Perhaps a menu on the sidebar with a “Daily Chat” link would allow a space for posters to toss anything into the mix of discussions. Let me see if my limited computer skills can allow for me to post a new menu.
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libertybelle diaries · Personal opinions on politics and a wide range of topics
libertybelle diaries 
There might be hope for me yet with computer technology (not really, lol). Pressed for time this morning, so would anyone like to talk about the farce known as the “Russian offer” or alternately, “The Shrinking Presidency”? How about what makes America an “exceptional” nation? Putin sees America through the experience of dealing with these White House “fellow travelers” chugging along in their rusty ol’ psychedelic hippie bus, still belting out Joan Baez songs. He also sees American pop culture, which can shock even hardened hedonists in its coarseness and vacuousness, so it’s doubtful he could know there’s a vast part of America that still clings to American ideals (along with their guns and religion) and who sit here trying to find a way to rescue America from these fools, who keep pushing us toward the cliff with their far left utopian experimentation. Marching on was John Kerry, exemplar of these pompous nincompoops, who climbed upon his soapbox yesterday, to assure us that his “gaffe” on collecting WMD was not a “gaffe” at all, but deliberate……… yes, he intended to make an ass of himself with this totally ludicrous suggestion. They’re in strategic quicksand and what do they do, flail about, turn their nose up and decry they’re not sinking. Even the most creative mind could not construct more pathetic characters than this crowd….
Don’t know whether LibertyBelle, you took notice when the Brit ‘David Duff’ posted a comment t’other day after my linking you on the four continents? (His site’s now featured on Dip’s sidebar. There I’m ‘JK’)
http://duffandnonsense.typepad.com/
…? How about what makes America an “exceptional” nation? …
I left a comment over on Duffer’s “Truth Hurts But It’s Worth Listening To” – I had a mind to post a link over on Dip’s the other day but, as you observed with “Elephant” likely no one there would pick up intent.
I take great pleasure with your “Putin sees America through the experience of dealing with these White House “fellow travelers” – seeing as how the link over on David’s explains the whole shebang.
Hadn’t ignored your response, merely needed a few free moments to read that piece you mentioned on David Duff’s blog: https://www.fpri.org/articles/2012/10/american-exceptionalism-exposed. I’d settle for America the “rational and consistent nation”, where we’d be a stabilizing force in the world. When our foreign policy loses its way and meanders aimlessly about, no one else in the world will follow us and beyond that many countries will act with no concern to what we say. Worse still, this administration, pushed us into being little more than a clown act. How demeaning to think the most of the world might be laughing at us.
Justin, Came across this piece, Orwell, Obama, and Totalitarianism, by Edward Cline at http://www.familysecuritymatters.org/publications/detail/orwell-obama-and-totalitarianism a few minutes ago and thought you might enjoy it.
Gladius, More on the deliberate destruction of our military How Cowards Are Pushing
Women Into Combat by Andrew E. Harrod at http://www.familysecuritymatters.org/publications/detail/how-cowards-are-pushing-women-into-combat – although the PC crowd will automatically start charging sexism or misogyny. Harrod sums it up correctly: “The result of such thinking in America and elsewhere is a “gender-normed job corps, in which multiculturalism and radical feminism have replaced readiness as a strategic imperative.” I need to stop by this Family Security Matters site more often – a lot of good stuff there:-)
Gladius emailed me his comments, here they are:
This is more of the communist principles that are always being forwarded by the liberal left. The liberal left takes that position that all human beings are equal, all genders are equal, all countries are equal, all cultures are equal. That is a twisting of biblical philosophy into an aetheistic world view. What!? Religion? Yes. In the eyes of God we are all CREATED equal. God loves us all EQUALLY, the saved and the unsaved, the good and the bad. God wants us all EQUALLY to be be saved. God, however, understands that we are all different and therefore there will never be EQUAL outcomes.
The liberal left wants EQUAL OUTCOMES. Thus, every human is fully interchangeable with every other human. There are no such things as smart people, dumb people, handsome people and ugly people. We are all just people. Thus, there is, in the liberal mindset, no reason not to have a 120 pound woman in combat. We will adapt all our weapons, our gear, our squads, our morals, our prejudices, and the combat environment to accommodate. That is the height of affirmative action. Change the environment and everything will be good for equal outcomes.
If you have followed (and I know you have) Putin’s recent statements about all cultures and countries being equal, you will see the essence of the communist approach to all of this. But, then Russia wants to be first among equals. As do the liberals. They also want to be first among equals because they, among all the rabble, are enlightened.
Gladius, I agree with you on how communist principles get pushed. However, the funny thing is, I don’t for a minute think that Putin really believes cultures and countries are equal, but he’s using those fine egalitarian sentiments that left-wing ideologues embrace, knowing full-well Obama embraces these sentiments. He’s playing Obama, using the language that Obama has no clue how to counter.
Now, I sure don’t want women in front line combat units, because I actually know what they do and it’s not pretty. The thing is women have all sorts of traits that would make them useful in many capacities in special operations, and they can be very helpful at gathering information in traditional Muslim societies, where the women aren’t allowed to talk to our soldiers. The trick would be to train a team where the men compensate for the women’s physical limitations. You sure don’t lower standards, but you would determine the requirements based on “unique” mission needs and then train a team with females attached to meet the needs of the mission. Notice I said “attach” women to train for special missions. I’m all for expanding our ways of doing things, but I would not support women in ground combat units. The US military always bows to the feminist harpies in Congress and within the DOD structure – these women start shrieking and bam, just like that the standards get lowered, but they’ll assure you those standards were set unnecessarily high. Too bad our foes won’t get that memo.
Oh dear, am I that transparent?
Any site that posts a sentence including “both the Right and the Left” almost invariably winds up bookmarked in one of my thirty-two folders under the star of ‘Favorites’ … one teensy tiny quibble, TARP was not of Obama’s doing, for that we owe thanks to our Dear Mister Paulson.
But that’s just detail. The “both Right & Left” serves sufficient notice to put me in mind of what I think, should be obvious to everyone. Our present government (of which Obama is merely the most recent manifestation) seeks to purchase the abiding faith in whichever of the ostensibly “helpful” programs our benefactor government happens to be peddling to whichever of the Left or the Right happens to be the current fashion.
Thus – “Food Stamps” “Ethanol Subsidies” are two sides of the same coin. Each by itself, depending on which is the fashion of the moment, can be both bad & good depending on which Bobble Head we, individually are listening to in that instant.
Do give me some time LibertyBelle. I must study with deliberation your “gift” to my bookmarks. Thank you very much.
Gladius emailed his response to the women in combat thread:
Agree totally with you. Take a look at Brad Thor’s “The Athena Project.” He is a good writer and uses the concept you suggest about tailoring the team to the mission. Women make great warriors—in the right environment and right situation. However, they are not interchangeable.
I totally agree that Putin knows all cultures are not equal. He is simply playing a sucker fish and watching it flop around. Unfortunately, the rest of the world is watching as well.
I’m just wondering if Putin read Alinsky?
A “handy” LibertyBelle:
http://www.alt-codes.net/
Or … you might simply ask the youngest person ‘at the moment available’ … problem with that is, we here in our “Enlightened United States” seem to always “think” it something more than it is – Our kids know more ‘Tech’ than any of us who remember “Books Only” times usually winding up in trouble.
Then again I suppose, lawyer’s children need shoes to begin school too.
At least, that’s how I keep to “charitably” describing why I need keep paying that [damned] retainer.
Thank you for the magic code and there are even umlauts for the occasional German phrase I use. I’ve already bookmarked it for easy reference.
The apparently total inability of the U.S. Government to keep secrets these days indicates a basic unreadiness for special war. … Unfortunately there is one country that excels at special war, and that’s Russia. … Putin’s years in power have witnessed a blossoming of special war in Chechnya, where intelligence-led counterinsurgency has worked where blunter military methods failed to subdue the rebellion; in the Baltic states, where Russian intelligence successfully influences and intimidates these small NATO countries; and especially in Georgia, where the full range of Russian secret tricks has been employed intensely.
http://20committee.com/2013/09/20/the-coming-age-of-special-war/
Justin, You sure read the most interesting blogs and news sites:-) Plan to comment more after I read this entire article. Thanks for posting it!
Well. I know a lot of people and [less] stuff. I’d suggest hitting the site’s 2012 archives and read September (I think) 15th’s post, that is, if you can take seeing GW and BH getting near equal treatment in two paragraphs.
Read through the above mentioned piece twice, just to make sure I understand the author’s points. I’ve always thought the Russians were better at the cloak and dagger aspects, required for “special war” and despite creating this technological intelligence-gathering blob we’ve got, we fail to glean actionable intelligence or even to understand our adversaries. We fail at the most basic level of understanding people and absent that our intelligence gambits will always fall flat. The Russians want to know who their enemies are, down to their third-cousin twice removed and what they like to eat for breakfast. We focus on all sorts of psychobabble, working harder to deceive the American public, with a larger than life nemesis to rally against, than at taking on our adversaries. Our leaders love to throw around jingoistic rhetoric, absent any clear strategic vision, determinedly trying to sway polls rather than sway events on the world stage. Putin is working to sway events on the world stage and as we all know, he doesn’t much care about polls back home. Sadly for us, he does have a crystal clear strategic vision and we have a muddled, wildly incoherent, back-pedaling from foot-in-mouth strategy, just trying to save face. What we lack more than an ability to keep secrets, is leadership. To borrow a quote that Gladius often sends along with the latest news links – “We’re essentially doomed!” And without some drastic change in direction from this WH, I suspect he’s probably right.
Well, tell Gladius I’m happy to meet a [likely] fellow fan of John Derbyshire.
I think our main problem with the Intel thing since 9/11 is the scale – I’m not too worried over folks listening in on my boring Verizon calls … but if all, or a sizeable number anyway, of other Verizon calls are as boring as mine, fully half of NSA’s analysts are asleep.
Or, as was the problem back in the 80s with our EW aircraft platforms (the single seaters at any rate) it came down to information overload.
We “enjoyed” missing the trees for the forest that was Boston.
The Russians don’t give a hoot in hell about “everybody’s stuff” ,er, unless “the everybody” is Chechen for instance.
“We” on the other hand don’t do profiling as it’s “not nice.”
Reading more closely your friend Gladius’ comments (tho’ I’m figuring Gladius might already be familiar) here’s another:
http://mangans.blogspot.com/
Just my opinion (and some experience) but I consider the Russians (and to an extent the other nations known for their cloak and dagger expertise) as pragmatists – you do what needs doing, however dirty, when it needs doing, before it spreads.
They don’t ‘understand’ their adversaries any better or worse, they do understand (blame Justin) ruthlessness, fear and expediency (think gangsters, p them off and you, your family, pets and neighbours are swimming with fishes and a horses head is sent to everyone like you so they know what happened).
An observation on your ‘clandestine operators’, they don’t do the clandestine bit (I’ve been to towns/cities where everyone knew who the American in suit and shades was), they (similar to your military) rely on numbers, technology and hierarchy (hierarchies exist everywhere but the Russians for example routinely act and then inform). Your ROEs preclude such, and specify to the Nth degree precluding any action not specifically ordered.
That’s your problem, micro-managers and a cultural (blame Hollywood) idea of what such actions entail, and more, an unwillingness to act, to be ‘the bad guy’ in any situation even if warranted. Further is this hollywoodesque reliance on SIGINT rather than HUMINT, why? Because it’s safe, no ‘boots on the ground’, everything at ‘arms-length’ – sorry, to do the job you have to get down and grub in the dirt.
Really look at Chechnya, Northern Ireland and Gazza – dirty, nasty and, at times, bloody – until you are willing to face that (not just the pols and the generals but the public) then you aren’t going to be any use. It’s amusing in a way that it’s only now that America is noticing what everyone else knew decades ago.
This blog isn’t I expect, destined for your sidebar LibertyBelle – it’s only because of the “sense of the ephemeral” I post it so you might notice the occasional wisp of that faintly wafting by. David Duff linked to this first post that brought the site to my attention (indeed the third comment is his). & tho’ the post’s “subject” happens to be for Tommy – Tommy is … universal.
http://www.annaraccoon.com/politics/requiem-for-tommy/
As are we all.
http://www.annaraccoon.com/politics/probably-not-the-last-post-who-knows/comment-page-1/#comment-91354
Figured I’d just drop this into your “Daily Chat” LB (I’m gonna take up one … ONE of DD’s habits) thought since we three [obviously wise] people might continue on your Putin post when … it might be better for you to, if you see opportunity, to work up an additional post. Or not. Your call.
http://warontherocks.com/2013/09/the-winners-the-american-way-of-war-in-25-words-or-less/
Might include this one under “Places To Roam” – I check it oh, once a week or so. One can find many Congressional Research Services (CRS) Reports – Congress … in it’s infinite “wisdom” doesn’t seem very interested in disseminating to the public-at-large.
(I follow defense contracts and associated stuff, veterans issues … I’m on the GAO listserve which clutters my regular email inbox massively. For instance, GAO sends me emails notifying me what issues it’s prepared reports for but annoyingly it sends me emails informing me GAO didn’t issue/make any decisions on such and such.
But what GAO does provide, is a glimpse into what our Congress Critters are in the kitchen whipping up for us regular Americans to “enjoy” for supper.) When I note particular ingredients in the concoction Congress is concocting I next go here:
http://blogs.fas.org/secrecy/
Justin, Since you are the list person and I like starting with a list, I was wondering if you might be willing to recommend a short list of books, articles, etc. on steganography. Life is so odd, because right before you and your friends arrived to my blog, I had started reading “The Double Cross System” and I purchased a few other books of a “spooky” nature, which is a break from my usual military strategy fixation. It’s been a long, long time since I read much about the nuts and bolts intel ops stuff. Now you introduced me to a blog named “The XX Committee” and all these other fascinating sites, making me curious to learn more.
It’s been a long, long time ….
September 25, 2013 at 8:13 PM where we “first met” LB.
” Life is so odd, … It’s been a long, long time …. making me curious ….”
Sometimes, though … as Gladius I’m certain would … … advise LB, … a fellow such as myself would be, as much as he might wish, the worst for you LibertyBelle.
I remember whispering, shouting to the world “I […] you.” And I ended alone.
I’m so often thinking to myself, “I wish I could tell somebody, I love … ” but then this or that happens. Po po tweet.
“We” are curious – I am fascinated in you.
I expect we [you, Gladius & I] will see how our tilting at windmills turns out.
Patience. Very, very very Patience.
I expect we [you, Gladius & I] will see how our tilting at windmills turns out.
Justin, Oh ye, of little faith…….. it’s always buried in the little details that play into a story, but poor storytelling ability and trying to keep the story moving precluded their inclusion. Sadly, such is the way when dealing with amateur writers. Why would americanrommel be so angry over mhere causing a stink with his queenoftherock’s family support activiites?
What if the answer is a bit more than in “Messages of mhere”. Many more “things” happened with the queenoftherock model family support program. What if the answer was that mhere began writing to cptsilverstar during that long ago war, in her wildly unconventional literary style? And oh say, unbeknownst to her, cptsilverstar handed those letters over to someone else and that someone else included these letters in his afteraction stuff and ummmmmm, these letters made it all the way back to the puzzle palace. Only 4 or 5 years later at another post did mhere find out about “some letters” causing a “big” stir from a friend of queenoftherock, who was the paid person handling volunteer affairs at this post. And mhere had gone to this “friend” to find out what the “official” Army guidance was pertaining to family support groups at the company level when a young captain’s wife, following in the queenoftherock mold, called mhere and stated that the officers’ wives in this company didn’t want to participate in company family support group meetings with the enlisted wives. This young woman told mhere that there would be two family support groups for this company and she was running both. mhere, being a dinosaur around the Army by this time, took great offense to the condescending tone this young woman used and also mhere was sick of the Army creating these petty tyrants among officer wives.
mhere told this young woman that if there was going to be a separate “enlisted” family support group for the company, then enlisted wives would run it, not an officer’s wife. This young woman told mhere, she was trained by the Army and she knew what she was doing and she would run this group! Thus mhere decided to go find out what the “official” guidance was these days, because she was thoroughly sick of the Army, their “command team” and petty tyrants (witches).
mhere began by telling the paid volunteer coordinator that she knew “petitesouthernbelle” during that war, because petititesouthernbelle’s husband was the brigade commander when mhere and hotshot82nd arrived at this unit and he had just moved on to another post. This friend of the “queen” leaped on that and said she had heard that petitesouthernbelle hadn’t done much of anything to help with family support during the war. mhere immediately tensed and informed this woman that was not true and that petitesouthernbelle was wonderful and had worked very hard to help the families in their battalion during the war. Like a spider, this friend then leaned forward and informed mhere that she was close friends with the “queen”. This friend informed mhere about her connections to someone on high, who had informed her about “some letters” causing a big stink after the war and that the Army had rewritten their entire family support guidance – they now had “Army Family Team-building” , where they were actually running classes to teach officer wives and their hand-selected enlisted wives to become “leaders”. mhere just wanted to get out of that office, but this friend pumped mhere for information and kept trying to ferret out more, so mhere finally told her that she and the queenoftherock did not get along.
After this incident the new brigade commander, his wife, the CSM and his wife and even some other higher up officers wives whom mhere encountered doing volunteer work – gave mhere the cold shoulder. To the point where one day mhere walked into brigade headquarters and the brigade commander was following hotshot82nd to hotshot82nd’s office. This was the first time mhere had ever met this brigade commander and mhere said hello to him. He glared at her – he did not even say hello. mhere never stepped foot in his brigade headquarters again. mhere went to the Red Cross and spent several years doing volunteer casework (avoiding the wives stuff) and a long time later this brigade commander came into the Red Cross office and mhere said, “Hello, Sir” and smiled and again this brigade commander, whom hotshot82nd loved working for, glared at mhere and would not speak to her.
mhere also infuriated a hospital commander’s wife (and probably the hospital commander too) with another letter she wrote and made two copies of – one for the hospital office that handled complaints and one which she handed to the hospital commander’s wife, who showed up at the Red Cross to say she “helped” and who held the enlisted ranks in great disdain, in mhere’s estimation, based on many comments this woman made when she was at the Red Cross. The complaint dealt with mhere’s experience at the ER where mhere described in detail what didn’t happen to treat patients – mostly young enlisted families with sick kids. mhere was there waiting with her youngest child that night. The receptionist kept telling all who inquired that she doubted the doctor would have time to see them, most ended up leaving and going to the local civilian hospital, which is what mhere eventually did (and she saw many of these families there). The civilian hospital treated mhere’s daughter in minutes, not hours. Of course, mhere, in her unparalleled literary “style” wrote a lengthy letter, which she was sure angered the hospital commander’s wife, as that woman never spoke to mhere again, lol. (her facial expression was priceless as she read mhere’s letter). This couple retired to that nearby city where mhere was locked in the nuthouse and he took up his civilian medical career there. Scary connections to mhere’s way of thinking, as she pondered this year after year. The brigade commander who wouldn’t even say, “hello” moved on to national prominence, so mhere knew thatwitch2016 could get these people out in public to silence her and she had no proof – not even those excite message boards, which had been taken down and mhere didn’t even have her posts saved. All mhere had was a lifetime of being nice to just about everyone she encountered in her life and helping as many people as she could.
See, the details run on and on, making for a rather ponderous story. Since women never fight like men, there is a reason for the term “catfighting” to be used to describe it. Just about every aspect of catfighting is done behind the scenes, manipulating and using other people to do your bidding for you – making proving it extremely difficult. It kind of makes RICO investigations look easy. Witches perfect this method of fighting, thus thatwitch2016 hides, while she uses her husband and others to do her bidding. Watching thatwitch2016 operate over the years, it was obvious that she sent her sewer rats out to ferret out any and all dirt on the people she targeted and she used this dirt to neutralize these people. And at the end, in my story, that character, presidentmendacity, would seem to be the one who actually set the attack on mhere into motion, and that legal conundrum of legal responsibility for corrupting the chain of command, using military assets and turning commanders to attack an enlisted soldier’s wife might be a legal battle for the ages, so it would be well nigh impossible for mhere to prove these machinations happened, prove the attack happened, and on top of that contend with a propaganda blitz, to rival a third-world dictator’s media takeover, to silence mhere quickly and completely.
mhere knew that with that bipolar label hanging around her neck and her own family not believing in her, she would be defeated before she began and she knew she couldn’t be her own “Army of One” to fight this battle. Insurmountable obstacles? Perhaps.
For a start mhere knew she needed a platform where she could explain who she was and what she believed in – a way to have a voice. Under pressure, mhere dissolved into pathetic stuttering, so even the thought of fighting back against a media barrage such as thatwitch2016 could mount caused mhere to feel defeated before she started, so she kept backing up and regrouping and she lit upon a plan that she tinkered with for years – a simple, flexible plan. And mhere, hopefully, now has a small team of men with much needed skill sets to help her, so she’s not alone valiant Don Quixote.
Yes, Patience. Very, very very Patience., mhere stored up years worth of it….. studying, planning, waiting, studying, planning, waiting….
I’ll read the above soon as I post this – if LB you or any of your friends do much
“social media” this link is not categorized as you’ve listed – maybe a new category “Alerts.” If you do E-Banking, there’s been a major breach. Not everywhere but, ALL should keep up. Specific Alert:
http://www.databreaches.net/data-broker-giants-hacked-by-id-theft-service/
Homepage:
http://www.databreaches.net/
Lexis/Nexus was breached too – that company’ll probably wait til the last possible minute to announce – LexNex is the company the credit companies get the reporting info from.
I realize LB, I’ll likely be sorry I didn’t go ahead and send to.. what I dreamed the Knight spoke to the Lady.
She did kinda blush tho.
Home for lunch and dashing back to work in about 10 minutes. Not to dash cold water on your chivalrous musings, but I am clueless about databreaches and such – am I supposed to do something? Is my blog at risk or something? Btw my stats are booming today – imagine that……
Another avenue LibertyBelle, you enjoy mazes doncha?
http://www.policymic.com/profiles/2263/bailey-o-bagy
A ‘Bailey O’Bagy’ – Egyptian? – shows up at “about” the same time as a weird Coptic purportedly from Egypt who did YouTubes. Or … at least one … supposedly.
Bailey O’Bagy also, oddly enough, shows up in Maricopa County public records.
I heard that curious, “Now where’ve I heard of Maricopa County, … hmmm now what was the name of that lower 48 state?”
__________________________
And somehow Bailey O’Bagy “just happens” to be … ?
The mind boggles …
Search Bailey O’Bagy.
Is this the Egyptian soccer team stuff?
Oh and are your years of intel antennae twitching madly yet – can you spell I-N-F-I-L-T-R-A-T-I-O-N…… Lord are these people total morons??? Does no one do background checks anymore??? Glad I got that off my chest, now back to my kitchen to finish cooking dinner:-)
Don’t call me “lord” pretty please?
Here’s (cough … cough, oh heck hack, hack spitooey!)
Elizabeth O’Bagy is a Research Assistant at the Institute for the Study of War, where she focuses on Syrian politics and security. She is in a joint Master’s/PhD program in Arab Studies and Political Science at
Georgetown University and is working on a dissertation on women’s militancy. Prior to joining ISW,
she received the Critical Language Scholarship to study Arabic at the American School in Tangier,
Morocco, and studied Arabic and political science at the American University in Cairo, Egypt. She holds
a bachelor’s degree in the Arabic Language and Arab Studies from Georgetown University.
Click to access Syrias_Political_Opposition.pdf
Yet “Elizabeth” manages to show up in Maricopa County’s public records – yeah LibertyBelle, I owe you a lot – and just when does “Elizabeth” show up – and sheesh, as WTF?!!! – the same time an Egyptian “Copt” produces a (sounds of clearing throat) a YouTube video.
_____________________________________
Oh by the way LibertyBelle, hope you don’t mind, I put in an application for both of us at ISW. I went ahead and signed [forged] your name if that’s okay … FOX pays pretty good $$$$s for it’s experts.
Oh yeah … you played – oh dear really Lord! – on the Egyptian VOLLEYBALL TEAM!!! “Elizabeth” was Captain of.
Sometimes I wish I’d stayed … but most times not.
Maricopa County public records.
http://www.georgetown.edu/news/commencement-2013-sfs.html
Grab a lot of popcorn LibertyBelle, it’s a long wait.
Oh. By the way I signed your name to an ISW “Expert” thingamajig. You should be on FOX in no time.
Found this Debbie Schlussel article about a Phoenix native, Eric Harroun, who was accused of being a terrorist. The Justice Dept. had charged him with fighting for al Qaeda in Syria, according to this story. One of the two people who signed affidavits that this man wasn’t a terrorist is Elizabeth O’Bagy. Harroun suddenly signed a plea deal Sept. 24th and received 3 years probation and $100 fine, when he was facing possible life in prison on these charges………. Is that the story Justin? Debbie Schlussel story here: http://www.debbieschlussel.com/65939/outrage-jihadist-who-went-overseas-to-help-terrorists-wage-jihad-gets-100-fine-probation/
Oh LB, I’m reckoning we’ll just have to wait for McClatchy. Formerly Knight-Ridder you may recall – tho’ I’m figuring while you might not be “exactly a fan” (I’m certain the author ‘introduced us’ isn’t, oh well) … I notice you Mister Hersh mentioned;
They’ve got the resources & wouldn’t absorb the body blows either of us would.
Yet … we both know of a very certain Lady who put up a comment on a certain date.
So far as I’ve noticed … nobody else’s “notice” preceded that comment.
Anybody who wishes to be famous needs her head examined. It’s kinda satisfying “just to know.”
Rather like “island-decay-theory” & what-not. And 15 mile radii.
You, M’Lady, are good.
Justin, I just rescued a couple of your comments from spam. I don’t notice a lot of stuff that I probably should on my dashboard – a complete computer neophyte, even after all these years.
As today’s an anniversary … pay heed to Lesson #5:
http://warontherocks.com/2013/10/the-lost-lessons-of-black-hawk-down/
Background:
http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/ops/restore_hope.htm
Do you agree with that writer’s argument that installing and propping up Aideed would have been a better option? I fundamentally disagree with that process, because we end up being extorted by these tinpot dictators over and over again, reaping small strategic benefits at a huge cost. We also sacrifice our American credibility every time we get entwined in these disreputable bargains.
There’s a fundamental difference between having to do business with some unsavory thugs to achieve specific strategic objectives than playing surrogate parent to these disreputable miscreants that we install. There’s a fundamental disconnect to “install” dictators in our quest to promote our Western democratic ideals.
In Somalia we embarked on a humanitarian mission that kept shifting into something a bit more blurred and in the past decade we’ve continued this same pattern. This entire propping up third world regimes plays into a big picture strategic conflict that no longer exists – the Soviet Union crumbled, but we still are stuck in this same big picture strategic paradigm. I thought we failed in Somalia because we put that old cart filled with little picture objectives before our horse saddled with our big picture strategic blanket. I’m just an amateur at this stuff, but I thought we failed to have a clear big picture strategy and all these other little picture assessments this writer presents won’t fix that problem.
I definitely agree on the need for building up our HUMINT capabilities. I also think we get too caught up in looking for easy and quick panaceas to complex strategic environments. The Muslim world took over 700 years to evolve into this mess. All of this writer’s rules make sense for the little picture strategic environment, even #5, because once you’re engaged – you deal with what you’ve got, but extrapolating his rules as a fix for the big picture – just doesn’t work. The big picture takes some serious reflection looking at the map of the world and thinking about where we are strategically and where we want to engage, project influence or build relationships to further our national interests.
Great assessment on our strategic problems by G. Murphy Donovan – http://www.newenglishreview.org/custpage.cfm/frm/142207/sec_id/142207
Looks to be a very busy day and I’m rushing to get to it.
I consider many problems might’ve turned out “better” had Bush (GHW) won his re-election bid. HW had the background; vet, Ambassador, CIA, etc. BillyBoy on the other hand …
Here’s from Amb. Oakley (prior to the UN having enough time to get “us” to where we ended) [I’ve no time now but I will read your link]. First full paragraph of Oakley’s page 54.
“Focusing on Aideed seems to have
caused a temporary memory loss about what
UNITAF, the United Nations, and international
relief agencies accomplished in Somalia
since last December.”
Click to access jfq0802.pdf
Totally off-topic comment here, but is there some way to make this Daily Chat post the newest messages to the top, because that would sure be much easier to follow? Step-by-step guidance required, if you know how to do that, because otherwise I will botch it for sure.
I have been considering doing “Daily Chat” by month and starting fresh each month. Suggestions are welcome.
Monthly would likely be the easiest. I’m not really familiar with WordPress functionality. But I know who likely would be the most knowledgeable, Malcolm over on Waka.
VERY LIKELY the Somalia Op was a feint.
The Kearsarge (LHD 3) had been loitering off the southern coast for three weeks, Nimitz (CV 68) nearer Suez in the timeframe. JSOC “might’ve” had more in mind checking the level of chatter among/between affiliated groups AQAP/AQIM/Shebaab.
The presence in the vicinity of CTF Nimitz would’ve had Shebaab (following so closely the Westgate attack) on high-alert (naturally). If the primary was indeed to be al-Liby (Libya) what better way to “frighten the horses” – Brit for alarm the neighbors – than to do some sort of smallish amphibious incursion to draw attention from the primary AO southwards? No need to go all out, just put a smallish group on the beach remaining close to the exits and make a lot of noise?
Then, in the confusion, do the real thing from the north.
Straight out of Napoleon’s playbook.