Shoe throwing: a dangerous escalation in the Long War. Is Obama prepared?
"Moab is my washpot; over Edom will I cast out my shoe...." Psalms 60:8This weekend, those who would destroy our liberty conducted another cold blooded terrorist act against all that is good and holy...
View ArticleThe humiliation and sad end of the British Empire
British power has been in decline for almost a century now, starting with the bleeding Britain received in the world wars, followed by the loss of British colonies and the contraction of the British...
View ArticleAmerica's proxy war in Palestine - look behind the curtain and stop blaming...
There is much bewilderment in the world as to why the Arab/Israeli conflict has proven so intractable and the sides so bloody minded and unreasonable as to continue fighting against their own obvious...
View ArticleCivilian casualties, collateral damage and terrorism: a rational examination...
This diary attempts to examine the dynamics and patterns of the infliction and justification of civilian casualties in modern war, as well as the shifting approach of contemporary morality to the...
View ArticleIraqi provincial elections and the growing power of Prime Minister Maliki
The Iraqi provincial elections will take place this Saturday, January 31, with early voting already ongoing. This is a very exciting time for Iraq, as these are the first elections since the flawed...
View ArticleAction item: Gamer Kossacks, design your own Afghanistan simulation and help...
I always wanted to post an action item, but being a lazy good for nothing cynical bastard who does nothing for nobody, the opportunity never came up before. But now I got one - NATO is looking for the...
View ArticlePreliminary results from Iraqi provincial elections are disturbing, ignored
The Iraqi elections took place Saturday. Have you heard anything about them? The media and blogs gave a collective yawn, but the reports that did get out are the standard nonsense about success in...
View ArticleWhat should the future US role be in Iraq? (With updated provincial election...
I recently wrote a few diaries to keep people updated on the results of the Iraqi elections, which were being ignored elsewhere. In the process, it has become apparent to me that the widespread lack of...
View ArticleBankrupt California to spend millions fighting to keep violating rights and...
As California struggles with a huge budget shortfall, our state officials are nevertheless doing everything they can to increase the prison budget, already at $10 billion per year, by building more...
View ArticleIt is time for a global New Deal
On March 4, British Prime Minister Gordon Brown spoke before the US Congress about the need for a "global New Deal". This idea has been embraced by the majority of the world, and a need for a global...
View ArticleA cynic's guide to the current financial crisis and the precarious system of...
We live in a world where every imaginable good can be almost instantly produced in abundance, and the only question is, who will buy all this stuff? At the same time, we live in a world where millions...
View ArticleObama's new plan for Afghanistan and the nature of the enemy
On their first meeting, Sherlock Holmes impressed Dr. Watson by deducing that the doctor had just come home from the Second Afghan War. When asked to explain this feat, Holmes replied, "Elementary, my...
View ArticleThe betrayal of the Iraqi Awakening movement - the eternal fate of those who...
Remember the Iraqi Awakening, those Sunnis who switched sides from the insurgency to reduce violence in their neighborhoods based on America promises to take care of them after order was restored? The...
View ArticleFrom Outremer to Israel, a meditation on the fate of the Holy Land
I have just returned from a two week trip to Israel where I visited my family. Having studied the Crusader states of Outremer, I see so many parallels between the fate of the modern state of Israel...
View ArticleChronicles of the Good War: news from the Afghan front
As Obama's strategy for Afghanistan takes shape and the new commanders (well, not so much new as reassigned or given a good talking to) hit the ground running, let's find out how things are going. The...
View ArticleFrom Outremer to Israel Part 2: Military and Political Parallels
Here is part 2 of my eagerly unawated series on the parallels between the Crusader states of the Near East and Israel. While they were technically up against numerically and logistically stronger foes...
View ArticleChronicles of the Good War: Use of thermobaric weapons explains high...
You might remember the recent American bombing that killed around 100 Afghan civilians in the western Farah province of Afghanistan. But have you ever wondered, what kind of bomb does it take to kill...
View ArticleThe Beautiful War Rides of the Northern Crusades
Don’t you know that we are your Pope, for our Pope is the Sword, and our Pope is never far from you. In many ways, the Northern Crusades, a general term applied to the campaigns undertaken by various...
View ArticleChronicles of the Good War: the significance of civilian casualties
This diary completes a series regarding the significance of the constant infliction of civilian casualties by American and other Western forces in Afghanistan and Pakistan. I chronicle the functioning...
View ArticleThe Viking Invasions
The Viking invasions were amazing in many ways. The Vikings were shrewd traders, intrepid explorers, fearsome fighters, navigating their way without maps from North America to the Middle East....
View ArticleChronicles of the Good War: Waging the propaganda war
After some debate about the best P.R. strategy to spin continuing incidents of killing of civilians by American forces, the Pentagon released a deviously written"unclassified executive summary" of the...
View ArticleThe US gently overthrows the President of Honduras: the new soft colonialism
Last Saturday, Honduras President Manuel Zelaya was ousted by the country's military. The coup was quickly condemned by the world community. However, the US stopped short of calling it a coup or...
View ArticleChronicles of the Good War: Operation Sword Thrust
This will be a quick update on the massive ongoing operation by 4,000 Marines in Afghanistan's Helmand Province. So far, 11 NATO troops have been killed in a 2 day period, mostly outside of Helmand and...
View ArticlePlus-up: the steady spread of war throughout Central Asia
As Obama escalates America's war in "AfPak," July is already the deadliest month of the war for foreign troops. An American POW is now in Taliban hands. As the US continues to rain down bombs on...
View ArticleWhat if the right becomes the anti war party?
As the Afghan war escalates, it becomes painfully obvious that the Democratic Party and its leftist allies will not serve as a force for peace, and will support American violence abroad so long as a...
View ArticleChronicles of the Good War: Soul Searching by the Useless Cake Eaters of...
As autumn gently falls on Afghanistan, Karzai finally passed the coveted threshold needed to achieve a first round win in the Afghan Presidential elections, after some painfully obvious electoral...
View ArticleThe Afghanistan strategy choices in the face of looming defeat: refocus,...
The US is currently mulling over its Afghan strategy amid a a crisis of legitimacy and record casualties. The 21,000 troops sent earlier this year, a stop gap measure to bolster security for the Afghan...
View ArticleDeterioration and escalation in Afghanistan
This spring, following a 2 month strategic review, Obama sent 37,000 troops to the Afghan theater. The largest Marine offensive since Vietnam were launched to retake Helmand Province. Now the results...
View ArticleSearching for a credible local partner in Afghanistan after a failed election.
The Afghan Presidential elections are over. The first round was characterized by massive fraud which made the incumbent President Hamid Karzai’s victory appear completely implausible and unacceptable...
View ArticleHave you had enough or will you continue to stay with the Democrats?
I come back to this site periodically, to observe the abused spouse like struggle against itself that the progressive left goes through in its relationship with the Democratic Party. It is risky to...
View ArticleThe collpase of the USSR and the lessons it holds for those seeking freedom...
Around this time in a Democratic administration, the progressives and various other lefties start complaining and losing their illusions after yet another Democrat turns out to be a staunch defender of...
View ArticleChronicles of the Good War: Demonstrating the Will to Win
Much attention is paid on this site to the brutality visited upon Iranian protesters by security forces, particularly when the soldiers go so far as to fire live rounds at the crowd. The world knows...
View ArticleThe Myth of the Impotent Demon
There once lived a father whose daughter grew gravely ill. He was a poor man, and the necessary treatment was out of his means. He desperately tried to get the money, but could not. Out of options, he...
View ArticleFree Company, a history of terrible freedom - Part One, the Catalan...
This series is devoted to the historical phenomenon known as "free companies," Vikings, pirates, freebooters or filibusters, all of which terms refer to voluntary stateless corporations that sprang up...
View ArticleAfghanistan: winning the war of perceptions
Pres. Obama and his top commanders Gens. Petraeus and Gen. McChrystal believe that the War on Terror is a "war of perceptions." In a struggle between a superpower and small loosely linked bands of...
View ArticleFree Company, a history of terrible freedom - Part Two, the Catalan Grand...
If you passed by the first installment, you haven’t missed much. It’s a history about some medieval mercenaries told to illustrate what greatness and what depths of depravity free men can accomplish...
View ArticleFree Company, a history of terrible freedom - Part Three, the Catalan Grand...
In 1305 the Catalan Company, a free association of Western European adventurers and their families, who were hired to fight the Turks on behalf of the Byzantine Empire, found themselves in a terrible...
View ArticleBlessed Are the Warriors
An accusation frequently hurled at the Terrorists is that they use the religion of Islam to justify their violent, thoroughly anti-Islamic actions. The right wing militarists suggest that this is no...
View ArticleThe two faces of COIN in Afghanistan's "last offensive"
As the Obama Administration tripled the number of combat troops in Afghanistan, their mission has been repeatedly redefined. The latest version calls for a major offensive to be launched in Kandahar...
View ArticleKyrgyzstan's Crisis May Become an Early Test of the Shanghai Cooperation...
The nation of Kyrgyzstan entered a period of extreme instability when its previous government was overthrown. For a few weeks, the change of government appeared to be successful, as a provisional...
View ArticleIGTNT's attempt to declare itself holy ground
Before the advent of militant monotheism cut down all the holy groves of Hellas and the dark fire caverns of Persia, the world was dotted with sanctified ground upon which no combat could take place...
View ArticleA Youtube kind of war
Living so deep within the imperial web, behind so many layers of propaganda and paranoia, it is difficult to comprehend that there is somewhere still opposition to the power structure. The tendency on...
View ArticleFBI agents and SWAT teams raiding peace activists' homes across the country
sometimes I come across a news item that makes even an inveterate cynic like myself want to vote. Today, in Minnesota, Illinois, North Carolina, SWAT teams forced entry into the homes of American...
View ArticleWitnessing the death of triangulation
The Obama Administration has been trying to govern according to the old DLC triangulation theories, which provide that that progressive ideas are too scary for the American public and that each and...
View ArticleThe myth of the Nazis
In modern Western society, there is no worse political slur than Nazi. In Europe any positive reference to the Nazi regime or any disagreement with the official myths on that era are illegal.The Nazi...
View ArticleSomalia and the state of the Long War under the Democrats
Since his inauguration, Obama has waged a different style of war than his predecessor. There is a marked preference for strikes by CIA controlled drone aircraft crossing international boundaries...
View ArticleTAKING A STAND AGAINST COCK PICS
The time has come for all decent human beings to take a stand. Let us speak with one voice -- no more cock pics. I'm not calling for the cock pic to resign their official positions, to stop playing...
View ArticleThe American nation and the World Empire
There is a continuous tension between the United States of America, the most successful and most populous of the settler states planted by European imperialists around the world, and America's central...
View ArticleBugs inside and out
As part of my initiation into the secrets of Los Angeles, which are many and storied, which has taken place over the years of my exile here, I have found that there are these bugs in LA that the...
View ArticleInformants in our midst
I live in a beautiful racially mixed neighborhood in LA. A long time ago this was the first Beverly Hills, mansions and limos. Then the city grew all around it and white flight turned it into the...
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