United 93 Review

« "Iron Mike" Defies Terrorists; Demonstrates what 'freedom of speech" really means | Main
_____________________________________________________________________________________

varifrank:

"The United 93 movie represents something else besides a just a movie. It’s the ugly and cold metric of commerce. There are a number of people in the business of producing movies who are betting that Americans won’t go to see this movie. They believe that people do not wish to be reminded of that day. They do not think that Americans will go to see what happened. If United 93 were to fail, it would give rise to the myth that “Americans do not support the war”, which is becoming less a call for “leaving Iraq”, and more often than not is now a call to return to the days of the 1990s, when threats were ignored and allowed to fester into the embolism of 9/11.

They find it very easy to make a movie that drives a wedge into the country and destroys the morale of free people while it gives comfort to our enemies, like “Fahrenheit 9/11”, or creates a series of unsustainable paranoid theories like “Syriana”. But to make a movie about the first battle in the war against terror and show citizens as heroes, that is simply beyond the people who run Hollywood. Its extremely important to me that United 93 does well at the marketplace, because if it were to fail, it would give comfort to those who say there is no heroism in fighting back, that there is only heroism in defeat and dissention."

Strange Booms Heard in Key US Cities

What's behind the mysterious booms?

I've lived in S. OC Beach Cities for 17 years. Seems every time I hear "booms" we mix it up with national enemies.
_____________________________________________________________________________________

Booms prior to Panama; 1989

Booms prior to Gulf War; 1991.

Booms prior to Bosnia; 1998.

Booms prior to Desert Fox; 1998.

Booms prior to Enduring Freedom; 2001.

Booms prior to Iraqi Freedom; 2003.

Booms now; (strange ones)Heard near Camp Pendleton, CA and in Jackson County, Missouri. Close to Whiteman B-2 Base.

Hmmmmm.

Apes of Spain

Prime Minister Zapatero and his Socialist Party are introducung legislation to grant equal human rights to apes. (Not a Joke.)

Imagine the jokes in Iran.
_____________________________________________________________________________________

According to the Project, “Today only members of the species Homo sapiens are considered part of the community of equals. The chimpanzee, the gorilla, and the orangutan are our species’s closest relatives. They possess sufficient mental faculties and emotional life to justify their inclusion in the community of equals.”

Tour of Egypt - Bad Idea

They get hit A lot.

Chronology of tourist focused terrorist attacks in Egypt.
_____________________________________________________________________________________

Oct. 21, 1992 -- Militants ambush tourist bus, killing a British woman and wounding two British men.

Feb. 26, 1993 -- Bomb in Cairo coffee shop kills a Turk, a Swede and an Egyptian and wounds 20.

June 8 -- Bomb near tour bus on Pyramids Road in Cairo, kills two Egyptians and wounds 22, including five Britons.

Oct. 27 -- A man described as mentally disturbed shoots dead two Americans, one French and an Italian at a Cairo hotel.

March 4, 1994 -- Gunmen fire at Nile cruiser in southern Egypt, killing a German woman tourist.

Aug. 26 -- Gunmen attack a tourist bus in southern Egypt, killing a Spanish boy.

Sept. 27 -- Gun attack in the Red Sea resort of Hurghada kills two Egyptians and two German tourists.

Oct. 23 -- Suspected Muslim militants kill British tourist and wound three in minibus attack.

April 18, 1996 -- Islamic militants shoot dead 18 Greek tourists they mistake for Israelis near the pyramids.

Sept. 18, 1997 -- Nine German tourists and their driver die in shooting and firebomb attack outside Egyptian Museum.

Nov. 17 -- Attackers kill 58 tourists and four Egyptians at an ancient temple near southern town of Luxor. Six gunmen and three police also die.

Oct. 7, 2004 - Bombings at the Taba Hilton hotel on Egypt's border with Israel and two beaches further south kill 34 people.

April 7, 2005 - An attack in a Cairo bazaar kills an American, two French and the suspected suicide bomber.

April 30 - A suicide bomber wounds seven, including two Israelis, an Italian and a Swede, near the Egyptian museum.

July 23 - Two car bombs and a suitcase bomb rip through hotels and shopping areas in Sharm el-Sheikh, killing at least 64 and wounding more than 200, including some foreigners.

April 24, 2006 - Three bomb blasts in the Red Sea resort of Dahab kill at least 23 people and wound scores

The Disgraceful Six

Charles Krauthammer offers a poetic synopsis of what a group of
ex-Generals are doing to rather than for their country now
_____________________________________________________________________________________


The Generals' Dangerous Whispers

By Charles Krauthammer
Friday, April 21, 2006; Page A23

Last time around, the antiwar left did not have a very high opinion of generals. A popular slogan in the 1960s was "war is too important to be left to the generals." It was the generals who had advocated attacking Cuba during the missile crisis of October 1962, while the civilians preferred -- and got -- a diplomatic solution. In popular culture, "Dr. Strangelove" made indelible the caricature of the war-crazed general. And it was I-know-better generals who took over the U.S. government in a coup in the 1960s bestseller and movie "Seven Days in May."

Another war, another take. I-know-better generals are back. Six of them, retired, are denouncing the Bush administration and calling for Donald Rumsfeld's resignation as secretary of defense. The antiwar types think this is just swell.

I don't. There are three possible complaints that the military brass could have against a secretary of defense. The first is that he doesn't listen to or consult military advisers. The six generals make that charge, but it is thoroughly disproved by the two men who were closer to Rumsfeld day to day, week in, week out than any of the accusing generals: former Joint Chiefs chairman Richard Myers and retired Marine Lt. Gen. Michael DeLong. Both attest to Rumsfeld's continual consultation and give-and-take with the military.

A second complaint is that the defense secretary disregards settled, consensual military advice. The military brass recommends X and SecDef willfully chooses Y. That in itself is not necessarily a bad thing. Rumsfeld's crusade to "transform" a Cold War-era military into a fast and lean fighting force has met tremendous resistance within the Pentagon. His canceling several heavy weapons systems, such as the monstrous Crusader artillery program, was the necessary overriding of a hidebound bureaucracy by an innovating civilian on a mission.

In his most recent broadside, retired Army Maj. Gen. John Batiste accuses the administration of "radically alter[ing] the results of 12 years of deliberate and continuous war planning" on Iraq. Well, the Bush administration threw out years and years and layer upon layer of war planning on Afghanistan, improvised one of the leanest possible attack plans and achieved one of the more remarkable military victories in recent history. There's nothing sacred about on-the-shelf war plans.

As for Iraq, it is hardly as if the military was of a single opinion on the critical questions of de-Baathification, disbanding Saddam Hussein's army or optimal coalition troop levels. There were divisions of opinion within the military as there were among the civilians and, indeed, among the best military experts in the country. Rumsfeld chose among the different camps. That's what defense secretaries are supposed to do.

What's left of the generals' revolt? A third complaint: He didn't listen to me . So what? Lincoln didn't listen to McClellan, and fired him. Truman had enough of listening to MacArthur and fired him, too. In our system of government, civilians fire generals, not the other way around.

Some of the complainers were on active duty when these decisions were made. If they felt so strongly about Rumsfeld's disregard of their advice, why didn't they resign at the time? Why did they wait to do so from the safety of retirement, with their pensions secured?

The Defense Department waves away the protesting generals as just a handful out of more than 8,000 now serving or retired. That seems to me too dismissive. These generals are no doubt correct in asserting that they have spoken to and speak on behalf of some retired and, even more important, some active-duty members of the military.

But that makes the generals' revolt all the more egregious. The civilian leadership of the Pentagon is decided on Election Day, not by the secret whispering of generals.

We've always had discontented officers in every war and in every period of our history. But they rarely coalesce into factions. That happens in places such as Hussein's Iraq, Pinochet's Chile or your run-of-the-mill banana republic. And when it does, outsiders (including the United States) do their best to exploit it, seeking out the dissident factions to either stage a coup or force the government to change policy.

That kind of dissident party within the military is alien to America. Some other retired generals have found it necessary to rise to the defense of the administration. Will the rest of the generals, retired or serving, now have to declare which camp they belong to?

It is precisely this kind of division that our tradition of military deference to democratically elected civilian superiors was meant to prevent. Today it suits the antiwar left to applaud the rupture of that tradition. But it is a disturbing and very dangerous precedent that even the left will one day regret.

Iran Slide Show

Click here for show

First we have the smiling children and various street merchants.

Then the segeway into the Hate America stuff.

Interesting look.

Harry Le Magnifique

Our dashing and intrepid Dem Leader was in Reno today lamenting all the multilateralism currently being wasted on the New Vice Chair of Disarmament (UN). Apparently he wants unilateral talks with the Iranian fascists.

Reid, D-Nev., said the administration should be taking the lead, but instead is relying on Germany, France and Great Britain to convince Iran to end its uranium enrichment program.

A fool's logic is best articulated by the fool himself.

Regarding (gasp) military action of any laterality:

"We don't have the resources to do it" because of the ongoing war in Iraq," he said.

And Reid, reliably chock full of good ideas, practical solutions and clear headed cognitive thought, surprisingly offered none today... (sarc)

I for one am fed up with the self-loathing, defeatist, hypocritical, back biting statements and (in)actions by the left.

By what they say and do, they are untrustworthy for positions in US leadership.

I hope US citzens are made aware of this in time.

Watch Pakistan

Pakistan's inter-Sunni rivalries blew up last week, killing 57 Muslims in a Karachi bomb blast.

This bodes ill for stability is the only nuclear armed Islamic nation.

Kinda looks like "civil war".

_____________________________________________________________________________________

Praveen Swami

Last week's terror bombing in Karachi points to one of the least-examined faultlines in Pakistan: the war for power between Barelvi and Deobandi clerics.

PAKISTAN'S RELIGIOUS right is at war with itself, with clerics locked in a mortal combat that could have more fateful consequences for the future of the nation than any of the several crises that have enveloped it since 2001.

Last week, a massive explosion at a Karachi congregation, held to celebrate the birthday of Prophet Muhammad, claimed 57 lives and left over 200 injured. The congregation was organised by the Jamaat Ahl-e-Sunnat, a body of the Barelvi religious sect that is opposed to Islamist groups affiliated to the Deobandi and Salafi traditions such as the Jamaat-ud-Dawa, the Tablighi Jamaat and the Jamaat Ahl-e-Hadis.

Former officials warn against US attack on Iran

Well if it ain't our pal Richard Clarke, spewing "Dire Consequences", and various other dastardly deeds when we rise and face the Iran challange...

Iran's likely response would be to "use its terrorist network to strike American targets around the world, including inside the United States," Clarke and Simon warned.

"Iran has forces as its command far superior to anything Al Qaeda was ever able to field," they said, citing Iran's links with the militant group Hezbollah.

Iran could also make things much worse in Iraq, they wrote, adding "there is every reason to believe that Iran has such a retaliatory shock wave planned and ready."

Amazing powers of uncanny precience and wisdom with this man. (sarc) Guess he needs another "60 Minutes" puff piece to satiate the lost pride of the 9/11 Commission Report.

Interesting coincidence with 6 or so General's sudden convictons.

**sip**

When in Old Europe, 'Speak softly, don't argue and slow down'

Apparently us Ugly Americans are pissing off the elitist, appeasing snobs of the "Continent".

Here's a list of rules to go by to avoid offending the Euros.

(But if you happen to be a radical Islamist, you'll be given a wide pass)
_____________________________________________________________________________________
RULES

• Think as big as you like but talk and act smaller. (In many countries, any form of boasting is considered very rude. Talking about wealth, power or status - corporate or personal - can create resentment.)

• Listen at least as much as you talk. (By all means, talk about America and your life in our country. But also ask people you're visiting about themselves and their way of life.)

• Save the lectures for your kids. (Whatever your subject of discussion, let it be a discussion not a lecture. Justified or not, the US is seen as imposing its will on the world.)

• Think a little locally. (Try to find a few topics that are important in the local popular culture. Remember, most people in the world have little or no interest in the World Series or the Super Bowl. What we call "soccer" is football everywhere else. And it's the most popular sport on the planet.)

• Slow down. (We talk fast, eat fast, move fast, live fast. Many cultures do not.)

• Speak lower and slower. (A loud voice is often perceived as bragging. A fast talker can be seen as aggressive and threatening.)

• Your religion is your religion and not necessarily theirs. (Religion is usually considered deeply personal, not a subject for public discussions.)

• If you talk politics, talk - don't argue. (Steer clear of arguments about American politics, even if someone is attacking US politicians or policies. Agree to disagree.)

Enough Talk

_____________________________________________________________________________________

Iran's Ahmadinejad has declared that Israel is "heading toward annihilation," just days after Tehran raised fears about its nuclear activities by saying it successfully enriched uranium for the first time.

Oh but wait. We can't put this thing down becuase we're so bogged down in the Iraq war of lies.

Let Fly