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Area: WoT Operations    WoT Background    Non-WoT        Politix   
Syria jets, troops wage offensive on rebels near capital
Today's Headlines
Headline Comments [Views]
Page 4: Opinion
1 19:36 USN,Ret. [336083] 
2 18:25 Perfesser [336083] 
2 12:20 swksvolFF [336089] 
3 21:28 JosephMendiola [336107] 
1 08:58 Glenmore [336088] 
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1 14:07 Frank G [336097] 
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Page 1: WoT Operations
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Page 2: WoT Background
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1 20:41 Redneck Jim [336115]
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Page 6: Politix
10 17:08 bigjim-CA [336102]
14 20:27 Frank G [336122]
8 15:16 Redneck Jim [336085]
19 23:17 CrazyFool [336121]
4 13:02 swksvolFF [336085]
11 20:30 Redneck Jim [336113]
4 10:40 swksvolFF [336082]
-Short Attention Span Theater-
Laura Hollis - Post Mortem
Posted by: Elmeper Whomogum8873 || 01/05/2013 14:59 || Comments || Link || [336083 views] Top|| File under:

#1  RTWT; its very good. however I disagree w/ point # 11; we have NOT hit rock bottom yet. Oh that my crystal ball was back frm the shop so I could see when that will be, but my spidey sense says we still have about 15-18 months to go....
Posted by: USN,Ret. || 01/05/2013 19:36 Comments || Top||


Oliver Stone compares Yugo Chavez to The Champ
Bah, that's nothing. We do that all the time at Rantburg...
Posted by: Besoeker || 01/05/2013 09:38 || Comments || Link || [336083 views] Top|| File under:

#1  O.K. Could be a fair comparison.
Posted by: JohnQC || 01/05/2013 16:32 Comments || Top||

#2  Stopped clock.
Posted by: Perfesser || 01/05/2013 18:25 Comments || Top||


No Country for Old White Men - Another Mercer heart warmer
A libertarian discovers that the guy she couldn't bring herself to support is a good man and would have made a better choice than what we ended up with. I don't follow the logic, though I agree with the description. If the lesser of two evils is still evil, the greater of two evils is still worse.
Posted by: Besoeker || 01/05/2013 00:00 || Comments || Link || [336113 views] Top|| File under:

#1  I enjoy reading Mercer, but she's definitely a classic sout piel who somehow can't bring herself to apply for American citizenship.
Posted by: Besoeker || 01/05/2013 3:44 Comments || Top||

#2  A clip from the column.

hide their feelings and are spare with their emotions. When they show their softer side, it actually means something. Each is dutiful and dependable.

Such qualities, once considered desirable in a man, now offend the dominatrixes who run the nation’s newsrooms.
Posted by: Glenmore || 01/05/2013 8:57 Comments || Top||

#3  Money was Mitt’s Mark of Cain. So were his wicked work ethic and whiteness.

Obama tapped into the anger of his constituency and turned it into votes. Every slight, every claim to victimhood, shortcoming, downsizing, job shipped to China, perceived wrong, foreclosure, repossession, layoff was blamed on Romney (and Bush and Pubs). The MSM was complicit in fanning these flames. Obama's voters never saw these things as spin-offs of costly and ever-expanding statism. Still, the election was close.
Posted by: JohnQC || 01/05/2013 9:40 Comments || Top||

#4  Willard would have succeeded in putting people.... "back to work!" That alone was a non-starter.
Posted by: Besoeker || 01/05/2013 9:44 Comments || Top||

#5  Ilana Mercer. Born:? Birthplace: South Africa. Gender: Female Race or Ethnicity: White Sexual orientation: Straight Occupation: Columnist. Nationality: United States

soutpiel

1.(vulgar, army slang) A South African with English/British heritage. So named for having one foot in South Africa, one foot in Britain and his penis dangling in the Atlantic

Strange, her bio did not mention the appendage.
Posted by: Au Auric || 01/05/2013 11:18 Comments || Top||

#6  A non-gender specific attribution. She lives here, but I pretty certain she's not a USCIT.
Posted by: Besoeker || 01/05/2013 11:58 Comments || Top||

#7  Strange how all those vet cemeteries are filled with old white men [and some very 'young' too but never to get older].
Posted by: Procopius2k || 01/05/2013 13:03 Comments || Top||

#8  a classic sout piel

Gawd, I love the 'burg. Learn a new thing every day.
Posted by: SteveS || 01/05/2013 16:25 Comments || Top||

#9  I wonder if I'm the only one who is pissed as hell at those who refrained from voting because Romney / the GOP wasn't quite good enough, thereby handing the election to Obama.
Posted by: lotp || 01/05/2013 19:30 Comments || Top||

#10  lotp: no.
Posted by: USN,Ret. || 01/05/2013 19:36 Comments || Top||

#11  What USN said. :-(
Posted by: Barbara || 01/05/2013 21:41 Comments || Top||


Caribbean-Latin America
On Rantburg's Sunday Morning Coffee Pot: President Pena's 1st 30 days


Thirty days into his presidency, Enrique Pena Nieto has moved swiftly on his promises to transform Mexico's national security strategy, first by covering his left flank politically with his Pacto por Mexico, then by folding the 12 year old Policia Federal into the interior ministry.

More change in Mexico's federal government with regard to national security is on the horizon, but as one Durango radio journalist, Ruben Cardenas, has pointed out, his administration has already seen 1,500 drug related deaths nationwide in President Pena's first 30 days, on track to exceed Felipe Calderon's totals.

Rantburg and Borderland Beat correspondent Chris Covert examines the latest moves by the newly elected government of Enrique Pena Nieto to deal with the widespread violence from Mexico's pervasive organized crime problem.
Posted by: badanov || 01/05/2013 00:00 || Comments || Link || [336088 views] Top|| File under:

#1  I slept through Saturday? Oh no!
Posted by: Glenmore || 01/05/2013 8:58 Comments || Top||


India-Pakistan
Vaccinators targeted
[Dawn] RECENTLY we read with great pain that forces of Evil in Pakistain killed several women who were active in administering anti-polio
...Poliomyelitis is a disease caused by infection with the poliovirus. Between 1840 and the 1950s, polio was a worldwide epidemic. Since the development of polio vaccines the disease has been largely wiped out in the civilized world. However, since the vaccine is known to make Moslem pee-pees shrink and renders females sterile, bookish, and unsubmissive it is not widely used by the turban and automatic weapons set...
drops to children.

Many feel that one of the reasons behind the attacks was that the forces of Evil think an international conspiracy is afoot to reduce the population of Mohammedans in the world, and the anti-polio drops make a person impotent.

Some Mohammedans and mosque imams in India too thought likewise and in their Friday sermons asked Mohammedans not to allow social workers to administer anti-polio drops to their children.

But in India it was just an appeal. No one was physically harmed, much less killed. In Pakistain the forces of Evil believe in a culture of violence. For them the only solution to their orders being defied is to shoot people dead. For example, Malala Yousufzai was shot -- but thankfully survived -- because she did not obey the Taliban's call to stop advocating education for girls.

Those who kill others in the name of Islam can hardly be called Mohammedan, let alone pious Mohammedans. In order to be a pious Mohammedan one has to be just. The Koran says that "...Do justice, it is closest to piety...." (5:8)

How can one claim to observe the norms of justice by killing others? Justice is something most difficult to do. Even for murder we require at least two pious and honest witnesses and to prove rape or fornication we need four such witnesses. One has to make sure, according to Sharia, that before accepting their testimony, the witnesses are honest and pious. Testimony cannot be accepted from just anyone.

To kill someone without justification is a great sin. The Koran says that "...Whoever kills a person unless it be for manslaughter or for mischief in the land, it is as though he has killed [the] whole humanity. And whoever saves a life, it is as if he has saved the whole humanity...." (5:32). This is a very important statement of the Holy Book.
Life is sacred. It is not so cheap that anyone can kill any other person just like that. If life could be taken by anyone at any time, entire humanity would be wiped out in the course of time.
Posted by: Fred || 01/05/2013 00:00 || Comments || Link || [336082 views] Top|| File under: TTP


Iraq
Maliki's Private Army
Another interesting post in the National Interest, from Robert Tollast. This one describes how the Iraqi Special Operations Forces, left in pretty reasonable shape by the Green Berets when we pulled out, is now increasingly politicized and thus losing its legitimacy.

"Blame here can only go to Maliki, who has created ... "a culture of direct control" over state institutions. Maliki controls ISOF through the Counterterrorism Bureau, which has proved a useful tool for crushing dissent ... Such "coup proofing" strategies often result in military disaster. "

That is what happens when a national leader is a thug and not a steward.
Posted by: Steve White || 01/05/2013 00:00 || Comments || Link || [336089 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Let's not give SEIU or TSA special ops training, ok?
Posted by: Glenmore || 01/05/2013 9:00 Comments || Top||

#2  Theyz pawns, better in bulk. How about Department of Education, or Health Human Services? Komissar Sebilius is quite aware of the added insurance costs of high capacity assault bullets fire cancer freddy of doom inventory binders. For the chilpuppies.
Posted by: swksvolFF || 01/05/2013 12:20 Comments || Top||


The Iraq Debacle Continues
Long post by Ted Galen Carpenter in the National Interest. Interesting thesis, the core of which is that Iraq is getting worse and may well come to a head this year. Key quote:

"Iraq has democratic forms, but it does not consistently practice democratic norms."

That's an understatement.
Posted by: Steve White || 01/05/2013 00:00 || Comments || Link || [336107 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Democracy like liberty and individualism are more states of mind than of pieces of paper.

All of those are totally antithetical to Islam so they will never have the norms regardless of the forms. The same is true of all Muzzie lands.
Posted by: AlanC || 01/05/2013 8:09 Comments || Top||

#2  Mubarak, Musharaf, Khadaffi, Assad, even Hussein and the KSA royal family - it should be getting clearer why we supported the 'devils we knew' for so long.
Posted by: Glenmore || 01/05/2013 9:02 Comments || Top||

#3  See also DEFENCE.PK/FORUMS > [WND.com] US-INSTALLED IRAQ GOVERNMENT IN DANGER?, of collapse + civil war as led by Turkey + Saudi Arabia agz Maliki Govt???

and

* RELATED SAME > IRAQI UPRISING 2013.
Posted by: JosephMendiola || 01/05/2013 21:28 Comments || Top||


Syria-Lebanon-Iran
Syrian killings
[Dawn] BESIDES watching the Syrian drama from the sidelines, the international community has done nothing practical to stop a slaughter that, says the UN, has left 60,000 dead in less than two years. Add to it the number of the injured and displaced, besides public and private buildings being blown to bits, and we get a fuller picture of the human dimensions of the Syrian trauma. The Security Council couldn't pass a single resolution for peace -- thanks to Russian and Chinese vetoes -- while the Organisation of the Islamic Conference remained in its traditional state of torpor. The Arab League
...an organization of Arabic-speaking states with 22 member countries and four observers. The League tries to achieve Arab consensus on issues, which usually leaves them doing nothing but a bit of grimacing and mustache cursing...
at least tried to contain the conflagration in the heart of the Arab world but failed, while the two sides fought ferociously, committing horrible human rights
...which are usually open to widely divergent definitions...
violations. If at all foreign parties got involved in the Syrian conflict, it was for the wrong reasons. Turkey, Qatar and Soddy Arabia
...a kingdom taking up the bulk of the Arabian peninsula. Its primary economic activity involves exporting oil and soaking Islamic rubes on the annual hajj pilgrimage. The country supports a large number of princes in whatcha might call princely splendor. When the oil runs out the rest of the world is going to kick sand in their national face...
-- backed by NATO
...the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. A single organization with differing goals, equipment, language, doctrine, and organization....
powers -- and Iran made no secret of their sympathies. The result is that the aims behind the Arab Spring have given way to sectarian considerations, with the crisis spilling over to Leb.

The dissidents have now within their ranks forces that seem motivated less by democratic ideals and more by turban philosophies that could create regional problems if Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir Pencilneck al-Assad
Trampler of Homs...
falls. Many Saudi-backed factions of the Free Syrian Army subscribe to turban philosophies, and some Al Qaeda loyalists have set up courts and executed 'informers'. On the whole, the FSA has added to its tactical advantage by holding the bases it captured; its previous policy was hit and run. Yet, in spite of these successes, it is unlikely it can defeat the state forces. UN envoy Lakhdar Brahimi's plan now calls for a transitional government followed by an election -- whether parliamentary or presidential he didn't make clear. He also said nothing about President Assad's fate. The opposition has already made clear it will not negotiate with him.
This means fighting will continue because the Syrian strongman appears determined not to learn from Muammar Qadaffy
...whose instability was an inspiration to dictators everywhere, but whose end couldn't possibly happen to them...
's fate. Even his supporter, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, says the alternative to a negotiated settlement is "bloody chaos".
Posted by: Fred || 01/05/2013 00:00 || Comments || Link || [336097 views] Top|| File under: Govt of Syria

#1  stay out of it
Posted by: Frank G || 01/05/2013 14:07 Comments || Top||



Who's in the News
41[untagged]
6Govt of Pakistan
5Govt of Syria
4TTP
3al-Qaeda in North Africa
1Ansar Dine
1Hamas
1Jemaah Islamiyah
1Arab Spring
1Muslim Brotherhood
1Tablighi Jamaat
1Lashkar-e-Islami

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Two weeks of WOT
Sat 2013-01-05
  Syria jets, troops wage offensive on rebels near capital
Fri 2013-01-04
  New U.S. Drone Strike Kills Three Qaida Suspects in Yemen
Thu 2013-01-03
  Iran to Citizens: Flee Isfahan
Wed 2013-01-02
  Fourteen Killed as Nigerian Troops Clash with Islamists
Tue 2013-01-01
  Pakistan: Six charity workers shot dead
Mon 2012-12-31
  Qaeda in Yemen offers bounty for killing US ambassador, troops
Sun 2012-12-30
  Pakistan reports 21 tribal policemen kidnapped, found dead
Sat 2012-12-29
  At Least 15 Killed in Sect Attack in North Nigeria
Fri 2012-12-28
  Militants kill two, kidnap 22 Pakistani soldiers
Thu 2012-12-27
  Somalia sets 100 days for Al Shabab militants to surrender
Wed 2012-12-26
  6 Killed in Attack on Nigerian Church
Tue 2012-12-25
  Drone Strikes Kill Six Qaida Suspects in Yemen
Mon 2012-12-24
  Tunisia arrests 16 al-Qaeda suspects
Sun 2012-12-23
  Egypt vice-president resigns on final day of referendum
Sat 2012-12-22
  Scuds pummel Syrian rebel positions

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