pakistan is really as much an adversary in Afghanistan as an ally, but it is nevertheless true that we need the supply routes just now being re-opened. Without them the force in Afghanistan is relying on a "crazy quilt" of routes through the former Soviet Union that are costing us even more than the routes through Pakistan. With withdrawal about to begin, the movement of heavy equipment to the port of Karachi over Pakistan's roads will be even more critical.
I am curious as to what else the Pakistanis received in return for their acceptance of this delayed apology. How much trhey are now charging us in fees for the passage of our cargo. Have the fees gone up? pl
http://afpak.foreignpolicy.com/posts/2012/07/05/first_nato_trucks_cross_pakistani_border
"We have got two sanctuaries, Afghan sanctuaries in Pakistan that Pakistan military leaders provide information on NATO and U.S. operations inside Afghanistan.
They provide training, and they provide resources. I mean, that's outrageous. And if that isn't enough, there are two fertilizer factories ostensibly which actually produce ammonium nitrate, which is the basic ingredient in 85 percent of all of the IEDs that maim and kill our troops.
And, finally, there are bomb factories that we know where they are, have pictures of them in Balochistan and also in Sharman, Pakistan..." General (Ret.) Jack Keane
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Keane is a former Vice Chief of Staff of the US Army who in retirement has become a counselor to the neocon movement.
As he mentions in the Newshour interview cited here, he has been a contract adviser to various Afghanistan commanders and was a principal architect of the strategy of reinforcement in Iraq that is often called "the surge." Actual progress in Iraq was brought about by the Sunni "awakening" but Keane and Petraeus have been keen to take credit.
This man has lots of access to US classified information. In this interview he reveal a lot of it, taking upon himself the right to de-classify information because he wants to win an argument. This information is directly involved in current and future operatons.
Various former CIA men, NSA men, etc. have been persecuted for unauthorised disclosures. What about this guy? pl
http://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/world/july-dec12/pakistan_07-03.html
"...to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, --That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness." Thomas Jefferson et al
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This is the part that doesn't get quoted very much. It seems right to display today the image of the greatest American rebel. pl
http://www.nydailynews.com/blogs/dailypolitics/2012/07/enjoy-your-independence-day
"...Chief Justice Roberts opinion' for the court -- re-articulates in the most elegant fashion the importance of a dual-sovereignty system, its connection to individual liberty, the proposition that the federal government cannot exercise general police power.
I have been saying from the very beginning this is not about health care. This is not about individual mandate. It's about constitutional architecture. The fact that this decision does it with vigor I have not seen since the Lopez decision, where it was only a concurring opinion by Justice Kennedy, is remarkable.
And even on the taxing power, Professor Tribe misses the point, with respect, that there are limiting factors that the chief justice hung his hat on, for example, the total size of a penalty. I think if a penalty was in the thousands of dollars, the decision may have come out differently.
But what's important in the long run again, to correct this mistaken impression which this administration has unfortunately propounded, that somehow the structural separation of powers issues are archaic, this is not important, only matters what was good for a matter and policy and politics." David Rivkin
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I think Rivkin has the better of this argument. IMO the long term effects of this decision are severely limiting for the "interstate commerce" clause. This clause has been used for decades by consolidationists to expand the power of the federal government.
The additional limitation on the power of the federal government in the matter of Medicaid expansion was evidently bartered to Roberts by two of the liberal justice (breyer and Ginsburg) in return for his acquiesence in sustaining the general tenor of this law. How the BHO Administration plans to implement this insurance structure without Medicaid expansion in some states is a mystery.
I am of two minds in this matter. As I have said I favor public health care for the poor, but on the other hand the middle class is going to pay for that care under this law as it was designed. The money for subsidies will have to come from the general treasury of the United Statees. That means that tax paying citizens will pay for subsidies for those who do not pay taxes because of low incomes. Will the middle class benefit from the law on a net basis?
Europeans and Canadians cannot see why some Americans (including me) do not want to live in a consolidated state in which the central government of a country 3,000 miles wide with 300 million people can simply dictate what it likes as an ideology driven future. IMO Chief Justice Roberts struck a blow against that future and I applaud him. pl
http://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/law/july-dec12/roberts_07-02.html
Border Patrol agents in Arizona are blasting their bosses for telling them, along with all other Department of Homeland Security employees, to run and hide if they encounter an "active shooter."
It's one thing to tell civilian employees to cower under a desk if a gunman starts spraying fire in a confined area, say members of Tucson Local 2544/National Border Patrol Council, but to give armed law enforcement professionals the same advice is downright insulting. The instructions from DHS come in the form of pamphlets and a mandatory computer tutorial.
“We are now taught in an ‘Active Shooter’ course that if we encounter a shooter in a public place we are to ‘run away’ and ‘hide’" union leader Brandon Judd wrote on the website of 3,300-member union local. “If we are cornered by such a shooter we are to (only as a last resort) become ‘aggressive’ and ‘throw things’ at him or her. We are then advised to ‘call law enforcement’ and wait for their arrival (presumably, while more innocent victims are slaughtered)."
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I found this report disturbing, but not the least bit surprising. It's typical of a half baked edict put out by bureaucrats in a far away headquarters who don't have a clue what is happening on the front line. Border Patrol Local 2544 feels the same. This blanket guidance to armed law enforcement officers does not make sense. Is it an over reaction to civilian casualties, or the fear of civilian casualties, in a police shootout? Possibly. Intended or not, it is surely a slap in the face to a dedicated group of law enforcement officers tasked with the impossible mission of actually defending our borders.
Several times I have commented on how I think we should guard our borders. Take a sizeable chunk of resources out of the DoD and apply it to this mission. There are two ways this could be done. The first way is to deploy something like twelve (just a SWAG on my part) infantry combat brigade teams to the border and defend the border as a military mission. This way is fraught with problems... legal problems, coordination problems and public perception problems. A better way is to create a twelve brigade size Border Patrol force to augment the existing Border Patrol. This way the Border Patrol can guard the borders rather than just patrol the borders.
I would create brigades consisting of three to six squadrons loosely based on the Army's RSTA squadron concept. They should be called surveillance, search and rescue (SSR) squadrons to emphasize their law enforcement function and identity rather than being pure military organizations. The brigade should also have an aviation squadron with one or more transport helicopter troops and a mix of manned and unmanned arial surveillance assets. The brigade would also have a headquarters and support squadron to provide supply, maintenance, transportation and intelligence support for the SSR squadrons.
Each SSR squadron would have a mix of troops. Some on foot, some mounted on light patrol vehicles and even a horse mounted troop or two. Each troop needs enough organic support to conduct extended field operations out in the boonies. Something similar to what a light infantry company might have. I would definitely like to see a mess team with each troop. It's an unbelievably effective morale booster in the field.
To support Border Patrol operations along coastal areas and in ports, one or more SSB squadrons need to be organized as maritime squadrons equipped with appropriate harbor patrol and coastal patrol craft. The entire force needs to be supported by a training brigade perhaps based on a part of Fort Hood deeded to the Border Patrol.
What say the members of this committee of correspondence?
TTG
"... the corrosive processes at work on the Syrian military are accumulating and accelerating. If the army cannot address these challenges, it will likely collapse, though precisely when is difficult to determine. The end could come in a rush or, more likely, through gradual disintegration." WINEP
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Jeff White is an old colleague. This is good stuff. His work is always of this quality, although I don't think he ever really understood the Battle of Sharpsburg. (He and I once team taught a staff ride course on the WBS.)
The big hole in this predicted outcome is the lack of any real vision on the part of NATO as to what the next government of Syria will be like. Will it be tawhiid? pl
http://www.washingtoninstitute.org/policy-analysis/view/mounting-pressure-on-the-syrian-army
"Everyone at the church seemed to have friends and relatives who were trying
to leave Egypt. Parents picking up their kids said they were bracing for an
Islamic takeover of their homeland. Church officials said there had been a
steady stream of newcomers seeking help or coming to Arabic Masses. One man who
arrived from Cairo three weeks ago, reached by a church counselor on a cell
phone, nervously told his story through an Arabic translator.
“I am going to apply for asylum and get my family out as soon as I can,” said
the man, 34, who gave his name only as Zekry. “The Islamists are taking over,
and disaster is coming very soon.”
In the past several months, he said, he had been threatened for sheltering
Muslims who converted to Christianity, and his wife had been harassed for not
wearing a veil when she went to pay their Internet bill. “The clerk told her,
‘Next time come back with your head covered. Your time is over,’ ” he said." Washpost
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Ahh! What do these Copts know about this! The State Department and NSC know what they are doing, don't they? This reminds me of Larry Wilkerson telling me (through a mutual acquaintance) that I should shut up and trust the Bush administration about Iraq. That was in 2002. He and Powell knew best (he said).
Well, the government does not know best. It is infected with the idea of "progress" in human relations, the idea that all the world wants to be like us Western people. Well, they don't.
Christians in the Arab world come in marvelous varities. Prince Hassan of Jordan did a great job of describing them in his small but learned book, "Christianity in the Arab World."
These Middle Eastern Christians are the remnant of peoples who inhabited and dominated the region before the coming of Islam in the 7th Century AD. Most of the present Muslim population in the Arab countries are descended from Christians, Jews and Zoroastrians who gradually (over centuries) yielded to; social pressure, discriminatory taxation, inferior status before the law, etc. and converted to Islam. Islam treats any conversion from Islam to be apostasy and this usually is thought to be a capital offense under sharia law.
Gradually over the centuries accomodations were reached that allowed Muslims and their dhimmi (religious minority) neighbors to live in peace together so long as the dhimmis understood that they were second class citizens without whatever political power might be enjoyed by Muslims. There were some advantages to "dhimmitude." The minoritues had their own religious courts and were not subject to sharia. they were not subject to military service requirements. In fact it was not allowed until European influence began to seep into these regions. Christians and Jews sometimes had specialized financial service occupations or were advisers to rulers. The king of Morroco is still so advised.
The Ottoman tanziimaat in the 182os and the spread of colonialism introduced the idea of an equality of humans across sectarian lines. In Egypt, the Coptic Christian minority (10%) tended to become Westernized quite rapidly and were advantaged in business and government by the Muhammad Ali dynasty and their British "advisers." Their status and that of the Jews is reflected in literature by the "Alexandria Quartet."
But, always in the background there lurked a deep resentment on the part of the Muslim majority, a feeling that the Copts ahould be put in their place as the kuffar that they were and are. Now the time has come.
This kind of ethno-religious division is commonplace across the contact "line" between Muslims and Christians. It was reflected in the Balkans in the recent past. It is reflected in the never ending sporadic attacks on churches in Pakistan.
The percentage of Christians in the population is steadily falling across the Islamic World. It will continue to do so. pl
Every once in a while a good purge is helpful. I have decided that some of you are just sophomoric in your nastiness. You will be gone. pl
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