Target Centermass

Category: General

  • Japan’s LDP to Propose Self-Defense Force

    Japan, having long paid its penance and then some, is about to consider strengthening its national role in its own defense.

    Japan’s ruling party is considering constitutional revisions for setting up a self-defense military force and also making the emperor the head of the state.

    The Liberal Democratic Party agreed Wednesday to start full discussions on revising the constitution based on a draft outline calling for these measures, the Kyodo news service reported.

    Under the revisions, Japan will be able to exercise the right to collective self-defense and the Self-Defense Forces will be allowed to take charge of domestic security when mobilized by the premier and use force as part of international peacekeeping efforts.

    Under its present constitution, Japan is forbidden from exercising the right to collective self-defense.

    Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi said efforts to realize the preliminary proposals will start in the fall of next year. But the proposal may have a tough time in parliament because of opposition from other parties.

    The draft also proposes allowing a female member of the imperial family to take the throne. Koizumi told reporters at his office, “I think the Japanese public mostly accepts it.”

    This is long beyond due, and needed to match the country’s economic and diplomatic importance in the Pacific Rim region and worldwide.

  • UK: Got Lard?

    If not, Brits, you can apparently blame the E.U.

    Bakers of mince pies, Christmas puddings and other traditional British treats have been warned that they might be facing a lard-free Christmas this year.

    Supermarkets say stocks of the shortening, made from rendered pig fat, were running low due to surging demand from pork-loving new members of the European Union.

    Jamie Sitzia, spokeswoman for the Somerfield supermarket chain, said this week that the admission of 10 new EU countries in May had been followed by “unprecedented demand from Eastern European countries such as Poland and Hungary for the cheapest cuts of pork to meet their demand for sausages, salamis and pies.”

    The countries are buying EU-bred pork to avoid tariffs on imports from outside the union. The result, Sitzia said, was “a serious shortfall in lard production throughout the European Union.”

    A spokeswoman for Sainsbury’s, another large supermarket chain, said the company had seen a reduced supply of lard in stores and was advising customers to switch to butter or margarine where possible.

    Despite Britain’s reputation for stodgy food, lard is increasingly shunned by health-conscious cooks. Consumption fell from 2 ounces per person per week in 1971 to 0.3 ounces per person per week in 1998, according to government statistics.

    But many still swear by it as the secret to light, flaky pie crust and delicious roast potatoes.

    Somerfield spokeswoman Sitzia advised lard lovers not to panic.

    “We are now getting more volume through from suppliers and if customers do not panic buy we should have enough for everyone,” she said.

    I’m dreaming of a rendered-pig-fat Christmas….

  • Iraq Insurgents on the Run but Not Gone

    Almost as if dismayed that the terrorist activity in Iraq did not cease immediately with the commencement of the Fallujah operation, the Associated Press is taking an oft-dubious look at the American and Iraqi efforts against the radicals.

    U.S. commanders in Iraq say the insurgents are on the run. The problem is that when the insurgents are chased from one place, such as Fallujah, they pop up elsewhere, to deadly effect.

    It happened in Mosul this week and in Baqubah — with car bombings and attacks on police stations — as well as in Ramadi, a provincial capital just west of Fallujah. The scope of violence in those places is far smaller than in Fallujah. It also shows that the overwhelming technology and firepower of the U.S. military have not broken the back of the insurgency.

    It appears unlikely that the Pentagon will send substantially more troops to Iraq than the 140,000 already there. U.S. commanders believe a bigger force would just give the insurgents more targets.

    The Pentagon seems likely to stick to its current approach: confront the insurgents wherever they appear, building up the number of U.S.-trained Iraqi soldiers and other security forces, and hoping the political footings of a democratic Iraq take hold quickly.

    In the meantime, the U.S. death toll continues to grow. It now exceeds 1,200 since the war began in March 2003. At midmonth, November ranked as the second deadliest month for U.S. forces, with more than 90 dead.

    The central question, many believe, is more political than military. Will support for the resistance grow or shrink as a result of what happened in Fallujah, which was the insurgents’ main base? More broadly, will enough Iraqis accept the Americans’ lead to form a viable government?

    I know it’d be extremely difficult to gather and is rather ghoulish of me, but I’d like to see some reasonable estimates of bad guys bagged. I’ll wager it would go far into putting the American deaths into perspective.

    I feel it would behoove our efforts to at least publish more information on the prisoners taken to date, information such as breakdowns of nationalities and, among the Iraqi nationals held captive, data on their backgrounds (e.g. prior criminals, Saddamists). This could crush any notion both home and abroad that we’re opposing a popular movement of the Iraqi people fighting occupation and are, in fact, facing the brutal, desperate efforts of thugs and radicals with either selfish or Islamist motivations.

    “Whether the sparks (from Fallujah) light other fires all over Iraq or burn out” is still a question, said Jon Alterman, a Middle East expert at the Center for Strategic and International Studies.

    The signs so far appear unfavorable.

    On Wednesday a suicide car bomb killed 10 Iraqis in the northern city of Beiji, U.S. forces fought insurgents for three hours in Ramadi. In Fallujah, there was sporadic fighting. On Tuesday a prominent Iraqi insurgent claimed the battle for Fallujah was only the start of an uprising.

    Brig. Gen. Mark Kimmitt, a senior Central Command officer, said in an AP Radio interview Tuesday that once the Fallujah offensive began, the insurgents attacked in other parts of the country to show “they still were a potent force.” In his view, they lost more than they gained.

    To hear him and other American officers tell it, the U.S. plan is working. They do not expect to end the insurgency. Rather, they aim to suppress it enough to permit people throughout the country to elect a national assembly, which would draft a new permanent Iraqi constitution.

    Gen. John Abizaid, the commander of all U.S. forces in the Middle East, said during a visit to Iraq this week that the Fallujah offensive was a major blow to the insurgents. He said the only way the U.S. forces and their Iraqi allies can be defeated is if they lose their will.

    “But we are also under no illusions. We know that the enemy will continue to fight,” he told the Pentagon’s internal news service.

    Unlike the traditional guerrilla warfare scenario where the insurgents win by not losing and those in power lose by not winning, today’s Iraq stands as an exact reversal of that military rule. The closer the government and the Iraqi people get to representative democracy, the more they grasp self-rule and freedom, the greater the chance of failure for the terrorists. Just as the Americans and the interim government is on the clock to pull off elections, so too are the terrorists up against the wall to prevent public belief in the democratic concept and acceptance of any election results. An elected government that the Iraqi people feel they have a vested interest in would be greatly detrimental to the efforts of the so-called insurgency.

    Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld says the outcome ultimately rests in the hands of the Iraqi people rather than the U.S. military. He predicted that a “tipping point” will be reached that changes the momentum in favor of those who want democracy to succeed in Iraq.

    “More and more of the Iraqis will be angry about the fact that their innocent people are being killed by the extremists … and they won’t like it,” he said recently. “They’ll want elections, and the more they see the extremists acting against that possibility of elections, I think they’ll turn on those people.”

    The Army chief of staff, Gen. Peter Schoomaker, made a similar point Wednesday in testimony before the House Armed Services Committee.

    “This ultimately is not going to be won in the kinetic sense — in battle. It’s going to be won in having Iraqis taking ownership and investing their own personal sweat and blood,” he said.

    However the AP tries to balance (read spin negatively) the news, progress is being made. We are killing the insurgents. By the freakin’ bushel. The effects of anger in the Arab world over the filmed shooting of a wounded bastard by a US Marine will be tempered by anger within Iraq at the execution of humanitarian worker Margaret Hassan. There is no more reporting of no-go zones for the US military. Every day is a day that the Iraqi national army grows in size and proficiency. Each Iraqi civilian death caused by the terrorists will become a sign of the terrorists’ impotence against those they actually wish to fight.

    In short, we are not losing the peace and, because of that, we are winning it.

  • My Dog Speaks

    Trying this out on my dog Ilsa, a Shiba Inu. Picked it up today for $8 at a toy store going out of business.

    So far, the bitch has barked, “Give me your best shot” at some people a little too close to the apartment balcony. This could be entertaining.

  • U.S. to Probe Shooting of Wounded

    It looks like another tragedy, another submission of a human being to the demons of war, may possibly have occurred in Fallujah.

    The shooting Saturday was videotaped by pool correspondent Kevin Sites of NBC television, who said three other previously wounded prisoners in the mosque apparently also had been shot again by the Marines inside the mosque.

    The incident played out as the Marines 3rd Battalion, 1st Regiment, returned to the unidentified Fallujah mosque Saturday. Sites was embedded with the unit.

    Sites reported that a different Marine unit had come under fire from the mosque on Friday. Those Marines stormed the building, killing ten men and wounding five others, Sites said. The Marines said the fighters in the mosque had been armed with rocket-propelled grenades and AK-47 rifles.

    The Marines had treated the wounded, he reported, left them behind and continued on Friday with their drive to retake the city from insurgents who have been battling U.S.-led occupation forces in Iraq (news – web sites) with increasing ferocity and violence in recent months.

    On the video as the camera moved into the mosque during the Saturday incident, a Marine can be heard shouting obscenities in the background, yelling that one of the men was only pretending to be dead.

    The video then showed a Marine raising his rifle toward a prisoner laying on the floor of the mosque but neither NBC nor CNN showed the bullet hitting the man. At that moment the video was blacked out but the report of the rifle could be heard.

    The blacked out portion of the video tape, provided later to Associated Press Television News and other members of the network pool, showed the bullet striking the man in the upper body, possibly the head. His blood splatters on the wall behind him and his body goes limp.

    Sites reported a Marine in the same unit had been killed just a day earlier when he tended to the booby-trapped dead body of an insurgent.

    The events on the videotape began as some of the Marines from the unit accompanied by Sites approached the mosque on Saturday, a day after it was stormed by other Marines.

    Gunfire can be heard from inside the mosque, and at its entrance, Marines who were already in the building emerge. They are asked by an approaching Marine lieutenant if there were insurgents inside and if the Marines had shot any of them. A Marine can be heard responding affirmatively. The lieutenant then asks if they were armed and fellow Marine shrugs.

    Sites’ account said the wounded men, who he said were prisoners and who were hurt in the previous day’s attack, had been shot again by the Marines on the Saturday visit.

    The videotape showed two of the wounded men propped against the wall and Sites said they were bleeding to death. According his report, a third wounded man appeared already dead, while a fourth was severely wounded but breathing. The fifth was covered by a blanket but did not appear to have been shot again after the Marines returned. It was the fourth man who was shown being shot.

    A spokesman at Marine Corps headquarters in the Pentagon (news – web sites), Maj. Doug Powell, said the incident was “being investigated.” He had no further details, other than to confirm the incident happened on Saturday and that the Marines involved were part of the 1st Marine Division.

    The CNN broadcast of the pictures used pixilation to cover parts of the video that could lead to public identification of the Marines involved.

    NBC’s Robert Padavick told members of the U.S. television pool that the Pentagon had ordered NBC and other pool members to make sure the Marines identity was hidden because “they (the military authorities) are anticipating a criminal investigation as a result of this incident and do not want to implicate anybody ahead of that.”

    In New York, NBC spokeswoman Allison Gollust said the network did not broadcast the prisoner being shot because of the “graphic nature” of the video.

    If the evidence on this tape and the accompanying allegations are true, this soldier needs to be prosecuted.

    Evidence may find him innocent, or circumstances may hold sway over the extent of his penalty. He must be prosecuted, however, as he seems to have violated orders and US-signed accords.

    There may come a time when this conflict requires such barbarity (which was known in other heroic efforts, e.g. WWII) but that time has not come yet. There may be a time when the gloves are truly off and the media are muzzled to save our civilization, but we ain’t there yet. Let’s watch how the UCMJ wheels roll on this one.

  • Chirac Says UK Won Nothing Supporting Iraq

    Submitted for your approval, a contrast of national leaders: George Bush, who was willing to stake his presidency on the course of action in Iraq he thought was right, and Jacques Chirac, who was drooling to oppose Bush, not for the cause of right but for the cause of political gain. Now, Chirac is condemning Britain’s Tony Blair for not following the same self-centered course.

    French President Jacques Chirac said in a newspaper interview on Tuesday that Britain has gained nothing from its support for the United States-led invasion of Iraq.

    Chirac said he had urged Britain before the invasion to press President Bush to revive the Middle East peace process in return for London’s support.

    “Well, Britain gave its support but I did not see much in return,” Chirac was quoted as saying in the Times. “I am not sure that it is in the nature of our American friends at the moment to return favors systematically.”

    Blair’s staunch support for Washington over Iraq led to bitter divisions within his ruling Labor Party and dragged down his public approval ratings.

    Chirac, who will hold talks with Blair when he makes a state visit to Britain on Thursday, recalled a Franco-British summit last year when he asked his British counterpart to try to influence U.S. policy on the Middle East.

    “I said then to Tony Blair: ‘We have different positions on Iraq. Your position should at least have some use’. That is to try to obtain in exchange a relaunch of the peace process in the Middle East.”

    Chirac questioned whether Britain could act as a bridge between the United States and Europe to help heal the rift that developed over the Iraq war. France and Germany were among the most vocal opponents of U.S. military action to oust former Iraqi President Saddam Hussein.

    “I am not sure with America as it is these days that it would be easy for someone, even the British, to be an honest broker,” Chirac was quoted as saying in the Times.

    Blair said on Monday that Europe and the United States should bury their differences over Iraq and focus on global challenges such as lasting peace between Israelis and Palestinians. “It is not a sensible or intelligent response for us in Europe to ridicule American arguments and parody their political leadership,” Blair said in his major foreign policy speech of the year.

    Do not make the mistake that Chirac is all about the Mideast peace process — no, for dear ol’ Jacques, it’s all about personal political gain and setting the E.U. (and consequently France) up as global rivals to the US. In this atmosphere, it is not surprising that an honest broker like the British would be ineffective in healing the rifts between the US and France. An honest broker cannot aid the relationship between a cowboy and a rattlesnake.

    At a time when the world needs more Winston, we’re cursed with too much Jacques.

  • Man Sets Self Afire Outside White House

    Hey, buddy, you got a light?

    A man set himself on fire about 2 p.m. Monday on Pennsylvania Avenue outside the White House.

    The man, whose identity and condition have not been released, was taken to a hospital for treatment.

    “Members of the uniformed Secret Service responded and administered first aid to the individual until D.C. fire and EMS arrived,” said Secret Service public relations spokesman Jonathan Cherry. “The individual has been transported to the burn unit at Medstar at the Washington Hospital Center. An investigation is currently under way.”

    The investigation is being conducted by U.S. Park Police, whose jurisdiction includes the property directly outside the fence surrounding the White House.

    President Bush went about his regular schedule during and after the incident, said White House spokesman Trent Duffy.

    One witness said the man approached a security checkpoint building at the northwest gate of the White House and showed a writing pad with the word “urgent” written on it. When a uniformed Secret Service guard asked if he could help him, the man began walking along the fence toward the guard.

    Another witness near the scene heard the unidentified man yelling in Arabic, “God is great,” several times. And several witnesses said a bag the man was carrying started burning, pouring out thick black smoke that enveloped him.

    The man appeared to fall face forward on the ground in front of the gate security building, the witnesses said, and uniformed Secret Service agents rushed to put out the flames with a fire extinguisher.

    The section of Pennsylvania Avenue in front of the White House was cordoned off. Secret Service agents evacuated the immediate area in front of the White House, including the North Lawn area used by television organizations and other journalists, while initial examinations of the man and his bag were conducted.

    Some may say this is tragic. Some may say this is funny. I say it is a precursor of things to come.

    Terrorism will happen here. Bombings will happen here.

    So many of us sleep still, thinking that an offensive campaign is all that is needed, or that an offensive campaign is the last thing that is needed. Both views are wrong, though the latter is pathetically so. An offensive war against Islamist terror allows us to choose the battlefield and hopefully reshape the social terrain of the Islamist world. It gives an area of focus for the terrorists, for they cannot allow us to successfully build an alternative hope for the Arab world, but it does not prevent them from always seeking to attack us here to try to sap our will.

    My first thought upon hearing this news was of the Buddhist monks who ritualistically took their own lives with fire in Viet Nam. Upon quick reflection, I think the comparison is absolutely empty. The Islamists may welcome death and think it brings rewards, but I know of no instances where they went into that good night without trying to take others with them. I’ll admit I may be ignorant on this, but I still feel the Viet Nam flashback uncalled for in this instance.

    This may have been one lone nut, or it may have been an Islamist who hoped to do damage and looked forward to meeting 72 virgins as a charcoal briquet. Either way, there will be future attempts to harm us and to shake our conviction to fight the radical cancer that torments much of the Moslem world. In facing this, we cannot waver, we cannot cower and hope the danger passes, and we cannot lose focus that this is a great conflict between a dark yesterday and a bright tomorrow.

    Such conflicts do seem to give rise to the occasional loon.

  • Bush Chooses Rice to Replace Powell

    In a series of expected moves, Secretary of State Colin Powell announced that he would step aside, and President Bush has apparently chosen Condoleezza Rice as Powell’s successor.

    Powell, a retired four-star general who often clashed on Iraq and other foreign policy issues with more hawkish members of Bush’s administration, said he was returning to private life once his successor was in place.

    The Cabinet exodus promised a starkly different look to Bush’s second-term team. Rice is considered more of a foreign policy hard-liner than the moderate Powell.

    The White House announced Powell’s exit along with the resignations of Education Secretary Rod Paige, Agriculture Secretary Ann Veneman and Energy Secretary Spencer Abraham. Veneman had said last week she wanted to stay.

    Bush’s nomination of Rice is expected Tuesday afternoon, a senior administration official said.

    Stephen Hadley, now the deputy national security adviser, is expected to replace Rice at the White House, the official said.

    Combined with the resignations earlier this month of Commerce Secretary Don Evans and Attorney General John Ashcroft, six of Bush’s 15 Cabinet members will not be part of the president’s second term, which begins with his inauguration Jan. 20. An administration that experienced few changes over the last four years suddenly hit a high-water mark for overhaul.

    It’s well known that Powell was often not in full lockstep with the Bush administration, though this was quite often overblown into actual opposition. Powell will always be a fine military figure and a respected statesman; nevertheless, I feel that Condi has more of the steel and understanding needed in the challenges presented by Islamist ambitions.

    Now is not the time to worry overly much about the feelings, desires and ambitions of Old Europe. That time will come when they actually wake up to their own danger. No, now is instead the time for a titanium spine, an iron gauntlet and a vision of optimistic change in dealing with the Moslem world, as is also the case with North Korea and communist China. It’s now Condi’s turn.

  • Quote of the Week, 14 NOV 04

    Patriotism is easy to understand in America. It means looking out for yourself by looking out for your country.

    —Calvin Coolidge

  • Target Centermass, out …

    Signing off for a bit. Heading back to the Motherland. Taking a brief pilgramage to Mecca. In other words, going to Aggieland.

    I’m going down to College Station with the girlfriend (a Red Raider) and a dear ol’ college chum for the A&M-Texas Tech game. Unfortunately, work and my dad’s funeral have wreaked havoc on plans, so it’s just a there-and-back-again, same-day jaunt. Otherwise, I would’ve tried to meet Phil from Shades of Gray.

    As to the game, I’m not hopeful for the Ags. They’re definitely showing improvement under Coach Franchione, but I don’t think they have the horses yet for a prepared gimmick offense like Tech’s. Tech is all about flooding the field with receivers, counting on quick slants and crossing patterns, wide receiver bubble screens and shovel-passes out of the backfield. To counter, the option is a strong secondary and/or a quick pressure from the defensive front. I don’t think we yet have the talent or depth in the defensive backfield or the experience and consistency in our front four. My prediction: Tech 42, Aggies 31 (assuming Reggie McNeil is healthy; otherwise, Aggies 17).

    To counter my negativism, I must relate that last weekend I ran into a dude at Whataburger who claimed to have inside knowledge on the Ags’ football program. According to this random guy in far north Dallas, the Ags have a perfect defensive scheme planned. In case random guy is right, I’ll post a hedge prediction of A&M 38- Tech 28. I hope that random Whataburger guy is right.