Archive for the ‘war’ Category

Unclear on the concept of an embargo

Posted: December 24, 2010 by datechguy in opinion/news, war
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Apparently the rules about trading with nations that support terror are a bit more flexible than they should be:

While you were busy getting ready for Christmas,U.S. Approved Business With Blacklisted Nations

Despite sanctions and trade embargoes, over the past decade the United States government has granted special licenses allowing American companies to do billions of dollars in business with Iran and other countries blacklisted as state sponsors of terrorism, an examination by The New York Times has found.

Including Iran?

Yes, including Iran.

Not a good idea:

I share Fausta’s opinion on the wisdom of this, over on the left Firedoglake also objects:

Well, I see our foreign policy has really learned it’s lessons…and that lesson is how much of this profit goes to the Caymans?

Alas Attaturk being a person of the left draws the wrong conclusion:

It’s almost as though all that posturing about how evil some state is, is just posturing.

Yeah after all there is no reason to believe that we have anything to worry about with Iran is there?

Among the two most alarming revelations is the already completed sale and delivery, to Venezuela by Russia, of nearly 2,000 advanced, shoulder-fired anti-aircraft missiles capable of hitting aircraft as high as 19,000 feet. Equally and perhaps more alarming is an October agreement between Iran and Venezuela. The agreement establishes a joint ground-to-ground missile base on Venezuelan soil and calls for the sharing of missile technology and the training of technicians and officers. In addition, Venezuela may use the missiles as it chooses for “national needs” and in case of “emergency.” Several types of missiles will be deployed, giving Venezuela the ability to strike targets throughout South and Central America and throughout the U.S.

Well how bad can medium range missiles be in the hands of a guy like Chavez?

Medium-range ground-to-ground missiles based in Venezuela are another matter entirely. Armed only with conventional explosive warheads, there would be little motivation for Venezuela or Iran to use them, as even under Barack Obama, massive retaliation would be at least possible. The equation is swung more in favor of use with biological or chemical warheads. But with nuclear warheads, use becomes even more likely. What is almost certain is that nuclear warheads would allow substantial blackmail capability, giving Iran and Venezuela a free hand not only in South and Central America, but in the Middle East as well. And all that is apparently keeping Iran from producing such warheads is a computer virus.

Well it’s not like Iranians are actually fighting us on the ground or something….oops:

Coalition and Afghan special operations teams have captured a Taliban commander who doubles as an Iranian Qods Force operative and helped ship weapons from Iran into Afghanistan.

The Taliban/Qods Force operative, who was not named, was detained during a Dec. 18 raid in the Zhari district in Kandahar province, the International Security Assistance Force reported in a press release. ISAF and Afghan forces are currently working to secure Zhari and the neighboring districts of Panjwai and Arghandab from the Taliban.

Nah all that axis of evil stuff is just hooey, why look at how peaceful North Korea is?

North Korea threatened Thursday to launch a “sacred” nuclear war against South Korea if it attacks, as Seoul staged military exercises that have raised already high tensions on the peninsula.

The remarks seemed aimed at revving patriotic spirit on the eve of the 19th anniversary of leader Kim Jong Il’s appointment as the supreme military commander.

Defense chief Kim Yong Chun said North Korea is “fully prepared to launch a sacred war” — and would use its nuclear capabilities — if attacked and warned the South against intruding even the smallest amount on its territory, according to the official Korean Central News Agency.

Yup nothing but peaceful folk there, as that noted war mongering extremist (per Morning Joe) Victor Davis Hanson said:

The present strategy in Korea? Who knows? But I think a prosperous South Korea is between the rock of hoping for the relatively nonviolent implosion of the failed state of North Korea in some sort of East German fashion, and the hard place of a communist thugocracy in the bunker lashing out in “we will take you down with us” fashion.

Yup no sign of evil there. After all they oppose the most oppressive homophobic force known to man, the US Military.

May our friends on the left always have the privilege of never finding out just how wrong they are the hard way.

Stacy McCain explains the difference between radical Islam and Catholics in one easy step

Posted: December 12, 2010 by datechguy in catholic, culture, internet/free speech, media, war
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Stacy McCain while writing on the subject of Frank Rich’s column ( a painful task always since it involves reading it) accidentally or on purpose crystallizes the difference between Radical Islam and mainstream religion that Pam Geller made points about yesterday on my show.

Rich decries the pulling of a taxpayer-funded Christmas exhibit that had ants crawling over a crucifix and called those who demanded it be removed bigots and homophobes.

Stacy’s take-down of the self-righteous Mr. Rich should of course be read in full but it is this sentence that is of interest to me.

That article prompted William Donohue of the Catholic League to send suicide-bombers to maim and murder innocent women and children ask Catholics to call the museum and complain.

And herein lies the difference. Roman Catholics call and complain, radical jihadists don’t.

By an odd coincidence an even better example of this difference became apparent yesterday. Another person acting on behalf of a different religion that Mr. Rich doesn’t deign to critique decided to voice his objects to a set of cartoons in a slightly different fashion as reported by Mr. Rich’s own paper:

One man was killed and two other people were injured when two explosions hit the heart of Stockholm’s city-center shopping district on Saturday evening, the police in the Swedish capital said. The country’s foreign minister called the blasts a terrorist attack, and an e-mail to news organizations minutes before the blasts seemed to link them to anger over anti-Islamic cartoons and the war in Afghanistan.

Although many right leaning bloggers decided to condemn this act of barbarous terror Mr. Rich has however decided to courageously spend his time critiquing American citizens who object to their tax dollars being used to offend them and decided to peacefully exercise their 1st amendment rights to make their objections known.

Mr. Rich, as an elite journalist of the left, has the courage to see beyond mere murder to locate the real danger to our society.

Plus he knows Catholics won’t harm him for criticizing them.

Any questions?

North Korea Keeps Testing Obama, will he fail?

Posted: November 23, 2010 by datechguy in opinion/news, war
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Well here is another test for our president:

Thick plumes of black smoke were rising from a South Korean island on Tuesday afternoon after an unexpected attack by North Korea, killing several people.

The attack began around 2.30 p.m. local time when North Korea fired more than 200 artillery shells near the South Korean island of Yeonpyeong, which has a population of nearly 1,200. As many as 70 houses were reported to be on fire, sending huge plumes of black smoke into the air.

The Korean Broadcasting System (KBS) reported that at least several people had been killed in the attack, while the South Korean Yonhap news agency reported that at least 14 South Korean soldiers had been injured, including four who were seriously injured. At least four civilians were also injured.

Seoul confirmed it responded with artillery fire and scrambled F-16 fighter jets to respond to the sudden attack, which comes days after North Korea unveiled a vast new facility it secretly and rapidly built to enrich uranium.

Let me explain how you respond: YOU SHOOT BACK!

As long as you let NK shoot at you and don’t shoot back, they have a license to shoot at you.

Is there a danger of a full scale war? Yes, and the result of said war. The destruction of North Korea and NK knows it. This is a little dictatorship, they aren’t looking for a war, they are looking for a payout, but if they can squeeze SK they will.

And apparently South Korea gets it:

South Korea says it has returned fire after North Korea fired dozens of artillery shells at one of its border islands, killing two marines.

The South’s military was placed on its highest non-wartime alert after the shells landed on Yeonpyeong island.

The North said it did not fire first in the incident. Two South Korean marines and four civilians were also injured.

Sure and the North Koreans are feeding their own people fine too.

Liberty Pundits has an interesting opinion:

OK, so on October 13, 2010, North Korea unveiled their new missile with launching platform for submarine launched missiles. On November 4, 2010, the Military Chief of the North Korean military arrives in Cuba for a meeting. On November 8, 2010, a still-unidentified missile was launched from a submarine at rush hour off the coast of LA, and given all the “cargo ships” from North Korea that have been visiting Cuba this year…well, do I really need to finish that thought? Then, 4 days ago, NK revealed that they were doing what everyone with a pulse knew they were doing: making potential weapons grade plutonium from a nuclear plant. And today, they sent 200 missiles to the South Korean Island Yeonppeyong, killing several people.

200 missiles.

They got away with an act of war off our west coast…of course they feel entirely comfortable going after North Korea! And Japan…you’re on their list too.

Well President Obama, you wanted this job, what are you going to do about it?

Update: PJM gets to the heart of the matter:

In March of this year, the South Korean Pohang-class corvette was torpedoed by a North Korean submarine. Hillary Clinton responded by sternly warned North Korea that it would face consequences.

In warning Pyongyang, Secretary of State Clinton aimed to send a “clear message” to North Korea. “We cannot allow this attack on South Korea to unanswered by the International Community”. Whatever the message sent was, it didn’t deter North Korea from this latest attack. But don’t worry. The odds are that Secretary Clinton is consulting with allies to determine how to engage Pyongyang so that this doesn’t happen again, at least not in the next few months.

As a famous sea caption once said: “Cringing to these fellows will never do!”

The throw away line that says volumes

Posted: November 22, 2010 by datechguy in Afghanistan war, media, war
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One of the things about blogs that is wonderful are the things we notice that nobody picks up on. A great example is this NYT piece of the iCasualties site and this line that I noticed right away:

Also, donations have dried up — less than $1,000, far short of the costs and down from $8,000 to $10,000 in a typical year. And no more people volunteer to enter the data and free Mr. White to improve the design of the site.

I’m shocked SHOCKED. Why would money suddenly have dried up for Mr. White? Also he is confused by another thing.

These days, Mr. White finds himself more frequently in the role of media critic. He says he is continually amazed at how little attention the war in Afghanistan has generated.

Mike Mike Mike, don’t you get it? As long as a democratic congress is there with a democratic president there is absolutely no way the left is going to support you. You may have started this on your own, but your external support is directly proportional to your propaganda value for the left.

Have no fear, if the Republicans take over in 2012 you will find the money and help will suddenly reappear like magic.

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