Sic Semper Tyrannis

Off the net

I  had eye surgery today "corneal debridement" and will not be doing much on SST for a few days.  pl

SAA/SDF progress

A brief overview of the recent developments in Syria:

• The US Defense Secretary announced that US troops will remain in the al-Tanf area and ‘elsewhere’, but not in northern Syria;
• Syrian Arab Army (SAA) units continues entering into the SDF-controlled area;
• Pro-Turkish forces continue developing Operation Peace Spring. They captured Iqsas, Ayn Arous, Badee’ and Jasim al-Ali, Darbasiyah and several other points;
• Clashes in Tal Abyad and Ras al-Ayn are ongoing.

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If the map is indicative of something more than a fantasy on the part of the SF editorial staff, then the criticism raised yesterday by one of our commenters is answered,  i.e. the SAA and SD allies will drive east from the Kobani area into the flank of the invading Turkish Army and Turkish allied jihadi advance into Syria.  At the same time the long isolated SAA garrison at Hasakah is represented as breaking out to Qamishli and Ras al-Ayn on the Turkish border.  If all these movements are projected correctly then combat between the Turk invasion and the SAA/SDF seems probable.  pl

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The Passion of the Neocons over Trump's resolute intention to withdraw US forces from Syria is amusing.  They and their Zionist pals have so successfully propagandized the American Borg (foreign policy establishment) and the media that they are completely taken aback by what was really a delayed delivery by Trump on a 2016 election campaign pledge.  The policy/IO that the Borg/DoD have been following is to fulfill Israel's policy by partitioning Syria into a rump state west of the Euphrates and a US dominated satellite state east of the Euphrates.  This state supported by what for a small country are significant petroleum resources.  The ultimate goal would be to destroy the present Syrian government.  It is to be expected that there will be continued resistance to Trump's decision.  It will be particularly interesting to see if Esper, the new SECDEF continues to advocate having US troops remain Al-Tanf on Syria's southern border.  This presence is a key element of Borgist/DoD policy in Syria because it blocks the most direct land road between Damascus and Baghdad and thence on to Iran.  A successful Syrian/SDF alliance will inevitably mean an end to the US policy of regime change in Syria.  pl

https://southfront.org/map-update-movement-of-syrian-army-within-sdf-held-area/

 

Kurds and SAG reach agreement to fight Turks

• The Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) reportedly reached an agreement with Damascus on the situation in northern Syria;
• The Syrian Arab Army (SAA) started entering the SDF-held area around Manbij. SAA units will reportedly enter Kabani and move further;
• Turkey-led forces develop their advance despite the SDF-Damascus agreement.  SF

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It seems that part of the "art of the deal" is to place people in a position where not making a deal bears unacceptable consequences.  As one of us wrote, the Borg (foreign policy establishment) and Lindsey Graham must be tearing their hair out and rending their garments.

I leave it to TTG to comment in detail.  pl

https://southfront.org/military-situation-in-northern-syria-after-sdf-damascus-deal-map-update/

Saturday thoughts 12 October 2019

China Trade:  We are calling it Phase One and the Chinese media are calling it a pause in the trade war.  Both of those work for me.  We will see if the 2nd phase yields fruit like, a halt to enforced technology transfer in joint ventures, but the present deal has a couple of important things in it.  1. The 40 billion dollar commitment to agricultural purchases in the US will bolster Trump's political support in flyover country and the red parts of blue states.  2.   After 1 January, 2020 there will not be a requirement for US companies setting up subsidiaries in China to have a Chinese partner who holds 51% of the stock in the company.  I used to work for a company that had  parts of the group in a variety of Persian Gulf states.  In all these we were required to have 51% local ownership (mostly princes) and it was a royal pain in the ass as these fellows sometimes wanted to interfere in the business.  They were no more knowledgeable of the business than was Biden fils in his business adventures.  Not to have that problem would be a great blessing.

Trials in the US Senate  We should remember that quite a lot of people have been tried in the senate after impeachment in the House of Representatives.  Judges, etc. are subject to this process from time to time.  Conviction requires 66% of those senators present.  Presumably, senators will be dragged or carried in to make this vote if necessary.  The Chief Justice of SCOTUS presides at the trial.  Four Democratic senators are running for president in primaries for the purpose of opposing Trump in the general election.  As an interested citizen, I think that the majority (McConnell) could appeal to SCOTUS for a ruling as to whether or not these four senators are so compromised by their stated desire for the ejection of the president from office that they are disqualified from voting on the issue of his removal from office.  We are on new ground in this matter and my opinion is probably as good as anyone's.  If Trump were somehow convicted in the senate, he would immediately be removed from office.  There is no appeal possible.  A second vote would then be possible but not required as to whether or not Trump should be forever barred from holding any federal government office.  Conviction on that issue would require a simple majority of those senators present.  Is that important?  Yes.  If he were not barred from office, he could be nominated at the Republican Convention and run for president in 2020. 

California Burning  In addition to its transformation into a refuge for illegal immigrants and a camp ground for free defecating vagrants camped on its city streets, California is once again burning in its wooded and brushy parts.  Perennial drought brings this on in a largely semi-desert part of the US, BUT, pilgrims, there has also been the effect of decades of effective eco-freak opposition to cutting combustibles back from power line right of ways in order to protect Bambi's habitat.  So, when Governor Gavin Newsom says that the electric company (PG&E) CAUSED this through greed and negligence, I call that trash talk.

Shephard Smith got fired  So what!  This guy has been an unrelenting opponent of Trump forever.  The Left has a stranglehold on what is laughably called the Main Stream Media;  CNN, MSNBC, NBC, CBS, ABC, The Washington Post, NY Times, etc., ad nauseam.  In that context the existence of Fox News as a standard bearer for conservative, i.e., Deplorable values does not seem excessive to me.   There are a few more liberal/lefties who are tolerated in Fox News/Fox Business News to provide opposing views for contemplation.  Chris Wallace, Juan Williams, Arthel Neville are all names that come to mind as the resident "resistance."  Do these people go over the line into unproductive argument?  Maybe so.  pl

 

Ambassadors- Marie Yovanovitch

 Ambassadors serve at the pleasure of the president.  If Trump pressed State to dismiss the woman ambassador to the Ukraine, he was merely being polite. 

Heresy? Or new dogma?

"In the latest edition of La Repubblica, Pope Francis' longtime atheist friend and interviewer, Eugenio Scalfari, claims that the Pope told him that once Jesus Christ became incarnate, he was a man, a "man of exceptional virtues" but "not at all a God."

The teaching of the Catholic Church and most Christian churches is that Jesus Christ, the Son of God, was incarnated as fully man and fully God.

As the Catechism of the Catholic Church states, "The unique and altogether singular event of the Incarnation of the Son of God does not mean that Jesus Christ is part God and part man, nor does it imply that he is the result of a confused mixture of the divine and the human. He became truly man while remaining truly God. Jesus Christ is true God and true man. During the first centuries, the Church had to defend and clarify this truth of faith against the heresies that falsified it. (464)"  cnenews

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Scalfari writes that Pope Francis denied the divinity of Christ during his existence on earth as a man.  It has been very basic Catholic teaching that Jesus was both God and man and the second entity in the Trinity that is God.  This doctrine emerged as a stabilizing force after several centuries of dispute among Christians as to the nature o Christ.  The doctrine that became official was probably fostered by the Eastern Roman emperor to put an end to what was a constant source of violent dispute within his realm.

If Pope Francis really said that Jesus was not God while living as a man, this is a major thing, something like a constitutional crisis in the US.  Men and women died in the Middle Ages for adopting similar positions.

Is Pope Francis a heretic, or is he proclaiming new doctrine ex cathedra?  pl

https://www.cnsnews.com/blog/michael-w-chapman/scalfari-pope-francis-told-me-jesus-incarnate-was-man-not-all-god

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_heresies_in_the_Catholic_Church

The Plot Against Pope Francis

"Donald Trump, who has publicly criticized Francis, has not interfered as his surrogates, who include former White House strategist Steve Bannon; Cardinal Raymond Burke, the former Archbishop of St. Louis; Archbishop Carlo Maria Viganò, the former Apostolic Nuncio to the United States; and others have conspired with the powerful fascist-oriented Opus Dei sect of the church to undermine Francis’s authority. Trump’s eyes and ears inside the Vatican – US ambassador to the Holy See Callista Bisek Gingrich – is the wife of Newt Gingrich, the former Republican Speaker of the US House of Representatives, a convert to Catholicism, and a major Trump political ally.

Francis, a former bar bouncer in a tough working-class neighborhood of Buenos Aires, has not been a shrinking violet whe       n it comes to fighting back against his right-wing enemies. Francis’s Italian parents were escaping Benito Mussolini’s fascist rule when they emigrated to Argentina. For Francis, defending the church against the fascist Opus Dei and its allies is a battle worth fighting.

Francis’s enemies have taken a page from the Trump political book. Francis vowed to clean up the church of pedophile priests but he has been charged by his right-wing enemies, including Vigano, Burke, Bannon, Opus Dei, the Franciscan Friars of the Immaculate, and from behind the scenes – Benedict – of tolerating pedophiles and homosexuals in the church. This is the same sort of gaslighting to which Americans have become all-too-accustomed under Trump.

In order to limit Cardinal Burke’s international reach, Francis suspended him from the post of patron of the Sovereign Military Order of Malta (SMOM), an autonomous international charity entity in Rome that issues its own passports and maintains diplomatic relations with 107 countries and maintains permanent observer status at the United Nations. In 2017, Francis came to the assistance of the Grand Master of the SMOM, Albrecht von Boeselager, after discovering that Burke and Opus Dei were conspiring to oust Boeselager, a member of a German royal house, as Grand Master. Burke and the rightists wanted to sack Boeselager for distributing condoms to people in Myanmar."  Strategic-Culture

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Well, pilgrims, now this is interesting.  There are some fell people amongst those mentioned, people who would shrink from little to defend their vision of The One True Church.  Edwin O'Brien, mentioned in the article is Grand Master of the Order of the Holy Sepulchre  (an order senior in precedence to SMOM) in which I hold the rank of Knight Commander.  I know nothing of this matter.

Wayne Madsen ,the author, is a bit uneven in his writings.  pl

 

https://www.strategic-culture.org/news/2019/10/08/plot-overthrow-pope/

Headline! "Trump betrays Kurds!" It's what we do!

"U.S. troops have begun pulling out of positions in northern Syria, The Associated Press reported on Monday, citing U.S.-backed Kurdish forces. 

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan also reportedly said American troops have started to withdraw from the area. 

The White House announced late Sunday that Turkey will soon be launching a military operation in the region and that U.S. troops will no longer be “in the immediate area” when it happens. 

The Kurdish-led forces denounced the move as a “stab in the back," according to Reuters.

“We are hoping for the best but preparing for the worst,” Panos Moumtis, the U.N. regional humanitarian coordinator for the Syria crisis, told reporters in Geneva, the news service noted.

The U.S. had more than 1,000 troops deployed in northern Syria, working closely with the Kurdish-led forces. "  The Hill

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AND ... Turkey will henceforth hold and deal with IS and AQ prisoners.  Erdogan does not want these rival Islamists wandering around, so ... his "dealing" with them is going to be strenuous from their point of view.  Good!

And then, pilgrims, the US has a long history of betraying warfighting allies when they are no longer needed or useful .  The Apache Scouts in the Geronimo War come to mind.  As soon as Geronimo and his unmerry men were in the bag, the US disarmed and arrested its own Indian scouts and shipped them to the same prison camp in Florida that Geronimo's men were held in.

And, throughout my life of service I have seen this tendency on our part displayed many times.  The most spectacular was, of course, our abandonment of the Republic of Vietnam.  Another triumph for the US Congress!

IMO this decision is a specific rejection by Trump of the advice of the neocons led by Pompeo and L. Graham as well as the habit and inertia opinion of the Borg (the foreign policy establishment).

This is Trump being Trump.  pl

https://thehill.com/policy/defense/464604-us-troops-leaving-positions-in-northern-syria-ahead-of-turkish-invasion

Some News this Sunday - October 5, 2019

The Plot

"A second whistleblower is now considering filing a complaint about President Donald Trump’s conduct regarding Ukraine, the New York Times reported Friday.

This whistleblower has “more direct information about the events than the first whistle-blower,” according to the Times. It’s a claim that, if true, could bolster the credibility of the initial complaint that triggered the Democrats’ impeachment inquiry into whether Trump solicited election interference from Ukraine.

The first whistleblower’s complaint, which was released in redacted form to the public in late September, alleged that on a July 25 phone call Trump pressured Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky to push for investigations into potential 2020 rival Joe Biden."  Vox

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The lawyer representing this person states that he has "multiple whistleblowers" as clients.  Ah! How clever!  Are all these public spirited citizens career employees of the CIA?  Little birds still twittering in the trees in my back garden tell me they are.  This sounds like a CIA conspiracy designed to force Trump from office.  The WH and NSC staffs are peopled by some political appointees and a horde of career people detailed from various departments of the Executive Branch; CIA, Defense, State, Justice , Treasury, etc.  The lending agency selects the people who are lent.  The opportunity for someone like Brennan who still has a lot of faithful followers at CIA to plant a group of informants and operatives in Trump's WH has been evident and remains so.

My instincts and the application of Occam's Razor lead me to the conclusion that there is an "operations room" somewhere that is coordinating the efforts to remove Trump from office in what does amount to a "soft coup d'etat."  A fair minded person looking back over Trump's term will see that the attempts to undermine and bring him down began the day after his inauguration and have continued ever since in wave after wave of accusations and press induced frenzies.  This cannot be accidental and it will continue through his second term if he has one.  Trump is leader of a counter-revolution of the Deplorables.  From the point of view of the Globalist Left Trump must be removed and prevented from doing things like packing the federal judiciary with pro-Deplorable judges.  Stay tuned. PL

https://www.vox.com/2019/10/5/20900088/trump-ukraine-impeachment-second-whistleblower

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Married Priests

The Vatican conference supposedly focused on the ecology of the Amazon River basin opens this week.  The shortage of priests in that region has led the conference to raise the subject of ordaining married men as priests.  The "old guard" of ancients who supposedly spent their lives in celibacy and chastity (doubtful in many cases) are in an uproar about it.  The Catholic Church in spite of being an absolute monarchy in structure in fact functions most of the time on the basis of consensus among the "good old boys" at the top of the pile of black, purple and red robed old men.  If Francis wishes to make a change that big he will have to act like the successor of Peter in fact, as well as in title.  pl

https://www.wsj.com/articles/pope-opens-debate-on-celibacy-requirement-for-catholic-priests-11570352167

The Wealth Tax Proposals

Elizabeth Warren and Bernie Sanders have the same two outside advisers to thank for shaping their wealth tax proposals: University of California, Berkeley economists Emmanuel Saez and Gabriel Zucman.

Each Democratic presidential candidate wants to tackle wealth inequality by raising trillions of dollars in revenue from taxing the wealth — in addition to the income — of millionaires and billionaires, an idea that is backed up by research from Saez and Zucman.

There are competing explanations for the rise in inequality. Those on one side argue that wealth concentration is natural as a result of globalization, technology gains, and economic growth, which give enormous rewards to the smartest, innovative, and most hardworking people. Drastically increasing tax rates, they say, would discourage innovation and hurt the economy.

The other camp sees rising inequality as unfair, immoral, and a threat to society.

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Say what?  A couple of imported lefty French professors are the gurus on which Sanders and Warren base their insistence that one's possessions be confiscated as well as one's income?   One of them is 35 years old.  Well, pilgrims, this may be thought of as a grand idea in Europe but it will not sell well in the US.  Americans like the idea of BECOMING rich.   Most people want that rather than re-distribution of other peoples' money.  A smart Trump would want to run against the Confiscators rather than against Biden, someone who IMO wants to be really rich.  If that is what Trump wants he is quite perceptive of the realities of the 2020 election.  pl

https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/policy/economy/the-berkeley-economists-advising-both-warren-and-sanders-on-their-groundbreaking-wealth-tax-proposals

Dean Swift wanted this for the Irish? Perhaps

"Swift's essay is widely held to be one of the greatest examples of sustained irony in the history of the English language. Much of its shock value derives from the fact that the first portion of the essay describes the plight of starving beggars in Ireland, so that the reader is unprepared for the surprise of Swift's solution when he states: "A young healthy child well nursed, is, at a year old, a most delicious nourishing and wholesome food, whether stewed, roasted, baked, or boiled; and I make no doubt that it will equally serve in a fricassee, or a ragout.  Jonathan Swift in "A Modest Proposal ..."

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I emerged from an eye appointment today to learn that the Larouche Raiders had staged an embarrassment at an AOC town hall  in which they had a young woman plead passionately for cannibalism as a means of saving the planet from the insidious effects of human population of the earth.  Was AOC smart enough to laugh at this farce?  Apparently she was not.

My learned committee members will of course recall that Jonathan Swift archly proposed in his essay "A Modest proposal ..."  that poverty in Ireland could be avoided in much the same way ..  pl

https://www.newsweek.com/eat-babies-twitter-reacts-alexandria-ocasio-cortez-town-hall-meeting-1463114

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jonathan_Swift

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Modest_Proposal

" ... we are close to finding life on Mars."

" Green argues that finding the faint traces of Martian life, past or present, will unleash countless new questions that we’re not prepared to answer.

There is, of course, a religious angle to all of this. The origins of life on Earth are still the subject of debate today and science has always had to compete with stories for mindshare.

I mean, we live in a time where a not-insignificant chunk of people still claim to believe that the Earth is flat, so finding alien life on another world is sure to come with its own host of conspiracy theories and true believers spouting… whatever it is they truly believe.

Green may be right and mankind may not be ready to deal with the implications of finding life outside of Earth. But science waits for no one and if there’s life to be found on Mars, those discoveries aren’t going to wait until we’re ready to deal with them. Brace yourselves."  NY Post

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One of the old timers on SST wrote me recently to admonish me to abandon my "frivolous" interest in humanity's coming migration from Terra.  He suggested that I should embrace climate change as the focus of SST.  I declined to do so since I think the leftist theme song of impending doom is yet another manifestation of the result of allowing teachers  who are the spiritual offspring of the nutty sixties and seventies to indoctrinate our children for decades.

People are causing climate change?  What an amusing thought!  I will try to live long enough to dance on the grave of this stupidity.  pl

https://nypost.com/2019/10/02/nasa-chief-says-we-are-close-to-finding-life-on-mars-but-the-world-wont-be-ready-for-it/

"Moroccan" sword tonight.

A couple of fine, wild caught, North Atlantic swordfish steaks (not from a supermarket).  Marinated three hours in:  olive oil, ponzu (drops), garlic, paprika, cumin, cayenne, salt, pepper, parsley and cilantro.  Five minutes on a side temp 140 degrees F.  A wonderful medium.  pl

A useful map

More on the Yemeni triumph.

(These are ours now ...)

https://www.strategic-culture.org/news/2019/09/30/three-saudi-brigades-annihilated-in-devastating-houthi-offensive-in-saudi-arabia/

pl

Salmon filet on the grill tonight.

 

From a supermarket.  Marinated it for a couple of hours in:  olive oil, soy, citrus soy, teriyaki sauce, salt, pepper, mustard powder, ginger powder, garlic powder, red wine.

Cooked on the grill flesh side down, then skin side down, flesh side up until it reached 140 Fahrenheit in the thick end.  Basted with the marinade.

A delicious medium well (how we like it) nice and juicy.  Even the skin was delicious and infused with the marinade.    pl

"Nasr min Allah! Nasr min Allah!" (a victory from God Almighty) Somebody show this to Trump!

One of our correspondents was kind enough to send me this link.  We should all watch it.  It has a quality much like "The Battle of San Pietro,"  a film from the Italian Campaign in WW2.

It depicts a running battle through the mountains along the excellent road from Najran City as the Saudi and and allied Yemeni forces (referred to as traitors in the film) flee to the east trying to escape the giant, well laid ambush that was set as a trap by the Houthis and the Salih loyalist part of the Yemeni Army.

Evidently the senior Saudi commanders mostly deserted their men and fled early and swiftly.  As a result the Saudi forces surrendered en masse, abandoning armored vehicles and civilian type trucks stuffed full of weapons, supplies and ammunition.  Many of the vehicles, including armored vehicles are in running condition and in the film one can see Yemeni soldiers mount the vehicles and drive them off  Among these vehicles are fully tracked M-113 US made APCs that are carriers for radar trained air defense Gatling guns,   These will be very useful in the future.

Some of the vehicles are marked in Arabic as belonging to the Saudi National Guard (SANG) and from their condition I suppose that these troops were from the Modernized SANG that the US has worked hard to train and equip for fifty years or more.  The easy surrender of these beduins is very bad news for the Saudi monarchy.

The many, many prisoners seem to be humanely treated.  There are Houthi medical personnel on the scene treating enemy wounded.  If I were the Rebel commander I would truck all these prisoners down to Sanaa and invited the International Red Cross and UN in to register them and start a stream of food, water and shelter supplies coming in to care for all these men.

Someone please show President Trump this film.  It makes the lies of creatures like Pompeo obvious.

https://www.presstv.com/Detail/2019/09/29/607432/Yemeni-Army-release-footage-of-Victory-from-God-Almighty-offensive-against-Najran

Saudi Arabia accepts cease fire in Yemen

"Saudi Arabia has agreed to a limited cease-fire in several areas of Yemen including the capital Sana’a, which is controlled by Iranian-backed Houthi rebels, as part of broader efforts to end a four-year conflict that has threatened to escalate into regional war.

A Yemeni government official and a diplomat said attempts were underway to expand the truce. Saudi officials couldn’t immediately be reached for comment.

Last week, the Houthis announced a unilateral halt to the hundreds of drone and missile attacks that have targeted OPEC’s largest producer in recent years.

The apparent breakthroughs follow a devastating attack on major Saudi oil facilities that briefly halved the country’s output and rattled global markets this month. Yemen’s Houthis said they carried out the attack using a swarm of unmanned aircraft, but the U.S. has said Iran was responsible."  yahoo, Bloomberg, etc.

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This doesn't fit the US government BS narrative in which it was IRAN who attacked at Abqaiq and Khareus.  Pompeo scoffed the other day at the idea that the Yemeni rebels could have done the deed, but here we have the obvious truth.

Saudi Arabia would not have negotiated a cease fire with the Yemeni rebels if it had not been the Yemenis who attacked them.  They know that if there is not a cease fire there will be more attacks against their petroleum infrastructure and possibly their desal plants without which they cannot survive.

Remember this the next time Pompeo tells you anything.  He evidently forgot the word "honor" in the West Point motto.  pl

https://www.yahoo.com/news/saudi-arabia-agrees-limited-cease-134703209.html

Experience Saudi Arabia! Don't do it...

"Tourism chief Ahmed Al Khateeb said abayas will not be mandatory for women tourists but modest dress is, including at public beaches.

Visas will be available online for about $80 (Dh294), with no restrictions for unaccompanied women as in the past. Access to the Muslim holy cities of Makkah and Medina is restricted.

Further details of the new visa rules will be announced on Friday evening at 10.30pm UAE time during an unveiling ceremony scheduled to take place at Ad Diriyah, a Unesco (United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization) World Heritage Site in Riyadh."

Currently only citizens of Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, and the UAE can travel freely to the country."  Gulf News

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What a treat! A visit to a theocratic police state where religious volunteer police wander the country looking for sinners as defined in the Hanbali sharia law code of the country.   There is no civil law code, none, and the Hanbali school of Sunni law restricts the basis of judicial decisions to Qur'an and Hadith.  This last  is the Hanbali accepted corpus of traditions of the practice and utterances of the Prophet and the early Muslim community living in the Mecca/Medina area.  This excludes the mass of case law consulted by judges in the other three Sunni "schools" of law and the entire Shia world. 

Once you enter SA as a tourist you will be be completely at the mercy of the Bone Saw Man's whims.  Women alone will be looked at by the populace as whores who have not yet been punished.  Relationships between members of tourist groups will be carefully scrutinized.  Public displays of affection will be noted.  A woman emerging from a hotel in a short sleeved dress or God Forbid! in shorts will be reminded of her lack of modesty and doubtful morality.  Blasphemous utterance questioning the Way of God will have to be corrected.

And what is there to see, "Meda'in Salih?  This was a frontier outpost of the Nabataean state.  Go to Jordan and see the Nabataean capital at Petra AND have a G & T at the end of the day in a government run hotel.  In Jordan on Sunday you can go to church.  In SA there  are not churches and Christians who pray together in secret are arrested and imprisoned.

Go to a decent place like; Jordan, Oman, Morocco, Turkey  pl

https://gulfnews.com/world/gulf/saudi/its-official-saudi-is-open-to-tourists-from-around-the-world-1.1569496913496

Canned Soup

Question:  Why do Millennials not eat canned minestrone soup?

Open Thread on the effort to expel Trump from office through impeachment.

It takes a simple majority (218) for the House of Representatives to pass a bill of impeachment against any federal official.  The Democrats have 232 seats in the present congress.  The Bill (equivalent to an indictment) then is transferred to the US Senate where the impeached person is tried before the US Senate with the Chief Justice of the United State presiding.. 2/3 of the senators must vote for conviction for that to occur.  Two presidents have been impeached.  None has been convicted.

This thread will be open for a long time.  pl

Saudi/US forces resume bombing Yemen targets.

"The Saudi Coalition has resumed their air campaign over Yemen this week after a short-lived peace deal was put in place following the Saudi Aramco strikes.

According to a new report from Yemen, the Saudi Coalition heavily bombed several sites inside the country, including a number of Houthi positions in the Amran and Dhale governorates."  AMN

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My sources tell me that Saudi/Yemen rebels talks were held for several days this week following the Yemeni air attacks at Abqaiq and Kharais.  These Talks were held in Muscat, Oman under the protection of Sultan Qaboos, ruler of Oman.

Yesterday Pompeo scoffed at the idea that the Yemeni rebels had carried out the air attacks.  Well, pilgrims, the willingness of the Saudis to negotiate with them over the issue belies that.

And now, Saudi Arabia (with US air refueling and targeting assistance) has suddenly resumed bombing of Yemeni targets.  IMO the neocon dominated government of the US has pressured the Saudis to do this to support Pompeo's assertion.

The Yemeni rebels have stated that if the Saudis and the UAE do not want a negotiated peace, then attacks on these two countries will resume.  We will see.  pl

https://www.almasdarnews.com/article/saudi-coalition-resumes-airstrikes-over-yemen-after-short-lived-peace-deal/

A dog for the Donald

I watched DJT perform today at the UN.  Impressive.  Stayed on script.  I suppose PomPom's Borgist boys and girls wrote it.  It hit all the commandments in the neocon creed but Trump managed not to issue any ultimata leading to war .  That was good, very good.  And now, pilgrims, Nancy the Pelosi is collapsing in her resistance to the Passion Play that is, in the minds, of some of her children the Auto da Impeachment in which Trump MUST be led to the faggots wearing his dunce cap.   This is something they are likely to regret because it just pisses a lot of people off, people who might not have voted for the Orange One.

Trumpie is, nevertheless, IMO, a perfect example of a Triple Type A personality type.  His kind of folk have no time for people, plants or pets.  Spot is perfect.  You don't have to pet it.  It cares no more for you than you do for it.  IOW, not at all.  And you can have it patrol the WH at night looking for intruders.

I suppose you have to plug it in like a Tesla to recharge once in a while. 

You could equip it to come when called.  "Here, Spot. Here!"  pl

https://www.theverge.com/2019/9/24/20880511/boston-dynamics-spot-robot-mini-hands-on-lease-buy

Forget The Palm restaurants

SWMBO and I ate at the Palm on 19th Street in DC for many years. It was long the ultimate in Italian steakhouses. The food went downhill and then improved. We went there last night for her birthday. The place has IMO become just another expense account dump. Food was mediocre. The service was cloying and obsequious. They couldn't even get the takehomes right. i cut up my 837 Club card today and have written them They will not see us again.  pl

“Military experts believe Iranian-made drones set off from Yemen to strike Aramco" ra'i al yowm

I was provided this translation by Alastair Crooke's  "The Raw and the Cooked" on line magazine published from Crooke's location in Beirut.  This a very fine subscription service and I recommend it highly.   exchange@conflictsforum.com  is their contact e-mail address.  pl 

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“Military experts believe Iranian-made drones set off from Yemen to strike Aramco

Rai al-Youm daily, 17 Sept 2019

The military commanders in the USA are keeping silent with regards to the source of the attacks that targeted the Aramco oil facilities last Saturday and that caused some serious damages there. It seems that the Houthis have used Iranian-made modern drones and that a commando unit from Saudi land served to steer the drones at the last few minutes prior to the strikes.
“So far, the statements of the American politicians are leading the list of accusations directed at Iran for allegedly being responsible for the attacks... The American politicians are speaking about Iran’s responsibility although the Houthis have released a statement where they stressed that they stand behind this operation knowing that the Houthis have always been honest in their military statements in order to gain the trust of the international media outlets.

“The odd part consists of the silence of the American military commanders. Indeed, there has been no official report released by the Pentagon that accuses Iran. Furthermore, no senior military officers made any statements to accuse Iran. The senior officers and military experts are actually cautious and not taking the risk of making any incorrect statements. They realize that the arsenal of the American radars at the Arabian Gulf including the land and the ship-mounted radars have recorded at least half the drones’ flight, which is enough data to tell the source.

“The Abqaiq station is geographically close to Bahrain and Qatar. It is thus close to the American Fifth Fleet in Bahrain, which is equipped with modern radars. It is also close to the Al-Udeid base in Qatar, which is home to the most modern radars of the American military industry. These radars are capable of monitoring the activity of the rockets and drones coming from Iran or Iraq. If these radars failed to do that, then this constitutes a scandal for the American military industry knowing that the radars are pointed at Iran.

“The secret behind the US military commanders’ silence and them abstaining from mentioning the source of the drones is because they don’t wish to admit that the drones are Iranian-made and were able to dodge the radars that are deployed in the region. Iran might have smuggled these drones to the Houthis... Iran possesses advanced drones that are capable of flying for long distances while loaded with explosives. These include drones that can carry out suicide missions by striking fixed targets such as the Muhajir, Raad, and Karrar drones. These have succeeded in the past to fly above the American aircraft carriers. Some comments are circulating at the American military chat rooms that go: “If Iran is capable of shooting down a Global Hawk, and if it was able to take photos of the aircraft carriers in the Gulf, then this means that its drones are as advanced as its missiles. This is something that one must admit.”””

"If you hit them, they will behave ..." - the neocons' song.

I have long puzzled over the question of why the neocons; Lindsey Graham, the late John McCain (be brave Lindsey!), Jack Keane, Bolton, Pompeo, etc., etc., ad nauseam,  cling so firmly to the idea of striking Iran a hard blow.

Today I heard the reason voiced on the Sunday newsies by several of the Faithful.  "If you punish the Iranians they will behave" was the refrain.  "They know they would lose to the US and so would be afraid to go to war with us."  This delusion is a variation of the Rational Actor Model.  This poly sci inspired model is based on the false premise that everyone, everywhere functions on the basis of the same priorities and values.  This is an untruth.  For example, a willingness to die for one's country is not a universally shared attitude.  Nor is, a belief in an almighty God who dictates one's duty in this world.  A god in whom the Muslims actually believe as expressed in the shahada (testimony) depicted above.

So, pilgrims, the neocons believe that if the Iranians are punished like children who are spanked for picking their noses, they will recognize the error of their ways and the country will accept the will of the US and more importantly of the Zionists who are IMO the source of such a belief.  Zionism seeks a ME pacified with regard to the existence and hegemony of the Jewish State. 

To that end the Zionists have followed a relentless practice of punishing their opponents in order to bring them to heel.  That has never worked for them but they persist in this "strategery" and have clearly convinced a critical number of movers and shakers in the US to follow their lead.  pl

Haddock on the grill tonight

Tired of the Abqaiq thing.  It appears that DJT will not go to war over this.  My guess is that the Saudis don't want him to start a war on their doorstep and his innate aversion to risk accepts that easily.  Thank God.

Haddock:  A species of cod, prevalent in the North Atlantic and much favored in New England.  These were nice fresh fillets .  Medium heat, anointed with a little olive oil, a touch of citrus flavored soy, salt, pepper, garlic, ginger and mustard powder.  Five minutes on a side brought it to 145 Fahrenheit internally. Perfect.   A delicate fish.  You have to be careful with it or it will fall apart before you can get it to the table.  pl

"Will bishops at last be held to account in abuse cases? We’re about to find out." Washpost editorial

" ... the published list had been whittled down by the bishop and church lawyers to exclude, among others, accused priests who had been left in ministry or restored after a suspension. In one case, a church lawyer wrote to the bishop that a priest alleged to have had sex with a teenage girl in the 1980s should be dropped from the list because including him “might require explanation.” (The priest, Fabian J. Maryanski, who has since been placed on leave, denied the allegation.)

Under the church’s new policy on accountability for bishops, it has fallen to Cardinal Timothy M. Dolan, the archbishop of New York, to decide whether to launch an investigation of Mr. Malone. As Mr. Dolan mulls that question — his office says an announcement is expected soon — other revelations have surfaced involving Mr. Malone’s less-than-assiduous attention to abuse victims. In an audio recording of a conversation from August, leaked recently by one of his former top assistants, Mr. Malone is heard worrying that “this could be the end for me as bishop.”"  washpost editorial board.

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Despair is an unforgivable sin.  Unforgivable because someone in despair does not believe in the possibility of forgiveness and therefore does not repent.  On that basis I am in a lot of trouble because I despair for the ability of the Roman Catholic Church to purge itself, cauterize the resulting wounds and move on.  I know that I should not despair but I do.

Because of the essentially late Roman Empire structure of the Church the chain of command runs from the Pope to metropolitan archbishops who head eccesiastical provinces and then to suffragan dioceses subordinate to the metropolitan archbishops.

In the case of this fellow Malone, he is the subordinate of Archbisop Dolan in New York City because Buffalo is a diocese within the province which Dolan heads.  So, the buck stops (for the moment) at Dolan's Desk with regard to the question of what to recommend to the Pope about the careerist who sits in the bishop's chair in Buffalo, New York.

"This will finish me as bishop" Malone is quoted as saying of the result of his inaction and harboring of evil priests in Buffalo.   What an unworthy sentiment!  What greater evidence can there be of careerist ambition driven failure as a pastor of souls.

Dolan is a mystery to me.  I have seen him on "Fox and Friends," sprawled in a chair actinng the role of a basic New York City street guy.  He does not inspire me with the vision of a spiritual guide for all those souls spread across his province.

Is Dolan called now to decide about another careerist cleric when he may not be much different?  We will see,  pl

https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/will-bishops-at-last-be-held-to-account-in-abuse-cases-were-about-to-find-out/2019/09/19/149ef946-da65-11e9-ac63-3016711543fe_story.html

Open Thread 19 September 2019

  pl

How about a Moon Elevator?

" ... the Columbia study differs from previous proposal in an important way: instead of building the elevator from the Earth’s surface (which is impossible with today’s technology), it would be anchored on the moon and stretch some 200,000 miles toward Earth until hitting the geostationary orbit height (about 22,236 miles above sea level), at which objects move around Earth in lockstep with the planet’s own rotation.

Dangling the space elevator at this height would eliminate the need to place a large counterweight near Earth’s orbit to balance out the planet’s massive gravitational pull if the elevator were to be built from ground up. This method would also prevent any relative motion between Earth’s surface and space below the geostationary orbit area from bending or twisting the elevator.

These won’t be problems for the moon because the lunar gravitational pull is significantly smaller and the moon’s orbit is tidally locked, meaning that the moon keeps the same face turned toward Earth during its orbit, therefore no relative motion of the anchor point."

"After doing the math, the researchers estimated that the simplest version of the lunar elevator would be a cable thinner than a pencil and weigh about 88,000 pounds, which is within the payload capacity of the next-generation NASA or SpaceX rocket.

The whole project may cost a few billion dollars, which is “within the whim of one particularly motivated billionaire,” said Penoyre.

Future moon travelers will still have to ride a rocket, though, to fly up to the elevator’s dangling point, and then transfer to a robotic vehicle, which would climb up the cable all the way up to the moon."  Observer

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Incredibly great idea.  I have long favored the idea of space elevators but the tensile strength of carbon fiber cable has not been up to the task for earth to orbit elevators.

I would like to sign up for one of the first tickets to the South Pole Lunar Base.  pl

https://observer.com/2019/09/moon-space-elevator-lunar-exploration-columbia-study/

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lunar_space_elevator

 

What a war with Iran would be ...

Mr. President, I believe that the Iranians will fight us with everything they have if we go to war with them.

• You have several thousand soldiers in Iraq and Syria.  These countries have large proxy forces of Iran's allies in the form of Shia militias in Iraq and actual Iranian Quds Force troops in Syria.  These forces will be used to attack and kill our soldiers.
• The Iranians have significant numbers of ballistic missiles which they have already said will be used against our forces
• The US Navy has many ships in the Gulf and the Arabian Sea.  The Iranian Navy and the IRGC Navy will attack our naval vessels until the Iranian forces are utterly destroyed.  In that process the US Navy will loose men and ships.
• In direct air attacks on Iran we are bound to lose aircraft and air crew.
• The IRGC and its Quds Force will carry out terrorist attacks across the world.

Do you really want to be a one term president?

Pompeo can talk big now and then go back to Kansas to run for senator. 

Where will you be able to take refuge? 

Don't let the neocons like Pompeo sell you on war.

Make the intelligence people show you the evidence in detail.  Make your own judgments.  pl

"Detailed satellite photos show extent of ‘surgical’ attack damage to Saudi Aramco oil facilities" CNBC

"Satellite photos released by the U.S. government and DigitalGlobe reveal the surgical precision with which Saudi Aramco’s oil facilities were struck in attacks early Saturday.

The strikes, which unidentified U.S. officials have said involved at least 20 drones and several cruise missiles, forced Saudi Arabia to shut down half its oil production capacity, or 5.7 million barrels per day of crude — 5% of the world’s global daily oil production.

The images, first obtained by The Associated Press, show that at least 19 strikes were launched and 17 actually hit targets."  CNBC

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I get a big kick out of those of you who think someone faked this attack for, what;

An excuse to go to war with Iran?

An opening gambit to get the Iranians to talk to Trump at the UN?   If so, that did not work.  Khamenei has said unequivocally that they are not going to talk to the US.

Mikey Pompeo is now going to travel to Saudi Arabia to see if he can jawbone the Saudis into saying that it was undoubtedly the Iranians who done it.  Would that be going on if the Saudis had been in the plot?

So, some of you think that the Saudis blew up their own processing plant for some nefarious reason.

Or, maybe the Izzies blew it up to start a war?

Will wonders never cease?  I mean you, not the attack.  pl

 

https://www.cnbc.com/2019/09/17/satellite-photos-show-extent-of-damage-to-saudi-aramco-plants.html

An indictment for McCabe is not needed to try him, or is it?

"In many—if not all—U.S. jurisdictions that use grand juries, prosecutors often have a choice between seeking an indictment from a grand jury and filing a charging document directly with the court. Such a document is usually called an information, accusation, or complaint, to distinguish it from a grand-jury indictment. To protect the suspect's due-process rights in felony cases (where the suspect's interest in liberty is at stake), there is usually a preliminary hearing, at which a judge determines whether there was probable cause to arrest the suspect who is in custody. If the judge finds such probable cause, he or she binds, or holds over, the suspect for trial."  wiki on indictment in the US

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

A question has arisen of whether or not a grand jury in the District of Columbia will indict officials of the government who were allies of the Obama Administration.  DC is a heavily Democratic place.

This wiki makes it clear that a "true bill" indictment from a grand jury is not necessary for prosecution.  Such an indictment is merely customary in most cases from respect for our English Common Law heritage.

IMO it is doubtful that a petit jury in DC would convict during actual trials. 

Alternatively, this difficulty as well as the one with the grand jury could be overcome by changing the venue of the proceeding to the Eastern Federal Court District for Virginia where IMO both an indictment and conviction would be very likely.  The demographics and politics are much different on this side of the Potomac in a district that covers the whole eastern half of the Commonwealth of Virginia.  pl

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indictment#United_States

Meet the Quds1 cruise missile. Made in Yemen?

"On September 14, several explosions rocked the Khurais oilfield as well as the Abqaiq refinery, one of Saudi Arabia’s most vital petrochemical installations. Several hours later, the Houthis claimed that they had targeted both facilities with ten drones as part of their “Balance of Deterrence” campaign.

What made this attack different from other recorded Houthi drone attacks was not only the unprecedented amount of material damage caused but also lingering doubt about the nature and the attribution of the attack. First, a video allegedly showing flying objects entering Kuwaiti airspace led to speculation that like a previous “Houthi” drone attack this strike might actually have originated in Iraq or even Iran. While the video remains unverified, the fact that the Kuwaiti government launched a probe into the issue lends some credence to the idea that something might have happened over Kuwait that day. Speculation about the origins of the attack was further fueled by a tweet by Mike Pompeo in which he claimed that there was no evidence the attacks came from Yemen.

Then the question arose whether drones had been used at all, or whether the attack might in fact have been a missile strike. Previous Houthi drone strikes against oil facilities tended to result in quite limited damage which could be an indication that a different weapons system was used this time. Indeed, Aramco came to the conclusion that its facilities were attacked by missiles. Even more curious, several pictures began to emerge on social media purportedly showing the wreckage of a missile in the Saudi desert. While the images appear real, neither the date the photos were taken nor their location can be verified. Social media users quickly claimed the images showed a crashed Iranian-made Soumar cruise missile. The Soumar and its updated version, the Hoveyzeh, are Iran’s attempts at reverse-engineering the Soviet-designed KH-55 cruise missile, several of which the country illegally imported from Ukraine in the early 2000s. Others claimed it was the Quds 1, a recently unveiled Houthi cruise missile often claimed to be a rebranded Soumar."  armscontrolwonl

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

TTG raised the issue of whether or not this wave of strikes was done by UAVs or cruise missiles.  IMO this cruise missile could be built in Yemen with Iranian assistance.   I am very interested in the question of what the actual vector of the attacks was in this case.  pl

/www.armscontrolwonk.com/archive/1208062/meet-the-quds-1/

Houthi UAVs set big Saudi refinery alight. al-jazeere, etc.

"Saudi Arabia is shutting down half of its oil production after drones attacked the world’s largest oil processing facility in the kingdom, The Wall Street Journal reported.

The closure will impact almost five million barrels of crude production a day, about 5% of the world’s daily oil production, the WSJ reported, citing sources familiar with the matter.

Early Saturday, an oilfield operated by Saudi Aramco, the state-owned oil giant, was attacked by a number of drones, which sparked a huge fire at a processor crucial to global energy supplies.

Yemen’s Houthi rebels have claimed responsibility for the attack, saying it was one of their largest attacks ever inside the kingdom, the WSJ reported.

“We promise the Saudi regime that our future operations will expand and be more painful as long as its aggression and siege continue,” a Houthi spokesman said. The attack deployed 10 drones, the Houthis said."  CNBC

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Watch the al-jazeera video linked below. 

Some time ago, an "expert" on toy UAVs expressed an opinion on my FB page that the Houthis must be trucking these drones up to within a few miles of the target before flying them.  This attack would seem to exclude this possibility.  The question of the size of the payload also is intriguing because of the amount of damage inflicted, and then there is the matter of the guidance system. 

This is a game changer.  pl

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j6BgA54VZBk

https://www.cnbc.com/2019/09/14/saudi-arabia-is-shutting-down-half-of-its-oil-production-after-drone-attack-wsj-says.html

"... Tucker Carlson Pushes for End of the Neo-cons" Reuters and Haaretz

"Carlson concluded by warning about the many other Boltons in the federal bureaucracy, saying that “war may be a disaster for America, but for John Bolton and his fellow neocons, it’s always good business.”

He went on to slam Trump’s special representative for Iran and contender to replace Bolton, Brian Hook, as an “unapologetic neocon” who “has undisguised contempt for President Trump, and he particularly dislikes the president’s nationalist foreign policy.” Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif echoed Carlson hours later in a tweet, arguing that "Thirst for war – maximum pressure – should go with the warmonger-in-chief."  Reuters and Haaretz

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Yes, people tend to forget that Bolton and all the other neocons are worshipers at the altar of a secular religion imported to the US by members of the Frankfurt School of Trotskyite German professors in the 1930s.  These people had attempted get the Nazis to consider them allies in a quest for an ordered world.  Alas for them they found that the Nazi scum would not accept them and in fact began preparations to hunt them down.

Thus the migration to America and in particular to the University of Chicago where they developed their credo of world revolution under that guidance of a few philosopher kings like Leo Strauss, the Wohlstetters  and  other academic "geniuses"  They also began an enthusiastic campaign of recruitment of enthusiastic graduate students who carefully disguised themselves as whatever was most useful politically.

They are not conservative at all, not one bit.  Carlson was absolutely right about that. 

They despise nationalism.  They despise the idea of countries.  In that regard they are like all groups who aspire to globalist dominion for their particular ideas.

They should all be driven from government.  pl

 

https://www.haaretz.com/us-news/.premium-trump-bolton-neo-cons-iran-fox-news-tucker-carlson-1.7833399?=&ts=_1568393219979b

"Democrats should give Trump a win on his trade deal with Mexico and Canada" Washpost (Bezos)

"A TOP priority for President Trump in what’s left of this session of Congress is a vote in the House of Representatives on his trade deal with Mexico and Canada. Passage in the Republican-controlled Senate is all but certain, and, because trade interests don’t track precisely with partisan ones, there would probably be a bipartisan majority for it in the Democratic-controlled House, too — if Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) brings it to the floor. Should she?

A certain naked but understandable political calculation says she should not. Democrats’ primary goal is to resist Mr. Trump; a trade victory could help his 2020 campaign. Better, on this view, to stick to Ms. Pelosi’s current approach — insisting on modifications to the proposal’s labor, environmental and pharmaceutical provisions, and discussing them with Mr. Trump’s trade representative, Robert E. Lighthizer — indefinitely.

The problem is that Mr. Trump might revive his threats to withdraw from the existing trade framework, the North American Free Trade Agreement, damaging the hemispheric economy. Yes, Mr. Trump would bear primary responsibility; indeed, he’s responsible for insisting on renegotiating NAFTA in the first place. On balance, though, it’s better not to gamble with people’s jobs and income, even for an understandable political reason, unless overriding substantive policy concerns justify it."  Washpost

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Yes!  Yes!  For God's sake, yes!  Thank you, Jeff Bezos!  I now have two reasons to like you.  1.  My house is worth more money every day (I live in Alexandria, Virginia) and 2. You want the Pelosi creature to bring the USMCA to a floor vote.

Hallelujah!  pl

https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/democrats-should-give-trump-a-win-on-his-trade-deal-with-mexico-and-canada/2019/09/11/ea5be9c6-d3ea-11e9-9610-fb56c5522e1c_story.html

Where we are now in Afghanistan- Editorial Opinion by PL

(Lt. Hamilton VC at Kabul where he commanded Sir Louis Cavangnari's escort)

A year or so after the US intervention in Afghanistan began in 2001 I perceived that there was a danger that US public and government opinion might begin to favor the idea of "nation building" in Afghanistan.  From long experience in and study of the area of Islamicate civilization and its history it seemed clear to me that such an effort would be doomed to failure at any price that one should be willing to pay in; expended effort over time, money and blood shed on all sides. 

The basic problem with Afghanistan is that there "is no there there."  Afghanistan is really a geographical expression rather than a country in the sense understood of the word in the post-Westphalian system of independent states.

Across the Islamicate world from Mauritania to Bangla Desh and beyond to Oceania there is a pronounced tendency to atomization in group perception of identity. Arabs do not identify with Berbers, etc., Tribes and clans within these groups regard all others as rivals and often enemies unless they are needed as temporary allies.

The Islamic religion which holds unity to be an ideal is often thought to be a unifier against the atomizing tendency in these cultures, but in fact there are many, many varieties of Islam, each one believing that it is uniquely favored by God.  This often cancels out whatever unifying effect Islam, as religion, can have.

Afghanistan, created as a buffer between imperial Russia and British India, is an extreme case of atomization among the inhabitants of a state which has recognition in the world political system including membership in the UN.  In spite of that status , a status that might deceive one into believing that there is such a thing as "the Afghan People,"the population of Afghanistan is actually made up of a number of different ethnic nations; Pushtuns, Hazzara, Tajiks, Uzbeks, Turcomans, Arabs, etc.  These different  peoples all speak mutually unintelligible languages which often have such extreme separation in dialect that this amounts to uninteligibility as well.   Some of these groups are Sunni and others Shia.  This is yet another factor in the separation of the segments of the population.

The country has little substantial physical infrastructure.  What there is was largely constructed in the 50s and 60s as part of Cold War competition between the USSR and the US.  There is very little legal or governmental infrastructure.  A commercial company investing its own or borrowed money in Afghanistan is taking a great risk of never being able  to recover its investment from the local "pirates."  Government is generally predatory in its attitude toward foreign investment funds.  I tried to find a safe haven in Afghanistan for some of my company's funds and could find none.  Senior Afghan government people would typically respond to questions about legal infrastructure with exhortations to "bring your project, all will be well."  Needless to say ...

US intervention in this place was inevitable after 9/11, but what was not necessary or wise were repeated US decisions for a COIN nation building campaign.  As this tendency began to be evident I argued for a much more limited goal in which the US would keep about 20K troops in country to maintain a government controlled enclave around Kabul and Bagram.  This would enable pursuit of located international  terrorist groups through raiding operations from that base area.  The basis for this strategy was my conclusion that the US could never "pacify" all of the territory of Afghanistan and that we would "break our teeth" trying.

I pressed this belief in various fora and with various individuals within the Obama Administration even as Obama endlessly contemplated the entreaties of the COINista generals, Petraeus, Mattis, McChrystal etc. for a country wide nation building COIN campaign.   The most interesting of these encounters was at an IQ2 debate at NYU in 2009 where I (and teammates) argued that "The US can never win in Afghanistan."  My side lost on points but the leader of the other team recently told me that he knows now that we were completely correct.  Obama gave in to the generals, and gave them the COIN war that they wanted.  I suppose that for "Barry" it was immensely flattering to have them "butter him up."

It is clear now that the COIN strategy has failed miserable and totally.  Afghanistan is not one bit more united or modernized than it has ever been.  The US has spent a sea of money there and many brave people have perished or been wrecked in chasing the idea of Afghanistan as a Central Asian Switzerland.

Trump has allowed Zalmai Khalilzad to attempt to achieve a negotiated peace with the Taliban, the former salafi takfiri, Pushtun rulers of Afghanistan, in the apparent belief that they could be "talked down out of the tree" just as his business competitors could always be talked down to meet at a "closing" table where his supposed "closing genius' would bring a DEAL.

Unfortunately this belief  in his closing talent goes unrewarded in Palestine, Syria, Turkey,Yemen, Iran, China (not yet), North Korea and Afghanistan.  IMO his difficulty in finding solutions lies in his entrapment within his own New York City business model, a model in which everything is for sale if the deal is structured skillfully to advantage the stronger party while all the while claiming that the party you are screwing is your friend.

Sadly for The Donald all those "stupid" foreigners do not understand that "everything is for sale."  Among them, the Taliban, an army and religio-political movement are notable for a lack of belief in the commercial possibilities of selling out to Donald Trump for a "mess of pottage"  or thirty pieces of silver whichever reference you prefer.  They want to win, and they want to be seen to have driven the "crusaders" from Afghanistan and in the process to have humiliated the US as the leading infidel state.  To that end they lie, prevaricate and await the day when they can crush the puny forces of "modernism" after the American departure.  Zalmai Khalilzad is an Afghan pushtun Sunni by birth and rearing.  Did he not know that they could not be trusted in dealings with the US?  I do not blame the Taliban for being what they are.  I blame all the American and NATO fools for believing that they could make the Taliban either go away or become "happy campers."  They were never going to do either of those things.  We should have known that.  Some of us did, but Americans are addicted to all the melting pot, right side of history foolishness so common in "levelled" America,

What should the US do now that the scales have fallen from Trump's eyes and the time of "good faith" negotiation with the Taliban is "dead?"  The first thing to do is to fire Khalilzad.

Last night, Col. (ret.) Douglas Macgregor told Tucker Carlson that the US should simply leave, and should have never intervened.  IOW we should get the hell out totally and forever.  This is a tempting thought.  I have wrestled with the attractiveness of the idea but there are certain problems with it.

1.  We should not want to give the jihadi movements proof of our feckless defeatability.  IMO if we leave suddenly the Afghan government and armed forces will soon collapse.  The country will then further disintegrate into a welter of jihadi factions and regional tribal strongmen, the strongest of which will be the Taliban.

2.  We have encouraged modernist Afghan men, women and girls to emerge from the shadows.  Shall we leave them to their fates under the rule of the jihadis.

3. What about all the translators, base workers and other people who have cast their lots with us.  The Taliban and other jihadis will simply kill them as apostates.  We abandoned a lot of such people in Iraq.  Will we do it again?

On balance I would say Macgregor is right that we must leave.  The time for a small remaining presence is past.  The forces in the field are too strong for a small force to maintain itself even with massive long range air support.  Think of Sir Louis Cavangnari.   No, we should leave, but we should leave on a schedule that will enable us to control the timing of our going and to protect the departure of those who wish to leave with us.  pl

BTW, SWMBO says that no mutually understood languages = no country.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pierre_Louis_Napoleon_Cavagnari

Afghanistan - Graveyard of Dreams - Republished 28 Jan 2018, Re-republished 9 September 2019

(In light of yesterday's bombing in Kabul ...)

 

We have been in Afghanistan for how long?  16 years?  It is our longest war.  How much progress have we actually made?

1.  The government that we have tried so long to nurture controls a shrinking percentage of both territory and population.

2.  How much money have we poured into the pockets of crooks of all nationalities?  In spite of that the country is severely lacking in physical, social, legal, and business infrastructure.

3.  The country's armed forces have been expanded under NATO tutelage to such a size that the small GDP will never be able to pay for them on its own.  In spite of that they are unable even to defend their own installations.

4. The country is still racked by tribal, ethnic and jihadi wars.  It has always been thus with the exception of a golden age when the last Afghan king ruled in the 50s and 60s.  How did he do that?  He did it by careful inter-ethnic diplomacy and a minimum effort to "unify"  his realm.

5.  Attacks on NATO personnel by Afghan soldiers and police continue.

6. The capital, Kabul, is not secured and is regularly attacked.

7.  The much vaunted COIN doctrine has failed there as it has failed in so many places in the world.

In spite of this the generals and the COIN nuts persist in trying to reverse Obama's policy of withdrawal from the "country" (a geographical expression really).  President Trump, who knows nothing of things military or geo-political is about to begin the process of re-introducing US combat and training forces into this blank space on the map, a space filled with hostile tribesmen and religious fanatics.  This blank space was given the dubious status of a state in the international system of states because the Russians and the British wanted to establish a buffer entity between the Tsar's empire and the Raj.

President Trump should be told that there is nothing there of real importance to the US, nothing worth more vast quantities of our money and more rivers of our blood.  Let the Afghans, Chinese, Pakistanis, Iranians and Russians deal with the chaos.  pl

China, Hong Kong and Taiwan - Frank Ching

"... pro-independence forces in Taiwan and pro-democracy forces in Hong Kong are linking up, with a growing sense that the destinies of the two territories are interwoven.

This has ignited in China deep anxiety. But Beijing should realize that it is a development that resulted largely from its own actions in Hong Kong, where over the last six or seven years it has been steadily strengthening its grip, reducing room for dissent, and even seeking to control the independent judiciary through interpretations of the Basic Law.

Such efforts continue. Only last Tuesday [Sept. 3], at its fourth press conference in a row, the Hong Kong and Macao Affairs Office in Beijing said that all three branches of the Hong Kong government, including the judiciary, must stand up to end the violence and restore order.

From Beijing’s perspective, it seems, the situation is dire. That same day, President Xi Jinping, in addressing party members, warned officials to be ready to “struggle against” the challenge posed by three regions: Hong Kong, Taiwan and Macau, a former Portuguese colony that was returned to China in 1999.

The Communist Party is about to celebrate its 70th anniversary in power. Maybe it is time for it to realize that repression is counterproductive. It certainly isn’t the only instrument in the toolbox."  Frank Ching

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Looks like the CCP is shaken over the effects of the trade war with the US and the proto-insurgency in Hong Kong.  pl

http://www.ejinsight.com/20190909-china-the-challenges-of-hong-kong-and-taiwan/

"Study claims Google reflected 'very dramatic bias' in 2016 election search results" Dr. Robert Epstein

"Google allegedly offered search results during the 2016 election season that manipulated voters in Hillary Clinton's favor, according to researcher Dr. Robert Epstein.

The study looked into "politically oriented searches" from a "diverse group of American voters," Epstein said in an interview airing Sunday on "Life, Liberty & Levin."

"In 2016, I set up the first-ever monitoring system that allowed me to look over the shoulders of a diverse group of American voters -- there were 95 people in 24 states," he said.

"I looked at politically oriented searches that these people were conducting on Google, Bing and Yahoo. I was able to preserve more than 13,000 searches and 98,000 web pages, and I found very dramatic bias in Google's search results... favoring Hillary Clinton -- whom I supported strongly.""  Dr. Robert Epstein

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Epstein says that the amount of search result manipulation that Google conducted in 2016 could easily shift the resulting vote by several million votes.  What was it that the Dems keep saying about HC's popular vote majority?  Watch the interview.  pl

https://www.foxnews.com/media/google-bias-search-results-trump-clinton-epstein-levin

Open Thread 8 September 2019

pl

Does Trump believe what he says about Syria? - Opinion

Why does Donald Trump say the things he does about Syria and its government?

He insists that the SAG attacks its people with chemical weapons when such attacks have never been proven.  They have only been asserted by opponents of the government and in fact there exists a lot of evidence that these attacks have been staged by information operations projects like the White Helmets film production group with the surreptitious backing of a network of covert action people within the the UK government and money from USAID.

He insists that the jihadi defenders of their lodgement in Idlib Province are somehow worthy of American protection when in fact they are the same breed of salafi takfiri fanatics that he boasts of having defeated in the "caliphate."

He insists that the SAA and its allies are in the process of massacring the civilian population of Idlib Province when in fact the opposite is true.  Is it not clear that the usual blizzard of anti-government propaganda has been generated solely because the SAA is winning the day in Idlib Province?

He seems oblivious or indifferent to the fact that the Syrian Government are the protectors of the Christian and other minorities in the country.  Is he not a Christian?

His positions seem to imitate precisely the attitude of the the Israeli Likud run government and its closest US supporters like Sheldon Adelson, the casino man.  These forces have made it clear that they prefer that Syria be made into a Hobbesian maelstrom in which many small groups fight among themselves forever rather than that the present multi-confessional government should survive.

Where does Trump get such ideas?  Is it from his addiction to Fox News personalities like Jack Keane, Lou Dobbs, Brian Kilmeade and Sean Hannity?  These are people who collectively have no real understanding of the realities of the Middle East but they all have a lot of opinions seemingly based on free floating hostility toward anything in the world that does not serve their hyper-nationalism.

Is it the Turks who tell him such self serving untruths?  Is it not clear that Erdogan and company are intent on splitting off parts of Syria for future annexation?

Do CIA, DIA, State INR and the rest of the IC also feed him such nonsense?  The analysts must know the truth if they are not swept up in massive group think.  Perhaps their leaders are simply afraid to tell him the truth in the face of the opposition of people like Jared Kushner and his allies in Bolton's NSC staff.

I support many  of Trump's positions with regard to the economy, immigration and his trade struggle with China.  I may even vote for him considering the choices likely to be advanced by the Democrats but I am at a loss to understand why he claims to believe his own foolish statements about Syria.  pl

 

Tuna Steaks tonight

I've been cooking fish lately in my outside kitchen. A nice piece of halibut the other night and yellow fin tuna steaks tonight. I made a marinade of soy, teriyaki, olive oil, garlic and a little ginger. Five minutes a side on high heat and then reduced heat for another five, a glorious medium was the result. I use copper grill mats over the grates. This keeps the thing from falling apart. Suggestions for fish to grill beyond sword, tuna and halibut?  pl

Shall we oblige ourselves to fight Israel's enemies of choice?

"... Graham has been acting as a front man for both Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and also for The Jewish Institute for the National Security of America (JINSA), which wrote the basic document that is being used to promote the treaty and then enlisted Graham to obtain congressional support.

Speaking to the press on a JINSA conference call, Graham said the proposed agreement would be a treaty that would protect Israel in case of an attack that constituted an “existential threat”. Citing Iran as an example, Graham said the pact would be an attempt to deter hostile neighbors like the Iranians who might use weapons of mass destruction against Israel. JINSA President Michael Makovsky elaborated on this, saying, “A mutual defense pact has a value in not only deterring but might also mitigate a retaliatory strike by an adversary of Israel, so it might mitigate an Iranian response (to an attack on its nuclear facilities).”

JINSA director of foreign policy Jonathan Ruhe added that “An Israeli strike on Iran’s nuclear program would not activate this pact, but a major Iranian retaliation might. – An Israeli unilateral attack is not what the treaty covers, but rather massive Iranian retaliation is what we are addressing.”

Israel has long been reluctant to enter into any actual treaty arrangement with the United States because it might limit its options and restrain its aggressive pattern of military incursions. In that regard, the Graham-JINSA proposal is particularly dangerous as it effectively permits Israel to be interventionist with a guarantee that Washington will not seek to limit Netanyahu’s “options.” And, even though the treaty is reciprocal, there is no chance that Israel will ever be called upon to do anything to defend the United States, so it is as one-sided as most arrangements with the Jewish state tend to be."  Unz

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I was the head of DoD liaison with Israeli general staff intelligence for seven years.  During that time and in subsequent decades I have had many discussions with active and retired Israeli officers on the subject of whether or not they wanted a Defense Treaty of Alliance with the United States.  The answer is always the same.  "No."  The reason for that is simple.  A treaty is normally reciprocal and they do not want to be obliged to defend the territory or interests of the United State to whatever extent the treaty's text would require.

If JINSA wants this treaty, then the Jewish Agency and the Israeli government want it.  Why do they want it?   IMO the answer is hidden in plain sight in the text of the "floated" document.   The treaty would be activated in the event of physical attacks on Israel but also in the event of PERCEIVED existential threats. 

IOW, if the Israelis were to claim that they feared an onslaught  by Syria and Hizbullah they could legally claim that the US is obligated to go to war against Syria and Hizbullah.

What a good deal for Israel!  Not only would they continue to receive the present river of largess in defense grants and credits but they would also under the treaty have the means with which to order the US armed forces into action against their enemies of choice whenever they wished to do so.

pl

http://www.unz.com/pgiraldi/lindsey-grahams-blank-check-why-a-defense-agreement-with-israel-would-be-a-disaster-for-americans/

Soldiers, Sailors, Marines, Airmen and Spacers

"The United States must be prepared to meet the emerging threats in space, which the actions of our global competitors have forced us to consider space as a warfighting domain. The United States Space Force appears to be America’s solution/ This Space Force will need to project power in secure America’s interests beyond the Earth

But what will we call the members of this new service with such a proud and vital mission?

Considering the nicknames of members of the armed services, soldier (Army), marine (Marine Corps), sailor (Navy), airman (Air Force) and guardsman (Coast Guard), there are three categories determining the nicknames: domain, function, or motive power.

Soldier and guardsman are based on the service’s function, that is, what members do. Marine and airman are both based on the domain in which they operate — the sea (naval infantry) and the air, respectively. Sailor is based on sail power, the means by which humans have travelled the sea for most of recorded history.

Nicknames such as “orbiter” or “rocketeer” are examples for names based off of motive power for space. Rocketry and orbits will not be overthrown by any other type of motive power for space in the foreseeable future, but mid- to long-term technological trends may someday yield significantly different forms of motive power. Extensive use of solar or light sails might lead to a new generation of “sailors.”"  The Hill

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Since last week we have "United States Space Command" as part of USAF and as a Unified Command under the Unified Command Plan, but it seems clear to me that this will be followed within a year or so with creation of a fifth separate service as the equivalent of ; the army, the navy, airforce and USMC.  The US Coast Guard is actually a law enforcement agency that is uniformed  and armed.  the US Space Force would be a separate service within the civilian Department of the Air Force in the same way that USMC is a separate service within the civilian run Department of the Navy.

The Space Force will be altogether focused on developing US assets in outer space and preparation for support of a warfighting command on earth if this regrettable necessity arises.

Soo, as "The Hill" semi seriously suggests, what will we call the people of the Space Force.

I vote for "spacer."

As Trenchard decided when creating the Royal Air Force (RAF)  during WW1 from the materials of the British Army Flying Corps, a clean break (unfortunate reference) should be made to indicate a radically different point of view.

Yes, "Spacer" would be the thing.  Enlisted ranks could be derived from that.  "Spacer First Class," "Master Spacer," etc.  I suppose there will have to be commissioned officers.  If there are, then once again, the example of the RAF might guide; "Pilot Officer," "Flight Lieutenant," Squadron Leader," etc., as examples rather than the usual thing. 

Uniforms for wear on earth?  I have already suggested black on black as the color scheme to mimic the outer darkness, but for god's sake, no damned neckties.  Some sort of pullover under jackets or tunics would suffice.

I thank "The Hill" for inspiring this conversation,  pl

https://thehill.com/opinion/national-security/459790-what-will-we-call-the-men-and-women-of-the-space-force

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_Armed_Forces

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unified_combatant_command

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_the_Royal_Air_Force

"The Hong Kong Human Rights and Democracy Act" Dennis Kwok

"We also explained in detail to the US lawmakers the kind of massive arrests and excessive use of force by our police force, which resulted in the apprehension of a large number of innocent civilians and left quite a number of protesters severely injured.

We also talked about the inhumane treatment to which some of the arrested protesters were allegedly subjected and the “white terror” imposed by the central government on certain business corporations such as Cathay Pacific Airways, where a number of employees, including pilots and a flight attendant, were sacked over incidents related to the anti-extradition bill protests.

Both Republican and Democratic members of the US Congress are pushing for the Hong Kong Human Rights and Democracy Act.

One of the most important provisions of the bill is that HKSAR government officials who are found suppressing Hong Kong’s democracy, human rights or citizens’ freedoms could have their assets in the US frozen and be denied entry to the US.

We agree that the passage of the Hong Kong Human Rights and Democracy Act through the US Congress will help in our citizens’ fight for democracy and in defending our human rights and freedoms."  Dennis Kwok

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"Give me liberty or give me death?"  This sounds like that sentiment.

Would such an Act do anything material for Hong Kong?  Probably not.  Trump says that he hopes the CCP will settle the HK matter in a "humane way."  IOW he doesn't intend to do anything except use the HK crisis as leverage in his extended bargaining with China.

OTOH, this Act would do a lot for the conscience of the people of the US.  We need to do something that is actually selfless since we seem to have lost the knack for standing up for the "little people" in places like Yemen and Palestine against tyranny.

If such an Act were passed (probably over Trump's opposition) or maybe not since he claims to not give a damn about trade with China, then Canada should follow our lead in this.  British Columbia is packed full of mainland Chinese who have stashed their wealth there and who look forward to taking refuge in Victoria and/or Vancouver.

Palmerston, that mean old bastard, said that countries do not have friends.  They merely have interests.  Well, maybe so, but I would say that such an Act would be in our long term spiritual interest.  pl

http://www.ejinsight.com/20190902-the-hong-kong-human-rights-and-democracy-act/

Do the Brits and the French eat BBQ?

"BBQ Pitmasters is an American reality television series which follows barbecue cooks as they compete for cash and prizes in barbecue cooking competitions.

The series premiered on TLC on December 3, 2009. The eight-episode first season was filmed in a docu-reality format as it followed several competing BBQ teams around the country to various BBQ contests.

Season two premiered on August 12, 2010 at 10 pm EDT featuring a completely new competition game show-based format.^[1] Each week, four teams competed against each other. Challenges included common protein and more exotic meat. Weekly winners faced off against each other in the second season finale as they vied for $100,000 and the Kingsford Cup. The judges for the second season were Myron Mixon, Art Smith, and Warren Sapp.^[2] Kevin Roberts served as host.   wiki

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Is this show seen in the UK and France?

American BBQ is meat (to include fowl and seafood) smoked slowly for a long time, carefully judging the time, temperature (normally low) and seasonings.  Cooking like this is an art, developed over centuries to cope with tough meat like beef brisket, beef shoulder clod and whole hogs if necessary.

This is quite a different style of cooking than "grilling."  "Light the fires, and kick the tires."

Is this program available overseas and has American BBQ caught on?  pl

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BBQ_Pitmasters

"We will destroy Lebanon..." Michael Katz, MoD of Israel in Tweet yesterday

 

"Another video says that Hezbollah could soon have the capability to fly a missile onto an Israeli address as simply as if it was using the popular Waze navigation app. The propaganda clip even uses an animation of the app itself to drive its point home. Ironically, the video doesn't note that Waze was invented by an Israeli company.

 

These information operations come against a backdrop of real-world conflict. Israel has championed its operation last weekend against alleged Iranian-commanded Hezbollah drone operators in Syria when it flattened a compound with air strikes.

 

Israel has been coy about who has been responsible for at least four mysterious air strikes against Iranian-backed militia in Iraq. And silent about Lebanese and Hezbollah allegations that Israel attacked a Hezbollah site in southern Beirut with small drones, also at the weekend."  CNN

 

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The IDF appears to have overcome its long-standing fear of "another 2006" and to be preparing for war against Hizbullah and indeed against all of Lebanon. 

 

In that war the IDF used heavy American made artillery to attack Hizbullah's fortified belt of villages in southern Lebanon (the Tabbouleh Line).  Following that, IDF armor and infantry sought to advance into that fortified belt but were met by barrier systems that canalized the tanks and troops into pre-planned killing zones where they were chopped up with Iranian made and product improved anti-tank missiles and aimed fire placed on the infantry from the firing apertures of fortified basements and other such positions.  Those IDF infantry who managed to entered the villages found themselves face to  face with Hizbullah infantry equipped with body armor and night vision equipment,  The whole defensive system was tied together for communications with SIGINT proof buried armored signal cable.

 

After a cease fire the Hizbullahis moved their fortified line back to the north a few kilometers and re-built it better.  Tabbouleh Line II?  

 

In the midst of this assault on the Tabbouleh Line the IAF ranged far and wide across all of Lebanon attacking infrastructure targets in an obvious attempt to intimidate the Lebanese into abandonment of Hizbullah.  That failed.  The Lebanese showed no such inclination and that support was rewarded by Hizbullah with a prioritization of re-construction funds to Christian villagers.

 

Oh, yes, the IDF Chief of Staff was fired for his failures.

 

Since 2006 the IDF has brooded over the ever worsening strategic threat posed by Hizbullah artillery rockets, guided missiles and armed UAVs.  My SWAG would be that Hizbullah artillery command now has something between 50k and 100k of such weapons in firing positions and storage behind the Tabbouleh Line II, which is now reinforced with many veterans of the Syria campaign in which Hizbullah troops have developed a lot of skill. and demonstrated their courage.

 

The Israeli strategic problem is that they cannot prevent a salvo or salvos of thousands of these weapons into the northern half of Israel.  They can't break through on the ground quickly enough to do that and their air force will be faced with a lot of antiaircraft fire.  This tends to degrade pilots' ability to press home attacks against individual weapon systems.

 

Nevertheless, the IDF seems to have decided to "grasp the nettle."  Good luck sons of the Maccabees!  Good Luck!

 

Would the US respond to mass Israeli civilian casualties with intervention in the fight?  All the world wonders.  pl

https://www.cnn.com/2019/08/30/middleeast/israel-lebanon-tensions-intl/index.html

http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/232577

Will Saudi Arabia survive the Yemen War? - Re-published 2 September 2016, Republished again 30 August 2019

(In light of; the decline in the economy of SA, the apparently successful Yemeni guided missile attack on Taif, SA (700 Km from the Yemen border), and the presence of Yemeni forces in the Asir Province of SA it seems appropriate to re-publish this post.  It was originally posted in April, 2015)

"Pakistan's parliament voted on Friday not to join the Saudi-led military intervention in Yemen, dashing Riyadh's hopes for powerful support from outside of the region in its fight to halt Iranian-allied Houthi rebels.

Saudi Arabia had asked fellow Sunni-majority Pakistan to provide ships, aircraft and troops for the campaign, now in its third week, to stem the influence of Shi'ite Iran in what appears to be proxy war between the Gulf's two dominant powers.

While Saudi Arabia has the support of its Sunni Gulf Arab neighbors, Pakistan's parliament voted against becoming militarily involved.

"(Parliament) desires that Pakistan should maintain neutrality in the Yemen conflict so as to be able to play a proactive diplomatic role to end the crisis," it said."  Reuters 

http://www.reuters.com/article/2015/04/10/us-yemen-security-idUSKBN0N10LO20150410

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IMO Saudi Arabia lacks the military capability to intervene successfully in Yemen.  This is equally true in what was North Yemen (YAR) and also in the former PDRY.  SA's armed forces were always built for show with a lot of expensive equipment that they were never capable of employing except at the elementary "stick and rudder" level of operations.  The maintenance contracts for all that equipment have always been impressive.   On the ground the Saudis possess a Wahhabi beduin manned force in the SANG that is designed to maintain population and territorial control and in its more modern parts to overawe the Twelver Shia majority population of the Eastern Province (where the oil and gas is located).  The rest of the Saudi Land Forces are pretty much a jobs program for poor people from the Asir and Najd regions.  In its warlike pronouncements thus far SA is mimicking the PR employed by he US, but such PR methods do not win wars against determined opponents.  Egypt is dragging its feet.  The coalition allies have contributed little except for the US.  pl

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"Ground troops would certainly face stiff resistance from the Houthi militiamen. Seasoned guerrilla fighters, they seized parts of southern Saudi Arabia during a brief war in 2009, killing over 100 Saudi troops.

Saudi Arabia has not ruled out a ground attack, but its allies appear wary of such a move. The kingdom has asked Pakistan to commit troops to the campaign, but that country is deeply divided over participating in an operation that could anger its own Shiite minority.

Though fraught with risk, continued airstrikes and a possible ground incursion may be the only choices that Saudi Arabia sees itself as having, said Imad Salamey, a Middle East expert at Lebanese American University. He said that officials in Riyadh probably are concerned that relenting could be perceived as weakness, especially by Iran."

http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/middle_east/saudi-air-war-struggles-to-make-gains-as-yemen-fragments/2015/04/09/1a045766-ddf6-11e4-b6d7-b9bc8acf16f7_story.html

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IMO Saudi Arabia is headed for an embarrassing failure in Yemen, one that will reveal its true nature as a gang of nepotistic hedonists sitting on immense wealth.

What could be more tempting?  pl 

SF video on Ansarallah recent attacks in SA

https://southfront.org/wp-content/uploads/video/IMR_Yemen_28_08_19.mp4

This SF video provides description of recent Ansarallah missile and UAV attacks in Saudi Arabia.  It does not mention the UAV attack on the Shaibah oil and gas field out in the Rub al-Khali just south of the UAE border.  pl