Why does nearly every administration get itself involved in a war it can't win? Is it the same impulse that goads a kid, after he's scrimped and saved to buy his first car, to take her out on the highway to see how fast she'll go? He'll never consider any possible speed bumps, like a cop or a bridge abutment. His parents know he's gonna do it and pray the cop will get to him first.
John's right, Pakistan is a disaster already. It's been a disaster since the partition. Now it's likely to be Obama's disaster as well. What I'd like to know is who gives them the guns? Who arms the Taliban? I'm sure that Sam could give me an answer - but I wouldn't necessarily believe him. Anybody?
If we would know that much, we could work on drying up their seemingly endless supply of arms and explosives. Don't tell me it's Iran? If it's true, it should be easy. Why, Obama could go over to Tehran and talk to the mullahs and ask them to stop being naughty. He could present himself as the 12th imam. He could prove it by personally pulling the trigger on Israel. They would have to believe him then. ...and the war would be over.
Most of us think from within the confines of our ‘comfort zone’ which can be seen as a room with only windows – no doors. Though we may label the various structural elements of such rooms as ‘tolerant’ or ‘liberal’, this does not essentially change the dimensions of these rooms. We still continue to linger at the windows, looking out. And if some notion, like that of ‘religion’ or ‘conservatism’ should appear, we simply draw the blinds and do not allow them to touch us. The same is true of the devoutly religious and the most rabidly conservative.
In order to end the gridlock, there must first and foremost come the recognition that ‘atheism’ for example is merely the flipside of ‘theism’; that ‘conservatism’ is merely the flipside of ‘liberalism’; that when any concept segment (with one extreme at the top and its opposite at the bottom) is bent to form a circle, both extremes meet at a single point.
Nowadays, the distinction between windows and doors has largely eroded; one-eyed peepholes (in doors) have evolved into sliding plates of solid, shatterproof glass. Our houses always tend to have many more windows than doors. (I count TV sets, laptops, books, newspapers and magazines as windows of a sort.) Still, a door implies some kind of journey, perhaps - a becoming.
Nothing changes when we look through a window. In this, whether we like it or not, we tend to closely mimic God for He (actually) is eternally condemned to living in an (admittedly) large room with many windows and no doors – we are not. (For one thing, unlike God and GM, we are allowed to die.)
Excerpted from Jamestown.org: February 13, 2008
Darra Adam Khel is a familiar name to all those who have any acquaintance with Pakistan's lawless tribal frontier region of seven tribal districts, or agencies. The town takes its name from the Adam Khel clan of the Pashtun Afridi tribe native to this region. Situated about 20 miles to the south of Peshawar, capital of the North-West Frontier Province (NWFP), and halfway to the garrison city of Kohat, Darra Adam Khel has long been considered a hub of criminals, car thefts, fake academic degrees and counterfeit foreign currencies. More importantly, this small town has a notorious reputation as South Asia’s largest illegal arms and ammunitions market (Dawn [Karachi], March 27, 2003). It is entirely run by local tribesmen without any state control or supervision. The extraordinarily skillful gunsmiths of Darra Adam Khel can make replicas of anything from small arms to AK-47 assault rifles, rocket-propelled grenades and anti-aircraft guns. The Afghan War provided a great boost to the local arms industry as local weapons manufacturing became a highly profitable business (Daily Times [Lahore], June 9, 2003). A survey conducted by the Peshawar-based Sustainable Peace and Development Organization (SPADO) three years ago found there were 1,200 shops selling guns in Darra Adam Khel. According to the survey, these were supplied by nearly 1,500 small workshops and more than 50 medium-scale manufacturing units employing over 6,000 gunsmiths.
1.5 million fleeing the region caused by a few thousand ruthless extremists caught up in an ideology of the Taliban means the devastation of the area- but, if the Pak attack finishes them off the people have the chance to rebuild it the way you would like it to be. The Taliban controlling the area equates to devastation more diabolical.
So, civilians!! Get the hell out, most of the world will support the task at hand and let the powers devastate the area and make short work of it. Make the future by your own vision.
The alternative is a mindset that throws acid in the face of schoolgirls trying to get to class!!!
No Prisoners!!!
Peter asks why all admin's seem to get into wars they can't win. Maybe. It appears Iraq may end up in the win column although the necessity of fighting it remains suspect.
Poor BO has a different threat than JFK had. JFK, in hindsight, stumbled into VN on the theory that commies would overrun SE Asia-dominoes and all stuff.
BO faces AQ re-establishing a country base in Afgan and now maybe in Pak. In addition, that means nukes may change hands. In my opinion BO's war has a lot more validity than JFK's boondoggle (for which JFK gets too little "credit").
Let's just hope he has the balls to let hell rain down if the weapons appear to be changing hands.
Do the Ruskies have any skin in this game?
Following are some details about Iran's military capability. The totals include equipment held by the Revolutionary Guards, which operate on land, at sea and in the air:
*ARMED FORCES*
Iran has over 545,000 personnel in active service. Major General Ataollah Salehi is the armed forces chief.
*ARMY*
The army comprises about 350,000 men, including 220,000 conscripts. The Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps, viewed as the most loyal guardian of the ruling system, has another 125,000 men. In 2004 the army was organized in four corps, with four armored divisions and six infantry divisions.
-- There are nearly 1,700 tanks including some 100 Zulfiqar locally produced main battle tanks. A large number of Iran's tanks are elderly British-made Chieftains and U.S.-made M-60s.
-- Soviet-made T-54 and T-55s, T-59s, T-62s, and T-72s were also part of the inventory, all captured from the Iraqis or acquired from North Korea and China.
-- A report from the International Institute for Strategic Studies says that some of the tanks' serviceability may be in doubt.
-- There are around 640 armored personnel carriers. There are 8,196 artillery pieces of which 2,010 are towed, and over 310 are self-propelled.
*MISSILES*
-- In a 2007 parade to mark the anniversary of 1980-88 Iran-Iraq war, Iran showed its Shahab-3 missile, saying it could travel 2,000 km -- enabling it to hit Israel and U.S. bases in the region. Another missile at the parade, the Ghadr-1, can reach targets 1,800 km (1,100 miles) away. It was believed to be the first time it has been shown publicly. In November last year, Iran said it test-fired a Sejil missile with a range of close to 2,000 km.
*NAVY*
There are 18,000 naval personnel. The navy has its headquarters at Bandar-e Abbas. Iran's navy has three Russian Kilo class submarines, three frigates and two corvettes.
-- As of 2001 the regular Iranian navy was in a state of overall obsolescence, and in poor shape because they had not been equipped with modern ships and weapons. The readiness of the three frigates is doubtful, and the two nearly 40-year-old corvettes do not have sophisticated weapons.
-- In late 2007 Iran launched a new locally made submarine and a navy frigate named as Jamaran. Jane's Defense Weekly has reported that Iran was also building missile-launching frigates copied from 275-tonne Kaman fast attack missile craft originally purchased from France in the late 1970s.
*AIR FORCE*
-- The air force has some 52,000 personnel and 281 combat aircraft. However, serviceability may be as low as around 60 percent for U.S. aircraft types and 80 percent for Russian aircraft. There are F-14 and MiG 29 aircraft. There are also some aircraft impounded from Iraq -- Russian-built Sukhoi Su-24s and 25s. Iran also has transport aircraft and helicopters.
-- In September 2007, Iran said it had tested two new domestically-produced jet fighters. State television said the Saegheh was a new generation of the Azarakhsh (Lightning) fighter. Iran said it was being built on an industrial scale.
Sources: Reuters/Military Balance 2008/www.globalsecurity.org/Jane's Defense Weekly
(Writing by David Cutler, London Editorial Reference Unit;)
DON'T GIVE PAKISTAN AID. INSTEAD, BUY THEIR NUKES.
The Pak military is getting our aid money, anyway.
For several years now, Pak has been in the business of (supposedly) stopping al Qaeda. However, if it ever did succeed, there was always the possibility the aid would stop. So there never was a legitimate reason for Pak's military to succeed.
Clearly, Pak is more dangerous than North Korea. Every effort should be made to eliminate its nuclear weapons.
JimJinNJ - I love you - especially for the last two letters in your pen name - but you're splitting hares (sic). A war is a war. At least that's how the libs see it. The time will come when they themselves won't be able to countenance the endless slaughter of civilians; the torture; the prisons; etc. - unless the networks won't report on it? ...and that too can be arranged.
Why does nearly every administration get itself involved in a war it can't win? Is it the same impulse that goads a kid, after he's scrimped and saved to buy his first car, to take her out on the highway to see how fast she'll go? He'll never consider any possible speed bumps, like a cop or a bridge abutment. His parents know he's gonna do it and pray the cop will get to him first.
John's right, Pakistan is a disaster already. It's been a disaster since the partition. Now it's likely to be Obama's disaster as well. What I'd like to know is who gives them the guns? Who arms the Taliban? I'm sure that Sam could give me an answer - but I wouldn't necessarily believe him. Anybody?
If we would know that much, we could work on drying up their seemingly endless supply of arms and explosives. Don't tell me it's Iran? If it's true, it should be easy. Why, Obama could go over to Tehran and talk to the mullahs and ask them to stop being naughty. He could present himself as the 12th imam. He could prove it by personally pulling the trigger on Israel. They would have to believe him then. ...and the war would be over.
Most of us think from within the confines of our ‘comfort zone’ which can be seen as a room with only windows – no doors. Though we may label the various structural elements of such rooms as ‘tolerant’ or ‘liberal’, this does not essentially change the dimensions of these rooms. We still continue to linger at the windows, looking out. And if some notion, like that of ‘religion’ or ‘conservatism’ should appear, we simply draw the blinds and do not allow them to touch us. The same is true of the devoutly religious and the most rabidly conservative.
In order to end the gridlock, there must first and foremost come the recognition that ‘atheism’ for example is merely the flipside of ‘theism’; that ‘conservatism’ is merely the flipside of ‘liberalism’; that when any concept segment (with one extreme at the top and its opposite at the bottom) is bent to form a circle, both extremes meet at a single point.
Nowadays, the distinction between windows and doors has largely eroded; one-eyed peepholes (in doors) have evolved into sliding plates of solid, shatterproof glass. Our houses always tend to have many more windows than doors. (I count TV sets, laptops, books, newspapers and magazines as windows of a sort.) Still, a door implies some kind of journey, perhaps - a becoming.
Nothing changes when we look through a window. In this, whether we like it or not, we tend to closely mimic God for He (actually) is eternally condemned to living in an (admittedly) large room with many windows and no doors – we are not. (For one thing, unlike God and GM, we are allowed to die.)
Excerpted from Jamestown.org: February 13, 2008
Darra Adam Khel is a familiar name to all those who have any acquaintance with Pakistan's lawless tribal frontier region of seven tribal districts, or agencies. The town takes its name from the Adam Khel clan of the Pashtun Afridi tribe native to this region. Situated about 20 miles to the south of Peshawar, capital of the North-West Frontier Province (NWFP), and halfway to the garrison city of Kohat, Darra Adam Khel has long been considered a hub of criminals, car thefts, fake academic degrees and counterfeit foreign currencies. More importantly, this small town has a notorious reputation as South Asia’s largest illegal arms and ammunitions market (Dawn [Karachi], March 27, 2003). It is entirely run by local tribesmen without any state control or supervision. The extraordinarily skillful gunsmiths of Darra Adam Khel can make replicas of anything from small arms to AK-47 assault rifles, rocket-propelled grenades and anti-aircraft guns. The Afghan War provided a great boost to the local arms industry as local weapons manufacturing became a highly profitable business (Daily Times [Lahore], June 9, 2003). A survey conducted by the Peshawar-based Sustainable Peace and Development Organization (SPADO) three years ago found there were 1,200 shops selling guns in Darra Adam Khel. According to the survey, these were supplied by nearly 1,500 small workshops and more than 50 medium-scale manufacturing units employing over 6,000 gunsmiths.
1.5 million fleeing the region caused by a few thousand ruthless extremists caught up in an ideology of the Taliban means the devastation of the area- but, if the Pak attack finishes them off the people have the chance to rebuild it the way you would like it to be. The Taliban controlling the area equates to devastation more diabolical.
So, civilians!! Get the hell out, most of the world will support the task at hand and let the powers devastate the area and make short work of it. Make the future by your own vision.
The alternative is a mindset that throws acid in the face of schoolgirls trying to get to class!!!
No Prisoners!!!
Peter asks why all admin's seem to get into wars they can't win. Maybe. It appears Iraq may end up in the win column although the necessity of fighting it remains suspect.
Poor BO has a different threat than JFK had. JFK, in hindsight, stumbled into VN on the theory that commies would overrun SE Asia-dominoes and all stuff.
BO faces AQ re-establishing a country base in Afgan and now maybe in Pak. In addition, that means nukes may change hands. In my opinion BO's war has a lot more validity than JFK's boondoggle (for which JFK gets too little "credit").
Let's just hope he has the balls to let hell rain down if the weapons appear to be changing hands.
Do the Ruskies have any skin in this game?
Following are some details about Iran's military capability. The totals include equipment held by the Revolutionary Guards, which operate on land, at sea and in the air:
*ARMED FORCES*
Iran has over 545,000 personnel in active service. Major General Ataollah Salehi is the armed forces chief.
*ARMY*
The army comprises about 350,000 men, including 220,000 conscripts. The Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps, viewed as the most loyal guardian of the ruling system, has another 125,000 men. In 2004 the army was organized in four corps, with four armored divisions and six infantry divisions.
-- There are nearly 1,700 tanks including some 100 Zulfiqar locally produced main battle tanks. A large number of Iran's tanks are elderly British-made Chieftains and U.S.-made M-60s.
-- Soviet-made T-54 and T-55s, T-59s, T-62s, and T-72s were also part of the inventory, all captured from the Iraqis or acquired from North Korea and China.
-- A report from the International Institute for Strategic Studies says that some of the tanks' serviceability may be in doubt.
-- There are around 640 armored personnel carriers. There are 8,196 artillery pieces of which 2,010 are towed, and over 310 are self-propelled.
*MISSILES*
-- In a 2007 parade to mark the anniversary of 1980-88 Iran-Iraq war, Iran showed its Shahab-3 missile, saying it could travel 2,000 km -- enabling it to hit Israel and U.S. bases in the region. Another missile at the parade, the Ghadr-1, can reach targets 1,800 km (1,100 miles) away. It was believed to be the first time it has been shown publicly. In November last year, Iran said it test-fired a Sejil missile with a range of close to 2,000 km.
*NAVY*
There are 18,000 naval personnel. The navy has its headquarters at Bandar-e Abbas. Iran's navy has three Russian Kilo class submarines, three frigates and two corvettes.
-- As of 2001 the regular Iranian navy was in a state of overall obsolescence, and in poor shape because they had not been equipped with modern ships and weapons. The readiness of the three frigates is doubtful, and the two nearly 40-year-old corvettes do not have sophisticated weapons.
-- In late 2007 Iran launched a new locally made submarine and a navy frigate named as Jamaran. Jane's Defense Weekly has reported that Iran was also building missile-launching frigates copied from 275-tonne Kaman fast attack missile craft originally purchased from France in the late 1970s.
*AIR FORCE*
-- The air force has some 52,000 personnel and 281 combat aircraft. However, serviceability may be as low as around 60 percent for U.S. aircraft types and 80 percent for Russian aircraft. There are F-14 and MiG 29 aircraft. There are also some aircraft impounded from Iraq -- Russian-built Sukhoi Su-24s and 25s. Iran also has transport aircraft and helicopters.
-- In September 2007, Iran said it had tested two new domestically-produced jet fighters. State television said the Saegheh was a new generation of the Azarakhsh (Lightning) fighter. Iran said it was being built on an industrial scale.
Sources: Reuters/Military Balance 2008/www.globalsecurity.org/Jane's Defense Weekly
(Writing by David Cutler, London Editorial Reference Unit;)
DON'T GIVE PAKISTAN AID. INSTEAD, BUY THEIR NUKES.
The Pak military is getting our aid money, anyway.
For several years now, Pak has been in the business of (supposedly)
stopping al Qaeda. However, if it ever did succeed, there was always the
possibility the aid would stop. So there never was a legitimate reason for
Pak's military to succeed.
Clearly, Pak is more dangerous than North Korea. Every effort should be made
to eliminate its nuclear weapons.
JimJinNJ - I love you - especially for the last two letters in your pen name - but you're splitting hares (sic). A war is a war. At least that's how the libs see it. The time will come when they themselves won't be able to countenance the endless slaughter of civilians; the torture; the prisons; etc. - unless the networks won't report on it? ...and that too can be arranged.