The Kings Boy

Now I'm scared

The thing about Bush and Cheney is that they are so convinced they are right that even though they know Iraq may be lost, although not willing to admit the implications, they may decide to launch a war that no one else will. Believing the war morale of the American public may be dropping they may choose to make 'bold' decisions they believe a new president would not.

Pat Lang says:

An intelligence analyst makes judgments based on available data and interprets that data through a mental "filter" made up of experience, contextual knowledge, probabilities and sheer, unmerited, intuitive talent.  Among the most valuable indicators of intentions are the appointments of senior people to fill leadership positions.

In that regard it must be said that the appointment of Admiral William Fallon the the post of Commander, US Central Command is surely indicative of intentions.

This distinguished officer's career lay altogether within the field of naval aviation and latterly of joint staff and command functions...

It makes very little sense that a person with this background should be appointed to be theater commander in a a theater in which two essentially "ground" wars are being fought unless it is intended to conduct yet another war which will be different in character. 

Today the Sunday Times leads with:

iSRAEL has drawn up secret plans to destroy Iran’s uranium enrichment facilities with tactical nuclear weapons.

Two Israeli air force squadrons are training to blow up an Iranian facility using low-yield nuclear “bunker-busters”, according to several Israeli military sources.

The attack would be the first with nuclear weapons since 1945, when the United States dropped atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. The Israeli weapons would each have a force equivalent to one-fifteenth of the Hiroshima bomb.

Under the plans, conventional laser-guided bombs would open “tunnels” into the targets. “Mini-nukes” would then immediately be fired into a plant at Natanz, exploding deep underground to reduce the risk of radioactive fallout.

The Israelis could not make that strike without US help. And certainly not without US approval.

A nuclear strike??? The Boy King needs to be impeached and removed by Congress. These people are genuinely insane.

"Reduce the risk of radioactive fall out"? That footage of women and children with radioactive poisoning in not going to help the students protesting in Iran. Beamed across Al Jazeera I think we can safely say the nations of Islam will unite in horror... Mubarak and the House of Saud can start packing their bags now.

Let us not forget that the consensus intelligence estimates say Iran is 10 years away from a bomb.

I heard this programme on Radio 4 the other night and wondered where it was going. I am starting to get the picture.

The Iranians have 140 000 U.S. and U.K. hostages in Iraq. If we thought Iraq was a disaster this will take it to a new level. The Iranians will likely blow oil and gas fields at a minimum causing a world recession. They will certainly tell Moqtada Al Sadr to start cutting supply lines to Coalition forces in Iraq...

Is there no end to this madness?

Sacrifice

The myth of service:

Charles Moskos, a military sociologist at Northwestern University, says the divorce between the social origins of most US army personnel and the character of the population as a whole is greater than ever. When he attended Princeton as a student in the late 1950s, 400 out of his class of 750 had served in uniform. Last year only nine of Princeton’s class of 1,100 had been in the armed services, he says.

Even during the Vietnam war, when the well-connected, such as George W. Bush and Dick Cheney, were able to avoid combat in spite of a national enlistment lottery or, like Bill Clinton, dodge the draft altogether, America’s middle classes were better represented.

“There is a myth that Americans respect people who have served in combat,” said Mr Moskos. “But if you look at the last four presidential elections, it is the draft dodger who has been elected to the White House. They might hate to admit it, but middle class Americans identify with the draft dodger.”

A great start

Well the occupation of Somalia seems to be off to a great start:

The interim Somali government says it is indefinitely postponing its disarmament programme, as hundreds of residents burned tyres and looted vehicles in the capital to protest against the arms ban and the presence of Ethiopian troops.

 

The protesters in a main square in a southern district of Mogadishu, on Friday shouted: "Down with Ethiopia."

Ethiopian soldiers fired shots into the air to disperse the demonstrators.

 

Up to no good...

Kings Somborne News Service:

Iranian troops arrested 140 000 US, UK, Polish and El Salvadorean troops in Iraq this morning amid allegations they were up to no good and seeking to influence domestic Iraqi affairs.

BBC:

Five Iranians arrested by US troops in Baghdad last month were on a covert mission to influence Iraq's government, British officials have told the BBC.

The five men were senior intelligence officers "up to no good", an unnamed official told the Newsnight programme

Who should be worried?

The Headline reads:

Kids with toy guns worry NATO troops in Afghanistan

Which I'm sure is true. But probably not half as much as parents worry about NATO troops with real guns.

Come again?

Er I see a disconnect:

Gordon Brown will seek to rid the government of the political stain from the war in Iraq by making free universal education and combating climate change two pillars of Labour's foreign policy if he becomes prime minister this year, it emerged today.

What about trying to help the Iraqis? Brown is just like the Bushies: its all politics.

Too late

We had to kill the villagers to democratise them:

KABUL, Afghanistan - Kabul - aid Wednesday that it killed too many Afghan civilians during fighting last year against resurgent Taliban militants, but that the Western alliance was working to change that in 2007...

"The single thing that we have done wrong and we are striving extremely hard to improve on (in 2007) is killing innocent civilians," Brig. Richard E. Nugee, the chief spokesman for NATO's International Security Assistance Force, told a news conference.

Lessons in government from Bush

Because Michael Brown was such a big success Tony:

The British Ambassador to Paris has been appointed the UN’s emergency relief coordinator, responsible for providing international aid to the world’s most devastated regions. It is one of the UN’s top jobs, making Sir John Holmes the most senior British official at the organisation. His title will be the UN’s under-secretary general for humanitarian affairs.

The appointment, to be announced in the next few days, has embroiled Tony Blair in a new cronyism row, because Sir John is a personal friend and holiday companion who has limited experience in emergency relief work compared with his predecessors.

Sir John, who used to be Mr Blair’s principal private secretary, has twice hosted the Blair family on private holidays after Mr Blair appointed him Ambassador to Portugal. Mr Blair and his wife stayed with him in his offical residence for their last break before Cherie Blair gave brith to Leo.

British Understatement

An embarrassment:

John Prescott, the Deputy Prime Minister, has described the manner of Saddam Hussein’s execution as "deplorable" and denounced leaked recordings of his final moments as "totally unacceptable"...

Asked about the execution on BBC Radio 4's Today programme, Mr Prescott said: "I think the manner was quite deplorable really. I don’t think one can endorse in any way that, whatever your
views about capital punishment."

He added: "Frankly, to get the kind of recorded messages coming out is totally unacceptable and I think whoever is involved and responsible for it should be ashamed of themselves."

He refused to elaborate on whether the responsibility lay with the Iraqi Government, saying: "If they are responsible, I pass my comment and that’s where I stand."

That's the recorded footage he thinks is unacceptable, not the execution.

Why on Eid?

Says Gilliard:

Why did Maliki rush to do this? Because his protector wanted it done. Why else?

Remember the executioners were cheering for Mookie. The man who the "surge" wants to destroy.