Posts by James Bremner
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Hard News: For the kids, if nothing else, in reply to Russell Brown,
Russell, from what I have read previously, when waterboarding was a current topic of controversy, KSM didn't give up much of anything pre waterboarding. Post waterboarding he was a changed man who would answer any question without the need for additional waterboarding. Post waterboarding, he "sang like a canary" on a continuing basis, presumably because he didn't want to do anymore involuntary snorkeling without a snorkel. At one point in time, probably in the 2004 2005 timeframe, just about everything the US knew about Al Qaida came from KSM, thanks to his aqua induced change of outlook.
I wish we lived in a world where this kind of stuff didn't have to happen from time to time, but we don't live in a world like that yet.
To listen to the critics of enhanced interrogation, people were being randomly pulled off streets all over the world for a quick waterboarding. In reality only 3, three, three people were waterboarded. Not 30, not 300, not 3000, nor 30,000. Just 3. Three. Including KSM and Al Libbi, both of whom contributed info that assisted with getting UBL the other day. None of whom were exactly nice chaps, and we got a mother lode of info from them. How anyone thinks waterboarding 3 nasty bastards is outrageous after the organization they were a part of killed 3,000 people, and wanted to kill many more, is so far beyond me as to be in outer space.
I wish the Obama administration would just be honest and say that, yes, policies that Obama previously opposed did contribute to the success of this important mission. He would get a lot of respect for that, including from the independents that he needs to vote for him next year that are currently 2 to 1 against him, but his loony tune left wing base would go nuts. But who else are they going to vote for? -
Hard News: For the kids, if nothing else, in reply to Craig Ranapia,
Craig, I am not saying Bin Laden's body should have been desecrated. Just tidy up his body as best as possible and have a photo released to prove once and for all to all and sundry that, yes UBL is dead. As was done for Hussein and his sons and Z man. Stop the crazies and conspiracy theorists from going into overdrive, and those theorists in the Middle East make those in the west look lame by comparison.
As for his burial arrangements, I didn't say cover him in bacon and feed him to the dogs, just that I don't see any need to show any respect, particularly culturally sensitive respect, for a mass murdering bastard. Why not just put him in a body bag and throw him over the side? We all know that we are better than UBL and his acolytes; we don’t need to grovel to Islam to prove it. -
What a great couple of days in the good ole US of A. A feeling of closure, completion, "we got the bastard"!! It was so frustrating that the US with all its resources etc couldn't find that one little prick. It was just so annoying, a feeling of unfinished business. Now that is done with.
As for cheering in the streets, why the hell not? He was a bastard who killed civillians as his key means, if anyone deserved to get whacked, it was him.
A great message to those that would contemplate doing harm to the US, "it might take us a while, but we will get you where ever you are, you bastards".
And yes a vindication of policies post 9/11, which will be hard for many to swallow.. What has Obama changed of Bush's policies? Not much. While on one hand he has banned waterboarding, on the other he ramped up drone strikes on AQ in Pakistan in a big way. Not exactly stepping back from existing policy. Although I don't like that Obama campaigned one way and promptly turned around and for the most part did the opposite, at least he wasn't stupid enough to do something genuinely stupid just to keep a campaign promise. At least he had the smarts to realize what was the right policy set and keep doing it. And yes, some of the info that resulted in getting UBL came from rendition and waterboarding. KSM gave up the nom de guerre of the courier, and KSM didn't give up anything until he was waterboarded, after which he apparently "sang like a canary".Good for Obama. I am no fan of the guy but he is like a real President now, He had the gonads to take a big, big risk and made a very tough national security call, and came up big time. Good for him. It may well make a significant difference in next years' election. I still think that main issue will be economics which will be bad ground to play on for Obama ($5 a gallon gas and 8% unemployment will be tough to overcome), but whatever happens from now on, he will go down as the President that got Bin Laden, and that is no small thing.
Of course they need to release a photo of UBL after he assumed room temperature (love that phrase) to prove for all to see that UBL got some fine American lead in the face. The Hussein daddy and sons and the Z man were all shown and no one went crazy. As for giving him Islamic burial rites, for that bastard, after what he did? He didn't deserve any respect, let alone craven Islamic butt licking. -
Hard News: Kittens and puppies for happiness, in reply to Sacha,
Sacha, RB made a reference to Libya in the original post to this string. It was the only place I found a reference to Libya in my review of recent posts and comments.
As what is happening in Libya is a significant event I was expecting a post and thread on the subject.
Life is confusing. Now Obama sounds like a neocon by saying the goal in Libya is installing a democratic system. Did he read one of Bush's speeches by mistake?
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RB,
Is there a post on Libya coming sometime soon? Be interested to know you take on it. -
Simon, how many "left wing potheads" do you think are devoted followers of Palin and Beck et al? Not exactly the profile of your average Tea Partier.
From the information available to date it seems pretty clear the guy is a Kazynski/Hinckley type mentally unwell individual.
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The more we learn about Gifford’s shooter, it seems that there is no connection to anything Palin might have said or any "right wing climate of hate" or whatever other BS some on the left have trotted out. The guy is more like a Hinckley or a Kaczynski than anything else.
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703667904576071191163461466.html?
Perhaps some on the left were following the Rahm Emmanual "never let a crisis go to waste" school of thinking and saw this as an opportunity to smear some on the right, or perhaps the "Palin's to blame" narrative fitted the mental model of their world. Either way, pretty sick. Perhaps now that Bush is out of the way, the more nasty elements of the left need a new target for their venom.
And of course the magnitude of the hypocrisy involved in the left complaining about the hateful language of the right is breath taking. The amount of hate that emanated from the left toward Bush was appalling. For example, how many times did figures on the left talk about the desirability of the death of Bush? A film was even made about Bush’s assassination. Where were the left and the MSM complaining about the climate of hate when that was going on?
For a quick round up of the screeds and screeds of left wing hate over recent years:
And to finish, VDH sums up quite well the reaction of some on the left to this tragedy.
“If crazed gunmen are sadly a periodic characteristic of American culture, so are political vultures who scavenge political capital as they pick through the horrific violence.”
http://www.nationalreview.com/articles/256697/political-vultures-victor-davis-hanson
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It seems like the shooter is a left wing pothead who includes the Communist Manifesto as one of his favourite books. Doesn't seem like the profile of a person who would be motivated by anything Beck or Palin might have said. Mental problems seem to be the issue here.
http://blogs.phoenixnewtimes.com/valleyfever/2011/01/jared_loughner_alleged_shooter.php
Anyone want to climb down from their kneejerk reaction blaming Palin et al for the actions of a nutter?
And of course there is the language that Obama has used.
"Mobster wisdom tells us never to bring a knife to a gun fight. But what does political wisdom say about bringing a gun to a knife fight?"
Where were the howls of outrage and indignation from the PAS crowd at that inflamatory language?
http://blogs.wsj.com/washwire/2008/06/14/obama-if-they-bring-a-knife-to-the-fight-we-bring-a-gun/
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Hard News: Wikileaks: The Cable Guys, in reply to Simon Grigg,
What has taken a bit of a hit? This conspiratorial view of the US:
For the European and Latin American left, just as for the Chinese or Russian nationalist right, it has long been all but assumed that whatever the Americans say publicly about their foreign policy is simply a cover story for some sort of secret agenda. What that agenda is can vary, according to taste – the interests of a powerful company (Halliburton!), the subversion of a leftwing government, the weakening of a rival nation. But whatever the Americans’ secret agenda was held to be, they definitely had one – only the absurdly naive could believe otherwise.
Specific examples would be US policy regarding Iran, where the fever swamps of the left have for many years been positing that the US, and particularly the evilchimpybushhitler was and is just looking for an excuse to go bomb/invade Iran, when the leaked cables showed many Middle Eastern countries are pressuring the US to go bomb Iran's nuke program while the US is the reluctant party. Another specific theory that has taken a bit of a hit would be Israel which is of course asserted by some to be, if not in charge of US foreign policy, then close to it. The lack of dirt on US/Israel revealed by the leaks is a major surprise to many.
How do I define “the left?” Simon, have you heard of Michael Moore? He makes ludicrous left wing conspiratorial movies like F 911. If you need to be reminded of silly left wing conspiracies, just watch that movie again. More broadly the term “the left” as I understand it and use it describes progressives or liberals, those significantly to the left of the political center. In the US context Moore, Kos, and Pelosi would be lefties or progressives, but Bill Clinton and other moderate Dems would not and are not described as “lefties’.
Speaking of Michael Moore and the Cuban health system that you have spoken positively of in the past Simon, an unexpected absolute gem in the Wikileak saga is the revelation that Sicko was banned in Cuba because (from the Guardian no less):
Authorities feared footage of gleaming hospital in Michael Moore's Oscar-nominated film would provoke a popular backlash
But the memo reveals that when the film was shown to a group of Cuban doctors, some became so "disturbed at the blatant misrepresentation of healthcare in Cuba that they left the room".
Castro's government apparently went on to ban the film because, the leaked cable claims, it "knows the film is a myth and does not want to risk a popular backlash by showing to Cubans facilities that are clearly not available to the vast majority of them.http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/dec/17/wikileaks-cuba-banned-sicko
So we can say that another left conspiracy, or more accurately a grotesque, obscene, bald faced lie (especially if you are Cuban) that has be peddled by many and varied lefties like Moore, Danny Glover, Oliver Stone, Sean Penn etc, and you Simon, that the Cuban health system is just swell, has been debunked by Wikileaks.
Regarding the comments about the term “sole superpower”, which country has by far the largest economy and military in the world? That would be the US. At this point in time could and any countries seriously challenge the US militarily? No, not a chance. Now that might change over time, but at this point in time it is an accurate description. -
Simon, please refer back the article I linked to and the paragraph that I copied in my original post on this subject. The article and the point it made are all fairly clear and uncomplicated I would have thought.