tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4320479736034351430.post2474264964808425120..comments2023-10-03T07:01:41.144-05:00Comments on Always On Watch: Semper Vigilans: Twilight of the godsAlways On Watchhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08192688822955022541noreply@blogger.comBlogger27125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4320479736034351430.post-20516273564098331722019-02-06T14:21:24.876-06:002019-02-06T14:21:24.876-06:00Jez and CI, I agree we should not arm them. Mater...Jez and CI, I agree we should not arm them. Material assistance like money, wells, etc that they can lavish the people with.<br /><br />I don't care about their in-fighting. They have been fighting one another for time immemorial.<br /><br />Diplomats don't call it that, but bribery in one form or another makes the world go 'round.<br /><br />Europeans paid Khadaffi billions to keep Africans from setting sail for Europe.Silverfiddlehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13541652236676260219noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4320479736034351430.post-30067021120484309372019-02-06T04:53:48.672-06:002019-02-06T04:53:48.672-06:00Actually, you may have more AFG time than I; I’ve ...Actually, you may have more AFG time than I; I’ve spent so much time in Iraq/Syria that I should buy real estate. You have an interesting proposal….my cautions would be that internecine tribal conflicts in the area are so historic and so pervasive…that I think we would only be arming a multitude of factions to war against one another. I also don’t believe that we would be able to groom, manage and trust HUMINT assets in that type of environment….at least any better than we currently are [which is with better access<br /><br />Zones of quasi-government control already exist, largely isolated from one another sans air and the danger fraught Ring Road.<br /><br />The scenario I’d envision, would be that we’d be fighting a proxy war against China, with a bit of Indian shenanigans for added flavor.Constitutional Insurgenthttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03251746798758539951noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4320479736034351430.post-10908282136114292692019-02-06T03:35:51.085-06:002019-02-06T03:35:51.085-06:00"I stand by my last paragraph"
I like it..."I stand by my last paragraph"<br />I like it too, although I'd place a greater share of the blame at the feet of W Bush individually. I'm not certain Bill Clinton would have acted the same way had 9/11 fallen a couple of years earlier.<br /><br />I think that Taliban warlords would abuse any protections, bribes or threats we make to pursue their own in-fighting. My very limited understanding is that this is what happened back in the '00s -- is there anything in that?jezhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14865247084509280406noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4320479736034351430.post-29534518141558912892019-02-05T19:10:54.034-06:002019-02-05T19:10:54.034-06:00CI: You know way more about this than I do, what d...CI: You know way more about this than I do, what do you think of my idea:<br /><br />We address the Taliban and the top 400 (or however many there are) warlords and tribal chiefs and offer them annual bribes and goodies in exchange for not hosting foreign terrorists. They do that, stay in their own boxes, and the goodies keep coming. They let troublemakers in or let their territory be used to launch terror attack, we bring the swarm of B's.<br /><br />We could even try to carve out zones like Kabul, Mazar e Sharif and Heart, but essentially guarantee we (and the Afghan government) leave the Pashtun belt alone if they leave those zones alone. If they detect a foreign presence, we will give them the material to repel them.<br /><br />I'm pitching it in a simplistic manner, but what do you think?<br />Silverfiddlehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13541652236676260219noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4320479736034351430.post-51820710372005751762019-02-05T11:39:52.621-06:002019-02-05T11:39:52.621-06:00I agree that negotiating with the Taliban seems es...<i>I agree that negotiating with the Taliban seems especially futile...</i><br /><br />I actually don’t view it as futile. The Talibam aren’t to be trusted for sure, but it’s not in our national security interest to necessarily see them eradicated. They as an entity, don’t pose a threat to the homeland.......only the Kabul regime.<br /><br />And I care less what happens to them.....Constitutional Insurgenthttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03251746798758539951noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4320479736034351430.post-67984034562854877852019-02-05T11:36:59.589-06:002019-02-05T11:36:59.589-06:00Seeing today’s society, some days I hope for an EM...Seeing today’s society, some days I hope for an EMP.....it’d almost be a shame to be prepping for nothingConstitutional Insurgenthttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03251746798758539951noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4320479736034351430.post-18863683025983913802019-02-05T11:30:46.593-06:002019-02-05T11:30:46.593-06:00Jez, Thanks! I stand by my last paragraph. We ha...Jez, Thanks! I stand by my last paragraph. We have no business going in and redecorating other nations and disrespecting their cultures and societal norms.<br /><br />Now, I think an argument could be made for some paternalistic imperialism in some cases (Haiti, for example, which is filled with nice, intelligent and industrious people, but rotted through with rampant crime and corruption). Haiti has the basis to be made into a functioning and successful western nation.<br /><br />No way in hell anybody in the world could pull that off in Afghanistan, and I argue no one should try. So long as they don't invite in terrorists, who cares how they live? They like it that way.<br /><br />Unrelated but terrifyingly interesting to contemplate: In a scenario of mass global EMP events, at least 90% of advanced society would die, but primitive societies would carry on unperturbed. Silverfiddlehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13541652236676260219noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4320479736034351430.post-90800598333109979042019-02-05T09:47:35.031-06:002019-02-05T09:47:35.031-06:00I’d have to say that upheaval in the Middle East h...I’d have to say that upheaval in the Middle East has been with us for as long as humanoids roamed the pre-desert savannah plain. What’s changed is that Western European elites have begun sticking its nose where it doesn’t belong. The Arabs have always operated on the basis of dictatorship, usually in the structure of tribes who quite regularly warred with one another. We westerners might have learned a lesson from the Mamluk-Ilkhanid War —a time when the Mongol armies tried, for more than fifty years, to subdue Syria. We might have learned a bit of history before going off to rabble-rouse with other folks. Failing any depth in our historical analysis, we could always go back and read the Old Testament. And by the way, since most State Department employees are educated within some of America’s most prestigious universities, this should tell us something about the quality of education within these high-cost institutions.Mustanghttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06388694472897425202noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4320479736034351430.post-48228953173523583572019-02-05T07:36:51.958-06:002019-02-05T07:36:51.958-06:00This sonnet was penned twenty-two years ago in ref...This sonnet was penned twenty-two years ago in reference to the Clintons‘ Whitewater woes, but I see now that the basic sentiments apply to the way politics is conducted all the time. Proof once more that <i>"The more things change, the more they remain the same.”</i> - FT<br /><br /><br /><b>_____ Sail On, O Ship of State ______</b><br /><br /><i><b>What the truth might be no one can find.</b><br /><b>Hopeless is the quest on either side</b> <br /><b>Invested as they are in staying blind</b><br /><b>To anything that points to Power denied.</b><br /><b>Entrenched in battle lines made to endure,</b><br /><b>Weapons drawn and ready to attack.</b><br /><b>A motivating force that’s quite impure</b><br /><b>Twists logic into seeing white as black.</b><br /><b>Examining our leaders’ feet of clay</b><br /><b>Removes us from confronting our own flaws,</b> <br /><b>While they decisive action can delay</b><br /><b>On how to rid the Nation’s Face of yaws.</b><br /><b>Electing pugilists who throw the fight </b><br /><b>Scorches angels’ wings, yet sheds no light.</b></i><br /><br />~ FreeThinke - The Sandpiper, Summer 1997<br />Franco Aragostahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11088635482766081825noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4320479736034351430.post-10610633810573220672019-02-05T07:29:12.731-06:002019-02-05T07:29:12.731-06:00As Auntie Mame would say, "How VIVID!"
...As Auntie Mame would say, <b><i>"How VIVID!"</i></b><br /><br />§;^}>Franco Aragostahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11088635482766081825noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4320479736034351430.post-58913953479026114732019-02-05T07:26:13.586-06:002019-02-05T07:26:13.586-06:00Any attempt to shape, help, or interfere in the af...Any attempt to shape, help, or interfere in the affairs of an essentially barbaric culture are tantamount to plunging one's bare hnds into a proverbial HORNET'S NEST.<br /><br />It's long past time we should have left these people to their own devices.<br /><br />The most tragic error of all, of course, has been the West's foolhardy decision to encourage ignorant fools and vicius barbarians to EMIGRATE to Western countries where ultimate RUINATION and OBLITERATION of the effete native culture –– and native PEOPLE –– is all-but-certain to be the primary result.Franco Aragostahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11088635482766081825noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4320479736034351430.post-37088969526762600672019-02-05T07:17:16.794-06:002019-02-05T07:17:16.794-06:00I appreciate this, apparent, softening of Yeats...I appreciate this, apparent, softening of Yeats' usual hard-edged dismissal of the value of faith.<br /><br />HERE he is at least partially right. It has been my contention for several decades that in essence we ARE what we THINK or CHOOSE to<br />BELIEVE.<br /><br /><b><i>... And when he was demanded of the Pharisees, when the kingdom of God should come, he answered them and said, The kingdom of God cometh not with observation: - Neither shall they say, Lo here! or, lo there! for, behold, THE KINGDOM OF GOD IS WITHIN YOU."</i></b><br /><br />~ Luke 17:20-21 - KJVFranco Aragostahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11088635482766081825noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4320479736034351430.post-13736312593847072382019-02-05T06:25:04.917-06:002019-02-05T06:25:04.917-06:00As I read the introduction, I wished it were the o...As I read the introduction, I wished it were the opening lines in an historical novel. :)<br />I appreciate your informed perspective and I agree that negotiating with the Taliban seems especially futile, but I do wonder if the upheaval in the middle east was on its way regardless of American action over there. The stability of the early '00s was perhaps an illusion, accomplished by local dictators willing to forcibly subdue their subjects.jezhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14865247084509280406noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4320479736034351430.post-33354803600965426632019-02-04T14:39:42.830-06:002019-02-04T14:39:42.830-06:00There is an evil hypocrite who dogs my every move
...<b><i>There is an evil hypocrite who dogs my every move<br />I 'd love to rid myself him by giving him a shove<br />From atop a tall skyscraper of jagged rocky cliff<br />But all that's left to me to do is think and act "as if."<br />If ill will were material as knife blades or hot lead<br />I can assure the multitudes this bastard would be dead!</i></b><br /><br />~ La Contessa Vendetta Sanguini della BorgiaFranco Aragostahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11088635482766081825noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4320479736034351430.post-4015986916871550042019-02-04T14:35:50.612-06:002019-02-04T14:35:50.612-06:00This comment has been removed by the author.Franco Aragostahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11088635482766081825noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4320479736034351430.post-32573680522880652682019-02-04T13:38:09.215-06:002019-02-04T13:38:09.215-06:00Bolton and Abrams are indeed, neocon bulldogs. Bu...Bolton and Abrams are indeed, neocon bulldogs. But would Trump convince any foreign governments to "tow the US line" if he surrounded himself with vocal pacifists? Bolton and Abrams are not spokesmen for "domestic" policy consumption.-FJ the Dangerous and Extreme MAGA Jewhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16745768408538827278noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4320479736034351430.post-82727384368690903262019-02-04T12:53:22.851-06:002019-02-04T12:53:22.851-06:00I didn’t introduce Trump into the discussion, I wa...I didn’t introduce Trump into the discussion, I was responding specifically to your 5th paragraph where you attempt to separate POTUS from the standard group of Neocons.Constitutional Insurgenthttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03251746798758539951noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4320479736034351430.post-2514444261907723042019-02-04T12:43:29.102-06:002019-02-04T12:43:29.102-06:00The quoted statement when the hyper rhetoric is pe...The quoted statement when the hyper rhetoric is peeled away is simply saying <b>trying to negotiate with anyone who disagrees with my premise is the errand of a fool </b>.<br /><br />We have many in the USA that subscribe to the take no prisoner attitude. Good in some situations. However, sometimes compromise and the win-win is more effective and therefore most appropriate.<br /><br />Key... Recognizing which choice is the right one in each situation. A True Patriotnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4320479736034351430.post-566425237334185682019-02-04T11:52:31.435-06:002019-02-04T11:52:31.435-06:00CI: You exhibit the problem with discussing such i...CI: You exhibit the problem with discussing such issues in the Age of Trump: You took a Trump-focused detour off the main track. I'm not attacking you, but Trump is not the issue here, although he is the catalyst for angst on all sides.Silverfiddlehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13541652236676260219noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4320479736034351430.post-36415238094946804862019-02-04T10:31:49.061-06:002019-02-04T10:31:49.061-06:00I MADE my song a coat
Covered with embroideries
Ou...<i>I MADE my song a coat<br />Covered with embroideries<br />Out of old mythologies<br />From heel to throat;<br />But the fools caught it,<br />Wore it in the world's eyes<br />As though they'd wrought it.<br />Song, let them take it,<br />For there's more enterprise<br />In walking naked. </i><br /> <br />- William Butler Yeats, "A Coat"Thersiteshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15751286903359745316noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4320479736034351430.post-90428906592076496242019-02-04T08:12:21.023-06:002019-02-04T08:12:21.023-06:00Our military system should be used for the ONLY th...Our military system should be used for the ONLY thing its' good for, defending America. It cannot help other people.Thersiteshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15751286903359745316noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4320479736034351430.post-82510132702427860752019-02-04T08:10:47.722-06:002019-02-04T08:10:47.722-06:00Our military is not conducive to pacifying regions...Our military is not conducive to pacifying regions, as the mercantilist British system. We do not live amongst the people (quartering). We do not encourage intermarriage and assimilation. If we wanted to "colonize" Afghanistan, we should have encouraged every soldier serving their to take 4 wives, raise families, and supply them "exclusively" with American arms and weapons as "tribal warlords". If we had, there would be a 7-11 and Starbucks on every corner of a pacivated Afghanistan today.Thersiteshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15751286903359745316noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4320479736034351430.post-73107760323511839442019-02-04T07:43:26.021-06:002019-02-04T07:43:26.021-06:00Franco,
In any case trying to "negotiate"...Franco,<br /><i>In any case trying to "negotiate" with a boa constrictor, a poisonous serpent, a rampaging lion, tiger, bear, hippopotamus, or great white shark is an ultimate Fool's Errand.</i><br /><br />My view, too.Always On Watchhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08192688822955022541noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4320479736034351430.post-40211763519499124122019-02-04T07:09:51.643-06:002019-02-04T07:09:51.643-06:00Most of Great Evils in this world are the result o...<b>Most of Great Evils in this world are the result of trying to mind OTHER People's Business.</b><br /><br />It's impossible, unless you have a thorough understanding of the "Other People" you are trying to "help" or "reform" –– or more likely to DOMINATE.<br /><br /><b>Particularly foolish –– and ultimately WICKED –– are AGGRESSION and ACQUISITION masked as ALTRUISM</b>.<br /><br />In any case trying to "negotiate" with a boa constrictor, a poisonous serpent, a rampaging lion, tiger, bear, hippopotamus, or great white shark is an ultimate Fool's Errand.<br /><br />That we have spent trillions upon trillions of OUR dollars playing variations on that basic theme ever since Woodrow Wilson hoodwinked us into participating in the First World War speaks poorly for OUR Judgment as a People and as a Nation.<br /><br />Yes, we "won" World War Two, but at what cost?<br /><br />Yes our treatment of Japan after VJ day should only be called "noble." However, after that terrible conflict was finally over, "we" took it upon ourselves –– or maybe it simply fell to us, because we had the Atomic Bomb? –– to become The Police Force of the Globe. <br /><br />The cynic in me wants to say the "REAL" reason for this is that the users, makers and suppliers of war materiel (Eisenhower's Military-Industrial Complex) stood to make untold BILLIONS –– probably TRILLIONS –– in perpetuating our status as Boss Man.<br /><br />We are today reaping a bitter harvest for the immorality and idiocy in trying to manage Other People's Cultures and Countries –– ostensibly "for their own good."<br /><br />Please don't call me an Isolationist. Instead, if you must label me, call me an <b>Anti-Interventionist</b> and an <b>Anti-Internationalist.</b><br /><br /><b>If WE can't keep our OWN house clean, how DARE be so arrogant as to imagine we could sanitize the homes of OTHERS?</b><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br />Franco Aragostahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11088635482766081825noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4320479736034351430.post-82952021597133004772019-02-04T06:48:13.726-06:002019-02-04T06:48:13.726-06:00My cousin served in the USMC -- in Helmand Provinc...My cousin served in the USMC -- in Helmand Province for 9 months in 2014 (I hope I have that date correct). When he returned home, I asked him for an observation.<br /><br />A man of few words, he stated:<br /><br /><b> "Those people don't have sh*t, they don't want sh*t [Western ways], and they're never gonna have sh*t."</b>Always On Watchhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08192688822955022541noreply@blogger.com