WE HAVE NO CHOICE

Barbarians have struck again in Iraq and Israel.

In Iraq, two bombs, the second designed to kill/wound first responders.

In Jerusalem, the barbarian shot up a seminary, killing eight young people.

As noted in an earlier post, these perpetrators do not deserve to be protected by laws which safeguard the rights of bona fide combatants in a war effort.

But that is common sense.

The reason that such outrages continue is that there is no good way to stop them, pure and simply put. The suicide murderers cannot be dissuaded by dangers to themselves.

And the victimized side cannot disengage, cannot satisfy the desires of the attackers who desire nothing less than their victim's destruction.

I suggest that this is the conundrum which all great powers have faced throughout the ages: fanatical minorities will forever seek to subvert the status quo enjoyed by and protected by the great powers.

Note that one no longer hears calls from any major candidates for total isolation of the US, as in the case of Lindbergh and American Firsters in the 1930’s, prior to WW2.

It is now an accepted fact of life that the US cannot withdraw totally behind the ocean walls.

Some progress in understanding of this at least has been made.

Isolationist ignorance is still to be found in calls for an end to ‘free’ trade; condemnation of ‘outsourcing’; and willy-nilly attacks on such agreements as NAFTA.

Beware such condemnations. Most of them are uttered for the benefit of audiences, for votes, and not for the good of the Republic.

But I digress.

The US is engaged in overt combat in Afghanistan and Iraq. Twelve or thirteen carrier battle groups cruise the seven seas. Forward-deployed bases are to be found all over the globe.

The American economy is the engine of the world. American culture is universal.

American/British English is the lingua franca of all people.

The US is the only super power, in fact, the most powerful nation the world has ever known.

And as a result, it/we do not have the luxury of letting the world take care of itself.

As 2008 works its way to the fall elections, know that we will be electing the single most important leader on earth.

The troubles in Afghanistan and Iraq, etc., have been troubles there for hundreds, even thousands of years.

Those troubles threaten the security and wellbeing of the United States, for better or worse.

It is possible that they will never be solved.

But the imperative for the US is that it, the US, must forever try to solve them.

Not to try, to withdraw as one of our major parties wants us to do, is to commit an act of national suicide.

Nations cannot, by definition, commit national suicide.

To do so is a crime. Those who advocate it are dangerous and should never be allowed into office.

The only reason that they are not punishable is that, hopefully, they do not intend harm. They intend good.

Motive, intent, is required for a criminal charge.

The US is engaged in really an eternal struggle. It will never really, totally end.

Suppression is the goal. Significant suppression is the victory.

We have allies.

We have to try.

We have no choice.

CLIMATE CHANGE

The factors governing the world's climate must be complex, complex to the max!!

The nature of climate itself is of the same order, of immense complexities.

For politicians and political hacks to attempt to take advantage of changes therein for their own benefits is pathetic and disgusting..

The link below will take you to an article wherein:

The science is up to the minute--unlike the UN's report, which deliberately disregarded the most recent studies and data. It's an excellent place to learn the basics of the global warming controversy.

http://www.powerlineblog.com/archives2/2008/03/019946.php

Check it out.

Don't believe the greens and the algores.

They are largely full of it on this one.

QUOTE(S) OF INTEREST

Super Tuesday 2 has come and gone.

hillary and barrack struggle on with vigor toward what may well be a bitterly contested convention.

John McCain is now the nominee, officially, of the Republican Party. He is being received today at the White House.

Both sides have advantages and disadvantages. Such is the way of things.

I cannot remember when political contests, races, etc., were so close, the outcomes of which were so difficult to predict.

So much depends on every step, every move made by the various candidates.

Attack ads work. hillary has shown this beyond a doubt.

barrack and hillary take their polls and design their messages to fit their audiences.

John McCain soldiers on, walking the tightrope of remaining a maverick whilst courting the party base.

There once was a time when the voter could view the race for the Presidency and other high offices as choices between tweedledee and tweedledum.
That is not the case this year.

Samuel Johnson once said:

When a man is tired of London he is tired of llfe; for there is in London all that life can afford.

Paul now says:

that if you are tired of national politics in this Year of Our Lord, you are tired of that which is of supreme importance to our lives.

QUOTE(S) OF INTEREST

Rudyard Kipling on the national dems and those who vote for them:

The poor little street-bred people that vapour and fume and brag,

They are lifting their heads in the stillness to yelp...

THE ENEMY WE FACE

Alan Dershowitz paints a frightening picture of the enemy our nation faces in his recent article in The Wall Street Journal.

It is not the enemy the West is accustomed to dealing with.

The conventions regarding the rules of war really do not deal effectively with such an antagonist.

Here is an enemy who seeks to die as he carries out his operations against us.

With such an enemy, formerly proscribed rules of engagement become more and more necessary.

Formerly proscribed are the techniques that the national dems are so exercised about.

They are wrong.

The Bush Administration is right.

The next President had better be right, for all our sakes.

Use the link.
Read the article.

What do you think?

http://online.wsj.com/public/article_print/SB120450617910806563.html

IN A PIG'S EYE

It was during a late lunch on a Saturday afternoon. I had just made a bacon/lettuce sandwich and a bowl of hot tomato soup.

hillary was on the TV making a campaign speech.

She was promising stuff.

I put down my fork or spoon or whatever.

I think I heard her promising: free college ed for those in debt and in college; subsidized college funding for all needy prospective college young people; a negotiation/renegotiation (end) to NAFTA (w/o) warning our chief trading partner Canada; an end to No Child Left Behind; training/retraining for all non-college American workers; national health care for all Americans (emphasize all)enhanced head start programs; and probably other stuff which I missed between bites.

There was applause between each promise.

I didn’t hear barack during lunch but I presume he is promising similar things. I am sure he does.

They can deliver on these promises.

They can????

Yeah, right!!!!!!!!!!!

In a pig’s eye they can.

If you believe it, you deserve to be disappointed.

THE BRITISH PRINCE

A young Royal has done his duty.

He has set an example, a positive example which cannot, which should not be made light of.

And the British press has done the same.

In voluntarily sitting on the story of Prince Harry joining his Regiment in Afghanistan, the media has acted in the best interests of the nation.

The same cannot be said for whoever, for whatever it was that ‘blew’ the story.

Note the mention of the Ghurkas in the article linked to below. There are still two battalions, I believe, in the British Army.

The London Telegraph has some interesting observations. Check them out in the link below.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/opinion/main.jhtml?xml=/opinion/2008/03/01/do0102.xml