Target Centermass

Looks like one of my favorite MilBloggers — Hell! the founder of the MilBloggers — has received the summons. Best wishes and happy hunting, Greyhawk!

EDIT: Grayhawk needs a little help if he is to keep blogging on his “trip.”

Update: By the way, if everyone who wanders by here would see fit to hit that paypal button for a modest (really, 5 bucks would be great) donation this site will continue to provide you with the insights and diversions that I hope are your reasons for visiting. Honestly, if not, it will likely vanish within a few short weeks. That’s not a threat, it’s just an unavoidable truth.

And whether you contribute or not, I’ll take this time to note that if you don’t vote this year I will find you on my return to the states and personally kick your ass.

Thanks for stopping by.

Update 2: I would consider it a great favor if fellow bloggers would kindly link this post. Thanks.

Update 3: I suppose I should point out I’m going on a trip (ahem) and without some proper gear will be unable to continue updating this site – just to clarify. Said gear is not cheap, (think laptop and digital camera) and I think you might be interested in my reports from my destination.

I’ll be honest: I haven’t seen Michael Moore’s movie Fahrenheit 9/11 and have felt little inclination to do so. The trailer, reviews, reports on the web and words with coworkers have so far sated any curiosity save one — I suspected but was too lazy to verify an October DVD/VHS release. Well, now I know.

Michael Moore says he won’t submit “Fahrenheit 9/11″ for consideration as best documentary at this year’s Academy Awards. Instead, he’s going for the bigger prize of best picture.

Moore’s critically acclaimed film slams President Bush’s war on terror as ill-advised and corrupt. The movie has cheered Democrats but enraged the president’s supporters, who booed Moore when he visited the Republican National Convention last week.

“For me the real Oscar would be Bush’s defeat on Nov. 2,” Moore told The Associated Press during a phone interview Monday from New York.

The $6 million film has become a sensation that collected $117.3 million in the United States this summer, despite an early roadblock when the Walt Disney Co. banned its Miramax Films division from distributing the political hot-potato.

In the midst of the presidential campaign, Moore’s announcement is a strategic move for his Oscar campaign. Documentaries and animated films have their own categories, but the conventional wisdom in Hollywood is that those niche awards can limit a film’s appeal in the overall best picture class.

Moore said he and his producing partner, Harvey Weinstein, agreed “Fahrenheit 9/11″ would stand a better chance if they focused solely on the top Oscar.

He also said he wanted to be “supportive of my teammates in nonfiction film.”

So many documentaries — such as the gonzo fast-food satire “Super Size Me” and the sober look at Arab television news in “Control Room” — have made the rounds in theaters recently that Moore, who won the best documentary Oscar for “Bowling for Columbine,” said he wanted to give others a chance.

“It’s not that I want to be disrespectful and say I don’t ever want to win a (documentary) Oscar again,” Moore said. “This just seems like the right thing to do. … I don’t want to take away from the other nominees and the attention that they richly deserve.”

Moore also hinted in a recent interview in Rolling Stone he would like the movie to play on television before the presidential election. According to the rules of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, playing on TV would invalidate its contention in the documentary category, but not for best picture. With the movie coming out on DVD Oct. 5, it’s not clear whether the TV deal would happen.

I suspect there’s more to this than Moore’s desire for television. First, this maneuver would dodge the is-this-really-a-documentary controversy that buzzed around his award-winning Bowling for Columbine, especially important as such a controversy would dwarf the previous one. Second, win or lose, nomination or no, this allows Moore to backburner Academy Award issues to well after election day. All he has to do is ride any storm in October, doing what damage he may to the president.

Based upon the shared burden of what is increasingly, albeit belatedly, recognized as a common enemy, Russia’s foreign minister has welcomed an offer by Israel of assistance against terror. It seems, however, that Russia isn’t quite to the point of understanding the story being played out on the global stage.

While showing willingness to work with Israel against militants, Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said any counter-terrorism alliance would have to include Arab countries — in a nod to Russia’s traditional allies in the region.

“We appreciate the very strong readiness of the Israeli people to help Russia at this hour and this will certainly strengthen the counterterrorist coalition these days,” Lavrov said.

“We certainly are taking into account the need to be more effective,” he told reporters during a visit to President Moshe Katsav.

In a meeting with Israeli opposition leader Shimon Peres, Lavrov said terrorism is one of the biggest challenges facing the international community.

Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon (news – web sites), in a telephone call to Russian President Vladimir Putin (news – web sites) on Sunday, proposed expanded intelligence coordination between the two countries.

However, Lavrov was careful to point out that Israel was one of several Middle Eastern countries with which Russia coordinated on security issues, including Saudi Arabia, Syria and other Arab states.

“Terrorism doesn’t have any nationalities,” he said. “I believe the key to the solution of the problem is to bring all countries to fight terror and I can assure you that in addition to our very close counterterrorist cooperation with Israel we have similar counterterrorist cooperation with Arab countries.”

Yes, I see some value in saying any mideast alliance would have to include Arab nations. That value would be the maintenance of Russia’s traditional regional allies, who are, unfortunately, part of the problem currently. Also, the insistence of the inclusion of an Arab state precludes the inclusion of Israel.

I also note the “terrorism doesn’t have any nationalities” portion. While this is true, it would also be true, and in my mind crucially important, to finally admit that Islamic terrorism most assuredly has tendencies towards a small number of nationalities.

The global war on Islamic terror is currently being fought in four theaters:

• Israel and the Israeli-controlled regions
• Afghanistan, involving the U.S., NATO and other allies
• Iraq, with the U.S, British, Polish, Australian, Japanese forces, among others
• Russia, with essentially anywhere and anyone in that vast region a potential target

Unfortunately, short of the Afghani and Iraqi theaters, there is little if any realization that these four hotspots are related. In fact, the American and Euro left have worked feverishly to separate Iraq from the campaign against Islamic fascism. This is essentially akin to arguing that Operation Torch, the invasion of Vichy-controlled Northern Africa in 1943 was not part of WWII because Hitler was in Berlin.

No, these four areas must certainly be linked if the radical and expansionist Islamist movement is to be stopped. In fact, future battlegrounds assuredly lurk in the near future (e.g. Sudan, Syria, Iran, heck, many, many more, potentially). The sooner the good guys (and I have zero qualms phrasing it that way) realize the scope of the situation and that we are now entering World War IV, the sooner the Allies can intertwine and bolster each other’s efforts. The more radIslam spreads, the greater the eventual bloodbath will be.

I’d wager that even some in France realize this.