Category Archives: War

‘Scenes From The Surrender In South Africa’

VDARE.COM’s James Fulford has published (http://blog.vdare.com/archives/2011/02/02/scenes-from-the-surrender-in-south-africa/) a most poignant letter from a South African veteran of the Angola war. It is also a reminder of why I support the draft … for politicians and bureaucrats (http://www.ilanamercer.com/phprunner/public_article_list_view.php?editid1=59):

“I knew a number of vain, self-righteous pseudo-intellectuals during my time in the Army. They all had elegantly-appointed offices, with double-overlaid carpeting in the floor and expensive paintings on the walls. They fairly dripped with assumed self-importance and constantly boasted of ‘ political connections’ up the food-chain.

They wore starched uniforms, but were always far removed from my young lads and me in the ops area, up in Angola. With sand, blood, and dirt between our teeth, we lived in mud, with our dead and wounded lying in ditches, some on stretchers in the back of idling C130s, their body fluids running down the rails, onto the loading deck, and ultimately accumulating in grotesque puddles on the runway.

Many of these curiously never-deployed types actively participated in ‘negotiations’ to ‘end the War.’ Conversely, those of us who actually participated were kept away. In fact … ”

MORE.

A Paul-Bachmann 2012 Ticket

Elections, Federal Reserve Bank, Foreign Policy, Politics, Republicans, Ron Paul, War

HOW FAR WE’VE COME. On February 20, 2010, I blogged about the reaction of the CPAC (Conservative Political Action Conference) regimists to a straw poll that placed libertarian Ron Paul in the lead. (http://barelyablog.com/?p=21977.) Granted, out of 10,000 conference attendees, approximately 2500, very motivated Paulites had voted. Still, I expressed my hopes that this informal gauge of the state-of-the GOP was significant, and that, finally, “the bums and their statist sycophants” would be tossed out and replaced with strict Constitutionalists such as Peter Schiff and Rand Paul. “The small Beltway Politburo that runs CPAC” was certainly worried.

With a smart strategy, this scenario is not implausible. As abcNews reports (http://blogs.abcnews.com/thenote/2011/01/romney-wins-new-hampshire-republican-party-committee-straw-poll.html), “In the first ever ‘straw poll’ of New Hampshire Republican party committee members sponsored by ABC News and WMUR and sanctioned by the state Republican party, ex-Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney took 35 percent of the 276 valid ballots cast. This is just 3 percent more than Romney took in the 2008 GOP primary, when he finished in second place behind Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz. Coming in a distant second was Rep. Ron Paul, R-Texas, with 11 percent. Paul took 8 percent in the 2008 GOP primary.”

Ron Paul can pull this off. But he needs the punch and the pizzazz of a Michelle Bachmann as second-in-command. Bachmann is cerebral (a quality poor Palin is without). She’s also beautiful, eloquent and is seldom fazed. Moreover, Bachmann is not wedded to the warfare state. She has officiated on enough panels with Paul, and is wise enough, to recognize the value of bringing moderate liberals into the fold by denouncing America’s forays abroad.

Hey, what do you know? On 09.28.09, I had already proposed a Ron Paul and Michele Bachmann ticket. The occasion? An address by Paul, introduced by Bachmann, about “The Ben Bernanke.” By that time, Bachmann had already beefed-up her knowledge of the Fed and was familiar with Tom Woods’ Meltdown.

Reps. Paul and Bachmann can neuter Mitt Romney politically, but they must unite to do so.

Neoconservative Kingpin Taps Ryan/Rubio

Elections, Foreign Policy, Iran, Neoconservatism, The State, War

William Kristol is touting Paul Ryan and Marco Rubio as a 2012 presidential item.

What are we to take away from this? “They are both strong on national defense,” Kristol repeated twice to Neil Cavuto with that broad Cheshire-Cat grin of his. Could the neoconservative kingpin be licking his chops for war? Is Iran on the chopping block? What else would make a religious proponent of big government and American manifest destiny so smitten?

Cut to 2000, with Kristol and David Brooks making mischief together—or magic, depending on whose side you’re on. The two collaborated on a piece, “The Politics of Creative Destruction,” in which they argued that McCain would revive, rather than repress, the State.

And who could forget Kristol, over on the op-ed pages of his new editorial home, the New York Times (an appointment that speaks to how cozy the left-neocon cabal truly is), excitedly admonishing mutinous anti-McCain conservatives, while reciting gory poetry in honor of McMussolini. Limbaugh he had maligned as suffering from “McCain Derangement Syndrome.”

If Kristol is this excited, it must mean the promise of killing and carnage.

"The 'Lebanonisation' of Iraq"

Foreign Policy, Iraq, Journalism, Propaganda, War

“With a sectarian power-sharing agreement and interfering neighbours, Iraq is looking a lot like Lebanon,” writes Lamis Andoni at Al Jazeera.

Where else? Now that the Left is as invested in all Obama’s wars as the “Right,” sober assessment of regions made more backward and benighted for our interventions is hard to come by in American media. There is nothing new about the silence of collaborators in this country, Left and Right.

ANDONI AGAIN:

“The power-sharing framework agreed in Iraq has so far failed to end the eight month deadlock over the structure of a new cabinet. The stalemate, due to haggling over key posts, is reflective of how post-invasion Iraq has succumbed to ethnic and sectarian rivalry, which, in turn, has further obstructed its economic and political recovery. It is also indicative of how the country has become a playground for different regional and international powers who are competing for influence and the country’s oil resources.”

The agreement reached earlier this month would allow Nuri al-Maliki, the incumbent prime minister, to form a new government – even though the Iraqiya coalition took two more seats than his State of Law alliance in the parliamentary elections.

The accord would establish a Lebanon-style sectarian and ethnic formula – which might prove to be more of a recipe for constant instability than a guarantor of national reconciliation. It is ironic that we are witnessing the ‘Lebanonisation’ of Iraq at the exact moment when this type of power-sharing formula may be causing the ‘Iraqisation’ of Lebanon – as many fear that Lebanon is on the verge of inter-sectarian strife. …

Iraq’s emerging political system is a direct product of the US invasion and Iran’s complicity in both the invasion and the ensuing occupation. And Iran has, so far, come out of it with the strongest hand – as the prime minister is the main authoritative power. Neighbouring ‘Sunni’ Arab countries have also played a role in consolidating divisions within Iraq – either by directly helping the US forces or by failing to help Iraq maintain its unity.”

[SNIP]

Where there was once oppression and order, now there is just chaos and daily danger. What always gets me is the terror on the faces of children trying to survive in “liberated” Iraq.