Inside the Asylum

Israel intercepted a ship in the Mediterranean carrying weapons and ammunition, and mysteriously, the cargo from Iran doesn't seem to belong to anyone. Israel says it was bound for Hezbollah, but they deny it. I guess Israel can now claim it as salvage.
[Update] In fact, it's even easier for Israel. Iran says the weapons on the ship don't exist, so I guess Israel can take them without having to claim anything, since the people who sent them deny they exist, and the people they were being sent to deny they own them. I guess it's just a cargo of ownerless non-existent weapons. Apparently there were 40 shipping containers. That's a lot of firepower to send on a Mediterranean cruise with no destination.

It's nice to have KCNA back. They didn't go away, so much, as just get remarkably tame and (astoundingly) even sometimes a bit conciliatory. Today, we got to see a bit of vintage North Korean weirdness. The North Koreans warned

The U.S. and its “allies” had better cogitate, mindful of the grave consequences to be entailed by their reckless military actions.

It's good to have old friends back, even if they are grumpy old friends stuck in the 1950s.

The U.S. is hell bent on reinforcing the military alliance with Japan and south Korea, labeling the DPRK "an unstable factor," but this is nothing but sophism to cover up the criminal nature of its Asia strategy for domination. The U.S. revealed its scenario to militarily stifle the DPRK by putting forward Japan and south Korea as its shock brigade.

Thank goodness. I was starting to worry that this sea of weirdness for my blog posts had stopped being funny.

The Chinese believe that militarization of space would be a bad thing. The People's Liberation Army Air Force Commander Xu Qiliang says that it is "a threat to the mankind." So how does this influence China's position on militarization?

"Only power could protect peace... As the air force of a peace-loving country, we must forge our swords and shields in order to protect peace." [He pledged that] China will develop an air force with integrated capabilities for both offensive and defensive operations in space as well as in air.

Hmmm. Well, it's kind of interesting that he should make reference to swords and shields, as there is a Chinese expression "mao(2nd tone) dun (4th tone)" which literally translates and "spear and shield", but which actually means "contradictory." Is this a maodun? Perhaps, perhaps not. It certainly reminds me of Tacitus' "let those who wish for peace first prepare for war."

The reason "spear and shield" means "contradictory" is because of an ancient Chinese story. There was an arms merchant touting his wares in a market-place, and he loudly proclaimed that his spears were so sharp that they could penetrate any armor, and as he promoted his shields he declared that they were so strong they could withstand any weapon. This caused a local wit to ask, "so what would happen if I used one of your spears against one of your shields? Huh?"

The PLA Daily website doesn't allow you to link directly to a story. If you want to read the whole thing, follow the link and look for the story called "China's PLA eyes future in space, air: air force commander." It was posted on November 2nd.

The LA Times can't spend all its time covering for ACORN, so now it's doing what it can to cover for Obama's indecision on Afghanistan. In the Sunday edition, they ran (amongst other thing) a cartoon obviously meant to support a decision to not send extra troops, despite the fact that both the commander-in-chief ("listen to the generals!") and NATO allies ("don't be so unilateral!") think more troops are needed.

[Digression: The Europeans have known this all along, but (as usual) they were hoping to get out of actually doing anything about it, expecting the US to pick up the security bill ... but now that Obama is looking so weak at the knees they're trying to nudge Obama in the right direction by finally announcing they'll send extra troops.]

Anyway, the cartoon shows the skeletal remains of Alexander the Great, the British, the Russians, and finally a still living but unhappy Uncle Sam, caught in a spider's web that is Afghanistan. The British skeleton says to Uncle Sam, "more troops? Why didn't we think of that? Oh wait, we did." The message is clear. A shame the history doesn't align with the political message.

Let's take them one by one: Alexander the Great. A single campaign, which encountered many difficulties, nevertheless succeeded in planting Greek colonies in the region that would achieve independence and rule a successful kingdom in the region that lasted until about 125BC. The cartoon is wrong on two fronts: there was no issue of "extra troops" and the implied failure doesn't exist. The lesson of Alexander the Great is that you can go into the region and reshape it in your own image. Scratch one for the LA Times.

Then the British. Mostly, they didn't give a damn about Afghanistan, except to make sure the Russians couldn't use it to threaten their Indian Empire. Most British movements into the region were along the lines of "march in, kick heads, march out". I'm not exactly sure why the cartoonist thought it would be appropriate to have the words coming out of the mouth of the British skeleton. The times the British suffered real troubles in the region, it was mostly because of incompetent leadership. Again, this is a lesson Uncle Sam needs to learn, but the problem in this case doesn't seem to be with the generals and troops, but with the commander in chief in Washington. I'm reminded of the obituary of Brigadier Ted Hughes that appeared in the Daily Telegraph when he died aged 89, in 1987. He took part in the Third Afghan War, and wrote a memoir that was scathing of the British commanders. He wrote, "The Higher Command acted on the excellent principle that if you can't surprise the enemy it is better to surprise your own side than no one at all." Well, that certainly seems to describe the Obama Regime's approach to its own commanders (25 minutes on Air Force One for the general in command, with Obama doing most of the talking). After capturing Spin Baldak, the British forces improved its defenses and water supply, then marched off again leaving it back in the hands of their enemies. Again, that sure sounds like what Obama would like to do ... spend lots of time and effort to improve the infrastructure etc., so US troops can withdraw. As I said ... some good historical lessons, but not any that let Obama off the hook that justify not sending more troops.

Then the Russians. They were doing quite well until a certain power started arming the locals with things like stinger missiles. Without massive American assistance, the anti-Russian resistance would not have been nearly so successful. The Russian lesson is not that more troops won't solve the problem, but rather that you had better make sure that outside forces aren't providing massive aid for your enemies. A good lesson for the current situation, but not the one the cartoon seeks to make.

So even in a cartoon, the LA Times manages to continues its policy of being a) politically motivated b) factually incorrect and c) not worth the trouble of using it for more than scrap newsprint.

It's 70 years since a major conflict was fought between Japan and USSR, yet many people, even WWII history buffs, don't even realize it occurred. Russian forces defeated the Japanese, turning Japan's attention to the south, in a move which would ultimately result in the Pearl Harbor attack. The failure of the Japanese airforce also sent the Japanese back to the drawing board to design new planes, resulting in the Zero which did so much damage in the Pacific War. The war also gave Marshall Zhukov, who played such an important role against the Nazis, a chance to gain combat experience, and above all prevented them from having to fight a two front war. Finally, it preserved Mongolian independence, something that endures today.

The following clip includes an interview with a veteran of the conflict.

Chinese baozi gongfu fighter takes on Japanese sushi samurai. Hai-ya!

Super Baozi vs Sushi man from sun haipeng on Vimeo.

(via Mad Minerva)

[Update] There's more!

Super Baozi, being tired of being in Catering,is longing for developeing in Recreation. With intense enthusiasm and strong perseverance, he has learned to sing songs and to play nunchakus.

Dragon Fist from sun haipeng on Vimeo.

Well, the title of this post says it all. Drug gangs have brought down a police helicopter in Rio, killing two, plus other casualties were suffered on the ground. Anyone planning on going to the Rio Olympics? It ought to be interesting ...
(I wasn't sure what category to put this under, but "war" seems a reasonable choice.)

It's a case of "huh?"

The Mongolia-Qatar joint military field exercises dubbed "Perfect decision" began near Ulan Bator on Tuesday... Professional instructors from Britain and the United States will conduct training and instructors from the General Headquarters of Mongolia's Armed Forces (GHMAF) will also give lessons during the exercises. Representatives from the U.S. and South Korea are attending the event as observers.

But why?

[See also my earlier post, Mongol Horde Rides Again]

This is my second post linking to Dar Al Hayat, a major Arab newspaper. I have to say, it contains stuff that I just never expected, from my last post in which an article argued that Obama was being too weak and encouraging extremists in the Middle East, to this:

I have another suggestion to increase the number of Arab readers, since we are one of the most smoking-prone nations in the world despite the health risks involved, and perhaps we are indeed prone to smoking, because of our stubbornness to acknowledge these risks. I therefore suggest that we print on the cover of each book “Reading may be detrimental to your health”, or “reading causes heart disease”, and because half of our women are constantly pregnant, perhaps we should also print “reading may pose health risks to pregnant women and foetuses”. This is because I am almost sure that any Arab who will read such a warning, will immediately take up reading the book with the same greed, gluttony, recklessness and idiocy with which he would take up smoking a full packet of cigarettes.

I don't think I'm even going to try to comment on it. I will say however that I really wish that more Americans would read. I am constantly shocked at the extremely limited vocabulary of many of my students. How do you improve vocabulary? You read. You read anything. Just read. As an example, I'd be prepared to lay down money on a bet that more than half of my freshman students wouldn't be able to accurately define the words "detrimental" and "gluttony" from the above quotation, and I wouldn't be confident that they'd know "acknowledge" "prone" or "pose".

I would say that this says more about the type of people in the White House than the situation in Afghanistan:

Senior White House advisers are fighting the U.S. military's request for a significant boost to troops in Afghanistan, as President Barack Obama is weighing options on the eight-year Afghan war...

This is despite the fact that:

Stanley A. McChrystal, top U.S. commander in Afghanistan, has asked Obama to quickly endorse his call for a change in military strategy and approve the additional resources he needs to retake the initiative from the resurgent Taliban.

Well, it's good to know that Obama has his priorities straight. While on his failed attempt to get the Olympics for Chicago, he gave McChrystral 25 minutes on Air Force One to discuss the matter. I'd place a bet ... if given a pop quiz, Obama wouldn't be able to tell us General McChrystal's first name. Heck, I wonder if he even knows what McChrystal's voice sounds like. Here, for example, we have a picture of Obama carefully listening to his commanding officer in Afghanistan:

See what I mean?

[Update] Well, what do you know, I'm even ahead of Instapundit ... who just now posted a link to first, Democrats saying to Bush "we must listen to the generals!" from back in 2007, and then second, Democrats now saying "how dare the generals speak!" Well, as I said above, I don't think the generals are exactly speaking ... at least not in the presence of Obama who much prefers to hear the sound of his own voice.

The Dong Feng 21 "East Wind 21" ballistic missile is designed to be a ship killer ... a carrier killer.

The Dong Feng 21. "It's a technological leap that's never [before] been made," says Schriver, now the head of a non-partisan research body, Project 2049 Institute, and a founding partner of the consulting firm Armitage International. "The Russians couldn't do it. If it works, it will have the range of a ballistic missile and the accuracy of a cruise missile."The Chinese would have the ability to hold our carriers at a great distance - it almost makes the aircraft carriers obsolete. "What did we do in 1996? We sent carriers. What are the Chinese doing? Taking the carriers out of the equation." He thinks it prudent to expect such missiles to be operating within a couple of years.

You can hardly blame the Chinese. They have a strategic goal: to take Taiwan. There are major obstacles to that goal, and they are working on solutions to those obstacles. It doesn't even mean they have to use them to actually attack US ships ... they just need the potential to sink US carriers, so as to take them off the game board. What's the next move? Well, considering that Obama is in charge, I think the next move by the US will be to apologize for having carriers, and to threaten China with a severe frowning. As a last resort, the Dear Leader will hold out the possibility of disapproval. Unless of course his trade union backers want him to take stronger action, in which case he'll probably nuke 'em 'till they glow.

It's been my experience that US soldiers are on average better informed, better educated, and have a generally better attitude than most other Americans. If given a choice, I would love to teach a class full of troopers. As with any other country, you get a mix of morons and excellent people, but it does seem that USA has greater extremes. Perhaps this is just a product of the large population... but I'm happy to assert that there's a greater probability of encountering the best types among those with military experience. The thing that inspired me to write this was the following profile of one of my regular readers who is currently in Iraq. Here it is:

Bi-Coloured-Python-Rock-Snake: Born in West Africa, I grew up in Wisconsin, studied Classics in Minnesota, traveled 'round the world, then ended up in the US Army

I don't know a lot about him, but from comments I know he's studied Arabic. If he's studied Classics, he likely can read classical Greek and Latin. The thing though, that really impresses me, is the word 'round in his little profile. How many of my students would be able to tell me why the apostrophe is there? Very few. How many would/could write a sentence in which they used an apostrophe in this way? None? An "A" student of mine (with combat experience in Iraq) has just been deployed to Afghanistan. He was studying Farsi in preparation, and wanted some suggestions for further reading. This is the kind of soldier USA is sending out into the world. If only the journalists who write snide things about them were as good.

Here's a link to the Snake's blog.

There's nothing much in the news about Hezbollah lately, but I saw this story, and wanted to highlight one section of it:

Hezbollah's chief Hassan Nasrallah said Friday [that] making deals and normalization with Israel is "religiously forbidden," and his group will neither recognize Israel, nor succumb to it, "even if the whole world recognizes its existence."

There's this tendency in the west to assume that all the "players" in the middle east are rational, and subject to the rules of logic. It's a false assumption.

Jane's reports:

The televised signing of the 'New Statute on Military-Technical Co-operation' followed an earlier announcement by Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez on 24 July that Venezuela was intending to buy enough Russian tanks to double its fleet.

Well, I guess that means FARC won't have to rely on Swedish weapons anymore. Of course, when Colombia points out that the sudden use of T-90s by FARC looks just a tad suspicious as far as Venezuelan involvement is concerned, Chavez will be mightily offended and recall his ambassador again. Maybe the Colombians can get some use out of those captured Swedish-Venezuelan-FARC anti-tank rockets.

You could make a pretty good case that the British empire was built by the Scots. Their soldiers were the meanest toughest bunch of all the redcoats, and they played a crucial role in campaign after campaign. I think they feel quite at home in Afghanistan. Not only have they served there before, I remember reading an account of a Scotish reporter who went into the country many years ago (the book was called Behind Russian Lines, which helps to date it), and one comment he made always stuck with me ... feuding clans in neighboring valleys? Add golf courses and it would be Scotland. Or something like that.

Nothing much has changed really. Scotish sniper Corporal Reynolds (any relation to Instapundit?) recently took out a Taliban commander at 1500 meters:

"He had been given a lead sleeping tablet. I was quite proud of that shot - it is the longest recorded kill in Afghanistan. I am going to use that fact as a chat-up line in the pub when I get back home."

His squad-mate also had a memorable kill, getting to take out a Taliban sniper with a rocket launcher:

"It was a real bullseye. The missile never even did any damage to the other wall - it just took out our target. "A patrol later went to the position and confirmed the kill. There was nothing left but a lot of blood and rags."

I've never been prouder of my Scotish ancestry.

The Mongol Empire was the largest the world has ever known. It dwarfed anything the Romans, Chinese, Persians, Aztecs etc. could put together. Now, once again, Mongolian warriors are seen far and wide.
Iraq, Sierra Leone, Congo, Afghanistan, Kosovo ... heck, they've made it even further than last time. They ripped through the Middle East and Eastern Europe, but they never penetrated Africa ... until now. I just love the comment in the pdf file I downloaded from the Mongolian embassy in Washington.

"There are historical experiences, features, and characteristics unique to Mongolian culture that enable military personnel to be effective peacekeepers."

Yep, "keep the peace or we kill everyone, including your pets."
Apologies for the poor quality of the video ... it was the best I could find.

Remember a few days ago I posted about how the Colombians have found weapons sold to Venezuela in the hands of FARC rebels? Well, I didn't bother posting about Chavez's faux-outrage and grandstanding against Colombia when they pointed out to the world that he was responsible ... after all, what else would you expect from the buffoon? I thought it was worth another post because now the people who sold Chavez the rocket launders want answers:

Sweden called on Venezuela Monday to explain how Swedish-made weapons sold to the South American country ended up in the hands of Colombian FARC guerillas.

Naturally enough, the Venezuelans have denounced this "new attack" on their country. Yeah, after all, Sweden is a mortal enemy of Venezuela ... I bet those damn Vikings are plotting raids on South America even as we speak.

KCNA reports: North Korea is celebrating the 56th anniversary of its victory over the United States in the Fatherland Liberation War.

July 27, Juche 42 (1953), is the day when the army and the people of the DPRK defeated the U.S. imperialists in the war and honorably defended the sovereignty of the Republic under the distinguished leadership of President Kim Il Sung. Rodong Sinmun in an editorial stresses that the victory in the war was a precious result of the President's unique military idea and tactics and the single-minded unity of the leader, the army and the people.

They're partying across the land with dance parties like you've never seen them before. North Korean youth are "getting down" to such hits as "Long Live Generalissimo Kim Il Sung" and "July 27, Our Victory Day"

They enthusiastically danced, highly proud of holding in high esteem Kim Jong Il