History Forum / General / British History / June 2004

"Fallujah Flypaper"

"The Washington Post reports from Fallujah on what U.S. Marines found in
an "abandoned factory shed":

"Sacks full of chemical-coated rocks.  Leather belts stuffed with
explosive putty, and one smeared with dried blood. Boxes of batteries
with wires taped to them.  Instructions for making bombs. . . .

The evidence -- Islamic books, pamphlets, tapes and farewell letters in
Arabic -- suggested that some of the men were not Iraqis from the area,
but foreign Sunni Muslims who had traveled to this urban Sunni
stronghold to fight and die in a holy war, both against the U.S. forces
and the country's Shiite Muslim majority. . . . ******

In one letter, dated April 4, a man urged a friend to leave behind
worldly concerns and come join a "beautiful" war against Shiite
"nonbelievers" and Americans.  "This is like Iran, there are many
Shiites and we need to fight them," he wrote.  "We are in another
Kandahar, and we will burn the Americans.""

Isn't it good to know these guys are where the Marines can take care of
them?"

James Taranto
The Wall Street Journal
----------------------

I reckon so.

DSH

"D. Spencer Hines" <D_SpencerHines@usa.yale.edu> wrote in message
news:...

Gordo Brannigan, who fills young skulls full of mush at the University
of Maryland, College Park, is even more stupid than I had at first
surmised:

1.  My quoted squib was not taken from the Washington Post.

2.  I made that quite clear in my post.

3.  Gordo Brannigan, the Academic Fireman -- who is too fat to serve as
a Real Fireman -- reads VERY poorly and earns an "F."

4.  And yes, Gordo now admits he was using a low-life shyster lawyer's
trick.  I was right.

5.  It didn't work.

6.  Because we are far too smart for him.

PRATFALL!!! ---- For Gordo

KAWHOMP!!!

KERSPLAT!!!

He no doubt gets away with these cheap flimflammer's, shyster-lawyer
tricks when he's dealing with none-too-bright College Park students.

No Sale Here.

Gordo is a poor man's imitation of Richard Ben-Veniste "The Snake."

Just another Beltway Academic Mediocrity in the Nation's Capital.

Veni, Vidi, Calcitravi Asinum.

Deus Vult.

D. Spencer Hines

Lux et Veritas et Libertas

Kramer is 80 and senile.

'Nuff Said....

DSH

Pogue Gans teaches lots of none-too-bright freshmen at NYU.

He has been doing this sort of thing for over 40 years.

Teaching dumb students will soon make the teacher dumb too.  That, quite
clearly, has happened to Pogue Gans.

Further, as we see below, Pogue Gans has fallen victim to the Instant
Gratification Virus -- often transmitted by callow, none-too-smart,
teenagers.

He's thinking -- at best -- like an 18-year-old.

Premature Ejaculation -- As It Applies To Ratiocination....

Aye, that's what it is.

Our Middle Eastern policy as affected by the deposition of Saddam and
his sons is less than a year old -- yet Pogue Gans The Intemperate
whines it is ALREADY a FAILURE.

Wishful thinking on his part, Virginia -- driven by purely partisan
political considerations.

A chemist trying to push a crumb across the floor with his nose IS truly
an amusing sight, Virginia.

It also betrays a TOTAL lack of any DIPLOMATIC, MILITARY or STRATEGIC
PLANNING experience on Gans's part.

Poaching Out Of Field [POOF] At Its Worst....The Epidemic Academic
Disease

But:

ENTERTAINING!!!

Stay Tuned....

'Nuff Said....

Deus Vult.

D. Spencer Hines

Lux et Veritas et Libertas

Vires et Honor

""Razor's Edge"

"The Associated Press reports from Fallujah, Iraq, that the U.S. Marines
there have lost their patience with their "culturally sensitive"
training:

"The band of Marines in this insurgent stronghold received two big
orders this year.  They were told to return to Iraq to stabilize the
Sunni areas west of Baghdad, Iraq's toughest patch of territory.  The
normally clean-shaven Marines were also told to grow mustaches in an
attempt to win over Iraqis who see facial hair as a sign of maturity.

"We did it basically to show the Iraqi people that we respect their
culture," said Lance Cpl. Cristopher Boulwave, 22, from Desoto Texas.

But after the brutal killing of four American contractors in Fallujah on
March 31, they tossed aside such pretenses. First to go were the
mustaches.

"When you go to fight, it's time to shoot -- not to make friends with
people," said Sgt. Cameron Lefter, 34, from Seattle."

It's a pipe dream of course, but this does make us wish the Marines
would liberate a few American college campuses."

James Taranto
The Wall Street Journal
-------------------------------------

Pipe dream, Aye.

Semper Fidelis....

D. Spencer Hines

Lux et Veritas et Libertas

Vires et Honor

Semper Fidelis....

The United States Marines, God Bless 'Em, always seem to get the most
difficult, the most demanding and the dirtiest jobs ---- and they excel
at performing them.

The U. S. Army allowed Fallujah to fester and suppurate --- the Marines
now must clean it up.

Stay Tuned....

D. Spencer Hines

Lux et Veritas et Libertas

Vires et Honor

http://www.nytimes.com/2004/04/25/international/25IRAQ.html?ei=5006&en=d
f0191e5dc78c0c3&ex=1083470400&partner=ALTAVISTA1&pagewanted=print&positi
on=

Semper Fidelis....

The United States Marines, God Bless 'Em, always seem to get the most
difficult, the most demanding and the dirtiest jobs ---- and they excel
at performing them.

The U. S. Army allowed Fallujah to fester and suppurate -- the Marines
must now clean it up -- with some help from the Army.

Stay Tuned....

D. Spencer Hines

Lux et Veritas et Libertas

Vires et Honor

"REVIEW & OUTLOOK"

"The Fallujah Stakes
The insurgents understand guns, not diplomacy."

Monday, April 26, 2004
The Wall Street Journal

"The latest news from the insurgent stronghold of Fallujah is that
Marines will now conduct joint patrols with Iraqis, as a way to regain
control of the city without a full-scale assault.  Perhaps this will
even work, but it's also likely our enemies will consider it a sign of
weakness and ramp up their attacks there and elsewhere.

The latest news is of sharp firefights in Fallujah and Marines being
killed and wounded.   This CANNOT continue. ---- DSH

The judgment in Baghdad seems to be that the most important outcome at
this moment is that the coalition be seen to regain control of that city
of 200,000 in the Sunni Triangle.

You bet it is -- and soon -- no more dillydallying.  If it can be done
peacefully and the insurgents surrender and give up their arms that's
fine and certainly preferable to an all-out assault on the city.  But
time is of the essence.  We cannot let this situation continue to
fester.  Our people are being killed and wounded and told to fight with
one hand tied behind their backs. ---- DSH

There's no doubt Marines could retake the city by force, but the fear is
that al-Jazeera and other anti-American media would portray the campaign
in the worst possible light and perhaps prompt uprisings elsewhere in
Iraq.  So U.S. commanders and regent L. Paul Bremer have cut this deal
with Fallujah intermediaries for the joint patrols, and U.S. forces can
target the insurgents at a better time and place.  At least that's the
argument.

Wunderbar ---- if it actually works.  If it's just another delaying
action, a rug merchants' trick ---- no sale. ---- DSH

We hope this doesn't represent a decision by coalition political leaders
to shrink from the military campaign that is inevitable.

Precisely! ---- DSH

Sooner or later the Baath remnants, jihadists and criminals who have
used Fallujah as a sanctuary have to be killed.

Right!  Killed, not captured in house to house fighting. ---- DSH

They can't be bargained with, they can't be reasoned with, because for
them a peaceful transition to Iraqi control after June 30 means defeat.
If the estimated 2,000 or so insurgents decide to allow Marine patrols,
it will be because they have concluded it is safer to melt away to kill
Americans another day rather than fight to the death in Fallujah now.

Yep. ---- DSH

The killers facing Marines in Fallujah are those who melted away a year
ago as coalition forces closed on Baghdad.

Rather than fight and die then, they retreated to the Sunni heartland to
regroup, rearm and organize the murder of both coalition soldiers and
the Iraqis who are cooperating with us.  The U.S. didn't pursue those
Saddamists at the time, and it decided in later months to let Fallujah
more or less alone.

We now know this was a mistake, and the Marine presence is a recognition
that the city can no longer be tolerated as a terror sanctuary.

Nor can it be allowed to become a symbol to murderous terrorists
throughout the World ---- a sort of Paris Commune [1871] analogue, as
that was to the Communists. ---- DSH

If nothing else, the Fallujah sanctuary repudiates the argument we've
often heard that the U.S. would have been better to "wait" to begin the
war last year.

If we had, Senator Carl Levin and others argue, we might have had the
French on our side (sure) and the extra forces would have made the fight
easier.  But delay would also have given the Baathists time to organize
this guerrilla-style warfare nationwide.  Instead of fighting them in
Fallujah and Ramadi, as Marines now will, without the elements of speed
and surprise, a year ago U.S. soldiers might have had to do the same in
far more cities.

Precisely!  Carl Levin, of Michigan, is clearly a horse's hindquarters
and is as partisan as they come.  'Nuff Said. ---- DSH

By the way, it hardly helps to have United Nations envoy Lakhdar Brahimi
publicly warning the U.S. not to defeat insurgents who are killing
Americans.  He repeated again yesterday that "In this situation, there
is no military solution," and portrayed any U.S. attack in Fallujah as
unjustified.  This rhetoric, amplified by al-Jazeera, will only make it
more likely that any offensive in Fallujah would be misinterpreted by
other Iraqis.

Mr. Brahimi is the man Mr. Bremer and National Security Council staffer
Robert Blackwill have sold to President Bush as the key to a sound
political transition in Iraq.  But three times in the past two weeks he
has made public remarks damaging to coalition progress and U.S.
interests in the region.

He told French radio last Wednesday that, "There is no doubt that the
great poison in the region is this Israeli policy of domination and the
suffering imposed on the Palestinians, as well as the perception by the
body of the population in the region, and beyond, of the injustice of
this policy and the equally unjust support of the United States for this
policy." U.S. "poison?"  Is Condoleezza Rice paying attention?

Cave Brahimi. ---- DSH

The danger with delay in Fallujah and Mr. Brahimi's comments is that
they will be interpreted by Iraqis as a sign that the U.S. is losing its
resolve and simply wants out.  Perhaps caution in Fallujah makes sense
at this moment, but sooner or later the insurgents have to be defeated,
and at the point of a gun, not by diplomacy.  If we're not prepared to
do that, Mr. Bush might as well order the troops home now."
------------------------------------------------------------

D'accord.

I do NOT want to see any more of our Marines and Soldiers killed and
wounded at Fallujah because they are forced to use restrictive
half-measures and work under crippling ROE's.

If a "diplomatic" solution can be achieved in the next few days I'm all
for it and God Bless the folks who achieve it ---- but the clock is
running.

D. Spencer Hines

Lux et Veritas et Libertas

Vires et Honor

(AP)  "The fighting erupted as a two-day extension to a cease-fire
ended.  Earlier in the day, U.S. aircraft dropped leaflets in the city
of 200,000 people, calling on insurgents to surrender.

"Surrender, you are surrounded," the leaflets said.  "If you are a
terrorist, beware, because your last day was yesterday.  In order to
spare your life end your actions and surrender to coalition forces now.
We are coming to arrest you."

Good, that's the proper tone.

D. Spencer Hines

Lux et Veritas et Libertas

Vires et Honor

The Battle of Fallujah continues.

Many of you pogues obviously don't realize that primordial fact -- OR
that the Marines now have about 7,000 men controlling a cordon around
the city.

Further, the Marines are killing beaucoup bad guys daily and nightly
with snipers and carefully targeted Precision  Guided Munitions,
employed against hold-out, terrorist strongpoints.

As their TACINTEL improves, the Marines will get better and better at
this carefully targeted killing.

One of the reasons you pogues are so woefully misinformed is that your
information is limited to that tripe you watch and see on CNN and the
BBC -- and read in The New York Times.

'Nuff Said.

D. Spencer Hines

Lux et Veritas et Libertas

Vires et Honor

The Air Force is, of course, dropping 500 pound PGM's, as appropriate.

DSH

"D. Spencer Hines" <D_SpencerHines@usa.yale.edu> wrote in message
news:...

Here's some more on General Giap's [the top commander of North Vietnam's
Communist forces, during the Vietnam War] statement thanking pogues such
as John KERRY for opposing a WIN for the United States and our allies in
that WAR :
-------------------------------------------

"Vietnam's Hero Still Grateful to Anti-War Americans"

By Christina Toh-Pantin

"HANOI (Reuters) - Twenty-nine years after the end of the Vietnam war,
communist military mastermind General Vo Nguyen Giap remains grateful to
the Americans who opposed it.

The Vietnam War, known in Vietnam as the American War, has become a hot
issue in the U.S. presidential race with Democrat John Kerry drawing
attention to his service and President Bush's Republicans disparaging
Kerry's later anti-war stand.

"I would like to thank them," the 93-year-old veteran said on Friday of
those Americans who opposed the war.  ******

Giap was speaking during a two-hour interview with foreign and domestic
media on the 29th anniversary of the fall of Saigon, capital of the then
U.S.-backed South Vietnam, that marked the end of the war.  ******

The four-star general, who also led Vietnam to a stunning defeat against
the French army 50 years ago at Dien Bien Phu, declined to be drawn on
comparisons between the U.S. war in his country, that ended in 1975, and
the U.S. involvement in Iraq.

But he sounded a note of warning.

"Any forces that wish to impose their will on other nations will surely
fail," he said.

"Each nation should have the right to independence," he said, wagging a
finger at reporters and Foreign Ministry staff in an ornate French
colonial style government guest house in the capital, Hanoi.

The frail, snowy haired general, who was a teacher and dabbled in
journalism before becoming revolutionary leader Ho Chi Minh's top
commander, peppered long stories about Dien Bien Phu with anecdotes and
jokes.

Giap spoke mostly in Vietnamese, replying to questions submitted in
advance as well as to four asked on the spot.  But he broke into fluent
French when a question was posed in that language.

Regarded as Vietnam's most famous living figure, Giap appears in public
for a few national events, and this year has been promoting the
anniversary of the victory of his Viet Minh forces, a coalition of
communists and nationalists, over a much better equipped French force.

The culmination of the 56-day siege of Colonel Christian de Castries'
forces in the valley town of Dien Bien Phu, about 490 km (300 miles)
northwest of Hanoi, came on May 7, 1954.

Giap will be the star of the 50th-anniversary celebrations, which are
expected to draw thousands of Vietnamese and foreign visitors to the
battlefield."
-----------------------------

D. Spencer Hines

Lux et Veritas et Libertas

Vires et Honor

It doesn't matter who promoted Janice Karpinski to Brigadier in the
Reserves.

What matters is what she did in her job in Iraq.

The Chief-of-Staff of the Army made it quite clear yesterday that he
believes she represented at least part of " a leadership void."

Stay Tuned.

And watch the feminist organizations turn out for her.

D. Spencer Hines

Lux et Veritas et Libertas

Vires et Honor

The Battle of Fallujah continues.

It will be seen by historians as one of the most interesting, important
and complex aspects of the Second Gulf War.

D. Spencer Hines

Lux et Veritas et Libertas

Vires et Honor