WB: Reversion to the Mean
Billmon:
Virginia is almost down to the Texas level now, which is about six standard deviations below the mean. It's time for something better -- or at least a little better, like Jim Webb.
Of course, Allen's latest crack makes it clear that even a Macaca (whatever the hell it is) would be a big improvement.
Posted by b on August 16, 2006 at 5:05 UTC | Permalink | Comments (30)
WB: Is It Safe? + Stranger Than Fiction
Billmon:
Bush: So what's it about, Antonio?
Blair: Well, this guy kills this Arab and then he . . .
Bush: Sounds like one of Clancy's books. Can I borrow your copy?---
I. Is It Safe?
Posted by b on August 16, 2006 at 5:02 UTC | Permalink | Comments (24)
WB: Facts on the Ground + Paths of Glory
Billmon:
I wonder if any Israelis will object to the fact that so many lives were spent to take a pair of vanity objective in a pointless, last-minute offensive. Or do they see that as just part of the way wars are waged in the Middle East?
II. Paths of Glory
---
But the last word, as Pat Lang points out, usually goes to the side that winds up in possession of the battlefield. Hizbullah doesn't look like it's going anywhere. The IDF, the other hand, seems to already be looking to clear out of Indian country as fast as possible. (Hey, it's what Custer would have done if he'd been smart.) So it looks like all of Bush's canned speechifying is going to be trumped by Hussein Kalash's plain statement of fact.
"We're still here."
Posted by b on August 16, 2006 at 4:58 UTC | Permalink | Comments (26)
WB: But What About the Second Amendment?
Billmon:
I trust the NRA is taking notes.
Posted by b on August 15, 2006 at 18:26 UTC | Permalink | Comments (8)
WB: The Facts of Life
Billmon:
Posted by b on August 15, 2006 at 18:21 UTC | Permalink | Comments (2)
WB: A Liar, a War Criminal and a Thief
Billmon:
Halutz bought the house while his soldiers bought the farm.
Posted by b on August 15, 2006 at 15:39 UTC | Permalink | Comments (24)
Fake Terror
Craig Murray and Christopher Reed are very suspicious about the foiled terror plot in the UK. I personally think the whole thing is fake. Says Murray:
None of the alleged terrorists had made a bomb. None had bought a plane ticket. Many did not even have passports, which given the efficiency of the UK Passport Agency would mean they couldn't be a plane bomber for quite some time.
In the absence of bombs and airline tickets, and in many cases passports, it could be pretty difficult to convince a jury beyond reasonable doubt that individuals intended to go through with suicide bombings, whatever rash stuff they may have bragged in internet chat rooms.
It is another 20 some days until the British police will have to come up with something indictable. Until then the pols and the media can go on to push this particular terror button.
After that, another one will be needed. Any ideas yet?
Posted by b on August 15, 2006 at 13:13 UTC | Permalink | Comments (29)
WB: Your 2006 Hizbullah Cheerleading Squad
Billmon:
Posted by b on August 15, 2006 at 3:54 UTC | Permalink | Comments (25)
State of the IDF
This short Haaretz piece summarizes the current state of the Israeli Defense Force.
"If our fighters deep in Lebanese territory are left without food our water, I believe they can break into local Lebanese stores to solve that problem," Brigadier General Avi Mizrahi, the head of the Israel Defense Forces logistics branch, said Monday.
Mizrahi's comments followed complaints by IDF soldiers regarding the lack of food on the front lines.
"If what they need to do is take water from the stores, they can take," Mizrahi told Army Radio.
According to Mizrahi, the logistics branch is prepared for the possibility that combat soldiers will have to remain in Lebanon during the winter.
IDF general: Troops lacking food can steal from Lebanese stores
Bad moral, unprepared operations, command hybris.
I tend to think of this as the effect of turning away from a socialist Kibbutzim philosophy to a society based on the neoliberal greed idol.
Hat-tip: Cloned Poster
Posted by b on August 14, 2006 at 14:43 UTC | Permalink | Comments (59)
OT 06-77
Other news & views ...
Posted by b on August 14, 2006 at 6:37 UTC | Permalink | Comments (86)
WB: Rootless Cosmopolitans
Billmon:
Posted by b on August 14, 2006 at 5:43 UTC | Permalink | Comments (13)
WB: Who's For Peace II
Billmon:
So, why not march back to the Blue Line, destroying as much of Hizbullah's infrastructure as you can along the way? A glorified search-and-destroy mission, in other words.
Of course, the end of such an operation would return the situation on the ground pretty much to the status quo ante -- which is where I would expect this war to end, given the scale of Israel's military failures.
Posted by b on August 14, 2006 at 5:37 UTC | Permalink | Comments (15)
WB: Listening to Sy
Billmon:
On the other hand, I seriously doubt Cheney and his circle care much about the failure of the bombing-them-into-democracy theory. That's Shrub's bag, not Shotgun Dick's. Whether an aerial assault could actually neutralize Iran's nascent nuclear program may also be irrelevant. The main pupose of destroying Lebanon, as I pointed out awhile back, may have been simply to demonstrate to Tehran the terrible price it will have to pay if it continues to defy the laughably misnamed "international community."
Posted by b on August 14, 2006 at 5:33 UTC | Permalink | Comments (6)
Smart Animals
Israeli newspapers are filled with reports of soldiers complaining about food, water and equipment shortages in southern Lebanon. The military was having so much trouble moving supplies over the rough terrain that it experimented with using llamas as pack animals. The experiment failed when an entire train of llamas sat down on the job, forcing the military unit to abort an expedition, according to several news reports.
WaPo
Smart Animals
Posted by b on August 13, 2006 at 16:46 UTC | Permalink | Comments (25)
WB: A Different Kind of Cluelessness
Billmon:
But having been to Iraq, and gotten a first-hand view of reality, one would think Humphreys would be more than just one step ahead of Paul Wolfowitz by now. That fact that he isn't is a bit of a disappointment. I thought the Marines were a little smarter than that.
Unless, of course, the whole column was strictly tongue in cheek, in which case I apologize to officer Humphreys and take it all back.
Posted by b on August 13, 2006 at 4:54 UTC | Permalink | Comments (64)
WB: Once More Into the Breach +
Billmon:
II. Who's For Peace
---
The point is, the Israelis are either bluffing, in which case they'll huff and puff about having reached the Litani, and then withdraw their forces back behind the Blue Line as soon as they've been given a reasonable fig leaf, or they're creating a situation in which they will be relying on Hizbullah's continued willingness to obey a UN resolution -- despite the IDF's continued presence inside Lebanon -- to avoid a very nasty war of attrition.
Posted by b on August 13, 2006 at 4:44 UTC | Permalink | Comments (12)
Weekend OT
Various news & views ...Posted by b on August 12, 2006 at 7:02 UTC | Permalink | Comments (97)
WB: Kabuki Offensive
Billmon:
There will be hell to pay for this fiasco -- coming as it does on top of Uncle Sam's own murder suicide pact in Iraq. When and where that payment wil be demanded isn't clear yet, but if the past is any guide it will be paid in the blood of the innocent and not the guilty. Condi better swap her forceps for a shovel, because it looks like there's going to be a lot of graves to dig in the "new" Middle East.
Posted by b on August 12, 2006 at 4:50 UTC | Permalink | Comments (22)
TOW - "Manufactured by [...]"
Hizbullah's older anti-tank weapons have been effective against armoured personnel carriers and buildings used by soldiers for shelters. Its newer weapons such as the Russian Kornet and US TOW missiles have been highly effective succeeded in piercing the armour of Israel's main battle tank, the Merkava, reputedly one of the best-defended tanks in the world.
Guardian: Computerised weaponry and high morale
In summer 1985, Michael Ledeen, a consultant of Robert McFarlane, asked Israeli Prime Minister Shimon Peres for help in the sale of arms to Iran. The Israel government required that the sale of arms meet the approval of the United States government, and when it was convinced that the U.S. government approved the sale by Robert McFarlane, Israel obliged by agreeing to sell the arms. In July 1985, Israel sent American-made BGM-71 TOW (Tube-launched, Optically-tracked, Wire-guided) anti-tank missiles to Iran
Wikipedia: Iran-Contra Affair
Our leaders do not see this whole; they see each component as a separate issue. They see that Hezbollah is an Iranian entity. They see Iranian Revolutionary Guards officers at work in Lebanon and Iraq. They know the best weapons in the war come through [...] and in many cases are manufactured by [...]. Any logical person has to conclude that you cannot win this war without defeating [...].
Ledeen: The Thirties All Over Again?
[,,,] = US? Israel? Iran? Syran!
Posted by b on August 11, 2006 at 18:09 UTC | Permalink | Comments (48)
"Very, very close" + WB: Olmert Goes For It
Bernhard:
(original size)
Being "very, very close" to a cease-fire" while launching a new all out attack is beyond my capacity to explain.
But then, what do I know. I am not even a neocon.
---
Billmon:
I dunno, maybe it's another bluff designed to put more pressure on the Lebanese Pierre Laval (as if somehow he could coax a bigger fig leaf out of Sheikh Nasballah.) But hurrying up the offensive to grab a little more yardage before the UN blows the final whistle is a time-honored tradition for the Israelis.
Posted by b on August 11, 2006 at 16:53 UTC | Permalink | Comments (23)