Within one month of his death sentence, Sadaam was swinging the wind. With our system, the guy is still costing taxpayers his room and board a good twelve years and then we complain that our prisons are overcrowded so we have to release some of the scum. What the hell is wrong with that picture !
I sure hope they do away with him right on the spot. If they capture him alive, I think he'll have to be tried in US courts. That means either he'll be released on some technicality, conviction with life imprisonment, or even if he gets the death penalty, with all the appeals (which will cost the tax payers millions) it'll take about 12 years to kill him 'humanly'.
A tip of the hat to A Yank in Kiwi Land
Synopsis:
1991 - In one of many civil rebellions, Somali dictator, Mohamed Siad Barre, was ousted, and the country fell into complete chaos with rival warlords vying for power.
November-December 1992 - President George H.W. Bush sent US troops (of which I was one), and other allied troops under US command arrived and began Operation "Restore Hope," successfully reigning in the warlords and getting relief to the starving refugees stacked-up along the Ethiopian border.
May 1993 - Pakistani General assumed command of international forces now under the ausipces of the UN.
October 1993 - The famous "Blackhawk Down" incident occurred in the successful attempt to capture the two closest advisers to number 1 warlord, Mohamed Aidid. Delta Force got his two advisers. Our 140 Rangers, outnumbered 10-to-1 and largely cut-off from reinforcements, suffered 19 deaths; the Somali guerillas suffered 1500-2000. Shortly afterward, Clinton withdrew our troops.
1993-present - The UN completely withdrew in 1995 and the country returned to chaotic infighting, regional secessions, famine and suffering. The officially recognized government, the TFG, opposed to extremist islam, arose. Radical muslim leadership, the IC (Islamic Court) or SICC, gained overwhelming, Taliban-like strength, imposing Sharia law, and began a rebellion against the TFG, pushing it back to reign only in their capitol, Baidoa. The Islamic Court radicals declared war on Ethiopia which backed the TFG and swore to protect it. Ethiopia invades.
Today - The Ehtiopians took Mogadishu and kicked the islamofascist's asses who ran away in defeat. Like most bullies, islamofascists are cowards and chicken-shits when they do not have numbers on their side and/or the other side is unarmed.For more background on the history of chaos in Somalia go here.
One thing is for sure: The Ethiopians do not give a rat's ass about world opinion, and if the Islamofascists mount a guerilla campaign against them or the TFG, the Ethiopians will not fight with one hand tied behind their backs. Blood will be shed, and heads will roll.
The first mission that we had was to overthrow Sadaam.
We did that in record time, our troops are the bravest and the best.
We 'led' them to the alter, and showed them how a democracy should work.
We showed them how to vote.
We built up their infrastructure, built roads and schools, trained their military and police.
Now.....
The Sunnis are killing the shites, and also the other way around.
These people have not gotten along for a thousand years, and it'll go on for another thousand.
How do we 'win' without wiping out Iran and Syria (that's my Idea).
If that's the case, I say we go for it.
We can't have them sit down and talk because we'll get the same results as Palestine and Israel.
They do not want peace PERIOD.
Please set me straight if anyone who reads this knows how we're going to win.
Thanks
First UK, then France, then the rest of Europe ?
Mohammed and its alternate spelling Muhammad have overtaken such stalwart monikers as George and Joseph on the list of the most popular name for boys born in England and Wales.
The popularity of the Prophet’s name reflects "the diverse ethnic mix of the population,” according to the Telegraph.
The name Mohammed alone is more popular than Henry, Edward, Michael, Adam and Charles.
story....
Pretty Powerful Stuff,
On Your Hands
J. D. Pendry
Jimmy Carter, you’re the father of the Islamic Nazi movement. You threw the Shah under the bus, welcomed the Ayatollah home and then lacked the spine to confront the terrorists when they took our embassy and our people hostage. You’re the runner-in-chief.
Bill Clinton, you played ring around the Lewinsky while the terrorists were at war with us. You got us into a fight with them in Somalia, and then you ran from it. Your weak-willed responses emboldened the killers. Each time you failed to respond adequately they grew bolder, until 9/11.
John Kerry, dishonesty is your most prominent attribute. You lied about American Soldiers in Vietnam. Your military service, like your life, is more fiction than fact. You’ve accused our Soldiers of terrorizing women and children in Iraq. You called Iraq the wrong war, wrong place, wrong time, the same words you used to describe Vietnam. You’re a fake. You want to run from Iraq and abandon the Iraqis to murderers just as you did the Vietnamese. Iraq, like Vietnam is another war that you were for, before you were against it.
John Murtha, you said our military was broken. You said we can’t win militarily in Iraq. You accused United States Marines of cold-blooded murder without proof. And said we should redeploy to Okinawa. Okinawa John? And the Democrats call you their military expert. Are you sure you didn’t suffer a traumatic brain injury while you were off building your war hero resume? You’re a sad, pitiable, corrupt and washed up politician. You’re not a Marine sir. You wouldn’t amount to a pimple on a real Marines butt. You’re a phony and a disgrace. Run away John.
Dick Durbin, you accused our Soldiers at Guantanimo of being Nazis, tenders of Soviet style gulags and as bad as the regime of Pol Pot who murdered two million of his own people after your party abandoned South East Asia to the Communists. Now you want to abandon the Iraqis to the same fate. History was not a good teacher for you, was it? See Dick run.
Ted Kennedy, for days on end you held poster sized pictures from Abu Grhaib in front of any available television camera. Al Jazeera quoted you saying that Iraq’s torture chambers were open under new management. Did you see the news this week Teddy? The Islamic Nazis demonstrated real torture for you again. If you truly supported our troops, you’d show the world poster-sized pictures of that atrocity and demand the annihilation of the perpetrators of it. Your legislation stripping support from the South Vietnamese led to a communist victory there. You’re a bloated fool bent on repeating the same historical blunder that turned freedom-seeking people over to homicidal, genocidal maniacs. To paraphrase John Murtha, all while sitting on your wide, gin-soaked rear-end in Washington.
Harry Reid, Nancy Pelosi, Carl Levine, Barbara Boxer, Diane Feinstein, Russ Feingold, Hillary Clinton, Pat Leahy, Chuck Schumer et al ad nauseam. Every time you stand in front of television cameras and broadcast to the Islamic Nazis that we went to war because our President lied. That the war is wrong and our Soldiers are torturers. That we should leave Iraq, you give the Islamic butchers – the same ones that tortured and mutilated American Soldiers - cause to think that we’ll run away again and all they have to do is hang on a little longer.
American news media, the New York Times particularly. Each time you publish stories about national defense secrets and our intelligence gathering methods, you become one with the sub-human pieces of camel dung that torture and mutilate the bodies of American Soldiers. You can’t strike up the courage to publish cartoons, but you can help Al Qaeda destroy my country. Actually, you are more dangerous to us than Al Qaeda is. Think about that each time you face Mecca to admire your Pulitzer.
You are America’s axis of idiots. Your Collective Stupidity will destroy us. Self-serving politics and terrorist abetting news scoops are more important to you than our national security or the lives of innocent civilians and Soldiers. It bothers you that defending ourselves gets in the way of your elitist sport of politics and your ignorant editorializing. There is as much blood on your hands as is on the hands of murdering terrorists. Don’t ever doubt that. Your frolics will only serve to extend this war as they extended Vietnam. If you want our Soldiers home, as you claim, knock off the crap and try supporting your country ahead of supporting your silly political aims and aiding our enemies. Yes, I’m questioning your patriotism. Your loyalty ends with self. I’m also questioning why you’re stealing air that decent Americans could be breathing. You don’t deserve the protection of our men and women in uniform. You need to run away from this war – this country. Leave the war to the people who have the will to see it through and the country to people who are willing to defend it.
No Commander in Chief, you don’t get off the hook either. Our country has two enemies. Those who want to destroy us from the outside and those who attempt it from within. Your Soldiers are dealing with the outside force. It’s your obligation to support them by confronting the axis of idiots. America must hear it from you that these people are harming our country, abetting the enemy and endangering our safety. Well up a little anger please, and channel it toward the appropriate target. You must prosecute those who leak national security secrets to the media. You must prosecute those in the media who knowingly publish those secrets. Our Soldiers need you to confront the enemy that they cannot.They need you to do it now.
Copyright © J.D. Pendry 2006**********JD’s weekly commentaries are copyrighted. You may forward them by email if unedited and forwarded in their entirety, which includes this notice and all information that follows. They may be printed. Commentaries can be republished in other formats and at other locations by permission only.
J. D. Pendry is author of The Three Meter Zone.You may comment on articles at Misanthropundit – JD’s Townhall.com Soapbox or see them in the reader’s articles at RealClearPolitics.com
Expedited citizenship would be an incentive.
The idea of signing up foreigners who are seeking US citizenship is gaining traction as a way to address a critical need for the Pentagon, while fully absorbing some of the roughly one million immigrants that enter the United States legally each year.
story....
Of course, Bill Clintons Decline of the military might be one of the causes for this situation.
Eleven straight years of declining military budgets. After adjusting for inflation, it is some 40% less than in 1985 during the second Reagan term.
Defense Secretary William Cohen had become concerned about his budget, and so he called for more base closings—and more money. The Joint Chiefs said that unless funding levels could be increased, some weapons systems or overseas deployments would have to be eliminated. In 1999, the budget was at $250 billion—the same year we were using our military to halt Slobodan Milosevic’s “ethnic cleansing” in Kosovo.
After all, Clinton lived by his slogan: “It’s the economy, stupid!”
Former national security adviser Sandy Berger removed classified documents from the National Archives in 2003 and hid them under a construction trailer, the Archives inspector general reported Wednesday.
The report was issued more than a year after Berger pleaded guilty and received a criminal sentence for removal of the documents.
Inspector General Paul Brachfeld reported that when Berger was confronted by Archives officials about the missing documents, he said it was possible he threw them in his office trash.
The report said that when Archives employees first suspected that Berger - who had been President Clinton's national security adviser - was removing classified documents from the Archives in the fall of 2003, they failed to notify any law enforcement agency.
story....
Ads Warn Californians that Speaker Pelosi Will Push for Mass Increases in Immigration
Pelosi has consistently supported open border policies and unpopular increases in immigration. She scores an "F" on immigration stabilization watchdog Web sites. Pelosi has supported social security benefits, in-state tuition, mass amnesties and drivers licenses for illegal aliens. She's voted against border security, immigration related terrorism safety measures, workplace verification programs and a law enforcement officer's right to ask legal status.
Enough said..... Don't blame me - I voted Republican !
more.....
for more troops to be deployed in the south of Afghanistan where Taliban are most active. So what does France do?........
France to withdraw special forces from Afghanistan
Is ANYONE surprised?
story......
Just days after Red Crescent's vice president, Dr. Jamal al-Karbouli, said American forces represented a greater danger to its work than insurgents, the hedlines read.....
Gunmen stage mass kidnapping in Baghdad
Take a guess who the victims were.
Gunmen in Iraqi army uniforms burst into Red Crescent offices on Sunday and kidnapped two dozen employees and visitors at the humanitarian organization in the latest sign of the country's growing lawlessness.
Dr Jamal - Wanna re-think that?
Story....
Did you know that Diana was bugged by Clintons secret service in the US !!
It says here that the Clinton CIA was bugging the phone of Princess Diana when Atta was planning 9/11 and now the dems are all upset that Bush is bugging real terrorists.
Hizbullah terrorists are free to roam at night without fear of being identified by the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL), according to a report by the German paper Der Spiegel.
Spanish UNIFIL official Richard Ortax admitted to the paper that no patrols are carried out at night “because of the danger involved.” UNIFIL commanders said their function is to "observe changes in the behavior of the local population."
One junior officer told Der Spiegel he was glad that his battalion had only left its camp once. "It's absurd," he said. "We landed here and set up our tent city, but since then we've only left the camp to drive around and to make sure that we're seen."
The United Nations itself has admitted that Syria was still successfully smuggling arms to the Hizbullah, which neither UNIFIL nor the Lebanese army plan to stop.
story......
Only the probability of Democrats taking over Congress can compare with the horror of Dutch dhimmitude.
A court in Rotterdam has awarded €72,000 ($91,881) to members of an Islamic terrorist group called Hofstadgroep who had been acquitted after being arrested on terrorism charges. This is more than what would normally be granted for the time that was spent in remand custody. Damages were also rewarded for lost income.
The court was well aware that the acquitted terrorists maintain close ties to Hofstadgroep. Remember when Theo Van Gogh was murdered and then his corpse mutilated in broad daylight on an Amsterdam street for making a movie Muslims didn't like? The killer, Mohammed Bouyeri, was a member of Hofstadgroep.
Tip of the hat to moonbattery.
Chicago anti-war activist burn himself alive to protest Iraq war
Chicago peace activist & musician, Malachi Ritscher, burned himself alive Friday morning on the Kennedy Expressway, apparently in protest of the Iraq war.
Police found a homemade sign near his body which said "Thou Shalt Not Kill."
story....
Taken from the DailyKos .
A Match Made in Heaven? (and not a chance in Hell to win !)
Al Gore and Dennis "Bulldog" (snicker) Kucinich are two warriors with the stones to face Global Warming. We have ten years to manifest drastic change or we can kiss the Earth goodbye - these men GET IT! Gore and Kucinich are not members of the club - they are visionaries with the courage to lead in our greatest challenge.
Kinda makes you want to puke.
A column by Charles Krauthammer spells it out. They can no longer sit back and whine and complain about how bad things are going. They now have to join in the government in a very hard situation in Iraq and elsewhere. If things don’t go well, they will share in the blame, whereas had the Republicans maintained the House and the Senate they would be the fall guys for every calamity or misadventure between now and then.
story.....
Keith Ellison, The Wahhabist Choice For Congress
Ellison was not only a member of Louis Farrakhan's rabidly anti-Semitic Nation of Islam, friendly with people who murdered policemen and those who have been engaged in domestic terrorism but he is the choice of the Saudi Wahhabist lobby in his run for Congress and has actively courted groups with Islamist sympathies, with ties to organizations like Hamas and those who believe that the U.S. Constitution should be replaced with Sharia law.
The one word which is glaringly absent from Ellison's campaign website is "terrorism."
This should not be surprising since Keith X is being financed and endorsed by a group which aids and abets it; the Council on American Islamic Relations [CAIR], a Saudi funded front group for Hamas which Middle East scholar Daniel Pipes has characterized as "'moderate' friends of terror."
Under the heading "Crime and Safety" Ellison states that, "I have been to too many funerals of young people to be anything but a strong supporter of law enforcement, but I also believe it must be balanced by other factors."
Perhaps by "balance" Ellison was referring to his call for the release of Sara Jane Olsen aka Sister Soliah, a member of the urban guerrilla Symbionese Liberation Army [the group which kidnapped Patty Hearst] who had pled guilty to placing bombs underneath two LAPD police cars .
Or maybe it's Ellison's support of cop killers Assata Shakur and Mumia Abu-Jamal?
Is Ellison's committment to "balance" the root of his agreement with Nation of Islam bigot Joanne Jackson's statement that Jews are, "the most racist white people" or his work with gang-leader Sharif Willis who murdered Minneapolis Police Officer Jerry Haaf?
complete story......
Every voter should watch this video and realize that if the dems have their way, we'll cut and run (just like Vietnam) and give the terrorists a victory.
This was given to me as a joke, but as I was reading it, I realized that it was both true and sad.
Math 1950-2006
Last week I purchased a burger at Burger King for $1.58. The counter girl took my $2 and I was digging for my change when I pulled 8 cents from my pocket and gave it to her. She stood there, holding the nickel and 3 pennies, while looking at the screen on her register. I sensed her discomfort and tried to tell her to just give me two quarters, but she hailed the manager for help. While he tried to explain the transaction to her, she stood there and cried.
Why do I tell you this?
Because of the evolution in teaching math since the 1950s:
1. Teaching Math In 1950
A logger sells a truckload of lumber for $100. His cost of production is 4/5 of the price. What is his profit?
2. Teaching Math In 1960
A logger sells a truckload of lumber for $100. His cost of production is 4/5 of the price, or $80. What is his profit?
3. Teaching Math In 1970
A logger sells a truckload of lumber for $100. His cost of production is $80. Did he make a profit?
4. Teaching Math In 1980
A logger sells a truckload of lumber for $100. His cost of production is $80 and his profit is $20. Your assignment: Underline the number 20.
5. Teaching Math In 1990
A logger cuts down a beautiful forest because he is selfish and inconsiderate and cares nothing for the habitat of animals or the preservation of our woodlands. He does this so he can make a profit of $20. What do you think of this way of making a living? Topic for class participation after answering the question: How did the birds and squirrels feel as the logger cut down their homes? ( There are no wrong answers.)
6. Teaching Math In 2006
Un hachero vende una carretada de maderapara $100. El costo de la producciones es $80. Cuanto dinero ha hecho?
About media bias, just watch Keith Olbermann spin like a top talking about Kerry (D-Ketchup) . And why does he continue to attack Bush, Has anyone told him yet that he lost, and Bush is not running for office anymore?
Click here
Thanks to NEWSBUSTERS.ORG
C(BS) thinks this story will go away by tomorrow. It's funny that they're still talking about Rush Limbaugh's comments going into the second week.
Thanks to my good friend Rob.
Minorities Hit Hardest
NBC News reports......
President Bush and his staff sit comfortably in the White House, the snow continued to pile up on the many poor and African American victims in the Buffalo, NY area who could not afford to get out of town or to safety in Florida. Crucial supplies of blankets, hot cocoa, popcorn, gold jewelry, plasma TVs, Colt 45 and dark rum - so essential to surviving the stress of any major snowstorm - lay in stores
un-delivered.
"Where is the government? I need my sidewalk shoveled so I can get out to buy my lottery tickets!" said one Buffalo resident from his living room. "Why are we wasting money in Iraq when we could be spending it here on me?
"Progressive blogs blasted the President for his inaction. "We find the timing terribly suspicious - just as the North Korean sanctions kick into high gear, what happens? A major northeast Blizzard. Why now?" wrote one blogger.
Hearings into the Blizzards' effect on hearings are almost acertainty. Howard Dean has suggested he will call for an investigation once his new medications kick in and John Kerry took a break from his vacation in Aspen to call for new legislation outlawing snowstorms. "The Republican Congress has dropped the ball once again. I have always been astaunch supporter of anti-snow legislation, except for certain locations where I ski. Snow has no business on our roads and the President and Congress know that.
"Calls for impeachment over "SnowGate" as some are calling it already are mounting as deeply as the snow itself, and what will be discovered underneath will prove to have a truly chilling effect on the Republicans, as the inevitable thaw proceeds.
This just in... More breaking news...Jesse Jackson wants an investigation as to why snow is ALWAYS white.
It is reported that Dick Cheney has stock in Tru-Value Hardware. Do you have any idea how many SNOW SHOVELS they sold today to the unsuspecting consumer?
The American people will demand to know why FEMA has been so late in reacting to this storm. THEY SHOULD HAVE KNOWN IT WAS COMING! And yet they failed to have crews in place to fix the electricity as soon as it went off. It just shows that Bush and the Republicans just don't care about the people in the Northeast. The Senate needs toinvestigate this with administration personnel under oath.
We speculate that the great junior senator from N.Y. has opened the doors of her Long Island mansion to all of the heatless poor of her neighborhood and is busy baking cookies for them while her husband applies body heat to the nearly frozen teen-aged girls.
This is how the Democrats "support" our troops. While our brave men and women are fighting and defending America half way around the world, back home a leading Democrat says they're there because their stupid. These are the people who want lead our country.
If the Democrats think our troops are stupid, what does that say about the Democrats ability to protect America?
Here's a transcipt.
“You know, education, if you make the most of it, if you study hard and you do your homework, and you make an effort to be smart, uh, you, you can do well. If you don’t, you get stuck in Iraq.”
This is the typical denegration of our troops from the Democrats. To the Democrats our troops are either poor or stupid, why else would they volunteer to fight for America? Patiotism is unknown to the Democrats. Ted Kennedy's KGB connections are proof of that.
But like most things that come out of Kerry and the Democrats mouths, the truth is quite different.
JFK must be spinning in his grave....
It's only fitting that New York honor Fidel Castro with a massive monument in Central Park to be unveiled November 8th. "The portrait celebrates Castro's humanitarianism," gushes David Kesting, the spokesman for the statue's sculptor. "Inspiration for the gilded head of Castro, large enough to belong to a 25 foot man, comes from Harlem's acclamation for Castro's contributions to civil rights," reads a wire story.
In reality he craved the nuclear incineration of the entire metropolis. "If the missiles had remained we would have used them against the very heart of the U.S., including New York City," admitted his sidekick Ernesto "Che" Guevara, thinking he was speaking "off the record" to London's Daily Worker in November 1962.
A monument heralding Hitler in Warsaw, London or Rotterdam would make more sense.
story.....
No way the libs would let us react this way. What would the world think of us. I guess the Russians didn't care back then.
The Russians go in and play by terrorist rules. They terrorize the terrorists. Back in the 1980s, for example,Islamic terrorists in Lebanon kidnapped a Russian diplomat. The Russians (then the Soviets, a distinction without much difference in these matters) quickly found out which faction had their guy, kidnapped a relative of one of the kidnappers, and had a body part delivered to the Islamic kidnappers. The message was, release the Russian diplomat unharmed, or the KGB (Soviet secret police) would keep sending body parts, and grabbing kinfolk of the kidnappers. The Russian diplomat was released.
story.....
Not only are British police being told to enter suspected Muslim homes in their socks, not to use bomb sniffing dogs and not to make arrest during daily prayer times (that's five times a day), now the police are being told not to make arrests during Ramadan.
Does this mean that no Catholic arrests during Easter?
story.....
How do you win the war on terror with an attitude and perspective like this?
How could we as freedom loving Americans ever allow Democrats to regain power when clearly they have no interest in protecting American lives or our way of life?
Wow, if you weren't sure Democrats were weak on terror before... this should convince you... Democrat Senator Chris Dodd of Connecticut regrets that he didn't filibuster the terror interrogation bill recently signed by President Bush, calling the legislation a "major blow to who we are."
Sen. Chris Dodd, D-Conn., said he regretted being talked out of filibustering tough new tribunal legislation signed by president Bush on Tuesday, and plans to seek new legislation to overturn portions of the bill.
Dodd denounced the measure, which civil liberty groups have said endangers many freedoms."It's a major, major retreat for us as a people," Dodd said during a visit to Iowa on Tuesday afternoon. "It's incredible what they did."
The measure signed by Bush sets up military tribunals to try terror suspects and allows the introduction of evidence obtained through tough interrogation procedures. It also suspends rights such as habeas corpus, which requires that suspects be brought to court to ensure they are being held legally and if they should be released.
Dodd said he initially intended to filibuster the bill but was talked out of it by other Democrats who said there wouldn't be enough votes to support the filibuster.
"I regret now that I didn't do it," he said. "This is a major, major blow to who we are."The truth comes out... To Democrats like Dodd, fighting terrorism is a "major blow to who we are."
story...
Sounds like the Dems want to repeat history....
What did the North Vietnamese leadership think of the American antiwar movement? What was the purpose of the Tet Offensive? How could the U.S. have been more successful in fighting the Vietnam War? Bui Tin, a former colonel in the North Vietnamese army, answers these questions in the following excerpts from an interview conducted by Stephen Young, a Minnesota attorney and human-rights activist [in The Wall Street Journal, 3 August 1995]. Bui Tin, who served on the general staff of North Vietnam's army, received the unconditional surrender of South Vietnam on April 30, 1975. He later became editor of the People's Daily, the official newspaper of Vietnam. He now lives in Paris, where he immigrated after becoming disillusioned with the fruits of Vietnamese communism.
Question: How did Hanoi intend to defeat the Americans?
Answer: By fighting a long war which would break their will to help South Vietnam. Ho Chi Minh said,
"We don't need to win military victories, we only need to hit them until they give up and get out."
Q: Was the American antiwar movement important to Hanoi's victory?
A: It was essential to our strategy. Support of the war from our rear was completely secure while the American rear was vulnerable. Every day our leadership would listen to world news over the radio at 9 a.m. to follow the growth of the American antiwar movement. Visits to Hanoi by people like Jane Fonda, and former Attorney General Ramsey Clark and ministers gave us confidence that we should hold on in the face of battlefield reverses. We were elated when Jane Fonda, wearing a red Vietnamese dress, said at a press conference that she was ashamed of American actions in the war and that she would struggle along with us.
Q: Did the Politburo pay attention to these visits?
A: Keenly.
Q: Why?
A: Those people represented the conscience of America. The conscience of America was part of its war-making capability, and we were turning that power in our favor. America lost because of its democracy; through dissent and protest it lost the ability to mobilize a will to win.
Q: How could the Americans have won the war?
A: Cut the Ho Chi Minh trail inside Laos. If Johnson had granted [Gen. William] Westmoreland's requests to enter Laos and block the Ho Chi Minh trail, Hanoi could not have won the war.
Q: Anything else?
A: Train South Vietnam's generals. The junior South Vietnamese officers were good, competent and courageous, but the commanding general officers were inept.
Q: Did Hanoi expect that the National Liberation Front would win power in South Vietnam?
A: No. Gen. [Vo Nguyen] Giap [commander of the North Vietnamese army] believed that guerrilla warfare was important but not sufficient for victory. Regular military divisions with artillery and armor would be needed. The Chinese believed in fighting only with guerrillas, but we had a different approach. The Chinese were reluctant to help us. Soviet aid made the war possible. Le Duan [secretary general of the Vietnamese Communist Party] once told Mao Tse-tung that if you help us, we are sure to win; if you don't, we will still win, but we will have to sacrifice one or two million more soldiers to do so.
Q: Was the National Liberation Front an independent political movement of South Vietnamese?
A: No. It was set up by our Communist Party to implement a decision of the Third Party Congress of September 1960. We always said there was only one party, only one army in the war to liberate the South and unify the nation. At all times there was only one party commissar in command of the South.
Q: Why was the Ho Chi Minh trail so important?
A: It was the only way to bring sufficient military power to bear on the fighting in the South. Building and maintaining the trail was a huge effort, involving tens of thousands of soldiers, drivers, repair teams, medical stations, communication units.
Q: What of American bombing of the Ho Chi Minh trail?
A: Not very effective. Our operations were never compromised by attacks on the trail. At times, accurate B-52 strikes would cause real damage, but we put so much in at the top of the trail that enough men and weapons to prolong the war always came out the bottom. Bombing by smaller planes rarely hit significant targets.
Q: What of American bombing of North Vietnam?
A: If all the bombing had been concentrated at one time, it would have hurt our efforts. But the bombing was expanded in slow stages under Johnson and it didn't worry us. We had plenty of times to prepare alternative routes and facilities. We always had stockpiles of rice ready to feed the people for months if a harvest were damaged. The Soviets bought rice from Thailand for us.
Q: What was the purpose of the 1968 Tet Offensive?
A: To relieve the pressure Gen. Westmoreland was putting on us in late 1966 and 1967 and to weaken American resolve during a presidential election year.
Q: What about Gen. Westmoreland's strategy and tactics caused you concern?
A: Our senior commander in the South, Gen. Nguyen Chi Thanh, knew that we were losing base areas, control of the rural population and that his main forces were being pushed out to the borders of South Vietnam. He also worried that Westmoreland might receive permission to enter Laos and cut the Ho Chi Minh Trail.
In January 1967, after discussions with Le Duan, Thanh proposed the Tet Offensive. Thanh was the senior member of the Politburo in South Vietnam. He supervised the entire war effort. Thanh's struggle philosophy was that "America is wealthy but not resolute," and "squeeze tight to the American chest and attack." He was invited up to Hanoi for further discussions. He went on commercial flights with a false passport from Cambodia to Hong Kong and then to Hanoi. Only in July was his plan adopted by the leadership. Then Johnson had rejected Westmoreland's request for 200,000 more troops. We realized that America had made its maximum military commitment to the war. Vietnam was not sufficiently important for the United States to call up its reserves. We had stretched American power to a breaking point. When more frustration set in, all the Americans could do would be to withdraw; they had no more troops to send over.
Tet was designed to influence American public opinion. We would attack poorly defended parts of South Vietnam cities during a holiday and a truce when few South Vietnamese troops would be on duty. Before the main attack, we would entice American units to advance close to the borders, away from the cities. By attacking all South Vietnam's major cities, we would spread out our forces and neutralize the impact of American firepower. Attacking on a broad front, we would lose some battles but win others. We used local forces nearby each target to frustrate discovery of our plans. Small teams, like the one which attacked the U.S. Embassy in Saigon, would be sufficient. It was a guerrilla strategy of hit-and-run raids. [lloks like a re-writing of history with the benefit of hindsight]
Q: What about the results?
A: Our losses were staggering and a complete surprise;. Giap later told me that Tet had been a military defeat, though we had gained the planned political advantages when Johnson agreed to negotiate and did not run for re-election. The second and third waves in May and September were, in retrospect, mistakes. Our forces in the South were nearly wiped out by all the fighting in 1968. It took us until 1971 to re-establish our presence, but we had to use North Vietnamese troops as local guerrillas. If the American forces had not begun to withdraw under Nixon in 1969, they could have punished us severely. We suffered badly in 1969 and 1970 as it was.
Q: What of Nixon?
A: Well, when Nixon stepped down because of Watergate we knew we would win. Pham Van Dong [prime minister of North Vietnam] said of Gerald Ford, the new president, "he's the weakest president in U.S. history; the people didn't elect him; even if you gave him candy, he doesn't dare to intervene in Vietnam again." We tested Ford's resolve by attacking Phuoc Long in January 1975. When Ford kept American B-52's in their hangers, our leadership decided on a big offensive against South Vietnam.
Q: What else?
A: We had the impression that American commanders had their hands tied by political factors. Your generals could never deploy a maximum force for greatest military effect.
story....
They were not good enough, they are not smart enough and doggone it nobody likes them.
I am sure Al Franken is crying, but mostly over the $300000 that Air America owes him. Good for you Franken and Garafalo , you were burned by the left. At least garafalo knew to jump ship early
According to the Midland Reporter-Telegram, Gorbachev — recalling President Reagan's famous Cold War demand, "Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall" — said America seems to have forgotten its history.
I think Gorby has forgotten HIS history.
The Berlin wall was to keep people in, Our wall is to keep Illegal aliens and possible terrorists OUT. Everyone is welcome if they enter legally !
Story....
To translate that from UN diplo-speak into English, it's a harshly worded memo saying please don't do it again...
Sanctions will include a broad arms embargo, a ban on luxury sales to North Korea and measures to encourage countries to inspect all cargo shipments in and out of the country, in part to frustrate any attempt by Pyongyang to proliferate its weapons technology around the world. International travel will also be forbidden for North Korean officials with any connection to the country's weapons programmes.
If that doesn't strike fear into the heart of a ruthless dictator, I don't know what will...
story....
Nice article about how the main streammedia ignores any good news about tax cuts.
Sound of Silence: Media Caught Flat-footed by Shrinking Deficit
Oops. Back in 2004, then-ABC White House correspondent Terry Moran argued President Bush's tax cuts were building debt, not prosperity: "Most experts say that making those tax cuts permanent would cause gigantic deficits virtually as far as the eye can see." Early last year, CBS's Bob Schieffer suggested it would be impossible for the federal budget deficit to be cut in half before 2009 without raising taxes: "The government has just got to find some money to finance these programs."
Well, the tax cuts haven't been repealed, and there have been no big new tax increases. But Wednesday the White House announced that final tallies for the federal government's fiscal year ending September 30, 2006, the budget deficit had shrunk from $413 billion two years ago to $248 billion. The federal government collected $2.407 trillion in taxes in FY2006, $122 billion more than originally forecast back in February.
On Wednesday night, ABC and CBS skipped this good economic and budget news.
more.....
Top Ten Things NY Dems Should Do to Show They Actually Condemn Sexual Predation.
10. Demand explanation from Chuck Schumer as to why he did not support expulsion of his then House Caucus-mate Gerry Studds after the Democrat proudly admitted to having sex with a 17-year old male page.
9. Demand explanation from Shelly Silver as to why he didn't fire his Counsel Michael Boxley after the first charge surfaced of Boxley sexually violating a much younger woman, and demand that the Assembly Ethics Committee release a full report on the repeated sexual scandals involving Shelly Silver's Counsel Michael Boxley.
8. Demand that Democratic House leaders explain why they failed to take appropriate action against Congressman Barney Frank after it was revealed that his boyfriend was running an illegal prostitution ring out of Congressman Frank's Washington DC residence.
7. Demand answers on the cover-up of sexual harassment allegations against Erie County Legislator Thomas Mazur.
6. Demand that Democrat led Assembly immediately pass Governor's civil confinement legislation to keep sexual predators out of our neighborhoods and away from our children.
5. Demand that Democrat led Assembly immediately pass Jessica's Law, ending their resistance to the Governor's legislation that would toughen penalties for people who sexually assault or rape children.
4. Demand an explanation from Senator Hillary Clinton as to why then-President Bill Clinton granted a midnight pardon to convicted child molester and former Democratic Congressman Mel Reynolds, immediately commuting the jail sentence of the disgraced Democratic luminary for yet other felony crimes he committed.
3. Demand that Speaker Silver fully investigate and disclose the findings regarding the mysterious resignation of Assemblyman Karben after it was revealed that he allegedly watched gay pornographic movies with an intern and often made unwanted sexual advances toward male interns and staffers.
2. Demand that democrat led Assembly immediately pass Governor's legislation that would toughen penalties on the sick individuals who produce, promote and distribute child pornography.
1. Demand that former Democratic Presidential candidate Jesse Jackson immediately rescind and explain his hiring of convicted child molester -- and former Democratic Congressman -- Mel Reynolds as a "youth counselor."
Statement from New York Republican State Committee Chairman Steve Minarik:
"The facts are clear -- National Democrats have a long and tawdry history of granting sexual predators renomination, reelection, Presidential pardons and even employment as a 'youth counselor' and the leadership of the NY State Democratic Party has played the role of enabler by sitting by silently as such outrages have occurred. Just as troubling, the State Democratic Party leaders like Shelly Silver and Denny Farrell have placed their own sexual scandal skeletons in the closet and refused to open them for the public to see.
"While we question the wisdom of Democrats thinking they can and should campaign on the issue of what is the appropriate response to the serious matter of sexual predation, we know the contrast in past actions speaks loudly to the Democrats weaknesses and the Republicans strengths so we welcome the debate wholeheartedly and hope the Democrats will continue their gross political miscalculation."
story....
How far should our government go to accomidate islamic law? Give me a break !
Scores of Muslim cabdrivers in Minneapolis who say their faith prohibits them from driving passengers with alcohol have sparked a debate over how far a government must go to accommodate Islamic law.
"These taxi cab drivers basically think they're living in they're own countries where it's OK to impose your religious beliefs upon others,"
more.....
U.S. District Judge Karen Caldwell wrote Tuesday that the law could restrict the free speech rights of people in nearby homes, sidewalks and streets, even if they cannot be seen or heard by funeral participants.
I feel a family that is grieving the loss of a son or daughter has a right to do it without being harassed.
There's hope though.....
Kentucky Attorney General Greg Stumbo said he would consider an appeal. "I believe that society has an interest in honoring its war dead. Funerals are times of sacred and solemn reflection which must be protected from aggressive disruption," Stumbo said in a statement.
story....
These two sentences from the article sums it up....
The Pope quoted a 14th Century Byzantine emperor who criticised the teachings of Mohammad for endorsing the use of violence, in a speech to an academic audience at a German university last Tuesday.
An Iraqi militant group led by al-Qaeda has threatened to massacre Christians in response to remarks about Islam by Pope Benedict XVI that have caused offence across the Muslim world.
I rest my case.
story......
Sahab 911 commemorative tape. Chilling.
This from Laura Mansfield.com via Ace:
To view an excerpt of the video, please see
http://www.lauramansfield.com/sahab_090806.wmv"
In addition to the scenes shown on Al Jazeera on Thursday, the video includes previously unseen footage of Azzam the American, describing the September 11 attacks and the hijackers.
As Sahab 911 commemorative tape shows 911 hijackers rehearsing with boxcutters; also shows Azzam the American.
Officer Suarez.
http://www.jamesarnett.com/suarez/
Here are a few other sites.
http://www.nypdangels.com/nypd/suarez.htm
http://www.september11victims.com/september11victims/VictimInfo.asp?ID=2569
http://www.nycpba.org/heroes/suarez.html
http://www.odmp.org/officer.php?oid=15816
http://terroristattack.com/messages.php?id=2887
http://www.cnn.com/SPECIALS/2001/memorial/people/3867.html
http://www.wallofamericans.com/php_files/wall.php?action=person_info&id=1522
It appears the upcoming ABC mini-series, “The Path to 9/11,” set to air on the eve of the five year anniversary of September 11 has Democrats in a turmoil.
The mini-series will discuss the events and origins that lead to the terrible events of September 11, 2001.
“The Path to 9/11,” a five-hour dramatization laying out the history of the Sept. 11 plot from the first bombing of the World Trade Center in 1993, will be aired over two nights on the anniversary of the attack next week by ABC Television.
Democrats seem to be upset in the portrayal of how the Clinton Administration handled terrorism from the first bombing of the World Trade Center in 1993 to the aborted efforts to capture Osama bin Laden. Are we to believe that these events did not occur?
- After the 1993 World Trade Center bombing, which killed six and injured 1,000
- 1995 bombing in Saudi Arabia, which killed five U.S. military personnel
- 1996 Khobar Towers bombing in Saudi Arabia, which killed 19 and injured 200 U.S. military personnel
- 1998 bombing of U.S. embassies in Africa, which killed 224 and injured 5,000
- October 12, 2000 bombing of the USS Cole, which killed 17 and injured 3 U.S. sailors
How To Negotiate With Terrorists
This brief blog entry takes you through a series of negotiations over time between peacemakers and terrorists:
A peacemaker walks up to the left side of a line. A terrorist walks up to the right side of the line. The peacemaker introduces himself. The terrorist kills him.
A peacemaker walks up to the left side of the line. A terrorist walks up to the right side of the line. The peacemaker asks, "why did you kill my friend?" The terrorist kills him and rapes his wife.
A peacemaker walks up to the left side of the line. A terrorist walks up to the right side of the line. The peacemaker says, "Stop that!" The terrorist kills him, rapes his daughter and kills his wife.
A peacemaker walks up to the left side of the line. A terrorist walks up to the right side of the line. The peacemaker says, "I'll pay you $1000 if you stop attacking us." The terrorist agrees to the deal, takes the $1000, and kills him.
A peacemaker walks up to the left side of the line. A terrorist walks up to the right side of the line. The peacemaker appeals to the United Nations. The United Nations says the peacemaker is at fault. The terrorist kills him.
A peacemaker walks up to the left side of the line. A terrorist walks up to the right side of the line. The peacemaker now has a gun, and threatens to use it. Other peacemakers start chanting the old 60's whine, "Can't we all just get along?" The peacemaker hesitates. The terrorist kills him.
A peacemaker walks up to the left side of the line. A terrorist walks up to the right side of the line. The peacemaker tries to convince his peacemaker friends that the terrorists aren't going to respond to negotiations, but they insist that if he kills the terrorist it'll just make the other terrorists mad. The peacemaker reluctantly agrees to try negotiating again. The terrorist kills him., his entire family, and his neighbor's family.
A heated debate now ensues between the peacemakers who want to be nice to the terrorists and the peacemakers who believe that there can never be peace until the terrorists are all dead. While they are debating, the terrorists kill 15 more peacemakers.
A peacemaker walks up to the left side of the line. A terrorist walks up to the right side of the line. The peacemaker asks himself, "Which is more important: being liked by everyone, or protecting my family?" The terrorist pulls a knife to kill the peacemaker, but the peacemaker pulls a gun and kills the terrorist first.
The United Nations condemns the peacemaker's use of unproportional force. Many of his peacemaker friends turn against him.
A peacemaker walks up to the left side of the line. A terrorist walks up to the right side of the line. The peacemaker apologizes for what his friend did to the other terrorist. The terrorist kills him, his entire family and his neighbors, and threatens to destroy the city as soon as they develop a bigger weapon.
A peacemaker refuses to meet at the line because every time a peacemaker goes to the line the terrorist kills him. A terrorist walks up to the right side of the line and fires rockets into the peacemaker's town. The United Nations condemns the way the peacemaker provoked the terrorist by refusing to come to the line and meet with him.
Generations pass and not much changes until one day when the son of a peacemaker decides that the old strategy simply won't work. He walks up to the left side of the line a little early. As the terrorist approaches the right side of the line the peacemaker shoots him. Another terrorist approaches to replace the first, and the peacemaker shoots him too. This scene plays out several more times. Then a terrorist approaches carrying a white flag, but he also has weapons. The peacemaker shoots him. A terrorist next approaches with a ceasefire resolution from the U.N. The peacemaker shoots him also. A large group of terrorists approach and the peacemaker shoots them all and drops a nuclear bomb on the city they came from. The peacemaker continues killing the terrorists until the terrorists are all dead.
There is finally peace on earth and the United Nations takes the credit.
Brad Pitt gave us an ultimatum.......
He said that he'll marry only when everyone can. Folks, we've gotta get this gay thing passed, plus I'd like to marry my fish (that may take a little longer to get through).
NEW YORK -
Brad Pitt, ever the social activist, says he won't be marrying
Angelina Jolie until the restrictions on who can marry whom are dropped.
"Angie and I will consider tying the knot when everyone else in the country who wants to be married is legally able," the 42-year-old actor reveals in Esquire magazine's October issue, on newsstands Sept. 19.
more....
Donald Rumsfeld steps up to the plate and hits another homer. Immediately after one of his speeches, the dems want to give him a vote of no confidence. The secretary of Defense clarified and expands on what he said in his recent speeches about appeasing extremists.
New Enemies Demand New Thinking.
With the growing lethality and availability of weapons, can we truly afford to believe that vicious extremists can somehow be appeased?
• Can we really continue to think that free countries can negotiate a separate peace with terrorists?
• Can we truly afford to pretend that the threats today are simply "law enforcement" problems rather than fundamentally different threats requiring fundamentally different approaches?
• Can we truly afford to return to the destructive view that America — not the enemy — is the real source of the world's troubles?
These are the central questions of our time, and, as in all periods of conflict, we have no choice but to face them honestly. The last question is particularly important, because this is the first war of the 21st century — a war that, to a great extent, will be fought in the media on a global stage. We cannot allow the terrorists' lies and myths to be repeated without question or challenge.
We also should be aware that the struggle is too important — the consequences too severe — to allow a "blame America first" mentality to overwhelm the truth that our nation, though imperfect, is a force for good in the world.
Consider that a database search of the nation's leading newspapers turns up 10 times as many mentions of one of the soldiers punished for misconduct at Abu Ghraib than of Sgt. 1st Class Paul Ray Smith, the first recipient of the Medal of Honor in the global war on terror.
Then there is the case of Amnesty International, a long-respected human-rights organization, which called the detention facility at Guantanamo Bay the "gulag of our times" — a reference to the vast system of Soviet prisons and labor camps where innocent citizens were starved, tortured and murdered. The facility at Guantanamo Bay, by contrast, includes a volleyball court, basketball court, soccer field and library (the book most requested is "Harry Potter"). The food, served in accordance with Islamic diets, costs more per detainee than the average U.S. military ration.
With examples like these prevalent in the world media, I do worry about the lack of perspective in our national dialogue — a perspective on history and the new challenges and threats that free people face today. Those who know the truth need to speak out against the myths and distortions being told about our troops and our country. My remarks at the Veterans of Foreign Wars and American Legion conventions have generated much discussion. I encourage everyone to read what I actually said at defenselink.mil/speeches.
