Showing posts with label war. Show all posts
Showing posts with label war. Show all posts

Sunday, November 15, 2015

WE ARE AT WAR


We are at war whether we like it or not.  You can voice trite platitudes about Islam being the religion of peace, but there remains a significant Islamist movement that belies that statement that will strike anyone, anywhere, anyplace, at any time to further their agenda.  They don't limit their attacks to the West, just days before the Paris massacre they killed 43 people outside a Shia mosque in Beirut prompting Hezbollah to claim:
"They targeted civilians, worshipers, unarmed people, women and elderly, they only targeted innocent people...[it was a] satanic, terrorist attack."
 ISIS responded with:
"Let the Shiite apostates know that we will not rest until we take revenge in the name of the prophet."  "After the apostates gathered in the area, one of the knights of martyrdom detonated his explosive belt in the midst of them."
No one is safe, Muslim or not.

Despite what some of our liberal followers may claim no one is advocating war with Islam.  We are not so naive to think that every Muslim is an enemy but we do recognize our inability to tell the good from the bad.  If Opus Dei suicide bombers were massacring people in Italian markets and gunning down worshipers in Protestant churches my response would be the same; they must be destroyed root and branch.

In World War II there were plenty of good and peaceful Germans caught up in the Nazi atrocities of the age who had no choice other than death if they refused to support the state or join the Wehrmacht. The people in areas controlled by ISIS are in the same position, we could not limit our response then, we cannot limit our response now.  One cannot sit on the sidelines of this war between civilization and absolute barbarity.

We cannot cede territory to ISIS and what they do control must be destroyed without regard to collateral damage.  Any town, village, or hut flying the ISIS flag is a legitimate military target. 

President Obama claims that 99.9% of Muslims don't support fundamentalist radicalism, but it doesn't matter.  If the number of radicals is .1 or 1 or 10, or even 50, whatever the remainder they cannot sit on the sidelines and claim it is not their problem.  We all have a problem with radical Islam, we are all targets or will be, we must all fight our common enemy.


It's not just Je Suis Charlie anymore or even
Je Suis Une Cible


Nous sommes tous des cibles

We are all targets

Thursday, September 11, 2014

9-11, ISIS, Terrorism







Every attempt to make war easy and safe will result in humiliation and disaster.

War is cruelty. There is no use trying to reform it. The crueler it is, the sooner it will be over.

This war differs from other wars, in this particular. We are not fighting armies but a hostile people, and must make old and young, rich and poor, feel the hard hand of war.

If the people raise a great howl against my barbarity and cruelty, I will answer that war is war, and not popularity seeking.

My aim, then, was to whip the rebels, to humble their pride, to follow them to their inmost recesses, and make them fear and dread us. Fear is the beginning of wisdom.

William Tecumseh Sherman

Monday, July 14, 2014

War and Those Responsible

The Apotheosis of War - Vasily Vereshchagin (1871)
Quite a few liberals and progressives like to accuse the Republicans and Conservatives of being Warmongers, the tools of the military industrial complex, but is it really so one-sided? From blame for extermination of the native population in the ongoing quest for American Exceptionalism to today's "war for oil".

A list of Wars of the United States and the presidents in office when they started.  I've left off the Northwest Indian War (1785-1793) because it started four years before George Washington took office in 1789. Democrat Presidents are in Red Font, all others appear in Blue. The basic list is courtesy of Wikipedia "This is a list of wars involving the United States of America during and since the American Revolutionary War, detailing all constituent military theatres and campaigns. 

Quasi-War (1798-1900): John Adams (F)
1st Barbary War (1801-1805): Thomas Jefferson (D-R)
Patriot War - West Florida (1810): James Madison (D-R)
Tecumseh's War (1811): James Madison (D-R)
War of 1812(1812-1815): James Madison (D-R)
Creek War (1813-1814): James Madison (D-R)
2nd Barbary War (1815): James Madison (D-R)
First Seminole War (1814-1819) James Madison (D-R)
Arikara War (1823): James Monroe (D-R)
Winnebago War (1827): John Quincy Adams (D-R)
First Sumatran Expedition (1832): Andrew Jackson (D)
Black Hawk War (1832): Andrew Jackson (D)
Second Seminole War (1835-1842): Andrew Jackson (D)

Patriot War (Canada) (1838): Martin Van Buren (D)
Mexican-American War (1846-1848): James Polk (D)
Cayuse War (1847-1855): James Polk (D)

Apache Wars (1851-1900): Millard Fillmore (W)
Puget Sound War (1855-1856): Franklin Pierce (D)
Rogue River Wars (1855-1856): Franklin Pierce (D)
Third Seminole War (1855-1858): Franklin Pierce (D)
Yakima War (1855-1858): Franklin Pierce (D)
Second Opium War (1856-1860): Franklin Pierce (D)
Utah War (1857-1858): James Buchanan (D)
Navaho Wars (1858-1866): James Buchanan (D)
1st & 2nd Cortina War (1859-1861): James Buchanan (D)
Paiute War (1860): James Buchanan (D)
Reform War (1860): James Buchanan (D)

Civil War (1861-1865): Abraham Lincoln (R)
Dakota War (1862): Abraham Lincoln (R)
Colorado War (1863-1865): Abraham Lincoln (R)
Snakes War (1864-1868): Abraham Lincoln (R)

Red Clouds War (1866-1868): Andrew Johnson (D)
Comanche Campaign (1867-1875): Andrew Johnson (D)

Modoc War (1872-1873): U.S. Grant (R)
Red River War (1874-1875): U.S. Grant (R)
Las Cuevas War (1875): U.S. Grant (R)
Great Sioux War (1876): U.S. Grant (R)
Nez Perce War (1877): Rutherford B Hayes (R)
Bannock War (1878): Rutherford B Hayes (R)

Cheyenne War (1878-1879): Rutherford B Hayes (R)
Sheepeater War (1879): Rutherford B Hayes (R)
White River War (1879-1880): Rutherford B Hayes (R)
Pine Ridge Campaign (1890-1891): Benjamin Harrison (R)
Kingdom of Hawaii (1893): Benjamin Harrison (R)
Second Samoan War (1898-1899): William McKinley (R)
Spanish American War (1898): William McKinley (R)
Philippine-American War (1899-1902): William McKinely (R)

Boxer Rebellion (1899-1901): William McKinley (R)
Border War (1910-1919): Wiliam Howard Taft (R)
World War I (1917-1918): Woodrow Wilson (D)
Russian Civil War (1917-1922): Woodrow Wilson (D)
World War II (1941-1945): Franklin D Roosevelt (D)
Korean War (1950-1953): Harry S Truman (D)
2nd Indochina War Advisors (1950-1965): Harry S Truman (D)
Vietnam War Troops (1965-1973): Lyndon B Johnson (D)

Gulf of Sidra (1981): Ronald Reagan (R)
Grenada (1983): Ronald Reagan (R)
Panama (1989-1990) George H. W. Bush (R)
Persian Gulf War (1990-1991) George H. W. Bush (R)
Somalia (1992-1994) George H.W. Bush (R)

Bosnian War (1993-1995) Bill Clinton (D)
Haiti (1994-1995) Bill Clinton (D)
Kosovo War (1998-1999) Bill Clinton (D)

Afghanistan (2001-    ): George W. Bush (R)
Iraq War (2003-2011): George W. Bush (R)

Libya (2011): Barrack Obama (D)


If anything, the list shows that we go to war or resort to force regardless of the party in the oval office.  

One can also take a look at military interventions short of war, keep in mind in some places these lists overlap: 

History of US Military Interventions

 

Thursday, April 5, 2012

The More Things Change...

As is my custom, I'm off the grid 'till next Monday out of respect for the passion, death and resurrection of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.  I'll have posts, but they are short, each commemorating an even of Jesus Christ's passion, and after this one the comments will be turned off.

Meanwhile, here's something to think about.  Pop it out to full screen for maximum effect...

Wednesday, March 16, 2011

The Tripoli Trap

Libyans are crying for the The Great Satan to come and save them, and the neocons who've never so much as heard a shot fired in anger are beating the war drums. 



My answer? Va Fangoul!

Remember the lies Chalabi and other Saddam opponents told us? People would throw flowers at our feet and welcome us with kisses, the Iraqi people just wanted to be free, Saddam was building nuclear weapons…

He and other succeeded in goading us to action, at a high cost in lives and treasure. Now the oil is flowing, and contracts go to China, who did nothing to topple the old regime. In Afghanistan, our troops are making the country safe for Chinese and Russian mining companies, while our “friends” the Pakistanis provide safe haven for their friends the Taliban.

We saved the Kosovar and Bosnian Muslims from slaughter and are rewarded by a Balkan Muslim gunning down American Airmen at Frankfurt Main.

We saved Kuwait and Saudi Arabia from Hussein, Afghanistan from the Taliban, and our military is stationed in the Gulf at the request of the poobahs to protect them from Iran.  All we get is hatred in return.

If we were so stupid as to go in to Libya, we would end up being further castigated by the purple-faced Muslim Street and their fellow travelers in the international left.

Libyans are already trying to lure us in…

Not because they love America or admire our ideals; but because they need our firepower to topple Khaddafi. Once that is accomplished, welcoming smiles will turn to fleck-spittle hatred and we’ll be accused of war crimes. If we leave too early we will be abandoning the Libyan people. If we stay too long, we’re building an empire. Every bomb we drop will end up killing “civilians,” most likely in one of those ubiquitous wedding parties. Every troop killed by a wild-eyed Libyan fanatic we’re trying to help will be called an unfortunate aberration…

We’ve seen this movie before, and there’s no good ending. Here’s how it begins…
“A large French flag hangs on the front of the courthouse used as the revolutionary council's headquarters after Paris recognised the rebel leadership […]

“But Libyans are also increasingly vocal in their criticism of Washington in particular for what is seen as a failure to back up rhetoric against the regime. (Guardian – Libyan Rebels)
Awww… See? They love us, but now they’re becoming disappointed in their hero Uncle Sam… BS!

But we’d better rush in there, or these feckless, unstable people will fall into the arms of the radical Islamists!
“However, Gheriani said that if the west failed to offer practical help to the revolutionaries to free themselves from Gaddafi's rule it risked frustrated Libyans turning to religious extremists.
If the west takes too long – where people say it's too little, too late – then people become a target for extremists who say the west doesn't care about them," he said.
"Most people in this country are moderates and extremists have not been able to penetrate them. But if they get to the point of disillusionment with the west there will be no going back."
Screw ‘em! We’ve heard all that before and it’s all BS. 
They’re all extremists and they all hate us! We’ve already proven that using our military power to help them won’t change that.

We’ve witnessed how they really feel about us...
Dancing in the streets at the news of 9/11, nothing but a constant stream of vituperation spewed upon the civilized west, ignorant stinking hordes lapping up every outrageous lie and conspiracy theory the demagogic mullahs tell them…

No, this is not fertile ground for Western civilization to take root. This is not a bridge to new friendships. It’s just another venue for the bug-eyed bastards of the Religion of Pieces to stage their theater of the grotesque. Well, this is one opera the US should skip. Let someone else provide the kettle drums and the snares.

We’ve allowed these inhabitants of the armpit of the world to send us on too many fool’s errands
The Muslim dingbats have again set their house ablaze, and again they call the US Fire Department. And again, once the fire is out, they will criticize us for putting axes through the doors and soaking the walls and the furniture. It’s time for the fire department to stand back and let the house burn down. Maybe that will teach these crazy morons to stop playing with matches.

For a more reasoned and informed analysis, read Intelligence analyst Paul Pillar's article, Not So Limited Liability in Libya.