Target Centermass

Month: November 2005

  • Jordan: 57 Killed in Triple Suicide Attack

    Today was yet another bloody day in the Middle East. The only (slight) surprise in that is that the crimson flowed in Jordan rather than Iraq or Israel.

    Three suspected suicide bombers struck at three international hotels in Jordan’s capital, Amman, last night, killing at least 57 people and wounding an estimated 115 others.

    The explosions hit the Grand Hyatt, Radisson SAS and Days Inn hotels just before 9pm local time. The blast at the Radisson occurred during a wedding party with at least 300 guests.

    Reports suggested many of those killed in the blasts were Jordanians. The dead also included three Asian victims, possibly from China.

    In the aftermath, officials said they suspected suicide bombers were responsible for the explosions.

    While security officials said the attacks carried “the trademark of al-Qaeda,” authorities said it was too early to say for certain who was behind the atrocities.

    Jordan’s King Abdullah blamed a “deviant and misled group” for the atrocity: “The attacks targeted and killed innocent Jordanian civilians.”

    Last night suspicion was pointing at al-Qaeda’s leader in Iraq, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, who is from Zarqa, near Amman.

    With the death toll expected to rise further, world leaders expressed outrage at the bombings. A White House spokesman said George Bush, president of the United States, condemned the attacks and had offered assistance in the investigation.

    […]

    The bombs – which came on the day of Mr Blair’s Commons defeat – were nearly simultaneous. The explosion at the Grand Hyatt completely shattered the stone entrance.

    One witness saw at least seven bodies removed and many more wounded carried out on stretchers. A US businessman said the bomb exploded in the lobby.

    “Several of my friends have died. The people who carried this out were cowards,” he said.

    […]

    Jordan, a key US ally, has long been regarded as a prime target for attacks by Islamic militants.

    […]

    Amman is a major centre for the United Nations in the area, but Jordan has been spared major attacks on foreigners, despite its proximity to Iraq.

    Jordan may have been spared up until today’s murderous terror, but it should be remembered that Jordan has been targeted before today. Well, the luck ran out and the Islamist terrorists have apparently succeeded in expanding their bloody march against humanity.

    Some may talk about rights and protections and civility and atrocities, but I’ll be honest — whether involved in today’s carnage or not, I wouldn’t mind seeing Zarqawi’s head on a pike. Call me primative, but I believe it’s a matter of speaking a language that the target audience understands.

  • Reciprocity XIX and Valour-IT Update

    It’s been quite a while since I’ve done this again. Every so often I like to take an opportunity to express my gratitude to those who have blogrolled or linked to Target Centermass.

    First, thanks to the following fine blogs for adding TCm to their blogrolls:

    Second, thanks to the following for somewhat recent links to TCm:

    Third, I would especially like to thank Matt at Blackfive for his work in the MilBlog fundraiser for his work as the Army team lead in the Valour-IT fundraiser. I gave, but not for the link from Matt. Check out the cause if you want to know the real reason. Tonight, Matt brings an especially pleasing update – the Army team has hit its goal of $21,000, two days before the drive closes on Veteran’s Day and ahead of the other branches. Hooah!!! Don’t let that stop you from giving throught the Army team at Blackfive or through the graphic link below.


    Feel free to give through the branch of your choice (hint … Army). Just please give. The troops deserve more than magnets on cars as signs of support.

    As always, if you’ve linked or blogrolled Target Centermass and I haven’t found you, please send an email or post a comment. No good deed should go unacknowledged.

  • A Must-Read

    Simply that, a must-read essay, courtesy Stephen Green, the VodkaPundit. If you want to know why I have started an “Our” Media category (which still needs older entries added) here at Target Centermass, Mr. Green sums it up better than I could:

    So what does matter? What is the postmodern arm of decision?

    Previously, I wrote that in order to win the Terror War, we must “prove the enemy ideology to be ineffective,” just as we did in the Cold War. In that conflict, we did so in three ways: by fighting where we had to while maintaining our freedoms, but most importantly by out-growing the Communist economies. I argued that similar methods would win the Terror War. We’d have to fight, we’d have to maintain our freedoms, but the primary key to victory in the Current Mess is taking the initiative.

    What I didn’t see then – but what I do see today – is what “taking the initiative” really means.

    It means, fighting a media war. It means, turning the enemy’s one great strength into our own. Broadcast words, sounds, and images are the arm of decision in today’s world.

    And if that assessment is correct, then we’re losing this war and badly.

    Go. Read it. Seriously.

  • Texas NOV 05 Election Blogging

    I hereby yield the floor to the Swanky Conservative, Down Deep in Texas and In the Bullpen.

    Although I didn’t feel that I had a dog in any of the involved hunts, JohnL at TexasBestGrok had certainly made a case against the apparently-successful Prop 2. If anything, he played a role in keeping me undecided on the matter, or at least the verbage of the matter.

  • Islamic Troubles Link Dump, 8 NOV 05

    Sorry, folks, busy with other things tonight. I did want to leave you with some stories that caught my eye, though.

    Second Saddam trial defence lawyer murdered

    Gunmen killed a second defence lawyer in the trial of Saddam Hussein and his aides on Tuesday and the former Iraqi president’s own counsel demanded the court be moved abroad, out of reach of the U.S.-backed government.

    The sectarian anger dividing Iraq pervades the proceedings but ministers refused to consider a move abroad after a lawyer for another of Saddam’s co-accused was killed three weeks ago and the government spokesman declined fresh comment.

    The defence renewed a threat to boycott the court, which is next due to sit at the end of the month.

    Another defence lawyer was slightly wounded in the attack on their car in Baghdad; three weeks ago a colleague was abducted and shot the day after the start of proceedings in the trial for crimes against humanity on October 19. Both dead men made vocal, televised contributions on what has so far been the only day of hearings.

    In Tuesday’s attack, Adil al-Zubeidi was killed and his colleague Thamer Hamoud al-Khuzaie wounded when their car came under fire in the western Baghdad district of Hay al-Adil, police and defence team sources said. Both were working for Saddam’s brother and his former vice president[.]

    Tell the defense team to shut up and button up, move ’em into the Green Zone and let the wheels of Iraqi justice proceed. Just my two bits.

    UN Extends Mandate of U.S.-Led Forces in Iraq Through 2006

    The United Nations Security Council voted 15 to 0 to authorize U.S.-led forces to remain in Iraq until Dec. 31, 2006, to give Iraqi troops time to prepare for assuming responsibility for the nation’s security.

    The resolution, drafted by the U.S. and co-sponsored by Denmark, Japan, Romania and the U.K., asks the Security Council to review the mandate of the multinational force no later than June 15, 2006, or to terminate it at the request of Iraq’s government. Iraqi Prime Minister Ibrahim al-Jaafari requested the extension in an Oct. 27 letter to the UN.

    The U.S. asked for an early extension of the mandate, which wasn’t due to expire until Dec. 31, to avoid making the authorization an issue in the election of an Iraqi government on Dec. 15, U.K. Ambassador Emyr Jones Parry said.

    Smart move there, timing-wise.

    17 arrests in Australia terror raid

    Two Islamic terror cells were rushing to become the first to stage a major “jihad” terror bombing in Australia, a prosecutor said after armed police arrested 17 suspects in a string of co-ordinated pre-dawn raids in two cities.

    “Thankfully, the police forces of this country might just have prevented a catastrophic act of terrorism … either in Melbourne or in Sydney,” said New South Wales state Police Minister Carl Scully.

    […]

    About 500 armed police arrested nine men in the southern city of Melbourne and eight in Sydney, including one man critically injured in a gun fight with police.

    Police said they expected more arrests in coming days and weeks. Federal police have raided another Sydney home, but there were no immediate reports of arrests.

    As per the norm, there was the usual admonition that the Aussies’ participation in the Iraqi theater is the main driver behind the threats. I find that rather laughable, considering that a) the U.S. supposedly acted unilaterally in Iraq, and b) radical Islamic terror should rightly be considered a global threat — there are no safe havens, and flimsy excuses for expansionist Islamic militancy are merely pathetic aids to the danger our civilization must squarely face.

    Restive France Declares State of Emergency

    The French government declared a state of emergency Tuesday after nearly two weeks of rioting, and the prime minister said the nation faced a “moment of truth.”

    The extraordinary security measures, to begin Wednesday and valid for 12 days, clear the way for curfews to try to halt the country’s worst civil unrest since the student uprisings of 1968.

    Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin, tacitly acknowledging that France has failed to live up to its egalitarian ideals, reached out to the heavily immigrant suburbs where the rioting began. He said France must make a priority of working against the discrimination that feeds the frustration of youths made to feel that they do not belong in France.

    “The effectiveness of our integration model is in question,” the prime minister told parliament. He called the riots “a warning” and “an appeal.”

    The riots are not a warning.

    They are not an appeal.

    They are an unchecked, at least as of yet, uprising against both French and Western society by an isolated and radical immigration block that has no reason to care for those same societies. Those involved are the violent children of an immigrant culture of bloody disdain for Western values, solidified and strengthened by a failed mindset of non-assimilation.

    Iraqi insurgent toll rises as offensive continues

    U.S. and Iraqi forces searched house-to-house for the third day of a major offensive near Iraq’s border with Syria on Monday, with at least 17 insurgents and one Marine killed, the military said.

    Operation Steel Curtain continued its cautious progress through areas in and around Qusayba, a dusty, low-lying town in western Iraq, most of whose 30,000 residents appeared to have already fled.

    U.S. Marines and Iraqi scouts, supported by tanks and air strikes, have met what they describe as sporadic resistance from Sunni Arab insurgents and foreign fighters armed with Kalashnikov assault rifles and improvised bombs.

    […]

    Several U.S. offensives this year in the Euphrates valley, a green belt running from the border toward the capital, have been aimed at stemming the flow of Islamist militants into Iraq.

    My best wishes to the boots on the ground and their families. The spice must flow, but the Islamist militant flow must be halted.

  • Carnival of Liberty XIX

    This week’s installment of the Life, Liberty, Property community’s Carnival of Liberty is up over at The Unrepentant Individual. Go read another fine collection of posts from a libertarian slant.

  • Happy Blogiversary

    Eric, a fellow Texan and Aggie, at the Fire Ant Gazette is celebrating his blog’s third-year mark. Hey, that’s old by blogosphere standards, and he insists on doing it unpaid. Go drop by and wish him well.

  • Project Valour-IT Drive Continues

    Currently, the Army is in the lead in the little inter-service rivalry for an extremely worthy cause. The drive will continue until this Friday, Veterans Day ’05.

    As of this writing, over $44,000 has been raised between the four branches and their supporters to assist injured troopers communicate with the world. Hooah! Please give the Army way, via Blackfive, or the link below:


    Heck, give through the branch of your choice. Just please give. I have. Will you support our injured troops?

  • French Islamic Riots Link Dump, 7 NOV 05

    I’ve long said that Europe is a tinderbox, with its increasing Islamic pockets serving as the fuel waiting to ignite. I had thought that the Paris riots would have settled by now, and still think they will, but that has yet to be the case. In fact, the situation is worsening as blood has been drawn and the mayhem has crossed borders.

    French integration model fails, no back-up in sight

    With every night of violent rioting that scars France’s rundown suburbs, more and more French say their distinctive model of integration, based on the revolutionary ideal of equality for all, has failed.

    But President Jacques Chirac and his conservative allies are unlikely to join the critics, as that would mean accepting the approach France considers superior is no better than integration policies abroad.

    Interior Minister Nicolas Sarkozy is the only top politician saying France’s “republican model” falls short and that the U.S. or British “melting pot” approach could help break the cycle of minority exclusion, unemployment and revolt.

    […]

    Michel Wieviorka, a leading sociologist, said the recent riots indicated “the decline — perhaps historic — of the so-called French model of republican integration”.

    “This is a total crisis,” he said at the weekend. “They (the riots) tell us we cannot continue with politicians who tell us to carry on with an exhausted model.”

    Take note, multiculturalists, stability of liberty and society lies not in steadfast maintenence and seperation of individual cultures. Rather, a solid future lies in the old American integration model — accepting the strengths (and selective delicious dishes) of immigrant cultures into the overall society while that members of that said immigrant culture adapt to the overall nature of the pre-existing society.

    Leaders fiddle as France burns

    France was struggling to overcome one of its gravest post-war crises last night as every major city faced the threat of fierce rioting that began 12 nights ago and now seems to have spun out of control.

    Despite an assurance from Philippe Douste Blazy, the foreign minister, that France was “not a dangerous country”, the spread of violence prompted the Foreign Office in London to warn travellers that trouble could break out “almost anywhere”.

    […]

    Although the disorder began on the intimidating sink estates of Paris’s northern suburbs, trouble had been reported yesterday in the early hours from most regions of the country. Even areas such as Brittany, the Loire and Bordeaux, favoured by British holidaymakers and second- home hunters, have now been drawn into the worst wave of unrest in France since the spring revolt of 1968 set in motion the downfall of Gen Charles de Gaulle.

    Yesterday the violence also claimed its first life. A 61-year-old man died in hospital three days after being beaten unconscious when he left his home in a northern Paris suburb intending to stop rubbish bins being set on fire.

    Blood, and yet the French leadership dither. Yet again, and within only months, Chirac faces the ghost of de Gaulle’s downfall.

    France set to use curfews to halt riots

    France will impose curfews “wherever it is necessary” and call up police reservists to stop rioting that has spread out of its suburbs, the prime minister said today, calling a return to order “our No. 1 responsibility”.

    […]

    Asked on TF1 television whether the army should be brought in, Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin said “we are not at that point”.

    But “at each step, we will take the necessary measures to re-establish order very quickly throughout France,” he said. “That is our prime duty: ensuring everyone’s protection.”

    The new measures followed the worst overnight violence so far on Sunday-Monday. Foreign governments warned their citizens to be careful in France.

    Apparent copycat attacks also spread outside France, with five cars torched outside the main train station in Brussels, Belgium. German police were investigating the burning of five cars in Berlin.

    Belgium? Possibly Germany? Looks like that is the case. Heck, in case you haven’t heard, and Lex doubts you have, Islamic riots have even reached Denmark.

    Hey, Doll, how ’bout we scratch Europe off the list of possible honeymoon sites?

  • Pentagon: Iraq Troop Rotation to Shrink

    Initial U.S. troop rotation plans for Iraq have been released for the two-year period starting in mid-2006.

    The Pentagon announced Monday that more than 92,000 troops will be in the next rotation of U.S. forces in Iraq, and Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld said its exact size will not be decided until after the Dec. 15 election of a new Iraqi government.

    The Pentagon said it has identified some of the major combat units that will deploy, starting in mid-2006 as part of a rotation that will run through mid-2008, including a National Guard brigade from Minnesota.

    It said the identified units will total about 92,000 troops, but Rumsfeld said that should not be taken as the final figure. The usual troop level this year has been about 138,000, although that has been strengthened to about 160,000 this fall out of concern for extra violence during voting in October and December.

    The number of troops in future rotations will depend on conditions, including the severity of the insurgency and the strength of Iraqi security forces, as well as the recommendations of U.S. commanders, Rumsfeld said.

    “We know we’re going to bulk up for the elections, and we know we’re going to go back down to some level after the elections,” Rumsfeld said in a telephone call to The Associated Press. During the call, Rumsfeld complained that an AP report gave the mistaken impression that the Pentagon has already decided to reduce troop levels below 138,000 next year.

    Key to this potential reduction is repeated relative stability during high-stress periods, such as elections, and continuing growth in the size and proficiency of the fledling Iraqi democracy’s domestic security forces.

    Separately, a senior Army general said there is a growing momentum in the training of Iraqi security forces, which now total about 100,000 army soldiers and about 111,000 police forces. In a detailed briefing before a group organized by the Center for Strategic and International Studies, a think tank, Lt. Gen. David Petraeus said the goal is to have a combined total of 230,00 army and police by the December election.

    Petraeus left Iraq last summer after a year in command of training programs for the Iraqi security forces. His briefing charts said training and equipping of the Iraqi army should be done by January 2007, and by March 2007 for the Iraqi police services. The total number of forces is to reach 325,000 by July 2007.

    The Pentagon hopes to be able to reduce U.S. troop levels as Iraqi security forces become more capable of defending their own country, but it is unclear when that point will be reached.

    Obviously, with the situation on the ground unfortunately but necessarily considered fluid, all troop level plans have to be viewed as subject to change, especially around eight months ahead of deployment. Rumsfeld stressed this, though I would suspect it fell on deaf ears in the media. More than likely, any potential increase will be trumpeted as further evidence of quagmire rather than a flexible force able to adapt situationally.

    Rumsfeld, appearing before reporters with British Defense Minister John Reid prior to announcing the troop rotation details, stressed that conditions on the ground in the months ahead will determine any changes in U.S. force levels.

    “We’re aware of the interest in the press in the mid-to-longer-term levels of U.S. forces and coalition forces in Iraq, but I would caution that it would be a mistake to draw conclusions about such matters when reviewing the force rotation announcements that will be made later today,” Rumsfeld said.

    “We continue to transition and transfer additional responsibilities to the Iraqi security forces, and the people of Iraq continue to meet the political milestones that they have established,” he added. “As these and other conditions are met, Gen. (George) Casey will continue to assess the capabilities that he believes he will need and make recommendations as to the levels he believes will be needed in the period over the coming months.”

    According to the article, the following units have already been tabbed as part of the 2006-2008 rotation:

    • 1st Brigade, 34th Infantry Division, Minnesota Army National Guard.
    • 2nd Brigade, 1st Infantry Division, Schweinfert, Germany.
    • 3rd Brigade, 2nd Infantry Division, Fort Lewis, Wash.
    • 3rd Brigade, 82nd Airborne Division, Fort Bragg, N.C.
    • 3rd Brigade, 25th Infantry Division, Schofield Barracks, Hawaii.
    • 2nd Brigade, 10th Mountain Division, Fort Drum, N.Y.
    • 13th Corps Support Command, Fort Hood, Texas.
    • Division headquarters, 25th Infantry Division, Schofield Barracks, Hawaii.

    Happy hunting, troops, and my best wishes to those you’ll leave on the home front.