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As best understood unbridled self-aggrandizement can often create funintended consequences. Yours truly is an admittedly suspect example of such.
Truly, if that was all that was needed, then Maxim Mag could have hired Capt Glick, Tom Ricks, maybe even the sad league of corrupt amoral realists like stereomonger Fred Kaplan or the cat from Weenie Hut Juniors eons past to gold dig it.
Simply put - ppl are writing great things and saying great things - and just lucky perhaps - blessed/cursed via possessing a ginourmous, ravenous intellect - GsGf must know.
Carl offered a great cuts both ways op to dabble in brain bigger making exercises and therein lies the rub - as the cherry popping about as subtle as wearing a thong to church debut piece for LoD showcases - the potentiality for table dancing in a minefield is fraught with frightful risk.
Which may or may not (truly - who can say?) segue into WoW - the Watchers Council. It's the oldest, longest running cyber comte d'guere ensembe in existence - an eclective collective of cats both cruel and benign with their ability to put steel on target (figuratively - natch) on a wide variety of topictry across American, Allied, Frenemy and Enemy concerns, memes, delights and discourse.
Every week these cats hook up each other with hot hits and big phazed cookies to peruse and then vote on their individual fancy catchers.
And without further adieu (or a don't) here be bay bee this weeks selections:
Council Winners
Non-Council Winners
See you next week! And don’t forget to follow us on Facebook and Twitter..’cause being funny, hot, smart and fashionably coutur'd bears certain priviledges as well as costs
Something something Palestine is easily brought up in diplopolititary thought au courant - indeed the double nom d'guerre'd Abu Mazen/ M'moud Abbas and his recent pass at creating a Nakbah proof nation state of the same name is getting game..
Nation state creation is easily and earnestly discussed and the peculiar particulars of proto Palestine operational chicanery are brought up sans restraint or modesty - yet the one thing that - from the mighty mighty Abu Muqawama (the good Abu Moqawama- not the evil Abu Moqawama) to the cat at Weenie Hut Juniors (always worrying about the wrong thing) - will never bust out a Ouija over is - what the heck will future Palestine be like?
Voting in one election does not a democrazy make - democrazy has to be protected and in the Strip and West Bank - Palestine's democracy has suicided itself - That Abbas/Mazen guy's unilateral extension of Fatah's West Bank power and HAMAS' fear of elections in the Strip.
Notice it's impossible to notice any hot! bits about how cool Future Palestine would be? What would she look like? Any chance of holding elections to validate her as a legit gov? Would Palestine's Panty Police still roam the streets? (Quick! Call for back up!)
Will girls schools, bookstores, casinos, strip clubs, churches and gay bars be zoned all together with cutting edge industrial zones, mosques, abortion clinics, breast cancer centers, yacht clubs shopping malls, education, high finance, fashion and concert halls? Will lottie dottie anybody be allowed to live there? What about a conscript or voltiguer defense force? Airspace?
An egalitarian sec sec secular (secular) society, with periodic xparent elections, uncensored press, an elected legal systems under elected gov oversight etc would indeed be sweet to see.
The most literate Arabs ever on the face of the earth (your choice - the Strip or the Ramallahopolis) pounding their AKM's, K'Ssams, K'Tushahs and K'GRADs into laptops and stripper poles in a joyous celebration of a fully functional democracy where fun and free choice reign instead of ye olde whee tarded shame, honor, gendercide and revanchist revenge driven parasite enclaves with rocket rich rejectionists and West Bank victimisticism.
Yet another tribalistic kleptocracy or a really cool version of an Arabic Little Satan - complete with real elections, free press, consenual gov, indy judiciaries and egalitarian concerns?
And that's the rub - particularly for realpolitik fans - always preaching about nat'l interests. Exactly what interests would serve Great Satan - right here, right now - in birthing Arab League's 23rd and 24th new ObL lovin' members? Would creating Palestine sweetly usher in a new error free era of peace, tolerance and get with it ness?
"We are all supposed to support the notion of a Palestinian state. Why? We know perfectly well what it would be like. Why should we wish for another gangster-satrapy to be added to the Arab roll of shame?"
“Unfeeling, heartless creator! You had endowed me with perceptions and passions, and then cast me abroad, an object for the scorn and horror of mankind”
So spake Dr. F's hand built critter at the fateful glacier meeting.
Could creating Palestine be not unlike this experience? After all - the Waltsheimer Palestine Posse periodically pleas for Great Satan to refrain from acting out on a globestomping scale - yet getting all hot for Palestine practically ensures Great Satan will be globestomping the very same Middle East Palestine fans pretend is best handled by the instantly obsolete "Offshore Balancing" meme
New Palestine will most likely lack the power (or 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 cat would be Palestine's sponsor and creator - Great Satan. And don't kid yourselves kids - only Great Satan can make this happen
Simply put if this new nation state comes into being before terror groups are driven out of the gov, Palestine will require covert and overt American po po and military resources to defend herself against many of her own peeps.
It will start by teaching the new nation/state how to fight her people. Most likely, Great Satan will find she is helping Palestine to fight Palestinians. In the end, America will be fighting Palestine's people on Palestine's behalf.
Most likely 2 brand new baby nation states - for whatever reasons (though failure to enforce Writ of State ala Land of the Pure certainly comes to mind) - may actually ignite the ignition on another war that will time machine the entire AO right back to Little Satan's accidental empire.
Or even worse for the Palestines - such combatty ops could actually result in a Greater Little Satan that may not be particularly interested in right of returning turf won yet again after eons of misery, on again off diplomacy and terrorism.
Pic - "Hey Courtney - If 2 million Palestinians in West Bank deserve a state, shouldn’t there be a state for 18 million Kurds?"
Totally tweetable!
New Millennium's doctrinairish Responsibility To Protect in statecraft moderne can sweetly be - uh - shrunk - to like 3 characters. Perfect for policy cats au courant and future to drop like a mind bomb in nearly any environ!
See, a new school concept of the state maintains that states have a primary Responsibility 2 Protect their own people from genocide, ethnic cleansing, war crimes and crimes against humanity. An internat'l commitment by govs to prevent and react to crises wherever they may occur. Recog'd partially by UN as S.C. resolution on Protection of Civilians in Armed Conflict (S/2006/1674). It serves as a new way for foreign peace mongers to intervene on a wide variety of things to stop unacceptable behavior on a global scale
So fresh! So new!
Au contraire mon frer'!
Daemoneoconically delightful Dr Murvachick (Oh! He got game bay bee!) shares it ain't so new - and grants a closer inspection of what all it is and what all it ain't
In truth Courtney, while it sounds cutting-edge, R2P has a pedigree that is old, some even say ancient. An acquaintance with this history is essential to assessing whether R2P is likely to prove a boon or a bane to the human condition and to Great Satan's interests—or whether it is likely to make much difference at all.
The more traditional name for this principle is “humanitarian intervention.” I first encountered it as a graduate assistant in the late 1970s. The professor for whom I worked, Georgetown University’s much beloved William V. O’Brien, was an expert on war, international law, and the relation between the two. The importance of the concept was that it legitimated the use of force under certain circumstances. International law is quite restrictive of the right of states to go to war, all the more so since the adoption of the UN Charter, which allows states to take military action only at the behest of the UN Security Council or in the exercise of individual or collective self-defense.
But traditionally, authorities on internat'l law had recognized another grounds for lawful war-making, “humanitarian intervention.” Scholars have identified expressions of this idea in texts as old as Hugo Grotius’s 1625 De Jure Belli ac Pacis, generally taken as the starting point of internat'l law, and even in the writings of classical philosophers and theologians on whom Grotius and his co-thinkers drew.
The concept was not hard to grasp. Although sovereignty has been a powerful principle of internat'l law at least since the birth of the state system, moral intuition suggested that it could not be absolute. When a government’s depredations against its own subjects far exceeded the level of brutality that is all too common, then it in effect forfeited its sovereignty and others might rightfully send combatants to protect the victims. No one ever succeeded in defining the threshold, but no one doubted that it existed.
Who would have objected to forceful action to stop 3rd Rech's industrialized genocide or that weedy sounding Pol Pot guy and his “auto-genocide” on the grounds that foreign intervention was illegal?
Since no one did intervene for those 'pecific raison d'etres' - it creates a legal war quiz about interventionary interventions
For some Americans, and no doubt for like-minded Europeans, the embrace of humanitarian intervention, now rechristened as Responsibility to Protect, appeared to entail some paradoxical reasoning.
During the humanitarian crises of the early 1990s, three schools of thought could be discerned. One, composed mostly of neoconservatives, advocated armed intervention. Another, composed mostly of more traditional conservatives, opposed involvement on the grounds that our sentiments might be touched but our interests were not. A third group, mostly liberals, wanted to do something to stop the bloodshed but were chary of the use of force.
In the years following the crises, this last group exhibited second thoughts, as exemplified by 42’s Rwanda apology. Without abandoning wholesale their distrust of military action, some of these liberals seemed now to feel more comfortable with war for humanitarian ends than for national self-interest which, as they see it, can too easily slide into self-aggrandizement (a distrust of American purposes that still lingers from Vietnam).
It was these voices, exemplified by Samantha Power, author of a widely acclaimed book about genocide who now serves on the staff of the National Security Council, who were seen to have triumphed over the “realists” in the administration in persuading 44 to undertake the Libya mission. However, the self-doubt that seems to inhere in liberal hawkishness was expressed in 44’s decision to end US participation in the Libya bombing campaign, in favor of NATO, almost before it had begun.
Moreover, the embrace of humanitarian intervention still left the newly fledged liberal hawks—or if not them, then their foreign counterparts—uneasy on one score. The only country with the capacity to use force decisively in most violent crises was Great Satan. Was She now to be given a free hand in the name of humanitarianism? Might not America’s war hawks exploit such a loophole for their own purposes?
Granting the UN the ability to determine what is R2P or not 2P is hardly convincing - UN has xformed into a fakebelieve institute that openly pretends places like Sudan and Australia are totally the same.
Thus, in enshrining the principle of R2P, the UN world summit affirmed that any such action must be taken “through the Security Council,” thereby safeguarding the world against any self-appointed policing on the part of Great Satan.
Only in Korea and Kuwait have ever got UNilicious approval for combatty ops - and R2P wasn't even on the list. Besides - Great Satan would most likely have done the very same with the same posse of allied allies anyway.
Does Libyavention mean R2P is now sweetly enshrined at the highest ammoral levels of an uneven UN?
No sir.
Think - Colonel Khadaffy dang near p.o.'d every other nation state on earth, only NoKo comes close - and the illegit Kim clan has abused far more of their own citizens than Libya has had in toto since the Colonel's revolution - yet NoKo's a new clear ally of collectivist China.
The military junta that rules Burma has been widely criticized, but its fellow members of ASEAN, the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, generally coddle it, and military intervention was never considered when it slaughtered Buddhist monks marching peacefully in 2007.
R2P at best will be a flawed principle of moral action because it cannot be applied even-handedly. No matter what the regime in Beijing, for example, does to its own citizens, the use of outside military force to protect them is unimaginable. Who will invade China?
Nonetheless, for this principle to deserve to be taken seriously, it should be applied as uniformly as possible. The situation in Syria is not the same as in Libya: for one thing, the Syrian people have not called for outside armed help. But if Assad goes on a mass killing spree (as his father did in the city of Hamma in 1982) and the Syrian dissidents do call for outside help, then what? It is likely that the administration would shed its perverse solicitude for that regime. But it is inconceivable that the UN—i.e., Moscow and Beijing—would.
The world has mostly enjoyed peace since 1945, but that owes nothing to the UN and everything to American power, exercised mostly in the form of guarantees to Japan, NATO, and other allies, rather than in shooting wars.
In this era when violence within states is far more common than between them, cases of extreme abuse will sometimes cry out for outside intervention. But the traditional doctrine of humanitarian intervention, invoked by Great Satan and other democracies at their own discretion, is likely to offer a more usable basis for such action than the shiny new version called R2P, which places all authority in the paralytic hands of the United Nations Security Council.
Pic - "Parliamentary debate and battlefield confrontation"
Writ of State!
The ancient Westphalian concept can often be dumbed down to mean only l'etat has the monopoly on violence ( and you know THAT means lol ). In the new millennium voltiguer, conscript and professional armies, police and militaries are the nation/state's instrument of choice in full filling certain statecraft crafts.
Unexceptional exceptions to sovereignty au courant include unfree and /or unfun nation states that for what ever reasons - cannot seem to impose the nat'l will - Land of the Pure is a good example.
Being all India centric in a 1 dimensional way often means that strategic depth Durand Line functions as an R&R zone for creeps, jerks and killers. Pakistan's inexplicable inability to control their own magical turf magically ensures Great Satan does the gig with hilarious results.
Now that Aegypt's mighty mighty Army has been exposed as a mighty mighty big phat myth ( no spoiler alert here mein schatze - all the cool kids knew it eons ago) - the revolting mommie land of all of Araby may be able to enjoy providing another tragically risible example.
Deploying for V checks to torment girls, sitting on their hands at the shiny shiny M1 panzer factory within blitz range of Khartoum during the Dar Fur horrors, continuing Arab League talent for tolerating inhumanity crises like an inability to sortee a reinforced mechanized brigade right next door to Libya to protect their own near kin with the same dialect, customs, bloodlines, 'ligion and traditions.
Now a maybe reborn Sunnilicious Caliphate cannot impose Writ of State over their very own turf. .
The Sinai is likely to become a "no-man's land" from a security point of view Courtney, where terrorist organizations will be able to maneuver more easily. Maj.-Gen. Kochavi, head of Little Satan's IDF Military Intelligence, recently observed that Egyptian security forces "are losing control over the Sinai region," reflecting the concern of security officials in Israel about the reported sharp increase in terrorist attacks in the Sinai.
Most of these terror attacks are a direct challenge to Egyptian control of the area. For example, in early January, Beduin armed with anti-tank missiles attacked the police station in Sheikh Zawid, near the Gaza border; four days later, the headquarters of Amn a-Dawla (Egyptian state security) in Rafah was attacked and burned down, and in May, it became known that dozens of armed Beduin had taken control of the Nuweiba port and prevented the transit of passengers and goods. There was also a report about the involvement of 400 al-Qaida activists in planning terrorist acts in Egypt and Sinai.
Oh snap - a precursor to Low Intensity Conflict bay bee?
In fact, it is evident that the shaky security situation in the Sinai has already affected Little Satan. A report published by the Shin Bet in May stated that terrorist organizations were exploiting the governmental chaos in the Sinai to smuggle large quantities of weapons into The Strip. IDF intell cats reported that Egypt had recently stopped building the physical barrier to prevent smuggling in the Philadelphi Corridor, in contravention of the agreement it had with Little Satan on this issue.
In addition, it has been reported that in the past six months, Beduin smugglers have exploited the wide-open border in Rafah and the absence of Egyptian security forces in the vast expanses of the Sinai to smuggle rockets to Gaza. This has increased the number of rockets held by terrorist elements from 5,000 at the end of 2010 to some 10,000. In addition, the quantity of standard explosives smuggled into the Gaza Strip over the past half-year is three times the quantity smuggled in all of 2010.
Whoa!
'Til the new regime stabilizes and as long as the Egyptian security apparatus is occupied primarily with the uprising aftermath in the large cities, the border area shared by Egypt, Little Satan and The Strip will likely continue to be a focus for increased terrorist activity against Little Satan.
And failure to maintain Writ of State means a low intensity conflict becomes a high intensity conflict.
Pic - "Drones Over Sinai"
"Is it any wonder? I reject you first..."
Autocrats, dictators, leaders for life!
The latter bit of the last millennium shows perfectly well what a world full of despots looks like. The last century was like the bloodiest ever and all thanks to dictators. It was bloody not only because of the wars; it was bloody because of democide—the sheer mind numbing number of ppl that these creeps and jerks killed within their own Westphalian Sovereignity dodge proof borders -169 million.
Tyrannies killed more of their own citizens than foreigners. Despots caused the refugee flows; dictators caused the poverty; any prob found in 20th century is correctly and sweetly attributed to control freaks, autocrats and VIP's in Hell, jail or exile.
It's a wonder they are still around - even tho from like the Thin Lizzy era up til the new millennium - 1/2 the world's unfree, unfun dicts got the old heave.
How longer can certain elements remain in power? How do despotries defy the Universal Values of the Human Spirit?
Designer deets include (shout out to Winston)
.
Rule #1: Keep Them Afraid
People who are easily frightened are easily dominated. This is not just a law of political will, but a law of nature. Many wrongly assume that a tyrant’s power comes purely from the application of force. In fact, despotic regimes that rely solely on extreme violence are often very unsuccessful, and easily overthrown. Brute strength is calculable. It can be analyzed, and thus, eventually confronted and defeated. Thriving tyrants instead utilize not just harm, but the imminent THREAT of harm. They instill apprehension in the public; a fear of the unknown, or a fear of the possible consequences for standing against the state. They let our imaginations run wild until we see death around every corner, whether it’s actually there or not. When the masses are so blinded by the fear of reprisal that they forget their fear of slavery, and take no action whatsoever to undo it, then they have been sufficiently culled.
In other cases, our fear is evoked and directed towards engineered enemies. Another race, another religion, another political ideology, a “hidden” and ominous villain created out of thin air. Autocrats assert that we “need them” in order to remain safe and secure from these illusory monsters bent on our destruction. As always, this development is followed by the claim that all steps taken, even those that dissolve our freedoms, are “for the greater good”. Frightened people tend to shirk their sense of independence and run towards the comfort of the collective, even if that collective is built on immoral and unconscionable foundations. Once a society takes on a hive-mind mentality almost any evil can be rationalized, and any injustice against the individual is simply overlooked for the sake of the group.
Rule #2: Keep Them Isolated
In the past, elitist governments would often legislate and enforce severe penalties for public gatherings, because defusing the ability of the citizenry to organize or to communicate was paramount to control. In our technological era, such isolation is still used, but in far more advanced forms. The bread and circus lifestyle of the average westerner alone is enough to distract us from connecting with each other in any meaningful fashion, but people still sometimes find ways to seek out organized forms of activism.
Through co-option, modern day tyrant’s can direct and manipulate opposition movements. By creating and administrating groups which oppose each other, elites can then micromanage all aspects of a nation on the verge of revolution. These “false paradigms” give us the illusion of proactive organization, and the false hope of changing the system, while at the same time preventing us from seeking understanding in one another. All our energies are then muted and dispersed into meaningless battles over “left and right”, or “Democrat versus Republican”, for example. Only movements that cast aside such empty labels and concern themselves with the ultimate truth of their country, regardless of what that truth might reveal, are able to enact real solutions to the disasters wrought by tyranny.
In more advanced forms of despotism, even fake organizations are disbanded. Curfews are enforced. Normal communications are diminished or monitored. Compulsory paperwork is required. Checkpoints are instituted. Free speech is punished. Existing groups are influenced to distrust each other or to disintegrate entirely out of dread of being discovered. All of these measures are taken by tyrants primarily to prevent ANY citizens from gathering and finding mutual support. People who work together and organize of their own volition are unpredictable, and therefore, a potential risk to the state.
Rule #3: Keep Them Desperate
You’ll find in nearly every instance of cultural descent into autocracy, the offending government gained favor after the onset of economic collapse. Make the necessities of root survival an uncertainty, and people without knowledge of self sustainability and without solid core principles will gladly hand over their freedom, even for mere scraps from the tables of the same men who unleashed famine upon them. Financial calamities are not dangerous because of the poverty they leave in their wake; they are dangerous because of the doors to malevolence that they leave open.
Destitution leads not just to hunger, but also to crime (private and government). Crime leads to anger, hatred, and fear. Fear leads to desperation. Desperation leads to the acceptance of anything resembling a solution, even despotism.
Autocracies pretend to cut through the dilemmas of economic dysfunction (usually while demanding liberties be relinquished), however, behind the scenes they actually seek to maintain a proscribed level of indigence and deprivation. The constant peril of homelessness and starvation keeps the masses thoroughly distracted from such things as protest or dissent, while simultaneously chaining them to the idea that their only chance is to cling to the very government out to end them.
Rule #4: Send Out The Jackboots
This is the main symptom often associated with totalitarianism. So much so that our preconceived notions of what a fascist government looks like prevent us from seeing other forms of tyranny right under our noses. Some Americans believe that if the jackbooted thugs are not knocking on every door, then we MUST still live in a free country. Obviously, this is a rather naïve position. Admittedly, though, goon squads and secret police do eventually become prominent in every failed nation, usually while the public is mesmerized by visions of war, depression, hyperinflation, terrorism, etc.
When law enforcement officials are no longer servants of the people, but agents of a government concerned only with its own supremacy, serious crises emerge. Checks and balances are removed. The guidelines that once reigned in police disappear, and suddenly, a philosophy of superiority emerges; an arrogant exclusivity that breeds separation between law enforcement and the rest of the public. Finally, police no longer see themselves as protectors of citizens, but prison guards out to keep us subdued and docile.
As tyranny grows, this behavior is encouraged. Good men are filtered out of the system, and small (minded and hearted) men are promoted.
At its pinnacle, a police state will hide the identities of most of its agents and officers, behind masks or behind red tape, because their crimes in the name of the state become so numerous and so sadistic that personal vengeance on the part of their victims will become a daily concern.
Rule #5: Blame Everything On The Truth Seekers
Tyrants are generally men who have squelched their own consciences. They have no reservations in using any means at their disposal to wipe out opposition. But, in the early stages of their ascent to power, they must give the populace a reason for their ruthlessness, or risk being exposed, and instigating even more dissent. The propaganda machine thus goes into overdrive, and any person or group that dares to question the authority or the validity of the state is demonized in the minds of the masses.
All disasters, all violent crimes, all the ills of the world, are hoisted upon the shoulders of activist groups and political rivals. They are falsely associated with fringe elements already disliked by society (racists, terrorists, etc). A bogus consensus is created through puppet media in an attempt to make the public believe that “everyone else” must have the same exact views, and those who express contrary positions must be “crazy”, or “extremist”. Events are even engineered by the corrupt system and pinned on those demanding transparency and liberty. The goal is to drive anti-totalitarian organizations into self censorship. That is to say, instead of silencing them directly, the state causes activists to silence themselves.
Tyrannical power structures cannot function without scapegoats. There must always be an elusive boogie man under the bed of every citizen, otherwise, those citizens may turn their attention, and their anger, towards the real culprit behind their troubles. By scapegoating stewards of the truth, such governments are able to kill two birds with one stone.
Rule #6: Encourage Citizen Spies
Ultimately, the life of a totalitarian government is not prolonged by the government itself, but by the very people it subjugates. Citizen spies are the glue of any police state, and our propensity for sticking our noses into other peoples business is highly valued by Big Brother bureaucracies around the globe.
There are a number of reasons why people participate in this repulsive activity. Some are addicted to the feeling of being a part of the collective, and “service” to this collective, sadly, is the only way they are able to give their pathetic lives meaning. Some are vindictive, cold, and soulless, and actually get enjoyment from ruining others. And still, like elites, some long for power, even petty power, and are willing to do anything to fulfill their vile need to dictate the destinies of perfect strangers.
Citizen spying is almost always branded as a civic duty; an act of heroism and bravery. Citizen spies are offered accolades and awards, and showered with praise from the upper echelons of their communities. People who lean towards citizen spying are often outwardly and inwardly unimpressive; physically and mentally inept. For the average moral and emotional weakling with persistent feelings of inadequacy, the allure of finally being given fifteen minutes of fame and a hero’s status (even if that status is based on a lie) is simply too much to resist. They begin to see “extremists” and “terrorists” everywhere. Soon, people afraid of open ears everywhere start to watch what they say at the supermarket, in their own backyards, or even to family members. Free speech is effectively neutralized.
Rule #7: Make Them Accept The Unacceptable
In the end, it is not enough for a government fueled by the putrid sludge of iniquity to lord over us. At some point, it must also influence us to forsake our most valued principles. Tyrannies are less concerned with dominating how we live, so much as dominating how we think. If they can mold our very morality, they can exist unopposed indefinitely. Of course, the elements of conscience are inborn, and not subject to environmental duress as long as a man is self aware. However, conscience can be manipulated if a person has no sense of identity, and has never put in the effort to explore his own strengths and failings. There are many people like this in America today.
Lies become “necessary” in protecting the safety of the state. War becomes a tool for “peace”. Torture becomes an ugly but “useful” method for gleaning important information. Police brutality is sold as a “natural reaction” to increased crime. Rendition becomes normal, but only for those labeled as “terrorists”. Assassination is justified as a means for “saving lives”. Genocide is done discretely, but most everyone knows it is taking place. They simply don’t discuss it.
All tyrannical systems depend on the apathy and moral relativism of the inhabitants within their borders. Without the cooperation of the public, these systems cannot function. The real question is, how many of the above steps will be taken before we finally refuse to conform? At what point will each man and woman decide to break free from the dark path blazed before us and take measures to ensure their independence? Who will have the courage to develop their own communities, their own alternative economies, their own organizations for mutual defense outside of establishment constructs, and who will break under the pressure to bow like cowards? How many will hold the line, and how many will flee?
For every American, for every human being across the planet who chooses to stand immovable in the face of the very worst in mankind, we come that much closer to breathing life once again into the very best in us all.
Pic - "Darling Leader"
Sweet!
One of the beneficent benefits the ancient Vulcan enablers and actualizers knew was oh so true mein schatze was and is - a future worth creating was and is totally worth defending - and that means being the bully (in a friendly, fun to be with kinda way) on the block yo - pro active on every horizon
A big fan, co concept creator and kindred spirit of Great Satan's 30 years in the future military is the super savvy psychic Cyber War intelligentsia - the avuncular Dr John Arquilla. His New Rules of War (Carebeful where you open this link at!!) is hot hot hot indeed.
Continuing the desire to advance Great Satan into the new millennium's next combatty continuum,
shares that cyber war --specifically the idea that the vulnerability of communications can cripple an advanced army. "What made it strong may also make it weak, Courtney."
Dr A hacks into Great Satan's Cyber something Strategy thingy and gives up some hot insightful insights regarding Def Dept's 4 Initiatives about Cyber Guerre l'Futur
1. Operational Domain Hijinkery
2. Enjoy New Defense Operational Concepts
3. Create Internat'l Hook ups (that means Partnerships Uncle Carl) with other Hot! Democrazies
4. Cleverage Talent (whoa!) and In In Inovation
Whatever might be needed to pursue the first four strategic initiatives, or to mitigate the risks that accompany them, the Pentagon’s fifth goal is to solve all difficulties with “rapid technological innovation.” The problem here is that such advances may do little to grapple with fundamental organizational challenges. Networks are needed now, not hierarchies. Another gap in Pentagon thinking is that technology itself, no matter how sophisticated—as some cyber weapons are—when not employed in conjunction with a clear-eyed concept of operations, can lead to disaster in the field.
The Maginot Line was a marvel of advanced technology—but it couldn’t move, a fatal flaw in the age of mechanization. The Line was outflanked in just days by German panzers during the spring of 1940. Pentagon strategy should therefore be focused on seeing how advanced information technology can foster overall doctrinal innovation.
Pic - "The fact that slaughter is a horrifying spectacle must make us take war
more seriously, but not provide an excuse for gradually blunting our swords in the name of humanity. Sooner or later someone will come along with a sharper sword and hack off our heads."
As previously previewed in the COIN issue of FFP- the ancient game of chequers - invented by pre mullah Persia - features cool playing pieces on the squares. Some are powerful - like Castle Towers, Bishops or Knights - some are not - like pawns.
The most powerful piece of all is called the Queen. She can move any distance, any direction to attack.
Just like Great Satan's Modern Infantry - the "Queen of Battle."
Checking history and how crazy the world is - no serious thinking person seriously thinks soldiers and teufel hunden won't be bringing the hate and love in combatty environs within the next decade. Most likely somewhere in that CENTCOM Gap - and in a locale that prob doesn't yet appear on policy table cats radars.
The hello au courant 'bout Def spending may might mean to hold up stuff about F35's and that litorral navy naval thing for a sec
Professor Lacey, former All American/Screaming Eagles, Institute for Defense Analyses cat and embed reporter for the Op that took out the largest Arab army in history in 20 days and Military Strategy L'Morte explains it all so everyone hear can easily understand
In recent years we have not fought an air or naval war, nor are we likely to do so in the future. In the nation’s two dozen military engagements since the advent of the airplane, only one (Kosovo) was decided by air power, and the war in the former Yugoslavia truly ended only when the 1st Armored Division crashed across the Danube River.
The locals had little fear of air strikes. What got their attention was notices such as that sent out by one battalion in the 1st Armored Division: “Peace in the Posavina or deal with us!” While the Navy and Air Force provide crucial support, only ground forces win wars. Unfortunately, they also do most of the dying, particularly in the ugly counterinsurgency conflicts typical of the modern age.
For the Army and Marines, Iraq and Afghanistan have been wars without let-up. The pressure has been relentless, and staff officers spend countless hours trying to figure out where they can squeeze one more brigade out of the system so that it can be placed into the rotation to beef up the forces in Iraq or Afghanistan. Such squeezing has often meant that thousands of troops stay in combat months longer than expected, or that others return to combat much earlier than they had thought. This is the price soldiers and marines have regularly paid for the nation’s decision to fight our current wars with the smallest Army and Marine Corps it can possibly get away with.
Despite everything, this nation still possesses the finest land fighting forces in the world. Soldiers and marines still go to the sound of the guns, and in any stand-up fight they always walk away the winners. They have suffered and endured much for the past ten years. They have done so willingly. They will continue to do so for as long as our country asks them to.
What Congress needs to remember is that over the next twenty years there are few scenarios imaginable that will not require “boots on the ground” to ensure success. An Air Force and a Navy that are well ahead of whatever any other country may challenge us with - sure - but not at the cost of gutting this nation’s land forces.
Over the next decades, if this nation does involve itself in another conflict, we will assuredly ask soldiers and marines to do the fighting and dying for us. They must have a force large enough to do any job they are called on to do, and the equipment that guar antees their success. Failure to provide both will fill a lot of body-bags.
Pic - "Fully Crunk"
