The LL and the MSM have finally outed themselves as patsies and stooges of the enemy in the GWOT


OK! This does it. This is a non-starter. The LL and the MSM, however, will be falling all over themselves. Perhaps their time would be better spent pouring over the Saddam Regime documents, and the story of Iraq Gen. Sada on where Saddam's WMD really went with Russian assistance. Of course this would destroy their meme, Bush Lied. People Died!

The LL and the MSM have finally outed themselves as patsies and stooges of the enemy in the GWOT. They have taken the bait - hook, line, and sinker in the enemy's disinformation campaign in the war of information.

Or you can say the enemy has thrown them a bone and they are fighting tooth and nail over it. This is a red herring intended to destract attention from the enemy's real goal and objectives

Further if you believe the thinkers at The American Thinker, the Plame - Wilson Affair was a high level disinformation project carried out by French intelligence to cover their tracks in the Niger Affair, Oil for Food Scandal, and baiting the Turks with EU memberhsip to prevent the US from using the IV ID to invade Iraq from the north and to use their airspace. Further Wilson was either a stooge or a very willing participant in this project to discredit President Bush. Look where Wilson was posted when he first met Plame!

Finally the President is the utlimate signer of what is classified or not. The CIA is in outright organizational warfare with the Office of the President, and may have fallen into the clever French trap or at least was CYA'g with these leaks.

State and the CIA were wrong on the fundamental point that Saddam, the Iranians, the Shiia, the Sunni, the Baathists, and OBL/AQ will all cooperate when in their best short-term interests when the Big and Little Satan are involved.

It comes down to what some others have noted in the Blogo s - the President can leak whatever he damn well pleases as this is a prerogative of his office, the others can only do so with his permission. It's illegal for the others to leak info without his permission. The President is the ultimate authority and everyone has to play on his team.

The Christian Science Monitor has just come out with a good round-up of the media's feeding frenzy over this.

RBT

*****

Did Bush misuse presidential powers?

Experts: Leaks are probably legal but 'amount to using sensitive intelligence data for political gain.'

By Tom Regan | csmonitor.com

The news that President Bush authorized the disclosure of classified information to certain reporters has set off a debate on whether or not Mr. Bush misused his national security powers. FoxNews reports that papers filed Thursday by Special Prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald disclose that I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby, the only person indicted so far in the investigation into who 'outed' CIA agent Valerie Plame, told a grand jury that Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney had authorized him to discuss with reporters the National Intelligence Estimate (NIE) regarding Iraqi weapons systems.

Nothing in the papers indicate Bush or Cheney told Libby to reveal the name of CIA analyst Valerie Plame, nor do they suggest that either the president or vice president did anything illegal. But the documents do hint at more problems for the administration since some may show a plan to punish one of its critics, Plame's husband, Amb. Joe Wilson.

[...]

Read it All - but it may turn your stomach ;-)

Update:

Michelle Malkin has related piece re the current insanity of the LL and the MSM.

See her post:

NBC STANDS FOR...
By Michelle Malkin · April 07, 2006 12:06 PM

Narrow-minded, Bigoted, and Condescending. - Jim Treacher

Nothing But Crass. - Lucianne.com commenter RayLRiv.

National Broadcasting Caliphate. - Craig H.

No Brain Capacity. - R. Carty

Nimrods Bearing Credentials. - Flip

Feel free to play along.

[...]

Read More

Update II:

Rightwing Nuthouse has this nuanced comments

FLOGGING DEAD HORSES
CATEGORY: Politics

A reoccurring theme that I’ve written about on this site has been the war by national security apparatchiks in the CIA, the State Department, and even in the Department of Defense against the Bush Administration’s foreign policy. Powerline, among others, has covered this subject in great detail – a subject largely ignored by the mainstream press. This is unfortunate because most of the Administration’s actions in the Plame Affair need to be understood in this context if one is interested in getting to the heart of the motivations behind what was going on.

This is not to say that the “outing” of Valerie Plame was in any way a justifiable act. Even if, as some claim, it was common knowledge that Joe Wilson’s wife worked for the CIA, naming CIA employees in print is unconscionable. This has been a favorite gambit of the left for more than 30 years, done to undermine the agency’s effectiveness and can simply never be countenanced.

But the question unanswered by the President’s critics is how do you pushback against unelected bureaucrats who are not only undermining policy, but also attacking the credibility of the Chief Executive of the United States of America? Do you sit in the Oval Office and simply take it? Do you allow these partisans who used selective leaking of classified information in order to deliberately try and defeat a political rival at the polls, to operate with impunity while American men and women are fighting and dying overseas?

[...]

Read More

Update IV:

CIA Leak Special Prosecutor Fitzgerald issues correction on his recent filing that started Plamegate Round III. In so doing he just opened a can of Whoop Ass, Super Babe at Atlas Shrugs!

Just found this while checking the link on the previous post.

Good article. Has Diagrams, photos, and range of newly reconfigured Iranian missiles.

Again Russian and Chinese assistance suspected.

This little bit caught my eye.

According to the new research, the Iranian warhead is designed to carry a spherical nuclear weapon that would be detonated 2,000 feet above the ground, similar to the Hiroshima bomb.

RBT may be all wet here and mixing kilotons and megatons but believes the optimal altitude would be more like 100 Km. The EMP pulse generated could create havoc with our power grid.

Perhaps more nuke techie folks could weigh in here?

RBT has written before on these dots. Iranians test launching in Caspian Sea - detonating missle at altitude. Iranians also testing ship launched ability. Iranians will coordinate with OBL & AQ when in mutual interest. OBL/AQ have naval fleet of ghost tankers.

BINGO - this spells -

E l e c t r o M a g n e t i c P u l s e T h r e a t (EMP)

Strategic/symbolic targets on both US Pacific and Atlantic Coasts are at risk.

Captain Kirk - Go to Yellow Alert

Mr. Spock make damn sure we know where AQ vessels are at all times. If they come within firing range of US Coast - blast them out of the water!

Mr. Spock - Yes Captain.

*****

telegraph.co.uk

Iran has missiles to carry nuclear warheads
By Con Coughlin
(Filed: 07/04/2006)

Iran has successfully developed ballistic missiles with the capability to carry nuclear warheads.

Detailed analysis of recent test firings of the Shahab-3 ballistic missile by military experts has concluded that Iran has been able to modify the nose cone to carry a basic nuclear bomb. The discovery will intensify international pressure on Teheran to provide a comprehensive breakdown of its nuclear research programme.

[...]

Iran denies it is trying to acquire a nuclear arsenal. But ballistic missile experts advising the United States say it has succeeded in reconfiguring the Shahab-3 to carry nuclear weapons.

The Shahab-3 is a modified version of North Korea's Nodong missile which itself is based on the old Soviet-made Scud.

[...]

"This is a major breakthrough for the Iranians," said a senior US official. "They have been trying to do this for years and now they have succeeded. It is a very disturbing development."

The Shahab 3 has a range of 800 miles, enabling it to hit a wide range of targets throughout the Middle East - including Israel

[...]

Western intelligence officials believe that Iran is receiving assistance from teams of Russian and Chinese experts with experience of developing nuclear weapons. Experts who have studied the latest version of the Shahab have identified modifications to the nose cone.

Instead of the single cone normally attached to this type of missile, the new Shahab has three cones, or a triconic, warhead. A triconic warhead allows the missile to accommodate a nuclear device and this type of warhead is normally found only in nuclear weapons.

[...]

According to the new research, the Iranian warhead is designed to carry a spherical nuclear weapon that would be detonated 2,000 feet above the ground, similar to the Hiroshima bomb.

Although US defence officials believe that Iran is several years away from acquiring nuclear weapons, they point out that the warhead could hold a version of the nuclear bomb Pakistan is known to have developed. Iran has acquired a detailed breakdown of Pakistan's nuclear weapons.

[...]

Earlier this week the Iranians announced that they had successfully test-fired a new missile, the Fajr-3, which has the capability to evade radar systems and carry multiple warheads.

Read More

HT LGF

Shocking would the Mullahs lie? Of course! Now tell the LL and the MSM that.

RBT

*****

Telegraph.co.uk

UN officials find evidence of secret uranium enrichment plant
By Con Coughlin
(Filed: 07/04/2006)

United Nations officials investigating Iran's nuclear programme say they have found convincing evidence that the Iranians are working on a secret uranium enrichment project that has not been officially declared.

Suspicions were raised after officials from the UN-sponsored International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) travelled to Pakistan at the end of last year to interview A Q Khan, the atomic scientist who masterminded the successful development of Pakistan's nuclear weapons arsenal.

Khan is known to have sold Teheran the technical expertise to develop an atomic bomb, together with key components, such as sophisticated equipment for enriching uranium. During the interview with IAEA inspectors, Khan is said to have provided a full disclosure of the nuclear dossier he gave the Iranians. The inspectors compared Khan's material against the documentation the Iranians have so far provided.

"There are a number of glaring inconsistencies between what the Iranians are telling us and the information the IAEA got from Khan," said a diplomat closely involved in the IAEA's negotiations with Teheran. "Consequently the IAEA inspectors are now convinced that the Iranians have another, small-scale uranium processing and enrichment project that is being kept secret from the outside world."

IAEA officials are trying to establish whether Iran has what they call "parallel" nuclear enrichment facilities, which they suspect are being developing at closed military bases around the country.

The current diplomatic crisis over Iran's uranium enrichment activity is centred on the uranium processing plant at Isfahan and the uranium enrichment facility at Natanz. The existence of the latter facility, which will soon have the capacity to enrich uranium to weapons grade, was unknown until Iranian exiles disclosed its location in 2003.

[...]

UN officials believe that the Iranians have set up a parallel enrichment project that would enable them to continue with their uranium enrichment activity in the event of their other facilities being incapacitated by military action.

Suspicions have been raised by the discovery of a facility, at an unknown location, capable of producing "green salt". Iranian officials inadvertently submitted a document about its production in their declarations to IAEA inspectors on other aspects of their nuclear programme.

[...]

The other discovery that caused consternation for the IAEA was a set of drawings that show the Iranians are attempting to build what has been described as an enriched uranium hemisphere, a construction that is only used in the construction of atomic weapons. Iran refused to hand over the drawings.

"It all fits into a pattern of behaviour that suggests the Iranians have something to hide," said a senior diplomat attached to the IAEA headquarters in Vienna.

Read More

Baathist papers confirm Hussein's terrorist ties

The Army of Davids (Blogos ref to Instapundit's new book by same title) continues its onward march to reveal the secrets of the Saddam Regime's documents. It's trite but very true as RBT has said many times before, Follow the Money!. In the world of narcotics trafficing to unravel the networks always go for the, Pay/Owe Sheets [dealers notes on whose paid and who still owes].

The spring thaw has begun, the water is trickling into the creeks, the rivers are swelling, the reservoirs are filling, and soon the LL's and MSM's logjam of the truth will burst through.

Saddam had his fingers in many pots whether secular, Baathists, Shiia, Sunni, or Iranian, French, Russian, German, Chinese (Their NORK surogate), Libyian, Syrian, Philipian, or AQ, Hamas, PLF, PLO, when it served his own interest.


*****
Baathist papers confirm Hussein's terrorist ties

By DEROY MURDOCK
Scripps Howard News Service
06-APR-06

STANFORD, Calif. — With conservative congressional majorities at risk in next November's elections, President Bush repeatedly should remind everyone that a key reason coalition troops invaded Iraq was to padlock Saddam Hussein's Wal-Mart for terrorists. The administration finally is releasing intelligence documents captured in Baghdad. Bush should use them to detail how Hussein indeed was entwined with terrorists in general and al Qaeda in particular.

These papers appear on the Army Foreign Military Studies Office's Web site. (fmso.leavenworth.army.mil/products-docex.htm). The administration should promote a simple URL (e.g. iraqdocuments.gov) so readers easily can examine Hussein's terror ties.

According to a March 23 ABC News analysis of several records, "an official representative of Saddam Hussein's government met with Osama bin Laden in Sudan on February 19, 1995, after receiving approval from Saddam Hussein." Bin Laden requested that Baghdad broadcast into Saudi Arabia sermons by radical Saudi mullah Suleiman al Ouda. He also proposed, as one file says, "carrying out joint operations against foreign forces" in Saudi Arabia.

The memo states that Hussein was briefed on the March 4, 1995, meeting and notes that after bin Laden decamped Sudan for Afghanistan, "The relationship with him is still through the Sudanese. We're currently working on activating this relationship through a new channel in light of his current location."

Hussein approved bin Laden's requested broadcasts. As for "joint operations against foreign forces," ABC adds that "eight months after the meeting _ on November 13, 1995 _ terrorists attacked Saudi National Guard Headquarters in Riyadh, killing five U.S. military advisers. The militants later confessed on Saudi TV to having been trained by Osama bin Laden."

In the April 3 Weekly Standard, Stephen Hayes cites a U.S. government "Summary of Evidence" on an Iraqi at Guantanamo. "From 1987 to 1989, the detainee served as an infantryman in the Iraqi Army," the document states. "The detainee was a member of al Qaeda," it adds. "In August 1998, the detainee traveled to Pakistan with a member of Iraqi Intelligence for the purpose of blowing up the Pakistan, United States and British embassies with chemical mortars."

[...]

As former Clinton foreign policy advisor Laurie Mylroie wrote April 2 on OpinionJournal.com, an order from Saddam Hussein dated Jan. 18, 1993, reads: "Hunt Americans on Arab territory, particularly in Somalia." That Oct. 3, terrorists staged the "Blackhawk Down" attack in Mogadishu, Somalia, killing 18 U.S. soldiers and wounding 73.

The Iraqi Perspective Project, led by retired Army Lt. Col. Kevin Woods, reviewed an Oct. 7, 2000, document. It indicates that the Fedayeen Saddam operated paramilitary training camps that hosted "Arab volunteers from Egypt, Palestine, Jordan, 'the Gulf,' and Syria" who were "sacrificing for the cause."

[...]

The May-June 2006 Foreign Affairs cites a May 25, 1999, text titled "Fedayeen Saddam Instructions" in which Uday Hussein, the tyrant's older son, orders "special operations, assassinations, and bombings, for the centers and traitor symbols in London, Iran and the self-ruled areas" (Kurdistan). As the authors observe, "Preparations for 'Blessed July,' a regime-directed wave of 'martyrdom' operations against targets in the West, were well under way at the time of the coalition invasion."

President Bush repeatedly should remind everyone that coalition forces liberated Iraq on April 9, 2003, less than three months before "Blessed July."

(New York commentator Deroy Murdock is a columnist with the Scripps Howard News Service and a senior fellow with the Atlas Economic Research Foundation in Arlington, Va.)

Read it All

Update:

Athena at Terrorism Unveiled has some insight re the intel community dismissing the sig of the docs with the exception fo the DIA. Go Figure!

HT The New Media Journal via the Free Republic

Sam Pender, author (AKA Scott Malensek) has just posted at Freepers, Part I of a 5 part series on Saddam's WMD and where they went as claimed by Iraq Gen. Sada claims in his new book, Saddam's Secrets. This is from an article he wrote for The New Media Journal.

RBT's street cop BS/Con/Scam meter does not register on Gen Sada for several reasons written in other posts here.

Sam has gone to great effort to corroborate what Gen. Sada has said against other sources as he commented at Freepers:

What I did was searched the web-Freep included-and collected all the data I could on allegations of moving WMD out of Iraq. I panned through a library of books on the subject, and of course the UN reports, ISG report, and testimony from those who compiled them. Having done so, I then tried to put together a timeline of what allegedly happened. When 2 or more sources made the same claim, and that claim was BACKED UP BY MAINSTREAM MEDIA REPORTING at the time, I marked the event as likely. This series is a compilation of the most well-documented and likely events. My original compilation of reports and timeline was over 400pages. I left out the details and listed only corroborated items. That brought me down to under 100 pages. Finally, I summarized that down to the 10 or 15 pages in this series. Even as a mere summary, it's remarkable. Few could realistically dispute what's in it.

I hope you'll find it informative and point it out to others.

Here's Sam's bio line:

Sam Pender is the author of several books on the Global War on Terror and the Iraq Wars in particular. His works include: Iraq's Smoking Gun, How Did It Come to This?, The Ignored War, America's War With Saddam, and Saddam's Ties to Al Queda.

And here's a previous interview with Pender on his books by Security Watchtower

RBT

*****

In Search of Saddam Hussein’s WMD:
Introducing Iraqi General Georges Sada
Part 1 of a 5

World/Sam Pender
April 3, 2006

Have you ever noticed that it’s always politicians, media types, and either washed up or disgruntled anonymous intelligence sources who claim that there never was any WMD in Iraq? On the other hand, nearly every single commander and deputy commander of CENTCOM says that Saddam did have WMD. So too do the inspectors with the closest knowledge of before and after inspections: Dr Butler, Dr Kay, Dr Duelfer, and most of the former UN inspectors (only Dr Blix and Scott Ritter differ in this opinion). Is this subject one where the word of a former governor of Vermont is better than that of highly decorated generals and weapons inspectors who have served their country all over the world for decades?

While Gov Dean’s hands were sticky with maple syrup, people like Dr. Kay and Dr. Duelfer were in 130 degree desert heat wearing plastic suits in toxic environments and being shot at. While Rep. Pelosi works to blame President Bush for things as controllable as the weather, people like General DeLong, General Franks, and so many others had their hands covered in the dirt and sands of the Middle East. Perhaps it’s wiser to believe the professionals who serve with honor and for whom lying is a disgrace rather than believing politicians for whom pandering to constituents and the party base isn’t lying. It’s just “spin.”

If one is to raise an eyebrow and for a moment believe the Generals, then the obvious question is, “What happened to Saddam’s WMD?” The former dictator declared he had them, and he declared they were destroyed, but he offered no evidence of their destruction; no wreckage, no contaminated sand, no documents, and not even witnesses. One must wonder how the most poisonous chemicals and biological agents ever made by man just disappear without leaving a trace, without anyone logging their destruction, and without anyone having done the destruction themselves. Moreover, if the WMD once did exist (as Saddam, the UN, the Clinton and Bush Administrations as well as the world at large acknowledge)….then where are they? There are basically three claims as to what happened to Saddam’s WMD: they were flown to Syria, they were driven to Syria, and they were shipped out on Russian ships.

One of Saddam’s generals, General Georges Sada, has come forward with claims that Saddam moved his “special weapons” out of Iraq, to Syria in late summer 2002. He allegedly did this under the guise of Iraqi humanitarian aid flights to Syria after a Syrian dam burst in July. The shipments were supposedly made on modified civilian planes flown by pilots Sada knows personally.

[...]

Other clandestine shipments went by truck and storage payment was made to Syria through an arms smuggling front company run by Syrian Intelligence: SES International. That SES did exist, was Syrian Intel front company and was corrupt is not at all in dispute. SES Intl was one of those blatant Oil-For-Food cover companies used by Saddam to buy conventional weapons in exchange for UN oil vouchers. The Duelfer Report is ridden with information about SES International’s illegal sales-sales that Saddam was using to break his conventional arms containment. SES was cited by the Treasury Department as being a front for Syrian Intelligence, a sanction-breaking company, and was being used by Syria’s family to launder money. Assad’s family has also been caught by the UN using the collapsed bank of Al Madina as a similar front company involved in the assassination of Lebanon’s former Prime Minister.

Aside from the fact that his story is corroborated by media reports of the time, why believe General Sada? As a pilot himself and an investigator respected by even Saddam himself, Sada was the general in charge of interrogating and guarding downed Coalition pilots during Desert Storm. Retired USAF Col. David Eberly (the ranking Coalition POW pilot during Desert Storm) writes the introduction to Sada’s book and vouches for his credibility. Two British airmen vouched for his credibility in a book they co-wrote about their experience as POW’s at his hands. In fact, Sada dared to argue with Saddam’s insane son, Uday-who wanted the pilots executed, and Sada was jailed as a result.

[...]

Perhaps most importantly, the details of his story – as well as all the stories in his book – are well-corroborated by mainstream media reports. Except for the contents of the planes and trucks that went to Syria his stories are backed up by fully accepted historical events and settings. Sada says he knows what was in them those trucks and planes, but the ISG, and mainstream media don’t. For whatever reason, they’ve chosen to report on the politics of the war rather than investigate the historical facts. It’s sad and should be unforgivable that they don’t have one of Sada’s pilots doing the cable news talk show circuit.

A MUST READ!

HT Dr. Zin - Regime Change Iran

Perhaps related to the preceeding post?

RBT

*****

Nuclear Iran by 2007
Tom Newton Dunn, The Sun:

Iran's nuclear bomb plans will be unstoppable by 2007, it emerged last night. The shock forecast puts massive pressure on Tony Blair and US President George Bush to solve the growing security crisis. And it dramatically increases the chances of an American air strike against the rogue Islamic state.

Israeli officials revealed yesterday that Iran will have completed work on key machinery needed to build nukes by early next year.

[...]

Previously it was thought Iran was at least two years away from being able to build a nuclear weapon.

But intelligence has shown that Iranian scientists are just months from perfecting the equipment to enrich uranium — the vital ingredient for a bomb.

[...]

Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad claims the atomic programme is to produce electricity.

But he has also vowed to “wipe Israel from the face of the map”.

He insisted last month that no power in the world could stop his country’s nuclear ambitions.

Read it All

HT Discarded Lies

Discarded Lies is wondering aloud if there could be a nuclear surprise in the works.

RBT

*****

EHRAN (Reuters) - Iran said it would test fire a powerful torpedo on Monday and more missiles on Tuesday as part of a week of wargames in the Gulf, a senior naval officer told state television.

Iran rarely gives enough details of its military hardware for analysts to determine whether Tehran is making genuine advances or simply producing defiant propaganda while pressure ratchets up on its nuclear program.

[...]

We are going to have very important news that will make our nation proud in the next few days," Dehqani added, without explaining. The week of wargames started on Friday.

Western nations have been watching developments in Iran's ballistic missile capabilities with concern amid a standoff over the Iranian nuclear program, which the West says is aimed at building atomic bombs.

[...]

Read More

HT Joe Katzman from Winds of Change

A real barn burner ala VDH for those history-challenged folks. Unfortunately history tends to come back and bite us in the butt from time to time.

A MUST READ!

RBT had similar thoughts in an essay, Freedom - Thx to the Greatest Generation for Perserving It, link to in the post on the new Medal of Valor recipient:

The whiners and snivelers of our generations must appear as ungracious wimps and whooshes. Yes, we are a spoiled and complacent lot and forget the precious gift you gave us.

[...]

We are unlike your generation who understood the difference between, RIGHT and WRONG, and GOOD and EVIL. You lived by these principles day by day. You are not swayed by situational ethics. You stood firm and resolute in what you held dear and believed in.

[...]

As President Bush said, we are again facing a new struggle of GOOD verses EVIL. Our very way of life and culture is threatened by the spread of radical Islamic extremism. The world’s equivocation on this new cancer has only emboldened our enemy in their religious zeal to kill or convert every one of us. Radical Islamic extremism is no enlightened religion, as we know it. Radical Islamic extremism as some call Islamofascism, is an ideology that favors, dictatorial government, centralized control of private enterprise, repression of all opposition, and extreme nationalism all rolled up into a theocracy. The priest, clerics, and seers of this movement have found in their own interpretations of the Koran, justification for their actions and the slaughter of innocents.

[...]

RBT

*****

History's "Return": Me, Myself, and... Us
by Joe Katzman at April 5, 2006 07:21 AM

Every once in a while, Gerald Vanderleun fires out a diamond gem of an essay. "On the Return of History" is one such. I strongly recommend reading the whole thing, but the Net is fickle over time so I'll also include a few key excerpts here:

"With the end of the Soviet Union in a whimper and not a bang brighter than the sun on earth, history was officially over. The moment even got its own book, "The End of History," which stimulated an argument that even more than the book emphasized that history was over.

Most sensible people liked it that way. In fact, a lot of people really liked it that way. Because if history for the world was over, these people could get on making the history that really mattered to them: The History of Me."

Gerald admits that this described him too, delves a bit deeper, and discusses his 2000 election vote for "Mini-Me" along the way. You should probably be reading it all.

"Then on one bright and unusually fine New York September morning History came back with a vengeance we'd never seen before in the history of America. It came back and it stayed and stayed and stayed. The doors of history swung open again and we were all propelled through them into... what?

Nobody knows. Not the President, not his opponents, not the right, left, center, or just plain unhinged and now in low-earth orbit. We know how it began, but we don't know how it will end. We don't really know what's next. Indeed, we never know.

It was better when we lived in The History of Me. We knew how Me would end — birth, fun, school, fun, job, fun, family, fun, age, fun, death and then ... probably fun, who knew, who cared? The meaning of this history was not deep but was to be found in the world "fun." Mini-Mes love fun. You could almost say it is their religion, a religion of fun. A funny concept, fun. Fills the space between birth and death. "He was a fun guy" could be a generic epitaph for the era.

Now we find ourselves back in history as it has always been and it is not fun. Not fun at all. The history of history has little to do with fun, almost nothing at all."

[...]

Read it All

Update:

Great discussion underway over at WOC in the comments thread on Joe's post.

RBT posted this comment

But Dadmanly blew the thread away with this awesome comment:

Thanks for the link to a great article Joe.

Vanderleun reflects on the societal and political forces that emerged from the carnage and destruction of World War Two, and acknowledges how ready for the end of history, were those generations who endured.

We wanted history to end in our day, because so much of what we saw, and heard, and were taught from the pages of history was horrible, hurtful, and an affront to all cherished ideals and moral frameworks.

History spoke of evil, of powers and principalities who so rudely intruded upon our consciousness, that we could not maintain the centrality of our self-awareness, that desire to see ourselves as the center of everything. Civilization’s most cherished artifact became the mirror, not fire, and surely not the printing press.

Now, after the collapse of those majestic towers in lower Manhattan in a coordinated attack against our homeland, we are back where we will inevitably be, according to Vanderleun, and it won’t be what we want: "Not fun at all."

Thus it is time, again, for a new seriousness. Not a seriousness in which we stamp our feet and say, “No, really, we mean it this time,” such as with the recent plan put forth for Really Real SecurityTM. Not a seriousness that says, “we’ll do everything they’re doing, only better.” In other words, not a portrayed seriousness that panders yet again to the many mini-me’s (to use Vanderleun’s humorous reference).

No more pandering. What we need, as often expressed by the fine thinkers and impartial analysts at Winds of Change, is an urgent appeal to our mature selves. To the Us that can weigh the threats and opportunities in front of us, gain consensus on the risks, and strive for the greater good without partiality, reserve or constraint.

History is back, and looming larger than ever. We rise to our better natures on the crest of these waves, or risk being swept away in its tides.

Dadmanly expands on his thoughts further at his blog

The one man citizen journalist is headed back into the war zone on his own this time. He files this latest report from Dubai, UAE after using the Asian back door of Bangkok, Thailand, to circumvent $3K airfares into Dubai.

Yon again journals his travel through Bangkok interviewing real people and cab drivers on their personal views.

Yon believes Iraq has entered a period of civil war. RBT agrees that there has been a low level civil war going on for sometime but differs that this is an all out one.

Strategy Page actually sees a turning point in that the Sunnis have now realized their alliance with AQ is not serving their best interest and are sending AQ packing.

As always Michael Yon is a must read.

RBT

*****

Wednesday, April 5th, 2006

Back To War
Michael Yon

Bangkok, Thailand

In the few months since leaving the war, I’ve crisscrossed the United States several times, talking with infantrymen in their twenties and veterans in their eighties, helicopter pilots, special forces soldiers, families and friends of wounded and killed warriors, all for a book about the Deuce Four’s Battle for Mosul. But it’s time to take a break from writing to let the facts and details steep. I’ve headed back to war.

I am writing now from the Middle East, poised to reenter the war in less than 15 hours; this time without the protection of the military.

Read it All

HT LA Times

RBT doesn't necessarily support the cause of the demonstrators but is very impressed with the students' ability to pull this off using the popular web portal My Space.

These student demonstrators are probably unaware that their counterparts who demonstrate and blog in Iran are imprisoned and tortured for like activities in Iran.

RBT has created an account at My Space and browsed around a bit. There are folks there who are Iranian and others who have an interest in Iran.

Perhaps My Space could be a vehicle for the youth of the world to unite and support the Iranian Joyless Generation to topple the Mad Mullahs of Iran.

RBT

*****

Student Protests Echo the '60s, but With a High-Tech Buzz
Youths used a popular website to organize their walkouts. And some did know what a 'sit-in' was.

By Scott Gold
Times Staff Writer

March 31, 2006

Shuffling her feet in her Garden Grove home last weekend, Mariela Muniz stared into the carpet and suffered, as teenagers do, the silent deliberation of her parents. Soon, her father nodded and her mother uttered the words she'd been waiting to hear: "Lo puedes hacer."

"You can do it."

The next morning, the 15-year-old sophomore at Garden Grove High School — with the permission of her parents, both of whom are factory workers and Mexican immigrants who became U.S. citizens after entering the country illegally — skipped school for the first time in her life.

[...]

Following in the footsteps of those who led the first of the student walkouts March 24 and the adults who organized last Saturday's massive protest against proposed immigration legislation, Muniz became one of a few dozen students in Southern California who helped spearhead a national exhibition of civil unrest, one of the largest and most boisterous since the civil rights movement four decades ago. By the end of today — in Fresno, in Monterey Park, in San Diego — more than 40,000 students in California will have walked out of their schools to protest the proposed reforms.

[...]

Using modern technology — mostly their communal pages on the enormously popular MySpace website — they pulled off an event with surprising speed and dexterity. Planned in mere hours on little sleep, lacking any formal organization, the protests were chaotic and decentralized and organic.

[...]

"That was the idea of a girl from Belmont" High School, said Tabares. "In the '60s, the way they did it was sitting down. So we told everybody to sit down."

Just as often, however, students evidenced a surprising amount of savvy. They carried trash bags in their backpacks so they could not be accused of littering. They corralled students who tried to stray into stores and restaurants so they would not be seen as marauders.

Tabares even ordered classmates to put away Mexican flags they had brought to the demonstration — predicting, correctly, that the flags would be shown on the news and that the demonstrators would be criticized as nationalists for other countries, not residents seeking rights at home.

[...]

In the scattered, rapid-fire text typical of students' MySpace missives, the bulletin continued: "dOnt b scared…. All these politic officials are trying to make their dreams come true by destroying ours, AND THEY WILL, unless we do something about it!!"

On the Internet site, which serves as a free-of-charge, virtual gathering place, users can send bulletins to all of their MySpace "friends." The lists can include dozens of people and the bulletins can be passed along in seconds.

It didn't take long before most of Garden Grove High's roughly 2,200 students knew what was coming, without the knowledge or involvement of teachers or parents.

Soon, the bulletin crossed over an invisible but critical line between teens who were friends but attended different schools. Students began posting their telephone numbers, and soon dozens more pledges to participate were obtained through phone calls and instant text messages.

[...]

She waited in front of the school. Soon, the doors opened, and scores of students — most of them Latino, but a handful of whites, African Americans and Asian Americans too — joined her. They marched through Garden Grove and Anaheim, picking up students at several other schools as planned through MySpace bulletins. By 1 p.m., they had covered 10 miles. An estimated 1,500 students had walked out. Muniz was a truant — and, to her friends, a hero.

[...]

Read it All

HT CBNnews.com

The door slowly creaks open.

RBT

*****

Documents Reveal Saddam's Hidden Agenda
By Erick Stakelbeck
Washington Terror Analyst

CBN.com – WASHINGTON - Earlier this month, the Bush administration began releasing some of the two million classified documents captured by U.S. forces in postwar Iraq and Afghanistan.

Considering what they have already revealed, it has left many wondering why it took so long to open them up.

Over the past three years, these have become rallying cries for many critics of the Iraq war: no WMD. No connection between Saddam Hussein and al-Qaeda. Bush lied the U.S. into war.

But critics soon may need to re-think their barbs, thanks to the release of Saddam's secret documents.

Republican Congressman Peter Hoekstra (R-MI) is chairman of the House Intelligence Committee. He remarked, "There are still a lot of key individuals who have never been interviewed, there's been a lot of sites that have never been investigated, and there have been lots of documents that have never been translated.”

[...]

The documents have already provided a clearer picture of Saddam's links to international terror.
One shows that in 1999, Saddam's son Uday called for a wave of suicide attacks against Western targets.

Another document states that in 1995, a representative of Saddam's regime met with Osama bin Laden in Sudan with Saddam's full approval.

[...]

Steven Hayes is a senior writer for The Weekly Standard. “You hear a lot now in the mainstream press and primarily Democratic politicians like Carl Levin and others, that there was no relationship between Iraq and al-Qaeda,” Hayes said, “…The Iraqis who are responsible for conducting the relationship--and their own documents--tell quite a different story.”

His book, The Connection, details Saddam's links to al-Qaeda. Hayes says Saddam's documents show that Iraq funded Abu Sayyaf--an al-Qaeda-linked terrorist group based in the Philippines. But that is not all.

Hayes said, “One of the documents describes the things that Iraqis--Iraqi intelligence officials, Iraqi regime officials--should do to stoke an insurgency. And they said things like kill Sunni clerics and blame the Shiites, kill Shiite clerics and blame the Sunnis. Use mosques to store arms.”

Could the newly released documents also shed light on Iraq's elusive wmds? Jack Shaw--a former top Pentagon official--said recently that Russia helped move Iraq's wmds into Syria and Lebanon prior to the u.s. invasion. Others believe that wmds are still in Iraq today.

[...]

David Gaubatz is a former U.S. federal agent who recently met with officials on Capitol Hill.

“I'm 100 percent confident that WMD was and still is in Iraq,” affirmed Gaubatz. “The only thing I think, with the documents -- [they’re] going to verify what I'm saying.”

[...]

Hoekstra says that he ran up against similar roadblocks in his push to have Saddam's documents released. Before changing course earlier this month, John Negroponte--the director of National Intelligence--had refused to release them. But why?

According to Hoekstra, “What we have here is, we've got a relationship or a recognition that some of the documents may embarrass some of our allies, because it will highlight the relationships that some of these governments or some of the people from these countries had with Iraq or had with Saddam Hussein.”

[...]

[ed note: Where have we heard this before - Rovian Trump Card in a game of Texas Hold'em]

Read it All

HT Free Republic via Ray Robison

In 2002 Saddam met with his Chairman of the Atomic Enery Group. Gee, was he still running his bluff at this point or was there some fire to all this smoke?

RBT

*****

Saddam Regime Document: SADDAM MET WITH HIS NUCLEAR GROUP IN 2002 (Translation)
Pentagon/FMSO website about Iraq PreWar documents ^ | April 4 2006 | jveritas

Posted on 04/04/2006 8:45:07 AM PDT by jveritas
Edited on 04/04/2006 7:29:49 PM PDT by Admin Moderator. [history]

Pages 186 and 193 of document BIAP 2003 00090 carry one of the most important information revealed so far regarding Saddam Nuclear Program. In these two pages which document a summary of meetings held by members of The Military Office of the Iraqi Baath Party and dated May/12/2002 and June/9/2002 they have a section that discuss Saddam Hussein meeting with the Chairman of the Atomic Energy and an elite of researchers.

I first thought that this may be a reference to a meeting between Saddam and the head of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) so I called both of IAEA offices in New York and Vienna to check if Saddam had any meeting with the IAEA Chairman prior to May 2002, and they indicated to me that they do not recall any such meeting of IAEA chairman and Saddam prior to May 2002.

What is also important is that President Bush in a speech dated October 7 2002 mentioned that Saddam has held numerous meetings with his nuclear Scientists and I quote from President Bush “The evidence indicates that Iraq is reconstituting its nuclear weapons program. Saddam Hussein has held numerous meetings with Iraqi nuclear scientists, a group he calls his "nuclear mujahideen" -- his nuclear holy warriors” (see: http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2002/10/20021007-8.html ).

So this document shows that it is true that in 2002 Saddam still has an active nuclear program if he still has a Chairman of the Atomic Energy Group and a group of Nuclear Scientists.

I will do a partial translation of page 186 and 194.

[...]

Read it All

What Would Jack Bauer Do?

HT Neal Boortz via Exit Zero

See this Blogos funny re WWJBD?

Talk about putting the manliness back in manly ala the new book by Harvey C. Mansfield, Manliness.

No metrosexual, mutlicultural, or nice guy stuff here!

RBT

*****

Basic Truths About 24's Jack Bauer

Killing Jack Bauer doesn't make him dead. It just makes him angry.

If Jack Bauer was in a room with Hitler, Stalin, and Nina Meyers, and he had a gun with 2 bullets, he'd shoot Nina twice.

If you wake up in the morning, it's because Jack Bauer spared your life.

Superman wears Jack Bauer pajamas.

If it tastes like chicken, looks like chicken, and feels like chicken, but Jack Bauer says its beef. Then you better believe it's beef.

Jack Bauer once forgot where he put his keys. He then spent the next half-hour torturing himself until he gave up the location of the keys.

1.6 billion Chinese are angry with Jack Bauer. Sounds like a fair fight.

Let's get one thing straight: the only reason you are conscious right now is because Jack Bauer does not feel like carrying you.

Jack Bauer was never addicted to heroin. Heroin was addicted to Jack Bauer.

Jack Bauer played Russian Roulette with a fully loaded gun and won.

When life gave Jack Bauer lemons, he used them to kill terrorists. Jack Bauer hates lemonade.

Jack Bauer once won a game of Connect 4 in 3 moves.

Osama bin Laden's recent proposal for truce is a direct result of him finding out that Jack Bauer is, in fact, still alive.

Jack Bauer is the leading cause of death in Middle Eastern men.

Jack Bauer doesn't miss. If he didn't hit you it's because he was shooting at another terrorist twelve miles away.

When Jack Bauer was a child, he made his mother finish his vegetables.

Jack Bauer killed 93 people in just 4 days time. Wait, that is a real fact.

Simon Says should be renamed to Jack Bauer Says because if Jack Bauer says something then you better do it.

Jack Bauer won the Tour de France on a unicycle to prove to Lance Armstrong it wasn't a big deal. He thinks yellow wristbands are gay.

When Jack Bauer pissses into the wind, the wind changes direction.

Jack Bauer's favorite color is severe terror alert red. His second favorite color is violet, but just because it sounds like violent.

When you open a can of whoop-ass, Jack Bauer jumps out.

When Google can't find something, it asks Jack Bauer for help.

You can lead a horse to water. Jack Bauer can make him drink.

Jack Bauer can get McDonald's breakfast after 10:30.

When the boogie man goes to sleep, he checks his closet for Jack Bauer.

Every mathematical inequality officially ends with "< Jack Bauer".

In 96 hours, Jack Bauer has killed 93 people and saved the world 4 times. What the hell have you done with your life?

Jesus died and rose from the dead in 3 days. It took Jack Bauer less than an hour. And he's done it twice.

Jack Bauer killed so many terrorists that at one point, the #5 CIA Most Wanted fugitive was an 18-year-old teenager in Malaysia who downloaded the movie Dodgeball.

In kindergarten, Jack Bauer killed a terrorist for Show and Tell.

What color is Jack Bauer's blood? Trick question. Jack Bauer does not bleed.

Guns dont kill people, Jack Bauer kills people.

If Jack and MacGyver were locked in a room together, Jack would make a bomb out of MacGyver and get out.

People with amnesia still remember Jack Bauer.

Sun Tzu once wrote, "If your enemy is weaker, conquer him. If he is stronger, join him. If he is Jack Bauer, you're f***ing dead."

Jack Bauer literally died for his country, and lived to tell about it.

Jack Bauer has been to Mars. That's why there's no life on Mars.

Superman's only weakness is Kryptonite. Jack Bauer laughs at Superman for having a weakness.

When Batman is in trouble, he turns on the Jack Bauer signal.

It took Jack Bauer two minutes to beat a confession out of OJ.

If Jack Bauer was gay, his name would be Chuck Norris.

The bumper sticker on Jesus's car reads, "WWJBD?"

Jack Bauer was conceived by torturing the other sperm until they gave up the location of the egg.

After 7 minutes of interrogation at the hands of Jack Bauer, Tom Cruise admitted that he was gay.

Jack Bauer's family threw him a surprise birthday party when he was a child. Once.

Link to Source

UPDATE: Welcome Instapundit readers! Prof. Reynolds apparently does read his in box.

While I have the "soapbox" let me mention the most definitive site of all things Iranian in the Blogos that the MSM is not reporting, is:

Dr. Zin's site - Regime Change Iran

A RBT source says the Mad Mullahs may announce in the very near future that they have a nuke(s).

It's important to realize that Iranian President MAD and his religious mentor, Imam Yazdi, pots' are cracked. They truly believe in the 2nd coming of the 12th Imam whether good or bad for the world.

From their frame of reference if they must strike Israel with a nuke to hasten the 12th Imman's return, they will do so in a heartbeat. They will do this fully realizing Iran will be a nuclear slag heap afterwards. This is the same fanatical reasoning that drives Islamofascist suicidal bombers. It is not rational from a Western frame of reference. It's completely logical/rational from their's.

The West needs to quickly realize that Islamofascisim is a great Evil rising in the world that has many paralells to Nazism and Tokein's Ring Trilogy. Islamofasicsim is not a religion of peace as many of its follows would have the us believe. There is no moral equivalence. It does not deserve our traditional deference of other religions.

See RBT's post down thread re Hero's of the Iraqi War. RBT goes into depth about this that the MSM can't, won't, or is incapable of reporting to the American people.

Islamofascism seeks to subjugate/destroy the Western World and what we hold most dear - THE FREE WILL OF MEN AND WOMEN!

Imagine for a second David Koresch and the Branch Davidians (WACO) and Jim Jones and the Kool-Aid Bunch funded worldwide by both Sunni and Shiia petrol dollars. This is no different than other cultlike religious movements we are familiar with in the West.

They will not be deterred by Cold War Era mutually assured destruction policies (MAD).

RBT had an additional thought on reaching the Iranian Joyless Generation (Google on this term) use My Space. After all the recent demonstrations on immigration were coordinated in a large part thru My Space.

We must directly communicate with the Iranian youth to bring alternative sources of information and to inform the American people of the brutality of the Mullahs' regime that that so far the MSM has failed to report. The Mullahs hang female juveniles in the name of religion for nothing more than defending themselves and others from rape. Our own daughters could be next if we allow Shar'ih Law to become a dominant law in the world.

We must encourage our IT giants IBM, Microsoft, Yahoo, Google, Intel, Cisco, Motorolla, and Nokia et al, to do a little white hacking to ensure the barriers the Mullahs erect are neutralized, especially cellphone/textpaging within Iran. We hold the keys to the info technology. We shouldn't allow the enemy to use our own technology against us.

After all it's the American taxpayer that shoulders the great burden of projecting a level economic playing field (Read the force projection of the men and women of the US Military)that allows these giants to make the profits they do. A little support for the home team is in order.

A parallel thought here is, would a military commander ever relinquish air supremcy over the battlefield. Hell No! Well Cyberspace is the new battlespace of the War of Information that must be won to win the GWOT to wipe this enemy and it's ideology of hate and Evil from the face of the earth.

The Mad Mullahs of Iran will have difficulty blocking, filtering alternative sources of info once the Army of Davids are loosed!


OK - Joe I'm done now!

RBT

UPDATE I:

Kobayashi Maru is asking the same question that RBT's been asking for several years:

Misogyny Writ Large

[Dr. Sanity]: ...the treatment of women under Islam is not only the key to understanding the pathology of the culture, but also the key to developing an antidote to its most poisonous and toxic elements... [Islam's] attitude toward women most certainly has no relationship to reality... Psychiatrists generally refers to this state as "psychotic" and "delusional".

Where is NOW on the issue? NOWhere. As usual. Choice only matters when it's theirs.


UPDATE II:

HT LGF The Right Brothers have many more good political songs of a similar nature. You gotta visit their homepage at:

THE RIGHT BROTHERS

*****

RBT just posted this an an update to the thread below re the new rock video, Bush Was Right

RBT thought it was worthy of its own separate post.

RBT

*****

American Rock & Roll as a Strategic Weapon in the GWOT

RBT found the link to the prescient article by Joe Katzman of Winds of Change:

Axis of Elvis

And yes it was the Hungarian Ambassador who credited the influence of American and British rock music with the downfall of the former Iron Curtain:

. . . tonight will feature a very special speech at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame by Hungary's ambassador to the United States. To quote from the Hall of Fame's official news release:

"Mr. Simonyi will discuss his personal experiences with rock music and the impact that it made in Communist-ruled Hungary and other Soviet Bloc countries. The free flow of American and British rock music – and the revolutionary ideas it represents – over the airwaves in Central and Eastern Europe was instrumental in loosening the Communists' grip on power and contributed to the eventual downfall of dictatorships in that area of the world.

Ambassador Simonyi’s speech is entitled “Rocking for the Free World: How Rock Music Helped Bring Down the Iron Curtain.” The Ambassador, an accomplished blues guitarist himself and formerly the member of several Hungarian rock groups, will be introduced by Jeff “Skunk” Baxter, former lead guitarist with the Doobie Brothers and Steely Dan.

[...]

Read More

While looking for this link I ran across this past post re Michael Ledeen's challenge to the Blogos on Iran where I thought Queen's, We Will Rock You would send a powerful and deafening message to the Mad Mullahs:

We Will Rock You

Buddy you're a boy make a big noise
Playin' in the street gonna be a big man some day
You got mud on yo' face
You big disgrace
Kickin' your can all over the place
Singin'
We will we will rock you
We will we will rock you

[...]

Audio Sample

Wikipedia context of musical We Will Rock You

This Queen hit was almost always followed by their other hit:

We Are The Champions


Audio Sample

RBT wrote this previous post:

The Titans of Blogs vs. Mad Mullahs of Iran

[HT to The Moderate Voice for the title]

This is no longer up where I originally posted it. I guess it was too far ahead of its time :--).

Anyway it's still exists in a Google cache and perhaps its time has now come for the Blogos to engage the enemy as in Instapundit's Army of Davids against the Islamofascists Goliaths of the World.

See my comment at the time over at Roger L. Simon's:

Roger,

I believe the Blogos has the ability to focus the attention of the Free World on the Mad Mullahs of Iran. The MSM is ignoring the stories coming from the people of Iran via blogs.

The Mad Mullahs will melt like the Wicked Witch of the East in the Wizard of Oz when the light of the free world shines on them.

See my novel suggestion in:

IRAN - MULLAHS ABOUT TO STONE 13 YEAR-OLD GIRL

at:

Link Here

[ed note: This link is now dead but the Mullahs are continuing to hang women. Gee where are the feminists when you need them?

UPDATE:

Blackfive is now linking to the music video

So is IMAO

Now here's our secret weapon, WWJBD [HT Exit Zero]
Expose the Left has a considerable discussion going on on this video

HT Atlas Shrugs, Kesher Talk, The Daily Brief, Wizbang, and the
Ace of Spades. Seems to be catching on in the Blogos.

American Rock-n-Roll as a Strategic Weapon

From American pop culture see this self-produced music video that is hosted over at YouTube

Bush was Right

This video should be blasted all over the world. RBT has always said that Western rock-n-roll is a very powerfull strategic weapon in uniting the youth of the world.

You may recall that Iranian President MAD recently band all Western music. The Iranian Joyless Generation I'm sure is very thrilled.

RBT has posted before on this after seeing a piece by Joe Katzman at Winds of Change. I'll link to it when I find it again. If I recall correctly the former Hungarian Ambassador to the US credited Western pop culture music as leading to the collapse of the former Hungarian communist state.

Perhaps TRB could do another ala the genre of:--)

Ring around the Rosy

Ring around the rosy
A pocketful of posies
"Ashes, Ashes"
We all fall down!

See this site for this childrens' rhyme making reference to the Medieval plagues of Black Death.

Regime Change Iran NOW!

Pour water on the Mullahs [Truth - Light of the Free World]
A pocketful of Blackberries [PDAs and cellphones]
"Melting, Melting" [Wizard of OZ - Wicked Witch of the East]
They all fall down! [Regime Change Iran]

RBT

Update:

American Rock & Roll as a Strategic Weapon in the GWOT

RBT found the link to the prescient article by Joe Katzman of Winds of Change:

Axis of Elvis

And yes it was the Hungarian Ambassador who credited the influence of American and British rock music with the downfall of the former Iron Curtain:

. . . tonight will feature a very special speech at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame by Hungary's ambassador to the United States. To quote from the Hall of Fame's official news release:

"Mr. Simonyi will discuss his personal experiences with rock music and the impact that it made in Communist-ruled Hungary and other Soviet Bloc countries. The free flow of American and British rock music – and the revolutionary ideas it represents – over the airwaves in Central and Eastern Europe was instrumental in loosening the Communists' grip on power and contributed to the eventual downfall of dictatorships in that area of the world.

Ambassador Simonyi’s speech is entitled “Rocking for the Free World: How Rock Music Helped Bring Down the Iron Curtain.” The Ambassador, an accomplished blues guitarist himself and formerly the member of several Hungarian rock groups, will be introduced by Jeff “Skunk” Baxter, former lead guitarist with the Doobie Brothers and Steely Dan.

[...]

Read More

While looking for this link I ran across this past post re Michael Ledeen's challenge to the Blogos on Iran where I thought Queen's, We Will Rock You would send a powerful and deafening message to the Mad Mullahs:

We Will Rock You

Buddy you're a boy make a big noise
Playin' in the street gonna be a big man some day
You got mud on yo' face
You big disgrace
Kickin' your can all over the place
Singin'
We will we will rock you
We will we will rock you

[...]

Audio Sample

Wikipedia context of musical We Will Rock You

This Queen hit was almost always followed by their other hit:

We Are The Champions


Audio Sample

RBT wrote this previous post:

The Titans of Blogs vs. Mad Mullahs of Iran

[HT to The Moderate Voice for the title]

This is no longer up where I originally posted it. I guess it was too far ahead of its time :--).

Anyway it's still exists in a Google cache and perhaps its time has now come for the Blogos to engage the enemy as in Instapundit's Army of Davids against the Islamofascists Goliaths of the World.

See my comment at the time over at Roger L. Simon's:

Roger,

I believe the Blogos has the ability to focus the attention of the Free World on the Mad Mullahs of Iran. The MSM is ignoring the stories coming from the people of Iran via blogs.

The Mad Mullahs will melt like the Wicked Witch of the East in the Wizard of Oz when the light of the free world shines on them.

See my novel suggestion in:

IRAN - MULLAHS ABOUT TO STONE 13 YEAR-OLD GIRL

at:

Link Here

[ed note: This link is now dead but the Mullahs are continuing to hang women. Gee where are the feminists when you need them?

HT StrategyPage via Austin Bay

A StrategyPage Must-Read: Long term trends in Iraq

Austin Bay says this is a must read and I agree. The Sunnis have now figured out the alliance with AQ in the insurgency is no longer in their long term best interest.

If true then the all out civil war that the MSM has been beating the drum for the last several months will not occur. DARN! Now let's see how the MSM will spin this to blame President Bush.

Because of the nuances in this great piece that have gone on under the MSM's radar, I'm posting the article in it's entirety.

Please do visit the StrategyPage for great analytical pieces. Leave it to the online strategy gamersto produce more useful information than most conventional think tanks and news journals and newspapers.

RBT

*****

From StrategyPage, an assessment both succinct and accurate:

IRAQ: Iraq Watch the Trends, Not the Headlines

April 2, 2006: What you see in the Iraq news, is not what you get. The news business demands startling headlines, to attract eyeballs. It’s business, as the eyeballs are rented to advertisers to pay for it all. But the reality of the news is less startling, and consists of trends. These are the current trends in Iraq.

After three years, the Sunni Arabs, who long dominated Iraq, most recently under the leadership of Saddam Hussein, are giving up. It took so long because of a quirk in Arab culture, one that encourages the support of lost causes. The term “cut your losses and move on” is not as popular in the Arab world as it is in the West. But even the slow learners in the Sunni Arab community had to finally confront some unfavorable trends. Chief among these was;

The Kurds and Shia Arabs have formed a national police force and army that is far more powerful than anything the Sunni Arab community can muster. Over the last year, Sunni Arabs realized that the police and army were in control of more and more Sunni Arab towns. This was a trend that could not be ignored. Added to that was the number of Kurds and Shia Arabs who had lost kin to Sunni Arab terror over the last three decades. Many of these people want revenge, and they all have guns. Many, especially those that belong to the police, or militias, are taking their revenge. The Sunni Arabs want protection, for they cannot muster enough guns to defend themselves. Now the Sunni Arabs want the Americans to stay, at least until there’s some assurance that the Kurd and Shia Arab vengeance attacks have died down.

The alliance with al Qaeda was a disaster. These Islamic terrorists were obsessed with causing a civil war in Iraq, and they insisted on doing this by killing lots of Shia Arabs. The Sunni Arabs didn’t want to kill lots of Shia Arabs, they wanted to rule them all once more. But that raised another contentious issue. While some Sunni Arabs were in favor of an Islam Republic, which al Qaeda insisted on, most Sunni Arabs wanted a more secular Sunni Arab dominated government. This dispute was never resolved, as the split between al Qaeda and the Sunni Arab community widened. At the moment, al Qaeda is not welcome in most Sunni Arab areas. That’s “come near this place and we’ll kill you” not welcome. This after al Qaeda tried to terrorize the Sunni Arab tribal leaders into compliance. Killing Sunni Arab tribal chiefs didn’t work.

You can’t kill enough Americans to scare them into leaving. Saddam, and most Iraqis, were convinced that, because of Vietnam (where 55,000 American died) and Somalia (where 18 died in 1993), the United States would withdraw if you killed enough of them. While that is sometimes true, it’s good to remember that over a million Vietnamese died during the 1960s, and that 1993 battle in Mogadishu left over 500 Somalis dead as well. Moreover, this, “the Americans have no stomach for a fight” is nothing new. It’s why Japan attacked in 1941, believing that if they beat up the Americans bad enough, the faint hearted Yankees would just go away. Hitler also believed the Americans would not fight. After three years, the Iraqi Sunni Arabs have discovered that the Americans can certainly fight, and the Yankees have also found ways to do it that involve extraordinarily low American casualties. This story has not really gotten the attention it deserves, but the Sunni Arabs have noticed. They have noticed that if you attack the Americans, chances are you will die, and the Americans will just keep on keeping on. It used to be that the Sunni Arabs could take heart from the occasional attack where they killed a few Americans. But no longer. Everyone knows the trend, and doesn’t want to be another victim of it. Last month 32 Americans were killed in combat. The last time it was that low was in February 2004. Back then, the Sunni Arab tribes and al Qaeda had joined forces. Both of them had plenty of weapons, money and volunteers. Two years of bad trends have changed everything. The trend was that the Americans were much better at killing Sunni Arabs than Sunni Arabs were at killing Americans.

The economy continues to improve, except for those Sunni Arab areas where terrorists and gangsters are still out of control. Here’s where it’s all about money. Before Saddam fell, the Sunni Arabs had most of it. Since then, they have much, much less. The Sunni Arabs have been obsessed with getting their “fair share” of the oil money. When Saddam was in charge, the Sunni Arabs (who are 20 percent of the population), got over 80 percent of the oil money. Now they see themselves lucky to get 20 percent. Worse, all the oil is in areas dominated by Kurds and Shia Arabs. In response to this, the Sunni Arabs have continually attacked the pipelines that cross Sunni Arab territory. When paid to help guard the pipelines, some of the Sunni Arab chiefs just stole the money, and let the pipelines get attacked. The Sunni Arab attitude is one of, “if we can’t have it, no one can.” But now the Sunni Arabs have noted that much of the country is getting wealthier even without the oil. The Sunni Arabs have been living off oil for so long that they forgot there are other ways to make a living. The economic trends have been noted by the Sunni Arabs, and there is more willingness to do what needs to be done to bring some prosperity to the Sunni Arab areas.

Finally, there’s the most important trend of all. How successful have Iraqis been in creating a civil society. This doesn’t get much media play either, yet it is the ultimate goal in Iraq. A civil society is one that can run its own affairs without the constant threat of civil war or dictatorship. We take civil society for granted in the West, but in the rest of the world, it is more notable by its absence. American and British diplomats have been hammering away at the Iraqis for three years about how important honest government it. Many Iraqis agree. Yet the corruption continues, and three months after national elections, the various parties cannot agree on who will get what, and there is no government. That’s because the lack of a civil society has the various ethnic, religious and tribal factions warily haggling over who gets what. There is not much trust, and the stealing goes on. Iraq’s fate will ultimately be decided by how many honest politicians it has, not how many cops are on the street or what Iraq’s neighbors think or do.

StrategyPage Link