This is NOT good

Russian troops are apparently moving into the Crimea, though thus far, I've only seen this on Fox News.  I don't see anything on CNN, MSNBC, CBC or the BBC, at least not yet.  If it is true, it is ominous and shows that the Russians are indeed intent on reviving their empire, and note how they waited until after the Olympics to make their move.  Unfortunately, I don't think that there's a damned thing that the West in general and the United States can do to stop them............and the Russians are fully aware of that fact.  Russia will take whatever it wants of the Ukraine, if not the entire country.  Certainly, the EU won't do anything, given that it is dependent on Russian gas to heat the continent in the winter.  Hope that the Ukrainians enjoyed their brief 20 years of independence, because I have a hunch that those are about to come to an end................

BDS moves east

BDS sufferers number in the millions here in the U.S., and Europe has more than its share of them as well. Now, you can add Russia's Prime Minister, Vladimir Putin, to the list: http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/europe/article4628711.ece. Apparently, George W. Bush is SOOOO powerful that he orchestrated the whole Russia-Georgia conflict just to guarantee that John McCain would win the White the Presidency in November. Really!

You want to know the really scary thing about this claim? The left in this country will believe it completely.

Nothing if not brazen

I'll give the Russians credit--they're not backing down one bit in the PR war over their invasion of Georgia: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB121919150258855111.html?mod=djemEditorialPage. So much of the Russian position is foolishness, of course, but to the useful idiots here in the West, these are words from heaven. I just read a letter to the editor in today's Philadelphia Inquirer parroting the typical leftist tripe that the United States has no right to comment about what is going on Georgia because of "what we did to Iraq", blah, blah, blah. As if deposing a genocidal maniac like Saddam Hussein is morally equivalent to a totalitarian state brazenly occupying a neighbouring democracy. Such is the left's thinking, however............

Europe/NATO caves

I'll give the U.S. credit--it actually wants to do something about the Russian rape of Georgia. Not so with Europe, which has unequivocally rejected a severing of the NATO/Russian ties: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/georgia/2585060/US-left-isolated-over-Nato-plans-to-maintain-relations-with-Russia.html.

I think that we have our definitive proof that NATO is now useless. Even the Brits are turnign their backs on us (and on the Georgians, and the Russians recognize that fact: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/georgia/2586051/Nato-offers-scant-comfort-for-Georgia-over-conflict-with-Russia.html.

What we should but will never do

There is a great piece in today's Wall Street Journal on how NATO should respond to the Russian takeover of Georgia: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB121900703869747813.html?mod=djemEditorialPage. Sadly, NATO will never do any of these things. In fact, it won't do anything at all, nor will the West beyond engaging in some empty rhetoric. We SHOULD cut off ties between NATO and Russia. We won't. We SHOULD kick Russia out of the G8. We won't. We SHOULD kick Russia out of the WTO. We won't do that, either.

The precedent is now set. Get ready, Azerbaijan. You're likely the next target on Vladimir Putin's hit list.

There they go again...........

........those pesky Jews--I mean, NEOCONS. Robert Scheer, who was so unhinged that even the Los Angeles Times couldn't take his deranged rantings, firing him in 2005, continues to write for the San Francisco Chronicle, and shockingly, he is blaming those nefarious Neocons for the Russian rape of Georgia: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2008/08/13/EDCD129NI4.DTL.

I know that it's too much to expect angry leties to be rational, but are they so myopic that they think EVERYTHING in the world is driven by American politics?

A criticism of Israel

I know that Israel is in a very tenuous position when it comes to the Russian invasion of Georgia: http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1218446176372&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull. On one hand, it has long had friendly relations with Georgia, and has sold arms to it in the past. On the other, it needs all the friends it can get on the Security Council, and with the Russians contemplating the sale of highly advanced military technology to Irand and Syria, the thinking in Israel goes that maybe the Russians will remember the Israeli "balance" in discussing the war.

Well, that's bull, in my mind. First of all, the Russians ARE going to sell the weapons systems to the Iranians and Syrians. They may not do it immediately or publicly, but they will do it. Second, the Russians are and will continue to be pro-Palestinian. Israel's abandonment of its friend will have obtained nothing for the Jewish state, and Israel's leaders should be mindful of the fact that when one abandons one's friends for political expedience, a similar fate might await it.

Georgia on my mind

Russia's offensive against Georgia, ostensibly over the "rights" of the breakaway Georgian province of South Ossetia, continues unabated, despite worldwide pleas for a ceasefire: http://www.philly.com/inquirer/front_page/20080811_Analysis__U_S__has_few_moves_against_Russia_.html. I used the word "rights" because I think that Russia is trying to make a much bigger point than just that it cares about Russian natives in South Ossetia. It is telling everyone of those "breakaway republics" that were part of the old Soviet Union that they're really not very safe, and that if they think that NATO is going to come to their rescue, they are sadly mistaken. No one had any illusions that the Georgian military would be able to provide much of an opposition to the Russian army, including I am certain the Georgians (hence their desire to join NATO). So, the messages here are for the Ukraine, the Baltic states, etc.: 1) Tow Moscow's line or face the consequences; 2) Don't count on help from the United States or NATO. They are paper tigers. You can be sure that those messages are being heard loud and clear in Tbilisi today, whose President, Mikhail Saakashvili, writes despondently in today's Wall Street Journal of what Russia is doing to his country: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB121841306186328421.html?mod=djemEditorialPage.

Oh, boy

Don't think that the war in Georgia and South Ossetia can't get bigger. MUCH bigger: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/georgia_south_ossetia. Russia is being very clever about this. With the world completely distracted by problems elsewhere in the world and the Olympic Games, this is the perfect time for the Russians to crush their obstreporous former republic. And, make no mistake, the Russians aren't bothered by niceties such as the Geneva Convention, Miranda Rights, Due Process, etc. They WILL crush the Georgians.

Here's where a lot of that oil money is going

I previously blogged about the dangers that our oil dependency posed to us. First and foremost is that we are directly funding nations and regimes whose interests are directly antithetical to ours. They use the money from that oil revenue to buy arms which are used against our troops or our allies. They also fund "Middle East Studies Programs", which by and large are nothing but anti-American, anti-Israel and/or anti-Semitic think tanks: http://globalpolitician.com/articledes.asp?ID=3622&cid=1&sid=103.

Honestly, do we need any more reasons than what I have listed above to justify finding another way to fuel our cars, planes, homes, etc.?

Do we want to win?

One question that has been vexing me of late has been the question of whether we really want to win the wars we are fighting, be they in Afghanistan, Iraq, the mythical "War on Terror", etc., and it appears as though I am not the only one pondering this issue: http://www.opinionjournal.com/columnists/bstephens/?id=110010827.

Honestly, I do believe that we need to ask ourselves if we are committed to winning these battles. It's only the occasional crank or historical revisionist who questions the tactics employed by the Allies in fighting the Germans, Italians and Japanese in World War II. Yet, there is no ignoring the fact that in that war, the Allies (who supposedly held the "moral high ground") killed tens of thousands of civilians. And you know what? Horrible as it may sound, I don't have a problem with it. Wars can't and don't end in ties. They are either won or lost. It seems to me as though either FDR or Sir Winston Churchill would have sneered with contempt at the way we are fighting our wars now. They have become politically correct exercises in which the "rights" of those who we are fighting are of much greater concern to our media and the chattering elites than are the lives of American servicemen and women (except where the numbers of those U.S. casualties can be used as a P.R. weapon against an Administration that same media and those elites despise).

Further, I place much of the blame for this lack of will to win squarely at the feet of President George W. Bush. Yes, our descent into P.C. warfare began long ago, but I keep hearkening back to his instruction to the American public after 9/11: "Just keep shopping". Pay no mind to the smoking wreckage of the Twin Towers or the disfigured Pentagon. Just keep shopping. Don't worry about sacrifice or inconvenience; just keep shopping. How can we fight a war to win when for the most part we don't even know that we're in a war?

Just keep shopping........................

We Jews are UNITERS!!

How do I know this? Because only Israel could bring together Sunni Islamofascists, Shiite Islamofascists and Lebanese Christians (!!) under the umbrella of Hezbollah, as the terrorist state within a state prepares for the next, inevitable war with Israel: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2007/11/01/MNOISNC32.DTL&hw=Israel&sn=003&sc=697. I can sort of understand Sunni and Shiite interests here; after all, the one thing they hate more than each other is Israel. But, the Christians? What are they getting out of this?

UPDATE (2:45 p.m.): Thanks to reader Asher Abrams who in the comments section provided me with a link to a Lebanese blogger who with some conviction says that the article I quoted above is, to put it mildly, full of you-kn0w-what: http://beirut2bayside.blogspot.com/2007/11/dilettante-journalism.html.

I'll keep following this story, because what the San Francisco Chronicle reported as fact may very well not be the case.

The massacre that never was

As more and more comes out about what actually occurred at Haditha, it is becoming apparent that there was no wanton massacre of civilians there, as Time alleged had occurred, and as certain Democratic congressmen bombastically proclaimed: http://www.opinionjournal.com/editorial/feature.html?id=110010752.

The accusation that a war crime has occurred is about as serious as it gets. It is not a charge that should be levelled without knowing all of the facts, or for political purposes. Yet, it seems as thought that is exactly what has occurred here...........

But they support the troops!

According to a new poll, one in five Democrats think that it would be better if the United States LOST the Iraq War: http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,299374,00.html.

I am rarely shocked by the findings of any poll, but this is almost beyond comprehension. Do these whack jobs have no idea what would happen if this occurred? It would make Vietnam look like a picnic. I'd like to believe that people aren't that stupid or blinded by ideology, but apparently, I am wrong.

An unusual critic of Walt & Mearsheimer

Timothy Rutten of the Los Angeles Times is a diehard critic of the Bush Administration, and was (and still is) strongly opposed to the Iraq War. He recently reviewed the Walt & Mearsheimer book, and to say that he disagrees with what he sees as their central thesis (that the malevolent and manipulative "Israel Lobby" led the U.S. into the Iraq War) would be a major understatement: http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/la-et-rutten12sep12,1,634860.story.

You may have to sign up to be a registered user of the L.A. Times to read this piece. If so, sign up. It's free, and the read is worthwhile.

UPDATE (8:30 a.m., 9/13/07): Victor Davis Hanson, in typically erudite fashion, responds to the Walt & Mearsheimer crowd: http://www.realclearpolitics.com/printpage/?url=http://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2007/09/the_world_again_turns_to_jews.html.

War. What is it good for?

If you're Iran and Syria, the answer apparently is "Quite a lot". If you don't think that the signs out of Israel's north are ominous, check out these stories. On one hand, we have Hezbollah using Iranian money to buy out land owned by Druze and Christian Lebanese so that they can have better vantage points to launch missiles at Israel: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2007/08/12/wmid112.xml. So much for that UNIFIL force.

On the other hand, we have the Syrians arming themselves with the world's most sophisticated anti-aircraft systems (thanks to my favourite anti-Semites, the Russians): http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3436827,00.html. The Syrians aren't buying this stuff for their health. They are planning for an eventual and inevitable war with Israel, one that will undoubtedly take the West by surprise, though that should not be the case given the signs out of the region.

Be ready, my friends, be ready. This will be a bloody, messy affair, and the outcome is by no means certain............

Iran vs. Israel

The undeclared war goes on. Iran is actively recruiting Hebrew speakers to continue its propaganda war against Israel: http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3431862,00.html.

It's only a matter of time before this cold war gets much hotter. Iran and Israel are heading for a military confrontation, and it will not be limited to those two countries. Syria and Lebanon will get involved on the Iranian side, and does anyone seriously think that the Sunni Arab states, much as they may loathe Shiite, non-Arab Iran, will be able to resist an opportunity to finally cleanse the Middle East of Jews, even if it means the destruction of their own countries? I don't...............

A History Lesson

No war goes perfectly. That would seem to be obvious, but too many people don't realize this. As we approach the Fourth of July, it is worth noting that even George Washington lost some battles: http://www.opinionjournal.com/columnists/bminiter/?id=110010287.

It's a lesson for our short attention span society; wars don't always go right. It's the end result that matters.........

A wider war in the Middle East

I have long been of the opinion that this is inevitable, given the growing perception that the West in general and Israel and the United States in particular are in headlong retreat. We get attacked, we respond to the attacks by going to the sponsors and saying "Please sir, can we have some more?" The Al Aqsa Martyr's Brigade (a branch of Mahmoud Abbas' Fatah party) kills Israelis, Israel responds by turning over money and weapons (which are then used to kill more Israelis). Iran funds terrorist attacks in Iraq and actively combats U.S. troops, we follow the advice of James "F--- the Jews" Baker and whine at them that we should hold peace talks.

Here is an excellent Op-Ed from the Wall Street Journal discussing this very issue: http://www.opinionjournal.com/editorial/feature.html?id=110010256.

An ominous comment on Gaza and Lebanon

This analytical Op-Ed doesn't deal with those issues specifically, but it certainly applies to them: http://www.nationalinterest.org/Article.aspx?id=14728. The bottom line is that one cannot fight a war not to lose. One must fight it to win, or the result will be endless, unresolved conflicts.