October 7th is the 434th anniversary of the Battle of Lepanto. In 1571 a naval alliance of Christian nations defeated the Turks in the Gulf of Lepanto , just off the southern coast of Greece. KiloEcho4 provides a run-down of that in the context of the Muslim attempt to conquer Europe, back then and today.
Posted by: Steve White ||
10/10/2005 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[2 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
They are the Borg and they want to assimilate us.
#2
Thanks, Steve. Victor David Hanson listed the battle of Le Panto in "Carnage and Culture" as illustrative of why the West will win the clash of cultures.
#3
Excellent read. Truly excellent... But, but, they're our bestest buddies. I'm so confused... Just because they've re-Islamized their Govt and scorned Atatürk's legacy is nothing to worry about, is it? Just because they stabbed us in the back is no reason to be miffed, is it? Just cuz the hammer had no anvil and the Sunnis got a pass enabling them to launch the first wave, the Ba'athist wave, of terror and provide haven and logistics to each wave that has followed is no reason to be petty, is it? Pfeh. Muzzy Turks are wonderful, reliable folks. We have it on solid anonymous sources that they wanna get back on board and use us again. That's a compliment, right? Hell, I always wanted to be a good fuck. And, I never learn shit when I get burned, so I'm for it - where's that hot stove? I'm diving in. Double-Pfeh. I'm just glad I have no strong opinions based upon simple observable facts - that would inhibit my progressive tendencies.
Remember Poitiers, Lepanto, Thermopylae, Fallujah, Qaim, Tal Afar, Ramadi, 9/11, London, (fuck Spain), and the endless list of bloody edges wherever implacable barbaric shit rubs up against civilization. Excellent post, Doc - Thx.
EFL Reg Req. Interesting parallels. Particularly in what the teachers and leaders of our youth teach them.
In an important sense, the British Empire's strength failed because its elite liberal citizens stopped believing in it.
The parallels with 21st-century America are striking. In little more than 10 years, England went from victory in World War I to serious discussions about completely disarming herself. Talk of a "peace dividend" began with the fall of the Berlin Wall and culminated 10 years later with a major draw-down of forces and the abandonment of the two-war doctrine.
Where the Great War robbed England of a generation of its best and brightest, in America the baby boom generation was lost in Vietnam or, perhaps worse, in Canada, in the Air National Guard, and in the universities, where they learned to hide and not lead. This has taken its toll. Our two baby boom presidents have been exceedingly imperfect. (As Edmund Burke once cautioned, "A great empire and little minds go ill together.")
The American left, too, eerily echoes its British counterparts. Consider the "Peace is Patriotic" bumper stickers; the howls of protest against the nomination of John Bolton to be ambassador to the United Nations, for fear that he might be too assertive of American values; the comparison - by Sen. Richard Durbin (D., Ill.) - of American soldiers at Guantanamo Bay to Nazis and Guantanamo Bay to the Soviet gulag; the protest cries of "No blood for oil" and the left-wing fringe speculation that the endgame of George W. Bush's 9/11 fear-mongering would be to cancel elections and establish a fascist police state.
The liberal opponents of the British Empire were proved wrong, but their misplaced disillusionment was enough to sap the vitality of imperial confidence. After rising one last time to fight Nazism, the sun set on the British Empire.
Likewise, it is pleasant to believe that the crisis of confidence in today's liberal elites won't affect the outcome of our war with Islamist extremism. The greater worry concerns what happens next. Will protestations of liberal elites become mainstream diffidence about America's place in the world? Will we, too, stop believing that America stands firm, as a great force for good - and then see our place in the world diminish?
History, it turns out, can be both a comfort and a caution.
#1
The difference is the British knew the advantages of Pax Britania (control of the seas and free trade) would continue under the American Flag. It might hurt the pride but the sealanes would remain open.
And no, I would disagree that those who foresaw the collapse of the Empire were wrong. Britain had no real ability to dominate India or several other parts of its Empire anymore. By their efforts to make those places profitable to Britain, they gave them to tools to make themselves independent. While those places did inherit their British *way*, they were too great to be kept as subordinate states.
Ironically, this set the stage for the model of the next dominant power, the United States. To make it a principal to *not* annex other nations, but to set them up to run themselves, then leave, conserving much of itself in the process. Once the US left a place, leaving it in better shape, with a few exceptions, it could return home and restore its strength.
To turn the comparison on its head, one could say that the Empire died of a thousand cuts, trying to keep up a hundred "Vietnams" of its own around the world. The US may get cut once as it involves itself around the world, but then it withdrawls to heal its wound, before going forth again.
And the US, like Britain, also leaves its *way* in its wake, those other countries often adopting and keeping a better form of government, a wiser public policy, and a more open economy.
Certainly the US expends much treasure to do this, as did Britain before it, but the US does not loot those nations it has invested, it offers them fair trade, and relies on itself to create new treasure.
And while Britain held to the idea of mercantilism, that owning specie, gold and silver, meant that it had power in the world; the US has evolved, not eliminated, the concept.
US mercantilism is that not only are goods, but are services, to be accounted for in determining who is the strongest, and not just in static quantities, but in their *dynamic* use.
A (virtual) dollar bill in circulation anywhere in the world is used for more purposes, in more transactions, by far than any other currency. By dint of its being used, it actually creates a stronger US economy.
Finally, I would point out the most amusing error in the article at all. The assumption that our self-appointed elites are *actually* our elites.
What blue-Staters dominate the debate? Do liberals infest our military? Does the democrat party control Washington as it did in the time of "old Frank"? Are the media elite in ascendency?
It is not the US that is collapsing, it is those who deride the US and call for its collapse.
#4
Pax Britania was not the Empire but the Peace of created because of the overwhelming seapower of the Empire just as the Pax Romana was the peace and stability created by the Romans when they dominated.
I think that my comments are correct. The empire was enabled by the Pax Britania and could have continued under the Pax Americana had the British wished to devote the blood and treasure to doing it.
The US has no empire. We have unquestionably created a Pax Americana so the only Apples to Apples comparisons have to be along those lines.
Recently the refractory city of Fallujah reemerged as a front-page story. Fallujah first leaped to national attention last November when it became the scene of the fiercest urban combat in the past 35 years. During that battle, 100 Marine squads engaged in more than 200 firefights inside small, dark cement rooms against suicidal jihadists. A single such ferocious gunfight between police and gangs anywhere in America would receive overwhelming and immediate press attention. The Marines did that 200 times in one week in Fallujah.
Since then Fallujah has received scant press attention. I was in Fallujah in September, shortly after Pfc. Romano Romero, 19, was killed by a roadside bomb -- the 160th American to die in and around the city since the Iraq war began. The Marines staked out the area and days later shot two Iraqis brazenly placing another explosive device at the same spot. This grueling routine of counterinsurgency did not merit front-page coverage.
Yet Fallujah has suddenly popped back up as major news. Why? Because allegations have emerged that American soldiers beat prisoners there two years ago. The allegations were about beatings, not about torture or murder. At the time of the alleged incidents, in late 2003 and early 2004, violence in Fallujah was escalating. The 1st Battalion of the 505th Parachute Infantry Regiment had suffered 94 casualties inside the city -- one every other day. They warned the Marines who were rotating in that they would be bloodied, because the insurgents were massing.
The paratroopers were right. Over the next nine months, Fallujah grew into the stronghold of the insurgency and the vipers' nest for jihadists infiltrating from Syria. The fighting escalated in ferocity. Among the Marines, acts of courage became common. 1st Sgt. Brad Kasal, for instance, threw his body over a wounded Marine and shot jihadists two feet away. Cpl. Tim Connors, 20, battled inside two adjoining concrete rooms for four hours before killing five jihadists and recovering the body of a fallen squad member. So it went, day after day.
Hundreds of gripping stories of valor emerged that would have been publicized in World War II. Although there are far more heroes than louts in the ranks, stories of the abuses at Abu Ghraib and now at Fallujah vastly outnumber stories of heroism and sacrifice.
Not to take anything away from The Greatest Generation, but the behavior of our soldiers today will stand scrutiny when compared to the performance of those in any past war. The focus of the press on abuse is not due to any relaxation in military discipline or social mores. Why was valor considered front-page news in 1945 and abuse considered front-page news in 2005?...
To subdue hostile cities such as Fallujah, our country needs stout infantrymen such as the Marines and the paratroopers. Fed a steady diet of stories about bad conduct and deprived of models of valor, the youth of America will eventually decline to serve. As the poet Pindar wrote: "Unsung, the noblest deed will die."
Posted by: Fred ||
10/10/2005 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[3 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
There is a really good book out, "Imperial Grunts," by Robert Kaplan that expands on this impressive article.
Kaplan recaps his experiences with those who truly represent the very best implementers of US policy and Democracy. The grunts on the ground in faraway places like Columbia, Mongolia, etc.
This generation does us all proud. God bless them all.
Posted by: Captain America ||
10/10/2005 1:20 Comments ||
Top||
#2
This generation does us all proud. God bless them all. dittos.
Posted by: Red Dog ||
10/10/2005 2:09 Comments ||
Top||
#3
"Hundreds of gripping stories of valor emerged that would have been publicized in World War II. Although there are far more heroes than louts in the ranks, stories of the abuses at Abu Ghraib and now at Fallujah vastly outnumber stories of heroism and sacrifice."
This, coming from one of the prime asshole pseudo-news rags on the planet indisputably guilty of the charge, is just precious. Why didn't you publish the stories of heroism, day in, day out? Because you were too busy buying and selling your own agenda bullshit, demonizing the best of America's best. Because you are history's fools and yesterday's news. Because you are Kool Aid pushers, Moonbat wetnurses, Tranzi whores, and socialist assholes.
Re: Abu BS... To make such a statement, one that you helped make into MSM "truth", a meme for all time among the morons, is to imply what, WaPo? You were just kidding with all the Abu Ghraib BS you published, day after bleeding day, along with your piranha peers? Liars. Cowards. Fools. Tools.
No. Absolutely not. You don't get to come back over the line and disingenuously pretend you weren't in on the fuckwit feeding frenzy. You don't get to put on your innocent clothes now and rejoin the honest people. You're fucked.
I hope you go under and drag every fucking investor and staffer down with you into oblivion. I hope you all end up sleeping on steam grates and fighting over refrigerator boxes. I hope you find the soup kitchens funded by decent Americans closed to you. I hope you find only broken shards of mirrors to look upon your vicious cowardice and self-loathing visages. I hope you die painful, ugly, miserable deaths - utterly alone with the knowledge you deserve none of the freedoms these people died to guarantee to Americans and others. You are separate from us. You are a tumor upon the body of Freedom. You are unworthy of any forgiveness, of any salvation, of any kindness. Your reward lies in Dante's Ninth Abyss of the Eighth Circle of hell where the "Sowers of Discord and Schism" are continually wounded by a demon with a sword.
#4
The writer, a former Marine and former assistant secretary of defense, is the author of "No True Glory: A Firsthand Account of the Battle for Fallujah."
But while the Washington Post is publishing this presumably to "provide balance", and deserves all of .com's colourful invective, the author is one of the good guys.
#5
TS -- you are spot on, the WaPo edition in which this rose was plucked was heavily embedded with thorns. WaPo "balance" ratio is 100 thorns to 1 rose.
Posted by: Captain America ||
10/10/2005 8:59 Comments ||
Top||
#6
The morning after Clark testified to the 9/11 Commission, Clark was to be interviewed live by Good Morning America. So, where did Clarke position himself for the interview?
Across the street from Ground Zero. This guy is an absolute loser.
Com -- not disagreeing with you comments, just adding to them. It is disgusting to see MSM portray Clarke as some terrorist intellect, giving him a spotlight on ABC News and publishing his "hit pieces" on current counter terrorism activities.
Posted by: Captain America ||
10/10/2005 9:08 Comments ||
Top||
#7
.com, I'm requesting permission to re-post your rant at my website, with full credit.
#8
Good comments, folks. Yes, tw - I know he's a good guy... so what's he doing writing articles for the enemy, I wonder...
I was thinking about the NYT article on Clarke... mulling how the NYT came to allow Dickie boy to be so deservedly trashed, fair 'n square... And when I hit this article, well, it crystallized for me.
Good guys should not help these cretins come home. It's a cynical and disingenuous lie - not the article, but that they publish it. Fuck 'em.
By Christmas, 2001, the NYT had dropped all pretense of giving a shit about America or 9/11. The WaPo was close behind. For 4 long years they've given aid and comfort to America's enemies, both foreign and domestic, and to slightly lesser evils, such as simplisme Tranzis, MultiCulti Moral Equivalencers and every other deviant bunch of asstards and criminal yahoos in the zoo.
I condemn them to the fires of The Inferno. They shall not return to the fold. They have done more damage to this country than anyone else on the planet. Just the hurt and demoralization dealt out to our troops is enough, add in all the rest and they deserve whatever perdition we can cook up for them. Enough. Long ago, enough.
#10
.com, I'm requesting permission to memorize your rant.
By the way, IIRC correctly Bing West's son Owen was a recon Marine in OIF.
Posted by: Matt ||
10/10/2005 12:00 Comments ||
Top||
#11
Matt :)
How are you, brother? Where are you? Family intact? Figured out what your future holds? I come and go these days, so I haven't crossed paths with you for awhile and I've been wondering. Give us an update, if you can...
#12
.com, thanks for asking. In a nutshell, I'm OK, my family's OK, and I'm working at our branch office in Jackson, MS. The bad news is that my house flooded big-time. As for the future -- I just dunno at this point.
Posted by: Matt ||
10/10/2005 12:17 Comments ||
Top||
#13
Maybe he's trying to proselytize to the infidels, .com. Every pair of eyes from which the scales fall means that much longer until the Democrats come back to power... and that much less in revenue for the Washington Post and their fellow travellers. ;-)
(Really gorgeous rant, by the way. Today seems to be the day for literary achievement!)
#14
Matt - Excellent news regards the family. I'm very sorry for your material losses, however. Do you think you'll go back to NO, assuming that option becomes available? It's impossible to wear your shoes, friend. My best wishes and regards to you and yours.
tw - I'm not interested in helping enemies survive. Certainly the good guy would be welcome in other venues, such as NYPost, WashTimes, NRO or FrontPageMag. We know WaPo is a bunch of cynical shits, so why help them? I wanna see 'em fold. :)
#15
.com, New Orleans is an equation with about 10,000 variables right now. If the city looked about the way it did when I was growing up there I'd move back in a heartbeat.
Posted by: Matt ||
10/10/2005 14:23 Comments ||
Top||
#16
Matt -- Looks like some openings on the NO police department, provided you can dodge a Hurricane by escaping with a stolen Cadi.
Or, you could brush your teeth and run for Mayor Noggin's job. He's off to Dallas once the Fed's mega-$$ bucks are spent.
Posted by: Captain America ||
10/10/2005 17:02 Comments ||
Top||
#17
If I was younger I move to New Orleans in a heartbeat. Huge labour shortage and a chance to build something new.
#18
I'm not interested in helping enemies survive.
My words must have been unclear. I meant that any WaPost readers who read this op-ed and are touched by the statements, must subsequently come to disbelieve the normal slant of the Post and others like it. And once they disbelieve, why would they keep up the subscription?
#2
That damn greek Dukkakais keeps leaving messages on my machine, inviting me fishing. Damn Greeks and their fishing. As I always say, there's a fine line between fishing and standing on the shore looking like an idiot, Mr. Freak Eyebrows. Call Kennedy, he likes the water.
#3
Wid HILLARY as CO-POTUS - eeerrrrr, VPOTUS, and CHELSEA as future POTUS "LOLITA" LEWINSKY!? Keep a'shootin fer dem dar anti-Dubya impeachment = GOP/Admin Congressional humiliation = Nuke clouds over US cities and Milfors =............@ Left-verified stars, NOT starring GLORIA GAYNOR and her Burqua Boyz/SPamLamists band in "I WILL SURVIVE [NOT DUBYA]".
#4
Wid HILLARY as CO-POTUS - eeerrrrr, VPOTUS, and CHELSEA as future POTUS "LOLITA" LEWINSKY!? Keep a'shootin fer dem dar anti-Dubya impeachment = GOP/Admin Congressional humiliation = Nuke clouds over US cities and Milfors =............@ Left-verified stars, NOT starring GLORIA GAYNOR and her Burqua Boyz/SPamLamists band in "I WILL SURVIVE [NOT DUBYA]".
Please do not submit articles more than once. When you submit one it goes into a queue for moderator approval - the fact that you don't see it on Rantburg immediately doesn't mean we haven't received it, it just means no moderator has been by to approve it yet.
thanks!
By Fazal Amin Beg,
M. Phil (Cultural/Social Anthropology)
The assassination of late Agha Zia ud Din, a prominent religious scholar of the Shia Muslims in Gilgit, Northern Pakistan, led to enormously negative effects and impacts ranging from insecurity to hatred, sufferings in social and kinship relationships between individuals, groups and both communities to the severe economic devastations of all communities in so-called the Northern Areas.
One of the tragic and terrible effects, which is noteworthy, is in terms of severe insecurity and phobia within the clashed religious sects in particular, and others in general. After 8th January 2005, assault on and murder of the late Agha Sahab, the Shia leaders declared and acted upon by the followers to take the revenge by killing one Sunni on 8th of every month. In reaction, the Sunni leaders also responded reciprocally. Such terrible circumstances led to a worse and inhuman tradition that took, according to press information, almost 76 lives of the Sunni and Shia Muslims: almost equal number of murder (50%) for each of them.
Here comes the question that to what extent, being a human and a creature of God, the Almighty, we are authoritative and dominant? Are we supposed to take the decisions on behalf of Allah? Have we been created for the purpose of killing each other? Is there any religion that instigates and directs its followers to opt for such malignant actions? The answer for the last two questions, of course, is totally in negative.
With regard to the doctrines of Islam, it is very much crystal clear. The word Islam comes out of salama in Arabic, for peace and protection, humility, humbleness, caring and love. We rightly claim for Islam but very negatively act, going on the way of cursed ones and astray (maghzub and zaleen and not ghayr al maghzub and wa la zaleen)âforgetting the core values of this universal religion depicted even within its name, Islam, let aside the deepest and most extensive teachings. When we quote from Quraân and recite Surat al-Fatiha that Allah is the Rab il-alamin, the Lord of the Worlds, then conversely why do we present clearly by confining Him to rab il-Muslimeen, Lord of the Muslims? Again, within the diverse Muslim communities, we have further confined and bifurcated Allah as rab il-Sunnite and rab il-Shiite, the Lord of the Sunni and Shia Muslims only. Thus, we give and continue our verdicts, to each, and others besides Muslims, as kafir, infidels or unbelievers. We pray to God: strengthen us on sirat al-mustaqeem, the right path, of those whom Thou hast blessed, and not of those whom Thou hast cursed upon.
Evaluating ourselves against the above cited verses of the Holy Quraâan, it becomes explicit that we have left the path of the blessed ones and have chosen of the cursed ones, as our deeds are in contrast rather than consonance with the Islamic doctrines. When our deeds are so then how we can claim for a Muslim or Momin? The question regarding deeds concerns not only among these rival Muslim communities in Gilgit but rather in the entire Muslim world. Rather than promoting pluralism in different perspectives, we have opted for the singularity in this regard. Such phenomenon has contributed harshly and terribly towards the âdivide and rule policyâ within and out of the Muslim world.
Doctrinally, being Muslim we are aware that killing one person, especially the innocent one, is equal killing the entire humanity. Killing of one Muslim in the hands of other Muslim is haram, illegitimate. In the words of Hazrat Firdouisi: meyozor muri ki donah kash ast, ki jon dorad u jon e shirin khush ast: donât kill even an ant because it possesses life and life is sweet and God gifted. Hazrat Saâdi Shirazi very eloquently and beautifully describes the significances of human and humanity:
Bani Odan aâzoy e yek digardand Ki dar ofarinash zi yek gohrand
Chu âuzwi be dard owarad ruzgor Digar âuzwho ro ne monad qaror
Agar tu zi minat e digaron bighami Neshoyad ki nomat nahand odami
Human beings are just like the organs of a body, because their creation is from a single essence. When an organ comes under pain, the entire body feels it and becomes restless. If you neglect other personsâ difficulties and problems, you may not be termed as human.
Even though, being Muslims, we have neglected these gems, but still we are not too late and it is the right time to ponder again and again over the great teachings of Islam and make them part of our practices through logic rather than learning them by rote. God is well aware of our intentions, objectives and deeds. We need to correct ourselves as individuals rather than imposing our opinions on others. This also holds true for the entire humanity. We need to create linkages within and out of the Muslim communities by embracing and practicing the great values of Islam by respecting the human rights, human-love, tolerance, honesty, purity, Islamic brotherhood, universal/human fraternity, and taking great revenges by forgiving enemies or rivals.
The current earthquake of very high intensity, which took thousands of lives dead in the northern Pakistan but leaving comparatively minor effects in the Northern Areas, is again a great blessing on the peoples of this region. So, we must repent time and again on our ill-wills and ill-deeds: it was an alarm for us to be cautious now and next. Otherwise, Godâs anger is there, and His punishment without sound, but in seconds, shall be very much devastating, if we continue to act malignantly with our fellow human beings.
#1
Gilgit is actually part of Kashmir that was illegally annexed by Pakistan.
They do not consider it part of "azad kashmir" and it has been run by military governors since partition.
The late dictator Zia Ul Haq organized a pogrom on some of the Shia population. He had a SSG officer lead an arab tribal lashkar of afghan war veterans . They killed may shias.
That officer was Pervez Musharraf. The lashkar was led by Osama bin Laden.
Zia paid for this with his life. A shia air force officer destroyed his transport plane, killing Zia and the US ambassador.
Posted by: john ||
10/10/2005 17:22 Comments ||
Top||
#2
A shia air force officer destroyed his transport plane, killing Zia and the US ambassador.
wow john, I missed that one..I've read several accounts, all different?, one account in particular was that a fresh crate of mangoes that was loaded on the C-130 at Bahawalpur, just before take off, and that it had a little suprise in it?
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.
Recently the refractory city of Fallujah reemerged as a front-page story. Fallujah first leaped to national attention last November when it became the scene of the fiercest urban combat in the past 35 years. During that battle, 100 Marine squads engaged in more than 200 firefights inside small, dark cement rooms against suicidal jihadists. A single such ferocious gunfight between police and gangs anywhere in America would receive overwhelming and immediate press attention. The Marines did that 200 times in one week in Fallujah.
