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Post by kungfuzu on Apr 6, 2021 19:19:20 GMT -8
It seems Townhall can still find someone who knows what he is writing about. This article should be mandatory reading for each-and-every American. It points out just how badly led and corrupt our military-industrial-foreign policy-intelligence-financial complex truly is. The piece mentions much of what I have already said, but gets specific as regards our friends in the Hindu Kush. I have known of these problems for decades. Hundreds-of-millions around the world have known, for decades, much of what is written. Only naive' Americans have swallowed the bilge for about 80 years. This illustrates why I hate Neo-Cons with a passion and would like to drop all of them off in an area controlled by ISIS. I would settle for a remote mountain valley in Afghanistan near a Taliban settlement. I would first drop that pig Kagan with the Cheneys and Bushes by some type of tandem parachute. Never-ending wars go on for a reason I could even smack the author, based on the following which he wrote in the article. How could anyone with half a brain believe that we could "institute a western-style democratic government in Kabul?" Or believe "That the mission was noble, righteous and to some extent, achievable?" Does no one read history in America? Has no one from America traveled the world? At least this man appears to have learned he was mistaken in his very silly beliefs. I recall having discussions along these lines during the invasion of Iraq. These got more intense when the idiot Bush appointed that clown Paul Bremer as plenipotentiary in Iraq. A fool who had ZERO experience in the Middle East. Who disbanded the Iraqi Military and thought that would go well. The idea that America could bring democracy to Iraq was almost as insane as believing we could bring it to Afghanistan. Bismarck said "God has a special providence for children, fools, drunkards and the United States of America." It is pretty clear that "the United States of America" is no longer covered by this special providence.
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Post by artraveler on Apr 6, 2021 20:51:27 GMT -8
How could anyone with half a brain believe that we could "institute a western-style democratic government in Kabul?" Or believe "That the mission was noble, righteous and to some extent, achievable?"
In over 1300 years there has never been a consensual government in a Moslem country. There was ample justification for turning Afghanistan into a parking lot in 2001, and even doing the same to Iraq in 91. If Bush the elder had not gone wobbly and stopped the war just as victory was in our hands. I was not alone when I told friends at the O club that we were going to keep fighting this shit until we just stomp them, salt the earth and leave them so afraid of Americans that they piss their pants when an American speaks.
I hand it to the Romans they knew how to defeat enemies that kept poking them, ask the city fathers of Carthage. The Mongols in the 13th century left pyramids of skulls in Bagdad, maybe a little extreme for us but leaving them in the Stone Age would have been a good idea. After all, could thy hate is worse than they do now?
All of our current foreign problems in the ME stem from one demented peanut farmer in Georgia. I could care less what sick form of government its practiced in Iran as long as they keep it in their own border. Invading the American embassy was an act of war and Carter should have treated it that way, gone to congress asked for a formal declaration of war and sent in the B-52s followed by everything in the inventory. He didn't and the opportunity was lost. It was dereliction of duty by the commanding officer and under the UJMC he should have been tried and sent to prison, or hung.
Interestingly, there I less to fault Bill Clinton for in this mess than the Bush's on either side of him. But, Obama makes up for that.
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Post by kungfuzu on Apr 6, 2021 21:08:54 GMT -8
In the mid 1990s, the former Minister of Law in Singapore asked me how Bush could not march into Baghdad and finish the job. I couldn't say much except perhaps he was afraid to leave a power vacuum in Iraq that Iran would fill. Additionally, perhaps he thought Saddam would be overthrown. How this was to happen with Saddam keeping control of the military and the military having the ability to fly helicopters, which gave government troops cover during attempted uprisings by the Marsh Arabs, and others, is hard to imagine. Can you imagine if the USA had created a new "Government of Iraq" and put out a bounty of US$20 million for anyone who brought Saddam to the Americans? It would have saved trillions of dollars and several hundred thousand lives some 12-13 years later. And that is just for starters.
Some say that the photos of the "Highway of Death" caused Bush to stop. If that is true, he should never have gone to war in the Middle East. War should be the absolute last option, but once it is engaged, the enemy should be destroyed or damaged so badly that it could act only as something of a police force.
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Post by kungfuzu on May 17, 2021 18:54:49 GMT -8
Let me remind the reader that I have long warned against the pie-in-the-sky meme that the military is "naturally" conservative. The present administration is fast-tracking the project to turn our military into the Red Army. The link is to a webpage which was started by ex-military types who are not going to lie down and let Biden and his lackey Austin turn our armed services into the Red Army without a fight. No to teaching our warriors critical race theory Here is the latest on the infiltration of our military and what happens to someone who points out what is happening. Lt. Colonel Lohmeier From what I understand, he was on the fast track to a couple of stars on his shoulders, but speaking the truth may cost him those stars.
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Post by artraveler on May 18, 2021 11:54:07 GMT -8
Goes to show the old marine adage, never trust an officer above the rank of captain. Some NCOs draw the line at 1st lt, but that is maybe a little excessive. Goes double for flag rank.
McMaster was a captain when he wrote dereliction of duty about Vietnam. In today's army he would have been purged. It seems the the only difference, at this time, between the red army and the US is we are not executing the officers --yet.
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Post by kungfuzu on May 18, 2021 12:30:04 GMT -8
I heard it a bit differently, i.e. every officer above colonel is a politician.
It sounds like William Tecumseh Sherman agreed with you. Wasn't he the one who said something to the effect that if an army has good sergeants and captains, it is hard for the generals to screw things up.
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Post by kungfuzu on May 20, 2021 11:57:08 GMT -8
An interview with Lt. Col. Lohmeier, the young officer relieved of duty for being a patriot, starts at about the 34:45 point on this video. Lohmeier 1The interview continues another 25 minutes on this video. Lohmeier 2What an impressive young man. As Bannon points out, he was chosen to be one of the future leaders of the Air Force. Already a Lt. Col. at 36 or 37. He confirms what I have always said about the military. They are not "by nature" conservative. They are what the leadership wants to make them and our present leadership is making the U.S. Military the new Red Army. It will be used to control the citizens of America.
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Post by kungfuzu on Jun 9, 2021 17:41:53 GMT -8
Remember my warning about militaries not being "naturally" conservative. I introduce to you...... American Trotsky
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Post by artraveler on Jun 10, 2021 5:16:32 GMT -8
I am a little surprised to see this come down to battalion commander level. However, this is a place where future flag officers careers are chosen. It is also the place where commanders are separated from their troops and seldom know anyone below E-7 NCOs. Once an officer obtains LC or Birds they start thinking about that first star and get corrupted by the "command fever" they lose their common sense that made them effective as leaders. Some recover once they get their first star some never do, Colin Powell is a good example of never recovering.
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Post by kungfuzu on Jul 13, 2021 16:56:23 GMT -8
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Post by artraveler on Jul 13, 2021 17:12:53 GMT -8
Well, when the CCP takes over we can be comforted that the military is gender neutral and non-white. The old Gunny would be sooooooo glad to know that.
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Post by kungfuzu on Jul 14, 2021 10:17:18 GMT -8
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Post by kungfuzu on Jul 18, 2021 21:39:00 GMT -8
For anyone interested in the ongoing story of the F35 and the questionable pronouncements of the American military in general, this is a very interesting article. Swiss buy F35 because in is cheaper to operate than upgraded F18 Leaving out the question of which plane is more effective, the fact that those Swiss accountants' findings directly contradict those of the Pentagon should give one pause. Just another incidence of the corruption of our military-industrial-intelligence-financial-foreign-policy complex.
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Post by kungfuzu on Jul 26, 2021 20:15:18 GMT -8
The decadence of power which permeates our institutions has the military firmly within its grasp. As I have often pointed out, soldiers, sailors and airmen are not "naturally" conservative. What they do "naturally" is take and carry out orders. The USA military is now led by disgusting careerists such as Milley and the ass covered in this piece. Is the general an idiot or a political whore? One thing I have noticed about many of these types is that they didn't attend West Point or the Naval Academy. Contrary to what many seem to believe, I do not believe our military is the crack organization it pretends to be. The problems exemplified by the navy over the last few years are worrying. The fact that we have not defeated a peer power since 1945 is also of concern. Iraqis, ISIS and Afghanis have nothing like the capabilities of a China or a Russia. We are leaving Afghanistan now and the Iraqi president/prime minister just told Biden we are no longer needed there. What has the American public gained from either conflict other than debt? It appears to me that a great number of our leaders are much more interested in their avarice and power than in protecting the USA. In fact, I believe the brass' concentration on CRT as opposed to teaching military basics is due to the fact that the brass and their bosses are transitioning the military (at least the National Guard) into a national police force of some sort. The scandalous occupation of D.C. was just a test run. What might we come up against internationally? Russia, a country with about 140-145 million people and a GNP the size of Texas can produce superb weapons. They appear to be well ahead of the USA as regards hyper-sonic missiles and pretty close as regards aircraft. Su 57
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Post by kungfuzu on Aug 13, 2021 8:23:12 GMT -8
With Afghanistan hurdling into the the hands of our former allies, the Taliban, I think it might be wise to figure out what happened. This is a good short piece on why the USA no longer wins wars. This has been clear for years, but our "brilliant" elites haven't been able to cure their very distorted vision of the world. Of course, I would add the greed factor to the equation. Never-ending wars pay (some people) very well. Better stay at home.
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Brad Nelson
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עַבְדְּךָ֔ אֶת־ הַתְּשׁוּעָ֥ה הַגְּדֹלָ֖ה הַזֹּ֑את
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Post by Brad Nelson on Aug 13, 2021 14:16:17 GMT -8
The university-bred leaders in the military (including their Commander in Chief) were all basted in this “religion of peace” nonsense. They could never really know their enemy.
It’s obvious why the British maintained more than their measure of arrogance. Without a firm us-vs-them outlook, you could (as we did) easily get stuck in the moral quagmire of relativism. Either you believe you have a better way of life or you don’t. And if you do, there is little room for sweet illusions.
In the case of the United States, these leaders might have thought they genuinely had something to offer the goat-fuckers and tribal monsters of Afghanistan. But had they known who these people are (and not believed their own well-perfumed illusions about who they thought they were), they would have known that merely playing “nice” with any and all factions would get them nowhere. And in 20 years of their “nice” sort of occupation, they got nowhere.
Perhaps the British Empire might have transformed the country after a couple hundred years of occupation. But I think that only the Romans could have pacified that place. And it would have taken enormous violence and cruelty to make that happen. And the U.S. military (to some extent, rightly so) would not dispense the necessary means to attain their stated goals in Afghanistan.
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Post by artraveler on Aug 13, 2021 18:51:24 GMT -8
they got nowhere A sad conclusion to the 20 year long adventure. And so predictable. although President Ford was supposedly a Republican the loss of Vietnam was a democrat loss. Ford was merely a place holder until the next general election, hello--peanut brain Jimmy. It seems that every war we get into over the last 60 years or so is a democrat war, and every war we fail to achieve our goals is because of democrats or republican RINOs. It is in my humble opinion long past time for American muscle to make itself known. Perhaps we should just pick some shit hole country that is bothering us and kick the crap out of them every two or three years. After the first two or three times word will get around and we won't need to demonstrate any more. Si vis pacem, para bellum
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Post by kungfuzu on Aug 13, 2021 20:28:06 GMT -8
As I have long said, life and the world is actually full of grays, i.e. almost nothing is black and white. But if one is going to have a functioning society, hell if one is going to have a functional life, one has to determine which gray is closer to white and which is closer to black. Once those determinations are made, once boundaries are set, one has to act accordingly and go on believing, or at least pretending, one is making the correct choices.
We are seeing the insanity growing around us which results from no boundaries, no blacks or whites, all grays. Chaos. From that chaos, I assure you an implacable tyranny is already forming. When people do not have common beliefs, common customs, common morals, family or religion, they have no common civilization and without a common civilization without a group developed around strong emotional and tribal ties, the individual is prey to the most immoral and strongest i.e. the rule of intelligent violent psychopaths.
This is what the idiot libertarians are in for. I wouldn't mind it if they were the only ones to reap what they have sown, but I resent the hell out of the fact that the rest of us will also be subjected to this coming torment.
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Brad Nelson
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עַבְדְּךָ֔ אֶת־ הַתְּשׁוּעָ֥ה הַגְּדֹלָ֖ה הַזֹּ֑את
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Post by Brad Nelson on Aug 14, 2021 6:41:12 GMT -8
Artler couldn’t have said it better himself. That’s not the way that Madison would have put it in The Federalist Papers. But that’s the essence of it. When we say “restraints on government” we certainly mean to include restraints on the strong pull of various societal psychopaths — as well as governmental nannies and just the outright corrupt. If you were sitting around a pub with James, I’m sure he would nod his head in agreement if you used the word, “psychopath.” Now, I’m not entirely sure that Artler would have said this himself. We conservatives have basically financed our own demise by spending thousands to send our sons, and particularly our daughters, to public schools and then “higher” education. A right-winger living in a glass house can’t afford to throw stones. But there is no doubt that Libertarianism has provided zero resistance to the growth of the nanny state. If you had set off to politically emasculate a population, pot (Soma) would be an ideal ingredient. Throw in support for illegal immigration and you have the required mix for societal destruction.
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Brad Nelson
Administrator
עַבְדְּךָ֔ אֶת־ הַתְּשׁוּעָ֥ה הַגְּדֹלָ֖ה הַזֹּ֑את
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Post by Brad Nelson on Aug 14, 2021 7:16:09 GMT -8
Pat Buchanan had a decent enough article about Afghanistan the other day.
But the general attitude of what I’ve read elsewhere is “We’ve been in Afghanistan for 20 years, and what a waste.” It is indeed a waste. But the twenty years itself is but a blink of an eye. After over 70 years, we’re still in Germany, Japan, and Italy,
Both Japan and Germany engaged in particularly monstrous behavior. The societies went mad. But Germany is the land of Beethoven. Japan has other similar attributes. These places were long the home of high civilization. American occupation in these lands would have been as fruitless as their time in Afghanistan had this not been the case.
Afghanistan, on the other hand, is a degraded, tribal, and primitive place. To the extent there is coherence it is in the shared beliefs in the Nazi-like system of Islam. The only way to turn Afghanistan into a modern Western republic is to get rid of the Afghanis — or, as Ann Coulter once quipped, convert them all to Christianity.
These simple (and, to me, obvious) truths were never met head-on (at least publicly) by those in charge. George W. Bush set the tone when he referred to Islam as “a religion of peace.” That then exempted any kind of rational dealing with these primitive people in a primitive land, no matter how much time, money, and blood was spent.
These same self-serving illusions govern our attitudes toward illegal aliens, vagrants-&-bums, homosexuality, and Marxism itself. Progressivism (Communism) has its hard side. But it is, at heart, a system of naive illusions. And we see how deeply this mode of thought has infected the American military.
China certainly is aware of this.
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