L'actualit� internationale sur Lefigaro.fr

No Joy in Paris:

In Le Figaro today, there is an article on Neoconservatives. It begins:

La derniere victoire des neoconservateurs est inscrite en toutes lettres dans la plate-forme electorale du candidat... democrate.

Yeah, you read it right--John Kerry, Neoconservative. The piece goes on at some length on the degree to which the French eye sees no difference between Bush and the Democrats on the questions of the day. It ends on a despondant note:

Mais les neoconservateurs n'ont pas desarme.... du Nouvelle Siecle americain... reconnait que la theorie de l'action preventive semble interdite a tout president "dans le futur previsible".

That is: "But [in spite of the fact that we think they've been wrong on every single question for thirty years, as we just finished explaining!] the neoconservatives have not disarmed. The Project for the New American Century reckons that the theory of pre-emptive action will inform any president 'for the forseeable future.'"

Now, if J.F. Kerry looks like a neoconservative to you, it may be that you're standing on ground far enough away that distances are compressed in your sight. It does call into question, however, the Kerry/Edwards belief that they will be able to improve French cooperation with American ventures. Le Figaro is a conservative French newspaper, and conservatives are thin on the ground in France. Even by their lights, there's no difference between Bush and Kerry on any important question of policy. The rest of the French are farther left. Measuring their distance from ours on any question can only be done using the techniques of astronomy--called, appropriately enough, "Red Shift."

Religion News Blog : It's an uneasy time for Britain and its rising Muslim population

"Stay Muslim: Don't Vote"

Both al Mujahiroun and Hizb ut Tahrir, two Islamist organizations, have been running persuasion campaigns to convince Muslims not to vote. Voting is unIslamic, we are told by these organs, because it puts the will of man ahead of the will of Allah in formulating laws. You can read about one of these campaigns here.

Is it working? Perhaps:

The majority of the 33 prisoners convicted of involvement in the 12 October 2002 Bali bombings decided to boycott Indonesia's presidential elections, with bombing mastermind Imam Samudra declaring the elections 'haram' or forbidden under Islamic law.

The 33 men face sentences ranging from a matter of months to death by firing squad for their role in perpetrating the bombings on Bali's main tourist thoroughfare that left over 200 people, mainly foreigners, dead.

The inmates' decision not to cast their ballots in presidential elections on Monday (1/7/04) was their democratic right, said Tulus Widjajanto, chief warden of the Kerobokan Jail in Kuta, Bali.

"They said they have the right not to vote. OK, we can't force them," he added.

Widjajanto said 30 of the 33 inmates were actually registered to vote, reported the detikcom news website.

Well, the Bali bombers are what statisticians call a "self selecting" group. Their opinions aren't apt to be representative of Muslims as a whole. And yet, the sides are shaping up on this question.

BakuTODAY.net

Drunk Vikings In Mosques:

An odd story out of Azerbaijan: the Norwegian ambassador apparently toddled off to the mosque while drunk, and called the entire faith of Islam a pack of cowards. That, at least, is the charge leveled against him by certain Muslim clerics; the newspapers note that he has been guilty, at least, of letting opposition authorities take refuge in his embassy. That may be the real offense.

Herald.com | 07/11/2004 | Edwards bad news for Latin America

Miami Herald: Edwards Bad for Latin America

The Miami Herald has an article today on Edwards' record as a protectionist. Apparently Edwards has fought against NAFTA, the Chilean free trade agreement, the Caribbean trade agreement, the Singapore agreement, and against fast-track authority for similar such agreements. That last one can be excused on partisan grounds--it's usual for the opposition party to oppose letting the President bypass them on anything--but the others do make for a consistent record.

What is Edwards' position on the free trade area Bush has proposed for the Middle East? Would he rather protect American jobs, or help to undercut terrorism by helping develop the economies of these societies? It's not an easy question, and I think there can be honorable answers on both sides. Indeed, I'm not sure where I fall myself. It is a question that ought to be answered. We know where Bush stands: how about his opponents?

Boston.com / A&E / Books / Something in the way she moves

Wargames:

On chess.

Knights

Holy Equestrian Order of the Knights of Saint John Moses:

I have created a Coat of Arms for the Order.

"Ride to the Sound of Guns"

It may be borne by any of the Order's Knights, Knight-Captains, and Knights Grand Cross. The beast is called an "Enfield," which is a mythical beast with the head and tail of a fox and the talons of an eagle. It is also, of course, a famous arms company. The "Cross Celtics" speak for themselves.

Power Line: Joseph Wilson, Liar

Former Ambassador Wilson:

I've never heard a kind word about Joseph Wilson from anyone except Sovay. She maintains that he was uniquely qualified for the mission to Africa, having been ambassador to Iraq for the Bush I administration and also an experienced Africa hand.

Sovay is a fine researcher, so I will assume that part at least must be true and justified. Yet I keep reading stories like this one, which point out just how awful the Wilson expedition was. He seems to have singlehandedly convinced half of America of something that wasn't true--that Bush lied about Saddam seeking Uranium in Africa. I was raised not to call a man a liar even if he's lying, at least, not unless you were ready to kill him and take the consequences. Still, the Wilson situation is testing my resolve. He appears to have betrayed the trust of his nation, and deceived not only the American people but also the CIA.

UPDATE: Mark Steyn sounds off. He mentions that the British investigation, like the recent Senate investigation here in the US, also rejects Wilson's claims.

UPDATE: Charles at LGF posts a retrospective link, to a speech given by Wilson in which he blames Israel for the Iraq war. There we are--I knew there was a logical explanation for all this.

BBC NEWS | UK | Canterbury backs updated Bible

I Thought This Was A Joke:

Have you heard about the "Good As New" Bible? When I read about this at Daniel's website, I assumed it was a joke; he linked to a WorldNet story about it which I figured was a parody at the expense of the Archbishop of Canterbury.

Apparently not. It really does exist, and it really does have St. Paul advising fornication:

There's nothing wrong with remaining single, like me. But if you know you have strong needs, get yourself a partner. Better than being frustrated.

That last sentence is more usually rendered, 'It is better to marry than to burn.' Obviously frustration is what Paul was talking about, right?

The Archbishop of Canterbury went on to say, "Instead of being taken into a specialised religious frame of reference... we have here a vehicle for thinking and worshiping that is fully earthed, recognisably about our humanity."

Is that not a warning, rather than praise? Is becoming "fully earthed" what the faith was meant to be about? When I was a boy, the stories I was taught were that Jesus passed through the earth, and ascended into Heaven.

That was meant to be the goal for us too, as I understood it. We were meant to pass through the earth, not to root ourselves in it. The hope was to leave behind earthly things, in the grave if not before, and to ascend some day into Heaven. Surely that hope and vision was the important thing about the faith. Surely that was the thing not to be lost.

ABCNEWS.com : Captive Calls Taliban's Mullah Omar-Official

What Was that Noise?

From Reuters:

"Captive Calls Taliban's Mullah Omar"

A captured member of the Afghan Taliban has contacted the movement's leader, Mullah Mohammad Omar, a senior official said on Friday, the first indication in months that the one-eyed fugitive is still alive.

Afghanistan's southern security chief, Abdullah Laghmani, said Mullah Mujahid, whom he described as Omar's former bodyguard, was captured about 50 miles north of Kandahar city this week.

"Last Monday, Mujahid spoke to Mullah Omar in our presence," Laghmani said. "But since then, when we tried to contact him on this number they disconnected it. Mullah Omar is alive." ...

"It's wrong to suggest that the satellite 'phone belonged to Mullah Omar or anybody has spoken to him," said spokesman Latif Hakimi.

Boom.

bloodletting.blog-city.com

Praise the Lord and Pass the Ammunition!

On the establishment of the Holy Equestrian Order of the Knights of St. John Moses. I have, of course, petitioned for admission.

On Point - The United States Army in Operation Iraqi Freedom

PSYOP:

There has been a rash of stories suggesting that an Army report criticized the toppling of Saddam's statue. This has been followed by posts by some in the blogosphere who have believed that the involvement of a PSYOP unit meant that the emotion of the Iraqis was faked, perhaps to manipulate the US public's opinion.

You can read the report online. It says absolutely nothing of the sort.

We woke up that morning [of 9 April] in the Iraqi Special Forces training compound on the outskirts of southern Baghdad. Attached to 3rd Battalion, 4th Marine Regiment (of I MEF), who were conducting a clearing operation on the southern approach to Baghdad, [we were] moving with their TAC at the time. We were kept in a centralized location while moving so that we could be flexed to where we might be needed. We were not sure what we were going to hit, but we were expecting a lot of resistance. The infantry unit was to be clearing door to door, while we would be broadcasting civilian noninterference messages and occasional surrender appeals when pockets of enemy forces were located. The infantry unit started its operation but was encountering no resistance at all. After a few hours of going door to door, kicking doors and entering, looking for enemy concentrations and weapons caches but finding none, they modified their plan and formed up into a column and started a general movement toward Al-Firdos (paradise) Square in [eastern] Baghdad, where the Palestine Hotel and statue [of Saddam Hussein] were located. The entire movement went a lot faster than anyone had anticipated....
Crowds of Iraqi citizens started coming out and cheering the American convoy. We started to do some PSYOP broadcasts about bringing about a free Iraq, but knowing that we were to continue some clearing operations; we were telling them to stay away from our military vehicles for their own safety. We eventually dismounted from our vehicle and continued to inform the civilians to stay back from the military vehicles. The Iraqi civilians were very receptive to us, and [we] continued to engage them with our interpreter.

As we approached the street leading into the Al-Firdos Square, we could tell that there was a very large crowd of civilians starting to form up. It looked like the infantry unit up there could use some support, so we moved our [tactical PSYOP team] TPT vehicle forward and started to run around seeing what they needed us to do to facilitate their mission.... There was a large media circus at this location (I guess the Palestine Hotel was a media center at the time), almost as many reporters as there were Iraqis, as the hotel was right adjacent to the Al-Firdos Square.

The Marine Corps colonel in the area saw the Saddam statue as a target of opportunity and decided that the statue must come down. Since we were right there, we chimed in with some loudspeaker support to let the Iraqis know what it was we were attempting to do. The reporters were completely surrounding the vehicle, and we started having to ask the reporters to move out of the way, but they would not move. We were getting frustrated, but we were also laughing about it. We dismounted the vehicle again and just started pushing the people out of the way. They were starting to really inhibit our ability to conduct our mission. The tanks . . . formed up into a perimeter around the square, with the statue in the middle.

An M88 recovery vehicle approached the statue and continued to drive up the steps right next to the statue in an attempt to bring it down. The people had already tied a noose around the neck of the statue with some rope. They were trying to just tug on it and bring it down and were hitting it with sledgehammers; it was clearly getting crazy in the square. We were no longer in crowd control, as there was just no controlling this crowd at this time. We decided to just ride along with the crowd, and we started just kind of celebrating with the Iraqi people. We actually had to have our interpreter record an ad-hoc broadcast message, informing the Iraqi people that if they did not stand back from the statue, American forces would not bring the statue down. We were afraid that some civilians would get hurt if they were too close or in the wrong spot.

All of this activity was going on within just a few blocks of where other marines were battling with snipers in a building across from the Palestine Hotel. The local Iraqi people just did not care for their well being at this point; they just wanted to see the statue come down...We looked over and now there was an American flag draped over the face of the statue. God bless them, but we were thinking from PSYOP school that this was just bad news. We didn't want to look like an occupation force, and some of the Iraqis were saying, `No, we want an Iraqi flag!' So I said `No problem, somebody get me an Iraqi flag.' I am not sure where it came from, but one of the Iraqis brought us the old Iraqi flag without the writing on it (added by Saddam). We got that as fast as we could and started running that up to the statue. At this time, the marines had put a chain from the boom of the recovery vehicle around the neck of the statue, and they just ran the [Iraqi] flag up the statue. It was real quick thinking on Staff Sergeant

Plesich's part to get that Iraqi flag up there quick. But by the time the Iraqi flag got put on the statue, there had already been a lot of photos taken with the marine covering the statue with the American flag.

Somehow along the way, somebody had gotten the idea to put a bunch of Iraqi kids onto the wrecker that was to pull the statue down. While the wrecker was pulling the statue down, there were Iraqi children crawling all over it. Finally they brought the statue down, but we expected this big statue to come crashing down, to shatter or whatever, but it just slowly bent over and slid off the mounting pipes. Once the statue was on the ground, it was attacked by Iraqis with the sledgehammers and broken apart. The head of the statue was dragged through the streets, with people hitting the face with their shoes and spitting on it. After the statue was down, we started to receive a lot of intelligence on where Ba'ath Party personnel were staying and just generally got a lot of real good intelligence for use in later direct-action missions. All this information was developed with and through the human exploitation teams, which had assigned interpreters.

If the American people are being PSYOP'd, it's the press and not the Army doing it. Everything goes through a negative lens. How anyone could read this report and not feel the joy and excitement of liberation is beyond me; but some can, and have.

What though they come with scroll and pen,
And grave as a shaven clerk,
By this sign you shall know them,
That they ruin and make dark.

Beware the old foe.

PARAMETERS, US Army War College Quarterly - Summer 2004

In Praise of Attrition:

A piece from the journal of the Army War College argues that the US military has gone too far to avoid killing people. It's getting in the way of victory, the author suggests...

It's essential to purge our minds of the cliched images the term "war of attrition" evokes. Certainly, we do not and will not seek wars in which vast casualties are equally distributed between our own forces and the enemy's. But a one-sided war of attrition, enabled by our broad range of superior capabilities, is a strong model for a 21st-century American way of war....

Precision weapons unquestionably have value, but they are expensive and do not cause adequate destruction to impress a hardened enemy. The first time a guided bomb hits the deputy's desk, it will get his chief's attention, but if precision weaponry fails both to annihilate the enemy's leadership and to somehow convince the army and population it has been defeated, it leaves the job to the soldier once again. Those who live in the technological clouds simply do not grasp the importance of graphic, extensive destruction in convincing an opponent of his defeat.

Focus on killing the enemy. With fires. With maneuver. With sticks and stones and polyunsaturated fats. In a disciplined military, aggressive leaders and troops can always be restrained. But it's difficult to persuade leaders schooled in caution that their mission is not to keep an entire corps' tanks on line, but to rip the enemy's heart out.

The explanation of why and how this works begins with the condottiere and passes through Napoleon, the Fraco-Prussian war, both declared world wars, the Cold War and Desert Storm. It then examines the new war at length. Just one quote of many worth considering:

[W]e shall hear that killing terrorists only creates more terrorists. This is sophomoric nonsense. The surest way to swell the ranks of terror is to follow the approach we did in the decade before 9/11 and do nothing of substance. Success breeds success. Everybody loves a winner. The cliches exist because they're true. Al Qaeda and related terrorist groups metastasized because they were viewed in the Muslim world as standing up to the West successfully and handing the Great Satan America embarrassing defeats with impunity.

It's not exactly nonsense--particularly in tribal societies, there is a duty to vengence that does create new enemies. Still, if you find yourself in a war with such a culture, there is no way out except victory. The creation of certain numbers of terrorists is a price you have to accept, because you really must destroy the ones who exist already. You just also have to destroy those of their cousins who feel they must have revenge upon you.

I think the author is on to something, although I depart from him on other points as well. It's an argument worth considering, and I'm glad to see that the Army War College is able to voice these sorts of opinions and debate them.

Teens like Bush less than Saddam, Osama

The Madness of No Consequences:

Hungarian schoolchildren, in a poll that has for some reason become international news, report liking Bush less than Osama bin Laden, Saddam, or Joseph Stalin. Bush did manage to narrowly avoid being worse than Hitler in the poll (25 versus 23 percent). Oddly enough, Bush seems to have also been the most-liked foreigner (eight percent). One supposes there must have been two categories--most liked, and most disliked.

High School popularity contests are always a bad way to decide anything more important than the Prom Queen--even the Senior Class Presidency is really too important for it, as you need someone for the office who will develop into the responsible citizen that arranges reunions every five years forever.

Still, one expects that this says something about Hungary: that the parents of these kids spend a lot of time complaining about Bush, and not very much talking about Osama or Stalin. This, combined with the lack of historic context that attends youth, surely explains the results.

The results also reinforce the principle of crunchiness--that the further you get from decisions having practical consequences, the more obviously mad are your results. There is no consequence to a 16 year old in Hungary to saying that Bush is worse than Stalin, or Saddam; nothing depends on it. There is no reason he shouldn't say it, or even believe it. There is certainly no reason he should examine the sentiment closely or investigate its context. It changes nothing in his world; it is not worth his time.

But why, then, should we ask him what he thinks? Why should we print this high school survey from Hungary in newspapers as far away as India?

EU Business - France could defend EU in case of attack: minister

French Nukes May Guard Europe:

Hat tip LGF. Leave aside the French bashing for a moment--I normally enjoy it myself, but just for a moment--and consider what is being proposed by the French:

She said that rogue states "could one day point their missiles toward France and its neighbours. We could say to those countries: 'Watch out, if you try to carry out your threats we will destroy you before you know what's hit you.'

"If Germany asked us for help, it is probable that European solidarity would come into play," she told the Berliner Zeitung newspaper, and added: "For us, nuclear weapons are the ultimate protection against a threat from abroad."

It is probable? Let's say, for the sake of argument, that a nuclear DPRK with improved ballistic capability, or indeed any other rogue state, were indeed to threaten Germany. How protected would you feel by an alliance with a state that will "probably" defend you? How effective is that in deterring attack?

Let's say you're the head of a rogue state. What does the calculation look like from your side? "France says it will probably retaliate if we hit Germany," you think. "On the other hand, they know that if they do so they will become a target themselves. If they don't, Paris doesn't get turned into ash. So how 'probable' is 'probable'?"

Not very, I suspect.

Sharp Knife

On Saving the North Church:

A poem from Sharp Knife. It was composed on the occasion of someone complaining about spending taxpayer dollars to save the church where Paul Revere's lanterns were hung, saying it was a breech in the 'wall between church and state':

Listen, tax-payers and you will hear
of the Midnight ride of Paul Revere.
Where are you going at this hour, Paul?
Playing some Midnight basketball?
Or, are you a war-monger,
spreading intolerance and hate,
and breeching the wall between church & the state?

I can't help but notice you carry a musket;
Paul, they're illegal from here to Pawtuket.
You wear a tri-corner and their coats are red;
Is that any reason to fight 'til one's dead?
To our modern eyes, these are indicia;
'My God! I think he's in a militia!'
You see, Paul, some things have changed since your day;
If we saw you now, we'd lock you away.

That horse that you're riding out in the yard;
He too, has rights, and you ride him too hard!
And the lanterns your friend carried up to the tower
relied upon whale oil for their shining power!
And that shop in town where you were a smithy;
must comply with our rules; there's a million & fifty!
Talk back not, and cast no aspersions,
Or we'll drop by to see if you've hired enough Persians.

On April 15th and each day of the year,
we pay and we pay on what we have earned dear.
We've got money for Egypt, money for zoos,
plenty of money for removing tattoos.
Money to study love-lives of emus,
and money for mohair where no hair ever grew.
Money for 'artists' wearing nothing but chocolate,
Money for bombs that make awe and make shocklets.
But here is a thing that you would find odd;
No money for North Church... Someone said 'God'!

I know what you're thinking as you shake your head;
You think that you're safe, Paul; but we tax the dead.
You're saying to us: 'Why on earth did I bother?...
Have my children forgotten the Flags of their Fathers?
And whence all this anger at all your traditions?
How did you come into this strange condition?"

"Some worship money, some worship science,
some merely shake their fists in defiance.
Some worship power, some worship Nature,
some worship the Devil, and worse: Legislatures!
Your fathers were brave, ringing Liberty's Bell,
and Acknowledged their Father who blessed them so well.
But ponder this thought as you seek your solution:
Without that church tower...

...There'd be no Constitution.

Marine Corps News> New radar system brings the fight back to terrorists

Ingenuity:

This is a pretty nifty idea: a device that tracks incoming mortar rounds by laser, and calculates their launch coordinates for counterbattery fire. The Marines are enthusiastic:

It's good to know we have this piece of equipment here,' Fomin explained. 'It's good to know we don't have to wait so long to fire back and when we do, it'll be a lot more accurate. And that's the whole goal, to find out where they're shooting from and kill the bastards.'

Sounds like a fellow with the right attitude.

Yahoo! Mail - grimbeornr@yahoo.com

Family Stories:

I've asked my father to drop by the weblog and look over the family stories I've been posting. Some of them I've not heard since I was a boy, and some of them I've heard only from my Great Uncle Ralph, just deceased this year. It may be that my father can correct some details if I've misremembered. I'll post more as time goes along and events remind me of them.

4th

Fourth of July Parade:

Grim and family took part in the local Fourth of July Parade. It was conducted down main street, to a profusion of red, white and blue ribbons and the sounds of a fife and drum band. The parade was a parade of children and pets, with adults walking alongside just to keep order. Bicycles with pinwheels and kids on sliders went by like tornados. Here's a short photo essay of the event.

My son Beowulf waves the colors...

Grim and wife march down mainstreet...

Beowulf rides to the sound of drums...

The family assembles to hear the Marine Corps Hymn...

I hope your Independence Day was also well-celebrated. Take care.

Israelis

Israelis in Iraq:

This is a pure bleg. Yesterday Gen. Karpinski stated that she had encountered Israelis in Abu Ghraib. This has been a persistent rumor, but one I had thought we'd pinned as originating from Turkey. As you know, the Turks have an interest in derailing a "Kurdistan" in Northern Iraq. You probably remember that we've caught their special ops teams in Iraq on two occasions. They've also been running an IO campaign, and so far the "Israelis in Iraq" claims have been tracking back to them. It appears that they've been planting these stories and then, when the stories are reported in the Arab press, using them as a pretext for a host of measures. I've run a few of these rumors to ground myself, and I'd thought we had done with this story line.

But now we've got a US officer saying it, so I'm curious. If anybody's heard anything about Israelis operating in Iraq--rumors, personal experience, or otherwise--would you send it my way? I'm trying to sort this business out in my head, and Karpinski's statements have muddied the picture a lot. I'll write something on it for Grim's Hall when I've got a better sense of what's up, but for now I don't know just what to say.

I'll respect anyone's confidentiality if they ask.

History of the Marine Corps Hymn

The Hymn:

While you're celebrating Independence Day, you might read this history of the Marine Corps Hymn. I like the verse from Iceland:

Every campaign the Marines have taken part in gives birth to an unofficial verse. For example, the following from Iceland:

"Again in nineteen forty-one
We sailed a north'ard course
And found beneath the midnight sun,
The Viking and the Norse.
The Iceland girls were slim and fair,
And fair the Iceland scenes,
And the Army found in landing there,
The United States Marines."

Mudville Gazette

Independence Day:

Happy Independence Day. The Mudville Gazette has some suggestions for you on how to celebrate. Most of them revolve around giving money to some charity or other.

Funny thing about that. I've got one too. I gave to Second Harvest this year. It's not really a MilBlog thing. It's a charity for civilians. But it's a pretty good one. It feeds a lot of people every year--including the rural elderly, who are not the sort of folks that go to soup kitchens. They claim to have distributed more than thirty-eight million pounds of food in Georgia alone in 2002.

Of course, everyone has their favorite charity. I won't try to make a case that this one is better than any other. It's just the one I picked. Greyhawk's are good too.

lgf: Don't Go Shooting With John F. Kerry

J. F. Kerry Loves Guns:

Little Green Footballs is pretty much right on this occasion: this is a violation of almost every rule of safe-handling a firearm. Well, depending on who you ask. As they were taught to me:

1) Treat every weapon as if it is loaded at all times. The only exception is while cleaning a weapon, after you have yourself, right now, checked to be certain it is unloaded.

2) Keep your finger off the trigger until ready to fire.

3) Always be sure where your weapon is pointed, knowing both your target and what is behind it.

The National Rifle Association teaches them differently:

1) Always keep the Gun pointed in a Safe Direction.

2) Always Keep your Finger Off the Trigger Until Ready to Shoot.

3) Always Keep the Gun Unloaded Until Ready to Use.

Curiously, he's breaking all three of my rules, and just one of the NRA's. :) The weapon isn't loaded, because he's just shot the load--the caption says it was after missing a shot, and the weapon is a single shot break action shotgun, which you can see clearly in some of the other photographs. Under the NRA's rules, that weapon could be called unloaded; and as it's pointed downrange, you could argue that it was pointed in a "safe direction."

The rules I learned are better. They don't excuse clowning around (as LGF calls it) with a weapon just because it is unloaded, and they don't permit you to point the weapon in a direction you're not looking (with your finger on the trigger!) just because you've shot your load.

Still, under the right circumstances, all it takes is one broken rule to kill somebody. This reminds me of one of my father's stories of being a Drill Sergeant.

Where he was stationed, they had a lot of inductees from Puerto Rico, which in those days had a lot of tough neighborhoods. This being the days of the draft, a lot of these kids were pretty sour about being in the Army. They tended to be tough, accustomed to violence, and disrespectful of authority. The Drill Sergeants had their hands full with them.

It happened that, as was occasionally the case, a Marine D.I. got tasked to go train Army recruits for a while. He wasn't with my father's unit, but their units happened to be firing at the same range one day.

After the range was supposed to be clear--but wait, let me explain. I know some of my readers aren't familiar with firearms. Declaring a range clear and safe is a big deal. For one thing, lives depend on it, as people may go downrange once the range is called clear. For another thing, it's a matter of unit discipline. This is one of those occasions when the safety of the military unit depends on people obeying orders. That is, in turn, one of the key disciplines of military life. If you don't obey orders on this occasion, and the range gets called clear when it isn't clear, you have broken faith with your unit and betrayed the discipline you're sworn to obey.

So anyway, the range was called clear, which means that everyone's weapons should have been unloaded, breaches locked open. This one kid from Puerto Rico had held back some ammo, though--I'm not sure why, as it's been years since I heard the story. Most likely he was planning to keep it as a souvenir. In any event, he didn't obey the rule about keeping your finger clear of the trigger either (*ahem*, Mr. Kerry), and ended up discharging his weapon.

He also wasn't looking where it was pointed. The round hit a rock, and richochet'd (a ricochet is every bit as dangerous as a direct-fire attack). The round went wizzing through the Marine D.I.'s area.

My father happened to be standing off while one of the junior Drill Instructors chewed the kid out. It wasn't having much of an effect on this tough island kid, though, who knew he was headed to 'Nam no matter what anyone said or did.

My father said, "And then I saw the Marine headed his way. He came jumping over barricades, stalking straight up to the kid. The Drill Sergeant stepped aside without being asked, just feeling the Marine coming. And the Marine took a breath, and started to yell.

"At first the kid didn't change expression. He just stood there. But a moment passed, and another, and another, and the Marine was still yelling. He never took another breath. And long before he was done, tears were running down this kid's face. After that, he was never a moment's trouble to anybody."

Ooh-rah. Out.

Yahoo! News - Iraq May Give Amnesty to Insurgents

Amnesty:

By now, you've probably read about the new Iraqi government's propsed offer of amnesty to insurgents. If you haven't, the details are here:

A spokesman for Iyad Allawi went as far as to suggest attacks on U.S. troops over the past year were legitimate acts of resistance--a sign of the new government's desire to distance itself from the 14-month U.S.-led occupation of Iraq.

"If he (a guerrilla) was in opposition against the Americans, that will be justified because it was an occupation force," the spokesman, Georges Sada, said Saturday. "We will give them freedom."

Choking the brutal 14-month insurgency is the No. 1 priority of Allawi's government, and the prime minister is expected to make a number of security-related policy announcements in coming days. Besides the amnesty plan, those include the resurrection of Iraq's death penalty and an emergency law that sets curfews in Iraq's trouble spots, Sada said.

The amnesty plan is still in the works. A full pardon for insurgents who killed Americans is not a certainty, Sada told The Associated Press. Allawi's main goal is to "start everything from new" by giving a second chance to rebel fighters who hand in their weapons and throw their weight behind the new government.

This seems entirely reasonable to me. The government must demonstrate that it is not an American puppet, and that can only be done by taking positions that are counter to US desires. Further, an amnesty drives a wedge between foreign terrorists and the communities in which they run. Exactly to the degree that those communities perceive the new government as independent, they may wish to lay down arms.

Such amnesties are common in the history of civil wars. They do not always succeed. The British attempted one in New York during the Revolutionary War, but only a few thousand "rebels" took advantage of it. After the American Civil War the amnesty was offered to most Confederate soldiers (but not necessarily their officers -- Robert E. Lee, though one of the foremost in the efforts to reunite the nation, asked for but never received amnesty). There remained a violent insurgency in the South for several years, until the "Redemption" movement swept away most of the constitutional changes forced on Southern states by martial law. It was only at that point that the insurgents ceased fighting.

On the other hand, these programs do work sometimes. Iraq seems like a good candidate. The several discrete groups that have been fighting the Coalition have broken apart--al Sadr's army, defeated on the battlefield, may be in a mood to declare victory and cease fighting. If you make them outlaws, they have no option but to carry on the war. Let them go home, and most of them very well may.

There is one final factor that has been completely forgotten by the American press. It is this: Iraqis have not known peace for twenty years. Their sons were impressed to fight in the longest conventional war of the 20th century: the Iraq-Iran conflict. Those who survived were forced to fight the Allies of the Gulf War. Those who survived that saw the suppression of the Shi'ite uprising and the Kurdish uprising. There was, suffusing all of this, the terror of the Mukhabarat. Then, their sons were once again impressed into duty against the Coalition; and after that, guerrilla war and wild-eyed terrorists roaming their cities.

There is every reason to believe that a populace so wearied will take any chance at peace, if they can only be made to believe in it. It's not a bad idea to start by forgiving past offenses -- Saddam and a few of his high-level cronies excepted. That is a promise to the Iraqi people that they will not see their sons turned against their neighbors. From now on the only foe is those who would destroy the new and, genuinely, the common order.

CTV.ca | CTV News, Shows and Sports - Canadian Television

A Day in the Life of Colin Powell:

The Scottish King of Arms, Lord Lyon, has gone out of his way to matriculate a coat of arms for Colin Powell. Apparently Powell's father, Luther, was born in Jamaica and therefore a subject of the Crown of the United Kingdom. While the British nobility would never have considered giving Luther arms on his own account, now that he has a famous son they are bestowing a coat of arms on him psthumously. This, of course, means that the arms descend to General Powell. They are "Azure, two swords in saltire points downwards between four stars argent, on a chief of the second a lion passant gules." That is, two crossed swords (points down, hilts up) on a blue field, with four silver stars just beside each of the intersections of the swords. Above that is a red lion walking past on a silver field. The motto is "Devoted to Public Service."

And what service it has been lately. Still, of all the European meddling in American politics, this part is the least bothersome. It's most akin to the way in which Jimmy Carter was granted a Nobel prize to spite Bush, except that Lord Lyon is too much a gentleman to actually say, "The fact that we are going to such lengths to honor Powell is of course a rebuke to Donald Rumsfeld." Whatever--the General was once a great warrior, even if he hasn't been a great Secretary. Surely he deserves a coat of arms if anyone does.

NEJM -- Semper Fi

Life In the Land That Time Forgot:

This is a dispatch from Parris Island. I don't know what to say about it, except that it is right. It captures everything about the misery, the hate and the heat, the suffering of training and the sorrow that comes in its aftermath. It's a bad world, as my old Aussie friend often says.

The doctor who writes closes it well, following the anguish of a mother who lost her only son with a song drifting over the swamp:

When I go outside, I can hear the shouts floating across the water, the young recruits out there sounding off in unison as they go out for their morning run, flat-out gung-ho at 6 a.m. The shouting sounds as if it is coming not just across the marshes but across the decades, and I swear sometimes that I can hear what they are shouting — all that Marine tough-guy talk:

Lock and load!

Ready on the left!

Ready on the right!

Ready on the firing line!

Failure is not an option!

Good to go.

Thank God for that chorus, but what a price to join it! What bitter thanks are offered to its singers: death, and separation from love, and the attentions of a divided citizenry and a divided Congress.

Yet they are owed thanks, and kinder attentions. On the behalf of the keepers of the flame--an Order of which they are chiefer members than I myself--I thank them, and pledge them my friendship and trust. Semper Fidelis, as the lady says.

BLACKFIVE: Senators and Congressmen Against The Troops

Y'all Back Home Read This:

I hope you'll all reflect on this post from BlackFive. However, those of you back in the great state of Georgia will please notice that Majette, who wants your vote for the US Senate, voted against this bill. That's not to be forgotten in November. I can't vote against her, being temporarily a Virginia citizen, though a Georgian by heart. Y'all can, and ought to do.

Thanks to Doc Russia for the link to B-5. Sorry you're having such a rough week, Doc.

IOL: South Africa

Guns and Families:

"How will we protect our families now? Criminals prefer unarmed victims... and so does the African National Congress."

Thus begins an article on the new "Firearms Control Act" in South Africa. It quotes one Charl van Wyk, chairman of Victims Against Crime, who said: "A law that made it impossible to defend one's family was an illegitimate law." Indeed it is.

On which topic, I purchased a revolver today. It's a new Smith & Wesson M66, which is a K-Frame chambered for .357 Magnum. Come autumn, I would like to augment it with a carbine in the same caliber, although I may buy a rifle for the deer-hunting season instead as I gave my last longarm to my father to defend his home. He'd made do too long with my grandfather's single-shot break action 20-gauge shotgun, a fine weapon against squirrels and rabid dogs, but of little use in running off determined bandits. I passed over to him my Mossberg 500, which will make the job much easier.

I reflect that my father is highly unusual among my clan in that he has not concerned himself with owning or carrying firearms. My great-great-grandfather, Tom Clanton, was one of the most famous gunfighters in post-Civil War Tennessee. He used a lever-action rifle to kill seven men in one night. Interesting fellow--he'd held a whiskey-making license for the Union Army (my father's family were Union men, having abandoned the Quaker faith in favor of warfighting for human liberty; my mother's family were Confederates, having no use for foreign interlopers telling them what to do. I come by both positions honestly). After the war he ended up in conflict with the proto-KKK "night riders," in a series of conflicts that ended very badly for them and left him to grow old and feared. He was acquitted of eight killings, those seven plus one other fellow who turned in his still to the authorities. That last was deemed justifiable homicide by the jury.

His son, my great grandfather, was involved in his first gunfight in the Tennessee hills as a teenager. The occasion was a girl, of course--if I were starting this family history earlier, you'd see that motif has been regular one. His enemies ambushed him, and he would have been killed but that one of the local elders--a black man, as it happens, who remembered his father with kindness--took him aside, warned him, and pressed a revolver into his hand. He survived, and grew quite old in turn. Along the way, he managed to earn enough money as a farmer to send seven sons to trade school.

My grandfather was one of these. He became a welder, and the first tradesman of the family. He was three times rejected by the US Army during WWII: in spite of his repeated attempts to enlist, when they realized that he was a welder they rejected him and sent him back to work at the shipyards. He eventually worked at Oak Ridge, where the first atomic bombs were constructed. After the war, he ran a body shop and service station for long-haul truckers on the new interstates. He carried a handgun everywhere, as did his wife and eldest son, my uncle. In spite of their longstanding friendships with the black community, the service station was not spared in the violence of the Civil Rights movement. They had to defend it, although I understand it was without fatality on any side.

My grandfather did what his father had done, and saved so that his sons could do better than he had. Both of them went to college. My father, who was a drill sergeant in the US Army, took a white-collar position. For whatever reason, he didn't carry on the family habit of going about armed, although his father continued it nearly until he died at the age of eighty. He did carry on the tradition of educating his children, although I was able to help out with scholarships and work. I hold three degrees in history and philosophy.

I myself have enough concealed-carry licenses that, with reciprocity, I can carry from Key West to Vermont as long as I avoid a few of the less civilized states. Looking back over the roll of years, I can't see any good reason not to do so. The family holds itself together in spite of, not because of, the movements of nations. That mine exists, and has survived and prospered, is not due to the Civil War or WWII or the Civil Rights Movement. It is due to family love, courage, hard work, savings, and a good revolver close to hand. That is the recipie I suggest to you all, for whatever trials Fate may have in store.

Right Thinking Girl: Love In A Time Of Danger

"The War on Terror is Not a Real War"

Someone I know said just those words to me earlier this week. I couldn't help but remember them when I read this moving account by a young woman trying to help a 9/11 survivor sort things out. If it's not a war, I don't know what word we can use for it.

Backcountry Conservative: Medals of Honor Stolen

Stolen Medals:

Apparently someone broke into the museum on the hanger deck of the USS Yorktown (CV-10), not too far from Charleston, South Carolina. (A quick digression--it's a great trip to head out there and tour the ship, and the nearby submarine.) Jeff Quinton reports that several Medals of Honor were stolen.

The FBI is investigating. I think they are correct to assume that it's likely the thieves will try to sell the things out of state. If you hear of or see anyone trying to sell Medals of Honor, you can contact the FBI and report it.

San Francisco rolls out the red carpet for the Clintons

Clarity:

Thank you, Senator Clinton, for providing us with such a clear picture of your program in a few simple words. Rhetoric never gets better than this:

We're going to take things away from you on behalf of the common good.

Understood. Out.

America's Missed Photo Opportunity (washingtonpost.com)

Press Corps Whines:

The Washington Post today has a piece called America's Missed Photo Opportunity, subtitled, "Suprise Transfer of Sovereignty Lacks Memorable Positive Picture." The piece begins with the press' idea of what such a moment should look like:

Salah Nagm, the head of news at the Middle East Broadcasting Centre that runs the Arabic satellite channel al-Arabiya, said it was possible that the ceremony would join other historic images -- momentous handshakes on the South Lawn of the White House or Anwar Sadat's visit to Israel -- that are graven on the memory of this region. He couldn't know, of course, what the event would look like. But as a man who deals in images, he knew it might have enormous impact.

But instead:

No one, it seems, had bothered to call the Arabic-language channel that says it has the largest viewership in Iraq. Their cameras were not even in the room when Iraq was reborn as a sovereign nation (or "so-called sovereign" in the local parlance).

"I don't know what they were thinking -- they didn't tell anybody," said Abdul Kader Kharobi, an assignment editor at al-Arabiya, a few hours after the transfer at 10:26 a.m. local time. There was no frustration in his voice, just disgust and a lot of weary irony. The Americans have been all but incompetent in manufacturing images, he said, and yet what does it matter? After Abu Ghraib, and after what he believes was a sham investigation into the March 18 killing of two al-Arabiya journalists in Baghdad by U.S. soldiers, who believes the Americans anyway?

Kharobi first learned that the transfer might happen early from statements by the Iraqi interior minister, who was in Turkey for the NATO summit. But, he said, despite the best efforts of one of his reporters to get more information out of members of the Iraqi delegation, no one offered anything specific. It seemed like a rumor, or confusion.

Ten minutes later, he learned that the transfer was already a done deal. And so the event that might have produced the most public, ceremonial moment in the birth of a new country was a private, invitation-only event. A war of images, of toppled statues and looted museums, of captured Americans and mangled children, a war whose ending was marked with a premature victory celebration on an aircraft carrier more than a year ago, was given another ambiguous marker. Iraqis were once again nominally in charge of their country, but al-Arabiya, for the moment, had no way of proving it to its viewers.

The day continued like that. There had, in fact, been a camera in the room in Baghdad, and the video that emerged showed a weary-looking L. Paul Bremer on a yellow sofa. The actual transfer of power came with the exchange of a large blue portfolio, but who was running the camera at this critical moment? And why was someone standing in the way?

"The camera was positioned very badly," said Kharobi, who, despite deep skepticism of American intentions, is hopeful that peace, at least, will follow soon.

We are used to the press attempting to present the US as inept, and seeking voices that will accomodate their desire. The sea of anti-Americanism in which these comments swim is as deep as the Persian Gulf. Who expected this fellow to say anything positive?

Still, there are several responses that ought to be made:

1) Images aren't as easily manufactured or controlled as the press would like to believe. The particular picture that comes to symbolize an event depends on visceral public reaction more than it depends on the press. You can put an image up over and over, but if it doesn't speak to what the public itself believes to be true and right, it won't take.

2) Images can also be constructed after the fact. Say "Washington crossed the Delaware" to anyone in the United States, and an image leaps to mind. The image itself is improbable, a later invention of a fertile mind.

Similarly, the photograph of the Marines raising the flag atop Mt. Suribachi was taken after the battle was over. The original raising of the flag--which occured under fire--was not photographed. So, they went back and staged it again with a bigger flag, and got some pictures for the folks back home.

3) Last, and most important: it is the success of an event, not the image, that counts. We all remember the "momentous" handshakes of the Israeli peace process, but who cares? The peace process was a fraud. We remember Chamberlain holding his documents high, too, but only with scorn.

There have been times in history when images have changed the course of human events. The Tet Offensive is one such--the press' images convinced Americans that the fight was being lost, when in fact Tet was a success for America and South Vietnam. What should have been a celebratory atmosphere became, instead, an erosion of support.

Still, it's not the image that counts. Victory counts. The only reason to worry about images is to prevent the press from having its way, and once again convincing Americans that we are losing when in fact we are winning.

Yahoo! Mail - grimbeornr@yahoo.com

Freedom Week:

Greyhawk of the Mudville Gazette has noticed that Iraq's Independence Day and our Independence Day come within a week of each other. He has therefore declared the entire week to be a new holiday, "Freedom week." He urges celebrations, and surely they are deserved. Iraq's security may not be assured yet, but honestly, neither is ours--and it never will be. The naysayers who point to the need for security in order to celebrate "true" liberty in Iraq fail to understand the nature of the thing called liberty. It is always a fight. Some places seem relatively safe, but there is no safety. There is only courage, and devotion to arms in the pursuit of justice. That devotion we name "chivalry."

Greyhawk is asking for donations to a fund that aids servicemen, called Soldier's Angels. You might drop by and have a look around their site.

True Believers

True Believers:

The handover was two days early. What sort of man now leads Iraq? A month ago, one would have expected a cautious fellow, suspicious of his American friends, but experienced at playing both sides in the intelligence game. Allawi might have been just that kind of Prime Minister, but for one thing: a bloody assassination spree led out of Fallujah, the very town he had struggled to protect by restraining the United States. Zarqawi created a new understanding in Allawi's mind when the terrorist promised to kill the PM.

Today Allawi gave a short speech. His choice of words lets you know that he has become a true believer, and has openly decided where Iraq's best interests lie:

At a hurriedly arranged ceremony to swear in the new government, Mr Allawi promised to crush the "outlaws" responsible for the violence which has left hundreds dead.

"I warn the forces of terror once again. We will not forget who stood with us and against us in this crisis."

With us or against us. Sometimes, even in the heart of the middle east, such simplistic clarity is possible.

Marine Corps News> Marines take the reins of Camp Al-Mahmudiyah

Marines at Mahmudiyah:

Those of you following (as I am) the career of "Da Grunt," fighting man of the 2/2 Marines, will notice that his unit has taken over Camp Al-Mahmudiyah. This is a return-trip for them, as they had been deployed there in March. This is an interesting place to me for one main reason: it's an example of "cultural sensitivity." "Camp Al-Mahmudiyah" was established by the 101st Airborne, who called it Forward Operating Base St. Michael. It has not been a pleasant place in spite of the name change. It might have been better to have continued to invoke St. Michael, whose name was the war cry of the angles according to Catholic tradition. Then again, the Marines expect to guard the streets of Heaven when they die, as it says in the Marine Corps Hymn. I suppose they might feel that they could let Michael have the day off, being in the same line of work.

Cambodian lessons in anti-terrorism

Thailand Ponders Counterterrorism:

I am developing a fondness for the good people of Thailand. This article ran originally in the Bangkok Post:

Whatever the immediate effects, it is important to know, and vital to exploit the fact that the terrorist gangs have such tiny leadership cores. To be clear, authorities must double and then redouble efforts to identify and then to track and stop the leaders of al-Qaeda, JI and allied terrorist groups. It is beginning to appear that cutting off the head of the terrorist gangs can prevent attacks. Since the US invaded Afghanistan and put the Taliban and al-Qaeda leaders to flight, there has been no successful terrorist attack in America. Similarly, since Thai and Indonesian police arrested JI leader Abu Bakar Bashir and operations chief Hambali, the violent movement has had only one terrorist attack. The bombing of the Marriott Hotel in Indonesia last year appalled most of the JI members, because nearly all victims were Indonesians. Clearly, the arrests of the JI leaders was a huge setback.

Emphasis added. That's a happy phrase: "Cutting off the heads of the terrorist gangs." They are, of course, speaking figuratively.

Michael Moore.com : Mike's Message : FAQ

Whew, Close Call:

I spent part of the afternoon watching the end of Raiders of the Lost Ark, a movie that has probably been the unconscious inspiration for a large part of my life. The end of the movie arrives, credits roll, and there near the very top is an inauspicious name. Fortunately, it's just a case of mistaken identity:

I am also not the Michael Moore who directed Elvis in 'Blue Hawaii' and Harrison Ford in 'Raiders of the Lost Ark' or the Michael Moore who was the Assistant Director on 'Spiderman,' or the one who was in 'Stalag 17'.

Glad to hear it.

Guardian Unlimited Books | By genre | Observer review: The Origins of the Final Solution by Christopher Browning

L'audace:

Audacity is not limited to the French, it seems. Out of the AFP today (no link as yet):

Saudi Arabia's foreign minister on Sunday urged the West to cooperate in breaking down the infrastructure and financial assets of terrorists, in talks with Western diplomats in Jeddah. 'We tackled the question of the financing of terrorism and discussed ways to fight terrorist infrastructures and those who condone the phenomenon and defend its followers,' Saud al-Faisal told reporters in this Red Sea port city.

'Terrorism cannot survive attacks on its infrastructures, which are also found in Western countries. That is why we have asked Western countries to cooperate with us to stand up to this scourge,' he added.

You can always count on the Middle East to be at the forefront of new ideas. Still, I don't know if we should engage in anything so heavyhanded. If we give him this, next he will be suggesting a "Global Coalition Against Terrorism" or something radical like that.

L'actualit� internationale sur Lefigaro.fr

Another Victory:

Following the news today, one would think that Turkey was the scene of the latest disaster for the war in Iraq. Google News at this hour lists only news about the Turkish hostages taken in Iraq, and nothing else from Turkey on its front page. Search for "NATO," and you still find that the top collection of items is about the protests in Turkey aimed at George Bush's attendance at the NATO summit.

Meanwhile, the conservative (for the French) newspaper Le Figaro ran this piece of analysis yesterday:

Un compromis devra pourtant etre trouve. La France est consciente que ses theses sont tres minoritaires au sein de l'Otan. Paris ne s'oppose pas a une "demarche d'unite" de l'Alliance en Irak. Mais ce ne serait pas l'Otan en tant que telle, plutot certains Etats membres volontaires, qui participeraient a la formation des cadres de l'armee irakienne... La France envisage elle-meme de creer, peut-etre en Jordanie ou dans un emirat du Golfe, une ecole de formation de gendarmes irakiens.

Quant a "l'assistance technique" que l'Otan pourrait apporter aux nations engagees dans la force multinationale en Irak, les autorites francaises n'ont rien contre, a condition qu'elle soit discrete... La querelle franco-americaine est surtout affaire de symboles.

That is, in English:

A compromise [with America] will have to be found. France is conscious that its views are greatly in the minority in NATO. Paris does not oppose a a 'show of unity' for the alliance in Iraq. But, it can't be NATO as a whole, but rather a volunteer effort by member states who participate in the formation and training of the Iraqi army. France herself envisions the creation, perhaps in Jordan or in the Emirates, a school for training the Iraqi police.

When it comes to offering 'technical assistance' to Coalition forces in Iraq, France doesn't have a problem with NATO doing so as long as it is discrete. The quarrel between France and America is all about symbols.

France probably thinks it is winning the war of symbols, if it takes as its measure the obedience of the news media in continuing to portray Bush as an isolated loser whose coalition is falling apart. Indeed, the opposite has happened: the Coalition has expanded to include even France. Not only NATO, but the EU has voted to support the operation.

The NATO summit, all but unmentioned on front pages distracted by protests and hostages, has been a victory for the United States, the Coalition, and Iraq's new government. It is not possible to fight terrorists without developing a resistance to terror. You have to look past their efforts to frighten and to fray by fomenting discontent among the peoples of the West. Look past, and you see the first hints of a new dawn in Iraq, the first such light to brighten Mesopotamia in more than thirty years. Our enemies are doing their worst, and we our best. It seems this extends even to 'turning the other cheek' to the French desire to see us scorned in public, even as they aid us in private.

Fair enough. Forgiveness is noble, and the pursuit of justice is a higher calling than vanity or pride. But France should beware that there are other smiths forging symbols. Those smiths seek for their material weak convictions, and hearts they think might be moved by horror's lever. "Provocative weakness" draws eyes from many halls kept in the wastelands of the world.

Run Silent, Run Deep (washingtonpost.com)

"Run Silent, Run Deep":

Don't miss this review of a new book on the submarine service. It's a history of submariners worldwide, and it sounds like an interesting take on the business.

Leonardo da Vinci... refused to actualize his design for a submersible for the benefit "of men who practice assassination at the bottom of the sea."

A coroner's court in Kinsale, Ireland, agreed with Leonardo that assassination was indeed the business of submarines, when on May 10, 1915, it declared "the Emperor and the Government of Germany" guilty of murder in the sinking of the Lusitania. Any doubts that the chivalry of maritime combat had become one of the first casualties of submarine warfare had been laid to rest barely three weeks into World War I, when the U-9 singlehandedly sank the British 7th Cruiser Squadron off the Hook of Holland. And there was another, especially sinister feature to this encounter -- after having torpedoed the British cruiser Aboukir, the captain of the U-9 then lingered to pot the two British cruisers that rushed to rescue the Aboukir's drowning crew. The message was clear: Any captain who slowed to rescue shipwrecked sailors or loitered off an invasion beach offered his ship and crew to ambush by these heartless killers of the deep.

To some degree that characterization is even more apt in the age of the "boomer." In theory, the boomers lay under water precisely in order to engage in nuclear assassination--in order that, even if America's cities and silos were wiped out by the Soviets, we could still return the fire. The threat they represented was one of the major reasons not to engage in "nuclear war-fighting," as the Soviet doctrines called it. America never believed in nuclear war-fighting: our military preferred the Mexican standoff. The Chinese, who were even more sanguine about the possibility of winning a nuclear exchange, are the current foes who have to be kept at bay.

It's an interesting argument. I've had two close friends in the submarine service, and I have to say that they make good friends. People who learn to keep their cool in those close quarters for months at a time, and under the kinds of stresses that go with the nuclear service, are people you can rely on utterly. However morally complicated the role of the submariner, the man himself is likely to be one of the best the Navy has to offer.

It's also amusing that there are a series of hand gestures I've never seen anyone use except submariners. They replace the more common sweeping hand gestures that most Americans use with gestures close to the body, elbows in, short and sharp. I don't know if they're even aware of it, but I'm sure it comes from a life of having to gesture in places with very little room, and many buttons that you shouldn't strike by accident.

SteynOnCanada

O Canada:

Mark Steyn has a good column this week on Canada's elections. One of the issues he thinks gets less debate than it deserves is the health care system:

The other day, as I was reading about the Liberals' exciting $9 billion "plan", my eye fell on a small story in a side column at the foot of the page about two twin boys born at the Royal Alexandra Hospital in Edmonton. That's in Alberta. Their mother, Debrah Cornthwaite, had begun the day by going to her local maternity ward at Langley Memorial Hospital. That's in British Columbia.

They told her, yes, your contractions are coming every four minutes, but sorry, we don't have any beds. And, after they'd checked with "BC Bedline", they brought her the further good news that there was not a hospital anywhere in the province in which she could deliver her babies. There followed seven hours of red tape. Then, late in the evening, she was driven to Abbotsford Airport and put on a chartered twin-prop to Edmonton, in the course of which flight the contractions increased to every two-and-a-half minutes.

Would you want to do that on your delivery day? They don't teach it in Lamaze class. Instead of being grateful to the greatest health care system on the planet, Mrs Cornthwaite's husband Brandon has been deplorably "divisive" and compared it to that of a Third World country. He has a point. There are circumstances in which citizens of developed nations occasionally find themselves having to be airlifted to hospital -- if they live, say, deep in the Australian bush or the interior of Alaska. But the Cornthwaites are a stone's throw from the province's biggest city.

Sorry, no beds. Try the neighbouring jurisdiction.

With Canadian healthcare sliding toward its logical conclusion -- a ten-month waiting list for the maternity ward -- here's a question to ask your Liberal chums: Do you seriously think your $9 billion "plan" will make two cents' worth of difference? Anymore than did your $21 billion "plan" to save heath care back in 2000? And, whether it’s $9 billion or $21 billion or a hundred billion trillion gazillion, won't most of it just get sucked up in the maw of bureaucracy? And the rest will go to miscellaneous expenses like chartering Cessnas for pregnant moms?

This is the real reason why socialized medicine won't work in the United States. American women are just too violent. I refuse to even imagine what my wife's reaction would have been to such a proposal--"We've got no beds, but sit tight for seven hours, and then we're flying you to Alabama." Whee.

Belmont Club

Victory:

Why do people still expect us to lose in Iraq? Because they themselves can't imagine victory. Yet the Belmont Club outlines exactly what victory looks like:

By the time the uprising was over, silenced in a cease-fire June 4, the U.S. military success appeared decisive. While 19 U.S. soldiers had been killed in combat and scores wounded, military officials estimate that 1,500 insurgents were killed. Sadr's militiamen had been driven from positions many had died defending.

The US estimates that 20 civilians were killed in operations around Najaf. The Najaf hospital claims 81. When the Russians retook Grozny after a disastrous first foray, they returned to the operational formula of Marshak Konev in Berlin and rained down 8,000 artillery shells per hour on the town, killing perhaps 27,000 before attempting it again. The vastly more powerful Americans did not, yet triumphed. They are inept, as everyone knows.

Indeed, it does seem that people believe this. American 'heavyhandedness' is said to have turned Iraq into a "terrorist-breeding hellhole." Yet, when our enemies slaughter civilians in multitudes, with car-bombs aimed at the innocent, we are told that this too moves the world against us. If we kill the innocent, people turn to terrorism to get back at us. If our enemies kill the innocent, people turn to terrorism--why, exactly?

The truth is otherwise than what is reported. Heavyhandness does not belong to America, but to our foes. Victory will be ours, because we merit it. In the end, mercy is a quality that moves hearts. It will be recognized among those who suffer from the bombs, even if it is not recognized among those who have never, themselves, looked death in the face.

Allah Is In The House

Allah Be Praised:

Allah is back on top of his game. "Whoa, Solider! Let's not turn our enemies into enemies!" A 5.56mm NATO is a .223 Remington to me... well, almost. Bring on the Jew rounds!

Althouse: Gore and "brownshirts."

Wolfe Rides Again:

Apparently Ann Althouse had the same thought as me, about nine hours earlier. Great minds, etc. Via Sage of Knoxville, who said earlier this week that he was less likely to link to blogs that "call him names." This one was intended as a compliment--my family is from Knoxville, although I myself was born in Georgia, and raised just over the border in the North Georgia mountains.

Wizbang

"Digital Brownshirts?"

I've just heard from friend-of-the-Hall Jarhead Dad, who is back from a long run. He put me on to this story from Al Gore's recent speech, which I'm citing from Wizbang:

The Administration works closely with a network of "rapid response" digital Brown Shirts...

Now of course when you hear "Brown Shirts" you think at once of Hitler's loyal followers from the early days of Nazism, the ones he had killed at the Night of the Long Knives. Gore would, on first face, appear to be comparing pro-administration bloggers and followers-of-blogs with this bunch of fascists.

But then, after a moment, I remembered the story about Naomi Wolfe...

By contrast, Gore's way is not to be chummy but not to be petty either. He has never held it against Time magazine for breaking a story about his hiring of author Naomi Wolfe as a secret adviser... Air Gore was a grumpy place, and the alpha male in earth tones with his earnest town-hall meetings couldn't catch a break for much of the campaign.

So you see, Gore isn't being petty. He's just trying to offer you a compliment, in his awkward sort of way. Brown shirts are, of course, earth tones: exactly the sort of clothes he's heard that "alpha men" wear.

I Don't Like the "New Freedom"

"The New Freedom":

The worst domestic political idea since socialism has appeared today, direct from the desk of President Bush. It is called "The New Freedom Initiative". And just what is "the New Freedom"?

President Bush plans to unveil next month a sweeping mental health initiative that recommends screening for every citizen and promotes the use of expensive antidepressants and antipsychotic drugs favored by supporters of the administration.

The New Freedom, then, is the freedom to submit yourself for regular evaluations from pseudoscientists who have a vested interest in proving that you are sick. The New Freedom is the freedom to accept that it is normal to be on mind-altering drugs. The New Freedom includes, doubtless, increased state freedom to drug persons it finds unpleasant or difficult--little boys in school, for example. Or "conservatives," perhaps. Or liberals.

The New Freedom probably also includes less individual freedom to refuse such treatments. We have seen that the state has already begun to force us to drug our children, under threat of jail or having our kids stolen.

Chad Taylor of Rio Rancho, N.M., suspected that his son Daniel was suffering side effects from Ritalin, a drug he was taking for attention deficit disorder:

"He was losing weight, wasn't sleeping, wasn't eating," Taylor told ABC News affiliate KOAT-TV in New Mexico. "[He] just wasn't Daniel."

"So Taylor took Daniel off Ritalin, against his doctor's wishes. And though Taylor noticed Daniel was sleeping better and his appetite had returned, his teachers complained about the return of his disruptive behavior. Daniel seemed unable to sit still and was inattentive. His teachers ultimately learned that he was no longer taking Ritalin. School officials reported Daniel's parents to New Mexico's Department of Children, Youth and Families.Then a detective and social worker made a home visit. 'The detective told me if I did not medicate my son, I would be arrested for child abuse and neglect,' Taylor said. A spokesman for New Mexico's Department of Children, Youth and Families told KOAT-TV that they could not comment on the case because of state confidentiality laws. John Francis, a detective for the Rio Rancho Department of Public Safety, said that Taylor was not threatened but told KOAT-TV that parents could be charged in situations like his."

The Rio Rancho schools have frequently appeared in our "Zero-Tolerance Watch" series. Threatening to jail a father for refusing to give his child behavior-modification drugs, though, seems particularly outrageous--a far bigger threat to the average American's liberty than anything in the Patriot Act.

I don't like the New Freedom. I prefer the Old Freedom. The freedom where we are free men gifted with the minds our Creator made for us, rather than the ones "psychologists" would prefer we have.

Free minds, which we may hone, like swords, in the way we desire.

Free minds, which may choose to love our children as they are, and refuse to let the state drug them.

Free minds, who can decide when the government has finally betrayed us, our liberty, and the Republic.

Caveant, Consules, Ne Quid Detrimenti Respublica Capiat.

Bangkok Post --- News & Archive

Guns In Thailand:

As some of you may know, the last few months have seen an upsurge in religious violence in Southern Thailand. It will not surprise you to discover that the leaders of this violence are Muslims decrying the impossibility of living under a non-Muslim state. The favored victims of these heroes of jihad, it will be equally unsurprising to learn, are teachers, elderly Buddhists (one of whom was beheaded recently), and the unarmed. Just for safety's sake, however, the assailants seem to prefer to speed by on motorcycles as they spray bullets or swing machetes at these teachers and old folks.

The Thai government has tried a number of things to placate them. They have promised a major economic initiative to enrich the south and improve standards of living. They tried to print a booklet of Koranic verses that spoke to peace and the need to obey lawful authority, but the Muslim leadership in Thailand threw a fit. Excerpting the Koran--which is said to be the actual word of God, merely recited by Mohammed--is almost as bad as translating it. In either case, you are taking the perfect word of God and altering it. The clerics argued that even printing excerpts of the Koran counted as "interpreting" Islam, and that the government (largely Buddhist) had no business doing it.

So they did not. Instead, they printed a pamphlet challenging a book that the Islamist leaders had written. They also asked southern Thai Muslim clerics to rule on whether or not the book urging jihad was proper. The clerics ruled that, while the book was not proper, the government's response was worse; and so they ordered the government's pamphlets destroyed.

The Thai government took even this in a stride, and is now working to have the clerics write a response of their own. In the meanwhile, the murders go on.

Teachers in Thailand, underwhelmed by their government's efforts on their behalf, are doing what all wise men do. They are arming themselves. This has caused some alarm among the journalistic elite of Thailand, which has begun printing editorials opposed to the notion. These trot out every old canard against the private possession of arms.

'A pistol is no use against a drive-by shooting.' (Well, but what about the fellows with machetes? And what if they miss? You could always return the fire.)

'Teachers are untrained in the use of arms, and so would be easy prey for militants who just wanted more arms.' (Not so easy prey as they are now. I expect we'll see shortly which the militants prefer--unarmed victims, or the chance of winning a pistol at the risk of their neck.)

"It is the task of the state to ensure ordinary people's safety. It should not be left to the individual to arm and defend himself." (Exactly wrong. The free citizen has both the right and the duty to protect the common peace. Indeed, it cannot be otherwise protected.)

'Pistols are an expensive luxury for Thai teachers, who must live on 10,000 baht a month.'

OK. That last one makes sense. Fortunately, help is on the way:

Gun shops in Bangkok are offering discounts to teachers in Thailand's troubled Muslim south where a spate of almost daily attacks show no signs of abating despite government promises to restore peace.

Schools have been common targets for arson and gun attacks, leading to teachers being given permission to apply for licences for firearms for self-defence.

Several Bangkok gunsmiths have appointed teachers as salespeople to lure potential customers to the capital with promises of discounts, said Pairat Vihakarat, who heads a teachers union with 20,000 members in five southern provinces. "A colleague of mine told me he would rather carry a gun than have 20 friends go about with him. Everyone can equally be killed here," Pairat said.

Hundreds of teachers and civil servants from the southern provinces have been lured by discount offers from gun shops in the capital.

Maybe we should start a "Guns for Thai Teachers" fund. The way to beat Islamist terrorism is through the resolute individual. Those who will not be bowed, who will not be terrorized, are the hope of civilization and the very road to Victory.

JDOJ

'Just Doing Our Job':

The 24th Marine Regiment issues some awards and commendations. Be sure to read about the corpsman, Cinelli, who proves again why Marines love these squids as well as if the corpsmen wore the Eagle, Globe, and Anchor themselves.

Amazon.com: Books: The Archaeology of Weapons: Arms and Armour from Prehistory to the Age of Chivalry

Oakeshott:

The Sage of Knoxville links today to The Archaeology of Weapons by Ewart Oakeshott. He says that he thinks it's the book that got him interested in Roman Legion arms and armor. Let me add a plug for the book too.

This book is a wonderful read, and highly informative on all forms of arms and armor from ancient Greece to the Later Middle Ages. The section on Viking arms is my personal favorite, because it explains the translation of names and runes engraved into the blades.

The great lesson it teaches, however, is one that is often missed, which is that arms and armor advance because of each other. People often get the notion that a certain kind of armor was used by knights or Roman soldiers 'because that is what they knew how to build.' What is missed is why they had learned to build that sort of armor, which is always that it was an innovation to answer the challenges posed by the weapons of the period. Weapons change, likewise, to address the advances in armor.

The book is also worth reading because Oakeshott has fine voice. No one who has worked his way through college, and especially graduate school, will be able to read his introduction without cheering wildly:

One other thing, about which I have been severely criticised by the highest authorities. My style is "chatty", full of anecdotes which are such anathema to the academic mind. I make no apology for this, even to them. I didn't write this in academic purity for scholars. I wrote it to be read, even enjoyed, by anyone who was interested in this fascinating subject. There are few footnotes (but many illustrations); there are spelling mistakes in the Bibliography, printer's errors in the text; but it has been read and enjoyed by two generations, and now it sets out again to interest and enthuse a third.

Now that's how a man ought to write, isn't it?

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

Saudi Oil Fields:

My good friend Sovay has been asked a question:

Someone asked me today: If al-Qaeda were to overthrow the Saudi government and take control of the country, we'd still have to buy oil from them, wouldn't we?

I don't know the answer to that question, but it's a frightening possibility. Not a likely possibility, but it's the type of scenario that makes you realize how important it is to end our total dependence on foreign oil.

I know the answer to this question. It is not, in fact, a possibility.

Al Qaeda has enjoyed some startling successes as a terrorist group--literally startling, as they have made it their mission to move beyond the low-level blackmail-style operations that have characterized Muslim terrorism for most of the last thirty years. It is important not to overestimate the enemy, however, just as it is important not to underestimate him. Al Qaeda has been able to do what it has been able to do because terrorist operations are very cheap. Bin Laden did not inherit his $130 million because his family cut him off. As we saw from reading this week's 9/11 report, al Qaeda has been funded largely from charities operating as fronts, or partial fronts. That cash flow has largely stopped due to a worldwide effort by police and intelligence organizations. While there are new sources of funding in play (narcotics, for example, and possibly direct-aid from a few particularly bold governments such as Iran), these funding measures must by their nature remain small-scale to remain hidden.

The result is that al Qaeda can't field even a functional guerrilla force. Guerrilla operations are much more expensive than terrorist ones, and require a much more highly developed command infrastructure. Both the funding and the infrastructure would be targets that could be disrupted, and would have to be protected, again in the face of worldwide intelligence and law-enforcement--but here also military--efforts.

The guerrilla opposition we've seen in Iraq has been slightly effective, but only in the propaganda war. They have won not one single victory against US or coalition forces. After a year of combat, our forces have suffered an extremely low combat loss rate. You can find the numbers here. For casualties and fatalities, the combined number of dead and non-RTD wounded for 3 June is 3,769. The number deployed has hovered at about 160,000 Americans, which would put losses at 2.3%. However, we have rotated entire divisions in and out--the 3rd ID replaced by the 4th ID, and so on. If you count the total number of Americans who have been deployed in Iraq (thus giving these vaunted guerrillas the chance to kill them), the figure is under one percent.

The wailing and gnashing of teeth we have heard from the media over combat loss rates below one percent is indicative of two things: first, that the media (like the majority of the population) understands nothing about military science; and second, that the opponents of the war feel that the removal of the Saddam threat was not worth one single American life. There are enough people who feel that way for the very modest successes of the guerrillas to appear greater than they are. In fact, they have performed relatively poorly. Although some individual units in the Marine AOR have been exceptions (probably Hezbollah, from what I've heard, and you should read The Belmont Club on this topic and the one here as well), even they have not been adequate to hold any ground that we haven't simply chosen to let them keep rather than risk the lives of the civilians among whom they were hiding. Nor has any force in Iraq been able to engage any US force for as long as 24 hours without being forced to withdraw, or being routed or destroyed.

To hold the Saudi oil fields, even a much better guerrilla force would not be adequate. You cannot occupy and control ground with guerrillas; you need conventional forces. Conventional forces are more expensive and more complicated to field by an order of magnitude--just as terrorist operations can be quite cheap, and require little organization compared to guerrilla operations, so arming and feeding infantry divisions is that much harder than running a battallion-strength band of irregulars who largely feed themselves. Again, that organizational structure would be a target of the sort we can hit, and the money would be on a scale impossible to hide. A government has to be bold to fund terrorists in secret these days; it would have to be suicidal to fund them openly in overthrowing a neighbor country and US ally.

Now factor in this: the large Saudi oil fields are largely in Shi'ite areas. Al Qaeda would find the very forces it has been relying upon for survival in Pakistan and Afghanistan turned against it. The same would largely be true even for one of the Shi'ite militant movements--their religion would be the same, but the tribal concerns that have bedeviled us would bedevil any Iranian Persian groups, or Lebanese fighters, operating in the heart of Arabia.

It is more possible that there could be an internal coup in Saudi Arabia, and that a group more hostile to the US than the current ones might take over general control. In order to survive, however, they would need to continue providing oil to the West, even if not to the United States: the stability of Arabia is built on regular payoffs to tribal leaders, and those payoffs will have to continue if the tribes aren't to be up in arms. The only source for the monies for those payoffs is the oil; therefore, the oil must be sold.

As the US gets only 19% of our oil from Saudi Arabia, it is likely that we could make up the difference elsewhere if we had to do so--for example, from purchases from the Iraqi oil fields, which contain the largest remaining oil reserves in the world. The French, who import most of their oil from Saudi Arabia (and most of the rest from Norway) would be more likely to be troubled by any artificial shortfalls, should the new government think itself stable enough to risk them.

Helmets

Helmets To Hardhats:

A fellow from H2H wrote me today to ask me if I'd link to his site. H2H is a federally-funded program to help former military men and women find promising jobs in construction. I've seen them mentioned in ads around D.C., and they got a good writeup in Defenselink, which is the DoD's own website.

I'm always willing to help out the troops in whatever small ways I can. If you're planning to get out--and I certainly encourage you to stay in--drop by and visit their site. You'll find the link down to the right, just below the Milblogs logo. It looks like this:

Just the Facts

Land of the Pure:

The Bush Administration just declared Pakistan (whose name translates into "land of the pure") as a Major Non-NATO Ally. You may be curious about what that means. Now you know.

I find that the harder I work, the more luck I seem to have. - Thomas Jefferson

Operation Shoe-Fly:

Once again demonstrating the fundamental decency of the US military, the 214th Aviation Regiment has undertaken an unofficial operation to help the children of Afghanistan. Dubbed Operation Shoe Fly, it's an attempt to provide shoes for the kids. Any of you who are parents, and quite a few of you are, might go through your closets to see what the kids have outgrown. You can also send new shoes.

Ship the shoes to:

Operation Shoe Fly
B Co, 214th Aviation Regiment
Bagram, Afghanistan
APO AE 09354-9998

We've got some good people out there.

ORACULATIONS

Alarm! Alarm!

I'm sure you probably heard that 'a group of diplomatic, military and intelligence officials' printed a petition in the LA Times that was opposed to the Bush policy in Iraq. No big deal, you probably thought--you can find twenty or thirty former military people who will sign anything. This is because the military is so huge, and draws fairly broadly from America, which is also huge. Add in the State department and the intelligence services (presumably to include the FBI), and you've got so many people it would just be a matter of making the phone calls.

Indeed, I didn't give it a second thought either. It was only while reading around today that I discovered that a blog called Oraculations had put together a list of biographies on the signers. Unsurprisingly, most have ties to leftist groups--that's how they knew there was a petiton to sign, right? But then there is one really alarming thing:

Retired Adm. Stansfield Turner, the CIA Director under Carter (let's all remember that fiasco) who is pissed that Tenet was fired. This unbiased guy is a member John Kerry's Senior Military Advisory Group, now advising John Kerry.

Carter's CIA director is one of John Kerry's senior military advisors? I can't think of a single more damning thing that could be said.

INDOlink - US News - US Forces �Kill� 80 Militants In Afghanistan Operation

How I-War and War Relate:

Read over this article to see why a propaganda war is indispensible for guerrillas. The waters are muddy enough now that an independent news service doesn't know where to turn. Ultimately they just report everyone's numbers and let the reader guess which are true. They're so turned around they even put "kill" in scare quotes.

Jihad Unspun - A Clear View On The US War On "Terrorism"

Jihad Unspun: Vote for Kerry, Then Push Him Around

The weekend edition of Jihad Unspun contains a piece by anti-warrior Chalmers Johnson. It is not hard to see what the pro-Qaeda boys like about Johnson's argument. A victory for his faction would be the end of resistance to Islamist groups seeking to dominate the Muslim world.

[L]et me nonetheless end by noting that the political system may not be capable of saving the Republic. It is hard to imagine that any president of either party could stand up to the powerful vested interests surrounding the Pentagon and the secret intelligence agencies....

I believe that if the Republic is to be saved it will be as a result of an upsurge of direct democracy.... The first victory of this movement came on March 14 with the election of Spanish prime minister Jose Zapatero. If democracy means anything at all, it means that public opinion matters. Zapatero understood that 80% of the Spanish people opposed Bush's war in Iraq, and he immediately withdrew all Spanish forces. It's a great pity that Kerry criticized Zapatero for this. We need to duplicate the Spanish victory in Tony Blair's Britain, Silvio Berlusconi's Italy, Junichiro Koizumi's Japan, and in our own country.

Jihad Unspun would also like to see a repeat of the Spanish elections in America. Still, this appears to be a rather halfhearted endorsement. 'Vote for Kerry... but it probably won't be enough... we'll really need 'direct democracy,' by which I mean rule by protest-march rather than by Constitutional processes.' Oddly, given that he wants to prefer 'direct democracy' to these legal processes, Johnson argues that his movement is about the "Constitution and the need to restore its integrity as the supreme law of the land."

Still, apart from his sense that Kerry (unlike Bush) could be intimidated by protest into withdrawing from Iraq, Johnson has some praise for the man himself. Along the way he also explains his opinion of the volunteer military.

Kerry's stand as a leader of Vietnam Veterans Against the War is one of the most honorable aspects of his background. It is a tragedy that we have become so militaristic he must disown the courageous stand he took thirty-five years ago in order to be elected. This reflects one of the major differences between our military during the Vietnam War and our military today. Then it was a citizens' army. Members of the armed forces were a democratic check on militarism because they were not volunteers. They were naturally concerned about the purposes of the war, how it would end, and whether their government and officers were lying to them. Today we have a professional military. People who serve in it are volunteers with a vested interest in advancing their careers through armed conflict.

This is a bit illogical. Although servicemen can vote, the military does not elect the president. Indeed, as we saw in Florida 2000, in a contested election the ballots of deployed servicemen are highly likely to be discarded due to the uncertainty of their arriving with all the requisite stamps. Lawyers representing a candidate who suspects that the military will not favor him can move to have those ballots discarded, and expect to succeed.

The reason Kerry has to disown his VVAW stance in order to be considered is because of a change in the populace as a whole. It is true that Kerry feels that he has to step away from the VVAW, and his earlier remarks that American forces should only be deployed under UN command and with blue helmets. That reflects not a change in our military, but in our society.

UPDATE: Apparently the jihadis aren't the only ones lukewarm about Kerry. As the Rottie points out, the speaker here is one of Kerry's campaign co-chairs.