Persia And Girl World

Whiskey Tango Foxtrot?

The intolerant, goofy girl fearing regime in Mullahopolis gets high profile and an uncontested portfolio at UN:

"Iran, along with representatives from 10 other nations, was "elected by acclamation," meaning that no open vote was requested or required by any member states -- including the United States."

Not so long ago, Persia was catching hits faster than battleship Bismarck about abusing, oppressing and repressing girls, fun and free choice.

"Iran is attempting to control every venue and avenue through which its own citizens reach the world with real news. It is bringing its cynicism and misogyny to the international community. Instead of being challenged and blocked, Iran is making good progress thanks to the inertia of other member states.

" In Tehran they must be pleased with the likely turn of events. But in New York, this should be a wake up call. If we are to take the UN's entities seriously, they must demonstrate a seriousness of purpose. Membership in the CSW as with the Human Rights Council must come with minimum conditions.

"Iranian women have fought this regime non-violently and resolutely for 30 years. Its young women have been shot and killed on the streets of the Tehran, for the simple crime of being young and female. To have Iran join the CSW will be the ultimate sign of disrespect to them and women worldwide.

The American experience proves as girls advance status wise, so do families, communities, career work places - and the entire nation.

Tolerance and egalitarianism are the handmaidens of success - on every scale - personal, national and international, wealth, education, self worth.

The way certain blocs treat their girls may also explain why a wheelbarrow is still a great invention, and pitiful literacy rates.

With war against women, there will be no peace.

Deny us learning and literacy and we grant failure, intolerance, misery and rage to our own sons and daughters too.

Ignore us and neglect us. Keep your societies pitiful, needy, and backwards.

If we are not loved, we will not love back; and if we are not nurtured, we will neglect.

If we are not valued - we have no values to instill.

Girls who are treated with cruelty give birth to murderous intolerants and oppressors.

Destroy us - and destroy yourself

Pic - "Women in Iran are calling for freedom and equality. We want to show the world that we are not alone."

War With NoKo?

Hot on the heels of Sister Democrazy SoKo's Cheonan (Pohan Class) getting sunk by a 'crack' crunk squad of 'human torpedoes' appears a a curious cry for restraint:

`We believe that such a 'status quo' is unsustainable for North Korea ― there are simply too many factors coming to a head in the near future. South Korea and the United States, working closely with Japan and China, need to press hard for a deal with North Korea, before more costly scenarios unfold.''

Thus:

"They are right. No other course takes either side anywhere rational. The time now is as propitious as it will ever be. For if in fact the North did the nasty deed, the cruel incident may yet be but another example of an infantile North Korea throwing its rattle out of its playpen, as if in desperate cry for help."

What else makes sense?

Pic - "Day Of The Sun"

Boob Quake

"Ve are liffing in Amerika - Coca Cola - Voonderbra"

Rammstein's amazing anti homage to Great Satan may provide the best soundtrack of all for this (klotzen nicht kleckern?).

All the cool kids know that some girl fearing wanna be ayatoolah from intolerant Mullahopolis prett much 'laid' the blame for natural catastrophes

Hojatoleslam Kazim Sadeghi (Ho what?!) claimed hoochies, hotties and hoes "don't dress appropriately" and spread the hot sticky lust "when promiscuity spreads, earthquakes increase."

Oh snap! Say it ain't so!

Only, it IS so!

"The pro-scantily-clad lobby of womanity declared today Boobquake, a day to flout and disprove the cleric by baring your boobs.

"And then a 6.9-magnitude earthquake occurred in Taiwan!"

Sweet! Let's start worshipping the power of immodesty, immediately and without, uh, restraint.

In a related protuberance, boob theory often implies that the size of boobs often determines the bearer's intelligence -- i.e., the bigger the boobs -- the dumber the girl.

Actually this is quite incorrect -- boobs -- as best determined -- have a weapons range not unlike an m203 grenade launcher.

Truth is -- the more robust the boobs are (and it could be that appearance is key as opp'ed to actual size) -- the dumber the guys are.

Pic "Soft Power II"

Ahmadinejad In America?

What the Yuck?

FoPo's "Turtle Bay" site - devoted to all things UN (yay) breaks a scoop!

Iran's fiery little rocketeer - the hand picked President of Preacher's Paradise is hitting the hood bay bee - going to jam it out in Great Satan!

Maybe he wants a closer look at the 'Satanic UN Veto'? Or, Swap some new clear fuel?

"The development raises the prospect that the Iranian leader may use the high-profile conference to challenge efforts by the Obama administration to rally international support for measures aimed at preventing Tehran and other potential proliferators from acquiring nuclear technology."

Pic "Great Prophet V'

Hollow Point Power Point?

Oh snap!

Is Power Point making Great Satan's military cats -- uh -- more dumber?

Remember the "Afghandyland" Power Point? It was like overlaying 7 "How to get what you want from a guy" flowcharts from Cosmo all at once.

As Afpak Commander McC put it "When we understand that slide, we’ll have won the war”

"Dumb Dumb Bullet Points" powerfully points out:

"PowerPoint can be highly effective if used purely to convey information — as in a classroom or general background brief. It is particularly good if strong pictures or charts accompany the discussion of the material.

"But it is poorly suited to be an effective decision aid. Unfortunately, the Pentagon has virtually made a cult of the PowerPoint presentation.

Whoa!

"...An air assault mission involving dozens of aircraft, artillery and hundreds of troops can be collaboratively planned and briefed among the aviators and ground troops using maps, diagrams and satellite imagery e-mailed back and forth among the various actors on PowerPoint slides in order to assist the planning process.

"The graphics used in PowerPoint replace the massive campaign maps and problematic acetate overlays which were used by armies for decades, allowing these documents to be easily produced and mass-distributed with the click of a mouse.

"Indeed, PowerPoint has been the 21st Century’s solution to the age-old requirement for organizations to report information between various levels of bureaucracy—whether it be a sales pitch to board members, or an air crew mission briefing for a flight of Black Hawk helicopters.

"PowerPoint is only as smart as those who are using it. In the military, business and even in NASA, misuse of PowerPoint can cause confusion and frustration. In the hands of a poor communicator, PowerPoint can spread misinformation, leading to bad decision-making.

Aside from all his work at Wings Over Iraq, Small Wars Journal, Wired.com's "Danger Room", Foreign Policy Online, the Guardian, the Defense Department's "Early Bird", and the US Army's "Stand-to" -- GrEaT sAtAn"S gIrLfRiEnD"s COIN advisor Captain Burke AKA 'Starbuck' gets the money shot in the New York Times:

“There’s a lot of PowerPoint backlash, but I don’t see it going away anytime soon,” said Capt. Crispin Burke, an Army operations officer at Fort Drum, N.Y., who under the name Starbuck wrote an essay about PowerPoint on the Web site Small Wars Journal.

"In a daytime telephone conversation, he estimated that he spent an hour each day making PowerPoint slides. In an initial e-mail message responding to the request for an interview, he wrote, “I would be free tonight, but unfortunately, I work kind of late (sadly enough, making PPT slides).”

Jet over to WOI and congratulate Starbuck/Captain Burke on his NYT shout out!

Art - "Girl Powerpoint"

Palevietstinenam?

Like hot nosferatu that refuses to stay staked down and out, the concept of estabbing a brand new nation state (perhaps two nation state statelets?!) - Palestine cannot be killed.

Could this process be not unlike the experience in Vietnam?

PaleVietstinenam?

A brand new Palestine would need to sign, enforce and live with magical guarantees with Little Satan. Yet New Palestine will most likely lack the power (and will?) to issue or honor such Nakbah proofing guarantees unless certain elements, their spiritual fanboys and rowdy foreigners are dissed, marginalized or destroyed.

Obviously, Palestine will need help. From whom?

The only candidate would be Palestine's sponsor and creator - Great Satan.

"In other words, if this new state comes into being before the terror groups are destroyed, it will require covert and overt American police and military to defend itself against many of its own people.

"We will begin by showing the state how to fight its people. Soon, we will find we are helping it to fight its people. In the end, we will be fighting its people on its behalf.

"We will have created a Palestinian South Vietnam.

Since Nazi time Deutschland and Imperial Japan screamed "God! Please! Stop!" there have been born more than 100 nation states and the movements of hundreds of borders. Border moving - seldom agreeable to everyone - yet nation states accepted them as a settled border was better than war.

Germany accepted losing Prussia, Russia accepted the secession of Kazakstan and Serbs are handling the idea of Kosovo.

Even in 3rd world states gave up treasured aspirations rather than shed blood forever - Somalia gave up Ogaden, Guatemala stopped demanding Belize and Indonesia finally gave up East Timor.

There is one glaring, bizarro conspicuous exception to this willingness to accept facts - no matter how disappointing they are:

"It’s because we always lose to Israel. It gnaws at the people in the Middle East that such a small country as Israel, with only about 7 million inhabitants, can defeat the Arab nation with its 350 million. That hurts our collective ego.

"The Palestinian problem is in the genes of every Arab. The West’s problem is that it does not understand this."

Pic "Palevietstinenam"

The Crusader - Hindu - Little Satan Alliance

Righteous booty (intelligence wise) snatched up in covert hit and run panty raids against al Qaeda enemies in Land of the Pure are quite revealing for the enemy's mindset!

"A Crusader-Zionist-Hindu war" against M'Hammedism and M''Hammedists!

"The radicals have a point.

"The deepening relations between the United States, India, and Israel are changing the geopolitical geometry of the modern world in ways that will make the lives of fanatical terrorists even more dismal and depressing (not to mention shorter) than they already are.

Little and Great Satan "... are both in a better long term position than many Americans sometimes think; one of the main reasons is an Indian-Israeli connection that most Americans know nothing about."

"This “Zionist Hindu Crusader” alliance is a nightmare scenario for radicals and terrorists in the Islamic world.

"The emergence of closer relations between the American global superpower, the regional Israeli military, and technological superpower, and the rising superpower of India is a basic challenge to the worldview of the extremists.

"The radicals have imagined a world in which the west and especially America is in decline, Israel faces a deep crisis, and a resurgent Islamic world is emerging as a new world-historical power.

Aside from the "Clash of Civilizations' theme this also highly significant - proving a "League of Hot! Democrazies" are harbingers of future world where fun and free choice first encircle, contain, constrict and devastate scary, historically illiterate control freaks - rendering their uncool designs null and void.

Pic - "Future of Freedom"

S.W.A.G. Calendar

Cheeky Bay Bee!

Great Britain's military better halfs hooked up and developed the SWAG Calendar - SWAG essentially Xlates into Service Wives And Girlfriends - who have given a new meaning to 'frontal assault!"

"With only strategically placed guns and tanks to spare their blushes, these charity calendar shots have helped raise £26,000 for injured servicemen and women wounded in Afghanistan and Iraq.

"A total of 50 volunteers, all wives and girlfriends of men from the three Armed Services, stripped off to be photographed at bases and training centres in Hampshire. But their modesty was preserved by carefully placed pieces of military equipment.

Oh Britannia!

Pic - "This lucky tank crew get a welcome from Lauryn, Emma and Sarah while Hero the bear guards the rear"

Memo

44's Admin "...is finally coming around to the alarming conclusion it has no idea what to do about Iran's nuclear bomb."

"The admission comes in the guise of a just-revealed top-secret memorandum sent by Defense Secretary Robert Gates to the White House in January, which, according to press leaks, made the case that the U.S. possesses no long-term, effective policy to stop Iran from building a nuclear bomb."

CIA Spy Guy Robert Baer - author of the psychic "Devil We Know" goes on to remind everyone about the magical Shia crescent stretching from Persia to the Red and Med Seas.

"None of this is to suggest that our problems with Iran begin and end with nukes. Iran's influence continues to spread across the Middle East with a near inevitability..."

True. The hot! Report on Iran's Military Power maintains the mullahs 1st priority is ensuring the regime's survival: To defend against either and/or both Satan's with a mix of "...deterrence, asymmetrical retaliation and attrition warfare."

"Think about it from the Iranian regime's perspective:

Covered on two fronts by tens of thousands of U.S. (and other Western) forces;

"Washington is arming and rearming your regional foes; it's rather obvious that either Little or Great Satan or BOTH are engaging in some sort of covert sabotage campaign against your nuclear ambitions, and one of your nuclear officials just defected to the West - a defection obviously facilitated by your enemy, the Saudis.

Back to Baer:

"Iran understood its trump card was that there never would be real sanctions unless Iran actually tested a bomb.

"And this is exactly what Iran will not do, if the past is a guide to the present. Iran will walk right up to that bright red line but not cross it.

"It will continue to enrich uranium for bombs, design and build triggering devices, and develop a delivery capability. In a couple of years, Iran, if it needs to, will be able to assemble the pieces for a workable bomb in less than a month."

Pic - "The Memo"

Panzers Passé?

Is Great Satan's Armored war fighting doctrine out of sync with her skills? Specifically - are the skill sets needed to do another Thunder Run - the fundamentals of fire and maneuver - on hand and ready to rock?

While das unausprechlichen COIN külten has seduced tons of cats gearing up for the small, long wars (all magically located in the CENTCOM Gap), one of Great Satan's premier panzer experts has resisted the sirens call in a sustained effort to reinvigorate the panzer franchise:

"The Armor Corps in the American Army is gone, it is no more.

"The Army has become decidedly infantry centric. This wouldn’t be so bad if it was a fighting kind of infantry centered army. But instead it is an infantry centric Army grounded in the principles of population centric counterinsurgency and Rupert Smith's view of war in the future as "wars amongst the people."

"To be sure the American Army will be told to do lots of things from winning hearts and minds in the Hindu Kush, to passing out humanitarian relief in the troubled spots around the world, to nation building in Iraq.

"But first and foremost it must be an Army grounded in combined arms competencies. This must come first, and not second or third after fuzzy concepts as “whole of government approach” and building emotional relationships with local populations."

Whoa!

"Listen up, everyone: we are no longer a fighting Army. To all you veterans of COP Keating and Wanat -- you must have been doing nothing else but touchy-feely tea parties and absolutely no combat whatsoever."

COINtra Colonel Gentile does have a point though - COIN is what Dr Condoleezza Rice proclaimed about Iraq eons ago - a generational commitment.

"Nowadays military victory is subsumed under a never ending process of Counterinsurgency operations. Military victory in this sense has become the operation and its existential, never ending nature."

COIN Ops may never come to pass in future wars without an old school panzer blitz like Rock of the Marne did in '03 - annihilating the Hammurabi Panzer Grenadier Division enroute to Thunder Running Baghdad and revolutionizing panzer doctrine on the fly - injecting an nigh invulnerable armored force into forbidden enemy urban sprawl and taking down a regime from the inside out.

Pic " Great Satan will have to make the ability to learn to deal with messy, uncomfortable situations an integral part of her war fighting and regime killing couture" with "Beast from the East - Type 98"

Golden Opportunity

Oh - It's true!

In the wild and wacky Middle East, conditions on the ground render the ability to magically conjure a comprehend able comprehensive Arab-Little Satan peace deal is, face it - "... impossible to accomplish in the short term. They make anything more than delay and containment of Iran's nuclear ambitions similarly far-fetched, unless military force is used or a domestic revolution takes place.

"But they offer what may be a golden opportunity for democratization."

Pyramidland.

"That would be Egypt, the region's bellwether -- where an 81-year-old strongman, Hosni Mubarak, is ailing; where a grass-roots pro-democracy movement has gained hundreds of thousands of supporters; and where a credible reform leader has suddenly appeared, in the form of the Nobel Prize-winning former nuclear inspector Mohamed ElBaradei.

"The movement he leads is pressing Mubarak to lift an emergency law -- imposed 28 years ago -- that blocks political organizing and freedom of assembly, and to change the constitution so that next year's presidential election can be genuinely democratic.

The ancient undying Pharoh for Life Hosni may instead want to xfer power to his son Gamal (just like Old Man Assad did for Bashar!) creating the 2nd Arab League dynastic succession

"The Americans bought Mubarak twenty-eight years ago because they believed he could maintain peace. But this was the tragedy of the Shah of Iran, when Washington supported him over Mossadegh. The Americans always trade despots for stability, and they get 'extremists' instead."

Still:

"Here is a real chance for groundbreaking change in the homeland of Mohamed Atta and Ayman al-Zawahiri. As happened before democratic transitions in other countries, there is a strong public movement with responsible leadership making reasonable demands."

Pic - "Egypt is at a critical turning point. It faces substantial leadership changes in the near future without a fair and transparent political process" with Leonor Varela

Playing With Fire

In Foreign Policyland there is a train of thought that choo choos up and down a very short piece of rail road called the "Syrian Track".

If and when Syria Track ever reaches the depot - look out! Peace, love and tolerant understanding will softly fall across the ME. Syria's uncool hook up with Iran will be coitus interruptus, the Golan will magically become Syrian again, Lebanon will be free of meddling Syrians and Hiz'B'Allah will be looking for a new hood.

Sure.

Since Syria's Dr General Pres For Life Bashar got outed for blinging unguided, dumb bomb ballistic missiles to an official terrorist freak show like Hiz'B'Allah, Little Satan has issued an amazing caveat!

Sent as a secret message which Little Satan promptly leaked, this is no conflicting signal:

“We’ll return Syria to the Stone Age by crippling its power stations, ports, fuel storage and every bit of strategic infrastructure if Hiz'B'Allah dare to launch ballistic missiles against us.”

Whoa!

In a crunk and disorderly hood like the ME - the shame and honor blame game must be going into overtime.

Bashar - one of a kind actually, in all the world's despotries - the only example of an absolute monarch, with no throne, ruling a hereditary republic - leads a poor country with hardly any oil, only 19 million people and a pitifully weak army.

Even worse - the al Assads don't do Shia like Iran or Sunni traditions of Saudi Arabia or the religious loyalty of any other regime in the ME. Assad's are from the tiny, tiny Alawite sect, a minor minority in their very own nation state!

Syrian denials about scudding up Hiz'B'Allah are psychic! Claiming Little Satan is making stuff up to bail on giving up Golan or a Nakbah Free Palestine:

The secret message is "aggression in order to run away from the requirements of a just and comprehensive peace."

Little Satan will "... not hesitate to attack Syria if our national security is in jeopardy. Assad knows that, and he’s playing with fire.”

Pic "Playing with Fire" with Alicia

"Deceptive Ploy"

Like an ex parading about with their lesser version of you, the illegit regime in Tehran held their own internat'l nukey conference in homage to 44's recent yawner.

"Nuclear Energy for All, Nuclear Weapons for None" may be a catchy catch phrase, featuring cats from 60 different nations alledgedly - yet the real targets are Great and Little Satan

Supreme Leader explains

"Although several countries have produced and stockpiled nuclear weapons that could lead to commission of a major nuclear crime and have seriously threatened world peace, only one government has committed the ultimate nuclear offence, the United States of America"

"The deceptive ploy by the sole nuclear offender that falsely claims to be advocating non-proliferation of nuclear arms, while doing nothing substantive for this cause, will never succeed.

"If the campaign by the United States were not fictitious, could the Zionist regime refrain from accepting the rules of international law, especially the non-proliferation regime, and turn the occupied land of Palestine into an arsenal with huge stockpiles of nuclear weapons?"

Pic "Great Satan should be stripped of her membership to the International Atomic Energy Agency" by Rev Theory

Pushy Grenade!

Pushy!

Pic - "Soldiers of Destruction" from Flickr

Take 'em Down

A counterrevolution in Iran may be the last, best chance for peace in the region, but it can only happen with American help.

J. Michael Waller of the Institute of World Politics argues that the best way for the United States to promote change in Iran is not via sanctions or military action but by helping the Iranian people overthrow the Islamic regime. After the proper preparation, "revolution could happen in a matter of days," he said at a briefing yesterday at the institute's Washington headquarters.

Iran is poised for radical change. The ruling mullahs are widely viewed as illegitimate and corrupt. The people are disaffected and increasingly willing to stand up to the government. The student movement has shown a degree of fearlessness in confronting the regime. And, perhaps sensing change in the air, the Revolutionary Guard Corps has begun to show cracks in its once-fierce loyalty to the Islamic state.

Mr. Waller says he thinks the United States could facilitate an uprising in Tehran with comparatively little effort. Washington could help the opposition communicate with inexpensive prepaid cell phones and proxy Internet servers and supply Flip video cameras and other means of recording and publicizing the course of the rebellion. Voice of America's Persian News Network could focus reports on regime misdeeds and spread inspirational accounts of insiders turning against the power structure in hopes that others might join them. Tehran's state-controlled media regularly ignore such stories, so VOA would report, and the Iranian people would decide.

Most important, the United States could supply strong moral support. A critical factor keeping Iranians from making a decisive move against the theocracy's religious leadership is a sense of doubt that America would back their play. A clear signal to Iranian dissidents that Washington would support a revolt would go a long way toward making it happen.

Mr. Waller contends, however, that the U.S. government is stymied by "a lack of imagination." The checkered history of American-backed coups, such as the one that brought the shah of Iran to power in 1953, have placed any discussion of destabilization off limits. But the type of political warfare Mr. Waller recommends is akin to what American politicians do on a routine basis. "Would [Secretary of State] Hillary Clinton dig up dirt on a political opponent to destroy them?" Mr. Waller asked rhetorically. "Well, if so, she could also do it to the Supreme Leader of Iran."

Ayatollah Ali Khamenei is very sensitive to charges of corruption, yet he reportedly is worth $30 billion, a handsome sum for a humble cleric that must have been amassed through illicit means. The Supreme Leader also reportedly suffers from crippling bouts of depression that could be exploited to paralyze his ability to make decisions during a crisis. "Mrs. Clinton should [apply] the government-wrecking talents she picked up during the Watergate hearings to the Iran issue," Mr. Waller quipped.

Helping overthrow the Islamic regime in Tehran would significantly advance U.S. interests in the Middle East. Iran is actively promoting violence in Afghanistan, Iraq, Lebanon and the Palestinian Authority. Iran supplies anti-American insurgents with arms, materiel and intelligence support. The Islamic republic is directly and indirectly responsible for more American military deaths than any country since the Vietnam War and has yet to be called to accounts for it.

The price of a destabilization operation is minuscule compared to the costs of American vehicles destroyed by Iranian improvised explosive devices and the rehabilitation of warriors wounded in those attacks. Unlike the sanctions President Obama is pursuing, this plan will get results.

By James S Robbins

Pic - "Kill the regime"

"Like It Or Not"

Now this is more like it - sounding brass and mixing up Niebuhr's Xian Realism with a near beer double daemoneoconic dose of Kaganite

"Like it or not, we remain a dominant military superpower, and when conflicts break out, one way or another we get pulled into them."

Whoa!

This is especially significant considering Syria recently "...transferred long-range Scud missiles..." to a bona fided terrorist group and totally changed the balance:

"1.Acquiring scuds from Syria would give Hizballah some interesting options in the event of another conflict with Israel. In the past, Hassan Nasrallah has articulated a kind of measured response to Israeli attacks: You bomb southern Lebanon, we rocket northern Israel. You bomb the southern suburbs, we rocket Haifa. You bomb Beirut proper, we rocket Tel Aviv.

"Hizballah's ability to do the latter, of course, depends entirely on whether or not they have the capability to do so and whether or not the IAF is able to knock out Hizballah's long-range rockets early enough in the conflict (as the IAF claims to have done in 2006).

Great and Little Satan would need to know HBA posessed the nasty scuds with a 430 mile range that could strike any or all of Little Satan's sensitive, tender portions.

"2.The problem with this, of course, is that the next Israel-Lebanon war starts when either a) Hizballah or Israel does something stupid or b) Hizballah acquires "equilibrium-breaking" weaponry like powerful long-range rockets or anti-aircraft weaponry. Israel might decide, in the event of the latter, that it must act preemptively and that the very fact that Hizballah possesses such weapons is casus belli enough.

For Syria to repay a realpolitik outreach attempt with a deliberate instability move simply means 44's engagement actually emboldens. Bashar's game shifts attention to Golan Heights - which got lost in all the Palestinian Sympathy Fatigue - an added bonus of hanging with Great Satan's new ambassador in the very same hood the most wanted killer in the world was hanging.

The Iranian-led resistance bloc is becoming better armed and more belligerent by the month so Little Satan may decide to fight a bad war now than a worse one later.

And the overtly girthy rocket rich Body Part Collector General of the resistance bloc is boldly threatening and preparing for one of the most ambitious and destructive wars yet:

Turf in Lebanon cuts both ways - jamming up surveillance and makes stashing a 30 ton monster truck 30 ft long rocket launcher confined to a well known road net and large, innocent civilian rich buildings.

If skyscrapers are exploding in Tel Aviv, Little Satan may not be too particularly concerned exactly where she finds and annihilates scuds.

Conflict could ignite far more mayhem and bloodshed than the 2006 Rocket War and Operation Cast Lead combined and as 44 noted about Great satan

"...when conflicts break out, one way or another we get pulled into them.

Like it or not.

Pic - "Danger that threatens the whole world."

Definition Recognition

What a hoot! At the same incredible instant 44 hosts a prefab posse of powers “Dedicated to nuclear security and the threat of nuclear terrorism,” United Nations hooks up to draft the world’s first comprehensive convention against terrorism.

For the fourteenth time in ten years!

Only thing is, the shiz is nigh undefinable:

"The major stumbling-block to the conclusion of a draft comprehensive convention against terrorism at the UN has been a concerted effort by Islamic states to carve out an exception for murdering civilians of their choosing. Israelis top the list, but Americans are not far behind.

"The terrorism convention of the Organization of the Islamic States accordingly creates an exception to its phony denunciation of terrorism. Exempt from “terrorist crimes” are “peoples' struggle including armed struggle against foreign occupation, aggression, colonialism, and hegemony, aimed at liberation and self-determination.”

So, as 44 invited invitees from the M'Hammedist Bloc like Algeria, Egypt, Indonesia, Jordan, Kazakhstan, Malaysia, Morocco, Nigeria, Land of the Pure, Wahabbi Arabia, Turkey, and the United Arab Emirates, to party about securing nuked up terrorists, the very same nation states couldn't even define terrorism!

"In New York, OIC members chose Syria, nuclear arms wannabe and state sponsor of terrorism, to do their talking. Speaking on behalf of the OIC, therefore, Syria declared yesterday:

“The group reiterates once again the need to make a distinction…between terrorism and the struggle for the right of self-determination by people under foreign occupation, and colonial or alien domination.”

"Egypt simply shifted gears. The Egyptian delegate urged UN members in New York on Monday “to emphasize the distinction between a terrorist act and the legal acts…carried out by national liberation movements…” He also “emphasized” Egypt’s primary interest in addressing terrorism’s “root causes” – not hate and intolerance, mind you – but “feelings of injustice and frustration.”

Iranian UN Ambassador Mohammad Khazaee spoke for Non Aligned Member states (gives new meaning to ye olde 'with us or against us' meme, nicht war?) – almost half of Obama’s invitees coming from this group:

“Terrorism should not be equated with the legitimate struggle of peoples under colonial or alien domination…for self-determination and national liberation.”
(The issue of self-determination for the Iranian people was somehow not raised.)

Land of the Pure lined up "...with the statements made by the distinguished representatives of Syria and Iran.”

Meanwhile back at 44's new clear wizardry expo, Iranian enrichment interruptus – the leading threat to nuclear security and state sponsor of terrorism – is not even on the table.

"And half of the attendees at this anti-terrorism extravaganza can’t recognize terrorism when it stares them in the face."


Pic - "Oh yeah? Define this"

Nuclear Security Summit

Whoa! Not since the rowdy free world and Russia gangtackled and ground the Axis Powers to dust way back in the last millennium has such an august gathering commenced!

"All of the world's major nuclear powers are here - Russia, China, Britain and France - along with South Asian nuclear rivals India and Pakistan. Israel, which is widely believed to possess nuclear weapons, but has never confirmed their existence, is also represented."

44's New Clear Sec met did provide sweet cover for an illicit hook up betwixt Great Satan and Collectivist China - to strip Iran of her best paying biz partner - whispering hot! sticky oiled up little promises!

Like a steady supply of you know what, if, 'Iran cut China off' in vengeful revenge for joining in crushing sanctions with a bite. And in a crazy hood like the ME where abstract commentary about 'shame' or 'honor' is hoot - imagine the shame of even China sanctioning up - to specifically pressure the same regime she just sold crowd crusher monster trucks to attack their own people - over internat'l nuclear pariahship!

Whee - the mind really reels.

As Great Satan sexed up China, Pyramidland broke out that P 5 (the five permanent members on the Security Council) should hit Little Satan up about the NPT - linking Little Satan's new clear ambiguity with Persia's nuke witchcraft:

"We are eager that we do not have a nuclear Iran, as well as we do not want to see a nuclear Israel. We want a zone that is free of nuclear weapons -- and it can be done."

Not inviting or officially recognizing NoKo as a "between one and six nuclear weapons" State - or inviting Iran was interesting - just to watch Iran holler and NoKo play possum.

Pic - 'Keeping nukes out of Iranian hands, not signing treaties with Russia, is the real path to stopping nuclear terrorism."

"Military Action As Diplomacy"

"Military action — whether it was bombing Iran’s nuclear sites or blockading the Hormuz Straits at one extreme, or providing arms and cover aid to the country’s many anti-regime groups at the other — has been treated as the last option, or the ultimate stick..." instead of Great Satan's "...first and most important diplomatic asset."

Arthur Herman (Oh! He got game Bay Bee!) puts steel on target with a hot! piece about the diplopolititary doofussness on Mullahopolis' nuclear witchcraft.

The girl fearing, Facebook frightened, Preacher's Paradise "...revolutionary regime in Tehran is poised to hand the United States its worst foreign-policy setback since the fall of South Vietnam."

Uh, say what?

"The usual excuse for Western foreign-policy failures — that the democratic electoral process and changes of government mean policies are constantly being revised and reversed, while dictatorships are able to maintain a steady course until they reach their goal — won’t wash here.

"The Bush and Obama policies toward Iran, at least since 2005, have been remarkably consistent — and largely an extension of the Clinton policy of carrot and stick. Play ball with us and the international community, successive secretaries of state have told the Iranians, and don’t build any nukes, and we’ll extend the carrots of diplomatic recognition and expanded trade. Don’t play ball, and expect the stick of sanctions — or even possibly military action.

"The terms of this approach have been the problem all along.

"Military action — whether it was bombing Iran’s nuclear sites or blockading the Hormuz Straits at one extreme, or providing arms and cover aid to the country’s many anti-regime groups at the other — has been treated as the last option, or the ultimate stick, instead of the U.S.’s first and most important diplomatic asset. Both Bush and Obama saw military action as an alternative to diplomacy, and vice versa. This is a severe miscalculation, one that has consistently hobbled American foreign policy from Vietnam to North Korea, and now Iraq.

"The alternative is to see force and diplomacy as mutually supportive aspects of the same exercise of power in defense of our national interest.

Pic - "Force can be an awesome motivator - even if you can't make them do something - you can make them wish they had" with Tabret

MilBlog 2010 Wrap Up

Starbuck from Wings Over Iraq wraps the Milblog 2010 Conf with some hot gossip and insight:

"Commander Salamander (US Naval Institute) mentioned that a number of milbloggers (including yours truly) had received media inquiries from the BBC regarding the “Collateral Murder” video, as the military’s public affairs units were completely unwilling to discuss the video at all. During the panel, McIntyre noted that it was the milbloggers--not the mainstream media nor WikiLeaks--which provided the best analysis of the video."

Small War Journal has the big post, and getting to hang, network and party with experts like the cats from CNAS including swapping strategy and tactical designs about COIN and Air Power with Lt Exum:

"Ex read a few notes he took during a meeting with General Stanley McChrystal in Afghanistan during his trip last summer. Gen. McChrystal had said that even if airpower is used to kill insurgents and produce a tactical victory, it must always be weighed against the probability of collateral damage and the propaganda victory it might give the enemy. This was reflected in one of General McChrystal’s first acts upon taking command in Afghanistan—curtailing the use of airpower.

"It’s a risky move, for certain, and will require greater effort on the parts of both ground troops and aviators to better coordinate combined arms operations. But the risk of losing the battle for the minds of the Afghan is far too great—we must adapt.

Pic "Whiskey and beer - never fear"

Milblog Conference

"There are literally people alive today as a result of what you in the milblog community do every single day. "

Of all the words which will be spoken at the Milblog Conference this weekend, I doubt any will top these words from Gary Cagle, one of the heads of Team Rubicon. (This is even more amazing when you consider that General David H. Petraeus recorded a short video and Gary Trudeau of Doonesbury is in the audience)


More to follow.

Submitted by Starbuck from Wings Over Iraq

Polska

Via Economist:

POLAND’S awful history makes it no stranger to tragedy, grief and shock. But not for decades has it suffered a trauma such as the death of President Lech Kaczynski, along with dozens of other senior Polish politicians and officials, in an air crash on April 10th.

The presidential plane was carrying a delegation to Katyn, to commemorate the mass murder of a previous Polish elite: the 20,000 reservist officers murdered by Stalin’s NKVD in 1940.

The symbolism of the tragedy to many Poles is almost unbearable. In 1943 General Wladyslaw Sikorski, the leader of the Polish wartime government, died in a plane crash in Gibraltar. No foul play was proved there, but many Poles believe that he was murdered because of his resolute determination to expose the Katyn massacre—which the Soviet Union blamed on the Germans. Now another Polish president, closely involved in the same issue, has died in an all too similar manner.

Polish historical sensitivies about Russia mean that many see the coincidence as sinister rather than tragic. But the plane tried to land four times, in bad weather. Accident is the overwhelmingly likely cause.

Yet like Katyn, which eliminated the flower of the pre-war Polish elite, the plane crash also seems like a decapitation of Polish society. Among the 96 people who died were the chief of the Polish general staff, the head of the central bank, the director of the Institute of National Remembrance (which investigates and documents crimes such as Katyn) and many other of the country’s top public figures. Many politicians from the opposition Law and Justice Party, which is led by Jaroslaw Kaczynski, the late president’s twin brother, were among the delegation.

A growing pile of flowers outside the presidential palace in Warsaw attested to the public’s stunning sense of loss. Radek Sikorski, the foreign minister, who broke the news to the prime minister, Donald Tusk, this morning said that the head of government wept on hearing it. Both men had been at Katyn earlier in the week, at a ceremony attended by the Russian prime minister, Vladimir Putin. The hawkish Mr Kaczynski did not attend that ceremony, instead insisting on his own visit three days later.

The tragedy brings big upsets in Polish political life and in other institutions. The presidential elections, due to be held in October, will be brought forward. Mr Kaczynski had been facing a tough challenge from Bronislaw Komorowski, a close ally of Mr Tusk. Mr Komorowski is also speaker of the Sejm, the lower house of the Polish parliament. In that capacity, he now becomes acting president.

Mr Kaczynski, like his brother, was known for personal integrity and his deep roots in Poland’s anti-communist opposition movement. He was a vehement critic of both German and Soviet historical crimes against Poland, and a strong supporter of countries such as Georgia.

3 Crises

3 crises structure the Middle East today: the Levant crisis, centred on the Israel-Palestine conflict and its Lebanese and Syrian extensions; the Gulf crisis, focused on oil and the antagonism between the Arabs and the Iranians, Sunni and Shia Muslims; and the AfPak crisis, where the Taliban threatens NATO troops in Afghanistan and the cohesion of Pakistan.

Each of these crises has its own dynamics, but they are highly interdependent.

The Levant crisis is embodied primarily by the Israel-Palestine stalemate. Benjamin Netanyahu's government rejects a two-state solution and a freeze on settlements, which could split his coalition in the Knesset.

The Palestinians are divided between Fatah, which administers the West Bank, and Hamas, in charge of the Gaza Strip. The leaders of the two Palestinian factions are so weak they are mere pawns in a battle of influence between Egypt and Saudi Arabia on the one hand, and Syria, Qatar and Iran on the other.

The conflicting interests of the Gulf are played out on the front line in Palestine; and they have the financial resources to impose their views. But mainly, the Gulf's own issues are on a scale incommensurable with those of the Levant: the world cannot do without the oil that passes through the Strait of Hormuz.

The resolution of the Iraqi chaos and an orderly withdrawal of US troops lie at the core of Gulf crisis. The reintegration of Iran into the regional security system in exchange for its return to the global economy is US President Barack Obama's riskiest gamble.

After the election of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad in June 2005, the Iranian political establishment saw an opportunity to reap maximum gain from the US's floundering intervention in Iraq.

In symbolic terms, Iran's policy paid off: Ahmadinejad - and Hassan Nasrallah of Lebanon's Hezbollah - have become the champions of anti-Zionism.

But Iran's economy is in tatters; the international embargo compounded by corruption, squandering and record inflation, is impoverishing a weary population.

The third crisis, the AfPak zone, has emerged as an obstacle of unforeseen size. It was the 1980s jihad in Afghanistan, funded by the US and the Arab governments of the Gulf to defeat the Red Army and offer an anti-Soviet, pro-US alternative to the export of the Iranian revolution, which brought this region into the Middle East in the broad sense.

And it was Osama bin Laden and Ayman al-Zawahiri, sons of Saudi Arabia and Egypt, veterans of that jihad, who linked, in their own way, Afghanistan, the Gulf and Palestine to the US in the cataclysm of September 11, 2001.

In retaliation, the US and its allies overthrew the Taliban, but instead of consolidating their victory there, they transferred troops to Iraq and became bogged down.

Obama's gamble has been to return to a neglected Afghanistan to finish off the eradication of the Taliban and the al-Qa'ida networks based in the tribal areas on the Pakistani border, thus pacifying the AfPak crisis to free the US's hand for action in the Gulf and the Levant.

An entrenchment of the US and NATO in the AfPak zone would only weaken their capacity for negotiation and action with respect to the other two crises: a weakened interlocutor would be in less of a position to pressure Iran, Israel and the Palestinians into making concessions.

The Obama administration made three initial moves: an outstretched hand to the "people of the Islamic Republic of Iran" last year, the Cairo speech last June aimed at restoring confidence between the US and the Muslim world, and pressure on Israel to freeze settlement building.

Through these steps, Washington hoped to re-engage with the Middle East as a central player, an honest broker.

But the initiatives have backfired: the policy of the outstretched hand to Iran, which sought to galvanise the "reformist" party around Rafsanjani, instead spurred the radicals around the Revolutionary Guard to join forces and ensure the re-election of Ahmadinejad.

Obama did not mince words to urge the Netanyahu government to freeze settlements. Yet Israel has inflicted serious rebuffs.

In this complex configuration, the Middle East is developing into one of the key poles in the new multi-polar world.

Will the region remain close to the West, albeit through a contrasting relationship, or will it turn towards the emerging powers of Asia, particularly China, which are now major customers for its oil?

That is one of the fundamental questions for the international system in the years ahead.

Submitted by Gilles Kepel

Pic "3 Crises" with Laura, Angel and Jennifer

Half Asset

44's new subtle approach to friends, frenemies and enemies is still in it's infancy - way too early to offer a final grade.

"The first days -- literally -- of the administration were defined by sweeping pledges to end torture, close the detention facility at Guantánamo Bay, and revise the U.S. approach to terrorism detentions. But that early promise is over."

"Still, if there is an example of how "engagement based on mutual interests and mutual respect" has succeeded beyond anyone's expectations, it's Pakistan. For years, intelligence professionals and military officers warned that the Afghanistan War could not be successfully concluded while the Pakistani government allowed the Afghan Taliban leadership to operate from its territory, providing resources, guerrillas, and strategic direction for its forces across the border.

"And for just as long, the Bush administration issued directives to the Pakistani military that the Pakistanis promptly ignored. Once Obama came into office, his national-security team absorbed Pakistani complaints that U.S. policy was limited merely to terrorism. Obama opened the aperture, pushing Congress to pass a $7.5 billion, five-year aid package for Pakistani governance and civil society, along with a new military aid package for counterinsurgency support.

"The administration stopped publicly criticizing Pakistani lassitude on counterterrorism and gave it two major pieces of additional support: CIA drones began targeting the leaders of Pakistan's own Taliban, who had killed and terrorized hundreds of Pakistanis, and pressed India to return to diplomatic dialogue.

Actually - that's about as good as it gets for 44's 18 month review - the rest is - to use an ancient corrupted Hillbilly Phrase - Half Asset.

Like the Syrian Suck Up Shiz:

"Engagement in and of itself is not a worthless strategy. The key to engagement is deploying it effectively, using leverage, and making clear to the adversary you are negotiating with that in addition to backchannel messages and high-level diplomatic visits, you have sticks at your disposal as well. This, however, is not the Obama style, at least when it comes to foreign policy."

And that may explain Rocket Rich Gay Free Persia's Preacher Command's Hand Picked Pres - the fiery little Revo Guarder and his recent appreciation for 44's FoPo skill set:

"American materialist politicians, whenever they are beaten by logic, immediately resort to their weapons like cowboys

"Mr. Obama, you are a newcomer (to politics). Wait until your sweat dries and get some experience. Be careful not to read just any paper put in front of you or repeat any statement recommended"

"Mr. Obama is under the pressure of capitalists and the Zionists. American officials bigger than you, more bullying than you, couldn't do a damn thing, let alone you.

Pic "Using all our assets" with Lindsay

Through The Past, Glassly

Hindsight is a useful tool in foreign policy - it allows for the assessment of past events and trends in order to - hopefully - chart the correct future course for nations and states. This December 1958 article from Time Magazine analyzed China's "Great Leap Forward" policy and attempted to predict what Beijing's global position would be in the decades to come. Some items worth noting:

- China's population was projected to grow to a billion people by 1980, and to be at over 2 billion by the turn of the 21st century. That is actually close to the truth - China's one-child-per-family rule, instituted in 1980, resulted in approximately 400 million people not born over the past 30 years. In the absence of this policy, China's population today would be around 1.8 billion people.

- The article quotes British Socialist MP Richard Grossman writing that Chinese Communism is "far the biggest and far the most formidable mass movement in human history - a movement which 'within the next decade' may transfer the center of the world to Peking." The British politician may have been off considerably, but current events are shaping up much in Beijing's favor, as modern China already holds a formidable global power status.

- "As recently as World War II, Winston Churchill could impatiently dismiss as 'unrealistic' U.S. insistence that China have big-power status. Yet today, barely 15 years later, Red China is universally acknowledged as the most formidable military power in Asia. Within the Communist bloc, when China speaks, Khrushchev listens." Back In 1958, Soviet leadership was much more confident of Soviet Union's position vis-a-vis China, but few can deny today that when Hu Jintao speaks, both Medvedev and Putin are listening carefully. Even President Obama listens attentively to what his counterpart is saying in China. And Beijing''s growing military power pushes existing relationships and commitments across Asia to the limit.

- "What the Russians have to fear from Mao's China is not that it will desert to the West or 'pull a Tito,' but that it will one day seize leadership of the Communist world." Well, China does lead the Communist world - or what is left of it - but Beijing did better than "pulling a Tito" (a reference to a Yugoslavian economic and foreign policy that was largely independent of the USSR). Today, China is on track to become the second largest economy in the world, with current Russian economy far behind its vast Asian neighbor.

- "When Britain's Sam Watson forecast to Khrushchev that the Chinese would one day flood either north into Siberia or south into Australia, Khrushchev's reply was: "I'm all in favor of Australia." Today's Chinese economic expansion is utilizing Russia's eastern economic resources, and many in the Russian political and economic establishment are concerned that their country is becoming a raw material annex to Beijing, while many in Moscow worry that largely empty lands east of the Ural Mountains are slowly being colonized by the ever-increasing numbers of Chinese immigrants.

Submitted by Yevgeny Bendersky, Editor Real Clear World

New Clear Pose 2010

As best understood - way back in the last millennium's Cold War - Great Satan mastered a diplopolititary feat l' hyper puissant.
 
Calculated ambiguity.

Weaponized new clear weaponry with multiple, reliable delivery systems provide
"credible military options to deter a wide range of threats, including WMD and large scale conventional military force.”

That's sooooo 2009, 44's New Clear Pose 2010 strips off the thin sexyful veil of ambiguity:
"...explicitly committing not to use nuclear weapons against nonnuclear states that are in compliance with the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty, even if they attacked the United States with biological or chemical weapons or launched a crippling cyber attack."

Whisko Tangy Foxwhat?

"Months of study led by the Defense Department will declare that “the fundamental role” of nuclear weapons is to deter nuclear attacks on the United States, allies or partners, a narrower presumption than the past."

Yay. 

Better than defining Great Satan's New Clear Pose as the sole role of deterring enemy nukes - the "...most serious security challenge..."

Yet still.

One of the charming things about Great Satan is she's crazy and unpredictable.

Ditching calculated ambiguity seems "Unserious"in the conventional world, needless in theory and dangerously provocative. 

Pic - "Great Satan's New Clear Pose 2010" with Piper

Battle Of Kandahar

The particular rattle of NATO's HK G -3 and the world famous M16 hadn't even faded in the Marjah battle as Great Satan trained her sights on Taliban town.

Chairman of the Joint Chiefs classifies Mullah Omar's old hood - Kandahar: "...as critical in Afghanistan as Baghdad was in Iraq in the surge, writ large.”

"And so this is a much more transparent operation. We did not swoop in under the cover of darkness. We told the people of Marja and the enemy himself when we were coming and where we would be going. We did not prep the battlefield with carpet-bombing or missile strikes. We simply walked in on time.

The Battle of Kandahar has already began:

"Special Forces and C.I.A. task forces have captured seventy mid-level Taliban commanders in Kandahar Province in raids over the last two months, and they have killed dozens of other mid-level commanders, those of us travelling with Mullen were told.

"This has degraded the Taliban’s provincial leadership, according to U.S. assessments, and created some confusion and mistrust in monitored Taliban communications. However, the replacement commanders are typically younger than their predecessors, and if they are less skilled, they may also be more vicious and bitter.

"In any event, it is a basic precept of revised U.S. strategy in Afghanistan that international forces cannot “capture and kill” their way to victory.

"The basic idea is that if international forces can chase the Taliban out of their heartland and gradually replace the current racketeering-infected provincial government with one that is recognized by Afghans as more inclusive and less corrupt, then momentum in the broader war may swing against the Taliban

Art - "Force should, to the maximum extent possible, be applied in a precise and principled way."