#8
While stationed there, I met many fine Turks - and a few real dickwads.
Recent leadership (Dems on our side exporting "social justice" by poisoning our military, immoderate Islamists on theirs) has assisted in souring the well.
That TU seems to be aligning themselves with Iran and Russia is especially disquieting.
[Breitbart] NEW YORK ‐ H.R. McMaster, President Trump’s embattled national security adviser, labeled the September 11, 2001, Islamic terrorist attacks "mass murder attacks," instead of calling them acts of terrorism.
McMaster made the comments during a Tuesday event at the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) marking the 70th anniversary of the National Security Council (NSC).
He was addressing the expansion of the NSC from about fifty members in the 1960s, when it was run by Henry Kissinger, another CSIS speaker, to its current size of more than 360 employees.
"What has contributed to the growth over time, as well, from 50 or so to 167 is the emphasis on homeland security, especially after the mass murder attacks on our country on September 11, 2001," McMaster stated.
McMaster was referring to about 167 policy workers at the NSC, which he explained employs about 360 people.
"We have made a conscious effort to reduce the size of the staff and to make sure that form follows function. As we devolve responsibilities back to departments and agencies, as we get out of, really, management of tactical issues, then we are able to reduce. So we have reduced significantly the numbers of policy people and overall staff. It was over four hundred or so at its peak. We are down to about 360-something now. That sounds like a lot. Of those 360, it’s really about 160 to 170 policy people.
#4
Substituting McMaster for Flynn was, IMO, mandarinate's most brilliant strike.
Posted by g(r)omgoru
Flynn was an archenemy of the Klingon puppet masters and Deep State long before Donald Trump was thought about as President. McMaster is an alleged protégé of David Petraeus. That should tell you something about his intentions.
As an aside, think for a moment where General Petraeus would be today if not for Paul Broadwell. When things got hot, where did Broadwell go ?
Following the revelations about her relationship with Petraeus, Broadwell had retained the services of former Clinton Press Secretary Dee Dee Myers[50] with the public relations firm The Glover Park Group. The founders of the group had previously served as officials in the Clinton White House and on the presidential campaign of former Vice President Al Gore.Wiki
#5
Gotta wonder what changed McMaster after his initial career of being counter to the DC people, starting with his masters thesis about VietNam, and his decisive and realist actions as a unit commander.
#6
Gotta wonder what changed McMaster after his initial career of being counter to the DC people, starting with his masters thesis about VietNam, and his decisive and realist actions as a unit commander.
[WAPO] It’s a specter that should stalk the nightmares of Republican leaders: a Senate chamber, packed on Christmas Eve, as lawmakers gather to decide the fate of a tax package that will shape the GOP’s political fortunes. The bill remains one vote shy, and then Sen. John McCain walks in, pauses before the desk, and delivers his second thumbs-down dagger of the year.
For that reason, the Arizona Republican, who is fighting a public battle with brain cancer, will be among his party’s most closely watched as the year winds down and the tax debate gears up. Yet over his decades in public life, McCain has traced a zigzagging line on the subject, leaving little clear indication of how he’ll approach a potentially decisive vote. A look at the senator's record on taxes shows that three things seem most important to him: public debate, some help for the middle class, and not exploding the deficit.
The senator's vote matters because with a 52-seat majority, Republicans can't afford more than two defections (Vice President Pence could push the package over the line in the event if a tie).
#3
Envy of people who actually win presidential elections is a terrible thing.
Posted by: Tom ||
10/13/2017 6:18 Comments ||
Top||
#4
Another Arlen Specter. Seeing the lost of standing Arlen got for dumping the party, McCain stays and keeps the chairs and seniority perks in the Trunk Party. Kick him out.
#7
His colleagues in the Senate might become collateral damage. Voters are fed up and disgusted. The resulting climate has already led Corker to retire. This could be 2010 all over again, and McCain will have his share of the blame.
#8
Tax 'reform' changes are typically done in early November in order to insure the IRS, then tax software companies, incorporate those changes into the current year. Why should I bother going to next month's tax seminar when the changes for 2017 haven't even been done?
[THE HILL] ISIS’s reign of terror is rapidly coming to an end. Within a matter of days, the jihadist menace that shocked the world for years with its pathological sadism will lose its final strongholds within the Syrian city of Raqqa. It has taken 5 months of bloody struggle but the de facto capital of the Islamic State will soon be entirely in the hands of the U.S.-backed Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF).
Across the border in Iraq, the process of rebuilding the devastated city of Mosul is underway after its liberation from the so-called caliphate in July. There are still areas of ISIS control in both Iraq and Syria, but the jihadists have lost over 60 percent of the territory they once held. Their sources of funding are drying up, hostile forces surround them, and ISIS can no longer count on tens of thousands of recruits to flood into Syria to replenish their ranks.
If the Islamic State’s fanatics were running an actual state instead of a glorified death cult, they would be negotiating terms for surrender and laying down their arms already.
The U.S. and its allies have effectively beaten the Islamic State. While the process has been slow and riddled with setbacks and restarts, this is a substantial accomplishment. In 2014, ISIS seized Mosul in a blitzkrieg and was threatening to march on the Kurdish city of Erbil.
On the Syrian front, the world was faced with the lose-lose choice of a collapsing Assad regime and an ascendant ISIS. Now, ISIS’s leadership is on the run, and its fighters are surrendering by the hundreds. Not every militant wants to be among the last suicide bombers for a crumbling caliphate.
To be sure, the anti-ISIS campaign is not over yet, and will continue at a lesser level throughout 2018. On the Iraqi side of the border, there are still pockets of ISIS control such as Hawija to the north of Baghdad, and the region in and around al Qaim on the Iraq-Syria border. In Syria, there are still considerable pieces of territory in the center and east of the country where ISIS retains control. But barring a highly unlikely battlefield reversal, ISIS as a state building enterprise is in its death throes.
For those near the frontlines of Iraq and Syria, there will be little if any time for celebration. A prolonged counterinsurgency operation will be necessary to keep the pressure on remnants of ISIS, and recent history shows that mass casualties attacks will threaten the region long after the black banners of Jihad have been taken down from every town center. And with Kurdish independence looming in Iraq, and a resurgent, Iran and Russia-backed Assad regime in Syria, there are plenty of ways the security situation could rapidly deteriorate apart from ISIS activity.
As for the Islamic State’s next steps, it will likely turn to its affiliates around the globe, from Nigeria to the Philippines, hoping for another Jihadist break out. While the concept of an “Islamic State” built upon conquest and terror has taken a hit with the ongoing elimination of ISIS, it is only a matter of time before Islamic hardliners overthrow a regime and enforce a hyper-militant form of Islamic supremacy again.
The U.S. and its allies must do everything in their power to avert that outcome. As we assess lessons learned from ISIS’s rise to power, with its wreckage of two countries and hundreds of thousands of casualties, we are forced to face up to major mistakes of the past.
The Obama White House’s first foreign policy priorities were an at-all-costs Iran deal, and avoiding unfavorable comparisons to Bush-era interventions. Those domestic political calculations came at the price of many lives lost in Iraq and Syria.
After years of half-measures and failures, President Obama found a pathway to roll back ISIS in the latter half of his second term. It was the Trump administration that seized the opportunity and accelerated the anti-ISIS fight so there would be no more delays. Now, the caliphate’s days are truly numbered.
The civilized world has won this battle against the Islamic State, but it is part of a much larger, multi-generational war. Until radical Islam is eradicated in the Middle East and beyond, all celebrations of victory will be temporary, and all advances against jihad subject to reversal.
Posted by: Fred ||
10/13/2017 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[8 views]
Top|| File under: Islamic State
#1
Now consider the casualties incurred in destroying ISIS over the last few months and compare them to the casualties and horrors caused by ISIS since Hillary et. al. created them. ISIS didn't have the free time to think up and execute their usual horrors about as soon as they were set back on tbeir heels, and it was all downhill for them from there.
For those who act to protract war for whatever reason: Observe and learn.
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.
[WAPO] It’s a specter that should stalk the nightmares of Republican leaders: a Senate chamber, packed on Christmas Eve, as lawmakers gather to decide the fate of a tax package that will shape the GOP’s political fortunes. The bill remains one vote shy, and then Sen. John McCain walks in, pauses before the desk, and delivers his second thumbs-down dagger of the year. 
[THE HILL] ISIS’s reign of terror is rapidly coming to an end. Within a matter of days, the jihadist menace that shocked the world for years with its pathological sadism will lose its final strongholds within the Syrian city of Raqqa. It has taken 5 months of bloody struggle but the de facto capital of the Islamic State will soon be entirely in the hands of the U.S.-backed Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF).
