Posts from — July 2006

The whole point of the Base Realignment and Closure process was to allow local community involvement in the process and to allow for planning as the Pentagon moved major units around.

Locally there were some minor losses and major increases at what everyone thought was the end of the process…except that Rummy doesn’t like playing by the rules any more than the Shrubbery.

When it was announced that the 16^th Special Operation Wing was moving from Hurlburt Field to Cannon Air Force Base in New Mexico, no one got upset. Hurlburt Field was getting the 1^st SOW to replace the 16^th, and the Special Ops guys needed a desert field for training.

Then the rumors started about the 46^th Test Wing moving from Eglin AFB to Edwards AFB in California. local tv and both the Pensacola News Journal and the Northwest Florida Daily News jumped on the story.

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Now I understand. Now what’s happening makes sense.

Juan Cole cuts through the rhetoric to the heart of the Israeli demands:

1. The return of two captured Israeli soldiers held by Hizbullah

2. A withdrawal of Hizbullah to the Litani River, 30 mi. or so north of the Israeli border deeper into Lebanon.

3. Cessation of rocket attacks on Israel

It is worth noting that if this is what Israel wants, two of the three could have been gotten without reducing the entire country of Lebanon to rubble. They could have traded 3 Hizbullah members in their custody for the 2 Israeli soldiers. And, if they hadn’t gone wild bombing everything in sight it is unlikely Hizbullah would have shelled them on this scale in the first place.

As for the demand that Hizbullah withdraw (presumably this means its paramilitary fighters) to the Litani, that talking point will inspire the profoundest fear in the Lebanese that Israel is essentially attempting to move its border north and make the Litany the new border, thus staking a clear claim on the waters of the river, which Israelis have coveted since 1948. It is a non-starter politically, though whether it can be attained with violence is yet to be seen.

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Melanie & Company at Just a Bump in the Beltway have moved.

Their new address is: www.beltwaybump.com

New host, new URI, new software.

As she explains it is the result of trackback spam causing the old site to exceed its bandwidth, at which point her host just shut down the site, as opposed to contacting someone about the problem [and possibly making making money in bandwidth charges].

It’s a whole new look.

In his post, Blood Discount, Billmon mentions the difference he has noticed the coverage of the conflict by the American media when it comes to casualties in Israel and those in Lebanon.

The BBC reports:

More than 127 Lebanese have died since clashes with Israel began last week. At least were 23 killed in air raids in southern Lebanon on Sunday.

[snip…]

Twelve Israeli civilians have been killed by Hezbollah rockets since fighting began on Wednesday, including the eight killed in Haifa.

[snip…]

At least 16 died in Israeli air strikes on Sunday the city of Tyre, while attacks on a border village killed at least seven, including five with Canadian and Lebanese citizenship.

The strikes came hours after the Haifa rocket attack, which killed eight members of a train repair crew.

Correspondents say the large death-count in a strike on Israel’s third-largest city has rattled the whole country.

Israel’s death toll from the fighting stands at 24 overall.

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The map is slightly altered from the original at the BBC page: Middle East crisis: Key maps. I had a hard time telling the difference between the Israeli and Hezbollah strikes in their color scheme.

The Israeli attack pattern is interesting. They seem to be concentrating their attacks on the areas of Lebanon where Hezbollah isn’t. You would think that they would bomb the areas where the rockets are being launched at Israeli civilians. When I was selecting targets, it was sort of a given that you bombed where the enemy was, not where the enemy wasn’t.

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Apollo 11

Commander:
Neil A. Armstrong

Pilot: Columbia Command Module
Michael Collins, Lieutenant Colonel, USAF

Pilot: Eagle Lunar Module
Edwin E. “Buzz” Aldrin, Jr., Colonel, USAF

Launched: 16 July 1969 UT 13:32:00 (08:32:00 CDT)
Landed on Moon: 20 July 1969 UT 20:17:40 (15:17:40 CDT)
Landing Site: Mare Tranquillitatis – Sea of Tranquility (0.67 N, 23.47 E)
Returned to Earth: 24 July 1969 UT 16:50:35 (11:50:35 CDT)

Florida License Plates

Beneficiary

A weekend feature of Why Now.

For what it’s worth: The Associated Press [via MSNBC] is reporting that anonymous Israeli officials are claiming that Iranian troops helped Hezbollah attack the INS Hanit, Israel’s newest Sa’ar 5-class missile boat [March 1994].

AP reports that the ship was struck with the “Iranian-made, radar-guided C-102” anti-ship missile, but there is no such missile. Other sources claim it was a C-802 [Chinese Ying Ji-82, NATO reporting name: CSS-N-8 Saccade].

Initial reports were that it was a drone [think large radio-controlled model airplane] packed with explosives.

Apparently the Israeli Navy never bothered to turn on any of its defensive systems which should have protected the ship from a missile, because they obviously didn’t believe Lebanon was a real threat.

Let me emphasize that the story being pushed is that the nation of Israel is under dire threat to its existence which justifies the bombing of civilians in Beirut, but the Israeli Navy didn’t bother to turn on its defensive systems.

Because the Shrubbery wants to bury the news and Echidne of the Snakes asked people to post it:

On Friday the Department of Education released a report showing that private schools are no more successful than public schools when it comes to teaching children.

The New York Times report mentions that the there was no effort to publicize the information by the Department of Education.

During the firing range training at the police academy you have a portion called Shoot, Don’t Shoot. The purpose is to train officers to recognize when it is appropriate to fire their weapon. This is strictly a PASS/FAIL course, and you cannot finish the academy until you pass. If you make the wrong decision and are judged to have died, your error will be explained to you. If you shoot an innocent person you automatically fail and have to repeat the course.

Everyone has the right of self-defense, but there are limits. If someone is pointing a gun at you, you would normally have the right to fire. If that person is standing in the middle of a grade school class, you do not fire, because the probably of an innocent person being injured or killed is too high.

No one is saying that Israel doesn’t have the right to defend itself, but it is required to factor in the probably of killing the innocent.

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La Fête Nationale
Bastille Day

Thank you for the help with the Revolution.

Happy Birthday Sashochka.

Dot Not So Calm

You don’t mind if I’m here do you, Dot? She doesn’t mind. I knew she wanted me here.

[Editor: Dot’s hide out has been discovered and Ringo isn’t being very good about reading body language. Fortunately Sox knocked a book off a table in the living room and Ringo left before blood was spilled.

Friday Ark

CNN reports: U.S. vetoes U.N. resolution on Mideast

The United States on Thursday vetoed a U.N. Security Council resolution demanding Israel halt its attacks in Gaza.

The proposal also demanded that Palestinian militants release the Israeli soldier abducted June 25 in a raid in Israel and stop launching rockets at Israel from Gaza. In addition, it called on Israel to release Palestinian government officials and lawmakers it took into custody after the soldier’s abduction.

Ten nations on the council voted in favor of the resolution, and four abstained.

John Bolton, U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, said that “in light of the fluid events on the ground,” the United States believed the Qatar-sponsored resolution was untimely and out of date, and would have helped inflame passions in the Middle East.

How could “passions” get more “inflamed” than the bloody all out war that is currently occurring in the region? Is there some part of the bombing of the Palestinian foreign ministry or Beirut airport that strikes you, John, as calm consideration of the geopolitical consequences of their actions. How many more dozens of people have to die before we can assumed that “passions” are about as “inflamed” as they are going to get?

After consideration, I think I’ll give her name to a prayer circle. She really needs help, and that is a human reaction, not a political swipe. Something is wrong and it needs to be attended to by people who care about her. She is not the person she was. At this point, she is only a threat to herself.