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A Message from Osama:

Doc in the Box

Culminating Point of Victory:

You'll recall "Clausewitz & The Triangle," in which I argued that the traditional mode of victory -- what von Clauzewitz called "the culminating point of victory" -- was not available to the Iraqi insurgents.

Doc in the Box, mourning a vicious slaughter of friends he had while in the sandbox, makes the point in personal terms:

The insurgences, whom I believe are foreign nationals mostly, aren't doing anyone over there any good. They're installing fear in everybody, they're not only attacking us, they're attacking the very people that are trying to raise the country out of post war barbarism that seems to be running rampant. These people don't have the good of the Iraqi people at heart, they don't worship Allah, they worship Chaos.

This is the true terrorism, when you're trying to change a country by taking out anybody that can make a difference. Relief workers, people that help the poor? Doctors, Teachers, potential Leaders?

After such attacks, who is ever going to take these people seriously?

That is why they cannot win. That is why we will, and it is why we must. Only we ourselves can lose, by talking ourselves out of fighting it through to the end. The good folk of Iraq are counting on us.

From the Halls to the Shores

Mike on UBL:

Mike the Marine has a reaction to the UBL speech.

The State | 10/30/2004 | On election results, it�s still the economy

Labor Memo:

You've probably heard about the Labor Dept. Memo predicting a sure Bush win. It says that 'nearly every model' shows Bush carrying the election by much larger margins than the polls show.

"What models?" you might reasonably ask. After all, everything we've seen in the press indicates a very tight race.

Well, here's a primer on some of them. Here is another. CNN had some back in August. here is one from Yale. And here are some based on political science rather than economic theory.

Most of these predict a sizable Bush victory, between 54 and 60 percent.

Are they accurate? Eh, who knows? :) But the smart money for a gambler is on Bush.

Wives of U.S. Troops Share Pain -- and Often Politics (washingtonpost.com)

Military Wives:

Don't miss today's page-one story from the Washington Post, on the wives of front-line soldiers.

Greyhawk, one such soldier deployed in Iraq, says this about the story: "Three years into the war on terror and this is the first honest reporting on military families I have ever seen in a major daily."

Grim's Hall

Range Report: Halloween Edition

I took a little time today to sight in my "new" rifle. It's only new to me; it was manufactured in 1966, based on a design that was already quite old at the time. It's a Winchester Model 94, in .30-30.

The local rifle range is set up with twenty-five yard, sixty yard, and hundred yard target holders. I was planning on using the twenty-five yard targets, as this thing has only the original iron sights on it. Since my primary reason to have it is home defense, I plan on replacing them with a ghost ring, but for today I just wanted to get the feel of the rifle.

However, deer season is on us, so I didn't end up getting my choice of ranges. Unless I wanted to wait a long time to shoot, the sixty yard targets were all there was. Too, all the people sighting in for deer season meant that I could shoot for only one thirty-minute segment. Taking time to get to know the rifle, that means I only spent fifteen rounds before it was time to leave.

I had two other difficulties at the range. The first was that the staple gun jammed up, so I only got the top of the target stapled to the target holders. This meant that the steady breeze was flapping my target around a bit at the bottom. The other problem was that I hadn't thought to dig out my field glasses, so I couldn't tell how accurate my shooting was -- at sixty yards, a hole .3 inches wide is invisible to me unless you get one of those splash targets, and all I had was basic white paper with black rings.

All that said, I put all fifteen rounds on paper, but it sights very high at sixty yards. I can only assume the previous owner sighted it in for longer distances, as I was fairly well trained in the basics of riflery and I'm sure my part of it was right. I didn't get anything within two inches of the X ring, although it was otherwise grouped pretty well.

No doubt I just need to apply some Kentucky windage, until I get around to replacing the sights.

EMPIRE

EMPIRE

This flier is one of several being posted around D.C. They all say, "No matter who wins, the system is rotten," and promise a massive "loud" and "unpermitted" demonstration -- that is, a pre-planned riot that you are invited to join -- on 3 November, regardless of the outcome of the election.

There are, as I said, several fliers, but this one is special.

I apologize for the poor quality of the photograph, which is from my camera phone. Still, as you can probably make out, the image is of the word "EMPIRE," with a mountain of skulls piled atop it. At the summit, there is a mockery of the raising of the flag on Iwo Jima.

There is much to be said about this image, and what it represents. These are American citizens putting this stuff out, and this is what they believe: that America is an empire, built on a mountain of skulls. That Iwo Jima was fought against an actual empire does not enter their minds. That the mountains of skulls are to be found in Saddam's mass graves, not in the wake of US troop movements, likewise never comes to their mind.

But there is one part of the image that is true. The flag on Mt. Surabachi was raised atop a mountain of skulls. The skulls belonged to the United States Marines.

There they fought up Iwo Jima's hill
Two hundred and fifty men,
But only twenty-seven lived
To fight back down again.

The dead deserve better from the living than this.

Scotsman.com News - News Archive - Documentary reveals Albanian arms dealer donated cash to the Kerry campaign

The Scotsman on Kerry and KLA Terrorists:

Thanks to reader TxRascal for this link. The Scotsman is a famously sober voice in news journalism. Here is what they say:

JOHN Kerry has acquired a financial backer likely to provide him with more problems than support in his battle for the White House: the Kosovo Liberation Army.

A documentary produced by a Dutch television crew alleges Florin Krasniqi, an Albanian arms dealer, is buying weapons in the US and sending them to Kosovo - while perfecting contacts with the Democratic Party in the United States.

Mr Krasniqi is filmed at a Kerry fundraising event handing over a cheque, then chatting and joking with senior Democrats including Wesley Clark, the former NATO commander and Richard Holbrooke, Mr Kerry's senior foreign policy adviser.

The documentary, broadcast last month in The Netherlands and seen by The Scotsman, follows Mr Krasniqi from his home in Brooklyn in New York to his Albanian base where he distributes arms to mercenaries on the Kosovo border.

Showing remarkable candour, Mr Krasniqi says the KLA has "unfinished business" with the Serbs and predicts that war will break out again in "about a year and a half" if the UN does grant Kosovo independence from Serbia and Montenegro.

The Kerry fundraising event is shown making a direct pitch for Albanian money. Mr Holbrooke warns in a speech that Mr Bush is planning to pull troops out of Kosovo - the implication being the Serbs would be unconstrained.

John Belushi, the Albanian-American actor, then appears in a video soliciting donations. "If you care about the fate of Albanians in the Balkans, I hope you'll do anything to can to make sure John Kerry is elected as our next President," he says.

The documentary goes on to show Mr Krasniqi buying guns from a dealer in St Mary's, Pennsylvania.

With frankness bordering on the brazen, he explains to the film crew how easy it is to smuggle arms. "We had set up a hunting club in Albania," he says - and simply tell anyone who asks they are planning an excursion to Tasmania.

He admits being "caught twice" - by Italian and Swiss authorities - but allowed to proceed after saying the Albanian hunting club was preparing for an expedition to hunt elephants in Tasmania. Other arms are smuggled under humanitarian aid, he says.

While there is no suggestion that Mr Kerry had knowledge about the funds being donated by Mr Krasniqi, the video will be deeply embarrassing for the Massachusetts senator as he combats accusations of being soft on terror.

Mr Krasniqi is named in the Federal Election Commission returns as a registered donor to the Kerry campaign at his Brooklyn address. The sum is dollars 1,000. The Kerry-Edwards campaign was asked to comment, but did not return calls to The Scotsman yesterday.

Oktoberfest on National Review Online

Want a drink?

Depending on where you are, it may be late enough in the day for one. The pundits at National Review Online are running a feature on their favorite beers, just in case any of you were curious.

My favorite beer to drink at the pub is Guinness, without question, although when one can get it, Murphy's is as good -- slightly sweeter, but equally rich. If I'm drinking at home, where you can't get a proper draft beer, I'll take Fosters' bitter or my grandfather's favorite, Pabst Blue Ribbon beer.

Yahoo! Mail - grimbeornr@yahoo.com

Shadow Wars:

There is an interview on how we are winning the war on terror here. It is with the author of a new book, Shadow War, which I have not read. It may be worth a look.

Serbianna.com | Columns | Boba Borojevic

Canadian Ambassador: US Democrats Tied To KLA Terrorists

The former Canadian Ambassador to Yugoslavia, James Bissett, agrees with yesterday's story about the KLA & the DNC. Once again, this is an article that is not aimed at the American market. These charges are being raised by the Ambassador as a warning to Serbs about the outcome of the election, not to influence the election in America.

The Ambassador says:

In addition, it seems clear to me that if the Democrats get back into power in the next election, we are going to find the same old "Serb-hating" gang in power. That is: Madlene Albright, Richard Holbrooke, Wesley Clark and a number of others. These are all people who are very much anti - Serb. Holbrooke's book and his remarks about the Serbs are clearly racist. All these individuals are committed to a Greater Albania in the Balkans. The Kerry election campaign is also getting a tremendous amount of funding by the Albanians.

Dutch Television showed a documentary produced by KLA, with KLA members in a room in New York City giving cheques to Richard Holbrooke and Wesley Clark. It showed Richard Holbrooke phoning a man by the name Philips, telling him they collected great amount of money. The figure of US $ 500,000 was mentioned. It is very clear that if they are in power, the Democrats will demand the independence for Kosovo.

And if not, according to the interview, more of that KLA money was going to buy weapons to be used against American soldiers.

D&D

"I Swing My Crossbow!"

As we are now entering the last days of this miserable election season, I'd like to point you back to how we got started on this festival. In honor of the 30th Anniversary of Dungeons & Dragons, let's have a retrospective to Ace of Spades post: the Democratic Nominees as D&D characters.

I think these predictions have held up very well over time.

Kerry KLA

Kerry Financed By KLA Terrorists:

That, at least, is the claim being made by FaithFreedom.Org, which is an anti-jihadist site of former Muslims (or, if you like, Muslim apostates now living under the threat of death from radicals).

Actually, they are just reporting the claim of a Dutch television station, which has video of what they say are known KLA operatives writing fat checks at a Kerry fundraiser. There is also an interview with one of the KLA men, in which it is claimed that he says he is buying weapons for a possible war against US/UN forces in Kosovo.

This came to me through a reputable civilian open source intelligence group. I'm passing it on to the blogosphere in the hope that someone can give me a read on whether the TV station in question (VPRO) is of good or bad reputation, and whether or not the report that actually ran is as it is portrayed by FaithFreedom.

UPDATE: The story has now migrated to the far-right news sites NewsMax and WorldNetDaily. Neither of which is normally reliable, but again, all they are reporting is the Dutch video, which is available online for your own perusal.

What makes this story seem oddly credible -- that is, unlike a smear attack -- is that the Dutch aren't apparently interested in the Kerry angle. The name of their TV program translates as "The Brooklyn Connection," that is, the KLA's connection to Brooklyn; not "the Kosovo Conection," which would be Kerry's connection to Kosovo.

It's also reasonable to assume that KLA figures would know some highly placed Democrats such as those allegedly meeting with them at the DNC. This is due to the candidacy of Wes Clark, who in his military capacity worked with KLA forces.

It is an interesting story.

United Press International: DoD breaks with Bush over intel reform

DOD Breaks With White House:

And, as usual when this happens, DOD is right.

The most senior U.S. military official has publicly broken with the White House in the ongoing controversy over reforming U.S. intelligence.

In a letter to Rep. Duncan Hunter, R-Calif., chairman of the House Armed Services Committee, Gen. Richard Myers makes it clear that he does not support the White House-backed proposal to give a new national spy chief budgetary control over three key intelligence agencies inside the Department of Defense.

"The budgets of the combat support agencies should come up from the agencies through the secretary of defense," reads the letter, signed Thursday by Myers and obtained by United Press International.

There's a whole lot of good reasons for this. Reason number one, though, is that the CIA has been wrong about absolutely everything from the Soviet missle counts, to the collapse of the Soviet Union, to... well, take your pick.

Having DIA as a fully independent intelligence apparatus makes a lot of sense. Bad practices in a "unified" command mean bad practices in every intelligence product produced by the US. Having competing views is utterly healthy in the intelligence world. We would be fools to undo this aspect of our intel setup.

OpinionJournal - Extra

Jacksonians:

The Scots-Irish vote in America today. The author, James Webb, has a new book out on the topic that was recommended to me by a former paratrooper of my association, a good lad from East Tennessee (the best of the three Tennessees).

bloodletting.blog-city.com

The Perils of Shopping for Shoes:

I assume most all of you read BlackFive, whom I linked yesterday. Not all of you may get by Doc Russia's place. Doc is a former Marine, and a medical student married to a full-fledged doctor.

Doc is a great writer on top of that. My female readers, especially, may enjoy his account of his wife's shoe-shopping expedition, entitled "Hard to find."

The Liberal Conspiracy - Satire, Informed Commentary and 9-11 Research

Border Wars:

Dear Sovay has a funny piece on a Kerry campaign stop, in a wee town down on the Texas/New Mexico border:

But their waitress and the police keeping watch outside the restaurant said it is in Anthony, Texas, not Anthony, N.M. An officer pointed to the Brown Derby Pub just up the street and said the line runs right through it.

He explained that many years ago, the pub had a dance floor on the New Mexico side, and the bar on the Texas side because the state's more lenient alcohol laws then allowed 18-year-olds to drink.

As to which, my favorite example of this is the little town of Tennga, which is half in Tennessee, and half in the great state of Georgia. The Georgia half is in a dry county.

Highway 411 runs through it, and just as it crosses the border there is a little cinderblock building on the Tennessee side. If you are heading north, the sign outside reads: "1st Tennessee Beer!"

If you are heading south, it reads instead: "Last Tennessee Beer!"

Now that's marketing.

BLACKFIVE

B-5:

If you haven't been reading BlackFive lately, you should stop by.

Yahoo! Mail - grimbeornr@yahoo.com

A Question:

Reader M.N. writes:

I read your article regarding Women In Combat. I heard an ABC radio news article on this subject yesterday, but the gist of the entire article (per ABC) was that the Army is having trouble meeting enlistment quotas and that women are going to be encouraged to enlist to fill those slots. Would you comment on this view, please?

Certainly.

SECDEF Rumsfeld spoke to the issue of recruitment, and retention, as recently as August.

Q: Well, it wasn’t. So, pleasure to have you on the air today, sir. I appreciate your time. If I could just get right to it and ask you a couple of questions. One of them that has been on my mind. I seem to remember a couple of months ago – maybe eight, 12 weeks ago, some reports that recruitment, Armed Forces recruitment, was running very, very high. The various branches were having no trouble at all attracting the recruits that they needed. Then in more recent weeks, I hear the opposite, that recruitment is not running that high and, in fact, some of the branches may be having a little bit of a problem fulfilling their manpower requirements. What is the status there?

SEC. RUMSFELD: Well, the facts are these, that the Navy and the Air Force are having no issues whatsoever. With respect to the Army, recruiting in the active component is doing quite well. It’s 101 percent of their target for fiscal year ’04. The Reserve recruiting is at 102 percent, so that’s going well also. And then the National Guard is somewhat below their target. They’re at 88 percent, but seem confident that they’re going to eventually make the numbers they need. That’s recruiting. On retention, things are going well, also. The retention in the active component’s over 100 percent of target, and Reserve retention’s about 99 percent. And in the National Guard, interestingly, it’s almost 101 percent. So across the board, it’s going very well. And we’ve got a terrific group of people in men and women in the service and they’re doing a great job. And the Army, of course, has an awful lot of people around the world, something like 12 percent of their forces is deployed. They’ve got 123,000 possibly in Iraq and Afghanistan together and maybe 270,000 deployed all over. So needless to say, that does pose some stress on the force. On the other hand, when you think they’re drawing off a million people, and we’re only using 270,000 deployed, it’s pretty clear that the problem is not a shortage of people; the problem is that they’re malorganized.

So: it's not true that the Army is having trouble making its goals. The National Guard is, to some degree, but not the Army.

All that said, the Army loves women recruits for other reasons. It has diversity task forces which "encourage," in the military fashion, a certain participation by various groups. Here is one such.

The diversity racket is a hindrance outside the military, but downright dangerous inside it. The military needs the best soldiers, sailors, airmen and Marines it can get. If those are women, fine. If not, fine. Trying to play at percentages is unwise, as it means setting the participation goals above the fitness standards.

What the military needs to do is to set standards high, and keep them high. If you can meet the standards, you should find a place. If not -- well, then you'll be just like me, who is too old to be of use any more. :)

Statement

356 Green Berets Sign New Letter Against Kerry:

A band of Vietnam-veteran Special Forces have signed the following letter.

The undersigned Special Forces Vietnam Veterans support our Swift Boat brothers-in-arms and believe that John Kerry is unfit to be our Commander-in-Chief or to lead our nation as President. The Kerry presidential campaign has raised the significance of this deeply-felt and long-standing issue. While many, if not a majority, of the signatories of this request are Republicans and Bush supporters, many are not. Those who are Democrats have been effectively disenfranchised by Kerry's candidacy.

For most of us the question of his fitness to serve as Commander-in-Chief, or in any other office of honor and high public responsibility, was settled permanently in the negative thirty-three years ago. He slandered and dishonored all Vietnam Veterans in false and exaggerated testimony before the U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee. By throwing away the symbols of his honors, he insulted all veterans of all wars by debasing the milestones of their valor.

He has unrelentingly opposed issues vital to veterans. He has supported measures that have led to genocide of our former allies, the Montagnards, and the enslavement of the people of Vietnam. He has blocked efforts to enact Human Rights legislation to help alleviate their condition. He has taken action which led to the abandonment of American POWs in Vietnam that most of us believe were left behind. His stated plan to double special operations forces rapidly in response to today's threats demonstrates his lack of understanding of what makes a Special Forces soldier and his failure to understand that the available conventional armed forces manpower pool is insufficient to provide the necessary qualified personnel without seriously degrading standards.

By Lieutenant Kerry's own request, he returned to the United States after completing only one-third of his tour. He did this by seeking and receiving three Purple Hearts for wounds of questionable cause and severity. He was the commander of a military unit, in this case a Naval combatant craft, and he abandoned his crew to the fight to return to a life of ease. By the standards expected of a Naval line officer of the United States, even with the most charitable interpretation, this is contemptible.

There are serious questions concerning the circumstances of Lieutenant Kerry’s first Purple Heart, and perhaps about his other decorations, as well. These questions prompt us to call him to sign Standard Form 180 to authorize the full release of all records pertaining to his service. If his awards failed to measure up to the standards required, he should formally request that these awards be rescinded and removed from his record.

No apology, especially a Jane Fonda-type, insincere or tepid apology is acceptable. No legislative abridgement of our freedom of speech or because one candidate or the other does not wish to discuss the matter will halt the discussion of these issues. We have the American right to discuss these issues. We fought for that right.

We call upon the American people to reject his effort to become Commander-in-Chief of our Armed Forces and we urge other Veteran groups to join our solidarity with the Swift Boat critics of Senator John Kerry.

I gather from the NY Times' review of "Stolen Honor" that it is finally starting to sink in with the left that those of us who oppose Kerry on these grounds really mean it -- that it's not just an attempt to slur a political opponent, but genuine rage at a man who violated the code expected of military men, and then had the audacity to slander the honor of those who kept it.

I gather from Ms. Stanley's review that she is moved by the pain the POWs for Truth suffered, but unmoved by questions of honor. They don't interest her. Certainly she expresses sympathy for these men who were tortured in their nation's cause, and who had Kerry's words thrown in their faces by their captors. It will not, however, translate into a vote against Kerry, now or ever. Questions of honor don't matter as much as other things.

Probably there are quite a few people like that, and if all of them come to the same conclusion, "Stolen Honor" will have still be a great victory. If these people only recognize that the attacks on Kerry by veterans and soldiers are the result of an aggreived and deeply felt code of honor, rather than political smear, it will be both clarifying and soothing to the national discourse. Though they may choose to support him for political reasons, we might have their respect; and it is easier to live with those who respect and understand you, even if they do not agree, even if they do not care about what moves your heart.

So much for the urban liberal class, for whom honor is a quaint, even an amusing relic from an earlier age. There are others across this country for whom it is a living thing. Not all of them have heard what these Green Berets have to say, what the POWs said before them, and the Swiftees before them. There are ranks on ranks of honorable men ill-disposed to see a man of Kerry's character given command of anything or anyone. He is unfit, honorless.

Perhaps this time they will hear. Perhaps this time, they will listen.

I got a letter from my friend and former SEAL, Tiny Robinson, about whom you read earlier. He became a SEAL in 1971. At the end of his letter, he signed off: "Thank you for caring."

I share his pain. It hurts to know how few people do.