Bellowing the truth from high atop the rightwing soapbox.
Wednesday, June 13
Reading Assignment
Steven Metz has written a lengthy piece on the effectiveness of counterinsurgencies and insurgencies themselves. If you have the time, skim it.
Jonah Goldberg makes a bold statement that we shouldn't have public schools at all. Evidence shows that even though less money is spent per student in private schools, they always achieve better results. Watch out for the bottles flying from the teachers' unions, Jonah.
The New York Post displays another military victim of Democrats' politicking: General Peter Pace. Competition or Monopoly? That's a question Walter Williams is asking when it comes to school choice. "What's wrong with parents having the right, along with the means, to enroll their children in schools of their choice?" Good question.
The Pentagon has confirmed that it sought to build a "Gay Bomb." It would supposedly turn our enemies into fairies and "make them more interested in sex than fighting." This may be a super (pronounced with a lisp) idea to some, but killing our rivals is probably more effective. And there are only 72 female virgins in Paradise, not male.
Rush Limbaugh aired this little diddy of Al Gore criticizing President G.H.W. Bush on his friendly relationship with "ruthless" Saddam Hussein.
Commander of 1/5 Cavsays that more alQaeda were killed or captured in Amiriyah during the past week and had been in the six months prior. Also, near Haifa Street, Colonel Roberts of the 2/1 BCT of the 1st Cavnotes that there was a 60 percent drop in attacks in the Karkh district from January and sectarian murders is down 94 percent from the same time. Sounds like we're really losing the battle. How about we start listening to the men on the ground and not the politicians in Washington?
Authorities are investigating Iranian ties to the JFK plot to destroy a fuel pipeline that the attackers were hoping would be more devastating than 9/11. One of the men arrested in the plot was attempting to pick up an Iranian visa so that he could attend an Islamic conference in Iran. Steven Emersen says that this doesn't look like the work of alQaeda, but of a Shia terror group. It's important to remind ourselves that Osama bin Laden is not the only enemy America has. Though there is a commonality among our foes: the practice of Islamic extremism.
Here's a plot that didn't get much press. On January 4, 2007, federal prosecutors in Chicago indicted Rockford, Illinois resident Derrick Shareef (a.k.a. TalibAbuSalamIbnShareef) on one count of attempting to damage or destroy a building by fire or explosion and one count of attempting to use a weapon of mass destruction." His target: CherryVale Shopping Center in Rockford, Illinois, a mall of about 130 stores. He was also living with a man indicted on terrorism and espionage charges in March. Give it a look.
Along with Iran aiding Shia militiamen in Iraq, a senior U.S. diplomat has accused the nation with supplying Taliban insurgents in Afghanistan with weapons and funding insurrections across the Middle East. It seems abundantly true that they are operating under the rule, "The enemy of my enemy is my friend." The Undersecretary of State did not directly accuse the Iranian government. I hesitantly agree with Senator Lieberman's comment: “I think we’ve got to be prepared to take aggressive military action against the Iranians to stop them from killing Americans in Iraq and to me, that would include a strike … over the border into Iran, where we have good evidence that they have a base at which they are training these people coming back into Iraq to kill our soldiers.” It's dangerous, but worth considering. Satellite imagery has also linked Iran to an attack in Karbala, Iraq.
I shouldn't be shocked. This coming from a man who already said we have lost the war in Iraq.
Top US congressional Democrats bluntly told President George W. Bush Wednesday that his Iraq troop "surge" policy was a failure.
For those who don't keep track of such important matters, the surge, as laid out by General Keane and Frederick Kagan is "possible only with a surge of at least 30,000 combat troops lasting 18 months or so. Any other option is likely to fail."
As well, General Petraeus, the commander of forces in Iraq, says that the surge will begin once all forces have entered. The fifth brigade has finally arrived and the plan to surge the city with troops and quell the violence by meeting and greeting Iraqi families and working along side the Iraqi Police and Army should start this week.
Our fearless leaders in Congress say that "the last two months of the war were the deadliest to date for US troops." This is to be expected because of the amount of soldiers in the area and the operations being conducted. No longer are soldiers living mainly on bases, but among the Iraqis and with the IP's an IA.
The only thing we've lost in this war is our backbone.
General Petraeus has some things to say about the U.S. Surge.
The fifth and final brigade and its Marine counterparts should be ready shortly. Don't forget that the plan laid out is 18 months long. It begins when the entire surge force arrives.
In the first half of May, the IA increased in operational personnel 14,000 troops, or 12 percent. The San Francisco Chronical reported that "there will be an all time high of over 200,000 troops at end-year: In the Iraqi Army."
I finished up Senator Santrorum's It Takes a Family. Good book. It's a mandatory read for social conservatives and those who believe that a nation of morals and a foundation of values is better than value-neutral teaching. Thankfully, it wasn't as religious as I had expected.
Next up, I'll be reading Christopher Hitchens' A Long Short War: The Postponed Liberation of Iraq to counter the next three books I'll be tearing through: Understanding Iraq, Blood Money, and Blind Into Baghdad. I'll be taking an Iraq War class this summer, so I'm researching neoconservative excuses for nationbuilding and oil profiteering. Unfortunately, few books are written about the nitty gritty details of our involvement, so I'll have to settle with books which justify our actions.
Robert Kagan, co-author of the surge, discusses presidential candidates' rhetoric regarding the Iraqi's at 'fault' for the expected level of progress in the country. He notes that Iraqis didn't invite al Qaeda, nor do suicide bombings ignite at the hands of the nation's citizens. He ends it on a realistic note:
Defeat will be no more tolerable in January 2009 than it is now. And it won't matter whom we try to blame.
Michael Kinsley whines that there is a war against those who want to defund troops and end the war. Why shouldn't there be? Those who are using the power of the purse to end the cashflow to our men and women in the field should be criticized. They voted to begin it. They should vote to win it.
Members of the 'religion of peace' have plotted again to destroy innocent infidels inside the U.S. I'm interested to find out what their legal status was and how the government figured out the plot. As for credit for stopping the plot, none will go to the administration and its efforts to fight our enemies.
I've only been in small parts of Iraq and a small part of Afghanistan, but I've seen enough to know that while the Iraq effort is awash with money but lacking in men, the war in Afghanistan is being fought on a shoestring in terms of both. There will be about 155,000 U.S. troops in Iraq when the U.S. buildup is complete, but there are only about 27,000 U.S. troops in Afghanistan, a country larger in both geography and population. A massive concrete blast wall in Iraq is a mere mud wall in Afghanistan.
Agreed. More troops for OIF and OEF. And to think that Democrats voted to withold needed bucks from this war too.
After a month hiatus, I'm back with plenty of rants.
Let's begin...
Not only is Mars under attack from our emissions, Neptune, now the furthest planet from Earth, is under assault from Global Warming. Funny, if you look at the rise in the amount of solar radiance and UV flux proxy, it looks similar to that of Neptune's and Earth's.
Kevin Ferris reports on General Barry McCaffrey's (liberals' 3rd favorite military man - 1 being Benedict Arnold and 2 being General Wesley Clark) support for Generals Petraeus and Ordierno and our troops who are "phenomenally courageous and competent." He says that conditions could definitely be worse than they are now and February is a more honest time for surge measurement, not September.
Ralph Peters, a favorite of mine, says our surge is the right idea, but it is something that should have been done a long while ago. Great read on the strategies of the warring sides. I share his frustration of our weakness.
Jobs and Gates have a sit-down at All Things Digital. Nothing Special. Though, his Zune zinger got a chuckle.
As most know, I'm a big Simpsons fan. But I was pretty turned off by Season 18, Episode 4's mockery of our soldiers. I'm all for a gag and punch every once in a while, but Groening and gang took it a little far. They showed the recruiters as deceiving, the soldiers as morons, and in the end offered surrender with Lisa quipping "You should have known you can't win against a local opposition." Bad form.
Michigan State House Democrats are pushing to "invest" in children's future by giving them what they really need: iPods. They save lives, and that may be helpful in Detroit. Just an idea.
Wondering how I feel about the cold and Global Warming? The photo says it all ... So does the movie The Day After Tomorrow. The increase in Earth's temperature has decreased the Earth's temperature!
In D.C., people tie wishes to the cherry blossoms. Here's a list of what people are actually hoping against hopes for. Fun read.
I wish for large amounts of peach pie and ice cream. Oh, and not to be so pale and to get a tan. Also, I'm rather hungry.
I wish I was a superhero like Captain America. Except he's dead. So I guess Thor.
I wish I could get a beautiful wife
I wish www.freelaptop.com is real so that I can get a free laptop.
Regarding a possible lack of funds: "I can tell you from over here, it's going to have an immediate impact in the sense that the Multi-National Security Transition Command-Iraq element that we have is charged with building, equipping, helping to develop the Iraqi security forces, and that is going to have an impact on them. Now to what degree? You know, we can get into a lot more specifics, but they are already starting to feel the effects of not having this funding." Also, "at the current moment, because of this lack of funding, MNSTC-I is unable to continue at the pace they were in the developmental process of the Iraqi security forces."
Regarding the ISF: "I've been here almost a year now. And I can tell you that from a year ago when I first got here to now, and I'm out, you know, every week someplace, having the ability to get out and go around the country -- that, you know, they continue to get better all the time."
Sounds to me the leadership on the ground is pessimistic and ready to redeploy its forces.
Here's a fun fact: Two thirds of the Guardsmen to be deployed to aid in General Petraeus' surge have not served in Iraq. Of the remaining one third, only small percentage have served two tours.
If this is stretched thin, with one tour for every two to three years, I just don't know how we pulled off previous wars with deployments lasting two to five years without the technological advances we have today.
Senator Carl Levin, Chairman of the Armed Services Committee, has released a declassified report of the DOD Inspector General on the review of some pre-war activities. Very interesting.
Pages 5 and 6 lay out the high-level contacts between alQaeda and Iraq between 1990 and 2002.
"Basis of [enemy] Operation: The Enemy of My Enemy is My Friend" ... along with motives and a quid pro quo.
Want to remember why we entered the fight without the war-for-oil conspiracy nonsense? Take a trip in the way-back machine. Unfortunately, some of the good stuff is still blacked out.
Pre-war intel findings:
More than a decade of numerous contacts
Multiple areas of cooperation
Shared anti-US goals and common bellicose rhetoric; i.e. Unique in calling for killing of Americans and praising 9/11
Shared interest and pursuit of WMD
Well worth the short read. Be aware: some of the claims made pre-war were later discredited.
"From the moment of our arrival, I could sense that things were different. Gen. David Petraeus met us at the airport, and, instead of boarding helicopters to the Green Zone, we drove into town. I hadn't done this since my first trip several years ago.
"We were briefed on the progress of the surge of U.S. and Iraqi forces into Baghdad. For the first time, U.S. and Iraqi forces have set up dozens of joint security stations throughout this city. They live at these stations and patrol together for weeks at a time. While the fight is far from over, violence is down in large parts of Baghdad. We saw the progress for ourselves."
And here's something that blew me away:
"While we were instructed to leave our bulletproof vests on, Gen. Petraeus took off his helmet and urged us to leave our helmets in the vehicles."
That's a line between confident and crazy I may be hesitant to cross.
Kimberly Kagan has posted the third installment of The Iraq Report. She discusses the rise of alQaeda in the alAnbar Province and how their presence is dwindling due to successful counterinsurgency efforts, even pre-surge. The importance of a joint mission has led to locals ratting out the enemy for the safety of their neighbors, along with that of Iraqi Security Forces and U.S. troops. As well:
Due to the latest Baghdad Security Plan, a "Ramadi sheiks' recruitment drive had ... produced 4,500 new policemen, where previously there had only been 300." And "the major police recruiting drives forced alQaeda further out of Ramadi."
"Anbar is like the American West in the 1870s. Security will come to towns in Anbar as it came to Tombstone--by the emergence of tough, local sheriffs with guns, local power and local laws."
Deaths in Baghdad are at the lowest rate in more than a year.
"al Sadr's ... absence [from Iraq] has encouraged subordinates and earlier rivals to move in on his turf ... It's clear that he does not control the organization."
General Caldwell says that Iraqi Security Forces are becoming "more capable literally almost every week as they continue their operations" in Operation Enforcing thee Law. "Caldwell pointed to a decrease in the number of sectarian murders and assassinations, a reduction in the number of car bombs, and a diminished capability for insurgent elements to move within the city."
Apple isn't great only because it makes products that piss off Greenpeace. It's products are saving lives in the War on Terror.
A soldier from the 3rd Infantry Division was shot in the chest by an Iraqi insurgent's AK-47. Luckily, he had a 20gbiPod in the way of his body armor, possibly preventing the round from shattering his IBA plate. The enemy was eliminated.
