In Memoriam - Kim Jong Il

Firstly, we have in the United States a large number of people very badly educated in the government school systems who, unable to remember the slightest thing about the period 1917 through 1989, are supporters of socialism.

Watch as a man who lived under Soviet tyranny tries to speak with an Occupy Wall Street idiot. In fact, the perfect example of a "useful idiot".


(h/t Sister Toldjah)
Now, this is Kim Jong Il, from the Discover Channel.
Part 1;



Part 2;



For the crime of trying to cross into China;



And then there is the nation-wide brainwashing;


If you are lucky enough to avoid execution or prison, and you are unlucky enough not to be one of the politically privileged living in Pyongyang, then this may be your fate;

Christmas Tree Bomber - Is There a Pattern?

The American Thinker asks Christmas Tree Bomber was Young Male Muslim. Could There Be a Pattern?

Mr. Wilson points out the facts, that the terrorist and would-be bomber is a young muslim (Somali) male named Mohamed Osman Mohamud. Her then goes on to make a further point. Referring to Derrick Jackson's piece in the Boston Globe defending the use of full-body scanner and aggressive "pat downs" (gropes). First a quote from Mr. Jackson and then the comment by Mr. Wilson

[T]hose today who are not willing to be scanned or complain about pat-downs, are in a fantasy world of personal entitlement. Call it the "Do-I-look-like-a-terrorist?'' syndrome. It has somehow escaped the critics that you cannot judge a terrorist by last name, skin color, or gender.

Who's in the fantasy world here? Only the willfully blind can ignore that nearly every terror threat in the last forty years has come from young males with names like Mohammad Massalha (Munich massacre), Abdelbaset al-Megrahi (Lockerbie), Mohammed Atta, Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab and Faisal Shahzad. The argument of people like Jackson is that once we start profiling 20-year old Somali men named Mohamed, al-Qaeda will recruit Swedish grandmothers. Maybe so, but to date this theory is not supported by any reality-based evidence.

Our incompetent government, having adopted the willful blindness of the Left™ would rather subvert the Constitution and destroy the Bill of Rights (4th amendment anyone?) than observe and act on the obvious. Unless we are doing intelligent profiling the TSA's efforts in our airports are not only a complete waste of time and money, but dangerous to our liberty and that which makes America exceptional; a Constitutionally limited government, a society with no "built-in" or otherwise established caste system, the freedom to our property and run a business, the freedom to succeed or fail on your own merits, etc. These are things that, all together, no other country has. We are now seeing our own government first, not understanding this and secondly, destroying it.

It is time to open our eyes and find the enemy so that we can destroy him. No more politically correct (does anyone besides me sense the tyrannical nature of that phrase?) blindness.

BTW: The 4th Amendment to the Constitution reads;

The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized.

Quaint.

What Happens When You Don't Control The Borders

Any idiot should be able to understand that if you make it clear that you will not enforce a law people will take advantage of that. America is full of very stupid and incompetent people of both parties who happen to be running our government. We need to wake up and vote for people who love America and believe in enforcing good laws, including the borders.

This is not a surprise, we have seen it coming for a long time.

Congresswoman Raises Red Flag on Hezbollah-Cartel Nexus on U.S. Border

Iran-tied terror group Hezbollah may be colluding with drug cartels along the U.S.-Mexico border, a Republican congresswoman warned, calling on Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano to establish a special task force to figure out how to "clamp down" on this "national security" threat.

The Lebanon-based group has long-standing and documented ties to South America and its drug gangs, but reports have recently surfaced that it may be expanding its influence to Mexico and the U.S. border.

and...

Myrick outlined a complex set of potential threats and evidence of their existence. She said "Iranian agents and members of Hezbollah" are thought to be learning Spanish in Hugo Chavez-run Venezuela before trying to obtain false documents to enter the United States as purported Mexicans. She said Hezbollah, known for its tunnel-digging skill, could be receiving drug money from cartel operations in exchange for help forging better tunnels across the U.S. border for trafficking.

She said gang members in prisons in the American southwest are starting to show up with tattoos in Farsi, implying a "Persian influence that can likely be traced back to Iran and its proxy army, Hezbollah."

This has actually been occurring for some time already.

A 2006 House Homeland Security Committee report further noted that Hezbollah members have already been caught entering the United States via Mexico, suggesting expanded activity. The report cited as one example the case of Mahmoud Youssef Kourani, the brother of a Hezbollah chief, who in 2005 pleaded guilty to providing material support to Hezbollah after being smuggled across the U.S.-Mexico border and settling in Dearborn, Mich.

The report raised red flags about the "dangerous intersection between traditional transnational criminal activities ... and more ominous threats to national security."

About Hezbollah.

Timeline of Hezbollah Attacks.

North Korea Starts the Cycle Again

If you believe this, and many apparently do, I have a bridge to sell you.

NKorea Calls for End of Hostile Relations With US

North Korea called for an end of hostile relations with the United States in a New Year's message Friday and said it was committed to making the Korean peninsula nuclear-free through negotiations.

Communist North Korea has long demanded that Washington end hostility toward its government, and said it developed nuclear weapons to deter a U.S. attack. Washington has repeatedly said it has no intention of invading the country.

The New Year statement brightened prospects for North Korea to rejoin stalled international talks on ending its nuclear weapons programs in exchange for aid and other concessions. Washington has sought to coax it to return to the talks, which also include South Korea, China, Russia and Japan.

It seems that those who should know better do not recognize the Dear Monster Kim's dangerous cycle (more on that below)

Cheong Seong-chang, a senior analyst at the private Sejong Institute security think tank, said North Korea is likely to maintain its conciliatory approach toward the U.S.

"The North extended an olive branch to the U.S.," Cheong said, adding that he expects the two sides will agree to set up a liaison office as a symbolic move to end their hostilities.

Kim Yong-hyun, a North Korea expert at Seoul's Dongguk University, also said prospects are not bad for relations between North Korea and the U.S., noting the absence of the usual diatribes against the U.S. in the New Year message.

The statement said North Korea remains committed to improving relations with South Korea, and urged the South to refrain from actions that might aggravate tensions.

Will our Department of State fall for this? Maybe not (we hope)

The United States responded by suggesting that North Korea return to "six-party talks" -- negotiations over its nuclear program involving the U.S., South Korea, China, Russia and Japan. "Actions speak louder than words," a State Department official said.

We have two enemy countries playing the US and the UN for fools and succeeding;

Dangerous Cycle

Both North Korea and Iran’s nuclear diplomacy are testaments to how Western diplomats reward intransigence. Take North Korea: During a June 30, 2006, American Enterprise Institute panel, Danielle Pletka pointed out the pattern: On August 31, 1998, Pyongyang fired the Taepodong-1 missile over Japan. Three months later, U.S. officials held the first round of high-level talks in Pyongyang. North Korean leader Kim Jong Il demanded to be rewarded for ceasing his provocations. He was. The following year, U.S. Defense Secretary William Perry visited North Korea to offer normalized relations and a lifting of economic sanctions if Pyongyang froze and eventually dismantled its long-range-missile program and stopped its missile exports. On September 17, 1999, President Clinton eased sanctions against the north. Two months later, a U.S.-led consortium signed a $4.6 billion contract for two Western light-water nuclear reactors for the Stalinist police state. The Clinton administration began shipping food aid to the famine-ridden north, which Pyongyang used to grease its war machine even as ordinary citizens starved.

Having been given everything it had asked for, Kim Jong Il decided he wanted more. On July 1, 2000, he threatened to restart the nuclear program if Washington did not compensate it for electricity lost by delays in plant construction. Pyongyang then threatened to reverse course on its missile test moratorium. It did. On July 2001, it conducted a Taepodong-1 engine test.

All the while, Kim Jong Il cheated. The Bush administration did not initially agree to accept North Korean smoke-and-mirrors. In October 2002, the Bush administration announced that Pyongyang had operated a covert nuclear-weapons program in violation of its 1994 agreement. Diplomats may celebrate treaties. Many who helped negotiate the 1994 Agreed Framework have meritorious service certificates framed on their wall. But agreements are meaningless if not adhered to, and seldom do autocracies stick to agreements if they gain more through noncompliance.

How long before Kim wants more and initiates another crisis?

Our Incompetent (and Corrupt) Government - DOJ

From Andy McCarthy at NRO, We Interrupt this Socialization of Medicine to Bring You an Abdication of Our National Defense

As always, read the whole thing. It discusses the movement of prisoners out of Gitmo but both the Bush and Obama administrations and impropriety in the Department of Justice. The last paragraph;

And then there is the appearance of impropriety. As Tom Joscelyn explains, the Justice Department has taken the lead role in making release determinations — the military command at Gitmo has "zero input" and "zero influence," in its own words. DOJ is rife with attorneys who represented and advocated for the detainees, and, in particular, Attorney General Holder's firm, represented numerous Yemeni enemy combatants. Does Justice not appreciate not only how perilous but how unseemly it appears under the circumstances for it to be leading the charge to release the Yemeni detainees? And could anyone really believe that the supposedly noxious symbolism of Gitmo is more dangerous to Americans than is deporting terrorists to the places where terrorism thrives?

Our Incompetent Government - ICE

Not only is our government incompetent, but now we have law enforcement agencies that are actively working AGAINST our country.

From the Washington Times, ICE gags sheriff (h/t to the great Michelle Malkin)

The spat between controversial Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) surfaced on July 23 and 24 when the sheriff's deputies were ordered by ICE officials to release illegal immigrants who had been caught in a broader criminal sweep. Sheriff Arpaio complained to the media; a federal spokesman claimed the release was the sheriff's fault; and the sheriff then released audiotapes proving that ICE officials, not he, had ordered the release.

Caught looking foolish, ICE officials threatened to withdraw the sheriff's authority to enforce any immigration laws because the sheriff had violated a ban on contacting the media without first obtaining approval from the Department of Homeland Security, which is ICE's parent agency.

Yes, you read that correctly: The sheriff was ordered to shut up. To make it clearer, ICE's principal legal adviser, Peter S. Vincent, wrote to Arpaio attorney Robert Driscoll on July 31 that the sheriff's department, under the terms of its agreement with ICE, must "coordinate with ICE regarding information to be released to the media regarding actions taken under this memorandum of agreement."

To Mr. Driscoll's complaint that the requirement violates the sheriff's First Amendment rights (not to mention the public's right to know), Mr. Vincent replied: "Few courts would consider an obligation to consult with the federal government before releasing information to the media that may involve sensitive law enforcement issues to be an unreasonable burden on the right to free speech." Furthermore, he wrote, government can "lawfully" require "the surrender of a constitutional right ... provided the conditions are reasonable."

Our Dear Leader is happy to compromise your fundamental Constitutional rights, but will make those same rights freely available as ABSOLUTE rights if you are not a citizen and are able to sneak over the border illegally.

If you do not see a big problem here, you are numb. It is time to rise up.

Two Lies of Obama

From The National Post, regarding his naive speech on the occasion of the protests in Iran;

The lies of Obama

Obama's imagined world of "universal" rights would exist if only the expressed principles of the United Nations applied. In 1948, the UN General Assembly adopted the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, which insists (among other things) that everyone has the right to express opinions without interference, the right to take part in government through freely chosen representatives and the right to freedom of religion (including the freedom to change religion). And yes, if you can read all the way to Article 20 without collapsing in tears, you'll find that, as Obama says, "Everyone has the right to freedom of peaceful assembly and association."

But of course the Declaration of Human Rights has never been anything more than an exercise in wishful thinking, a set of empty gestures based on pious hopes. Why did the authors (who were led by Eleanor Roosevelt) claim that their wishes for human freedom were in fact the "rights" of all humans? They knew, as much as anyone, that only a fortunate minority possessed such rights. There were no such rights, for example, in the vast empire then being assembled by the Soviet Union.

Read the whole thing - I haven't even said what Obama's lies are - so you'll have to read the article.

Suffice it to say that we made a huge mistake electing this guy and we, and many in the rest of the world, will pay for it.

Protests in Iran

These have been covered by just about everyone, so I thought that anything that I have to add would be redundant (even though that is the nature of blogging).

I was wandering around the internet and found myself at Curmudgeonly & Skeptical² and found this post about Neda Soltani.

During WWII the allies air dropped cheap pistols and burp guns all over France to help the resistance fight Nazis. We ought be doing that now, at the least.

Yes.

Can North Korea Win the War?

You can clearly see Seoul in South Korea and Pyongyang in North Korea.

It is hard to find intelligent discussion of this. Normally all you hear is "1.5 million man army" and "massive artillery bombardment will destroy Seoul". With a country that conducts no large-scale exercises and is as poor as dirt with armed forces of very low morale, this never seemed like it made real sense.

Stuart Koehl, a long time military analyst and student of the North Korean armed-forces has something to say.

Endgame in Korea? Lacking the military wherewithal to defeat the South, Kim's regime is simply trying to extend its miserable existence through extortion.

General George Casey, Army Chief of Staff, recently stated quite frankly that it would take ninety days to move forward an adequate force to block an attacking North Korean army. Using this official military assessment as their guide, there is no reason to believe the NK military leadership would hesitate to assure their Dear Leader of an effectively full occupation of the Korean Peninsula within that time period.

I've been a military analyst for more than thirty years. I have studied the North Korean army in detail--its tactics, equipment and capabilities--and I have to say, this projection is one of the more ludicrous I have seen. I understand that in a resource-constrained environment, service leaders and theater commanders have to propound the worst case scenario to ensure their fair share of the pie, but even a cursory look at the North Korean People's Army leaves one wondering "huh?

The arms and equipment of the North Korean military are, overwhelmingly, Soviet-derived systems of 1960s and 70s vintage, lacking the kind of electronics, communications, fire controls and survivability features necessary on the modern battlefield.

To understand what this means, look at the disparity in combat effectiveness between Saddam Hussein's army and our own in Operation Desert Storm. Now consider that, as compared to North Korea's, Saddam's army was extraordinarily well trained and competent.

Read it all. He goes on to explain in detail how North Korea cannot prevail in a war against South Korea and the United States.

Kim's army hasn't been to war since 1953. Sure, it can beat up on unarmed truce inspection teams and kidnap Japanese civilians from remote beaches, but what has it really done lately? Worse still, it hasn't been able to stage realistic, large-scale exercises due to a chronic shortage of both fuel and cash. An army that doesn't know how to move formations larger than a battalion or regiment will degenerate into chaos when it tries to move divisions and armies. Finally, promotion in Kim's army, like promotion in Saddam's, is awarded for political loyalty, not military competence. Loyalty in such regimes is usually defined as telling the psychotic dictator what he wants to hear. Yet the first key to success in modern war is a free and open exchange of information between leaders and subordinates. The problem of political reliability is paramount for Kim--if he lets his army loose on the South, will it actually fight, or will it disintegrate on contact (or worse, turn on the regime)

He goes into issues of weapons, terrain, movement of troops and equipment in a manner more thorough than you normally get to read. So, go and read.

War against the "DPRK" will not be painless, but, although because of our own weakness diplomatically he can win the near-term diplomatic battles, Kim cannot win (unless we just give up).

More information (with photos) about North Korean air defenses here.

From GlobalSecurity.org, more about;
North Korean Army Air force
North Korean Army
North Korean Navy

The Enemy Knows Weakness

This actually happened first, but chronology is not important. The leaders of Iran, North Korea, the Taliban, al Qaeda, etc. all sense weakness as a shark senses blood in the water.

Iran sends warships to Gulf of Aden

TEHRAN (Reuters) - Iran has sent six warships to international waters, including the Gulf of Aden, to show its ability to confront any foreign threats, its naval commander said on Monday.

Admiral Habibollah Sayyari, quoted by the ISNA news agency, made the announcement five days after Iran said it test-fired a surface-to-surface missile with a range of 2,000 km (1,200 miles), putting Israel and U.S. bases in the area within reach.

Not to put too fine a point on it, but;

On May 20, President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said Iran had tested a missile that defence analysts say could hit Israel and U.S. bases in the Gulf, a move likely to fuel concern about Tehran's nuclear ambitions.

The United States and its allies suspect the Islamic Republic is seeking to build nuclear bombs, a charge Tehran denies, but President Barack Obama has offered a new beginning of diplomatic engagement with Iran if it "unclenches its fist"

North Korea Atom Bomb Test

As we in the newly weakened United States mumble about negotiating and working with the (feckless) United Nations, the DPRK (interesting how tyrannies love the title "Democratic Peoples Republic") has exploded an atom bomb comparable to the ones used against Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

Even the leftist rags are reporting this. From the Guardian

The KNCA news agency, the regime's official mouthpiece, said: "We have successfully conducted another nuclear test on 25 May as part of the republic's measures to strengthen its nuclear deterrent."

Officials in South Korea said they had detected a tremor consistent with those caused by an underground nuclear explosion. The country's Yonhap news agency reported that the North had test-fired three short-range missiles from a base on the east coast immediately after the nuclear test.

The underground atomic explosion, at 9.54am local time (0154 BST), created an earthquake measuring magnitude 4.5 in Kilju county in the country's north-east, reports said.

President Barack Obama called the test a matter of grave concern to all countries. "North Korea is directly and recklessly challenging the international community," he said in a statement. "North Korea's behaviour increases tensions and undermines stability in north-east Asia."

He added that North Korea's behaviour would serve only to deepen the country's isolation.

"It will not find international acceptance unless it abandons its pursuit of weapons of mass destruction and their means of delivery," he said.

This is about a forceful as the US response will get.

The UN secretary general, Ban Ki-moon, said he was "deeply worried" by the development.

Which is what the UN Secretary General is good for.

Japan has a lot to worry about.

In Tokyo, Japan's chief cabinet secretary, Takeo Kawamura, said the test was "a clear violation of the UN security council resolution and cannot be tolerated".

Kim will not want to trash South Korea with radioactive contamination since he plans to take ownership of it one day. I think that Japan and the US are at the top of Kim's target list.

The Japanese are currently having a national conversation about amending their Constitution to allow for a more powerful armed force with offensive capabilities. This is a good idea. They are in danger.

See: Japan Moving Toward Amendments To Pacifist Constitution, Official Says

Japan May Amend Pacifist Constitution To Allow Nukes To Protect Against North Korea

North Korea's nuclear weapons has ignited a debate in Japan about allowing nuclear weapons by amending its pacifist Constitution as a deterrent to an attack from nuclear-armed North Korea

Shoichi Nakagawa, former finance minister, said Japan should examine the possibility of obtaining nuclear weapons to defending itself from potential attacks by North Korea and its growing arsenal of ballistic missiles that could be armed with nuclear warheads.

"North Korea has taken a step toward a system whereby it can shoot without prior notice. We have to discuss countermeasures," Kyodo News quoted him as saying.

"It is common sense worldwide that in a purely military sense it is nuclear that can counteract nuclear," said Nakagawa, who has long called for debate on whether Japan should go nuclear.

Advice for the President Elect

Of course it is well known that it has become an article of the Liberal™ faith that John Bolton is a bad guy, this because he stands for the US and is result oriented. Still, it would be very good if Senator Obama (he becomes President Elect after elected by the Electoral College) would take the advice that Mr. Bolton offers in this piece.

John Bolton: Letter to the next president

He writes about being "the decider", Iran, North Korea, and more. Further, he writes about how to manage America's image abroad;

Do not let global “public opinion” about the United States, from Albania to Zimbabwe, dissuade you from doing what you think is right for America. Your job is to defend and advance our interests and values, a task which invariably will displease our adversaries, and even many of our friends, especially those who wish we were, well, more European in our behaviour and attitudes.

What we must do, however, is more effectively advocate the policies you will be pursuing. Failure at both the political level in Washington and abroad, and at the level of the career Foreign Service, made the Bush Administration one of the most tongue-tied Presidencies in our history. We should try to shift international public opinion to support our policies, not modify our policies to try to satisfy international public opinion. The State Department will not understand this distinction. You must.

Very good stuff. Sen. Obama should read it all, and so should you.

You can also read it at the Telegraph.co.uk here if you care to read the comments, including the fact-free rantings of the Left™ where they congratulate themselves on how smart they are and on what evil and stupid people we Americans are (particularly the conservatives).

No Solution to the Piracy Problem?

You may have already read the news of the largest prize ever taken by pirates, the Sirius Star.

Reporting from Beirut and Nairobi, Kenya -- In their most brazen raid yet, suspected Somali pirates operating deep in open waters have seized an oil tanker as long as an aircraft carrier, the U.S. military in the Middle East said Monday.

So audacious and unusual was the Indian Ocean attack that it caught the attention of America's top military official, who expressed shock at the pirates' ability to strike so far from shore.

Global fecklessness is still (ironically) strong. Iranian grain ship seized as Somali pirates hold world to ransom

Somali pirates struck again yesterday, seizing an Iranian cargo ship holding 30,000 tonnes of grain, as the world’s governments and navies pronounced themselves powerless against this new threat to global trade.

Admiral Michael Mullen, the US military chief, pronounced himself stunned by the pirates’ reach after their capture of the supertanker Sirius Star and its $100 million (£70 million) cargo. Commanders from the US Fifth Fleet and from Nato warships in the area said that they would not intervene to retake the vessel.

The Foreign Minister of Saudi Arabia, the owner of the ship, condemned the hijacking as an “outrageous act” that required international action.

“Piracy, like terrorism, is a disease which is against everybody, and everybody must address it together,” Prince Saud al-Faisal said. Arab diplomats would meet in Cairo on Thursday to discuss what could be done in response, Yemeni officials said.

Analysts said, however, that the seizure of the Sirius Star exposed the use of foreign warships as “a sticking plaster” that would not solve the problem. “Maritime security operations in that area are addressing the symptoms not the causes,” said Jason Alderwick, a maritime defence analyst at the International Institute for Strategic Studies.

Roger Middleton, a Horn of Africa specialist at the Chatham House think-tank, said that the capture was a crucial escalation. “Now that they have shown they are able to seize an enormous ship like this, it is beyond a military solution. You won’t fix this without a political solution.”

Of course a political solution is required. The lack of a functioning government in Somalia allows for the existence of safe havens ashore for pirates. These must be taken away from them. Whatever exists of a government in Somalia must be made to agree.

Lawhawk over at A Blog For All discusses the solution.

These countries aren't powerless to act. They are abdicating their responsibility to act. These pirates are indeed terrorists, and there is some indication that they are perhaps middlemen for al Qaeda or other terrorist outfits.

That would fit with my contention that the failure to deal decisively with failed states and the situation in Somalia in particular is resulting a security nightmare.

The solution is to go after the pirates and stop treating this solely as a law enforcement action. The UN Treaty on the Seas has failed to dent the problems facing worldwide commerce as a result of the ongoing piracy. Articles 100 and following deal with what governments can and should do, and yet they are doing nothing of the kind.

Go and read his entire post. he has gotten it exactly right.

In other words, if the US captures pirates and their ships, US law would apply. Similarly, if the Royal Navy captures the pirates, British law applies. Yet, as the Times Online article notes, the British government passed on the men it captured to the Kenyans for prosecution.

These pirates are lucky they were not killed while engaged in their acts of violence on the high seas. For the rest of us, we're watching as the justice system grinds its wheels slowly and can't even begin to figure out how to deal with the problem in an effective manner.

Pirates, when captured, should never again see the light of day.

Kill.Them.All.

Armistice Day - Veterans Day

Americans burying their dead at Bois de Consenvoye, France; November 8, 1918.

Most people know that Veterans Day was originally Armistice Day. The purpose was to commemorate the armistice signed between the Allies and Germany on the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month - November 11th, 1918. The armistice was signed at Rethondes, France and ended hostilities on the Western Front. The war continued across the Russian and Ottoman Empires.

The commemoration was changed from Armistice Day to Veterans Day to remember veterans of all of the wars that Americans had to fight. The price of our freedom has been high.

We often commemorate the events of World War II, it is never far from our memory.

We have forgotten World War I, the Great War. It, like the American Civil War and WW II was a war of horrible devastation and loss of life, draining the strength of Europe and claiming many American lives. It, like the others, was also a testing ground for new advances in warfighting, most notably including the tank, chemical warfare, and aerial warfare.

I choose to remember the armistice of November 11th, 1918 not for the changes in warfighting that were characteristic of WW I, or even of that war itself, but of the horrific loss of life and the horrific ways in which it was lost. Most of us have forgotten the Great War, and we should not. It was the beginning of warfare that lasted from 1914 through 1945. World War II was set up by, and can even be seen as a continuation of the Great War. The shots, fired by Gavrilo Princip, that killed Archduke Franz Ferdinand and his wife Sophie (background here), resulted in warfare that killed more than 20 million people in World War 1 and over 70 million people in World War 2.

Make no mistake, I honor and remember all veterans of all wars, but I have many other occasions to do that. After 21 years of active duty service, I know many of them personally, often talking and drinking with them. But, for me, this day will always be about those heroes of 1917, the year that we entered WW I.

For the United States, this was the "war to end all wars". That is what we believed and this is what those men fought for. However completely that idea failed, they are still heroes and we do poorly if we fail to remember and venerate them. So, for me, Veterans Day will always be Armistice Day - for them.

Read and learn (as I am still doing);
FirstWorldWar.com
Photos of the Great War
World War One

No one hates war more than the warriors.

In Flanders Fields
By: Lieutenant Colonel John McCrae, MD (1872-1918)
Canadian Army

IN FLANDERS FIELDS the poppies blow
Between the crosses row on row,
That mark our place; and in the sky
The larks, still bravely singing, fly
Scarce heard amid the guns below.

We are the Dead. Short days ago
We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,
Loved and were loved, and now we lie
In Flanders fields.

Take up our quarrel with the foe:
To you from failing hands we throw
The torch; be yours to hold it high.
If ye break faith with us who die
We shall not sleep, though poppies grow
In Flanders fields.

The Price of Fecklessness

The great John Bolton has it exactly right. We will pay a big price for being flat on our back with respect to North Korea and all of the other evil ones in the world that we seek to placate - and it will get only worse in an Obama administration (probably a McCain administration to).

Bush's North Korea Surrender Will Have Lasting Consequences

The negative ramifications are not confined to Northeast Asia. In Tehran and the capitals of other terrorist states and aspiring nuclear proliferators, policy makers are doubtless ecstatic that Pyongyang has out-negotiated Washington once more, and they are considering ways to apply the North Korea model to their own situations.

The North was nearly able to complete a nuclear reactor in Syria, and possibly other, related facilities, and suffered no penalty for it. Perhaps Iran will conclude it should do the same. What does it have to lose? In Tripoli, Moammar Gadhafi must be wondering why Libya's nuclear-weapons program now resides in Oak Ridge, Tenn., whereas the full extent of the DPRK's program remains unknown and now unknowable.

Having bent the knee to North Korea, Secretary Rice appears primed to do the same with Iran, despite that regime's egregious and extensive involvement in terrorism and the acceleration of its nuclear program. Watch for the opening of a U.S. diplomatic post in Tehran within days after our Nov. 4 election, and other concessions on the nuclear front. Hard as it is to believe, there may be worse yet to come.

We are losing. We have decided that we would rather just get along than win, and as a result we are losing.

Just wait, the consequences will be tragic.

A Message from the Defectors

North Korean Defectors Send Anti-Kim Jong Il Leaflets by Balloon to North

A group of North Korean human rights campaigners has defied a request of the South Korean government and launched thousands of balloon-borne leaflets into North Korea. VOA's Kurt Achin reports from Seoul.

About a dozen people belonging to the South Korea-based "North Korea Freedom Coalition" took to the seas on Friday, carrying a cargo of thousands of leaflets - each one printed on tissue-thin plastic material resembling convenience store shopping bags.

The leaflets describe North Korean leader Kim Jong Il as a "devilish killer who views his people only as slaves." They say Kim Jong Il is the sole reason for North Korea's hunger and poverty.

When their boat reached a point about eight kilometers west of the South Korean city of Incheon, coalition members filled giant 12 meter long balloons with helium. Then they attached bundles of leaflets to the balloons, and let the ocean wind whisk them away, off in the direction of North Korea. By the end of the day some hundred thousand leaflets were airborne.

Of course, It is not so simple. The South Korean government does not want them to do this. The diplomats don't like it.

Balloon launches like this have gotten North Korea's attention. At inter-Korean military talks earlier this month, the North complained specifically about leaflets carried by balloon, and asked Seoul to put a stop to the launches.

South Korea's Unification Ministry followed up by requesting the defectors group stop the leaflet operations - but Park says he had no intention of complying.

He says only dictatorships order people what to do. South Korea, he says, is a democratic nation - and the government here cannot order legitimate human rights groups around.

Park Sang-hak has it right, and good for him. The diplomats have it wrong, as they always do.

The go along, get along attitude of diplomats has NEVER won anyone their freedom. With the left™ about to take over government here in the U. S. you can also expect to see us behave in the same way. Our diplomats are every bit as weak and feckless as theirs and we will soon be a country whose opinion can safely be ignored.

A Solution to Piracy

I have said this before. There is only one solution to piracy and, sadly, the UN as well as our own government are too feckless to do it.

Kill.Them.All

These are not cute people. They murder at will and stand to seriously affect world trade. Report warns Somali piracy threat to world trade

NAIROBI (AFP) — World trade faces major disruption if Somali piracy is unchecked and allowed to be co-opted by extremists and maritime routes could be gradually diverted, a report released on Thursday said.

London-based think tank Chatham House warned in a briefing paper that the international community needed to take swift action as pirates were rapidly improving their equipment and modus operandi.

Around 60 ships have been attacked so far this year alone. The danger has caused insurance premiums to rise tenfold in a year.

"If the cost of extra insurance becomes prohibitive, or the danger simply too great, shipping companies may avoid the Gulf of Aden and take the long route to Europe and North America around the Cape of Good Hope," it said.

"The extra weeks of travel and fuel consumption would add considerably to the cost of transporting goods" at a time when the price of oil is already putting the squeeze on world trade, Chatham House said.

And that support for terrorism;

"The other worst-case scenario is that pirates become agents of international terrorism," the study said, stressing that previous occurrences of seaborne terrorism in the region should act as an alarm bell.

Chatham House also argued that the ransom collected by pirates was likely used to fuel the war in Somalia and was routed to the Shebab, a hardline Islamist militia listed as a terrorist organisation by Washington.

And murder;

Pirates last week attracted the world's attention when they seized a cargo of battle tanks headed for Kenya and Chatham House warned it was only a matter of time before a hostage was executed.

See also these somewhat older stories;

Somali pirates seize Greek ship

Somali Pirates Held Record 374 Hostages in September

And if they pirate a ship carrying biological or chemical weapons (or worse) then you might actually get what is coming to you; Mysterious Cargo Aboard Iranian Ship Seized by Pirates Raises WMD Concerns

As Somali pirates brazenly maintain their standoff with American warships off the coast of Africa, the cargo aboard one Iranian ship they commandeered is raising concerns that it may contain materials that can be used for chemical or biological weapons.

Some local officials suspect that instead of finding riches, the pirates encountered deadly chemical agents aboard the Iranian vessel.

On Aug. 21, the pirates, armed with AK-47s and rocket-propelled grenades, stole onto the decks of the merchant vessel Iran Deyanat.

They ransacked the ship and searched the containers. But in the days following the hijacking, a number of them fell ill and died, suffering skin burns and hair loss, according to reports.

The pirates were sickened because of their contact with the seized cargo, according to Hassan Osman, the Somali minister of Minerals and Oil, who met with the pirates to facilitate negotiations.

Sounds like radiation sickness to me, and others.

Chemical experts say the reports sound inconsistent with chemical poisoning, but may reflect the effects of exposure to radiation.

"It's baffling," said Jonathan Tucker, a senior fellow at the James Martin Center for Nonproliferation Studies. "I'm not aware of any chemical agent that produces loss of hair within a few days. That's more suggestive of high levels of radioactive waste."

Not necessarily waste either, I think.

Japan Developing Missile Defense Shield

Path of 1998 North Korean Missile Launch (right over my family's house in Muroran, Hokkaido, Japan)

Japan's Defense Ministry, in cooperation with the United States, is planning a test of a missile defense shield. With North Korea once more behaving in an erratic and dangerous way this is very necessary, especially remembering North Korea's aggressive actions toward Japan.

Japan plans missile test as North Korea fears grow

TOKYO (Reuters) - Japan is planning a ballistic missile defence test in cooperation with the United States in November, the Defence Ministry said on Monday, as fears rise over North Korea's plans to restore its main atomic complex.

North Korea's firing of a ballistic missile over Japan in 1998 spurred Japan to build a missile defence shield in cooperation with Washington, its most important ally.

Japanese navy personnel aboard the newly upgraded destroyer Chokai will use an SM-3 missile to try to shoot down a dummy ballistic missile in space over the Pacific near Hawaii, Japan's Defence Ministry said on Monday.

A similar test using the equipment supplied by Lockheed Martin Corp and Raytheon last December went smoothly.

It is sadly ironic that, however much we may wish to see the end of the monster Kim and the destruction of that regime, it is so poor with an industrial base that is so old and broken down that its collapse is as dangerous as its continued existence.

NASA Hacker to be Extradited

Its about time.

Hacker Loses Extradition Fight

Gary McKinnon has lost his appeal to avoid being extradited to the US for tapping in to 97 American military and Nasa computers from his London home.

He could even be sent to Guantanamo Bay in Cuba, the notorious camp where America holds its terror suspects.

McKinnon was never charged in the UK after admitting the offence but Law Lords now say the US should be granted their request to put him on trial there.

He may be locked up for a long time. Let us hope that our feckless government decides to grow a spine and really punish this criminal.

McKinnon has been warned by US authorities that he faces a life sentence rather than a couple of years in jail, if he does not plead guilty and accept extradition.

Without co-operation, say the authorities, the case could be treated as one of terrorism.

Such a charge could result in up to 60 years behind bars in a maximum-security prison, should he be found guilty.

It has previously been reported that US prosecutors wanted to "see him fry".

I hope that they (we) throw the book at this guy.

The Reason for the Second Amendment

Here is Dr. Suzanna Gratia-Hupp, a Texas state representative, delivering testimony to a Senate committee about what the real purpose of the Second Amendment to the Constitution is. Here is a clue - it has NOTHING to do with hunting or target shooting.

She was in a cafeteria in Texas when a madman entered and began shooting. Because she made the mistake of obeying an idiotic law that makes it illegal to carry a gun in a purse she left her weapon in her car. Because of this she was unable to defend herself or her parents, both of whom were murdered that day.

Did Chucky Shumer understand a word of it? Does he even care? Probably not - he is a simple ideologue and would rather see people die undefended than violate his ideology.

Watch and listen. This story is truly tragic.



And to add to the tragedy, Chucky and his friends could not possibly care less than they do right now.