Thursday, July 03, 2008
Who Our Leaders Learn From And What They Learn
The 40s/50s Communist Chinese leadership. Unsuccessful torture techniques which succeed at eliciting nearly only false -- which is to say all unreliable -- information. Link.
Presidential Round-Up
President McCain's been pulling so much crap, gotta dump it into a single post....
Straight talk:
Where's the straight talking answer? Me, I never knew torture and imprisonment were per se proof of leadership skills although after eight years of Our Leaders, victimhood may in fact, in some manner, be a qualification of sorts....
President McCain distances himself from Beloved Leader by replacing his top campaign staff with Beloved Leader's. I'm sure there's a very good, straight talking explanation.
Straight talk:
Link.McCain became visibly angry when I asked him to explain how his Vietnam experience prepared him for the Presidency.Soon after, McCain "collected himself" and apologized for losing his cool. "I kind of reacted the way I did because I have a reluctance to talk about my experiences," he said, adding, "I am always reluctant to talk about these things."
"Please," he said, recoiling back in his seat in distaste at the very question.
First, the question was pretty straightforward: How did McCain's service in the war prepare him for the presidency? For a candidate who emphasizes his military service all the time, this shouldn't have been especially difficult to answer, and it certainly shouldn't have left him "visibly angry."
Second, it's curious that McCain explained his incensed reaction by pointing to his reluctance to "talk about my experiences." Whether McCain talks about his service or not is entirely up to him, but he really doesn't seem especially reluctant at all. In fact, McCain talks about his Vietnam service all the time, and his campaign has made it the basis for multiple campaign ads. Indeed, in one commercial, the McCain campaign literally included interrogation footage from McCain's days as a prisoner of war.
Given this, it seems odd that a question about how this service prepared him for the presidency would set him off like this. Indeed, by constantly talking about his service, McCain has been making the implicit case that his military background necessarily prepared him for the presidency.
Is no one supposed to ask why?
Where's the straight talking answer? Me, I never knew torture and imprisonment were per se proof of leadership skills although after eight years of Our Leaders, victimhood may in fact, in some manner, be a qualification of sorts....
President McCain distances himself from Beloved Leader by replacing his top campaign staff with Beloved Leader's. I'm sure there's a very good, straight talking explanation.
Wednesday, July 02, 2008
Our Leaders, Making The World Safer By Taking Their Eyes Off The Target
Bush's Failed Bin Laden HuntLink.
An article in yesterday's New York Times criticized the Bush administration for failing "to develop a comprehensive plan to address the militant problem" along the Afghan-Pakistan border, where Osama bin Laden is reportedly rebuilding the al Qaeda terror network. After expressing enthusiasm for capturing bin Laden shortly after the Sept.11 attacks, the Bush administration has since indicated that "bin Laden doesn’t fit" with its "strategy for combating terrorism" and is "not a top priority use of American resources." Beginning in 2002, the administration "shifted its sights...from counterterrorism efforts in Afghanistan and Pakistan to preparations for the war in Iraq" and outsourced the hunt for bin Laden to Pakistan. As a result, "the Bush administration will leave office with Al Qaeda having successfully relocated its base from Afghanistan to Pakistan's tribal areas, where it has rebuilt much of its ability to attack from the region and broadcast its messages to militants across the world."
SHIFTED RESOURCES TO IRAQ: According to "current and former military and intelligence officials" interviewed by the Times, "the war in Iraq diverted resources and high-level attention from the tribal areas" on the border of Pakistan and Afghanistan and "drained away most of the CIA officers with field experience in the Islamic world." Intelligence officials have long warned the administration of the dangers of shifting resources prematurely. On Feb.19, 2002, Gen. Tommy Franks reportedly told then-Sen. Bob Graham (D-FL), "We are not engaged in a war in Afghanistan" because "military and intelligence personnel are being redeployed to prepare for an action in Iraq." Similarly, an Army War College report published in December 2003 concluded that the Iraq war "diverted attention and resources away from securing the American homeland against further assault by an undeterrable Al Qaeda." Where the specialists went, the equipment followed. Officials told the New York Times, for instance, that when they "requested additional Predator drones to survey the tribal areas, they were told no drones were available because they had been sent to Iraq." As Graham pointed out, the removal of Predator drones from Afghanistan is "a clear case of how the Bush administration's focus on Iraq undermined the war against al Qaeda in Afghanistan."
UNRELIABLE ALLY: The Iraq war also bolstered the view "among Pakistanis that American forces in the tribal areas would be a prelude to an eventual American occupation" and made it difficult for the administration "to have insisted that American forces be allowed to cross from Afghanistan into Pakistan." In fact, the Pakistani government "flatly refused" American proposals to allow Special Operations forces to establish operational bases along the border, and in 2003, "under pressure from Pakistan, the Bush administration decided…to end the American military presence on the ground." With the hunt for bin Laden virtually outsourced to Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf and the administration distracted by the "spiraling violence in Iraq," Bush backed Pakistan’s failed strategy of signing cease-fire agreements "with the Taliban inside Afghanistan." But rather than reducing "cross-border incursions," the agreements allowed al Qaeda to establish an even stronger foot hold in the Pakistan tribal regions. Thus while the Bush administration has propped up "the Muslim world’s most powerful military dictator as an essential ally," Pakistan has shown little commitment to capturing bin Laden. In fact, in January 2008, Musharraf admitted that "the 100,000 troops that we are using...are not going around trying to locate Osama bin Laden and Zawahri, frankly."
BOLSTERED AL QAEDA: The war in Iraq and Bush's over-reliance on Pakistan have allowed al Qaeda to regroup along the Pakistan-Afghan border. Intelligence sources interviewed by the Times suggest that "the makeshift training compounds" in Pakistan's tribal areas "now have as many as 2,000 local and foreign militants, up from several hundred three years ago." The build-up of members has reshaped al Qaeda into a threat that is "comparable" to what the United States faced on Sept. 11, 2001. Similarly, according to the 2006 National Intelligence Estimate, "Iraq jihad is shaping a new generation of terrorist leaders and operatives." Rather than reducing the terror threat, the Iraq conflict has become the "cause célèbre for jihadists, breeding a deep resentment of US involvement in the Muslim world and cultivating supporters for the global jihadist movement," the report concluded.
Our Leaders: Nelson Mandela Is A Terrorist
Our Leaders ever make us more proud to be Americans....
Link (of course, it's not from the US press).
Link (of course, it's not from the US press).
Mac Widget Of The Day
Know how many days before we, um, lose... no, before the end of Beloved Leader's reign. Link.
President McCain Demonstrates His Inability For Straight Talk, Unable To Answer Question Directly
"Ventilating"? Isn't that what the Mob does to competitors? Ah, the president's from Phoenix and his wife is in the "beverage" delivery business so....
The General Is Clear, The Big Media Journos, Defending Their BFF, Are Not
Again, to keep things in a proper perspective: President McCain has never evinced leadership. Ever. Simple fact.
Tuesday, July 01, 2008
Another Thing That Almost Made Me Laugh
The Top 15 Outsourced Newspaper Headlines From India
Green Houses in Sky Making Temperatures Too Warm
New York Mets Losing So Often, Manager Is Set on Fire
The headline queue is full; there is an approximate 30-minute wait time until a new headline will be available.
Midwest Sissies Petulantly Whine About Non-Annual Flooding
Telecoms to Receive Vaccinations
Cleveland Punjabis Defeat San Diego Fathers 3-2 as Water Vessels Fight to the Death
Studies Show Men Taking Viagra Have Longer, Firmer Lives
Driver Loses Arm and Leg in Oil Amputation
Famous Comedian Executed for Saying Forbidden Words on TV
Clothings Experts Say What You Should Wear This Summer Is Much, Much Different From What You Wore Last Summer
Boston Clerics Win 17th NAMBLA Championship in Sex Games
Bear Attacks Wall Street!
Court Allows Married California Couples to Be Happy
Strange Singer Amy Winehouse Is Sikh!
Britney Spears Shows Hairless Kitten to Photographers
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