Jihad is Forever

Wretchard at the Belmont Club waxes eloquent, as usual.

"It is mostly a matter of wills. Whose will is going to break first? Ours or the enemy's?" ... Mattis, who led the Marines in the invasion of Afghanistan in 2001 and led the 1st Marine Division in the invasion of Iraq and march to Baghdad in early 2003, said he was once asked by an Iraqi when he would leave that country. "I said I am never going to leave. I told him I had found a little piece of property down on the Euphrates River and I was going to have a retirement home built there. I did that because I wanted to disabuse him of any sense that he could wait me out. ... Wars like this are winnable but you have got to have a sophisticated approach and you've got to have very sturdy and spiritually sturdy Marines who can keep their balance in the face of an extremely complex fight. It's not a small issue to wave to kids after just seeing your buddies blown up, but that shows on the most pedestrian level the kind of sturdiness that is needed in what is just a morally bruising environment where the enemy hides among the people."
[…]
"The offensive is planned in stages and is designed to avoid an all-out attack. In the first phase, launched July 9, Iraqi security forces positioned checkpoints throughout the city. In the second phase, launched last week, Iraqi forces supported by U.S. troops began isolating and clearing parts of the city block by block. Iraqi security forces will remain to provide security once areas are cleared. When areas are stable, the government will bring economic assistance into blighted neighborhoods." This strategy is essentially what the Marines call the "3 Block War." ...

It is ironic that such determination and patience is the very thing attributed to our enemies. But whereas hatred and cunning retribution for perceived ills can last centuries, the same can be said for the enduring fortitude necessary to build advanced civilizations. Who will out last the other in the end will come down to whether the tenders of civilization realize that no more progress can be made without a giant leap back into the fray of unmitigated warfare.

The 3 Block tactic sounds akin to the surveyor laying down points to define a region, a clearing and grading of the ground, and finally a reconstruction. It also suggests a poignantly new approach to warfare, in that it starts first with a multinational force, introduces indigenous security, then, hopefully, leaves. Forward together, successful or not, offers a way forward that is an optimistic alternative to the apocalyptic options that we have had to choose from.

About Iran,
A man who has threatened to kill me may demand security guarantees, but I would offer him none. If he were to bear arms due to the intransigence of my position then I would see to it that he never had the opportunity to use said arms.

I think it reasonable to assume that Iran, flush with oil money and a successful succession of mullah after mullah, has thought long and hard about its stated goal of bringing “Death to America”. They have had 20 years to evolve their doctrine, to apply it to its corp and to develop it covertly in its inexhaustible foreign services. Any man willing to accept the worse will exploit the best of possibilities. I wouldn’t tread lightly with Iran, I would instead, tread most heavily.

Ash derides,
annoy mouse, your response is basically what that article in the Asia Times alleges; the Bush admin. is just playing at negotiating and it simply wants to go to war.

Annoy Mouse rejoins,
I find it difficult to believe that the administration “simply wants to go to war”. On one hand they’d be pilloried for not negotiating in the international arena and on the other, they are accused of “just playing at negotiating”. You can be credited with being consistent with your ideological positions Ash. It sound like a damned if you don’t, damned if you do proposition as always. This is where ideology becomes nettlesome because there is only strife and never the possibility of a mediated outcome, just bad verses bad.

My personal thoughts on Iran are that war with Iran would be horrible and an almost certain harbinger of WWIV. My personal thoughts continued, is that with enemies of humanity like you in the world, Ash, that WWIV is as inevitable as your weather beaten rejoinders.

Until then, “walk softly and carry a big stick”.

Ash continues,
Annoy Mouse, I am not necessarily supporting the Asia Times position that Bush and crew want to go to war with Iran but I am curious as to what the problems with the US offering Iran security guarantees. The Asia Times article may be wrong in that security guarantees have indeed been offerred. My understanding is that they haven't been and, again, why not? Annoy mouse, your response was
"A man who has threatened to kill me may demand security guarantees, but I would offer him none. If he were to bear arms due to the intransigence of my position then I would see to it that he never had the opportunity to use said arms."

which is basically, "nope, no security guarantee, time for war".

Why not skip the war part and tell them we won't invade in return they halt nuke development (paraphrasing more detailed language).

Annoy Mouse again,
Ash, honestly, if it is as simple as that, I would be all for it. But I honestly don’t believe that the mullahs have the least fear that we’d invade them. Not with the poison pill that they’d conjure up. The argument is a straw man at best. Should we be content that though they open each parliamentary session with chants to “death to America!” that we can take solace in their heart felt assurances that they do not seek weapons of mass destruction? I lament proliferation to the point where Pakistan and India possess such terrible powers, but, that said, they have not proven to be such a destabilizing power as Iran has. And, are you to say that since the U.S., who has not used nuclear weapons for over sixty years, has these weapons, that the world would be a safer place if everyone had them? I suspect that you and Madeleine Albright would agree on such matters. The United States earned the right to nuclear weapons because we invented them in the pursuit of world peace. Can Iran say as much?

Then again again,
The issue, Ash, is what are we willing to negotiate away to the mullahs in order to guarantee that they do not pursue nuclear weapons. A sticking point, nuclear fuel cycle, it is rather ambitious for a country without a nuclear generating capacity to worry about such things, particularly with Russia offering to co-generate fuel. It is a transparent ruse playing on the ignorance of Middle Eastern pride that the Iranians need such things. It is also a vital component to nuclear weapon production and therefore something that the ambitious Iranians will not consider to drop. The mullahs have said point blank, “it is a non-negotiable right” to refine uranium. What more could diplomacy hope to achieve? I hope, for the sake of the world, that we can find allies in the cause of world peace and apply effective sanctions to cool Iran’s jets. Seems that the Chinese will then have an opportunity to violate it visa vie the Oil for Food method. It is not war mongering that “it is a non-negotiable right” to protect the earth whether you’re on the bus or not.

Duty of the Damned

They say that those who live in glass houses should not throw stones. Conversely one may reason that those who live in the hard scrabble of dirt and gravel have no such misgivings.

We Westerners live astride the glass edifices of our mighty dollar. Daily those entrusted with the protection of our infrastructure and our lives star in exposes that showcase our most critical vulnerabilities. They stand next to the optimum point of ignition, note the weak link blithely and tell us they’d protect it, if only they had more money. As it stands they are not authorized to work overtime so they leave the camera crew panning across the myriad gas works and trundle on home to tell their wives and children how America is lost without them.

Through the insights gained by Stephen Vincent, Michael Yon, and Bill Roggio, we see a brave American soldier in the nitty-gritty action of urban clear and hold operations. We have seen the full circle of violence as volatile combatants are captured only to be released by the “criminal” courts who let the Jihadists return to the battlefield to kill again. Once again it would appear that the legalistic framework that has evolved in the “enlightened” West has hamstrung our abilities to fight and wage wars. We fight an enemy state whose strict codes calls for the literal translation of “an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth”. They righteously hang 14 year olds for the crime of being a rape victim. They publicly behead the Saudi princess on the steps of a public administration building. They are proud too that they have the will to such barbarity. It is these strengths of belief by which the West will fall and many a by-stander will exclaim; “If we were to sink to their level, we’ve already lost”. But we sink nonetheless for those whose level we dare not sink to, they are ascendant, and their ways will become the universal way if we do not fight them, where ever the battle may take us. Into the depths of human depravity we must go and go with a purpose. To follow the Devil into his own rat hole, into the infernal nightmare, so that we can again lock the door and ignite the fires that keep the evil one incarcerated for a little longer. Endure the malaise of reciprocity in order to return to the world of light. To cast off the memories of demons and to lay a kiss unto the sleeping innocents who quietly slumber away while the warriors toil in their damning duty.

Buy Danish Ham

Islamists compete to see God’s will carried out and so have a single unifying principle under which to act. Westerners have been mau-mauing one another to be culturally sensitive to others while pointing out that our own societal codes of morality are mere constructs of ancient religious leadership and control. We have lulled ourselves into moral ambiguity out of lethargy of principles and a disdain for confrontation, we are willing to fallback on our beliefs. We are open to competing interests and this is an attribute that our enemies will not suffer in themselves. We need to stop apologizing for being ourselves and reclaim the mantel of God’s glory, be it a religious one or a more existential and enlightened one. In a free market of ideas we must learn to promote those whom we share ideologies and be willing as consumers to punish those with whom we share no communal destiny.

Buy Danish ham. Don’t buy Mid Eastern oil. Buy Czechoslovakian beer. Don’t buy Chinese goods made from slave labor. Better yet, don’t buy body parts made from Chinese slaves.

Across the Corpus Divide

The artificial separation between East and West that was upheld during the Cold War has collapsed and the commonalities that existed as being on either team East or team West have collapsed along with it. The centrist plank of the Democratic party found companionship with the centrist plank of the Republican party and the strength that this collaboration held the extremes of both parties at bay.

Now that this artificial war has gone to the wayside for now, it is clear that what remains of the Cold War is now being waged in the right and left hemispheres of the mind. The common foe gone, the warring factions are once again at each others throats and into this fray comes the accession of the Global Jihad. The battle between right and left has been engaged and it is clear that the extremes of both sides, Pat Buchanan and Noam Chomsky believe that the interloper in this conflict, radical Islam, is either a paranoid construct of the other side or just desserts for meddling in world affairs, sprinkled in with an unhealthy alliance with the state of Israel.

We are faulted that we think that we are in league with all nations in a world-wide bazaar where producers bring goods and services according to their ability and this market theory does not mesh with other cultural models of the world. In his book, “The Lexus and the Olive Tree”, Thomas Friedman makes the case that the nations of the world would adopt open systems and institute transparency or, as Friedman states, put on a “Golden Straight Jacket”. But it is clear that while some democracies may acquiesce to this model, others will not.

I recently read a paper by Bruno Latour that asked the question whether civilization was in a process of “Progress or Entanglement?”, and it begs the question as the world shrinks are we becoming more aligned in our system of beliefs or are conflicting heterogeneous systems being collided together in a way that will only end in strife and war?

The Problem with Nukes

The problem with nukes is they make the perfect suicide bomb.

They really can get the job done for genocide also and the option must be left on the table. You may not care if your neighbor wants to kill me but you might if I promise to obliterate you if you let him pull it off.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Herman_Kahn

My comments regarding nuclear weapons has been driven by the nagging feeling that with the apocalyptic mission of Tehran and other Islamic dooms-dayer’s, that it is a forgone conclusion that we will have to fight a war with them.

I also believe that if such could be forced to happen, the fortunes of the United States will be changed forever. What little good will the US holds and international leadership in so many nooks and crannies in Eastern Europe and other bastions of anti-communism will be once and for all squandered and the tensions between us and Russia, China, North Korea, France, Germany, and even Britain will become untenable.

We are being nudged into a position that our inevitable response will draw scorn just as the Israeli’s have been painted an international pariah.

The conflict in Lebanon rages on and Hezbollah’s refusal to accept the peace fire agreement that has been proffered on the Lebanese governments behalf suggest that the tenuous peace that has existed in that country is about to dissolve into the constituent components that it always was, a diverse Diaspora of ethnicities and religions caught up in the conflict of a world wide religious cult hell bent on the total world domination or total world destruction on the unwavering faith that God wants the religion of Islam to be the one world religion or wants the destruction of all. That is some religion of peace.

Still doing victory laps?

Looking at the campaigns in Europe and the in the Pacific, I wonder if there were those that expected somehow that greater more decisive progress could have been made. Why Tarawa, why Iwo Jima? Isn’t the fight with mainland Japan? But in the end the war came to what looked like a decisive end because of big bangs one and two and yet the post war period was not without it’s difficulties and calamities. The Soviets fullfulling their pledge to attack Japan within three months from the end of the war in Europe attacked the IJA in Manchuria and later occupied Northern Korea. Not the exact outcome we were looking for but and expedient of the time. As long as we are reactants in the larger chemistry of the world it is unreasonable to demand perfection of action, reaction, or non-action.

A journey of a thousand miles begins with the first step, and a long war is comprised of many skirmishes and battles. In the post industrial world it seems unlikely that total war will be waged by any industrialized nation, particularly when it is trade and commerce that allows those societies the necessary wealth to wage war. Our adversaries have religious zeal and abject resignation to the futility of the future. They harbor the suicidal dream that they are heroes in their death and their leaders foster that illusion. We need to try harder to disabuse them of such apocalyptic fantasies and I believe that the West, as pervasive as it is, has time on its side. I have recently witnessed a crusty redneck Vietnam vet and a Vietnamese refugee, both alternately rib one another with racist stereotypes, and bond with what could only be mutual respect. There is first a tenuous peace, a period of ridicule, and then a longer period of acceptance. Welcome to Americanization. This is a process favored by time and I don’t think that this is an event that could have happened twenty years ago. Alas, twenty years ago we’d of said that our cultures are too diverse to ever find common cause. Several years ago in the wake of Rodney King and the O.J Simpson debacle I found myself drifting from and becoming more distant to my African American friends but after 9/11 I have gotten the strongest feeling that when the sh!t hits the fan, they got my back. Only time can create such bonds. Conflict is creating more Jihadi’s granted, but whether it is evident or not, I believe that it is making stronger Americans as well. The world isn’t so polarized that it is impervious to reciprocity and if we can somehow find a way to diminish the effectiveness of the Madrassas of Jihad and their counterpart in the Liberal universities we can shorten this war, stem the fountain head of its fuel, and reduce the overall casualty count and the pain that future generation will feel.

War and Diplomacy

I like the IDF strategy if it is really a strategy. Consider that maneuver warfare requires some geography over which to operate. The Hezbollah is deeply embedded into a tightly packed populace so they can melt away only to later threaten the IDF’s rear and logistic supply. Territory fought in an advance certainly would have to be re-won in a retreat. The Hezbollah is bleeding the IDF by a thousand cuts and maintaining its cover when it is time to cut and run. The IDF can maneuver up to Hezbollah’s positions of strength, call in air cover, artillery, and make incursions at will. The best way for the IDF to maintain a semblance of momentum while implementing maneuver warfare doctrine in such a small territory is to insert, engage, and redeploy back to fall back positions when the enemy has melted into the populous. Surveil all movements when disengaging and attack new positions or old ones based on updated intel. Use the tactic with an over all strategy of acquiescing in principle with diplomatic demarches. Give it a go to comply. Let Hezbollah reestablish positions and continue the assault.

Engage-disengage is maneuver warfare in tight spaces or the proverbial knife fight in a phone booth.

Israel, a nation surrounded by enemies, has an innate ability to hold secrets and to therefore surprise and to perplex their enemies. The United States, a nation that is comprised of enemies, couldn’t keep NSA anti-terrorist wiretaps secret. We need to publish our war plan in the NYT and if Patrick Schroeder doesn’t approve it, certainly Hillary will demand that she get a chance to rearrange the set pieces in a manner that her superior sensibility would allow. Democrats would be the first to launch a full scale invasion.

Seems we need to define victory. For Islamists, death is a second victory. For the forces of the West, death of Islamists’ is considered victory. See, we can agree on something.


Sonspot says:
What the IDF may be doing reminds me of when I was a kid and our house had this roach problem. In the days before cable TV I had alot of fun killing roaches, but could only kill them by surprise before they could scurry off. When this would happen, I would simply turn off the lights and leave the room for 15 minutes. When I came back they would all be out again.

I killed alot of roaches that way.

I like the roaches analogy. I think that is it. A roaches little brain uses cunning and stealth to attrit its enemies. A nine year old with a light switch can control the battle space by keeping the insect OpFor off guard. Now imagine instead of a light switch an unseen UAV overhead with see in the dark capability. That’s the way I see it.


I like the roach analogy the more I think about it. The verminous roaches, like Hezbollah, in the end, will inherit the earth we are told, but DOW chemical begs to differ.

Call Me Israel

Aristides conjures the words of Melville;

From Moby Dick, on Ahab:

There was an infinity of firmest fortitude, a determinate, unsurrenderable wilfulness, in the fixed and fearless, forward dedication of that glance. Not a word he spoke; nor did his officers say aught to him; though by all their minutest gestures and expressions, they plainly showed the uneasy, if not painful, consciousness of being under a troubled master-eye. And not only that, but moody stricken Ahab stood before them with a crucifixion in his face; in all the meaningless regal overbearing dignity of some mighty woe.

And, a little later:

There is no life in thee, now, except that rocking life imparted by a gentle rolling ship; by her, borrowed from the sea, by the sea, from the inscrutable tides of God. But while this sleep, this dream is on ye, move your foot or hand an inch; slip your hold at all, and your identity comes back in horror. Over Descartian vortices you hover. And perhaps, at midday, in the fairest weather, with one half-throttled shriek you drop through that transparent air into the summer sea, no more to rise for ever. Heed it well, ye Pantheists!

That, my friends, is nonpareil.

Annoy Mouse waxes poetic:
I no longer see God in the face of others, for He has slipped under the sinewy blue ribbons of the sky and has arisen again unto the commodious depth to say that he is neither you nor I. The pantheon is but the reflection of the broken mirror cast upon the shards of that shattered sea.

A Lebanese Point of View

"In fact, our country had become an extension of Iran, and our so-called political power also served as a political and military cover for the Islamists of Teheran. We suddenly discovered that Teheran had stocked more than 12,000 missiles, of all types and calibers, on our territory and that they had patiently, systematically, organized a suppletive force, with the help of the Syrians, that took over, day after day, all the rooms in the House of Lebanon. Just imagine it : we stock ground-to-ground missiles, Zilzals, on our territory and that the firing of such devices without our knowledge, has the power to spark a regional strategic conflict and, potentially, bring about the annihilation of Lebanon.
{...}
Lebanon a victim? What a joke!

Before the Israeli attack, Lebanon no longer existed, it was no more than a hologram. At Beirut innocent citizens like myself were forbidden access to certain areas of their own capital. But our police, our army and our judges were also excluded. That was the case, for example, of Hezbollah’s and the Syrians’ command zone in the Haret Hreik quarter (in red on the satellite map). A square measuring a kilometer wide, a capital within the capital, permanently guarded by a Horla army [1], possessing its own institutions, its schools, its crèches, its tribunals, its radio, its television and, above all… its government. A “government” that, alone decided, in the place of the figureheads of the Lebanese government – in which Hezbollah also had its ministers! – to attack a neighboring state, with which we had no substantial or grounded quarrel, and to plunge US into a bloody conflict."

No Pasaran!

If They Believe I Believe

"Soon shall We cast terror into the hearts of the Unbelievers, for that they joined companions with Allah, for which He had sent no authority: their abode will be the Fire: And evil is the home of the wrong-doers!"

“President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said Wednesday that Israel is a "disgraceful blot" that should be "wiped off the map," prompting international condemnation and an Israeli demand Iran be expelled from the United Nations.”
ABC News

If they say they believe it, I believe they believe it. So is suicide the best way to avoid genocide? I don't plan on finding out. We must root out the enemy, foreign and domestic and put an end to this madness. Words mean things and if someone threatens to kill you you will only be safe when you beat them to it.
...
If I was a recidivist child molester and lived next door to your trailer home and told everyone in the neighborhood that I was going to bugger your children and then hide the evidence in a swamp would you believe me? Do you just hate white trailer trash or do you think that camel jockeys are too stupid to be taken seriously?

What is Gen•o•cide?

gen•o•cide:
The systematic and planned extermination of an entire national, racial, political, or ethnic group.

“As a devout Shiite Muslim, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is telling colleagues in Tehran that he believes the end of the world is rapidly approaching. He also believes that the way to hasten the coming of the Islamic Messiah known as the “Hidden Imam” or the “Mahdi” is to launch a catastrophic global jihad, first against Israel (the “little Satan”) and then against the U.S. (the “Great Satan”).”


“Ahmadinejad gave a speech vowing to wipe Israel “off the map” forever.”

I can believe that Ash is mollycoddling murderous tyrants who, unlike a bunch of Belmont Club gadflies, actually is a head of state and is capable of delivering what he promises.

“Iran signed a $1 billion deal with Russia to buy missiles and others weapons.”

Pork Lips Now

I am amazed that anyone would be so amazed.

Give Tyranny a Chance

Raúl: an assassin and international terrorist who made a fortune from the illegal sale of arms, drugs, and human beings.

Give ‘em What They Want

Mutually Assured Destruction doesn’t work if they think you’re too much of a pussy to use them. Iran wants nukes? Let’s give them to them. We need to put the deterrence back in MAD and AhMADinejad should be in the center of the world’s largest ground zero. Let the region be a hot zone. The US can best exploit its oil fields robotically if it is truly a “no-mans” land.

Bigger Than the State

"The crux of the problem in Lebanon is that a political movement became bigger than the state – not far behind a state takeover in the manner of the Taliban in Afghanistan before 2001. The same syndrome – a perceived lack of legitimacy of governments that are being challenged by armed political movements – can be seen in many Arab and Muslim states. The challenge today is therefore not just to achieve a ceasefire and a sustainable solution in Lebanon, but to secure a more comprehensive framework for peace in the Middle East that prevents the “Lebanon syndrome” from spreading throughout the region. Otherwise, there will be many Lebanons. Across the Muslim world, a civil war is raging between Islamic groups such as Hizbollah and modern states; between fundamentalists and moderates. The movements’ strategy to undermine ruling elites has been to confront the outside world, especially America and Israel. Their message is that movements can do what states failed to do, and can restore the honour that governments have squandered.

http://corner.nationalreview.com/

CAIR Cares

"The American Muslim community has always been dedicated to the protection of our national security. It is also important that our fellow Americans understand that Muslims are law-abiding citizens who should not be targeted or singled out because of their faith or national origin.

"We have been contacted by federal law enforcement authorities who are taking steps to ensure that there is no backlash against the American Muslim community. We commend them for their pro-active efforts. We ask local Muslim communities to step up security measures at mosques and other Islamic institutions. We also urge local law enforcement agencies to coordinate with Muslim leaders to deter hate crimes.

"It is important, based on past counterterrorism cases that did not lead to terror convictions, that we withhold judgment until all the facts of this case come to light. We also ask public officials and commentators to avoid using stereotypical and ill-defined terminology when referring to this and similar cases.

"As the largest American Muslim civil rights and advocacy group, it is our religious and civic duty to reach out to all Americans to reaffirm Islam's teachings of peace, justice and tolerance for all."

http://www.cair.com/

We really need to understand these poor misunderstood people better.

Central Angency IRan?

Our Enemies Clothes

The thread of Islamic extremism is woven fine with what seems the mysterious sinews best known for the seams of the kings new clothes, bared by all who could see beyond the pall of reinforced reasoning. Listen well and the poets of the funny pages will muse us into a comfortable slumber. Sleep my pretties. Darkness awaits and your dreams will carry you like a carpet in a sand storm away back to the future of your just aspirations. Daddy can’t hurt you anymore. The courts have staid his steady hand and mommy loves you. No harm can come to you because you only reap what you sow and so you know you only get what you deserve and daddies gettin’ burned for being unnerved.

Take Your Pick

Radical Islam has an ideological backbone similar to communism that appeals to the disaffected and can win over mass populations like Ho Chi Min, Mao Tse-Tung, and Vladimir Lenin did.

Civilian casualties have occurred in past wars but for committing acts of sedition, militant pacifists dared not over play their cards. Now two-bit losers like Cindy Sheehan are media stars.

The Kabuki Theater of the Arab street is enough to enflame militant America haters in Germany and endears them to such fascist propaganda as goose-stepping parades over American flags. It boils down to genocide has gotten a bad rap but those who have the guts to wield it will rule the world. Kill all the Jews in the Middle East and wait a decade, then kill all the Jews in Europe, and wait another decade and kill the rest of the Jews in America. Meanwhile American Jews will be trying to impeach Bush and kill the rest of the infidels by dragging them to court and executing them in the media.

In the end a lot of killing is going to go on and we as individuals need to decide what side of the ledger we would like to be on. Ideological pacifists enslaved to a murderous cult, or warriors, bloodied by a zeal for peace and freedom. When WWIV hits, do we pull together or do we have to pull apart Cindy Sheehan and all her militant pacifists?

I have had it with the MSM pro-fascist propaganda machine. The control system has gone open-loop and we are now spiraling to certain disaster. The Germans hate us existentially. The French are not our friends. Britain is embarrassed by us. Why do we look for Europe’s approval for anything? Global Caliphate, global trade, or global thermonuclear war. Take your pick.