What Is Frightening?

That the things I have been worrying about since the President drew his bold red line have been echoed by Laughing Wolf over on Black Five.  It is sobering to know someone else has been comparing the sitting President with the fictional Robert 'Bob' Fowler from Clancy's Sum of All Fears and finding the real President wanting in comparison.

Or the alliances in the region are mobilizing in much the same way they did in 1914 in Sarajevo.  One madman kills a noble that almost no one knew about and the gears of war started to turn as all the years of treaties came into effect as Austria tried to browbeat Serbia into giving up the assassin.  So the Serbs called in their Russian allies while Austria called in Germany.  And it just escalated from there.  What resulted from all of that smart diplomacy was four years of brutal carnage that killed millions and set the stage for a greater conflict.

An even more brutal question to ask will there be a US lead alliance in regards to the murky issue of who gassed whom in Syria?  The British Parliament just said no to Prime Minister Cameron's request for supporting the Americans, the first time they have said no since 1782 and the American Revolution.  The French and Germans are going soft as well; they should when it concerns American consistency, they just have to look at the series of slights and insults this Administration has delivered to England along with betraying European missile defense for a nebulous promise from Russia.  A Russia that supplies Europe with a majority of the natural gas it will need to stay warm this winter.  A Russia that supports the Assad regime in Damascus.  Europe sees more downsides than upsides for joining the American charge.

Then there are the Middle Eastern nations to look at.  Iran likes Assad in power and has threatened Israel if the US attacks.  Saudi Arabia finds itself wanting Assad in power in order to keep the Muslim Brotherhood out of power.  Saudi Arabia is also supporting the current government in Egypt for the same reason - fear of the Muslim Brotherhood.  And the United States, because of the decisions of this Administration, finds itself in opposition to Saudi Arabia, a long time ally, and supporting the Muslim Brotherhood both in Egypt and Syria.  Turkey has refused to assist the United States in regards to Syria so Greece had to be asked to allow the US to use Greek air bases.

If this is not a powder keg with a fuse lit, then I do not know what is.  And for what reason is the US getting involved when there are no geo-political reasons that can protect American interests?  Because of one reported attack on civilians by someone using chemical weapons.  No one knows if it really was Assad's forces that did it or even the rebels themselves that did it by accident.  This is far worse in murkiness than when USS Turner Joy thought it was being attacked by North Vietnamese torpedo boats.  But we have a President who said this was a Red Line even though in the past when Saddam used nerve agents on Kurds or Assad's father obliterated a town with artillery to stop a Muslim Brotherhood insurgency no one protested so loudly that these heinous attacks were used as reasons to depose either tyrant.

As Laughing Wolf said, we are going to be held hostage to the least stable actor in this drama.  Isn't that a cheery thought.  So if you are a devout praying person, please pray harder.



Addendum on the parallels from 1914.
There is the diplomatic war that was fought in concert with the war effort.  England wanted the neutral powerhouse the United States to enter the war on their side.  Wilson became President in no small part because he promised to keep the country neutral to the conflict that was devouring Europe so people with similar feelings voted for him. 

Churchill as First Sea Lord engaged in stratagems that are a bit shabby and dishonest viewed from this end of history; from painting British ships in American colors to putting war materials aboard passenger liners, but what he wanted was England to emerge victorious.  Meanwhile the Royal Navy was hunting German U-boats where they could.  All these actions forced Germany to abandon the cruiser rules and turn to unrestricted warfare on the open seas against any ship they found. 

So the German U-boats became wolves prowling for kills.  Any kills.  It was scant comfort to the families of the dead from these attacks that Germany had followed the rules of war by announcing a zone around England where unrestricted warfare would be prosecuted.  The Huns in the U-boats were now butchers.  The same was not used to describe German commerce raiders but those ships did not skulk below and strike from hiding, instead they still operated under the cruiser rules and treated their captured as well as could be expected.

Another arrow in the cap that helped tilt American opinion in favor of England was a master stroke of counter-espionage by British spooks.  I am referring to the famous Zimmerman telegram where Germany's Foreign Minister tried to entice Mexico into attacking the United States.  That really incensed the American public when it became news and further destroyed any warm feelings that sections of the populace felt towards Germany.

The sinking of the RMS Lusitania was just the final act that brought the US into WWI on the British side.  While the US tried to stay out of the war, events conspired against the President that stripped him of any freedom of action.  And that is how the United States entered World War I on the side of the Serbian assassin since England was an ally of the Russians who were the ally of the Serbs who sheltered the assassin.

Flags

Today in the United States of America is recognized as Flag Day.  A flag is used to rally forces, to be able to tell your mob from the other guy's mob in the midst of carnage and confusion.  Children to this day play a game called Capture the Flag, adults also play the same game while armed with paint-ball guns.

When larger and larger groups of people coalesced into nations, naturally some symbol was selected as the flag for that nation.  The American flag was birthed during our revolt from British tyranny.  Each color represents a specific theme while each white star in the corner represents a state in the Union.  For the average soldier sucking down lungfuls of sand in Iraq or freezing in Afghanistan that flag really represents his battle buddies beside him along with the friends and family back home.  The flag is a touchstone.

So while I am pondering all that the US flag represents, across the Atlantic I wonder if our British cousins have the same appreciation of their flag and history.  Thirty years ago, the Union Jack was run up over Government House in Port Stanley, Falkland Islands signaling the end of Argentinian occupation.  Three civilians and 255 members of Her Majesty's military paid the ultimate price for that victory.  So to mark this historic day, the flag of the Falklands is flying over No. 10 Downing Street.

If Argentina decided to follow through on its current demands for the islands, that bit of flag waving would be all Britain could do.  The Royal Navy is a shadow of its former self.  The carriers who helped retake the Falklands 30 years ago are no more, HMS Hermes now serves as an Indian carrier while HMS Invincible last year was sold for scrap.  In fact there is no carrier in active service with the Royal Navy and the Fleet Air Arm has not flown a Harrier in over year, the Harriers are either gate guards or scrap.  The RAF and its small fleet of Typhoon fighters would also be incapable of affecting an Argentine invasion.

Just some things to ponder on this Flag Day.

Update - added a few more links.

Fallen Warrior Returns Home

September 13th, 1944 saw the 8th Air Force launch a total of 1,015 B-17s and B-24s to attack vital targets in Germany.  They hit oil refineries, an air field, a marshaling yard, and targets of opportunity.  By the end of the day 15 heavy bombers had been lost in combat.  One of the B-17Gs lost carried Lt. Emil Wasilewski.  Only one man managed to bail out before the plane crashed.

Until 2007, a casket laid buried but empty at St. Casimir Cemetery.  This was the resting place for Lt. Emil Wasileski.  Then it all changed when the Army contacted his nephews for a DNA sample.  It turns out human remains had been uncovered in the former East Germany that might have belonged to fallen American airmen.  Using the DNA sample, it was confirmed that some of the remains belonged to Lt. Emil Wasileski.  This June he will be interred with full military honors and an overflight in Arlington National Cemetery.  And if further remains are ever found, their ashes will be sprinkled over the empty casket so Emil Wasileski can finally be home and rest with his parents.

Welcome home and G-d bless.

Post script - why you never laugh at the Tomb of the Unknown at Arlington.  It's called respect.

Another Broken Promise

Remember just a few short years ago when Barack Obama promised on June 4, 2008 that "This was the moment when the rise of the oceans began to slow and the earth began to heal."  Fast forward to now.

It seems Mother Earth did not get the message to stop raising the level of the seas.  That is what US News and MSNBC are reporting in this bit of doggerel they call news.  They call it an invisible tsunami threatening to engulf low lying coastal areas of the United States.

Excuse me?  An invisible tsunami?  And all you claim is a rise in ocean levels of 8 inches since 1880.  So in 132 years it has risen 8 inches or 0.06 inches per year.  Build the Ark now!  Panic!  Throw money our way so we can save the planet!

Except why panic?  If you look at the graphs from these Australian boffins we are merely reaching a previous historical high.  In the past 140,000 years there has been a sea level variation of 140 meters or almost 460 feet.  And there have been other periods of sharp rise and decline.

A great city dating back about 9,500 years ago has been discovered in India in 120 feet of water.  This city could rewrite the history books on the rise of human civilization.  South of Haifa Isreal lies the village of Atlit.  Some 1400 feet from that village and at the depth of 40 feet lies the remains of an 8,000 year old Neolithic village.  Moving forward in time we find the sunken English town of Dunwich.  This town was conquered by the relentless assault of the North Sea and was abandoned by 1750AD.

What could these three sites teach modern man one may ask?  One lesson is humans will adapt, survive, and flourish as their environment changes.  The second lesson is that the global environment is dynamic and will remain dynamic until the planet dies.  The final lesson should be obvious, all three sites suffered climate change before the advent of modern civilization which in turn calls into serious question the claims of all the doomsayers who want us to send them money to save us from a phenomena that is natural and well nigh impossible for humans to stem.

Kennedy Blarney

The most dysfunctional family in the United States continues to garner media coverage.  How dysfunctional you may ask?  Psychology Today put together a list of the top seven Kennedy sex scandals.  Go read them, it is shocking.  Then there was Ted Kennedy trying to collaborate with the USSR to destroy Ronald Reagan. But old Ted can justly claim he was just following in the family tradition, his father Joesph Kennedy Sr was a real piece of work in his rampant hatred of the Jews and love of German National Socialism.  Kennedy, after fleeing London as the Blitz petered out, was sacked by Roosevelt and replaced as Ambassador to the Court of St. James by John Winant.

That the Kennedy family continues to garner media coverage and thought to be representative of America can only be ascribed to the pushing of a false narrative.  It is a bundled package of smaller lies that hide behind the tragic assassination of John F. Kennedy in Dallas, TX in 1963.  To point out all the failings and outright crimes of the Kennedy family is to endure the ceaseless tirade of being unfair to the slain President.  As in do you have no decency?  History cares not for decency when it records a leader's achievements and failures, Kennedy's greatest failure at the Bay of Pigs lead directly to the Cuban Missile Crisis because the USSR read Kennedy as weak after that failed invasion.  That is why the world almost vanished under multiple mushroom clouds.  Daley Plaza can't cover that up.

So where am I going with this recitation of the Kennedy family crimes?  Just the latest lambasting from the Kennedy Holier Than Thou pulpit.  Robert Kennedy Jr, being a Kennedy, is no stranger to the spotlight.  Oddly three days after filing divorce papers on his second wife, she was arrested on a DUI.  He campaigned for Rep. Dennis Kucinich in that man's losing primary run, Kucinich lost to fellow Democrat Mary Kaptur and he was not graceful in his concession speech.  Kennedy has also harangued about the danger of mercury in vaccines causing Autism.  Notice how many corrections are at the end of the article, including a gross inflation of a percentage.  For a less strident discussion, the FDA has a good precis including an incident in Australia in 1928 that gave rise to requiring a preservative in vaccines, out of 21 inoculated 12 died.

Now that I have established Robert Kennedy Jr's questionable track record in the public and private square that shows he lives in a large glass house, here is his latest cheap shot of record.  Because Sen. Infoe is a skeptic and critic of man-made global warming, Robert Kennedy Tweeted a comment that would get Imus suspended and Carbonite to quit Rush.  He called Sen. Infoe a prostitute in the employ of the oil companies.  That is really discussing the heart of the matter there Robert, smear your opponent.  Did you call Joseph P. Kennedy II a dictator's prostitute when he got cheap heating oil from Hugo Chavez of Venezuela?  I bet you didn't. 

Libyan Thanks

Kudos to Powerline for this very sad tale.  There are cemeteries in Benghazi, Libya where the fallen soldiers and airmen of the British Commonwealth are buried.  According to the Commonwealth War Graves Commission there are over 1,500 buried there.  They are sons, brothers, husbands, fathers from across the Empire - United Kingdom, South Africa, New Zealand, Australia, Canada, and even the Sudan Defense Force - all are buried here.  At least one Victoria Cross recipient is interred here.  All killed during World War II resisting Nazi aggression.  Even Italian war graves have also been attacked.  No word if the British war cemeteries at Tobruk or Knightsbridge have been attacked.

And now their resting places have been brutally attacked and defaced, over a hundred known so far.  The perpetrators?  The same people the RAF, USAF, and their NATO allies helped to liberate last year from the tyranny of now deceased despot Gaddafi.  They even filmed themselves toppling gravestones with Crosses and Stars of David while calling the deceased warriors dogs.  Even the Cross of Remembrance has been smashed as seen in the video that Powerline has.

The reaction from the United Kingdom government has been diplomatic and couched with the caveat that Islam does not condone destroying graves.  The Libyan transitional government has offered apologies.  The Australians are not as diplomatic, calling it a desecration and sickening though no word if any Australian graves were smashed.

I am sorry England, there are graves and then there are the graves of infidels.  All these men are infidels to their defilers and hence they do not belong in any land claimed by the faithful warriors of Islam. 

The Western nations need to tell the Libyans to clean up their mess.  To hold accountable to the fullest measure these criminals.  If little or no action is done to these vandals, then Libya should be allowed to slide back into the 7th Century they seem to desire.

Post script -  Talking about Libya and WWII always brings up the mystery of Lady Be Good, a B-24 Liberator that vanished with her crew during a bombing mission against Italy.  To this day the body of SSGT Vernon Moore has never been found, he is presumed lost in the vast southeastern desert sea that comprises the border between Libya and Egypt.  As for the plane's wreckage, it was last seen in 2001 in a Libyan police impound yard.

Pesky Oil

The President now thinks releasing some oil from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve is just the ticket to solve the current high gas prices.  The man assumes everyone, except him, is a gullible fool.  Which makes him a con-man of the lowest sort.

Here is a suggestion for our sitting on his hands President.

Open the local oil/gas tap.  Drill.  What will this action do?

1. First it will create thousands of jobs.  Jobs that pay taxes. 
2. It will also boost corporate revenues so they will pay more taxes.
3. It will turn the United States into a global exporter of oil.  More tax revenue.
4. It will increase the amount of slack in the global oil market, so will drive down the price of oil.
5. It would give this country a tool to help allies.  It would buffer countries like Britain and France from being held hostage to the likes of Libya or Iran.
6. It will also reduce the outflow of American capital to oil producing countries that have horrible human rights records.  For example Venezuela.

I hope this polite suggestion helps the President of the United States understand all the positive benefits for increased oil exploration and production.

Smart Diplomacy?

One of Obama's promises he made to get elected dealt with US foreign policy. Mainly President Bush's cowboy actions had alienated people and countries around the globe. That Obama would strive to repair that damage. Lets take a look at one country Obama has had much interaction with, the United Kingdom, and how he has repaired that damage.

The casual return of a famous bust of Sir Winston Churchill.
Denying there is a special relationship between the US and UK.
Gifting to Prime Minister Brown a stack of DVDs that will not play in the UK.
Giving to Queen Elizabeth II an iPod pre-loaded with Obama's speeches.
First Lady Michelle grasping at the Queen.

And now we get to the US Ambassador to the Court of St. James. The not so honorable Louis B. Sussman, Democrat fundraiser and Obama's UK ambassador. He pandered earlier in the day to a bunch of American media to mark the unveiling of a statue of Ronald Reagan. But then inexplicably skipped a major social event later that night. It was a party where four British cabinet members, former Prime Minister John Major, nine US Representatives, one US Senator, former California Governor Pete Wilson, and former Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice were in attendance.

I think Lynn de Rothschild has her thumb firmly fixed on why Sussman was missing - "Why is our ambassador not here on Independence Day? No excuse. How is it that America is not represented in this room by our ambassador? It is appalling that no representative of our government is in this room. This has the feel of petty partisanship."

I wonder when Britain will tire of all these slights and insults. Last time the US and UK tangled in 1812, the British burned down the house Obama is presently living in. Santayana says those who fail to heed history are bound to repeat it. At this point I would consider it getting off lightly if that is all that happened.