tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6557458849091969678.post4789180045346724191..comments2023-06-15T09:13:45.467-04:00Comments on Liberty's Torch: Don’t just do something, stand there.Francis W. Porrettohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05862584203772592282noreply@blogger.comBlogger7125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6557458849091969678.post-48519473013241047192018-07-23T15:59:29.578-04:002018-07-23T15:59:29.578-04:00NITZAKHON, I don't doubt that Obama was no fan...NITZAKHON, I don't doubt that Obama was no fan of Israel. I can't put my finger on what Hillary thought but I think the (very) general rule is leftist = hostility. I'm not a fan any more myself, not least for the Israeli arrogance that precisely mirrors our own.<br /><br />I have the opposite view on local chaos. It's clearly in Israel's interest to nurture it in furtherance of its perceived need to have weak statelets in its immediate neighborhood. Phil Geraldi has <a href="http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/49889.htm" rel="nofollow">one of the best pieces</a> on what's involved in Syria and with Iran and Israel that I've read. It reads in pertinent part:<br /><br />"The United States military is deeply engaged in Syria, in part due to Israeli pressure, seeking to depose the existing government of President Bashar al-Assad and replace it with a Syria composed primarily of fragmented local jurisdictions representing tribal and religious groups rather than a unified state. Israel believes that a shattered Syria would not pose any threat to its continued possession of the occupied Golan Heights and might even offer an opportunity to expand that occupation."<br /><br />I beg to differ on Assad's being any kind of a monster. He's an ophthalmologist by training and temperament and is clearly successful as a leader in stressing a secular society and ensuring protection for minorities. The realities of any war that is fairly fought are horrific and reflect no kind of unusual depravity or monstrousness on the combatants and their leaders. Reports of regime police arresting and torturing teenagers at the outset of the insurgency were false. There was no torture. Similarly, the allegations of chemical weapons use are false. Prison crematorium? The same. The allegations of Assad's monster status are vaporous. Given the undeniably monstrous nature of the insurgents, however, I won't fault the regime or its leader for dropping the hammer on them and, figuratively speaking, crucifying them.<br /><br />There's a tribal element at work in Syria (and elsewhere). True. It is not, however, <i>ipso facto</i> an obstacle to creating a halfway decent nation. The occupation of Iraq, however, was a textbook case of either ignoring or exacerbating tribal realities.Col. B. Bunnyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09590364016079745156noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6557458849091969678.post-28903474139222523432018-07-23T13:42:49.533-04:002018-07-23T13:42:49.533-04:00Col:
I strongly suspect Barackus and Killary (esp...Col:<br /><br />I strongly suspect Barackus and Killary (especially the former) want Assad gone to precipitate chaos in the region (1). This would also have the effect of damaging Israel, whom they both hated.<br /><br />I remember one of Assad's generals saying, about the West's support of the rebels, "Don't they understand we're all that's holding ISIS back?" True. Assad's a monster - no question - but he's a CONTROLLABLE monster. If, for no other reason, that he values his neck. "The Devil you know, or the Devil you can control," and all.<br /><br />Part of our problem is that too many don't understand the tribal nature of things over there. Even my wife, from Kazakhstan, once described the tribal loyalty there - and I was baffled. Add in our not understanding the SHAME CULTURE over there and we have a recipe for making things worse. (2)<br /><br />(1) http://redpilljew.blogspot.com/2018/04/socialisms-gateway-drug.html<br />(2) http://drsanity.blogspot.com/2005/08/shame-arab-psyche-and-islam.htmlNITZAKHONhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04110716447757507226noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6557458849091969678.post-3554929364932609082018-07-23T13:37:44.681-04:002018-07-23T13:37:44.681-04:00you intend the natural consequences of your action...you intend the natural consequences of your actions<br /><br />empoweredCol. B. Bunnyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09590364016079745156noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6557458849091969678.post-62088212581340626362018-07-23T13:34:11.557-04:002018-07-23T13:34:11.557-04:00Sykes.1, that's funny but, alas, not far from ...Sykes.1, that's funny but, alas, not far from the course we have casually charted. As the saying goes, you naturally intend the natural consequences of your actions. Victory to stupidity, indifference, and malice!<br /><br />An economic hiccup is baked in the cake and, while I don't wish for privation for myself or others, it will have the salutary effect of defunding a boatload of stupid policies and highlighting the stupidity of certain beliefs, such as progressivism and socialism. We were undone by our wealth as it empower sheer madness. Our wealth ultimately has proved to be not worth having. The modern (i.e., unbelievably wealthy) world empowered moral midgets, morons, thieves, and the power mad.Col. B. Bunnyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09590364016079745156noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6557458849091969678.post-69177339869553140452018-07-23T13:24:40.852-04:002018-07-23T13:24:40.852-04:00NITZAKHON, you're right about the M.E. After ...NITZAKHON, you're right about the M.E. After I got out of the army in 1970 I took a cursory look at it and found it all overwhelming and beyond the understanding of a non-specialist. It's a little clearer now after so many intervening years. The legitimacy of Israel's presence is now based purely on military force in my mind and the PR of "Exodus" has long since lost its luster. Salafist, primitive, supremacist, aggressive Islam is nothing to embrace either and I cheerfully acknowledge that what Israeli's did to the Arabs and do to them now is no worse than what Arabs did to the people they conquered. <br /><br />This is why the U.S. attack on Syria is so bizarre because it's exactly the kind of secular cum Muslim/Christian/Yazidi/etc. country any decent person should want in the M.E. I don't want Muslims in the West and I am sure that most Muslims would prefer to have no Westerners in their world, but that still doesn't obscure the moderate and sensible nature of Syria which, oddly, is now our major target for destruction of balkanization in the M.E. I think this is really Israel's wish, not our own considered policy, but that is a topic for another day.<br /><br />Opposition to Iran is also explicable in this way and what other reasons we might have for singling it out are not clear to me. I full accounting of what is wrong with Iran may be in order but right now I'm not buying the <i>ipse dixit</i> nature of U.S. hostility. But the U.S. elite are above explaining anything, least of all the legal basis for U.S. unilateralism and "our" drive for planetary hegemony.<br /><br />I think you're correct about that aspect of Shia doctrine but I think it's pointless to put any store in it as a guide to likely near-term Iranian action. I say that because of the truth revealed in the joke about the pastor who invites everyone in the congregation who wants to go to Heaven to hold up his or her hand. "Charlie," he says, "I see you're not holding up your hand." "That's right, preacher," he says. "I thought you were asking who wants to go right now."Col. B. Bunnyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09590364016079745156noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6557458849091969678.post-74005408215499588232018-07-23T07:44:24.627-04:002018-07-23T07:44:24.627-04:00What we really need right now is a really, really ...What we really need right now is a really, really big ground war that will grind up a few million Iranian young men and several hundred thousand American young men. A nice bloody war that will gone on for 20 years or more, collapse the stock markets and everyone's pensions, cause world wide severe depression, worse than the 30's, and end in a nuclear holocaust.sykes.1https://www.blogger.com/profile/10954672321945289871noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6557458849091969678.post-70406733913461094242018-07-23T06:10:36.367-04:002018-07-23T06:10:36.367-04:00The ME is a very messy place. Old, different cult...The ME is a very messy place. Old, different cultures all in a mix. And certainly I'm not saying I understand it either.<br /><br />The problem is that, with Shia Islam in particular, to bring the Twelfth Imam (Shia's version of the Messiah) there MUST BE a world conflict. To them, global destruction is not a bug but a feature.<br /><br />Having been to Persia (before the revolution, so I was knee high to a grasshopper) I remember kind, warm people. My mother met some shopkeeper who invited us for dinner after a 30 minute conversation. (His daughters were very nice, played with me, but I distinctly remember them asking me which one I wanted to marry! A heavy choice for a nine year old. ;)NITZAKHONhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04110716447757507226noreply@blogger.com