Benghazi: the Obama hens prepare to cluck, cluck, cluck

14 responses to “Benghazi: the Obama hens prepare to cluck, cluck, cluck”

1. Justin

   September 9, 2013 at 10:20 pm

   Libertybelle?

   I and “some friends” it now appears have to acknowledge and express a sincere, “Thank you.”

   “Er, what’s that you say Justin? You’ve lost me, thank me for what?”

   September 2nd Dip had a post up titled, ‘Congress: Vote NO on Syria Attack” and you came on and posted

   ‘I found it odd that GEN Jack Keane repeated almost verbatim the points that Institute for the Study of War senior analyst, Elizabeth O’Bagy, presented in a recent WSJ article and also on Fox news. Glanced through ISW and found out that GEN Keane is the “Chairman of ISW’s board” and instrumental in its founding. Then I came across a Syrian Emergency Task Force group and lo’ and behold Ms. Bagy is listed as the “political director” or this resistance movement. I have a purely amateur blog http://www.libertybellediaries.com … and I wrote about this obvious conflict of interest if Ms O’Bagy is supposed to be an unbiased analyst and GEN Keane, one would hope, would be well-versed in being used by groups with foreign agendas. Spent most of my life as an Army wife and homemaker, no professional background whatsoever …’

   hollyasburySeptember 3, 2013 at 10:03 AM

   Prior to that, though I’d seen Mrs. “O’Bagy” (which name so far as I’ve looked in Irish phonebooks appears unlisted) I never gave a thought to. And, truth be told – had you not typed ‘libertybelle’ at the end, I almost certainly would not have paid much attention to Mrs. O’Bagy after.

   But when I indulged my curiosity (having taken a little break) and found the Georgetown edu thingy – well, let’s just say a “whole new world” opened up.

   The Internet is a wonderful thing and so is: “a purely amateur Army wife and homemaker [with] no professional background whatever.”

   Incidentally, prior to that, it looked like Obama was likely to have the whole lot of Democratic Senators solidly behind him essentially making the Senate a “Gimme” but then:

   http://www.arktimes.com/ArkansasBlog/archives/2013/09/07/us-sen-mark-pryor-opposes-military-action-against-syria

   Thank you LibertyBelle.

   (I doubt you’ll be receiving the Presidential Medal of Freedom, nor for that matter a Nobel Peace Prize – I figure Vlad has a lock on the latter – so we figured to give you the Internet Equivalent.)

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   • hollyasbury

     September 9, 2013 at 11:10 pm

     Thanks Justin, but truly, I am always amazed at how the new, cut and paste generation borrow everything and vet very little. It’s the same way I told my kids that wikipedia is garbage, even though it shows up prominently on top in search engines (by design, I believe) and real encyclopedias don’t even show up at all, unless you do some specialized searching. And just about everyone accepts wikipedia information as factual. I was just wondering who this woman was, that’s all. You want to hear something else that’s scary- is how politicians, journalists and the public at large accept everything these retired generals/paid military analysts spout. No one has the guts to call bullshit – when some of them spout crap that is total nonsense. Sure, a few are honest and very knowledgeable, but way too many of them are reliable political hacks. That crap mission that McChrystal came up with sounded more like a missionary than a military mission and at the same time he and Petraeus were insisting on overly restrictive rules of engagement, which put our troops at risk – all to avoid bad PR situations. And then Petraeus and his band of “coinistas” wanted to push their counterinsurgency ideas and rewrite Army doctrine to their whimsical views all based on their hype. I kind of think we’re better if we include it as part of a larger doctrinal messkit – not as the whole shebang. Anyway, back to this Ms O’Bagy, well, I emailed my friend, Gladius Maximus, the day before I wrote my blog post and told him I thought it odd about her connections to this Syrian resistance group. A couple days after my blog post I saw Bryan Preston at PJ Media posted stuff about her too (http://pjmedia.com/tatler/2013/09/05/why-do-john-kerry-and-john-mccain-believe-that-syrias-rebels-are-mostly-moderate/). As far as my blog – Gladius encouraged me to write and I’m just getting the hang of this blogging and I really enjoy writing – still not too confident about it yet. I keep telling Gladius to let me know if what I write sounds stupid. I appreciate your praise and recommending my blog to other people – not sure my writing is ready for a wider audience though.

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     • Justin

       September 10, 2013 at 5:19 am

       You’ll be fine. I believe you’ve fine instincts. Do not draw in your wings. Sure there’ll be slings and arrows and sometimes you’ll be wrong – but when you do find yourself wrong, don’t spin … dig in and see where the track was lost, get back on it and forge ahead.

       There’s a tax in my state that occasionally (nowadays ever more frequently … admittedly mostly by Republicans) comes up for review on whether to abolish it – the common-sense knowledge being “Well technology has enlightened us and we no longer require such infrastructure.” The tax in question being The (Dreaded) Library Tax. “Who needs books? That’s so old-fashioned!”

       Call old fogey but if the powers-that-be would decree “No computers in education until Sophomore in college” and/or require that by 10th grade every student has a working knowledge of what’s listed in the back of the book authored by E.D. Hirsch Cultural Literacy we’d all be the better for it.

       Yes. When Stanley put on his ‘Genius Glasses’ and came up with that nonsensical nonsense – it taking a whole heaping pile to qualify as ‘nonsensical nonsense’ – I was reminded of Henry Kissinger’s quip, “We must take care not to confuse covert action with missionary work.”

       Petraeus’ (obvious now) influence on Obama is what led me to recently post on Dip’s site what I was happy to read on yours you admired – Sun Tzu’s:

       “Strategy without tactics is the slowest road to victory while tactics without strategy is the noise before defeat.”

       Carry on.
2. Able

   September 10, 2013 at 12:59 pm

   “not sure my writing is ready for a wider audience though.”

   Wordsmiths, no matter how hard they struggle to ‘produce’, never fully understand the impossibility for some of us to do the same. To express a concept, a theory, a feeling or a belief in an understandable manner is beyond some of us.

   Even in face-to-face discussions I struggle to present an argument (I like to use the excuse it’s because my brain works infinitely faster than my mouth so you’ll only hear the beginning, the end and the odd word selected at random as my mouth struggles to keep up, instead of the clear, concise, logical and flowing script that is happening in my head. I have been accused of being an ‘intellectual kangaroo’ as my statements seem to jump disjointedly across random topics. It’s just because the linking argument doesn’t make from my cerebrum to my frontal lobe before it’s pushed out of the way by the next ‘exciting instalment’). Even then I constantly use quotes from books, research and even films, because there’ s always someone who has said what I mean better than I could (I won’t mention my penchant for using song lyrics as I promised to ‘try’ and stop doing that).

   You have that ability, forget ‘looking foolish’ (do you really care what anonymous idiots like me think anyway?), there is no foolish (see a quote is coming – I did warn you)

   “Here’s to the crazy ones, the misfits, the rebels, the troublemakers, the round pegs in the square holes… the ones who see things differently — they’re not fond of rules… You can quote them, disagree with them, glorify or vilify them, but the only thing you can’t do is ignore them because they change things… they push the human race forward, and while some may see them as the crazy ones, we see genius, because the ones who are crazy enough to think that they can change the world, are the ones who do”

   Steve Jobs

   I read the blogs, in part, because of my past/present circumstances (Justin can give you a very potted history). I’ve always struggled to find others as interested (or even vaguely so) in learning, being informed and discussing topics I find interesting and/or important (or being allowed/daring to do so). It’s only since venturing onto the interweb (thingy) that I’ve learnt that I’m not just a lonely, strange misfit (well not ‘that’ strange – I think I look good in a deerstalker), there are a whole lot of us out there.

   So from all perspectives I’ll be including your blog on my list of ‘must read’, but do you do it for the response? To be agreed with, lauded? I’d guess you do it because you have knowledge or opinion you wish to share, nothing more, and it’s a great deal easier to find ‘like-minded souls’ who wish to hear/debate/discuss that opinion on the web than in the local mall/coffee shop (that and being banned from the deli because you ‘slow up the queue’ discussing economic theories, like me, isn’t a factor).

   Will there be the odd insult or vile calumny thrown your way? Of course, I don’t blog but if I don’t get called a rampant (why is it always rampant?) misogynist/racist/homophobe/militant/bigot/sexist/fascist at least once a day I feel I let myself down. Will I agree with you always? Not a chance but I promise to limit my responses in such cases to polite questions (and the odd Terry Pratchett quote or Led Zepellin lyric).

   So keep up the good work

   (And yes, in case you’re wondering, it took me 27 attempts, 18 cups of coffee and a long lie down/banging my head against the wall session to ‘write’ this, and it still doesn’t say what I wanted it to say 😦 – Oh, and I’ve already quoted you at least twice)

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   • hollyasbury

     September 10, 2013 at 7:27 pm

     “(I won’t mention my penchant for using song lyrics as I promised to ‘try’ and stop doing that)”

     Able, Thanks for taking the time to read my blog. Honesty demands that first off, guilt propelled me to look up who Terry Pratchett is, since you’ve mentioned him twice in our short acquaintance and I had no clue. Upon realizing he writes fantasy novels, a genre I assiduously avoid, my guilt eased somewhat. One of my sons raves about fantasy novels and he has chatted for over a decade with some wanna be fantasy writers and even some published ones, like Holly Lisle, at some chatroom online. Surely, somewhere out there lie some undiscovered fantasy novels that I would just love, but I’m not looking for them, so maybe by chance they’ll find me. My ex-son-in-law, long ago, decided he wanted to be a fantasy writer too and for once in my life I made a good call upon being asked to read his first few chapters and offer an opinion. I pleaded complete ignorance of that type of story, so my son volunteered to suffer through it. Naturally, he insisted on reading many of the worst parts out loud to me. Long story short, my ex-son-in-law has not pursued a writing career, but at least he penned a few chapters, which is more than I have done, despite talking about wanting to write for many years.

     My dream is to write historical romance novels and here I am writing political and cultural commentary, but at least I’m actually writing something other than ponderously long emails to my long-suffering friends and family:-) Men always make a quick escape at the mention of historical romance novels, but many have excellent plots with much more going on than too many graphic sex scenes. Since I read all sorts of novels – love spy novels, thrillers involving political intrigue, old British classical literature, and I have a particular fondness for the short-story format and I read a lot of short stories, so objectively, I compare the writing.

     My blog started simply by Gladius urging me to start a blog, because he said I have good ideas and once I started, well, I’ve found that I enjoy writing. My blog really started as a personal test to see if I can write something worth reading. At first, I felt like quitting every few days, but the more I’ve written, the more comfortable it feels. I do enjoy friendly political debates and I don’t mind criticism, but so many American politics sites become mindless, flame-throwing, with each side hurling rather lame talking points back and forth. Okay, guilty as charged – many of my posts are partisan, maybe even flame-throwing, but no one could accuse me of sticking to some talking points, because my opinions land all over the political spectrum, singeing the feathers of political birds of many colors. Some days, well most days actually, my political writing turns into a crap shoot, where I intended to write something soft and genteel and then I end up firing long before I see the whites of their eyes:-) Often, I ask Gladius if my posts are too harsh. I like discussions and learning from other people, so if someone takes the time to post links of things to broaden my understanding of a topic or point me toward something interesting, funny (I like humor), or enlightening sites, well, I enjoy that. Gladius stays busy with his real-life job, but I am happy to post anything he writes and I sure don’t mind sharing anything someone offers that expands the discussion.

     PS, I love writers who use song lyrics and since I do that all the time too, you’ll never get a complaint from me on that habit:-)

     Reply
3. Able

   September 12, 2013 at 9:40 am

   Fantasy? Mr. Pratchett in some ways defies definition. It’s more parody, satire, astute observation and commentary wrapped up in his slightly skewed wit than anything else, it just happens to be set in a fantasy setting.

   I read a lot (probably way too much, I have 4000+ on my e-reader, daren’t look how many on my computer, and usually have to move a pile of ‘dead tree’ versions to sit down, but as Terry Pratchett said: ‘If you have enough book space, I don’t want to talk to you.’), the classics, adventure, thrillers, biographies, non-fiction, etc., but my favourite genre is, I suppose, that euphemistically described as ‘military science fiction’.

   Whilst I do enjoy fantasy (Robert Jordans ‘The Wheel Of Time’ series and the obligatory LOTR) it’s authors like David Drake, David Weber, John Ringo and Larry Correia provide my staple intake. Most are ex-military and write on subjects which interest them.

   It is an interesting phenomenon that in setting examinations of tactics, strategies, exigencies of war, human reactions to, etc. in a science fiction setting allows a ‘better’ understanding. Maybe because it allows the natural bias, assumptions, ‘known’ facts, associations and prejudices to be set aside (at least temporarily) so as to be able to examine some aspect again, in a new light.

   Mr. Pratchett is similar in examining the plainly obvious institutions and reactions in a ‘distant’ setting – and pointing out their absurdities the better for doing so. He’s shined a spotlight on the police (more British than elsewhere), politicians, the military, race, gender, belief and science.

   An example? Consider the tendency of ‘westerners’ to study ‘eastern’ philosophy and religion – declaring it better than their own. The assumption that the beliefs of a small, brown, bald, robe wearing monk living in a high mountain fastness are ‘better’, and contain ‘hidden knowledge’. Mr. Pratchett presents … Lu-Tze (sound vaguely familiar?) a small, brown, bald, robe wearing monk living in a high mountain fastness who eschews his local belief system and dedicates himself to …. ‘The Way of Mrs. Cosmopolite’ (Mrs. Cosmopolite being a dressmaker/washerwoman in the big, far off, western city whose ‘deep’ ‘philosophical’ guiding principles, such as “It never rains but it pours”, “Eat it up, it’ll make your hair curly” and of course the real meaning of existence, “Because”, he follows assiduously).

   I could quote ‘The Waterboys – The Whole of the Moon’ but I promised not to – the absurdity of wisdom only being found far away is a little more obvious when described in a Discworld setting, isn’t it?

   Don’t worry if you don’t ‘Grok’ Pratchett – he’s like Marmite, either loved or hated, with no in-between. I refuse to comment on whether I’ve read any ‘historical romances’ because cultural expectations would preclude me from ever doing so (being a rough, tough, macho type – my reputation [stop laughing] would suffer). Have you ever considered writing a political/cultural commentary set in a historical setting (where there may be a bit of bodice ripping and poetry quoting on the side)?

   (I had to look up the s word as it’s been so long I forget, but you could include some if you felt it enhanced the plot. I’ll volunteer to comment on the advanced reader copy as long as you include diagrams/explanations – It’s been a ‘really’ long time)

   Reply
   • hollyasbury

     September 12, 2013 at 8:36 pm

     All that “bodice ripping” had its heyday in the late 70s and through part of the 80s. By this century, the most successful historical romance writers actually work to formulate a solid plot. My favorite genre is Regency Romance novels, so the setting of England at war against Napoleon forms the backdrop for many of these novels – returning wounded war heroes, demure English misses leading double lives as spies (usually helpfully having one French parent to account for the ease of blending in while traversing France to secure some vital information), daughter of some second-son military officer follows the drum, etc. etc.) See, the political/cultural angle comes already as an established genre, and who would have thought that by the rather innocuous title “Regency romance novels”, lol.

     Regards. Pratchett, well, I will start reading more about his work, because despite the downloading kindle book habit, I also never got out of the habit of buying books. A new author to explore offers one of those irresistible challenges to pursue……. unless, my ex-son-in-law ever publishes a novel, lol. I’ll pass on that, no matter what the critics say. Nothing feels better than to be surrounded by stacks of books, just waiting to be explored. Earlier this year, John Keegan passed away, and I loved this picture of him in the Guardian obit piece http://www.theguardian.com/books/2012/aug/05/sir-john-keegan just looking completely happy in his home library, with huge stacks of books on the floor. My kids gave me a kindle a few years back, ostensibly so I would quit cluttering up the house with so many books, but it’s likely I’ve reached the “incurable” stage and what better terminal illness to suffer, right?

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     • Able

       September 12, 2013 at 11:53 pm

       I think I’ll stick with Bernard Cornwell and C. S. Forester for my Napoleonic yarns (whenever I feel a need to have my buckle swashed). New authors are a ‘challenge’ as you say, but finding one where you feel like writing to the author and ‘encouraging’ him/her to ‘hurry up’ and write the next are, unfortunately, all too rare (depending on your taste). Robert Jordan was one (before his untimely demise, and Brandon Sanderson afterwards), Larry Correia and Dean Koontz (The Odd Thomas series) have been others for me. I find too many I just cannot find interest in, for example there has been a discussion regarding Margaret Attwood (specifically her dystopian novels), beautifully written, and yet …

       As for Sir John, I was already aware having had the honour of meeting and learning from the gentleman. From what I remember of him professionally, that wouldn’t be his library, merely an annex of it, where he was storing the ‘few currently being read’ volumes. A true gentleman and scholar of the old school, he will be sorely missed.
4. hollyasbury

   September 13, 2013 at 7:36 am

   Every day the internet amazes me, Able. WordPress has a blog, CS Forester Society http://csforester.wordpress.com/. I never read any of his books, but naturally, The African Queen ranks as one of my favorite movies, although for sentimental reasons back when I was a Private in the Army, The Big Red One stands at the top of my list of movies I love. Stationed in a Pershing missile unit in Germany, we were stuck watching the same few movies for weeks on end, but I didn’t mind watching this movie over and over, as with each new viewing I noticed something I had missed before and what’s not to love about Lee Marvin playing a crusty Sergeant? I chatted with an elderly man a few years ago and he related his WWII experiences and it tracked with this movie’s plot, from North Africa, then up through Europe, making me wish someone in his family took the time to tape him telling his story (here’s a nice oral history primer, for anyone with a good personal story to preserve for posterity – http://library.ucsc.edu/reg-hist/oral-history-primer).

   You learned from John Keegan personally – now I’m in awe and mightily impressed. I’ve read most of his books over the years, although I have his Civil War one and the Fields of Battle sitting here unopened as of yet. Oddly, being an American and loving military history, I’m not all enthused about studying the US Civil War. Have Grant’s famous autobiography and Sherman’s memoirs on my kindle, just haven’t gotten to them yet.

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   • Able

     September 13, 2013 at 11:22 am

     Forester? It’s Hornblower for me I’m afraid. Another author who springs to mind is George MacDonald Fraser, not just his Flashman series, but try ‘The Complete McAuslan’ if you get the chance (amusing).

     I’ve been lucky enough to have spoken with many veterans (in both my professions) including some who served in the more … esoteric(?), small units in WW 11, the most memorable of which were members of Popskis Private Army and LRDG – have a read about them.

     Sir John, ‘Personally’? Well only in the sense of being one of hundreds being lectured to at ‘an institution’ he worked at (if he noticed me at all I’d probably have been ‘that slow, dim-witted one’). I do remember, in common with a lot of the ‘old-school’ lecturers there at the time, his English understatement – Hitler was ‘seriously wicked’ and the Bolsheviks were ‘simply dreadful’.

     Despite the claims, here at least, unlike at ‘The Point’, Clausewitz is not ‘the be all and end all’ and he belonged to ‘the faction’ with little regard for Clausewitz. I agree, to an extent, with his ‘atavistic’ theory of warfare. I don’t know if you’ve read it but my ‘favourite’ would be his ‘A History of Warfare’. His descriptions of the military (as compared to the political animal) and warriors is, to me, spot on too.

     So many books, and not enough time in the day!

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     • hollyasbury

       September 14, 2013 at 9:38 am

       Yes, I’ve read Keegan’s, A History of Warfare, several times actually and I have pulled it out many times to reread chapters when in the midst of considering some other military writer’s work I am reading. So many Western military thinkers fixate on Clausewtiz, but I’ve felt drawn to more ancient military thinkers, with Sun Szu holding the high ground, but I sure admire the Romans and constantly learn things from their penchant for good order and discipline and training, training, training. No army could go wrong focusing on that. Victor Davis Hanson, the American classicist, has written some interesting books on the Greeks and their wars, but the Roman legion mentality appeals to me much more. In military writing The Art of War title seems overused, as I have Sun Tzu, Machiavelli, and Jomini on my kindle and Mao’s, The Red Book of Guerilla Warfare awaits me, when I find more time, lol. I download so much “free stuff” on my kindle and yet on a road trip a few years ago, I read through Flavius Vegetus Renatus’ The Military Institutions of the Romans, highlighting away such gems (pearls of wisdom, if you will), like:

       “It is the nature of war that what is beneficial to you is detrimental to the enemy and what is of service to him always hurts you. It is therefore a maxim never to do, or to omit doing, anything as a consequence of his actions, but to consult invariably your own interest only. And you depart from this interest whenever you imitate such measures as he pursues for his benefit. For the same reason it would be wrong for him to follow such steps as you take for your advantage.”

       Renatus, Flavius Vegetus; Clarke, John (2011-04-30). The Military Institutions of the Romans (Kindle Locations 1504-1506). praetorian-press.com. Kindle Edition.

       I love reading about needlework, gardening, and cooking too, so the military stuff is just one of those quirks in my nature, I suppose;-)
     • Able

       September 14, 2013 at 11:28 am

       Ah Vegetius and his De Re Militari (or do you use Epitoma rei militaris), all those quoteable aphorisms. Keep it up and we’ll have you reading Tacitus, Livy and Sallust. Then maybe graduate to Cicero, Frontinus and Polybius? (I knew being forced to learn Latin at school would come in handy at some point, I just expected it to be sooner, and a bit more useful at that – you can get the originals +/- translations online, as you’ll know).

       Don’t hold it against me but, apart from the Mil Sci-Fi, I enjoy reading books like James Talmage Stevens – Making The Best Of Basics, John Seymour – The Complete Book of Self Sufficiency, Carla Emery – The Encyclopedia of Country Living and sundry Ray Mears books. Does this make me a bad person? (I’m going to find that few acres to build my cabin if it kills me – Idaho here I come, well, if they let me have a green-card, I will anyway). It made a change from Janes and summaries in .govspeak.
5. hollyasbury

   September 14, 2013 at 4:03 pm

   English translations only for me, because by the time I hit high school American public schools had ditched Latin. I bought some old high school Latin textbooks several years ago at a old junk-type store (calling it an antique store would be too far of a stretch), in hopes of learning Latin. I also found some Latin websites online with handy videos, but my attention span isn’t what it used to be and I nod off within minutes as the guy repeats the same phrases a few times. Works faster at inducing sleep than listening to those Gregorian chants:-) I’m fascinated at the Self-Sufficiency thing too and I like reading books on how they did things before modern conveniences. The Yankee Magazine and their assorted books they publish offer all sorts of fascinating information. I have learned how to take care of a family cow, how to make my own paint and other assorted “useful” things……. No, I don’t have a family cow nor have I made my own paint (you can quit laughing about the family cow, Gladius, we can’t all have our own farm like you). Yes, Able, your dream of a cabin sounds lovely, but I always wanted my own small farm.

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6. Able

   September 14, 2013 at 6:08 pm

   As with all languages (well reading them anyway) the trick is to have copies in English (hopefully a good translation) and the language in question, and read them at the same time. I sometimes used to frequent those ‘joke’ sites with Latin phrases which weren’t quite what Pliny would have approved of eg. For pro 2nd amendment Romans:

   “Cum catapulatae proscriptae erunt tum soli proscript catapultas habebunt”

   (OK I’ll save you the effort – When catapults are outlawed, only outlaws will have catapults)

   You’ll be surprised what you pick up that way.

   I did say a ‘few acres’ for my cabin – few means slightly less than John Chisum but more than a quarter section (whilst I’m no Daniel Boone I’d like some space).

   We have nothing the equivalent here but I enjoy perusing Lehmans (www.lehmans.com) and the advertisers in Backwoods Home Magazine (backwoodshome.com) – I almost bought a one-leg milking stool (why? well, because!) but I haven’t a cow either and it would look a little ‘inappropriate’ in Tescos dairy section.

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