#3
Actually, our current stated policy is to protect civilians from Qadafi's forces and the unstated policy is to kill Qadafi.
What has been developing, IMO, is that we can't actually protect civilians from rebel Islamist forces, nor from rebel bandit forces, nor from rebels who just don't know how to aim. Furthermore, we would be happy to have Qadafi just confined to a mini Libya.
Posted by: Lord Garth ||
07/31/2011 15:05 Comments ||
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#4
"The observance of Tet Ramadan will begin in a few days..."
The Gang of Six and some speechifying over the last week or so by both House and Senate members (not to mention President Obamas willingness to slash defense budgets regardless of the additional demands he is placing on our armed service) suggested that defense could be on the chopping block. But advocates of a strong military with ample funding were comforted today and should thank Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) for rallying Republicans.
Reids proposal to cut more than $880 billion in defense whetted the appetite of the left and sent off alarm bells on the right. Earlier today House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) put out a statement that included this:
Yesterday, the House passed the Budget Control Act, legislation that includes real spending cuts and budget forms that in stark contrast to Sen. Reids plan will ensure our troops and military commanders have what they need to carry out their missions at home and abroad. In a recent post on National Review Online, Foreign Policy Initiative Executive Director Jamie Fly notes that by focusing on the real drivers of our deficit, the House Republican plan strengthens, not weakens, our national security.
With the prospect of a job-crushing default just days away and Sen. Reids plan dead on arrival in the House (and possibly the Senate) it is time for Democrats in the Senate to get serious and pass the Budget Control Act to begin putting America on a more sustainable fiscal path without compromising our national security.
House Armed Services Committee Chairman Buck McKeon (R-Calif.) blasted the severe cuts in defense in a midday news conference. The Hill reported:
Reids plan would give the president full freedom to continue his domestic spending spree, while doing nothing to address our out of control deficit, McKeon said in a statement released Saturday. It makes insignificant reforms to the real driver of our debt, entitlement programs, while hacking away at the dwindling resources needed by our armed forces to keep America safe.
Defense analysts question Reids assumed war savings, saying his approach leans on shaky presumptions about how much hard-to-predict military operations will cost.
McKeon and other pro-defense Republicans said they would even object to Boehners defense cuts. Rep. Allen West (R-Fla.) was even more animated, replaying a favorite criticism of Democrats of President George W. Bush (It reminded me of a time when I deployed to Iraq in 2003 and we did not have enough body armor so I had to lend my body armor to my driver. Thank God when he got shot in the chest he had the right type of body armor that ricocheted that bullet off into his arm. I am not going to turn my back on the men and women [in the military].)
Posted by: Bobby ||
07/31/2011 07:33 ||
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An excellent piece by Steven Den Beste at Hot Air's Green Room. One important bit:
Q: Are Democrats in the House and Senate on board with this plan?
A: Mostly they are.
Q: Why haven't they been honest about it?
A: Because they know that the majority of American voters would object. They're trying to sneak the program through, relying on the fact that once it's in place it will create its own constituency.
Q: Why haven't the Democrats passed a budget for the last two years?
A: Because if they did, the cat would be out of the bag. It would be impossible to hide their real agenda if it was all down in black-and-white.
Q: And Obamacare is part of this?
A: Yup. The real goal all along was "single payer", but that wasn't legislatively possible even in a D-majority congress. So the bill was set up so that private insurers would continue, but the terms which would be forced on them would make them "voluntarily" leave the market. With no insurers remaining, the Democrats would then "reluctantly" pass a single-payer system. So it's basically designed to fail and set the stage for the next "crisis."
Posted by: Thing From Snowy Mountain ||
07/31/2011 11:06 ||
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#1
Steven Den Beste
Sweet Jeeeebus! He's still alive! Awesome! Thanks for the SnowThing.
Posted by: S ||
07/31/2011 14:27 Comments ||
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#2
S
He doesn't get out much regarding politics anymore but he hangs out here.
http://chizumatic.mee.nu/
His writing has been sorely missed.
#3
The big question is, if all these proposals are designed to fail at one point or another, why are we taking them seriously and joining them in implementing them?
#6
Damned depressing article. If Obama and his fellow donks get their way, the wheels are going to come off this thing very quickly. The signs are there.
Some time back the US Embassy arranged a gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender (GLBT) pride celebration ceremony at Islamabad, the heart of the Islamic Republic of Pakistan. As reported over 75 people, including "leaders of Pakistan GLBT advocacy groups", attended the ceremony. The US Embassy assured them that Washington will continue to support their cause here in Pakistan. One had thought that after the publication of this report, floodgates of protests will open and a strong protest will be launched by the guardians of morality to tell the US that they should keep their social values to themselves; nothing of that sort happened. Only one journalist published a well written rejoinder in an Urdu daily.
The USA has become the hub of gay and lesbians rights; President Barak Hussain Obama on May 31, 2011, made a GLBT proclamation: "We rededicate ourselves to the pursuit of equal rights for all, regardless of sexual orientation or gender identity." The American society has become liberal in moral behaviour thanks to sustained and concerted drive by the Zionist planners. President Obama maybe a powerful ruler of the superpower of the world, but in the words of Benjamin Disraeli, a baptised Jew: "The world is governed by different personages from what is imagined by those who are not behind the scenes." He wrote these words in 1844 almost the same time the Jewish Protocols were drafted by the Elders of the Zion of 33rd Degree. In 1970, someone gave me a booklet which was a bad translation in English, but two aspects stood out; it was a scheme for the world domination and it called for the reduction of all mankind, except the Jews to the status of goyim -- meaning cattle or beast. Google lays out all 20 protocols in vivid details and the underlying objective of the Elders of the Zion. The Jews call all other human races gentiles and in their perception all are 'stupid' and 'cattle' (P-15). Protocol 14 calls for "changing all that constitutes the true good of humanity", and Protocol 17 asks to "destroy the clergy by discrediting the priesthood of the goyim." These statements directly indicate plans to alter human moral code to reduce them to the status of goyim or cattle.
By about the middle of 19th century, the Zionist Elders had realised that the New World had the potential of becoming the world leader that they can manipulate for their political agenda. They had to shift the political, military, economic and financial centre of strength to the new world. William Guy Carr maintains that the Zionist Elders manipulated the American Revolution, the Civil War and the two world wars to achieve this end. America by the middle of 20th century had become a superpower whose political and financial prowess was fully in the Jewish hands and still is. Having achieved the politico-financial supremacy in the new world, they set about to destroy the moral values of the gentiles as planned in their Protocols. For example, Hugh Hefner, who published the first sleazy magazine Playboy in the USA with nude female photos propagating free sex philosophy, is a Jew. This magazine and many who followed have destroyed the moral foundations of the USA and the West. This free sex philosophy attacks the basic unit of the society - the family.
Today the family structure based on responsibilities, duties and obligations stands destroyed; it has been replaced by social unions and 'living together' devoid of any responsibility. 'Single parent' phenomenon has gained currency in the West where the parent is mostly the mother. There was a wave of sexual revolution in the 1960s and 70s, which destroyed all bounds of morality in the West. These days one observes that the Zionist have proved their claim given in Protocol 15 that the gentiles are 'stupid and cattle'; they followed their calling mindlessly and fell into the moral abyss. A cursory survey of the Western society gives a rather bleak look; young people living together as friends, work for five days a week, bash out on weekends and start all over again on Monday. At night just after dinner, the television channels air programmes with an apt announcement "following programme contains element of N (nudity), S (sex), and V (Violence)" and the "family" sits and watches it together. All this is done and accepted in the name of freedom of expression and human rights. Gay and lesbian rights and expressions have sprung from this attack on morality. There is a deliberate effort to spread this moral degradation all across the globe in pursuit of Zionist dream.
Observance of moral codes and principles creates the strength of character in an individual, a group, a community and a nation to steadfastly resist and fight those forces that try to destroy them. Morality is an abstract force and rests on higher ideals that make a man face hardships and even death with courage and conviction; a small group equipped with this strength can oppose a much larger adversary and win against all odds. Zionists being a minority have come up with a well thought out plan to destroy this strength and have succeeded in the West. Their target is now the East, especially the Muslims, who still are resisting this onslaught of sexual freedom and promiscuity.
The celebration held by the US Embassy is a step towards that effort. Pakistan is a country based on the Islamic Ideology; if the GLBT philosophy gains currency here, it will be easier for its proponents to export it to other Muslim countries. The Zionist perceives the strongest opposition from the Muslims, their will to fight has to be destroyed by destroying their moral strength. They are trying to use the US as their front; President Obama's rededication proves Benjamin Disraeli's observation that the real rulers "are working from behind the scenes."
Foreign missions in a country act and function with the spirit of goodwill and adherence to the social values of the host country; they are required to respect moral ethos of the people they are working with. Within the confines of their 'mission' they may hold functions, according to their social beliefs, but they need to be mindful of the sensitivities of the host people. Expecting that from the US Embassy may be out of place, they behave like the 'Imperial Viceroys' in the countries they exist as described by Eric Morgolis in his book titled American Raj. There is a need that all sections of society in Pakistan - journalists, religious schools, academic circles, and lawyers, other professional groups, civil society, etc - launch a vigorous campaign to tell the Americans and their Zionist masters that such events will neither be allowed, nor tolerated in future.
The writer is a retired brigadier and political analyst.
Posted by: john frum ||
07/31/2011 11:31 ||
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#1
sounds like a Ron Paul advisor
Posted by: Frank G ||
07/31/2011 12:58 Comments ||
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#2
My goodness. Clearly, allowing Pakistani senior officers to retire is a bad idea -- it gives them time to think, which demonstrably they are not good at.
#3
"The writer is a retired brigadier and political analyst conspiracy-theory loon."
FTFY.
Posted by: Barbara ||
07/31/2011 13:57 Comments ||
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#4
Cool story bro, got enough left to sell a pound?
Posted by: S ||
07/31/2011 14:29 Comments ||
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#5
What frightens me is that, apart from one or two individuals, all the retired Pakistani Generals who write articles in the press appear to be stark raving mad.
Posted by: john frum ||
07/31/2011 16:00 Comments ||
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#6
That wacky Paki need more Djooz under his bed...
"The Declaration of Independents: How Libertarian Politics Can Fix What's Wrong With America" by Nick Gillespie and Matt Welch. These incurably upbeat journalists with Reason magazine believe that not even government, try as it will, can prevent onrushing social improvement.
The authors say that the most ossified, sclerotic sectors of American life -- politics and government -- are about to be blown up by new capabilities, especially the Internet, and the public's wholesome impatience that is encouraged by them. More. Faster. Please?
"Think of any customer experience that has made you wince or kick the cat. What jumps to mind? Waiting in multiple lines at the Department of Motor Vehicles. Observing the bureaucratic sloth and lowest-common-denominator performance of public schools, especially in big cities. Getting ritually humiliated going through airport security. Trying desperately to understand your doctor bills. Navigating the permitting process at your local city hall. Wasting a day at home while the gas man fails to show up. These guys are onto something!
Whatever you come up with, chances are good that the culprit is either a direct government monopoly (as in the providers of K-12 education) or a heavily regulated industry or utility where the government is the largest player (as in health care)."
In the 1950s, A&P supermarkets (remember them? You probably don't) had a 75 percent market share. What used to be the General Motors Building near Central Park South has an Apple store where the automobile showroom once was. When Kodak loses customers, it withers. I actually remember my Mom shopping at the A&P.
But when government fails, it expands even faster. This is, Gillespie and Welch say, because "politics is a lagging indicator of change," a sector of top-down traditions increasingly out of step with today's "bottom-up business and culture." Also because of the tendency to throw even more of somebody else's money at the problem. Except NASA.
A generation that has grown up with the Internet "has essentially been raised libertarian," swimming in markets, which are choices among competing alternatives.
And the left weeps.
Preaching what has been called nostalgianomics, liberals mourn the passing of the days when there was one phone company, three car companies, three television networks, and an airline cartel, and big labor and big business were cozy with big government. And two newspapers - one in New York and once in D.C. - not a zillion bloggers. Even HuffPo is a 'big blogger'. More importantly, when all the rest of the newspapers and the big three evening news programs all followed the lead of the one newspaper in New York...
When the Census offered people the choice of checking the "multiracial" category, Maxine Waters, then chairing the Congressional Black Caucus, was indignant: "Letting individuals opt out of the current categories just blurs everything." You can't be both black and white, you gotta be one or the other!
This is the voice of reactionary liberalism: No blurring, no changes, no escape from old categories, spin the world back to the 1950s.
"Declaration of Independents" is suitable reading for this summer of debt-ceiling debate, which has been a proxy for a bigger debate, which is about nothing less than this: What should be the nature of the American regime? America is moving in the libertarians' direction not because they have won an argument but because government and the sectors it dominates have made themselves ludicrous. So The One will ultimately accelerate the change to libertarian? How ironic! I hope so.
The essence of which is the common-sensical principle that before government interferes with the freedom of the individual and of individuals making consensual transactions in markets, it ought to have a defensible reason for doing so.
It usually does not.
Posted by: Bobby ||
07/31/2011 12:58 ||
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A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
