Sunday, June 29, 2008

Celeb o'the Day - Mallika Sherawat

Mallika SherawatMallika Sherawat

Strike Package

Little Satan's recent 1K mile airborne dry run sorteeing over a hundred combat jets and auxillary air 2 air refueling mommie jets send out like a billion conflicting signals


Reaction from an attack on Iran by Little Satan would be pure heck. Almost surrounded by enemies - all by amazing coincidense rocket rich fed and funded Iranian minions.


Hiz'B'Allah, HAMAS - even Syria
could act out in rage if their mentors goodies were deceisively and destructively dissed to death. Oil prices could go through the roof, many nations would have their feelings terribly hurt in lieu of Little Satan's nigh global skirt flirt with such a pre emptive preventive attack.

Funny, though - no one mentions the results would be far worse if the Mullahs actually develop nuclear weaponry.


So like
STRATFOR points out - leaking leaks about magical make believe air raids to kill scientists at work in wicked weaponized enrichment in such a trigger happy hood chock full of suicide cult rocketeers, gross body part collecting rocketeers and somewhat neutral neighbors seems awful risque.


Wildly provocative amid the easily provoked - like wearing a thong to Church.


Prob the best look at Target Sets (regime killing talk for vaporizing precious assets) and what it would take to knock them out - all the way out - is the SSP Working Paper by done by aviation sci spy guys Whitney Raas and Austin Long.


This exhaustive (yet fun and light to read dossier - perfect for the beach - and
available in pdf) details naughty details.

To have a reasonable chance of success, both in the mission and in the
ultimate goal of rendering Iran’s nuclear program impotent, the target set must
be narrowed to concentrate on the critical nodes in Iran’s nuclear
infrastructure.


The most difficult part of nuclear weapons development is obtaining the
nuclear material itself; thus, if the means of fissile material production can
be destroyed, the setback for Iran will be maximized.

Iran’s nuclear complex has three critical nodes: Esfahan, with its conversion facility, the Natanz enrichment facility, and the heavy water plant and future plutonium production reactors at Arak.


Blitzing bomb building builders of a nuclear persuasion at all three sites (all magnetically attracting multiple 'strike packages'



The total number of weapons needed to have reasonable confidence in
destroying all three target sets is thus 24 5000-lb weapons and 24 2000-lb
weapons.



84 tons of intelligent guided precision weaponry!


Little Satan's Air Force currently has access to a domestic penetrating weapon, a 1000-lb class bomb known as the PB 500A1 The gov has also expressed interest in acquiring two heavier penetrating warheads from Great Satan.

In September 2004, Little Satan announced that it would acquire approximately 5000 PGMs from the U.S., including about 500 GBU-27s equipped with the
2000-lb class BLU-109 penetrating warheads. More recently, Israel has received approval to purchase one hundred GBU-28s equipped with the 5000-lb class BLU-113 warheads.

Weaponeering capabilities includes the happy fact that Little Satan maintains two elite especial forces units dedicated to assisting with air strikes, one dedicated to laser target designation (
Sayeret Shaldag/Unit 5101) and one to real time bomb damage assessment (Unit 5707).

These units are extremely well-trained and could potentially be infiltrated to the target zone prior to attack. While it would be both difficult and risky to deploy these units inside Iran, they would be very useful in aiding the strike package, particularly in bad weather.

Like sending a hot text - the Strike Package has got to be reliably delivered.

Little Satan's heaviest dutiest strike aircraft is the world famous
F 15 Eagle. Created way back in the last millennium, Eagle literally was the globally proof presence of Great Satan's 30 years in the future combat jet when she first flew in 1972 and came on line in the especially magical year of the Bicentenial!(1976 for the heathen).

Eagle fast became the weapon of choice among tiny tiny sexy democrazies under threat from intolerant neighbors. Little Satan, SoKo and Taiwan blinged and added Eagle to their airborne arsenals. Eagle's combat bona fides are down right lethal.

Like when Little Satan's Eagles
literally blasted the Syrian Air Force out of the sky as F-15s shot down 40 Syrian combat jets (23 MiG-21 "Fishbeds" and 17 MiG-23 "Floggers" Russia built jets) and one French made Syrian SA.342L Gazelle helicopter way back in the PLO Lebanon War of 1982 without modesty, restraint or any casualties.

Originally created by MacDonnel Douglas -
Boeing began upgrading an especially sexyful Little Satan mod 15I that Little Satan christened "Ra Am" or 'Thunder'

Ra Am can tote an amazing 11 tons of hurt in like a billion diff configurations and has a range of 1445Kilometers (2.25K miles for the unmetrical).

Little Satan deploys about 25 F15I thundering Ra Am's and has about 40 elderly Eagle variants without that kind of range or toting capabilities. Plus Little Satan super sexed up F16 'D' mod

F-16D aircraft which have a "dorsal spine" modification. This dorsal spine is a
fairing extending from the rear of the cockpit to the vertical stabilizer. It
apparently houses a significant anti-radar Wild Weasel system, self-protection
jamming, as well as other specialized electronics. These aircraft, if
retrofitted with CFTs, could accompany the deep strike aircraft and provide
significant suppression of enemy air defense (SEAD) capability.


The F-16I is an F-16 Block 52/60 variant produced specifically for Israeli deep strike requirements. Like the F-15I, the F-16I has CFTs to extend its radius of action. The F-16Is exact combat radius is unknown, but is believed to be in the 1500-2100 km range with CFTs and external fuel tanks.


Given the Israeli decision to forgo additional F-15I procurement in favor of increased F-16I procurement, its range is presumably not significantly less than the F-15I. It is equipped with the same targeting systems as the F-15I and could deliver two 2000-lb bombs while carrying external fuel tanks.


A strike package of 25 each of F-15Is and F-16Is, then the Iranian air defense would have to impose significant attrition to cause the mission to fail.

Perhaps best described as
fiesty - yet spineless current Iranian air defense capabilities appears non-trivial but certainly not incredibly potent.

It is comprised of three elements: aircraft, SAMs, and anti-aircraft artillery

If even one F-15I failed to complete the mission due to reliability problems, then the Iranians would only have to down one aircraft. If two failed to function, then the mission would fail to deliver ordnance without the Iranians even firing a shot.

Sorteeing a 100 attack aircraft is more than make believe - it is significant signals that Little Satan is planning more than setting the region ablaze by dissing sovereign airspace and blitzing nukey stuff.

A rising hegemon having all her Air Defense capabilities and strategic conventional stand off weapons platforms annihilated
could involve way more moves than Little Satan's raid.

American Stealth bombers could target Iran’s air defense and anti-ship missile sites scattered around the Gulf, followed by what military analysts call an "Effects Based Operation," as a naval blockade of the Straits of Hormuz backed by anti-missile Aegis class cruisers and destroyers, together with a guarantee of free passage for all non-Iranian oil shipping (thus reassuring the world that energy supplies will continue to flow) may be easily and simultaneously launched.

Special Ops and airborne forces would seize Iran’s main oil pumping station at Kargh Island and capture or neutralize its offshore oil facilities.

Air Force and Navy war jets could take out Iran’s extremely vulnerable military and economic infrastructure, including its electrical grid, transportation links, gasoline refineries, port facilities, as well as air strikes against the Iranian Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC).


The air strike would target the headquarters of the IRGC's elite Qods force. With an estimated strength of up to 90,000 fighters, the Qods' stated mission is to spread Iran's revolution of 1979 throughout the region. Few tears would be shed by anyone if al Qods magically disappeared.

Truth is that the Iranian regime is uniquely vulnerable to this kind of campaign. 90% of Iran’s oil production and facilities are sweetly lying in or near the Gulf, and are shamelessly exposed to naval or air attacks.

With the exception of three Russian built Kilo-class subs (which would have to be killed in the opening days of the campaign - natch), the Iranian navy is tiny and actually quite pitiful.

Since Iran imports nearly 40% of its gasoline, an air campaign that destroys its refineries and gas supplies would leave the mullahs, the regime and its trucks, tanks, and planes starved for fuel in two weeks or even sooner.


Art by EdDiE at atomicpanda.com

Saturday, June 28, 2008

Intervention Now

In the course of the last few tumultuous months, I have often had cause to consider what it is that makes a country. I believe a country is the sum of its many parts, and that this is embodied in one thing: its people. The people of my country, Zimbabwe, have borne more than any people should bear. They have been burdened by the world's highest inflation rates, denied the basics of democracy, and are now suffering the worst form of intimidation and violence at the hand of a government purporting to be of and for the people.

Zimbabwe will break if the world does not come to our aid.

Africa has seen this all before, of course. The scenario in Zimbabwe is numbingly familiar. A power-crazed despot holding his people hostage to his delusions, crushing the spirit of his country and casting the international community as fools. As we enter the final days of what has been a taxing period for all Zimbabweans, it is likely that Robert Mugabe will claim the presidency of our country and will seek to further deny its people a space to breath and feel the breeze of freedom.

I can no longer allow Zimbabwe's people to suffer this torture, for I believe they can bear no more crushing force. This is why I decided not to run in the presidential run-off. This is not a political decision. The vote need not occur at all of course, as the Movement for Democratic Change won a majority in the previous election, held in March. This is undisputed even by the pro-Mugabe Zimbabwe electoral commission.

Our call now for intervention seeks to challenge standard procedure in international diplomacy. The quiet diplomacy of South African President Thabo Mbeki has been characteristic of this worn approach, as it sought to massage a defeated dictator rather than show him the door and prod him towards it.

We envision a more energetic and, indeed, activist strategy. Our proposal is one that aims to remove the often debilitating barriers of state sovereignty, which rests on a centuries-old foundation of the sanctity of governments, even those which have proven themselves illegitimate and decrepit. We ask for the UN to go further than its recent resolution, condemning the violence in Zimbabwe, to encompass an active isolation of the dictator Mugabe.

For this we need a force to protect the people.

We do not want armed conflict, but the people of Zimbabwe need the words of indignation from global leaders to be backed by the moral rectitude of military force.

Such a force would be in the role of peacekeepers, not trouble-makers. They would separate the people from their oppressors and cast the protective shield around the democratic process for which Zimbabwe yearns.

The next stage should be a new presidential election. This does indeed burden Zimbabwe and create an atmosphere of limbo. Yet there is hardly a scenario that does not carry an element of pain. The reality is that a new election, devoid of violence and intimidation, is the only way to put Zimbabwe right.

Part of this process would be the introduction of election monitors, from the African Union and the UN. This would also require a recognition of myself as a legitimate candidate. It would be the best chance the people of Zimbabwe would get to see their views recorded fairly and justly.

Intervention is a loaded concept in today's world, of course.

Yet, despite the difficulties inherent in certain high-profile interventions, decisions not to intervene have created similarly dire consequences.

The battle in Zimbabwe today is a battle between democracy and dictatorship, justice and injustice, right and wrong.

It is one in which the international community must become more than a moral participant.

It must become mobilised.


submitted by MoRgAn TsVaNgIrAi

Intervention of the Sabine Women by Jacques-Louis David

Celeb o'the Day - Nadia Bjorlin

Nadia BjorlinNadia Bjorlin

Friday, June 27, 2008

2nd Amendment - Still Lives!!

Well - for those of us who can read plain English and therefore already understood what the 2nd Amendment stated, yesterday's Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS) ruling is expected.

Ruling here: link

The court (in a 5-4 decision) upheld the 2nd amendment as an individual right that preceeded the US Constitution and thus cannot be infringed.

Here are some of the relevant parts of the SCOTUS decision;

...In the Second Amendments operative clause (the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed), the phrase the right of the people.creates a strong presumption that the Second Amendment right is exercised individually and belongs to all Americans...

...In the phrase to keep and bear Arms, the word Arms extends, prima facie, to all instruments that constitute bearable arms, even those that were not in existence at the time of the founding. The phrase keep ... Arms means have weapons. The phrase bear Arms means to carry weapons and was understood as part of the natural right of defense of one’s person or house...

Kudos go out to the SCOTUS for getting this right after a series of disastrous 5-4 decisions, whereby Judge Kennedy was the swing vote with the rest of the wacko liberal judges, in Boumedienne and the Child Rape Case.

-Thai

Celeb o'the Day - Layla Kayleigh

Layla KayleighLayla Kayleigh

Thursday, June 26, 2008

Celeb o'the Day - Jennifer Lopez

Jennifer LopezJennifer Lopez

Satanicus Giganticus

Here's a prediction: Zimbabwe's Morgan Tsvangirai will win this year's Nobel Peace Prize.


He would be its worthiest recipient since the prize went to Burma's Aung San Suu Kyi (one of the prize's few worthy recipients, period) in 1991. He deserves it for standing up – politically as well as physically – to Robert Mugabe's goon-squad dictatorship for over a decade; for organizing a democratic opposition and winning an election hugely stacked against him; and for refusing to put his own ambition ahead of his people's well-being when the run-off poll became, as he put it last weekend, a "violent, illegitimate sham."

Here's another prediction: Mr. Tsvangirai's Nobel will have about as much effect on the bloody course of Zimbabwe's politics as Aung San Suu Kyi's has had on Burma's.

Effectively, zero.

Zimbabwe is now another spot on the map of the civilized world's troubled conscience. Burma is also there, along with Tibet and Darfur. (Question: When will "Free Zimbabwe" bumper stickers become ubiquitous?) These are uniquely nasty places, and not just because uniquely nasty things are happening. They're nasty because the dissonance between the wider world's professed concern and what it actually does is almost intolerable.

Look at the legislation that has been proposed or passed in the U.S. Congress on Darfur. There is the Darfur Peace and Accountability Act (H.R. 3127), signed by President Bush into law in 2006, which sanctions officials identified as responsible for the genocide. There is House Resolution 992, which urges the president to appoint a special envoy to Sudan. (The president did appoint an envoy; care to remember his name?)

There is the 2007 Sudan Accountability and Divestment Act, which allows (but does not require) U.S. states and municipalities to divest from companies doing business in Sudan. There is Senate Resolution 559, urging the president to enforce a no-fly zone over Darfur. There is the Clinton Amendment, the Reid Amendment, the Menendez Amendment, the Durbin/Leahy Amendment, the Jackson Amendment, the Lieberman Resolution, the Obama/Reid Amendment and the Peace in Darfur Act.

This is a partial list. Meantime, here are the accumulating estimates of the conflict's toll on Darfuri lives. September 2004: 50,000, according to the World Health Organization. May 2005: between 63,000 and 146,000 "excess deaths," according to the Center for Research on the Epidemiology of Disasters at Belgium's Catholic University of Louvain. March 2008: 200,000 deaths, according to U.N. officials. April 2008: The U.N. acknowledges the previous month's estimate might have undercounted about 100,000 victims.

In a video clip for the Save Darfur coalition, Barack Obama offered that the genocide is "a stain on our souls." His proposal for removing it? "Ratcheting up sanctions" on the Sudanese government and making "firm commitments in terms of the logistics, and the transport and the equipping" of an international peacekeeping mission for Darfur. No word, however, as to whether Mr. Obama would actually risk the lives of American soldiers to stop the slaughter.

It's a similar story in Zimbabwe. The U.N. Security Council met yesterday to discuss the crisis, while British Prime Minister Gordon Brown told parliament "the world is of one view: that the status quo cannot continue."

But, of course, the status quo will continue. Just possibly, Mr. Mugabe and his senior ministers will no longer be allowed to travel to Europe, though that does nothing for the people of Zimbabwe. Other sanctions will have no effect: The regime is already busy expelling relief workers and seizing food aid. Mr. Mugabe wants "his people" to die – it means fewer mouths to feed, and fewer potential opposition supporters to jail, maim or murder.

A solution for Zimbabwe's crisis isn't hard to come by: Someone – ideally the British – must remove Mr. Mugabe by force, install Mr. Tsvangirai as president, arm his supporters, prevent any rampages, and leave. "Saving Darfur" is a somewhat different story, but it also involves applying Western military force to whatever degree is necessary to get Khartoum to come to terms with an independent or autonomous Darfur. Burma? Same deal.

International relations theorists, including prominent Obama adviser Susan Rice, justify these sorts of interventions under the rubric of a "Responsibility to Protect" – a concept that comes oddly close to Kipling's White Man's Burden. So close, in fact, that its inherent paternalism has hitherto inhibited many liberals from endorsing the kinds of interventions toward which they are now tip-toeing, thousands of deaths too late.

So let's by all means end the hand-wringing and embrace the responsibility to protect, wherever necessary and feasible. Let's spare the thousands of innocents, punish the wicked, oppose tyrants, and support democrats – both in places where it is now fashionable to do so (Burma) and in places where it is not (Iraq). If that turns out to be Mr. Obama's foreign policy, it will be a worthy one. It does come oddly close to the Bush Doctrine.

submitted by bReT sTePhEnS



Monday, June 23, 2008

Celeb o'the Day - Angelina Jolie

Angelina JolieAngelina Jolie

Strip Tease Redux

The recent kiss and make up betwixt Little Satan and the HAMAS Strip is just the latest in an elaborate strip tease of regional proportions


The world's very first freely elected suicide gov spins it like a win for innocent civilians trapped in a time traveling semi caliphate where death is precious, praised and preferred, stubborn resistence and a def smack down for those wicked wacky neocons and infidel Fatah leaders sucking up to Great Satan and Little Satan

"There is no doubt that the forces of peace and reason on all sides have
won against the forces of bellicosity, hatred and terror, especially in
Washington and Tel Aviv and some other regional capitals as well.

The people of Gaza, the victims of American-Israeli criminality, are
undoubtedly the biggest winners of this deal. At least, they can breathe again,
following 18 nightmarish months of unimagined brutality and ruthlessness

In addition to the gung-ho neocons in Washington and war-drummers in Tel
Aviv who wanted to exterminate Hamas, not a small amount of consternation is
also likely to be permeating now in Ramallah where a Zionized group within Fatah
had been hoping to see the Israeli army overrun Gaza, murder hundreds, and then
hand Gaza over to the Fatah leadership on a silver platter."

HAMAS also says a hudna v4.0 could be good for biz even if Little Satan is a serpentine zionist entity and undeserving of good faith, spokescat Khalid Amayreh realises that the state must hold the monopoly on violence and magically appearing civilian militia rocket artillery brigades in innocent civilian rich turf may not get the PLOld School wink and a smile.

"Hamas should make meticulous efforts to preserve the ceasefire since doing so is
first and foremost a supreme and paramount Palestinian interest.

Hamas should also make it abundantly clear to the military wings of other
Palestinian factions that the security and safety of the people of Gaza must not
be subject to the whims of this or that faction."

And a hudna is good for biz. Like collecting jizrah from foreigners.

"In fact, preserving the ceasefire would send a positive message to the
international community that Hamas is responsible organization with which
"business can be made."

Moreover, a careful abidance by the agreement on Hamas’s part would show
good- will toward Egypt whose support and backing is essential for the survival
of the Gaza Strip, at least at this juncture of the Palestinian struggle for
freedom and liberation from Zionism."

Total smokescreen too. Nary a word about returning abducted citizens.

Super fly smart guy Michael Oren (6 Days of War is worth the price of admission - Faith and Fantasy is nigh essential) disses the smoke and cuts right to it.

"It represents a historic accomplishment for the jihadist forces most
opposed to peace, and defeat for the Palestinians who might still have been
Israel's partners.

Since Little Satan split the Strip way back in '05 and hiked up 'the wall.' Hamas surged in a post electile dysfunction bliss that not only featured an armed coup de tat, the box set blings over an entire K - one thousand! - missiles, rockets and mortars fired at a sovereign democratic neighbor.

The resulting Hudna gave HAMAS breathing space to raid into Little Satan and capture citizens of a sovereign democratic neighbor which audaciously emboldened Hiz'B'Allah to act out in on the act.

"Hamas now felt sufficiently emboldened to overthrow Gaza's Fatah-led
government, and to declare itself regnant in the Strip. Subsequently, Hamas
launched thousands more rocket and mortar salvos against Israel, rendering parts
of the country nearly uninhabitable.

Israel never mounted the rolling, multi-month operation that the IDF had
planned
. Traumatized by his abortive performance in the Lebanon War, hobbled
by financial scandals, Prime Minister Ehud Olmert balked at a military
engagement liable to result in incalculable casualties and United Nations
condemnations, but unlikely to halt Hamas aggression.

Like Hezbollah in 2006, Hamas won because it did not lose. Its leaders
still walked Gaza's streets freely while children in Sderot and other Israeli
border towns cowered in bomb shelters. Like Hezbollah, which recently wrested
unprecedented powers from the Lebanese parliament, Hamas parlayed its military
success into political capital.

The Egyptian-brokered cease-fire yields Hamas greater benefits than it
might have obtained in direct negotiations. In exchange for giving its word to
halt rocket attacks and weapons smuggling, Hamas receives the right to monitor
the main border crossings into Gaza and to enforce a truce in the West Bank,
where Fatah retains formal control.

If quiet is maintained, then Israel will be required to accept a cease-fire
in the West Bank as well. Hamas can regroup and rearm."

This is significant - and where Iran becomes the cat behind the green curtain. This is a great op for the mullahs and their IRGC fanboys to reinforce success (since it looks like Mahdi Army totally sucked at anything other than getting their militia annihilated, incarcerated or co opted).

Taking control of West Bank (Judea in Little Satan speak) will grant Iran frontline access to Little Satan.


Zooming out of Little Satan and her twin client states of the Strip and WB, Iran is deploying her regional assets in a Persian Chess move.

"As the primary sponsor of Hamas, Iran is the cease-fire's ultimate
beneficiary. Having already surrounded Israel on three of its borders -- Gaza,
Lebanon, Syria -- Iran is poised to penetrate the West Bank.

By activating these fronts, Tehran can divert attention from its nuclear program
and block any diplomatic effort.

The advocates of peace between Israelis and Palestinians should recognize that fact when applauding quiet at any price. The cost of this truce may well be war".


Several advocates tend to disregard any jazz about a Persian dominated crescent from Iran to the Med as make believe and way off base for Persian Grand Strategy.

Either way - is Iran buying time to finish WMD witchraft and psychicly determine who Great Satan's electile dysfunction climaxes for in Nov?

With Lebanon devoured, attacking Little Satan could very well be Persia's check move.

Til Iran gets all nukey.

Thursday, June 19, 2008

Update

Got a ballgame at 6:15 tonight, then probably go hang out.

Leaving tomorrow for yearly camping trip, but this year we're staying a week (come back in on the 26th), so I need some posts from the co-bloggers if possible (doing great court).

I hope everyone has a great weekend / week and I'll see you soon.
Tags:

Celeb o'the Day - Asia Argento

Asia ArgentoAsia Argento

Baitullah's House

Currents events between Talibanistan, the Land of the Pure and Afghanistan are arching towards something faster than gossip and rumours in the last 48 hours before Prom.

Pakistan's #1 Taliban fan is Baitullah Mehsud.

Playing Pakistan's newly elected gov for igmo shorties and victims, Baitullah's posse Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan is a fanclub miltia of outlaws, smugglers, slavers and time traveling intolerants that routinely bring battle from Talibanistan to insurge chaos into neighboring Afghanistan.

What does it mean? Prime Minister Hamid shares what it means (The vid is awesome - way better than the quote)

"This means that Afghanistan has the right of self defense. When they cross
the territory from Pakistan to come and kill Afghans and kill coalition troops,
it exactly gives us the right to go back and do the same. Therefore, Baitullah
Mehsud should know that we will go after him now and hit him in his
house."

Baitullah's house has been converted into a missile impact area. Freshly visited by Great Satan.

This is significant. Great Satan has been launching attacks into Pakistan all year long.

Rand Corps "Counter Insurgency in Afghanistan" makes a great case that til Pakistan's lawless regions settle down - trouble with Taliban will continue. And The Land of The Pure's pussyfooting about with intolerants is fueling more instability.

Essentially, security in Afghanistan has gotten about as good as it gets.

Until those Federated No Go Zones across the border are magically transformed into combat zones with a surge on the ground - regardless or inspite of any 'negotiations' and dialogue with killers who've killed nearly 300 ppl in Pakistan since those contacts have fickled and fizziled.


Baitullah wasn't at home when the missiles hit.

Pakistan's politicians are put on the spot after assuring sovereign neighbors that having a border with Pakistan is safe as milk.(After all - since this cat claims he wacked beautiful Benazir - he might very well wack recently elected politicians).


The state must maintain the monopoly of violence. Playing politics while shielding militant intolerants while preaching to sovereign neighbors not to act out in righteousness on a prob that the Land of the Pure's pure unsovereignity can't seem to get a grip on is totally retarded.


Baitullah's house may very well be the destination that Great Britain's new surge in Afghanistan is all about.

Blitzing no go zones on foot is a "...different but very serious challenge..."

"The Taliban's campaign is now limited to intimidating Afghan communities,
coercing the vulnerable into becoming suicide bombers and carrying out brutal
and indiscriminate attacks on the International Community and above all the
Afghans themselves – men, women and children.

As their conventional attacks have failed we have seen their tactics shift
to mines, roadside bombs and suicide vests. These tactics run deeply counter to
the Afghan culture. As does the Taliban's reliance on paid foreign fighters –
the so called 'ten dollar Talibs' who now make up the majority of those doing
the fighting for them.

Taliban's new tactics pose a different but very serious challenge, both to
our forces and to the local people.

A guestimated 1/2K Taliban fanboys busted out of jail in a 'complex' attack and took over turf near Kandahar. Afghani, NATO and Great Satan have trekked and killed 27 Talibani and recaptured 20.

Taliban fanboys are now combatant bullet magnets.

The quiz is - will they break back to Pakistan for R and R or will they make a last stand in the fruit orchards of Khandahar province?

In the essential "America's Victories" (Sentinel Press, 1st Edition in black and desert sage with gold gilt) Dr Larry Schweikart preaches how Great Satan has always been unique in war - many times launching raids to free and return with American POW's.

Yankee General Stoneman's raid to Macon to free Union prisoners failed - yet a century later Colonel Mucci freed American GI's from certain death in the Philippines in the 'Great Raid."

"In our more than 200 year history, not one of our opponents - not even the
British - conducted a raid, or made any attempt whatsoever to free their own
prisoners. That is an astounding comment on the American way of war."

Taliban's jailbreak is also a comment on a move that proves that either Taliban is adapting Great Satan's 'leave no comrade behind' edict, or is running awful shy on volitguers, or is getting semi pro military advice from Pakistan sympathizers launching a diversion to catch some breathing space after NATO attacks into Pakistan's magical no go zones.

Tuesday, June 17, 2008

Democrat Lawyers

I received this,and found it interesting, and most likely accurate. It alludes to the reductionist errors our courts and lawmakers make, while they profess to work for the American people. I cannot fathom why our Supreme Court is allowed to continue to make the absurd decisions they make, many of which ignore the goals of our Constitution.

The Democrat Party has become the Lawyers' Party. Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton are lawyers. Bill Clinton and Michelle Obama are lawyers. John Edwards, the other former Democrat candidate for president, is a lawyer, and so is his wife, Elizabeth. Every Democrat nominee since 1984 went to law school (although Gore did not graduate). Every Democrat vice presidential nominee since 1976, except for Lloyd Bentsen, went to law school. Look at the Democrat Party in Congress: the Majority Leader in each house is a lawyer.

The Republican Party is different. President Bush and Vice President Cheney were not lawyers, but businesspersons. The leaders of the Republican Revolution were not lawyers. Newt Gingrich was a history professor; Tom Delay was an exterminator; and, Dick Armey was an economist. House Minority Leader Boehner was a plastic manufacturer, not a lawyer. The former Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist is a heart surgeon.
Read the rest from WM; very good piece on what the American people need to think about.

Celeb o'the Day - Karina Smirnoff

Karina SmirnoffKarina Smirnoff

Tipping Point

In all asymmetric wars there comes a time when the tide definitely turns against one side or the other. History, or the gods of Mount Olympus, get tired of the game and decide to pick a winner.

Military experts call it the tipping point. This does not mean that all fighting suddenly comes to a halt. Nor does it mean that the loser would necessarily throw in the towel. What it means is that after the “tipping point”, the loser has no prospect of restoring the balance of power without which no war continues for long.


In Algeria, the tipping point came in 1995 with its first free multi-candidate presidential election.

The tipping point Iraq, too, came with the election, that produced the country’s first freely chosen government under Prime Minister Ibrahim al-Jaafari. All terrorist and reactionary forces had pooled their resources to make sure those elections won’t happen. The courage of the Iraqi people proved stronger.

However, in 2005 not many shared this view because the debate over Iraq had sharply divided the world before the war had begun. Unconsciously, many people of goodwill wanted new Iraq to fail, which meant a win for terrorists; not because they loved Al Qaeda but because they hated George W Bush.

Now that the Bush presidency moves towards its close, many opponents of new Iraq, especially in the West and Arab countries, are beginning to admit that new Iraq is not failing.

Some are even expressing joy about the fact that Al Qaeda and Jaish al-Mahdi and other terror gangs have been defeated.

As long as Bush doesn’t get the credit, all is OK. Maybe President Barack Obama will end up claiming credit for the success in a speech in Baghdad, ending with a phrase in Arabic: I am a Baghdadi! Since Obama sees himself as a new John F Kennedy, he would have no qualms about imitating JFK who ended a speech in Berlin with the famous phrase: Ich bin ein Berliner!

Anyway, what matters is that today even the most determined critics of the war are beginning to admit, albeit grudgingly, that Iraq might not be the quagmire they have claimed it was since 2003.

Even Obama now admits that although there are not “many good options” in Iraq, there may be some!

One such good option, of course, is to remain committed until new Iraq’s institutions are solidified, its security fully assured, and its economy put back on track.

All that is the good news.

Now for the bad news; yes, as always and everywhere, there is some.

The elections that gave the new system legitimacy, thus helping bring about the tipping point, is beginning to fade in Iraqi memories. In a democracy, mandates need to be renewed, sometimes faster than the governing elite hopes. The “one man, one vote, once “scheme has no place in democracy.

The Iraqi parliament and government are fast approaching their sell-by date. (Many believe they have passed it).

This should not be taken as a criticism of Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki whom history is likely to remember as a courageous leader in a difficult time. However, successful or unsuccessful, the incumbents need to be put to the test of popular will again and soon.

There are several reasons for this.

First, the last two elections were, in fact, census operations on a national scale. They were designed to reveal the relative strength of the ethnic and religious communities that together make up the Iraqi nation. The system of voting for lists of candidates was inevitable in a country that had never had free elections and had lived under the most brutal dictatorship since 1958. People could not know individual candidates because Saddam Hussein had not allowed anyone to acquire a political profile.

Now, however, political parties of all description, from monarchist to communist and passing by nationalist, liberal, conservative, Islamist and socialist, have had five years in which to make themselves known and build a support base. In Iraq today, it is possible to vote for party programmes rather than bloc lists of ethnic and/or religious identity.

Second, the list of candidates fielded last time included a disproportionate number of former exiles. That, too, was inevitable because outsiders had had more opportunities to make a name than those inside Iraq. Now, however, a new generation of politicians, homegrown, younger and closer to the reality on the ground is available, and keen, to play a bigger role.

Third, the system of proportional representation used in the previous elections is no longer suitable.

What Iraq needs is a new system under which voters could have a direct relationship with their representatives. This means a system of single, or multi-member constituencies, so that people know whom they are electing.

In proportional representation, party bosses decide who should stand and who should not. This encourages loyalty to the party, rather than the country. The system, which excludes non-party independents, is even bad for parties because it helps promote “yes-men” rather than those who favour debate and dissent.

Fourth, new elections are needed to cut out some of the deadwood in the political elite.

This elite includes some truly embarrassing figures. There are members of parliament who hardly attended a session, content to pocket the fat salary, get hold of the bulletproof limousine, and secure lucrative posts for nephews and cousins. Some spend more time in London and Paris than Baghdad.

Since Iraq is preparing for municipal elections, it could broaden the exercise by including a general election for a new parliament. The ideal time would be at the end of this year or in the fist week of January while George W Bush is still in office and the US commitment beyond question. Even if John McCain succeeds Bush, the Senate and the Congress are likely to be dominated by Democrats, a party whose engine right now is the anti-war network dedicated to snatching defeat from the jaws of victory in Iraq.

With a new parliament and government in place in Baghdad, backed by a new and stronger popular mandate, the passionate seekers of defeat in the US would find it harder to impose their weird obsession on the new president in Washington.

submitted by AmIr

Monday, June 16, 2008

Right or Left

Another study (or studies) that make you wonder why people actually have to look into this. Common knowledge should have covered it.

George Orwell once wrote that politics was closely related to social identity. 'One sometimes gets the impression,' he wrote in The Road To Wigan Pier, 'that the mere words socialism and communism draw towards them with magnetic force every fruit-juice drinker, nudist, sandal-wearer, sex-maniac, Quaker, nature-cure quack, pacifist and feminist in England'.

Orwell was making an observation. But today a whole body of academic research shows he was correct: your politics influence the manner in which you live your life. And the news is not so good for those on the political Left.

There is plenty of data that shows that Right-wingers are happier, more generous to charities, less likely to commit suicide - and even hug their children more than those on the Left.

Read the whole thing; from money to honesty, it covers everything. Then read the comments and spot the lefties having a fit.

Celeb o'the Day - Jenny Mollen

Jenny MollenJenny Mollen

Sunday, June 15, 2008

Oil

Moved the computers to the apartment today (no internet until Wednesday at the earliest) so no posts or visits unless I get free time here at work (like now).

Something to pass the time:

In a previous post we talked about the need to drill here drill now to help overcome our oil supply issues which is really driving up the price of oil and putting pressure on the economy. There have been reports of a lot of oil still left in the United States either in Alaska or off the Atlantic coast. There is Oil in these locations but there is a lot more in the form of what is termed Shale Oil. There is a lot more of this Oil in deposits through out the US. A lot of this is in the State of Utah.

Utah has many times been referred to as the gold mine of the United States because of the rich concentration of all type of minerals found in the State. The majority of the copper available in the US comes from Utah as well as Silver and lot of other minerals. Well it has shale oil too and a company is working on a plan to extract that oil and use it for the United States.

Great read about a possible help to the oil problem in this country.

Celeb o'the Day - Nicole Kidman

Nicole KidmanNicole Kidman

Father's Day

Happy Father's Day all.
Zemanta Pixie

How Iraq Got Her Groove On

America is very close to succeeding in Iraq. The "near-strategic defeat" of al Qaeda in Iraq described by CIA Director Michael Hayden last month in the Washington Post has been followed by the victory of the Iraqi government's security forces over illegal Shiite militias, including Iranian-backed Special Groups.

The enemies of Iraq and America now cling desperately to their last bastions, while the political process builds momentum.

These tremendous gains remain fragile and could be lost to skillful enemy action, or errors in Baghdad or Washington. But where the U.S. was unequivocally losing in Iraq at the end of 2006, we are just as unequivocally winning today.

By February 2008, America and its partners accomplished a series of tasks thought to be impossible. The Sunni Arab insurgency and al Qaeda in Iraq were defeated in Anbar, Diyala and Baghdad provinces, and the remaining leaders and fighters clung to their last urban outpost in Mosul.

The Iraqi government passed all but one of the "benchmark" laws (the hydrocarbon law being the exception, but its purpose is now largely accomplished through the budget) and was integrating grass-roots reconciliation with central political progress. The sectarian civil war had ended.

Meanwhile, the Iraqi Security Forces (ISF), swelled by 100,000 new recruits in 2007, was fighting hard and skillfully throughout Iraq. The Shiite-led government was showing an increasing willingness to use its forces even against Shiite militias. The announcement that provincial elections would be held by year's end galvanized political movements across the country, focusing Iraq's leaders on the need to get more votes rather than more guns.

Three main challenges to security and political progress remained: clearing al Qaeda out of Mosul; bringing Basra under the Iraqi government's control; and eliminating the Special Groups safe havens in Sadr City. It seemed then that these tasks would require enormous effort, entail great loss of life, and take the rest of the year or more. Instead, the Iraqi government accomplished them within a few months.

The war is not over. Enemy groups are reforming, rearming and preparing new attacks. Al Qaeda in Iraq will conduct spectacular attacks in 2008 wherever it can. Special Groups and their JAM affiliates will probably reconstitute within a few months and launch new offensives timed to influence both the American and Iraqi elections in the fall.

And for all its progress and success, the ISF is not yet able to stand on its own. Coalition forces continue to play key support roles, maintaining stability and security in cleared but threatened areas, and serving as impartial and honest brokers between Iraqi groups working toward reconciliation.

But success is in sight. Compared with the seemingly insurmountable obstacles already overcome, the remaining challenges in Iraq are eminently solvable – if we continue to pursue a determined strategy that builds on success rather than throwing our accomplishments away.

No one in December 2006 could have imagined how far we would have come in 18 months. Having come this far, we must see this critical effort through to the end.

submitted by KiMbErLy

Look for Kimberly's new book ""The Surge: A Military History," forthcoming from Encounter Books.

Best Video Ever!

High-f***in'-larious!!

Saturday, June 14, 2008

Bonus Photos

Lil Bit
Lord Nazh

Celeb o'the Day - Blake Lively

Blake LivelyBlake Lively

Update

Played golf yesterday and then moved furniture into the apartment; so I didn't get online to post or visit.

Tim Russert passed away; McCain blasted the SCOTUS ruling on detainees; and BO ran scared from another town hall proposal.

Friday, June 13, 2008

Rebranding

Brit Cats Edward Beaman and Douglas Murray recently explored the idea of rebranding neoconservatism since the term has nearly lost all meaning or identification among true believers.

"For left and right, neoconservatism has laid down the case which needs
answering. Ideologically it has few competitors and there is no school that
unifies people from such a wide range of the political spectrum.

That said, we might have to avoid flaunting the term around for a while. There’s
no doubt that the willful misrepresentations and misunderstanding of what
neoconservatism is, as well as the desire to pin the strategic mistakes made in
Iraq on the neocons have combined to blacken the term."

Willfull (and unknowledgable) misreps like old War Between the States Confauxderates that are flat out scared to death of long dead bolsheviks, or blatant daydream deceivers - even drive by players who are totally bass ackwards in the intelligentsia biz.

GB's FoSec the Right Honourable (and right Hot! ) David Milliband first cracked ice with a name change with the awsome ''Democratic Imperatives." Sweet! Though as Murray reminds us - the name may not be important.

Yet a catchy title with a hook would be nice too, right?

Great Satan's delectable Sec Of State (no shame in her game!) unveiled a killer cool title that infers a real look at where Great Satan has been in the last 8 years - and where she's headed into the new millennium.

Foreign Affairs shares her massive essay called "American Realism for a New World."

This is significant. Dr Rice, the original Vulcan (along with ex Sec of State Powell, ex Dep Def Sec Wolfowitz, ex Def Sec Rumsfeld, ex Dep State Sec Armitage and the ever avuncular VP Cheney) takes a page from the critics book and rebrands realism ala American neoconservatism and those crazy cool true believers in democrazy, Great Satan's unique status in the world and what Uncle Tony called the Universal Values of the Human Spirit.

Enclosed, please find a wicked sweet tease or twelve to satiate desires - both subtle and gross.

"The process of democratization is likely to be messy and unsatisfactory, but it
is absolutely necessary. Democracy, it is said, cannot be imposed, particularly
by a foreign power. This is true but beside the point. It is more likely that
tyranny has to be imposed.


The story today is rarely one of peoples resisting the basics of democracy --
the right to choose those who will govern them and other basic freedoms. It is,
instead, about people choosing democratic leaders and then becoming impatient
with them and holding them accountable on their duty to deliver a better life.


It is strongly in our national interest to help sustain these leaders,
support their countries' democratic institutions, and ensure that their new
governments are capable of providing for their own security, especially when
their nations have experienced crippling conflicts.


What about the broader Middle East, the arc of states that stretches from
Morocco to Pakistan? The Bush administration's approach to this region has been
its most vivid departure from prior policy. But our approach is, in reality, an
extension of traditional tenets -- incorporating human rights and the promotion
of democratic development into a policy meant to further our national interest.

What is exceptional is that the Middle East was treated as an exception for
so many decades. U.S. policy there focused almost exclusively on stability.
There was little dialogue, certainly not publicly, about the need for democratic
change.

For six decades, under both Democratic and Republican administrations, a
basic bargain defined the United States' engagement in the broader Middle East:
we supported authoritarian regimes, and they supported our shared interest in
regional stability.

After September 11, it became increasingly clear that this old bargain had
produced false stability. There were virtually no legitimate channels for
political expression in the region. But this did not mean that there was no
political activity. There was -- in madrasahs and radical mosques.

It is no wonder that the best-organized political forces were extremist
groups. And it was there, in the shadows, that al Qaeda found the troubled souls
to prey on and exploit as its foot soldiers in its millenarian war against the
"far enemy."

One response would have been to fight the terrorists without addressing
this underlying cause. Perhaps it would have been possible to manage these
suppressed tensions for a while. Indeed, the quest for justice and a new
equilibrium on which the nations of the broader Middle East are now embarked is
very turbulent.

But is it really worse than the situation before? Worse than when Lebanon
suffered under the boot of Syrian military occupation? Worse than when the
self-appointed rulers of the Palestinians personally pocketed the world's
generosity and squandered their best chance for a two-state peace?

Worse than when the international community imposed sanctions on innocent Iraqis
in order to punish the man who tyrannized them, threatened Iraq's neighbors, and
bulldozed 300,000 human beings into unmarked mass graves?


Or worse than the decades of oppression and denied opportunity that spawned
hopelessness, fed hatreds, and led to the sort of radicalization that brought
about the ideology behind the September 11 attacks? Far from being the model of
stability that some seem to remember, the Middle East from 1945 on was wracked
repeatedly by civil conflicts and cross-border wars.

Our current course is certainly difficult, but let us not romanticize the
old bargains of the Middle East -- for they yielded neither justice nor
stability.

"American Realism for a New World" is a clever name change - rebranding, revamping for future world and America Unbound while knocking the sword right out of the hands of anti Great Satan fans.

Like Beaman and Murray shared -

"But it doesn’t really matter what we call it. There’s never much point in
arguing over nomenclature.

What matters is that the case for democracy and universal rights as well as
the refutation of the lies and misunderstandings of our enemies – at home and
broad – continues. Most people who engage in this will not call themselves
neoconservatives. Many of them will not realize that is what they are.

That is fine. What matters is that the case is made – unashamedly,
unapologetically and by as many people as possible."

Thursday, June 12, 2008

Celeb o'the Day - Rebecca Gayheart

Rebecca Gayheart
Rebecca Gayheart

I don't think that means what you think it means

WASHINGTON - The Supreme Court ruled Thursday that foreign terrorism suspects held at Guantanamo Bay have rights under the Constitution to challenge their detention in U.S. civilian courts.

In its third rebuke of the Bush administration's treatment of prisoners, the court ruled 5-4 that the government is violating the rights of prisoners being held indefinitely and without charges at the U.S. naval base in Cuba. The court's liberal justices were in the majority.

Justice Anthony Kennedy, writing for the court, said, "The laws and Constitution are designed to survive, and remain in force, in extraordinary times."

Kennedy said federal judges could ultimately order some detainees to be released, but that such orders would depend on security concerns and other circumstances.

The high court seems destined to hand us over to anyone or anything; as long as the liberals hold a majority. It's utterly amazing what you can find in the constitution if you are looking very hard... like rights to trial for aliens...

Wednesday, June 11, 2008

Celeb o'the Day - Sasha Alexander

Sasha Alexander
Sasha Alexander

Talibanstan

Great Satan often congregates her intelligentsia into climate controlled environments.
One such 'think tank is the RAND Corporation

"The RAND Corporation is a nonprofit research organization providing objective analysis and effective solutions that address the challenges facing the public and private sectors around the world."

RAND got fully crunk back in the day when Great Satan was methodically turning Fascism and Bushido Imperialism into flamming B 17 and B29 magnets. The nom de guerre' actually stands for 'Research And Development'

RAND Corp recently unleashed a very danging bit of psychic analysis about the Land of the Pure's Federated Tribal Lawless No Go Zones that are actually an R and R spot for Taliban, Al Qaeda and their fanboys, minions and foreign muscle.

Pakistani correspondent for the Times of London, the Wall Street Journal, and Newsweek, Zahid Hussain pointed out in his book "Frontline Pakistan" that

"As far as the Taliban were concerned, Pakistan looked to the other side
because they did not want to fight their former allies. This provided a very
valuable time for Taliban to regroup themselves in the tribal belt. One should
also understand that Taliban would never be a purely Afghan phenomena, but a
Pakistan as well as Afghan phenomena. So it was very easy for them to melt away
among the Pashtun population.

What Musharraf has failed to see is that internal security cannot be
maintained or cannot be established unless you really come down hard on those
who are fueling sectarian conflict and are involved in militancy. "

Rand Corps' new memo takes it further. “Counterinsurgency in Afghanistan” pretty much says that if Taliban sanctuaries in Pakistan are not destroyed along with key inhabitants there will be pure heck to pay for the long haul.
“Every successful insurgency in Afghanistan since 1979 enjoyed safe haven
in neighboring countries, and the current insurgency is no different. Right now,
the Taliban and other groups are getting help from individuals within Pakistan's
government, and until that ends, the region's long-term security is in
jeopardy.”

The study finds that these intolerant insurgent posses hide out in Pakistan's Federally UnAdministered Tribal Areas, North West Frontier Province, and Balochistan Province. These cats routinely stash and traffic in weaponry, ammo and bling into Afghanistan from Pakistan, and a number of personal kamikazes magically appear from Afghan refugee camps based in Pakistan.

“Counterinsurgency in Afghanistan” examines the beginning of Afghanistan's resurfacing Talibanstan insurgency, the most important factors that influenced counterinsurgency efforts and the capabilities that Great Satan could very well use to turn these sanctuaries into flamming cruise missile magnets complete with midnight visits from see in the dark professional killers in an effort to wage an effective counterinsurgency campaign.


Art "Somewhere between the middle-east and the subcontinent" by ChAn GeZi

Name that Party

LANSING -- Three Detroit City Council members have asked Gov. Jennifer Granholm not to remove perjury defendant Kwame Kilpatrick as mayor.

Monica Conyers, Barbara-Rose Collins and Martha Reeves signed the May 27 letter. The council voted 5-4 May 13 to ask Granholm to oust Kilpatrick and to undertake its own removal process.

You know the drill; the article is only 5 paragraphs long and contains the names of a Gov., Mayor and 3 council members. Yet not one word on which party (or parties) these upstanding citizens belong to. It's on mlive.com but the article is an AP one (according to the byline) so it qualifies I'd think (heh). For more NtP fun go here.

Not taking bets on the party affiliation, the odds would be very bad for anyone to miss... except maybe journalists.

Don "That's not the Kwame I used to know" Surber links: thanks!

Tuesday, June 10, 2008

Celeb o'the Day - Amrita Rao

Amrita Rao
Amrita Rao

Update

Got my apartment (1 bd/1bath) paid for and got the utilities turned on today :)

Cable/internet probably next week (I'll be moving my stuff Friday). So busy, busy...

Booty

Just like mercenaries, cowboys and pirates back in the day often celebrated hard won (and easy wins too) by divying up the booty, Great Satan's regime changers honor that age old practise in their recent victory over the Mahdi army's no go zone (that magically changed into a combat zone) called Sadr City.

"Sadr City, a bastion of Sadr's Mahdi Army, had been off-limits to U.S. and
Iraqi forces since the fall of Saddam Hussein in the U.S.-led invasion in 2003.
But under the truce agreed earlier in May, the Mehdi Army agreed to lay down
their weapons and allow Iraqi forces to enter the slum. The militia, while
vowing not to hand over their heavy weapons, has melted away."

Formerly called 'Saddam City' after a wicked despot who lost his gig (and ultimately his life - though not before watching his sons get shot to pieces by the uparmored darling sons of Great Satan) this shi ite suburb of Bahgdad was name changed into Sadr City after a shi ite cleric who was assasinated by illegit secret police back in the day.

Shortly after the statue fell in al Firdos square, Sadr's son Mookie magically appeared with an armed milita called the Mahdi Army and systematically took over Sadr City.

Imposing a pocket caliphate complete with Sha ria courts, Sha ria police and of course - Sha ria executioners, Mahdi army couldn't be content with tormenting their hood - they had to act out and expand the torment - throughout the entire hood of Iraq.

Mookie proved really adept at preaching, tormenting girls, cussing Great Satan and gathering his minions in one place - just in time for Great Satan to sweep in and annihilate them.

Such urine poor tactical - even strategic accomplishments may have been interpreted that Mooki was actually an agent of Great Satan. Or an Iranian minion that was sucking the mullahs dry of resources like volunteers, cash and weaponry.

That was all pre Surge. Since Surge kicked in, Mookie had to split for safer climes and alledgedly pursuing jumped up Ayatollah status.

Admitting he totally sucked at anything except attracting fear, death and disaster for his vison of a heavily armed, easily offended and violently intolerant Mohammedist society.

Mahdi Army has had their collective booty handed to them at an alarming rate. Ran out of Basra, confronted in Karbala and finally driven back to their formerly safe as milk pocket caliphate of Sadr City.

Since the entire world has seen what illegit, heavily weaponized militias who can usurp the State's authority and sovereignity when ever the opportunity presents itself can do.

Thanks to Iran's fanboys in Lebanon - the Hiz'B'Allah, Iraq's gov realized the state needs to hold the monopoly on violence - lest it collapses and ceases to be a state.

Thus began the Sadr City blitz. Agreeing to uphold a ceasefire (which funnily enough seemed more like open combat) Mahdi Army promised to hang on to their heavy weaponry regardless.

Hiding, toting around such devices tended to function like M 16 magnets.

Sitting around the still steaming guts of Mahdi army - their Iranian Revo Guards, homegrown time traveling intolerants and sha ria law loving losers, Great Satan breaks out the list of treasures her killers of killers and the new Iraqi Army guys have won:

100 caches of weapons, including 295 mortar rounds, 367 AK-47s, 109
anti-tank mines, 39 rocket-propelled grenade launchers, an anti-aircraft gun,
six helicopter rockets, sniper rifles, improvised explosive devices, 123
grenades and artillery shells.

Great Satan also racked up with the foreign enemy (including the original Super Villan Imad himself) fed and funded Mahdi Army's 1st foray into semi intelligent weaponry of the non human kind.

Flying IEDs called IRAM (Improvised Rocket Assisted Mortars for the uninitiated)

Based on an obsolete, old school Chinese Multi rocketeer vehicle sino nomenclatured Type 63 towed 107mm, 12-tube multiple launch rocket, By design, essentially one rocket detonates in the tube - causing the others to detonate or launch and detonate.

IRAM also has a wonderful penchant for detonating right in the faces of their launch squads.

Unverified reports claim media items like dVd's on everything from how to interrogate captives, create Irainian style IED's to bootleg copies of 'Baywatch', Playboy's 'Girls Next Door' and several risque discs of the you know what type along with new enemy tactical weaponry make the treasure term 'booty' all the more appropo.

Warzone

 Recently played a few games on Caldera (warzone) and then... Lots of luck in this one, but satisfying