Iraqi Air Force Off the Ground

Along with the latest developments in Iraqi military plans, the Iraqi Air Force is expanding, but it will not be ready until sometime during stage three (2016-2020) of the Iraqi Security Force development plan.

Iraqi Security Forces Order of Battle: November 2008 Update

The transition has moved along a bit faster than expected; the details are encouraging.

Both Candidates Hacked

Isn't it great? Not only do we have enough problems with securing our borders but according to a story that Newsweek broke officials at the FBI and the White House told both the Obama and McCain campaigns that they believed a foreign entity or organization compromised their computer systems. Obama technical experts speculated that the hackers were Russian or Chinese or perhaps this is just wishful thinking on the Obama camp's part. They may see, as some of their foreign policy advisers seem to suggest, that China and Russia are our real enemies, not those folks in the Middle East after all.

Obama-Elect Defense Spending About the Same for Bush's Third Term

U.S. defense companies, helped by a 70% increase in military spending since Bush's budget since 2000, may see the trend continue under President-Elect Barack Obama, although the financial crisis is squeezing the federal budget.

U.S. defense spending rose 72 percent to $671.7 billion for fiscal 2008 from $381.3 billion in 2000, after adjusting for inflation and including spending for the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq.

The new Democratic administration faces decisions on $125 billion in major weapons programs:

the purchase of additional Lockheed Martin F-22 fighter jets and Boeing Co.’s C-17 transports;

the replacement of Air Force refueling tankers and combat search and rescue helicopters;

the acquisition of a new satellite communication system;

and, a decision to curtail buying the Navy’s DDG-1000 Zumwalt class destroyer, and buy more older DDG-51 type destroyers.

“When a new president is inaugurated, these circumstances that we are talking about now are not likely to change all that much,” Lockheed Chief Executive Officer Robert Stevens stated.

The expected rate will be approximately the same, 4% of the GDP, as defense spending has been. Likewise, the Pentagon also plans to increase the Army’s troop strength by 65,000 and the Marine Corps’ by 27,000 by 2013, adding to the military budget. Obama supports the troop-strength increase. “I don’t see defense spending declining in the first years of the Obama administration,” stated Richard Danzig, Obama’s defense adviser and former Navy secretary.

“The long-term fiscal challenges confronting the United States, linked to rising health-care costs and the aging of the U.S. population, all seem to support the conclusion that the base defense budget is likely to stay relatively flat in real terms,” not counting war costs, Steve Kosiak, a defense budget analyst at the Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments, a Washington policy group, stated in a report last month.

War is often good for business and the American economy needs a kick, jobs depend on it.

No Rest for Omar

Spain's Interior Ministry has rejected an asylum request from Omar, son of Osama bin Laden. The ministry determined that he did not "meet the conditions necessary for entering Spain."

Obama Lowers American Expectations

"The road ahead will be long. Our climb will be steep. We may not get there in one year or even one term."

Amidst the rhetoric, the celebration, and the flourish of the phrasing, Obama can always look back and say, `I told you so.' He is lowering American expectations; he stated it in his acceptance speech. Most people will miss this key point in the joy that they feel tonight but he said it loud and clear. Obama is planning to take eight years to accomplish his plans on the scale of an FDR.

Given the seriousness of the issues confronting the next President I wonder if it is realistic to expect much at all.

Roosevelt had four months to come up with programs to address the Great Depression before he took office in 1933; Obama gets just 2 1/2 months to put a government in place.

Unemployment is at 6.1% and predicted to rise as high as 7.5% next year; worried consumers have curtailed borrowing and spending; home foreclosures are common; Medicare, Medicaid, and Social Security face huge financial overdrafts; government debt is at its highest point in American history, debts are owed to Japan, China, and Middle Eastern banks flush with cash; and, 152,000 U.S. troops are in Iraq more than five years after the initial action, while an additional 32,000 are in Afghanistan in the sixth year of the war against Islamofascism.

Obama will be pulled politically from the left and from the right. He will face demands for a quicker pullout from Iraq, if he does so, the security issues remain, the sacrifices made by our military will be in vain, and Americans will be no safer, enemies of the U.S. will see this withdrawal as a huge victory as they have proclaimed in the past, and another military return, following this Iraq War, as the Coalition had to return after the First Persian Gulf War may be necessary.

From the acceptance speech, Obama reached for high aspirations, but he is really tempering Americans for lowering their expectations.

Obama certainly has not outlined how he will deal with the recession; its in his lap now.

A huge electoral victory is not change, nor does it indicate success.

LBJ won with 61% of the vote in 1964: an overwhelming Presidential victory. He enacted his Great Society programs in his first two years but his administration essentially folded with as he described it, "That damn war," the escalation of the Vietnam War.

Currently, Obama has offered few specifics on how he would govern.

The economy can certainly provide a powerful motivator. It certainly worked for Hitler.

If I recall my history correctly though, things didn't work out too well then.

Omar Flees Dad; Asks for Spanish Asylum

Omar bin Laden, Osama's son, has asked Spain to grant him asylum. He stepped off a plane at Madrid's airport during a stopover and asked to stay. This story has been around for some time since Omar has publicly called on his father to abandon terrorism. The Spanish Interior Ministry will have 72 hours to reply to his request once it's filed. Omar's flight originated in Cairo, Egypt, and landed in Madrid on its way to Casablanca, Morocco. The request was a surprise to Spanish authorities. Omar is married to a British citizen but he was previously asylum in Britain; he holds a Saudi passport. Omar hasn't spoken to his father since 2000, when he walked away from an al Qaeda training camp in Afghanistan with his father's blessings. He claims not to know where his father is now.

Affidavit of Obama's Grandmother Confirming Kenyan Birth

An Affidavit of Reverend Kweli Shuhubia is available for perusal. The Reverend interviewed Obama's grandmother with a translator, Bishop Ron McRae, who supplied additional supporting documents, but who most importantly, translated Barack's grandmother from her native Swahili. Obama's grandmother confirmed that Obama was born in Kenya.

Philip Berg, Democratic attorney from the Philadelphia area, has been pursuing this evidence.

Iran Celebrates Taking American Hostages: Waits for Next Opportunity

Iranians called for a U.S. "unconditional withdrawal" from all Islamic states referring to Washington as the "main war-monger and cause of insecurity worldwide." Election day USA is the anniversary of the take-over of the former U.S. embassy in Tehran by university students and followers of the Imam Khomeini in 1979. The embassy was known in Iran as the "Den of Spies." The U.S. is seen as the main cause of insecurity in the world and the Iranians should "fight against oppressive and colonial policies of the world arrogance and Western powers led by the US." The U.S. efforts are against Islamic states, especially Iran, and "resulted from the influence of Zionist lobbies on international organizations as well as the US and its allies pressures on international bodies."

The only thing worse for the U.S. is if we brought back Zbigniew Brzezinski, the U.S. Secretary of State during the Jimmy Carter fiasco of a Presidency.

Wait, it could get worse: Brzezinski has backed one of the presidential nominees, and is an important advisor to this individual, and that nominee might get elected tomorrow.

The more things change, the more things stay the same.

Note on Hanson, Carnage and Culture

Hanson argues that the military dominance of the West can be attributed to the idea of dissent, consensual government, and individualism. Hanson rejects racial explanations for this military preeminence, the dominance of technology and disagrees with environmental or geographical explanations such as the thesis advanced by Jared Diamond in Guns, Germs and Steel.

According to Hanson, Western values such as freedom, rationalism, and open dissent are a particulary lethal mix as the West has engaged in warfare. Even when non-Western societies win the occasional victory when warring against the West, it is only a temporary setback and the non-Western culture is dependent of Western tactics, technology, and has no inclination to fight to totally vanquish their foe. Therefore, the "Western way of war" will ultimately prevail. Hanson is careful to point out that Western warfare is not necessarily more (or less) moral than war as practiced by other cultures; but his argument posits that the "Western way of war" is unequalled in its devastation and decisiveness.

Nine battles illustrate a particular aspect of Western culture that Hanson believes contributes to the dominance of Western warfare: the Battle of Salamis 480 BCE, where the Greeks fought as a "free citizens," the Battle of Gaugamela 331 BCE in the decisive battle of annihilation, the Battle of Cannae 216 BCE emphasizing civic militarism, the Battle of Tours/Poitiers 732 CE and the concentration of infantry, the Battle of Tenochtitlan 1521 CE where technology and reason prevailed, the Battle of Lepanto 1571 or a victory for capitalism, the Battle of Rorke's Drift 1879 where British discipline held sway, the Battle of Midway 1942 demonstrating individualism, and the Tet Offensive 1968 where American dissent rose to the fore.

One of the biggest surprises of the book is the numerical superiority of the Americans during Tet. The Americans felt as though they lost though Hanson points out that the Vietcong were really decimated in the American counter-offensive. The work is an important corrective to the current American penchant for defeatism. Not surprisingly then, Hanson argues that the current American conflicts against insurgency and terrorism can result in an American victory.

Kurds Welcome U.S. Bases

Even if the U.N. mandate ends, scheduled for the end of this year, the Iraqi Kurds are prepared to host U.S. military bases in northern Iraq. Massud Barzani, the president of northern Iraq's regional Kurdish administration, said that his government would "welcome" such a move. This development occurred before the presidential election and before Bush becomes a lame duck president.

Obama Garnishes Shamans Support

Peruvian shamans have backed Obama for President. They gathered in Lima to send good vibes to him.

Obama's Illegals

Questions about Obama abound and at least one illegal has been found according to the AP. Zeituni Onyango, a native of Kenya, has been living in Boston despite losing an appeal for asylum four years ago. Obama's campaign is in possession of her $265 donation though and now will have to return the money since Onyango is not legally permitted to donate to Obama because she is not a U.S. citizen.

Note on Mearsheimer and Walt: The Israel Lobby

Mearsheimer and Walt are wrong in retrospect about Iraq so their basic thesis is undercut by the Coalition success in that country. Nonetheless, they provide a rationale for the continuing attacks on America, which this country should consider, the increasing unimportance of Israel as a strategic ally since the collapse of the Soviet Union. They advocate "offshore balancing" which sounds like it may have worked until the necessity of increased presence, particularly ground troops, in the Middle East.

U.S. Deaths in Iraq at Wartime Low

Military deaths in Iraq fell in October to their lowest monthly level of the war, matching the record low of thirteen fatalities suffered in July. Only eight of the thirteen Americans died in combat. The U.S. military suffered 25 deaths in September and 23 in August.

In Afghanistan fifteen 15 U.S. military deaths were reported for October. The monthly toll in that combat theater had been in the 20s since June, when 28 Americans were killed-—the worst one-month total since that war began in late 2001.

The sharp drop in American fatalities, and Iraqi too, in Iraq reflects the overall security improvements across the country following the Sunni revolt against al-Qaida and the rout suffered by Shiite extremists in fighting last spring in Basra and Baghdad. U.S. military commanders repeatedly warn are fragile and reversible.

Something Fishy in Hawaii

The candidate just called off his campaign in the heat of the battle to travel to Hawaii to visit his terminally ill grandmother. Yet, he visited her on her deathbed but without his lovely wife and two children who may be missing their last chance to see her alive.

Today, Hawaii Health Department Director Dr. Chiyome Fukino stated that she and the registrar of vital statistics, Alvin Onaka, have personally verified that the health department holds Obama's original birth certificate.

Something smells in Denmark.

Marines and Motorcycles

Motorcycle accidents have killed more Marines, twenty-five, in the past 12 months than enemy fire in Iraq, where twenty Marines have been killed. I don't think anyone will be able to stop motorcycle riding.

U.S. Eliminates Those Targeting the West

U.S. strikes targeting al Qaeda operative and Iraqi national Abu Kasha in Mir Ali, Pakistan. Hitting North and South Waziristan apparently paid off handsomely. In Pakistan's lawless tribal areas this facilitator served as a bridge between the Taliban and al Qaeda. The targeting eliminated a key external AQ operations player who was attempted to attack Western targets, including the U.S.

The U.S. also confirmed that al Qaeda operative Khalid Habib was killed in last week's strike in South Waziristan. His resonsibilities have expanded to assisting in facilitating an al Qaeda attack against the West. Habib also assisted in al Qaeda's external operations aimed at the US and Europe. There were advanced efforts in the Waziristan area by Habib and others to send terror teams to the US and Europe. Sources confirmed that a number of suspected European and American recruits have been spotted in the area. At least two Western members of al Qaeda have been killed in the recent spate of attacks. Two men carrying Canadian passports were killed in a U.S. strike on an al Qaeda safe house strike in South Waziristan on Aug. 30.

The targets were in line with the first major strike against al Qaeda's external operations network which took place in the town of Damadola in the Bajaur tribal agency on May 14. The missile strike killed Abu Sulayman Jazairi, a senior Algerian al Qaeda operatives who western intelligence sources described as the operational commander tasked with planning attacks on the West. Jazairi also was a senior trainer and an explosives expert. These skills enabled him to directly train operatives for strikes in the West.

Obama's Radicalism

Video source: The Real Barack Obama

On 5 October 2008, and thanks to a special edition of Hannity’s America, Sean Hannity used the full-hour program for a video presentation on Obama’s questionable relationships in “Obama & Friends: History of Radicalism.”

Part 2

Part 3

Part 4

Part 5

Part 6

Age Discrimination: Not in Enterprise Business

The presidential campaign exhibited age discrimination this year in a despicable fashion but business as typified by a Silicon Valley lifestyle is usually viewed as the Mecca of wunderkinds. Au contraire, since the age discrimination issue may be less of an issue than many realize.

One such youngster is Leslie Wexner, 70, of The Limited; in retail there is CEO James Sinegal, 72, of Costco; 72-year-old billionaire investor Carl Icahn, who played rough with both Yahoo and Microsoft in the summer of 2008; 75-year-old Sheldon Adelson heads up The Venetian hotel in Las Vegas; 77-year-old Rupert Murdoch chairs News Corporation; Milton Cooper, 79, is at the helm of real estate developer Kimco Realty; pharmaceutical maker Forest Laboratories is led by Howard Solomon, 80; 80-year-old Si Newhouse of Condé Nast; and last but not least is Sumner Redstone, 85, who chairs National Amusements, which owns CBS, Viacom, MTV, BET, Paramount Pictures and Dreamworks.